Sorry I Barfed on Your Shoes.

It really has been one of those weeks. Just this weekend saw a strike of one show Friday afternoon followed by a quick lx refocus for Saturday's performance that was struck for Sunday morning's church service which was struck out for a variety show. And we keep cramming them in! Get 'em in, get 'em on, get 'em out! My crew and I specialize in show biz triage. If a client requests more then time/money/crew size(related back to $$) can handle, we tweek it and shave it and get their product up and running. Lately, it's more of a perk or job bonus if the product happens to be of any quality. Our work is good but, it's hard to tweek bad vocal pitch from a sound console (although my crew has been asking for years for the completion of the almost mythical 'don't suck' button). This leads me to wonder where all the talent is? What happened to quality? Does anyone else miss it? I have, and will, bend over backwards for a client who possesses 'it.' Sure, some people are born with 'it' but, even so, they have to work 'it.' It's hard work to act well. It's hard work to tech well. I am getting increasingly disheartened by the amount of shit passing for drama that gets on our airwaves. Movies seem to be slapped together with no effort to keep up basic elements of continuity. Shots are made cuz they look 'cool' with little or no artistic merit...ie. they don't support the overlying meaning of the piece. Perhaps because there is no meaning in the first place? People are winning acting awards who, frankly, don't seem to have the slightest idea of what they are doing. I can actually hear the punctuation when they speak. Last week, I had the pleasure of working with a group of people who are increasingly frustrated with the level of tech support they are getting 'back home.' They love our space. We love them because they are talented, nice and are willing to work with us to get the best possible product on stage. The actors, I could hardly believe it, could actually act!! It was obvious that they took their craft seriously and worked hard at it. The designers actually designed. After they left the theatre it really was much harder to deal with the attitude of the semi-pro wannabes seemingly more concerned with image than product. Maybe that's the problem in a nut shell. Image has taken over once again (are we reliving the court age of Louis the sun king?) What happens when the veils are dropped? When the Emperor is revealed shivering in his nakedness? I know that there are people out there in academic land who are studying image critically with an eye to understanding its role in society as a constructing force. I've also read some stuff though that appears to accept image as reality. The line is blurring between so called reality and fiction. Perhaps because neither has any real meaning anymore. I heard an interview with Atwood the other week wherein she commented (perhaps more than a little tongue in cheek) that 'the non-fiction writers are accused of writing fiction and the fiction writers are accused of writing non-fiction.' Perhaps a value shift is needed. Move the money quotient away from value and strip away the false idols/images. Maybe what is left over will actually be worth hanging on to. We could look at it this way. Image is a good drunk. An amazing drunk wherein you become the smartest, sexiest most sought after person around. People around you agree because they too are three or four sheets to the wind. Take away the drunk and what's left? Your head is over a toilet bowl yakking out the poison. Everyone is gone. Everyone except for maybe that one person. That one person who stuck around to hold your hair out of the bowl. Holding your hair even though you barfed over their shoes.

Are You Too Busy to Read This?

The concepts of time and busyness have been taking up my mental space lately. Not all of my mental space mind you but, it's fair to say that a good chunk of it is in use. I am not a busy person. There. I said it. And...it's true. Really. I'm not. I do things. Quite a number of things really. I'm just not busy. You see, if I want to take the time to read a book, I do. If I want to take the time to make cookies I will. If I want to add to this blog, I will. I don't feel rushed. Nor do I feel run off my feet. I'm rarely late for things but, if I am, it's never really a big deal. I understand my responsibilities--to myself and those around me--and do my darnedest to see them through but, I also realize that I really can't control things. Things like kids who adamently don't want to put on their boots or, idiocyncracies of the weather. I am, however, beginning to feel a bit left out. Looking around me, I witness people rushing back and forth and, when they actually stop to converse (no time for a real conversation) the first words they utter are often along the lines of 'I'm just sooooo busy' or 'I am running out of time.' I guess we are all 'running out of time' but, some people just appear to be running a whole lot faster. This, to me, is strange. So, I wonder if being busy is seen as some form of status symbol? The busier one is, the higher up on the evolutionary ladder? Has the concept of busyness replaced honest to goodness work ethic? Could there be more than just an aural/visual link between the words business and busyness? Is there a corporate conspiracy taking place here? I see university students on a daily basis. For the past couple years I have noticed that they are increasingly 'busy.' Unfortunately, this 'busyness' has not really translated into productivity. I think back to my undergrad years. I had about 4 part-time jobs, a full course load with a decent average and yet, I seemed to have a lot of time for reading and playing pool. I don't really remember feeling all that busy then either. Perhaps, I am not really alone. Perhaps busyness is being used as an excuse. People aren't really all that busy. They would just prefer to be doing something else so they cite busyness as a reason for not doing something. That so and so didn't call back wasn't that they were too busy, it was, instead because they prefered to be doing something else at that time. Busyness might be used as an excuse to not offend or hurt someone's feelings. Concurrently, busyness might be used as a tool to foster a sense of greater importance: 'I'm too busy to be wasting my time standing in this line.' Perhaps a sense of martyrship might also explain this phenomenon: 'I'm extremely busy right now but, I'll do this thing that you ask even though it pains me to add to my already great burden.' Now, I understand that there are times when one's plate is full. There are times when there is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. There are, however, always choices (ok...maybe not always but surely most times there are choices?). We can't do more than we can do. We can't be other than who we are. Maybe it's time for a bit more acceptance and a little less busyness.

Contrary to Popular Indications, Logic Does Have a Place in the World

I wonder, at times, at how easy it is for people to live seemlessly within contradiction. It isn't ironic. It's just plain baffling. I listen as some theatre managerial types bemoan the lack of audiences to a show when, as they say this, they are standing beside a pile of posters for the event that never made it to a wall or telephone pole. Why was the money spent on making the posters? Gloss and colour included? Because publicity is important damn it! Why weren't they put up? Well...surely that was someone else's job eh?

Another example? When other folks print out scale stage drawings and wonder when they aren't all that close to scale when their printers are set to automatically change the scale to fit.

There's more.

When crew who get a call wonder why I might insist that if I offer a rehearsal and performance shift they can't get away with doing only one part. It really is all or nothing. I don't mean to be mean.

When people spend a great deal of time, focus and energy to label and catalogue items so they end up in the right spot but don't bother to actually notice the room numbers to the doors of the places where the items are to be placed and then wonder why they can't locate anything.

This one is to my mom who called the other night wondering if, over Christmas, I had taken a cabbage. Do you know your daughter? Really. Of all the goodies to be had in the house, do you really think I would avail myself of a cabbage?

If one doesn't save money, there won't be money left over. For anything. The same goes for fruitloop necklaces. If you eat all your fruitloops off the necklace, don't expect your brother to freely hand over his. And no. He really shouldn't automatically share.

Quick and Easy

Take chicken pieces (thighs, legs, breasts...whatever) and put in a cassarole dish. Mix together some fish sauce, lemon grass and thai chili paste. Pour over chicken. Shave over top about a half a brick of creamed coconut. Put on lid. Put in oven at 350 for about an hour to hour 1/2 stirring about half way through. Enjoy over rice with veggies.

I should have taken the quick and easy route today. Cables and their myriad connectors/adapters will see the death of me or, at the very least, see the synapses of my brain finally overload. Finally figured it out though...with a whole lot fewer adapters then I first planned for. I'm replacing video lines from a stage camera to dressing room monitors. The camera and monitors are now colour. A good thing.

Fixing up the coming events page for the theatre. Along with the usual variety show gak we are getting A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo & Juliet, Grease and Hamlet. Kinda beginning to sound a bit like Shaw eh?
Ahhh Shawks! (sorry...near to the end of a work day and couldn't resist).

I won a coat. I actually entered a 'come to this website and click here to win' and saw that one of the contests featured coats. 'I could use a coat,' said I. And Voila! A genuine Canada-Goose 3/4 length parka is being sent my way. Seeing as my present winter coat is actually a fleece with an outside shell and the zipper is broken, this news really couldn't come at a better time. I think, however, that I have become so accustomed to my shoddy winter attire that I might find myself sweating profusely before this winter ends. There are worse things I suppose.

I'm really not in the mood to be defending my Dominion at the moment. Does that make me a traitor? The very thought of building ports and adding more ships to a delicate environment makes me kinda ill. But, I guess if we are all so hellbent on melting the ice cap we may as well suffer our slings and arrows of outrageous fortune all around. Any wonder why I like theatre? Just wish more stories were actually entertaining.

Soul Food

I made an amazing pork dinner yesterday. First, I fried up chopped onion in butter. When the onion was soft, I added porkchops (having already dusted them with flour and breadcrumbs). I fried these on both sides and added salt and pepper. After the porkchops were brown, I put them one at a time into a cassarole dish (with a lid) and layered them with sliced apples (keep the peels -- I used Royal Gala, a personal favourite). I then got a cup of apple juice to which I added some corn starch, lemon grass and dijon mustard. I poured this mixture over the pork and put the dish in the oven for about 1 hr at 350 deg. Very tender. Very yummy. This was eaten over a rice/noodle/peas combination. Enjoy.

I also made fresh hummous...a quick and easy lunch favourite for the kids.

J made fresh bread on the weekend. Best bread I've ever tasted.

Kids and I made banana spice muffins. Next Saturday we'll make chocolate chip cookies.

It's nice when being in the kitchen is just that...being in the kitchen. No sense of obligation. No sense of role playing. Just a time to be together and enjoy each others' company. Real soul food.

There's No Business Like It!

Heard something the other day...'it's only theatre. Don't take it personally.' I like this a lot. More people should use this as a mantra. Tonight is yet another openning night. Weird how a student production can have so little student involvement. But wait. There has been some student action. Students acting as scapegoats. Now, there are very few things that I detest more than bullies. As one who has been both bullied and a bully in the past, I see that bullies create for themselves a false sense of power/control that, in the end, makes them even more miserable than before they begin bullying in the first place. Putting it bluntly...bullies suck. In particular, I really really detest those bullies who pick on another person's ignorance. Nope. We don't know it all. Sometimes, we need to be taught. When I see so-called seasoned professionals (ok...I'm really using the term professional loosely now...how 'bout amateurs never good enough to become professionals who have subsequently glorified and built up their status as under appreciated volunteers. Know the type?) pick on those just starting out in this thing we call 'the biz' it pisses me off to no end. Hell. Not everyone knows what grommiters are and what the working load of 1/8" tie line is. Nor does everyone know all the pre-planning that must be done before a show can go up. If we continue to sneer at those who don't know, we're not helping the arts cause. People will walk away feeling bad about themselves and begin looking for:
a) others to bully; and
b) ways to slash arts funding.
Before the arts community looks out and starts blaming conservative agendas or liberal corruption, perhaps it should take a close look at itself. Is it inclusive? Does it treat ignorance as a learning opportunity? If not, maybe it needs a massive overhaul itself. The ground hog says spring will be early this year. How 'bout some spring cleaning? Let's throw out the elitist attitudes, false feelings of self-importance, and back stabbing tendencies. Let's be upfront and aware and accepting of our and others limitations and strengths. It's not life or death people. It's show business. It's only theatre. Don't take it personally.