Someone Call Ozzy, There's a Bat In My House

Sound: "Gloria" by Patti Smith

Actually, I don't think the bat is there anymore.  And that's not really what this post is about; I was just using an exciting opener to grab your attention.  See?  I am TOTALLY learning from my weekly lecture assignments.

"Well, what is this post about?" you may ask.  Good question, reader.  I'll answer that.  This post is about my preparation for the fall semester.  The fall semester starts in about two weeks, and I'm really excited for it.  It's when my show starts rehearsals, when I get to take a bunch of classes, and when I start working as a Teaching Fellow (what Harvard calls their teaching assistants, because they're fancy like that).

I am super excited for all of this.  Especially for teaching.  I've met the professor for the class, and he's awesome.  It sounds like a great course, I've ordered my books, the syllabus is put together, and everything's falling into place.

Except that I'm terrified.

See, I have a slight issue where I'm terrified of whomever my students are going to be.  Will they like me?  Will they think I'm smart?  Will they think I'm funny?  I'M FUNNY, RIGHT?!  Thoughts like these fill my empty time in the subway.  Students (or at least people who look like they could be students) are starting to return to Cambridge, and I find myself giving them the side-eye as I pass them on the street.  YOU WILL LIKE ME, I silently command them.  YOU WILL LIKE ME AND YOU WILL GIVE ME A HIGH RATING ON YOUR COURSE EVALUATION.

I'm hoping that this works, and that I don't end up with a bunch of evaluations that contain comments along the lines of "She was okay, except she had this weird habit of staring intently at us in class.  It was like she was trying to send us commands through her thoughts or something."

I hope.

When Conducting An Interview, Always Use Multiple Tape Recorders

Sound: "Side to Side" by Blackalicious (feat. Lateef & Pigeon John)

Today I had the great pleasure of interviewing Taylor Mac, an amazing person, theater artist, and the mastermind behind The Lily's Revenge, the show that I'm dramaturging for the A.R.T.  I had a company tape recorder with which to record the interview, and, after multiple tests, I called up Taylor (he's currently in New York), and hit "record."  We spent forty-five minutes talking about Taylor's life, his work as an artist, his philosophy, and, of course, Lily.  It was the ideal interview experience.

Unbeknownst to me, the tape recorder decided not to cooperate.

I discovered this when I went to listen to and transcribe the tapes and discovered that, after one ringtone, the tape completely cut out.  And so I did what any person would do: I freaked out.

The completed, edited, print-ready interview had a 4:00pm deadline, and it was already 10:00am.  Obviously, I needed to figure out how to fix this, and I need to figure out how to fix this NOW.  Fortunately, I had another tape recorder (which I might have borrowed from someone - a parent, a professor, I'm not sure.  Sorry, original owner, it's mine now).  I grabbed it, tested it, said a little prayer, and called Taylor back to explain what had happened and beg him to do another interview.  He graciously agreed, and I made my deadline with some time to spare.

In the future, though, I'm using at least two tape recorders to record every interview.