Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Sure to Be My Late Night Music Obsession
Possibly, most likely, spurred on by watching Deadwood for the first time last night. Some things you just have to save for the right time. Deadwood, I'm sayin'.
Black Prairie.
via Mead.
Black Prairie.
via Mead.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Big List: New Year Edition
First the NYC fantasy:
My Last Play by Ed Schmidt @ his apartment through May 22 or until the books are gone.
The Woodmans by C. Scott Willis @ Film Forum through February 1. You can watch the trailer here. Interesting articles about the film here, here, and here. (Thank you, Susannah.)
Rationality by Andrea Kleine, February 5 and 6 @ a location in the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Tickets are limited and free (but there's a $10 reservation fee that gets refunded).
Wallabout Oyster Theatre's latest, February 18, 19, 20. You'll have to check out Rufus Corporation's Facebook page or maybe there'll be a FB events page for the dealio in awhile. Keep watching.
Here in the Bay Area:
The Last Cargo Cult through February 20 & The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs January 23 through February 27 by Mike Daisey @ Berkeley Rep.
Of the Earth by Jon Tracy @ Shotgun through January 30.
Gush curated by Joe Goode @ Brava through January 29.
Ouroboros by Tom Jacobson, Renegade Theatre Experiment @ Historic Hoover Theatre.
Audience As Subject: Part 1, Medium @ YBCA through February 6.
Companion Piece conceived by Beth Wilmurt @ Theater Artaud through February 13.
Bone to Pick & Diadem by Eugenie Chan, Cuttingball Theater @ Exit on Taylor through February 13.
Seagull by Chekov @ Marin Theatre Company, January 27 through February 20.
My Last Play by Ed Schmidt @ his apartment through May 22 or until the books are gone.
The Woodmans by C. Scott Willis @ Film Forum through February 1. You can watch the trailer here. Interesting articles about the film here, here, and here. (Thank you, Susannah.)
Rationality by Andrea Kleine, February 5 and 6 @ a location in the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Tickets are limited and free (but there's a $10 reservation fee that gets refunded).
Wallabout Oyster Theatre's latest, February 18, 19, 20. You'll have to check out Rufus Corporation's Facebook page or maybe there'll be a FB events page for the dealio in awhile. Keep watching.
Here in the Bay Area:
The Last Cargo Cult through February 20 & The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs January 23 through February 27 by Mike Daisey @ Berkeley Rep.
Of the Earth by Jon Tracy @ Shotgun through January 30.
Gush curated by Joe Goode @ Brava through January 29.
Ouroboros by Tom Jacobson, Renegade Theatre Experiment @ Historic Hoover Theatre.
Audience As Subject: Part 1, Medium @ YBCA through February 6.
Companion Piece conceived by Beth Wilmurt @ Theater Artaud through February 13.
Bone to Pick & Diadem by Eugenie Chan, Cuttingball Theater @ Exit on Taylor through February 13.
Seagull by Chekov @ Marin Theatre Company, January 27 through February 20.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Unchopping A Tree
Pinky swear that I didn't find this until after I wrote a certain monologue.
W.S. Merwin essay here.
What is Missing? by Maya Lin
Maya Lin @ California Academy of Sciences
W.S. Merwin essay here.
What is Missing? by Maya Lin
Maya Lin @ California Academy of Sciences
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, January 09, 2011
81 Pages. So so close.
The traditional categories - painting, sculpture, stagecraft, etc - no longer respond to reality. Personally, I think this is due to the crisis in our psychic space and the boundaries that separate the object and the subject. In the same way that there is a breaking down of the boundaries between objects, there is an intrication [sic] of the roles of the artist and the spectator, erasing the borders between the self and the other. This lack of differentiation can have a dramatic effect on some people: loss of sense of self, hallucinations, etc. But it can also give rise to jubilation, because it creates a sense of osmosis with Being, the Absolute. - Julia Kristeva
Emmanuel Eggermont dancing solo to Benny Goodman at around 1:23) is breathtaking and glorious in his lightness. Previously wrote about Boléro Variations here.
Hades: De mortuis nil nisi bonum
Yeah.
Ulysses. My big book of the New Year. Actually started reading it in December along with several members of my book reading group (affectionately known as the Bitch Goddess reading group - still haven't convinced the local bookstore to feature us on their special, local book group shelves). The thing about reading Ulysses is that it makes me want to read Infinite Jest and Hamlet and The Odyssey. I also have this groovy Ulysses annotation that kind of consumes me with its sort of knit picky detail and description. Its reading this that makes me most miss reading IJ and appreciate DFW's great, good sense and humor to do the annotating "himself."
Over Christmas my uncle told me that the local graveyard is now full (my cousin who died the week before Christmas is one of the last to get in and ho ho ho Merry Christmas.) I read Bloom going on for pages and pages and pages about how terrible it is to be buried or maybe it's a relief or...part of life none of us escape - birth astride the grave and all that (so his secretary wrote). Hades - an unrelenting chapter it is, which is the point I guess. You feel like you'll never emerge.
And then you do emerge and its into the world of Headlines and Advertising. It's so lovely and random.
Ulysses. My big book of the New Year. Actually started reading it in December along with several members of my book reading group (affectionately known as the Bitch Goddess reading group - still haven't convinced the local bookstore to feature us on their special, local book group shelves). The thing about reading Ulysses is that it makes me want to read Infinite Jest and Hamlet and The Odyssey. I also have this groovy Ulysses annotation that kind of consumes me with its sort of knit picky detail and description. Its reading this that makes me most miss reading IJ and appreciate DFW's great, good sense and humor to do the annotating "himself."
Over Christmas my uncle told me that the local graveyard is now full (my cousin who died the week before Christmas is one of the last to get in and ho ho ho Merry Christmas.) I read Bloom going on for pages and pages and pages about how terrible it is to be buried or maybe it's a relief or...part of life none of us escape - birth astride the grave and all that (so his secretary wrote). Hades - an unrelenting chapter it is, which is the point I guess. You feel like you'll never emerge.
I daresay the soil would be quite fat with corpse manure, bones, flesh, nails, charnelhouses. Dreadful. Turning green and pink, decomposing. Rot quick in damp earth lean. The lean old ones tougher. Then a kind of a tallowy kind of a cheesy. Then begin to get black, treacle oozing out of them. Then dried up. Deathmoths. Of course the cells or whatever they are go on living. ChangingOh it's not without it's humor.
about. Live for ever practically. Nothing to feed on feed on themselves.
And then you do emerge and its into the world of Headlines and Advertising. It's so lovely and random.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
New Year
It occurred to me as I was driving around today that I haven't performed on stage for 2 years. The last time was for 10 minutes. And before that I did a reading for an ex-theater company. And before that it was 1996 and the only show I was ever in for the company I founded. This is what having kids will do - distort your sense of time.
I miss being onstage. It's a singular experience - truly.
I miss training with a company. Its been maybe 5 years since I've done any training. Theater-type training (performance-type training).
This brings up some very complicated feelings and realities.
The first thought that came to mind after the realization that I hadn't performed in so long was that maybe it's kind of silly to claim that I'm an actor. That it's kind of embarrassing when my husband refers to me as an actor. That the person who did that doesn't exist now, except in memory. And then the next thought was that I should fucking finally write that play for myself.
Before Christmas, a friend told me that she wishes my thesis were out of my life. That I needed to let it go before 2010 ended. For my sake. In the past week, I've been giving serious thought to quitting, giving up and forgetting about it. With one and a quarter chapters left to write and a rewrite on deck. I'm surprised by how tempting it is. And how little remorse I feel thinking about letting it go. Finishing or not, the outcome of either choice looks very similar to me, positionally. It will make very little difference in my life either way. And I'll have so much more time and room around my desk.
Which is not to say that I haven't learned anything. That the experience hasn't translated into anything useful for me. It's changed the way I experience theater and the way that I think about theater, so that's something. I think going in, I was hoping for something more tangible. Hoping I'd come out on the other side more employable, connected, and better situated career-wise. Ah, yes. That. This also brings up several complex feelings and realities.
It's a good thought experiment; to play with letting it go. To approach it with more distance and perspective. But quitting wouldn't be a good example for my kids. Especially my son, who's given up on school himself. Or maybe it wouldn't matter to them either. Maybe they'd dance through the house happy that they wouldn't have to share their Mommy with anyone or anything else. And what are we having for dinner now?
I miss being onstage. It's a singular experience - truly.
I miss training with a company. Its been maybe 5 years since I've done any training. Theater-type training (performance-type training).
This brings up some very complicated feelings and realities.
The first thought that came to mind after the realization that I hadn't performed in so long was that maybe it's kind of silly to claim that I'm an actor. That it's kind of embarrassing when my husband refers to me as an actor. That the person who did that doesn't exist now, except in memory. And then the next thought was that I should fucking finally write that play for myself.
Before Christmas, a friend told me that she wishes my thesis were out of my life. That I needed to let it go before 2010 ended. For my sake. In the past week, I've been giving serious thought to quitting, giving up and forgetting about it. With one and a quarter chapters left to write and a rewrite on deck. I'm surprised by how tempting it is. And how little remorse I feel thinking about letting it go. Finishing or not, the outcome of either choice looks very similar to me, positionally. It will make very little difference in my life either way. And I'll have so much more time and room around my desk.
Which is not to say that I haven't learned anything. That the experience hasn't translated into anything useful for me. It's changed the way I experience theater and the way that I think about theater, so that's something. I think going in, I was hoping for something more tangible. Hoping I'd come out on the other side more employable, connected, and better situated career-wise. Ah, yes. That. This also brings up several complex feelings and realities.
It's a good thought experiment; to play with letting it go. To approach it with more distance and perspective. But quitting wouldn't be a good example for my kids. Especially my son, who's given up on school himself. Or maybe it wouldn't matter to them either. Maybe they'd dance through the house happy that they wouldn't have to share their Mommy with anyone or anything else. And what are we having for dinner now?
Friday, January 07, 2011
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
And Everything is Going Fine
High on the list of things to see. I loved going to see Spaulding Gray perform his monologues and would go whenever he came to San Francisco. One night, after his performance, I went up on stage and left an FSLN button on his table as a kind of tribute or something. I don't know. I was just very moved by his performance.
One of my favorite stories.
One of my favorite stories.
Who'll Play the Kid?
James Franco plans on making As I Lay Dying and...and...and
is in the process of signing on to write and direct Blood Meridian.
Yeah.
For those of you keeping track, Blood Meridian has been through several directors including Ridley Scott and Todd Haynes. Personally, after seeing Inglourious Basterds, I think Quentin Tarantino is the man for the job, but you know, I'm not a producer. Things would be a lot different if I were. I would be a lot different, if I were.
But - James Franco and Blood Meridian? Okay. That's an ambitious and formidable project to take on, but I have faith in the Franco. Bring it home, James.
You can read more about it here.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Sunday, January 02, 2011
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