Beeki's Confused

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You read that right. My sweet, beautiful, intelligent wife is confused. About one thing? Nay. There's a bit of a chronic problem. See... she has trouble keeping famous people straight in her head. (There's a delicious double-entendre there... but let it pass.) She often confuses one movie star for another and can never remember their names. She'll attest to the truth of this fact. She says it's because some of them look alike or their names are close to each other. I'm not so sure...

So for the past few months I've been collecting a list of the ones she most commonly or easily mistakes for one another:

Burt Reynolds = Richard Burton
Ian McKellan = Richard Harris
Samuel L. Jackson = Lawrence Fishburn
Rachel Weisz = Kate Winslet
John Leguizamo = Luis Guzman
Al Pacino = Roberd DeNero = Dustin Hoffman
Jennifer Connolly = Kate Beckinsale
Cuba Gooding Jr. = Terrance Howard
Robin Thicke = Michael Bublé
Bertrand Russell = Russell Brand

But it's not just limited to movie stars and singers. Here's where it starts to get weird...:

Gilbert & Sullivan = Sanford & Son
Cracker Barrel = Golden Corral
Andrew Jackson = George Custar = Stonewall Jackson

And, in my opinion the most egregious of them all:

Sojourner Truth = Mrs. Butterworth

I'm still not sure what to do with all this. But Beeki gave me full permission to post this to see what response there is. She's convinced that she's not the only one who gets some of these mixed up. I think the Mrs. Butterworth thing has to some kind of birthday gift to Freud.

At any rate, it's hilarious. And that's the point.

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Nard Dog

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Some of you may have followed my Twitter account of my big brother Brentski's wedding. It was a couple of weeks ago. I officiated. All went well.


Until the reception. And there... it's not so much that things went wrong... it's just... I got hurt. See it happened like this: the DJ was great. And everyone was dancing. And because it was Brentski's wedding, the music was heavy on the 80's. And then Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" came on. And a dance circle formed. And I bid my time until close to the end. I jumped in the circle and began to show off the moves. Then it came time for my signature move: the splits. And they were perfect. Except the part where I tore my hamstring.

But don't worry. I played it off. No one knew. I didn't even limp. That night. I saved the limping and the grunting and the wincing for the next day. It's only now beginning to really feel better.

You may ask, "Why tell everyone? If you were so brilliantly able to play it off and no one was the wiser, why tell? When everyone thinks that you are King of the Dance Floor*, why let it out?" Valid questions. Simple answer: it was too funny not to share. That I sustained a dance-related injury in the circle at my brother's wedding reception to "Billie Jean?" Brilliant. Too funny. And I'm right.

I would say that you can't write that kind of stuff, but last night Beeki and I were catching up on this season of the Office on the DVR. And the wedding episode came. And the dance in Andy Bernard's room. And the dance circle. And the splits. And his injury. It should be noted though, that he tore his scrotum and I merely tore my hamstring. BIG difference.

So what we should all take away from this is thus: I am an awesome dancer. I am hilarious. I have a healthy sense of humor sharing this story. I am inadvertently a writer for The Office**.


(Above): Andy Bernard. Not me. But the look on his
face is how I felt inside even though I looked
awesome and cool on the outside.

* - Verifiable fact
** - Uncredited and unpaid. So far.

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Rare

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What many of you may not know is that there aren't a whole lot of male interpreters. Even fewer are the straight male interpreters. So I'm rare. And popular. Especially with the ladies. (Confession: really just the middle-aged deaf ladies.)

Or as my father-in-law put it, "So you're popular with the deaf cougars!"

And I do love to shake my money maker* for them.
















* - my hands

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I'm Baaaa-aaack...!

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Yes, it's true. I took some time off and my life has changed quite a bit since I last checked in. There's a new address here and everything! (In case you followed a link here, be sure to change your bookmark or RSS to http://greatscottbaker.blogspot.com/) And, yes, I've abandoned the Tumblr experiment. I'm afraid I'm a bit too verbose for that to work.

So what's new? What's changed? Where to begin? First of all, Beeki and I are in Nashville, TN now. We've been here four months and have already had many foolish adventures. I've been working as an interpreter for the Deaf all over the city. It's been hard to talk about it via Twitter and Facebook because of the strict confidentiality requirements that come along with being an interpreter. But, I have been giving it a great deal of thought and I've come up with some creative ways to give you insight into what I get myself into. After all, how can I not let you in on things like the time a security guard introduced me to another security guard as the "guy who does the interpretatin' for the blind"? I know. I must share. And I shall.

Also, I just got some big news that's been brewing for quite some time. I've just been named the Director of Development for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival! It's been in the works for quite some time, and it's just been made official. I'll get started within the next few days or so and then I begin rolling in the dough for the Bard. My first duties will include getting ready for a January production of The Tempest and next summer's Shakespeare in the Park presentation of Love's Labors Lost. I'm really excited and can't wait to get started.

Beeki has been doing really well too. She just directed a production of Love's Labors Lost for a private school. Actually it was two private schools, an all-boys school and an all-girls school. They got together for the show. I know, kind of perfect for LLL, right? It played the weekend of Halloween and was really very good. I've included a picture from the show here. (Photo courtesy of Jim Thomas.) You can, of course, follow all of Beeki's adventures on her blog here.

The Shakes production was her second gig here. Earlier this summer she assistant directed a reading of a new play by Ted Swindley of Always... Patsy Cline fame. She was actually working with Mr. Swindley whom we found out was a fellow Baylor grad. He took a liking to Beeki and we hope they get to work together again soon.

She's looking forward to more directing work soon, and in the meantime she'll be helping the Nashville Shakes out with some teaching artist responsibilities and some educational booking assistance. In the spring she begins work as an adjunct professor at Lipscomb University teaching in their theatre department.

Bert and Ernie have adjusted pretty well. They were very disoriented when we first got here, but they're fine now. Also, we've discovered that they're racist. They bark at all of our Asian, Indian, and black neighbors more than the white ones. We are ashamed. They're also working on an art photo series recreating famous scenes from Shakespeare. I have their first entry here.

Romeo and Juliet Act V scene iii

Well, at any rate, that's the 'here-we-go-again' post. I'll be posting again regularly here from now on. You can also follow me on Twitter @greatscottbaker. There's some more big news on its way about a new writing project I'm starting. More soon!

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