January 18, 2010

Life good when writing come flowingly.

My horoscope for tomorrow

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Just sayin.

Beat the clock

All right. Time heals all wounds, they say, or at least it lets them callus over. It's now 18 days since I was dumped by my company, and I've worked all the way through the classic Five Stage of Whatever:

1. Denial ("is this some kind of a joke? it is, right?")
2. Bitter, bitter resentment ("after all I've done for them....")
3. Depressed listlessness alternating with euphoria
4. Irritation at being defined by the recklessness of the whole stupid turn of events
5. Acceptance (i.e., interest in a future that leaves all this behind, AKA transcendence)

Been thinking about this bloody business. And I've concluded that I can either be a victim about this ("they did this to me on purpose") or I can regard it as a gift. Because as thoughtless and unnecessary as my lay-off was (sez me), the fact is that I now have a little time. Time to find out what there is to do out there besides theater. Some way to make a living that doesn't take all day and all night and all seven days of the week.

I don't think I'm going to make it all the way to GRATEFUL. But I've definitely gotten to glad I'm not with PCS anymore.

So. Knowing me as you do, let me know if any new careers come to mind. Preferably ones that don't involve wearing paper hats.

About Face

“Welcome to the biggest time-suck on the planet.”

That was how a friend welcomed me into the virtual netherworld of Facebook. But by the time I got her warning, it was too late – I was hopelessly addicted to the constant twittering of the self-described “social utility,” with its daily stream of announcements, friend requests and notifications.

It all started about a month ago, I guess. Morgan Jenness -- a different friend than the latter-day Cassandra previously mentioned– inveigled me into joining. Morgan is spiritually fearless, and when she bids me to follow, I do. Little did I know that Morgan and I were just about the last people in the theater troposphere to join up. Everybody was already waiting there! People I see everyday, and people I hadn’t thought about for ages. People from way back in the 20th century! People that I….well, let’s be honest, people that I never expected to hear from again.

That’s the wonder and horror of it, you see. When you set foot in Facebook cyberspace, it’s as though a bell sounds, and the vibrations it sets in motion ripple endlessly out through the virtual galaxy.

You learn quickly to set limits. Otherwise you’re assailed by silliness – endless requests for vampire bites, good karma points, the smartest person contest, the “you’re a hottie” race, the packrat invitation, the movie quiz, the what kind of dog would you be poll, and lalalalalala on it goes ad infinitum. All this is controllable, though; information feeds can be suspended or ignored or even expunged out of existence.

There are endless little applications you can tinker with, such as playlists you can share with your colleagues. And this is the reason Facebook is free, really. By participating, you agree to the constant collecting of information about you – information that can be and will be shared third parties to the thirteenth power. This worried me briefly, till I remembered this is already constantly going on anyway. What’s the diff if Facebook lets Blockbuster know of my sweet tooth for French New Wave flicks or tells Amazon about my taste for overproduced muzak of the late 60s. You know?

And now….look, I’ll admit it. It’s fun being in touch with people spanning four different decades of my life. I like taking a minute out from my insane workday to discover that Wendy is teaching a directing class, that Megan is worried about Kristan and that Norman is attending a Civilians performance. I love it that if I report I’m in bed with a headache I’ll be flooded with sympathetic notes from New York, Omaha and London within hours. And it’s fun playing Scrabulous with Enrique and Todd long-distance, even if they are trouncing me mercilessly.

It’s all kind of . . . sweet. Check it out. You’ll be sorry you did. And glad, maybe, too.

A Cabaret Indeed.

So Cabaret opened tonight at Portland Center Stage, marking the official start of season #2 in the Gerding Theater at the Armory. And it was a triumph -- a fabulous, thrilling, affecting production.

Long before opening, a continual buzz was in the air about it because of its two stars, Wade McCollum and Storm Large -- both of them Portland performing arts royalty that have fan bases well beyond Stumptown.
Wade excels at tour de force roles in plays like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rocky Horror and Bat Boy the Musical; Cabaret's sexually and politically dangerous EmCee is a natural role for him. And Storm as Sally Bowles! She doesn't have to look far for her character's objectives; in an incarnation not so long ago, Storm was living the cabaret life to the absolute max.

By the way, the photos I've included here, all by photographer par excellence Owen Carey, give you a good peek at what tonight looked like. If you are interested, there are many more photographs and good insights into what it was like to build this ambitious production at Chris Coleman's own blog.