#artwalk

Twitter has an #artwalk the last Tuesday of the month thanks to @KimSherrell. So, I’ll upload one of my first and favorites here for you, Mystery. Other examples are on my art blog. And maybe next month, I’ll take you on a portfolio tour.

READING BEHIND THE TIMES

yes, I have the stack of papers and yes, I have been thinking of you and saving articles. So here’s a quick roundup:

Stefan Stern’s excellent column on effective networking, innovation and leadership.

Moon movies + moon moments from Nigel Andrews.

Well, that’s enough for now…although I was going to tell you my bingo adventures but you can just read Sarah Hemming’s interview with Neil Bartlett.

NOT ABOUT THE GUY

Princess Protection Program has taken over Twitter tonight and the reviews seem mostly positive. Yes, we watched it; yes, Flash bopped around with a happy, girly tail and yes, it was one of the better Disney movies that have rolled out recently. Demi Lovato’s misplaced princess turn moved me more than I expected and Selena Gomez always manages excellent work. A bit too many “how to be a princess” references for me, but I bet my nine year old niece was taking notes while wearing her Camp Rock shirt.

Someday, and yes, this is a dream, I would like to see Disney or Nick run a fun, non issue movie where the girl gets the girl. And yes, writing a script and sending it somewhere would be a good first step. But until then, it’s nice to see a more independent breed of heroine becoming popular; I am starting to get annoyed by Jonas just using Macy’s proclaimed athletic prowess as an excuse to give her props and not actually anything that makes her more of a person and less of a caricature. So positive review for the Princess Protection Program (if you watch it tomorrow + count princess mentions, you can unlock new episodes of Wizards and Sonny).

And the Wizards movie is also looking good — it will be nice to see David DeLuise and Maria Canals-Barrera have some time to work; along with everyone else in the Wizards cast, they do excellent comedy. Wizards really seems to have stepped up its game since letting Harper in on the magic secret — we watched the silent film homage episode today — very nice.

Saw some preview scenes of The Princess and The Frog…still not sure if I’m looking forward to it.

MICHAEL JACKSON

I’ve rebooted the Blink Kitty Love site and the “Guess or Sneak” lyric game and it’s a Michael Jackson tribute.

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett –as I commented on a friend’s blog, that’s two major cultural chapters closed in one day. Condolences to both families.

I learned about both deaths on Twitter; they bookended my day. News like that flies around the Twitterverse. Tonight, I stood in front of my computer, said f**k, Gayle wondered what was wrong, and it took a couple of minutes for either of us to believe the news about Jackson. I had a flashback to the Jackson 5 cartoon — he had quite a career.

NOTE: We’re listening to the Michael Jackson songs I linked to and Flash has her paws in the air and is more relaxed than I’ve seen her in days…damn, he was good.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE BUT SO IN THE ZONE

Ok, Shakespeare (#tamingshakespeare) takes up a lot of time + mental energy. Traffic control with 7, 8 and 9 year olds takes up even more, so blog posting may be a bit erratic for awhile. But tonight at rehearsal, I was so IN THE ZONE…it was a great feeling, solving problems, dodging poetry + meter jams, hearing things right for the first time, moving actors and words and motion like everything was a painting, a symphony, a play, a whole entity that was clicking into its moment.

Personal notes: instrumental jazz drives me crazy after a bit, I prefer lyrics mixed in with my melodies; the little brother acquired a Hewlett Packard tower of some sort so we’re back to low level World of Warcrafting again while we work off the rust, and I really want to go on vacation. But first, I want to turn a kick ass Taming of The Shrew out into the world. We’ll see if the buzz/zone/focus survives Thursday and the return of the 12 and under crowd.

Twitter’s been fun(and yes, there is some irony underlying there); there’s all the #iranelection stuff and that somehow led to the gay activism #lgbt stuff and sparks occasionally fly off my twitterfeed these days, but they are directed at the political workings of the universe and not causing glitches in my internal mental circuits (NOTE: I need to subscribe to last.fm so I don’t get the have you been eaten by a bear graphic so often as I listen to Radio FlashCatFlash in the background. Flash is an ardent consumer of media — listener of last.fm, chewer of Entertainment Weekly.) Although, I did try follow an agent for awhile — I occasionally try to find new + interesting Twitter peeps, but it seems like the people on the inside of the “I’ve been published/I know the system/I’m not a Visigoth” wall shrink away from and patronize the strivers/hopers/schemers who think writing leads to JK Rowlings levels of success and billions and who believe that there’s an easy solution and that someone would actually tell them if there was. And that’s just tiring — the patronization: there is no easy solution; there’s only your own tolerance level for continuing to try. I suppose, to sympathize with the gatekeepers, smug or otherwise, that it’s also tiring getting harassed by people who want to be published. But I just don’t like the industries built up to take money/hope/energy from people with writing/moviemaking/painting/crafting/creating dreams. And who make little hoops for people to jump through rather than respecting honest effort. And the people who control access to the gates with assured superiority really tick me off – and no, I’m not sure that this agent was one of that breed, but it did trigger some memories. And yes, somewhere back in the day, my ancestors painted themselves blue and did things like tear down the towers of Rome. But then we learned to read the books and saved the civilization we once helped burn. And now we’re writing the blogs and drawing the webcomics and digitizing the viral videos.

Oh well, apparently, Twitter related mental glitches/rants still occur. But on a personal note, two of my WORST auditionees ever, who had the most trouble with the language, had turned into two of the MOST amazing and dedicated Shakespeareans by the time they stopped having time to spend their summers touring Shakespeare. Because they worked their asses off, they learned, they tried and I gave them opportunities and challenges. I am so thankful I took them up on their enthusiasm and bravery instead of dismissing their stumbling over the language. And I am so grateful it is a lesson I learned the FIRST time I directed Shakespeare. I remind myself of it before every audition.

Have been having a tweetversation about Henry James — someone’s reading “Turn of The Screw” and I suggested “Beast in The Jungle.” So I went looking for it to make sure that was the story I was talking about and found excerpts and suddenly thought, OMG, that’s what influenced Jane and Sally’s relationship in In The Bleak December. Wow. Amazing how what you’ve read and only remember the experience of gets threaded into what you write. And here I thought it was mainly Persuasion and Bellwether and Topsy Turvy mixed. Maybe the sequel could stand to be influenced by Taming of The Shrew. I can just see Jane grumbling “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.” Now, there’s a place to start.

Speaking of married, we went to see The Proposal and were not impressed. No one seems to do dialogue anymore — or even put the stars in the same shot. you have faces, you have names, why worry about chemistry, communication, plot, script, the fast pace of banter…why not just linger on movie star faces. Oy. I watched Kissing Jessica Stein to recover my love of movies — now there’s a movie with some great conversations.

Now, so as not to be responsible for a total rant fest, I have hopes of (500) Days of Summer, which is apparently non linear. And I am still enjoying piecing together the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movies from Edgar Wright’s daily photos. And there’s the hope that Bandslam will actually rock. Must see Hot Fuzz sometime; NetFlix is becoming a must fit into the budget.

Anyway, thanks for listening; keep cool, get some sleep and some sun. And brush up your Shakespeare; it’s fun, darn it.

A BRACE OF WEEKEND HAIKUS

RIOT HAIKU
Thunderflash roars through
Noise fright then fresh quiet. Our storms
roil eternity

SOLSTICE HAIKU
Tangle of tigers
Dance glow bloom fairy heralds
Midsummer revels

ROBOT T-SHIRTS

OVERDOSE OF NEWS + FRUSTRATION OF DISTANCE HAIKU

This is no language
I speak cacophony chaos
Dream new adventures

TWEET REVOLUTION

I have been up the past couple of nights watching in fascination, horror and amazement as #iranelection scrolled by on my Twhirl and Twitter screens, as avatars slowly became a column of green — my Tweetdeck background is green so that’s really fun. And I am amazed that the invention/discovery/engine changing the world isn’t a hydrogen engine, affordable solar power, a way to zap waste, cure AIDs or the discovery of the Babel Fish, it’s Twitter — a simple service that connects people any way they want to connect to it…amazing, awe inspiring and a little scary. I bet governments are having meetings concerning what if #iranelection happened here and Great Britain has appointed a “Twitter czar” (I hate the use of the word czar in government positions; it’s lazy and inappropriate.)

Back to #iranelection, Twitter is a game changer. People are using it to make friends, plug products, exchange ideas, share links, support, learn, laugh, inspire, lead…Tweetdeck will translate tweets for you (I have done that for Hebrew, Japanese, German and Spanish) — it’s not a perfect translation, but a huge wall now has a window into the culture you want to connect with.

I have been trying to fit Twitter with a metaphor that works for my experience– and the one I came up with was college campus, with friends in various quadrants/classes that you can talk to when you’re in the sort of a mood you talk to that person in, or when you call up your movie going friend or your drinking or book buddy. There are friendships and flirtships and coteries. You meet people, you connect, you break up, you drift, you wonder, you roam, you howl at the moon, you learn the etiquette, you cheer for your team, you wake up the next morning and think what did I say, you create new patterns, you talk on a digital front porch, you smile, you LOL or LMAO, you frown, you : \ or ; ). And it’s voluntary — your Twitter quilt is what you make it.

And you stay up all night watching the world in a mix of green and flames and wonder…Twitter, campus or country? If the end of the world comes, I want my iPod Touch (with de Blob, darts and the complete works of Shakespeare), my cellphone and my Twitter peeps on my team. I’ll be the one with the twinkling green eyes, quoting Henry V’s St. Crispin Day speech…

“we tweeps, we happy tweeps”

Good night…that’s what too much Twitter + Shakespeare will get you.

ROYALTY WAVES AS IT TWEETS + CRUISES BY

Not only is the Royal Shakespeare Company on Twitter, but they are running a tweet a love poem into “As You Like It” Contest(deadline 6/22/09). And the RSC search started with a Peter Aspden Culture column about tweeting, culture and the relevancy of the classics.

Good lunch with the FT with E-bay Billionaire and current philanthropist/movie mogul Jeff Skoll.

Vanessa Friedman, always informed and provoking of thought, this past weekend discusses Isabel Toledo.

Good Peter Aspden review of The World and Its Double: The Life and Work Of Otto Preminger.

And on a #tamingshakespeare note, have been working on Taming Of The Shrew both in rehearsals and out (currently trying to decide on image or word focus for t-shirt –actually, better to say, I am negotiating that point with Gayle. I have been informed that although it is not wide, the boardwalk problem has been solved) and I am enthralled by how much Taming is about clothes. Lines keep popping into my head: “I confess the cape” has always been one of my favorites. More recently, I have been mulling Petruchio’s succinct description of what his bride is getting into: “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.” And then there is the lovely scene with the tailor where Shakespeare lets a character rant, and this one is right up there with the lovers’ ranting from Midsummer*. Out tailor is about 1/3 the size of our Petruchio so the contrast should be interesting:

“O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,
thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr’d her gown.”

I think if I were inclined to check myself back into an academic’s garb, I might be inclined to write a thesis on the clothes of Kate Hall. Could be scintillating.

And on a quick Disney note, the Wizards with Hannah On Deck event looks like a blast. I don’t think we have a show that night (7/17) — Flash is not liking the rehearsal schedule, seems to still be growing and now we have What I Like About You time after rehearsal. The N has, of course, incurred our wrath with DeGrassi again — bumping What I Like on the weekends….and yes, I still miss Radio Free Roscoe being on a time I’m actually awake.

That’s a wrap, I believe. Looking forward to seeing The Proposal on Friday, then Metamorphoses on Saturday (friend in the cast, plus, yes, fan of Ovid — are you really surprised?), Sunday, back to Shakespeare –we do Act IV and V until they sparkle which means I could not be home ’til Monday — Shrew has SO many characters on stage at most times. I had blanked out the horrible traffic jams.

*Hermia’s rant:
“Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.”

Followed later by Lysander’s dismissal:
“Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.”

Oh, just read the whole scene here (thank you, MIT)