Earlier this week I got a distressed email from a student. They were writing to tell me that they'd recently had a car accident while driving home from work. The schedule was topping 80 hours per week and in the midst of that marathon they'd fallen asleep behind the wheel and hit a telephone poll. The schedule for the next week wasn't any easier and I was being asked what they should do.
I let them know that is was reasonable to think the employer should look out for their safety. It would be reasonable to expect that if the current schedule made travel unsafe that the schedule should change or the employer should find a way to get them home safely. That in the event that neither of those things could happen that it would be reasonable to walk away.
Walking away from an early career gig is tough. Students worry excessively that their reputation will be damaged in our small professional community and that a potentially good reference will be lost. That pressure makes the decision to remove oneself from a negative situation difficult. I tired to let this person know that I thought even if they were to lose a reference that there would be other opportunities. It is likely that this place or this current supervisor probably wouldn't hire them again - but the community and range of opportunities are larger than one might think.
My time in summer stock - and professionally for that matter - hasn't had all that much in the way of terrible hours. There have been overnight calls from time to time, but they were mostly about fitting things into a schedule rather than about working hour after hour. There were a couple of really long days, but as a supervisor I always managed to get my crews reasonable time off. When I was working in Vegas I did have several really long days strung in a row, but never in such a way that I felt really unsafe. I had friends that worked places with unreasonable shifts. When they told me what was going on I always found myself wondering why management wasn't building a schedule that didn't ask the unreasonable. Theatre schedules just shouldn't have to do that.
You can't really say it isn't formative. There are industry segments that do work this way "in the real world." The LA film locals are trying to make it a thing in their next negotiation: Hollywood’s Grueling Hours & Drowsy-Driving Problem: Crew Members Speak Out Despite Threat To Careers
It does seem like there ought to be a solution to this for summer stock though. That particular segment really leans on early career workers that don't have the financial security to walk or a union to look after them. It feels like there's an opportunity for an organization like USITT, or ESET, or maybe SETC or KCACTF to establish some boundaries.
A third party organization might be able to come up with what would essentially be a "Good Housekeeping Seal" for theatre companies. The companies could then post their compliance on their website and list it in their job postings. The certifying organization could also maintain a directory of compliant companies that job seeking folks could search.
The certification would want to include things about working hours and time off, crew sizes, safety and training, housing and transportation. Mostly though I think about hours.
There would need to be some kind of compliance hotline and when a company got x number of complaints against it they would lose their standing until some kind of re-certification process could be completed.
The problem here is that there is WAY more available workforce than there are gigs. Even if all the top theatre schools in the country told their technical and design students to stay away - for every one of those folks there are five more at other schools. I wonder if there'd be any way to get the impact the program would need.
Interesting thing: I am pretty sure all of this is actually illegal under the current law. To consider someone an intern - legally - the services that person provides cannot be foundational to the function of the company. In other words: if you need them in order to function then they aren't an intern - they're an employee - subject to overtime, OSHA, minimum wage. Pretty much all these gigs, whether they call them interns or apprentices are central to the company being able to put work on stage. Most of the companies would likely go under if they had to treat these people as staff. I would think that would be a fairly strong motivator to treat them better.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Bill of Rights
Monday, July 09, 2018
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Edgy theatre content sparks off-stage debate about trigger warnings
CBC News: If you want to trigger a strong response from theatre folk, ask them how they feel about trigger warnings: The debate about if and when to use them has the theatre community deeply divided.
These new type of audience advisories warn of specific plot points that may provoke psychological trauma in some audience members.
‘Awakening: After Parkland’ Interview
www.vulture.com: Three months after the Valentine’s Day massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Sawyer Garrity and five of her peers performed in a local production of Spring Awakening — a show they started rehearsing before the mass shooting that claimed 17 of their schoolmates. Their rehearsals and performances were chronicled in Awakening: After Parkland, a short documentary that premiered Monday on Topic.
Why calling women 'strong female leads' is degrading
www.usatoday.com/story/life: Good news first: Screenwriters are learning that not all
women are downer wives, hot girlfriends or shrews. But in a knee-jerk reaction to the times, Hollywood is trying to make up for lost ground, trumpeting every female character as a "strong female lead," someone who's a pitch-perfect blend of tough resolve, intellect and conviction in a man's world.
It's not only grating, it's ... weak.
Theater professionals of color decry the Muny's casting, unwelcoming culture
St. Louis Public Radio: The boos launched by a group of protesters mid-show at the Muny two weeks ago are continuing to reverberate. Actors and directors of color in St. Louis say it’s time for theaters to stop casting white actors to portray people of color.
Disney Imagineering has created autonomous robot stunt doubles
TechCrunch: For over 50 years, Disneyland and its sister parks have been a showcase for increasingly technically proficient versions of its “animatronic” characters. First pneumatic and hydraulic, and more recently fully electronic, these figures create a feeling of life and emotion inside rides and attractions, in shows and, increasingly, in interactive ways throughout the parks.
Freedom
I've been thinking a lot about freedom today. Like "they hate us for our freedom" or that we here in the US have the most freedom - more freedom than other first world countries. I'm not sure I buy it. I mean I do think that we have a lot less government control than other developed countries. There are a very few things I can think of that you actually have to do. You have to file taxes. You have to have car insurance if you want to drive. You have to educate your children. Most places you have to get your children vaccinated. Most places.
Even that list starts to fall apart a little. There are exemptions for vaccinations. You can home school, with no accounting for what is involved. So the list of compulsory activities is pretty short. We have a lot of free reign in other areas - most areas. My question though is what do we get out of it.
It seems like most of our freedoms eventually lead to the freedom to suffer. You have the freedom to be ignorant. Not sure what that's worth. You have the freedom to not have health insurance. That freedom can lead to economic ruin or death or both. You have the freedom to choose your profession without any real guarantee that it will lead to a sustainable living. You have the freedom to choose where to live without any assurance that there will be housing there you can afford or work there for you to do.
Is it possible that all this freedom isn't what it is cracked up to be?
Would it be better to have slightly less freedom but have a more solid chance of being happy?
Do we need to do a better job of protecting freedoms we have carved out? You are free to have whatever gender identification you want, or whatever religion you want, or whatever sexual orientation you want; but you are not necessarily protected from discrimination for exercising that freedom.
That "have less freedom" sentence is a scary one. It cuts both ways, and who it is that is making the decision really starts to matter. There definitely is a yours ends where mine begins thing here. someone's freedom to carry a weapon ought not diminish someone else's freedom to not get hurt. Freedom makes for good sound bites, but the reality of it is much, much more complicated. Like most things I guess.
FWIW, I am exercising my freedom to count this as Sunday's post even though it is going live at 12:06am Monday. Oops.
Nice to also have the freedom to make mistakes.
Saturday, July 07, 2018
Couple of Things
This posting every day is tougher than it used to be. I don't remember the last time I did it but I venture it was before the boy needed all day, every day attention. That kind of thing just eats up your day. Blogging begins to seem like a bit of a luxury. Still, I'm getting to the keyboard when I can, even if the entries seem a little labored. Here's a couple of things that might turn into a complete post somewhere down the line...
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The time has come for me to write a book. I mean it has been something I should have been thinking about since my academic career began. Delaying has probably cost me a few possible titles. But we're really to a put up or shut up moment as far as RTP. I getting long in the tooth for my next step, and that step is going to require some kind of triggering event. The one that seems to be the most under my control would be a book. Much as I would like it to be a collection of TANBI blog posts it will probably have to be something else. The front runner at the moment appears to be "Not So Standard Scenery."
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I had a terrible idea this morning about how the President could lock up majorities in both houses this fall - thereby forgoing any real possibility of numerous investigations or even impeachment. Fortunately it is something he almost certainly won't do. The idea is to let the Supreme Court seat sit open well into the election cycle and then as close as possible so as to finish confirmation before the election to nominate Merrick Garland. It would put all the people who voted for him that are leaning left in November firmly in play. But even if it would work for him, he'll never do it.
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I'm thinking I'm into a health phase that can only be described as a cascade failure. One not serious but annoying thing seems to domino into the next not serious but annoying thing and then that one kicks off something else. And just when I thought everything was going so well. I've had this thought that every ten years people ought to be able to go to some kind of inpatient facility for a complete work up and overhaul: change the oil and rotate the tires. I could certainly use it. Probably not cost effective though.
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The other night we went to the movies during a rain storm. When we got out and started to drive home we were stopped and turned around by a closed road. Then we drove for a while in the other direction until we were stopped and turned around again. That forced us to drive in completely the wrong direction passed several other roads that were closed, but killed enough time that once we got to the main artery leading where we wanted to go (which had been closed) it was open. Which let us go for a little while until we couldn't make a turn we needed due to another road that was closed. A 12 minute drive wound up taking almost two hours.
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I'm moving the Marshmallow Challenge from being a half day workshop into being a one class exercise. That cuts the available time in half. I still want to do the traditional scale and the video and then my version. Each iteration is supposed to be like 20 minutes. Doing the normal twice and mine once should then be an hour - meaning the 80 minute slot should have time for that and the video. Normally we do the second version twice. Technically even that should fit. But every time I run it through in my head I come up short on time. I guess we'll see.
Friday, July 06, 2018
Ultimate TV
Can I tell you how cool it is to be able to watch Ultimate on television? So, so cool. It would be overstating to say that having a sport of TV brings it into "the bigtime" or "the mainstream." I'm old enough to remember the early days of ESPN and hour after hour of Australian Rules Football. I don't think that sport ever caught on in the US even though it was on TV quite a bit. Still, seeing the sport I prefer to play on a TV in my TV room is pretty cool.
This really isn't totally new. I've been watching Ultimate on TV for a while. Usually it has been either the open or collegiate national championships. And mostly it had been on ESPN 3 or ESPN U and the only way to get it on the TV screen was to use the Roku or stream it on a laptop. In most of those cases it was just the finals and the semi-finals that even got to those channels, with the earlier rounds streaming on the tournament website.
Lately though it has been different. Now there's an AUDL - a professional Ultimate league - and they appear to have an actual TV contract. The AUDL is showing up in my cable guide on Eleven Sports (which I don't get) and the Stadium channel (which I do). Stadium is on a part of the dial mostly populated by the alternate digital broadcasts of our local TV stations - the world of MeTV and GetTV and Bounce and a half dozen PBS channels. Not that anyone probably notices, but I checked and Stadium is actually available over the air in Pittsburgh.
So this is a different experience than the prior appointment viewing on ESPN. This is channel surfing and coming across the Indy Alleycats vs. the Chicago Wildfire midway through the third quarter. I've yet to stumble upon the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds - maybe that's because they're 3-10 on the season.
The production end of things is small. Ultimate is difficult to show on TV. Either you are too close to see what is happening or too far to be able to make out the details. These telecasts are getting better though. The people doing the play-by-play actually know something about the game and the players. The camera angles are improving, and the instant replay is invaluable just like it is in football.
AUDL has some interesting rule variations. The play to a clock rather than to a point total. THat's probably better for TV. They know how long the game will be and there's no soft-cap, hard-cap stuff (although I guess they lose the drama of universe point too). There are referees - active referees - zebras, with whistles. Some things that would just be a restart in the game I played are yardage penalties in the AUDL game. But overall it is Ultimate, and it is on TV.
It does make me wonder if had it come along at the right time would I have been good enough to play professionally. I guess the answer is probably no. There was a time when I was probably one of the top 100 college players in the country. I'm not sure I ever would have cracked the top 20 players in Pittsburgh. The year after I graduated from CMU the Pittsburgh club team went to worlds and there's a chance I might have snuck on as the last or second to last man on their roster.
There appear to be on the order of 850 players in the AUDL. I guess it is possible that at the very apex of my playing career I might have been one of the top 850 players in the country. Although just as possible I wasn't. I had great disc skills, but I never really had the all around athleticism or the hops or the physical size a professional league would require. Good throws, field sense, and reading the disc will take you far but they don't get you there faster or let you soar over a defender. Probably even if it had happened then I would have been watching on TV rather than from the sideline.
If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.
Thursday, July 05, 2018
Maybe it Should be Different
I've been thinking more about the Supreme Court nomination. In keeping with the topography of the times I have been trying to put myself in the headspace of someone with different leanings than my own. With the President filling Supreme Court vacancies it seems like there will always be some population really upset and energized about the choice. That seems kind of less than, and thinking about it, if the Supreme Court is really supposed to be on equal footing with Congress and the President, having the President fill the seat seems maybe a little inappropriate. Also, it seems like more and more recently the role Congress is playing in the selections has become somewhat outsized. We seem to have arrived at a point where if the executive and legislative branches are the same party then pretty much anything goes, and if they are different parties nothing will happen at all.
That can't be what the Framers intended, right? So maybe we need something new.
It had me wondering if there were some way to wind up with someone who could objectively be considered "the best" judge - like the country was reviewing a CV rather than having the thing at the mercy of political whim. I'm not sure exactly how to quantify this because I'm not a judicial scholar, but it would seem like there ought to be a way to quantify what we'd be looking for.
Something like this:
- Certain number of years at a certain level of court.
- Below a certain percentage of rulings overturned.
- X number of decisions cited as precedent in other cases.
- Clean ethics slate.
Like I said, I don't do this for a living, but the list has to be out there.
I guess it is likely that this would produce a short list rather than a single person, but maybe keeping the existing process in place based on that short list would get me what I am looking for.
Seems like something like this would let a lot of air out of the balloon. It make Supreme Court nominations less of an issue in Presidential elections. It would relieve a lot of the weight on judges regarding the timing of their retirement. It would take many of the third party participants out of the discussion.
Also seems like it might make us pay more attention to judicial appointments that aren't the Supreme court and to the behavior and record of sitting judges at the lower levels. Those are probably good things too.
Changing something like this is probably impossible, but it does seem like thinking about it isn't a complete waste of time.
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Ellipses
It wouldn't be There Are No Bad Ideas without Ellipses... I can't recall what we did last year for the Fourth. Today the boy had a six hour playdate, but no fireworks... If a doc refers you for a test, it shouldn't take more than six weeks to get an appointment. Our medical industry has a few bugs... Over the last couple of days I converted the last six boxes from my parents' house into six lawn bags of shredded documents... It seems pretty clear that the administration had no infrastructure in place to handle the family separations they decided to initiate. They ought to be embarrassed at the level of prep. Pretty sure they don't get embarrassed though... The Litter Robot works a lot better when the cat really goes into the unit... I can't tell you how cool I think it is that I can watch ultimate on TV... The other day we went to a movie while it was raining. When we got out the 20 minute ride home took almost 2 hours. Tough to get home when just about every road is closed... Republican congressmen meeting in a one party codel with anyone feels wrong. With this group seems outright irresponsible... Ocean's 8 was a perfectly reasonable movie... Thinking about adding three books I read this spring into the fall Pro Practice class. Just have to decide if that class can handle three books... Going to Lititz next week, see the shop, catch up with some folks. It's been a while since I've been out there... Pretty much had a no news day today. It is pretty pleasant that way, but I'm not sure it is responsible... Keeping up with a post a day is going to be a challenge this time around... I wonder why the city doesn't have you sort out compostables. That seems like a fairly low hanging fruit... Congress really ought to be putting an end to Scott Pruitt. He's pretty brazen. I don't understand why there hasn't been more noise... If you are on Shark Tank you really need to offer 14% equity... The Sense8 finale movie came out weeks ago and I still haven't watched. No sure why that's happening... When the air is thick and the smoke hangs in the area the fireworks show suffers a little... What we are doing to people seeking asylum is really problematic. I sure hope the operation and the policy evolve soon...
Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Supreme Freak Out
They're going to get their judge. I'm not sure I understand the immediacy of the freak out. It was predictable that Justice Kennedy would retire under a Republican administration. I guess it wasn't necessarily that it would have been at the end of this term, but depending on polling I would imagine it would have been a virtual certainty it would happen in this Presidential term. (I read something on Facebook today that suggested his motivation is less obvious and tied to the special counsel investigation and his son. I guess we'll have to see if that is the case - but even if it is I stand by the idea that the retirement would come under a Republican administration).
The President's record on judicial appointments is really the least characteristic of anything he does. It seems like he's pretty substantively delegated the task and that the choices are in the sweet spot of conservative interest groups. From my perspective that's unfortunate, but through the lens of how crazy things are this is actually some of the least crazy there is. Also, for what it is worth, if you haven't noticed that the administration has had a record setting pace in placing judges below the Supreme Court rank too.
I get that Roe energizes people and that revisiting Roe would be awful, but it seems to me that there's a whole lot more to be concerned about: ACA, LGBTQ rights, organized labor, gerrymandering, Citizens United... Roe is just the tip of a terrible iceberg. And that's without thinking of any eventual litigation of the special council investigation that might come before the court.
The Left has been able to rely on courts to be a check on legislatures for my entire lifetime. When we lost the White House and the Senate that pretty much came to an end. That we're having a collective freak out now is somewhat misplaced. We've been in this position since the election, it just hasn't been at the top of the news until now.
The talk about strategies to keep the court in it's current balance is all well and good, but I think we have to assume any of that will fail. The Senators identified as swings have been in this position before and they've danced with the one that brought them. Any idea that the Senate leadership will apply the standard they established under the last administration is wishful thinking. The notion that cooler heads will prevail and constrain a sitting President currently under investigation is fantasy. There will be a name in short order and that jurist will be confirmed with alacrity.
The road back from this point is a long one. The Left is going to have to win the way the Right did - win elections and win them at all levels. There won't be a need to have the courts block terrible legislation if there isn't terrible legislation. The other day I saw something online that says if "didn't vote" had been a candidate in the 2016 election it would have won a landslide of states. Decisions are made by the ones who show up. If you are freaking out now, make sure you vote in November - and make sure everyone else does too.
Monday, July 02, 2018
Precollege 2018
Today is the first day of class in CMU SOD Precollege 2018. This year I am teaching Technical Production class and Drafting class as well as serving as coordinator for the DP program.
Here's the whole slate:
I gave myself a crappy teaching schedule, coming in fairly early and then teaching again at the end of the day. It didn't occur to me that it was crappy until it was so far along that changing it would have jammed up other people so it will stay as it is. Maybe I will find a good way to make use of the time in the middle, maybe go to the gym, or prep the whole fall, or write that damn book.
Or maybe do a blog post each day for the whole term.
Sunday, July 01, 2018
CQ
It is July. At least once in the past (I'd have to look back) I've taken July and tried to do 31 posts in 31 days. I think I'm going to give it a shot again.
On a few occasions I've talked about what happened to posting here and why it dropped off so steeply... ok pretty much completely. The easy culprit is Facebook. Back in the day I would post or talk about an article I'd seen someplace, maybe from StumbleUpon or something. Now with the ubiquitous "share" buttons it is so much easier to just do that sort of thing on Zuckerbook that bringing that content here just seems like a waste of time. FWIW I probably have more of an audience over there than I ever did over here even if it is more contained.
I guess my relationship with the internet has changed a lot too. Feedly (after Google Reader) and consumption through RSS instead of bookmarks has really opened up the fire hose of content. Where I used to see a couple of dozens of posts per day I now literally have a que of hundreds, sometimes thousands. When there's always something else to look at the writing seems to drop off. Also, those dozens of posts I used to follow were mostly personal blogs and now that type of content is likely less than 1% of the total traffic across my screen - probably for many of the same reasons my own contributions dropped off. I miss those posts. If you are someone that is still writing: thanks, and keep it up.
Part of the issue has been the nature of the biggest stories in my life. There's stuff you share online and stuff you don't - or at least where there's popular wisdom that says you shouldn't. I had a kid. I rarely put photos of him online and from a privacy standpoint it seems like you're not supposed to blog about your children in a meaningful way. There's certainly been a lot to say, but it doesn't seem to be appropriate to say it here. That's a shame I guess because I think it might be fun for him to be able to look back and see what I was thinking about him when he is older. I'll have to give that some thought. The other big piece of news has been health related. I've been through a multi-year process trying to stay healthy and that's another subject that seems wrong for open public consumption. I did write about a bunch of those things, but instead of going here or on that blue page all of that writing went out via email to a fairly discreet d-list. I have an archive. I've thought a little about turning it into a book. So I guess if it would be ok for publication it would be ok to put here. Another thing to percolate on.
There's something else too. I feel like I have really been changed by a general chilling effect within public discourse. I just don't want to set anyone off. I recognize this in at least two separate spheres. The first one is obviously politics. Things have become so energized and polarized that any comment can have you off to the races, and in an open forum with the chance that something will go viral or attract the attention of trolls it just seems simpler to stay silent. I've noted often over the last year that I post and delete more than I post and leave on social media. Those potential abrasions are probably the reason for that. The other venue that has cooled is work, mostly among the students. It is my observation that trigger thresholds are far lower now than when I used to write about what was happening at work often. I've also seen very real consequences for faculty who had thought they were innocently (or perhaps snarkily) posting in their own outlets only to get jammed up for something they said. It doesn't seem worth getting ostracized in the media or into deep water with my boss just to complain that "kids today" can't find a paper clip or read a syllabus. That's too bad, but it is very much the world we live in, that I live in.
So there's that.
Still, it seems like there should be a way to say something meaningful about something without tipping into "there be monsters." Let's see if I can manage it for a month.
