Turns out I didn't listen very well, and didn't really read the syllabus I guess, so I didn't realize we had to write weekend updates (oh oh oh for SNL jokes). Suppose that makes me a waste-of-time student. Already let down my part of the bargain! I'm making up for it now, in grandly poor fashion.
Don't remember first weekend. Probably got drunk. Seems fairly likely. May or may not have done a meaningful amount of work. The case is in favor of me having jotted one or two scribbles during the passage of the time. All in all, not particularly memorable.
Went to parents' last weekend. Got mattress and box-springs from there and switched out the mattress here. That thing was a truly hellish piece of crap. Twisted and malicious, attacking spinal and muscular integrity like a virus. Terrible sleep-depriving machine of Satan and Satan's army of insomniac accountants! Curse you fiddlers and your exquisite tortures! May you never meet a wink!
Also went out to lunch for younger brother's birthday. Cheeburger, Cheeburger. Throw-back Fifties-style place (I guess there's a few of them scattered about the area). Will make you a wild burger or chicken sandwich from a list of bizarre and enticing items. Had a chicken sandwich with provolone, chopped garlic, salsa, and pineapple. It was a curious creation. The onion rings and French fries are good. They had Grey Poupon! Hooray! Made my day! Grey Poupon on French fries is rather a delicious prospect. They also make wild shakes from a list of bizarre and enticing flavors. Had a Coffee + Mocha shake. Not very adventurous, I admit, but I hadn't decided on that by the time the waitress took our orders. Blurted something out I knew I'd like. It was yum. Old family friend came to lunch with us. Confusing and amusing conversations with the family... growing into something lovingly dysfunctional instead of just dysfunctional... read Trivial Pursuit cards that they keep at the tables. Surreal afternoon.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, 1/29
Really liked the gentle Alexander warmup. Was tired before class, but it got my head in the right place (down into my core, I suppose...?) and wasn't overexerting. Just invigorating.
The genre game was fantabulous. I wonder if we can try it in short-form...
Super-pumped for Electra. (What a name!) Greeks are Great. Rah rah rah.
Obligatory link.
The genre game was fantabulous. I wonder if we can try it in short-form...
Super-pumped for Electra. (What a name!) Greeks are Great. Rah rah rah.
Obligatory link.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, 1/27
Fun today. Began with a relaxation exercise. Was sorry I came in a little late and missed a minute-or-so of laying on my back. Each moment helps. I like being guided through them, because it's less work I have to do and more focus I can give to relaxation and release. Muscles between my shoulderblades still grueling and painful. Will probably take years to reform them.
As I say, cavemanning was invigorating. Felt very free, very natural--unaffected, just cleaning because it's time to do that. I suppose I have a bit of romanticism for the distant past and the distant future--I imagine them stoic and lonely but answered bravely by their generations. Today we waste and pine. Or so it seems. The lens is largely fixed as my perspective goes. I can imagine it into rotations and telescopings, kaleidoscopies, but those pictures are limited to and by my imagination. Where fact and imagination differ I am at a loss to say, suffice it that my dreamscapes rarely resemble my waking, walking life--so it's hard to imagine that my imaginations approach the realities of the distant past or the distant future. I suppose it's a nonsense point. Singularity of reason. Tendrils still want to and do stretch beyond it. I will continue to romanticize epic distances. Traveling beyond the ends of the earth will remain an Odyssean task.
So speaking of the distant future, I imagined our group improv to be there. Well, not perhaps distant distant, but some centuries into the Space Age. New Agey Self-Realization Self-Help Guru Crap has blossomed into a fully formed societal mode, and this is the terrifying and self-parodying result. This improv felt different from some of the last ones--it was funny to the outsiders, but for me at least, it was fully engrossing. At no point did I ever feel self-conscious as The Almighty Wrench. I was simply a man living in my time and surroundings and enacting the rituals and obligations that had been passed to me. It felt very... unexplained, faithful. It wasn't a society of questioning, but of embracing. I could tell, however, that there was a seedy undercurrent to it--a repressed energy of dark consistency and character--it was waiting to bubble up, and it almost did with the murder of the immigrants. It didn't surprise me that it was a self-sacrificing, "kamikaze" society--it had that sort of feel about it, the mindless drone-hum of complacent agreement. "Going along" seemed the primary mode of living. Once I was elected leader, it was fairly easy to point the others in a certain direction--certainly this was helped by the "saying yes" part of improv, but it seemed the society was built on "saying yes." "No" was probably a foreign word, or perhaps only an occasional formality, an honor question.
Was really aware of my voice and how it was vibrating early on in the class, just after the relaxation. This was exciting--feeling my voice instead of hearing it. I admit I was aware of the aural difference as well, but it wasn't as startling or as immediately apparent--instead, my voice felt like a great eruption of resonance from some chamber deep inside me that I'd never really accessed before. And it wasn't forced like my "stage voice" has often been in the past. Just relaxed speaking was emanating from me with force and authority, a confidence and clarity that was relieving and stimulating. It made me feel good, happy in a simple way, reassured, carefree, and communicative. For as much as I talk and as much as I write, I rarely feel able to communicate--probably why I do so much talking and writing--but with such a self-obvious and well-founded voice which was producing itself without particular exertion, I felt able to communicate. Lots of little victories, a sum beyond the parts...
Oh, and here's a video a friend of mine made with a Text-to-Video thingy, using some lines from a poem I wrote a few weeks ago--it was a little embarassing, but mostly amusing... for me at least. I can't imagine it will entertain you too much, so follow at your own risk.
http://www.xtranormal.com/xtranormal/episode.php?aid=72031&mid=20090126180237272
As I say, cavemanning was invigorating. Felt very free, very natural--unaffected, just cleaning because it's time to do that. I suppose I have a bit of romanticism for the distant past and the distant future--I imagine them stoic and lonely but answered bravely by their generations. Today we waste and pine. Or so it seems. The lens is largely fixed as my perspective goes. I can imagine it into rotations and telescopings, kaleidoscopies, but those pictures are limited to and by my imagination. Where fact and imagination differ I am at a loss to say, suffice it that my dreamscapes rarely resemble my waking, walking life--so it's hard to imagine that my imaginations approach the realities of the distant past or the distant future. I suppose it's a nonsense point. Singularity of reason. Tendrils still want to and do stretch beyond it. I will continue to romanticize epic distances. Traveling beyond the ends of the earth will remain an Odyssean task.
So speaking of the distant future, I imagined our group improv to be there. Well, not perhaps distant distant, but some centuries into the Space Age. New Agey Self-Realization Self-Help Guru Crap has blossomed into a fully formed societal mode, and this is the terrifying and self-parodying result. This improv felt different from some of the last ones--it was funny to the outsiders, but for me at least, it was fully engrossing. At no point did I ever feel self-conscious as The Almighty Wrench. I was simply a man living in my time and surroundings and enacting the rituals and obligations that had been passed to me. It felt very... unexplained, faithful. It wasn't a society of questioning, but of embracing. I could tell, however, that there was a seedy undercurrent to it--a repressed energy of dark consistency and character--it was waiting to bubble up, and it almost did with the murder of the immigrants. It didn't surprise me that it was a self-sacrificing, "kamikaze" society--it had that sort of feel about it, the mindless drone-hum of complacent agreement. "Going along" seemed the primary mode of living. Once I was elected leader, it was fairly easy to point the others in a certain direction--certainly this was helped by the "saying yes" part of improv, but it seemed the society was built on "saying yes." "No" was probably a foreign word, or perhaps only an occasional formality, an honor question.
Was really aware of my voice and how it was vibrating early on in the class, just after the relaxation. This was exciting--feeling my voice instead of hearing it. I admit I was aware of the aural difference as well, but it wasn't as startling or as immediately apparent--instead, my voice felt like a great eruption of resonance from some chamber deep inside me that I'd never really accessed before. And it wasn't forced like my "stage voice" has often been in the past. Just relaxed speaking was emanating from me with force and authority, a confidence and clarity that was relieving and stimulating. It made me feel good, happy in a simple way, reassured, carefree, and communicative. For as much as I talk and as much as I write, I rarely feel able to communicate--probably why I do so much talking and writing--but with such a self-obvious and well-founded voice which was producing itself without particular exertion, I felt able to communicate. Lots of little victories, a sum beyond the parts...
Oh, and here's a video a friend of mine made with a Text-to-Video thingy, using some lines from a poem I wrote a few weeks ago--it was a little embarassing, but mostly amusing... for me at least. I can't imagine it will entertain you too much, so follow at your own risk.
http://www.xtranormal.com/xtranormal/episode.php?aid=72031&mid=20090126180237272
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thursday, 1/22
Fun class today. Unsure what I'm going to do with my book. Various options included burning it, enshrining it, and merely throwing it away. All of these potentialities are amusing--the idea of simply "keeping it" is a little boring.
Excited but a bit apprehensive about our semester-long assignment. Going to have to start stalking soon. What fun. Good practice for the future, when I become a full-fledged creeper/super-spy. Easy to confuse the two. I like to blur lines.
Shortest post yet--I suppose few reflections on a class that was pretty focused is sensible. One reflection per activity means... two reflections. Unless I'm tremendously forgetting the first part of class (NB: I truly despise that physical vocabulary game--the only ones I can usually remember are one and four).
Anyhoos, here's the most important part of my post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSzfw8FE-o
Notice how, in the grip of her intensity, the song's "spell" becomes very literal voodoo magic. You can totally imagine her calling up otherworldly spirits and sending them after her lover, locking him into a supernatural embrace. Gives me shivers.
Excited but a bit apprehensive about our semester-long assignment. Going to have to start stalking soon. What fun. Good practice for the future, when I become a full-fledged creeper/super-spy. Easy to confuse the two. I like to blur lines.
Shortest post yet--I suppose few reflections on a class that was pretty focused is sensible. One reflection per activity means... two reflections. Unless I'm tremendously forgetting the first part of class (NB: I truly despise that physical vocabulary game--the only ones I can usually remember are one and four).
Anyhoos, here's the most important part of my post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSzfw8FE-o
Notice how, in the grip of her intensity, the song's "spell" becomes very literal voodoo magic. You can totally imagine her calling up otherworldly spirits and sending them after her lover, locking him into a supernatural embrace. Gives me shivers.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Tuesday, 1/20
Short one today. Here's the quick speech response I wrote on the messageboard I frequent:
"I laughed when he screwed up the Oath--I was actually waiting for Biden to do it, but it fell to the Big Man. It was a pretty good speech, some parts I didn't like but some were really inspiring. My favorite part was the John Williams quartet though--Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, come on baby! I gotta say, I'm something of a self-admitted religious apologist a lot of times, but it still really annoys me to open and close the ceremony with prayers. Jesus, people! ...Har har. But really, the tenacity of a ****ing clergyman to pray "regardless of religion" to the Judeochristian God. Pfft. What a hoax."
Turns out the guy reciting the Oath to Obama is actually the one who screwed it up--he forgot the paper or something, so he ad-libbed. Obama probably had it memorized, and that's what screwed him up. I'm sure some right-wing nut-job will claim he isn't the real President because he didn't take the Real Oath. Yadda-yadda, people always find good ways to justify madness.
I will say, another of my favorite parts was watching Obama saunter through the building just before he emerged--his confidence and bravado was pretty stunning, and very well-calculated. A performance to remember, for those of you interested in the theatrics/cinematics of politics. Actually, Obama is fantastic to watch for that--his performances throughout the entire campaign, in relation to the camera and to its interaction with his crafted image and with the internet, has truly been amazing. He is a genius, and he is surrounded by genius--his wife and the rest of his team are all brilliant as hell. It's encouraging, going from an idiot to a genius. Things just might get better.
I will note a slight tinge of regret that I didn't take my GWU friend up on her offer of a weekend in DC leading into the inauguration. I have numerous friends there now. I'll have to ask them about it. Historic moments don't come along too often. Ah well, I was warm and able to hear every word, and I didn't have to stand for hours waiting.
"I laughed when he screwed up the Oath--I was actually waiting for Biden to do it, but it fell to the Big Man. It was a pretty good speech, some parts I didn't like but some were really inspiring. My favorite part was the John Williams quartet though--Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, come on baby! I gotta say, I'm something of a self-admitted religious apologist a lot of times, but it still really annoys me to open and close the ceremony with prayers. Jesus, people! ...Har har. But really, the tenacity of a ****ing clergyman to pray "regardless of religion" to the Judeochristian God. Pfft. What a hoax."
Turns out the guy reciting the Oath to Obama is actually the one who screwed it up--he forgot the paper or something, so he ad-libbed. Obama probably had it memorized, and that's what screwed him up. I'm sure some right-wing nut-job will claim he isn't the real President because he didn't take the Real Oath. Yadda-yadda, people always find good ways to justify madness.
I will say, another of my favorite parts was watching Obama saunter through the building just before he emerged--his confidence and bravado was pretty stunning, and very well-calculated. A performance to remember, for those of you interested in the theatrics/cinematics of politics. Actually, Obama is fantastic to watch for that--his performances throughout the entire campaign, in relation to the camera and to its interaction with his crafted image and with the internet, has truly been amazing. He is a genius, and he is surrounded by genius--his wife and the rest of his team are all brilliant as hell. It's encouraging, going from an idiot to a genius. Things just might get better.
I will note a slight tinge of regret that I didn't take my GWU friend up on her offer of a weekend in DC leading into the inauguration. I have numerous friends there now. I'll have to ask them about it. Historic moments don't come along too often. Ah well, I was warm and able to hear every word, and I didn't have to stand for hours waiting.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thursday, 1/15
First and foremost: lung cleansing successful, and indicated to me the tight spot in my chest. Right behind the bottom of my sternum, or about the indentation in the center of the chest. Felt like a pinching or like my ribs didn't want to expand there. Was able to complete the vacuuming, but both times that spot was in pain. A vice or it was sewn shut. Wonder what it would be like to have that opened up--hopefully vocal work will help.
The rest of the class was much fun. Different attitudes of walking, with closeness of body parts--I love touching! It's nice to be in a group that is self-comfortable, so we don't have the awkwardness involved in forced touching. It's like vacation time, canoodling in class on command. Wish we could have done the noses. Shared breath is a bit like a rebirth. Hot and musty... you get the idea.
It was wonderful and hilarious playing Adam through his life. I liked that I found the character's throughline--unable to make eye-contact, ruined forever by a terribly awkward conversation with his dad about the Facts of Life--somehow I don't think it's fair that this is class for us, and sad, sorry business students are sitting around getting boring lectures--but hey, they picked their fates (does one pick fate?). I chose this one because it's so much fun. Of course, they'd probably think it was stupid and wasteful and foolish and childish, so much the better for both of us.
Singing in different styles and in rounds is always good. Got to revisit childhood songs... what a delight! I always love the way "merrily, merrily, merrily" rolls along and over itself in canon... it really sounds like a stream burbling. Drunk lounge-pop came together really well.
I really want to play more of the genre game, telling different stories--really cool game, breaks down your barriers and lets you inhabit some mindset or mode without too much weight or expectation--quite freeing.
Tossing the ball was also fun.
Wearing shorts was a pretty good idea, I liked being mobile and athletic... I believe very much in an athletic approach to acting (I sure feel like an athlete on stage, huffing and puffing and sweating and straining), so it's encouraging to be in flex-gear, something you might wear to the gym or to yoga class. I feel like that, that acting is a workout or a spiritual ritual, cleansing, breath-based, empty, only a flow of energy... being able to move is critical, unless the object is to let the energy sink into certain parts and ruminate or boil or stew. But that's a movement choice, which is choice, not compromise--if you have the ability to move, you can still choose not to--if you do not have the ability to move, you cannot choose to do so. Choice: important.
I'm interested in breaking through the wall of caricature that seems to be present at these early stages. Relieving the humor (while keeping the fun)--it's play, but soon I hope it will be very serious play, the kind of play tiger cubs do to train for the hunt--stage-life feels brutal and bloody like that, muscular and animal. I'm excited to put aside the playful play and begin the serious play. I think the Greek will be great for that--blasting bodies like trumpets, sheer emotion of superhumanity, gargantuan puppets of myth instead of puny fleshly things... ooh, I get all bothered just thinking about it.
Additionally, here's my non-sequitor video of the day (actually a triplet):
Film (Part 1)
Film (Part 2)
Film (Part 3)
The rest of the class was much fun. Different attitudes of walking, with closeness of body parts--I love touching! It's nice to be in a group that is self-comfortable, so we don't have the awkwardness involved in forced touching. It's like vacation time, canoodling in class on command. Wish we could have done the noses. Shared breath is a bit like a rebirth. Hot and musty... you get the idea.
It was wonderful and hilarious playing Adam through his life. I liked that I found the character's throughline--unable to make eye-contact, ruined forever by a terribly awkward conversation with his dad about the Facts of Life--somehow I don't think it's fair that this is class for us, and sad, sorry business students are sitting around getting boring lectures--but hey, they picked their fates (does one pick fate?). I chose this one because it's so much fun. Of course, they'd probably think it was stupid and wasteful and foolish and childish, so much the better for both of us.
Singing in different styles and in rounds is always good. Got to revisit childhood songs... what a delight! I always love the way "merrily, merrily, merrily" rolls along and over itself in canon... it really sounds like a stream burbling. Drunk lounge-pop came together really well.
I really want to play more of the genre game, telling different stories--really cool game, breaks down your barriers and lets you inhabit some mindset or mode without too much weight or expectation--quite freeing.
Tossing the ball was also fun.
Wearing shorts was a pretty good idea, I liked being mobile and athletic... I believe very much in an athletic approach to acting (I sure feel like an athlete on stage, huffing and puffing and sweating and straining), so it's encouraging to be in flex-gear, something you might wear to the gym or to yoga class. I feel like that, that acting is a workout or a spiritual ritual, cleansing, breath-based, empty, only a flow of energy... being able to move is critical, unless the object is to let the energy sink into certain parts and ruminate or boil or stew. But that's a movement choice, which is choice, not compromise--if you have the ability to move, you can still choose not to--if you do not have the ability to move, you cannot choose to do so. Choice: important.
I'm interested in breaking through the wall of caricature that seems to be present at these early stages. Relieving the humor (while keeping the fun)--it's play, but soon I hope it will be very serious play, the kind of play tiger cubs do to train for the hunt--stage-life feels brutal and bloody like that, muscular and animal. I'm excited to put aside the playful play and begin the serious play. I think the Greek will be great for that--blasting bodies like trumpets, sheer emotion of superhumanity, gargantuan puppets of myth instead of puny fleshly things... ooh, I get all bothered just thinking about it.
Additionally, here's my non-sequitor video of the day (actually a triplet):
Film (Part 1)
Film (Part 2)
Film (Part 3)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday, 1/13
So it's 2009 now, today's class was the first of my semester. Oof. But fun and lively and a good way to kick off the last stretch of meaningful academics. Gotta get graduated and all that, and I'm glad that I have a fun class as one of my few for that.
We went over the syllabus, which is a tedious but necessary formality, and then we did some good warm-ups. I was glad about that, I only had five minutes in the Blackbox alone before the class came in, so I didn't get to stretch properly. My mind was a bit muddled and sleepy and vacationy, so that helped me wake up and recognize the school that was upon me. Again. School again. Oof.
Pretty excited about the potentials for this class, especially Electra, and an excuse to read a Shakespeare I haven't yet (I suppose I should have, but I'm shameful). If today's exercises and Hip Hop/August Wilson indicate anything, the class as a whole should be pretty funky and really enjoyable and worth lots of learning points. In fact, I expect it to be all of those things. I expect to enjoy myself and learn a lot, which means I expect you, Kashi, to be a badass professor. And I, in turn, will be a badass student. So that's my challenge to you, Kashi: don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours. I know we'll have a good semester.
On a totally unrelated note, here is Elwood, the world's ugliest dog.
We went over the syllabus, which is a tedious but necessary formality, and then we did some good warm-ups. I was glad about that, I only had five minutes in the Blackbox alone before the class came in, so I didn't get to stretch properly. My mind was a bit muddled and sleepy and vacationy, so that helped me wake up and recognize the school that was upon me. Again. School again. Oof.
Pretty excited about the potentials for this class, especially Electra, and an excuse to read a Shakespeare I haven't yet (I suppose I should have, but I'm shameful). If today's exercises and Hip Hop/August Wilson indicate anything, the class as a whole should be pretty funky and really enjoyable and worth lots of learning points. In fact, I expect it to be all of those things. I expect to enjoy myself and learn a lot, which means I expect you, Kashi, to be a badass professor. And I, in turn, will be a badass student. So that's my challenge to you, Kashi: don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours. I know we'll have a good semester.
On a totally unrelated note, here is Elwood, the world's ugliest dog.
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