Sneak Peek... Tell Me What You Think!

I want you to be honest with me Readers, do you like this combo of Coral Orange and slightly darker than Powder Blue?  I have to say I am just green with envy over Dana's speedy home improvement projects over at Mid2Mod, how jealous I am that she will be painting and decorating soon while my addition is still at the post-wired, bare stud stage! However I cannot wail about Dana's renovation as the simple fact is she was better prepared for her renovation than I. "Face it, I'm older and have more insurance"  Haha If you will remember, Hurricane Sandy whisked friend Larry away on insurance jobs (He is my contractor), that along with building funds being exhausted just after Thanksgiving (In a mad dash to get the project in the dry) has left things at a stand still. But I am now just six studs, and an air conditioner hole framed and cut, away from having all the framing done.

I am also faced with the question of how authentic I want to do everything. Above is a picture of the 9'x 5' bay window that friend Kim gave me out of her late 1950's home. This beveled window has been a major hold up because of framing issues, and I'm leaning towards scrapping it. However I would fill the same 9' stretch of wall with windows, they would just be newer ones that are flat, it would provably take three windows to fill the wall.  Is that cheating? Do you readers think I will regret it if I don't stick to all authentic building materials? (At this point, I would just like windows and doors put in!)

Back to the paint colors that I'm not supposed to be picking out, since we are no where close to that stage in the project... I really like the coral orange, it takes some adjusting to. I remember when we painted it on set I thought "crap, its more pink than what I wanted" but it has toned out and really grown on me.  A few friends have expressed that its to dark a color and will make the room feel small, but with a five foot section of french doors on the south wall, and a nine foot window on the west wall I think there will be plenty of sunlight to brighten things up.  The painting of a tree on a rock by the Ocean, was a gift from Missouri Michael and I have always planned for this to be in the living room of the new addition.
I think as long as I paint the ceiling an off white, cream, or light gray the coral wont be to over powering... however there is also a long running joke around the theatre of having a friend paint this on the ceiling...

(Is it sad I am almost on board with that?)

Hmmm, "Adam and God" & Sputnik, don't tempt me... Photo courtesy of Patricia!

 

The most work I've done on Pontipee Hall this year was prep and tape the french doors last Sunday. During the party friend Austin helped me put a few base coats on the exterior parts of the doors.

(Already looking better!)

I still need to give them a few more coats of paint, but I am hoping to have these doors hung and working before the big dance in March. (two and a half weeks, YIKES!)  There is a lot to do, but hopefully its all on the down hill slide, depending on what funds it takes to get the doors hung I might get to put wall and ceiling insulation on before the end of April! After that is done (assuming all doors and windows are hung) we will be ready to put up a ceiling and sheet rock the walls!

I am so  thankful I've got a few good handy friends who are willing to help, and an extremely patient father. If we can get past all this practical junk, I know I can fix this room up so great that it will be in a magazine or a book or something and chomping at the bit to accomplish just that!


Patience, Patience, Patience....

So really, what do you all think about the color of the walls and couch? Along with my thoughts on getting newer ready to install windows?

-Mick-

A-WHOP-BOB-A-LOU-BOP-A-WHOP-BAM-BRUNCH!

The sign says it all dear Readers, thanks to friend Jennifer for fixing up the marquee! As a mini getaway friend Jennifer and I hosted a "brunch" for a few of our cast members, being T-Birds and Pink Ladies has made us all close friends. So Sunday we headed out to the lake for an afternoon to unwind and hang out.

Unfortunately not everyone could join us, but Patricia along with friends Jennifer, Austin, Bryson, Brandon, had fun spending the day together and making the meal!

(Friend Austin helps glaze the donuts.)

Last Sunday when Patricia and I tried out the donut maker, well that was a test run for this get together and boy did we crank out some tasty treats!

Chocolate glaze, plain, with sprinkles...

 Jennifer's powdered sugar glaze, drizzled, with sprinkles, double coated..Mmmm Mmmm what a side dish!

(Bryson, Patricia, Austin, Jennifer & Brandon)

For our main meal, we whipped up an old Casablanca favorite "omelet in a bag" Friend Austin fried up and crumbled some bacon and sausage, while friend Bryson cut up some red onion, bell peppers, and mushrooms for omelet ingredients! (My favorite was the red onion, bacon, with avocado on the side!) 

After dinner as I readied the Atom Pop with popcorn we settled into the den for a viewing of Grease 2.

While not quite as good as its predecessor, we still enjoyed the campy movie sequel for the familiar faces and early 1960's fun of it!

It was a day of friends, nifty kitchen gadgets, and good old fashioned fun!

-Mick-

Forgotten Gadgets- The Popeil Brothers Donut Maker!

Gooooooood Mornin' Readers, would you like a donut? Who doesn't want a donut?!
Remember this donut maker I picked up in Bowie?  Well I have been chomping at the bit to try it out, I don't think it had ever been used! So Sunday afternoon Patricia and I geared up to give it a try.

(She's going to kill me when she sees this picture...)

First off, we didn't get to try this experiment out at the Casablanca, it was weird not cooking in my own kitchen. Second no Pyrex was used in this project... I told Patricia "without using Pyrex, I feel like we're making METH!" as I said, It was WEIRD...

So while the oil warmed up, Patricia and I went about making the dough from instructions on the box. We attempted to make two kinds of donuts, Vanilla Donuts and Orange Sour Cream Donuts... I say attempted because the Vanilla ones turned out perfectly! The Orange Sour Cream... not so much (the directions were pretty vague and we ended up throwing that dough out.)

So I filled the Patented "Popeil Brothers Donut Maker" with the batter, On the box it shows the batter being poured from a pitcher into the maker...this is a fallacy. As you can see by the gratuitous batter mess I made on the vessel. Now this donut maker boasts that it "eliminates rolling, cutting, and forming donuts by hand, makes 24 donuts in one filling and guarantees donuts free of imperfections."

And I'll be danged if it didn't do just that! Perfect donuts at the press of a lever, Truly a modern convenience. I think that I was to generous with the amounts of dough as we only yielded 16 total, but 16 was PLENTY!

If only we had thought to concoct some type of icing! Anyone you out there have a good recipe for frosting?! Next time when they are hot, I might dump them in a bag of cinnamon sugar and shaking them around.

 Mmmm, Mmmmm, good, totally worth the $2.00 I spent at the flea market!

-Mick-

MGM You've Influenced Me...

And all the time I never knew Dear Readers,

March is  just around the corner, and all of the Casablanca's members are gearing up for our annual club dance! I always want the evening to be something from a movie, and here is a fine example of that which we pine to match, and dance right into.

"Skip to my Lou" Meet Me In St Louis 1944


One of my very favorites, I love the big "at home party"- people everywhere having a good time with friends (every light in the house on. With people eating on the veranda heavily reminds me of our own Casablanca gatherings) where all the attendants know how to dance.

(I mean I wouldn't scoff if Judy Garland led a dance at one of our parties!)

 I love that everyone's dressed up. People should dress up for things more, its really going by the wayside... I mean have you SEEN most "Prom wear" today?  Although this movie is set about 60 years before the Casablanca's prime, its a sweet technicolor reminder of what provably never was MGM how I love thee!

Naturally after the party is over, Doris Day along with Gordon Macray will sing and dance while cleaning up the general mess, as Patricia and I sleep in till noon!

Yes, that's how it should be!

-Mick-

How Nice, 5 Random Acts of Kindness!

"Five Acts of Kindness" Dear Readers,
Earlier this yeah I happen to be on Facebook and "liked" my friend Jeanie's status, which was along the lines of "The first 5 people to like this will receive a gift- it could be anything and come at any time".  So picture my surprise and delight when a few days before the show, when my friend Hannah (her daughter, who is playing Rizzo in Grease) brings me this gem!

Jeanie knows how much I adore the 1950's and thought of me when she found this lamp! Thank You Jeanie!  I need to get a light kit to make it work, but isn't it nice? I had the shade in a stack in my storage unit of props, and I think it goes nicely with the lamp, however the cherry on top of this wonderful gift?

(The original ruby red glass finial was still with the lamp! )

It was so nice of Jeanie to think of me, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!  So now I would like to keep the "Five Act's" going! Out of the people who comment on this post I will randomly select five and will try and do something nice for you!

Hope all of you have a Happy Monday!

-Mick-

Weird & Wacky- Atomic Platers Part II "Atom and Evil"

Talk about the Twilight Zone readers!

I promise you "Atomic fallout" was not my original theme for this week! Jim, an old friend of mine dropped off a small box of '78 rpm records down at the theatre for me to go through. There was lots of neat stuff in it, a super old 1910's one sided RCA Victor record, lots of Bing Crosby, I found "Dont Fence Me In" by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (I Love finding Andrews Sisters songs on '78's!) and in the very last sleeve of the very last book inthe pile was this little gem.



Recorded for Columbia Records by the "Golden Gate Quartet" (a mostly Gospel group) in 1947, with strong worries that "the Bomb" might fall into the wrong  evil hands... which a few short years later in 1949 it would "Russia has the bomb children, duck and cover!" Moods were tense back then, and this little ditty makes no illusions to Russia being the bad guys.

I have since found this website- http://www.atomicplatters.com/index.php  that lists all the records and songs made during Cold War Pop Culture, and you better believe I'm going to be hunting a few of these titles!

("Better Dead, than Red")

In school we always skimmed over stuff like this to make room for studying for state standardized test, I wish we had spent more time on it! Let me state right now, I am NOT dogging Russia or its people I am presenting these things to you as they would have appeared when they came out. As one of my favorite college Professors told me, "Not all nostalgia is as wholesome as Leave it to Beaver."

"-Atom and Evil
If you don’t break up that romance soon
We’ll all fall down and go boom, boom, (boom), boom!
We’re sitting on the edge of doom (doom) (doom) (doom) doom!"

(What a way to go...)

-Mick-

Wacky & Weird- "FALLOUT SHELTER" Record...

Dearest Readers,

I happen to stumble upon this little A-side "None-hit-wonder" on the big auction site, until finding it I had never heard this song before so I snapped it up for less than $5.00.

Vocals by Billy Chambers a 24 year old Florida Southern College Student in 1962. This gem came about during the height of the Cuban Missal Crisis in October of that year, and from what I've found wasn't played but by a hand full of DJ's in Florida only a few times because of it's morbid nature. Once the "Crisis" subsided, the record and its vocal star fell into the footnotes of historical obscurity. Albeit corny, it really is kind of a chilling song when you think about it... very much in the style of late 50's and early 60's "teenage tragedy- you jump I jump" songs (you know, like "Teen Angel" and "Tell Laura I love her").

"I'd rather die with you, than live without you, 

and I hope that you feel the same..."

(Makes you want to hold your 'steady' close, doesn't it?)

-Mick-

"THE ONE THAT YOU WANT..."

Mother's lock up your Daughters, ole Mick has learned how to croon... I love it when our names end up on the show poster!


Well, is learning to croon! This week our production of "Grease" opens and its going to be one helluva week! Busy, busy, busy, I'm having trouble with the color "coral" and the Casablanca has been nearly emptied of its contents to fill up the sets on stage. It's 1959 and this show is non stop fun!  With any luck I can do a few sneak peak posts this week, and come back to you on Monday with a hopefully good review for the show!  I was interviewed with a few of my other cast mates last Thursday and we might just have a our pictures in the paper this week!

Fingers crossed, and break a leg!

-Mick-