| vanishing point |
[31 Jan 2009|10:52pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
centered |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
echoes |
] |
This story has three prologues.
Prologue One: I drove to the library last week sometime, to return a book. After I left, I noticed a whole bunch of lined up crates along the parkway nearby- identical, two lines, one on each side of the walkway along the center island between the two directions of traffic. A minor mystery.
Prologue Two: It was spring today. Probably just for today, but it was warm enough that I drove home from morning massage clinic with no gloves and the windows open.
Prologue Three: I walked to the library this afternoon, to pick up the book that replaced the one from prologue one. I could hear a loudspeaker from my back door, three blocks away, that turned out to belong to a tent that was in the library's parking lot. It was the celebration tent for the Twin Cities Loppet, which I don't know what that is but everyone was carrying skis.
Story.
I've felt scattered the last few days. I get out of the strictly regimented activity I have scheduled, like work or class, and everything falls apart. Homework doesn't get done, laundry doesn't get done. Today I watched a movie, then couldn't decide what to do, whether to watch the special features from the movie or do that homework or read or do dishes or what and it's only 9:30 so really I COULD do anything. So I decide to take a walk. Every now and again, I walk around Lake Calhoun, cuz it's nearby and a good long walk and usually head-clearing. Normally I don't in winter, cuz it's bloody cold. But as I said, today was warm. So I left everything at home- phone, wallet, even took the keys off the ring that weren't required to reenter the building, and I walked.
Head-clearing was hard. Got about 3/4 of the way around, and I was less scattered, but no epiphanies or direction. One cool thing- I took my hand out of my pocket to wipe a runny nose, and the back of my hand BURNED. Freaky- at first I though that I'd breathed on it just right, but the angle didn't make sense, and the heat wasn't dissipating. I turn my hand, and the burning moves to my pinky side. And I realize- the breeze is blowing on the opposite side. It's blowing the heat off my palm and concentrating it in the wind shadow. Neat.
Just as I'm on the last stretch, I pass the turnoff for the Tunnel. The Tunnel is one my holy places here; if you've called my cell in the last eight months or so and gone to voicemail, the Tunnel is the echo you're hearing. I turn, and head down it, mildly annoyed at the noisy family walking along the ice stream and making a lot of racket about the ice they're on. I feel like they're profaning a church. Then I spot some lights on the tip of Lake of the Isles at the end of the Tunnel. I get closer, and realize they're candles. In big candleholders. Candleholders that are carved, hollowed-out ice. They're absolutely bloody gorgeous, and there for no reason. They're ringed around the edge of the lake, and on an island of snow piled up in the center, and they lead out I don't know how far.
Flash. Epiphanies.
First up- why do I think that people laughing and having fun and admiring the beauty of bubbles frozen in ice is profaning my church? That's HOW you worship in my church!
Second- the glove thing. Life metaphor. When harshness comes, and it seems to destroy your energy, it's actually just moving it. Into the wind shadow.
These are churning as I turn towards home. This is, coincidentally, up the parkway listed in prologue one. And I slowly realize that I'm not crossing any roads. The roads are closed, and there's a steady path of snow across them. I'm following this like it's a white carpet laid out for me. And there's ski grooves worn into it. And then I pass where the crates were- they're snow sculptures. Forts, and an owl, and a penguin with a hatchling. And then I hit the Loppet finish line.
And as I'm walking from the ice candles up the white carpet, I realize that all of this is why I left the house tonight. There's not a coincidence in the bunch. My path was preset. Any other day, I would have missed it all. I'd seen just enough hints in the past week to tie it all together, but not enough to expect it. All the threads and tangents and parallel lines met.
The end.
|
|
| well hi |
[25 Jan 2009|12:09am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 drunk |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
none |
] |
Haven't updated in over a year, eh? How about that. How completely like me.
I'm quite drunk now. Attended a party this evening, which was broken up by neighbors calling the police on a noise complaint. Many maintained that we weren't that loud, and it was 10:30 pm on a Saturday, what did they expect, deyah deyah deyah. I keep getting stuck on the fact that they called the police FIRST. Didn't talk to US, didn't talk to building management, no. Too loud, call cops. Fits perfectly with the Janumas tradition of passive aggressiveness, otherwise, they are being twits. Useless bloody twits.
It is taking me very long to type this, because I am drunk, but still feel the need for good spelling. If you don't know me, that sums me up in a nutshell.
So, it has been a very long time since I caught people up on my life. I am still in school, theoretically graduate in three months. I dated a girl named Marie for almost a year in there- she is awesome, you would like her. We broke up just under a month ago. First grownup breakup- no fight, no angry, no stimulating event. Just not enough future. A year passed, still no "I love you", she wants kids and I might not. So it ends. Strange. A mature decision, which does not make it suck any less. I hope we will find a friendship in the debris. I'm good at that, if nothing else.
Jack Daniels clouds my mind. I will attempt a better blog update later, but this breaks the fast, at least.
--BWJ
"I just don't know what to do with myself
I don't know what to do with myself
planning everything for two
doing everything with you
and now that we're through
I just don't know what to do"
|
|
| in case anyone doubted |
[06 Jan 2008|11:21pm] |
91% Chris Dodd
89% John Edwards
89% Barack Obama
88% Dennis Kucinich
88% Mike Gravel
86% Hillary Clinton
83% Joe Biden
80% Bill Richardson
37% Rudy Giuliani
24% John McCain
22% Tom Tancredo
19% Mike Huckabee
19% Ron Paul
18% Mitt Romney
10% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
I could almost have predicted that entire ranking, so it must be accurate. I like how there's FORTY-THREE percentage points between the lowest Democrat and highest Republican. No wonder I don't try to call myself an Independent.
Now, who the hell is Chris Dodd?
|
|
| Eggy goodness- Sample Night Live tomorrow! |
[01 Jan 2008|11:15pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 excited |
] |
Ah, there's nothing like the break between school terms. A time to relax, set aside the reading, work like a maniac on a theatrical project before homework takes away your evenings again...
So come one, come all, tomorrow night to the Bryant-Lake Bowl, for the premiere evening of Sample Night Live! What is this, you ask? Read, or skim, the press release!
"
Experience a dozen arts organizations in one night!
www.SampleNightLive.com
Sample Night Live is a monthly evening of performances offering a preview of upcoming Twin Cities arts events. Sample Night Live provides a venue for emerging artists to showcase their material, a place for existing companies to market themselves to new audiences, and an inexpensive way for people to get a taste of what is in the Twin Cities.
As the old Vaudeville saying goes, "If you don't like what you see, wait five minutes and it will change."
Performances are at 7pm the first Wednesday of every month at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis.
Each evening will consist of:
Act I – 7:00 p.m. Rated G for kids of all ages
1. Classical music
2. Dance Performance
3. Novelty Act – Sword Swallower, Contortionist, Regurgitator, Fire Eater, Juggler, Animal Act, Something unusual and a little gross, etc.
4. Singing
5. Puppetry Performance
6. Wonder Kid Act – Anything from an amazing kid with a special talent, to a group of really good amateur kids who have an upcoming concert (dance, vocal, music, theatre, Circus, etc.)
Intermission
Act II – 8:15 p.m. Unrated & Uncensored
7. Mid-Sized to Large Established Arts Organization
8. Stand Up Comedian or Improv Group
9. Independent Film Short
10. And now for something completely different -- Independent Artist or performance art group – spoken word, poetry slammer, etc. Something that challenges the boundaries of performance.
11. Small arts organization
12. Local band
Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.BryantLakeBowl.com (fee free) by calling the Tiketline at 612.825.8949. Full price tickets are $15. Students and Seniors are $10. Children under 10 are $5. Preschoolers who sit on laps are free with purchase of adult ticket.
"
And tomorrow night, #7, the "Mid-Sized to Large Established Arts Organization", will be the Upright Egg Theatre Company, presenting a short piece entitled "The Hope Moment". Based upon the story of Pinocchio, we will ask ourselves if it is possible to have despair without hope... or hope without despair. Come, join us, grab a black bean burger and a beer, and we'll do a little exploring, then find out what the other acts are together.
I know I keep saying this, and it keeps not being true, but this may be my last theatrical venture for a while. Plus, I get to play Harlequin. What a way to start a new year. And this piece has some pretty awesome moments with puppets, and some frankly extremely adult situations. How can you miss it?!
Tomorrow, January 2nd, Bryant-Lake Bowl. Show starts 7:00, we'll be on at approximately 8:15. Be there.
|
|
| *insert gasp here* |
[19 Dec 2007|01:18am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 tired |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Band- "Forever Young" |
] |
A Klingon Christmas Carol opened, and closed, and all the bits in between. I'm glad I did this one- it damaged my confidence a bit (I just could NOT memorize it all... try and try, and maybe half of it would stick at any time), negated a whole week of classwork, and my sleep is still trying to recover, but I'm glad I did it. It was a unique experience, for certain- the first time a play was ever performed in the Klingon language, and the first time I've ever had a full play, including fight scenes, where my first rehearsal was less than two weeks from curtain, with a tech week that was less than four hours. I went into it for the challenge, and got what I wanted.
So, by the time we were at the Student Center unloading, I was glad it was finally happening. Maybe another week of rehearsal would have benefited us, who knows, but we felt ready and I was more than ready for it to be over. That's the weird thing about shows sometimes- even when you enjoy them, you reach a point where you're ready to move on. So, as the tech was being cleaned up and the foreheads being applied and costume pieces misplaced and found again, I was ready to just Get Through It and then Be Past It.
Then, at places call, the show started. The Vulcan Narrator entered, and the words "Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology" were projected where the subtitles would be. And the crowd swelled and roared, and the love of the show kicked in. Every show I've ever done, every show worth doing at least, hasn't really started until we had an audience. It always surprises me, no matter how many times it happens. But normally you reach the point in rehearsal where you can say "We're ready. We're just missing the audience." But this rehearsal was so COMPRESSED, it totally snuck up on me. But then we heard 150 nerds roar and cry for us, and my ennui vanished. Awesome, truly awesome.
Yeah. So that went well. Friends came and loved it, a couple reviewers (the only real review can be found here: http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2007/12/over_the_weeken.php ), I had to give back my forehead, and on go our lives. Got to work with some folks who I'd been wanting to spend time with, gained enough geek cred to last for YEARS, and back to the real world.
Also, the rest of the videos from the Fox Morning News segments are online at last. Youtube links:
http://www.cbtheatre.org/KCC-video.html
They're all fun, especially watching reporters try to relate to us, but if only want to watch me do stuff other than stand around awkwardly, check out the middle two. Please note, the Phantom Bat'leth Punch looked better onstage. I hope.
So the show ended, finally I get some free time again OH CRAP FINALS ARE NEXT WEEK AND I'M A WEEK BEHIND IN HOMEWORK. That's why I didn't post. Anyway, most of the way through finals now, only the Anatomy one left on Thursday. My two shiatsu (written and practical) went all right- I hit a low B in the written, which bugged me a little, and the practical... I don't know how I did there. I don't know the Anma sequence as well as the Namikoshi, and this practical was different from our others since the instructors gave feedback during the test (they say to prep us for when we do student clinic in term three). The mid-test feedback was helpful, and hopefully let us correct what we messed up, but it was also pretty nerve-wracking to get into the groove and then get interrupted by the person grading you who wants to point out what you're doing wrong. Nonetheless, I have the feeling I did as well on it as on the other practical exams, and the written exam is only 10% of our final grade, so I think I may get out of this with an A. Oh, and some knowledge. I also got my final grade back for the Traditional Chinese Medicine final- 119.5/120. WOO! No frigging clue how I pulled that one off! She must have curved it or something. I know I missed a half a point from a question I couldn't even guess on and so left blank, so either it's curved or else I got EVERY OTHER QUESTION RIGHT. Seems unlikely, and I'd question it, but I'm not an idiot. If I calculate right, I should end that class with something like a 98. Boom.
So yeah. Only one final left, then a couple of weeks off and three party plans for the next two weeks so I should finally have a chance to recharge OH CRAP CHRISTMAS SHOPPING I'VE BARELY EVEN STARTED IT NEVER FREAKING ENDS.
Still to come, when time allows: tales of Thanksgiving violence, thoughts about keys, and Egg news. Anticipate it!
--BWJ
"'oSwI' jIH tuqmaj!"
|
|
| it has been a day |
[06 Dec 2007|02:44am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
excited |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Decemberists- "O Valencia!" |
] |
So. Where to begin?
I committed to a show a few weeks back. Yes, on top of work and full-time school. Addiction is hard. I gotta admit, it's been a lot easier stepping away from theatre than I had thought it would be; I blame the structured nature of going to school, and how busy it makes me, and how fulfilled it makes me feel (on good days). But I couldn't pass this one up, and I won't have to explain why.
This Saturday, after an amazingly intense three-week rehearsal process (two weeks for me- details below), I shall be appearing in a one night only fundraiser performance of A Klingon Christmas Carol.
You read that right! But here's the press release!
"Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the Original Klingon with English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology.
"The Dickens classic tale of ghosts and redemption adapted to reflect the Warrior Code of Honor and then translated into tlhIngan Hol (That's the Klingon Language).
"A co-production of Commedia Beauregard and the IKV RakeHell of the Klingon Assault Group. Come see Michael Ooms as Scrooge, Christopher O. Kidder as Crachit, Scot Moore as Young Scrooge, Brian Watson-Jones as the Nephew Fred, Brian O'Neal as The Ghost of Christmas Past, Rob Withoff as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Erin Schroeder as Belle, Jen Rand as Mrs. Crachit, and a puppet Klingon as Tiny Tim! Also see the terrific performances of Bill Hedrick, Laura Thurston, Nathaniel Churchill, Jon Gregory, And Andrew Northrop.
You've never seen Dickens like this! Now with 78% more fight scenes!"
Full info, including link to ticket info and the where and when...
http://www.cbtheatre.org/KCC2007.htm
So yeah. I am performing in a play that is presented almost entirely IN THE KLINGON LANGUAGE. This is not an opportunity I expected to see again. I know it's fairly last minute, but I would love it if you can all come. It's this Saturday, the 8th, at 7:30 pm. ONE NIGHT ONLY.
It's been a hell of a process. Due to a scheduling conflict, and Thanksgiving, I ended up not having an rehearsals the first week. So everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, has been in the last week and a half. I don't have a large part, but still; this is a part I have to learn basically phonetically. Sample line, off the top of my head...
ram nI' tay ghoS, SoSwI' loDnI'. ta'mey Dun', bommey Dun'!
This has not been an easy part to learn, and it has been kicking my ass pretty hard. The lines just won't stay in my head, y'know? But there's a backup plan worked out for those of us having trouble (and those of us who joined late, and those of us who have exponentially larger parts than little ole me), so I'm not feeling the panic right now. Now I'm feeling the excitement. In three days, we're performing a play that is unlike anything else in existence. With, I should add, a damn fine looking puppet, and some kickass bat'leth fight scenes (most of which I am in... oh yeah), and nerd points out the yinyang.
Ah... but why the long day implied by the title? Because I woke up at 4:15 this morning... yesterday morning... 22 3/4 hours ago, to drive down to Eden Prairie and appear on the Fox 9 morning news show. They did a few short segments on the show, and I can finally cross "fight with bat'leths on a major network affiliate" off the life goals list. Sweeeet.
Link, with video:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=5130861&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1
(I'm in the background, with the medallion in ma belly... hopefully we'll be getting youtube links of all the segments, including the fighting and my monologue)
(oh, and PS- "Sarah" Walloch is actually Sasha. We really appreciate the great publicity segment, news lady, but... her name is Sasha)
So come one, come all, to the most interesting Christmas Carol ever staged! And arrive early- the show doesn't start until 7:30, but it's a fundraiser, so there's a reception and silent auction starting around 6:30. Booze! Bidding! Ramvam bom bommey Dun bIng Hovmey 'ang nIQuj! BE THERE!
yours most affectionately,
vreD
|
|
| spam |
[09 Nov 2007|04:49am] |
I am now officially getting more unsolicited spam about selecting the next president than about porn.
The world, she is a strange place.
|
|
| school |
[26 Oct 2007|02:44am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
satisfied |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Black-Eyed Peas- "Pump It" |
] |
Funny thing about going to school full time and working nigh-full time. Budgeted internet time goes WAY down. So anyway, quick news, then bed!
I'm a little more than halfway through my first term (of five) at Centerpoint.
The feelings from the last post? They aren't as sharp, as amazing and new, but they're still there. I mean, today I had Anatomy in the morning, Foundations of Shiatsu in the afternoon, and then four hours of work in the evening. The drive home from school ended up 40 minutes longer than usual... that's three times as long, for those keeping count, because apparently a pickup decided to park in the middle of 3rd Avenue. Like, no hazard blinkers, no driver, smack in the middle of the left lane. So, unsurprisingly, I was late to work, since that ate up ALL my get home/change clothes/eat something time. And I still breezed through work; it didn't touch me. This all still feels good, and right.
Plus, hey, midterms just wrapped up. Got the last of them back today. Final written Namikoshi shiatsu test- 92.5%. Final Namikoshi sequence practical- 51.25... out of 52. Anatomy midterm, which is worth over 40% of the final grade- 130.5 out of 136. Feedback given after the practical exam- "Do you do martial arts? You can always tell the students who do, because they have a real awareness of their body, and a really good flow to the sequence."
More important than lovely, lovely grades and words, I KNOW more now. I know the entire Namikoshi form. Today we started on Doann Kaneko's Shiatsu Anma, which is a blend with traditional Chinese massage. It looks to be pretty sweet, and I'm looking forward to soaking it up.
We've started in on Meridians in TCM; the 12 (or 24, since there's one on each side of the body) major organ lines that TCM and acupuncture concern themselves with. This is the first major thing that's completely foreign to me; Five Element theory, Yin/Yang concepts, even the flow of Qi, are things I'd dealt with before, in big or small ways, so I had a place to start. But the Meridians- I'd heard of them, but they're MAJOR, and HUGE, and totally unfamiliar. So this is the first thing I'll really have to work at to learn; the first wall on my path that I have to climb over. Fortunately, shiatsu will be reinforcing what I learn, since Anma basically follows the same Meridians. Still... it'll be weird, the day when someone's complaints about back pain make me think "Yeah, better work Spleen 11 (or somesuch) for a while." I mean, all I know so far are St-36 and Du-20. There's only... a couple hundred more? Maybe only 20 or so major ones, but that don't stop it being intimidating.
But the anatomy is where I'm really proud. I mean... I'm LEARNING that. I didn't just ace the exam and forget all I held the next day. I woke up with a horrible pain in my neck yesterday, and actually ran down the muscles and attachment points I knew to try to work out what was damaged. I'm pretty sure it's one I haven't learned yet, but still. I'm developing a whole vocabulary, know, really KNOW, dozens of bony landmarks and muscles and attachment points and worlds of what goes on inside the body. And there's still two and a half terms of things to learn, but so far it's actually absorbing.
Plus, hey, developing friendships. And managing to avoid the folks at school who... some people shouldn't be bodyworkers, and I hope they figure that out before they graduate.
Other things exist elsewhere in life, but not in this post. Maybe later, when I next decide to break my intertubes budget. Take care, y'all.
--BWJ
|
|
| school thus far |
[22 Sep 2007|01:15am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
hopeful |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Black Sabbath- "Warpigs" |
] |
I've finished three weeks of Centerpoint so far. I've learned a little over half of the Namikoshi movement of shiatsu, bought a shiatsu mat of my own, and learned a shockingly large amount about human anatomy, Yin/Yang movements in the body, and the flow of Qi.
And I am loving it. Absolutely loving it. This was exactly the right move for me, in so many ways.
It's hard to describe... I've had a couple of different people remark that I seem different recently, more centered and strong. And when it was pointed out, I realized how true it was. This feels so good, so right, like I suddenly saw the path through my life and I was already on it.
Example. I didn't work this weekend; I requested Saturday off, but having Sunday and Monday evening off were bonuses. So Saturday I went to acting class in the morning, did homework and internet stuff the rest of the day, then went to a film premiere that night; more on the film later, but the evening was wonderful and sharp and ended with a walk home and a mildly religious epiphany. That might be a separate post, or I might keep it to myself. Then, Sunday, slept VERY in, and have three shiatsu sessions (of the four I mentioned last post). Got some stuff done around the house too, but still, a very chill day. Monday, two classes; Discovering the Healer Within, and Foundations of TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine]. That evening, They Might Be Giants concert, more on that later as well. It was fantastic; knowledge and growing and art and certainty and uncertainty and wonderful socialization with so many friends, and an Extreme edge to life; a feeling that everything happening is sharp and Important and what I'm doing really Matters.
Then, Tuesday, sleep way in again, class in the afternoon (Shiatsu), and then rush home to change for a couple hours of evening job.
COLD WATER to my face, work was.
It all got petty, and hard, and stressful, and mean, and I don't even know but it felt WRONG. Work has been insane lately- a few people left, I'm going to school so I'm not around as much, and most of the people still there full time are great but there simply aren't enough people working at basically any time. Every day I've gone in the last two weeks, it's begun beating back the tide of being behind, and if I'm lucky, my shift ends just as we get back on top. Everyone is on edge, and the bickering is getting worse. And I'm as susceptible as anyone; I get snippy, and generally very short and pissed with everything. I have to get out there, and it does me a world of good to know that I'm in a process that will lead to something better.
Except today. Last night I went out to the bar, chilled with someone I know who works there, and wrote. I didn't even drink; I thought I was going to, but I didn't feel the need. I just fed the jukebox, and squeezed out another half dozen pages of Draft 2 of Word Salad. There was an hourlong period where I didn't write a word- couldn't find the start of the scene. But I worked out a couple of issues that will be coming up later, and had some great conversation, and I found the start eventually. Then this morning, I went and worked on same friend- I didn't work today until 1:30, so I stopped by in the morning, checked out her new place, and got the first of my four homework assignments done. And it was perfect; I don't know if it was the fact that I started out my day with some bodywork, which can focus the spirit of the practitioner as much as the client, or if it was the particular company, but I left perfectly balanced. I went home, changed, went into a work that was just as insane as always, but it didn't grind me down today. It washed around me, and I accepted it and fought to get the work done. Next thing I know, six and a half hours go by. Literally, things slowed down and I looked at the clock at it was a quarter to 8. I hadn't had a single break, no lunch, and didn't really feel the need. It was almost like road hypnosis; I've driven from the Twin Cities to VA in one stretch several times, to Chicago a dozen or so times, and between VA and SLC several times a year all throughout college. If you're going to be driving for more than a couple of hours, you can't focus all your energy on the road every second or you'll sap yourself completely and die out long before you get where you're going. You focus completely in heavy traffic, or going through a city, or in bad weather, sure. But when it's just blank highway, light to medium traffic, for hours at a time, you zone out. You're still THERE- you aren't asleep, and if the guy ahead of you brakes suddenly you won't hit him. But your mind goes elsewhere, and time passes, and you conserve yourself. Today was like that. I got hungry, and there were irritating customers and co-workers and insurance issues same as always, and I wasn't in some tripped-out Zen mode where all the universe was one and nothing was a problem, but I dealt with each issue as it came and when it was over, it was over. I even stuck around late to make sure the work was done. Plus, hey, working 15 minutes late + skipping lunch break = overtime city.
That was a long, stream of thought paragraph.
I mean, I'm not a yogi. I'm not perfect, top of my class. My study habits still kind of suck, and I've been staying up too late (although less too late then before, and I've been on time to every class), and I'm doing SOMETHING wrong with my posture in the shiatsu. Every time I do it, at the same point, when I get to the posterior femoral region (back of the thigh), I get this shooting pain in my opposite hip. Like, BAD, like someone's jamming a metal pen about four inches straight into the sciatic nerve. I'm sure part of it is strengthening the body to get used to a half-kneeling position for long periods, but I was paying attention this morning and I think I'm twisting my torso a bit.
Anyway, I'm not perfect. Not by a long shot. I still have an obscene amount to learn; about shiatsu, and TCM, and anatomy, and myself, and how to detect and correct the flow of Qi in the body. But I can do ten pushups on my fingertips, and people always feel better after a session with me than they did before, and I'm hitting most of the Namikoshi points pretty accurately, and today flowed like a stream through the woods, and there's a wonderful hope in my life, and I'm feeling a BURST of yang hitting my yin nature. And if that isn't a great place to start, then there isn't one.
|
|
| Free shiatsu! |
[08 Sep 2007|03:40am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
tired |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Richard Cheese- "Loser" |
] |
So classes have started for me at Centerpoint, and a homework requirement for my Shiatsu technique class is that I have to do four practice sessions per week, to review what we've gone over. I have to start doing those... uh, now, actually. As in this weekend.
I'm putting together an e-mail list of folks who'd be interested, and I'm throwing this out into blogland in hopes that I'll never have to panic that I won't get enough volunteers. If there's anyone who wants in, leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll add you to the list.
As for this weekend, like I said, I need four volunteers. I'm pretty much only free Sunday and late Monday evening, and it'll be due Tuesday, so I'm mildly worried about finding enough subjects. Please let me know, as soon as possible, and I'll send you an e-mail with all the particulars.
Length of sessions will depend upon how much of the form I've learned and need to practice. I don't have a shiatsu mat yet (I'll be getting one soon enough), so for now, you need to have a thick comforter or some couch cushions for us to work on.
And that's it. I'll work around your schedule as much as I can, go to you, and charge nothing. Sign up now, before I graduate and get crazy expensive!
|
|
| MN State Fair |
[04 Sep 2007|10:15pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
triumphant |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
none |
] |
So I went to the Fair this weekend. Rundown:
Food list-
Hot dish on a stick (very meh- just half meatballs alternating with tater tots on a skewer, then fried)
S'more on a stick (lame- marshmallow covered in chocolate with a dusting of graham crumbs. LAME)
Spaghetti and meatballs on a stick (alright. a little small. basically the middle half of a meatball that has spaghetti in it)
Frozen key lime pie on a stick (pretty good, but key lime gets overwhelming after two bites. the package has their website if anyone wants to order this. they are based in Key West)
Strawberry malt (okay, seriously, it's only a malt when it has malt in it. otherwise it's a shake. idiots, seriously, this matters a lot)
Deep fried Snickers bar on a stick (not as overly sweet as I remember. don't really need another one ever)
Sweet Martha's/Milk from milk stand (OM NOM NOM NOM SLURP NOM)
Came home with:
Full tub of Sweet Martha's (future OM NOM NOM NOM SLURP NOM)
Rice Kristie Treat made from Golden Grahams, marshmallow, and chocolate (mmm)
Slab of chocolate peanut butter fudge
Jerky from two different animals, neither of which is a cow
Final thoughts:
Y'know, I may be done with the Fair. Not that I'll ever go back, but if I miss it next year, I won't be sorry. I also won't be sorry if I go. Just neutral.
Robot combat is AWESOME.
Where was the raptor exhibit? They're great!
Fairway skeeball- anyone else play this? SO rigged! The final ramps are torn and taped up at the end, and almost a vertical slope. I seriously threw one ball that shot up, went STRAIGHT UP in the air, landed BACK ON THE RAMP, and rolled back to me. Rigged I tells ya!
That's why I prefer to play a game where a bunch of people compete, and one of them will win. Like that racing game where you fire water into a target, and the yardstick figure that rises fastest wins? I won first time through!
The prize:
HIS LAST NAME IS ALSO MARIO AND I WUV HIM.
The end.
|
|
| jiggedy-jig |
[20 Aug 2007|10:52pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 hungry |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Cranberries- "Linger" |
] |
Home again. The journey, in no particular order-
Got off the plane. All the janitorial staff at San Francisco Int'l Airport are Chinese. Confirms I am not in the same place as I left.
The wedding was beautiful- a short, lovely Jewish ceremony, with a charismatic and good-natured rabbi. Julie looked gorgeous in her gown- very sweeping and elegant. Tom was in a simple suit- all nervous angles and a huge smile. Seriously, he was just BEAMING with joy. Mark my words, since I've seen enough of all types of marriages- this is one of the lifelong ones.
The wedding cake had a layer of raspberry sauce. This was a Good Idea.
In addition to getting to see Julie and Tom (more than I expected to see of them, what with the getting married and all), and the expected time with Karen, I more than doubled the total amount of time I've ever spent with Megan Burns (we might be topping a half an hour now!), there was the happy surprise of Josh Holz and Ariana. They're engaged now! And living in Falls Church VA! Have been both for about a year! I need to communicate more frequently with them. Anyway, great to see them, and best of luck to them both in November.
New acquaintances were also met, and good times had. Will be communicating with at least one of them in the future. Being me, I hauled my business cards all the way to CA, and left them in the hotel room EVERY DAY. Genius level IQ, right here!
San Francisco... okay, I've been there before, when I was 16, but there's a difference between wandering a city with your father and brother and doing it solo. I only got one real morning of sightseeing, so I took the BART to Chinatown. I'd been craving steamed pork buns for seriously about three months, so I found a bakery and went to town. It had photos on the wall of when Bill Clinton visited it in 1996- I miss that president. When was the last time Bush just popped in somewhere that didn't have army troops, or a screen with his latest endeavor projected onto it? I honestly can't remember him just visiting random parts of America. Anyway. The bakery was awesome; and I hold love for anyplace where I can get two pork buns and a melon roll for $2.90. Then did some very fruitful souvenir-shopping; got a jade massage roller that I'm looking forward to trying out. Plus gifts for lots of folks.
Then walked up Telegraph Hill... okay, when I'm a famous screenwriter or film actor, to the point where I don't have to worry about money or auditioning, I'm buying a house and living there. GORGEOUS. Great views, interesting and mostly cool houses (a couple ugly boxes, but not many), CHARACTER dripping from every sidewalk and parking space. The roads are so schizophrenic up there that the houses surrounding them absorb it- I'd love to live there and feel it around all day. There was a house for sale by Sotheby's International Realty- it was unfortunately one of the ugly boxes, but it was across the street from Colt Tower. ACROSS THE STREET. Imagine it!
Then walked east and followed the ports back to the BART. Not much to report from that, but the breeze was nice and the bay was lovely.
Berkeley. If hippies were a dying race, this is where we would go to find a mating pair to breed them. I have seriously never seen so many VW buses, '60s Bugs, Daily Worker stands, tie-dye clothing booths, etc. Fair amount of homeless, too- I can't tell if there's a correlation, or just the normal concentration for a rural area that size, or if vagrants journey there to live off hippie-generosity. Saw one family buying a guy in a wheelchair a burger and fries from a stand. That was cool.
La Quinta hotels did not impress me. My iron was broken; the business room only had one computer, and the internet was down for a day; my first keycard barely worked, then didn't work, and the second was starting to have issues when I left; both drink vending machines were out of order; etc. No big issues, but not impressed.
The hotel room did have HBO, and I think I'm not as much of a tv addict as I used to be. I probably shouldn't be afraid of falling off the wagon. I never watched tv in the hotel room when I could have been doing something else, and the only thing I made time to watch was Die Hard. But, it was on well after all the daily plans were done, and... well, it's Die Hard. It rules. Passenger 57 was on after, and I watched that too, and was amazed at what a sub-par ripoff of Die Hard it was. I honestly wonder if some programmer intentionally put them one after another to emphasize it.
Remind me not to rent a car again unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary. I could have taken the BART to and from the airport, and there was nothing all trip that I couldn't walk to/ride the BART to/catch a ride from someone else. Big fat waste of money and time.
The BART- GREAT SYSTEM. Seems limited by the maps (doesn't even go to NW San Francisco), but it's a well-set-up train, and I have no complaints. It's a lot like the DC metro system, except a little dirtier, and aboveground a lot more, and it's going through a more interesting city.
My favorite part about riding in an elevated train is the piles of stuff behind businesses. Like, you can see the front, where it's all shiny and organized and parking lots and such, and behind the place is a huge heap of wooden pallets, or empty cardboard boxes, or new bricks, or old bricks, or firewood, or just a weed-infested lot. It gives a real eagle's eye view on how the world is laid out, from factories to homes to scrap yards and train tracks and all there is to see. LOVE it.
I love Sun Country Airlines. Aside from a good website design, and fairly cheap tickets. "Please be careful opening up the overhead bins, because Shift Happens." Hee.
Woke up late this morning, so I rushed and ran to the airport. I'd done all the packing and prepping the night before, and skipped filling the car with gas (extra wasted money), and cursed at the Monday morning rush hour on 80 and over the Bay Bridge, and made it to the rental car return without making any wrong turns. Getting the car back was a breeze, and I had half an hour before the plane took off. Waited for the shuttle to the terminal, COME ON COME ON I'M LATE, rushed to the ticket desk with 20 minutes to go AND I HAVEN'T EVEN GONE THROUGH SECURITY YET, THAT'LL TAKE FOREVER MAYBE THEY'LL LET CLOSE TICKETS SKIP THE LINE and the ticket agent says "It's okay, your flight is delayed", OH THANK GODS AND KISMET. So I'm still an oversleeping idiot, but it was cloudy in Minneapolis, and the plane left four hours late. Four. Hours. Finished my book, and now I'm home.
Fahrenheit 451 is a very, very good book.
The end.
|
|
| westward bound |
[17 Aug 2007|01:55am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
excited |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Mitch Benn- "Macbeth (My Name Is)" |
] |
Ah, but what to say? The Chuck Mee Project went wonderfully- Graydon Royce called us a jackpot, Dominic Papatola called us a disappointment, some audience went nuts for us and said we beat the SITI company for pure Chuck Meesity, some audience said they'd ask for that hour back on their deathbed. We didn't win the encore, but we almost sold out the Theatre Garage one night, and our smallest house couldn't have been under 45 or 50.
But all good things end. We closed, the iron lung is disassembled, my Lucky Strikes have moved on to treasured keepsake, joining some tickets from The Love Project, a sheep from Simic, and a purple flower from Midsummer. Total, I saw 35 Fringe shows, only 3 or 4 of them remotely duds, only one a definitive Bad Show. My pledge this year was to see more out of town shows- I saw 10, all of them fantastic. And this week I went back to work, giving up the Fantasy Camp of nothing but theatre and drinking all week.
It's a time of Changes. In a few weeks, I'll be starting massage school (as soon as I get the financing lined up and the transcript arrives). I have two weddings to attend in the next week and a half. Two great friends, and two lovely acquaintances, have moved out of town to attend grad school. Another friend is also starting grad school- thankfully, in town, so we'll be study buddies or somesuch. Friends out of state are moving around, reshuffling, going to school or getting engaged or getting vasectomies. Not many babies being born recently, but a couple of quality offspring added to the mix. It's a Hinge Time- a liminal time, when things Change, and we have the chance to guide ourselves to better paths. Or worse paths. Different paths, anyway.
But one last expedition- this weekend, I head to California to attend the wonderful nuptials of Tom and Julie. Aside from the ceremony itself, there's the time I get to spend with old SLC friends who I've only seen in blog entries for the last few years, and hey, a couple days in the Bay Area. And that weird feeling of being suddenly an Adult- I have plane reservations, hotel reservations, and a rental car waiting, and a plan to pay for them all. I hope I have some time to wander aimlessly, or else I won't feel like me.
So off I go. If anyone wants anything from San Francisco or Berkeley, or has local recommendations, comment or e-mail me. As much as that hotel room costs, they'd better damn well have a business room with internet connections.
Change is in the air... and rather than being terrified, I can't wait to see what comes.
|
|
| The Chuck Mee Project- GLORIOUS PREMIERE |
[02 Aug 2007|04:36am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
tired |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Vader Sessions |
] |
Hoy, all.
It's that time again! Time for my humble offering of my latest artistic endeavor. All of you who caught "The Love Project" this spring will be happy to know that this is from the same company, many of the same people, and built using the same method: ask a question, and see where that leads you.
For this show, the question was "How do you remake that which is broken?" As with Love, I think our response will surprise you.
All the info you need is in the press release, which follows. I hope I see you all there- this is a fantastic show from an incredible group of people, and deserves to be seen. Seen by you. Please come out to see it, if you can.
If it influences you, I'll be attending massage school this fall, and I'm holding off on theatre projects for a while, so it may be your last chance to see me act until Summer 2009. And by the Gods, I couldn't ask for a better sabbatical swan song.
--BWJ
Hello, friends!
It's that magical, beautiful, fantastical time of year again... the 2007 Minnesota Fringe Festival is nigh! And we of the Upright Egg are hard at work creating our newest creation The Chuck Mee Project!
WHAT?
Once again, we started with nothing more than a
question:
How do you remake what is broken?
And, in a few short weeks, a whole world was created. A world that invites you to take an out-of-control submarine ride through a mosaic of chaos and clarity! Join us as we explore the re-making of a man in search of a nearly normal life.
WHERE?
All performances will be held at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage at the corner of Franklin and Lyndale in Uptown Minneapolis.
WHEN?
Thursday, August 2nd - 10:00 PM
Saturday, August 4th - 8:30 PM
Friday, August 10th - 7:00 PM
Saturday, August 11th - 5:30 PM
Sunday, August 12th - 1:00 PM
WHOM?
Acting Company - Mark Benzel, Shirl Boe, Bryan Grosso, Noah Johnson, KatieRose McLaughlin, Andrew Northrop, Danielle Siver, Colleen Somerville, Teale Sperling, Brian Watson-Jones, & Anne Zager.
Director - Brian O'Neal
Playwright - Jordan Anderson
Stage Manager - Ben Kutscheid
Producer/Set Designer - Matt Riggs
Sound Designer/Composer - Don Sweet
Marketing - Danielle Siver
HOW?
1. Go here: http://www.fringefestival.org/index.cfm
2. Register. 'Tis FREE!
3. Check out descriptions of all of this August's Fringe offerings.
4. Add The Chuck Mee Project to your Fringe schedule by clicking the "Add" icon beside any performance.
5. Purchase your tickets in advance through UptownTix or at the door before any show! A Fringe Button ($3) is required for admission. Tickets are $10-$12.
6. Spread the word!! This year, the Egg has devoted itself to being as environmentally conscious as possible. To that end, we elected not to produce any paper waste with programs, postcards and posters. This means we're working entirely with word-of-mouth and web-based advertising and, hopefully, saving a tree or two. So feel free to forward this message to everyone you know! Go forth and advertise!
Thank you and see you at the Fringe!
Love,
The Egg
|
|
| I'm ok |
[02 Aug 2007|12:09am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
worried |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Counting Crows- "Einstein on the Beach" |
] |
Y'know, I really wish I hadn't had to put out another "I'm okay, no one freak out" messages ever again, but.
I'm okay, no one freak out.
I really, really want to know what happened. I mean, they'd been doing construction work on the bridge for a couple of weeks, but nothing structural. And if any of you know anything about bridges, please correct me, but it seems like it should be really hard for surface repaving to accidentally COLLAPSE the bridge. But all the recent inspections had turned out fine, too.
News says at least seven people are dead. Now, granted, that isn't too many people, especially considering that there were 50 vehicles on (including a school bus, which fortunately didn't fall- I guess it barely got off, or the part it was on didn't fall, or something), plus construction workers, plus the road and train tracks parallel to the river that the bridge fell onto. But... seven people are dead.
And everyone I know uses that bridge. It's a major connection in town, I drove over it just this morning, I can think of a dozen people that cross it as part of their commute. It's pretty damned scary.
Whatever happened, seven people or more died, and a major highway is going to be virtually shut down near some of its biggest exits for Gods know how long. Someone is getting their ass FIRED.
|
|
| Egg news, and two requests (not necessarily in that order) |
[06 Jul 2007|02:35am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
excited |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Temptations- "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" |
] |
Now, I'm not gonna say that Chuck Mee got "cast" today, or that I found out what "archetypical '50s role" I'll be portraying, or that I "have been given a prop to help me find the character and now want to embark on a personal journey to find my connection to who I'll be", or anything like that.
I'm just going to say that if anyone out there has a copy of "Rebel Without a Cause", preferably on DVD, that I can borrow for the next couple of weeks, I'd really appreciate it and will pay you back in massages/brownies. I need to spend some time studying James Dean.
...wink.
To catch you up, if this was more nonsensical than usual, my Fringe project is The Chuck Mee Project, and workshop collaboration put up by Upright Egg. And so far, I'm ecstatic about the good signs we've received; namely, we're STILL #2 on the list of top-scheduled Fringe shows. Which is... hell, it's MIND-BLOWING, since despite what I said in the last post, and what everyone in the cast seems to think, I'm convinced it can't just be from all of us scheduling ourselves (technically not cheating; I do plan on attending every performance). But it's an excellent marketing tool, and a much-needed one, as Upright Egg has decided to be a green theatre this year; no paper waste. No programs, no posters, no postcards. Which means we need as much help from word of mouth, and word of website, that we can get.
So help us keep the #2 slot! Go here:
http://www.fringefestival.org/index.cfm
And register for a MyFringe account, which is fast, easy, free, and intensely helpful if you plan on doing any Fringing at all. Then, go to this show:
http://www.fringefestival.org/showDetail.cfm?showID=673
And schedule all 5 performances! The Egg will thank you. The Chicken will love you. The Martini Pool will invite you in.
Heck, while you're at it... make plans to actually attend a performance or two. Top schedules is great and all, I'm not gonna knock it... but having an audience is better.
Anyone who loans me the Rebel DVD, schedules the shows, AND comes to see us, will receive a brownie-laden massage the likes of which would make HedonismBot blush.
--BWJ
"Come, let's bring light to the night of day"
|
|
| Fringe is up and rolling! |
[03 Jul 2007|01:08am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
excited |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Evanescence- "Bring Me to Life" |
] |
The 2007 Minnesota Fringe Festival is officially up on its feet, and pawing at the dirt inside the gate, ready to bolt out onto the pitch and run this metaphor right into the ground!
I'm posting this ASAP to share some fairly exciting news; The Chuck Mee Project, the Upright Egg Fringe show that I'm proud to be a part of, has debuted at #3 on the Popular Picks list.
http://www.fringefestival.org/shows.cfm
The Fringe website is a glory to behold; user friendly, visually pleasing, and damned useful. And as people build their schedules, it tracks which shows are the most added. And, for the moment, we are holding steady, with the only shows more popular being the two Scrimshaw shows (for you out-of-towners; the Scrimshaw Brothers are local medium-theatre superstars, for the simple reason that they are hilarious). I'm sure this slot won't be held for long; it probably owes much to all the cast joining the site and scheduling all performances. So I'm sure we'll drop as the festival nears and more and more audience members start hunting. But it's an exciting harbinger of things to come, and feels like a good sign. Plus, it won't hurt publicity to have strangers saying "I wonder what that is? I shall click and learn!"
http://www.fringefestival.org/showDetail.cfm?showID=673
...oh holy crap, I just went to the site to add the links to this post, and we're number 2. Holy living hells. We're ahead of a Scrimshaw show.
We haven't even written the show yet, and I am bursting. Fringe washes through me like energy from the cosmos, and I can't wait for it to build to a climax.
--BWJ
"And don't be terse and don't be shy
Just hold my lips and say good lies
And know that I will be your bail bond"
|
|
| Five Wishes |
[14 Jun 2007|02:41am] |
Last minute invite: (jeez, who can remember when I had any other kind?)
Come to the Bryant-Lake Bowl TONIGHT (6/14) at 7 pm, for Theatre Limina's "Bent" Summer Shorts series. Five 10-15 minute plays, and I'm appearing in the first of them. Stop by, grab a drink, and enjoy the show. Vote for us to return on the encore night. I'll be hanging around after, so join the performers for another drink! There's no earthly reason not to come, so clear your schedule and I'll see you there!
|
|
| H.P. Lovecraft |
[10 Jun 2007|10:58pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 thoughtful |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Tricky- "Overcome" |
] |
This has been bubbling for a while, and I think I found an entry in it.
I'm a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft.
I've long said that a good movie transcends plot- just a clever phrase that sprung to mind after the first time I saw "Psycho". I was about 19, but I knew every plot point to the movie, because... well, I live in America and watch tv. "Psycho" has turned into one of those classic stories that get parodied and referenced by everyone; a cultural touchstone you can use to reference something quickly. So nothing in "Psycho" was really a surprise. But it still scared the hell out of me. Because Hitchcock had built the mood, and the drive, so well that it didn't matter whether I knew from the first frame that the main character I was seeing would be dead before the film was half over, and that her killer was Anthony Perkins' "mother" personality. Big whoop. The surprise twist ending isn't what makes that movie great. It's the atmosphere.
Lovecraft is the same way. 9 times out of 10, his stories have a twist ending. Sometimes the entire final paragraph is in [i]surprised italics, with an exclamation point driving the surprise home![/i] Sometimes it's just the last sentence, or phrase. But the twist gets saved for the very end. And 99 times out of a hundred, you can see that twist coming from miles away. Hell, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is one of his longest stories, nearly novel length, and I saw the twist coming about a quarter of the way through. And, as with Hitchcock, that isn't the point, and it isn't what makes his stories good.
He created his own genre, in a way. The reality is that he didn't invent weird fiction, any more than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invented detective drama, or Euripides invented Greek tragedy, or Tennessee Williams invented depression. But his work defined it, set the standards, to such an extent that people don't use the term 'weird fiction' anymore. They call a story 'Lovecraftian'. Those stories are usually horror, although some of Lovecraft's best work would more accurately be called science fiction. They involve the crumbling ruins of the past; old architecture, ancient gods and rituals, crumbling manuscripts, dark deeds forgotten long before men walked on two legs, but whose effects and horror reach forward to today. They are terrifying not because of a wolfman or vampire or serial killer running through dark woods to catch us, but because of the sheer immensity of time and space, and the overwhelming likelihood of some vast horror swallowing us up without even realizing it. Cthulhu isn't an evil god who will come to earth to torture men for fun. He's an ancient, madness-inducing being who will sweep the earth clean without really caring. It isn't that the Big Bad Guys are our enemies; they aren't. They don't even notice us. We are Nothing compared to them, and if they crush us under their weight, they won't even notice. It's our Insignificance that's frightening.
Lovecraft was the king of the genre. Even though he wrote at the same time as a half dozen other authors, and even though they all traded stories and names to link all their works together into one huge united world (hell, Lovecraft's second most famous ancient book of horror, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, was invented by someone else), Lovecraft was the master. I've read all the fiction Lovecraft ever wrote, and all but one of the stories he 'revised' (basically rewrote from scratch). Naturally, I heard quite a bit about his personal life from collected volumes' introductions, and that made me curious for more.
Basically, he was a sad, sad man. Born into wealth, which vanished fairly quickly. His father died in a sanitarium when he was little, either of nervous exhaustion or syphilis, depending on who you believe. His mother also died when he was young, leaving him in the care of two aunts. He was sickly all his life, never finished high school because of nervous breakdowns, hardly ever got out. He built up an impressive number of correspondents, became an amateur journalist, eventually president of an amateur journalist society. In the course of that, he met a woman and married her, moving to New York City, where he spent two years miserable and unemployed. He moved back to Providence, left his wife behind, and they eventually divorced. He was a little more worldly now; had many more correspondents, a pretty good reputation as a writer, and went on country explorations throughout New England. He did things he loved, but his life always seemed limited to me, and as good as his reputation was in certain circles, his writing never paid well. And he didn't become renowned until decades after he died at age 46 of cancer and malnutrition. So yeah. Sad, sad man.
Here's the problem. He was a racist bastard.
And not just a little. He viewed Caucasians, especially people of English ancestry, as superior people. Lesser Europeans, like Hispanics and Gypsies, were uncivilized thieves and vandals. Africans were one step above monkeys. He wrote praising poems to the Confederacy, thought that immigrants were ruining the country, and so on and so on. He was a huge social conservative; viewing families of old money as noble aristocracy, and viewed himself as the final member of a fallen, noble lineage. Poor people were degenerate, country folk were backwards and uneducated. And it's not like he kept these beliefs to himself. Read any of his stories, and chances are good you'll run across a passage where the distaste for nonwhite folks will show itself like a neon sign.
So I had to put Lovecraft in a small group of artists whose art I loved, but whose personal views I hated. Or in Lovecraft's case, pitied. Disney with his Nazi sympathizing. Orson Scott Card and his homophobia. Lovecraft and his rampant racism. It isn't easy to deal with sometimes, but what can I do? Boycott his stuff? He's dead. Has been a long time. Orson Scott Card's still around, so maybe there's a case there, but do his backward views on gay marriage make "Ender's Game" any less good? At some point you have to accept that there are bastards out there doing great art, and appreciate the art on its own.
Then I found this quote, and although it doesn't forgive him entirely, it leaves me hope that maybe, by the end of his life, he figured out how things really are. Even by itself, it's well put. He died the next year.
"I used to be a hide-bound Tory simply for traditional and antiquarian reasons- and because I had never done any real THINKING on civics and industry and the future. The depression- and its concomitant publicisation of industrial, financial, and governmental problems- jolted me out of my lethargy and led me to reexamine the facts of history in the long light of unsentimental scientific analysis; and it was not long before I realised what an ass I had been. The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right- for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past." --H.P. Lovecraft, private correspondence, 1936
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
before's journal