satorimedia

A proud heritage

My middle daughter, Kat, is going to go to Oberlin. Her somewhat more conservative Stepfather wrote:

Is it too late to think about a more practical school? Maybe one that
will prepare you for the real world?

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/computing/kb/kb0857.html

http://www.yale.edu/studentcomputing/buy_reco.html

Chris

I replied:

Yeah, because only losers like this come from Oberlin...(from http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-oberlin-college-alumni )

Eric Bogosian 1976, novelist/playwright (Ararat)

James Burrows 1962, producer/creator of Cheers and director Will & Grace, Wings, News Radio, among others

Stanley Cohen 1945, Nobel laureate (Physiology and Medicine, 1986)

Marc Cohn, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter

Johnnetta B. Cole 1957, first female African-American president of Spelman College, current president of Bennett College

Adrian Fenty 1991, Mayor-Elect of Washington, DC

 Lee Fisher 1973, Lieutenant Governor-elect and former Attorney General of Ohio

 Richard N. Haass 1973, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State.

John Kander 1951, of the musical theater team Kander and Ebb (Cabaret and Chicago, among others)

H. H. Kung 1906, Chinese banker and Premier of the Republic of China (1938–1939)

Liz Phair 1989, singer/songwriter

William F. Schultz 1971, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA

Larry R. Squire 1963, Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, a world expert in the field of memory, Past President of the Society for Neuroscience

Anne O. Krueger 1953, award-winning economist, Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund, and College Trustee (1987-1995)

Thornton Wilder, author (The Bridge of San Luis Rey), playwright (Our Town).

For real credibility, you can't do better than:

Ed Helms 1996, correspondent on The Daily Show

And, Sabrina, you should tell Grandma, next time she suggests BYU, that Oberlin was good enough for

Lorenzo Snow, Mormon prophet, fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

But for me, the fact that these two went to Oberlin is going to have me wearing the sweatshirts all year long:

Julie Taymor 1974, theatrical and cinematic director (Frida, Titus, Broadway's The Lion King)

William Goldman 1952, novelist (The Princess Bride) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)

'nuff said.

Nice to know I still got it.

This weekend I do my yearly gig as tech director/stage manager for the 47th Annual MadFest. It's a crazy time, since we have acts from all over the world coming to the theatre and in the space of one afternoon I have to put them into an evening-length show, with a sort of bastardized cue2cue/tech/dress rehearsal saturday afternoon and then the show at 7pm.

So prep is a big deal, and I have a basic layout (what I consider basic) set up with the theatre's tech director. Shins pointing up to catch the high-flying clubs, pools on the stage in a 3x3 grid so that we can do pathways if we like, several colors of wash to throw up on the cyc...it gives a basic palette to allow several different looks.

When Mark Hayward, the producer/mc, called me and said "Our British act has some special light cues" I had to sigh. In the past we've had performers who have expected the kind of lighting design that comes with weeks of rehearsal, etc. I was dreading hearing about him needing follow spots or specially-colored gels or the like. He's our headliner, though, so I guess we need to accomodate him.

What did he need? Shins pointing diagonally up. A pool of light in the center stage. The ability to throw a blue wash up on the back of the stage...in short, everything I'd already had set up.

I love it when a plan comes together...

Talismans Fixed My Life! Get Yours Now!

"Marketing does not fool us, exactly; it hands us the lines we feed ourselves. Seduction is something we allow to happen, and investing objects with mysterious power is an old trap. We want to believe that possessing these items is what will give us power, or wealth, or inspiration; we want to deny that 'genius' is a label we apply to those who are both supremely gifted and work harder than anyone else. Olympic athletes have a genetic makeup that makes them suited for their chosen sport, but this is at best a starting point; potential will always go unfulfilled unless it is accompanied by a daily grind of back-breaking labour. Nobody wants to hear this; it's not a cheering message. The idea that we simply lack some talisman, owned by those whose powers we aspire to possess, is a far more attractive one."--Benedict Eastaugh

Armand Frasco (one of the neatest bloggers I know of, who runs both Notebookism and Moleskinerie) brought back a classic post talking about the pathological devotion (a devotion that makes Mac users look apathetic) people have to their Moleskine notebooks. I am, with full disclosure, among them. Probably the single thing I was most looking forward to in the new year was to get to crack open the year-planner Moleskine for 2007; the question became, what do I do with the small beloved book I had been carrying with me before? I have a slightly larger one that I use for project notes, stories, notes on books or scenes or rehearsals. I have another one, a reporter-style sketchbook, filled with diagrams and notes from creative ventures I've done, or would like to do.

And yet I crave more. I read about them, I see the sketches other people make, I see the tabs they use to organize their lives, and I lust after them. My loved ones know of this, although I don't think they quite realize how strong it is: when the iPhone was announced, yes, I sort of wanted one...but yet part of me simply said "Hmmmm. Nah, I think for organization I still like the Moleskine better." I recall being at a movie about Burning Man in Chicago, and something happened onscreen that I wanted to make note of...and there was a tangible pleasure to the opening of the book and the scribbling of ink across the page. It was physical, and I realized, I think at that moment, that I was addicted.

So that's me. But back to the quote: I think about all of the things--like the iPhone, or a pair of shoes, or a kind of car--that it applies to. The notion that if we have just the right talisman, it will make the rest of our lives just magically fall into place. I think talismans have their uses; inspiration, or signposts to remind us to stay on the path that we've chosen. But to forget that the power of the talisman comes from within us, not from the object, is a dangerous and (culturally speaking) deadly trap.

Heidi Miller Presents: The Breadcrumb Approach

Click to Play

This is a test to see if I, operating in my capacity as the Official Web Guy of Heidi Miller, can post a video from blip tv.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by graytmiller with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

I set it up, but I never saw it...

One of my favorite moments in my dancing work was when I was assisting the Li Chiao-Ping Dance company in setting up for a performance on the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center. Due to the vagaries of travel, though, I was never able to actually see the performance; I set up the tech, tested it with the run-through, and then had to get to the airport.

So I'm delighted now to find that the performance was archived by the Kennedy Center. I can watch it, and a lot of other works (including some live) by becoming an e-patron.

Brilliant of them to provide such a service, and a way for people all over the world to get involved. Thanks especially to the GreatDance blog for bringing it to my attention.

Why haven't I been reading David Seah?

"The first thing I thought was that the Earth looks weird without a cartoon animal humping it." -- from "5 Bloggers Walk Into A Bar"

While looking for some printable calendars (I'm not liking my new year moleskine so much; I suspect I'm going back to the old one) I came across a link to David Seah's templates (I'd seen the "Printable CEO" series before, but not being a CEO, didn't find much use for it.
But his blog...man, there's some good stuff in there. In the Bloggers entry I just quoted, besides being funny, he reminded me of the things I need to focus on in keeping my blogs working:

• Context
• Content
• Category
• Community
• Continuity

With each of my blogs, I can see where they need work in each of these areas. But it helps to have them up there, and it will help in figuring out just how to make my skillset pay.
Anyway, this is a blog that I really think I need to see more of.

Wisdom Schmisdom

"...while ants become smarter as the number of collaborators increases, humans become dumber." -Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users

To be completely accurate, she's talking about the book "The Wisdom of Crowds" and about how using too many cooks can really dilute the spices in the pot (a poor metaphor; blame me, not her).

It put me in mind of several theatrical experiences I've had. Working in dramatic theatre, there is a very clear chain of command; everything flows from the director. A good director has a great design team and fantastic actors and listens to their input and channels the things they bring to the table--but the final decision, the ultimate vision, is the fault or triumph of the director. With great power comes great responsibility, etc. etc.

I love that model. I love working in it, whether I'm directing or part of the design team (usually the latter). It is like being given a tremendously powerful brush with which to paint an enormous canvas (the theatre, in fact). Perhaps my favorite aspect of the digital media revolution (I'm talking about 1.0, when video stopped being linear and sound became sampled and projectors got cheap) is that it assembled more of the power into individual hands, gave a new palette (see, this metaphor is working much better, no?) to the individual artist.

I've also worked with companies like Cycropia, a collective-style aerial dance group. I respect them immensely; I love going to their performances. However, their style of creation--getting together as a group, compromising and changing and giving and taking aspects as they build a performance--drives me nuts. I'm a much bigger fan of "We'll do it your way, completely," than "We'll do it your way, but I'm going to change your vision."

In my own personal aesthetic, that takes away from a vision that could otherwise be powerful and direct. It reminds me of the scene in Amadeus where the Court informs Mozart that his song has "too many notes."

It's a personal taste. But give me a dictatorship in the arts every time.

Especially when I get to be the dictator...

How to write good

This makes me giggle: How to Write Good.
I'd love to excerpt my favorites, but they all make me laugh. So, at random:

• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
• If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

Hee.

yeah, but can they juggle?

As tends to happen this time of year, I've been doing a lot of reflecting. And a lot of relaxing, which lends more time to reflection than I normally get (hence the paucity of this blog's entries). Over the weekend, part of my relaxing involved watching "The West Wing" starting with episode 1. Is it me, or does watching that show just make you feel smarter as the snappy dialogue flies?
Anyway, at one point the President suggested to a new father that he teach his daughter to whistle. As it happens, it's a skill that my daughters don't have--and I blurted out "I'm a failure as a father!"
My wife came back with "Yeah--but they can juggle!" Which is true. I taught them to juggle very early on, and through strategic disinterest encouraged the skill.
It's a point that came back to me as I read Adrian Savage's recent entry on "deficit thinking." I've been doing a lot of that, lately, in relation to my job, to my relationships, to my health. Even had a long, drawn out discussion with friends who were telling me to "focus on the positive" and "quit making yourself miserable."
It's not quite that easy--in fact, with me, it's impossible, because I feel as though I'm lying to myself or trying to deny reality. The analogy I used was an EMT going to the scene of an accident--she doesn't say "Wow, they're breathing! Their heart is beating! They have no head trauma! They're fine!" No, she says "Ok, the stuff that should be there IS there, but what's wrong? Broken femur? Let's deal with it!" and focuses on the problem.
One friend did suggest the idea that these things could be challenges...and that was something I could respond to. As I said, "Tell me to be positive, it'll just make me mad. Give me a chance to be clever, and I'll cackle with glee."
It's the MacGuyver instinct. Or it's Han Solo navigating a mine field and shouting "Never tell me the odds!" It's my drill instructor yelling "Improvise! Adapt! Overcome!" That's the kind of spirit I can get behind.
Which is why the part of Adrian's entry that resonated the most for me was this one:

Don’t buy the foolish idea you have a right to be happy. There’s no such right. The best way to be happy is to give up being miserable. Let it go. Sometimes you’ll feel happy, sometimes sad, and very often neither. That’s the way life is. Smile and enjoy it.

That sounds like the best kind resolution there is.

Why do we write?

"I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but—as in a dream—can’t quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy." --from "My Father's Suitcase," The 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech by Orhan Pamuk