Saturday, May 24, 2008

perspectives on aging

Wikipedia

The life expectancy at age x, denoted \,e_x\!, 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).
e_x =\sum_{t=1}^{\infty}\,_tp_x = \sum_{t=0}^{\infty}t \,_tp_x q_{x+t}

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.

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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

Sunday, May 11, 2008

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.

Monday, March 17, 2008

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

Sunday, February 10, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

back among the living

After nearly a week of lying around moaning, celebrated a return to health by seeing Black Label Movement's Wreck at the Southern Theater on Friday. A dance piece "set inside the last watertight compartment of a recently sunk ore boat resting at the bottom of Lake Superior," it was an amazing ride. Human bodies conveying mechanical objects and forces of nature while still always being human bodies, fragile human spirits. Reminded both me and Alan of that time we nearly drowned in that riptide in CA. Reminded me how much I miss the ocean. Every time I dare think I've seen enough on stage, I'm again amazed at the breadth and depth of what these bodies we have can convey.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

points for whining

I haven't been sick in ages. Pretty much since that long visit to the Honduran hospital. And that's a really really long time for me to go without being sick. Indulged deeply in some World Wide Whining about a haircut. Now I'm sick. Tell me that isn't karma. Going to the doctor today to see if this is strep throat or whine fever.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

minnesotans are so polite!

See, really, really short. Like a boy. My Minnesotan friends are so nice. My Californian friends will say, "Girl, that's just bad. Here, wear my hat honey."

Sunday, December 30, 2007

bad hair month

Note to well-meaning girl at the Aveda Institute who cut my hair yesterday:

This is a Halle Berry haircut.











This is a pixie haircut.











Please note how irrevocable the pixie choice is when your customer asked for a Halle Berry.
Now the money I saved by going to a student needs to be spent on a cute hat.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

rockstar on the bus

I usually buy coats that are cheap and warm. Really warm. And really cheap. Thrift-shop fuzzy things. The only people who see me in my coat are my fellow passengers on the bus and I don't think they care. But, you know, it being a long-ass winter here, I guess I see my damn coat a lot. So I finally laid out a little extra for a seriously awesome coat. It was consignment and on sale, so it was still pretty cheap.

I was a vegetarian for 15 years, so leather, like bacon, was always a secretly filthy little fantasy of mine. A fantasy I've never indulged. And based on some of my thrift-shop purchases, I've learned that evolution makes warmer coats than anything humans can invent. Fur. It's warm and it feels good ... good in a way that you just know is sinful.

So I got me a funky brown leather coat with a racoon-fur collar. The way I see it, who's going to miss one racoon? And it was consignment, so I didn't directly fund the people who skinned the cow. And anyway, I eat meat now.

I can't wait to ride the bus tomorrow.

Monday, December 24, 2007

barks and grunts

Our dog is mostly a quiet dog. Pensive, philosophical, we like to think. He only barks for three reasons.

1. Please love me - A very polite little grunt to indicate he'd like to come back inside with us.
2. Please play with me - Big happy yelps to demand that another dog or friendly-looking human come on over and play with him.
3. Hey, what are you? - Territorial growls and ranting barks filled with bravado to ward off humans with skateboards, bicycles, large hoods, children on their shoulders, big coats or any other extensions that make them just not look the right shape to his limited dog eyes.

Seems like the reasons most of us make noise too.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

wild turkey

Driving back from Chicago after bloatfest day, Alan and Eben were both asleep, something caught my eye. Perched atop a boulder, hiding behind a billboard, a wild turkey. Just sitting there the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Giving thanks himself I suppose.

Cold enough to call it winter now, and enough changes in our midst to settle down my autumn restlessness. For the two or three of you that read regularly, here's what's new:

I directed a show, which got great reviews from all the major publications in town.
Alan and I are consulting for these guys, doing marketing and PR.
And I'm working for these guys - they're calling me "interim producing director."
And we're starting a small business ... more on that later (we'll have awesome job titles for sure).
Next, I'm directing this, and then this, and then next year, one of Alan's plays (yay!)

My friend Rodney seems to be living a very charmed life what with a great marriage and job offers that involve moving part-time to a chateau in France. Foster has stunned us all by quitting smoking - seriously I'm thinking of shooting him because he must be an impostor. My very dear old friend Michael is recently and blissfully married. Alan's friend Kate too. Our dog is the cutest and happiest creature alive. All is going pretty darn well.

Humbly thankful. Sitting here on this little rock for the moment.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Hope is a waking dream

A couple days after surviving a consulting project with only one lesson learned - that I never want to do anything like that again - I took a super long bath. Submerged myself up to my nostrils and layed there for a very long time. I noticed I could hear sounds all over the house from neighbors and pets. They sound completely different reverberating through the frame of the house, the ceramic of the tub, the warm water to my ears. It was a nice surprise to hear everyday boring sounds completely transformed into bonks and other-worldly clanks.

As I've mentioned, Fall makes me restless. I wish I could take everything about my daily world and make it reverberate into something different. Because everything seems repetitive and monotonous. Luckily I'm old enough now to know there's hardly a damn thing that's monotonous about this world. It just the Autumn wind whispering, teasing me with the notion that there's something more interesting somewhere, not here, somewhere where that wind is going.

My mind tries to entertain itself with Surrealist dreams. I was a cartoon two nights ago with giant, animated hammers bopping me in the head (which made a xylophone sound) and squishing me through tunnels into other worlds where there were lobsters, giant fish, dogs I could ride like horses, seahorses I could walk on leashes, purple pillows that I could fall into the inside of, and all kinds of crazy furry things that my conscious mind can't recover from my greedy subconscious memory now.

But last night my restless, bratty self sat back and found even the most vivid and fanciful dreams monotonous. All the dreams had a layer of deja vu as my narrative brain sat back and declared it all a recurring dream I've seen before. None of the dreams were actually recurring; they just felt that way while I was dreaming them. Yeah, I was in a jaded dream state. How lame is that?

As morning came closer, I banished a dream where my spine was hopelessly, painfully locked and turned it into an ocean dream - phew, happy I learned that trick. Swimming, bending, arching, swirling my fabulously healthy and flexible spine, I broke through the water's surface to find myself out at sea, floating alongside a boogie board just past the wave line, looking at a gloriously sinking sun. I hopped into a straddle over the board and stared right into that gloopy, droopy sunset gushing all over the ripply horizon. Just sat there blinding myself and enjoying that sexy tickle of the sun baking the salt water into crystals on my skin.

I knew I was dreaming and I reflected from within the dream that a boogie board is totally my Rosebud ... you know, that Orson Welles movie with the sled? Me floating on a boogie board out at sea is me young and healthy and completely unjaded, shiny, hopeful, filled with faith in endless possibility.

And then I opened my eyes and I was just laying in the bathtub again listening to the same old fucking sounds of annoying neighbors doing the same old damn things.

And then I woke up because laying in the bathtub is a really boring dream. Hmm, how do I wake up from this dream?

Friday, October 05, 2007

October

Much better than September. The air tastes like apples. And I'm in rehearsals ... ah, the luxury of being creative feels so good.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

September

Fucking September. Hot and humid one day, cold and blustery the next. Confused, spring bulbs still shoot off young blooms while old wise trees burst red before dead leaves fall silently and sad. Kids going back to school, some so excited about what's next because everything is so deeply new it must be wonderful, while others are punched in the gut to find out that there's no time anymore for lying in the grass and deciding what animal the clouds look like.

September spins my head every year. I realize, not for the first time, (wow, there's the present tense, so rarely used in our American linguistics I am reminded by friend Foster) that every time I've ever ended anything big in my life, I've ended it - wrecklesssly, for the sake of ending, for the sake of beginnning - in September.

Isn't that stupid and tragic and irrational? And beautiful? Here comes Fall. Whoa, hold on! I'm falling.