Directing, or I feel like I don't know how to

Refer to title of post.

Also, in desperate need of some kind of stage manager. I can't deal with myriad scheduling issues all on my own, I'm already nuts.

Back to New York

And thank God. I really enjoyed seeing great friends in/and good theatre, but Chi-town is not the town for me.

TONIGHT

commence rehearsals for Macbeth.

Starring:

Well, we're not entirely sure yet, are we? Stay posted.

But the important part is:




FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, APRIL 25 AND 26
10:00 PM
255 McKIBBIN ST in BROOKLYN










Please come!

I don't know what this means, but fuck

25% of Hillary supporters would vote for McCain if Obama gets the nomination. Way to go, Hillary.

(Can't get the link to work, go here:)
http://www.americablog.com/2008/03/25-of-hillary-supporters-would-vote-for.html

excerpt:

A recent PEW poll shows that 10% of Democrats who support Obama would defect and vote for McCain should Hillary become the candidate. But, a whopping 25% of Democrats who support Hillary would defect and vote for McCain should Obama become the candidate.

Just do it

Why is the default mechanism simply to resign?

Now Governor Spitzer is indeed under criminal investigation, so that's appropriate ultimately.

But Geraldine Ferraro? Because she made some ur-racist comments that "may" "inject" race into the Presidential campaign?

And even back to Don Imus, with his "slur" against the Rutgers (right?) women basketball players and Isaiah Washington's "faggot" blech on Grey's Anatomy.

Does it not occur to anyone that there are indeed people out there who feel hatefully toward others? What, precisely, does resigning accomplish?

This whole witch hunt mindset started with Clinton's stupendously, sublimely ridiculous almost-impeachment over a technicality surrounding an embarrassing discussion about Monica Lewinsky -- a highly private indiscretion that did not hamper his ability to govern (except to further enrage his opponents) but provided fodder for people to demand super-morals from their elected officials.

This is identity politics smearing and fear and loathing of non-Christian sexuality.

WHAT??

This is people (mostly) butting into to other people's business. Get the fuck out of my life, wiretapping and 24 hour cable news networks.


Ugh, none of that probably makes entire sense. Does anybody else feel me on this? Discuss. Maybe I'll articulate myself better in discussion.

Things I find interesting today

This: Fake Memoirs via Parabasis (a very enjoyable blog)

Are fake memoirs the literary equivalent of reality TV? Why are we upset to find a memoir has been fictionalized, to whatever degree, while editing to create drama on otherwise "reality" shows is par for the course? Is it the more select, dare I say rarefied, circle of serious readers in this country? But people only seem to get upset when it's something huge and nasty a la Oprah + James Frey's Reese pieces. I mean, A Thousand Little Pieces. Of crap.

This: Florida's "Theory of..." via the New York Times

Are we seriously still having this "debate?"

"...last year when a committee appointed by the State Department of Education drafted a new set of science standards that, for the first time, actually used the word evolution and called it a fundamental concept underlying all of biology." How does one begin to teach biology without evolution? How does one teach how things are interrelated? If everything on this earth were equally and separately (and "intelligently") "designed", then what is the study of biology? Just looking at shit? That'd be like teaching numbers in math class but never getting around to actual algebra. Or teaching nouns without verbs. Jesus H. Christ. This is why all of Western Europe and most of the rest of the First World laugh at us. Out loud.

Ugh, I searched for a while for this perceptive letter written to the Times a few months ago about Western Europe felt toward the U.S., but I can't find it. The gist was...well, you probably get the gist.

I am so proud sometimes to speak English. English is the language of perhaps the greatest poet in post-classical history, Mr. Shakespeare. However, English has also given us "nucular." There's a large part of me that longs for a space that utilizes language not only correctly but with a certain verve and confidence that only a deep love for one's native speech allows. And, for the most part, we don't have that here in America. At least, it seems to me.

In French, when you refer to your "native language," the phrase is actually langue maternelle. Ie: your mother language. That's beautiful.

Today has been fun/but they don't want you to have any real fun, bitches!

I have been enjoying myself today at the Public. I feel helpful. I am the only person so far who has reported on Macbeth (the Goold). I kind of hate being that person; it feels like, Who am I to deliver such an aria about this acclaimed production? I'm 23 and an asshole. (And I'm directing the play right now anyway.)

Boy, is Hillary a comeback kid? Or pathetic? I'm all for her, but I can't decide. Frankly, the only truly, undeniably good thing to come out of yesterday's victories for her was the continuation of this excruciatingly prolonged decision process for the Democratic nominee to allow even more voters a say in said process. It's nice for the Dems at least to stay involved and have opinions on one or the other, versus the Reps who are now stuck with McCain, whether they like it or not. I am secretly hoping that James Dobson et al in Colorado attempt to run a third party ticket for the evangelical freak show. And you know, the only reason they have made such a goddamn fuss half time is that they actually bought the whole sham that they are the base of the Republican party, and the brass at the top actually care. They don't. The evangelicals running a third party candidate has nothing to do with the supposed deficiencies of John McCain (in their eyes) so much as it is a pathetic attempt to assert a central role in the sociopolitical life of this country, which they believe they occupy. They don't, not entirely; the American people as a whole, I believe (and desperately hope), have too much common sense, compassion, and frank suspicion to endure any too-prolonged wrath. Plus the evangelicals ban a lot of the shit that we love so much: booze, porn, a lot of music, dancing, gays, pot, porn, sex of any kind really (they're obsessed with regulating your orgasm), and booze. And if there's anything I need in my life, it's a pair of fingernail clippers.

(Forgive the complete non sequitur nature of this post.)

Passing Strange and Feeling Stupid

Salut tout le monde.

Thursday night I was able to attend the opening night of Passing Strange on Broadway.  I also got to bring Katie East and Zach Harvey (cue freak-out).

It was, in its way, practically a religious experience.  And I don't have those all too often.  It is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

-----

Monday night I attended a screening at Joe's Pub at the Public of a new documentary film called Theater of War about Brecht and the Public's production of Mother Courage and Her Children in 2006, translated by Tony Kushner and with new songs by Jeanine Tesori.  And Meryl, of course.

Now, one complaint:  Meryl wasn't there.  And she was supposed to be.

But, the film was very interesting, very compelling.  The archival material and research that this filmmaker accomplished was astonishing.

Which leads me to...

Feeling Stupid

More and more often these days, I feel stupid.  Uninformed.  Uneducated.  Uninterested?

I feel like I have a thin little layer of knowledge over a large breadth of the world, but hardly any depth.

All these discussions in the film of Brecht and Marx and whomever else, and I "only" "just" "kind of" know.

The fault lies mainly with me, but does anyone else feel fairly disabused by our education system?  I feel failed.

But, of course, why here in the states would we need to know about Marx?  It's not necessary in our paradise.

I feel more and more everyday that we live in a police state.

(Watching Dr. Strangelove doesn't help these sorts of feelings...)

I feel more and more everyday that we live in a police state, so I'm off to apply for my passport.  Lyon 08!  I think from then I will purchase a bicycle and start riding, and see y'all later.

-----

But before then, an exciting production of Macbeth.