just checking in

Haven't been here in a while. Twitter and Facebook offer the appeal of brevity and minimal commitment to content. Had some (OK a lot of) wine with Foster tonight and feeling simultaneously philosophical, metaphysical and physicistical (yeah, can you pronounce that? It has something to do with realitivity and string theory and tatoos somehow too). Foster's smart and I guess so am I, but Future the wonder dog loves snow in a completely violent and silly way and that's reassuring what with people just coming and going unexpectedly from this here plane of reality that I love for all of its messiness.

next thing

Am starting to get excited about my next project, a stage adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Desperately need a stage manager. And a set designer. Anyone know anyone? Auditions September 27-28 if any actors are out there reading this.

where did August go?

Wow, just noticed my last blog entry was about a moth. Exciting. And now all of August has flown by. And I've been a rehearsal room at the G since the Fringe. Assistant Directing doesn't involve much besides sitting next to the director waiting for a command. Lucky the G's rehearsal rooms have a view. So now I can follow my post about a moth with posts about geese. Interesting exercise in meditation, this sitting and just watching thing. I don't think I'll be signing up to AD again soon.

dive-bombed by a drunken moth

This really big (no really, like 4" across) flying thing just dive-bombed me on my porch. Just saw Mike Fotis's hilarious show where he talks about being chased by a bat. Alan, Louise, and I had our own adventures with a bat. So yeah, I screamed and got epileptic for a minute. But then he landed and I saw that one of his antennae is broken, so he isn't drunk, just a little broken. And look, he's awfully pretty too. Gotta look close sometimes to see that the drunk or broken creatures can be pretty too.

Charlie Bethel's in town!

And performing! If you haven't seen both his Beowulf and his Gilgamesh, now's your chance. He's a last-minute drop-in to the Fringe, kindly produced by Chopping Block. Here are the details:

What are the odds and (you might well ask) what can be done on such short
notice?

How about a little show called "Beowulf or Gilgamesh - You Decide!"

You've no doubt heard tell of Charlie's two epic adaptations. Now you've
got the chance to see what you've missed! Each night the audience gets to
pick either Beowulf (a peckish demon snacks on the Danish) or Gilgamesh (a
god-king takes on the underworld).

"Beowulf or Gilgamesh - You Decide!" opens *this* Friday, August 1st at 10pm
at the U of M Rarig Arena.

Friday Aug 1 10:00 PM
Sunday Aug 3 8:30 PM
Tuesday Aug 5 5:30 PM
Wednesday Aug 6 7:00 PM
Thursday Aug 7 10:00 PM

You can visit our page on the Fringe site for more info on the show, venue,
tickets, and the festival at-large.

Being such a late addition to the festival, we're not listed in the printed
program. That's a really powerful marketing tool which is beyond our reach.
Anything you can do to help pass along the word is much appreciated!

board governance 101

Just came from the public meeting regarding the Southern Theater. Top lessons for non-profit boards of directors:

1. If you run an arts non-profit, have some artists on your board. Saying you support artists and work collaboratively with them works better when you actually have them in the room for planning and major decisions.

2. If you're going to vastly restructure things and lose the one and only connection you have to artists, maybe think about letting the artists know. Like at least the ones who are in your building right then making art.

3. Titles like President/CEO kinda alienate artists.

4. Saying that you knew artists and audiences would be mad and might not come back because of a decision you made, but that "was a careful calculus you made" anyway, kinda pisses off artists.

5. Saying you intend to honor the legacy of the visionary who is leaving against their will kinda makes people think you're either lying or have no idea what the legacy or the vision ever were.

6. When things start to sound fishy, and you're wondering if there's a particular Machiavellian force at unethical work, look around the room for the "consultant" with power who isn't saying anything.

ahh, high from the fumes

Just finished putting a whole can of primer on the walls of our new bedroom. (We moved to an apartment I like so much better, that now I excitedly paint.) It was a perfect bedroom except someone put in burgundy carpet and painted all the walls and the ceiling bright gold - I think, in honor of a sports team maybe. Then someone maybe didn't like the gold, so they got high and tossed a nasty avocado green on some of the walls, not the ceiling, and a few of the fixtures and trim just because they were high. Maybe another sports team, but now green some places, gold others, all of it messy. Why paint a room to look like a jersey? I don't get it. But after this primer dries, and if I can still move after all that painting at odd (it's an attic with sloped ceiling) angles, it will be a much better color and I will like that. It's 2 am, and I'm high on paint fumes. Mmm, makes me feel young.

and the Twin Cities performance scene crumbles a bit more

what the hell?

My favorite quote from the Southern's board vice-chair, Bryan Fleming:
"Arts organizations are not traditionally run as businesses, and we are trying to bring some sound strategic business practices to the art at the Southern."

Which sounds harmless enough unless you're an artist yourself and have experienced first-hand how clueless business people often are about actually making art. And speaking of fragile and miraculous acts of trust and collaboration - speaking sarcastically that is - I wish it wasn't repeatedly being stated that the Southern Theater staff hired Steve Barberio to be interim executive director. Steve was recruited to be board chair. Then a year ago, Steve, as board chair, hired himself as interim executive director, demoting Jeff at the same time.

What I don't understand is why ruthless people have any interest in being ruthless at a theater! Why not something more profitable? Must be a profit of the ego I guess.

Beginning to suspect that the board governance model of non-profits is deeeeeeply flawed.

and the cynicism overtakes us

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
-Carl Gustav Jung





We have art in order not to die of the truth.
-Friedrich Nietzsche






May heaven protect us, cher monsieur, from being set on a pedestal by our friends.
-Albert Camus





True excellence is rarely found, even more rarely is it cherished.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe







Au revoir, Jeune Lune

what I love this week

I love traditional Chinese medicine and my friend Megan for showing me the wonder of acupuncture and Chinese herbs.

I love not smoking and swimming and biking and swimming and swimming without getting out of breath.

I love the TV show Weeds.

La, la, la. Got to just try to be giddy and simple sometimes because some of the things I really love, that I wish everyone could love, are so fucking endangered these days that I can't hardly take it.

OK, back to our regularly programmed apathy and cynicism.

perspectives on aging

Wikipedia

The life expectancy at age x, denoted , is then calculated by adding up the probabilities to survive to every age. This is the expected number of complete years lived (one may think of it as the number of birthdays they celebrate).

Because age is rounded down to the last birthday, on average people live half a year beyond their final birthday, so half a year is added to the life expectancy to calculate the full life expectancy.

Life expectancy is by definition an arithmetic mean. It can be calculated also by integrating the survival curve from ages 0 to positive infinity (the maximum lifespan, sometimes called 'omega'). For an extinct cohort (all people born in year 1850, for example), of course, it can simply be calculated by averaging the ages at death. For cohorts with some survivors it is estimated by using mortality experience in recent years.

-----------------------
Washington Times
... 2003 was the first time the average life expectancy of all U.S. women, regardless of race, exceeded 80 years ...
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seniorjournal.com
Headline: Rich White Men Doing the Best in Fight to Extend Longevity in U.S.
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very local stats

berkeley

Went to Berkeley to see Jeune Lune's Figaro. Hiked up the mountain to the University's botanical gardens. Was rewarded with this 20-foot high freaky plant. Awesome what grows on this planet.

Berkeley is pretty weird about smoking in public. And they really don't know how to make a pastrami sandwich. And they are politically correct pretty far past the point of annoying smugness.

But otherwise it's a beautiful place. And the show was great.

what's a blog for if not publicity?

Who's got time to blog? I'm too busy directing a show, this one by the fabulous Alan Berks. Very very excited I am.

Everywhere Signs Fall
Starring Paul Cram, Tracey Maloney & John Middleton
Written by Alan Berks, Directed by Leah Cooper
A world premiere presented by Gremlin Theatre

A thrilling rollercoaster ride through mystery, tragedy and romance
in a steamy motel room in hot, seedy Phoenix, Arizona.

April 18 - May 11
Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. / Sundays at 4:30 p.m.
No performance on Sunday, April 20
Industry Night on Monday, April 28
Preview Thursday, April 17

Tickets $18
$15 seniors and Fringe button holders
Under 30? Pay half your age any night.
For tickets call (651) 228-7008

Loading Dock Theatre
409 Sibley St., Saint Paul, MN

Tracey Maloney appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association
Postcard Photograph: Travis Anderson
Postcard Graphic Design: Matthew Foster, Chez Pixel

sigh

Foster went to L.A. for his birthday. I didn't ask for stories about the trip because it's embarrassing to cry in front of a large group of people at the Leaning Tower. But a casual visit to his blog put me face to suddenly teary face with this photo. Eucalyptus, palm, sun, how you taunt me.

ohmigod, the sun, the sun, the sun

Now that my nighttime breathing is back to choking-free, I slept soundly all the way through to 8:30, hours later than I've made it all the mornings of the last week. And I guess we're far enough into the season that the sun is coming earlier and at a steadily new angle. Today it came bursting through the window by the bed, and that's what woke me up.

There isn't enough hyperbole or exclamation marks to express how good it is to be wakened by the sun. Watch out for me today, I'll be knocking people over in single bounds with my tall-building leaps.