Distressing Days

James here.

I’m freshly back from another trip to Baltimore, having spent a few days getting things ready for Operation: Charm City, the premiere of I am the Machine Gunner.  Since I am currently in a show in New York my time in Baltimore is limited, making it all the more important that we have a clear game plan when we get together.

We spent two days going full throttle on the show and knocked out a variety of tasks: rehearsing new beats, purchasing new costume pieces, publicity runs, videoconferencing with Dutch, and an interview with the Baltimore City Paper, among other things.  I’m not sure when the City Paper interview will be published, but I’ll be sure to post a link in the blog when it comes out.



Another big task that we accomplished was testing the new tattoo ink that we’ll be using in the show.  We had to make sure that I wouldn’t have any adverse skin reactions to the ink, as well as making sure that it would be durable enough to last the whole show without running.  I’ve put up a video montage that shows the application and some of the tests we subjected the ink to.  As always, we had a good time working on it.

Photo: Rebecca uses a razor to distress the jea

Besides heading up the tattoo trials, Rebecca also spent a good chunk of time distressing the jeans that I wear in the show.  We felt like I looked too "clean" in the workshop performances, so she went to work with razor blades, dyes, and safety pins to rough me up a bit.  Thankfully, she let me take the jeans off before attacking them.

It was a fast and furious couple of days.  We pushed it every moment and in the end we accomplished even more than we set out to do.  If the rest of my trips to Baltimore can be this productive, we are going to be more than ready for Sept. 2.

Out