Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Theater Poseurs Anonymous

There are certain things I'll do for money, and pretending to be an avid fan of Broadway theater is one of them. Sure, I like theater--Shakespeare? I'm there. Anything with Patrick Stewart? Make it so. Musicals? Once a year and only when someone is visiting from out of town (and tickets are less than $50.)

Tonight I took part in a focus group on Broadway theater. I figured I could shoot the shit about theater for an hour and earn myself a cool fifty bucks cash. I've been to focus groups before and they usually irritate me. It's always a weird group of people I normally wouldn't be friends with, but could totally be part of an ensemble cast for a very bad horror movie where we each get killed off in a Midtown office building by a disgruntled temp. Regardless, I was totally out of my league--these women were hardcore theater people (note: I wouldn't have been surprised, but would have had a meltdown, if anyone started singing showtunes.) It seemed like these people spent all of their time and money on going to see shows. This was a subculture I knew nothing about. We fear what we don't understand.

Having said that, I've been trying to decide if I relate more to weird worm composting workshop attendees who can't listen or weird theater fanatics who talk incessantly about shows. It's kind of a toss-up, but I'm going to have to go with the worm people.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Worm Update: Making Black Gold














It's been about a month since I started my worm composting bin. So far, so good! There were a few fatalities during the initial days while everyone was settling in (evident by the 3 dried up worm carcasses I found), and I am not entirely sure how they escaped. But other than that, the worms seem happy. I feed them weekly and I try to give them a variety of food. I suspect they would be perfectly fine with salad greens every time, but I try to mix it up. It's the least I can do after harassing them on a daily basis--I like to check in on them and make sure they didn't all die on me. It's very therapeutic. Kind of like how you would pet your dog or bunny to decompress after a long day, except I poke around at my bin of worms. They are more like pets than little compost-making servants.

Most importantly, they are making compost (a/k/a Black Gold)!!! I am very excited. I think my plants are going to be so happy when I can finally use it. And I have a growing list of people who want some of the goods.












compost!