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.
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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.
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But before then, an exciting production of Macbeth.
2 comments:
First things first, was it a one time only screening of the movie? Will it play again. I need to know this kind of stuff, Gordon!
Anyway, your feelings of living in a police state are popping up probably because you are living in a police state. And there is something (not fully formed as a thought yet, probably because it isn't fully formed to begin with) about the Goold MacBeth, in its being loosely inspired by 1984 (so they say but I don't see it) that is infuriating in how profoundly it misses the point. I feel like there are so many things--movies and plays and such--that use this premise of constant surveillance and police state-like enforcement to make a comment on our society or even just to add a level of danger to their production but what they don't seem to understand is that it's not like that at all. This reality of how we live doesn't add a level of danger, it's so incredibly ingrained in our lives that it's hard to see from the inside. It runs so deep it isn't so much scary for us to live in (as they are saying), it's deeply depressing.
Our education system is a direct product of it. It is built and designed to produce laborers to go into a workforce that exists in that (this) kind of world. The reason we're not encouraged or taught how to keep educating ourselves beyond (or one of the reasons) is because, well, why should we? There really is no reason for us to, as you say, in our paradise. We work, fulfill our tasks and what more?
It's unAmerican of you to question that. So please stop. You're making me uncomfortable.
Stop. We're young. Depth can be gained--take a hint from Jacques. The most important thing is you have the capacity to go there.
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