Interview by <lj user=morgandria>

I'm a big fan of the 5 question interviews, so I asked for one.

1. Who is Wertle? How is Wertle the dragon a part of Lisa the person?

Geez, I didn't know the first question would be such a hard one! Anyway...


Wertle started out as just a name. It actually originated back in the 5th or 6th grade or so, when a friend of mine was doing an adlibs on the computer. It asked for a name, so she typed w-e-r-t-y across the top of the keyboard, then added l to create Wertyl. I was very taken with the name, and asked if I could have it to use. She said yes, and I changed the spelling a bit to suit me better.

After that, Wertle was a character that I drew and wrote stories about. It was always a dragon (at one point came close to being a gryphon), though the type and gender changed around a bit. By highschool I had solidified Wertle into a standard Western female color-changing dragon, appearing more often than not in a cartoony form.

Since then, Wertle had changed from a mascot to an avatar to a representation of my imaginative self. Dragons have always been important to me, and she does have a strong connection to my spirituality, though my spirituality is a muddlesome explanation that I haven't been able to formulate properly, so we'll just leave it to what you know abuot me that is true.

She changes over time. Honestly, I made her a color-changing dragon because, at the time, I couldn't decide what colors I liked best. Now, however, she's settled into a certain stable scheme, and I may consider just calling it that (though I haven't decided, the color-changing bit is a good attribute.)

All in all, Wertle represents things about me I wish to retain, or have misplaced since being younger and wish to gain back. She takes the world in stride, is fairly fearless, and embodies my silly imaginative part.

2. Do you find any sort of transformation or magick in the art of blowing glass?

I don't know much about magick, but there is definately powerful energy in working with glass. It's so different from any other medium I've worked with. It has so many states and ways of moving, you really have to work *with* the medium, rather than just *work* the medium. It's such an active thing, like, you have to be actively involved with what you're doing, and it requires a certain intense sort of focus from me that I rarely experience in anything else. It's a mesmerizing thing, you can't control it, you just have to reach a compromise (whoa, that sounded a bit dorky...oh well! ^_^)

3. If you were a series of movements, sounds, shapes, and colours, what would you be?

Movement? Hugs, plain and simple. Anyone whom I've befriended in person would probably agree. I like to be an encompassing sort of comfort mechanism.

Sounds is trickier, but I would say the combination of the tree frogs, crickets, and other nighttime critters that make up a summer night chorus in Kentucky. I've never really been connected to it consciously before, until I spent this summer up here, where it's been noticeably different.

Shapes...fractals! Okay, I don't really know if fractals count as shapes, but that's my choice. It looks complex to begin with, but then you zoom in and each complexity is more complex, and you zoom in on those and find even *more* complexities, and you keep zooming and finding and zooming and finding until you're lost from the total shape altogether!

I've always had a connection to cool colors...deep blues and purples. It's just sort of always been like that.

Do you have any serious pet peeves?

Yes. One is loud, imposing noises, like snoring or power tools. They evoke in me inexplicable rage like I have never felt. Working in and around the scene shop this summer has remedied that somewhat, but I still have to wear ear protection (to save my hearing and to save those around me from grinding rage!). Stupid router, it's the worst, stupid stupid router.

The second is a situation in which a person has a problem with someone, complains about it to no end, makes mean comments and defenses, and yet never talks to the person in question or does ANYTHING to move towards solving the problem.

5. Describe the interior of the perfect room for you.

Hmmmmmm....Lot's of little levels and shelves to crawl upon and curl up among, drawers to no end for keeping things in, a large, comfortable, accomodating sitting arrangement for guests, a big clear workspace in the middle, windchimes hanging from the ceiling, aaaand.....a firepole, sliding board to the room below, and secret passage. yes.



Fun times! I guess I'll follow everyone else's lead. Post here if you want ME to ask YOU 5 questions.

Weekend adventures

The weekend has been packed full, but of fun and games instead of changeovers, so it's all good.

Most of the UConnites ventured back to school, so the Festival is a bit more empty now. I woke up Saturday morning very puzzled because someone was in my room (Katie-Bug had moved into another room, so I was confused), but it was just Ali. She'd come to say goodbye, which made me very happy, and bestowed upon me the tricky mission of taking care of Thumbs, and making sure he doesn't drink too much.

Carleton also left that day (I'm on the ancient beast of a prop shop computer), which made me sad, but we got to hang out a bit before he left. We even finally beat Nitrous Oxide on normal, so that sort of completed the summer. He'll be back for this coming strike anyhow, so it won't be so bad.

That night, us remaining folk had a Slumber Party in Ripley Apartment, complete with Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and a bit of Silent Hill 2 thrown in for good measure. It opened up a whole new door of opportunity for scaring the bejeezus out of Sara.

Sunday, we bid farewell to LambChops, and promptly went on a shopping trip. As everyone is gone and I'll have little to do this week, I decided to take up knitting (after a quick lesson from Katie Bug, I'm on my way to a new scarf, made of llama wool to honor Ian, and so that I can wear it in the winter when Jeff wears his alpaca jacket, and we can match, or something). Shopping would have been fun, but I didn't realize that Thumbs was a for-real shopper, and had to go into EVERY SINGLE STORE just to find a stupid sweatshirt.

Anyway, there was dinner and icecream and a bonfire and fun times the rest of the evening. Marshmallows and everything.

Agenda for the week: knit, rest, research, and prepare for the going-home. My brother will be visiting soon! Yea!

Tinkerbell's TinkerHut of Lurve

Whew! It's been a busy few days, hence the lack of updates, but oh well, we'll catch up!

First off, visitors. Dave Clark visited me on Thursday, which was totally awesome. My parents have been in town all weekend. They're going to see Assassins tonight, then leave tomorrow morning. It's been fun--we got to go to an air show, to Six Flags, to the Berkshire Museum to see the William Morris exhibit AGAIN! Plus, I've been eating quite well since their visit.

Peter Pan, though it nearly killed the lot of us, went up and is good. Keller and I, however, are caught in the middle of a tricky situation. The name of the game show is: Who Get's Tink's House!

The situation: Tinkerbell's house, which looks totally awesome, has been in the eye of several wanters, but who is its rightful owner>

The contestants:

Noel--the props artisan. She built the thing. It took her forever, and she put soooo much work into constructing it. She thought it would be good to have, you know, for her portfolio, and even though she took lots of process pictures, she called dibs. She had to leave to go to school, but was going to pay us to ship it to her.

Tim--the designer. He designed Tink's House for Noel to build. Nevermind the fact that the measurements he gave were off and his scale was wrong, it's his concept. He saw it while Noel was building it, and said "Ohh! It's so pretty! I want that when the show is over."

Kate--the executive director of the company. She wants to buy it, and her word is pretty much the final one on any situation in the theater.

What to do what to do! I hope Keller and I don't get caught in the middle too badly.

In other news, I miss Louisville, just look what kinds of shoddy things happen to local booksellers when I'm not around!

Good and Bad.

I was watching a friend look at my webpage today, which is somewhat of a bizarre sensation, and she was going through my "By Others," section. I realized how much I miss my online communities, and a wave of longing for consistent internet hit me again.

I miss the DT community quite a bit, I'm going to be so out of the loop on the message boards when I get back from the summer. I'd already been so busy at the end of last year that a visit to DTMirc was a once-in-a-blue-moon-sign-of-the-apocolypse sort of thing, but I still miss everybody, and I miss the art forums and seeing how everyone is improving. Graaaaah, I'm such an internet junkie!

Yesterday was somewhat of a bittersweet experience. On the fun side, Assassins opened and was a fine performance. It was funny, and quite dark and intense in places, which I was not expecting. Everyone laughed at the scene with the dead dog that I worked so hard to make, and I beamed all proud-like (I would show pictures, but it's somewhat grotesque). Anyway, the show was great and things were looking up for the evening.

On the un-fun side, back at the housing complex, after the show and before the opening night party, we found Jill's (the housing complex's cook) cat, Linus. He had been hit by a car. Losing a pet is tragic, but losing one in such a way is incredibly wrenching. There was a group of us gathered around to comfort him. His back was broken and he was crying, as were the rest of us. Someone had gone for Jill, and she came to get him, but there are no nearby vets that are open 24 hours for emergencies. I bawled all night, out of sympathy for Jill, as she'd already lost a cat earlier in the summer, and for Linus. He was dead before the morning.

The day was drearier because of it, and was just the start. People are starting to leave for the summer, the stresses of getting Peter Pan open press harder on all the shops, people being called home because of mysterious family emergencies...it's all a bit much to happen in one day.

At any rate, I am not overly saddened. Things will start looking back up again, I'm quite certain,

Berkshire Safari

Hooray! My journal entries are back and safe and sound. You know, living in New England for the summer has been quite an experience. I have discovered many new things and spotted many new creatures, and fortunately I've had my digital camera handy.

Sooo, today I thought I'd take you on a safari of sorts, and show you the many creatures I have encountered on my stay.



First up, we have this really spifty moth thing I found on the curtain. Look at its fuzzy antennae! Isn't it neat? It's orange, and METALLIC BLUE!! That totally rocks.


These butterflies are everywhere up here. I don't know what kind they are, but they are very pretty and abundant. We don't have them in Kentucky, I don't think.


Not all creatures of the Berkshires are friendly and bug-like. One must beware of the ferocious parasite alien dachsund, which lays eggs in an innocent victim's chest cavity, only to have them burst open as they hatch, allowing a dachsund to burrow out of one's ribcage to freedom, only to plant eggs in other unsuspecting victims. Fear!!


Next is another cool bug. I named him Lu Bu, after my obsession with Dynasty Warriors and his nifty long antennae.


There is a virus that creeps about the Berkshires. It infects people and makes them do strange, abnormal things. Like making carpenters sew. Weird.


We have mice in the breezeway next to the prop shop. The other day, momma mouse transfered 7 baby mice from one location to another. The babies are so cute! Little balls of fluff. Daaaaaaawwwwwww.


Sometimes the baby mice would wander around fearlessly and not follow their mother, so she'd get fed up and carry them.


Strange creatures lurk in costume storage....very strange.




I hope you enjoyed your adventure! Now, off with me, two shows to go...

This and That

So the usual crew braved the elements Monday night, traveling through frightening thunderstorms to go to the usual American Chopper night hangout. We were all excited about the newest episode of American Chopper (Mikey was gonna build a bike! What's not to love). However, we found out that when they say "On next week's episode..." at the end of the show, they really mean "the next time we show a new episode..." Alas, reruns. To add insult to injury, next Monday they're having a Monster House marathon. What's up with that??? Nobody watches Monster House!! Yeesh.

Dynasty Warriors 4 is quite possibly the most fun I've ever had playing a video game (it's nearing Halo as my favorite multiplayer game! Eeek!). I highly recommend it.

Yesterday, Matt (my boss) and I had to drive to Connecticut to return some prop furniture we'd borrowed from another theater. It was a nice little trip. Being in New England for the summer has made me realize a few things about my own home region that I would have never noticed before. Granted, the existance of full service gas stations was a new thing for me when I got up here, but we've found a few other things. To go on this trip, we had to take the shop truck, which is a clunky old thing with no AC and only a tape deck. We thought it would be amusing to get some tapes to play on the way. Now, I am from Kentucky, and Matt is from Georgia, and so we were always used to the fact that when you go into a gas station, there's always a rack of really obscure music tapes up near the counter, with such favorites as "Ultra 70's Funk," "Cowboy Songs," and "The Best of the 80's" type music. Apparently, though, this commodity (or oddity) does not exist in New England, as we were unable to find any gas stations that sold tapes! How sad! Perhaps it is a southern thing? At any rate, we had found a Primus tape in the Prop Shop, so that kept us entertained for the ride.

No more days off for 3 weekends, it's going to be hard core! I think I'll survive nicely, though. If I am lucky, I may be able to work in another internet update before the summer runs out! I miss my computer.

Sloooow afternoon

Sittin all alone in the props shop. Well, not entirely alone, Keller (our props carpenter) is working away in the back. We were going to go pick up some donations today, but one of us had to stay behind in case Keller needed any help, guess who drew the short straw. Oh well.

Since Tommy is opening tonight, we're kind of slow, so there's not much to do right now. Things will pick up soon enough, though. We'll have to crank out a lot for Assassins and Peter Pan, but for right now, we're not busy (hence the journal update on the agonizingly slow 14.4 K modem x_x).

I made the luckiest phone call ever the other day. I was giving Brendan a call to say "hello," and I just happened to catch him out shopping with Ken, Evan, and Dave Clark (plus, they were at Great Escape, where Adam Watson works). I got to talk to all of them, it was great! Super bonus phone call. I miss all of them, and I can't wait to see them when I get home. At least I'll get to see Dave, who is coming up to see Assassins.

This Sunday we have our last day off until all shows are open. After that, we'll have 3 changeover weekends in a row, then everyone starts leaving. I'll be here till the 31st, though, so after Peter Pan opens, I'll have 2 weeks where NOTHING happens. Keller and I will probably spend a few days cleaning the props shop (we'll be the only props crew left), then it's like 2 weeks of pseudo-vacation. Pseudo in that many of the friends I've made here will be gone, and that I don't have a car, so sight-seeing may be tricky. Perhaps something can be arranged, though. My parents will be coming up, and my dad seemed interested in going to Six Flags. I'd definately be up for that again.

So, kinda slow at the moment, but later should be fun. Carleton bought Dynasty Warriors 4, which he says to be an awesome game, so we will have a little PS2 fest sometime.