Manlio Rules

a few weeks ago, our office got broken into. among the things stolen was my ipod, a TV, and a custom dizzywood hoodie that sean made for all of us (because he loves us).

so, last night sean and I are in the mission, and we come across this fellow:

WEARING our hoodie! I thought for a second that sean was going to call the police, but after determining that he was probably not the thief (we have photos of that guy), and that he was very suspicious of the 2 guys who were expressing a strange interest in the hoodie, we decided to simply buy it from him. $25 later, and we had recovered it.

i guess the moral of the story is: If you steal from us, we’ll find you (we’re everywhere). but then we’ll give you more money to return our property.

in one week i will begin taking an improv class here in san francisco. Improv was a fairly large part of my life for a few years, and then it vanished, as I started to feel like i outgrew playing games on stage which rotated around the concept of guessing what strange location my friends had devised from the audience.

But improv was arguably my best theatrical talent, and it always made me a better conversationalist, even outside of classes. My friend used to tell me that the best part of improv was that she could now “justify anything”, which was an odd thing to take away, since I often found myself on stage trying to justify why i was in the middle of the desert with a steel suitcase trying to find orange juice in order to satisfy the queen of egypt. I mean, i know HOW to justify that, but i’m not sure it was much of a takeaway. My favorite part of improv was collaboration. Working with other people (audience included) to create something live on stage. It’s what i’ve always strived for as a musician as well, though with somewhat less success (at least for now).

So, if improv was so great, why did i stop? well… after college I was part of a couple smaller groups. the first one in philadelphia was a bit of a disaster, basically a lot of super geeky improv theorists who weren’t compelling to watch on stage. I did that for a few months but it was hard to continually take criticism from a group of people who had never made me laugh once.

After I moved to NY, a group of Without a Net (my group at penn) alum tried to put together a recreational improv group. We went on for maybe 6 months, but there were some divisions in the group in terms of what to focus on. Some people wanted to do sketch comedy, some wanted to do long form, and i really just wanted to keep doing what we had done in college. So after some failed attempts at writing sketches (the hidden gem being the catcher in the batting cages sketch, a McNiff/LoConte joint) and a good deal of “what are we” conversation, we went our separate ways. One of the guys from that went on to write for Scrubs, and PT is now getting his masters at USC in writing, so there was certainly some talent there. I still think that having the Monster Truck announcer going on a blind date was genius. but probably only for about 30 seconds.

And I took a 7 year hiatus from improv. Which will end next week. I wonder if it will be like coming home.

1996: opening the human barbecue at pi lam

Originally uploaded by mloco.

Another old school photo from the pi lam days. Courtesy of Guillerhme via Andy Maskin.

for the record, the name of this band was: F#$ting Chelsea. I know. super classy. It was Tim (Flipper’s) band (he’s on the left). I joined as a freshman, even though i could hardly play. this was one of our 3 gigs, opening the human barbecue in the spring of 1996. I believe this was the last time we played, though it’s possible we also played during spring fling the next week, and then never again. i do not think there is any audio evidence of these performances.

We’re 3 weeks (of into our summer softball season, and something VERY strange is going on. I’m hitting. A lot.

I will be the first to admit that i am, at best, a below average hitter. in softball. I don’t know why, i mean, i’ve never been a great athlete, and it’s not surprising that i would be below average at hitting a baseball (which i was in HS), but i just don’t understand why i can’t generate enough power to smack the crap out of a slow pitch softball. I’m reasonably strong for my build, I’m pretty quick, and my hand eye coordination is at least good enough that I’m not embarrassed on a regular basis by my lack of general awareness.

When i started playing softball as an “adult” (24), after my first game we took batting practice. and I missed every pitch thrown at me. for like 20 minutes. it was probably the most humiliating moment of my adult life with the possible exception of the week i wore a wig. As I continued to play over the next few years, i fluctuated, mostly in relation to my general fitness/strength at the time and whether or not i was playing with a bum shoulder, which i did for 2 months in the summer of 2005. Out here in SF i’ve had some good seasons and some bad, though last season was particularly horrendous. Despite all the time at the batting cages (where i could hit just fine), i would routinely step up to the plate, swing at the 1st or 2nd pitch, and ground the ball to the pitcher.

So you can imagine my surprise this season, when after the 8 week break, i started hitting line drives every time at the plate. my team has noticed as well, though this makes me feel bad because it means they also noticed how poorly i was hitting before and were too nice to say anything.

so what am i doing differently? the only thing i can think of is that a few fundamentals (watch the ball, keep your back elbow up, step into the ball) have become more routine for me, so i don’t have to think as much about my mechanics while i’m up there. Also i’ve been noticing that i’m mostly an opposite field hitter, so i’ve been trying to swing earlier and harder in order to pull the ball more (as a lefty in our league, RF is usually the best place to get to). all of these things could be leading to a better streak.

but honestly i think it might just be dumb luck. maybe this season i’m just getting better pitches, or choosing ones more in my “wheel house” (though i’m not sure you can have a wheel house when the ball comes in so slowly).

in any event, i’ll enjoy it while it lasts.