The world moves too fast and too slow for me.

equity

thanks to freeman for this

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/

The problem of the equity showcase and the solution

http://leagueofindietheater.blogspot.com/

Let's get on this!

http://www.algore.com/cards.html

Pleas show your support--help stop global warming

nyt editorial power power power

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/opinion/14wed1.html?bl&ex=1174190400&en=fd3058536c382e3f&ei=5087%0A

Monday, March 26th; 6:30-10pm

I'm having a short play read here to benefit Studio
Dante

http://www.studiodante.com/calendar/13.shtml

If you have 500 dollars to burn, you can come see the
incredibly talented folks listed, 4 of which will be
reading my play. For more info, send me an email. the address, etc is not listed.

hmm...

I'm beginning to believe there might be some untoward
things going on in the Bush presidency.

Am I crazy? Paranoid? Maybe so.

blog review of my play Pretty Theft from last summer

http://tuxxer.blogspot.com/2006/07/goodness-in-many-forms.html

and blog review of the reading in nyc

http://bixbyelliot.blogspot.com/2006/03/pretty-theft.html

go see it in Seattle

http://www.outsiders-inn.com/season_prettytheft.shtml

of interest

New York City's online resource of rehearsal and
performance spaces for theatre and literary readings,
is now up and running!

http://www.nyctheatrespaces.org/

Lethem giving away his option

http://jonathanlethem.com/freelove.html

from
http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/money_where_you.html

and

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/

I need to buy a suit. Can you recommend a place?

new post from qp after a silence

http://www.quarantinedpoesy.blogspot.com/

out there

Turner raised his eyebrows. "I'm not embarrassed to
say it's the most profound mystery in all of science."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/magazine/11dark.t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=4dbcd8b7f8e71cd9&ex=1173931200

1997

Yesterday I got a package in the mail. My friend from
college, Stephanie, mailed me a letter I had sent her
the summer of '97. It was fascinating to read. I was
a different person 10 years ago. In it, I write about
going down to Salmon River and how much I love nature
and how I could never live in a city. hmmm.

I also say in the letter I'm going to try and write a
play that summer (while holding down a full time job).
Now I don't remember exactly if this was my first or
third attempt at a play. It might be my first, and if
so it was a terrible beckett-inspired symbolist play.
There were some funny lines and a lot of philosophy
and deep meaning I'm not sure I could explain now. In
other words, I'm not sure it meant what I wanted it to
mean.

The reason I bring this up, I guess, is that ten years
ago I took off down the path to be a playwright which
meant 4 years later moving to New York to work very
hard writing plays and doing all the things not
related to writing plays that playwrights have to do.
In the process, I managed to accumulate about 90
thousand dollars of debt going to grad school.

And now I'm here going to a different grad school for
free. The playwriting is going better than ever. And
I'm feeling worse about it than I ever have before.
Oddly discouraged. All the small things going well
seem much too small.

The productions, the readings, the good reviews, the
writing groups, all things I'm happy about. But I
feel like I could stay here at this level working my
ass off for the rest of my life not getting any closer
to whatever it is I'm looking for.

(What is it I'm looking for? A way to transcend life
and show it at the same time? A way to immortality?
A version of beauty? A lasting understanding? A way
to escape? A rippling truth? Does this have anything
to do with the plays I'm writing or am I kidding
myself?)

I want to go back 10 years ago and tell my young self
not to write that first play. I want to tell him to
spend more time swimming in the river. I want to tell
him to get a job working for one of the many insurance
companies so he can buy a house in town--one with a
big lawn and some woods in the back yard.

And yet I know, that was not the life I wanted. I
chose this. I want this, this life in the theatre.
Don't I?

-----

P.S. Please don't misunderstand. I'm just voicing
something that I think needs to be said. Don't start
worrying about me or anything. Also don't think for a
second I'm going to stop writing. Hell, I can't even
slow down.

more darlings that had to die

a scene from Pretty Theft that is no longer in Pretty Theft (JOE sits in a chair in a straight jacket. Two DOCTORS in white coats circle him. The lights are dreamlike.) DOCTOR 1 I am concerned he’s not getting enough drugs. DOCTOR 2 I have the same concern, doctor. DOCTOR 1 Nurse, see that he gets three hundred and thirty three more cc’s of centa-rama-thol. DOCTOR 2 And twenty seven more cc’s of orga-rata-thol. DOCTOR 1 And eighty-five more cc’s of prozacoril. DOCTOR 2 And give him a bath. DOCTOR 1 Give the poor fucker a thrill. (The DOCTORS laugh.) DOCTOR 2 And don’t scrimp on the soap. DOCTOR 1 And while he’s taking a bath, dose him with fifty five thousand more cc’s of cortapentathol. DOCTOR 2 And ninety thousand more cc’s of gor-vidal-a-cal. DOCTOR 1 I should give Gore Vidal a call. (The DOCTORS laugh.) DOCTOR 2 That joke never gets old. now the old version of another scene SCENE 21 (ALLEGRA and SUZY in the car.) ALLEGRA (To audience.) We go north to go south and we zig zag zig across the continent like headless chickens or weather balloons forced to cling to the ground. We try to be weightless and free but we are tied to the earth, we are tired, and we are quickly running out of cash. SUZY I have to sleep in a bed tonight I don’t care what you say. ALLEGRA How are we gonna buy gas to get back? SUZY I can figure something out. (Pause. SUZY speaks to audience.) SUZY At night, I like to lie in the back of the station wagon and watch the stars come out while Allegra drives. Allegra does not like this. I can feel it in the way she drives. She feels deserted and left out. Because the stars are all mine and the whooshing cars are hers. The headlights blind her and trail across the windshield. The stars lull me to sleep. ALLEGRA Why don’t you sleep in the back again? You seem to like that. SUZY No. I need a bed. I need room service. I need a bathtub. ALLEGRA They’ll want money up front. SUZY Christ! You’re so . . . ALLEGRA What? SUZY Nothing. (Pause. ALLEGRA speaks to the audience.) ALLEGRA During the day, I watch the land change from east land to west land. Hills become plains become canyons become plains become canyons become plains become mountains. In the middle of the US, all the billboards advertise x-rated stores and fireworks and Jesus. In Texas we saw the biggest cross in the Western Hemisphere. The dirt becomes red in Oklahoma. There are forests of windmills followed by miniature oil rigs. There are petrified logs. Tiny lizards. Huge canyons. There are miles and miles of nothing. SUZY (To audience) There is no doubt we are running. The only question is how long can we continue. (To ALLEGRA.) We’re really good friends now, huh? ALLEGRA Yeah. SUZY Like best friends? ALLEGRA Uh huh. SUZY Best friends could stab each other and it’d be OK. We’d forgive each other for things, huh? ALLEGRA You mean like for stealing this car and not telling me? SUZY Yeah. That. And for kissing your boyfriend? ALLEGRA . . . SUZY Now you’re mad. ALLEGRA . . . SUZY I didn’t mean to. It just happened. ALLEGRA . . . SUZY I’m sorry. You deserve better anyway. ALLEGRA No I don’t. SUZY Oh, honey, yes you do. We both do. ALLEGRA I think this trip was a mistake. SUZY No it wasn’t. ALLEGRA Don’t talk to me. Just don’t talk to me. SUZY What did I do? and the new version of the same scene--I prefer the above but because of where it is in the play, the audience can't stand all the inactivity then and I really had to lose a lot of the ambience. ah well. Here is the new version: SCENE 21 (ALLEGRA and SUZY in the car.) SUZY I have to sleep in a bed tonight I don’t care what you say. ALLEGRA Why don’t you sleep in the back of the car again? You seem to like that. SUZY No. I need a bed. I need room service. I need a bathtub. ALLEGRA They’ll want money up front. SUZY So? ALLEGRA How are we gonna buy gas to get back? SUZY Christ! You’re so . . . ALLEGRA What? SUZY Nothing. ALLEGRA I’m sorry. (Pause) SUZY It’s OK. (beat) We’re really good friends now, huh? ALLEGRA Yeah. SUZY Like best friends? ALLEGRA Uh huh. SUZY Best friends could stab each other and it’d be OK. We’d forgive each other for things, huh? ALLEGRA You mean like for stealing this car and not telling me? SUZY Yeah. That. And for kissing your boyfriend? ALLEGRA . . . SUZY Now you’re mad. ALLEGRA . . . SUZY I didn’t mean to. It just happened. ALLEGRA . . . SUZY I’m sorry. You deserve better anyway. ALLEGRA No I don’t. SUZY Oh, honey, yes you do. We both do. ALLEGRA I think this trip was a mistake. SUZY No it wasn’t. ALLEGRA Don’t talk to me. Just don’t talk to me. SUZY What did I do?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even
as he led the charge against President Clinton over
the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an
interview with a conservative Christian group.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Gingrich-Affair.html?hp