As allued to in the last post, I decided this morning to do more than pull out the clippers and I pulled out the razor.
I walked into the office this morning and a coworker took one look at me and gave me a big hug, saying "Yeah! Sometimes you gotta take life by the horns, baby!"
All I could mutter was "Um... thanks, Bob."
Friday, May 26, 2006
straining at the bit
Each part of the creation process has its own joys and frustrations. This is the point in which I want to run before we walk. The actors are doing a fantastic job in finding the core of each scene, but it's too early to delve into truly shaping the scenes the way I'd like to. Until an actor is off book and ready to move around and think more about the moment (or not think, just do), there's only so much direction I feel I can give them. Some directors are all about spending hours doing various exercises to find new things and explore possibilities and what not. I'm not really one of those. I have a pretty good idea about what I want. The trick is to let myself be surprised into something better than what I want. How to direct, while allowing for surprise, but moving them towards the play as I see it, and yet being open to something larger than my original vision... that's something I continue to struggle with.
In the meanwhile, I watch the actors pass over the scenes, over and over, each time growing a bit more into these characters, and eagerly await the chance to throw the scripts down and start living the moments versus reading them. It's like wanting to get married when you're really just starting to date. The excitement of the vision of what is to come is just too compelling, but it needs to be resisted.
We should be off book in ten days, though, and at that point we'll move into the Cassandra's Call Rehearsal Room, with all of our set pieces and props. Gabrielle Guthrie, our costumer and artist, will join us and we'll start to get a sense of how these characters look, and that will influence how they move and feel as well.
In the meantime, I'll be starting yet another project with Diana Brown. We'll be doing short video segments for the Mondo Global Network on local comedians, and also doing longer audio interviews with them for a yet unnamed Cassandra's Call talk show podcast.
Oh, and I shaved my head today. I look like a kinder, gentler Lex Luthor.
In the meanwhile, I watch the actors pass over the scenes, over and over, each time growing a bit more into these characters, and eagerly await the chance to throw the scripts down and start living the moments versus reading them. It's like wanting to get married when you're really just starting to date. The excitement of the vision of what is to come is just too compelling, but it needs to be resisted.
We should be off book in ten days, though, and at that point we'll move into the Cassandra's Call Rehearsal Room, with all of our set pieces and props. Gabrielle Guthrie, our costumer and artist, will join us and we'll start to get a sense of how these characters look, and that will influence how they move and feel as well.
In the meantime, I'll be starting yet another project with Diana Brown. We'll be doing short video segments for the Mondo Global Network on local comedians, and also doing longer audio interviews with them for a yet unnamed Cassandra's Call talk show podcast.
Oh, and I shaved my head today. I look like a kinder, gentler Lex Luthor.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Delayed Beginnings
Rehearsals for Vagina Dentata began last week, although the real work begins tonight. We had an opening rehearsal party on Monday since most of the cast don't really know each other. We were short one actor, however, as I hadn't cast the final role yet. I wouldn't have the role of "Stephanie" cast until the middle of the week, since we had lost one actor and shifted roles for another. Here's a little peek behind the curtain of the magic and glamour of theatre. One actor is only available once a week due to a show that she's doing down in San Jose. We don't get her full time for another week or so. One actor is working nights doing drama therapy at a local prison on Tuesday nights, so she's gone. One actor hadn't been cast yet and was closing a show last weekend, so once she was cast she wasn't able to start immediately. Add to that the usual cast conflicts that come up, especially at the early part of a rehearsal run, we only had one rehearsal last week.
Normally, this would bother me, but with this cast I have no doubts that we can turn out a damn good show with only four weeks of rehearsal. It's partly the danger of casting a lot of very talented, working actors and also something that is more likely to happen when you write a show in which almost everyone gets equal stage time.
Still, I used my time to enjoy what free time I still have. I caught the new show (Roulette) at the SF Playhouse on Wednesday and quite liked it, although it felt like the author had built a really sold first act and then found that he had a fifteen minute second act and tried to fill forty minutes with it. Well acted, but I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere and it kind of danced around in circles. It was the second show I'd seen recently in which madness and insane rambling played a significant role and I am struck by how much a little can go a long way. It's a device I used myself way back in "In a Distant Country", although I was careful to keep it to a minimum. A three page scene can sustain that kind of dialogue a lot easier than a twenty page scene can.
I was able to catch the closing weekend of Dylan Russel's show "World Music" over at Theatre First on Saturday, which was a rare treat as it's one of the very few theatres based in Oakland. It's so odd to be able to walk to the theatre and not have to worry about catching BART afterwards. An excellent and emotionally gripping show about war, atrocity, conscience and personal blindness that reminded me thematically of "Small Tragedies", despite the fact that in every other way they were very different shows. The two shows are a good example of how the same themes can be treated in radically different ways and that two authors tackling the same issues will tell two very different stories.
Sunday night brought another RadioStar recording session, and our first live performance. Lila Theatre has a monthly improv showcase called Tememos and they asked us to come and open the show this month. It was our first time setting up the equipment and doing our thing in front of a live audience, although all of us have countless hours in front of audiences. The impact of the microphones on the audience and the audience on us was fascinating. They were clearly stifling their laughter, emitting titters and chocking down responses out of fear of ruining the recording, and we went a bit more for the jokes, working the audience, than we do when in the studio. Old stage habits began to creep into the show, so it'll be interesting to hear how it plays as pure audio.
I did have a bit of a shock yesterday when I got into the studio last night to find that one of my renters had smashed up against the Pharmarsupial poster and broken the frame... and not left a note or anything. I really don't want to start getting kindergarten teacher on people, but if I have to make everyone put their heads on the desk and raise their hand if they did it, I will.
Postcards for Vagina Dentata and viral cards for RadioStar are at the printers and should be in my hands this week. The PR push has begun and I need to send out the 4 week press releases today.
Normally, this would bother me, but with this cast I have no doubts that we can turn out a damn good show with only four weeks of rehearsal. It's partly the danger of casting a lot of very talented, working actors and also something that is more likely to happen when you write a show in which almost everyone gets equal stage time.
Still, I used my time to enjoy what free time I still have. I caught the new show (Roulette) at the SF Playhouse on Wednesday and quite liked it, although it felt like the author had built a really sold first act and then found that he had a fifteen minute second act and tried to fill forty minutes with it. Well acted, but I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere and it kind of danced around in circles. It was the second show I'd seen recently in which madness and insane rambling played a significant role and I am struck by how much a little can go a long way. It's a device I used myself way back in "In a Distant Country", although I was careful to keep it to a minimum. A three page scene can sustain that kind of dialogue a lot easier than a twenty page scene can.
I was able to catch the closing weekend of Dylan Russel's show "World Music" over at Theatre First on Saturday, which was a rare treat as it's one of the very few theatres based in Oakland. It's so odd to be able to walk to the theatre and not have to worry about catching BART afterwards. An excellent and emotionally gripping show about war, atrocity, conscience and personal blindness that reminded me thematically of "Small Tragedies", despite the fact that in every other way they were very different shows. The two shows are a good example of how the same themes can be treated in radically different ways and that two authors tackling the same issues will tell two very different stories.
Sunday night brought another RadioStar recording session, and our first live performance. Lila Theatre has a monthly improv showcase called Tememos and they asked us to come and open the show this month. It was our first time setting up the equipment and doing our thing in front of a live audience, although all of us have countless hours in front of audiences. The impact of the microphones on the audience and the audience on us was fascinating. They were clearly stifling their laughter, emitting titters and chocking down responses out of fear of ruining the recording, and we went a bit more for the jokes, working the audience, than we do when in the studio. Old stage habits began to creep into the show, so it'll be interesting to hear how it plays as pure audio.
I did have a bit of a shock yesterday when I got into the studio last night to find that one of my renters had smashed up against the Pharmarsupial poster and broken the frame... and not left a note or anything. I really don't want to start getting kindergarten teacher on people, but if I have to make everyone put their heads on the desk and raise their hand if they did it, I will.
Postcards for Vagina Dentata and viral cards for RadioStar are at the printers and should be in my hands this week. The PR push has begun and I need to send out the 4 week press releases today.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Yo, Semite!
This weekend was spent up in Yosemite with a bunch of yahoos. It was David Austin-Groen's birthday, so it was decided to do a guy's only camping weekend. Now, short of Burning Man, I haven't been tent camping since high school. As a child, we used to go to Little Grass Valley every summer, but even that usually involved a camper or trailer of some kind. I'm not much of an outdoors person. Allergies combined with a tendency to sunburn like an albino hairless rat under a radiation lamp have led me to pursue activities that involve shade and filtered air.
The ride up was spent talking a blue streak with Chris DeJong about Radiostar and some other projects that we've worked on. I remember the trip camping to be much longer, but we left early enough to get to the park in extremely good time. Everything about Yosemite reminded me of childhood. The continual presence of dust and pollen in the air gives everything a very particular quality. It's like everything is viewed through a camera filter and symbolizes the *past*.
A lot has changed since those halcyon days, though. For one, the tents have been vastly improved. Even with instructions that made no sense, had you put things together in the wrong order, and referenced parts that didn't exist, I had my new dome from Amazon.com up and groovy in minutes. Back in the Boy Scouts, getting a tent up was a major endeavor. If only we had modern technology back then. Of course my old "mummy bag" sleeping bag from back then still works like a charm.
The food was much better than camping in the past. Everyone was responsible for a meal, and everyone came with goodies. Eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, sausage, deli sandwiches, pasta, kebabs... we ate better than we do at home.
I certainly got more sun and exercise than I do at home. We went on what looked to be an innocuous mile hike at Vernal Falls, but failed to account for the fact that it was also a 1000 foot ascent, with one section of it dominated by ice cold spray that soaked every last one of us to the bone. The view from the top was phenomenal, but I was a bit focused at first on my own shivering, and then my fear that I had somehow gotten violently sunburned on my left hand. After a moment, I realized that the old tye dye shirt I was wearing was bleeding dye all over me. The shirt was a costume piece from a show I did years ago and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be waterfall safe.
All in all, I learned some very important things during this weekend. First and foremost, turning Settlers of Catan into a drinking game is a very dangerous thing to attempt. Chris won, but I don't know how or when. I was constantly four steps behind everyone else. We tried it again the next night with Jack Daniels instead of good tequila and I learned that I am NOT a Jack fan. Ugh.
Not all things consumed were to my detriment, though. Zack Stern had some fancy schmancy allergy meds that he let me try that performed miracles on my beleaguered sinuses. I was breathing easy despite the constant layer of tree pollen that covered everything like a sugar donut of snot doom. Bless the man. Bless him mightily.
All in all, a good weekend and great way to spend my last weekend before Vagina Dentata consumes my life.
The ride up was spent talking a blue streak with Chris DeJong about Radiostar and some other projects that we've worked on. I remember the trip camping to be much longer, but we left early enough to get to the park in extremely good time. Everything about Yosemite reminded me of childhood. The continual presence of dust and pollen in the air gives everything a very particular quality. It's like everything is viewed through a camera filter and symbolizes the *past*.
A lot has changed since those halcyon days, though. For one, the tents have been vastly improved. Even with instructions that made no sense, had you put things together in the wrong order, and referenced parts that didn't exist, I had my new dome from Amazon.com up and groovy in minutes. Back in the Boy Scouts, getting a tent up was a major endeavor. If only we had modern technology back then. Of course my old "mummy bag" sleeping bag from back then still works like a charm.
The food was much better than camping in the past. Everyone was responsible for a meal, and everyone came with goodies. Eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, sausage, deli sandwiches, pasta, kebabs... we ate better than we do at home.
I certainly got more sun and exercise than I do at home. We went on what looked to be an innocuous mile hike at Vernal Falls, but failed to account for the fact that it was also a 1000 foot ascent, with one section of it dominated by ice cold spray that soaked every last one of us to the bone. The view from the top was phenomenal, but I was a bit focused at first on my own shivering, and then my fear that I had somehow gotten violently sunburned on my left hand. After a moment, I realized that the old tye dye shirt I was wearing was bleeding dye all over me. The shirt was a costume piece from a show I did years ago and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be waterfall safe.
All in all, I learned some very important things during this weekend. First and foremost, turning Settlers of Catan into a drinking game is a very dangerous thing to attempt. Chris won, but I don't know how or when. I was constantly four steps behind everyone else. We tried it again the next night with Jack Daniels instead of good tequila and I learned that I am NOT a Jack fan. Ugh.
Not all things consumed were to my detriment, though. Zack Stern had some fancy schmancy allergy meds that he let me try that performed miracles on my beleaguered sinuses. I was breathing easy despite the constant layer of tree pollen that covered everything like a sugar donut of snot doom. Bless the man. Bless him mightily.
All in all, a good weekend and great way to spend my last weekend before Vagina Dentata consumes my life.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Many stories
I am more and more reminded of the incredible vibrancy of the local arts scene, and how unknown it is to much of this area's population. I saw four different shows this weekend, each wildly different from the last, and most with shocking low audience turnout.
Thursday I went to go see Cassidy Brown in Noises Off, out in Concord. A fun show, and one that I feel close to having been in a very difficult and story laden production back when I was first getting involved in theatre after my long hiatus. They were having an extension of the production, which is always difficult as you've been doing good enough business to warrant it, but it's not announced until late and so the PR is difficult to get out. Still for a Thursday night, it was all right. But then again, it was a Thursday night, and it was in the suburbs, and well known farces do very well out there. This particular company has done the show three times in the last ten years, which is highly unusual and bespeaks how financially safe it is to do what is actually a very difficult and expensive show. Afterwards we went out to what used to be the "King's X" bar in Piedmont, but was recently bought and turned into (of all things) a tiki bar. It was worth the trip, if only for the surrealness of it.
Friday night I met up with Eden Tosh and one of the best loved ladies that you will never see on stage, Peggy Powell. We met up over at Foley's Irish House before bopping over to the Exit Theatre for their annual DivaFest. I had done a few shows with the amazing "Lunatique Fantastique" years before and was eager to see their newest show, "Beauty and the Breast". For those uninitiated, Lun Fan does "found object puppetry." This mean that all the puppets and their props are items you would find around the house. The primary characters were bras. I don't mean that they had bras, they WERE bras. Ordinary bras you would find in any store that sold things like bras. Funny, truthful, and at times very sad (as a show about surviving... or not ... breast cancer should be). Again, a very small turnout for a company that routinely sells out its shows.
It turns out that Sarah Szewczyk was doing lights for the show, but I failed to return to her the stack of lighting gels that have been at my apartment since Manumission closed last October. She's been busy as hell, as talented lighting designers tend to be. I was able to join most of the Lunatique Fantastique crew for drinks at Original Joe's afterwards, prompting Eden's observation that all I do is go see plays and drink afterwards. Peggy, said that this was rather the whole point of theatre but then had to beg off the drinking part. So I traded off one set of lovely drinking partners for another and caught up with Robin Plutchok, who I hadn't really seen for more than a heartbeat since we did Fixed Boundary together two years earlier.
It turned out that there was a cabaret at Original Joe's that night, which was part of DivaFest. Having run into Amanda Ostermeyer (the power behind the throne at the Exit) and Christina Aguello, I felt it would be impolitic not to stay for the show and ended up running into a couple of strays. Kimberly Richards, who has been touring the country with her one-woman show "Late Night Catechism" showed up, as did the brilliantly deranged Thessaly Lerner who vanished Los Angeles-way a few years ago. It appeared to be a homecoming, and we all sat back for a somewhat slapdash (but surprisingly fun) cabaret celebrating San Francisco 06's, starting with the earthquake a century ago. It was one of those affairs that rode on goodwill and fun and enthusiasm more than any particular polish, rehearsal, or whatnot, and managed to succeed wildly on those credentials.
Finally, last night I caught "Money and Run, Episode 4" out at La Val's Pizzeria in Berkeley, which has a theatre downstairs. Impact Theatre is the current resident company, and I had seen the original three episodes of Money and Run two years ago. These are insane, delightful, funny as hell, and completely pointless homages to bad television of the early 80's. The original run was wildly popular and always well attended, so I was surprised to see that the theatre was barely a quarter fill, and it's a very small venue. A funny show with a great cast deserves better than that. Ãœberhot Alexandra Creighton once again is playing bad-girl "Money", and I try never to miss a show of hers if I can help it. We did Comedy of Errors a ways back and she's a rising star that we're going to be losing to So Cal fairly soon. Leon Goertzen and Hector Osario had joined the cast, which completed what Peggy has begun referring to as my requirement for seeing a show... knowing at least three people in the cast and crew.
And afterwards we all got drinks.
I may go back for closing night and the party, as the rest of the cast decided that I should be their groupie, and when a bevy of women makes such a proclamation... who am I to argue?
Thursday I went to go see Cassidy Brown in Noises Off, out in Concord. A fun show, and one that I feel close to having been in a very difficult and story laden production back when I was first getting involved in theatre after my long hiatus. They were having an extension of the production, which is always difficult as you've been doing good enough business to warrant it, but it's not announced until late and so the PR is difficult to get out. Still for a Thursday night, it was all right. But then again, it was a Thursday night, and it was in the suburbs, and well known farces do very well out there. This particular company has done the show three times in the last ten years, which is highly unusual and bespeaks how financially safe it is to do what is actually a very difficult and expensive show. Afterwards we went out to what used to be the "King's X" bar in Piedmont, but was recently bought and turned into (of all things) a tiki bar. It was worth the trip, if only for the surrealness of it.
Friday night I met up with Eden Tosh and one of the best loved ladies that you will never see on stage, Peggy Powell. We met up over at Foley's Irish House before bopping over to the Exit Theatre for their annual DivaFest. I had done a few shows with the amazing "Lunatique Fantastique" years before and was eager to see their newest show, "Beauty and the Breast". For those uninitiated, Lun Fan does "found object puppetry." This mean that all the puppets and their props are items you would find around the house. The primary characters were bras. I don't mean that they had bras, they WERE bras. Ordinary bras you would find in any store that sold things like bras. Funny, truthful, and at times very sad (as a show about surviving... or not ... breast cancer should be). Again, a very small turnout for a company that routinely sells out its shows.
It turns out that Sarah Szewczyk was doing lights for the show, but I failed to return to her the stack of lighting gels that have been at my apartment since Manumission closed last October. She's been busy as hell, as talented lighting designers tend to be. I was able to join most of the Lunatique Fantastique crew for drinks at Original Joe's afterwards, prompting Eden's observation that all I do is go see plays and drink afterwards. Peggy, said that this was rather the whole point of theatre but then had to beg off the drinking part. So I traded off one set of lovely drinking partners for another and caught up with Robin Plutchok, who I hadn't really seen for more than a heartbeat since we did Fixed Boundary together two years earlier.
It turned out that there was a cabaret at Original Joe's that night, which was part of DivaFest. Having run into Amanda Ostermeyer (the power behind the throne at the Exit) and Christina Aguello, I felt it would be impolitic not to stay for the show and ended up running into a couple of strays. Kimberly Richards, who has been touring the country with her one-woman show "Late Night Catechism" showed up, as did the brilliantly deranged Thessaly Lerner who vanished Los Angeles-way a few years ago. It appeared to be a homecoming, and we all sat back for a somewhat slapdash (but surprisingly fun) cabaret celebrating San Francisco 06's, starting with the earthquake a century ago. It was one of those affairs that rode on goodwill and fun and enthusiasm more than any particular polish, rehearsal, or whatnot, and managed to succeed wildly on those credentials.
Finally, last night I caught "Money and Run, Episode 4" out at La Val's Pizzeria in Berkeley, which has a theatre downstairs. Impact Theatre is the current resident company, and I had seen the original three episodes of Money and Run two years ago. These are insane, delightful, funny as hell, and completely pointless homages to bad television of the early 80's. The original run was wildly popular and always well attended, so I was surprised to see that the theatre was barely a quarter fill, and it's a very small venue. A funny show with a great cast deserves better than that. Ãœberhot Alexandra Creighton once again is playing bad-girl "Money", and I try never to miss a show of hers if I can help it. We did Comedy of Errors a ways back and she's a rising star that we're going to be losing to So Cal fairly soon. Leon Goertzen and Hector Osario had joined the cast, which completed what Peggy has begun referring to as my requirement for seeing a show... knowing at least three people in the cast and crew.
And afterwards we all got drinks.
I may go back for closing night and the party, as the rest of the cast decided that I should be their groupie, and when a bevy of women makes such a proclamation... who am I to argue?
Thursday, May 04, 2006
My words
I went to go see a show at one of the larger professional companies out in the East Bay tonight. A friend of mine is in the cast, and is also the casting director out there. He also lives nearby, which means that I can usually get a ride home afterwards. Huzzah! The show was quite good, but what tickled me the most was finding out that someone had recently auditioned there, using one of my monologues. He wasn't there for the audition, but the auditor afterwards mentioned that someone had done a really hilarious monologue from some new play called "Vagina Dentata." I'm assuming it's someone in the cast, although I've sent out enough copies to other actors in the area for feedback that it could have been any number of people. I think it's the nicest affirmation of my writing that I could ask for, that someone would choose a monologue from it to use as an audition piece.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
originality
The problem is originality.
When Joseph Maurer (yes, I'm dispensing with the nicknames. These are people you should know about, if you don't already) left for Canada, he left me a ton of comic books. He had exquisite taste in what he kept and it didn't make sense to just dump them. I'm talking original issues of Sandman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, and a slew of more obscure titles. So it was that I just finished reading Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man.
As I reached the end of his twenty six issue run, I felt a great frustration inside of me. What he had done with Animal Man was very much like what I am doing with my SF Fringe Festival show, "Get it? Got it. Good!"
Sure, the devices he employs are different, and the message he conveys is different, but the tool of deconstruction is very similar. In both this run of comics and my play, we pull the curtain aside and reveal the gods of the medium and comment on that role and on the work of artistic creation. He uses it to complain about his limitations as a writer and his own beliefs (which he had made exquisitely clear in the course of his narratives). I use it to make statements about value judgments and our own empowerment and liberation from other people's decisions about what is good (and good for us).
So, what's my problem? It's simply that I thought I was being very daring and breaking all these narrative rules... and that Grant Morrison had done it years and years earlier. I didn't know this when I wrote the play, but that doesn't make me much happier. People who see the play, if they are comics literate, may sit there and think "oh, he's doing the Grant Morrison Animal Man thing".
I had a similar situation when I created a Flash-based-choose-your-own-adventure story for Matt Quinn's nascent internet entertainment company "MuseRealm" just before the dot bomb. I had created what I felt was a clever and original story involving a psychic assassin who could only impact things within his line of sight. His trick was to be able to telekinetically squeeze a target's heart and induce a fatal heart attack. Completely untraceable and indistinguishable from a naturally occurring death. The dot bomb happened, I never finished the piece (although it's literally only a few hours work from being done), and it has sat on my hard drive ever since. Fast forward five or six years and I am persuaded by a friend to put Babylon 5 on my Netflix queue. I watch the first season and discover a lengthy discussion of how the government is trying to develop a telekinetic who could kill someone by squeezing their heart... and that psychics can only operate within line of sight.
Fuck me.
My little interactive story will never see light of day, because an idea that I had in the late 90's had already been done on national television and I had never known it. Suddenly my little project began to look like a rip off of Babylon 5. Sure, it was developed without any knowledge of the other project, but again... that doesn't change audience perception. It's all a question of what the audience sees first.
Ultimately, does it really matter? A good story is a good story, even if parts of it seem oddly familiar. But recent news stories about a young author that (possibly unintentionally) plagiarized another novel make me think otherwise. Ostensibly, a novel she had read years earlier had so firmly set itself in her subconscious that when she attempted her own novel, up to 24 different passages had an eerie similarity to the other work. Similar enough to create an international literary incident and get her novel pulled from the shelves.
Now what strikes me as particularly interesting is that narrative structure is more volatile than raw ideas. If I wrote a story with laser swords and a Buddhistic energy field that bound the universe together, I might not be sued for ripping off Star Wars... but readers might roll their eyes a bit. But if my dialog sounded similar to lines in the film, then there might be a copyright infringement lawsuit.
At what point does it cease to be a matter of similar inspiration, drawing from the same literary tradition, or tapping into related cultural mindsets... and become plagiarism? Where is the line between two people coming up with the same idea and copying an encyclopedia article, but rephrasing it for a paper? I know I did that back in Junior High, and how many college and grad school papers are simply the regurgitating of multiple sources into a newly phrased (and heavily annotated) whole?
Identical originality, plagiarism, and academic research. They are different, but how does the end audience tell the difference? This is a question for lawyers, but it vexes me all the same. Every time I commit a new idea of mine to paper, and then find out months or years later that someone else pulled the same rabbit out of a different colored hat, it makes me wonder.
Do I really have anything original to say? Or is it just a matter of me getting to an audience first?
When Joseph Maurer (yes, I'm dispensing with the nicknames. These are people you should know about, if you don't already) left for Canada, he left me a ton of comic books. He had exquisite taste in what he kept and it didn't make sense to just dump them. I'm talking original issues of Sandman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, and a slew of more obscure titles. So it was that I just finished reading Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man.
As I reached the end of his twenty six issue run, I felt a great frustration inside of me. What he had done with Animal Man was very much like what I am doing with my SF Fringe Festival show, "Get it? Got it. Good!"
Sure, the devices he employs are different, and the message he conveys is different, but the tool of deconstruction is very similar. In both this run of comics and my play, we pull the curtain aside and reveal the gods of the medium and comment on that role and on the work of artistic creation. He uses it to complain about his limitations as a writer and his own beliefs (which he had made exquisitely clear in the course of his narratives). I use it to make statements about value judgments and our own empowerment and liberation from other people's decisions about what is good (and good for us).
So, what's my problem? It's simply that I thought I was being very daring and breaking all these narrative rules... and that Grant Morrison had done it years and years earlier. I didn't know this when I wrote the play, but that doesn't make me much happier. People who see the play, if they are comics literate, may sit there and think "oh, he's doing the Grant Morrison Animal Man thing".
I had a similar situation when I created a Flash-based-choose-your-own-adventure story for Matt Quinn's nascent internet entertainment company "MuseRealm" just before the dot bomb. I had created what I felt was a clever and original story involving a psychic assassin who could only impact things within his line of sight. His trick was to be able to telekinetically squeeze a target's heart and induce a fatal heart attack. Completely untraceable and indistinguishable from a naturally occurring death. The dot bomb happened, I never finished the piece (although it's literally only a few hours work from being done), and it has sat on my hard drive ever since. Fast forward five or six years and I am persuaded by a friend to put Babylon 5 on my Netflix queue. I watch the first season and discover a lengthy discussion of how the government is trying to develop a telekinetic who could kill someone by squeezing their heart... and that psychics can only operate within line of sight.
Fuck me.
My little interactive story will never see light of day, because an idea that I had in the late 90's had already been done on national television and I had never known it. Suddenly my little project began to look like a rip off of Babylon 5. Sure, it was developed without any knowledge of the other project, but again... that doesn't change audience perception. It's all a question of what the audience sees first.
Ultimately, does it really matter? A good story is a good story, even if parts of it seem oddly familiar. But recent news stories about a young author that (possibly unintentionally) plagiarized another novel make me think otherwise. Ostensibly, a novel she had read years earlier had so firmly set itself in her subconscious that when she attempted her own novel, up to 24 different passages had an eerie similarity to the other work. Similar enough to create an international literary incident and get her novel pulled from the shelves.
Now what strikes me as particularly interesting is that narrative structure is more volatile than raw ideas. If I wrote a story with laser swords and a Buddhistic energy field that bound the universe together, I might not be sued for ripping off Star Wars... but readers might roll their eyes a bit. But if my dialog sounded similar to lines in the film, then there might be a copyright infringement lawsuit.
At what point does it cease to be a matter of similar inspiration, drawing from the same literary tradition, or tapping into related cultural mindsets... and become plagiarism? Where is the line between two people coming up with the same idea and copying an encyclopedia article, but rephrasing it for a paper? I know I did that back in Junior High, and how many college and grad school papers are simply the regurgitating of multiple sources into a newly phrased (and heavily annotated) whole?
Identical originality, plagiarism, and academic research. They are different, but how does the end audience tell the difference? This is a question for lawyers, but it vexes me all the same. Every time I commit a new idea of mine to paper, and then find out months or years later that someone else pulled the same rabbit out of a different colored hat, it makes me wonder.
Do I really have anything original to say? Or is it just a matter of me getting to an audience first?
Friday, April 28, 2006
Danger of the internet
The problem with the internet is that I keep stumbling across things like this.
Ok, that's not so much a bad thing, as a really fucking cool thing. I think I heart Sarah Silverman.
I'm lacking any real news lately. I've started working on chapter five of the novel. This is turning into a fun part of the story and I'm looking forward to getting back on BART, as it's the only time I really have to write.
Still looking for my final performer for Vagina Dentata. We start rehearsals in a couple of weeks and I really want to have as many details finalized as possible before we get going. It's such a difficult schedule, since the script is an ensemble piece and the cast is so busy with projects. I won't have a definite confirmation from Gypsy on doing costumes until we start with the cast, and that makes me a little edgy. Fortunately, we'll be re-using sections of the set of "Papa", so I don't need to stress over the set overmuch. Same deal with lights.
In a lot of ways, this show is going to require less of me organizationally because of the shared nature of the work environment and the lack of Equity involvement. I say this now, but in a month I'll have people hiding sharp objects when I'm in the room.
Other interesting events in my glamorous life include waking up this morning to an overflowing toilet. There's nothing like standing in poo-water to get the day off right. On the plus side, I needed to scrub down the entire bathroom with Comet anyway.
Ok, that's not so much a bad thing, as a really fucking cool thing. I think I heart Sarah Silverman.
I'm lacking any real news lately. I've started working on chapter five of the novel. This is turning into a fun part of the story and I'm looking forward to getting back on BART, as it's the only time I really have to write.
Still looking for my final performer for Vagina Dentata. We start rehearsals in a couple of weeks and I really want to have as many details finalized as possible before we get going. It's such a difficult schedule, since the script is an ensemble piece and the cast is so busy with projects. I won't have a definite confirmation from Gypsy on doing costumes until we start with the cast, and that makes me a little edgy. Fortunately, we'll be re-using sections of the set of "Papa", so I don't need to stress over the set overmuch. Same deal with lights.
In a lot of ways, this show is going to require less of me organizationally because of the shared nature of the work environment and the lack of Equity involvement. I say this now, but in a month I'll have people hiding sharp objects when I'm in the room.
Other interesting events in my glamorous life include waking up this morning to an overflowing toilet. There's nothing like standing in poo-water to get the day off right. On the plus side, I needed to scrub down the entire bathroom with Comet anyway.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Spring
I hear the birds singing of life and joy
While the sun touches me like a lover
The mild and gentle breeze kisses my skin
And I look upon the flowers in bloom
Thinking
"God Damn dickless shit eaters"
And then I grab a Kleenex
While the sun touches me like a lover
The mild and gentle breeze kisses my skin
And I look upon the flowers in bloom
Thinking
"God Damn dickless shit eaters"
And then I grab a Kleenex
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Meme
I'm not one to propogate memes, but after both Art Girl and Gentle Wind did Googlisms on their names, I felt the need to participate.
It seems...
dan wilson is having a sensational season because he is sharing more playing time with his backup
dan wilson is becoming executive vice president and chief financial officer for a joint venture
dan wilson is the information systems coordinator for the california school leadership academy*
dan wilson is one of azusa pacific's top true freshman
dan wilson is held in high esteem
dan wilson is very nice
dan wilson is a solid catcher with potential as a hitter
dan wilson is treasurer of parma city schools
dan wilson is a comedic force to be reckoned with
dan wilson is a consummate actor appearing in motion pictures and in theaters across the country**
dan wilson is underrated
dan wilson is one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball
dan wilson is one of the funniest standups working today
dan wilson is one of very few believable minneapolis songwriters
dan wilson is promising a fun time
dan wilson is less a hopeless romantic than a romantic fatalist
dan wilson is the campaigns & community relations secretary for this year
dan wilson is a materials engineering technician with the wes structures laboratory
dan wilson is the acsi international student ministries short term mission facilitator for russia
dan wilson is so cute
dan wilson is a solid veteran but not much of a threat at the plate
dan wilson is an ordained elder and conference member of the united methodist church
dan wilson is the singer of semisonic
dan wilson is warning of highway and rail blockades in the bc interior if there are any deaths or injuries in the dispute
dan wilson is by far the dreamiest man alive***
dan wilson is patently all about biology
dan wilson is probably the weakest link in the starting lineup****
dan wilson is a vice
dan wilson is hanging in there but soon his defense will deteriorate with advancing age
dan wilson is feeling strangely fine
dan wilson is nothing less than a pleasure
dan wilson is currently the facility manager at the large geotechnical centrifuge
dan wilson is an attorney who represents the group in meetings with politicians and business leaders
dan wilson is more than just a james van der beek*****
*this is actually me, although CSLA no longer exists. :-(
** Also me! I love it when other people shill for me.
*** obviously me as well, but who on earth wrote that?
**** oh god, it's true!
***** damn straight!
It seems...
dan wilson is having a sensational season because he is sharing more playing time with his backup
dan wilson is becoming executive vice president and chief financial officer for a joint venture
dan wilson is the information systems coordinator for the california school leadership academy*
dan wilson is one of azusa pacific's top true freshman
dan wilson is held in high esteem
dan wilson is very nice
dan wilson is a solid catcher with potential as a hitter
dan wilson is treasurer of parma city schools
dan wilson is a comedic force to be reckoned with
dan wilson is a consummate actor appearing in motion pictures and in theaters across the country**
dan wilson is underrated
dan wilson is one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball
dan wilson is one of the funniest standups working today
dan wilson is one of very few believable minneapolis songwriters
dan wilson is promising a fun time
dan wilson is less a hopeless romantic than a romantic fatalist
dan wilson is the campaigns & community relations secretary for this year
dan wilson is a materials engineering technician with the wes structures laboratory
dan wilson is the acsi international student ministries short term mission facilitator for russia
dan wilson is so cute
dan wilson is a solid veteran but not much of a threat at the plate
dan wilson is an ordained elder and conference member of the united methodist church
dan wilson is the singer of semisonic
dan wilson is warning of highway and rail blockades in the bc interior if there are any deaths or injuries in the dispute
dan wilson is by far the dreamiest man alive***
dan wilson is patently all about biology
dan wilson is probably the weakest link in the starting lineup****
dan wilson is a vice
dan wilson is hanging in there but soon his defense will deteriorate with advancing age
dan wilson is feeling strangely fine
dan wilson is nothing less than a pleasure
dan wilson is currently the facility manager at the large geotechnical centrifuge
dan wilson is an attorney who represents the group in meetings with politicians and business leaders
dan wilson is more than just a james van der beek*****
*this is actually me, although CSLA no longer exists. :-(
** Also me! I love it when other people shill for me.
*** obviously me as well, but who on earth wrote that?
**** oh god, it's true!
***** damn straight!
Locationaphilia
As I flew into SFO yesterday, I looked out the windows and saw the hills of the Bay Area and had a wave of love pass over me. I love this place, and I felt it in a way I rarely do while returning to this soil. I read a lot about people's connection to their land, and I've never really experienced that. I've often said in the past that I could live anywhere. I don't believe that anymore.
I still think I could do well in New York, and I have great affection for Chicago. London, Dublin, Bologna... most of the European cities I've been in, I could live in happily. But Los Angeles and Miami... I just couldn't do it. Things got better in Florida, and I saw some parts of it that I quite liked. But I couldn't live there. I would be insanely unhappy, even in the parts that I found beautiful. I would be like an organ that the body rejects.
As I flew in, however, and saw the hills... I knew I was home in a way that was almost religious. This is my place, and it goes beyond mere community, beyond the people I know here. These hills, these valleys, these beaches (despite my so not being a beach person), woods and bays... they have become part of my connection to the earth.
Of course, awareness that at any point the "big one" could happen and turn the whole area to rubble makes me think that I've fallen in love with a violent abuser, but she hasn't hit me yet.
I still think I could do well in New York, and I have great affection for Chicago. London, Dublin, Bologna... most of the European cities I've been in, I could live in happily. But Los Angeles and Miami... I just couldn't do it. Things got better in Florida, and I saw some parts of it that I quite liked. But I couldn't live there. I would be insanely unhappy, even in the parts that I found beautiful. I would be like an organ that the body rejects.
As I flew in, however, and saw the hills... I knew I was home in a way that was almost religious. This is my place, and it goes beyond mere community, beyond the people I know here. These hills, these valleys, these beaches (despite my so not being a beach person), woods and bays... they have become part of my connection to the earth.
Of course, awareness that at any point the "big one" could happen and turn the whole area to rubble makes me think that I've fallen in love with a violent abuser, but she hasn't hit me yet.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Florida
So, I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Ft. Lauderdale. It's the first time I've been able to get online since I arrived, so I apologize first for not getting the new RadioStar show up earlier. It's up now, though, and it's one of our better pieces so check it out.
I'm out here visiting Brazilera. I haven't seen her for a little over three years, although we've kept in touch over the phone pretty consistently. I was looking forward to spending some time together, but this week has been a bit of a bust. To say that we've grown apart wouldn't be correct. I don't think we ever had much in common in the first place, but the language barrier masked that fact fairly well. Now that we can actually have conversations, it is more and more apparent that we have little to say to each other. We've changed, certainly since we first met in Brazil six years ago. When we first met she was not a conservative Christian with no sense of humor and dour personality. It's been very frustrating, as the most fun I've had since I got out here was hanging out with her friends last night.
To make things worse, the hotel that I got online, which was marked as a three star hotel and had such nice pictures... is a complete rat-hole. I'm not that picky about my accommodations, but I can't believe I'm paying to sleep in this place. If I was here any longer than I am I'd get the hell out and find somewhere else, but my trip is so short it hardly seems worth the effort.
Ultimately though, I think that I am not well suited for Miami. Muggy weather doesn't make me happy, and the papers have more ads for plastic surgery than Beverly Hills. It's the same feeling I have when I'm in L.A. It's not a place where I belong.
Bitch and moan, bitch and moan. It's just a disappointment as I'd cancelled on visiting out here a couple of times before and now I'm wondering why I'm here in the first place. I need to embrace the best of the experience, but it's been a challenge to say the least.
On the positive and fun side, I got an email from some guy who is compiling a book of quotations and is putting me in it. It'll be in Dutch, so I only know one person who might want a copy, but I find it very groovy that I'm quotable.
I'm out here visiting Brazilera. I haven't seen her for a little over three years, although we've kept in touch over the phone pretty consistently. I was looking forward to spending some time together, but this week has been a bit of a bust. To say that we've grown apart wouldn't be correct. I don't think we ever had much in common in the first place, but the language barrier masked that fact fairly well. Now that we can actually have conversations, it is more and more apparent that we have little to say to each other. We've changed, certainly since we first met in Brazil six years ago. When we first met she was not a conservative Christian with no sense of humor and dour personality. It's been very frustrating, as the most fun I've had since I got out here was hanging out with her friends last night.
To make things worse, the hotel that I got online, which was marked as a three star hotel and had such nice pictures... is a complete rat-hole. I'm not that picky about my accommodations, but I can't believe I'm paying to sleep in this place. If I was here any longer than I am I'd get the hell out and find somewhere else, but my trip is so short it hardly seems worth the effort.
Ultimately though, I think that I am not well suited for Miami. Muggy weather doesn't make me happy, and the papers have more ads for plastic surgery than Beverly Hills. It's the same feeling I have when I'm in L.A. It's not a place where I belong.
Bitch and moan, bitch and moan. It's just a disappointment as I'd cancelled on visiting out here a couple of times before and now I'm wondering why I'm here in the first place. I need to embrace the best of the experience, but it's been a challenge to say the least.
On the positive and fun side, I got an email from some guy who is compiling a book of quotations and is putting me in it. It'll be in Dutch, so I only know one person who might want a copy, but I find it very groovy that I'm quotable.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Gassless
I was reading this morning about the continuing rise in gas prices, and the oil industries continual attempts to place the blame on prices on Ethanol and renewable energy and the war and Santa Claus, while showing record profits and giving executives obscene retirement packages.
Corporate greed and lies aren't enough to upset me anymore. It's like asking a cockroach not to scurry into shadows when you turn on the light. But I have to say that I've been basking in the moral superiority of the decision to go carless several months ago. I made that choice primarily for economic reasons, although I certainly had an environmental warm fuzzy over the whole thing. Still, I recently did a financial assessment and figured out the average cost for BART and MUNI over the course of a year, and it's drastically less than gas, insurance and maintenance. Add the cost of the car in the first place and it's rather mind boggling. Sure, BART is greedy and badly managed and avoids responsibility just like the big oil companies, but at least it saves me money and isn't nearly as damaging for the environment as my car was.
I get my groceries delivered via Safeway, which was the thing that made being carless in Chicago back in the early 1990's difficult. Visiting friends who don't live near BART or bus lines is a pain, and I'm always glad for the odd ride here and there, but by and large being carless hasn't been a hardship at all. I read or write while traveling, and sometimes even strike up conversations with people (although that's usually on the last BART when people are a little lit). What's more, I'm often wherever I need to go just as fast, or faster than when I drive. It depends on where I'm heading, and if I have to change buses or not, but on high traffic days it's much better to be on that train than on the bridge.
And even when it takes me longer to go somewhere, the exercise is easy and perfect. I've had many people comment that I've lost weight since November, when I lost the car. I'm not buff, or about to run a marathon, and I wasn't exactly heavy to start with, but the mid-30's weight I had started to gain has melted away like the hot butter that was causing it.
I still need a vehicle every now and then. When the times comes to ship props and set pieces to the Eureka for Vagina Dentata, I'll need to borrow a friend's truck or rent one for the day. When it comes down to it, $20 for a day's use of a truck three or four times a year isn't that bad.
So, think about it. How much do you need your car? How much would it hurt you to be a little inconvenienced and lose a little status and do something good for yourself, your wallet, and the earth? Is there CarShare in your area? Do you have friends you can share cars with? There are options out there, and lots of them. It may be a bit harder for those of you out in the suburbs or the countryside, but for city dwellers, or those near public transportation... think about it. Then think about it again.
See you at the bus stop.
Corporate greed and lies aren't enough to upset me anymore. It's like asking a cockroach not to scurry into shadows when you turn on the light. But I have to say that I've been basking in the moral superiority of the decision to go carless several months ago. I made that choice primarily for economic reasons, although I certainly had an environmental warm fuzzy over the whole thing. Still, I recently did a financial assessment and figured out the average cost for BART and MUNI over the course of a year, and it's drastically less than gas, insurance and maintenance. Add the cost of the car in the first place and it's rather mind boggling. Sure, BART is greedy and badly managed and avoids responsibility just like the big oil companies, but at least it saves me money and isn't nearly as damaging for the environment as my car was.
I get my groceries delivered via Safeway, which was the thing that made being carless in Chicago back in the early 1990's difficult. Visiting friends who don't live near BART or bus lines is a pain, and I'm always glad for the odd ride here and there, but by and large being carless hasn't been a hardship at all. I read or write while traveling, and sometimes even strike up conversations with people (although that's usually on the last BART when people are a little lit). What's more, I'm often wherever I need to go just as fast, or faster than when I drive. It depends on where I'm heading, and if I have to change buses or not, but on high traffic days it's much better to be on that train than on the bridge.
And even when it takes me longer to go somewhere, the exercise is easy and perfect. I've had many people comment that I've lost weight since November, when I lost the car. I'm not buff, or about to run a marathon, and I wasn't exactly heavy to start with, but the mid-30's weight I had started to gain has melted away like the hot butter that was causing it.
I still need a vehicle every now and then. When the times comes to ship props and set pieces to the Eureka for Vagina Dentata, I'll need to borrow a friend's truck or rent one for the day. When it comes down to it, $20 for a day's use of a truck three or four times a year isn't that bad.
So, think about it. How much do you need your car? How much would it hurt you to be a little inconvenienced and lose a little status and do something good for yourself, your wallet, and the earth? Is there CarShare in your area? Do you have friends you can share cars with? There are options out there, and lots of them. It may be a bit harder for those of you out in the suburbs or the countryside, but for city dwellers, or those near public transportation... think about it. Then think about it again.
See you at the bus stop.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Why Bush is Pro-Environment
I was thinking last night, like one does, and it occurred to me that all this talk about Bush and our Administration being anti-earth is a load of hooey. I mean, think about it. We're overpopulation the earth at a terrible rate. Some would look at far reaching solutions like encouraging people not to have children, or to have fewer children. This isn't a very Christian attitude though (or at least not Catholic or Mormon). Bush and his earth loving friends have a much better option: wage lots of wars and kill lots of people! With all these people dying of war, and the resulting poverty and famine that are sure to come along with it, it's bound to give the earth a little breathing room.
Same thing with Global Warming. They say that it's not happening, like they've been saying for the last thirty years, but they know that it is. But they also know that if they accelerate the process, the earth will just kill most of us off anyway and then our reduced numbers will allow the earth to reach equilibrium again. Since most of those who die will be poor, it doesn't really matter anyway. It isn't like the rich will be too terribly damaged. Those with money and power can just buy property that is still habitable and move there! Besides, with the continued growth of technology, people with resources will be able to adjust comfortably to the New, Improved Earth Lite.
So let's stop all this bashing on our leaders. They're looking out for the Earth in their own way, after all.
Same thing with Global Warming. They say that it's not happening, like they've been saying for the last thirty years, but they know that it is. But they also know that if they accelerate the process, the earth will just kill most of us off anyway and then our reduced numbers will allow the earth to reach equilibrium again. Since most of those who die will be poor, it doesn't really matter anyway. It isn't like the rich will be too terribly damaged. Those with money and power can just buy property that is still habitable and move there! Besides, with the continued growth of technology, people with resources will be able to adjust comfortably to the New, Improved Earth Lite.
So let's stop all this bashing on our leaders. They're looking out for the Earth in their own way, after all.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Winter of illness
This has been the Winter of Illness. I am currently fighting my THIRD cold since the seasons changed. One cold is acceptable and even expected. The second came directly as a result of the long plane ride back from Italy. Again, acceptable given the circumstances. But a third cold? I went to go visit Guarded Goddess on Thursday, because she was sick. I brought food and a movie, and walked away with my body swarming with fresh germs. I thought, "hey, I just got over the cold. I'll be fine. My immune system is all adjusted." I was a fool. A damn fool.
So, it's been a week now, and I feel about a half degree off. Everything I do feels like I'm in a somewhat dream-like state. I walk around the office and everything feels unreal. I'm functional, but that's about it.
I managed to get another RadioStar show episode up on time, barely. Otherwise, last night was all about waiting for Safeway to deliver my groceries and watching Watership Down.
I am a big fan of online grocery shopping and home delivery. It's one of the reasons I knew I'd be ok with selling my car back in November. When I was in Chicago, the only need I had of a car was getting my wife to therapy every week, and getting groceries. Well, without a wife with more issues than a periodical rack and with home grocery delivery, I'm peachy!
There is the slight danger, of course, of getting something you ordered without fully understanding what you wanted. I ordered what I thought were freezer bags and I got 4-gallon bags instead. I'm not sure what I'll use them for yet, but I'm sure as hell not putting individual chicken breasts in them.
As for Watership Down. I watched this in the theatre when it was new. My brother took me, having no idea that this was not a "kid's movie". I think I can most certainly ascribe this film, and "The Mouse and His Child" as the two animated films that most clearly impacted my artistic and intellectual early development. Yeah, there was Star Wars, but these adult "cartoons" are the stuff that gets burrowed deep in the brain and sleeps... waiting for a chance to infuse every cute and cuddly thing with thoughts of mortality, god, destiny and fear.
So, it's been a week now, and I feel about a half degree off. Everything I do feels like I'm in a somewhat dream-like state. I walk around the office and everything feels unreal. I'm functional, but that's about it.
I managed to get another RadioStar show episode up on time, barely. Otherwise, last night was all about waiting for Safeway to deliver my groceries and watching Watership Down.
I am a big fan of online grocery shopping and home delivery. It's one of the reasons I knew I'd be ok with selling my car back in November. When I was in Chicago, the only need I had of a car was getting my wife to therapy every week, and getting groceries. Well, without a wife with more issues than a periodical rack and with home grocery delivery, I'm peachy!
There is the slight danger, of course, of getting something you ordered without fully understanding what you wanted. I ordered what I thought were freezer bags and I got 4-gallon bags instead. I'm not sure what I'll use them for yet, but I'm sure as hell not putting individual chicken breasts in them.
As for Watership Down. I watched this in the theatre when it was new. My brother took me, having no idea that this was not a "kid's movie". I think I can most certainly ascribe this film, and "The Mouse and His Child" as the two animated films that most clearly impacted my artistic and intellectual early development. Yeah, there was Star Wars, but these adult "cartoons" are the stuff that gets burrowed deep in the brain and sleeps... waiting for a chance to infuse every cute and cuddly thing with thoughts of mortality, god, destiny and fear.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Gnostic Judas
Wow, now this is interesting.
A manuscript found in the early 1970's, passed around for almost thirty years, finally given to scholars in 2000, is being made public. It's "The Gospel of Judas."
Now, the full article is here, but I'm gonna talk about a couple of points here.
First off, how cool is it to find a manuscript that was pissing off the nascent Christian orthodoxy way back in 180 AD? I mean, I studied a little about Irenaeus back in seminary, and reading about how he was denouncing this document when it was fairly new is really a trip. And now, 1800 years later, this manuscript is able to piss of fundamentalists all over again.
But I have to wonder if the more literalistic Christians will even blink an eye at this. It's clearly a Gnostic text and was *never* accepted by what became the Catholic church as doctrine. The Gospel of Thomas lies in the same category, although it doesn't offer up anything as juicy as Jesus telling Judas that he'll be his best friend ever if Judas sells him out so he can be freed of his problematic physical existence.
For folks who didn't have to spend hours and hours studying this stuff, let me shed a little light.
The Gnostics were an early branch of Christians who drew pretty heavily on the ancient Mystery religions. They were obsessed with "secret knowledge" that was made available only to the Elect. They had secrets that were specially revealed to them that nobody else got and nobody else understood. Think Scientologists, Masons and Mormons. Hell, think Christians, although Christians want to shove that secret knowledge down your throat for your own good. Gnostics were more about the secret part of secret knowledge. The ancient mystery religions appealed to the idea of brotherhoods around a special knowledge and relationship to the divine. You got in, and the longer you were in, the more you learned. It wasn't hear and believe, but believe and eventually we'll tell you what it is that you believe in. Again, see Scientology and Masons and Mormons.
A quick look at the Wiki page on Gnosticism shows that they don't much care for comparisons with Scientology, but if the shoe fits. (I'm saying that Scientologists or Masons, etc. are Gnostics... just that they operate in a similar way and are the best modern parallels).
So, this document doesn't do much in terms of threatening Christian doctrine, but it's still fascinating as hell.
A manuscript found in the early 1970's, passed around for almost thirty years, finally given to scholars in 2000, is being made public. It's "The Gospel of Judas."
Now, the full article is here, but I'm gonna talk about a couple of points here.
First off, how cool is it to find a manuscript that was pissing off the nascent Christian orthodoxy way back in 180 AD? I mean, I studied a little about Irenaeus back in seminary, and reading about how he was denouncing this document when it was fairly new is really a trip. And now, 1800 years later, this manuscript is able to piss of fundamentalists all over again.
But I have to wonder if the more literalistic Christians will even blink an eye at this. It's clearly a Gnostic text and was *never* accepted by what became the Catholic church as doctrine. The Gospel of Thomas lies in the same category, although it doesn't offer up anything as juicy as Jesus telling Judas that he'll be his best friend ever if Judas sells him out so he can be freed of his problematic physical existence.
For folks who didn't have to spend hours and hours studying this stuff, let me shed a little light.
The Gnostics were an early branch of Christians who drew pretty heavily on the ancient Mystery religions. They were obsessed with "secret knowledge" that was made available only to the Elect. They had secrets that were specially revealed to them that nobody else got and nobody else understood. Think Scientologists, Masons and Mormons. Hell, think Christians, although Christians want to shove that secret knowledge down your throat for your own good. Gnostics were more about the secret part of secret knowledge. The ancient mystery religions appealed to the idea of brotherhoods around a special knowledge and relationship to the divine. You got in, and the longer you were in, the more you learned. It wasn't hear and believe, but believe and eventually we'll tell you what it is that you believe in. Again, see Scientology and Masons and Mormons.
A quick look at the Wiki page on Gnosticism shows that they don't much care for comparisons with Scientology, but if the shoe fits. (I'm saying that Scientologists or Masons, etc. are Gnostics... just that they operate in a similar way and are the best modern parallels).
So, this document doesn't do much in terms of threatening Christian doctrine, but it's still fascinating as hell.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Crime and Pizza
Last night was a *really* good RadioStar session. We have our two new cast members on hand, and what a difference it makes having six performers instead of four. We knew that three wasn't enough, and five felt nice. But six is the bomb. It helps that our two new recruits are super-groovylicious, too.
I probably should have been editing one of the episodes tonight, but this turned into a lost evening for me. I was going to go into Berkeley for a reading, but everyone I was going to go with bailed out and I really wasn't in the mood for anything but going home and hibernating... so I did.
What's odd, is that around 9 I decided I was hungry (having not eaten dinner yet) so I went online to Extreme Pizza and ordered something yummy. I get a call back from them, saying that they don't deliver to my area anymore after dark. I'm in a "kill zone" for them and they can't make the drivers come to this neighborhood.
What the fuck is that all about?
They *used* to come out here. I mean, it's been a while since I ordered from them, but the neighborhood hasn't gotten any more dangerous since then. I mean, seriously, this isn't International Boulevard here. This isn't the projects. We're on the edge of downtown next to the lake. This is not a high crime area.
But apparently we're too high crime for them. I don't know where in Oakland they do go. Maybe they only go to Piedmont.
Know how many homicides there have been in this zip code since January? Zero. Manslaughter? Zero. Assault and Battery? Seventy one. Ok, that's a bit high. I mean, shit! When I map them out, they've got one incident (or batch of incidents) right next to me, but most of it is north of Broadway.
Burglary, Theft, and Robbery... Two Hundred and Thirty Four incidents. As might be imagined, that's all over the place. That includes vehicle theft and break ins as well as apartment robberies and the like. There's even an "impersonate with intent to rob" in there. That's kind of interesting.
The thing with this system is that you can see where all the crimes are happening... which means if you're looking for dealers, you can just check out and see where people are getting hit for carrying. That's the zone, but watch your back. Looking for a streetwalker? Looks like they work San Pablo and around Telegraph and Broadway. I've never actually seen a streetwalker around here before a few nights ago. Nobody wears that little around here, in this freaking cold and wet weather, unless they're selling something. I felt miserable for her. I'm curious, though, what the difference is between the many eight counts of "disorderly conduct: prostitution" and "loiter:intent:prostitution". I mean, the loiter I understand, but were the others out yelling in the street? I suppose if you're soliciting, you're engaging in disorderly conduct. If you're waiting for a john to make the move, then you're loitering. And apparently, a brothel is now called "a disorderly house". I thought a Frat was a disorderly house....
All this stuff is on Oakland's CrimeWatch page. It's fascinating, if not terribly useful in helping you sleep at night.
So, maybe I can see why they won't bring me pizza, even though the vast majority of robberies take place several blocks from here.
Cowards.
I probably should have been editing one of the episodes tonight, but this turned into a lost evening for me. I was going to go into Berkeley for a reading, but everyone I was going to go with bailed out and I really wasn't in the mood for anything but going home and hibernating... so I did.
What's odd, is that around 9 I decided I was hungry (having not eaten dinner yet) so I went online to Extreme Pizza and ordered something yummy. I get a call back from them, saying that they don't deliver to my area anymore after dark. I'm in a "kill zone" for them and they can't make the drivers come to this neighborhood.
What the fuck is that all about?
They *used* to come out here. I mean, it's been a while since I ordered from them, but the neighborhood hasn't gotten any more dangerous since then. I mean, seriously, this isn't International Boulevard here. This isn't the projects. We're on the edge of downtown next to the lake. This is not a high crime area.
But apparently we're too high crime for them. I don't know where in Oakland they do go. Maybe they only go to Piedmont.
Know how many homicides there have been in this zip code since January? Zero. Manslaughter? Zero. Assault and Battery? Seventy one. Ok, that's a bit high. I mean, shit! When I map them out, they've got one incident (or batch of incidents) right next to me, but most of it is north of Broadway.
Burglary, Theft, and Robbery... Two Hundred and Thirty Four incidents. As might be imagined, that's all over the place. That includes vehicle theft and break ins as well as apartment robberies and the like. There's even an "impersonate with intent to rob" in there. That's kind of interesting.
The thing with this system is that you can see where all the crimes are happening... which means if you're looking for dealers, you can just check out and see where people are getting hit for carrying. That's the zone, but watch your back. Looking for a streetwalker? Looks like they work San Pablo and around Telegraph and Broadway. I've never actually seen a streetwalker around here before a few nights ago. Nobody wears that little around here, in this freaking cold and wet weather, unless they're selling something. I felt miserable for her. I'm curious, though, what the difference is between the many eight counts of "disorderly conduct: prostitution" and "loiter:intent:prostitution". I mean, the loiter I understand, but were the others out yelling in the street? I suppose if you're soliciting, you're engaging in disorderly conduct. If you're waiting for a john to make the move, then you're loitering. And apparently, a brothel is now called "a disorderly house". I thought a Frat was a disorderly house....
All this stuff is on Oakland's CrimeWatch page. It's fascinating, if not terribly useful in helping you sleep at night.
So, maybe I can see why they won't bring me pizza, even though the vast majority of robberies take place several blocks from here.
Cowards.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
$$$
I got an email from an old acquaintance who I haven't seen in a few years. She's working for a real estate developer now, and they're pre-selling condos over at Jack London Square. Not exactly where I want to live, but I looked over the prices and floorplans and felt a pull in my gut.
To own or rent, that is the question.
I looked into condos a few years back and just flat out couldn't afford it. I feel a bit stretched for cash right now as well, but that's because I'm still paying off Manumission, gearing up for Vagina Dentata, maintaining the rehearsal room, and just got back from Italy. It isn't that I'm not making enough money to save up for a down payment, but that I'm spending it all.
I struggle with this every now and then. To lay low for a few years and get a place of my own, or to throw everything I have into my art. This email today, it set me off again. Why not dedicate my efforts to getting *other people* to produce my work, to make the financial investments, to take the risk?
Why not, indeed?
It comes down to the simple fact that I'm not much of a businessman. I don't want to find, organize, gather, and account for money. I have it, so I spend it, and hopefully I make most of it back. That's the amount of financial acumen I possess. Everything else in my brain goes towards the art. Fulfilling, but not very efficient.
So, fine. I need to change patterns. Change behaviors. But when? How?
Hey all you crazy cats out there. Who wants to be my business manager?
To own or rent, that is the question.
I looked into condos a few years back and just flat out couldn't afford it. I feel a bit stretched for cash right now as well, but that's because I'm still paying off Manumission, gearing up for Vagina Dentata, maintaining the rehearsal room, and just got back from Italy. It isn't that I'm not making enough money to save up for a down payment, but that I'm spending it all.
I struggle with this every now and then. To lay low for a few years and get a place of my own, or to throw everything I have into my art. This email today, it set me off again. Why not dedicate my efforts to getting *other people* to produce my work, to make the financial investments, to take the risk?
Why not, indeed?
It comes down to the simple fact that I'm not much of a businessman. I don't want to find, organize, gather, and account for money. I have it, so I spend it, and hopefully I make most of it back. That's the amount of financial acumen I possess. Everything else in my brain goes towards the art. Fulfilling, but not very efficient.
So, fine. I need to change patterns. Change behaviors. But when? How?
Hey all you crazy cats out there. Who wants to be my business manager?
Talk to the Baby
I'm in a weird state. Part of it is irregular sleep, I think. My boss commented yesterday that I looked tired, but today I feel it. Not to surprising, as I couldn't fall asleep last night and then woke up a few times. Dreams. I had a baby, and even though it was only a day or two old, managed to speak in a kind of barely understandable gibberish. As disturbing as this should have been, I was happy about it because at least I was able to relate to it and it could communicate with me. I woke up confused as to why I would feel good about the baby at all, but finally was able to pin down the communication issue as being what I felt so good about in the dream.
I'm not entirely sure what it means, but it was striking enough for me to remember before finally getting back to sleep again. The most obvious and literal key might be Squeaks' and Curmudgeon's baby shower last Saturday, but that's not the heart of it.
It may relate to a series of missed connections I've had recently. I was supposed to see a client, and then maybe meet up with Feathers and The Archivist afterwards, but the BART delay was enough to cause me to throw my hands in frustration after an hour of sitting at the 12th St station and cancel all my plans for the evening. It worked out nicely because I used the evening to edit another RadioStar episode, which puts me a week ahead of schedule, but it was frustrating as well.
I've been trying to meet up with Shutterbug for the last week and have been having a lot of difficulty there as well. I need to get hold of a lot of people, actually. I've finally given up trying to reach an actor I had in mind for a role in Vagina Dentata, and I really want to get that role re-cast before I tackle the new draft of the script. Of course, this may just be an excuse to avoid doing the work. I hate doing subsequent drafts.
I need to work on the novel, too. But the Firefly DVDs were too enticing last night, after I had finished the RadioStar episode.
I'm also working on transferring web servers on some of my websites, and experiencing glitches here and there. More communication problems.
So yeah, missed connections, absent friends, calls not returned, plans changed or abandoned, and so forth. I'm not sleeping properly and am tired all the time. Not eating all that well either. I'm creating and creating and collaborating and birthing projects here and there, but communication is always a problem. It's either blockages in my own soul, or crossed signals out in the world.
Still.... the image of a babbling newborn is still a bit freaky to the wakeful mind.
I'm not entirely sure what it means, but it was striking enough for me to remember before finally getting back to sleep again. The most obvious and literal key might be Squeaks' and Curmudgeon's baby shower last Saturday, but that's not the heart of it.
It may relate to a series of missed connections I've had recently. I was supposed to see a client, and then maybe meet up with Feathers and The Archivist afterwards, but the BART delay was enough to cause me to throw my hands in frustration after an hour of sitting at the 12th St station and cancel all my plans for the evening. It worked out nicely because I used the evening to edit another RadioStar episode, which puts me a week ahead of schedule, but it was frustrating as well.
I've been trying to meet up with Shutterbug for the last week and have been having a lot of difficulty there as well. I need to get hold of a lot of people, actually. I've finally given up trying to reach an actor I had in mind for a role in Vagina Dentata, and I really want to get that role re-cast before I tackle the new draft of the script. Of course, this may just be an excuse to avoid doing the work. I hate doing subsequent drafts.
I need to work on the novel, too. But the Firefly DVDs were too enticing last night, after I had finished the RadioStar episode.
I'm also working on transferring web servers on some of my websites, and experiencing glitches here and there. More communication problems.
So yeah, missed connections, absent friends, calls not returned, plans changed or abandoned, and so forth. I'm not sleeping properly and am tired all the time. Not eating all that well either. I'm creating and creating and collaborating and birthing projects here and there, but communication is always a problem. It's either blockages in my own soul, or crossed signals out in the world.
Still.... the image of a babbling newborn is still a bit freaky to the wakeful mind.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Groovy link
Time for the meme to move forward.
A friend posted about this and now I share it with you. It's a timeline of everything that has happened since the dawn of creation... According to movies. It's incomplete obviously, but knowing the anal retentive nature of film geeks worldwide, I don't doubt that it won't be that long before this thing becomes a beautiful monstrosity.
http://www.paulkerensa.com/movietimeline/
In other news, the new RadioStar podcast is up and running (as people who subscribe to the RSS feed to this site already know).
Other than that, it's mostly "Same old, same old". I've had several plans cancelled out on me lately, which means I've gotten to relax a bit, take care of business here and there and watch my recently purchased copy of Firefly. I'm very late getting on this bandwagon, but even so... that's one damn good show.
A friend posted about this and now I share it with you. It's a timeline of everything that has happened since the dawn of creation... According to movies. It's incomplete obviously, but knowing the anal retentive nature of film geeks worldwide, I don't doubt that it won't be that long before this thing becomes a beautiful monstrosity.
http://www.paulkerensa.com/movietimeline/
In other news, the new RadioStar podcast is up and running (as people who subscribe to the RSS feed to this site already know).
Other than that, it's mostly "Same old, same old". I've had several plans cancelled out on me lately, which means I've gotten to relax a bit, take care of business here and there and watch my recently purchased copy of Firefly. I'm very late getting on this bandwagon, but even so... that's one damn good show.
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