from Charlie Willis:

http://confoundedblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/quotes-and-response.html

"For a short time, theatre became a medium where you COULD make more
than just a living. You could actually live fairly comfortably on a
theatre artist's salary. I don't believe that's the case anymore --
except under the most abnormal of circumstances -- but few people who
aren't directly involved in theatre work understand that fact as
anything more than the old joke based around "I'm poor; I work in
theatre." The general public is working under the assumption that you
can make a decent living at it, as long as you're talented enough.
Unfortunately, this is shared by many young people going into college
programs, or just starting out following graduation from said
programs. In their heart of hearts, they think they'll be the lucky
one who will "make it", or manage to transubstantiate their theatre
work into a film/TV career. And maybe about 12 of them do."

timeline, 6 more months in Iraq and 6 more and 6 more and 6 more

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/08/timeline.html/

h/t isaac

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/this-is-amazing.html

'...the police action helped to all but eliminate dissent from New
York City during the Republican delegates' visit. If that was the
goal, then mission accomplished. And civil rights denied.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/opinion/08wed2.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

So there might have been a tornado in brooklyn this morning. There was definitely a crazy thunderstorm that poured water over our streets.

It also messed up the trains. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to work this morning.

alas.

mark your calendar/buy your tickets

Susan Gets Some Play in this summer's NYC Fringe Festival Presented by Stage Fright Productions
Writer: Adam Szymkowicz
Director: Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Starring: Jorge Cordova, Danny Deferrari, Kevin R. Free, Susan Louise O'Connor, & Travis York. Susan and her best friend Jay try to find Susan a boyfriend by holding auditions for an imaginary production in hopes of finding Mr. Right. Or at least a date. Or even just a freakin’ kiss.

1h Manhattan New York Comedy
Improv/Sketch/Stand-up
VENUE #5: The New School for Drama

Sat 18 @ 12
Sun 19 @ 9:15
Thu 23 @ 4:45
Fri 24 @ 9
Sun 26 @ 1:45

http://www.fringenyc.org/basic_page.asp?ltr=s

http://www.myspace.com/susangetssomeplay

I'm an uncle yet again

Please welcome Evan Hunter Steflik to the world.

I just came from a stumble through of Susan Gets Some Play. there was
some stumbling but it will be excellent I think. It's a fun show.
you should come.

jason grote tells it like it is

http://jasongrote.blogspot.com/2007/08/better-than-nothing.html

I don't drink no Robot Coffee
I don't swing wit' no hottie totties
I can't stand jam on my cake
I can't drink the tea you make

Don't like sandpaper on my chair
Don't like felt underwear
Keep that dog away from me
And don't offer me no Robot Coffee

Great post on bush and checks and balances from Chris Durang.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/will-bush-ever-get-his-co_b_57893.html

I never go to the Fall Cafe

7/27/07
Today I will do it. I will just walk through the door. Past all the
people with their haircuts and flip flops and laptops. I will march
to the counter and I will say, "Please sir. I would like a coffee
please and maybe a bagel." And then I will pay for it and there will
be an empty fluffy chair by the window perhaps and I will sit down and
I will take out my notebook and I will seem smart as I doodle and
sesame seeds will fall off the bagel and into the notebook crack.

7/28/07
I tried to go in. I tried. Instead of walking by, I stopped and then
I reached out my hand to open the door but it burned my hand. I
screamed out, "Don't touch it, " when a girl in a tank top with
microbraids reached for the handle but she opened it and entered
without any trouble and without a look in my direction. So I reached
out my hand again, but before I touched it even there was a searing
pain and the smell of flesh. Who knew my burning flesh would smell
like lamb? So I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my hand but
it made no difference. So I went home to run cold water over my
cooked hand. I'll try again tomorrow.

7/29/07
Today I stood outside the Fall Cafe for a good ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes watching people walk in and out. And then I thought, well
maybe the next time someone opens the door, I could just sneak in
behind them before the door closes. So I waited. A slouchy guy with
hair over his eyes came by after not too long and opened the door. I
had one foot in the door behind him when everything went black. I
woke up on the sidewalk. Two hours had passed. I got up, and went
home and drank some tea. I guess I won't go to the Fall Cafe.

in seattle

http://hickwithmasters.blogspot.com/2007/08/starving-local-artist.html

h/t daisey

http://www.mikedaisey.com/

"When the play finally opens, the actors will be exhausted by their
schedules and broke due to the costs of transportation, parking,
meals, and in some cases babysitters and loss of income due to time
off for the show. On stage they will probably wear at least one
garment from their own "costume wardrobe" at home, and very likely
shoes that they have provided. They will wear makeup they bought. They
will pay their way to and from the theater every night. And still they
will not be paid for their work."

no, seriously

China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece

http://www.myspace.com/susangetssomeplay

http://www.fringenyc.org/basic_page.asp?ltr=s

from the Sun

http://www.nysun.com/article/59913

"Some people just don't learn -- even after they succeed in snazzier venues, they keep coming back to the Fringe.  . . . So too returns perennial favorite Susan Louise O'Connor, laying bare her bad dates in "Susan Gets Some Play" by oddball Adam Szymkowicz, whose "Nerve" garnered early hipster buzz."

Oddball, huh?  Who told them.  Hope to see you at my play which I hope will garner me more hipster buzz.

the fringe

we got a nice photo and little paragraph in the daily news for Susan Gets Some Play.  Hope to see you there!

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/culture/2007/08/05/2007-08-05_filling_the_stage.html

spoilier song from the neo futurists

Joey spoils Harry Potter for you (in song!)

http://www.nyneofuturists.org/podcast/spoiler-alert.mp3

SGSP in nyc fringe starting Aug 18

Susan Louise O'Connor and Kevin R. Free

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/fr_prevdetail.php?0=S&1=122

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/07/wiki-play-has-no-wiki-entry.php

"The Internet's greatest time-waster, Wikipedia, has become the inspiration for a new Off-Broadway show premiering at midtown Manhattan's Ars Nova theater on August 3. The Wikipedia Plays, overseen by associate producer Kim Rosenstock, is a mini-marathon of short vignettes, each inspired by words from connecting Wiki entries."

tomorrow, sat, sun, mon

Pataphysics workshops

http://www.theflea.org/pataphysics/index.htm

political notes from Isaac

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/quick-political.html

Arrr

Weathering the storm

If the theatrosphere were the ocean, there are lots of new ships never seen before gliding in to dock with glistening new hulls. At the same time, others who we admire for their beauty and strength are leaving our shores perhaps never to be seen again.  There are squalls out on the water, rocking this one and that one.  Pirates, jumping from boat to boat, perhaps doing damage, perhaps not.  I hear cannons in the distance, but I can't tell if hulls are cracking and blistering or if it's lots of bluster.

 

Meanwhile, our lives go on in the real world.  All of us artists struggling to make art and find places to be.  I'm not sunk yet, though some days I feel like heading to dry land and studying barrelmaking or public accounting.

Murdoch buys Wall Street Journal

Here is a Wall Street Journal mocked up with actual Fox headlines. Murdoch owns Fox and has now bought the Journal. Welcome to a world of Fox "news"

capitalism

My plays Nerve and Food For Fish were just published.  They are not yet on amazon but should be soon.  In the
meantime, you can find them at the links below.

F4F
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/109666.html

Nerve
http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3821

and also available Deflowering Waldo:

http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3728

Susan Gets Some Play--get your tickets now.

 Susan Gets Some Play in this summer's NYC Fringe Festival Presented by Stage Fright Productions Writer: Adam Szymkowicz Director: Moritz von Stuelpnagel Starring: Jorge Cordova, Kevin R. Free, Susan Louise O'Connor, Danny Deferrari & Travis York.

 

Susan and her best friend Jay try to find Susan a boyfriend by holding auditions for an imaginary production in hopes of finding Mr. Right. Or at least a date. Or even just a freakin' kiss.
 

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
 

SAT 8/18 @ NOON- 1:20
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=198010
SUN 8/19 @ 9:15-10:35
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=198025
THUR 8/23 @ 4:45 – 6:05
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=198027
FRI 8/24 @ 9-10:20
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=198034
SUN 8/26 @ 1:45 – 3:05
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=198036

torture

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/torture200707

 

h/t freeman   http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-torture-people-101.html

 

"Zubaydah was stabilized at the nearest hospital, and the F.B.I. continued its questioning using its typical rapport-building techniques. An agent showed him photographs of suspected al-Qaeda members until Zubaydah finally spoke up, blurting out that "Moktar," or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had planned 9/11. He then proceeded to lay out the details of the plot. America learned the truth of how 9/11 was organized because a detainee had come to trust his captors after they treated him humanely.

It was an extraordinary success story. But it was one that would evaporate with the arrival of the C.I.A's interrogation team. At the direction of an accompanying psychologist, the team planned to conduct a psychic demolition in which they'd get Zubaydah to reveal everything by severing his sense of personality and scaring him almost to death."

wiki wiki

this will be a good show and a lot of fun.  Lots of supertalented people involved and mine includes 7 actual interns.  (My topic was Bill Clinton)  Please come if you can.  It starts on the 2nd and only goes to the 6th.

 

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/109666.html

more on contest fees

http://writinglife3.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-on-contest-fees.html

read this--I didn't write it

Hi,

We have the best opportunity we've ever had to get this country off of polluting energy like oil and coal and onto real clean alternatives. This will not only help curb the climate crisis, but save consumers money and create new jobs. Seems like a slam dunk, right?

But some in Congress are still willing to do the bidding of the oil and coal industry and vote down bills that would undercut their stranglehold on our economy. We need to tell Congress now to do what's right for the American people, not continue business-as-usual.

I signed a petition urging Congress to vote for to give solar and wind the support they need to assure a clean energy future. Can you join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergyfuture/

Thanks!