Got caught up on my Smash tonight, was totally surprised to see my brother-in-law on the screen... I'm not worried about the sequester. I think I should be... The weather this week has been just the worst, got to love Pittsburgh in the spring (if it were the spring)... For some reason I started to think about summer office projects today. That has to be a little early... I've been binging on Nurse Jackie episodes on the Showtime app. Gonna run out tonight. Note to self: pick shows that are over to binge... Would it be wrong to think I could build my own porch? I've built a lot of stuff... Generally I can't think of a use for a 3D Printer, but there is this one stupid little project... So the Roku is hooked up. Now I find myself wanting all the media apps on the Roku that I have on the iPad... I think we're going to pull the trigger on some home office fit out, if I remember to do it... Interviews for this year are complete. It's a good group of kids, now we just have to hope some of them actually enroll... You know I never could figure out the different species among the Sona in Star Trek Insurrection. For a movie with a fairly weak opening and a run of the mill ending there sure is a fairly inspired bit in the middle... I thought about applying for a pyrotechnic internship this summer. Then I figured maybe my intern days were all behind me... Know anything about hosting a wiki? I've been thinking a couple of my homework projects might go better as maintaining a database... Couple of trips coming up and a couple of off weeks at work. Might be a decent combo... I certainly don't appear to be the target demographic for TV Cartoons. They keep canceling the shows I am watching... I should learn something about the Pittsburgh Mayoral election... I think maybe this week I'll read a book. Send recommendations if you've got them...
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Vote for Comment of the Week
Here are this week's contenders:
Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "25 Years Strong, 'Phantom Of The Opera' Kills And ...":
In my eyes Phantom of the Opera is now a deadly piece of theater. We all marvel at the artists' ability to maintain Phantom's quality and craft through the 25 years since its conception. However, does the piece in itself still hold up today as a relevant and truly necessary work of art? The fact that this musical has lasted so long does speak to the hard work and talent of the cast, crew, and creative team. However it also speaks to Broadway's inability to change with the times as well as us as audience members' lack of taste. To go with April's metaphor: when we are served an old, typical, (yet still tasty), meal at what is supposed to be the finest restaurant in the world, we must demand more. Let Phantom live on through high school productions and community theaters. Shouldn't Broadway be reserved for something more? Being the new generation of artists to come fourth, we should acknowledge our predecessors for their contribution but strive to fight to bring the stories that are hidden away to the lime light. Theater should be the place that blows the whistle on the aspects of our humanity that we are most afraid of. Yes, Phantom does have universal themes that transcend time and place. But if we really want to make theater part of today's dialogue, we need to push the envelope more than a falling chandelier. I'm not saying Phantom isn't good, I'm only proposing that we can do better.Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "The Keys to Higher Productivity? More Sleep, More ...":
Let's not act like this is actually a ground breaking article folks...The idea that we spend work/spend too much time at school/trying to have a life--and not enough time sleeping and recovering is not a new thing. And I'll be the first to admit that 8 times out of 10 half of the time that I spend "working" at school is really spent surfing blogs/twitter/facebook/nfl.com or watching something on netflix/hulu and not actually working (or working at about 50% capacity anyway...now I've also been on the other side of the coin where I've spent a number of weeks working in shops for 12+ hrs at a time to finish a show (and not just for summer-stock). So I know what wasting my time is like and I know what being over worked is like, and there's certainly a happy a medium, but it's gonna cost you one way or another...thanks to the demands and expectations that we work under most of the time. A quality product, produced quickly, for as cheap as possible....now as far as working in a scene shop is considered the most productive work schedule I've encountered was Monday-Thursday (10hr days). It was the perfect combination of working hours in the day, with time off to relax on the weekend, and the hour long lunch and 2 coffee breaks kept the day moving at a decent pace since there was always time for a nap.Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "The Keys to Higher Productivity? More Sleep, More ...":
It's obvious that working a 4hr day isn't going to allow you to get much done, however we do it every day here (and so do a lot of other universities) BUT, that doesn't count all of other prep time, homework, and class...which is why in the end we feel so overworked. Sadly, it's the cost of going to school these days and it's a widely considered the norm in our culture...
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean we're doing it right. It just means we've gotten really good at making ourselves tired, stressed overexerted...
I COMPLETELY agree with this article. It mostly speaks to me in the sense of the way I worked during my freshman year. The downfall of having a studio where all of your friends were was wanting to be in there all of the time. Having workspace muddled with playspace decreased productivity dramatically while simultaneously giving us the feeling that we were working 24 hours a day, which we weren't. We were simply in our workspace 24 hours a day. I think it's important to find a location to work, and to work there. Take your breaks somewhere else, have your friends somewhere else, have your life somewhere else. The combination of staying in PGH last summer and moving off campus definitely helped me with this, because I am able to separate Purnell from a different life that I have an like outside of Purnell. I have seen major improvements in both my mood and my work quality. And guess what, I feel like I'm working half as much! Some people struggle with this the whole time they are here, I wish that everyone would give working less a try, and maybe find some friends outside of the School of Drama (even outside of CMU) that make their personal lives fulfilling, fun, and unrelated to what happens in Purnell.Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "A warning to college profs from a high school teac...":
First off I would like to say that I agree with Kenneth Bernstein as well as the other people who have commented on this post.Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Lighting Designer Al Gurdon: The Light Master of S...":
Why isn't Kenneth Bernstein saying sorry to me. My class mates and I are the people who have been wronged here. So maybe a college professor doesn't get to have amazing students for a few years because the government made some stupid polices. It's the students who didn't learn all that they could and have messed up feelings when it comes to gold stars and the first six letters in the alphabet(expect E).
As I read the article I thought to my self "I'm so sorry for all though kids who I grew up with that are negativity effected by this stuff, I'm glad that I don't focus on grads and only care about what's going to be on the test." Then I read the comments and saw that all of my CMU peers thought just the same thing. Now I'm not saying that the people who made those comments are incapable of free thought and that they personally are stupid or uneducated due to no child left behind and AP testing. But maybe I am just telling myself that I came out ok from the public school system because I don't like to think that I'm disadvantaged. And maybe all of my peers are telling themselves the same thing. I know that in high school I would ask friends why they took so many ap classes and focused so hard on getting perfect grades in classes they hated and didn't learn in. They never had good answers for me because they didn't see it that way at all. So maybe my whole generation is walking around feeling bad for the rest of the generation because they are "educated" and that they were brilliant enough that they can still think outside the box. But in reality we're all messed up.
So my question is: What should I do now? How can I undo or at least minimalism the harm that over testing did to me in public school? I go to a college to that still puts a ton of importance on grads and I still take tests to prove to teachers that I have memorized facts. I don't personally need to change the national education system, I just want to be smart and free thinking and able to apply what I learn to the real world, but just maybe I was never taught to be my own teacher.
I strongly agree with Gurdon about "less is more". I've been to quite a few concerts and music festivals, and live theatre shows in my life up to this point. But, especially in the music world, designers tend to go a little "glitz" crazy. I think the statement, though somewhat condescending, that no one whistles for the lights, is true. Lights are good at creating moments, and when one or more of those moments in a song or set list is truly memorable, that's when a design has been successful. I've been to enough shows to have seen lights that seem to have a mind of their own, constantly moving, for no real apparent reason. One of the worst offenders I can recently remember was the Killer's concert I went to last summer. The beams of light behind the band moved constantly for every single song, and they moved rapidly. Those lights have a time and place, and during dramatic moments in a song, or an ending beat of a song would be excellent, but overuse wears the eyes thin, and distracts from the performers. I remember seeing a band called Silversun Pickups, and I remember the lighting of that show, but in a good way! They stuck to a simple(ish) color palate between blue and red, but the lighting was still interesting. Sometimes, the simpler things, are more memorable in the end.
Worth a Look
Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
Equity at 100: How Actors' Equity Pushed for Racial Equality
Playbill.com: Almost from its inception in 1913, Actors' Equity Association was ahead of the nation on the issue of race. Black actors were actors, in the union's view, and black theatregoers were theatregoers. Equity came to life in the Jim Crow era, when theatre and hotels were often segregated or barred blacks altogether, and many producers — eyes on the bottom line — couldn't bring themselves to cast black actors in roles other than butlers, maids and field hands. Equity was lonely in its principles.
A warning to college profs from a high school teacher
www.washingtonpost.com: You are a college professor. I have just retired as a high school teacher. I have some bad news for you. In case you do not already see what is happening, I want to warn you of what to expect from the students who will be arriving in your classroom, even if you teach in a highly selective institution.
All the People
www.artsjournal.com/newbeans: Over on Facebook, my co-worker Sam Hurwitt reports an audition listing in San Francisco that requests “No obvious ethnicity” for a role. His friends, when asked, guessed that statement meant everything from “mixed” to “white” to my favorite: “‘whitable’ or ‘passable’ or ‘non-threatening ethnic looking person’.”
Interview with Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
Box of Crayons: Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, with a bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in social work. She’s spent the past decade or so studying some juicy emotional issues — vulnerability, courage, authenticity and shame. Brene recently published a book called The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. In the book, she provides 10 guideposts to live a more authentic and wholesome life.
As 3-D Printing Becomes More Accessible, Copyright Questions Arise
All Tech Considered : NPR: Many people think 3-D printing could help spark a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. — even President Obama highlighted this technology in his State of the Union address last week. But as 3-D printers and 3-D scanners get cheaper, this nascent industry could be roiled by battles over intellectual property. Not so long ago, a good 3-D scanner that could create accurate digital models of objects in the real world cost more than $10,000. Then, Microsoft released the Kinect — the video game controller that allows you to play games by just waving your hands.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Greenpage Crosspost: News From the Real World Podcast 2-20-2013
This week's articles:
1. Why You Love That Ikea Table, Even If It's Crooked
2. How do I Get Over My Bad Habit of Procrastinating?
3. Cause of Super Bowl blackout was installed to prevent Super Bowl blackout
4. Campaign Launched To Stop School From Claiming Copyright On Student Work
5. San Francisco's Bay Bridge Is About To Become The World's Largest Light Sculpture
6. Robert Wilson's Theatrical Universe
7. Marianne Elliott: 'Why do something that's run of the mill?'
8. Can a play with a mentally challenged cast be reviewed by critics in the standard way?
9. Wing News (February 2013)
10. Judge rules that it's illegal to sell custom Batmobiles because the Batmobile is itself a fictional character
Featuring:Dale, Lauren, Matt, & Margo
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Greenpage Crosspost
This week's articles:
1. Top 10 skills children learn from the arts
2. Campus weighs in on stress culture
3. Boerne teen crushed by stage prop; school says it won't pay
4. High levels of stress at Carnegie Mellon decried
5. Amit Drori's Robotic Wooden Animals Are Like A Da Vinci Drawing Brought To Life
6. Female Directors More Prominent in New York
7. The Guns in My Plays
8. Theater Education Programs Are in Demand for Workforce Creativity
9. Space Invaders: Unorthodox Arts
10. Work Ethic
plus bonus Losing My Religion in a Major Key
Featuring: Dale, Cat, Lauren, Christine, and Margo
Monday, February 18, 2013
Vote for Comment of the Week
Here are this week's contenders:
Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Robert Wilson's Theatrical Universe":
I saw an installation piece put together by Mr. Wilson in New York when I was in high school, and it was one of the reasons I became involved with theatre. Hearing him talk about this disconnection he promotes in his work between narrative, sound and vision puts my memory of the installation in some perspective. I remember only bits and pieces, but overall my impression was of unease, a disjointed melange of sights and sounds, but not random or chaotic. It was a very carefully planned experience, even while nonsensical. For instance, I recall entering a room in the gallery, the walls of which had been covered floor to ceiling in a shaggy, almost hairy material. Towards one corner there was an elephants leg, larger than scale, like a roman column. As you approached the leg, drawn to it by a vague human moaning, you found in the opposite side an iron jail cell door, curved to fit the radius of the elephant's leg. Inside, standing with his back to you looking into a mirror, was a man dressed like Napoleon, hand in jacket. OK, so maybe it was nonsense. But the experience forced you to make a narrative out of what you were seeing and hearing. In a way I can almost see it now as an exercise in how our minds crave and devise patterns. Even when presented with logically disconnected elements, we find ways to make sense of them. It's the same capacity that led us out of the jungle, and I appreciate Wilson's work because it doesn't take it for granted. You have to work to get experience his stuff, and there is nothing passive about it.Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Broadway, coming to a nonprofit theater near you":
Pardon me for being the naive flagbearer for commercial theatre, but is there anything that says New York Broadway theatre isn't "artistically interesting", according to Kelly? There's a really vile association in the public opinion that well-financed, fiscally viable plays that get mass acclaim are "crap art". Good People is not a fluff piece, it's a really strong play. Same with Mountaintop, Clybourne Park, Motherf**ker, etc. - they're amazing scripts that have the added benefit of being commercial (relatively cheap and simple to produce, as a result of cast sizes and unit sets). And if your not-for-profit mission statement calls for contemporary plays of importance to your region, I feel like these plays can be justified, PLUS will be solid sellers.Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Shakespeare's Globe to stage history plays on orig...":
What gets lost in the middle are the voices of local playwrights, who without the slots in the regional and NFP theatres have less opportunity to have their works presented. That has to be a judgment call on the theatre with regard to the number of submissions and the strength of their works. The new play initiative listed in the article is an attempt at giving some development assistance and a guaranteed outlet for these plays, outside of the regular season. Also, after development, it's possible these plays may become the company's first picks for full season slots.
I suppose I don't want to discount the concern that X% of your season is going to shows that are being pushed out of NYC instead of keeping it in the family, but don't believe for a second that the NYC shows are selected purely on a profitability measure. Put good plays in your season, regardless of where they come from.
I love this idea. What struck me most in this article was the quote about the British being obsessed with their own history, and I'm equal parts excited and incredibly jealous that they taking advantage of that history to stage these plays in their actual settings. It's so easy when seeing a play to separate yourself from the action onstage, and so much of it depends on suspension of belief. Yes, this stage is only 40 feet wide but the audience has to imagine that it is a vast huge open battlefield. Actually being in that vast huge open battlefield lends a whole new and exciting aspect to watching theatre, because there is less suspension of belief required and so the audience may be able to become more invested and more involved in the story and the characters.Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Tonight: Duquesne grad Eric Starkey brings the mag...":
I'm not particularly interested in talking about this show, but I do want to talk about something else. Lately, I've been noticing a pattern among theatre programs in Pittsburgh. Many of the actors who graduate from them stay in Pittsburgh. Except the ones from CMU. I was thinking about why this might be. I've never attended another theatre program in this area, but I know for myself and many others at CMU it feels as though all directions say Pittsburgh is not the place you should stay to achieve your goals. Maybe other schools don't share this philosophy. And I'm actually pretty grateful, because I don't think people should just stay in the city they went to college in. Regardless of whether of not you would be able to achieve your goals here, I think it's one of the most important things a young adult can do to let go of their college life and start their career somewhere entirely new.Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Can a play with a mentally challenged cast be revi...":
This article REALLY made me think about how we as a theatre community view and critique theatre. I have worked with several special needs children in Youth Theatre back at home and we would always end up shocked by how unbelievably great they end up. I strongly believe that it is unfair to not critique a show normally because it has a mentally challenged cast, but I feel like the critic should definitely take into consideration the amount of work that they must put in to get the outcome the did. I think that if this is in the professional world, these people choose to do this because this is what they love. You should not destroy their hopes and dreams by critiquing them too harshly, but you should also not put too much of a damper on your opinion. Although this profession is much more judgmental, it is just like any other profession. You need to take things into consideration. It depends.
Worth a Look
Here are some posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:
Robert Wilson's Theatrical Universe
Classical Music - Limelight Magazine: I began to make my first works for the theatre in the late 1960s, and they were all silent. This culminated in a major work that was seven hours long – and also silent. It was written with a 13-year-old African-American deaf-mute boy who had never been to school and knew no words. We were supposed to show it only twice in Paris in 1971 but it was a huge success and we ended up playing for five-and-a-half months to 2,200 people every night in a sold-out theatre. The last thing I had expected was to have a career in the theatre, as my background was in architecture and painting. The work was called Deafman Glance, and the French called it a “silent opera”. I started thinking about it and realised that’s exactly what it was: it was structured silences. That was my beginning.
Marianne Elliott: 'Why do something that's run of the mill?'
Stage | The Observer: Marianne Elliott loves a challenge. The director of such high-risk projects as the National Theatre's runaway hit War Horse and its more recent smash, The Curious Incident Of the Dog in the Night-Time, as well as the dark, pared-down Port, which recently opened at the Lyttelton, she has never knowingly opted for a theatrical safe bet.
Can a play with a mentally challenged cast be reviewed by critics in the standard way?
The Globe and Mail: On the stage of the Young Centre in Toronto these days, an actor with Down syndrome is confronting audience members with their own prejudice, demanding, “You think I’m retarded? Look at yourself!” Toronto playwright and director Judith Thompson is the hand behind this harrowing moment: She is the director and co-creator of Rare, a show in which nine Down syndrome adults talk about their lives, their pain and their hope. The show, which opened this week, almost defies criticism – Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck has declined to assign it a star rating while Toronto Star reviewer Robert Crew has given it four stars – but not contextualization.
Wing News (February 2013)
americantheatrewing.org: Ben Cameron talks with Alan Brown (of Wolf Brown), Cynthia Hedstrom (of the Wooster Group), and Howard Shalwitz (of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company) about regional theatre’s impact.
Judge rules that it's illegal to sell custom Batmobiles because the Batmobile is itself a fictional character
io9.com: California resident Mark Towle runs car customizing shop Gotham Garage, which makes replicas of cars from TVs and movies. Naturally, Batmobiles were on the menu, at least until Warner Bros. smacked Towle with a lawsuit for violating its intellectual property. Now a U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew judge has ruled that the Batmobile is subject to copyright because the Batmobile is itself a fictional character in the Batman franchise.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Pittsburgh Techshop
Thoughts on my visit to the Pittsburgh Techshop...
1. Wow this is a lot of people. I don't know how many people they were expecting, but I bet this was more than they bargained on. I'm not good at judging crowds but I would put the group at over 500. On the way there in the car I mentioned to Mrs. TANBI that maybe we shouldn't have gone right at the beginning because we'd be the only ones there. We weren't.
1a. (I am not renumbering again) This certainly is a prominent location. The Pittsburgh Techshop is on the first floor of Bakery Square. It is prime retail space. Kind of unexpected for a place like this.
2. Damn that's expensive. It seems like membership is about $100/month normally. There were "tonight only" bundles that were almost half that (sidebar about how much I hate "tonight only" type pricing). I don't know what figure I had in my head, but this is a lot more. I guess having been around shops literally all my life I have taken them a little bit for granted.
3. Our laser is bigger. When the guide of our tour told us about the laser that they were going to have it occurred to me that the one in our shop was bigger. What I was hoping for from the thing was that their inventory would be a lot better than ours. It certainly was newer, but better turned out to not be a given.
4. Well that certainly is a big whiteboard. There's a multipurpose room, tour dude called it a conference room, when I was in it it screamed "party room." But anyway there's this multipurpose room that has dividing airwalls that are full wall dry marker boards. Pretty neat.
5. I do not like Tourdude. He seemed very taken aback with himself and the venture.
6. They aren't ready. In the back of my mind I knew this was going to happen. I had been part of an email chain with Pittsburgh folks trying to find a temporary space for Techshop classes because they weren't going to make their date. In the front of my mind I had forgotten. Many tools weren't there yet, there were bunches of things still shrink wrapped or palletized, and there were contractor tools jammed into a couple of rooms. In the end, I could have read about a bunch of things I wouldn't see online without coming out.
7. I still don't know what happens if you break something. Tourdude really didn't have this answer or didn't want to give it to me. I was curious to know what happened to a user if they cocked up one of the tools, like if you machine into the work surface of a mill or bury the head of the CNC router. Pretty much he said that's why you have to provide your own bits and that you would get scolded. But then he implied if you crashed the cutter head of the water-jet it would cost $900. They have a SawStop. I know that's $80 every time it is tripped. I am still wondering if as a user I would have to pay.
7a. People use this as their business shop. Tourdude explained that sometimes people running a business would come in and book up the laser. I get how that would happen, but it seems antithetical to the "maker" idea. Maybe if you do it to get your business going. But once you have a product I would think one would want to tool up or find a vendor. But maybe I am wrong.
8. They have a SawStop saw. They think that is really cool. Tourdude didn't say what would happen if you got your hand in the joiner. Ouch. They will have a 48x96 router table. We have a 48x96 router table.
9. Their Water-Jet is bigger than ours. Or, they have a water-jet. Very nice. They also have an Ironworker although it isn't set up.
10. They have a reasonably sized powder-coating oven - along with sandblasting and a spray booth. All very nice.
11. They have a commercially built vacu-form rig, although it is less than 30x30.
12. Those mills are really clean. I didn't see a metal lathe, I can't imagine they won't have one.
In the end, I was both impressed and not impressed. I'm not sure how that happens. It was bigger and smaller than I thought it would be and more and less than I thought. The price point is still difficult for me to grok. I am not sure what I would pay to have quasi-unlimited access to some premium tooling I don't normally have. I mean, I can already see the powder coated 1/4" steel plate dinosaur I would make. But for $1200/year I would get many more hours out of cable, right? No waterjet that way though.
Excited and disappointed. That's how it goes sometimes I guess.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Imperial Strategy
Earlier this week there was an article on Danger Room analyzing the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back and basically showing how every single Imperial decision throughout the battle was a colossal mistake. There were many decisions that were highlighted, but the single biggest failure appeared to be taking down the Rebel shield. The idea being that had they left the shield intact that Imperial ships could have been positioned to interdict rebel ships emerging from the one exit point.
I actually think that the ion cannon would have provided sufficient cover in that scenario and therefore the correct target for the ground forces wasn't the shield generator, it was the ion cannon. But whatever. The thing that actually came to mind while reading this article was that the battle of Hoth is not nearly the level of failure the Empire suffered at Yavin and Endor. In both of those cases Imperial forces made the same kind of mistakes made at Hoth and allowed the Rebels to snatch vitory from the jaws of defeat. Mostly it seems that the failures are failures of patience.
At Yavin, midway through the battle we hear that the Death Star leadership have analyzed the attack and found that there is a risk. They must have known at that point that the risk was the thermal exhaust port. Their response to this is to try to destroy the Rebel fighters ship to ship. That's certainly proactive and aggressive, but wouldn't a better course of action have been to have taken a shuttle and park it over the exhaust port? I mean, sure, that wouldn't have solved the problem of the X-Wings buzzing around the station like gnats, but it also certainly would have bought enough time for the station to clear the planet and blast the Rebel base into smithereens.
Endor is the same failure again. All they have to do is keep the shield up. They have a technically superior force, probably numerically superior too. They also are fully aware that they are going to be attacked in spite of the fact that the Rebel commandos think they have the element of surprise. All they have to do is stack scout walkers in front of every door and put stormtroopers body to body behind each door and sit tight. In that scenario there is no way Han and Leia take the ground station and bring down the shield. But instead of doing literally nothing and winning - because with the shield up the Death Star would just pick off Rebel capitol ship after capitol ship - the Imperial forces chase the rebels into the jungle, off their home field and onto unfamiliar ground where they are embarrassed by a gang of teddy bears. Again, a lack of patience costs the Empire their win.
I guess it is possible that in the case of the Battle of Endor that Luke and Anakin would still have defeated the Emperor, so the outcome of the war might have been the same, but there is no reason they couldn't have defeated the Rebel forces.
It seems consistent that since aggression and impatience are hallmarks of the Dark Side of the Force and the Empire is led by the Sith and so they fail exactly because of those traits. But with a closer look it does seem that from a military standpoint the Empire was pretty stupid.
