Author: Dale

A fun coincidence

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My life has been full of neat-o coincidences, like the time I used my favorite book from my childhood (The Color Kittens) as the palette for the set design for Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and discovered when it arrived in the mail that it was illustrated by the illustrators of William Blake’s Inn, Alice and Martin Provensen.

Another: recently, I whiled away my time in the lighting booth of Christmas Carol by doing crossword puzzles from an old daily calendar I had on my desk, and ended up at the December 10 puzzle… on December 10.  Not only that, but the next day’s puzzle, December 11, was the final performance of CC, AND the puzzle was originally published on May 12, 2005… my birthday.

So this morning I received two children’s picture books I had ordered after encountering them at Brain Pickings (a highly recommended read).   The first, Du Iz Tak?, by Carson Ellis, is a total delight:

In it, a variety of little bugs encounter a plant.  None of them knows exactly what it might be (Ma nazoot, one says) and as the seedling continues to grow, so does the activity around it along with our understanding of their bug language.  The climax is scrivadelly indeed.

The second is What Can I Be?, by Ann Rand and Ingrid Fiksdahl King, and it is also a delight:

Shapes and colors for the young nonreader, and imaginative use of red circles, blue squares, etc., is the point of the book.  Looking, seeing, creating.

Here’s the coincidence: the back flap of the dust jacket tells me that

Ingrid Fiksdahl King is a painter and professor emeritus of architecture at NTNU Norway.  She is a coauthor, with Christopher Alexander, of A Pattern Language, one of the most influential books on architecture and planning.

You mean this A Pattern Language?  This one, right here?  The one I used to do this?  “Influential” doesn’t begin to describe it.

An impulse buy

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This item was forced on my attention the other day, and I just clicked on BUY.

It is a deck of blank cards.

I don’t know what I shall do with them.  The surface is too glossy for pencil or crayons.  Perhaps collage.  Markers, I guess.

But what is to be done with them?  A whole set of images/things/something?  Or do I just whip one out and do a one-off creation for specific events?

Hm.

updated to add:

A lot of my vague ideas revolve around this book:

Lichtenbergian goals 2016: a review

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For those of you who are just joining us, the Lichtenbergian Society is the group of men who are my soul brothers in creative procrastination. Every year we have an Annual Meeting around the fire in the labyrinth, and part of the ritual is that we propose our Efforts for the coming year, which our Recording Secretary duly engrosses in the journal.

The other part of that process, of course, is to have this year’s Efforts read back to us and to confess our success or failure. Cras melior est is the appropriate liturgical response to any failure.

Since the Annual Meeting is this Friday, it’s time to prepare my soul for the ordeal. Let’s see how I did in 2016.

Here’s the original post, if you’re interested.

Lichtenbergianism

I wanted to finish Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy this year. Somehow that did not happen. Something to do with procrastination, I think.

On the plus side, I’ve made headway in my own head towards thinking about getting the thing actually published. Part of that effort towards world domination was establishing Lichtenbergianism.com, which is not nothing.

But actually finishing the book? No.

3 Old Men

If my goal was to expand my burner theme camp to include a 50-foot square arena for “yelling at the hippies,” well… cras melior est. We didn’t have enough campers at Euphoria in May, and for Alchemy, we didn’t have enough space.

But there in the last paragraph of last year’s post, look:

I also want to continue working with Flashpoint Artists Initiative, the nonprofit which runs Euphoria/Alchemy, as a small-time volunteer on various projects.

Ha. I was certainly accomplishing that goal, doing my usual webmaster volunteering for the art fundraiser and even going so far as to volunteer to be Co-Lead for Placement, right up until the morning that I woke up one morning to the email saying that I was THE LEAD FOR PLACEMENT, KENNETH.

So if my goal was to remain a “small-time volunteer,” I failed miserably. You can read about it here.

Backstreet Arts

My goal was to work with Kim Ramey as she established a public art studio for the homeless/underserved population here in Newnan.

Cras melior est. I lent a sympathetic ear to Kim Ramey and offered what I hope was helpful advice, but mostly I was missing in action. However, she has forged ahead and this past month the studio (behind Bridging the Gap) passed its inspection and will soon be open for business. I hope I can get my act together enough to volunteer down there and create a space for writing and publishing.

???

This was my Undefined Universe Project, in which I decided not to work on music which had not been specifically commissioned for a performance. As I said in the post,

So my goal is to allow the Universe to send me a project which is attached to actual production.

Cras melior est, although that’s on the Universe, right? I did decide to pick back up on SUN TRUE FIRE on Retreat (here and here), but otherwise the Universe certainly gave me the finger. Oh well. It’s not as if I haven’t been busy or creative in other ways.  Which is the point of TASK AVOIDANCE in the first place, right?

Onward to 2017!

A stupid answer to an Easy Question

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Do you think that your elected officials pay attention to what you think?

For the prosecution, I submit into evidence Exhibit A:

Thank you for contacting me concerning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  I appreciate hearing from you and am grateful for the opportunity to respond.

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2012.  I was deeply saddened and outraged to hear of the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.  Ambassador Stevens represented his country proudly and worked tirelessly so that Libyans may one day realize the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy and cherish as Americans.  This tragedy should remind us all of the service of American civilians who work every day to advance the interests of the United States throughout the world.

I was disappointed by the conflicting reports coming from the Obama Administration in the days and weeks following the attacks.  That is why I worked with Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) in writing three letters to then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton demanding that the State Department fully disclose all communications relevant to the security situation in Benghazi between the architects of the U.S. Mission to Libya and the State Department, including cables sent from Ambassador Stevens.  As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I am committed to ensuring that the administration is held accountable for its actions and response to the events surrounding the tragedy in Benghazi.  I believe it is important to fully investigate attacks on U.S. diplomats or consular facilities and any security breaches that could potentially leave U.S. diplomatic missions exposed to further attacks.  I am supportive of the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s investigation and I am eager to see its final findings.

Secretary Clinton’s decision to delete all emails, including some possibly work related, from her personal server inhibits the Select Committee on Benghazi from administering a complete investigation into the events of the attack.  Such disregard for transparency is alarming, particularly from individuals at the highest levels of government who should recognize the value of honest and open communication.  It is the U.S. government’s responsibility to get to the bottom of this issue and to send a clear message to our Foreign Service officers and service members around the world that we will protect them in times of conflict. Further, I believe Secretary Clinton’s use of personal server to communicate about sensitive or classified operations raises very troubling security questions that are appropriately being investigated by federal law enforcement officials.

I believe it is important for Congress to provide these proper checks and balances to the Executive branch as envisioned by our founding fathers. Rest assured, I will keep your thoughts in mind as I work on these important matters.

Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator

(emphasis mine, for further discussion)

Jebus.

The easy question was, “Many of your colleagues have been quite vocal in their calls to investigate Hillary Clinton on the basis of “foreign donations” or “entanglements,” implying that the U.S. President should be above suspicion when it comes to money matters and foreign entities. Do you share their view, and do you intend to apply the same ethical standard to the presumptive president-elect’s business affairs?”

So not only did no one in Johnny Isakson’s office even read the email, his bot is sending out an incredibly outdated response to any email that has the magic shibboleth “Clinton” in it.

Because no matter what your opinion of the Great Satan Hillary Clinton might be, the bare facts on the ground are that both the  Select Committee on Benghazi (the seventh or eighth of its name—I’ve lost count) and the FBI probe(s) into EmailGate have long since concluded their investigations.  They both came up empty, not that this simple fact is important where the Clintons are concerned.

Johnny Isakson is smarter than this.  Or at least he used to be.

Verdict: Johnny Isakson avoided the question with an incredibly stupid automated answer.

OK, I’m ready for my close-up

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It’s done.  Let the offers begin flooding in.

It’s complete with production notes, helpful hints, and all that.

So all you theatres out there with a plethora of little girls—and you’re sick of doing Annie[1]—here’s your next holiday offering!

You can peek at the opening here.

—————

[1] Like all right-minded people.

A new cocktail: The Smoky Topaz

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Riffing off the Bijou cocktail, specifically my favorite variation using barrel-aged gin, I now have the Smoky Topaz!

updated, 12/12/16: I’ve made a small adjustment to the original, upping the gin and going for a balance between the yellow and green Chartreuse

The Smoky Topaz

  • 1.5 oz barrel-aged gin (Tom Cat preferred)
  • .75 oz yellow Chartreuse
  • .25 oz green Chartreuse
  • .75 oz Averna Amaro

No orange bitters in this one; maybe the next one.  Or cranberry bitters.  But definitely an orange peel for garnish.

A Christmas Carol: The Sleepover Edition

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Astoundingly, I have not been blogging about this year’s production of A Christmas Carol, my musical retelling of Dickens’ classic.

To be honest, it’s been a scary rehearsal process, starting with the first night of auditions.  Why?  Because instead of the 20 or so adults I needed to perform the roles and sing my not-very-easy songs, I got eight little girls and a handful of teens and adults, most of whom had not done theatre in a while.  And on top of that, several of the adults dropped out the first week of rehearsal; I’m sure they were daunted by the prospect (as you will see).  I’d hate to think they thought it was not going to work.

Usually in community theatre when one does not have the cast one needs after auditions, one gets on the phone and recruits people.  But I was not in the mood, and on top of that I was up to my earballs in designing the nation’s largest regional burn at the time, if you will recall.

And so I made a fateful decision: we would use the performers we had and screw all those people who didn’t bother to come to auditions.  This meant, of course, re-envisioning the entire piece.

Oy.

I decided to invent a frame story—I know, I know, but hear me out—about Natalie Fairgood, a spoiled, horrible little rich girl, who was born on Christmas Day and resents it because she feels as if she never gets enough presents.  That’s why, she says, she celebrates the week after.  This year she’s having a sleepover with all her friends, but she’s been forced to invite the daughter of her mother’s personal assistant, Jessica.

When the show opens, Natalie’s grandfather shows Jessica into Natalie’s bedroom and chats with her a moment before leaving her to wait for the other girls, who are somewhere in the huge house.  When they enter, Natalie immediately begins taunting Jessica, ending in  a meltdown because Jessica is holding one of her dolls.

Grandfather intervenes, and when he offers them storytime to chill them out, Natalie demands a ghost story.

“I have just the story,” he says.  “I read it every year, and I’m reading it now.  I’ll read it to you.”  They all sit, attentively, and he begins: “Marley was dead…”

Figures emerge from the shadows and begin to narrate as well, and soon we are back in Scrooge’s tale.

As the show progresses, the girls go from being passive listeners to Grandfather’s reading to observing the action directly.  Soon they are taking part in the story, using toys and costume pieces from Natalie’s shelves as they become guests at Fezziwig’s party to shoppers on the street to Young Cratchits.

By the time we reach the Finale, they are fully empowered to join Grandfather in telling the story themselves, and that’s the point: we celebrate the power of story, how we listen to stories, become part of them, and in turn pass them on to the next listeners.  Hearing a story changes us.  Telling a story changes us.

And by the end, both Scrooge and Natalie have changed.  And so have we.

Script now available upon request.

A new answer to an old question

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Yesterday I was at home when the pleasant-voiced Drew Robinson from Sen. David Perdue’s office called, and so I was able to chat with him directly about Perdue’s stance on waterboarding.

Drew wanted me to know that last summer Sen. John McCain (along with Dianne Feinstein, D-CA) submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which expanded previous bans on torture.  Whereas before the Department of Defense was forbidden to torture prisoners (under the Geneva Conventions as well as by U.S. law), that left a lot of wiggle room for other federal agencies.  (Looking at you, CIA.)  The McCain-Feinstein Amendment extended the ban to the entire federal government.  Read more about it here.

Sen. Perdue was one of 78 senators who voted to pass the amendment.  Although the bill passed both chambers, it was vetoed by President Obama for its budget shenanigans, i.e., moving routine defense spending which was above the limit set by the budget into the “let’s just charge this war on our credit card” funding stream.  (Other details available at the link.)

So while the bill (and the McCain-Feinstein Amendment) didn’t pass, I’m going to give Sen. Perdue the benefit of the doubt on this one and record that he is, unlike the PPE, opposed to waterboarding.

Since this was my first time speaking with an actual congressional aide, I was polite and complimentary, but I also neglected to ask whether Sen. Perdue’s opposition would continue into the next administration.  I’m still developing my craft here.

For those who are keeping track, that’s three responses from Sen. Perdue, and zero from Sen. Isakson.