You're correct on this. Season 4 had a 1 hr finale.
Seasons 2 and 3 had the double ones. Again, there's no telling for sure about this year but I would assume that the Pizza Boys would know.

I'm bummed. With TAR on Tuesdays and ending in September, I'll be teaching till 6:30 that evening, and there's no way I can attend any kind of group finale viewing unless it's right here in Delaware. Argh. Can't be helped.

That's a shame, Rinaldo! But aren't Pat & Brenda from TAR1 from your area? Maybe you could watch with them!

Bummer, Rinaldo! There's no way you can give your students a project of some sort and cancel that day's class so they've got more time to work on it?

Anyway.

Reaching way way back to earlier days here (well, ok, maybe a month ago,) if anyone wants black raspberries, now is the time to be on the lookout for them. My thickets here in Wisconsin are bearing like mad, and have been for about a week. I figure there's maybe two more weeks before they're pretty much done. Even though they're everbearing, and should fruit all through the summer, they taper off quickly in amount. Yesterday I got almost a cup and a half in one picking session, just working the outer branches; today I got almost that much again. By the end of July, I might get a quarter of a cup in a week.

Daria, did you ever try the wild strawberries in your yard? or did the critters get them all?

I'm hoping for some sort of nice prezzie in a few days for my birthday. I've been on strike at my local tiny town's grocery store for 150 days now and have noooooo money for anything. At this point a stalk of celery would be a nice present.

A winning lottery ticket would be nice. Enough money to pay off my debt so I can start saving for Tarcon5 would be nice too. A job would work.

I just saw the words birthday and Tarcon and had to ramble. Ramble done...

That sucks, Rinaldo. I totally would have cancelled class (or whatever) if there was a conflict. Oh well. It's conflicts like this that leave me in that one person group of folks that actually want TAR6's finale to fall between May and August of 2005 (unless there's a TAR7 finale to fall in that category).

Not quite the same thing, but last night I discovered the joys of Stoli Razberi. Yum. OK, so my brain's still a little foggy as a result, but...

Rinaldo, I'm assuming a sub wouldn't be an option either? Barring that, are you sure you're not comfortable with just conveniently developing a "cold"? (Conscience? What's that?)


That would be one long race! It would either have to be made up of Passions characters, who would still be standing at the starting line in Episode 23 yakking to themselves about starting, or else they'd have to get Julie Chen to pop up after every commercial break to stop the show dead in its tracks with, "Welcome back! John, the whatsit from Anytown, and his racing partner Mary, the whatchamacallit from Nowheresville, have chosen the "Reckless" option in the Detour. How will this affect Jim, the thingamabob from Someplace..."

They are, and that would indeed be delightful, for sure. But lovely people though they both are, they have, you know, lives and priorities of their own and we're not in touch or anything. Now if Brenda's daughter (who was studying voice with one of my undergrads) has now graduated from high school, decided to come to UD, and turns up in one of my freshman ear training classes (3 huge IFs)... well, that might give me a whole new entrée. But practically speaking, not gonna happen.Thanks for the supportive ideas, all. I can't see it as an option, though. This is History of American Musical Theater, a twice-a-week 90-minute lecture-with-AV-examples course. Cancelling even one puts us pretty far behind (I know, as it happened twice out of the last 3 times I taught it, due to events beyond my control). A sub would be lovely, but I'm really the only one here who knows this stuff; if I cancel the 28th, they'll never know about Gershwin and Kern.

Of course, I may find my priorities shifting as it all gets closer....

?

Wazzat? How do you train ears? No, seriously, how do you go about developing somebody's ear? I'm guessing it refers to being able to identify various keys and time signatures and such?

Damn, that sounds like a class I'd love to take! But I can see how it would be a difficult one to bail on. Is it heavy on discussion, or more, lecture with video? If it's the latter, could you tape the whole thing and just have a sub run it?

Ack. I'm not being particularly articulate today--I mean, I know you said it's lecture, but do discussions crop up a lot? I know that some of my lecture classes were strictly the instructor talking for the whole class period, but others would often turn into discussions, usually stemming from a question someone would raise in class.

Rinaldo - Do you have the same 'tryouts' for the class that Tom Lehrer had for the class at UCSC? Just curious, I knew someone who took the class at Santa Cruz and he had to sing/audition for the class. It was a class in History of the American Musical, but the students also had to put on a production at the end.

Here is an explanation of ear training. It cultivates your ability to capture and/or recreate a piece of music that you hear or read. I actually found it one of the more fun parts of music learning - it was sort of like trying to solve a puzzle, or trying to learn a language.

It's more a matter of learning to recognize relationships among notes: for instance, that "Twinkle Twinkle" is the same pair of notes as "Star Wars," and the distance is called a Perfect Fifth. And that's day-one stuff. They have to be able to write down a melody or rhythm of series of chords that I play, or perform a melody or rhythm if they see it written down. It's all about the relationship between notation (or terminology) and sound, in both directions. It's a four-semester sequence, and it's really a lifelong process of developing one's expertise in this area, which all musicians need to do. Discussions are always welcomed as they turn up; it varies from class to class, depending on the mix of actors / musicians / just curious I have in the class and what interests them. But I need to be there.No, it's not a performance class. It's a music history class, and also what we call a "second writing" class (after they've had their basic How To Write class) -- substantial papers that they can revise. That comes later in the semester of course.

God Is In The Tub shirts are back!!

I missed them the first time around, so YEAH!

Now I'll be obsessively counting down to the delivery date. :)

Got mine coming, too! Yeeeehah!

Hildy, you could also arrange to meet me for lunch. We could discuss freelancing and expanding into new areas, and each exchange one contact name. Then you could truthfully tell your DH that you were going to NYC for a business meeting.

There was a David Lynch moment on my trip home. I went with my parents to a senior citizens picnic (I was the 3rd youngest out of 22 people, and I'm pushing 50). Afterwards, an 85-year-old man put on some country western music and sang karaoke to it. Very odd. Otherwise, it was an uneventful visit.

Did something happen to the "You know you're watching too much TAR when..." thread? Can't find it.

At any rate, you know you're watching too much TAR when your friend is showing you pictures of his trip from Peru, and as you're looking at the wonders of Machu Piccu all you can think is... Hmm... It's not that far from Uruguay, is it? Awesome Roadblock/Detour potential.

It had been dormant since February. It's active again now.

Aw, Rinaldo - the Amazing Train won't be as amazing without you. Could your class take a field trip to NY that day -- to see the Gershwin Theatre? Yeah, its stretching. Or you could track down Michael Feinstein to sub and teach that class.

You're on, DariaG! We should do that regardless of whether or not we actually talk business. I'm feeling quite optimistic that I'll be able to pull this together. All excited. Haven't been to NYC since I stopped having a company to pay for expenses.....

M. Darcy, I keep meaning to say that your note
from the Jeopardy thread was utterly wonderful. Hee.

I knew M. Darcy smoked Ken Jennings - those evil editors.

All is good in the world today - a 25 page Miss Alli TAR recap and a God is in the Tub T-shirt on order.

Plus, from the new Tarflies store, a giant coffee mug for work with the "Philimination: You know you want it" logo on it!

Hee. Poor Phil. His eyebrows are going to be on Tshirts and coffee mugs around the world. Little did he realize what he was getting into when he popped his first Eyebrow.
And that said: A Philimination lunch box? I must have one now. Then I can get anybody who happens to want to sign it at TARCon to Sharpie Up.

I didn't even know TARflies had a store. Damn!

My response exactly PButtercup!

It's spanking brand new, that's why!

Nothing to see here, in light of Miss Alli's admonition.

You can buy whatever you'd like, but heavy pimping of other sites is still not really our goal, so now that you're all aware, you probably ought to move it on over there to talk about it. Thanks.

So my office is in my house, on the second floor. My desk is right in front of a window, the better to stare out and procrastinate. We are having our exterior trim painted, and it is more than a little weird to look over my laptop and see a face not three feet away, painting away. (Oh, and singing with a very attractive Irish lilt. Such a sucker for the Celtic accent.)
It's also freaking out my desk cat, who views it as a big time invasion of Her Space. And now they know that I work in squalor.

I don't think I've actually introduced myself...

I'm LRocksCan and I'm in Southwestern Ontario. I'm joining TAR this year for the first time so I'm somewhat of a virgin but am very excited that I get to be MissAlli's bitch on another reality show. But the best part is that her recaps are much better than the 'twists' these producers like to add to their shows. Besides, it's like crack and I need my fix!

Keep me posted on the TARCon. Flights to NYC are really freaking cheap from my city this month so I'm hoping they last!

Nice! However, I didn't know you were allowed to purchase tickets at a lower cost for an event two months later. If that's the case, I might have to start looking hard. Pittsburgh would never cut me a break with something like that (and they should since I don't like flying). The sooner they announce the TARcon, the better (please be on Saturday, not Tuesday, but Saturday to prepare the world for Saturday TAR!)

Hey, everybody! I'm back! It was really trying on Mr.Kate on July 6, though... I kept mentioning TAR (and as we were in Venice that day, I had no shortage of things to say!) and how I was missing the premiere, and how I hoped the power didn't go out and it wouldn't tape.

As it happened, the power did go out at some point, but the reason I didn't get TAR taped was my own boneheadedness - TAR at my old place was channel 10, which is ABC at our new house. D'oh! Luckily (a) sis-in-law taped, just in case I missed (I think I like having a sister!) and (b) replay on Saturday. Yay for things that help out those of us who really need it.

from roughly 18 million pages ago...I have a few up here. I just got all of my pics back from the photographer a few weeks before I left. Ye gods there are a lot of them! I managed to find the only wedding photographer in the world who just charges for shooting, too... the price included 3 hours of shooting (which was over 500!), a set of 5x7 prints (of all of them), an album (very nice; handmade papers and all), and all of the negatives. The only thing that could make it kick more ass is if we had gotten cds of them as digital photos, too. But I am not complaining!!

Lovely wedding pictures! You were a beautiful bride! And congrats on great dealings with a wedding photographer. The only other success story I've heard there lately was my boss, whose BIL was the photographer for her daughter's wedding recently. Every single picture turned out great, and she had a complete CD of them within two weeks of the wedding!

Loved the pictures, karatekate! MamaTiger is right, you are a beautiful bride. I am so happy for you and Mr. karatekate too. Best of luck to you guys in the future. Also so glad you sis taped the episode for you because it was a good one, just in case you have not seen it yet.

Karatekate you looked lovely! A beautiful dress and a beautiful bride & a beautiful day!

Great photos of kate and mr.kate. And a fabulous deal for them too.

I'm totally exhausted today. I went disco dancing yesterday evening and even though I didn't drink alcohol and I was in bed by 11PM, I am wiped out.

I just can't do the same things as a 34 year old that I could as a 24 year old.

Wonderful pictures karatekate. The Sureshot fiance and I are tying the knot on Sept. 4th, so I can relate to the struggle to find a photographer that doesn't cost an arm and a Jim's-bloody-leg. Hopefully our pics will turn out as well as yours!

Ooh, that cake looks yummy!

Lovely pictures karatekate - hope you had a fantastic time in Italy.

Where are my manners?!

Congratulations, karatekate! Your photos look wonderful, and you look very lovely!

Also, a (belated) congrats to Sureshot as well!

Those are lovely pictures, karatekate. What a beautiful day you had! And congrats to sureshot, too--I don't suppose you have things like online pictures of your dress, asked the woman who looooooves other poeples' weddings?

Congrats, sureshot and karatekate. Those are some gorgeous pictures.

Also, karatekate, you might want to check out the Amazing Play-Along Game thread if you haven't recently. There was a mixup in your prediction when you said Dennis and Marsha would be last to arrive. Since Dennis is gone already, I'm sure Giants would realize you meant Jim and Marsha, but I thought you might like to know.

Congrats karatekate! The pictures are indeed lovely!! I'm like Hildy and love to see pics of other women's weddings, gowns, etc. Of course, I fully intend to elope to Hawaii when the time comes for me and the bf to tie the knot. Heh!

Remember when I was bitching about hating humidity? Yeah, well it isn't humid here but the temp at 6 freaking pm was 97 degrees. Ugh! I HATE hot weather. I'm a delicate flower and I positively wilt in this heat or you know...I'm just high maintenance and get bitchy/crabby when the weather is hot, your call. Heh! I hope this freaking heat goes away soon.

I can't believe I woke up this morning and forgot what day it was. Then I heard the news about some stupid baseball game or other and remembered that I've got a date with my couch, my TiVo, and the happy fun replay button.

boooo I have to go to a stupid meeting tonite! darn it....why do I HAVE to be on the board?

Congrats to our recent brides!!! The pics were beautiful, Kate!

Congratulations, sureshot and karatekate. Loved the photos!

It's been incredibly hot and humid here in Pennsylvania for several days, too, Suzikins. Well, at least until yesterday. The heat and humidity broke when we got torrential rains and thunderstorms which lasted all day with no letup. Now, much of Delaware, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania are severely flooded. (Fortunately, my area missed the worst of the flooding.) So while it was nice that the heat went away, there is such a thing as overkill.

Happy TARsday everyone! I'm off to work, but I'll be home to see the show tonight. Yay!

Isn't it great that we can say TARsday again? The little things are what's life is all about. Not that I mean to imply that TAR is in any way dwarvish...

Actually, Hildy, these days TAR is extremely dwarfish. In every sense of the word. Hee!

(I prefer the Tolkien use of "f" rather than the more traditional "v" in dwarfish for no known reason except that apparently he drove his proofreaders made with the "f", which somehow struck a chord with me.)

And a happy TARsday to everyone, too! Ah, that's so nice to be able to say again!

Beautiful pictures, karatekate. Congratulations! Also congratulations to sureshot!

Suzikins, it's not quite that hot here, but it seems to be back to normal temperatures now. The high today is supposed to be 96, which means a heat index of around 105 probably. The high on Wednesday and Thursday is supposed to be 98. We'd all gotten used to temperatures that were 5-10 degrees below normal, so this seems really hot.

On the plus side, my air conditioner finally decided to work. The guy finally came to look at it last week (after only 1-1/2 months complaining to the landlord) and fixed it. It was cool for a night, then appeared to stop working. I talked to the landlord again yesterday and he said he'd call the guy. He took my numbers, but I never heard from the AC guy. Last night, I tried the air conditioner again though, and it actually worked. I think it took 5 hours to get the temp below 80, but it's now cycling on and off. We'll see how long it lasts (usually a week or two).

ETA: On a much more exciting side, in just a little bit, I'm going to travel to where the highs are in the 60s and the lows are in the 50s.