Required reading for the day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/politics/29delay.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/politics/29assess.html?hp&ex=1128052800&en=5363f9e5944b39a4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
(Copy and paste into browser...they were too long to copy out into a link)
Bartlet in '08 ;o)...though it'll be cancelled by then.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
A Female President
I'm not gonna lie. I like the idea of having a female President...though, at this point, I wish almost anyone else was President besides the person who actually is. But I digress.
So I watched "Commander in Chief" on ABC last night (Tuesdays, 9 PM)...It was decent. I've been pretty selective in what I watch lately but I was interested in the idea of this show...The man who created it, Rod Lurie, did a presentation for one of my film classes at SU and is a friend of my professor. We saw his movie, "The Contender" which was about a female nominee for Vice President. The show was similar. Both women were in position to step up because the man in power died. But I suppose The Contender is to Commander in Chief as The American President is to The West Wing.
Once Ms. Allen, the new POTUS, took office it felt like the story finally started after the former POTUS died and tried to get her to resign. I still don't really get why he would choose a VP who he didn't trust to run the country, but whatever. I kind of would like to see a story of a woman who is actually elected as opposed to woman who has to step up, but that would be a different show. The production values weren't brilliant and the dialogue could be better, but I like the idea of the show so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
I also read all the info about women in politics in NY Times yesterday and it was interesting that 80% of people polled (thanks to the Joey Lucases of the world) are ready for a female President. Things will get interested if (when?) Hillary Clinton decides to run in 2008. But as with the show, I need to know more about her...I don't think a woman should be President just to have a woman be President. I think there should be a woman President who is a good leader. Maybe this show will get more people thinking about this.
So I watched "Commander in Chief" on ABC last night (Tuesdays, 9 PM)...It was decent. I've been pretty selective in what I watch lately but I was interested in the idea of this show...The man who created it, Rod Lurie, did a presentation for one of my film classes at SU and is a friend of my professor. We saw his movie, "The Contender" which was about a female nominee for Vice President. The show was similar. Both women were in position to step up because the man in power died. But I suppose The Contender is to Commander in Chief as The American President is to The West Wing.
Once Ms. Allen, the new POTUS, took office it felt like the story finally started after the former POTUS died and tried to get her to resign. I still don't really get why he would choose a VP who he didn't trust to run the country, but whatever. I kind of would like to see a story of a woman who is actually elected as opposed to woman who has to step up, but that would be a different show. The production values weren't brilliant and the dialogue could be better, but I like the idea of the show so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
I also read all the info about women in politics in NY Times yesterday and it was interesting that 80% of people polled (thanks to the Joey Lucases of the world) are ready for a female President. Things will get interested if (when?) Hillary Clinton decides to run in 2008. But as with the show, I need to know more about her...I don't think a woman should be President just to have a woman be President. I think there should be a woman President who is a good leader. Maybe this show will get more people thinking about this.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
A Wrong Turn
So yesterday I went out with my friend Laura and we went to an Italian festival in the Village. We walked around for a while and then parted ways at the subway. I took the train downtown, in search of this store I'd heard about to do some shopping and she took the train uptown to meet her family.
I get off the train and look around. The area I was in was not immediatley familiar so I walked a couple blocks...and found myself face to face with Ground Zero. It was bizarre because Laura had mentioned that she was wary of days that were as clear as yeaterday because one thing she always remembered about 9/11 was how clear it was. So there I am and I walk closer to it until I'm at the protective fence and I stood and stared for a while until a toursit came and stood next to me and was snapping pictures. I had lost my appetite for shopping. It was wierd to me how there could be a big department store across the street and the people that were going in and out didn't seem to notice where it was and what they could see.
My family and I had gone a while back to visit Ground Zero and to pay our respects, but when we had gone, I had expected to go. It wasn't an accident that we went there. But yesterday, I felt shaky as I walked away from it because I hadn't planned on going there. The one positive thing was that apparently the vendors that had been selling tastless souvenirs had been chased away. I always wondered...it is worse that people sell that shit or that people buy that. Becasue people wouldn't sell World Trade Centre hats if no one was buying them.
As I walked back to the subway, I figured I'd stop somewhere and use the Ladie's Room and I went into a church that had it's door open. But inside, there were all these roped off areas housing the impromptou shrines people had created just after 9/11, and signs with picutres of loved ones and one table covered in NYPD and FDNY patches, memorializing the officers who had died. I finally found the bathroom and I was in such a daze that I didn't notice the line and when the man in line reminde me there was one, I didn't join it. I couldn't do something as normal as wait on line for the bathroom. I just walked out of the church and got on the subway and left.
I get off the train and look around. The area I was in was not immediatley familiar so I walked a couple blocks...and found myself face to face with Ground Zero. It was bizarre because Laura had mentioned that she was wary of days that were as clear as yeaterday because one thing she always remembered about 9/11 was how clear it was. So there I am and I walk closer to it until I'm at the protective fence and I stood and stared for a while until a toursit came and stood next to me and was snapping pictures. I had lost my appetite for shopping. It was wierd to me how there could be a big department store across the street and the people that were going in and out didn't seem to notice where it was and what they could see.
My family and I had gone a while back to visit Ground Zero and to pay our respects, but when we had gone, I had expected to go. It wasn't an accident that we went there. But yesterday, I felt shaky as I walked away from it because I hadn't planned on going there. The one positive thing was that apparently the vendors that had been selling tastless souvenirs had been chased away. I always wondered...it is worse that people sell that shit or that people buy that. Becasue people wouldn't sell World Trade Centre hats if no one was buying them.
As I walked back to the subway, I figured I'd stop somewhere and use the Ladie's Room and I went into a church that had it's door open. But inside, there were all these roped off areas housing the impromptou shrines people had created just after 9/11, and signs with picutres of loved ones and one table covered in NYPD and FDNY patches, memorializing the officers who had died. I finally found the bathroom and I was in such a daze that I didn't notice the line and when the man in line reminde me there was one, I didn't join it. I couldn't do something as normal as wait on line for the bathroom. I just walked out of the church and got on the subway and left.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Sara's Book Review I
Ok, so I've been thinking about this book for a while and still haven't been able to form an opinion either way about it. The book, by the way, is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and I'll take a moment and issue a spoiler warning for anyone who may want to read this and haven't yet.
My most overwhleming feeling was that the book read sort of like an after school special. You know. Overwrought family drama populated by b-list actors manipulating the audience to cry in several spots. I did feel that some things about the book itself were manipulative. The ending, for one. It was like the writer wrote herself into a corner and felt the best way to get out of it was to kill off her main character. And the mother? I had a surge of anger every time I read a chapter written in the mother Sara's voice because while she was being a mother to Kate, her daughter with Leukemia (sp?), she was clearly not being a mother to her other 2 children, Anna and Jesse.
So how they react? Well Anna, the main character, had been genetically engineered to be a donor for Kate. At 13, she revolts and sues her parents for medical emancipation. Her older brother Jesse is invisible to his family and has become an arsonist. His father Brian, however, is conviently a fire-fighter so he puts out the fires Jesse starts. The idea that Brian is a fire-fighter is such a cliche that it almost made me laugh. He is a man who can control and put out fires at work but at home is at a complete loss. Sound like any better written television shows on FX?
Enter Campbell, the seemlingly in control lawyer who takes Anna's case pro bono. But he doesn't have control anymore than Brian does because he has a terrible case of epilepsy...and a service dog called Judge who warns him about upcoming seizures. This plot development made no sense to me. Wouldn't he have been on medication for seizures? Is it even possible for a dog to sense these things? Oh, and the guardian ad-litem Julia who is assigned to Anna's case just happens to be Campbell's ex girlfriend and one true love. Contrived? Of course. Did Campbell and Julia become more interesting than the main family at several points? Definitely.
And yes, Anna dies at the end, not Kate. There was a ton of foreshadowing about this such as the judge assigned to her case had a dead 12 year-old daughter and Campbell asked Anna a couple times what she was going to be when she grew up. I only realized this after I finished the book.
I liked the use of the chapters rotating points of view. I've always been a fan of this idea though I felt judy Blume did it best in Summer Sisters (if you haven't read that one, do). I liked her use of words and description. I just felt as though I had a love-hate relationship with the book as I read it. However, I read it in three days, so that says something about the pace and the writer's ability to capture her audience, no matter how manipulative her story.
My most overwhleming feeling was that the book read sort of like an after school special. You know. Overwrought family drama populated by b-list actors manipulating the audience to cry in several spots. I did feel that some things about the book itself were manipulative. The ending, for one. It was like the writer wrote herself into a corner and felt the best way to get out of it was to kill off her main character. And the mother? I had a surge of anger every time I read a chapter written in the mother Sara's voice because while she was being a mother to Kate, her daughter with Leukemia (sp?), she was clearly not being a mother to her other 2 children, Anna and Jesse.
So how they react? Well Anna, the main character, had been genetically engineered to be a donor for Kate. At 13, she revolts and sues her parents for medical emancipation. Her older brother Jesse is invisible to his family and has become an arsonist. His father Brian, however, is conviently a fire-fighter so he puts out the fires Jesse starts. The idea that Brian is a fire-fighter is such a cliche that it almost made me laugh. He is a man who can control and put out fires at work but at home is at a complete loss. Sound like any better written television shows on FX?
Enter Campbell, the seemlingly in control lawyer who takes Anna's case pro bono. But he doesn't have control anymore than Brian does because he has a terrible case of epilepsy...and a service dog called Judge who warns him about upcoming seizures. This plot development made no sense to me. Wouldn't he have been on medication for seizures? Is it even possible for a dog to sense these things? Oh, and the guardian ad-litem Julia who is assigned to Anna's case just happens to be Campbell's ex girlfriend and one true love. Contrived? Of course. Did Campbell and Julia become more interesting than the main family at several points? Definitely.
And yes, Anna dies at the end, not Kate. There was a ton of foreshadowing about this such as the judge assigned to her case had a dead 12 year-old daughter and Campbell asked Anna a couple times what she was going to be when she grew up. I only realized this after I finished the book.
I liked the use of the chapters rotating points of view. I've always been a fan of this idea though I felt judy Blume did it best in Summer Sisters (if you haven't read that one, do). I liked her use of words and description. I just felt as though I had a love-hate relationship with the book as I read it. However, I read it in three days, so that says something about the pace and the writer's ability to capture her audience, no matter how manipulative her story.
Choices
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/national/20women.html?ex=1127966400&en=3f7348e314a603ee&ei=5070
This article doesn't really take a position as much as presents the situation saying, "This is how it is." I'm sort of glad it wasn't really slanted one way or the other, since I'm not quite sure how I feel about the subject.
My mother was always home for us. There was the odd day when we would let ourselves into the house but as a rule, she was home. I have a good relationship with her and I'm sure the fact that she was there when we got home from school has something to do with it. However, I can't imagine doing what the women in this article are doing. They are attending Ivy school, training to be lawyers and other such high powered jobs...then planning on leaving it all to be stay-at-home mothers. I don't know, I can't get behind this idea of working so hard and then planning to give it up by the time you're 30, when you've barely begun.
Of course, the women's movment is about having the choice to work if you want to. But the expectation on most women who want families is that you have to balance that and your families. Men don't really have that expectation except maybe the men who become stay-at-home dads, but there seem to be so few of those that the expectation doesn't exist for them...yet.
At this point in my life, I am single so I think more of finding a man than having a baby...though I know I would like to have both in the future. I don't have it planned out how things would work when I have a baby. I think it would depend on how my career was going and whether my husband and I could afford to have one of us stay home.
This article doesn't really take a position as much as presents the situation saying, "This is how it is." I'm sort of glad it wasn't really slanted one way or the other, since I'm not quite sure how I feel about the subject.
My mother was always home for us. There was the odd day when we would let ourselves into the house but as a rule, she was home. I have a good relationship with her and I'm sure the fact that she was there when we got home from school has something to do with it. However, I can't imagine doing what the women in this article are doing. They are attending Ivy school, training to be lawyers and other such high powered jobs...then planning on leaving it all to be stay-at-home mothers. I don't know, I can't get behind this idea of working so hard and then planning to give it up by the time you're 30, when you've barely begun.
Of course, the women's movment is about having the choice to work if you want to. But the expectation on most women who want families is that you have to balance that and your families. Men don't really have that expectation except maybe the men who become stay-at-home dads, but there seem to be so few of those that the expectation doesn't exist for them...yet.
At this point in my life, I am single so I think more of finding a man than having a baby...though I know I would like to have both in the future. I don't have it planned out how things would work when I have a baby. I think it would depend on how my career was going and whether my husband and I could afford to have one of us stay home.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Shopping
Going shopping while you're in the middle of existential angst is never a good idea. It stops being about whether or not you can afford the clothes or if the clothes look good and becomes about putting on different clothes so you can have a different life. How would my life be different if I had this jacket or these pants? Will they make me more successful? Or will I still be the same person in new clothes and another charge on my credit card?
Clothes don't have the power to change you. They don't. You might wish they did. I know sometimes I do. Sometimes I wish I could just change my outfit and I'd be the sexiest girl in the room. Or the smartest. Or the tallest (yeah, I know). I know all that about it's not what you wear but who you are inside and blah, blah, blah. Yes, I know. Anyone over the age of 12 has heard it more than 20 times. That doesn't stop a girl from hoping.
The truth is while pieces of clothing don't have the power to change your life, they do have the power to change how you might see yourself for a moment. What girl hasn't gone to the mall and tried on fancy dresses and pretended they were going to be accepting and Oscar? It's just me? I don't think so. Why do people hang on to a favorite shirt long after it is out of style? They do because it makes them feel good to wear it.
So had I decided to buy anything today, I would have been the girl who bought a blue jacket at the Gap with another charge on my credit card who is going through existential angst.
Clothes don't have the power to change you. They don't. You might wish they did. I know sometimes I do. Sometimes I wish I could just change my outfit and I'd be the sexiest girl in the room. Or the smartest. Or the tallest (yeah, I know). I know all that about it's not what you wear but who you are inside and blah, blah, blah. Yes, I know. Anyone over the age of 12 has heard it more than 20 times. That doesn't stop a girl from hoping.
The truth is while pieces of clothing don't have the power to change your life, they do have the power to change how you might see yourself for a moment. What girl hasn't gone to the mall and tried on fancy dresses and pretended they were going to be accepting and Oscar? It's just me? I don't think so. Why do people hang on to a favorite shirt long after it is out of style? They do because it makes them feel good to wear it.
So had I decided to buy anything today, I would have been the girl who bought a blue jacket at the Gap with another charge on my credit card who is going through existential angst.
Technical Difficulties
So when I started doing shows at this theatre in Brooklyn, I did it because I missed theatre and I wanted to meet theatre people. I did a couple shows last season and I really enjoyed the experiences that went along with the shows. Each show came with it's own set of issues to work out but when we did, it made the show better.
I do crew for theatre so I can decide what shows I'm doing, not the director. I can offer to help and most times, I'll get taken up on it. But I do this all as a volunteer. There is no money involved; I do shows because I want to do shows.
The current show I'm working on, I knew I wanted to do when I heard that they were doing it a few months ago. So now I'm doing it, but it's not really fun anymore. It feels more like work. In theatre, things go wrong. They do. It happens. Last night we had some problems with some equipment. There wasn't a way for me to fix it during the show. After the show, when I already felt like crap for not being able to fix it, I get questions from everyone about what happened. I had to talk to the Stage Manager for like 20 minutes about what happened and she wasn't satisfied with anything I said. Now, if she already wasn't controlling and didn't trust me, this makes it worse. I don't need people to tell me things are going wrong. You don't think I know? I don't like being made to play defense while questioned after a long day and an equally long show. She kept saying she wasn't blaming me when it was clear that that was what she was doing. I've never really wanted a show to be over before, but I haven't had a show that felt like actual work either.
I do crew for theatre so I can decide what shows I'm doing, not the director. I can offer to help and most times, I'll get taken up on it. But I do this all as a volunteer. There is no money involved; I do shows because I want to do shows.
The current show I'm working on, I knew I wanted to do when I heard that they were doing it a few months ago. So now I'm doing it, but it's not really fun anymore. It feels more like work. In theatre, things go wrong. They do. It happens. Last night we had some problems with some equipment. There wasn't a way for me to fix it during the show. After the show, when I already felt like crap for not being able to fix it, I get questions from everyone about what happened. I had to talk to the Stage Manager for like 20 minutes about what happened and she wasn't satisfied with anything I said. Now, if she already wasn't controlling and didn't trust me, this makes it worse. I don't need people to tell me things are going wrong. You don't think I know? I don't like being made to play defense while questioned after a long day and an equally long show. She kept saying she wasn't blaming me when it was clear that that was what she was doing. I've never really wanted a show to be over before, but I haven't had a show that felt like actual work either.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Isn't it Ironic?
Don't you think?
But seriously, it's odd how things work out sometimes. I just found out one of our dept members quit and has been hired at aplace I interviewed. Now I won't go into detail, but I know my interview at that particular place didn't go very well, but that's ok. It wasn't the job I wanted.
What's odd is that I sort of expected that I would be the next to leave. I have been doing interviews intermittently since March. The only thing is, I think I've really been excited about maybe three of them. Maybe that comes across in interviews. But the couple of jobs I was interested in, I didn't get. So who knows.
When it comes down to it, I don't hate my job. I don't. I'm not necessarily passionate it about it...but honestly, I don't feel that any of the people I work with are, either. And the people I work wioth are good people, in general.
Maybe this goes back to my "what am I doing with my life" complex that I've developed since I graduated. I've begun to consider grad school, studying something other than what I studies at SU. Maybe then I can be passionate about what I'm doing.
But seriously, it's odd how things work out sometimes. I just found out one of our dept members quit and has been hired at aplace I interviewed. Now I won't go into detail, but I know my interview at that particular place didn't go very well, but that's ok. It wasn't the job I wanted.
What's odd is that I sort of expected that I would be the next to leave. I have been doing interviews intermittently since March. The only thing is, I think I've really been excited about maybe three of them. Maybe that comes across in interviews. But the couple of jobs I was interested in, I didn't get. So who knows.
When it comes down to it, I don't hate my job. I don't. I'm not necessarily passionate it about it...but honestly, I don't feel that any of the people I work with are, either. And the people I work wioth are good people, in general.
Maybe this goes back to my "what am I doing with my life" complex that I've developed since I graduated. I've begun to consider grad school, studying something other than what I studies at SU. Maybe then I can be passionate about what I'm doing.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Four Years Later
It doesn't seem like four years since I was a junior at Syracuse. It doesn't seem like it's been four years since I lived in a single in Shaw Hall. It doesn't seem like four years since my family officially moved to a suburb in New Jersey. And it doesn't seem like four years since the world changed.
On 9/11/01, I was in Syracuse. It was a normal, nice day and I had class at 10 AM. I walked to Newhouse, where my class was and stopped at the coffee shop to buy a muffin and orange juice with my SU ID card. That was when I noticed something odd. When I came in, usually, before this class, there was never more than three or four people in the coffee shop, but today there was about ten people huddled around a tv set that was suspended from the ceiling. I bought my breakfast and glanced at the tv. It was tuned to the news and showing a building with something sticking out of it. The sound on the tv was off, so I read the closed captioning. It seemed that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centre towers. I stood, transfixed, until I realized that I had class. So I went in to my class, in the big auditorium, which was more like a moved theatre. My professor tuned the screen to the news and we all saw the second plane hit. Then the building began to collapse right in front of us, on this big screen like we were watching a disaster film. The professor had also told us that we could stay if we like, or we could leave. So at that point, I got up and bolted back to my dorm where I called my childhood friend who I knew was in NYC. She wasn't in her room. I somewhat hysterically asked her roommate to have her call me. Then I called my mother. She said my dad wasn't home, he was at work in Philadelphia. It was becoming hard to make phone calls; the lines were becoming jammed.
I went out to dance class later and the campus was deserted. It was normally teeming with life and it was deserted. When I got back, I called my mother again and asked her to have my dad call me when he got in since he was evacuated from his office in Philadelphia. I waited in my room. I didn't go to anymore classes. Finally, I heard form my dad. He was home and he was ok. Then I started IMing my friends on campus. We all met for dinner that night. Since your friends are your family at college, we needed to be together and have a family dinner.
The next night there was a candle-light vigil and I went with some girls from the band. My boyfriend broke up with me that night, but I was so numb that I didn't especially care.
Nobody I knew was directly effected by the events of that day. I don't know anyone personally who worked in the towers. I don't know any firefighters or police or rescue workers personally. I was sad for everyone who did. The thing I did have a personal connection to was New York City. It is the place I made my home since graduation. I knew when I was still at college that it was my home. And my home was attacked. It wasn't safe. On the contrary, it was quite vulnerable.
I did hear a story about an aquaintance's father who worked in the towers, who for some reason, did not go into work on 9/11. In these past four years, things have changed. People do not believe that New York and the US are invincible the way they might have once. Security has tightened. Ground Zero is no longer a site of chaos but a vast, empty pit waiting for something else to be built.
On 9/11/01, I was in Syracuse. It was a normal, nice day and I had class at 10 AM. I walked to Newhouse, where my class was and stopped at the coffee shop to buy a muffin and orange juice with my SU ID card. That was when I noticed something odd. When I came in, usually, before this class, there was never more than three or four people in the coffee shop, but today there was about ten people huddled around a tv set that was suspended from the ceiling. I bought my breakfast and glanced at the tv. It was tuned to the news and showing a building with something sticking out of it. The sound on the tv was off, so I read the closed captioning. It seemed that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centre towers. I stood, transfixed, until I realized that I had class. So I went in to my class, in the big auditorium, which was more like a moved theatre. My professor tuned the screen to the news and we all saw the second plane hit. Then the building began to collapse right in front of us, on this big screen like we were watching a disaster film. The professor had also told us that we could stay if we like, or we could leave. So at that point, I got up and bolted back to my dorm where I called my childhood friend who I knew was in NYC. She wasn't in her room. I somewhat hysterically asked her roommate to have her call me. Then I called my mother. She said my dad wasn't home, he was at work in Philadelphia. It was becoming hard to make phone calls; the lines were becoming jammed.
I went out to dance class later and the campus was deserted. It was normally teeming with life and it was deserted. When I got back, I called my mother again and asked her to have my dad call me when he got in since he was evacuated from his office in Philadelphia. I waited in my room. I didn't go to anymore classes. Finally, I heard form my dad. He was home and he was ok. Then I started IMing my friends on campus. We all met for dinner that night. Since your friends are your family at college, we needed to be together and have a family dinner.
The next night there was a candle-light vigil and I went with some girls from the band. My boyfriend broke up with me that night, but I was so numb that I didn't especially care.
Nobody I knew was directly effected by the events of that day. I don't know anyone personally who worked in the towers. I don't know any firefighters or police or rescue workers personally. I was sad for everyone who did. The thing I did have a personal connection to was New York City. It is the place I made my home since graduation. I knew when I was still at college that it was my home. And my home was attacked. It wasn't safe. On the contrary, it was quite vulnerable.
I did hear a story about an aquaintance's father who worked in the towers, who for some reason, did not go into work on 9/11. In these past four years, things have changed. People do not believe that New York and the US are invincible the way they might have once. Security has tightened. Ground Zero is no longer a site of chaos but a vast, empty pit waiting for something else to be built.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Is This Real Life?
Yesterday my friend Jodie and I walked around the city for quite a long time. At one point, we came upon this somewhat old looking diner. There was something familiar about it and it didn't hit me until we were on our way back and we passed it again. I had seen pictures of this diner in my Rent book. This was the diner where Jonathan Larson worked when he was struggling to make it as a writer. I suppose almost ten years since he died, most people wouldn't care anymore.
But it struck me particularly because Jonathan's story has always intrigued me. At least since I've learned of it... He died when I was 15 and all I knew was that this writer of a show that was up for Tonys had died. Then I watched the Tonys and the cast performed a number from Rent and I was hooked.I was promised tickets for my 18th birthday but didn't go until my 19th. I got the CD and listened to it almost everyday. I can't really describe why I find Jonathan Larson's story so compelling. Maybe it's because he was an immensely talented and passionate writer who conveyed such emotions in his music. Maybe it was the mystery of "what would he have become?" Maybe it was the fear of every writer, every artist that they would die before their work was recognized by the world at large.
I don't write music, but Jonathan Larson influenced my writing in the incarnation of the doomed Jonny Adams, AIDS patient and guitar prodigy. I hadn't originally named Jonny after Jonathan Larson; he was named 'Jonny' after Johnny from "The Outsiders" and Johnny from "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn." At the time I began writing, it seemed as though characters named Johnny were doomed characters. However as my writing grew and Jonny's role grew, he became the incarnation of the doomed talent; the talent discovered when he was gone.
I have seen Rent twice and now wait for the movie. I hope it lives up to the material and to Jonathan's vision.
But it struck me particularly because Jonathan's story has always intrigued me. At least since I've learned of it... He died when I was 15 and all I knew was that this writer of a show that was up for Tonys had died. Then I watched the Tonys and the cast performed a number from Rent and I was hooked.I was promised tickets for my 18th birthday but didn't go until my 19th. I got the CD and listened to it almost everyday. I can't really describe why I find Jonathan Larson's story so compelling. Maybe it's because he was an immensely talented and passionate writer who conveyed such emotions in his music. Maybe it was the mystery of "what would he have become?" Maybe it was the fear of every writer, every artist that they would die before their work was recognized by the world at large.
I don't write music, but Jonathan Larson influenced my writing in the incarnation of the doomed Jonny Adams, AIDS patient and guitar prodigy. I hadn't originally named Jonny after Jonathan Larson; he was named 'Jonny' after Johnny from "The Outsiders" and Johnny from "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn." At the time I began writing, it seemed as though characters named Johnny were doomed characters. However as my writing grew and Jonny's role grew, he became the incarnation of the doomed talent; the talent discovered when he was gone.
I have seen Rent twice and now wait for the movie. I hope it lives up to the material and to Jonathan's vision.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Great Writers:
Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd ladies and gentlemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rich.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?incamp=article_popular
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rich.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?incamp=article_popular
First Day
http://www.fbofw.com/strip_fix/
I've felt for years that Lynn Johnston was spot on in her depiction of the Patterson family. I've grown up with them, reading four frames of them everyday since I was a little kid. It's so true that the last person you want to see in school will turn up when you're not expecting it.
I was talking to my friend at work yesterday and she was telling me her cousin was about to start high school andwe got to talking about how things were then as opposed to now...When we were in high school, everything was so much simpler...even though most thing were full of drama with my friends (who did, of course, compromise a good amount of the drama club)...but we were usually able to resolve the conflict and remain firends. Our biggest problems then was someone not being invited to the place we were all hanging out that weekend.
Then we left for college and things changed. They got complicated. A number of my friends became unrecognizable. People moved away (including me)...and things were never the same. My friends spend the weekends hanging out, we fought, we went to the prom and graduation together. As I look back on it, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Now even the building is different. I speak to three, maybe four of the large group friends that I was always accompanied by.
Best of luck to those beginning high school this month.
I've felt for years that Lynn Johnston was spot on in her depiction of the Patterson family. I've grown up with them, reading four frames of them everyday since I was a little kid. It's so true that the last person you want to see in school will turn up when you're not expecting it.
I was talking to my friend at work yesterday and she was telling me her cousin was about to start high school andwe got to talking about how things were then as opposed to now...When we were in high school, everything was so much simpler...even though most thing were full of drama with my friends (who did, of course, compromise a good amount of the drama club)...but we were usually able to resolve the conflict and remain firends. Our biggest problems then was someone not being invited to the place we were all hanging out that weekend.
Then we left for college and things changed. They got complicated. A number of my friends became unrecognizable. People moved away (including me)...and things were never the same. My friends spend the weekends hanging out, we fought, we went to the prom and graduation together. As I look back on it, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Now even the building is different. I speak to three, maybe four of the large group friends that I was always accompanied by.
Best of luck to those beginning high school this month.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Political Rant I
The hurricane that hit New Orleans and surrounding areas this week had a devastating effect on many things. These people lost more than their homes; they lost their city. Now people are stranded refugees without any place to go, gas prices have surged to $3 and $4 a gallon. What is being done?
Nothing. The President, who has been on vacation for the past month, spoke yesterday in a casual way about how this will make America stronger. As if. With the same bemused, idiotic expression on his face that not only suggests lack of intelligence, it suggests lack of understanding, he made his statement yesterday. Is that supposed to reassure people who are now homeless? It is time for some real action. But real action has never been this President's strong suit, now, has it? Only when we were pushed into a fabricated war for policital gain was action warranted.
There has been looting. There have been deaths. There have been people who were shipped out to Houston on buses. And the President can barely muster the time and energey to say he feels bad about it. He has now had more vacation time than any other President in history. He does not look a day older than when he took office and never looks as though he worked through long nights. Martin Sheen looks older at then end of his fictional Presidency than Bush does from his real one.
But this is reality. Reality has hit our country. When the attacks of September 11 happened, the person who stepped up to the challeng was Rudy Guilliani. Who will step up and help New Orleans? The state officials are doing the best that they can and are in need of help from the federal government. If things keep going the way that they are, people will not be able to drive their cars because gas prices have sky-rocketed and the President just signed an energy bill that has nothing to do with reigning in these prices.
What will happen to our country if a real leader does not emerge to help New Orleans, the surrounding area and the rest of the country through this chaos?
Nothing. The President, who has been on vacation for the past month, spoke yesterday in a casual way about how this will make America stronger. As if. With the same bemused, idiotic expression on his face that not only suggests lack of intelligence, it suggests lack of understanding, he made his statement yesterday. Is that supposed to reassure people who are now homeless? It is time for some real action. But real action has never been this President's strong suit, now, has it? Only when we were pushed into a fabricated war for policital gain was action warranted.
There has been looting. There have been deaths. There have been people who were shipped out to Houston on buses. And the President can barely muster the time and energey to say he feels bad about it. He has now had more vacation time than any other President in history. He does not look a day older than when he took office and never looks as though he worked through long nights. Martin Sheen looks older at then end of his fictional Presidency than Bush does from his real one.
But this is reality. Reality has hit our country. When the attacks of September 11 happened, the person who stepped up to the challeng was Rudy Guilliani. Who will step up and help New Orleans? The state officials are doing the best that they can and are in need of help from the federal government. If things keep going the way that they are, people will not be able to drive their cars because gas prices have sky-rocketed and the President just signed an energy bill that has nothing to do with reigning in these prices.
What will happen to our country if a real leader does not emerge to help New Orleans, the surrounding area and the rest of the country through this chaos?
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