Its Been Awhile...

Yeah, the title says it all, it has been a while, I just "celebrated" the Fourth of July. I put quotes around celebrated, because I worked the entire weekend. Thats right, I'm working now, I am currently employed at Radioshack in Sioux Falls. Since my last post, I was in USF's production of Cinderella as Cinderella's Footman. Outside of that, my life hasn't been too excited, but I thought I'd update those who are following my blog and have been wondering where I've been. That's all for now, until the next time...

Last Day

So the day started with going to the Cuban restuarant we went to the other day, just as good as last time, but there were more of us that didn't get a chance to eat there got the chance to do it. After that, we went to Sweet Revenge, an amazing cupcake place, pretty much every cupcake in the display reminded me of one thing...Type 2 Diabetes. Very delicious, with a great atmosphere, the young woman working there, whose name is escaping me at the current moment, seemed really cool, and inviting towards the place, it probably helped that Kim was a regular visitor of the place. To end the day, I watched my favorite television show, Smallville, while doing the last bit of laundry I had to do before we take off tomorrow morning. Looking forward to returning back to little ole South Dakota, moving a little slower, seeing USF is long overdue. Being that this is my last New York blog, I would like to thank Kim for giving me the chance at such an amazing experience, and all those who are out here with me. We may have our little arguements, but it's been a great honor getting to know you all better, and I wouldn't have asked for a better group to have to live with, and I hope we can remain good friends back in Sioux Falls.

So Ben Stiller doesn't work here? Things don't come to life at night?

So Teake and I didn't have anything planned, so we decided go check out the Museum of Natural History. I wasn't really that excited, because I wasn't entirely sure what was in there, so I was expecting more boredom than anything. We got there, and it was actually really cool, the exhibits were all really interesting. What amazed me the most was the art work behind the animal exhibits. They are so realistic, I felt that when I got close enough, that I was in the environment that the animals are naturally from. Which, when you think about it, is kind of scary. I mean, your standing there, and boom you are in the same habitat as a tiger. With a highly realistic tiger standing in front of you, oh man, scary. Besides that, everything there was really cool, only one more full day left in New York. What kind of shenanigans will I get myself into in the last day? Stay tuned.

In the Heights, with Corbin Bleu

So I woke up today, feeling good, I don't know why or how, but I felt almost invincible. Which was good since Eric and I decided to go try the lottery for In the Heights. Eric had to hand out sandwiches so we met at the theater. We signed up, and went outside for the drawing. During the drawing, there was a sheet of paper that looked a lot like mine, because it was. I won the lottery to In the Heights! I was jacked beyond all belief, we got our tickets then I got my family some suvernoirs (if thats how you spell it). Before the show, we were sitting in front of the theatre, and wouldn't you know it Kenny Ortega, good friend of Corbin Bleu, and director of movies like High School Musical and Newsies was entering the theatre. I could literally feel my little sister getting excited as I texted my family that he was there. My sister is a huge HSM fan, so I knew going to this show that she was going to be very jealous of me, but I digress. The show was awesome, amazing look, great actors, great choreography, just great. After the show, Eric and I decided to wait to get some Herby Hancocks on our playbill. The great thing about most actors is how willing they are to hang out with the fans. All the actors and dancers who stuck around where really cool, and were holding good conversations with us. Then there was chaos that was Corbin Bleu, he stepped out and I was literally bombarded by playbills from little girls standing behind me. Eric held a good conversation with him, even with all that stuff going on. It seemed that Corbin was an awesome guy, he was really interested in what everyone was saying around him. Just all around a great time. Until next time.

p.s. I know the picture isn't top quality, my camera on my phone doesn't being too close aparently, and will take very odd pictures.

Fountain Pop

Waking up somewhat early has always been a chore for me, but I find it a little easier when I have a mystery agenda. We woke up a little on the early side to go the Fountain House, which is an organization to help people with mental illnesses transition from the hospitals and institutions to the working world. It was really interesting to see the people in the house. There were a good number that I would not have guessed they had a mental illness until I spoke with them. Like our tour guide, Ben, at first he was very quiet, and when he first started speaking it wasn't noticable that he was recovering from a mental illness, it wasn't until we checked out the culinary unit, when he repeated the same idea of this where people eat that I began to suspect something, and not until he said he lived in a housing development from Fountain House that I realized that he was in fact a member not just a volunteer there. Great experience doing that, but after that, I got a different kind of experience, Cuban food. Just got to say, delicious! Amazing food, they played upbeat music for the duration of our time in the restaurant. All around amazing. Then to round out the day, Anne and I went to play Bingo uptown. It was a lot of fun, there was a hispanic woman next to me who was just a joy to be around. She came in with a very fun attitude towards the game, always playfully taunting the callers. The group leaders for this activity surprised me though. They had been doing bingo for 4 years now, and they gave out dollars to the winners. We found out that money was out of their own pockets. That just flatout amazed me, because bingo is a twice a month activity, so they are using a good amount of their own money for this activity. It just shows you the willingness of the people in the program, because in the economy of today, you don't see many people willingly give out a lot of their money to complete strangers. It's really inspirational to see such a thing.

Saints win! Colts win!

So another day of playoff games, and another day of no drive to really go anywhere but the couch to watch the games. The New York Jets came out strong at the beginning of the game, but were no match for Payton Manning and the Colts, and saw the end of their season. Which, at least to me, was a good reason not to go walking around New York, angry drunk fans are never fun to run into. After the Jets-Colts game, it was time for the Vikings-Saints game, wow! That game was so close, best playoff game of the season. Brett Favre and the Vikings weren't firing from all cylinders, but they were still getting the job done, taking the game into overtime. Unfortunately, the Saints took overtime with a field goal kick at the end of the game taking them to the Superbowl. Great football day, can't wait for the next couple of days. Until next time.

I thought we were going to the museum, this is a subway station...oh, it is the museum

New York Cares: early wake up for Teake, Jordan, and I, because we had New York Cares, where we chaporoned kids from the St. Theresa house on their trip to the Transit Museum. I had, what at first seemed a shy young man by the name of Maliek, who turned out to be a bit of a hyper ball of energy. The good thing about Maliek, is he never got too far away from his brother, making it fairly easy to keep an eye on him, since there was another chaporone attempting as hard as I was to keep an eye on the two of them, at some points I will not lie, I lost the kid, but it wasn't hard to find him again, because I could hear him from a good distance away. The museum was really cool, it was in an old subway station that was closed down because the train that went through it traveled a total of ten blocks, and everyone just got smart and walked instead of wait for a train. There were a lot of old subway cars, that the kids got to play around in, and parts of a bus for kids to simulate driving in, just all around a good time for these kids. After that, the three of us USFers returned to the apartment to catch up on some sleep, since the kids tired us out. Then I ended the night by going over to the KGB bar, that has a theatre on it's first floor, that holds a show called Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. It was really good, they had a good mix of serious stuff and comedy. Thinking of their short plays they had in their show reminds to bring it down to a highly serious note. We all have a chance to make a difference in someone's life, and sometimes that means a lot more to certain people than others, the people of Haiti have experienced a tremendous travesty to their country, and I would strongly recommend attempting to assist those who are homeless, alone, afraid, and for those hopefully still fighting for their lives. If you can find a way to help in any way to rescue or assistance, please do. Sometimes all it takes is a simple gift of a dollar, or maybe a donation to get some of the less fortunate some food to help them make it through another day. Because you may think you have it hard with your long days at work, or dealing with difficult people in your lives, but trust me, it is nothing compared to what the people of Haiti are going through, and will probably never amount to the amount of hurt that a large group of survivors have gone through. Until next time.

Stardust for Everyone!

Tumble outta bed
And stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
Yawnin, stretchin, try to come to life
Jump in the shower
And the blood starts pumpin
Out on the streets
The traffic starts jumpin
And folks like me on the job from 9 to 5
Don't know why, but I thought of that song, and felt it was a good way to start this. Great day, started with an amazing tour of the infamous Carnagie Hall. Amazing, and beautiful place to be in, a couple members of the group sang in the main hall. Amazing sound in there, you don't even know. I would strongly recommend checking that out for any music lovers out there. After that, Kolvek and I made our way to an interesting restaurant, called Stardust. Its really cool, there is always a waitor singing, because they are all aspiring actors, who want to sing on Broadway. Really cool stuff, very moving to see the talent in such a place. To round out the day, we checked out the Staten Island Ferry, saw good ol' Lady Liberty Liberty, extremely moving, I don't know what it is about seeing that statue, but whenever I see it, it just makes me proud to be an American. But that is all the news I have for today, until next time.

Look At Dem Sandmiches

Ah sandwiches, a great service activity that doesn't take up too much time, but is great for seeing te diversity of the city. This last one was exceptionally interesting, being that Travis is taking off for South Dakota this weekend, so it was the last time we would see him out in the city, and he had an interesting sandwich line to see him off. It was fairly average until the very end, we waited for a gentleman who is a little slower to arrive. Another gentleman wanted his sandwich, so we told him to wait, and see if no one comes, he can have it. Needless to say, someone came that had not yet received a sandwich, the guy wasn't too happy. He "praised" us for giving the sandwich to someone else who could need it. That's the way it goes for some people, they look too much towards themselves, and do not realize that there are hundreds of thousands of others who could use the same stuff at the same time. Travis wasn't too happy with the gentleman, but he kept his cool, and only vented his frustration under his breath as the gentleman left. After that, I made my way up to the Inwood Public Library, for a little New York Cares work. I was partnered with the oldest participant there. She was 13 or 14 years old, which is probably about 5 years older than anyone else there. I felt lucky that I had someone who was as unwilling to read as I was...it also helped that she spoke a lot of English, being that I do not speak a word of Spanish. I had a lot of fun, she was a cool kid, can't remember her name, but a cool kid none the less. Can't wait to do another project, it's going to be a fun time. Until next time.

Batteries, and Denzel Washington

At the start of the day, everyone but Teake and I took off to check out the Chelsea Galleries. I decided to try and mend my sore foot, since the pain is getting fairly noticeable while walking. After a short period, Teake and I decided to check out Battery Park. When we got there, a gentleman approached us selling fruit snacks, and to clarify, we have had a lot of people come up to us with the same approach. They are selling this stuff to upgrade sports equipment, which most of the time, I just shrug it off, not really interested, but there was something about this guy actually made me want to buy his stuff. I think it was just the fact that he asked us for a moment of our time, instead of just walking up to us saying they are trying to do. But Teake and I both bought a bag of fruit snacks. After that we came back and decided to go check out Denzel Washington's movie The Book of Eli. I would greatly suggest going to this movie, especially for people who go to a Christian college. I can't give away much of the plot because I want anyone reading this to go see the movie, but I found it to shadow any religion in today's world. I wish I could give more, I sat and thought about this movie for a good amount of time. I think I came up with a great look at it, but like I said earlier, I can't share, because I want people to go see it. Also go actually see, help the production companies out, don't go download it off the internet. Well...until next time.

Roosevelt Tram, and a few laughs

So I guess I somewhat conquered my fear of heights by going on the tram system that takes us to Roosevelt Island. It honestly wasn't that scary, but thats because I was in a large box on a highly durable structure, so falling wasn't really a variable at the time, making it more about the scenary than the altitude. Oh, I forgot, before that, we went to New York Hotdog and Coffee, amazing chili-cheesedogs, I mean, I've never had a more delicious hotdog in my life. Great stuff, after that, we looked for art galleries in Chelsea, little known fact, all the galleries are closed on Mondays, who would have known? To round up the day, a handful of us went to the Upright Citizens Burgade Theatre to watch some sketch comedy. We went to two sessions, were two groups performed. Both performances, I really liked one group, and really hated another, but it's only because you don't have to be highly vulgar to get laughs. Unfortunately, a couple of those groups did not know that. Anyway, I should probly get going, I'll talk to you later Blog, until next time.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
I Have A Dream Speech
Loving Your Enemies
Beyond Vietnam
Where Do We Go From Here?
I believe that the Where Do We Go From Here Speech is the most appropriate monologue for social change, because it talks about more than just equal rights for all people within the United States. King finds way to bring numerous subjects to tie together in order to get his point across. He is not just willing to keep his thoughts to just obtaining equal rights, but he justified exactly what he wants. There could be much room for confusion if he hadn’t, and he understood that. That is why I think this is a monologue for social change.

Catholics and Jets?

So, I went to a catholic mass at St. Patrick's, and it was like every other catholic service I had gone to, the area looked nice, but my attention span halted when it came to the service. It's got to be simple all around, or I will space off into one general idea, especially at catholic mass. After that, we went out to eat as a group, which was cool, great food, and it's always good to have us all in one spot for any period of time. After that, it was all about football, the Vikings won, and the Jets won. A couple of teams that Brett Favre at one point played for, getting at least another week to play. To end the day, we gathered around the television to watch the Golden Globes, it's always a good time when you get a group of theater kids watching an award show for a somewhat related subject.

We're moving?!

So...kind of an interesting day, a few hours after waking up, a couple of people on the cleaning staff came to our apartment, telling us we had to have our stuff packed up to go to our other apartment. Needless to say, none of us were prepared for that, and since there were about a half of us out volunteering for New York Cares, we had to run around and pack numerous people's bags. After that, Teake and I ran all our food over to the first apartment we stayed in, being that is the new apartment we are in. Then we got to wait for a few hours for the cleaning staff to clean the Charlton apartment, where Teake and I had an interesting conversation about pigeons and squirrels. Fun stuff. Ushered for Smudge again, it was a good time. Watched the football playoff games. The day started fairly stressfull but ended with some great time for relaxation. Until next time, this is Jon Hardcastle, signing off.

Is there a possibility of a bad day out in New York? If there is, I have yet to see it. Started the day by traveling over to the Brooklynn Bridge. Amazing, we picked the perfect time to walk across. The sun was in the perfect spot to take pictures of scenary. Just awesome, unfortunately, we didn't get everything done that we wanted to attempt to accomplish. After that, Eric, Jordan, and I made our way over to Times Square to attempt the lottery for Wicked. Eric was pretty confident at this lottery. Which that confidence pays off, seeing that he won two tickets. I was more than willing to give Jordan the ticket, being that it was his idea to try for tickets to Wicked in the first place. After that, I decided to rest my aching feet, and now the day is at the end, and i am looking forward to another day out in New York

Next to Normal

Great day today, started off pretty normal, my new good friend Anne Wentworth and myself went around Times Square looking at rush tickets for something to watch. We made the first play attempt at my most anticipated show, Next to Normal. After we decided to attempt that, I came back to the apartment to move to our new one across the hall. It was pretty much done by the cleaning staff by the time we got back which was awesome. Handed out sandwiches. Then I went to pick up Ms. Wentworth at the Drama Book Store, where we went and got tickets to Next to Normal! Thats right people out in blog world, crazy right? I titled it Next to Normal because I went to it? What? Yes, Anne and I went to Next to Normal. Shortly after being seated, I turned around, and there was Michael Greif, the director of Next to Normal, and Rent for both broadway openings. I turned back to my seat with tears in my eyes, I was so amazed to see him. I heard him talking to some other patrons, saying that he was waiting for someone. I heard Luke Perry, so that got me pretty jazzed up...unfortunately, it wasn't Luke Perry, but it was one of Michael's friends from a past show, he was one of the main producers of the hit musical Rent. He's no Luke Perry, but still pretty cool. The show started, amazing, I'm glad that Kim introduced the show to me earlier in the year, or I would have never even looked in the general direction of the show. Afterwards, I was jacked to get some autographs, I started starstruck, and couldn't bring myself to say really anything. Until the man who plays Gabe came up to me, and I just started to poke fun at his costumes onstage. He had a good attitude, and went along with it. Great day, it will be in my memory for as long as I can, and looking forward to another great one tomorrow

Fire Museum, and Chinatown

I woke up in the morning, not expecting too much. Everyone else was looking for a museum to check out, and when most of the group decided to go to a free fashion museum, I quickly decided to pass. Looking for a museum for Eric and myself to check out, we stumble upon the New York City Fire Museum. We decided to check it out, amazing place, lots of historical fire trucks within. Also, a tribute to the men and women of the NYFD that passed on 9/11, some very powerful photos that will touch any person's heart. I wanted to take more pictures, but the only place I wanted to take pictures was in the 9/11 room, and I just felt awful for thinking about taking pictures in a room that seems a little more sacred than usual. But after that, Eric and I went to Times Square thinking of getting a ticket to a show, which ended terribly, being that most shows were either sold out, or not showing today, kind of a bum deal, but whatever. When we came to the apartment, a group decided to play some cards, which was a lot of fun. Once again, another great day out here in the city, looking forward to another great one tomorrow

Smudge

So, interesting day, woke up, moved up to the fifth floor, fun stuff. Later in the day, went over to Kim's so I could get some pants for my ushering that I did later in the day. Changed clothes, went over to usher at Smudge, really good show, I will not disclose any information about the plot, since no one else has seen the show yet, but the three actors did an amazing job. The house manager was a really cool guy, which helped us give a very comfortable feel as the patrons walked in to view the fine piece of theatre. So all around, another great day out here in New York, can't wait for the next day

New York Cares

Pretty chill day again, just kind of hung around the apartment, was nice to Mariah, which is pretty weird, trust me. Then went to the New York Cares orientation, which was really cool, I'm really looking forward to helping those who are less fortunate than I am, it's gonna be great, just a good time. Looking forward to tomorrow, but outside of that, theres really nothing else going on, so I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Lazy Sunday

Like the title says, fairly uneventful lazy sunday, didn't do much of anything until around 3 or 4 o'clock, where Teake, Eric, and myself went up to the Seinfeld restaurant to eat, we walked around in Central Park for a little bit, then returned to the apartment to call it a day. It's alway great to have days like this, where you can rest your body from the craziness that is big city life. I would always recommend a lazy Sunday after any week running around anywhere.

Ragtime

The just of the day was going to Ragtime the musical. We went to the lottery, didn't get any winners, but still got discount tickets from the Lottery Loser line. Ragtime is quite simply amazing, it literally left me emotionally spent afterwards. For those in my family, this is the time to possibly get the tissues on hand, because this is where I talk about the harder stuff. Now, for those of my classmates that have no idea what I am talking about, I lost my father almost three years ago. There were many moments that reminded me greatly of my dad. The first time was when Stephanie Umoh who played the role of Sarah sang the song, "Your Daddy's Son." Many people claim that I am a lot like my father, making that song very relatable. Then any scenes in the first act that had Coalhouse or Tateh showing very fatherly influences, took me over the edge. The final moment during the show that took me over the edge was when you see Coalhouse's son older run onstage and play around, because I only really saw myself in the image of the little boy, even though he lost people close to him, he still grows up. After the show, Mike McGowan, a South Dakota boy who was part of the cast, took us backstage, which was awesome. It was so empowering to stand on a Broadway stage, and listen to Mike's experiences with the amazing show we watched. The greatest moment was getting to meet Quentin Earl Darrington, who was in the role of Coalhouse, just because he reminded me so much of my father. All around, another great night out east, looking forward to the rest of the experience out here in New York.

A New Day, A New Experience

Today, was another great day in NYC, got to sleep in. With that priveledge, I, of course, woke up at around 8 o'clock in the morning, and got to see the beaming faces of my fellow classmates as they pulled themselves from their beds and prepared for a brand new day. We got to go out and attempt to put fliers out to spread the word of the upcoming show, Smudge from the Women's Project. That is when I realized, I am not a good spokesperson for the Women's Project, because most of the businesses that I went in to attempt to set the fliers down, denied me before I could end the sentence asking them to set it down. Shortly after, we met with our missing classmate, Anne Wentworth, for a meal. Once we downed our meals, we discussed our evening activities. My activity, going to attempt to achieve a ticket to my most anticipated musical, Next to Normal. Unfortunately, there were no standing room tickets, and we couldn't stick around for the lottery. We did get to go to the Museum of Modern Art, which was really cool, because they had an area devoted to one of my favorite directors of all time, Tim Burton. Sweet stuff. Can't wait for another great day out here, and I look forward to the remainder of the trip

New York Day 2

Another great day, got to see the some sweet places in the city today. I have to say, that seeing attractions across the city was pretty amazing, one place does not really stick out in my mind, they were all so great. Then we got to hand out sandwiches at the Broadway Church of Christ, which was great, it seemed like an amazing group of people that were waiting for the sandwiches, and afterwards we had a great conversation with Travis, who is a USF graduate, at a diner. Later that night, we went to a fairly cool concert, I wasn't too into it, but thats because I don't care too much for instrumental music. Then we ended the day by seeing the Rockefeller Center ice rink which was really cool to see.

New York Day 1

The first day in the "Big City" was amazing. It started with mindlessly traveling with Mr. Eric Perry-Kolvek looking for a place to grab some breakfast, that ended with us catching an amazing view of the water surrounding the island. The rest of the day was the entire group thinking of, and looking for a show to watch for our night activity. Which was amazing, we got to see Times Square, and ended up going to see the play entitled "39 Steps," which is amazingly funny. If you ever get a chance to see a version of it, jump at it. All around, a great first day.