2008, My Year in Review: “12.22 8pm”

2008 was a relatively dry year on the acting front for me.  Between commercial auditions that just didn’t pan out to an almost 10 month absence from the stage combined with an ever-increasing frustration and heartache over the “normal” job I do have – that of waiting tables – it began to seem as though what passes for an acting career for me had begun to exit stage left.

On top of all of the above, I made the bold – and potentially stupid – move of doubling the performance run of my ‘little Christmas show’ The Birth from last year’s two nights and 4 performances to this year’s four nights and 8 performances.  In addition to the venue I rent considerably upping the rent on me there was also this little thing you might have heard of called Economic Apocalypse as industry and commerce began failing and falling all around us, leading the thought of actually selling tickets much less actually breaking even (as it was our very own finances on the line if the show didn’t succeed) a growing and crushing anxiety.

I, Claudius

We interrupt this walk down memory lane to bring you breaking news.  Nathan has just been offered the part of Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

“A murderer and a villian;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
a cutpurse of the empire and the rule”

Words one might not use to describe your’s truly, but the uncle whose ‘offence is rank’ will be portrayed by myself nonetheless.  It is a production with the Children’s Theater of Charlotte and we will be performing 95% of our shows for local theaters, but one night in March we will have a public performance.  Stay tuned for more details.

2008, My Year in Review: King and Ka-Tet

“The man in black fled across the desert,
and the gunslinger followed.”

Thus begins the epic journey of one Roland Deschain, the Clint Eastwood-esque hero of Stephen King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower.

A couple of years ago, being fed up with how little I was reading but knowing that much of my reading consisted of sometimes slow-going theological works, I just wanted to relax and escape into a good novel.  Per recommendations from two of my best friends, I dove into the works of Stephen King for the first time since sixth grade when, having gotten successfully freaked out by Pet Sematary, I gave ol’ Stevie a rest for over a decade.

After getting my feet wet with a few of King’s more recent works, namely Dreamcatcher, Cell and his non-fiction memoir/writing guide On Writing, I decided it was time to wade into the deeper waters of his catalogue.

In early May I began volume 1 of the seven volume Dark Tower series.  For the uninitiated the first book in the series is simply titled The Gunslinger and follows the story of Roland’s pursuit of the aforementioned Man in Black (not to be confused with Johnny Cash).

And it is not very good.

2008, My Year in Review: Wife of My Youth

It’s a good thing I’m not numbering these ‘08 articles as I would definitely be skipping ahead a bit on this one.  This entry should take its rightful spot amidst the Top 3, but I thought it appropriate, being my 5 year wedding anniversary today and all, that it should scoot up ahead in the countdown.

Allow me to give credit where credit is due and say that despite the awesomeness that has been the previous 4 years, my fifth year of marriage saw that relationship ascend to new heights as not only did we welcome into the world our first child but I also, by extension, got to witness firsthand what an amazing mother Tracey Mather Rouse had hiding inside of her.

2008, My Year in Review: Iron Man and Dark Knight

What a year to be a comic book fan.

While there were other solid entries such as Hellboy 2 and even a laudable reboot in The Incredible Hulk, it was first Iron Man which set up the spike as it were for the Dark Knight to hammer it home with startling ferocity.