Again and Again

News, updates, announcements!

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who has come out to see Almost, Again, we’ve been having a wonderful run at the Factory Studio Theatre this week. Just a reminder that our closing performance is Sunday, July 10th at 9:00 PM (that’s tomorrow! So buy some tickets!).

And we also have some really excited news!

Almost, Again has been invited to perform three performances
at “The Best of the Fringe Uptown”. This mini festival presents a
selection of plays and musicals that performed at the Toronto
Fringe Festival for some encore performances. Almost, Again 
will be performing at the Studio Theatre in the Toronto Centre for
the Arts on July 16th at 9:00 PM, July 21st at 7:00 PM and July
24th at 7:00 PM. All tickets $15. If you didn’t have a chance to see
the show, or if you want to come out and see the show again,
please join us at “The Best of the Fringe Uptown”!
For more info, visit www.tocentre.com

A Day Away!!

So today is now Canada Day (Happy Bday Canada!)… and we just wanted to remind you all that Almost, Again opens at the Toronto Fringe Festival in one day!! It’s so close! Please visit the Toronto Fringe Website (www.fringetoronto.com) for more information! Buy your tickets, they are going fast!

We thought to whet your appetite (isn’t that the weirdest word ever?), we would share a secret photo taken in rehearsal.. I’m serious this is Roger Bainbridge and Haley McGee at their finest! Let’s not even talk about how great they are in the show…

So please come on out if you can. The show is going to be wonderful and hilarious. And keep checking back the blog will continued to be updated throughout the run of the show!

Mate/Date

God, you think human dating and relationships is messed up? I did some research on animals, and there are some crazy ass animals out there.

Here are some weird mating facts of animals:

• Honey Bee: the queen bee has sex with a male drone, during intercourse the male’s genitals explode and snap off inside of the queen creating a plug to prevent further mating… hmmm… so the man dies, but he knows his lady is gonna be faithful, I guess?
• Bonobo: Apparently this is some kind of monkey, like a chimpanzee, but their entire societal structure revolves around having sex… as a form of greeting, to solve disputes, to trade food… they masturbate together, make out, have oral sex… I wonder if they go on chat roulette?
• Flatworms: Okay, this is really weird… apparently they are hermaphrodites, and their penises are used for sex and to hunt (hmm cock as a weapon, anyone?). The Flatworms attempt to stab each other and the loser absorbs sperm through the stab wound.. woah..
• Red garter snakes: 1) the female is kinda a slut, she releases pheromones and causes hundreds of males to fight over her… 2) there are tranny garter snakes that release female horomones but disappoint the male snakes by actually being male also
• Giraffes: into watersports… the male drinks the females urine to see if she is good to mate with
• Clownfish: frequently undergo sex changes…
• Turtles: the male mounts the female… the process takes so long that females often get bored of the male and walk away and go about their daily lives (feeding, etc) with the male still mounted onto them. Just like a married couple.
• Macaque: another type of monkey… they pay (in fruit) to see females naked… monkey strippers? and pay even to watch celebrity monkeys in their tribe naked (Paris Hilton…)
• Sea hare: it’s a kind of slug that mates in an orgy… like actually, a bunch of them get in a line and have sex…
• Whiptail lizard: the entire species is female… (lesbians lizards, eh?) two females meet and one acts out the male and the other the female… they do a dance of sorts which stimulates egg production in the one playing the female role.. then the baby comes out as a clone? what?
• Anglerfish: the male is born without a digestive system and so literally becomes a part of the female fish and dissolves into her body!
• Argentine Lack Duck: the males penis is 17 inches long (which is longer than it’s body) which it uses to lasso females

Maybe animals aren’t so different than humans?

This bird moonwalks, not lying!

This bird does something REALLY odd at the end of this video to attract a mate… but at the beginning of the video, we see the male cleaning up his apartment so it’s clean for the lady… just like Roger in Almost, Again!

And just to be sweet, here are some animals that mate for life: Bald eagles, swans, turtle doves, wolves (whose packs are actually like a nuclear family!), albatross, gibbons (a kind of monkey) and vultures!

Come on it’s a classic, okay!?

You’re at a party, and people are all vying for the ipod that’s been laid out, attached to shitty box speakers. Songs are being switched midway through, people keep playing Bohemian Rhapsody and Stop! by The Spice Girls, cause they think it’s too hilarious for words. And then someone gets the genius idea to put the ipod on shuffle… Now the owner of said ipod goes through a terrifying moment every time a song ends, worried about what possible embarassing song could come next (or you could say a janky song comes on, just saying…) Or on a date, and you’re trying to set the mood and a song that just is way too outdated and cheesy comes on and destroys everything. Yeah that sucks. We’ve made a list of some of the most embarassing songs to destroy the mood/kill the vibe at a party or a date (we asked around, got some feedback, that sorta thing). See what you think. And this really does relate to Almost, Again, I swear one day you will understand (when you see the show…)

Just imagine the awful situations these songs would create:
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go! (Wham)… or you could just play the video projected on a wall, that could possibly kill even an 80s party…
Achy Breaky Heart (Billy Ray Cyrus)
Who Let the Dogs Out (Baha Men)
Backstreets Back (Backstreet Boys)
Mambo no.5 (Lou Bega)
Tomorrow (from the musical “Annie”)
Man, I Feel Like A Woman! (Shania Twain)

Some songs that are too epic and cheesy for words:
All By Myself (the Celine Dion version is more embarassing)
I Believe I Can Fly (R. Kelly)
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman? (Bryan Adams)
Wind Beneath My Wings (Bette Midler)
Truly Madly Deeply (Savage Garden)
Hopelessly Devoted To You (Olivia Newton-John)
Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing (Aerosmith)

That is so janky!

Today’s word of the day, which totally emerged organically from our rehearsal process today, is the word janky.

You might not be familiar with the word janky, but it has it’s uses are diverse and interesting. Janky may refer to anything that is just not quite up to par. Something that sucks, something that is poorly constructued, something that is stupid, annoying, not working, bad. In other words, it is an all purpose word for things that are just not great. (According to this website http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/janky/, the word janky has been around since 1993, shit I feel really not cool for just discovering it now!) Apparently, there is also a movie starring Ice Cube and Young Jeezy called Janky Promoters.

Examples:
My Dad drives the car of his youth from the 70s or something. It is one janky ride.
This motel room is totally janky right now. Just look at that bed!
This coffee tastes mighty janky, what did you put in it?
That creepy old man with the Justin Beiber tshirt just hit me, I am so janked out right now, man.
Lindsay Lohan is janky.
How dare you sleep on me with that hoe! You are the jankiest guyI have ever met!
Smoking has made my lungs all janky.
Dirty Dancing is NOT janky.

Also… some photo images that come up for janky:

 

Overall I’d say it’s a pretty groundbreaking word.

I feel the magic between you and I

So this video is relevant not because it’s awesome and because the 80s were a legitimate musical phenomenon, but because it is featured in Almost, Again in a most delightful way (I guess you’ll just have to wait and see what that means). So here goes, enjoy, have the time of your life (I know that was awful, yes).

We’re.. uhh.. dating?

So Almost, Again is about two people (Jack and Ginger), who are in an “almost couple” (more on this later) together, and search for the perfect moment. But what is dating, really? How do we define such a confusing and definition-less word? I mean, what’s the difference between dating and seeing someone? Or what’s with all the categories of dating now? We’ve compiled some research (from sources as diverse and scholarly as www.dictionary.com and www.urbandictionary.com) in order to discover what dating, and other similar relationship words really mean.

Dating
- to be in the early stages of a relationship where two people go on dates to find out what the other is like; a prelude to a fully fledged relationship
-the not-quite so version of chivalry and wooing; an interview for a lover; the lay down some time-and money and see if you get some candy routine; the progressed game of cat-and-mouse; the human courtship ritual; playing baseball for a home run
-a form of prostitution in which sex is paid for in installments rather than all at once

Relationship
-when two people get together and are usually in love and share everything they have, including power and ability to make decisions
-the most un-sturdy and uncertain vessel to navigate through any ocean of the heart. While the warm winds of prevailing love and romance blow favorably through its sails, this un-seaworthy vessel steers ahead with pride and promise. But upon hitting rough and stormy weather, too often the relationSHIP flounders and sinks.

Almost couple
-When two people do everything that a dating couple would do, except have sex. This includes: 1. Walking to class together 2. Talking late at night and early in the morning 3. Wanting to go to college near each other 4. Communicating without talking
- A trial relationship or couple

Seeing Someone
-all the fun off having a boyfriend/girlfriend, but no change to facebook relationship status; when two people aren’t dating but they are spoken for; another term for dating

Lovers
-a person who is in love with another; a person who has a sexual or romantic relationship with another; a person with whom one conducts an extramarital sexual affair
-two people who are truly and deeply in love and can’t stand being apart for so long

Soulmate
-Your other half. Your best friend. You go together like milk and cereal, capegirl and capeboy, kaila and max.The person that when you find them makes you feel whole and complete
-Someone who will always see the sun shine out of your ass

Partners
-two people who are in a long term, serious relationship; a politically correct way to refer to your significant other; a level of dating that signifies something serious (like marriage, without the wedding)
-Someone who shares many of the same characteristics with a ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ (ie. functioning genitalia, heartbeats, feelings, etc), but is not. Often ‘Partners’ live in “spaces”, not apartments, homes, houses, pads or places, ‘partners’ sleep on futons or dirty mattresses on the floor, as opposed to beds, and ’partners’ generally subsist on ‘ethical’ or sustainable diets of organic vegetables, free-range meat and fair-trade coffee

Friends with Benefits
-typically two good friends who have casual sex without a monogamous relationship or any kind of commitment

Hookup
- To have any form of intimacy with a member of the prefered sex that you don’t consider a significant other; a one night stand

Open Relationship
-when two people in a relationship have decided to not be monogamous, and have agreed to see other people on the side, while still maintaining their commitment to each other

Umfriend 
-A person you have sexual relations with but have not yet defined the boundaries of the relationship. “This is my… um… friend”

If you know any other slang ways of saying dating, or being together, or whatever, please comment and share it with us! Or better yet what do you call your significant other? (For the record, I don’t think pet names are what we’re looking for, okay?)