You wanna go where....

...penguins play hockey, baby!!! To hell with everyone knowing your name--we want to be where it takes an hour to get a burger! That's right, gentle readers, we are back in Pittsburgh! Back in the same hotel with the same little bar attached to it with the same crappy service. But actors are a lazy lot, so instead of go out looking for a place you could be served with something kin to actual service, Flo, Alice, Schneider and I opted instead to stay in the building and eat at the place where everybody forgets your order. But, Yuengling is only $2 a glass,so how bad can it really be?

Our show this morning in Towson absolutely rocked. The college we performed at (Goucher College) has a great space with a fantastic crew. These guys had Bubba (The headless horseman for you newcomers. Where the hell have you been?) bagged and ready to go at intermission! The fireflies and Candelabras were put away before I got out of the dressing room after the show. It was incredible. And the kids went crazy. We were packed again, and the response was overwhelming. These kids really enjoyed the hell out of themselves, and it was a lot of fun to do the show. It's funny, because even though I've been on the road virtually nonstop with this production since August, it's days like this that part of me will miss the show, because I will admit, when it's clicking, the kids really do get pulled into it. There are way more things about it I won't miss, but the actual show, despite some of its overdetailed, presentational bullshit, is a lot of fun to do. But one must move on if one is to finally do a show where one doesn't have to be a stagehand on top of everything else one is responsible for. (And when I say "one" I mean me, newcomers...seriously, this is like coming into a movie two thirds of the way through. I hope you've gone through the archives...) After the show we drove to Pittsburgh, as earlier indicated. The drive was fine--just long. Tomorrow we head for Buffalo, NY. Oy. Really, what more can you say about Buffalo?

So the subject I want to discuss tonight, very briefly, since I can't imagine there's a whole lot of argument for the other side, is people who for whatever reason wish to be stupid. Or at least SOUND it. Case in point, our hotel in Milford, CT. Saturday morning, as we were partaking in substandard breakfast, the two women behind the front desk were talking, and they were doing so as if Ebonics was their mother tongue. Now here's what I mean by wishing to sound stupid. These two women were throwing around language that really, I haven't heard outside a bad episode of Living Single, which is bad enough, but only one of them was black. Now before everyone gets all up in arms, no, I am not saying it's okay for black women to sound like uneducated street tramps. It's not I can't understand why anyone, regardless of skin color would want to sound like they've spent their entire lives underneath the lowest common denominator. BUT if anyone's going to tal like a black person, then a black person seems the least affected. But the other woman was white. And no, I'm not suggesting that all white people who talk like uneducated street tramps are putting on an act. I'm sure there are some perfectly legitimate cases of white stupid all over this great land of our'n. But when a middle aged woman from CT starts talking like, "I be all like, 'What you say?' and he be all like girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl." then chances are it's an affectation. And why would anyone WANT to affect that style of speaking? WHy do you want to sound like the only place you're fit for is prison? I'll tell you why--because stupid owns this country.

Everything in this country favors stupid and uneducated. TV is dumbed down to the point where if you have an IQ slightly above that of a banana slug, you get a headache watching it, music is vapid and simplistic, and movies are either horrible reshashes of TV shows or simple stories lacking the complexities one might find in say, Dick and Jane books. We reward stupid. The Blue Collar comedy tour, which I will admit is very funny, is nothing but a celebration of being uneducated and uncritical. It's a wonder Obama got elected, considering he isn't a lout who likes to crush full beer cans on his forehead. Now you may say, very accurately, that these women were having a conversation which was private and therefore, they should be allowed to speak any way they wish, and I agree fully with that, EXCEPT--these people are in the service industry. They deal with customers all day, and one can walk up to a hotel's front desk at any time without warning. Plus, they weren't exactly being quiet about it, so it was very easy to overhear what they were saying. And nothing raises a hotel in my estimation quite like staff that sound like extras from the latest Spike Lee joint. And I'll admit, I don't use perfect grammar, or anything like that when I speak, but at the same time, I don't sound like them. Speaking correctly, as if you've opened a book at sometime in your life, should be something we strive for, not a happy accident which occurs every once in a while. And that's what kills me--WE ALLOW IT! WOmen who talk like cast members from Car Wash can hold customer service positions because we let them. How quickly do you think that kind of thing would cease if whenever they spoke to a customer said customer demanded very loudly to be told the answer to his question, since he can't understand a single blessed word. After a few times of that, he should demand to see the manager and berate the man for hiring people who can't speak like an intelligent human being to deal with customers. If we all made a stink, they'd stop hiring people like that. I believe that if everyone faced with one of these yabos took the aforementioned steps, there would be precious few people like that around anymore. So that's the rant. I'm just tired of feeling like I don't fit into society because I happen to know how to speak somewhat correctly. If you are as well, then feel free to Vote for Pond in 2012--Him Talk plenty Good!