Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Four Day Blog Week
Since mankind has been doing too much for too long, a natural recession has taken place.
However, what is a recession but a fiscal representation of the necessary action: Get rid of the bloat and focus on the meat.
So, starting today, we will be moving to the four day blog week. I know, I know, how will you live without my five posts each week?
To survive with only FOUR? That’s a twenty percent decrease. HAVE I GONE MAD?
No…but comes a time when a man gets busy and the blog has to be a little less and the other work has to be a little more.
An adjustment.
We’ll all just take a deep breath…and adjust.
Namaste.
However, what is a recession but a fiscal representation of the necessary action: Get rid of the bloat and focus on the meat.
So, starting today, we will be moving to the four day blog week. I know, I know, how will you live without my five posts each week?
To survive with only FOUR? That’s a twenty percent decrease. HAVE I GONE MAD?
No…but comes a time when a man gets busy and the blog has to be a little less and the other work has to be a little more.
An adjustment.
We’ll all just take a deep breath…and adjust.
Namaste.
Friday, May 15, 2009
All Nighter
Hilarity?
Insanity?
Both?
I had a big emailing project to do and during the day, I cannot get anything done…emails and phones and things…work out…eat. It just takes over.
I’ve always been a late night person, but tonight took the cake.
Hitting the hay at 6:30 AM.
How did I do it? CAFFEINE! It so works. Three cups of Typhoo tea…honestly, I could walk to Montauk right now.
Lucky (or Unlucky) me---I am very affected by drugs. I take a swig of Nyquil, I’m out for eleven hours. I drink three cups of tea, I can stay up for twenty-four.
The one area where this is very positive is in avoiding alcoholism. I never got used to alcohol, still get pretty tanked on two glasses of wine, so I have been spared becoming an alcoholic and I am a notoriously cheap date.
But friends…staying up all night is fun. The dawn dawns. The birds chirp. It has been peaceful all night long with no interruptions and now---I get to sleep until at least noon.
I highly recommend it. Makes you feel like a kid again. And then, you can just relax the next day because you got all that stuff done.
I could see how you could really write a novel this way…in like three months.
I wonder if you would hit a wall?
Insanity?
Both?
I had a big emailing project to do and during the day, I cannot get anything done…emails and phones and things…work out…eat. It just takes over.
I’ve always been a late night person, but tonight took the cake.
Hitting the hay at 6:30 AM.
How did I do it? CAFFEINE! It so works. Three cups of Typhoo tea…honestly, I could walk to Montauk right now.
Lucky (or Unlucky) me---I am very affected by drugs. I take a swig of Nyquil, I’m out for eleven hours. I drink three cups of tea, I can stay up for twenty-four.
The one area where this is very positive is in avoiding alcoholism. I never got used to alcohol, still get pretty tanked on two glasses of wine, so I have been spared becoming an alcoholic and I am a notoriously cheap date.
But friends…staying up all night is fun. The dawn dawns. The birds chirp. It has been peaceful all night long with no interruptions and now---I get to sleep until at least noon.
I highly recommend it. Makes you feel like a kid again. And then, you can just relax the next day because you got all that stuff done.
I could see how you could really write a novel this way…in like three months.
I wonder if you would hit a wall?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Bird Orgy
Like locusts they are!
Pigeons are fucking everywhere you turn.
Lucky for me, I can open my bathroom window and toss water on the pigeons that are trying to start a family under my air conditioner in the main room.
I wouldn’t mind them so much, if they weren’t so loud!
All the guttural mating. And the fluttering of the wings.
And the girl, she wants it! Bad! She sits below the A/C on the windowsill, hunkering down, shaking her tail feathers (I finally know what that really means).
And Mr. Pigeon is all puffed up, making his noise.
I say, CHECK INTO A MOTEL 6!
As if the busses and the kids on their skateboards aren’t enough outside my window four stories below…now I have to listen to this bird fucking?
I just keep tossing water at them. It’s my form of avian birth control.
Probably, the stress of this water boarding is going to kill these damn birds. I bet they need to mate or they get sick with the backed up sperm and useless egg.
But I don’t care. We certainly don’t need any more pigeons in Queens!
A few days ago, there was a seagull flying around. I kind of liked that. Then, I thought, “Must be a load of garbage nearby.”
Birds… they really are filthy. I say…stay in the trees and away from my appliance.
Pigeons are fucking everywhere you turn.
Lucky for me, I can open my bathroom window and toss water on the pigeons that are trying to start a family under my air conditioner in the main room.
I wouldn’t mind them so much, if they weren’t so loud!
All the guttural mating. And the fluttering of the wings.
And the girl, she wants it! Bad! She sits below the A/C on the windowsill, hunkering down, shaking her tail feathers (I finally know what that really means).
And Mr. Pigeon is all puffed up, making his noise.
I say, CHECK INTO A MOTEL 6!
As if the busses and the kids on their skateboards aren’t enough outside my window four stories below…now I have to listen to this bird fucking?
I just keep tossing water at them. It’s my form of avian birth control.
Probably, the stress of this water boarding is going to kill these damn birds. I bet they need to mate or they get sick with the backed up sperm and useless egg.
But I don’t care. We certainly don’t need any more pigeons in Queens!
A few days ago, there was a seagull flying around. I kind of liked that. Then, I thought, “Must be a load of garbage nearby.”
Birds… they really are filthy. I say…stay in the trees and away from my appliance.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
No Longer Waiting for Godot
I have never seen a production of Waiting for Godot before tonight. I have read the play many times. When I was a junior in college, studying in Paris, Oliver Platt was starring in Waiting for Godot at my college, Tufts University, which I obviously missed. I missed the Lincoln Center production with Steve Martin and Robin Williams (thank goodness). There was a production at Harvard in the 80’s. I was nearby. I missed that one, too. I simply never saw Waiting for Godot before tonight.
With great pleasure, I must announce that this is a wonderful production and well worth seeing and if you are near New York, you should see it.
This play is so monstrously sad. It is funny, in its way. (The woman next to me, all dark curls, would laugh at something particularly strange and dark and turn toward me for approval of her experience. I have never liked that.)
You had to be Irish and depressed to write this play. It is so deeply lyrical and so densely filled with pessimism. It has this oddly light touch with a survivalist instinct marked by intimacy and the floppy inability to get it together to find enough strong rope to hang oneself.
Bill Irwin as Vladimir was a bit too light on his toes for me. Very clownish in that he walked and elbowed around very angular and loose, I would have liked to have seen him more authoritative. Nathan Lane, ever a crowd pleaser, could have been more of a sad idiot instead of a borscht ham. These attributes, heady boss and bumbling fool, are right on the page. Why not play them? Stage stars will play their tricks. Their tricks did fit, though, so the spirit of the play remained completely intact. I say, then, this play must be so good…because all you have to do is bring your humanity to it and it works.
John Goodman as Pozzo was perfectly overbearing, huge and pathetic. And John Glover as Lucky delivered the insane, repetitive “thinking” monologue that is the true heart of this piece in such a way, you just want to go out into the streets screaming over your wretched humanity.
The set is all gray Joshua Tree Moonscape. Having lived in California for years, I liked that the whole thing felt very America West.
Human souls, unprotected, waiting for a savior, with questionable memories, needing each other but desiring to be alone and to die, repeating the same thing day after day, with nothing but their own pain and games to distract and amuse themselves….this is quite the crux of the modern era. It howls. It howls. It sticks to you.
With great pleasure, I must announce that this is a wonderful production and well worth seeing and if you are near New York, you should see it.
This play is so monstrously sad. It is funny, in its way. (The woman next to me, all dark curls, would laugh at something particularly strange and dark and turn toward me for approval of her experience. I have never liked that.)
You had to be Irish and depressed to write this play. It is so deeply lyrical and so densely filled with pessimism. It has this oddly light touch with a survivalist instinct marked by intimacy and the floppy inability to get it together to find enough strong rope to hang oneself.
Bill Irwin as Vladimir was a bit too light on his toes for me. Very clownish in that he walked and elbowed around very angular and loose, I would have liked to have seen him more authoritative. Nathan Lane, ever a crowd pleaser, could have been more of a sad idiot instead of a borscht ham. These attributes, heady boss and bumbling fool, are right on the page. Why not play them? Stage stars will play their tricks. Their tricks did fit, though, so the spirit of the play remained completely intact. I say, then, this play must be so good…because all you have to do is bring your humanity to it and it works.
John Goodman as Pozzo was perfectly overbearing, huge and pathetic. And John Glover as Lucky delivered the insane, repetitive “thinking” monologue that is the true heart of this piece in such a way, you just want to go out into the streets screaming over your wretched humanity.
The set is all gray Joshua Tree Moonscape. Having lived in California for years, I liked that the whole thing felt very America West.
Human souls, unprotected, waiting for a savior, with questionable memories, needing each other but desiring to be alone and to die, repeating the same thing day after day, with nothing but their own pain and games to distract and amuse themselves….this is quite the crux of the modern era. It howls. It howls. It sticks to you.
I am Anti Anti-Trust
Look, my mobile phone, internet service, online stuff, all of it, is working so well now that I am a total slave to AT&T like in the old days.
Why can’t we just leave it alone? Isn’t my life fragmented enough?
It’s all AT&T all the time and I have no complaints. In fact, I love them. Their customer service works. I don’t feel totally gauged.
If my awesome liberal friends in Washington want to do something liberal with the monster corporations---WHY NOT JUST TURN THEM INTO UTILITIES??? Highly regulated, government watched utilities. If you are a very successful corporation, the price you pay for your big monopoly is you become utilitzed!
This breaking things up, in a weird way, is actually a right wing thing. It’s all about competition. The endless addiction to competition. Is anyone besides me sick of fighting?
I never have to fight with AT&T. Okay---I bet some of you hate AT&T. I am sure there are horror stories. As for me, I have none. I am pleased. I pay that bill online and the links always work and my phone always works, in Europe, too. Satellites, yay!
This political swinging—right, left, left, right---I understand it is the natural way of things. I say swing on, BUT KEEP THE THINGS THAT WORK!
Let AT&T be monstrous. Focus on something much more important my liberal friends: MAKE THIS HEALTHCARE THING WORK. I have allergies.
Why can’t we just leave it alone? Isn’t my life fragmented enough?
It’s all AT&T all the time and I have no complaints. In fact, I love them. Their customer service works. I don’t feel totally gauged.
If my awesome liberal friends in Washington want to do something liberal with the monster corporations---WHY NOT JUST TURN THEM INTO UTILITIES??? Highly regulated, government watched utilities. If you are a very successful corporation, the price you pay for your big monopoly is you become utilitzed!
This breaking things up, in a weird way, is actually a right wing thing. It’s all about competition. The endless addiction to competition. Is anyone besides me sick of fighting?
I never have to fight with AT&T. Okay---I bet some of you hate AT&T. I am sure there are horror stories. As for me, I have none. I am pleased. I pay that bill online and the links always work and my phone always works, in Europe, too. Satellites, yay!
This political swinging—right, left, left, right---I understand it is the natural way of things. I say swing on, BUT KEEP THE THINGS THAT WORK!
Let AT&T be monstrous. Focus on something much more important my liberal friends: MAKE THIS HEALTHCARE THING WORK. I have allergies.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Sun Also Sets
This is the view from my window in Queens. A room with a view is essential. When I lived in New York during my tender twenties, I always looked skyward or headed into the park to spend time with trees.
One of the greatest things about Queens, in addition to its reputation as being unhip, is the flat expanse. Perhaps it is because I have lived in Los Angeles for so many years, but I like a good sprawl loaded with plants.
Every evening, if I am lucky enough to be home, I sit in front of my window and watch the sunset over Manhattan. I look across five miles of trees that obscure most of the man made things. Then, there is the foggy rise of the vapor off the East River and after that, Gotham in all its sharpness.
I love Manhattan. What a marketplace. And furthermore, it has Central Park.
But what I cannot get over is how much my small apartment feels like a cabin in the sky because of all this light and these trees and the sunset.
I am a radical sunset chaser. At dinner parties, I beg people to come outside with me when the sun is setting. (I also love the early morning light, but I am so rarely awake for it.)
Living on the fourth, fifth or sixth floors of a building is clearly the way to go. You want branches.
And a view is so important. You can just sit there and think...
I did lift one of the screens and it fell down four stories. I went down and retrieved it.
One of the greatest things about Queens, in addition to its reputation as being unhip, is the flat expanse. Perhaps it is because I have lived in Los Angeles for so many years, but I like a good sprawl loaded with plants.
Every evening, if I am lucky enough to be home, I sit in front of my window and watch the sunset over Manhattan. I look across five miles of trees that obscure most of the man made things. Then, there is the foggy rise of the vapor off the East River and after that, Gotham in all its sharpness.
I love Manhattan. What a marketplace. And furthermore, it has Central Park.
But what I cannot get over is how much my small apartment feels like a cabin in the sky because of all this light and these trees and the sunset.
I am a radical sunset chaser. At dinner parties, I beg people to come outside with me when the sun is setting. (I also love the early morning light, but I am so rarely awake for it.)
Living on the fourth, fifth or sixth floors of a building is clearly the way to go. You want branches.
And a view is so important. You can just sit there and think...
I did lift one of the screens and it fell down four stories. I went down and retrieved it.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Something has happened. Spring. The trees in my neighborhood are leafed out.
Birds are chirping. The blooming cherry trees are dropping their final petals. Pink carpets everywhere. Yes friends, this is QUEENS I’m talking about.
What it does to me is very simple. I no longer notice buildings, cars, skate boarders, busses or trash. All I see is trees. Are trees? Trees.
I can stare at a tree for fifteen minutes. Let’s face it. We are monkeys. Serious ones with tanking Roth IRA’s. But who cares! We have trees! And bananas.
Okay, I bought the bananas at Met Foods.
In California, there is much discussion about “Beach People” “Mountain People” and “Desert People”. During one of these discussions up in Santa Barbara, a woman from Great Britain (or was it New Zealand?) said, “I’m a rain person.”
I guess I would have to say, simply, that I am a tree person. Flat out woods are fine with me. I think I’ll sprout a ringed tail.
Birds are chirping. The blooming cherry trees are dropping their final petals. Pink carpets everywhere. Yes friends, this is QUEENS I’m talking about.
What it does to me is very simple. I no longer notice buildings, cars, skate boarders, busses or trash. All I see is trees. Are trees? Trees.
I can stare at a tree for fifteen minutes. Let’s face it. We are monkeys. Serious ones with tanking Roth IRA’s. But who cares! We have trees! And bananas.
Okay, I bought the bananas at Met Foods.
In California, there is much discussion about “Beach People” “Mountain People” and “Desert People”. During one of these discussions up in Santa Barbara, a woman from Great Britain (or was it New Zealand?) said, “I’m a rain person.”
I guess I would have to say, simply, that I am a tree person. Flat out woods are fine with me. I think I’ll sprout a ringed tail.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The Plumb Line of the Uterus
I have returned from leafy upstate New York not far from where I was born. You can feel it when you are at the latitude where you came into the world. It just makes sense.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Don't Go Into the Junglemix.in
Facebook is under attack, a phishing attack that is, and it is the second time in the past few weeks that the social netowrking giant has been under fire. The newest Facebook phishing scam, Junglemix.in, acts the same way as the previous FBStarter assault.
The Junglemix.in phishing attack redirects to a fake Facebook site called fblight.com where Facebook users are shown a fake log in page or assaulted by malware. To avoid falling victim to Junglemix.in DO NOT in any way accept the junglemix.in link if it is sent to you on Facebook.
The Junglemix.in phishing attack redirects to a fake Facebook site called fblight.com where Facebook users are shown a fake log in page or assaulted by malware. To avoid falling victim to Junglemix.in DO NOT in any way accept the junglemix.in link if it is sent to you on Facebook.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Murdertown
If you would like to make a call, please hang up and dial again.
If you would like to follow the twitter novel, MURDERTOWN, go to
twitter and sign up, do a search for DonCummings and follow.
In MURDERTOWN, read how they try to take Twitter down.
If you would like to follow the twitter novel, MURDERTOWN, go to
twitter and sign up, do a search for DonCummings and follow.
In MURDERTOWN, read how they try to take Twitter down.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Are We Hog Wild? Or H1N1--
People are running around like lunatics, washing their hands, wearing masks, keeping their kids home from school and eating, solely, canned foods.
There has been a push to call this swine flu H1N1…but how can you call something so piggy a couple of letters with two ones?
When you read about the definition of H1N1, apparently, it’s the general term for most strains of flu since they have been testing strains…the same strain as the Spanish flu from 1918 that killed millions of people worldwide.
So, if people really did call this flu H1N1, instead of Swine Flu, and they grew curious and then looked it up, they would see that millions of people have died from it during the Twentieth Century.
This might not make them treat pigs any better.
I don’t believe in contracting the flu. It’s bad for you. Furthermore, it could be deadly.
Swine flu is Swine flu by any other name. H1N1 sounds even worse.
Wash your hands. And wait for this media cycle to end. Hype. Or is it?
There has been a push to call this swine flu H1N1…but how can you call something so piggy a couple of letters with two ones?
When you read about the definition of H1N1, apparently, it’s the general term for most strains of flu since they have been testing strains…the same strain as the Spanish flu from 1918 that killed millions of people worldwide.
So, if people really did call this flu H1N1, instead of Swine Flu, and they grew curious and then looked it up, they would see that millions of people have died from it during the Twentieth Century.
This might not make them treat pigs any better.
I don’t believe in contracting the flu. It’s bad for you. Furthermore, it could be deadly.
Swine flu is Swine flu by any other name. H1N1 sounds even worse.
Wash your hands. And wait for this media cycle to end. Hype. Or is it?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I recently read that Twitter has a very low retention rate of users.
Understandable.
Twitter so annoys me, I started to write an annoying Twitter novel on Twitter with the exact goal to bring Twitter down.
Of course, I could get over my technology induced A.D.D. and simply ignore all these new ways to “Get-it-out-there.”
But I get so much pressure from my friends…like, “But you blog all the time, you should twitter!”
And I think, “Why? I’m blogging!”
Plus, let’s face it, blogs devolve. I understand now why I should have had a blog that went hedgehog deep instead of fox curious.
But I am fox curious…So there sits my blog with it’s fluffy orange tail.
But this twitter? I want it to go down like Dick Cheney.
I don’t think Dick has lost his mind. I think it was always gone and now, he just doesn’t care if we see it. What a freakish monster.
Understandable.
Twitter so annoys me, I started to write an annoying Twitter novel on Twitter with the exact goal to bring Twitter down.
Of course, I could get over my technology induced A.D.D. and simply ignore all these new ways to “Get-it-out-there.”
But I get so much pressure from my friends…like, “But you blog all the time, you should twitter!”
And I think, “Why? I’m blogging!”
Plus, let’s face it, blogs devolve. I understand now why I should have had a blog that went hedgehog deep instead of fox curious.
But I am fox curious…So there sits my blog with it’s fluffy orange tail.
But this twitter? I want it to go down like Dick Cheney.
I don’t think Dick has lost his mind. I think it was always gone and now, he just doesn’t care if we see it. What a freakish monster.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Specter in the Eye of the Right Wing
That smarts. Poor Republicans.
My only fear, and it is a real one, is that Obama will get everything he wants…and it still won’t work.
And if that happens---then, we are simply doomed.
HOWEVER, I don’t believe that will happen.
I believe he is going to get HEALTH CARE majorly revamped. And the new ENERGY ECONOMY started up. But Education and the Economy are still going to be a problem
We don’t do either one of those things well any longer. Too Boomy and stupid for too long.
Specter is now a monstrous hero. He was wise to abandon his small minded party. They have nothing going right now.
Dreams of the adrenalin boosting filibuster, gone.
Is that the whizzing sound of legislation going through? Without someone reading a book of recipes aloud?
Nice.
My only fear, and it is a real one, is that Obama will get everything he wants…and it still won’t work.
And if that happens---then, we are simply doomed.
HOWEVER, I don’t believe that will happen.
I believe he is going to get HEALTH CARE majorly revamped. And the new ENERGY ECONOMY started up. But Education and the Economy are still going to be a problem
We don’t do either one of those things well any longer. Too Boomy and stupid for too long.
Specter is now a monstrous hero. He was wise to abandon his small minded party. They have nothing going right now.
Dreams of the adrenalin boosting filibuster, gone.
Is that the whizzing sound of legislation going through? Without someone reading a book of recipes aloud?
Nice.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Oh My Piggies!
Look that Swine Flu right in its pig slit of an eye and simply say, “I WILL HAVE NONE OF YOU!”
Also…it wouldn’t hurt to wash your hands.
Ever since I have become a big ol’ hand washer, I almost never get sick.
Whenever I come in from dealing with the public, shaking hands, or sitting on a plane…I simply wash those hands of mine.
Of course, it could all just be the placebo effect that saves me. No matter! I’ll take a placebo anytime!
But back to this flu. You know, I remember when SARS was in its big outbreak. We were on our way to France. Passengers at LAX were wearing masks. I was nervous, but I didn’t think I’d actually get a touch of SARS.
The hype of this piggish disease, this swine flu, this what-can-you-do-swine-flu, this porky inconvenience, it’s right up there with the West Nile Virus and the Avian Flu. Quack Quack.
I am celebrating the financial and medical fracturing of our earth by accepting the idea that we are all one…and we are all affected by the misdeeds of men and pigs.
Also…it wouldn’t hurt to wash your hands.
Ever since I have become a big ol’ hand washer, I almost never get sick.
Whenever I come in from dealing with the public, shaking hands, or sitting on a plane…I simply wash those hands of mine.
Of course, it could all just be the placebo effect that saves me. No matter! I’ll take a placebo anytime!
But back to this flu. You know, I remember when SARS was in its big outbreak. We were on our way to France. Passengers at LAX were wearing masks. I was nervous, but I didn’t think I’d actually get a touch of SARS.
The hype of this piggish disease, this swine flu, this what-can-you-do-swine-flu, this porky inconvenience, it’s right up there with the West Nile Virus and the Avian Flu. Quack Quack.
I am celebrating the financial and medical fracturing of our earth by accepting the idea that we are all one…and we are all affected by the misdeeds of men and pigs.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
There's Got to Be a Morning After Pill
Plan B is so genius, it should thrill everyone. Not only do you NOT need a prescription, it’s not even abortion. It just keeps sperm and egg from uniting.
IT’S LIKE A CONDOM IN PILL FORM! (without the benefit of protecting you from disease, sad.)
But there it is! The magic pill we’ve all been waiting for. It stops conception from occurring. How brilliant. Even the Catholic church never stated, “Life begins at the moment sperm slops into the vagina.”
And what is the reaction of the conservative, anti-abortion right? They hate it.
At this point, you just have to think these people hate sex. Pure and simple. Sure, they don’t want to terminate pregnancies, but horrifyingly, these are people who think every sex act should happen after marriage and end with a baby. They are irresponsible, crazy people.
Plan B. It’s the plan you come up with when the human race has multiplied like rabbits and half those rabbits are insane.
IT’S LIKE A CONDOM IN PILL FORM! (without the benefit of protecting you from disease, sad.)
But there it is! The magic pill we’ve all been waiting for. It stops conception from occurring. How brilliant. Even the Catholic church never stated, “Life begins at the moment sperm slops into the vagina.”
And what is the reaction of the conservative, anti-abortion right? They hate it.
At this point, you just have to think these people hate sex. Pure and simple. Sure, they don’t want to terminate pregnancies, but horrifyingly, these are people who think every sex act should happen after marriage and end with a baby. They are irresponsible, crazy people.
Plan B. It’s the plan you come up with when the human race has multiplied like rabbits and half those rabbits are insane.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Norman Conquests
So lucky was I to see The Norman Conquests today at a matinee at Circle in the Square. Alan Ayckbourn wrote three plays that take place over one weekend in three different locations: the dining room, the living room and the garden.
They are entitled, respectively, Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden.
We saw Living Together. In the Living Room.
It was simply very humorous, directed with perfect pitch timing by Matthew Warchus, with a cast of stellar people you may or may not have heard of: Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephan Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root.
Each character is a bit of a type. Comedy, afterall. The silliness is tinged with desperate sadness. Stephan Mangan, playing Norman, is the seducer, pulling everyone possible into his horny, needy clutches. It is not so much farce as it is drawing room comedy at a high pitch.
The three plays fit together like a puzzle, so if you go back to see another one of the plays, you get to see the action going on in the other room or garden. And, if someone exits in one of the plays with a basket, that entrance is seen in the other play, with the same character carrying the basket. It’s all pretty cool and it takes a quick and big mind to pull off this kind of writing. Alan Ayckbourn takes about two weeks to write a play. This is true and not a criticism. Though the stuff does not run too deep, it does run quite truthful. So what the heck! Smart guy. He has written about seventy plays.
Clever. Enjoyable. Extremely well done. It’s the Old Vic production from London.
Head on over. If you are feeling energetic, go to one of the days when you can see all three plays. Bring a bagged lunch.
They are entitled, respectively, Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden.
We saw Living Together. In the Living Room.
It was simply very humorous, directed with perfect pitch timing by Matthew Warchus, with a cast of stellar people you may or may not have heard of: Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephan Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root.
Each character is a bit of a type. Comedy, afterall. The silliness is tinged with desperate sadness. Stephan Mangan, playing Norman, is the seducer, pulling everyone possible into his horny, needy clutches. It is not so much farce as it is drawing room comedy at a high pitch.
The three plays fit together like a puzzle, so if you go back to see another one of the plays, you get to see the action going on in the other room or garden. And, if someone exits in one of the plays with a basket, that entrance is seen in the other play, with the same character carrying the basket. It’s all pretty cool and it takes a quick and big mind to pull off this kind of writing. Alan Ayckbourn takes about two weeks to write a play. This is true and not a criticism. Though the stuff does not run too deep, it does run quite truthful. So what the heck! Smart guy. He has written about seventy plays.
Clever. Enjoyable. Extremely well done. It’s the Old Vic production from London.
Head on over. If you are feeling energetic, go to one of the days when you can see all three plays. Bring a bagged lunch.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Dying Dog Show: Four Months Later
My beloved Louise has been dead for four months.
Tonight, it hit me again.
To spare you the image of a middle aged guy sobbing alone in an apartment over his dead pooch, I will not describe it in detail.
But I will jump in here with this—loss is so awful, yet we survive it and I am very impressed with that. I imagine grief is the brain’s mechanism to release the connection to something that is no longer here? I don’t really understand grief. We had some dogs that didn’t last in our house growing up. Only one, JJ, really upset me.
Dogs.
I hear the only way to really get over your dead dog is to get another one.
Tonight, it hit me again.
To spare you the image of a middle aged guy sobbing alone in an apartment over his dead pooch, I will not describe it in detail.
But I will jump in here with this—loss is so awful, yet we survive it and I am very impressed with that. I imagine grief is the brain’s mechanism to release the connection to something that is no longer here? I don’t really understand grief. We had some dogs that didn’t last in our house growing up. Only one, JJ, really upset me.
Dogs.
I hear the only way to really get over your dead dog is to get another one.
Monday, April 20, 2009
420 The Pot Calling the Right Wing Black
Okay, the title doesn’t scan.
But, seriously, pot is a drug, like alcohol and nicotine, and so, you know, we might as well sell it as such, tax it, then use the money to build high speed rail.
I think the Republican Party is being taken over by libertarians. I’d rather have them than the tighty-righties with their Christianism. (Though, truly, I have nothing against Christ. I’m a little insane myself.)
So, it is no surprise that the Republicans are couching this whole “Fuck it…let people smoke weed” thing in dollar bills. Business is business.
I wonder, I do, how we do so well (formerly) as a nation when we are driven by profit yet are also fearful of anything pleasurable. At least dissociated from anything pleasurable. Or even more, dissociated, then blissed out, followed with guilt.
I think Pot is not as innocuous as people say it is. I think there are problems with it. It is addictive (at least habit forming). It is a hallucinogen (I’ve seen people lying low on my sofa and floor because of the stuff). And it can cause anxiety and paranoia (Okay, that’s me).
So, being a bit of a moderate lefty, I feel like we must get very truthful about weed. Box it pretty. Sell it at Walmart. But like cigarettes, there should be warnings all over it. And, maybe this---a limit on how much you can buy? Is that too controlling?
I do not believe all drugs should be legal. I believe Cocaine and all kinds of speed, hard opiates, big hallucinogenics, are pretty destructive. But Pot? It’s just kind of destructive. Like Glenlivet.
So, bring it on, this legalization. Then, give health care to all. Legalize Gay Marriage. Start selling Gouda. And presto! We’re Holland.
Holland is pretty cool. I wish their official name was Holland and not The Netherlands.
But, seriously, pot is a drug, like alcohol and nicotine, and so, you know, we might as well sell it as such, tax it, then use the money to build high speed rail.
I think the Republican Party is being taken over by libertarians. I’d rather have them than the tighty-righties with their Christianism. (Though, truly, I have nothing against Christ. I’m a little insane myself.)
So, it is no surprise that the Republicans are couching this whole “Fuck it…let people smoke weed” thing in dollar bills. Business is business.
I wonder, I do, how we do so well (formerly) as a nation when we are driven by profit yet are also fearful of anything pleasurable. At least dissociated from anything pleasurable. Or even more, dissociated, then blissed out, followed with guilt.
I think Pot is not as innocuous as people say it is. I think there are problems with it. It is addictive (at least habit forming). It is a hallucinogen (I’ve seen people lying low on my sofa and floor because of the stuff). And it can cause anxiety and paranoia (Okay, that’s me).
So, being a bit of a moderate lefty, I feel like we must get very truthful about weed. Box it pretty. Sell it at Walmart. But like cigarettes, there should be warnings all over it. And, maybe this---a limit on how much you can buy? Is that too controlling?
I do not believe all drugs should be legal. I believe Cocaine and all kinds of speed, hard opiates, big hallucinogenics, are pretty destructive. But Pot? It’s just kind of destructive. Like Glenlivet.
So, bring it on, this legalization. Then, give health care to all. Legalize Gay Marriage. Start selling Gouda. And presto! We’re Holland.
Holland is pretty cool. I wish their official name was Holland and not The Netherlands.
State of Play
I like a hard boiled movie.
I like journalism.
I like Russell Crowe (why two Ls? Yes.) a lot. Investigative reporter gone to seed. Fat and hairy and still very sexy.
And Helen Mirren is everyone’s favorite strong woman. The boss of the paper.
Ben Affleck is still very handsome and likable and, well, you know, he could always be better. Sorry Ben. One roots for you. With your long face. Ben seems to be holding onto youth with all four limbs. The congressman.
Robin Wright Penn, beautiful and simple. The wife of the congressman.
Rachel McAdams got her job done.
And how about that slime ball Jason Bateman? He played the nastiest weasel I’ve seen in a long time. Kind of brilliant. The PR guy with some good information. I smell Oskie.
The story is one of those stories that I have a hard time following. But I followed this one, all the way through, to the end. The movie had me. It was smart. It was suspenseful. It had well developed characters with very complicated relationships.
However, the final twist was very unsatisfying and, really, almost ruined the whole thing for me.
Why did the story end like that?
I will only reveal this about the plot, in such vague terms: New journalism (blog) versus old journalism (paper). Mercenary military companies. Paranoia. A congressman going after the bad mercenary military guys. An affair. Spying. A nasty hired killer killing for whom? Russell Crowe is the middle aged reporter guy, with the big gut and the long hair…figuring out what really went down. The whole time, teaching Rachel McAdams what it is to be a real reporter.
Look…it’s better than a lot of other stuff out there. Plus, I was really in the mood for a movie.
Russell Crowe fans. Go.
Ben Affleck fans. Go.
Helen Mirren fans. Eh.
Newspaper thriller fans. Go.
State of Play
Now, what on earth does the title have to do with anything? I don’t know.
I like journalism.
I like Russell Crowe (why two Ls? Yes.) a lot. Investigative reporter gone to seed. Fat and hairy and still very sexy.
And Helen Mirren is everyone’s favorite strong woman. The boss of the paper.
Ben Affleck is still very handsome and likable and, well, you know, he could always be better. Sorry Ben. One roots for you. With your long face. Ben seems to be holding onto youth with all four limbs. The congressman.
Robin Wright Penn, beautiful and simple. The wife of the congressman.
Rachel McAdams got her job done.
And how about that slime ball Jason Bateman? He played the nastiest weasel I’ve seen in a long time. Kind of brilliant. The PR guy with some good information. I smell Oskie.
The story is one of those stories that I have a hard time following. But I followed this one, all the way through, to the end. The movie had me. It was smart. It was suspenseful. It had well developed characters with very complicated relationships.
However, the final twist was very unsatisfying and, really, almost ruined the whole thing for me.
Why did the story end like that?
I will only reveal this about the plot, in such vague terms: New journalism (blog) versus old journalism (paper). Mercenary military companies. Paranoia. A congressman going after the bad mercenary military guys. An affair. Spying. A nasty hired killer killing for whom? Russell Crowe is the middle aged reporter guy, with the big gut and the long hair…figuring out what really went down. The whole time, teaching Rachel McAdams what it is to be a real reporter.
Look…it’s better than a lot of other stuff out there. Plus, I was really in the mood for a movie.
Russell Crowe fans. Go.
Ben Affleck fans. Go.
Helen Mirren fans. Eh.
Newspaper thriller fans. Go.
State of Play
Now, what on earth does the title have to do with anything? I don’t know.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Lovely Humans
I know, you’ve already watched it sixteen times and you keep crying---
But that’s okay.
The eye rollers in the audience. You are one of them. The fearful one.
But the not-so-pretty woman on that stage. You are her. We all are. That’s why you relate to it so much. We’re all so ugly with the beauty within. Right? I think that is the note she really hit. And so, we go on.
Keep singing.
I bet she does get kissed. By Simon.
On another note: Obama is not a Socialist. Stop it.
Watch it one more time:
Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent
But that’s okay.
The eye rollers in the audience. You are one of them. The fearful one.
But the not-so-pretty woman on that stage. You are her. We all are. That’s why you relate to it so much. We’re all so ugly with the beauty within. Right? I think that is the note she really hit. And so, we go on.
Keep singing.
I bet she does get kissed. By Simon.
On another note: Obama is not a Socialist. Stop it.
Watch it one more time:
Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)