A good rehearsal helps.

I've not been greatly thrilled with the One Act Play that I'm directing this year. In part because I'm not crazy about the script, in part because it's a bit depressing, and in part because rehearsals haven't been going real well.

But finally, we had a good rehearsal.

The kids managed to run through the entire show in 31 minutes (the first time they've ever done it in less than 45 minutes!) and completely off book. Energy was high and we even managed to work through some notes.

All of this goes a long way in improving my attitude toward rehearsals.

Say, hey.

I got together with a few friends from the high school days last night. It was good to see some old, but still familiar faces. At least one I hadn't seen in about 29 years.

While some of us stood around in the lobby of Perkins restaurant at 2:00am, I thought "how familiar this is ... a bunch of us hanging out, late." But at the same time, I wondered, "When did we get old?"

When DID we get old?

A page to insult you.

If you've ever had a ken to be insulted by the best, try the link below. this will take you to a page which will insult you with a Shakespearen insult. Click the link there and be insulted again.

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html

There's a Theatre Museum?

I read this morning a web artictle from the U.K.'s paper The Stage about a fight to keep a Theatre Museum open. My first reaction was, "There's a Theatre Museum?"

Well of course there is. There's a museum for just about everything. But the fact that I couldn't immediately think of what or where it is, suggests why it is no surprise that they are planning to close in 2007. You would think that a museum to something fairly specific such as theatre would do some kind of advertising in theatre periodicals.

Now, I subscribe to at least four theatre magazines and I've never seen anything about this museum. Being in the U.K. I wouldn't have been able to pay it a visit, but I'd at least be aware of it and have it in the back of my mind for any hoped-for trips.

The fight to save the museum has got some pretty big name support. If you're interested in reading the article and/or signing the petition to save the museum, you can read The Stage article by clicking the link here: http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/15052/industry-heavyweights-unite-to-save-theatre

There is a link on that page to the petition.

JT at Christmas.

I've been hearing many of the songs on James Taylor's new Christmas album getting lots of radio play lately. I've really liked what I've been hearing and can't wait to pick up a copy of the disc.

You can listen and watch a video of one song on Amazon.com by clicking the link here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/655:654/002-2842960-6893669

Pimp my Nutcracker.

Sometimes I think it's kind of fun that the internet is so chock-full of crap simply because "it's there" and because there are so many people who have nothing better to do.

I'm not sure where I saw this or how I came across it, but for some very odd reason I find a small bit of pleasure playing "pimp my Nutcracker" at: pimpmynutcracker.com

Blogger beta.

I'm logging in to the blog by way of their new "Blogger beta." I have to sign in using their link with gmail.

I don't have a problem with this, but I'm not sure I like the look of this yet ... the dashboard and other back-end features. Is anyone else using the new log-in format?

Star Trek.

TV Land is having a Star Trek marathon.

It's funny... I own every Star Trek episode (from the original series) in some fashion (DVD, Video Tape, Laser Disc, etc) and I don't watch them too often. But if it's on television, I'll likely watch it over just about anything else. Why?

International Shakespeare...finally.

For those of you who may be interested, I finally posted my thoughts on the Shakespeare performances I attened at the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival in Santa Barbara, CA last month. You can find it by clicking on "my complete profile" and then clicking "My Theatre Journal."

It was a lot of fun, with some great work being done in Eastern Europe.

A classy kind of thievery.

The idea of art theft seems like something of movie fiction, and a high class sort of crime. But I can't halp but wonder what sort of persons buys stolen art? It's not as though you could display it publicly, and if you can't show off what you own, what joy do you get from it?

The recent theft(s) of Munsch's The Scream, have been noteworthy, and in today's New York Sun comes notice of a Goya painting stolen while enroute from one museum to another.

As an art lover, and someone who has spent more money than I should (or even could) for original works of art, I don't understand art theft.

But don't believe everything you see on TV...

I received a note from the local high school principal congratulating me on my win for the school board seat. After seeing the news on television last night, with me listed as the loser, I settled in to the idea that I had not won.

But... according to the Minnesota Secretary of State's web site, I won by 10 votes.

Election update.

According to one of the local television stations, I did not win my bid for school board member. I lost by seven votes to the candidate nearest to me.

Election Day.

I voted today. Did you?

Actually, not only did I vote, but I brought my 11 year old daughter with me. I figured that she's at the right age to bring along. Training a future voter, is how I think of it. She gets to see that there's nothing difficult to it. She sees me participating.

Hopefully, then, not only did I vote todaty, but I've helped to keep the voting process alive for at least another generation.

Appreciating Disney. ...Really?

Alright, I have to admit it, I'm appreciative of the good folks at Disney Studios.

"Why?" you might ask, and rightly so. But if you've got any pre-teen children, chances are that they have tuned in to the Disney Channel after school.

First, let me say that the television watching in our household is fairly restricted. No television zombies here (and we do not own any Xbox or Playstation type devices). But for my daughter, who just turned eleven, there are very few opportunities for extra-curricular enjoyment.

Although she's in middle school, she's too young still to take part in any of the competetive sports, other than as the occassional "practice" (the one exception is basketball, which she played last year and plans to play again this year). She is in Girl Scouts, which she enjoys but isn't all consumed with.

At home, her brothers might watch the Cartoon Network or something on Nickelodeon, but those shows are mostly beneath her. As she was growing up, the Olsen Twins made a number of movies that were aimed at the pre-teens (or "Tweens" as they are referred to these days), but but now that the Olsen girls are older and in to some health problems, they've become inappropriate viewing.

Regular television shows offer fare such as Gilmore Girls, which isn't really appropriate, and so comes the Disney Channel, with shows such as: That's So Raven, Hannah Montana, The Suite life of Zach and Cody, and a few others.

Now I personally am not too fond of these shows (in fact, I can't stand the acting on Hannah Montana), but they are well written for their target audience, the Tweens. The shows deal with issues of friendship, trust, respect, dating, and other, basically harmless issues but issues that are affecting children of this age. And these shows are doing it in a sit-com setting, so the morals aren't being thrown in the face.

I really do appreciate that the Disney Channel is able to reach children, like my daughter, on these topics, in ways that the kids will pay attention. Of course, too much of anything is not good, and I don't want my daughter veggie-ing out in front of the television, but for that hour in the day when she's done her homework and doesn't have Scouts or basketball, or whatever, it's nice to know that she'll turn on a show that I'm comfortable allowing her to watch.

Happy candy hunting.

I've been back home for a week or so, and jumped right in to a "debate" with other school board candidates, and auditions for the high school one act play. I've been told that my 5 minute video for the city was a finalist and much-talked-about video (which makes me cringe, because it was last minute and sloppy as far as I'm concerned and done only to meet the requirements for being able to keep the video camera).

Today I get to take the kids out for candy hunting. I think I'll go as my friend Kootch....

One more show to go.

One more show to go, here at the Lit Moon World Theatre Festival in Santa Barbara. It's been a remarkable week of fascinating, wonderful, and even some "so-so" productions. I have found some of the after-show get-togethers of equal, or even more interest, than the shows themselves. Talking with performers, directors, and scenographers from Bulgaria and Poland, has been an incredible educational experience.

I will be posting reactions to specific shows on "My Theatre Journal" sometime next week.

Tomorrow it's off to Kansas City for production meetings for next year's Great River Shakespeare Festival.

Shakespeare of the world, in Santa Barbara.

It's been a busy couple of days, and I'm not done here yet, but I've been in Santa Barbara, CA for the last four days, and I've seen four Shakespeare performances, by companies from three different companies.

TIMON OF ATHENS and RICHARD II were both American company productions ... actually, both were co-produced by universities in the area.

JULIET & ROMEO was done by a Canadian troup.

And OTHELLO was performed (and spoken) by a Polish company. Without a doubt, the production of Othello was the best work I've seen here, and anywhere in quite some time. Powerful, strong, evoking emotions, and extremely well acted, this play was easy to understand, even though the words themselves weren't.

I have two more shows to see in the next couple of days, and I'm looking forward to them.

Today's birthdays.

According to The Writer's Almanac, it is the birthday today for two people who have had an influence on me. Thelonius Monk and Harold Pinter

The Pinter influence might be obvious to most who know me, but the Monk influence less so.

I have often said (more, lately, as I grow older and see opportunities slipping away) that if I were to do anything differently in my life, it would be to study and compose music. Some of the strongest musical influences in my life have been jazz music (thanks, Mo) and Monk's were some of the very first jazz albums that I ever purchased and listened to until the records nearly wore out.

It would seem to be a good duo to share a birthdate.

Where does the time go?

Can't believe how the days are getting away from me.

I put together a short video for the local city government, as part of a grant requirement. it was a real bitch to do and I wasn't helped any by a software program that refused to let me copy my edited video to ANYthing (not to disc, not to hard drive, etc) and i had to redo the whole damned thing in a short time frame on a program that I didn't like as well.

Yesterday we took the family to a "corn maze" and pumpkin patch just outside the Cities. They had a lot of fun. Me, less so. As I told my wife, I don't enjoy getting lost on purpose. I always like to know exactly where I am, so walking in to a maze is not fun for me.

The farm with the maze (Afton Apple) had LOTS of puns with the words "corn" and "maze", but not once did I see them refer to it as a "maize". How do you not capitalize on the obvious? (Then again, they did write "congradulations.")

Library gems.

I enjoy bookstores, but there's something extra special about walking through the stacks of an old library.

In a bookstore all the books have bright, shining covers all trying to attract your attention and wanting to be taken home. In a library, the books are generally those that have found an audience and manage to get taken off those cramped-together shelves. They don't need to prove themselves or attract a reader with bright, flashy covers. Often the books are jacket-less and rather drab looking. I love looking through these books for gems that might be new to me.

Yesterday I found such a book. New? Not even close. The physical book itself is 98 years old (judging by the publication date and copyright). It's a book of plays by a Norwegian playwright I'd never heard of (shame on me): Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.

I'm only half way through the first play ("Love and Geography") in this book ("Plays by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - Second Series"), and I'm absolutely loving it. Like his contemporary, Ibsen, Bjornson writes of social realism. Unlike much of Ibsen, this play is very approachable and often quite funny:

Some poet who was married said once that he carried his home on his back like a snail. And the fool meant it as a praise of marriage! -- When I meet one of my colleagues on the street -- on of the married ones, I mean -- I
always raise my hat twice: once, openly and respectfully, for the man himself;
and once, secretly and in pity, for his hump!

And, in a domestic squabble, a woman says: "May the Lord protect and preserve everybody from getting married to any one who writes books."

Of course I'm getting a good chuckle out of all this and I'm thinking to myself that this work needs to be staged. Almost certainly Bjornson's work would be remounted regularly but for the fact that he is so over-shadowed by Ibsen that people forget that there were other writers working at the same time.

Doing a real quick "Ask" search for Bjornson, I see that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903 and authored many books as well as plays (I'm looking forward to reading Sigurd the Bastard). He was very politically active and was the director of two different theatres in Norway and editor of the Norsk Folkeblad.

But what amazes me is how this play, written 100+ years ago, could easily be played as a contemporary piece; in fact, seems more modern now than it probably would have back in the late 1800's. And it is this ability to capture the heart of people, rather than a period, that makes me want to read more.

And it is this discovery of a hundred year old gem, that will keep my browsing the stacks of drab spines in libraries for as long as I can.

My rap name.

In the event that I should become a Rap star (or, more likely, a MEGA-Star) -- an event that isn't nearly as implausible as one might at first think ... just look at some of those who are stars today -- I've taken a rap name.

You may refer to me as: White Fudge Chunky.

I can just hear it... "Put your hands together for White Fudge Chunky!"

Thank you, Nabisco.

"Ladies and gentlemen...

WHITE FUDGE CHUNKY!"

Reality in Wobegon.

It was so appropriate I actually wondered if it was staged, or planned. But I've decided that this thought was more a case of my pessimism, and indeed, what I saw was very much natural. ...

This past Saturday the family and I spent some time at the Mall of America. We were just about ready to leave when I wanted to stop at the Lake Wobegon USA store, there on the third floor of the mall. I walked in to this very Minnesota, very "natural-ish" store, and the woman behind the cash register was actually sitting there and cutting coupons from the newspaper!

When was the last time you saw someone clipping coupons? Could anything be more appropriate than a woman in Lake Wobegon, USA clipping store coupons? Could you actually plan, and put into action, that kind of "reality touch"?

How to make your knees ache.

I rode my bike today. Not just rode, you understand, but power-rode it.

I was off to find another geocache which was only accessible from a bike path and was six miles from any entrance to the path. So... of course I got on my bike at home and rode the 6+ miles to the proper site. On the way back home, I stopped and took a 1/3 mile hike up a hill to find another cache site. Of course there was the hike down the hill, back to my bike, and then the ride back home, which, unfortunately for me was into the breeze. And as I live up a hill, it also involved the ride up the hill on tired, old legs. But damn my stubborn hide, I wasn't about to get off and walk the bike up the hill!

I was definitely exhausted, and my knees were quite weak -- had trouble walking down the stairs to my desk when I got home! Rested for about an hour, and then went out to mow the lawn.

When the kids came home from school (oh yeah ... I was back from my bike ride at noon), it was nice out and my son wanted to play a little football in the back yard.

And now, no surprise, my knees are screaming out at me to take it easy. My overweight body isn't meant to be abused so. Work up to the abuse, that's how it's supposed to be done.

Twins.

I wanted to avoid mention of the anniversary of the events of 9/11/01, and was instead, going to write about taking the family to see the Minnesota Twins play some superb baseball yesterday (12-1 win over 1st place team Detroit Tigers).

But as soon as I wrote "Twins" it made me think of the Twin Towers that came crashing down. And so let me pay quick tribute to the families of those who lost their lives, as well as to the "survivors" of the disaster. Those who were there and who did not lose their lives, have not been unscathed. My pal Eddie was in the unit of firefighters that was the first on the scene. He lived, and I think of him often, when I think of 9/11, and wonder how he is doing. The last I heard, through friends, via his wife, is that he often had nightmares. Here's hoping that he and his family (his oldest, like mine, would have entered 6th grade this year) are all well.

And so... on to the Minnesota Twins.

I took the family, along with some friends, to the Minnesota Twins ball game yesterday. What a great game to see! The Twins looked unstoppable. I can't remember the last time I saw so many actual hits a single baseball game. They looked as though they could do anything that they wanted with their bats. Triples? What...were there three? (Or were there only two, I can't even remember now.) And home runs? There were ... none. That's right. A game in which the Twins scored 12 runs, and not a single home-run. That's awesome hitting. As I heard on the TV later that night, it's that kind of offensive that has the Twins as a feared post-season opponent -- they don't rely on a couple of power hitters to get the runs in.

A great game to see.

Go Twins!

From out of nowhere....

Okay, so it wasn't actually from out of nowhere, I had gotten a tip that I might get this call, but I had kind of forgotten it.

Today I got a call about doing a brief gig as an Equity stage manager again. I haven't worked a professional job in that capacity in almost ten years.

The show is called TEA AT FIVE, a one-woman show about Katherine Hapburn, starring Stephanie Zimbalist as Hepburn. The show will be playing at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, MN.

I have to talk to the wife about it, but I'm leaning toward doing it. It's only for a couple of weeks; it's not too far from home; it would be fun to get my feet wet doing this kind of work again; I've actually worked with Stephanie before and it would be fun to see her again; and, why the hell not?

Geocaching.

I took the family out geocaching today.

If you're not familiar with it (and chances are good that you're not), geocaching is a relatively new sport. Basically it's a treasure hunt.

You need to own GPS device and then where to look on the web for coordinates of a hidden cache. Plug the coordinates in to your GPS and off you go in search of the treasure.

It's great for the kids because they often (but not always) get to take a small toy as a treasure, and then leave one of their choosing behind.

My brother and his son introduced us to this sport a couple of years ago. We don't do this very often, but the kids enjoy it when we do get out.

If you're interested in learning more about this (chances are good that there's a geocache within a couple of miles of where you live), go to www.geocaching.com.

Beatles anyone?

Bug me not.

A little reminder that if I send you to a link that you can't view because you're not a "registered" member of a site, use BUG ME NOT to get a log-in name and password. There should be a link to it on the left side of my blog here, under the word "LINKS."

Wool pulling.

A really good joke takes time to develop. I'm not talking about the sort of joke that one repeats to family over dinner, or to friends at a party, but something more along the lines of a practical joke.

I love a good practical joke. I've pulled more than a few, and been the victim of some. The successful ones will make me laugh, no matter on which end I find myself.

And so I greatly appreciated the literary joke I read about this morning in the NY Times. You can read it for yourself here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/books/31poet.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

I'm on iTunes!

Most of my adult life I've heard favorable comments about my voice. I'm often asked why I don't "go into radio" or read books on tape, etc.

Well, I have read books on tape for the blind, but I've never been interested in being a DJ, and what the hell else would one do on radio?

Because I'm a bit of a ham, and also a fan of OTR (Old Time Radio), I've gotten hooked up with other people with similar interests. Recently (within the past six months), I've connected with a group of people who put together amateur radio shows. This group, called Pendant Productions, makes radio serials based on existing properties (comic book, movie, and television), in the tradition of some of the great Old Time Radio serials.

Among their running shows are Superman, Wonder Woman, Star Trek: Defiant, and James Bond. On a whim, I decided to audition for a small but recurring role in a new show they were putting together. This one based on the Indiana Jones property. Auditions can be rather fierce, with many people wanting to show off their talents, but I managed to get the role (actually, I auditioned for three roles, but got the small, recurring part).

The first episode has finally been released and can be found as a free podcast on iTunes (just search for "Indiana Jones")! If that doesn't work for you, you can click on the nifty poster below. Oh, yeah...that's my name there on that poster.

It's been fun, and I may even audition for some other roles. (Another group is doing Iron Man!) For a bunch of amateurs, it's not too bad.

Oh, and I just received my script for episode five, where I make yet another brief "appearance." I'm not in episode four, and wondered if my part was completed, but I guess the fans must have been wanting more of me!



...No, I'm not going to tell you what role I play. Listen and try to figure it out for yourself. At the end, there are credits, however, and you can check your guess.

Camping in Michigan.

I've been off with the family, camping in Michigan, and then attending the wedding of one of my nephews. I hope to post some pictures in the next few days.

AaaOoooh, Werewolves of Bangor!

I don't know what anbody else thinks, but I find this to be pretty damned eerie. The photo is enough to give me nightmares!

Check out this link!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14383883/?GT1=8404

You can't lick these super heroes!

Growing up, I have memories of watching my dad sit at the dining table and peering through a large magnifying glass at postage stamps. It didn't mean much to me, and he never let me handle them, so I quickly grew bored and would walk away.

A few years ago, my father mentioned to me that I would be inheriting his stamp collection -- a well preserved (not handled by little kids!) collection that goes back quite a ways. This, of course, got me interested in looking to see just what was so special about stamps.

What I learned, in a nutshell, is that most people only see the common "flag," "love," or holiday stamp, but in fact the post office releases quite a few different stamps every year, and most of them are of some significance and are actually wonderful works of art, in miniature.

And when you're talking about works of art, it would seem only natural that there should be stamps commemorating comic book art. There have been a few in the past, but nothing (that I know of -- and I'm certainly no expert) to compare with what has recently been released by the U.S. Post Office.

If you haven't been to the P.O. lately, I'd encourage you to stop in and ask for the sheet of Super Heroes. Slap a Green Arrow on your electricty bill, or a Wonder Woman to pay your cell phone tab. The Flash can be used to get your check off to the DMV for your license renewal, or Aquaman for your water bill.

Heck, just get 'em 'cause they're cool!

Played for laughs.

I ran in to an old friend last night at the Great River Shakespeare Festival. She was there for the free concert on the lawn and had already seen both shows. We chatted briefly about her thoughts on the shows (this is someone I once acted with in a summer theatre production, and who's theatre "claim to fame" is that she once acted on stage with Harrison Ford [in college]). Mostly she seemed to enjoy the shows, but one comment struck me. Regarding Twelfth Night, she said, "Of course, they played it for laughs."

She did go on to say that while Winonans are always quick to give a standing ovation to nearly everything, she admitted that she was first on her feet at the end, "so of course I must have liked it" she said.

But her comment about playing for laughs has stuck with me.

I hate playing for laughs. But I think there is a fine line between playing for laughs, and playing the comedy which you expect will get a laugh. When I tell me high schoolers to do something a specific way because it will get a laugh, is that playing for laughs? Or is that playing the comic moment, which is intended to get a laugh?

One of the things that I really like about the GRSF production of Twelfth Night is that it is funny. I've never seen a production of the show before that I enjoyed, and in large part because no other production that I've seen (maye three) has made me laugh. I'd always wondered why it was considered a comedy when it's always seemed so dry, and even nasty (consider what is done to Malvolio). The current GRSF production, to me, is funny, and I've finally enjoyed the show (and with the ability to watch it multiple times, as I have, I've gotten more from it).

And so I wonder ... is playing for laughs, in a comedy, wrong?

ebooks and things

My eBay name and account has been restored, my computer is functioning with a new hard-drive, and I have re-loaded probably 75% of my programs on to this new, improved, lemon-scented (not really) machine. And with my work for the Great River Shakespeare Festival done for the season, and soon to talk about my place with the company next year, I finally feel I have a moment to sit and blog.

While weeding through my emails, I came across an interesting article about free e-book downloads. This only lasts until August 4 (for this great variety of ebooks, anyway), and I would encourage everyone to check it out: http://www.worldebookfair.com/. I still think that Project Gutenberg is a great idea, as long as we can avoid copyright issues!

What I missed the most while spending long hours at work, was reading. I didn't get any chances to read for pleasure and I missed it. To make up for lost time, I'm trying to read too much. A stop in the library the other day had me walking out with six books, all that looked really interesting (and of course there are the shelves and book cases full of my own, unread books). And so... I think I'll go and read.

Wyl, if you're reading this, I need the link to your blog(s) -- it was lost with the hard-drive crash.

Who am I ? (or, an on-line identity theft)

I've spent the better part of the day trying to find out how my eBay ID was stolen, and to change it back. After a very late, and then sleepless, night, I continued my quest to restore my good eBay name. After all... I'd had the name for seven years, with a perfect eBay rating. Of course the concern was also wondering what else might have been taken.

I did manage to convince the eBay chat person that I was indeed the owner of the account, and the ID name was changed back to me, and a new password sent my way. I had to go back in and change the name of the owner of the account, and I see that the thief won two auctions for playstation equipment in Great Britain. I still have to try to deal with not paying for those auctions and retain my good rating.

FORTUNATELY, while eBay accounts are invariably linked to PayPal, I kept different email addresses and passwords for my eBay and PayPal accounts. Otherwise, I am certain that my PayPal account would have been used to pay for the $600 worth of merchandise.

Now, while you might think that tracking the thief is easy because there was a name and address listed as the account owner, I hesitate to think that it is an actual person and/or the actual thief. Further research on my part finds that the request to change the information came from an IP address located in Beirut!

It's been a real pain in the ass to go through and change as many passwords as I can think of changing, and to change them to something completely new and different than I have ever used. Again, I am keeping eBay and PayPal separate.

Moral of this blog... change your passwords! Regularly.

Back...but without a hard-drive.

It feels as though it's been ages since I wrote in this blog. I've been terribly busy with the Great River Shakespeare Festival, but I'm incredibly proud of the shows that they've got up and running. Twelfth Night is about as funny as theatre gets, and Romeo and Juliet is appropriately dark and brooding. If you are in the Southeastern part of Minnesota, I hope you'll check them out.

I did decide that I'm getting too old to spend two solid weeks of fifteen hour days at the theatre. I was incredibly exhausted by opening.

Other than working such long hours, the other reason I haven't blogged much is because the hard-drive on my laptop computer failed. One repair store has said that the information there is not retrievable. I am going to try another place as well, though the outlook is grim.

This also explains why I haven't visited many of my friends' blogs, as well. Without my computer, I also don't have any of my "favorites" in my queue, and heaven knows I don't remember many of the URLs.

I am using my children's computer to post this blog, and thankfully my newest email address (at gmail) is web-based, so I can check in there periodically from this computer as well. It'll be a few days before I can get my computer to the geek store for repair, and longer still to load all the important programs, so please feel free to drop me a line at my address: daniel[dot]munson[at]gmail[dot]com and include a link to your blog, or any other site that you think I might enjoy.

Honkin'.

I was in the local grocery store yesterday and a woman, approximately 50 years old, was with a young child (a son, or a grandson, it's hard to say).

As I wheeled my shopping cart past the pair, I heard the woman say to the youth, "We need that big honkin one."

I was probably as young as that child the last time I heard that term "honkin" in such a way. What does it mean? Where does the expression come from? (Bonus points, Kootch?)

Foxy.

I've been working late quite a bit in recent days, and every evening as I drive home, there is a particular stretch of road where I see at least one, and often a pair, of red fox. They have always been walking along the side of the road, but as my headlights catch them, they disappear quickly in to the brush.

I'm not sure why I enjoy this so much, but I do. I look forward to that section of road each night.

What The Bard's apprentices will do.

One of the nice things about the Great River Shakespeare Festival is their apprentice project.

GRSF is strong on education (Elderhostel's, Teacher's Workshops, High School Night, Apprentice Classes) and for their full time apprentices, the work-load can be tremendous. This year, fourteen acting apprentices take classes six days a week, understudy various roles in the two shows that run in rep, work in the various shops (scene shop, costumes, lights, props, etc) for two weeks, work the front of house concessions, and will also be performing one showing of a different Shakespeare play.

This year's play for the apprentices is Cymbeline.

I find this quite exciting as I was not otherwise familiar with Cymbeline. What a great opportunity for these young actors to expereince Shakespeare, and to perform one of his less known works as well!

And perhaps that's what I find most appealing about having a Shakespeare Festival in the immediate area -- the opportunity to hopefully experience all of The Bard's works at some point.

Bonus points for any reader who can tell me (without first looking it up on the internet [you're on your honor here]) what the term "bard" means, and why it's attributed to Shakespeare.

A busy job is a happy job.

Last year, about this time, I was making plans to leave the job that I was in. I was being micro-managed by a boss who was on a leave of absence. And still I was bored, finding plenty of time for blogging and web-searching.

This summer I have been extrememly busy, working very long days and evenings, haven't had a chance to write in this blog, nor even check out others' ... but couldn't be happier. Over-all, I love what I do.

Theatre IS where I am happiest, and when I can have a solid position in a good theatre company, I'm thrilled. As Production Manager for the Great River Shakespeare Festival (www.grsf.org), I get to sit in on rehearsals, give notes to the directors, over-see all the shops (props, sets, costumes, lights, sound), keep an eye on budgets, hang out with the actors, and today I played a quick game of chess with one of the directors.

I'm busier than I ever was at my last job, but I'm a heck of a lot happier as well. Some people like mindless jobs, and the opportunity to collect a paycheck for doing nothing. I'm not that kind of person.

Come see a show at GRSF this summer!

...fly away home.

In my mailbox yesterday was a thick, oversized envelope with half a dozen copies of the latest (June 2006) issue of Ladybug Magazine ... a magazine for young children.

There, in the center spread of the magazine, with staples going right through it, is a "poem" of mine.

(I say "poem" with the quotes because I originally wrote it trying to sell it as an easy reader book.)

I sold the poem to the magazine about three years ago. It's hard to believe it's taken this long to see print, though it was illustrated (not by me) and I'm sure there were lots of factors involved.

With a circulation of approximately 130,000, this magazine publication likely represents my biggest sale in terms of readership.

It is always "cool" to see one's name in print, and one's words on a page (perhaps that's why blogs are so popular?).

Two week notice?

Wow. I can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since I last posted.

Well...maybe I can believe it. I've been working two jobs. One finished last night.

I've been stage managing the ballet Cinderella, which closed last night. It was fun. It wasn't a lot of work, but it was time-intensive. We closed with some technical snafus which I've never experienced before -- I lost head-set communication with my light board operator and my sound board operator. Hence, one sound cue was missed and about seven light cues were missed before we could restore some kind of communication. Ah well... the joys of live performance.

I am also working as the production manager for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. This is also quite time intensive as well as a lot of work. But heck, I enjoy it! It's much better than sitting around behind a desk being bored out of my skull!

The moons of Jupiter.

For those of you who find astronomy a nifty hobby (or even worthy of a career), you will note, first of all, that in honor of the one-year anniversary of this blog, I took out the Google ads, and put in a chart showing the lunar phase.

Also, it so happens that Jupiter is at it's closest encounter with Earth during this week. I took our telescope out the last two nights and got a good look at the planet. Even with our "little" telescope, we could get a good look at the planet and were even able to see it's four moons.

A very cool thing, to stand on planet Earth and actually see the moons of Jupiter.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

This blog is one year old today.

Do I have any reflections on this blog, or blogging in general? No.

Shoes. No socks.

I read an interesting article from the MiamiHerald.com, via my daily ArtsJournal email. The article was about the troubles at the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the 21-year reign as artistic director of Arnold Mittleman. I found the article interesting for a number of reasons....

First, I have been to the Cocount Grove Playhouse, loading in and over-seeing a show that I worked on immediately before and immediately after it's run at the Playhouse -- it was one of those situations where an existing show was being brought in, but by some strange clause in the Equity contracts, they didn't have to bring in the stage manager of the show -- just my prompt book (I probably got paid a small stipend for it, I forget). While I had wished I could stay with the show for that period, I held no hard feelings -- my daughter had just been born and I was looking to spend some time at home with my new family anyway.

Second, the situation reminded me of my time at the old Los Angles Theatre Center, whose troubles mirror what was being reported on by the Herald. Any time there is evidence that grants and loans are being used to pay off other debts, rather than what the grants and loans are specifically ear-marked for, this should wave gigantic red flags! The article mentions this problem, but skims over it. I was immediately tossed back to 1982 where I lived through the same things -- building and construction grants being used to pay salaries. The LATC closed it's doors for good shortly after.

Third, I was reminded of my recent blog in which I wrote that the problem with theatre is not that there aren't any great plays being written, but that there aren't any great producers taking risks and nurturing talent. Was Arnold Mittleman an exception to that comment? I don't know. I don't know the precise history of his tenure at Coconut Grove, but the fact that he has been there a long time and maintained a vibrant theatre community for so long might suggest that he was certainly doing somethig right. I doubt he was a nurturing, progressive producer (but I don't know -- we'd have to see if any "new" playwrights were developing their craft there), but the role of producer for a regional theatre is very different. There is a constant battle to produce what the community wants to see (usually Neil Simon plays, and "feel-good" 1950's musicals) and maintain artistic standards and expose the patrons to new work.

That Mittleman and Coconut Grove is now in trouble suggests that there has been a severe failure in this battle. How much time and lenience do you give someone who has a good history, but who also appears to have been deceptive in use of funds?

Four, but mostly the article was of interest to me because I don't like Arnold Mittleman. It has nothing to do with his work in theatre, his hiring or not hiring me, or even his possibly running the theatre into the ground. My dislike springs from something entirely different.

After my very first introduction to the man, I turned to an actor friend of mine and said, "I dont know why, but I don't trust any man who does business, dressed in a suit, but doesn't wear socks. Shoes. No socks."

No takers?

No one is brave enough to take on my Shakespeare challenge?

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!

The Bard would be 442 years old today.

In honor of the Bard, I challenge you all to make up a new word, and use it in a sentence! (Bonus points for anyone creating hendiadys!)

Narnia's not in the wardrobe, but in my family room!

As I sit here at my computer, my children, and their best friends, are all camped out in my family room, just about ten yeards away, watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on our large-screen tv.

I'm not sure why I point this out, other than that it's a conversation starter.

I didn't think much of this movie when I saw it in the theatre. It has great visuals, a good script adaptation, a moderately exciting fight scene, but as a whole, this film doesn't click for me. I've thought about this fairly often, trying to understand just what doesn't work.

The best that I can come up with is that it lacks a cohesive energy. I'm never really "attached" to any of the children, nor am I ever really "afraid" of the witch. And the pacing of the entire film seems too much the same, and so we lose the rhythm of highs and lows that is so essential to good drama.

It's not a bad film, it's a heck of a lot easier to watch than the BBC television version, but it's not nearly as exciting as it could or should be.

I'm curious what others thought of the film...?

You're messing me up, Bill Gates!

I don't think much about my computer, except when things start to go wrong. I suppose the majority of people are like that. I like my computer to operate the way it's supposed to, and to be safe and secure.

And because I don't want to think about it, I've subscribed to Microsoft's automatic updates program (as well as at least two security programs).

This past week I downloaded fifteen Microsoft security updates for my computer.

And then it stopped functioning properly.

Now you would think that when Bill Gates sends you an update for your computer, your computer will actually work better than before. When it doesn't, you (I) actually have start thinking about the computer. This is what happened during this week.

I'm fairly computer savvy, so I began my investigation, first determining that the computer stopped working the proper way shortly after downloading the updates. That was the easy part.

I won't go into detail as to my route to fixing this, but needless to say, my email to Microsoft Support was indeed answered within 24 hours. Here's the response:

Hello Daniel,Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.I
understand that you are experiencing issues with Internet Explorer and Microsoft
Word after installing updates. I regret the inconvenience caused.As a Customer
Service Representative, I would like to inform you that Microsoft provides
no-charge support for all issues that arise due to installation of Windows
updates.Please contact the concerned support team to avail no-charge support at
(866) 727 2338. Monday-Sunday: 24 Hours a Day.Daniel, I hope you find the above
information helpful.Thank you for using Microsoft products and
servicesDysonMicrosoft Online Customer Service RepresentativeIf you have any
feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please email my manager,
Rahul Rajgopal, at ...

In other words... "We've contacted you in 24 hours, but if you want it fixed, then take a day off work and spend it on the phone talking to someone you can't understand try to figure it out for you."

I discovered, from a chatroom, that ONE of the updates doesn't work properly on SOME computers (no one has been able to determine which computers are most likely affected as far as I can tell).

The answer, of course, was to remove the update (which wasn't nearly as simple as it sounds), but once that was done, my computer is back to functioning normally (so far, he says, with fingers crossed and knocking on wood). If YOUR computer isn't working well since updating, post a message here and I'll walk you through the solution and/or point you to some web sites that can suggest how to fix it (if you don't trust me).

I know that all my Mac friends will point to this as another reason to take a bite out of the Apple family, but as someone who has worked moderately with both, I still prefer my PC ... faults and all. After all, there's nothing that says I have to use Internet Explorer as my web browser. In fact, once I started experiencing problems, I immediately switched to my loaded Mozilla program and had no problems whatever. And as for programs such as Word and Excel ... I believe those are the standard on most Macs now, too.

It's amazing, though, what we expect from our computers.

Earlier this week I was looking for a recipe for something I remember making many years back. I assumed it was in one of my cookbooks, but couldn't find it. I mentioned it to my wife and said, "It has to be in my recipe card file or in one of my cookbooks because it was something I made before there was an internet, so I couldn't have Googled it back then." Boy, did that statement give me a shock once I realized what I'd said!

No drama good enough.

I've been following some interesting conversations in a Yahoo Playwrighting group, regarding the fact that the Pulitzer committee has decided not to award a prize this year in the Drama category.

There is a sense of indignation among playwrights that the Pulitzer committee has declared (by the virtue of not declaring) that there are no dramas worthy of their award. What does this mean?

Well, it could just mean that there weren't any plays good enough. It could mean that the judges (journalists) weren't qualified to make such an assessment. It could mean that by having the deadline moved up (apparently) the shorter time span eliminated some of the best plays from consideration. All of these are "possibilities" that have been discussed.

Any one of them is a rather sad possibility, particularly if true.

I do wonder if there truly aren't any plays out there right now that are worthy of receiving award honors. Can it be? Is theatre in such trouble that it can't even find a show worthy of winning a prestigious award?

No, I don't think so. I think that the world is filled with gifted playwrights. The problem, as I see it, is matching those playwrights with equally gifted producers and/or promoters who will see to it that the works of the playwright are polished and produced.

Producers today are looking for the quick buck, they are not interested in developing a relationship with an artist and working with him (or her) to bring out his(her) fullest potential.

No drama good enough? Nay, I say. No producer bold enough.

Good books.

As some of you know and others can determine by looking at my current reading list, I often am reading more than one book at a time (though not at the SAME time). Often, one or two of these are slow reading and haven't really grabbed my interest. On occassion I've been stuck with an entire reading list that is a chore to wade through (I know, I know, there's nothing that says I have to finish reading a book that I don't like -- nothing except my own sense of literary duty).

On this particular instance I am reading four books (Arthur & George; Saga of the Volsungs; The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories; The Historian)that have all captured my interest and are very good reads. In fact I struggle with choosing which to read when I have a moment to sit and read. This is a nice feeling.

Hendiadys.

I learned a new word today.

"Hendiadys."

It's a word I probably should have known, though I can't imagine when or why I would have learned it. It's also a word that is not in my paperback Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

According to the book I just finished reading, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599,

Hendiadys literally means "one by means of two," a single idea conveyed through a pairing of nouns linked by "and."

Examples are "law and order," "house and home," and "sound and fury." According to the book, almost no English author before or after Shakespeare wrote in hendiadys, and even Shakespeare himself didn't do it much -- except for Hamlet, in which there are sixty-six of them. The next highest count is in Othello, with twenty-eight. (And yes, it's pretty amazing that there are people [generally considered to be scholars] who actually go and count things like this!)

While I recommend the book, Shapiro goes on to note how the use of hendiadys creates a kind of "mental vertigo" which adds to the unbalanced nature of Hamlet.

Fascinating. A cool word. Neat meaning. I'll have to try to incorporate some in my own work.

Masked Marvels and Wondertales.

I saw a show last night that was an absolute blast. It was titled, Michael Cooper: Masked Marvels and Wondertales. I even love the title (so much so that I borrowed it)!

Michael Cooper is a mime (not the bad, street mime that everybody loves to hate) and mask-maker. He actually does very little performance mime, but he does combine his talent for body control with his innovative masks, and the results are splendid!

He's got a web site (of course!) and I encourage you to check it out. The Masked Marvel

A coule of thoughts have hit me since seeing the show last night.

First, how that show has likely affected my eight-year-old son. My son is a VERY creative young man. I see a lot of myself in him -- his creativity, his temperament, etc -- the main difference being that his parents are encouraging his artistic bent perhaps a bit more than mine did. Unlike me, however, my son is incredibly interested in science. He has more than a passion for studying frogs and insects and spiders and dinosaurs and rocks, etc.

What a show like this has done is throw my son out of balance. How great! How fun! How creative! I want to be just like that! ...but what about science...?!

How wonderful it was, then, when after the show my son asked Mr. Cooper, "Do you like science?" Cooper's response was, "Absoutely! My father was a veterinarian, and I thought about doing that, too. A lot of people think that the arts and sciences are far apart, but I think that they are very closely related. You need to be able to think creatively, like an artist, when you study science, and when you perform art you need to be able to think analytically, like a scientist, when you are preparing a show." So...which road will my son ultimately follow? Time only, will tell.

My other thought about the show, was ... had I stayed with it, that could very well have been me on the stage. My interest, study, and work in mime, along with my passion for masks and puppetry, could very well have had me performing for 200 last night, instead of Mr. Cooper. Do I miss it? Yes and no. I miss it, but I have no regrets with the path that I've followed.

I would most certainly see this show again. And maybe I'll even raise my hand when he's looking for volunteers.

My nephew's blog.

Blogs are obviously the "hot" thing on the computer these days. I know that when I sit down at my desk, I check my emails and then a few blogs. I've had to add one more blog to my list -- my nephew.

My nephew is 28, and has decided that he wants to do something of service to humanity. He has spent the last three months working with Doctor's Without Borders, and is stationed in Liberia. He is a logistician (?).

I find quite a bit of his blog fascinating. Maybe you will too.

http://tajmunson.blogspot.com/

Arizona to Minnesota.

It's not lost on me that my beginning point isn't far from Winona, Arizona, and my destination was near Winona, Minnesota. That said, I had a long, but pleasant five days driving my father and his wife from their Arizona wintering home back to the pleasant upper-Midwest. We stopped to take in a few sights (mostly tourist-y things) and a few uncommon birds (my father is an avid bird watcher).

Here are a few favorites of mine from the trip.

Best Night's Sleep: Swedish Country Inn -- Lindsborg, KS
Worst Night's Sleep: Best Western -- Santa Rosa, NM
Best Dinner: Irene's Tea Parlour -- Lindsborg, KS
Worst Dinner: Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Best Breakfast: Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Best-Looking Waitress -- Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Favorite Bird Spotted on Drive -- Roadrunner, along highway in Arizona
Best Tourist Trap: Boot Hill Museum -- Dodge City, KS (while looking pretty cheesy from the outside, the layout of the museum and the information offered was really top quality)
Best Section of Road for Driving: Highway 26 -- New Mexico
Worst Section of Road for Driving: Interstate 90 -- Minnesota
State with Most Garbage along Roadways -- New Mexico
State with Least Garbage along Roadways -- Iowa

Camera fun.

Before heading on to our vacation to Southern California, I insisted that we get a new digital camera. I had intended to buy a digital Canon SLR camera because I like the versatility an SLR offers. However, when I started looking at cameras, I saw that Canon offered a pocket camera with a 7.1 mega-pixel resolution -- at an affordable price! While I knew that I would like the SLR, the point-and-shoot was going to be much more useful for the rest of the family.

While playing around with this new camera, I got this picture below which I rather like.


This is a picture of my reflection, taking a picture of my daughter, looking out the window of our car. The sun was setting as we were parked alongside the Pacific Coast Highway, watching for dolphins, and it (the sun) was at just the right angle so that I could see both reflection and interior image.

Snow in Southern California.

It has snowed, hailed, "slushed" and just about every other type of weather possible to come down from the sky while we are here visiting.

Here is a rare photo of snow in the mountains in Santa Barbara. I took this from my rental car. The snow was not there two hours later.

Kirby.

Okay, I'm not the biggest baseball fan in the world, but there have been a few years when I followed the Minnesota Twins faithfully. The first time was during the era of Harmon Killebrew and Tony Olivia, and then during the Kirby Puckett years.

Like so many others, I just plain liked Kirby. He always just seemed like a naturally nice person, along with being a pretty darned good baseball player.

He'd been out of baseball for awhile now, so it's not as if the baseball community is suddenly missing him, but with his death this week, I think the world is a just a little worse off without his enthusiasm and drive.

Thanks for the games, Kirby!

Busy and sleepless.

I've been busy as of late. I've been in discussions with the Great River Shakespeare Festival people about coming on board and doing some work with them. A big part of the hold up has been that I am not looking for full-time, long-term work. When they mentioned they were still looking for a stage manager I balked and said I really wasn't interested. Instead, it looks as though I will be acting as some sort of interim production manager for only a seven week period. Nothing is official yet, but as of our last phone conversation, that seems to be where things are headed.

Next week, Friday, the wife and kids and I head out to Southern California for a week+ vacation. I won't be blogging much at that time...I hope to not be near a computer for the entire week.

I've also recently been approached about potentially working on a Christmas project in Texas this coming holiday season. Christmas in Texas? I gave my standard reply of, "Of course I'm interested, and yes, I'm available at this time, let me know more when you know more."

In the meantime, I haven't been sleeping well lately. This is not usual for me. I love my sleep.

In part, it's because my youngest son has been waking up during the night and coming to me. I can get him back to sleep, but then either I am up for the rest of the night or sleeping fitfully. In fact, in the past five nights, I've had two "nightmares." Now, I don't usually remember my dreams at all, and can't tell you the last time I had a dream that I can recall, but suddenly, in less than a week, I've had two dreams which have left negative impressions on me. What's up?

Clean comedians.

When I was a kid, I remember spending HOURS listening to my parents' albums of comedy ... Bill Cosby, Allan Sherman, The Smothers Brothers, Tom Lehrer, Bob Newhart. To this day I can probably recite most of any of ten records to you.

As my children were watching a DVD of the old FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS television show, I got to think about how much I enjoyed Cosby's albums, so I went to my local library and requested a CD of "The Best of Bill Cosby." My children have had a blast listening to some of Cos' sketches!

Now, way back when, I expect that even Cosby was a little on the risque side. On the CD we have been listening to, we hear him, as "Tonto," telling the Lone Ranger to "go to hell." It's funny, it's part of the joke, but it's a little 'heavy' for my kids. Still, I listened to it when I was about 8, so why not let my kids.

And it got me to thinking about today's comedians. Is there anyone out there that might be comparable to those I mentioned above ... and who's clean? Is there any comedian out there who is funny and who isn't using the "F" word?

I'd love to let my kids listen to something other than what I had 35 years ago, but I'm just not sure what's funny AND clean.

Music? What music?

I had some music blasting in my living room the other day, and I was freely enjoying the composition of sounds when my cat sauntered through the room, making absolutely no sign of recognition that there was anything, any sound, different. I picked him up and held him close to a speaker and still there was no reaction other than that which he normally gives as he doesn't like to be picked up.

I don't think this is unusual behavior for cats (all animals?) and it got me to thinking that perhaps music, the creating and the understanding of and the appreciation of, is what sets man apart from the animal kingdom.

Why is it that an animal that can hear and recognize the distinct "pfft" as the opening of a can of cat food from the complete opposite end of the house, can make no recognition to a blend of music notes? Even my children practicing their piano doesn't make the cat react (and I mention this not because the music is 'bad' necessarily, but for the fact that it is live music, rather than recorded). What is it, then, that puts music apart from other sounds for the animals? Is it, perhaps, too many sounds all at once and so it is ignored?

Do dogs react differently to music? I'm thinking of fictional accounts, such as the recent Harry Potter series, in which at one point during one of the books (I forget which), to get past a nasty three headed dog (I did say this was fiction), music would put the dog to sleep.

William Congreve's often mis-quoted quote "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast" is often used to suggest that wild animals can be calmed with music, but the quote itself, from his play The Mourning Bride is actually used in reference to an inanimate world, and in question, rather than an actual, statement of fact. Here is the entire character's line:

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak. I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd, And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd, By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound. What then am I? Am I more senseless grown Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe! 'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs. Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King; He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom. Why am not I at Peace?

And so, to continue with my thoughts, why don't animals (or my cat leastwise) recognize or appreciate music? Is it, as I suggested, too many sounds at once, conflicting for an animal's attention?

Why do humans enjoy music so much that we often have it playing as background for our daily lives, yet animals seem to not even notice its existence?

Disposable.

In recalling my days in high school, I remember going to parties where groups of us would be gathered around the turn-table, listening to the latest album by Steely Dan or Chicago or some-such. We'd look over the cover and in some cases, check out the lyrics printed inside. When the album was done, we'd slip it back in the stacks, adding it to our collection of great music.

When CDs became the standard, things hadn't changed too much. The printing was smaller and we didn't have to flip the darn thing over to hear the whole "album," but basically it was the same. The CD would display nicely among the collection of music.

Today's youth don't know this feeling.

In today's disposable society, everything is temporary. Music is downloaded in compressed form, stored digitally in a device that is more compact than my wallet, and when the listener is through, the music is deleted and more is downloaded. Quantity and an ever-changing rotation of songs is what is important.

But when you visit a friend's home, how can you check out their music collection? What can you tell about a person simply by seeing an iPod on their coffee table? You can check out how many songs are in their playlist, and maybe the title of a song or two, but that's it.

Same goes for books. How can you check out someone's bookshelf when their books are in digital form as e-books? And what does the reader do when they are done with an e-book? They delete it, as if it doesn't exist except as a memory or something that was once read.

Perhaps it's because I'm a pack rat and I enjoy having my music on a shelf where I can look it over and select the music that fits my mood (or shapes my mood) for the day; and that I proudly display the books that I enjoy reading for every visitor to see, but I don't think I care much for the temporariness in today's pop culture.

Perhaps the entire culture will be tossed aside for something new and the entire digital age will be deleted.

Happy Birthday.

Despite my attempts to keep it at bay, I turn 45 today.

Reading Ionesco.

It has been a terribly long time since I sat down to read Eugene Ionesco simply for pleasure, and by God...I enjoy his writing!

I'm a bit of an Ionesco nerd, having read, researched, and writen about his plays, own copies of some of his hard-to-find children's books, and have a photo of him hanging on the wall next to this desk, so when I came across a collection of his short stories that I had not read, I was quite excited.

So far, I haven't been disappointed. His fiction is crisp (or that of the translator anyway), and the plots are absurd. I would expect nothing less.

I know that Ionesco is not for everyone (in fact, there are likely very few of us in the world who truly enjoy his work this much), but I find something very relaxing in the completely absurd world of Ionesco. Why is that? What is that? Is it simply nostalgia?

Fifth grade basketball.

I watched my daughter play tournament basketball today. My daughter is in fifth grade.

There were only three teams competing at the fifth grade level (twice as many at sixth grade maybe), and one thing was very evident -- my daughter's team doesn't take it nearly as seriously as the other teams. And this is a good thing!

As you might expect, there are some obvious stand-outs on each of the teams -- kids that have some natural talent and ability, and some who need a lot of work. One girl on my daughter's team tends to stand around with her arms folded across her chest. One seems to never know if she's offense or defense from play to play, and one who is generally afraid of handling the ball (my daughter).

But despite all this, all eleven girls on my daughter's team played nearly equal minutes for the entire game. On the two opposing teams, the stand-outs hardly ever sat out. Needless to say, our team got beat pretty badly in each round.

However...! In both games, the score was tied at the half, and it was the second half in which our girls just got worn out. Not surprising ... they only get together once a week, and they either practice, or play a game/tournament. And when they do practice, they only get half the court (sixth grade works the other half), so no surprise that they get worn out in an entire game.

But what I like about the way our coach is handling this is that it gives each of the girls the confidence to play to the best of their ability and to decide if they really like playing. A person who sits on the bench an entire game doesn't know if it's fun playing or not. These girls aren't stupid...they know which girls are the better players and who to get the ball to.

I've seem much improvement in my daughter's playing and confidence since they started. In the past, the few times my daughter ever caught the ball she would simply stand still and look for someone to throw it to. Today I actually saw her dribble a few times, AND dribble through and around coverage...not just taking it down court! I also saw her go after a loose ball and tie up her opponent to force a jump ball. I NEVER would have expected to see her that aggressive at this stage.

For a meek, book-wormish girl, this sporting activity is doing wonders for her esteem and confidence and comraderie. And she's having fun! She talks about it often. Now if the coach were to bench her for all but two minutes or so, she likely wouldn't be interested in continuing. One might think, 'Okay, but would it be so bad if someone who isn't good, quits?' But you really don't know if they might not develop in to someone good, if you don't play them and work with them. Sure, my daughter isn't likely to be the next Lindsay Whalen (UofM star basketball player now in women's pro on the Connecticut Sun WNBA team [and an intentional pun as my wife's maiden name is Whalen]), but she could become a decent support player given the opportunity.

I think about this because I can clearly recall playing basketball as a fifth grader. I was talent-less in sports, but I liked the idea of basketball. But any actual games that we played, I was put in only during the last minute or two of a half, and usually only because the coach had to play everybody. That got only pretty quickly, and I certainly didn't want to continue with it.

Bravo coaches Wade and Benson for encouraging all the girls to play their best!

Painful stupidity.

So...because I'm stupid, I broke my toe this past Saturday. It was me, a door, and some anger. The door won.

While I initially thought that I had broken my toe, after finally removing my shoe late Saturday night (about 15 hours after the door jumped out and got in front of my toe), I decided that the toe wasn't broken, but that my purple and cracked toenail would probably be a goner.

Today, after visiting the doctor, he said, "Well, let's just take a couple of x-rays, just to be sure." When he returned to the room after the x-rays had been taken, I could tell by his question ("Are you in a lot of pain?") that there must be something else going on. He showed me the x-rays and how the bone at the tip of my toe was askew.

Other than some pain reliever, there wasn't much he could do -- he said it might be five weeks before it heals. He offered to get me a "boot" to keep my foot flat so that I wasn't putting pressure on the toe, but did say that it wasn't necessary as long as I was careful with it (and that indeed the boot might be more cumbersome than anything else). I opted for no boot, but will be using a cane when I walk around.

Stupid. Sometimes I'm just stupid.

Recapping January.

I keep a hand-written journal of the books that I've read. On a whim, I decided to make an on-line version of that same journal -- I've found it's much easier to type my thoughts to a blog than it is to sit and write them by hand (though I do still copy the blog to a notebook).

Earlier in January, I thought it might be fun to keep a similar journal for movies I've seen. Being a subscriber to Netflix and having a great many movies available through my local public library, I thought that this might be a fun way to keep track of what I've seen.

And then... well, since I'd seen a few short plays in January, I decided to start a theatre review journal as well. You can see all these other blogs by clicking on the "view my complete profile" at the top of this page.

And now, looking back at these other blogs of mine, I thought I'd pick my favorites....

I didn't finish reading many books in January. This was mostly because of my time involvement with the one-act play at the local high school. And because I didn't get a lot of reading in, my pickings here were rather slim. Based on what I've got in my journal, I'd have to say that the best book that I finished reading in January was The Best American Essays 2004 collection. The fact that a collection, which contained many selections that I didn't particularly care for, was the best read suggests that I didn't fare particularly well with books for the month.

There were many more videos to choose from for my month's best. This too is a result of my busy schedule with the one-act. I found it rather relaxing to come home to unwind by tossing a movie in to the DVD or VCR. I think that the best movie I saw was easily Anatomy of a Murder. This really was quite a well-done film. The acting, the script, the direction, the score were all wonderful. Preminger's The Man With the Golden Arm was also much more enjoyable than I had expected (especially the jazz score!), but my second favorite was most likely a tie between Chocolat and Through a Glass Darkly -- both extremely well done films.

The best theatre I saw was the one-act play, Line by Israel Horovitz. This was well performed. As I mentioned in the theatre journal blog, my problem with Horovitz plays is that I feel he writes stock characters rather than actual people. This worked well, though, for this group of actors.

January seems to have kept me busy, and I can only speculate (and look at my calendar) to see what February holds in store.

Life, art, and the pursuit of the statue.

In a comment to my previous post, Kootch asks the following:

Stix, so how do you feel about things like the Oscars and the
Tony awards? I heard a brief interview with some actor who'd been nominated for an Oscar today, and he said he was hoping it would happen. That seemed odd to me. Shouldn't you always strive to do your best work as an actor, and not be about wanting to be rewarded with a prize?

A good question, and I can honestly say that I don't care much for any of those award shows, for a variety of reasons. I try to tune in to the Tony's when possible, but mostly to see who's working on Broadway and to catch the bits from different shows. (Living in the Midwest, it's about as close as I can get to seeing a Broadway show.)

Yes, doing the best work possible should be enough, and I think there's more validity to an "awards" program in which winners are chosen by the average viewer, but the end goal of a performance or production should not be to bring home the statue.

There is some difference between the Oscar's and the One Act Play Competition (aside from the quality). An Oscar is supposed to be the recognition of an excellent performance by one's peers. I think that this notion has been somewhat lost, and often an award goes to what is "expected" or for a body of work, rather than a specific film. It has become, I believe, very political...in all the worst ways. The OAP contest is grading and comparing talent, with the losers going home. One shot and you're done. Even with other art forms, there are usually other contests you can submit your work to or look for some kind of publishing agreement, or a museum showing. Theatre relies on so many other people that it is difficult to keep them together (especially once they've been told they're not good enough).

Performers certainly like winning the Oscar because it increases their value -- win the award and you can expect to bring home a larger portion of the cash for each film.

The Tony Awards have become almost a joke. The Tony's represent Broadway (with one token award given out to a Regional Theatre for their work in a year), and most people in theatre these days know that the best new works come from the smaller, regional theatres today. They don't start in NY.

In the film and the theatre industries, major awards are generally seen as a cash cow. Win the prestigious award and the film/play has a better life. Not always true, of course, but that's the line of thinking. But even if there are no awards, there is still often a life.

Art as competition.

Perhaps it's just my nerves, worried, anxious for my actors and the one-act play competition coming up this Saturday, but I've been thinking about this contest, and how wrong it seems to me that we "compete" as producers of art.

I understand now why some schools opt not to compete in the One-Act Competition.

By pitting students, plays, schools against one another, are we not sending the wrong message to the students about art? Is art not worth anything on its own, but only "good" when it is successful competitively?

Whatever the outcome on Saturday, I am incredibly proud of these high school students. So many of them have grown so much through the course of these past months as we explored this abbreviated Shakespeare. Some have grown as performers, some in their own self-confidence, some in their appreciation of theatre in general and the Bard, specifically.

Wouldn't it be great, now, if we could put on two or three performances without the pressure of having to do better than another school in order to get the opportunity to keep going?

The whole idea of competition in art is incredibly flawed. Art is subjective, and what one judge likes may be just what another judge dreads to see on a high school stage.

This isn't sports where the winner is clearly the one with the most points ... the points being made in a fashion clearly determined ahead of time.

I vastly disagree with this system -- all of life, all of art is not competition -- but I understand the problems inherent with so many schools all wanting to show off their best attempts at producing "art" by way of theatre. It's too bad that it can't be done in a system similar to the "fringe festivals" -- put all the schools on stages in a downtown area -- let each school do multiple performances, and let the audience choose which shows it wants to see.

Names much?

I've written before about how I enjoy reading more than one book at a time, and really have no problem with it. It's not unusual for me to sit down, read a chapter or two in a book, put the book down and grab a different book to read a chapter or two, or a short story.

But today something strange happened. Something that has never happened to me before in my multi-book reading. I read from three books today, and two of the three books featured a protagonist named Agnes, and the other was primarily about a character named Agatha. ...and I got them confused as I was reading them!

It was definitely a weird sense of "which one is this?" I'd be reading and thinking that this Agnes isn't acting the way I remembered, and then I'd recall this was Agnes, the dead Indian grandmother, and not Agatha, aged Catholic school teacher in Staggerford.

To complicate matters further, all three are older women, two of them in stories that take place in Minnesota (the other San Francisco).

I've vowed not to use the name Agatha or Agnes in any wwriting of mine as long as I remember this incident.

We do this because it's fun!

The young man I've discussed in the previous post has now been replaced. I had a long chat with him yesterday, before rehearsal. Of course he knew it was coming. It's a small community and people talk. He didn't seem too upset by it.

For the sake of the performance, I'm still not convinced it was the right move. My second choice (ONLY choice) for one of the roles has NO experience being on stage...and he's playing "Oberon" in our production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. He's also got a complicated work schedule, preventing him from being at a lot of rehearsals the next two weeks.

The actor that I replaced was playing a double role, also performing as Nick Bottom (the one who turns in to the donkey, for those of you who don't remember the character names). At this point I do not have anyone who is filling that role (though I admit that I have a backup who is ready and willing, just not a great choice).

Oh, and did I mention that we're supposed to perform at a contest this weekend! **That would be the sound of me laughing, snorting Dr. Pepper through my nose, and then choking in to tears that you hear. And no, I didn't have these grey hairs last year, thank you very much!**

Out you go.

I was met at rehearsal yesterday by my entire cast (minus one), where I was expecting only one person. They wanted to talk about the situation with my actor who is leaving after our first competition. It seems they feel he is being selfish to stay, when it will affect some of their other performances (there will be no performance for the school if he is leaving right after our sub-section because we will not have had time to train in a new performer). The rest of the cast has asked that I remove the young man from the show and put new people in place. They came up with a number of suggestions for the other parts.

While I still feel that the young man in question is indeed the best person for the role(s), I admire the unity that the rest of the cast has, and their desire to go all or nothing with a "company" that is together.

Networking.

In the short time that I've been happily unemployed, I've been busy networking. This year already I have had a chat with the director of the Great River Shakespeare Festival, spoken with the head of the theatre department at Winona State University were we are trying to work out arrangements to teach occassionally as an adjunct, gotten a lead on a temporary position at Viterbo University, and stopped in to chat with faculty at St.Mary's University regarding my future teaching there as well.

Strange though it may sound, I enjoy the networking and the possibility of short-term work. I am just not the kind of person who can do the same grind, especially behind a desk, day in and day out. I prefer variety.

I believe that I have also already done more writing in the past week than I did the entire year I was working (which is to say that I did not do much writing last year, and not that I've written volumes in the past seven days).

For all of this, life is good.

Emotional exhaustion.

I came home from rehearsal late last night, and headed straight for my son who had forgotten to do his homework in the afternoon. We sat up until he finished what he could, and then I crashed on my couch.

I have been incredibly tired the past couple of days, but I've decided that it's not a physical tiredness, but an emotional one. The one act play is draining me. Sapping my energy. I struggle to get through it, and to not let the kids see that it is pulling me down.

Running in place.

For every positive step I take in life, there seems to be an equal amount of counterforce pushing me back.

I had a moderately successful day today finding some "missing" costume pieces for the cast of the one act play that I am directing, along with a donkey head, which I had begun to worry about. And so I went in to today's rehearsal feeling good, but before I could get in to the auditorium itself, my lead actor (who is playing TWO major roles) tells me that he is definitely transferring to another school after our first competition.

A part of me just wanted to scrap the whole thing, but there are too many kids who have worked too hard on this already, so after rehearsal I told them of the situation. They all seem a little down, but rather than give in or give up, they began to brainstorm to see if there was anyone they might know that they could ask to step in to the role on the chance that we move on in competition.

What a damned frustration, though, let me tell you!

Party in the New Year.

I've started the year well, I think, by attending a party at the home of the Dean of the Arts for the School of the Arts at Saint Mary's University in Winona. It was a relaxing party, even though the President of the university was there as well.

Mostly this was a way for me to stay in contact with these people, as I hope to be teaching one class there sometime in the not too distant future.

Happy New Year

Although there really is little difference between one day and the next, thanks to our system of time measurement and calendars, the New Year produces the psychological effect of having the opportunity to start fresh. We could choose ANY day to say, "On this date I'm going to start..." and certainly some people do, but New Year's has become the popular date for new vows and good intentions.

This is even more of a "new" start for me as I am officially unemployed again. Unemployed by my own choice. Does this mean I'll spend a lot of time blogging? I hope not. I have other goals and intentions to focus on. I'd rather not go into what those are right here, I generally don't like to discuss my projects before-hand.

I hope you all have a great, new year, and that all of your goals and resolutions come through for you.