Base Line of CARAAM!

So if you look in the dictionary, you'll find multiple definitions for the phrase Base Line or Baseline. 

base line or base·line (bsln) n.
1. a. A line serving as a basis, as for measurement, calculation, or location.
    b. A measurement, calculation, or location used as a basis for comparison.
2. Baseball The base path.
3. Sports
    a. The boundary line at either end of a court, as in basketball or tennis.
    b. The area near this boundary line: made a basket from the base line.

    c. A style of play in tennis in which the player remains near the base line and rarely approaches the net.

Now most of these seem to serve only as sports descriptors and forget all about other elements of "base", for instance there is the musical sense found in the following song;



Nor is this to be confused with Rock n' Roll's Greatest Bass Lines;



or the incomparable stylings of the Master of Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins;



Ahh, that never gets old, although I'm not sure what the guy in the diaper in the background is doing!

And the term "baseline" should never, EVER be confused with a line of Bass;

(I think the lateral lines give him more lateral stiffness - cycling fans, you understand)

or a line of Sea Bass Sushi;

(yummmmmmmm!!!!!)

So, as with just about most words and idioms in the English language, "baseline" or "bass line" can have multiple meanings.  Well, in this entry I want to talk about definition 1 a. - a line serving as a basis, as for measurement, calculation, or location.  For you see, dear readers, today I began establishing my "baseline" for training for CARAAM.

Now for those of you new to the Connor's Army blog, CARAAM stands for Connor's Army Ride Across America - my fundraising event for the campers of Sunrise Day Camp.  In EXACTLY 148 DAYS I will be dipping my rear wheel in the Pacific Ocean and heading towards Wheatley Heights, NY!  Ideally, we'll do it from the parking lot of Sea World in San Diego early on the morning of June 24th and the pedaling will begin!  Hopefully we'll get the chance to visit it the day before - the only downside is I hope the site of all those adorable piscean critters won't turn my little vegetarian away from sushi - lord knows we love the fishy!

(My wheel will touch off  just to the right of that long building!)

Now I am going to admit, ALL of the planning is not done and we have not booked our rooms yet.  Part of that is going to be determined by how many more sponsors we can get between now and May.  I'm going to try to book the least expensive accomodations I can and eat as sparingly as I can but even so we estimate we're still about $2,500 short of what we estimate we'll need to underwrite the costs of gas, lodging, and vehicle maintenance for the trip.

Yet, even so I went out today to establish where I am fitness-wise.  Right now we have planned that I will cycle anywhere on average between 70 and 100 miles a day.  Some days more, some days less depending on the terrain and weather conditions.  The first day I may only do about 60 miles or so just to get us out of the San Diego metropolitan area.  I'll start hitting the miles pretty hard the next few days and try to reach Phoenix in four days - roughly by June 27th.

In order to do that I have to know what my baseline is, or my beginning level of fitness.  Soooooo, today I went out for an hour and a half just to see how much distance I could cover without really pushing myself.  I chose some fairly step hills and rollers and just tried to maintain an steady pace.  And the verdict is??????  I covered 26 miles in 90 minutes.  That averages out to 104 miles in 6 hours of nonstop riding. 

Now I have no illusions about being able to continue that pace the first couple of days.  I really imagine that I'll most likely average about 15 mph which will allow me to cover 90 miles nonstop but I will most likely take a break after every hour and a half or so in the first few days which means I'll probably cover about 70 miles depending on the terrain.  As it gets flatter and my fitness level increases I may be able to average a bit more.

Now I know its not going to be easy.  But I also know that I'm just now starting my training in ernest as the weather starts to improve I'll put in more and more mileage.  Right now I have 326 commuting miles logged into my Garmin GPS which is the most I've ever logged in January - thanks to the warm weather.   I'm excited to get into shape and to really start mashing the pedals.

Financially we're just really getting started.  After the severe setback that was dealt to us a month ago, things seem to be looking up!  Officially we have collected $1500 which is 3% of our total goal!  There are many more fundraisers planned and lots of groups have come forward saying they are going to help us!  Emily Feinstein is organizing a group of Alumni to put together a musical cabaret fundraiser (if you are an SHS alumni who sings please contact her) as a Connor's Army Team Sunrise event and my daughter has an event planned for June that looks like it will be huge!!!!!

So we are well on our way but its only the beginning.  We have 1325 likes on Facebook at the moment.  We are hoping to eventually get up to 3600!!!!  One for each mile (roughly) of the journey!  If you are wondering how you can support us, invite everyone you know and post to every facebook group you belong to and ask them to go to https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Connors-Army/143446649035655 and add us to their likes.

Help us spread the word to the media!  I just had my first interview with Long Island Press today and we're hoping our first featured article will come out soon!  The more we get out into the media, the more likely we are to reach an even bigger audience to help us make a difference for these kids!  And if you're reading this for the first time, thank you.  Keep checking back as now that we're getting closer to the date, I'll be updating more often.  And, if you should feel the spirit call you to help out, go to http://www.connorsarmy.org/ and see how you can help today!

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!

State of the (Connor's) Army - The Impossible (?) Dream!

In honor of President Obama's recent State of the Union address (here it is below in case you didn't catch it);



I have decided to do my own State of the (Connor's) Army.  Its not so much of an address as an update.  Of course in thinking about this post, I wondered who even started the whole concept of a "State of the Union Address".  Well as with most things that made sense, it started with our founding fathers and with our very first President, George Washington.  He gave us the very first State of the Union address and if you want to read the full text you can find it here.

I have a feeling that it was much shorter than one hour and five minutes and he probably was not interrupted by angry shouts of "liar" from members of Congress as our current President has been.  I am going to go on a bit of an off topic rant here and it's really not about politics per se.  I have my political beliefs and you, dear reader have yours.   I have endeavored to come by mine through reading and listening to what politicians have to say as I'm sure you have.  However, it does seem that a vast majority of Americans (politicians included) don't think for themselves and are merely following the party dogma.  Mark Twain had this to say about politics;

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

And I do believe that is often the case and that people demonize a President simply becuase he is from the other party.  And why?  Because the leaders of their party told them to, not because the really know (or maybe even deep down) disagree with the man.  It is the most thankless job in the world and as our 33rd President once said;

"All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking peopel to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway."

While our 36th President had this to say;

"Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm.  There is nothign to do but stand there and take it."

I think it is unfortunate that people from the Republican/Tea Parties seem to think that is what is expected of President Obama - just stand there and take it, we're going to kick you out anyway.  Despite your feelings about Republican or Democratic parties, the man deserve respect for trying to do the most difficult and thankless job in the world - I don't even think Mike Rowe would seriously want this job, despite his Poo Party Platform;



I know I certainly wouldn't want the job - being a teacher is hard enough.

Perhaps we should just all vote for this guy;



At least he wouldn't be afraid to tell Congress to shut up and get to work!

But I do enjoy my job and I have the pleasure of being surrounded by students who (for the most part) are passionate about dancing and acting and who want to be better.  The occasional speed bumps aside, I do get to spend my days, during and after school, with the best kids at Syosset High School.  They are witty, creative, passionate, caring, energetic and I learn from them every day.  The occasional drama from casting aside, mine is certainly not a Dirty Job!

The other "jobs" I truly enjoy are those of; husband (especially being married to my best friend), father, friend, son, brother, occasional little league coach, and chief cycist of Connor's Army.  As chief cyclist, I am required by our constitution to give a yearly State of the (Connor's) Army message to let you all know how things have gone in the past year;

This year has been one of unprecedented growth for Connor's Army.  Although we had received familial support in our earlier campaigns, 2011 saw us reaching far and wide via social networks to spread the word about our mission.  Of course, much of the time our statement of what we were intending to do in the summer of 2012 met with expressions of disbelief;

(You're doing WHAAAAATTTTT??????)



This was especially true of the campers and counselors I worked with at Sunrise Day Camp.  At least twice a week (if not more often) I would ride my bike to camp and many of them would ask me why I was doing this.  Once I started telling them they were somewhat incredulous and grateful that I would want to do such a thing.  But as I started talking more and more about this being a reality, people have been so supportive.  But there is so much more to do - more about that later.  But for now, the state of our own union;

2011 started out rather inauspiciously for Connor's Army as we really didn't have much of a presence.  We had received some wonderful sponsorship in November from the incredible folks at Smiles for Scott and they have since become our major sponsor.  Their donation really made us realize that we could actually do this.  Although we had originally hoped to do the cross country in the summer of 2011, we realized that we just didn't have enough in sponsorship to cover the costs of gas and accomodations for me and a driver.  At this point we weren't sure if I would be doing it alone or with a friend.  We realized this would be too much of an undertaking for me to do solo in the time available so a driver would be needed.  Unfortunately, I don't have any friends who could give up their entire summer to drive cross country with me (where is Benji Taylor when I need her?  Riding across the south in a Volkswagen Rabbit convertible to go to ballet company auditions becuase there was a Greyhound Bus strike that spring!) so we came to the conclusion in January that it would have to be my family going along as my support team.

Now this of course raises all kinds of questions since many people would be assuming that sponsorship would mean paying for my family.  I have had to reiterated (and I do it here again) that the cost of my family to go along would be born by us.  The only thing that sponsor dollars will pay for is costs of the transportation (gas, tolls, oil change, maintenance) and accomodations for me and a driver (anything over that would be born by us) and parts that I'll need to purchase for the trip (brake pads, cables, extra chain, extra spokes, tires, tubes, etc.). 

So in January/February we received some more sponsor dollars from Alan Rosenberg at Coinland.com and some smaller sponsor donations from Spectacular Smiles.  Things began to look up and it appeared that we would be able to meet our sponsorship goal of $15,000 by June 2012!  But now the sponsorship has somewhat dried up.  I began a program of reconditioning bicycles and selling them by posting them on Craigslist and placing them in front of my home for passersby to see.  We've raised almost $1,000 through that project so we are moving forward but the State of Connor's Army is still seeming short by $2,000 of our sponsorship goals.  We have also gotten lots of support from various alumni who have done fundraisers on their own campuses.  This past fall Jaime Blanch, who is attending The University of New Orleans co-founded a group called "UNO Fights Cancer" and they raised $100 for Connor's Army to help us.  In the spring we also had Sooner Printing and Merelis Productions join us as sponsors.  Peter Haughwout and Damon Tommolino (colleagues of mine at SHS) put on a show April 9, with their group Art Studio 85 at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum and in so doing became another of our sponsors.  It was an incredible evening of art and music with part of the proceeds going to help us in our mission.  

But the State of things now is that we still need to find a few more sponsors - we're almost there but we're still working on it.  On the positive side, Amy and I are pretty good at being frugal (she has what she calls her Five Year Plans - I sometimes jokingly refer to our home as the Gulag) so chances are we will be able to take a good chunk of sponsorship monies that have been unused and give them to Sunrise.  So in the end the kids will benefit.

The other part of the State of Connor's Army has been the support.  Here we have grown amazingly, mostly due to ACT students past and present.  I cannot tell you how much they have given of their support on the social networks and helping us get the word out.  To give you an idea of our growth, on January 2, 2011 we had 250 likes on our facebook page (if you're reading this and you've not "liked" our page, do me a favor and like it now!) and now we have 1,336!!!!!  Much of that happened this past fall.  At the beginning of September we had 850 likes so we have gained 486 likes in the last five months alone!!!!  So now, to dream the impossible dream - WE NOW HAVE A GOAL OF 3600 LIKES on our Facebook page! Every good State of the Union address needs to list some goals and this is one of ours! The idea is to have one "like" for each of the miles I am going to ride this summer! If I can get my self together, I'd like to be able to list on my blog every day the people that I "rode for" that day.  If I can figure it out, I'll just go to my list of people that like my page and I'll start listing people on my blog at the end of each day and say who I've ridden for.  That's the plan, not sure if its feasible or if I'll just choose a group of "likers" at random.  Either way, I hope you continue to follow this blog becuase once June 24th rolls around, I'll be posting EVERY day on my way back to Wheatley Heights and Sunrise Day Camp.  If you have a specific area of the country you want to be "virtually riding" with me, let me know and I'll try to accomodate you!  Just so you know, here is a ROUGH approximation of the route;

(C'mon pick a mile, any mile!)

So what you would do is say post to me - "Can you ride a mile from Four Corners to Pueblo, CO for me??" and I will do my best to do so!  I'm hoping to have a small video camera that I can film portions of the ride from the saddle so I can possible post YOUR mile on this blog as part of your virtual ride!  But you have to be a "liker" to know what's going on and follow this blog to see your name in cyberprint!

And speaking of this blog, that is another incredible thing that has happened this year!  As of the end of 2010 this page only had 6,752 total views since I began blogging in June 2009.  Since that day, we have shot up to over 12,786 views!!!!  In the last year alone we have doubled our viewership!!!!!!!  That means people are reading our message (or at least clicking on our videos) but I hope this means the word is getting out!!!!  Again, if you are reading this, even if it just means you're looking for pictures and videos of Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mike Rowe, or King Julian please take a moment and add our facebook page to your likes.  Because of your curiosity, you could see your name listed in this blog as one of the people I ride for this summer.

So those are some of the wonderful things that have happened this year and that is the State of the (Connor's) Army!  We've had our ups and our downs.  We've had incredible examples of support and belief in what we're trying to accomplish for the kids of Sunrise and we've had defeats that have left us spiritually battered and bruised to the core of our beings.  Yet we have some great fundraising opportunities coming up which makes us (okay me) very optimistic about the possibility of climbing out of this dark morass and being able to accomplish our mission of sending eight kids to Sunrise Day Camp.  I'll be writing about those soon but so many of my friends and former students are coming together to help us reach our goal that we know it can happen.

What can YOU do?  Its simple - SPREAD THE WORD!!!!  
1) Invite EVERY person you know to like us on facebook!  They can get their name in this blog!
2) Spread the word about our Ride Across America (also affectionately known as CARAAM - Connor's Army Ride Across America) to your friends and family (you can say things like, "I know this crazy %$#%@# who is going to ride a bicycle from San Diego to Long Island to help a bunch of kids" and then answer their questions). 
3)  If you know someone who might be able to help us with a sponsorship (either financial or in-kind donations) PLEASE get us in contact with them!  Whatever we don't use or spend will be given to the kids of Sunrise.  If its supplies, we'll sell what we don't use and give the money to Sunrise!

Let us be able to pull together to say YES, WE CAN!  Together we can Dream the Impossible dream and together we can make a difference!

And now your dessert for staying with me this far.  The incomparable Brian Stokes Mitchell singing "The Impossible Dream" (and by the way, if any of you know him, please invite him to like our page too! - Stephen Mosher, hint, hint!);


Stay well my friends and I'll See You on the Road!

There's a Light!

Okay, so back in my youth I was an avid Rocky Horror Picture Show fan.  My friends Mary, James and I would dress up and make the rounds of the midnight showings with prerequisite shopping bags full of props.  Later when I moved into NYC I even made a point of attending the 8th Street Playhouse showings as often as I could, dressing up in character more often than not (I could tell you who I would dress as but then I would have to terminate you).  Anyway, one of my favorite songs from the show (mainly because we all sang it at the top of our lungs) was "Over at the Frankenstein Place" and here is an acoustic version performed by Richard O'Brien (the original Riff Raff for those of you who don't know, as well as the creator of the show);



I always liked the idea that there was a guiding light to help you find your way through the velvet darkness.  And if you want to find the chords to this, look no further than here (heads up, I'm planning on learning this puppy so be ready for it!)

And that's the optimistic place I think I'm starting to find myself in right now.  You see, we got some really good news yesterday - we just received a donation of $1,000 to our Connor's Army Ride Across America (otherwise known as CARAAM) and that, plus what we've already managed to raise puts us at almost 4% of our goal.  Yes, that means we've raised roughly $2,000 which isn't much - YET - but we know we have to prime the pump somehow.  What's that?  You don't know what it meanst to "prime the pump"?  You've surely heard the expression?  Well technically it looks something like this;



The idea being that you have to put in water to get water out (read here to read the descriptive process) and although it may start as a slow trickle, if you keep pumping you eventually get a steady stream. 

Well, we're hoping that what is now a trickle will turn into a stream.  It may never become a torrential downpour but a little bit at a time can add up over time and make a huge difference.  Sort of like this;



And I suppose that's what we're hoping.  Despite the fact that the faucet has been turned waaaaayyyyyyyy down, we're hoping that perhaps a steady little drip continues to fall and between now and the end of August when I finally return from the 3600 mile trip enough drops will have come down to fill up the entire glass.  At this point its our main hope.

But we have to look on the bright side and keep the eternal optimism - sort of like Monty Python's Brian (DISCLAIMER - THIS IS NOT A REFLECTION ON THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT, THE FOLLOWING IS INTENDED AS ENTERTAINMENT ONLY IN HOMAGE TO THE LIKES OF SPARTACUS WHO WERE CRUCIFIED EN MASSE);




So yes, recent setbacks could make me just decide to pack up my bikes and say forget it all but as Brian reminds us, we have to look on the bright side.  We have to know that there is a light out there somewhere.  And while this really applies to me right here and right now and to all the efforts we are putting into helping the kids of Sunrise, know that it really applies to all the set backs of life.  I could sit on my bum and bemoan my fate;

(What do you mean no Beggin' Strips?  I didn't make that spot! I was framed I tell ya!)

Instead, just as Casey Niestat shows, when you get knocked down off the bike, you just have to get right back on and keep at it;



Its the only logical thing to do, right?  It's not as t-shirt friendly as "When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade" but I've never been one to take things lying down, it often gets me into trouble but I just can't roll over and not keep trying.  I've tried. 

One of my favorite movies ever (and yes I admit I cry every time I see the end) is the movie Rudy and yes, its sappy and yes, its maudlin an predictable - but damn, I can identify with the little guy becasue I too have been told my entire life I can't do things.  I couldn't go to college, I couldn't be a ballet dancer, I couldn't make it as an actor and now I'm being told that I can't raise the money for the kids of Sunrise and to that I say watch this;



If Rudy (and this is a true story mind you) could come on as a short-of-stature, slow walk-on and play for one of THE most storied college football teams of all time, then anything can happen.  You just have to believe - like Brian and Rudy!

So I will believe that there is light at the end of all of this and that eventually it will all be just like this (perhaps with the Bollywood music in the background too!);



In the meantime, for dessert I will leave you a video of one of my favorite cyling playlist songs but The Killers - 
"Mr. Brightside";



So stay well my friends, keep looking on the Bright Side, and I'll see you on the road!

Finding My Sanity

So much has happened since the last post.  First of all, I want to thank those of you who read my last post and have reached out with your kind words of support.  You have absolutely no idea how much I needed/still need them.   Granted, it still looks like a very long, scary and dark tunnel - sort of like this;


(Is that the end or is it just a train coming at me????)

But I am feeling better and I don't quite feel like this;

(Heeeeeerreeeee's Connor)

But, to quote one of my favorite scenes from the old TV series "Night Court", "I'm feeling much better now,";



Not TOTALLY, but a good deal better.  Part of that is by trying to get back up on the horse;

(I knew all that egg nog would catch up with me)

Or, if you the visual art doesn't quite give you the full picture, I would probably be more like this right now;



But as I am a self-respecting Texan, I wouldn't be quite that bad, although now after all the dance training I've had in my life, I would probably end up in some sort of arabesque pose.  Now if I could only mount that gracefully on my bicycle I would look like this;



Or I could combine my passions and channel my inner Kevin Bacon;



Of course, whenever I try to do a graceful bicycle mount, ala Cyclocross racing, it usually ends up like this;



Ahh, everything goes better with a Black Eyed Peas soundtrack.  I personally like to hill climb to this little ditty;

	Black Eyed Peas - Pump It .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And that my friends is what started me on the road to "Feeling much better, now".  The day after my last post I read some more of Michael Moore's book and I relized that I had to jump start myself out of this blue funk so I got on my bike and looked for the steepest hills I could find around me.  I managed to put in 30 miles which really sucked because I had such high hopes for all the miles I was going to put in during the break but as I said, despite the gorgeous weather, I just couldn't get motivated.

But that first ride got me going.  The night before we had had our annual family Chanukah party and I received some more gift cards so I was stoked for all the stuff I was going to buy from Performance Bike.  I really didn't imbibe (despite all that's been going on) so I felt the need to get out and shred some hills!

The weather was perfect for riding (about 55 degrees) and there was no wind so I headed out about eight in the morning for a two hour ride.  I hit some of my favorite hills, sweated up them, bombed down the other sides and just vented some frustration.  For those of you who have followed this blog on occasion (the 55 OFFICIAL ones to the right as well as all of you others), you know that I often find catharsis on many of these rides.  Particularly two years ago with the passing of my brother David.  I just find that when I ride to punish myself and to push myself I can release a lot of things that hold me from being able to truly see the forest for the trees and that's what this ride did for me.  After sweating and hurting from all the hill climbs (and being in inadequate shape, despite my non-debauchery of the evening past) I suddenly had a clear thought - I can't give up, I can't let this be all there is to it, I can't give in.  So I will ride.  I will do everything I can and I will be riding this summer from San Diego to Long Island.  We raise what we raise.  My hope is that it will be at least more than we put it, but we'll raise what we will.

But the delicate grasp I've had on my sanity in the past week slowly began to return with that ride.  Then this past week (being our first week back after the break) I made a point of riding as much as I could to school  I rode four times this week and logged a total of 112 miles in commuting - I just like to take the long way home - sort of like this;



And yes, I know that there is another song out there with the same name by Bruno Mars - but nothing beats the original , especially when backed by a full orchestra.

But what also helped me to regain my sanity thappened this past weekend.  Along with Peter Haughwout and Caroline Basner I took 27 young actors and techies to the Fifteenth annual New York State Theatre Educators Association Student Conference at the Villa Roma in the quaint hamlet of Callicoon, NY.  It was a truly magical weekend that allowed me the opportunity to reconnect with my students, my colleagues from across the state and (to an extent) with myself.  Our students did an amazing job performing the opening number from Rent at the Festival of Student Performances.  Even though there wasn't much of an audience, they were amazing, especially considering that they did all the work themselves.

The majority of the time was spent by the students taking workshops and connecting with other theatre students (some 750 in all) from across the state.  What was great for me was being able to teach some workshops and have students actually pay attention and hang on to my every word.  When I had other chaperones and colleagues observe my workshops and then come up to me afterwards and compliment me on my work I knew that I was where I belonged.  I had missed the conference for the last two years (last year due to the blizzard of '11 and the year before because Amy and I were performing in A Chorus Line) so it was great to be able to see my colleagues and be reminded that I actually know what I'm talking about.

And that went a great deal to reviving my spirit.  There were so many other things that happened at the conference and I could spend a ton of time writing about it but the main point was it was fun.  I had fun with my students, my colleagues and on my own as a teacher and a person.  My only regret was that the weather was so nice and I didn't pack along my road bike to put in some miles early Sunday morning.  Oh well, perhaps next year!

So we're back on the road to recovery and the glass again is half full - not totally full mind you, but half full.  I still appreciate the words of encouragement and support and if you can all spread the word about Connor's Army and Sunrise I'd be eternally grateful.  And now, for a little dessert, I leave you with the original cast performing the title song from Rent (sorry about the quality, its a bootleg but at least its the original cast on opening night in 1996!);



Stay well my friends, pay your rent and I'll see you on the road!