you’ve lost me here Steve Jobs

ok - so you never really had me to begin with - but I did so love my itouch. I can’t even wrap my mind around this business model. YUCK guys - just plain creepy.

for the whiners

Ok - admittedly one of my personal peeves but in doing theater with friends, is it possible to see that the limitations we put on ourselves are always contextually ridiculous when you see something like this…

the WOT?

If you’re afraid of terrorism, the terrorists win.
If you give up your freedom then you are not free ergo, the terrorists win.
If you accept ideology over truth, you are deceived ergo, the terrorists win.
If your vote isn’t counted, you don’t live in a democracy anymore. The terrorists win.

Impeach the Bush Administration

All of them! From today forward, I vow to post the same title in the hopes that repetition will actually mean something and cause others to join with me.

what do we do with this?

It’s hard to stay positive about the human species chances for survival when you see an article like this one. I’m no mathematician, or gambler by any stretch - but when I read this I immediately saw the horrible truth in this that many millions of people are going to die as a consequence of our use of fossil fuels. It’s almost as if we collectively created an enormous garage, parked all our running cars in it and closed the door.

Ironically, people are still quibbling over whether or not Al Gore is right/wrong or whether he overstepped his boundaries of politics into science and how much credence we can give him. In fact, the 24 hour news cycle feeds on the conflict between the Gore believers and the Gore deniers - as we fiddle so goes Rome.

OMG - Dumbledore is GAY!!!!?

I’m sorry but why is the sexual orientation of a FICTIONAL character getting headlines today? Could it be that this really is an alternate reality? I’m sorry but if you want to start discussing who fantasy creatures fantasize about and how wide their stance is, I’m afraid that you’ve completely lost me. Who cares and why is it even remotely important?

I know - I know - I’m going to hear ‘think of the children’. Yikes! To be honest, the children already think adults are crazy but now they are far far closer to the truth.

Let’s do something radical and start having a real hard knuckles look at why sex (of any kind) is so scary for some people?

the earth is my mother…

…and I love every part of her. I also love breathing and have come to feel my breathing as part of the inhalation and respiration of a much larger system - connected to all things. We can do this - it’s going to be hard - many people will die - people will be hungry - food will be scarcer and many other dark hardships will come - but earth will always be mother to humans. We still have choices and most humans I know yearn for something more - this more is the challenge of collectively changing our behaviors. Learning how to balance life in the proper way with the natural world.

Horray for Blog Action Day!

APEC’s $250m security cracked by comics

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22376204-5006022,00.html

An Actor Questions

That this should come from an “amateur” and not a professional actor, will of course, seem odd and may not appear to have credibility due to a lack of immediately recognizable results. A case will be made for this theory using a variety of subjects that are recognizable to substantiate the reasoning presented.

The “Method” as Igor Stanislavsky devised it, consists of a number of techniques that are invaluable to helping an actor prepare. However, it has never felt right to me to build layer after layer of detailed character construction. Evidence of how this process gets in the way for most actors is abundant but made pointedly clear in a story circulated for a long time that Dustin Hoffman (being a “method actor”) stayed up all night to play a character who has stayed up all night. Arriving on the set, Laurence Olivier asked him why he looked the way he did. Hoffman told him, to which Olivier replied in jest, “Why not try acting? It’s much easier.”

Not having been there at the time, I can’t say for sure what the true situation was or what Olivier meant by this oft quoted remark. It interests me though because I see a kernel of wisdom in it. If Hoffman could simply use his imagination to understand how to portray someone staying up all night, why would he need to actually do it?

It doesn’t feel right either, to simply dismiss the “Method”. For actors with limited or little imagination, the ‘Method’ is a tried and true path to creating a character and can be quite effective. The possibilities for being true and in the moment – which is one of the purported goals of the technique, are seldom realized.

For the actor with a rich imagination and access to deep wells of creativity will find the “Method” an interesting exercise but will find that they do their best work when they find themselves being called upon to jump into a role at the last minute, for which “Method” preparation is impracticable and they must rely on their own spontaneous ideas in the moment of creation.

So what is acting and how does an actor prepare for it?

G and the Egg

This is my lover - my friend - and one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Free Spirit, curmudgeon, genius, child, visionary…I haven’t thanked him enough for being all of this in proximity to me. I think I’ve learned more and lived more - certainly loved more in this time with him. So I give you all this moment on a crystal morning in Chicago in Millennium Park.