To Put you in the mood for my monday reading

on the humanity front

I know waterboarding is torture - because I did it myself By MALCOLM NANCE "One has to overcome basic human decency to endure causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you questioning the meaning of what it is to be an American. " h/t Mirrorup

in addition to that addition

Go see 1001. I saw it last night and it's fantastic!

in addition

First Flux Bar Series this Monday You are invited to the first performance of our Bar Series, a selection of short scenes from various plays that have been explored at Flux Sundays. It's a chance to see the work we are doing as well as kick back and have a drink with us. Monday, November 5, 7pm Jimmy's No 43 43 East 7th St (2nd and 3rd Ave) http://www.jimmysno43.com/ ADMISSION FREE!!! Featuring scenes from: Erin Brown's Narrator #1 Directed by Angela Astle With: Michael Davis, Kitty Lindsay, Brian Pracht, Christina Shipp August Schulenburg's Angel Juice Directed by Kelly O'Donnell With: Tom Del Pizzo, Candice Holdorf, Marnie Schulenburg, Jane Lincoln Taylor Adam Szymkowicz's Open Minds Directed by John Hurley With Jake Alexander, Tiffany Clementi, Felicia Hudson, Joe Mathers, Jason Paradine, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Cotton Wright ALSO SAVE THE DATE FOR THE FIRST IN OUR POTLUCK READING SERIES Pretty Theft By Adam Szymkowicz Sunday, December 2 FREE!!! The potluck reading series is a reading of a full-length play, where members of Flux bring their favorite dishes

MONDAY at 6

Monday, November 5, 2007, 6:00 PM Herbie: Poet of the Wild West Free reading of a play by Adam Szymkowicz Directed by Evan Cabnet. Starring Matt Stadelmann, Audrey Lynn Weston, Jeff Biehl, Heidi Armbruster, Guy Boyd, Arthur Aulisi and Barbara Pitts. at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 40 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY 10023-7498 (use Library entrance at 111 Amsterdam Avenue, just south of 65th Street.)

Blue Box Productions presents Sticky@ Bowery Poetry Club Friday, November 2nd, 7-9 pm* all new 10-minute plays and music with cabaret star Jeffrey Marsh 308 Bowery, b/w Houston and Bleecker $8 at the door, $6 if you come by 6:30 pm to see the legendary Taylor Meade This week's line-up includes plays, performances and direction by : Ali Ayala, Ethan Baum, Sheila Callaghan, Jody Christopherson, Jennifer Elliot, Libby Emmons, Laura Heidinger, Neil Hellegers, Jeannine Jones, David Marcus, Joe McLaughlin, Kara Ayn Napolitano, Michael Niederman, Tlaloc Rivas, Stacy Rock, Ann Rooney, Jacob Saxton, Mary Sheridan, Joshua Skidmore, Karen Sours, Adam Szymkowicz, Eve Udesky, Ari Vigoda because anything that can happen can happen in a bar* we'll be Sticky every Friday in November: November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Check the website for full details and listings of what's up each night: http://www.blueboxproductions.net/

more on the plight of the wright

http://writerjoshuajames.com/dailydojo/?p=488

the only responsible thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI

I <3 A.M. Homes

but I have to say even though I'm loving Music For Torching, This Book
Will Change Your Life is my preference.

Jason Grote's project

I'm seeing the play tomorrow. Can't wait. Check out this new site. It's a trip. So I'm very interested in getting your thoughts on a new web-based project. As both a marketing tool and artistic extension of my play 1001, Page 73 and I have created a sort of skeletal alternate site and reality game to accompany the play. Here's how it works: if you go to http://1001nyc.com and click on "Enter The Story," you'll be taken to a web-based alternate reality - the world of the play. This links to character blogs and email conversations, message boards, a 1001 wiki, and a few other easter eggs. Thematically, the play is all about the power of narrative, the porous border between reality and fantasy, and the internet as a real-life Library of Babel, so the site idea fits. In an ideal world, I'd love to see it transform into a Henry Jenkins-like, open-source fan project (mass group dramaturgy!) , with the idea that we are all storytellers in one big infinite collection of Arabian Nights tales, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. You can also get there directly at http://www.1001nyc.com/enter-the-story/ , but the first way is more fun. Thanks! Jason

what to do about despots

Post by Patrick

http://writinglife3.blogspot.com/2007/10/calling-all-daily-show-liberals-you.html

I welcome your thoughts.

feed the hungry, improve vocabulary

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

are you going to be there?

Monday, November 5, 2007, 6:00 PM
A Rose by Any Other Name: Adaptations of Shakespeare
Herbie: Poet of the Wild West
Reading of a play by Adam Szymkowicz, based on Hamlet.
Introduced by the author, followed by discussion.

Directed by Evan Cabnet.

Starring Matt Stadelmann, Audrey Lynn Weston, Jeff
Biehl and 4 more TBA.

at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln
Center.

Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498

FBI threatens torture

http://www.psychsound.com/2007/10/a_tale_of_two_decisions_or_how.html

h/t isaac

http://parabasis.typepad.com/

isaac says:

"The FBI forced a man to confess (Falsely it turned out) to terrorist
activities when they threatened to torture his family. Once the man
was proven innocent, the section about how the FBI forced a false
confession out of him was redacted for national security reasons.
Read all about it here. If this doesn't get your blood boiling, what
will?"

Where I’m At

Last weekend I was creating a packet of writing to try and get a TV gig. I’m doing another one now. I have to revise Herbie for the reading on the 5th and there might be a reason for me to revise Searching as well soon. And I have to go back and fix that screenplay, currently titled Stalker. I am also on page 30 or so of a new play but I have to say, even though things about it excite me, I keep putting it aside. I can’t help but thinking writing a new play is a waste of my time. In some ways it is probably my best work, and it is certainly a play I would like to see, but the thought of going through the channels afterwards, the revising and re-revising, the readings, the waiting, the rejections, leaves me cold. Why am I still doing this? I have all sorts of stamps of approval. I have writers groups and readings when I need them. When my plays do go up, they go well. They go much better than I imagine they will go and I have a great time. But breaking through to the next level seems not to be happening and it’s true I’m not a patient person, but I’m just not sure what exactly I have to do. For the first time, the answer does not seem to be write a new play. And I’m not sure what the answer is. The answer seems to be stop writing plays. I’ve already written about a bazillion of them. Why write more when no one is doing these ones? And the thing is, I have great agents on both coasts. I should revise the plays I’ve written, perhaps and fix this screenplay and figure out how to get into the TV and Film area. Because I’m sick and tired of the day job and of being so poor and of putting so much effort into writing plays and working to get them into the hands of people who are unable or unwilling to take a chance on my work. And it’s not their fault either. The market is flooded with good work. Most theaters have specific needs and only a couple slots and a particular audience they are catering to. But I’m tired of working so hard and not seeing results. If I can’t find a way in here, why should I stick around?