I know, I know, I'm late. It shouldn't be so difficult to manage three posts each week and yet week after week it proves a challenge. I really am trying... Sunday I watched quite a bit of Rent Live even though it was really live to tape and it's not something I am particularly drawn to. I feel like I have a sort of professional obligation to watch these shows... After a couple of exchanges with the Fossil social media people I am coming to the conclusion that there is no purpose to their app on the watch... Ok, no shit, it is really cold out. There are other places that have played a significant role in my life that are currently colder, so I guess no complaining. But, really, it is really cold here today... There's a lot of conversation in the media about what the Steelers should do with Brown. Whatever they decide I don't think it will be because they heard something in the media... We had CM Motor School this week at work. I successfully re-certified. A certification I have nearly zero chance of ever really using... I'm not really confident that we'll be closer to a border solution two weeks from now than we are today. That level of confidence is not raised by the discovery that the executive briefing materials on the subject might just be Sicario: Day of the Soldado... It was -4 here today. In Australia it was 125. When I lived in Vegas I always thought I preferred the heat to the cold - and certainly the snow... If you have a secret to finding and hiring good home contractors I would love to have it. We're looking at a phase two for our house and it is proving to be difficult... My doctor's office sent me a message through the secure portal yesterday to tell me they would be closed today. Today they sent me another one that said tomorrow they would be open. I didn't have an appointment on either day... There's a Pandora station that basically only plays "Baby Shark." This is something I wish I didn't know... In case I forgot to say something about it: it is really cold...
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Tina Landau: “A Home in the Theatre”
Arts Integrity Initiative: I was asked to deliver the Keynote Address for BroadwayCon, a three day expo for fans of Broadway theater. The theme of the Opening Ceremony was “Home,” and included performances by Susan Egan singing “Home” from Beauty and the Beast, Hailey Kilgore with “Home” from The Wiz, as well as Ethan Slater, Ben Cameron, and Anthony Rapp contributing other songs and an opening group performance of “BroadwayCon Today,” set to the tune of “Bikini Bottom Day” from SpongeBob SquarePants – The Musical.
A Role for Theatre in Criminal Justice?
AMERICAN THEATRE: It was a refrain Kate Powers heard repeatedly as she began to knock on the (digital) doors of corrections facilities throughout Minnesota in early 2017, attempting to get a foot in the door for her Shakespeare-in-prison program, the Redeeming Time Project. That is, when she got an answer at all; most of the time her outreach emails to wardens received no reply. Her calls to state legislators did eventually lead to an introduction to the Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner, who sets policy for corrections facilities statewide, but that meeting proved to be a dead end.
THOUGHT IN MIND: WHAT'D I MISS?
thoughtinmind.blogspot.com: IS ANYONE ENTITLED to see HAMILTON because of their race or fiscal circumstance? No. Many of the folks who have paid to see it scrimped and saved and made it happen because it was important to them. They earned it just as much as the folks who had more available income, and thus didn’t have to save quite as much for quite as long to afford tickets. The only people who can stake an uncontested claim to being entitled to seeing the show are the people who bought tickets…but I have issues with a system that virtually locks people out of a cultural experience, even when that cultural experience benefits from reflecting audiences that can’t actually see the show.
The Top 100 Greatest Tours of All Time
www.vividseats.com: "I saw them on tour."
Five words that nearly every music fan has uttered.
Seeing a live performer on tour forever links both artist and fan to a particular venue, on a particular date, in a certain moment in time. Sometimes, the tour has a special, personal meaning to the individual fan, like the first time seeing a show with a future spouse. In other instances, a concert tour transcends live events and is a cultural moment.
Japanese company develops artificial meteor showers on demand
Boing Boing: A Japanese start-up built a microsatellite that was launched into orbit today. The satellite contains 400 tiny balls that can be released on demand and will burn brightly enough to be seen on Earth as they burn up in the atmosphere.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Monday, January 21, 2019
Ellipses...
The smart clock in the living room spontaneously decided it would have holiday notifications. I guess that's a value add, although the scrolling takes a while... It was like February in Chicago cold here today, and it's not even February. I think I'll take the cold over accumulation... I knew the waterproofing should be more than 5 and less than 10 and that's where it came in. I wonder if they knew what I thought I knew and set me up... If you get everything you want and they don't get everything they want then it isn't really a compromise... I think of things to write in these posts all day and then can't remember them when it comes time to sit and write. If I were an organized person I guess I would carry a notebook and jot them down as I go... Our furnace has two stages and the first stage is so quiet that for a stretch today I was convinced that it wasn't working at all. What was keeping the house heated if it wasn't was the bit that eventually convinced me to relax... The creator Lego sets ship with three sets of instructions. It turns out they now have a fourth set of instructions if you check out the website... I'm really strongly considering thinning out my connections on Facebook and LinkedIn. The only reason I can think of to not do it is that it would be a lot of work... We've got a bunch of fairly high end cat stuff we don't need anymore. If you're local and you're interested let me know... We thought we were doing a bathroom and the basement, but really it's also the garage and the office. That room in the attic would be a good add too if I can swing it... There was what really looked like good news about WearOS the other day. Then I read a bunch of articles and decided it was probably nothing... The CSR I chatted with a while back said my cable package price wouldn't go up if we didn't reup our bundle (and sign for a two year agreement) and it didn't. It didn't for two months and then it did. I guess that's why you sign for the bundle... Watching the Patriots/Chiefs game drives home how important clack management turns out to be. If KC could have used more clock they might have gotten a different result. No more points. No more takeaways. Just score slower with time running down...
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
In 'Lab' Strike Against B'way, Is Actors' Equity Overreaching?
www.clydefitchreport.com: Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the nation’s largest union for theater actors and stage managers, authorized a strike recently against the Broadway League, the trade association for commercial theater in NYC and beyond. The dispute largely concerns the Developmental Lab Agreement that is often used to workshop new musicals, plus other contracts and guidelines (“Workshop Agreement,” “Staged Reading”) used by League producers to try out new material. AEA members are now barred from working for League producers who want to hire them under any of these agreements. AEA’s famous “Do Not Work” list displays the names of these producers.
Four fixes for Chicago theater's diversity problem
www.chicagobusiness.com: Chicago is a third white, a third black and a third Hispanic, more or less. So why doesn't its theater industry—widely recognized as being in the national vanguard—reflect that diversity? An October survey by union Actors Equity revealed that white actors are cast far more often and make far more money than actors of color. Leadership at the city's biggest theaters—Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Second City, Drury Lane, Marriott, Paramount, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Broadway in Chicago and Northlight—is predominantly white and male.
The Spectator Between Productive Participation And Narcissism In Punchdrunk’s Immersive Theatre
The Theatre Times: We all probably agree that the theatre is by nature “immersive” and that–since the days of the dithyrambs sung and danced in honor of Dionysus–the involvement of the spectator is one of its main purposes.
However, in the last decade, and particularly in England, the Immersive Theatre has become an effective theatrical genre. The spectator’s interactivity and participation, the use of technological and digital devices, the preference for unconventional spaces as well as the simultaneity of the scenes and therefore the disinterestedness in the philological interpretation of the dramatic text, are some of the main characteristics of this new theatrical art form.
How the era of the remote worker complicates management
www.fastcompany.com: New York-based startup Muck Rack is a team of 50 people who can work from home whenever they want. About one-third of the company’s team is based outside New York and therefore, always remote. CEO Greg Galant says he set Muck Rack up to be a completely remote company, meaning that if the startup’s building burned down tomorrow, business would go on as usual the next day.
Men still dominate top theater jobs. Here's how that hurts women.
Chicago Tribune: Oscar nominations will be announced in a couple of weeks. If history holds, the gender inequality in Hollywood will be on full display once again. But film is not the only medium where a marked gender gap persists.I’ll be starting rehearsals soon at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for a new play I wrote. I’ve been writing plays for 36 years, but this will be the first time I have worked exclusively with women. The cast is comprised entirely of women. The director is a woman. The scenic, lighting and costume designers are women. This is no accident. It is by design.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Ellipses...
For the first time in 20 years I don't have a cat. Feels weird... There isn't a better candidate for AG than the person who was AG 30 years ago? Really? He must be really good... I wouldn't have thought keeping lego sets separate and with their instructions would give desirable replayability. It does... Last week I broke down and recycled all of the boxes in our basement. This week I need boxes. Guess we'll need to buy more stuff... Is it possible that the special counsel's report will go the way the Warren Commission report did? Sealed for 25 years would be an interesting twist... I got a parking ticket at work this week because I am careless. I appealed it on those grounds. I'm not confident the appeal will come down in my favor... There is absolutely no reason for us to reup our cable agreement. They're offering faster internet at the same price for a two year deal, but we don't need faster internet. I think we'll stay out of contract... The airline told Mrs. TANBI to be at the airport three hours in advance to offset possible shutdown related TSA issues. If that's the new normal I can't see this lasting much longer (although I have no idea how they'll resolve it)... I'm looking for remodeling contractors if you know any you'd recommend. We need a basement water-proofer too. The internet should make this easier. I don't think it does... Netflix is raising their price again. Sooner or later they will make us fans of Amazon Prime Video... As part of a basement sweep I wound up going through my bin of random cables. This time around the s-video and telephone cables didn't make the cut. Probably should have let go of the composite and component cables too. Next time... I'm back on the 5/2 thing. Not sure it's working though... With everyone starting exploratory committees I'm thinking maybe I ought to start one of my own... It'd be great of the Roku people found a way for the apps to not log out, or at least for there to be a more expedited way to log back in if you've already authenticated once...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
As Shutdown Crawls On, Artists And Nonprofits Fear For Their 'Fragile Industry'
NPR: Jill Rorem, like many Americans, had made some special plans for the holidays. The Chicago native, whose legal work often brings her to Washington, D.C., was finally going to get to see the nation's capital with her arts-obsessed kids.
"I have very nerdy daughters, and they're super cool. Like, my oldest kid was Andy Warhol for Halloween," Rorem says. So they'd planned a grand tour of the city's museums, from the National Gallery of Art to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, maybe even the zoo if she could convince her husband. "They would have soaked it up. I always love watching things from my kids' eyes."
Then, the federal government partially shut down.
When a show's a Broadway hit, says Actors’ Equity, pay the tryout folks — but #NotALabRat is complicated
Chicago Tribune: Broadway announced some stunning financial results over the holidays: “Wicked” pulled in $3.4 million in a single week; $2.6 million thawed the ice at “Frozen”; $3.7 million circled back to “The Lion King”; an eye-popping $4 million happened in a single New York week of “Hamilton.” These are profit margins of 300 to 400 percent or more.
You didn’t even need to be a musical: Aaron Sorkin’s new dramatization of “To Kill a Mockingbird” took in $1.7 million. In a week. Atticus Finch would have fallen off his porch.
Court Dismisses Judd's Harassment Suit Against Weinstein
The Mary Sue: Ashley Judd has been talking about her experience with Harvey Weinstein for years. In 2015, she told Variety a story of being harassed by a then-unnamed Hollywood Studio mogul. In October of 2017—just before the resurgence of the viral #MeToo movement—she recounted the accusations again, this time naming Harvey Weinstein as that mogul.
How Ballet Legs Grew Higher & Higher
Pointe: "There's always a sense that the virtuoso is bleeding over into a realm of inappropriateness," says Ariel Osterweis, a dance and performance studies scholar at the California Institute of the Arts. "Classical forms change due to virtuosos. Because they're not wholly rejecting a certain style or form, they're just pushing the boundaries."
Can a black heroine fix the racist stereotypes infecting ‘King Kong’?
theundefeated.com: When King Kong opened on Broadway recently, actress Christiani Pitts became the first black woman in history to play Ann Darrow, the legendary damsel in distress who gets carted off by a gargantuan silverback gorilla on his way to the top of the Empire State Building.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Monday, January 07, 2019
Ellipses...
Really, I can't overstate how little I care about this football game. Might still be watching it though... This vacation came with one alcoholic drink. Somewhere along the way we became serious lightweights... Looks like the shutdown continues. Since the restart will at this point look like a capitulation it might continue forever on principle. That's pretty sad... The other day I had two devices tracking my steps for the day. At the end of the day there was a 2000 step discrepancy between them. That doesn't increase my confidence in either... Which is worse: not making the playoffs like the Steelers, or losing the wildcard on a missed field goal with no time left like the Bears? I think maybe the Bears... The Southwest app sends an alert when it is time to check in for your flight. It might be just a little more useful if it sent the alert with 2 minutes to go. Alerted on time resulted in B38... If you are AirBNBing your place, do everyone a favor and leave an extra HDMI cable pre-run to a TV input. That'll keep folks from poking around behind your set... I have a list of changes I would like to see implemented by the NFL... After having it in a rental car for a week I give a thumbs-up to Apple car play. Waze is super on the console display... In hindsight I now believe that stalling out Obama's Supreme Court pick merited European type protests. They don't happen here, but that was likely the moment... There's an OHOP in Lake Worth... We didn't go... The Fossil people couldn't tell me how to bring back the watch face I deleted. It is still a nice watch... The "Who Years Day" Doctor Who episode was pretty good. I continue to be impressed by the latest iteration... We don't have a 4K TV and they've announced 8K TVs. We're not keeping up. That's a lot of Ks...
Sunday, January 06, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Feds Fine Business $60,000 for Selling Non-Prescription Contact Lenses Without a Prescription
Hit & Run : Reason.com: A California-based online retailer has been ordered to pay a penalty of $60,000 for selling non-corrective, purely cosmetic contact lenses without first obtaining prescriptions for the non-prescription products. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Lawrence Duskin repeatedly violated the agency's Contact Lens Rule, which stipulates that retailers can sell contact lenses only after obtaining a copy of a valid prescription
50 Years of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
Make-Up Artist Magazine: Anybody who had the good fortune of meeting Stuart Freeborn knew he was a born storyteller. Freeborn, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 98, was a frequent visitor to IMATS London, where he was often surrounded by a crowd of spellbound listeners, right up until the moment he was packed into the back of a car to go home. I spent endless hours myself sitting happily on the floor of Stuart’s living room, as he talked about everything from Star Wars to Superman. On one memorable occasion, he discussed his two-year stint working for director Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey. With that now-classic sci-fi film celebrating its 50th anniversary, I’m taking a back seat and letting Stuart Freeborn tell you some of that story himself …
Time’s Up Entertainment Announces Industry Mentoring Initiative
Variety: Time’s Up Entertainment, an affiliate of the Time’s Up coalition of women across industries working to improve workplace safety, has announced the “Who’s in the Room” industry mentoring initiative. The program’s goal is to increase the presence of people of color from diverse backgrounds in the entertainment industry’s executive ranks.
2018 THE YEAR IN LIVE: The Industry Weighs In (And Everything Is Awesome!)
Pollstar: By nearly every Pollstar Boxoffice measure, 2018 was a stellar year for the live industry. We received, inputted and verified more than 44,000 records (thank you Team Brad Rogers, Chad Ivie, Mike Oberg and Arien Fisher!). This included a record-setting total gross of more than $10.4 billion and 152.1 million tickets sold. And for the first time ever, Pollstar’s combined gross of the Top 10 of our Worldwide Top 100 surpassed $2 billion. This jaw-dropping year was led by the highest-grossing single-year tour of all time by Pollstar cover artist Ed Sheeran, whose Divide Tour grossed $432 million and is followed by another record-breaking tour: Taylor Swift’s $345 million reputation Stadium Tour. Both surpassed U2’s eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE run from last year, which now sits at No. 3 all time with $316 million grossed.
CBS Claims It’s Fighting Sexual Harassment. Its Actions Say Otherwise
Variety: At this point, a new breaking sexual harassment case at CBS isn’t exactly a surprise. Over and over again, powerful CBS company men from producers to executives to the ex-CEO himself have made headlines for propagating decades of harassment and abuse, with dozens of witnesses affirming that the pattern was business as usual.
