I'm bored and feel like I haven't accomplished anything in a few days, so I decided to type in the beginnings of mundane questions into both Yahoo! and Google and then compare and THEN score them. It's like a game.
Question: What has...
Google: What has Obama done so far
Yahoo: What has Obama accomplished
Lame.
Winner: Lame Tie.
Question: Where is...
Google: Chuck Norris
Yahoo: tunisia
Difficult. Of course I want to know where Chuck Norris is- specifically to make sure he isn't under my bed ready to pwn me at any moment, but where the hell IS Tunisia? I certainly don't know.
Winner: Google. Chuck Norris always wins.
(Tunisia's in Africa. According to Google, Chuck Norris finds you).
How is...
Google: Babby formed
Yahoo!: HIV transmitted
What the hell is Babby? Lame, Google, I can't even make fun of that.
Winner: Yahoo!
Who is....
Google: Mysterion
Yahoo!: Christopher Jarecki
I like the word Myseterion better than Jarecki aka The Man Who Knocked Up Alicia Silverstone (like anyone cares about Alicia Silverstone anymore).
Winner: Google.
When is...
Google: Daylight's Savings
Yahoo!: Father's Day
Sorry, Yahoo!, Google is like reading my mind.
Winner: G ---> OO -->glE
Overall, Google is better than Yahoo!.
I feel better now, as though I accomplished something.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Theater isn't dead...
....audiences are dead.
It's true. Audiences sit themselves down in their seats and watch theater through hawk eyes just looking for something to dislike, looking for a way to be unsatisfied with the product. They want to be impressed so instead of experiencing what is happening, they are thinking about how much better it could be if they were watching a different play.
But it's not a different play. It's the play that's going on right before you.
I'm not trying to say that every play out there is amazing and deserves the unquestioning adoration of an audience- but a lot don't get a chance.
Yeah, there are a lot of other problems, but I just noticed it tonight, watching a play at my school. When I looked at the audience, it was like they were all brain dead. They may as well have been drooling. And yeah, the play had problems, but none that detracted from the overall experience- it was awesome. I loved it.
But there were some people who had decided to judge it three weeks ago and were continuing to do so right there. I just wonder how theater would be if people could just sit there and experience theater, just experience it for what it is and don't think "Well if that" or "That should have been like that" or anything like that. And it's not like I haven't done it, but I just thought of this tonight and it makes sense in this moment so that's what I have to say.
Thanks.
It's true. Audiences sit themselves down in their seats and watch theater through hawk eyes just looking for something to dislike, looking for a way to be unsatisfied with the product. They want to be impressed so instead of experiencing what is happening, they are thinking about how much better it could be if they were watching a different play.
But it's not a different play. It's the play that's going on right before you.
I'm not trying to say that every play out there is amazing and deserves the unquestioning adoration of an audience- but a lot don't get a chance.
Yeah, there are a lot of other problems, but I just noticed it tonight, watching a play at my school. When I looked at the audience, it was like they were all brain dead. They may as well have been drooling. And yeah, the play had problems, but none that detracted from the overall experience- it was awesome. I loved it.
But there were some people who had decided to judge it three weeks ago and were continuing to do so right there. I just wonder how theater would be if people could just sit there and experience theater, just experience it for what it is and don't think "Well if that" or "That should have been like that" or anything like that. And it's not like I haven't done it, but I just thought of this tonight and it makes sense in this moment so that's what I have to say.
Thanks.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Revelation
So for my Directing Shakespeare class, we have to choose a key phrase from the act that moves us or tugs at our emotional side and I kind of lost it when I was writing out my explanation for my key phrase so I'm going to post it here because I never have anything to say but this says something so why not read it.
I love run on sentences.
.................
“Words, words, words.”
These are just words, words, words.
Words you know, that you have spoken and come across everyday arranged in a different way. How can one be so ignorant. It is the mysteries that Shakespeare whispers that haunt us, even to this very day, that we may not escape!
Those lines are from a play I wrote called The Old Man in the Woods in which a hermit and a papergirl befriend one another and bond over the acting out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this monologue, I explored the idea of how Shakespeare is so intimidating to so many, yet he is just words. Words, words. And at the same time, he is so much more.
And that is the paradox of life. We are only an adaptation of emotion, yet words are the easiest, most natural way to try to connect. And the faultiest because they mean nothing yet hold everything.
It’s one of the simplest lines ever constructed and one of the most complex ever written.
He’s expressing how words have no meaning, how they are meaningless to him in this moment of utter frustration and confusion as he sinks deeper and deeper into madness. How he would live without words yet the play could not exist without words.
It’s the struggle of life both narrowed down and complicated into three wordswordswords.
Later on in the scene, he also says “Except my life, except my life, except my life.” Are you kidding me?! Do you see how brilliant that is, how utterly BRILLIANT? He’s saying three words three times. They are a reflection of the original, of words, words, words. And that is the essence of life. We start out with words, words, words and then add a word, add a word, add a word and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more but at the same time, they are belittled when they are repeated.
The importance of language is choosing your words words words carefully, by hand picking them and placing them in a sequence that will bring you closest to what you truly wish to say, to breaking down the barrier.
It’s my heart beating that makes me know I’m not just analyzing the crap out of a phrase in the scene. It’s my heart pounding and my shallow breathing and my eyes tearing that make me realize it’s something more.
I love run on sentences.
.................
“Words, words, words.”
These are just words, words, words.
Words you know, that you have spoken and come across everyday arranged in a different way. How can one be so ignorant. It is the mysteries that Shakespeare whispers that haunt us, even to this very day, that we may not escape!
Those lines are from a play I wrote called The Old Man in the Woods in which a hermit and a papergirl befriend one another and bond over the acting out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this monologue, I explored the idea of how Shakespeare is so intimidating to so many, yet he is just words. Words, words. And at the same time, he is so much more.
And that is the paradox of life. We are only an adaptation of emotion, yet words are the easiest, most natural way to try to connect. And the faultiest because they mean nothing yet hold everything.
It’s one of the simplest lines ever constructed and one of the most complex ever written.
He’s expressing how words have no meaning, how they are meaningless to him in this moment of utter frustration and confusion as he sinks deeper and deeper into madness. How he would live without words yet the play could not exist without words.
It’s the struggle of life both narrowed down and complicated into three wordswordswords.
Later on in the scene, he also says “Except my life, except my life, except my life.” Are you kidding me?! Do you see how brilliant that is, how utterly BRILLIANT? He’s saying three words three times. They are a reflection of the original, of words, words, words. And that is the essence of life. We start out with words, words, words and then add a word, add a word, add a word and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more but at the same time, they are belittled when they are repeated.
The importance of language is choosing your words words words carefully, by hand picking them and placing them in a sequence that will bring you closest to what you truly wish to say, to breaking down the barrier.
It’s my heart beating that makes me know I’m not just analyzing the crap out of a phrase in the scene. It’s my heart pounding and my shallow breathing and my eyes tearing that make me realize it’s something more.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
My schedule!
After anxiously holding my breath for three days, I have finally found out what my schedule for Sarah Lawrence will be! I only didn't get into Costume Design, which bums me out but is probably for the best. I had really wanted to take 7 classes instead of 6, too, but I technically will be when I get placed for a singing lesson so that might be a factor. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of deciding schedules, I only know it must be a headache for everybody involved and I'm just happy I didn't get a phone call telling me to go in for alternate interviews. WOO!
So without any more rambling, here it is:
Monday: Improvisation lab 11:05-1:00
Playwright's Workshop 3:30-5:30
Tuesday: Directing for Shakespeare 9:00-10:55
Writer's Gym 11:05-1:00
Wednesday: Creativity Workshop 9:00-1:00
Thursday: Directing for Shakespeare 9:00-10:55
Improvisation Lab 11:05-1:00
Set Design I 1:30-3:30
Musical Theater Lab 3:30-5:30
Friday: Graduate Seminar 3:40-5:30 or something like that, I forget.
I really do wish I was taking one more class, but maybe something will open up in the Spring. The only other thing I would have taken would have been a different playwriting workshop and that wouldn't have been a possibility to take three playwriting classes, so there's really nothing to complain about! YaaaaY!
So without any more rambling, here it is:
Monday: Improvisation lab 11:05-1:00
Playwright's Workshop 3:30-5:30
Tuesday: Directing for Shakespeare 9:00-10:55
Writer's Gym 11:05-1:00
Wednesday: Creativity Workshop 9:00-1:00
Thursday: Directing for Shakespeare 9:00-10:55
Improvisation Lab 11:05-1:00
Set Design I 1:30-3:30
Musical Theater Lab 3:30-5:30
Friday: Graduate Seminar 3:40-5:30 or something like that, I forget.
I really do wish I was taking one more class, but maybe something will open up in the Spring. The only other thing I would have taken would have been a different playwriting workshop and that wouldn't have been a possibility to take three playwriting classes, so there's really nothing to complain about! YaaaaY!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Beauty of Childhood
As I walked home from Sarah Lawrence, with my head facing the ground and my feet skidding along the concrete with weariness, I passed by a little girl on a bike in the middle of the sidewalk. She was sucking on something colorful, a gogurt or an ice.
I was looking at the gogurt and trying to decide what it was, but she mistook me for looking at her. So she waved and said hello. I tried to find who she was addressing, but it was me. She was looking at my eyes and waited patiently for me to say hello back. I did and she stuck her gogurt in her mouth and petaled away.
All I could think about the rest of the way home was how special children are and how people who worship Peter Pan often worship him for the wrong reasons. The perpetual child is not one who has no cares or worries in the world, they are one who is not inhibited by fear. Those who want to be Peter Pan are often afraid of growing up. If you were truly to be his shadow, you would realize how complicated it truly is.
You must keep the spirit of childhood alive within you while simultaneously allowing yourself to grow. It becomes more and more delicate as you grow older, but it's worth remembering and considering. At least I think so.
I was looking at the gogurt and trying to decide what it was, but she mistook me for looking at her. So she waved and said hello. I tried to find who she was addressing, but it was me. She was looking at my eyes and waited patiently for me to say hello back. I did and she stuck her gogurt in her mouth and petaled away.
All I could think about the rest of the way home was how special children are and how people who worship Peter Pan often worship him for the wrong reasons. The perpetual child is not one who has no cares or worries in the world, they are one who is not inhibited by fear. Those who want to be Peter Pan are often afraid of growing up. If you were truly to be his shadow, you would realize how complicated it truly is.
You must keep the spirit of childhood alive within you while simultaneously allowing yourself to grow. It becomes more and more delicate as you grow older, but it's worth remembering and considering. At least I think so.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
I Think I'll Stick to Writing...
...and leave singing in the closet, to be taken off a shelf and worn when I feel like it rather than relying on it to propell me forward.
Feel like you've been thrown in the midst of a conversatiotion you weren't privy to? Maybe I should put writing on the same shelf then.
To backtrack, I have officially started at Sarah Lawrence with the interviewing and all that fun stuff. So I hear about a class that is totally up my alley: New Musical Theater Lab in which you write songs and form a musical by the end of the class. The one problem: there's a singing audition and twelve slots available.
UGH.
When I met with the teacher, she made it seem like I was guaranteed a spot. How? Like this : "Come to the audition, I'll take you regardless, you're in the class."
Great, I say. I'm in, I say. She gives me sheet music, but I practice without an accompaniest because hello, how else am I going to practice it?
Have you ever sung a song with an accompaniest whose actually playing what's written and not what you thought the song initially sounded like?
UGH.
Some of the notes sounded wrong and my nerves took over. And who could tell what the outcome really was, but she asked me if I was interested in taking any of her OTHER classes.
OTHER.
As in not this one. I don't know, MAYBE I'm looking too into it, and MAYBE I'm getting my period so MAYBE this is PMS but I don't know. Do I know, no sir, I do not know.
Oh well. There's always NEXT year. -_-
If I survive this one.
'Til then.
Me.
EDIT: I got into the class. =D
Feel like you've been thrown in the midst of a conversatiotion you weren't privy to? Maybe I should put writing on the same shelf then.
To backtrack, I have officially started at Sarah Lawrence with the interviewing and all that fun stuff. So I hear about a class that is totally up my alley: New Musical Theater Lab in which you write songs and form a musical by the end of the class. The one problem: there's a singing audition and twelve slots available.
UGH.
When I met with the teacher, she made it seem like I was guaranteed a spot. How? Like this : "Come to the audition, I'll take you regardless, you're in the class."
Great, I say. I'm in, I say. She gives me sheet music, but I practice without an accompaniest because hello, how else am I going to practice it?
Have you ever sung a song with an accompaniest whose actually playing what's written and not what you thought the song initially sounded like?
UGH.
Some of the notes sounded wrong and my nerves took over. And who could tell what the outcome really was, but she asked me if I was interested in taking any of her OTHER classes.
OTHER.
As in not this one. I don't know, MAYBE I'm looking too into it, and MAYBE I'm getting my period so MAYBE this is PMS but I don't know. Do I know, no sir, I do not know.
Oh well. There's always NEXT year. -_-
If I survive this one.
'Til then.
Me.
EDIT: I got into the class. =D
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Back from the World of Dreams
I'm pretty happy with having a valid excuse for not writing for weeks, being that I was in DisneyWorld and immediatly moved into my apartment not even two days after being back. And I had started writing a blog on one of those two days but it is now lost to the netherworld of scattered ideas that will never find a home.
I vaguly remember it being about how DisneyWorld revitalized my creativity and inspiration, but it was so well worded that I don't have the heart to try to re-create it. I'm the only one who'll miss its presence, anyway.
Right now I'm trying to learn everything I can about Walt Disney, starting with a biography of him written in the 80s in which he's portrayed as a monster. Its more interesting than everything that portrays him as a saint, but it's pretty annoying when you can tell that things are being purposely twisted. But I guess in our society, the man has been turned into a myth and is now equated with something more like Santa Claus than a human. And when people find out that he wasn't a jolly man who waved his hands and produced magic from thin air, they get confused and indignant.
I would love to become an imagineer, though. Because you can't deny that they bring joy to thousands of people everyday, and that's a completely appealing career to me. Remembering that it's a viable career choice is the challange.
Anyway, I'm just brushing up on my theatre history by re-skimming plays before tomorrow's oral exam that'll determine whether or not I have to take the Theatre History course at Sarah Lawrence. Thank God I just went through college otherwise their list would have made me pass out. I will post it here for my general amusement and procrastination. Paranthesis hold my choice when applicable.
The Orestia
Oedipus Rex
A play by Euripides (The Bacchae)
A play by Aristophanes (The Birds)
Aristotles' Poetics
Shakespeare: 2 tragedies, 2 comedies, 2 histories and a romance (King Lear, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Richard II, Richard III and The Tempest)
A play by Cornielle or Racine (Racine, Britanicus)
A play by Moliere (Tartuffe)
A play from the Spanish Golden Age ( I couldn't find one to read, but I researched Lope de Vega, the period's hotshot playwright).
Restoration Comedy (The Country Wife)
A play by Goldsmith or Sheridan (this I didn't do)
Woychek
Two plays by Ibsen (Hedda Gabler and Doll's House)
Two full-lengths by Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull)
Two plays by Strindberg (The Ghost Sonata and Miss. Julie)
A play by George Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara)
A play by Brecht (Mother Courage)
Two plays by Eugene O'Neil (Long Day's Journey and The Iceman Lalala)
Two plays by Tennessee Williams (Streetcard Named Desire and Glass Menagerie)
Two plays by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and All My Sons)
A Raison in the Sun
A classic "book" musical (Carousel)
A play by Ionesco (Rhinocerous)
Two plays by Beckett (Waiting for Godot and Endgame)
That actually helped me realize I know more than I think I do. I'm still nervous for the oral exam, mainly because it's oral and I suck at speaking exams.
There's a picnic at 3 that I'm trying not to wuss out of going to - I just hate standing around awkwardly, especially in an outdoor area. BAH! I'll try to force myself out, maybe just due to pure starvation (we didn't really go grocery shopping yet....).
Meanwhile, I will continue to look over stuff in the hope of not having to take Theatre History!
'Til then.
I vaguly remember it being about how DisneyWorld revitalized my creativity and inspiration, but it was so well worded that I don't have the heart to try to re-create it. I'm the only one who'll miss its presence, anyway.
Right now I'm trying to learn everything I can about Walt Disney, starting with a biography of him written in the 80s in which he's portrayed as a monster. Its more interesting than everything that portrays him as a saint, but it's pretty annoying when you can tell that things are being purposely twisted. But I guess in our society, the man has been turned into a myth and is now equated with something more like Santa Claus than a human. And when people find out that he wasn't a jolly man who waved his hands and produced magic from thin air, they get confused and indignant.
I would love to become an imagineer, though. Because you can't deny that they bring joy to thousands of people everyday, and that's a completely appealing career to me. Remembering that it's a viable career choice is the challange.
Anyway, I'm just brushing up on my theatre history by re-skimming plays before tomorrow's oral exam that'll determine whether or not I have to take the Theatre History course at Sarah Lawrence. Thank God I just went through college otherwise their list would have made me pass out. I will post it here for my general amusement and procrastination. Paranthesis hold my choice when applicable.
The Orestia
Oedipus Rex
A play by Euripides (The Bacchae)
A play by Aristophanes (The Birds)
Aristotles' Poetics
Shakespeare: 2 tragedies, 2 comedies, 2 histories and a romance (King Lear, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Richard II, Richard III and The Tempest)
A play by Cornielle or Racine (Racine, Britanicus)
A play by Moliere (Tartuffe)
A play from the Spanish Golden Age ( I couldn't find one to read, but I researched Lope de Vega, the period's hotshot playwright).
Restoration Comedy (The Country Wife)
A play by Goldsmith or Sheridan (this I didn't do)
Woychek
Two plays by Ibsen (Hedda Gabler and Doll's House)
Two full-lengths by Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull)
Two plays by Strindberg (The Ghost Sonata and Miss. Julie)
A play by George Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara)
A play by Brecht (Mother Courage)
Two plays by Eugene O'Neil (Long Day's Journey and The Iceman Lalala)
Two plays by Tennessee Williams (Streetcard Named Desire and Glass Menagerie)
Two plays by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and All My Sons)
A Raison in the Sun
A classic "book" musical (Carousel)
A play by Ionesco (Rhinocerous)
Two plays by Beckett (Waiting for Godot and Endgame)
That actually helped me realize I know more than I think I do. I'm still nervous for the oral exam, mainly because it's oral and I suck at speaking exams.
There's a picnic at 3 that I'm trying not to wuss out of going to - I just hate standing around awkwardly, especially in an outdoor area. BAH! I'll try to force myself out, maybe just due to pure starvation (we didn't really go grocery shopping yet....).
Meanwhile, I will continue to look over stuff in the hope of not having to take Theatre History!
'Til then.
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