My virtual kitten has run away. If you try to chase it down, all you see is:
When I was at "The Other School" doing my grad degree, in my third year while we were all amidst the Thesis process we had this odd greeting. It would go something like this:
So after all that soul searching about tradition vs. progress and religion vs. secularism and liberal vs. conservative and democrat vs. republican and going out of my way to think that if it was anything it really could not be about ignorance... then I have to see this:
I really wish it weren't this cut & dry. Maybe education is the answer. But then, IQ is supposed to be inherent, isn't it? Ugh, this might be harder than we think.
Crossposted from Katy and http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm (the guy complained about bandwidth).
Then there's this little tidbit:
(Crossposted from: http://sensoryoverload.typepad.com/sensory_overload/2004/11/free_states_vs_.html)
So you tell me, should I be worried?
Today I slept in. Then I got up and went with the woman I live with who is not my wife for breakfast at like noon. After that I came home and sat on the couch to watch the Steelers game, during which I fell asleep. The Steelers game was followed by my going to the store, but that was hindered by my truck breaking down and a conversation with this same woman, driver's window to driver's window in the middle of the street. We then went together to the Pep Boys so I could get the thing I needed to fix my truck. While we were out we bought a gas leaf blower. Upon returning home I fixed my truck in the driveway. Then, roughly and hour after dark I fired up the leaf blower and cleared half of the back yard.
I am concerned.
Not that any of these activities on their own say anything about me, but the totality of the list seems to merit concern. I feel I am in danger of the phrase "the mother of my baby" in my future, or perhaps shopping for a nice property with a trailer home.
I swear, if this had been last Monday, in this frame of mind, I might have found myself pulling the lever next to Bush/Cheney. For a few minutes there I think I really connected to the heartbeat of America.
I take heart in the idea that very few true white trash representatives (members? designates? people?) would then come in and enter their experiences in a blog. So maybe I don't need to be all that concerned afterall.
Note to self: do not assume the install call will begin at 8:00, lest you wind up having time for a blog entry at work (yuck), in the morning (double yuck), and you'll have to drive to four different entrances before you find one not closed for free-rolls.
1. Run everything by your advisor, that’s why you have one. 2. If you want a tool that you can’t find in the tool room, ask the shop supervisor, he will want to buy it. 3. You can’t buy your crew beer on the show budget. But you can buy them bagels and coffee. 4. When Kevin said that steel was lighter, he was right. 5. The ME is a quiet lighting designer, you will probably step on her toes. You should watch for her feet, but in the end, it is her job to say “ow, get off” when you do. 6.The overhire carpenter isn’t necessarily any more skilled than a sophomore with a work ethic. 7. Put in your requests for specific crew as soon as the list is available. 8. Every crew has some smart actors, find them, they’re your ace in the hole. 9. Do NOT overthink on the shop floor. Build what you drew. At least then you can track back the problems. 10. Your designer will always question your estimate. Only give them a summary sheet. 11. Publish your lineset schedule early. 12. Paints will always be behind. Don’t be the cause of it. 13. Talk to your PM. If you don’t, they will think you are hiding something. And then you have to have nightly meetings. No one wants that. Not even the Production Manager, they have to stay at school later. 14. Your designer’s advisor just might become your favorite person. 15. Have your own workspace away from others on the same show. 16. Be the good cop. 17. When David suggests something, it is not a suggestion. 18. Your labor numbers will get doubled. Deal with it. Then you’ll have time for pre-rig, dry-fit and getting stuff back from paints. 19. Build during build, install during install, do notes during tech, catch up on homework during the run of the show. 20. Remember, its just a school play.
Still, this feels like an appropriate time for a cross-post. Several years ago when he was at the Goodman, my associate Mr. Hines had a column in a regional magazine called "Ask Hardwareman." Kevin became Hardwareman due to his proficiency in the fabrication of "stupid Yale hardware." The shop at the Rep has cornered the market on making one time hardware to solve a problem rather than adjusting the solution to include off the shelf parts. For his column Kevin came up with a list of truisms for Regional Technical Directors. Things like "Many problems can be solved after Stage Management has left by judicious movement of spike tape" or "Don't call the Director 'Pinhead' to his face." Inspired by Kevin's LORT list I wrote a Summer Stock ("costumes does not have time to sew your soft goods") and a Commercial Project Manager ("the file contains nothing but fax cover sheets") list, and some day when it won't feel depressing one or both of us will write the Academic TD list ("anything you think can be changed in a couple of weeks will inevitably take a couple of years"). Perhaps on the occasion of that writing I will post the other three here as well.
Recently a student was inspired by the existing lists and created an Academic Student TD list herself. I present it here for your enjoyment:
Dear Hardwareman,
I have recently been assigned to be a mainstage TD in a Conservatory theater program. Do you have any sage advice?
Anonymous
Dear Anon,
Hardwareman was last seen heading into an all-day faculty meeting with only a stack of square paper. In his absence, we put this together:
Tonight I culled a list of 60 headings for a book. A new book that I will write. A book about Technical Direction. I have to write a book. Barbara says so, and Barbara knows what she's talking about. So I have to write a book.
I think I would like to be: "David Boevers, author of Theatrical Technical Direction." That would be cool.
Do you think the Excel people thought that the program would be used for outlining books? Is that why the default filename is "Book1?"
Will anyone want to publish a book about technical direction? There can't be too many people apt to buy the thing. I guess if it turns out to be a good college text there would be a few buyers and then maybe even a publisher. Could I then be one of those people that makes their class buy their book? That seems so crass to me. Maybe one's opinion changes once you're officially an author.
So, 60 syllabus entries with at least a once page lecture outline to go with each. So we're up to 60 pages and that's just the outline. A typical one page lecture outline generates between 2 and four pages of notes for someone in class. That would expand the thing to 180ish pages as a sentence outline. Expand that out to actual text and its likely 150-200% of that, between 270 and 360 pages. Charts, examples, and diagrams maybe another 30-40 and we're in the 400 page neighborhood.
That's too long. Too long by a bunch I think. I can't imagine any TD reading more than 150 pages about this crap. Guess I should look at some comparable texts for length. Still, nice to know there's something there before I really get started. I wonder what the next step will be.
I think they have a real good chance this year.
Well.
I guess it's a silver lining that we still all woke up Americans. It was nice of Mr. Kerry to remind us of that, although I'm uncertain its something I'm real proud of at the moment.
So, what did we learn?
But mostly I think what we learn is, there are more of them then there are of us. Often working in this industry I forget what the world is like. Living amongst artists really is a rarefied air. Things that my peers accept as second nature really are odd and sometime abhorrent to other people.
I found myself wanting to think that rather than the election being about Democrat or Republican or about Liberal or Conservative that it was about Enlightened and Ignorant. That people that think simply could not support the things that the President of the United States stands for, and that in the wake of this election performance that what the country needs is more public education. But really, although I think that would help I don't think that's what its really all about.
As the day wore on I think I became more comfortable with the idea that what the difference really is about is Progress and Tradition. It is a battle between a desire to have a forward moving lifestyle and those who are rooted in a traditional lifestyle. Its important to phrase it like that too. I don't think you want to make this about Secularism and Religion. There are devoutly religious people with a progressive view of the role of government. So really this is about a group of people more open to change than another group.
Maybe we should do a national production of "Fiddler."
Interestingly the skew to this axis, to issues on a progressive continuum makes the Democrats inherently weaker. When a Republican candidate takes a position on say gay marriage or abortion it unites their base. Often when a Democrat does it, it has the opposite effect, splitting the base. In a popularity contest we simply cannot compete with the Republicans on these types of issues because they are typically more energized than we are to begin with, and they are more comfortably in agreement. I am uncertain if there is an alternative to the traditionalists when you are talking about social issues. I'm not sure there really ever has been. Most of the ground staked out by progressives was cleared not by popular mandate, but rather by the courts and the protections the founders put into the constitution. When you give the entire country the choice they often don't go that way, and they certainly don't lead that way.
As much as anything else this election was determined by gays, guns, and god.
Like it or not it seems like progressives are in the minority. This is too bad for the electric car, universal health care, and publicly funded elections. Its too bad for gays, draft age kids, people without health insurance, and people without the discipline to save for old age. Its too bad for people that favor negotiation over military action, preserving the environment, and protecting America's standing and reputation in the world. Those of us that favor progressive courses are going to have to find other avenues to bring our ideas to fruition. For the time being, any public mandate will be in another direction.
Even though I've been mopey all day over the outcome, I've also been kinda guilty. See, I'm past draft age and have no kids, I have a job and health insurance, and I make decent money. Even though this was a lousy day for the country, the world, and the planet Earth, I think in the end it might be a fairly benign outcome for me personally. Maybe that's really what many of the traditionalists are thinking of when they make their voting decisions. Me? I feel dirty and I didn't even vote that way.
In the meantime, I think that Ben Roethlisberger kid is definitely for real.
Well, I did my part. Went to vote and everything came off without a hitch - which is more than can be said for something like 1500 students in the area. Looks like PA will be Kerry country anyway, so on some level I guess we can all put on the flightsuit and say "Mission Accomplished."
However, much like the war in Iraq, it seems like it isn't going to be that simple. As of bedtime Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and a host of others are still running their scantron forms or counting beads or doing whatever they do there.
Guess I'll just have to wait for the morning. Fingers crossed...
So, soon it will be time to vote. Time for you to exercise your constitutional right to help to choose the leader of our nation. I just wanted to remind anyone out there who might have a touch of the idealist to perhaps spend November 2nd being a pragmatist.
I've touched this before, and Kevin Kostner touched it this week on Bill Maher, and if my Aunt Sarah were here she would chime in too to tell you that neither of these guys really blow up our shorts. That neither of them are inspiring, that neither of them will fix the real problems, that neither of them have vision, and that really for all intents they are the same.
Such is the litany of the Independents, Libertarians, and Greens. Its a depressing tale that asks for politicians to rise up above it, not to take the money, solve the problems at the root rather than salve the symptoms. This is the desire to have a candidate speak to us, not to interests, and to say the right thing instead of desperately avoiding saying the wrong thing. Here is the realm of publicly financed elections, single payer health care, and cars that don't run on gas.
Here is the desire of the true believer, the idealists paradigm of representative democracy. And all of these ideas and intents are lovely, BUT NOT ON ELECTION DAY.
Take these hopes and dreams and Wednesday start working on them again. Donate your money and your time to these absolutely worthwhile causes. Take your incredible energy into the streets, let your representatives know, and work to change the corporate culture. GO KID GO, but do it next week.
Election day, set aside the idealism for 24 hours and become the best case, become a pragmatist and put your vote where it can do some good NOW. Remember that even one step in the right direction is movement, and keep in mind how awful the current administration has been on all your issues. Take all that energy and turn it out for John Kerry and send the Bush administration packing. Do that, and Wednesday do your best to make the new administration miserable - but get the new administration first.
