The Dance

I can't remember the last time I woke up to a cloudy morning in New York. After days and weeks of brilliant sunshine and infinite horizons, today began with a sepia-toned skyline through a pointillist window... You have to look twice to see the architecture jutting through a hazy downtown mist behind a rain-spattered window. Ah, to look twice. So seldom do we ever look at all. We take our route, collect our items, do our bidding. Life becomes a series of movements. And rather than struggle to become dancers, we slip too easily into familiar machinations. Until the thunder rolls across the landscape and suddenly you have a reason to look twice. But then again, it's not like we've never seen the rain. Maybe today can just contribute to a long series of things I did before I died: perfected monotony.

Lists. Lists. Lists. Things to do. Things to get. Things to read. Because otherwise, I will forget. Still, today requires a different way of doing things. A way that allows for quick glances to watch the lightning crack across the sky and time to listen to the rain drum against the windows... that allows for today to be different. And perhaps a dance to be dreamt.

Goodreads

There was Friendster. Then MySpace. And LinkedIn. Now Facebook. Maybe it's a way of weeding out the old fogies - just pass them by with another online "i have more friends than you have" quasi-networking site that requires you to build yet another member profile and check back on a daily basis as to who has asked to be your friend. Mindless brainsucks if you ask me. But fun. So when a friend of mine recently sent me an email to join another networking site, I almost deleted it. But this one had an edge, and it was an old friend I haven't spoken to in years. So I clicked through and signed up. And this is networking of a different kind: It's not about setting up a profile; it's not about wasting hours of time trying to find as many friends as possible. It is a site you go to when you want to - where you can see what other people think about the books they've read. GoodReads. I rated a few of books I've read and will go back and throw some more thoughtful reviews up. More than "My favorite tv shows are..." these contributions are read by others and give you a chance, as a reader, to reflect on what you've just experienced. And there's nothing more soothing than a good book...

http://www.goodreads.com

Tea Time!

This is one that I really really want to believe! The BBC reports on a new study finding that...

"Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it."

A whole new world

Only 7%!!

...from www.travbuddy.com

Literary Languishings

Recently I've been seeking nourishment from my surroundings... books, films, theater... reading endlessly and searching between the lines for inspiration and rejuvenation... I find today's literary offerings ridiculously unsatisfying.

I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe's exploration into adolescence and loss of innocence. Charlotte is a prude who goes to college only to succumb to peer pressure. Do I care? The most engaging part of this journey was on Wolfe's behalf: his representation of slang language and vernacular are fantastic - he spells non-words just like you hear in passing. A beautiful translation from the spoken to the written. However, his woefully lame descriptions of college life and horribly trite observations on integral parts of the college scene such as music and athletes accompanied by his fragmented understanding of the culture and characters that exist in the world he is trying to create accent the massive rift between himself and his story that make the writing stifled, bland, and almost laughably bad.

Into the Wild - A journalist follows his curiosity into Alaska's wild to determine just how and why young McCandless perished in the wilderness. A true story recently picked up by Sean Penn for production. Somehow this guy turned a riveting journey into a boring over-extended magazine article. I get the feeling the film will turn out very much the same.

Shanghai Baby - Banned and burned in China. And read cover-to-cover in one evening. Simplistic language and almost painfully generic observations on life ("The joys and sorrows of any one person mean nothing, because the trains massive steel wheels never stop spinning. This is the secret that terrifies everyone in the cities in this fucking material age.") make it easy to take this novel lightly. But there were a few times when the simple "Confucius say" sentences actually hit home and you wonder if Occam's Razor can adequately be applied to literary principles. If only life were as simple and clean as Wei Hui's writing, it might be as easy to get through.

In a Dark Dark House - Neil LaBute's latest play, closing this week off-Broadway. Rave reviews and well-known actors do their best to hold together this transparent piece of theater. Frederick Weller was the lone solider in this battle to keep an obvious plot from revealing itself too early, and despite his delicious performance, the writing of this established playwright refused to allow me to engage. I wanted to be challenged, thrilled, curious. I found myself watching two guys talking around and around in circles. This seemed more like a university level dialogue-writing exercise than the work of a well-known author.

Live Free or Die Hard - I must say, one of the few encounters I've had that I actually enjoyed. Granted it's not sophisticated. But it doesn't try to be. it gives its one-liners with pizazz and its explosions with creativity. Face value fun.

That was frightening: Did I just say I preferred Die Hard over Neil LaBute or Tom Wolfe?!? Can it be true? Why?!? What suffices as literary greatness? The ungraceful exploration of worlds authors can not embrace is hardly greatness. Perhaps Greatness lies in the Truth of the matter. The Truth of the work. The Truth of the story. And the Truth to Die Hard is that it's just an action flick with a bunch of explosions. And the Truth of Wei Hui shines only when she is being true to her simplistic self. But Today requires ingenuity and umph. Literary sensuality, a teasing and exploitation of the senses... and books are starting to feel like theater in their burdensome treks through well-tread psychological landscapes.

Who are today's literary greats?
Where are we to seek refuge against reality?
What book can I pick up next to be engrossed in its characters, its language, its Truth.
Suggestions?

Thought

A flower has to go through a lot of dirt before it can bloom. ~Unknown

Harmony. British-style.

Too funny not to pass on...



I'm not usually this politically focused. However, I do live in a Brit-American household with the 4th of July rapidly approaching. The weapons are being loaded: "The Evil Empire" has been pulled out and the Bush-bashing ramps up. The call to battle has echoed through the land: inanimate household items are being claimed as having "British" or "American" persuasion. Only the fireworks are left... and we all know which side wins!!!

Notes from the Empire:
In Britain, when a man buys a new car... his neighbours sneer saying, 'Wonder where he got the money from' and they start to denigrate him. In America, the neighbours say 'hmm nice car, I'm going to get one myself'.

I don't care if you sleep with elephants as long as you don't cover the circus.

For those of you who claim that the Right controls the media...
The pattern of donations, with nearly nine out of 10 giving to Democratic candidates and causes, appears to confirm a leftward tilt in newsrooms

Giving to candidates is allowed at Fox, Forbes, Time, The New Yorker, Reuters and Bloomberg News. Donations and other political activity are strictly forbidden at The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, CNN and NPR... now you know where to get your news no matter which party you're in bed with...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1911348

Upcoming Screening...

My most recent directing venture "New York Blind" will be screening as part of the Quickflicks Annual Summer Screening! This is a group I've been working with over the past year. Each month every member produces one film based on a set of criteria and then we gather to screen and comment on the works. This screening is the culmination of many months of work and is Free to attend, so come on down!

Quote of the Day

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."
--G.K. Chesterton

For those who actually keep up with the Tonys...

No, not Tony Soprano, whose HBO reign ended Sunday night... I will miss The Sopranos. Great characters, beautiful acting, fun plot twists and random acts of violence...

Rather, the simultaneously doomed Tony Awards... the best of Broadway... legit theater and all... does anybody watch or care about this anymore? (sigh)

Well, Atlanta's Alliance Theater was awarded the Regional Theatre Tony Award. According to their site, the Alliance is only the second theater in the South to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Anyone who is still down in the Southeast should stop by and see what they're missing... when their season starts back up... in SEPTEMBER. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. That's ridiculous. Or if you have just been by the Alliance, did you happen to catch "Cuttin' Up"? Yet ANOTHER black-man-in-a-barbershop show. Please. Don't even get me started on what's wrong with American Theatre these days...

Other than that, probably all you need to know is that "Spring Awakening" conquered the musicals and Tom Stoppard dominated the straight play categories. About as many surprises there as in the ending of The Sopranos...

What were they thinking?!?

The logo for the 2012 Olympics in London...


...reminds me of bad graffiti, childish scribbling, and unimaginative sculptures.

A New View on June

It's June... the month where we all look at the calendar and say "what happened to the last five months / am I really halfway through the year already?!?" And if you're anything like me, it's always followed by "what have i gotten accomplished so far this year?"

This year, The List is very different from last. Business developments have been hijacked by baby developments. The known traded in for the unknown. The self gave way to the self-less (well, almost). It is a very different approach to life: replacing my checklists with compromises. And allowing myself to be okay with "trying to figure things out" rather than "get it f*&%ing done". It's a luxury that's been generously given to me, and that I struggle with on most days... our goals, our achievements, our actions define us - not only to ourselves but to the society surrounding us. A List creates an Outline, an Answer to that question "what have I done?" And somehow, if your List hasn't overwhelmed your friends or competitors or bank account then you're just not doing enough. You're not worth enough.

How do you define Self Worth? How do you redefine Self Worth when you've spent your entire life perfecting the answer to that question? Would you be able to take everything you are and everything you want and try a different approach to life? Would you be able to look at un-accomplishments and find something worth more?

On Board

Feels good to be back in the city... so good that rather than jet out to the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend, I'm going to stay. right. here.

Went to a surprise party for a friend of mine here who is has just turned 30. Another night, another party?... everything has the potential to be just Another in a Long Line. And how many times do we let that happen rather than... Enjoying marking the milestones. Looking around the curve ahead of us to see where the road leads. I find myself reflecting more - the telltale sign of old age - what you do, when you can't DO.

And I literally can't. There's no 4am finishes or all-nighters with a baby on board. I'm not out tearing it up. And I sleep for 8 hours a night. And I eat three healthy meals a day. And I willingly do all those things that people have been trying to get me to do for years... without anyone succeeding.

Life on Board.

Which reminds me, it's Fleet Week here in New York City. An annual event where white uniforms and googly-eyed boys flood the streets by the thousands and bring dozens of military demonstrations, park gatherings, memorial services, and on-board exhibitions. Will have to go see some of these boys in action - if I don't sneak off to the beach anyway!

Striking

Day 11 in Arizona. Days out here are longer than anywhere else in the world and I still can't seem to get everything completed. But, truth be told, I could say that about any location where I'm in production. The days start earlier, end later, and invade your dreams... how can I fix that? what am I missing? where will I get those? who can I call? who haven't I called? It's 24/7 problem solving, strategizing, evaluating, and executing. We're now down to the last 48 hours or so... behind us: hours of interviews, miles of road, pages of diagrams and sketches, more pages of research and phone numbers. A good start... a long way still to go.
Meanwhile, back on the homefront...

Another picture of the Madhatter Party...

A great pic compliments of one of the London boys who is in the middle of his year's journey around the world... don't we all wish we could do that? Appropriately named blogsite: www.getjealous.com/sid

Happy Mother's Day

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
-Rajneesh

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
- Elizabeth Stone

"The story of a mother's life: Trapped between a scream and a hug."
- Cathy Guisewite

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
- Mark Twain

Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.
- Phyllis Diller

What you teach your own children is what you really believe in.
- Cathy Warner Weatherford

Facial Culture...

A new study showing that in Japan people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth:

When Yuki entered graduate school and began communicating with American scholars over e-mail, he was often confused by their use of emoticons such as smiley faces :) and sad faces, or :(.

'It took some time before I finally understood that they were faces,' he wrote in an e-mail. In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). 'After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,' he said.

Link

A week in Arizona…

There is a release, an easing of tension when you step off the plane and into the Arizona desert. Something about the warmth radiating from the sun above and bouncing off the pavement below you… Something stretching as far and wide as the unobscured horizon… That allows you loosen up a little bit more than anywhere else in the world. A humbling form of vastness. A static form of beauty. An understated understanding between you and nature.

Nothing has changed since I was last here. In fact you can look at the pictures from my first trip on this project and it is exactly the same. We’ve ventured farther to the north this time – up to Flagstaff, Arizona. Travelling from Phoenix to Flagstaff you go from 2000 feet above sea level to about 6000+ feet above sea level, passing heaving trucks and sputtering Kias in 100 miles of incline. Slowly, the cacti are replaced by lonely trees as you climb in altitude. And almost without knowing it, shrubbery has filled in the desert floor and red mesas loom in the distance, but directly around you are forests of pine and juniper trees.

We spent the morning in a guided roaming tour of Flagstaff, visiting isolated places that are now used by locals as shooting grounds or simple convenience stores. Thirty years ago, however, this was the path of a gang of murderers trying desperately to cover their tracks to avoid capture until they made it safely to Mexico… I look up at the sun through their eyes: it is vicious and unforgiving, beating down on hundreds of miles of merciless terrain. Where would I go next?

The Next Episode...

Steph the I-don't-want-to-get-hitched-and-definitely-don't-want-a-diamond is on the rocks... CAN IT GET MORE BIZARRE?

YES!
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