MIddle Stage @ Dixon Place, November 14 @ 7:30 PM

Come see us, Don and Marian, in MIDDLE STAGE, the beginnings of a wacked comedy with guitar and bassoon at DIXON PLACE, Monday evening, November 14 at 7:30 PM.

Other acts for the evening include something by Robert Dick, Heidi Schreck in “What the Constitution Means to Me,” The Band GIFT OF TONGUES and Felipe Ossa’s “Liberal White Female.”

So, you know, variety.

Buy tickets here, for just ten measly bux. Or pay a little more at the door. The night is short, fun and Dixon Place is all state-of-the-art with the real downtown downtowness you’ve been craving since August:

Little Theatre Tickets

See you there.

MIDDLE STAGE

 

Completely Confusing

The Earth + 7 Billion People = Freak Show


 

Dog as Parakeet

The truth is, we had the cutest white-apricot tinged loudest, yippiest rescue malti-poo pooch this side of Paris. We could not believe we were stuck with her. We figured, well—she must go back---to be made into the dog of someone else, or sausage.

But Adam, My-husband-in-New-York, had a long talk with the rescue outfit that gave us this rejected designer pooch. So this is the deal (and we read so many books!)---every dog has his special kind of day and ours is dealing with profound separation anxiety. No surprise we ended up with THAT one.

So this is what the rescue guy said to do…in the pen where she is living with her great bedding and toys and water and all that---you have to cover it with a blanket. It has to be like the pen has nothing to do with the room that it’s in so the dog will feel like it has that tiny little world that is hers…that is safe…that has nothing to do with people or anything else. Total safety. It’s like Temple Grandin’s Cow Press!

Then, what you do is, you put the dog in, all covered like that, for five minutes. As soon as she stops the whining and barking and settles in, you time five minutes. You then give her a snack reward. Take her out for five minutes. Then do the same for ten and fifteen. Work your way up to twelve damn hours! Over a week or so.

This is fine.

And miracle of miracles…the yapping nightmare piped down. She has been sound asleep in there for a few hours, not a peep.

If only I had access to this information a little sooner—

I was making dinner tonight and she sat right on my foot. She was such a baby and so incredibly in need. I cried. But you knew that.

 

There's Something About Married

You know, you wake up one morning and you’re married for almost a week and something is different.

No, it’s not just the dog that won’t stop barking, ever. Though, that is a surprising twist on what we thought our prize hound was going to be.

No, it’s this feeling of permanence. And I know that sounds silly---because I hear that people get divorced all the time. But there is a collective conscience around marriage that says…’til corpse do we roll.

And that is the tradition. That is the traditional marriage feeling. And you feel it. And it’s cool.

Now, why would anyone want to deprive a gay guy or a girl-on-girl girl of this feeling?

Not to be all self righteous here…

The day to day, ‘til it’s over. Enjoyable.

Now, today, I have a cold. Tell everyone to stay away. Except for my husband.

Another Wedding, Another Dog

We revisited our relationship on our eighteenth anniversary. ;) And now, not only are we Multnomah-County-of-Oregon-Marriage-Rescinded and Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partners, but as of Thursday, October, 20, 2011, we are Legally-Married-in-New-York. In attendance were Kathy Vance and John Bianchi, the couple who introduced us, and Don’s sister, Sally and her husband Tom Gundling.

When it gets recognized by the Feds, we can all have a big celebration. So help us, please, by doing everything you can to MAKE us LEGAL from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Pole. Write, call, talk to your cousin in Utah.



We rescued a pooch. We went to Connecticut by commuter train to meet the Adopt-a-lab truck. They are rescuing small dogs now, too. She comes from Missouri originally, rescued to Indiana. She made the road trip to just within a few feet of the Darien train stop.

She’s great…if you like really cute little pooches that are riddled with separation anxiety. We’re working on it. She is very affectionate. We are all figuring each other out. Buy stock in paper towels!

Her name is Connie.

Save the Date

November 14, Monday.

New show.

All Original material. With music and slides.

Dixon Place

The New York Times: Diversity and Inclusion

Invited by a friend of mine at The New York Times to attend the 15th floor conference center to watch, hear and meet the panel for

Same-Sex Marriage: The Road to Passage in New York State.

With City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, NY State Senator, James S. Alesi (the Republican from Rochester who swung into support), and Andrew Cuomo, our governor.

This is what I gleaned:

1) James S. Alesi voted for what his constituents wanted. It was also an act of bravery, since bullies have been at him before, during and after.

2) Christine Quinn has a warm Long Island accent and is smart.

3) Governor Cuomo repeated again and again that lack of marriage equality was discrimination. Pure and simple. He never left that idea. He said politicians are scared and that politicians follow people, not the other way around, as we would like to believe. So you have to teach the people to think the right way and then they do and then you can vote for the new thinking. He viewed it as an education of others, that once all the hot emotions fell, the conservatives had nothing to back up their position---except discrimination. This was pure and simple for him. An issue of discrimination. And in a state of equality, in a country of equality, it had to go.
People cried.

4) The guy sitting next to me was something of importance at the bureau there. He smelled so much of garlic, my head started to pound.

5) The New York Times building is gorgeous. Go in it.

I was near the governor as he was leaving and shook his hand. I think he will run for president in 2016, though, he did not tell me such a thing. I thanked him for what he did. He has a good sense of humor. I would vote for him.

I think people should not eat garlic in the middle of the day---unless they suspect mutant daylight resistant vampires.


 

Dreaming of Notre Dame

Some scientifically far fetched stuff, religiousy, paranoia-y, that is true-ish has come to light and demands more inspection.

Comets from the past that hit the earth have the same percentage makeup of elements that make up our proteins. So, Ron Hubbard, with his wacked idea of original sin coming from outer space and zipping into volcanoes…is not so far off. He might have “felt this” to be true. So Scientology, though wacky, might actually be “a hunch” that has some truth to it. Of course, they went too far with the story.

Sitting on a bus in the 1980s when AIDS was in full blown hysteria, I overheard a pair of African Americans who insisted it was a government plot to kill Blacks. Of course, this is not exactly true. But it was vaccination techniques in colonized Africa, according to an article in The Times today written by Donald G. McNeil, Jr., that caused a virus multiplier scenario. So perhaps the paranoia I witnessed in that bus bound for Jersey had some basis in truth.

We all feel things. Then we make stuff up. Maybe we shouldn’t make stuff up, even avoid narrative in general, and just try to talk about what our hunches are, specifically. We should all be more hunched and less rigid.

The North Fork

What a great peninsula. Sticking into the ocean. Little towns. Sort of a nowhere but somewhere place.

It's very interesting. Nova Scotia feel meets a little bit of Northern California as this weekend was cool and dry and a section of the spit has cedars growing. Wine grapes all around, lavender, too. Lovely micro-climate.

Across the water, a short distance, is Gardiners Island. A land grant over 400 years old, given to the Gardiner family by the English Crown--well, they still have it.

It's all a pyramid scheme. It was good to be British back in the day.

 

Occupy Wall Street or The Remake of Footloose

I am not compelled to witness either one.

However, I am more inclined to visit those guys down in Zuccotti Park who are making a statement or a ruckus or whatever it is they are doing.

But I am freaked out by the math. I think more people are against them than are for them.

But things could turn. If the protesters are greatly abused, people will stand up for them. And the consciousness could change. Though the martyr thing is a drag, it is effective. What else do powerless people have?

Vietnam ended.

Wall Street’s and Banker’s days could end, too.

Power to the people. Right now.

Republicans, Truly

I want to write about the Republican presidential candidates, but there is so much lunacy going on, it is hard to know where to begin.

So I will scrap it and appeal to the few Republicans who read my blog and have not yet dumped me as a friend.

If you are a Republican and you have some sense and you understand that business is important but that people are, too, would you please try to win the nomination?
And if you do, will you entice the health insurance industry to work much more closely with the government, like they do in France, the best run medical system in the world? Please? Believe in Empiricism?

Just wanting to be rich, sharing nothing with anyone else, and making sure every unborn baby is born and gay people retain their shame is not enough reason to have a political party. There must be more to it. If you have more, please run for president. Who knows, you might end up my crossover candidate!

If Only

Today, I had a root canal.

Beyond the horror is the stench. Beyond the stench is the knowledge that you are going to pretty much smell like that not long after you die.

I would like to download myself into a hard drive. Or up into the cloud.

I certainly find this mortal casing to be a chore.

This is not a call for help but an invitation to care less.

Things die every day.

So why so greedy and fearful, everyone?

Bread, butter, tomatoes, ham. Enough.

A Second Blog, Since they are So Cutting Edge

Friends,

There is a second blog. Check it out.

I don’t know what it means yet.

Time will reveal its purpose.

What do YOU know?

Article Schmarticle

B.I.U.

Beauty is underrated.

Facebook is All Things to All Humans

And now with the subscribe button (imitating Twitter) and the lists (imitating Google+), you have to wonder what Facebook will imitate next.

Maybe little excel sheets or travel pods?

The subwebs of the web are getting filled with plaque and the web, itself, needs some cleaning.

I don’t have time to do it.

Facebook, when are you launching your own browser?

And then, when will Apps and Browsers merge?

I just want to talk to someone.

On the other end of it:

Steve Jobs, how dare you die before giving me hardware portability the size of a key that projects holograms? Selfish.

Tonight is It. Come On Over. It's Only Rain.

 

The Play:

LIVE WORK SPACE

Tuesday and Wednesday, are here.

 

LIVE WORK SPACE Tuesday and Wednesday Nights @ 8

The Production Company proudly announces
the third play in our "First Look Play Reading Series"

Don Cummings' exciting new play
LIVE WORK SPACE

Two Nights Only! Tuesday and Wednesday, October 4 & 5 at 8 PM

Directed by Ben Campbell

featuring company members and guest artists
DAN ALEMSHAH KIMBERLY BAILEY JOHNNY CLARK
MADELYNN FATTIBENE DOUG KREEGER DAVID YOUSE

NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY - FREE ADMISSION
The Production Company @ The Lex Theatre
6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood 90038
...come on down and see what The Production Company is up to!