This is the first entry to the Production Notebook, so called with the utmost respect to Mark Bly.  Bly is one of a handful of people who have transformed Western dramaturgy in the last 50 years, and I can’t help but to think had I had the opportunity to study with him sooner, I wouldn’t be quite so disillusioned with the theatre and the graduate school experience.  The Production Notebooks (Volumes 1 and 2) are essential reading not only for dramaturgs, but anyone making a career in theatre.

My Production Notebook, on the other hand, is essentially a record of the futility of trying to make progress on Hijacking Your Fiction during my month-long vacation.

This first entry is late, and the evidence of said futility is already piling up.  I was quite fortunate to have been given a computer (thanks, Kittenita), a massive upgrade to the laptop I had been working on for the previous five years, which is now my Internet computer.  In the land of cheap computer parts, I was able to do a couple upgrades (4 gigs of RAM, a new Samsung DVD/CD drive and Firewire ports, installed, for about $100.  I spent the next three days setting the computer up to my liking, installing software, organizing, and transferring data from my laptop and various hard drives. 

Three days.

Then everything shut down.  And it wouldn’t start up again.

After a loud and curse-filled rampage which certainly disturbed my roommates, I settled down enough to come to the conclusion that, based on the computer’s behavior, the most likely culprit was the power supply.  The next day I took the computer in, again, and found that it was indeed the power supply.  My bank account a bit lighter, everything seems to be working again.  I also found it to be a good excuse to buy another external backup drive, to be used exclusively with the new computer.

I spent a good part of Tuesday finishing my setup, and now that everything is ready to go, the last thing I want to do is look at another computer screen.  One might ask why I’m writing this now.  Well, if I don’t do it now, it may not get done.  And rest assured, when I am finished I will be getting out of my flat for a while, probably to Sukkara, a cafe that makes the best organic soy chai I’ve ever had, and my favorite place to go in Seoul when I’m stressed.  My time will not be entirely wasted, as I tend to get a decent amount of lyric writing done there.

In other news, my Korg Prophecy finally arrived from the US last Friday.  As stated in the previous post, I had it shipped via FedEx for fast and safe delivery, only to have it caught up in customs for a week.  I also made a final decision on studio monitors, and decided on the KRK RP-6 due to budget, size constraints, and the fact that they are the same monitors I was using in the US (John, I hope you’re enjoying them) so they will take the least amount of getting used to.  But I’m not done spending money yet:  Due to the size of my desk (and the size of my room) I will require speaker stands for proper monitor placement, and I need a mic stand as well.  The speaker stands can wait, but the mic stand will be necessary soon if all goes to plan.