Saw it. Liked it. Loved Ellen Barkin, Patrick Breen and Jim Parsons.
Big angry play…and rightfully so.
I saw AS IS years ago and I was confused and thought I had seen THE NORMAL HEART already. Awful, right? Like someone confusing Judy Collins for Joni Mitchell…
My very good friend, DY, started this whole thing in Los Angeles as a reading to raise money. Now look at it.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Check in with Yourself
Have you changed?
It’s always good to take the Myers Briggs Test again! Summer’s here. You might want to take a course. You’re thinking of a career change. You want that new horse but are wondering if it really is something you should be doing…you hate yourself and you want to figure out why. You name it.
I’m an ENFP. No matter how many times I take the test it never changes.
So go ahead and check in with yourself. It’s the ultimate Cosmo quiz. And hell---self knowledge at any time is good for you. Accept your inner animal. It’s what all the jazzy kids are doing.
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test.
It’s always good to take the Myers Briggs Test again! Summer’s here. You might want to take a course. You’re thinking of a career change. You want that new horse but are wondering if it really is something you should be doing…you hate yourself and you want to figure out why. You name it.
I’m an ENFP. No matter how many times I take the test it never changes.
So go ahead and check in with yourself. It’s the ultimate Cosmo quiz. And hell---self knowledge at any time is good for you. Accept your inner animal. It’s what all the jazzy kids are doing.
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Le Mofo Mit le Chapeau
You know, I was not interested in seeing this play, The Motherf**ker with the Hat.
Someone said something about, “All that screaming and the cursing. Who wants to hear all that cursing?”
Well, it turns out, I DO!
The play was fantastic. Simple story of betrayal between friends with their girlfriends. But that was not really the important part of it. The important part was the language. The rapid fire, I’m going at you, full tilt, some sort of 1975 thing, but more self aware, raw, low class, sweaty, “When you gonna get me that two family house in Yonkers?” kind of smart train wreck.
It was tight.
It is worth seeing.
It made clear that recovery is anything but, that life is harsh.
The cast is brilliant. Booby Cannevale is full-on. Chris Rock plays a great smoothie. And then there’s Yul Vazquez, the weird cousin. More please. Elizabeth Rodriguez screams herself horse but rides like a young colt. Annabella Sciorra, well, guess she needed a gig. But she was good. Fine.
I didn’t get for a minute that anyone really loved anyone. The anger and disappointment stuff were the primary notes. Whole tones here. Again, didn’t matter---because the writing was so good and the acting was, if not nuanced, damn focused.
Stephen Adly Guirgis has a great name and a great talent. Anna D. Shapiro directed it tight and ballsy.
Glad they did this thing. It was one of the most vital things I’ve seen in a long time.
Not too much changed. Everyone learned a little bit, practiced being a person another bit of time. Poetic. Gray and dirty. See it. And see it with this cast.
Someone said something about, “All that screaming and the cursing. Who wants to hear all that cursing?”
Well, it turns out, I DO!
The play was fantastic. Simple story of betrayal between friends with their girlfriends. But that was not really the important part of it. The important part was the language. The rapid fire, I’m going at you, full tilt, some sort of 1975 thing, but more self aware, raw, low class, sweaty, “When you gonna get me that two family house in Yonkers?” kind of smart train wreck.
It was tight.
It is worth seeing.
It made clear that recovery is anything but, that life is harsh.
The cast is brilliant. Booby Cannevale is full-on. Chris Rock plays a great smoothie. And then there’s Yul Vazquez, the weird cousin. More please. Elizabeth Rodriguez screams herself horse but rides like a young colt. Annabella Sciorra, well, guess she needed a gig. But she was good. Fine.
I didn’t get for a minute that anyone really loved anyone. The anger and disappointment stuff were the primary notes. Whole tones here. Again, didn’t matter---because the writing was so good and the acting was, if not nuanced, damn focused.
Stephen Adly Guirgis has a great name and a great talent. Anna D. Shapiro directed it tight and ballsy.
Glad they did this thing. It was one of the most vital things I’ve seen in a long time.
Not too much changed. Everyone learned a little bit, practiced being a person another bit of time. Poetic. Gray and dirty. See it. And see it with this cast.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Swiss Pics Instant Coco
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Is it Possible to Complain? (Help us Al Gore...)
Switzerland was beautiful, clean, on time, loaded with trains, cog trains, high wire acts, tunnels, and my favorite middle Europa thing: ham, cheese and good bread six meals a day.
Plus, the people are easy going. At least, all the people I met.
The trip ended with us flying right into the unstable air of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. The plane plummeted many times---you know that feeling. And everyone sort of screams a little. (Then, I just continue to moan…) Something funny was happening as we were crossing the Atlantic. The sky just got full of weather so we went up to 40,000 feet. This usually means that coming back down is going to be nasty. And it was.
All I could think of was, “This air is so unstable and it’s because we have heated up the earth too much with all of our equipment. And here I am in an aluminum hell tube and I am only making matters worse. How many dead dinosaurs did we burn getting here today? And isn’t this very thing I am doing, riding jets, making the world worse so that riding jets ends up being so incredibly uncomfortable?”
I am no fan of flying. I am especially no fan of flying around during toradoes-in-June-in-New-England. Nasty.
The following video sums up the trip. It was spectacular, until the very end. My audible reaction at the end of this seven second clip was caused by the realization I had pushed some button on my smartypants phone by mistake. Or something. There is an honesty to the groan.
Look---there is just so much we can control.
Plus, the people are easy going. At least, all the people I met.
The trip ended with us flying right into the unstable air of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. The plane plummeted many times---you know that feeling. And everyone sort of screams a little. (Then, I just continue to moan…) Something funny was happening as we were crossing the Atlantic. The sky just got full of weather so we went up to 40,000 feet. This usually means that coming back down is going to be nasty. And it was.
All I could think of was, “This air is so unstable and it’s because we have heated up the earth too much with all of our equipment. And here I am in an aluminum hell tube and I am only making matters worse. How many dead dinosaurs did we burn getting here today? And isn’t this very thing I am doing, riding jets, making the world worse so that riding jets ends up being so incredibly uncomfortable?”
I am no fan of flying. I am especially no fan of flying around during toradoes-in-June-in-New-England. Nasty.
The following video sums up the trip. It was spectacular, until the very end. My audible reaction at the end of this seven second clip was caused by the realization I had pushed some button on my smartypants phone by mistake. Or something. There is an honesty to the groan.
Look---there is just so much we can control.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
I Have Some Questions
Why do so many people loathe the idea of a strong benevolent Socialist government but gladly work for feudal modeled corporations that enslave them?
Why do people in the Midwest continue to deny climate change while their cities and lives are being flattened?
Why is everything loaded with garlic?
Why is it totally cool to have millions of dollars and then want millions more while others cheer you on to obtain it?
Why can’t I take a high speed train all across the continental United States in fifteen hours?
Why do people continue to buy horrible cheap shit that makes them fat and sick?
Why do people think they should have something for nothing?
Why are so many people flaming out publicly?
Why do we get old, the whole time pretending we are young?
Why don’t I own a Havanese?
Why do I continue to run the air conditioner when I know this is slowly eating up all the mountain tops in West Virginia?
Why do men from New Jersey wear clunky pinky rings?
Why is competition absolutely everything?
Why is it that even though I would like an economy based on compassion, I somehow understand that this is impossible? Is it because I have been brainwashed?
Why did I always try to impress people when, really, everyone was already so upset about themselves that all great deeds just made them feel even worse?
Why is there MRSA at all?
Why is the sun still here?
Why are we all alive right now and not at the point of true extinction?
Why are people having all these late life babies that might have had better brains if they had had them twenty years ago?
Why is rice pudding so tasty and empty?
Why do we look better when we are thin?
Why do I own such horrible headphones, taken from the back pouch of an American Airlines seat?
Why are clams so tasty in the same way in absolute value uniqueness that cashews are?
Why do things change so quickly and then we are so quick to make fun of how things just were? Is this part of the fear of time-death thing?
Why do I care?
Why do people in the Midwest continue to deny climate change while their cities and lives are being flattened?
Why is everything loaded with garlic?
Why is it totally cool to have millions of dollars and then want millions more while others cheer you on to obtain it?
Why can’t I take a high speed train all across the continental United States in fifteen hours?
Why do people continue to buy horrible cheap shit that makes them fat and sick?
Why do people think they should have something for nothing?
Why are so many people flaming out publicly?
Why do we get old, the whole time pretending we are young?
Why don’t I own a Havanese?
Why do I continue to run the air conditioner when I know this is slowly eating up all the mountain tops in West Virginia?
Why do men from New Jersey wear clunky pinky rings?
Why is competition absolutely everything?
Why is it that even though I would like an economy based on compassion, I somehow understand that this is impossible? Is it because I have been brainwashed?
Why did I always try to impress people when, really, everyone was already so upset about themselves that all great deeds just made them feel even worse?
Why is there MRSA at all?
Why is the sun still here?
Why are we all alive right now and not at the point of true extinction?
Why are people having all these late life babies that might have had better brains if they had had them twenty years ago?
Why is rice pudding so tasty and empty?
Why do we look better when we are thin?
Why do I own such horrible headphones, taken from the back pouch of an American Airlines seat?
Why are clams so tasty in the same way in absolute value uniqueness that cashews are?
Why do things change so quickly and then we are so quick to make fun of how things just were? Is this part of the fear of time-death thing?
Why do I care?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Test
Begonia test
We are going to Switzerland in a few days. Took a test to see if I could blog a picture right from my phone--Sure can.
Alps, cows, cheese. All of it.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Gmail Labs
Advice to friends with GMAIL.
Go to your Settings (the little gear to the upper right) and choose LABS and pick some things. They add functionality.
I am all for the UNDO feature and the CALENDAR.
The UNDO feature gives you about six seconds to UNDO the FLAMER email you just sent.
The CALENDAR puts your gmail calendar in mini form in your left column. In the calendar, be sure to check options and have it show the monthly calendar in addition to the agenda.
Or do nothing at all.
But, you know, it is always good to be reminded in this world of endless options that some things are actually worth choosing.
Go to your Settings (the little gear to the upper right) and choose LABS and pick some things. They add functionality.
I am all for the UNDO feature and the CALENDAR.
The UNDO feature gives you about six seconds to UNDO the FLAMER email you just sent.
The CALENDAR puts your gmail calendar in mini form in your left column. In the calendar, be sure to check options and have it show the monthly calendar in addition to the agenda.
Or do nothing at all.
But, you know, it is always good to be reminded in this world of endless options that some things are actually worth choosing.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Staten Island Tonight @ 7PM right off the Boat
Yep. I'm serious.
Here it is again:
Friends!
The Rapture will not happen if more than five of my friends come to this reading on Friday night--
These writers are great. It’s always funny and touching. The spirit is right. Worth the free boat trip and free admission!
The reading is right near the terminal. There is always a ton of food and drink around. And art to buy. And people to talk to.
I will be reading from my blog-book, Open Trench. Have you heard of it?
This time it’s all about lockers, locker rooms and maybe a guest appearance by my dead grandmother.
7PM
120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island
Staten Island Ferry Schedule
View Larger Map
Here it is again:
Friends!
The Rapture will not happen if more than five of my friends come to this reading on Friday night--
These writers are great. It’s always funny and touching. The spirit is right. Worth the free boat trip and free admission!
The reading is right near the terminal. There is always a ton of food and drink around. And art to buy. And people to talk to.
I will be reading from my blog-book, Open Trench. Have you heard of it?
This time it’s all about lockers, locker rooms and maybe a guest appearance by my dead grandmother.
7PM
120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island
Staten Island Ferry Schedule
View Larger Map
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Art By the Ferry Friday Night at 7
Friends!
The Rapture will not happen if more than five of my friends come to this reading on Friday night--
These writers are great. It’s always funny and touching. The spirit is right. Worth the free boat trip and free admission!
The reading is right near the terminal. There is always a ton of food and drink around. And art to buy. And people to talk to.
I will be reading from my blog-book, Open Trench. Have you heard of it?
This time it’s all about lockers, locker rooms and maybe a guest appearance by my dead grandmother.
7PM
120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island
Staten Island Ferry Schedule
View Larger Map
The Rapture will not happen if more than five of my friends come to this reading on Friday night--
These writers are great. It’s always funny and touching. The spirit is right. Worth the free boat trip and free admission!
The reading is right near the terminal. There is always a ton of food and drink around. And art to buy. And people to talk to.
I will be reading from my blog-book, Open Trench. Have you heard of it?
This time it’s all about lockers, locker rooms and maybe a guest appearance by my dead grandmother.
7PM
120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island
Staten Island Ferry Schedule
View Larger Map
And Now, A Word About Trump
A few weeks ago, someone seriously asked me, “And what do you think about a businessman running our country? What do you think about Trump?”
I finally got it. People dream of themselves in the role of big tycoon. This is their financial porn. And they want to see it manifested so they can keep jerking off to it.
Do they not understand that a nation is not solely a business? That much of what a nation does has absolutely nothing to do with profit?
Trump did it for the same reason I blog: for posterity, it seems?
Trump, of whom I am slightly freaked to share a first name with, is no different than those nasty-ugly kings and courtesans you see in paintings at Versailles. No peruque on earth can save their weak chins, their odd noses, their pasty eyes or their height. (I know, I’ve tried it.)
So why did he do it at all? Was it just fun for him to parade around pretending to be the leader of the free world? Like acting? Like trying on a suit? If so, well, who am I to judge? We all do that kind of thing. He just happened to have the cash to go for a big costume party.
I have compassion for the weirdo. He is completely repellant yet imagines he is wanted.
(As opposed to the rest of us who are completely wanted yet imagine ourselves repellant…a slightly less offensive tragedy.)
Goodbye Trump. Continue your trippy ego trip. Your daddy taught it to you. You taught it to your kids. It will be interesting to see them when they are older. They may end up just like you or they may take a divergent path, get a reasonable haircut and think about someone other than the bloated self loving hog in the mirror.
Full disclosure: I once worked for one of The Donald’s companies. I never met him. It was lowest common denominator garbage. But I guess it turned a buck.
I finally got it. People dream of themselves in the role of big tycoon. This is their financial porn. And they want to see it manifested so they can keep jerking off to it.
Do they not understand that a nation is not solely a business? That much of what a nation does has absolutely nothing to do with profit?
Trump did it for the same reason I blog: for posterity, it seems?
Trump, of whom I am slightly freaked to share a first name with, is no different than those nasty-ugly kings and courtesans you see in paintings at Versailles. No peruque on earth can save their weak chins, their odd noses, their pasty eyes or their height. (I know, I’ve tried it.)
So why did he do it at all? Was it just fun for him to parade around pretending to be the leader of the free world? Like acting? Like trying on a suit? If so, well, who am I to judge? We all do that kind of thing. He just happened to have the cash to go for a big costume party.
I have compassion for the weirdo. He is completely repellant yet imagines he is wanted.
(As opposed to the rest of us who are completely wanted yet imagine ourselves repellant…a slightly less offensive tragedy.)
Goodbye Trump. Continue your trippy ego trip. Your daddy taught it to you. You taught it to your kids. It will be interesting to see them when they are older. They may end up just like you or they may take a divergent path, get a reasonable haircut and think about someone other than the bloated self loving hog in the mirror.
Full disclosure: I once worked for one of The Donald’s companies. I never met him. It was lowest common denominator garbage. But I guess it turned a buck.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Words to a Beech Tree
How can you not like misty rain?
Walking through Central Park today, it was misting like the lettuce area in the produce department and everything was at its peak of green. It was frigging Ireland out there.
Near the corner of Columbus Circle, that whack shopping mall, in the park, is a huge beech tree, high enough to scratch the moon. I stood there grinning from ear to ear.
Trees are very destructive to my nose when they are fucking. This year, they went on for three weeks. (Please stop the global warming, or climate change, or whatever you want to call it---it is turning the trees into nympho-monsters.)
But when the sex is all over, and it seems to be now, it is the full leafing that follows. (Don’t want those pesky leaves to get in the way of the girly parts. Ah, evolution…brings us tulips and little piggies in April.) Strange, my spell check loathes piggies.
That beech tree. I wish I were as large and in charge. Then again, it’s fine with me that things are the way they are.
Walking through Central Park today, it was misting like the lettuce area in the produce department and everything was at its peak of green. It was frigging Ireland out there.
Near the corner of Columbus Circle, that whack shopping mall, in the park, is a huge beech tree, high enough to scratch the moon. I stood there grinning from ear to ear.
Trees are very destructive to my nose when they are fucking. This year, they went on for three weeks. (Please stop the global warming, or climate change, or whatever you want to call it---it is turning the trees into nympho-monsters.)
But when the sex is all over, and it seems to be now, it is the full leafing that follows. (Don’t want those pesky leaves to get in the way of the girly parts. Ah, evolution…brings us tulips and little piggies in April.) Strange, my spell check loathes piggies.
That beech tree. I wish I were as large and in charge. Then again, it’s fine with me that things are the way they are.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
XX XY Trouble
When unconscious men write television shows and movies and include women in the cast, often these women are objects. Tits with legs, serving their masters.
When unconscious women write television shows and movies and include men in the cast, often these men are unreasonably sensitive or unreasonably aggressive. Testosterone experiments ready to be dominated or to be feared.
These unconscious people who create these things are not so much wrong as they are selfish and lazy. Selfish, because they are sucking on the wishes of their own fantasies. Lazy, because if you really look around, most people are nothing like this.
If we actually accepted moderation, would we then have no watchable stories? I do not believe so.
When one depicts the opposite sex in one color, I do think it is politically bizarre and understand the backlash, but worse, I believe it is unappealing. Ignore it. Have your children ignore it and it will go away.
When unconscious women write television shows and movies and include men in the cast, often these men are unreasonably sensitive or unreasonably aggressive. Testosterone experiments ready to be dominated or to be feared.
These unconscious people who create these things are not so much wrong as they are selfish and lazy. Selfish, because they are sucking on the wishes of their own fantasies. Lazy, because if you really look around, most people are nothing like this.
If we actually accepted moderation, would we then have no watchable stories? I do not believe so.
When one depicts the opposite sex in one color, I do think it is politically bizarre and understand the backlash, but worse, I believe it is unappealing. Ignore it. Have your children ignore it and it will go away.
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Root of Humor
If anger is at the root of humor and you get over your anger, then will it follow that you will also lose your humor? Or even worse, retain some sort of toothless humor?
Fuck.
Did dogs really help us to evolve?
Schrodinger’s Cat. Twenty words or less.
Beech trees. Apparently, they are everywhere…I never know which one it is.
Do successful fat actors hold onto their tonnage for fear of losing future paychecks?
Birds. I am not a bird watcher. I prefer mammals.
I play Facebook Scrabble. I do not play Angry Birds.
I wish for variety. I am happiest with the known. Mix it up.
Percentage-wise, less people die in war today than ever before.
I do not like being out in the sun but I do like it to be sunny.
Is Newt Gingrich serious?
MRSA, do you have the symptoms? Or do you just need a nap?
I still can’t get over how good Clare Danes was in that Temple Grandin HBO movie.
I do not understand stories about identity.
Brains plaque up in everyone. Exercise. Get off your ass.
If you had the moral dilemma that went like this: Your neighbor, whom you like, will die, unless you take on a nasty cold for the rest of your life. What would you do?
Boats—really? Not interested.
Pot holders are getting extremely fancy.
The original PC’s that came out in the 80’s really did not seem futuristic to me, then.
Broadway Show Idea: Sea World, the musical. Takes care of everyone.
I want a dog. That’s what this is all about. A dog.
Fuck.
Did dogs really help us to evolve?
Schrodinger’s Cat. Twenty words or less.
Beech trees. Apparently, they are everywhere…I never know which one it is.
Do successful fat actors hold onto their tonnage for fear of losing future paychecks?
Birds. I am not a bird watcher. I prefer mammals.
I play Facebook Scrabble. I do not play Angry Birds.
I wish for variety. I am happiest with the known. Mix it up.
Percentage-wise, less people die in war today than ever before.
I do not like being out in the sun but I do like it to be sunny.
Is Newt Gingrich serious?
MRSA, do you have the symptoms? Or do you just need a nap?
I still can’t get over how good Clare Danes was in that Temple Grandin HBO movie.
I do not understand stories about identity.
Brains plaque up in everyone. Exercise. Get off your ass.
If you had the moral dilemma that went like this: Your neighbor, whom you like, will die, unless you take on a nasty cold for the rest of your life. What would you do?
Boats—really? Not interested.
Pot holders are getting extremely fancy.
The original PC’s that came out in the 80’s really did not seem futuristic to me, then.
Broadway Show Idea: Sea World, the musical. Takes care of everyone.
I want a dog. That’s what this is all about. A dog.
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