L V C || C L Memory 52

In 52 days, I'll be back on campus at my alma-mater at an extra special homecoming as Lebanon Valley College continues celebrating its 150th birthday.  In honor of that countdown, here's memory #52:  returning to a new dorm for my senior year.

Well ... new to me.  After 5 semesters in Mary Green (and one overseas) and a whole year off of school, I followed my former roomie Jon M to where he was now based -- in FE213.  Although this photo shows me sleeping on the floor of that room (along with all the different rugs we used to cover up that cold floor), I did have a bed (top bunk) -- I just clearly didn't make it up there after whatever event led to me crashing on the floor.

A few things *other* than the dorm room had changed in the year I was away doing actor stuff in western PA and OH -- especially the fact that many of the people with whom I had started college had graduated in my absence.

But that year at the end of the hall in Funkhouser East was to be one filled with some of the closest friends I was to have from college.  My senior year was to be a pretty darn good year ...

Random Tune for Tuesday 8/16/16

Being addicted to TV as I am (hello my name is Troy, and I'm a TV addict), it's an added bonus when some watchin' turns into some listenin' (all synergistic like).

Such was the case as I watched the season 2 finale of Pop's 'Schitt's Creek' a few weeks back.  (That's "Pop" as in the erstwhile TV guide channel, now sans on-screen guide and with "original" programming [that's "original" as in Canadian] AND that's "Schitt's Creek" as in the sitcom/improv mix that features the perfectly delightful comedic coupling of Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara.)

While we're waiting for season 3 (or for you to catch up on the first two seasons), here's a little bit of the song that played out that last episode and that stuck in my ear so hard that I had to go to the interwebs to find the singer and song:  James "not Jim" Morrison's 'Precious Love'.

And if you're hearing it for the first time, you're welcome.

YEAH IT'S LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, PRECIOUS LOVE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWMLfOSZ0GU

L V C || C L Memory 53

In 53 days, I'll be back on campus at my alma-mater at an extra special homecoming as Lebanon Valley College continues celebrating its 150th birthday.  In honor of that countdown, here's memory #53:  taking a year off (although not completely).

I know it's unusual for someone to take a year off between their junior and senior years of school ... but then again, I've never professed to be all that "usual".

It was the classic story of actor boy meets someone who promises a meeting with an agent (the someone was my creepy cousin who had a theatre company ... and the agent was actually someone real in Columbus Ohio), and actor boy decides he doesn't want to grow up and say "what if?", so he joins an acting group, moves closer to Columbus (Uniontown PA of all places), auditions for a few national commercials (including McDonald's), gets told he has a touch of a lazy eye and needs to do eye exercises in order to get more work -- and then actor boy quits, but stays in western PA.

Oh ... and he also uses the time off to stay in school a little bit -- at the California University of PA (where, in 1992, it was still customary to print SSNs on IDs).  I signed up for three classes but only consistently made it to one (the German one) .. and then, a summer, two semesters and a second summer later, I returned to dear old LVC.

Random Memorial for Monday 8/15/16

Gone but not forgotten:  Luis, Gordon and Bob.

Or are they?

Poor Sesame Street (and yes, that qualifier is quite literal in that that particular street is broke) announced that it would be Luis-less, Gordon-free and without-Bob because those actors were "fired" this summer.

Since that announcement was met with lots of negativity from those of us who grew up with those characters (which was on the heels of lots of negativity about the answer to "can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street" being HBO), it turns out that it's just a change in storyline strategy, and there weren't any storylines for Luis, Gordon and Bob this go-round and that they were always welcome to come back again sometime in the future if and when a storyline mentioned a Luis, Gordon or Bob.

Now that I've seen the pictures of how old those guys are nowadays, I'm thinking that maybe there's an age discrimination lawsuit that might be possible.  Except for Gordon ... Gordon looks the same as he did back then.  Which is probably why he got his own Fisher Price little person back in the day, because they knew that it would be a timeless plaything.

Unless someone starts kissing up to the storyliners, Luis, Gordon and Bob will be missed (and they'll definitely be missed no matter what the outcome of that suck up session by those who don't have the HBO in their homes).

FIRED?  MAYBE NOT:
http://tvline.com/2016/08/02/sesame-street-cast-fired-bob-luis-gordon-statement/

WE HAD A GORDON LITTLE PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH WHEN I WAS LITTLE:
http://www.thisoldtoy.com/l_fp_set/toy-pages/900-999/938-sesamestreet.html

SESAME STREET SURE AS HECK AIN'T WALL STREET:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/b-is-broke-why-sesame-816105

L V C || C L Memory 54

In 54 days, I'll be back on campus at my alma-mater at an extra special homecoming as Lebanon Valley College continues celebrating its 150th birthday.  In honor of that countdown, here's memory #54:  participating in clubs and extra-curriculars.

By the time you're a junior (as I was in 1992), you've figured out where you belong.  Some of those clubs you might have sampled as a bright-eyed freshperson had fallen to the wayside (I'm looking at you Quittaphilla and WLVC) ... and others had stuck.

With all the LVC theatre in this countdown, it's no surprise that the 1992 yearbook had me in Wig and Buckle (where I held office) and Alpha Psi Omega ... and seeing as how my best grades were in my German classes, I was also a part of the German Club group.

Somehow I missed the Young Republican photo shoot (note that being a young Republican in 1992 does not automatically mean I'm a Trumper today) ... nor was I in the Spring Arts entry ... but, back then, you made it to the ones that were most important to you on photo day.

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 8/14/16

What southern Florida is talking about this week:

... the same thing that you might be talking about yourself before the end of summer (unless you live in a plain white part of this map of the expected spread of the Zika virus).

Me and mine aren't under quarantine -- yet.  Right now, it's all about a trendy artistic neighborhood in Miami called Wynwood (and there's nothing more trendy than catching the latest bug) ... but the risk is expected to grow.

At the federal level, there are efforts underway to get some emergency funding (by raiding other budgets).  The most controversial plan, though, involves releasing genetically modified mosquitoes made by a corporation that breed in with the Zika-skeeters made by nature, and then that species dies off within one generation before maturing enough to breed (because that's how they were programmed in the lab).

Which kind of sounds like the beginning of the zombie apocalypse to me ... but then again, I watch a little too much Walking Dead.  That being said, if this area down here DOES become a militarized zone and you stop seeing posts from me, please know that I enjoyed all of our virtual time together.

Oh -- and stay safe out there!

GROUND ZERO FOR ZIKA:
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/intheus/florida-update.html

TRACK THE OUTBREAK:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article66790817.html

THE BEGINNING OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE OR SCIENCE, YO!:
http://www.humanosphere.org/science/2016/08/fda-approves-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-combat-zika-virus-florida/

L V C || C L Memory 55

In 55 days, I'll be back on campus at my alma-mater at an extra special homecoming as Lebanon Valley College continues celebrating its 150th birthday.  In honor of that countdown, here's memory #55:  representing LVC at a "semester abroad" reunion.

When this photo was taken in 1992, it had only been two years since the bunch of us (some from LVC, some from Allegheny, and some from Gettysburg) had all gathered for three months of study in Koln, Germany (West Germany when we arrived, but just plain Germany by the time we left) ... but almost half of our group of 16 or so wanted to get together again before some of us graduated ... and so we did.

I was the only one of the three LVCers who had gone overseas to make that reunion trip to Gettysburg (the host location, what with it being in the middle geographically), and I'm glad I did, seeing as how it was the last time so many of us were in one place at the same time.

Of course, I'm still holding out hope that we'll all be able to get together again some time in the future ... but maybe that will be the culmination of another countdown in some other year.