Howdy

How are you? I miss blogging, long form ranting and/or reviewing any number of situations so quick catch up.

Podcasting is not a thing we’re doing anymore; it got too difficult to schedule Gayle. We do a daily Quarantine Theatre on Instagram. Other theatre continues, Twitter and politics I am striving (and failing) to ignore, but still remain Team Warren Democrat.

I am currently on a sabbatical from directing, working on playwriting, caught up in Dracula Daily, and in the middle of collaborating on a Love Live X Star Trek series of stories. I have become even more deeply enamoured of jazz, Duke Ellington, Nancy Wilson, Dakota Staton, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, and others.

First season of Nancy Drew is a perfect thing; looking forward to Tom Swift premiere. Love Live Nijigasaki is just basically songs and girls on dates so that franchise has evolved nicely. Watched Hamilton, loved some performances, not thrilled with Hamilton.

Be careful out there, Covid-19 is still surging and so is gun violence. And stop back for a haiku catch up sometime.

Everywhere should be safe for Black Americans, nowhere is. #Robot and #Turtle grieve with #Buffalo as the national shooting count rises every day. #robotandturtle

WE’VE BEEN PODCASTING

Fridays I’m In Love, Mondays I Post Podcasts is my ongoing quest to sit down with my wife and talk about being gay and Gen X. We’ve mostly been talking movies and music, we have had a couple of guests, including Taylor Ramage, who has a new book of blackout poetry inspired by Carmilla…we watched most of two seasons of Carmilla, it was a lesbian fantasy vamp magic demon fest hoot. In the latest ep, my brother Joe guests and we talk about comics, movies, the Legion Of Superheroes and how I missed subtext in the early 90’s and end up with a fun family verbal brawl about Elizabeth Warren and the Democratic primary. We’re on 9 different platforms, subscribe, please and thank you.

CATCH UP AND/OR A RANT ABOUT TUMBLR

Today, I’m log offed from Tumblr because being the bumbling, small minded, censoring bunch they are, all ‘adult content’ is being hidden, today, December 17th 2018, and so called “NSFW” blogs are being purged. But you can still find Nazis, porn bots, and other actual problems. So the third episode of my newly launched podcast is about how Tumblr made me gayer and their current trajectory is neither good nor popular. Check it out.

https://anchor.fm/michelle-denise-norton/embed/episodes/Episode-3-The-Trouble-With-Tumblr-e2pdh1/a-a7r2f5

What else is new? Working on this year’s Christmas Love Live fanfic, very jazzy and prepping for upcoming The Importance of Being Earnest auditions for Upstart Arts*. We’re bringing the buttonhole back, baby.

May your holidays be bright. Here’s a kitten picture. His name is Bennet. Also, I did the cover art for a CC Mixter album. It was a great challenge. Second photo, well, I did say we were bringing back the buttonhole, didn’t I ; )

Take Care!

*Upstart Arts is the theatre collective we started last September, but that’s a story for another blog post.

QUICK PHOTOS

TUTT

Have $1 to spare? Please consider kicking it in so I can keep doing Shakespeare. It fuels everything else I do. For 20 years we have been bringing Shakespearean comedies to York Country parks in nearly all weathers. Just check the Shakespeare tag for some stories ; ) But now I’m taking the program on the road myself and I need your help. This year, we are doing The Merry Wives Of Windsor and I am excited to take on the challenge of a farce I’ve never directed before. Part of my goal for this year was to continue my growth as a director with a play new to me.

The shows are always free. I am so very opposed to expensive theatre and even more opposed to academics trying to convince people they need a college degree to understand Shakespeare. And so tired of people only doing the freaking tragedies. The world needs more laughter, more Shakespeare, and more chances for people to discover the joys of language.

We have also livestreamed shows for the past two years so anyone can see them.

Kickstarter Link:

Poetry Catch Up

March Lion Haiku

Wind enough to blow

Stars free of dark or is it

Snow’s burning cold kiss

 

Untitled

Life or Death to Them

Might be Life or Death for Them

#NeverAgain Now

 

2 x Haiku, 1

Hurricane Grief swirls,

Category Infinite,

Board up heart, shelter

OR

Let winds whip tears as

Memory rattles, fears sound

Through your hollow core

 

Brass Haiku

Hearts Molten, Forged Gold

Midnight Trombones get me, slide

Clear, Lonely, Lovely

 

January Mild Haiku

Winter leaves rattle

Brown against blue; pale, cloud bright

Sky puffs soft kisses

 

Tuesday Night Haiku

Bare toes in a draft;

Sprawled across my bed, smiling,

Memories for warmth

 

December Darkness Haiku

To Remember Joy

Is to know this is hollow,

To breathe Hope on sparks

Random Desktop Photos

MY STATE OF THE UNION

It’s been more than a year. Trump and the GOP have shaken and tested and DAMAGED every American Institution. What you value about America is being sold and dismantled — at the demand of and to oligarchs, both foreign and domestic.

 

Windows and doors are a social contract. Only burglars admit how easy it would be to break them. Then they do it. Our democracy is much the same way, but the current Administration has no respect for anything but the rule of power. Supporting the current administration puts you on the wrong side of history. If you don’t see this, look closer. Or talk to a Holocaust survivor. The NY Times recently had an op-ed about why the voice of a white supremacist is needed in the White House. Nazis killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA. That doesn’t go away and it can’t be completely fixed with ‘let’s all be nice to each other’ platitudes, as much as any of us might like to believe otherwise. There are people who are willing and currently doing evil to our country and there are too many of us who don’t mind because the Supreme Court might get stacked against abortion and/or gay marriage or taxes are lower or…

 

We have to work at fixing this. Register to vote, vote, keep raising your voices, turn off Fox News, do your own research and get out of your darn comfort zone.

ANOTHER NOVEMBER COMETH

 

Taking black and white photos of the flag at sunset really seemed to express the mood I’ve been feeling as we approach another November election. Voter turnout better be through the roof. If politicians don’t see that the voters care, there will be no pressure on them. And as the political class seems to completely lack integrity, pressure,The Constitution and a dream of an improved America is all we got, folks. So get out and vote.

People having to face the consequences of lying, grafting and colluding with enemies of the state would also hearten me.

 

LATE NIGHT PHOTO RAMBLE