Friday, October 23, 2015

2014 Updates

I'm removing this from my updates blog and making it a separate post

From 2014

Performances:

  • Passenger in "On the Bus" d Dana Ivgy & Vania Heymann
  • Vampire in "Bite School," d James Balsamo
  • "Untitled III," d Michael Gellman, Theater 54
  • Team "John Lennon's Shoes" d Scotty Watson, Theater 54
  • Doctor in "Liv" d Catherine Eaton @LIVthemovie  This movie has been renamed "The Sounding" and currently has a kickstarter kickstarter for "The Sounding"
  • Shared a personal story at the Elissa Dauria show, Theater under St. Marks" 
  • Nun in "Failing with Grace," web series pilot, d Matthew Mayer photos & video of this role
  • The Magnet Theater Circuit Team “Special Socks," d Sebastian Conelli
  • Improv Cabaret, at Don't Tell Mama, d Barry Shapiro
  • Participated twice The Cabaret Showdown Theater Under St. Marks, d Mark McDaniels  
  • Appeared frequently at musical and regular improv comedy mixers/jams at The Magnet Theater, The PIT, QSIC, UCB -- trying to make sure I get on stage at least once a week at such shows

Performance related courses:

Improv

  • Musical Improv Levels I & II at The Magnet Theater with Michael Lutton, Ryan Dunkin, Frank Spitznagel, Jon Bander
  • Camp Magnet, sponsored by The Magnet Theater with Louis Kornfeld, Alex Marino, David Razowski, Ed Herbstman, Rick Andrews, Rachel Hamilton
  • UCB Improv Level 201 with Nicole Despel, Jackie Jennings
  • Improv intensive at Artistic New Directions with Scotty Watson, David Razowski, Michael Gellman
  • The Magnet Theater Greg Hess: “Scene Rebooted”

Other performance related courses

  • Acquired various performance coaches: Jeanne Lehman; Brad Ross; and Stoddy Blackall

    Legal:

    Became of Counsel to www.falati.com

    Recent CLE courses: 

    Other:


            Tuesday, October 6, 2015

            @yahoomail Problems with Yahoo! mail

            Strange things are happening.

            I have several e-mail accounts that forward to my Yahoo! account.  I've never had a problem with this before.

            Recently, an e-mail from one user was not correctly forwarded to my yahoo! account.  I got this error message


            Then there was a lot more stuff after that with daemon messages.

            I've deleted my e-mail account name from the above picture.

            Other e-mails forward to my Yahoo!  account from my microsoft online account are working fine.

            Curiously, Microsoft Online is also not accepting e-mails from this one user. This user is also a Yahoo! user.

            Then I decided to go to online help for e-mail.  I posted my question.

            A couple of people posted phone numbers purported to be numbers of Yahoo! itself.  One of these numbers was from a user called "Yahoo Support."  This number was 866-562-7219

            I called that number.  The person there said my account had been hacked by someone in Phoenix and that I would have to pay money to get that fixed.  I became suspicious, because I have no other indication that my account has been hacked.  No suspicious e-mails have gone out.  I asked how I knew he was really from Yahoo!  Then he said it was up to me and hung up on me.

            Then I went back to online help and both of the messages purporting to offer me Yahoo! support phone numbers to call to get my problem fixed had vanished.

            This is all very unsettling.

            -----------

            Addendum: when this same user writes to me using his gmail account, there is no problem

            ------------





            Friday, September 11, 2015

            photos and videos of me performing or backstage

            Photos first, videos at the bottom (scroll down)
            rehearsal at the Clove Creek Dinner Theater



            At the Magnet Theater:










            Prepping for "Bite School"


            Excerpt from web pilot "Failing with Grace"



            Musical improv "Global Warming"


            You can see me toward the end of this music video




            We had a great time hosting the .@magnettheater Musical Mixer last night! Pics: https://t.co/LAvBVr5H5U pic.twitter.com/GrO5H2Ecps
            http://annebarschall.blogspot.com/2016/09/photos-from-musical-mixer-160802.html

            Anne Issa Berg in "The Sinking Ship" PIT Theater






            With Michael Lutton at Camp Magnet


            wicked stepmother in Cinderella 



            More at the Magnet Theater








            Camp Magnet 2014


            At QSIC











            Links to more photos:



            Camp Magnet 2016










            Cast photo for A Sketch of New York on twitter


            Cabaret Showdown 1/8/17


            Thursday, August 6, 2015

            Struggling with things that don't work

            It has been one of those days.

            Earlier this summer, I upgraded my mac operating system.  Then I noticed that my mac had slowed to a crawl.  Then I found out that I could upgrade my memory.

            I installed the memory, but only half of it seemed to be working.  So I did a lot of pulling out cards and switching them, and finally decided something was wrong with the computer.  I took it to the apple store  yesterday, and had to wait for a tech, who told me it would cost $390 to repair.  I decided not to do it.  Then later I realized I probably had not pushed the top memory card in completely, so I went home and tried and got the memory to work.

            Then I tried a time machine backup, which failed. I contacted apple support.  They said that I should go onto my admin account (which I normally don't use) and get a log of messages from the console software.  So today I logged in to the admin account and ran the backup successfully.  Then I tried to go back to the secondary account, but the backup still failed.  Then I tried to go back to the admin account, but the computer froze.

            So I turned the computer off and on again, and the result was that I only got a white screen and could not get into my computer.

            I decided that it was time to go do some yard work.  I went out and tried to water the bushes.  I discovered that my faucet was leaking.  After I finished watering, I dismantled the faucet and took out the washers.

            I also tried to dismantle another faucet that was leaking, but that was one that had cartridges -- and the nuts seemed to have frozen so I couldn't get the cartridges out.  I have another faucet upstairs where the cartridge can't be changed, because frozen.  This seems to be an issue with faucets with cartridges.  The cartridges may not have to be changed as often as a washer, but then, if they freeze up, you have to replace the whole faucet.

            I tried taking the washers to my local hardware store, which used to carry washers, but they don't any more.  I went to home depot and they also have stopped carrying washers.  Finally Berger hardware had some, tho not exactly the right size -- and no packing washers.  For that I have to wrap something around and try to get the right amount.

            So I went out for the evening and just left the house.

            The computer is working now, so I was able to get the log of the prior session. I posted it to the apple support forum and the guy there said that my external hard drive is failing.  My son has told me never to get Western Digital hard drives, because they always fail and this seems to be a case in point.  I'm ordering a Buffalo one, which seems to be more expensive, in the hopes that it's better.

            Addendum: So, it turns out that the computer starts much faster -- and does not overheat -- when the failing hard drive is disconnected.  I guess the computer was making continuous attempts to access this drive.

            Friday, July 10, 2015

            On the Death of John Sperry & my mom's love life

            My mother told me the names of 3 of her boyfriends who she dated prior to marrying my father.  This happened a long time ago, so she said she was a virgin when she married.  The word “dating” means something different now, but there weren’t contraceptives then.  I did not find out these names, actually, until after my father died.

            They were John Sperry, who she dated in high school, when they were both vacationing in Randolph, NH; Alan Horton, who she dated in college, but also when vacationing in Randolph, NH; and the third was her friend “Ernie’s” brother.  If I remember correctly, the last might have been called Douglas Stowell — but I’m not sure about that.  Mom also dated this third guy in college, but later than Alan.  Ernie was a friend of hers who went to Mt. Holyoke.  The brother went to Dartmouth. I thought I had already blogged about that, but I see I didn't post it.

            My understanding was that in High School my mom was totally not ready for any kind of commitment.  In college, Alan Horton proposed to her, but she never could decide, so eventually he gave up and found someone else.  The third guy apparently broke her heart by breaking off with her after college.

            I don't think she had any serious romances again after that until she met my father -- tho I couldn't be quite sure about that either.  She met my father in 1949, six years after she graduated in college, so she took her time.

            John Sperry died July 2, 2015.  He was 93 years old.  He outlived my mother by almost a decade.

            I never met him in person.  He contacted me after my mother died. We became pen pals. He sent me lovely photos, mostly of the west coast.  He lived in Jenner California.

            He was constantly out hiking and traveling internationally, showing extraordinary energy and vitality.  His illness was rather sudden and quick.  I gather he died 7 weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

            It’s funny.  When my mother first died, I thought he would die in fairly short order. I was scared to write to him, because I was afraid to hear that he had died.

            But he was such a reliable correspondent that I started taking his communications for granted.  

            Then, in 2013, I was diagnosed with stage 3c cancer.  I started thinking I might die before him. 

            Then, this week I wrote him, sending him some photos this time, and found that he had died — so I squeaked by and did not die before him, apparently.  Still I don’t know that it would be realistic to aspire to 93 for me.

            RIP


            Here’s another blog about him  http://tkmomentsintime.blogspot.com/

            Monday, June 29, 2015

            The orange (or red?) dress

            This picture was taken by Gerry Goodstein.  Please note that if you click on his name you will reach his website. There is a story behind this picture.

            Let us begin with the dress.  I wore this dress, because I perceive it as orange. The color here is not quite the same as the dress, because my scanner was not quite right with the colors and also I think the computer display may also not be quite right.  Gerry's picture has the right color.  The original is more orange than this.  In any case, I've found that others perceive the dress as red, even in person.  I wanted to wear orange, because it was the 25th of the month.

            I've been told to wear orange on the 25th of every month to protest violence against women and girls.  Here's the link to the UN website that explains this http://endviolence.un.org/orangeday.shtml.  I first heard about this campaign from a member of my Quaker Meeting.  The link to my Quaker Meeting is:  http://www.scarsdalefriendsmeeting.org/ .

            So, red or orange, I wore this dress into New York City on May 25, 2015.

            One thing I planned to do on that day was rehearse with Gerry. We're both in a class at the Wynn Handman Studio.  Wynn cast us in some scenes from Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," as Kate & Joe Keller -- just for performance in class.

            We planned to meet at Grand Central Terminal (GCT) and find a place to rehearse lines.  Ultimately that place turned out to be an empty platform.

            Aside: Just for those who don't know, the difference between a train station and a train terminal is that in a station the tracks go through and in a terminal the tracks end.  The tracks mostly end at GCT.  That's why it's considered a terminal.

            We agreed to meet, as I think most people agree to meet, by the information booth in the main room of the terminal.  When I first got there, I didn't see Gerry, so I pulled out my trusty cell phone and started accessing the Internet -- probably Facebook -- and also sending him a text, telling him I was there.

            While I was using my cell phone, Gerry, who is a professional photographer, started photographing me, because of the striking color of my dress.  He points out that behind me in the photo there is also someone photographing me.  He thought there were others as well.

            When he took this picture, he did not realize who he was photographing.

            When he started taking pictures, I did not notice, but eventually I did see him taking my picture.  I looked back down at my cell phone, because I wanted to finish something I was writing, and also figured he would want to finish his photograph.

            Afterwards, I waved at him and he realized who I was.  He was quite bemused.

            So, we live in a city that tourists often visit, the largest city in the country, home of the United Nations, arguably the capital of the world -- and here we were in a historic landmark -- but a striking dress still draws a lot of attention, apparently.

            I am hoping that that attention might go to the campaign to end violence against women and girls.