Thursday, February 28, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Ellipses...
I miss chat. I used to chat all the time. I guess folks are to the point where they think of SMS as chat. I'm just not there yet... Having a museum membership is a good thing when your kid's school texts you at 11AM to say they are closing at 12:30PM. It is less of a good thing when it is Tuesday and the museum is closed on Tuesday... People are coming to the realization that the report we are all waiting for could wind up sealed like the report from the Warren Commission. That will disappoint a lot of people... We're talking to a contractor about renovations. We just found out the contractor doesn't include paint. I'm not sure how you hold yourself out as a renovation contractor and not have paint in your scope of service... I'm sure if I looked it wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but the swing in the temperature these days sure feels atypical... I really like the movie Strange Days. Watching it now it really has some very hard to watch sexual violence. Maybe I need to reevaluate my assessment... We saw Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse the other day. I'm really glad we got to see it in the theater. The animation style reads really well on a big screen... The first year class got the Critical Path assignment this week. I guess we'll see what they're made of now... Would it be too much to ask that 50% of news shows be something other than the circus? There certainly are other things happening. Maybe we ought to hear about them... I read an article yesterday about Facebook content moderators. That looks like a tough gig... Daycare is really, really, really expensive. Elizabeth Warren can't get on that fast enough... USITT is coming up in a few weeks. I really need to do better at setting up lunches and dinners. Last year was kinda lame... If you run an internet business and you require an email address for someone to see your site, you should know it is really annoying when you email solicitations to that address multiple times each day, every day. That's a good way to get someone to never buy anything from you ever...
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Actors at all levels face pressure to change their appearance, not just stars like Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker
theconversation.com: Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker has become the latest actor to reveal how she has faced pressure to change her appearance. In a podcast, Whittaker disclosed that early in her career she was told to have a line on her forehead filled and was encouraged to wax her upper lip.
This is not a one-off occurrence, many other actors have spoken of how they have also experienced pressure to make changes to their bodies.
EXIT Theatre Cancels Show After US Immigration Blocks Canadian Performer
KQED Arts: EXIT Theatre founder Christina Augello spent a year's work and nearly $3,000 to bring Paul David Power's play Crippled to San Francisco. But just weeks before the show was set to debut at her Tenderloin performance space, she received a letter from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—an agency that works parallel to ICE under the Department of Homeland Security—stating that Power has been denied permission to perform in the United States on the basis that Crippled is not "culturally unique."
Nudity in the theater? The actors of 'Linda Vista' have it covered
Los Angeles Times: In the darkly comic play “Linda Vista” at the Mark Taper Forum, three lead actors get naked. Not semi-naked, but totally naked. And not to take a bath or get dressed, but in service of some searingly awkward — and, thus, deeply human — sex scenes.
The nudity has struck some theatergoers as so extreme and the sex so prolonged that the actors can hear members of the audience gasp when it begins.
Painting While Pregnant
Guild of Scenic Artists: As an industrial hygienist, I am frequently asked by women what precautions they can take at work to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. It should come as no surprise that many of these women are artists. Perhaps no other profession is so widely all-encompassing in terms of production materials and the variety of “products” a worker can be asked to produce. And for these women, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I don’t have a magic, comprehensive list of products or chemicals for you to use, that will allow you rock-solid confidence in their non-toxicity. The good news is that you do have the power to protect yourself and your baby, using a lot of common sense, a little bit of systematic planning, and knowledge, which will empower you to make deliberate decisions about the work environment and materials you accept.
The “Carlton dance” couldn’t be copyrighted for a Fortnite lawsuit
The Verge: The US Copyright Office refused to register The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro’s “Carlton dance” routine, likely weakening lawsuits against two game studios that copied the dance. In new legal filings, Take-Two Interactive produced letters and emails from the Copyright Office, showing serious concern over whether the dance qualified for copyright protection and, if it could, whether Ribeiro even owned the rights.
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Friday, February 22, 2019
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Ellipses...
Here it is Wednesday and I haven't done my post for Monday. The video buys me a little slack I guess, but really... Kerning is the horizontal space between letters. Leading is the vertical space between lines. Why I know that I do not remember... The collective frustration vented on social media when we have snow can't be helping anyone. Winding each other up really does help to wind each other up... I am having as much trouble keeping up with pictures for the Friday Photos as I am with all the other posts... There are quite a few problems with the scanning and 3D printing element of the plot of Oceans 8... Today I talked for 80 minutes about stationary shop tools. The ScenoFab syllabus really needs a top to bottom overhaul... This week was the start of PT for this thing we've been trying unsuccessfully to solve for nearly a year. Pretty sure it made things worse... At 10:43 every night the NAS turns on and starts blinking. It constantly freaks me out. The logs say it isn't someone logging on from outside. Not sure if I should believe that... We're rejiggering the schedule for the end of the semester in a way that undoes one of the most significant things I did while I was in leadership. I'm trying not to be too irritated... Mrs. TANBI and I are gathering bids for a project in our basement. I wouldn't have thought it, but it appears that the price for any job is about $8k. Hasn't mattered what the scope of work is, the cost seems to be the same... Nobody wants the TRS-80 Color Computers I have in my basement. Something tells me my parents should have pitched them decades ago... The NBA All Star Game has even less defense than I remember it having. I don't remember it having much to begin with. Well maybe a little in the fourth quarter... The worst part about a lot of the news these days is how much the leadership has known for a very long time and has simply chosen to overlook. They have an oversight responsibility not an overlook responsibility... When I saw The Lego Movie I fell asleep. The boy had just been born and I was tired all the time. When I saw The Lego Movie 2 I fell asleep. I would say it has something to do with Lego movies, but I made it through The Lego Batman Movie...
Monday, February 18, 2019
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Worth A Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Landmark Broadway deal gives actors a piece of the profits
The Seattle Times: Broadway is booming, and now more actors are going to share in the riches.
In a groundbreaking agreement Friday, the commercial producers who finance Broadway’s big hits have agreed to give a percentage of profits to performers who help develop successful shows.
The deal, reached between Actors’ Equity, a union representing 51,000 performers and stage managers, and the Broadway League, a trade organization for producers, is a milestone, marking the first time that the industry’s financiers have tacitly agreed to acknowledge that performers are contributing ideas, not just labor, to shaping new musicals and plays.
Black High School Dancer Told Her Skin Was Too Dark To Perform: Lawsuit
HuffPost: Camille Sturdivant, who graduated in May 2018, claims she was eventually ostracized from gatherings of the Dazzlers dance team after she reported the alleged discrimination to officials with the Blue Valley Unified School District and the dance coach was fired. The lawsuit was filed in December in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas.
Maker Spaces: Cirque du Soleil's Traveling Workshop
Tested: For each of Cirque du Soleil's traveling "Big Top" shows, the technical crew have to build out a fully operational workshop tent to maintain and repair the equipment used on the show. We go into Volta's workshop to learn how each department efficiently sets up and packs up their gear to go on the road.
Cultural Course Correcting: Black Rock City 2019
Burning Man Journal: Hi! Marian Goodell, here. We’re gearing up for Black Rock City 2019, and are about to begin this year’s ticket sales. More important than ticket sales is the work we all do and should do to be good representatives of Burning Man culture on and off the playa.
As CEO of the nonprofit Burning Man Project, I do a lot of listening. People enthusiastically share their Burning Man experiences, ideas, and concerns with me. Lately, participants have been talking about some alarming changes in the culture of Burning Man in Black Rock City, and their speculation as to who and what is causing them.
Blackface, other racial insensitivities ran rampant in '80s culture
chicago.suntimes.com: At the time Virginia’s future political leaders put on blackface in college for fun, Dan Aykroyd wore it too — in the hit 1983 comedy “Trading Places.”
Sports announcers of that time often described Boston Celtics player Larry Bird, who is white, as “smart” while describing his black NBA opponents as athletically gifted.
Such racial insensitivities ran rampant in popular culture during the 1980s, the era in which Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and the state’s attorney general, Mark Herring, have admitted to wearing blackface as they mimicked pop singer Michael Jackson and rapper Kurtis Blow, respectively.
Friday, February 15, 2019
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Ellipses...
Well, the party is over. The folks at the buffet are charging the boy the full child rate. Makes it no longer a deal, just a fun dinner... Who would of thought that the World of Concrete show would be so on point for Technical Direction... All these measles outbreak stories are really scary. Many people there caught up in real fake news... It appears to be recommendation writing season... When I cleared out my parents house there was some stuff I just couldn't throw away. It found it's way to our basement. Now we're clearing out our basement and I get to have those choices all over again... Snow is tough, but cold and rainy is worse... Maybe, just maybe we'd all be better off if the news channels decided that at least 50% of their air time ought to cover something other than politics. Maybe... Going through notes for class tomorrow brought me across the acronym PTFE. PTFE is Polytetrafluoroethylene. Now you know... The movie Geostorm feels like it owes a lot to the movie Armageddon, except the latter is much better... Target has a bin for recycling inkjet cartridges. The hard part is remembering that Target has a bin for recycling inkjet cartridges, or moreover remembering to take the inkjet cartridges to the Target to put in the bin... Taking the bus on days when it rains is a little less than... For reasons beyond understanding each bid for each scope we're looking at for our basement is coming to the same number. At least it is a fairly reasonable number... This election cycle has felt to me to be faster than any previous election cycle. It isn't actually faster, but the next election feels like it is coming up PDQ... One of my former students was featured in a Tested video. That is pretty cool... I really hope some day I get to use Polytetrafluoroethylene in a Scrabble game. 37 points...
Monday, February 11, 2019
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Blackface on Stage: The Complicated History of Minstrel Shows
New York Theater: The strange doings in Virginia have brought blackface back in the news. Reaction to the unearthing of a photograph on the 1984 medical school yearbook page of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam attests to the peculiar place of the practice in American culture and the special outrage it provokes: Far more commentators condemned the blackface than even mentioned the figure in the white robe and hood of the Ku Klux Klan.
Spotlight on the National Disability Theatre
NEA: As an actor with autism, Mickey Rowe knows that performers with disabilities have to work harder because they have more to prove. “You are used to going above and beyond, overcompensating, and doing ten times more work just to show people that you are professional and capable,” he said. Which is why he stressed that when people see a performance by the National Disability Theatre (NDT), which he helped establish last year, they should not expect less. If anything, they should expect more.
Four Chicago directors discuss the challenges of leading a theater production while female
Performing Arts Feature | Chicago Reader: "Sadly, I'm the 100th white guy standing up here tonight," remarked Nick Bowling at the Jeff Awards ceremony last October as he accepted his trophy for best director of a musical. Then he pointed to his corecipient, Lili-Anne Brown, and said, "It's time to change, and this is where it starts, right here." The audience responded with the night's only standing ovation.
Guest Commentary: As a quadriplegic film professor I've been asked if I find The Upside offensive. Well, do I?
www.denverpost.com: For his role in The Upside, Bryan Cranston generated an overwhelming amount of publicity last month. Much of the response doesn’t focus on the film itself, but on the able-bodied Cranston’s portrayal of a quadriplegic character: namely, whether Cranston’s role is offensive or inoffensive, stereotypical or not. “Is it inspiration porn?” some wonder. Others are asking, “Should able-bodied actors play disabled characters?”
Giving the Black Man in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a Stronger Voice
Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Most wouldn't see a link between stone-cold killer Chris Partlow from HBO's The Wire, flashy pimp-turned-porn-star Larry Brown on HBO's The Deuce and Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in Broadway's To Kill a Mockingbird. But Gbenga Akinnagbe, the actor who has brought all three to life, notices a strong connection.
Saturday, February 09, 2019
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
Ellipses...
The kids wanted to have class outside the other day. It was 59 degrees and really, really wet. I declined... I listened to the State of the Union but I didn't watch. It is possible I tuned it out some why I was listening... We need to do waterproofing in our basement. I'm learning about drains, pumps, and membranes. Most of this has little professional utility to me... I don't think we had as much fun watching Uncle Drew as the cast did making it. Come to think of it, it would probably be a good thing for the industry if that was always the case... One of the students asked about a particular summer stock today and none of the faculty in our option had ever heard of it. That's probably not a good sign... Is it possible that the entire executive branch of the Virginia government will have to resign. I begin to think it is likely it probably isn't limited to the executive... It is time to take the car in for service. I believe we may have reached the milestone where taking it to the dealer is no longer worth it... Kevin has been out all week. The corridor has been pretty empty. I have been reviewing drawings. I hope he comes back soon... I still really can't talk about the politics the way I used to. I'm not sure why... There was an 80 minute window today when the doctor's office could not call and reach me. Any other time would have been fine. It was a foregone conclusion they would call during that window... MSNBC used to be on quite a bit in our house. These days though we really only pay attention to the hand-off around 10PM... Not long ago "Happy Birthday" was still under copyright. That has me wondering what the clearance would have cost when it was featured in an impromptu live performance during the SOTU live on something like a dozen different television networks...
Sunday, February 03, 2019
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:
Guest Editorial: Kansas City Should Be a Safe Place to Work for all Theatre Professionals
PerformInk: Kansas City Theatre is at a cracking point. With the November 2018 article in the Pitch by Liz Cook, more actors and professionals in KC Theatre are discussing sexual harassment and similar abuses. The biggest gap, as confirmed in Cook’s article, is there is no one to go to when something happens. The distance from other major theater hubs and the large number of non-equity and non-profit houses in KC contribute to a sense of isolation and lack of proper recourse.
Why Can’t I Be Both?
StateraArts: America hates fat people, specifically fat womxn and femmes. Our rampant diet-crazed culture equates self worth with waist size. Commercials celebrate post-diet bodies like prizes, magazines promise ways to lose 30 lbs in 30 days, and even Instagram touts some secret tea that will flatten your tummy. If you aren’t getting hefty servings of body-shame from the media, chances are you are being force-fed the same rhetoric by friends and family via grandmothers talking about the newest fad diet they are trying, friends asking which dress makes them look less fat, and mothers stressing over getting their “good” figure back. This inherited hate has been passed down for so many generations that we waste no time passing it on and teaching children there is always a better way to have a body. So what happens when your body is your business? Your livelihood?
What It Really Means To Equalize The Room
ProSoundWeb: “I’m going to equalize the room.” We’ve all heard that statement so many times that we scarcely think about what it literally means. We know that in practical terms it means adjusting an equalizer to suit your taste. It may be done with the latest high-technology analysis equipment, voodoo magic or simply tweaking away “until it sounds right.”
Women in Theatre in Business: a Case Study with Bohemia Realty Group
The Interval: The theatre industry is increasingly full of multi-hyphenates, and most often, this means younger artists who don’t limit themselves to just one discipline. Fewer and fewer people are just playwrights, just directors, or just actors anymore, preferring to explore multiple creative pursuits. It allows people to stay flexible in a challenging industry.
Take this test to figure out how tone-deaf you are
The Verge: Over at Harvard University, the department of psychology has opened a new lab to study the science of music. While this is sure to lead to plenty of interesting research in the future, the important takeaway from this news is that the Music Lab has created a citizen science platform where the general public can take various music quizzes and contribute to research.
