I did NOT get cast as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. I don't know who they cast, but whoever it is has earned my deepest enmity. You hear that? That's right, I pulled out the enmity. Just consider me the Enmityville horror....kinda like that pun. I did my naked show, and yes, despite my early assumptions, I DID get completely naked onstage. Kinda sorry you didn't come see it, ain't ya? Don't worry--there are pictures. And video. The show went over pretty well. Everyone who came and saw it seemed to like it. Save for the lone critic. But really, who could expect him to recognize the deep meaning behind me as a giant penis? Or an overly-hirsute female? I'd say I was feeding my muse, but I'm not sure which one is in charge of giant phalluses. Thankfully, I really got along well with the cast, so it was a fun experience, no matter how brain-achingly bad some of the sketches were. I went through every level of interviews for and ultimately got cast on Spike TV's "America's Biggest Asshole" reality TV show which was scheduled to start shooting mid-September. I have since been informed that they are putting the show on indefinite hold, since there are creative concerns. I think the main concern is how to make a bunch of guys acting like assholes creative. I had to pass o work due to the filming schedule, so as far as I'M concerned, while I am sure I could've won that show, Spike TV gets MY vote for the Biggest Asshole. I am presently i rehearsals up in Evanston, IL with a nice theatre located in a train station (I am not shitting you, my friends) doing a production of a hilarious British farce called "Black Comedy". It is written by Peter Shafer, the same guy who wrote Equus, which as you may or may not know, was originally written as a farce. I mean come on, it's obvious, really. Blind horse and naked boy--how much funnier can you GET? I've also bee cast as Scrooge in a children's theatre production of an updated Christmas Carol. AND I will be doing some voice-over work for a web sitcom done with puppets called HR. (The show is called HR, not the puppets--that would just get confusing...) All I have to do now is find some work that a) runs during the spring and b) PAYS me....
I have also found out that The Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training (BRITT), which was the training program I attended back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I still had something called hope in relation to my career, has risen from the ashes of closed-down-dom and has been reinvented as BRIFT, which I can only assume stands for Burt Reynolds Is Freebasing Tequila. I mean, what else could it mean? AND the guy who was the Artistic Director of BRITT, a teacher of mine, AND the first guy to ever cast me in an Equity show, is going back to Florida to run BRIFT. (Burt Reynolds' Insight Frightens Tigers) That's kinda cool. I'm wishing them all a lot of luck, and I'm sure they'll remember me...please? Need a job guys...
I've also been saddened by the news of the town hall meeting disruptions on the subject of health care reform. Here's the thing, I can accept disagreement. I can accept debate. I think it's healthy--which is good, because if it wasn't, I doubt it could get treated since it would have no insurance...but I digress. However, wild shouting and disruptions of actual honest debate by people who are brought in by special interests from outside the districts these debates are happening in is not honest debate. It's just more party propaganda. And it's preying on peoples' fears. Fears which are instilled in them and fed BY these special interests. It is sad for me to see this country become a country of cowards. We are allowing fear to put up roadblocks to what could be the first serious change in this country in at least a generation if not more. Bush was so proud of the "mandate" he got from the country on his second election--hell, according to him, even God got in on it. Well, Republicans, the election of Obama was a mandate that this country was sick of the way things had been working. Or NOT working as the case may be. Yet the conservatives in this country do nothing but try to raise the specter of jack-booted socialist thugs sweeping through the country taking away your right to personal wealth and property. Or the insane assertion that we are being ruled by a non-American. Notice that none of these things actually discusses the policies this man is attempting to put into place. Perhaps that's because they know that on an actual discussion of the issues, they'd be crushed. They are the party of "Let's just keep doing what we were doing because that'll fix everything." I submit to you that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. I'm tired of hearing about how dangerous socialism is. Which, when you get down to it is silly since we already have socialism in this country, and have had since the Great Depression screwed us up before (another disaster brought on by completely unregulated laissez-faire economics of the type so extolled by the last administration) These problems are not going to go away quickly, nor are they going to be fixed with half-hearted measures that pander to fear of real, systemic change. Explain to me why every other country in the western world has figured out how to make some form of national health care work, yet we in this country talk about how impossible it is. What, are Americans that selfish, dispassionate and self-centered that they can't conceive of doing something that benefits the whole, even if it calls for some sort of sacrifice on their part? And who the heck cares if the taxes go up as long as they are going toward something that makes life BETTER. If I HAVE to pay taxes, then I would prefer my taxes go to something like making sure sickness is treated and children are educated. None of that is as cool on the news as blowing up a country that had nothing to do with attacking us, I know, but still, it might be nice if the government actually started being for the people. The COnstitution puts forth the idea that the government, while providing for the common defense (which,considering the fact we could blow the world up ten times over, I believe we've done) is also responsible for promoting the general welfare. What could be more firmly under that heading than health care and education? I admit there are extremists on both sides, no question, but the difference here is that the Republican Party, being the voice of the status quo and a broken system, trades in fear and suspicion. What we're getting out of this administration is a vision of what could be if we admitted that the way we have been doing things just no longer works, period. We cannot continue allowing corporations to gouge the economy of this country to pad their profit margins to such insane levels. I'm all for making money, but there has to be some sort of ethical responsibility. You cannot let greed and self-interest run amok. Every time we have allowed that, we have paid the price for it with economic hardships. The problem as far as I see it is that while I applaud Obama's wish to work with the opposition, that only works when the opposition wants to work with you, and they don't. So you know what? Stop playing nice. FDR didn't play nice, and he got shit done. And let me warn you all, you conservatives that somehow think that allowing people the ability to see a doctor without having to mortgage the rest of their lives to do it is somehow going to bring about the collapse of Western civilization, just wait til MY progressive ass gets in the White House in 2012. You're going to wish you had been nicer to the centrists. Pond in 2012--Bulldozing Through the Bullshitters....
2 comments:
Interesting blog. I like the split personality of the everyday-personal and the general-societal. What do you think about Obama potentially addressing the school kids? Legit? Or channelling the Chairman (Mao, not Frank)?
Many thanks! Hope to hear back from you in the future....
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