Glow in the Dark Thoughts

I love French 1960s Pop

2012-01-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

BIRTHDAZ'D: My annual year-long birthday celebration: the kick-off!

2012-01-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

Last year's celebration of my birthday officially ends on January 25, 2012. That's the day before this year's celebration begins.

We have swing dancing, improv shows and classes, food-ishness and some as-yet-unplanned wackiness. The kick-off event is spread out over several days. Make it happen.

Last year, I challenged folks to try things they hadn't done much. The challenge is extended again this year. It runs on the honor system.

For some reason people have gotten the crazy idea that I don't want presents. If this is you, you've been misinformed. I love presents! Here's where to go if you want ideas about what to get: me want. If you get something from this list it is likely that I will weep openly. Sorry about that.

Here's the schedule as it stands. It's subject to change.

Thursday, January 26th
7:30pm beginner lesson
8:30pm-midnight dancing!
LindyGroove - This is my regular spot and always a blast. Admission is $8 and comes with a free beginner lesson. I also have less than 10 free passes I can give away for this night only. If I know you from Improv, yoga or math, this is a night I really want to see you! Swing dancers are welcome, but you were going to be there anyway so find another night.

Friday, January 27th - IO West -
Three hours of comedy shows on the main stage at IO West and admission is $10 for all the shows you want to watch.
09:00 PM - $10
Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!®
10:00 PM - $10
Orpheus Roy & Old Milwaukee
11:00 PM - $5
The Wild & Glory Stories

I want as many Lindy Hoppers here this night as possible, since they mention the possibility of a dance party afterward. Actually, everyone should come out for this, because it's always a hoot!

IO West
6366 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

After Lindy bombing IO, my bud Marshall is opening up a new club on the same block. It's an Electro Speakeasy, whatever that means. As I understand it, there's no cover.

1am-3am - Confidentiel

Saturday, January 28th -
12:45pm - Mixed level Yoga class at Mission Street Yoga
5pm - Cafe Gratitude - I've never been. There's food here!
7:30pm - Enter Spider at Nerdmelt - $10 at the door

Sunday, January 29th -
2pm-4pm - Improv Trick - Improv class
At the Underground Theater Annex
1314 N. Wilton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

4:30pm - Doomie's Home Cookin'
6pm-whenever: let's go roller skating around Hollywood!

How to Read Nancy

2012-01-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik wrote How to Read Nancy. (A pdf will download if you click on the link)

I've never really read Nancy, but I was so blown away at Newgarden's short comic Love's Savage Fury when I first read it in Raw so long ago that it sticks with me today. I couldn't find a full copy online, but a detail shows above. It's available in Newgarden's collection We All Die Alone.

It takes Nancy and Sluggo and casts them as a young man and woman who may have exchanged a glance on a subway train. It's told from the mind's eye of the young man as he tries to recall the moment.

What is it about that strip that resonated with me?

I don't know. It's like poetry.

Visions of Frank

2012-01-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

I've been a fan of Jim Woodring's for, dunno, maybe 20 years now. Frank is a character who has permeated my dreams.

Looks like someone went and animated some Frank stories.

Inside the Master Class + Bonus!

2012-01-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Still been doing a ton of improv! I just started level 1 at IO West this week. I've been playing at the jams with The Improv Trick and classes will resume tomorrow. I will be returning to Monkey Butler classes after I'm done with level 1 of IO since they're on the same nights. Seeing even more shows than last year, since I can get into the IO main stage for free now.

More about that later, of course. Here are some clips!

Maybe this will only be funny if you've ever been in an improv class. Here's all of Matt Besser's Inside The Master Class!

***

Thematically speaking:

From Life's Too Short: Liam Neeson wants to do improv.

Michael Scott does improv

Glory Stories: It's in the Hole! It's in the Hole!

2011-12-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Glory Stories has rocked my world. I went to the show last Friday, featuring the legendary Nina Hartley, and I can't remember a show that left my jaw so thoroughly dropped!

What's the behind Glory Stories? It's an improv show at IO West featuring a guest monologist from the local porn/kink/sex industry. The monologist talks about a suggestion from the audience and then the players improvise riffs on the monologue. If you're already familiar with improv, this is basically an Armando. The difference here is the culture from which the guests have been drawn. I think that's what could make this show uniquely Angeleno.

The audio isn't great on this clip (heck, I can hardly hear what anyone is saying) but I imagine that it captures at least a fraction of what happened that night.

Nina Hartley, by the way, was a great "Armando." Completely fearless and hilarious in her own right. She gave story, really nice details and perspectives, and that made for a great show. I think honestly that she probably didn't know what to expect, but she really seemed to be having a genuinely fun time!

Here are some of the upcoming Glory Stories dates:
Glory Stories with Aly Sinclair: Friday, December 30, 11pm
Glory Stories with April Flores: Friday, January 13th, 11pm

These shows are five bucks, with two for one tickets for kinky folks.

***

Bonus: I also love the Let's Talk About Sex podcast from Aurora Snow. It's really thoughtful and practical advice from folks who've had a lot more sex than most.

From Buddha to Batman

2011-11-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon 2011 redux

2011-11-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

It's a week later and I haven't properly written up the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon. Maybe I can't properly sum it up. The event this year was my favorite to date. The population was perhaps a bit smaller than in the last couple of years, but everyone who was there was there in a big way!

Video by Vince Fry

This clip from the Garden Grove News was probably shot around 12 hours into the event. About midnight, since they got Jonathan Stout and the Campus 5!

Our team, Old School, was a bit smaller than usual this year. I'd say we went in with a skeleton crew of about 10 members. That's five under the official minimum, but we didn't tell anyone about it. I made sure that we were all smart about conserving our energy for the weekend and we had a few folks who were working for the event so their work time was going to be our official representation.

I don't have a group pic of Old School ready. If anyone wants to send one I'll post it.

Here's a link to the story in the Orange County Register. It includes a short video and a photo slide-show. Dancers Fight Cancer, One Step at a Time. A direct link to the video is here: video

This is the 2am jam. I'm behind the camera and having a heck of a time! I kinda wanted to get on the floor but I'd have had to stop shooting. Plus my shoes were off at the moment. (Excuses, excuses.)

What I learned more than anything else is that it's effortless to put out a low quality video on YouTube. The resolution isn't great and the camera ain't steady, but it was really exciting to shoot, so it's share time! I also got two more videos of JS and the C5 playing, but I haven't been able to check those for quality yet. I'll assume that the audio on those clips are really poor.

Is there any footage of the Karaoke session run at 3am by Eli Charne? That was a hoot!

At 6:00, a small band of dancers made their way to KTLA Studios in Hollywood to shoot this for an hour.

This meant that I got to teach the Wake-up class at 6:30am. I pulled out my improv for dancers class "Adventures in the Groove" and abbreviated it to fit into an hour. I had intended to shoot at least a few moments of the class since I get to teach it so rarely. We started with a modified version of Pass the Itch, then I did bang, then I did noses and then it got crazy. (If you don't know what that means, you'll have to take one of my dance classes) Many dancers later told me that the class was one of their favorite moments that weekend. When one student said the class was inspirational, I got really weepy.

I guess there are plenty of things I didn't catch this weekend. I really wish I could have gotten some footage of that class.

Okay, let's move forward. At about 8, Danny Maika starts his set. He's a great talent and a good guy! Check him out!

There's still so much more, but I have to close now. In all, the dance-a-thon raised over $124,000.00. Next year we're aiming to more than double that to bring the total for the event to $1 million!

Why I do the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon!

2011-10-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

My mother is currently recovering from her second surgery to remover her cancer. Her appetite is growing and hopefully she'll make a strong come-back.

My father had a form of blood cancer before he died. He had other health issues as well, but the cancer was no help.

At the age of 12 I was told by a dermatologist that I had a high risk of skin cancer. So I wear sunscreen when I remember and I try to stay indoors a lot and eat well.

***

If you haven't heard of the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon before, its a large event put on by some Lindy Hoppers down in Irvine with proceeds benefiting the City of Hope, a center for cancer research, care and education.

I've been contributing to the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon since its inception several years ago. Certainly that was before I had learned of either of my parents illnesses. Now that my mother is fighting the disease too I have to think about why I've done it all these years.

If you haven't read it before, here's my write-up of the event back in 2009: What a Difference a Day Makes.

Here's a video re-cap of last year's event that I found on Youtube:

Going all the way through it is an emotional experience. I can't remember a year during which I didn't laugh, cry and feel a great amount of love. It's a very moving event. It's also loads of fun. That's certainly part of what makes me return.

Maybe that's only part of it.

I think I do it because it's very close to home. My parents, me, even friends I haven't mentioned here. I dance for me and mine. It could be your parents, you or your friends. I dance for you and yours too.

24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon 2011 is only two weeks away. Please consider participating or making a donation. Even a few dollars will help a really worthy cause. Even a few dollars can make a big difference.

If you love dancing and hate cancer, please figure out how you can help!

Thanks for your time.

The aftermath of FailBlog?

2011-10-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Daniel Young for posting the above clip on Facebook.

Recently I posted two blogs about being a beginner, and the one here focused on the importance of failure especially in the context of improvisation: Thoughts for Beginners. I find failure to be important in all fields and in every arena of learning.

It seems that we have so much baggage when it comes to failure. I can't begin to unpack it in the few minutes I have this morning. Maybe it starts when the first report cards come in our formative years. And I think it's important to say that I don't encourage students to start failing entire classes. That's not what this is about.

One of the projects I have in mind is a series on how to be a teacher, how to develop the tools you need to be a good one. This is clearly going to be a part of that series. More on that as it occurs.

Something makes me wonder if these thoughts wouldn't be stirring so much in the intwerwebs if not for the popularity of Failblog a few years ago. Perhaps turning "fail" into an insult inspired folks to consider why it was important.

Pretty Girls

2011-10-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

I love the Kids of Widney High. I even have their comic book!

From their site:

The Kids of Widney High are a group of students from Widney High School, a special ed. high school in Los Angeles, who write and perform original songs. The group started in 1988 as a song writing class and changes as the students come and go from Widney. The students perform in the L.A. area with a band consisting of Vince Licassi-guitar, Judy Rudin-harmonica, Tony Bollas-drums, Spero Anthony-bass, and Michael Monagan-guitar.

Yeah!

Thoughts for Beginners

2011-10-01T08:12:00.001-07:00

Many thoughts on the importance of failure swirl around in my head. A few weeks ago I read an article about the role of mistakes in the classroom. Then I read on Mental Floss a piece about successful folks who got fired from their jobs. I’ve had some experiences lately that were starting to get me down and it occurred to me that these can serve to help me learn and grow.

On Facebook yesterday the quote above was posted by a few friends. The quote is attributed to Ira Glass, host of This American Life. The quote will be getting re-posted here and over on the LindyGroove Technique Class Notes blog.

Let's apply the thinking here to improv. It was either Rachel Dratch or Tina Fey who said that most of the time in improv you spend sucking. Maybe 10 percent of the time hits the mark. I don't have the Second to None DVD handy so until it gets returned to me we can just guess about who said it.

After a recent Improv Trick student showcase, a student approached me and apologized for failing. Firstly, I didn't feel that the student had failed. Secondly, if by their own standard they had failed then at least they have a way to measure their success. Perhaps, if they're lucky their will to improve will be strengthened. To be quite fair though, sometimes the lesson has less to do with actual failure and more to do with how we deal with our fear of such.

As I had mentioned, I'd recently had some experiences that were getting me down. I won't elaborate on those here, but suffice it to consider that suckage happens. The best thing to do is get off your ass and do it again!

Here are some podcasts that address this notion:

Loserball - Jill Bernard teaches an exercise designed to help students embrace their failures. You can listen to her interviewed on the Improv Resource Center Podcast.
Zenprov - Marshall Stearns and Nancy Howland Walker built an entire podcast around the theme of failure: Failure and Space.

Bonus: since this post was about comedy and referenced Ira Glass, it might be well to link this interview. WTF - Marc Maron interviews Ira Glass

EDITED TO ADD:
Now with video!

There's a moment you know...

2011-09-14T09:27:00.001-07:00

An entire Broadway production of Spring Awakening is on YouTube! It's clearly a bootleg, but really worth watching. I'll add that if there's a touring production nearby, you should go out of your easy to buy tickets and watch it live. In the meantime, set aside 2 hours to watch one of the best shows of the decade!

Blackwater Rafting!!!

2011-09-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

This is a video of Jill Bernard doing a solo improv musical. The show is called Drum Machine. Holy Mackerel!

Digging in!prov

2011-08-31T00:44:00.001-07:00

There's a ton of improv stuff available on ye inter-tubes lately. I faintly remember the days when Harold was only a hushed rumor and you had to fly somewhere to watch one. Nowadays improvisers can watch them on YouTube with little to no effort. Them kids these days...

Here's some stuff I've been finding on the interwebs lately:

Some Things I Learned as Artistic Director of the UCB Theatre, by Anthony King

Here are two clips from Whose Line is it Anyway, featuring Robin Williams!

TEDtalks: Charles Limb - Your Brain on Improv

Next, the basics of Improvisation in one short and easy to digest package!

Lastly, a letter from the late and great Phil Hartman to aspiring comedian Mike Scott
Letters of Note

A variety of scenes for study!

2011-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

A question we could start with is "what makes good scenes?"

Here are some classic openings:

Star Wars

Jaws

Swordfish
Actually, this video only contains the opening speech. You can watch the longer video here: http://youtu.be/wmtSLpNriTM

What is it about these scenes that make them so memorable?

When Harry Met Sally

Young Frankenstein

Swingers

edited to add:

Homework from week 3

Carol Burnett - Sorry, part 1 and 2

Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen

Here's a link to The State.

Evening Primrose

2011-07-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

Back in the days before YouTube, I went to the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center) and watched this whole thing. As a giant musical theater nerd, it was cool to see this long lost footage. I guess it's on DVD now. I'd like to pick up a copy.

Time to start saving!

2011-07-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

I'm planning to hit Europe next year. Here are some things I'd like to do over the course of two-ish weeks.

Here's a short list of places I'd like to check out in Europe:
Belgian Comic Strip Center - What can I say? I'm a big fan of Belgian cartooning. You might be familiar with Tintin or the Smurfs. There's just a certain quality of line that I've always appreciated. Heck, in researching this entry I found this amazing little tour: Brussels Comic Strip Walk.

Moi, j'm'en fous je triche - I want to play board games in French. They play a lot of the same games that I know, only they play in the language of love.

By the way, the pic above is from a filler game I've been enjoying recently. Travel Blog by Vlaada Chvatil is a ton of fun.

I want to take yoga classes and dance the lindy hop too, maybe catch some improv shows if they exist, all the stuff that I love doing at home, but more expensive and foreign. I'd like to eat cheese, yogurt and lots of fruit. Perhaps take in a game of petanque if I can find anyone to play.

Ooh, here's an idea: let's visit spooky places. Anyone got any ideas?

A bit on Viewpoints

2011-06-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

I took a workshop with Eric Hunnicutt during the Los Angeles Improv Festival a week ago and really enjoyed it. He taught a shotgun class about Viewpoints which really seemed to mesh with the things that I understood about movement.

What's the essence of this Viewpoints thing? From my two-hour exposure, I'd say it's a technique for teaching students different ways of describing, seeing and interacting with the world around them, broken down into chunks like "Space," "Shape" and "Time."

This technique seems like the kind of thing I could learn to apply in my dance classes. It's a really cool set of techniques that I'd like to learn more about.

Also posted on: The LindyGroove Technique Blog

Comedy - In Vitro

2011-06-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the Second City almanac of Improvisation, by Anne Libera. Here's an excerpt from an article by Tina Fey:

I'm always surprised when I meet someone who thinks that sitting and writing is the only way of creating comedy. It's like meeting someone who thinks that in vitro fertilization is the only way to make a baby. You want to say, "No, there's this whole other way of doing it that's natural and sometimes pleasurable."

Damn, I love that woman. I think I read Bossypants in one sitting.

Sita Sings the Blues

2011-05-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some time, when I have an hour and a half to sit in front of a computer, I really want to watch this movie. Here it is, above for your viewing enjoyment!

Here's the website: Sita Sings the Blues

Lovable Hipster.

2011-04-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Bought this book at the South Pasadena Public Library for a quarter. Saw it listed on Amazon for $195. That's a bargain.

It's about a little beatnik girl who has a pad in New York. I read it in twenty minutes and loved it.

Like Dig! Here's an unaired Suzuki Beane television pilot from the youtubes:

The play is the thing.

2011-04-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Svadhyaya

2011-04-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

I'm reading Light on Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

Svadhyaya. Sva means self and adhyaya means study or education. Education is the drawing out of the best that is within a person. Savadhyaya, therefore, is the education of the self.
Svadhyaya is different from mere instruction like attending a lecture where the lecturer parades his own learning before the ignorance of his audience. When people meet for svadhyaya, the speaker and listener are of one mind and have mutual love and respect. There is no sermonizing and one hear speaks to another. The ennobling thoughts that arise from svadhyaya are, so to speak, taken into one's bloodstream so that they become a part of one's life and being.
The person practicing svadhyaya reads his own book of life, at the same time that he writes and revises it. There is a change in his outlook on life. He starts to realize that all creation is meant for bhakti (adoration) rather than bhoga (enjoyment), that all creation is divine, that there is divinity within himself and that the energy which moves him is the same that moves the entire universe.
...
Philology is not a language but the science of languages, the study of which will enable the student to learn his own language better. Similarly, Yoga is not a religion by itself. It is the science of religions, the study of which will enable a sadhaka the better to appreciate his own faith.

Here's a video from MC Yogi:

Give Love!

What I learned in my time away...

2011-03-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

and how I learned it.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts on Improvisation, I took a good long sabbatical from improvisation. There's a little 'why' there, and a lot of what happened in the duration.

Where was I at the time? I had been the little-seen player in the ComedySportz team in Santa Barbara. I think the team probably had no idea what to do with me and I don't believe I was ready to learn what I needed to learn from them. I left them when I left Santa Barbara to head to the Pacific Conservatory for Performing Arts in Santa Maria. I was asked to leave that group at the end of my first semester there. I was beginning to feel like there were things I needed to learn that I wasn't going to learn there. I remember Paul, the president of PCPA saying to me "this isn't stand-up." So I moved back home to Los Angeles and in a little while I took Judy Carter's class on stand-up.

Some folks question the notion of a class on stand-up comedy. After having taken Judy's class I can say that it's a craft that can work in the classroom. For me it wasn't until the final practice before the final class that any material came together for me. It was partially just the pressure and also something that my practice partner noticed: I wasn't making eye contact with her.

I'll say that was a revelation! No one had mentioned that tid-bit to me before. In college folks often assumed that I was pretty confident. Perhaps they confused the idiosyncratic outfits I wore with confidence. Some folks perhaps believed that I was too cool for them. Looking back on it now, I can imagine that I was more alienated than cool. Ah, perspective.

Anyway, that practice partner taught me to look her in the eye. She asked me to look directly into her right pupil. Such a huge lesson. Good looking girl too, but I don't think I ever saw her again after that showcase.

Shortly after that I did an improv class at the Ice House in Pasadena. We had one showcase, but fell apart after that. I can't say I really had discovered what it meant to be a team player at that point. I was still doing a bit of stand-up, but finding that world to be really bitter and hard. There were a few cool folks who stick around in my memory. Some good gigs, but mostly I remember folks being jealous of other folks and not having a real support system. I started my sabbatical some time after my last stand-up gig. Was doing some work at the Public Access studio in West Hollywood, but time marched on.

I didn't recognize it as a sabbatical when it began. I had moved on.

The next thing to fill my life was Lindy Hop. That's swing dancing, if you've never heard of it. I discovered the dance some time between September 4th, 1997 and now. It took many of the things I was needing to learn and put them into sharp focus. Also, I had been a dancer in my youth and really needed an outlet for my physical creativity.

Here's an overview of Lindy Hop: it's an American dance born in the jazz halls and ballrooms of the early 20th century. It's loose and free-form, but works with a structure. It requires an understanding of one's own body and playfulness with one's partner is more often than not rewarded. If you're curious what the dance looks like, you might click on the "Lindy Hop" tab to your right. There are a few clips there that will give you an idea.

It seems to me now that Lindy Hop has been one of the most important and fulfilling elements of my life. In Lindy Hop, I was able to put the phrase "Yes And" to work literally in a way I wasn't ready to do in my past on stage. That is to say that after years of dancing with folks I understood what it was to be in the moment in a substantial way.

In fact I remember in the late 1990s watching a class that some San Francisco dancers had taught on the subject of improvisation and feeling that the classes were really shallow. I saw a very simple mirror exercise and I didn't see the teachers really even taking that exercise to its fruition. It was after that when I developed the class I came to call "Adventures in the Groove." That class is central in the way I view the Lindy Hop and reflects many of the ways I feel about taking creative chances in the world.

Here are some things I learned from Lindy Hop that have influenced my Improvisation:

1) There is someone with you, whether you remember it or not.
2) It's better to play with the person with whom your are dancing than some other person about whom you may be wishing.
3) When someone does something you don't expect, it's way more fun to accept it and perhaps augment it than it is to put up defenses.
4) What's the point of fear? It's not like there's a bear on the dance floor.
5) Listening is more than hearing. Using my senses is an important way to tune in to the world around me, not to mention the person with whom I'm dancing.
6) Everyone was a beginner at some point.
7) There's always more work to do.

These are just several notions that come to mind after more than a decade of dance.

Anyway, as I mentioned in other posts, I've returned to improvisation pretty solidly. I finally have been admitted to the Monkey Butler level 2 class and am working on my long-form improv chops there. I'm also in the teaching track with Bill Chott and The Improv Trick. Next week I'm hoping to audition for The X-Ecution, which is essentially a contest. I see it more as a creative pressure cooker and the notion of joining really excites me.

In dance, I teach the LindyGroove Technique Class. My partner Fancy and I will be flying down to Tucson in two weeks to teach a workshop. Excitement abounds.

More recently I've also begun studying yoga. The way I see it, these things all work on the same principles. It's all about play. Just starting on this track now and it has been greatly enriching.

Happy Birthday, Del Close!

2011-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Del Close is one of the key improvisors in history. It looks like it's his birthday, so here's a clip of him describing one of his inventions, Harold.

Tangential, but I like this video too.

Bouncing through my skull

2011-03-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

Merry Go Round, by the Brady Bunch.

I want to sit and watch this whole thing.

2011-02-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a video that I want to sit and watch: The Comic Imagination. It's a two-hour long panel discussion. Don't know anything about the Philoctetes Center. But anyway, I'm finding this interesting.

On a completely separate note, one image that sort of resonates with me as a yogi is the image of a crusty towel. You know the kind - sitting in the locker room long-forgotten. Add a little moisture and wring it out and it gets a little less crusty. That's how my body feels after a good practice.

Fump!

2011-02-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is a short we shot last weekend. I didn't know I'd be dancing in it. It was a good time overall!

My schedule has been full of Orccon. That's next weekend at the LAX Sheraton from Friday through Monday. I'm excited!

We're holding a performance by Dungeon Master on Saturday night! Also, free Monster Energy Drinks for the folks who enjoy our late night festivities!

It might just be me, but I'm going to set up a Twister Yoga practice at least once that weekend.

Also, if you're interested in attending, I need volunteers. Send me a line at fad23@hotmail.com and I'll let you know how you can help!

Here's a geeklist about what I expect from my volunteers: Strategicon - Guide to Good GMing.

4 Decades of Whimsy - the clips.

2011-01-18T12:00:00.001-08:00

This is an addendum to the post I wrote last week, 4 Decades of Whimsy, in which I outline my birthday plans.

For those folks who are curious what all my birthday events are about, here are some clips:

Lindy Hop

Here's the classic Groovie Movie, the film that inspired so many of us over a decade ago. I remember the night I shared this clip with the back room at the Derby. Oh, man, them's memories.

Improv

I don't have audio at the moment, but at some point I'd like to listen to this clip. I haven't watched it fully yet.

Yoga

Here's Anusara Yoga founder John Friend, speaking at a yoga conference.

Board Games

Watching people play board games on YouTube might not be the best way to experience it.

Okay, so play is the operative word. Come play with me next week!

4 decades of whimsy

2011-01-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'm turning 40 this month. It's time to figure out the celebration plan!

Essentially, I'm inviting folks to join me for my weekly activities, which include yoga, improv class, Lindy Hop and board games. Here's the catch: I ask that everyone come to the activities with which they are least familiar. For instance, if I know you from board games and dancing, then you'll be urged to improv and/or yoga. Or if we met doing yoga, you'll be invited to come check out LindyGroove or improv. Everyone is still welcome to play in their comfort zone, but I'm challenging everyone to break out a bit. Does that make sense?

There are a lot of free options to be had. I'll explain more of those as we go.

Here's the schedule:
Saturday, January 22nd
4:30-5:30pm - 7 Dollar Yoga at Mission Street Yoga

Sunday, January 23rd
10:30am-Noon - Mixed level Yoga class at Mission Street Yoga
5:00-7:00pm - Improv class with Monkey Butler, Burbank

Monday, January 24th
8:00-10:00pm - One Buck Butler - Come watch me perform! Entry is one dollar. EVERYONE IS INVITED!

Tuesday, January 25th
9-midnight - Joe's Bar and Grille - Lindy Hop

Wednesday, January 26th
12:30-1:30 - 7 Dollar Yoga at Mission Street Yoga
8-11pm - Game Empire - board game party

Thursday, January 27th
7:30-midnight - LindyGroove - Lindy Hop

Friday, January 28th
5-11pm, Game Empire - board game party

Bonus!
Sunday, January 30th
4:00-6:00pm - Improv class with the Improv Trick! FREE!!
6:00-9ishpm - ASSSSCAT, improv show, Hollywood

Here's my Amazon wishlist. There are many items on here that can be bought for a penny plus shipping. If you feel like splurging for bigger ticket items, then be my guest.

Also, to be perfectly honest, I usually do improv on Tuesdays, but I felt like the schedule needed more Lindy Hop. Come check out La Granja's Game Night at IO West at some point. I'll probably be there!

FREE STUFF
Improv class - The Sunday class is free. Class with Nathan Davis of Monkey Butler. Media City Church, 269 East Providencia Avenue Burbank, CA 91502-1433
Mission Street Yoga - New students that live within a 10 mile radius of South Pasadena are eligible to take their first class for free.
Joe's Bar and Grille - There is no cover charge for this event. I think there's a bucket of love if you'd like to support.
LindyGroove - The first 10 folks who send me their email addresses can get free admission on January 27th. I'll save this for folks who haven't already been to LindyGroove. Please RSVP before January 24th.
Game Empire - Come hang out! Drinks and candy for sale. Buy a game if you like supporting local businesses.
ASSSSCAT - The Sunday show is free, though donations are suggested.

edited to add: Now there are videos! Check out 4 Decades of Whimsy - the clips

On Spontaneity

2010-12-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

I'm currently re-reading Keith Johnstone's Impro. This is one of the books that really affected me most in my formative years.

Here's an excerpt:

It's possible to turn unimaginative people into imaginative people at a moment's notice. I remember an experiment referred to in the British Journal of Psychology - probably in the summer of 1969 or 1970- in which businessmen who had showed up as very dull on work-association tests were asked to imagine themselves as happy-go-lucky hippy types, in which persona they were retested, and showed up as far more imaginative. In creativity tests you may be asked to suggest different ways of using a brick; if you say things like 'Build a house', or 'Build a wall', then you're classified as unimaginative- if you say 'Grind it up and use it for diarrhoea mixture', or 'Rub off warts with it', then you're imaginative. I'm oversimplifying, but you get the general idea.

Some tests involve picture completion. You get given a lot of little squares with signs in them, and you have to add something to the sign. 'Uncreative' people just add another squiggle, or join up a 'C' shape to make a circle. 'Creative' people have a great time, parallel lines become the trunk of a tree, a 'V' on its side becomes the beam of a lighthouse and so on. It may be a mistake to think of such tests as showing people to be creative, or uncreative. It may be that the tests are recording different activities. The person who adds a timid squiggle may be trying to reveal as little as possible about himself. If we can persuade him to have fun, and not worry about being judged, then maybe he can approach the test with the same attitude as a 'creative' person, just like the tired businessmen when they were pretending to be hippies.

Most schools encourage children to be unimaginative. The research so far shows that imaginative children are disliked by their teachers. Torrance gives an eye-witness account of an 'exceptionally creative boy' who questioned the rules of the textbook: 'The teacher became irate, even in the presence of the principal. She fumed, "So! You think you know more than this book!"' She was also upset when the boy finished the problems she set almost as quickly as it took to read them. 'She couldn't understand how he was getting the correct answer and demanded that he write down all of the steps he had gone through in solving each problem.'

When this boy transferred to another school, his new principal telephoned to ask if he was the sort of boy 'who has to be squelched rather roughly'. When it was explained that he was 'a very wholesome, promising lad who needed understanding and encouragement' the new principal exclaimed 'rather brusquely, "Well, he's already said too much right here in my office!"' (E.P. Torrance, Guiding creative Talent, Prentice-Hall, 1962.)

One of my students spent two years in a classroom where the teacher had put a large sign over the blackboard. It said 'Get into the "Yes, Sir" attitude.' No doubt we can all add further anecdotes. Torrance has a theory that 'many children with impoverished imaginations have been subjected to rather vigorous and stern efforts to eliminate fantasy too early. They are afraid to think.' Torrance seems to understand the forces at work, but he still refers to attempts to eliminate fantasy too early. Why should we eliminate fantasy at all? Once we eliminate fantasy, then we have no artists.

This excerpt certainly had an affect on me before I formally became an instructor in any of the subjects that I teach. More than that, I find it important outside of the classroom as well.

Cadaver

2010-09-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is improvisational team L. Ron Jeremy on their record breaking night. They've beat 47 weeks worth of teams in their regular Cagematch: Omega battles at IO West.

They're set to retire at the end of their 52nd week, September 20th, 2010. They're a real high energy act, and from everything I've seen a decent bunch of fellas.

Anyway, these guys kick ass. Watch them. They'll definitely be playing the Cagematch: Omega Battle this Monday at 11:30pm. I expect them to win and finish up on September 20th. The shows are free. Come and cheer them on!

The Longest Road - part 2

2010-08-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

Local gaming hero David Zevin won the Settlers of Catan pre-qualifying event at Gamex in May. Since flying to Indianapolis to compete in the qualifying round of the Settlers of Catan Worldwide Championship at GenCon, he comes home a champion. He won the GenCon event and will be heading to Burg Wildenstein in Germany to represent the United States in the final rounds! David met with Neil Figuracion at Game Empire in Pasadena to share his experiences.

You can read the first part of the interview here: The Longest Road - part 1

Strategicon: So here we are again, David. Things have gone your way it looks like.

David Zevin: (Chuckles) A little bit. A little bit.

S: Since you left the Settlers event at Gamex, you went on to win GenCon. That was just last weekend. What was your experience like getting there?

DZ: It was a little weird. Actually I was doing some volunteer work for the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles and there was this big tournament of the Maccabi games - Jewish junior olympics and a friend of mine needed a tennis coach. So I kinda volunteered to do that. So I was in Omaha, Nebraska for five days leading up to GenCon and I missed the first day. I flew directly from Omaha to Indianapolis and I was kind of exhausted. I got like 5-6 hours of sleep for like five nights leading up to GenCon. So it had been a wild week.

S: So you got to GenCon. What was your first impression? This was your first trip, right?

DZ: First trip to GenCon, yeah. I was a little overwhelmed when I first got there. Just 'cause it was much bigger than I had thought it was... It was like Comic Con, basically - tons of people dressed up. It was just this room full of vendors and everything. I wasn't expecting quite that. I was expecting things to be more like our Strategicon, where there's a lot of gaming going, but not a lot of other things.

S: What do you think GenCon is focused on?

DZ: I'll say it's focused on making money. Every tournament you enter costs a ticket, which will cost you about two bucks or more. The whole room is just full of people selling you stuff. Mayfair games has a giant booth there and Rio Grande Games and all these other [companies] have all these giant displays there. They'll demo games, but they're doing it in the hope that they'll sell it to you. Everything there is set up to make you spend a lot of money. It's kind of tough to get off cheap at GenCon.

S: How different is that from the Strategicon conventions?

DZ: Well, one thing I like a lot better with Strategicon is that to enter a tournament is free. And then at GenCon, when you win a tournament you actually get nothing but a ribbon for the most part, unless it's a big event which costs a lot more money to enter.

S: So what do you think the Strategicon conventions are doing right?

DZ: It's just a lot friendlier atmosphere. It's kind of a very laid back atmosphere where you can just jump into a game. You can even play a game you've never heard of before in a tournament and win your first time out.

S: What was it like competing in the Catan events at GenCon?

DZ: Well, it was a little intense. I found out when we got there that everything was going to come down to two games, single elimination games. One thing I liked about the pre-qualifier was that we would play four games and then take the winning percentage. So even if you didn't win... if you scored well they would actually take that into account.

S: How would you describe the players that you met?

DZ: You know, there were some good players, like you would find anywhere. My last couple of rounds at [Gamex] were much harder. A little luck went my way [at GenCon] but I won pretty handily. No one had more than six points in my first game and seven points in the second. I was a good three to four points ahead of anyone. In Catan that's a good, wide margin. I was never really worried, but I was in a couple of games at Gamex.

S: What was the experience like - winning at GenCon?

DZ: It was cool! It was a little overwhelming knowing that I was gonna go to Germany as one of two Americans representing the U.S. I think there are going to be a pool of 40-50 people in Germany. Yeah, we're gonna do our best.

S: You are one of the two American players going to Burg Wildenstein in Germany. What do you imagine?

DZ: I think it's going to be a lot of fun! We're staying in a castle. We're gonna do some fun stuff around there I would assume. I think it's about a three hour train ride to the nearest airport. It's in the middle of nowhere in this castle playing Settlers of Catan. It's gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

S: ...with forty or fifty people from...

DZ: With forty or fifty people from other countries. Trading is gonna be interesting. Gonna have to brush up on my romance languages.

S: [laughter]

DZ: We'll see how things go. I'll learn "sheep" in a lot of different languages. That should be useful.

S: Do you have any messages to send to your potential competitors around the world?

DZ: I'm just gonna send the same message I sent in our last interview: Watch out! I'm coming to Germany. It's gonna be trouble for you guys.

S: Thanks very much and congratulations!

DZ: Well, thank you!

The next Strategicon convention is coming up in just a few weeks: Gateway is scheduled for September 3-6, 2010 and has a host of great events scheduled! Special guests include Race for the Galaxy designer Tom Lehmann and Looney Labs, who will be launching their new Back to the Future card game!

The Longest Road - Part 1

2010-08-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

This was originally posted at the Strategicon website. In case you didn't know, I organize all of the board game tournaments for Strategicon, including the upcoming Gateway Convention, September 3-6, 2010!

After decades at the table, Dave Zevin won the Settlers of Catan Worldwide Championship pre-qualifiying round at Gamex 2010. We sat with Dave for a while to hear about his experience.

Interview conducted by Neil Figuracion

Strategicon: Dave, how long have you been gaming?

David Zevin: I've been gaming since I was three or four. I was playing the games that we [Eurogamers] don't really like as much any more, like Monopoly. I was kicking people's butts at Monopoly when I was like five or six, I would say.

S: How did you get introduced to Settlers of Catan?

DZ: Settlers, I was introduced to by a friend of mine in High School, pretty close to when it came to the United States, I think. I liked it then and I continue to like it today.

S: Have you played a lot of Settlers?

DZ: I have played a ton of Settlers. I would have to think that I have played more Settlers on an actual board than almost anybody that I can think of. Almost every day in college, me and my roommate would play two player Settlers, even though the box says 3-4. We would also play with our suite-mate a lot. One of them was Pre-Med and one of them was a Bio-Chemical Engineer. They both almost flunked out, because of Settlers, I think.

S: [laughter]

DZ: We would play just way too much. Like once, twice a day for that entire year. In college alone, I played 3 to 400 games.

S: What brought you to Strategicon?

DZ: I couldn't find enough gamers out here [in Los Angeles] that I knew. So I went online to look and found the SoCal Gamers. I found out through them that there was this game convention and I said "yeah, sure that sounds like something I'd like to do." It's just a very chill atmosphere and you can get in the games that you want to get in and you can win prizes. It's cool. I love it!

S: What inspired you to get involved in the World Championship competition?

DZ: I was kind of on the fence about it actually. I knew this would be a huge commitment. I know that I'm a pretty strong Settlers player. I won the Mega Settlers [tournament] a couple cons earlier. I was happy I did it, but it took up a good portion of my con and I knew this was going to take up even more. I wanted to do it. I wanted to see if I could make it to Indianapolis. See if I could represent the U.S. in Germany. I think that that would be awesome.

S: When you got to the pre-qualifier event last weekend, what was your experience like there?

DZ: It was positive. There were some good players. I was fortunate enough to have the best winning percentage there. The first game I lost. I won five straight after that. [joking] even I lose Settlers occasionally. Five out of six isn't bad.

S: [laughter] So what was it like playing with a group of Settlers players for hours.

DZ: It was kind of daunting by the sixth game in two days. You're kinda seeing sheep in your sleep. It was a good experience. I look forward to doing it again in Indianapolis.

S: You take it to the final table at Gamex. What was that final game experience like?

DZ: It was pretty easy actually. The semi-final was the scary one for me. There were a couple of instances... I kinda had to come out of nowhere to win that one. I had to use every trick of Settlers in my book to win that one. I wasn't getting the rolls. A lot of it comes down to initial placement and I got hosed. I was able to get some lucky cards at the right time and make some good moves and I won. The final game, I was ahead the whole game. People were teaming up against me the whole game and it really didn't matter beccause my placement was better and I was getting some lucky rolls. I started ahead and finished with a pretty healthy margin of victory.

S: So what does it feel like to represent your home convention?

DZ: I'm gonna do my best! It feels good. I'm gonna hopefully represent SoCal and hopefully take down these Midwesterners and Easterners. Show 'em what we're made of.

S: What do you have to say to your potential opponents?

DZ: I'm coming. You watch out!

S: [laughter] Thank you very much, Dave!

DZ: Thank you!

Click here for part 2, with the results of the GenCon tournament and more about David Zevin's journey on the Longest Road to the Settlers of Catan Worldwide Championships!

Also, check the Strategicon website for the board game events schedule. It's gonna be a rockin' fun weekend! See ya at the table.

An excerpt from the life of Scott Pilgrim

2010-08-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Above is a short video from Adult Swim that excerpts a flashback from the pages of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. Below is an interview that I conducted with O'Malley for Broken Frontier a few years back.

One of the breakout comics of the last few years was a book called Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim combines action, romance and rock and roll into a package that puts the funny back into funny books. Bryan Lee O’Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim met with Neil Figuracion at the San Diego Comic-Con to discuss his roots, his slacker friends and how vegans earn their psychic powers.

BROKEN FRONTIER: It seems like Super Mario was a big part of your life. Did you spend a lot of time with your friends…

BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY: [Chuckles] I guess so. I feel like everyone around my age did. Yeah, Super Mario 3 was a really big deal when we were all little kids. It’s just sort of like the fabric of my childhood, I guess.

BF: You were the artist on the second Hopeless Savages series. Was that your first comics work?

BLO: No, it was the first thing that I drew that… (hesitating) No, it wasn’t. I worked with my friends – they were in a thing called Studio XD, back in 2000-2001. I lettered their book Last Shot and I worked with Udon for a while doing various things. I did this Spider-man book for little kids. Then I inked an issue of Queen and Country and then I did Hopeless Savages.

BF: What’s the story behind Lost at Sea ?

BLO: I was in California with the Studio XD guys. I was really angsty and had a lot going on in my mind. So I wrote this book that was from the perspective of this teenage girl. Part of the thing I was feeling was just too ridiculous to be a twenty-one year old guy.

BF: Do you feel something like a teenage girl?

BLO: Oh, I used to. I used to be like an angsty sixteen year old girl. I was just really overemotional, over-thinking everything. I was lost at sea, so the book just came out of my mind set. So that was like trying to clear my mind out a bit. Same with Scott Pilgrim, really. Just trying to clear out some of the nerdy junk culture.

BF: Well it seems like Scott Pilgrim is a pretty big change of pace from that.

BLO: It is, but more like a change… like when I’m looking back at my teen years it’s more angsty and like [makes an agitated gesture] whoooo! Then when I’m looking back a little later, like in my twenties, I’m still kinda angsty but it’s not the main thing. I’ve had other stuff to do, other stuff on my mind - relationships and friends ships and stuff like that. So I’m kinda looking more outside of myself, whereas Lost at Sea is really, really internal.

BF: Scott Pilgrim seems like the first great action romantic comedy of the new millennium.

BLO: [Nervous laughter] Okaaay…

BF: How did you initially pitch the series to Oni?

BLO: I don’t totally remember. It was a bit smaller at first. I think it was going to be one book originally. The pitch was basically that it was Blue Monday, which is one of their books – Blue Monday meets Dragon Ball!

BF: Was the reader response surprising?

BLO: It has been, gradually. We’ve been doing it for two years now. The first one came out almost exactly two years ago. At first there was not much [response]. You know, a trickle. It’s just been snowballing really, really steadily. By this time, it’s pretty big.

BF: Your hero Scott seems to be on the tail-end of adolescence. Do you know a lot of guys like that?

BLO: Yeah. All my friends are like that, and I was like that for a long time. I don’t know if it’s always been like that but people in their twenties right now are not growing up, really. They’re still acting like teenagers, [but] they’re just getting apartments and getting drunk every night instead. Having nothing really to do, they’re working in the service industry and stuff. I’m just trying to take a look at that world. A lot of my friends, it’s just like you wish they’d grow up and do something with their lives but they don’t. So that’s kind of Scott Pilgrim.

BF: And then there’s Scott’s true love, Ramona Flowers. Was meeting Hope Larson like that?

BLO: I started writing the book before – not like the actual book but taking notes for the series – before I actually met Hope. But then it just naturally developed. The love interest became sort of my love interest for the time. So she became this American girl, but there’s bits of other girls I know. It’s kind of an amalgamation.

BF: Scott has to defeat Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends. Is love ever easy?

BLO: Not really. Not when it’s any good. It’s usually not Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends hard, but it’s never super easy.

BF: Is there a particularly Canadian point of view in the book?

BLO: I don’t know. I mean it’s one of those things that it’s hard to sort of answer yourself. Like other people look at it and maybe they’ll know. I mean probably [there is], because I grew up in Canada and that’s where I spent my whole life. I’d like to think so, but I feel like a lot of Canadian fiction in entertainment, like TV and movies and stuff, [portray] and attitude that I don’t really like; like really kind of meek.

BF: What would be an example of this meekness?

BLO: I don’t know. I’m probably just making it up?

BF: Well, Canadians are stereotypically polite.

BLO: They’re polite, yeah, and sort of subservient in… What’s that other word I’m looking for? I don’t know. They’re a little too nice – almost passive-aggressive. Yeah, I feel like Canada needs to, I mean not Canada itself but Canadian artists and writers need to stand up for themselves more maybe.

BF: Well, what are real Canadians like if they’re not meek and polite?

BLO: Well they are meek and polite but they’re not… I don’t really have my point of view on this formulated yet. I’m in the process of it. I might be doing some writing for my friend who works for the CBC. You know, I’ll figure it out as I go along.

BF: I actually served your vegan shepherd’s pie recipe for a family dinner.

BLO: Did it go over well?

BF: It went well.

BLO: Some people came over yesterday and they were like “We keep trying to make your vegan shepherd’s pie and it’s not good.” They keep screwing it up and it turns to liquid or something. And it’s like I think you might be using too much liquid. You just have to use a splash really. I don’t know what they’re doing wrong.

BF: Actually it wasn’t that hard for me.

BLO: Yeah, it’s not really that hard.

BF: I guess I’m curious about this whole vegan king fu mythology that you’re creating. Where does that come from?

BLO: [Chuckles] Well, my wife was vegan for a while. Some of my friends were vegan. Some vegans are dicks about it. Not my friends – not most vegans, but some of them are like… I’ve heard vegans say things like “Vegans don’t sweat!” Like that kind of thing.

BF: [Stifling laughter]

BLO: So I just kind of built it up in my mind. I was probably reading Akira or something and I was like oh yeah, so vegans can fly and destroy you with their mind. It was like a natural progression in my mind.

BF: If you could mash up a few different bands, what would Sex Bob-omb sound like?

BLO: Sh*t, I’ve done this before. I remember saying it was early Bis and Uncle Tupelo. I think that’s a good combination.

BF: I hear rumors of a Scott Pilgrim movie.

BLO: I do too. I don’t know. Someone came by [the Oni booth] earlier and said “Oh! They turned in a second draft of the screenplay!” and I was like huh? Then another guy asked “How many drafts? How many screenplays have they written?” I don’t know what’s going on.

BF: Is there actual talk about a real movie.

BLO: There is talk. There is [inaudible] signed somewhere. There’s a few people involved. Edgar Wright was at the show and he’s supposed to be directing it, maybe. If he decides to. It’s not green lit, so we’ll see – fingers crossed.

BF: Would you want to be involved in that process?

BLO:Yeah.

BF: More involved than you are right now, apparently.

BLO: I’m involved. I’ve talked to the writer and the director. I’ve been consulting. I’d like some more money.

BF: Who wouldn’t? What would you want the movie to feel like?

BLO: Well if you’ve seen any of Edgar Wright’s work…

BF: What’s he done?

BLO: Shaun of the Dead and Spaced which is a British show. It’s just started airing [on BBC America] actually. Spaced is a lot like Scott Pilgrim in a lot of ways. So I think he has my sensibility. I’d like it to feel like the comics, but in a movie. I think it’s do-able.

BF: So you’re not going to be involved in scripting the film?

BLO:No.

BF: So what’s next for Bryan Lee O’Malley?

BLO: I’m just working on the fourth Scott Pilgrim book right now. I haven’t started drawing it yet. Everyone’s like “When’s it coming out? Is it coming out next week?” No, it’s not. It’s going to be out next year, sorry. It just takes a long time.

my thoughts, as captured by a porn star.

2010-07-21T02:11:00.001-07:00

I had been thinking about women, beauty and sexuality for a few days. Then I found this quote on "Sex is Not the Enemy" (NSFW) that very succinctly corralled my scattered thoughts.

"The prevailing message women receive is that sexual aggression is unfeminine, that a woman’s primary sexual role is as regulator of male desire — to say yes or no, but not to pursue desires of our own. Women are still often taught that sexy is the same as “pretty,” that it means dressing a certain way and then waiting to be approached"

Here is a link to the larger interview, Lorelei Lee interviewed on Salon.com about the recent John Stagliano obscenity case:

While I certainly find the John Stagliano case to be important, I'm much more impressed with the the quote above. It captured something that had been bothering me recently.

What bothers you, some might still ask. It's that entire notion, that the lone tactic a woman might have in her sexual arsenal is to look pretty and wait for suitors. That works my nerves on a couple different ends for me, since I don't really like to risk the rejection of asking someone out, and since a part of me wants to be approached by someone interesting and pretty.

For the last few days, I've had the song "Pretty Women," from Sweeney Todd stuck in my head. Here it is:

Rise and Fall

2010-07-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from 25,000 Years of Erotic Freedom, by Alan Moore:

Sexual openness and cultural progress walked hand-in-hand throughout the opening chapters of the human story in the West, and it wasn't until the advent of Christianity, or more specifically of the apostle Paul, that anybody realized we should all be thoroughly ashamed of both our bodies and those processes relating to them. Not until the Emperor Constantine had cut and pasted modern Christianity together from the loose scraps of Mithraism and the solar cult of Sol Invictus, adopting the resultant theological collage as the religion of the Roman Empire, did we get to witness the effect of its ideas and doctrines when enacted on a whole society.

If we take a traditional (and predominantly Christian) view of the collapse of Rome, then conventional wisdom tells us that Rome was destroyed by its decadence, sunk beneath the rising scumline of its orgies and of its own sexual permissiveness. The merest skim through Gibbon,* on the other hand, will demonstrate that Rome had been a heaving, decadent, and orgiastic fleshpot more or less since its inception. It hgad fornicated its way quite succesfully through several centuries without showing any serious signs of harm as a result. Once Emperor Constantine introduced compulsory Christianity to the Empire, though, it barely lasted another handred years.

Largely, this was because Rome relied on foreign troops - on cavalry from Egypt, for example - to defend the Empire against the Teutonic hordes surrounding it. Foreign soldiers were originally happy to enlist, since Rome at that point took a pagan and syncretic standpoint that allowed recruits to worship their own gods while they were off in northern Europe holding back the Huns. Once the Empire had been Christianized, however, that was not an option. Rome's new Christian leaders decided it was their way or the stairway, and si consequently, off in distant lands, recruitment figures plummeted. The next thing anybody knew, there were barbarians everywhere: the Huns, the Franks, the Visigoths, and worst of all the Goths, with their white contact lenses and Cradle of Filth collections. Rome, effectively, was over, bar the shouting.

* I'm not personally sure who Gibbon was at the moment. - Neil

A thousand invocations of Del Close

2010-07-02T21:28:00.001-07:00

After reading Charna Halpern's two books, Truth in Comedy and Art by Commitee, I've been soaking up as much improv history and reading as I can. One figure whose name keeps returning again and again is the late Del Close. Apparently he was a key figure in American improvisation, especially in the Chicago scene after the 1960s. He taught at Second City and co-founded Improv Olympic with Charna Halpern in the early 80s. A lot of funny people that you may have heard of have studied under him, including John Belushi, Mike Myers and Tina Fey.

In conversation with my pal Mike, he likened Close to Socrates, in that he taught a lot of students and they carried on with their own traditions, but always invoking Close's name. I imagine Del Close as a bit more modern, like Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast himself. His entire mission in life might have been to fuck with the status quo, and generations after him take it for granted and can't even remember his name.

This is a promo for Follow the Fear, a tribute to Del Close.

An odd footnote (and one that I want to follow up on), I own a lot of the Wasteland comics shown in the clip. I was at IO West last week and noticed a name on one of their old cast lists that might not mean anything to any of my improv friends, Kim Yale. The other writer for the Wasteland comics was a guy whose work I admired a lot, John Ostrander. He had married Kim Yale, I remember and mostly I remember the tribute he gave her when she died. I really want to dig into this little side-story. If Ostrander shows up at Comic-con this year, then I'll have to chase him down.

Here's a radio tribute to him done for public radio: Studio 360.

This week I've been devouring a blog filled with interviews of notable improv luminaries. For those seeking an oral history of improvisation, Improv Interviews is invaluable. The site has gone dormant, but there are at least a few years of interviews available there. They include Ian Roberts and Matt Besser from the Upright Citizen's Brigade and Charna Halpern.

This is an amusing bit from YesAnd.com: The Devil's Dictionary of Improvisation.

In the meantime, I've just ordered Second to None and Something Wonderful Right Away. Much more to watch and read.

Reactions to the call to censorship.

2010-06-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

As a long-time advocate and consumer of pornography, I find it fascinating how politically polarizing the discussion can be. I remember once in college, when a fellow student in a class in sexual politics broke into tears because her male roommate had used porn. I don't remember the full context of the story, but my initial thought at hearing her weep was something like "he wasn't forcing you to watch it. How did he affect you?"

These memories are getting stirred up because in the blogosphere, folks are writing about the Stop Porn Culture conference happening in Massachussetts this weekend, June 12-13, 2010. The descendents of Dworkin and Mackinnon are alive and well. It's a little late to do research, but here's what I could quickly find.

Here is the mission statement of Stop Porn Culture:

MISSION STATEMENT
StopPornCulture! is dedicated to challenging the pornography industry and an increasingly pornographic pop culture. Our work toward ending industries of sexual exploitation is grounded in a feminist analysis of sexist, racist, and economic oppression. We affirm sexuality that is rooted in equality and free of exploitation, coercion, and violence.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY MOVEMENT
In the mid-to late 1970s, anti-pornography and anti-rape groups began to organize against pornography, arguing that pornography is degrading to women, and complicit in violence against women both in its production (where abuse and exploitation of women is common) and in its consumption (where pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation and coercion of women and reinforces the sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment.) Across the country, feminists formed groups such as Women Against Violence Against Women, Women Against Violence in Pornography, and Media and Women Against Pornography to educate people about the sexist and violent images in media and to demand social responsibility from media institutions. Feminists organized protests, marches, and group tours of pornography districts, picketed and boycotted films and presented slide shows on the pornography industry’s perpetuation of woman-hating and violence. Some groups engaged in direct action and civil disobedience against the industry to dramatically draw attention to pornography and its harms to women.

In 1983, grounded in the accumulated knowledge of pornography’s direct involvement in the subordination of women, feminists Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin proposed an ordinance that would offer women the chance to seek compensation for harm caused by the production and use of pornography. The anti-pornography civil rights ordinance that they drafted was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council in 1983, but vetoed by the mayor on the grounds that the city could not afford the litigation over the law’s constitutionality. In 1984, the ordinance was successfully passed by the Indianapolis city council and signed by the mayor. In 1988, the ordinance was also passed by a voter initiative in Bellingham, Washington. However, in both cases the ordinance was ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by the state and federal courts. In 1986, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts’ rulings in the Indianapolis case without comment.

Despite the defeat of the Dworkin-MacKinnon ordinance, feminists continued to organize against pornography in the 1990s through individual and small group efforts. However, anti-pornography feminists lacked a large-scale, national movement to support and coordinate their efforts.

With the explosion of technology and increased accessibility of pornography via the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, feminists from around the country began to organize meetings to discuss the proliferation of pornography and the increased violence associated with its production and consumption. Through these discussions, it became clear that efforts were needed to rebuild a viable, national movement to combat the harms of the pornography industry. Several feminists developed a contemporary version of the slide shows developed in the 1970s to be used as an educational tool and to inspire action against the pornification of our culture. It is out of these efforts that the new organization, StopPornCulture! was created.

I'd like to take a crack at deconstructing the arguments of the anti-porn and pro-porn activists.

To paraphrase the anti-porn arguments that I have read or heard, the pornography industry as a whole is exploitative of female performers. In addition to that, the very subject of pornography is seen as harmful to society at large by endorsing or facilitating views that women are merely objects.

A somewhat more moderate view is that sexuality as portrayed by the ("mainstream"?) porn industry has been an influence on the culture of sexuality as a whole. One website suggests that its readers Make Love, Not Porn.

As for pro-porn arguments, Sasha Grey is quoted in her picture above. Audacia Ray wrote some very interesting thoughts on Waking Vixen. Tony Comstock wrote a response on Koan of Silence (oh, I think I just got that pun.) Nikol Hasler also recently interviewed Ashley Steel on Crushable.

Here is a video of sex blogger Violet Blue drumming up support on the anti-porn side. She uses a healthy sense of humor in her derision of the anti-porn arguments:

This may be tangential, but Professor Lisa Wade wrote an article about the portrayal of sexiness in the media. What Does "Lust" Look Like? This isn't strictly about pornography, but it does seem germaine to the discussion. It appears that images of women as sex objects already permeate popular culture.

In my own thinking about porn, I often feel that the men are presented as pieces of meat; they are more often than not faceless entities. When I read how differently men are paid for their services in porn than women, I question the notion that women are exploited.

From the wikipedia article linked above:

Most male performers in straight porn are paid less than their female costars. Ron Jeremy has commented on the pay scale of women and men of the sex film industry: "The average guy gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he's new. A woman makes $100,000 to $250,000 at the end of the year. "Girls can easily make 100K-250K per year, plus stuff on the side like strip shows and appearances. The average guy makes $40,000 a year."

I'm ambivalent. Perhaps there are women who have been exploited. Like Audacia Ray's porn:blue jeans analogy, we don't know the conditions of the workers by looking at the product.

On the front about images and perception, there's a porn-meme called POV. These are films shot entirely from the point of view of the (male) cameraperson who is also a performer. I haven't ever seen evidence of POV porn shot from a female perspective. I'd be curious to see this made. I'm not sure that it has ever been tried before, but I'm very intrigued by the potential. Even if it didn't sell well, what about the erotic possibilities? Also, what questions would it invite about the portrayal of women and men in the media?

For a tenth of a sawbuck!

2010-05-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

The reason I've been less active blog-wise is that I have spent every waking minute online working out the schedule for Gamex, which starts in less than a week. I've received compliments and had to fix many, many glitches in the schedule. It's tiring work that usually happens in the middle of the night. It has been remarkably stressful, but it's going to be an exciting event!

I'm most excited about the Worldwide Settlers of Catan Championship pre-qualifier we're holding. We had a ton of people come to Game Empire today for the pre-pre-qualifier, and my friend Dan won his entry into the event next week. If he goes all the way he'll be taking trips to Gen Con in Indianapolis and competing at Burg Wildenstein in Germany for the title of Settlers of Catan world champion!

(I remain impartial for the event that I'm running. I'll root for the winner of the Gamex event as they take their steps on the road to the championship.)

Anyway, I have to thank my pal Kevin Pimentel, who hooked me up with a gift certificate for a one-hour massage. My appointment is tomorrow and I can't wait!

***

After improv class tonight, I scored a hardcover copy of Stanislavsky's An Actor Prepares as well as a book of Viola Spolin's Improvisation Games this evening, each for a buck. Also, Mike Wolfe convinced me to add an hour of improvisation games to the Gamex schedule next weekend. We're just going to take over some space and make some theatre. We're guerrilla.

I'll be performing with my Monkey Butler classmates tomorrow night in One Buck Butler! That's the workshop class for the Monkey Butler level one classes. There's not much improv in Los Angeles at a lower price. It costs a buck, or pay $10 and nine of your friends get in for free!

One Buck Butler
5831 W Centinela Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90045
8pm

Finally, I read Improvise, by Mick Napier, upon many, many recommendations. It's a light book with some genuine nuggets of wisdom in it. I was fairly irritated by it, because I feel that some of the passages can really be misconstrued. It seems like the kind of book that would be better read aloud by the author, but maybe that's just me.

However, the book can also be read in a sitting or two, which makes it easier to read than Keith Johnstone's Impro. Impro to me is a superior book, but Improvise is much more immediate.

However, I have been working on Mick Napier's solo exercises and finding them quite the challenge. I even made flash cards so that I can do them on the run! If you see me talking to myself, it's intentional.

My life in "Yes, And"

2010-05-02T02:00:00.001-07:00

When I was newly resuming my studies in improvisation I spent a lot of time at the library printing out as much as I could find on the subject. Originally I intended to post a lot of those links here as well as a video clip or two for my fellow students. Before that I'm going to do a little navel-gazing.

It had been easily fifteen years since I performed comedy improvisation on stage. Nearly twenty years had passed since I floundered in my occasional performances with the Santa Barabara ComedySportz team. Let's be honest, I wasn't a great performer or team player in those early years.

I wasn't really sure what to expect on my return. In many ways things had changed, but who knew what would be the same?

I had dabbled with going out to the local improv houses in town through the years. I'd taken in shows at The Groundlings, Acme Comedy, IO and UCB. It was funny stuff, but it certainly had a different feel to the stuff with which I was most familiar. I hadn't really played or seen any long form improvisation in my early years. Harolds were something I heard mentioned in a sort of "have you heard of..." hush. All of the improvisation I learned at ComedySportz were short form games, improvisations that rarely lasted longer than five minutes at a time. Meanwhile, folks had been developing and building on the stuff that I didn't even know about when I was first performing. Yeah, it's nice to have a mountain to climb.

Even if I'm ambivalent about my own early performances and teamwork, I have to admit that improvisation became a very important part of my life. The "yes, and" impulse for as many years as it took me to learn and understand it formed a pretty strong portion of my worldview. The skill of listening took me even longer... is still taking my work. I could go on longer, but I really want to post some of those links.

***

The Skinny on LA's Impov Training Scene, by David Valdez. This is an article on Brains of Minerva, a cool site for actors in the Los Angeles scene.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised at how much I found on Wikipedia. The links I found there at the time aren't visible now, but here's one of them:
The Living Playbook, edited by Randy Dixon. This is a catalog, up-to-date through 2001 in this version of various improv games and forms.

My earliest readings in improvisation were the books of Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin. I've written about Johnstone in previous posts,

Here's a video of Viola Spolin, circa 1987:

From my own experience with ComedySportz, I'd suggest that there isn't really competition in so-called "competitive improv." It's really more of a hook to sell a show to an audience.

One troupe that rose to prominence over the last decade or so is the Upright Citizen's Brigade. This is from their televised Bravo performance that I only caught because I had my DVR programmed to look for Tina Fey.

I'm really glad that this was on YouTube, since I lost the show recording that I made years ago. I've also got the ASSSCAT dvd, which appears to be a show shot directly for DVD at the UCB Los Angeles stage. I really dig it.

And lastly, since I wanted my Monkey Butler friends to see the game Five Things played, here's this:

I really dig the annotations. This game is slightly different than the version I played, but the skills are still the same. This seems like a pretty decent representation of the muscles I was hoping to get students to flex last week.

And again, Monkey Butler. Loving the classes I take each week. It's good to have a place to work out.

edited to add:

BONUS!

I love Tina Fey.

My latest topics of cocktail conversation

2010-04-20T02:10:00.000-07:00

We were discussing art last weekend at a party, mostly because I had been inspired by famed film critic Roger Ebert's recent blog-posting claiming that video games could NEVER be Art. I won't say that I agree with his suggestion. I also won't say that I have seen evidence of video games that are Art to me. The difficulty in the discussion is that each person has their own view of what Art is.

Here is my own response to the original post and to some of the earliest comments in the list.

I really love the definition for art that Scott McCloud gave in his seminal work, Understanding Comics. I wish I could directly quote it. To boil it down somewhat, those things we do (or perhaps the works that we create) that do not specifically contribute to our safety or our property might be considered art. I'm sure that I've mangled that in paraphrasing.

As a board gamer, I think of the crafting of a set of human interactions. Perhaps the way that a good party host might be able to artfully entertain their guests with an amazing meal and elegant conversation. Role playing gamer friends of mine might be seen to use their game as a creative outlet. The results of playing a game may or may not be art, but players are moved in one way or another, and perhaps through asking the right questions we can explore the art or craft of games.

As a dancer, I wonder: does a staged ballet have a distinct artistic value that doesn't exist in a dance in competition? Are contestants in a talent show (or American Idol or what have you) not, for sake of being in a winnable-like-a-game situation, somehow artistically invalidated?

As an improvisational actor, does the fact that my rules of my interaction with my partners were developed by Johnstone or Close mean that my own creative output cannot be artistic?

I would argue that Donkey Kong is as much Art as E.C. Segar's Popeye. From me, that's high praise.

Maybe a more interesting question would be - what shifts might be made to create works (and I do think of games as works rather than products) might become more deeply meaningful than a pastime?

At this point there are at least a thousand responses, so reading the whole thing might be time consuming. Still, mostly rewarding and much smarter than reading the comments on YouTube.

edited to add:
Scott McCloud contributed to the conversation this morning. For those of you who don't know who Scott McCloud is, he created my favorite comic book of all time, Zot! and is much more famous for the seminal critique Understanding Comics.

Also, Allan Gonzalez posted a link to this video on his Facebook. I thought it was amusing and worth including here.

End edit.

The other topic of conversation was feminist porn. It seems that since I first considered the idea of Feminism, the loudest voices on this subject were the Dworkin and Mackinnon, the anti-pornography crusaders. I always felt that while the porn industry has certainly had many examples of exploitative behavior, that it needn't be seen as a completely unhealthy industry. To present a different point of view, I went and looked up this article, which breaks down a few of the different feminist views on pornography.

I really want to read your responses to these two articles. Let me know what you think!

Get Hed(wig)

2010-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

.

I was recently disappointed to find that of 15 people surveyed, only 1 had heard of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig is the creation of John Cameron Mitchell, whose voice I first heard on the Original Broadway Cast Recording of The Secret Garden, when I was in college. He went on to workshop another of my favorite films, Shortbus. Please go see this movie now.

I have a job interview in an hour. Wish me luck.

Spooferheroes.

2010-03-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

I suppose I've spent the last few weeks watching spoofs of superheroes. Specifically the funny movies and television shows that mock people who wear tights and fight crime.

My nephew James had recently pulled out The Specials from my DVD library. I hadn't seen it in a few years, but it's still pretty hilarious. The best thing about this movie is that the characters don't ever seem to fight crime. This morning, I picked out The Tick live action series. Still solidly funny, even though it doesn't seem like a show that most people would get. People often blame Fox for cancelling the show, but it makes sense. I still get a kick out of the episodes. I should probablu rewatch Mystery Men at some point. That's a movie that's intensely different from the source material, the obscure characters in Bob Burden's rigorously obscure comic masterpiece, The Flaming Carrot. Anything to do with The Flaming Carrot should probably be viewed through the lens of absurdism or dada. Mystery Men diverged from that. Honestly, I don't think the majority of the American public is smart enough to get Bob Burden's work.

I've never been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. Think I saw the first one once. I was a huge fan of the comics, especially when they first appeared, but by the time they were a cartoon show they just seemed really watered down to me. However, the TMNT really do belong in the pantheon of comics spoofs. I just won't be watching those films any time soon.

There's this documentary called Confessions of a Superhero, that gets into the lives of the people who dress up in costume outside of the Mann Chinese Theatre, or whatever the place is called nowadays. Since I grew up on Hollywood and even worked the same block that these guys worked for several years, I find this movie quite close to my heart. I'm going to have to watch it again.

What weird stuff do you like to watch?

edit:
Of course, I forgot to mention Joss Whedon's fabulous web-series Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Worth watching again and again.

A Sort of Comics Oral History

2010-03-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

I don't imagine anyone reading this blog was following my old blog on Myspace. I wrote an entry there about the very cool book Eisner/Miller , which was essentially a two-hundred page conversation between the late Will Eisner and Frank Miller, two of the most influential creators in comics.

Two very cool articles were recently posted on Twitter over the last few days and I thought they'd be worth re-posting here.

The first is a modern-day interview with Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and also the creator of one of my favorite comics of all time, Zot!: Talking Comics with Scott McCloud.

The second is a Rolling Stone article circa 1971 which interviews the queen of the Marvel Bullpen, Flo Steinberg: Face Front! Clap Your Hands! You're on the Winning Team!

In general, I think it's cool that there's so much oral history regarding the comics medium.

Completely unrelated to the articles is a YouTube video about improvisation. Haha.

Nerdcore!

2010-02-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Two blogs I have been enjoying lately:

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com
http://sexfoodandcomicbooks.com/

These are two totally nerdy blogs written by folks associated with the porn industry and I love them. The first is written by Zak S, and is surprisingly thoughtful exploration of Dungeons and Dragons. I don't even really like Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't mind reading his posts about Vampires, being a good Game Master and the gaming sessions he has been running with folks like Sasha Grey, Kimberly Kane, Mandy Morbid and Satine Phoenix. The second is Satine Phoenix's blog about things that she digs. She's apparently a huge comic book nerd, perhaps a little less than I am. She has vegan recipes and makes recommendations for sex toys and comic books alike.

I totally get that.

Like Edison's

2010-02-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a short thought:

My bias against discussion is something I've learned to see as very English. I've known political theatre groups in Europe which would readily cancel a rehearsal, but never a discussion. My feeling is that the best argument may be a testimony to the skill of the presenter than to the excellence of the solution advocated. Also the bulk of discussion time is visibly taken up with transactions of status which have nothing to do with the problem to be solved. My attitude is like Edison's, who found a solvent for rubber by putting bits of rubber in every solution he could think of, and beat all those scientists who were approaching the problem theoretically.

From Impro, by Keith Johnstone

I'm re-reading Impro, which can be considered one of the seminal books on improvisation. The last time I read it must have been close to twenty years ago. I consider this a formative book to the way I view the world. Reading about Johnstone's approach to teaching, I see a lot of his ideas have been present in my teaching, theatrical and otherwise.

What I enjoy about the passage is that it implicitly draws a distinction between discussion and communication. Perhaps Johnstone meant to draw a distinction between argument and work. That seems valid to me too.

What I've been up to lately.

2010-01-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

I am loving yoga and improvisation classes. I'm also playing plenty of board games.

I'm taking improv classes through Monkey Butler, which offer many free classes throughout the week all over Southern California and in some other places too. I'm currently in the level one class in Sherman Oaks. I'd take classes closer to home if they didn't conflict with the LindyGroove Technique Class. I'm also backing up this with the I.O. West Improv Jam, hosted by my buddy Nando Velasquez. The Improv Jam is an opportunity for students to play with IO team performers. They're currently reconsidering their schedule, but at the moment the Jam is scheduled for every Wednesday at 11:30pm.

I'm learning a ton there and really putting in the work that I was never able to do in college. I feel like I'm hitting a lot of breakthroughs, so I'm pretty happy with my progress.

I'm taking yoga at Mission Street Yoga in South Pasadena. At the moment I can only afford the $5 lunchtime yoga classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There's a donation class tomorrow afternoon that I'm planning to take and there are FREE classes every Monday through the end of the month at 10:45am. I'm planning to hit those for the next couple of weeks.

Also hitting breakthroughs here too. I may even soon be more comfortable with going upside down. Don't know why that's so huge, but even being close to it is a lot for me. I'm also returning to a point at which I no longer need the belt to reach my toes in a sitting stretch. It's especially wonderful to be in a place where breathing is so praised. One day I was experimenting with Crow position, a position with which I've never been comfortable and the instructor (without my realization) had pointed me out to the class as having a fully engaged breath. I didn't in fact know that she was speaking to anyone but me until I heard the applause of the rest of the class. It took me by surprise because I take my breathing for granted. That should be the case after having done it for so long.

I'm playing board games a lot. I just picked up Vasco Da Gama and I'm really looking forward to getting it on the table. We've been playing a lot of Power Grid: Factory Manager lately and mostly I'm just going with the flow and being a decent host.

Buy me stuff.

2010-01-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

My birthday is coming up and I won't hesitate to say that most people never have any idea what to buy for me. This has been a common theme over the years, with one of my most recent holiday gifts being a Garmin, a pricey gift which I plan to never use, and perhaps to sell. Getting presents like this makes me a bit sour. I like to put at least a little effort into gift selection.

In aid of this, I've maintained my Amazon wish list, from which I believe the best present I can ever remember receiving came. Plenty of my favorite presents can be found used (and I prefer that if you buy, you buy used) for less than five bucks. One of my presents has been available for a penny. I don't care if it came from a library, I could use five of those Hikaro No Go books. No, I'm really not sure why the Adventures of Pete and Pete CD is listed over $11k. It must be a really good CD.

Probably the most immediate suggestions would be the improv books. I've been getting back into improv over the last several months and I'd just like to pick up the recommended reading for my classes. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm dirt poor. There's plenty of cool stuff on the list, and it's all stuff I plan to get sooner or later.

Even if you now have no interest in buying a present for me ever again, I think the list is still pretty interesting. At least it's interesting to me. If you have ever been curious about me (and at least some folks have mentioned facebook-stalking me in the past) this is certainly your opportunity for a massive info-blast!

I still haven't worked out my birthday plans yet. I'm thinking karaoke and some kind of food.

Remember Here When You Are There.

2009-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

The new volume in Larry Marder's Beanworld series arrived on shelves this week. To say that this book was formative to me would be an understatement. To say that I've been anxious to read this book for over fifteen years would not be an exaggeration. As I mentioned in the link, that first issue of Tales of the Beanworld changed the way I view the world, how we work together, how art and music make our days easier... There are so many little secrets in this book. The book is refreshingly simple, yet surprisingly deep. I highly recommend a reading.

The three volumes in Marder's Beanworld Spring Cycle are:
Wahoolazuma!, A Gift Comes! and Remember Here When You Are There!

More from Larry Marder can be found on his blog: larrymarder.blogspot.com

Zoom Schwartz Perfigliano!

2009-12-01T11:59:00.001-08:00

I've started taking an improv class offered by Monkey Butler. I've been toying with the idea of getting back into improvisation, but have found the rates to be prohibitive. The Monkey Butler classes are free, and generally everyone seems to be very welcoming and open. It's been really great to find a place that gets me back to work. I have missed performing for quite a while and am really enjoying the process of rediscovery!

More later. I'm just taking lots of notes and doing my best to improve.

Stuck in your head?

2009-08-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been watching the first three seasons of SOAP. Some people said that my recent postings on Facebook have gotten the theme song stuck in their heads. If you don't know what it sounds like, here it is!

This is the original theme.

Here's the shorter one after they introduced Chuck and Bob.

Here's the Batman theme song in case you need help getting the other one out of your head.

Some things I played

2009-08-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

I love traditional swing music, but I love to find and play stuff that I don't hear anywhere else. As a DJ I've generally always been eclectic. If I had to dance to anything all night, it would be real swing music, from a great live band. With the ability to choose CDs I prefer a set that goes all over the place.

People asked me about these two artists I played at Camp Hollywood:

Nellie McKay - I've been playing this tune for years. This is a newer recording than I have. Ms. McKay is kind of rebellious and I dig her song-writing skills.

Leftover Cuties - I tried out a couple of tunes from this band I saw at the Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday morning. I picked up their EP to play that night. I previewed the tunes in between classes that afternoon. Being discombobulated by Sunday night, I couldn't find the disc. I am occasionally lame.

The audio on the next video isn't great, but I still like the song. I really wanted to dance yesterday morning at the farmers market.

And lastly, this is Sweet's song from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, Once More with Feeling.

edited to add:
Two bonus songs that I forgot to play!
I had downloaded this video from the Movits after seeing them on the Colbert Report last week:

And I also got Lucas very well played Lucas with the Lid Off:

Sushi, a how-to.

2009-08-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Shawn Lesniak for turning me on to this video. It made me laugh harder than anything in a long time.

Build a better...

2009-07-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever once actually played a game of Mousetrap. All the fun was in the Rube Goldberg-esque machinations it took to bring the cage down on that little plastic rodent. I still think this is endlessly cool and would not mind having one in my backyard for dealing with intruders.

It's an Art Form

2009-07-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Who (or what) is an Inker? In the most mechanical sense an Inker is a person in illustration, most often in comics, who takes drawings that have been layed out (by another person called a Penciller) and gets them ready for reproduction.

In comics, the Inker is often under-appreciated. Kevin Smith wrote a whole conversation about how inkers are "tracers" in Chasing Amy. Smith later recanted when he began working with professional comics artists.

Here's a lot more about comics inking, an excerpt from the DC Comics Guide to Inking Comic, by Klaus Janson:

What do comics have to do with the short film above? Maybe nothing.

A Resurrection - Act 2

2009-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

For the first act of this production, click here.

I cannot get over how eclectic this production is.

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

A Resurrection - Act 1

2009-07-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

Back in the 90s I was a pretty big Indigo Girls fan and also a fan of the music from Andrew Lloyd Weber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. So when the two came together on CD it seemed like it might be a perfect fit. Strangely, I didn't enjoy the CD so much. However watching this footage from the 1995 production really kicks ass in the way that the CD never did. I'm presenting Act 1 from this performance, at least as much as I could find on YouTube.

I'll be posting Act 2 at some point in the future. Look out for it!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

End of Act 1
Part 10

The Silent Razor + Bonus

2009-07-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

My pal Otis Johnson directed The Silent Razor.

Watch:

Bonus: Stolen from my pal Otis Johnson's Facebook:

ROBOGEISHA!

What a difference two days make!

2009-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'll be working with Brown Chicken Brown Cow Productions on a short film for the 48 Hour Film Project. We find out which genre we'll be shooting on Friday and have until Sunday evening to write, shoot, edit and turn in our film. It's going to be crazy!

Producer Shelly Lloyd-James is a Visual Effects Coordinator who has worked on some of the Harry Potter films, The Dark Knight and is currently working on the new Twilight film. Joon Chang has directed another film for 48 called The Belgian Pretzel and another called Meeting Miss Fortune for the 24 Hour Film Project. Both of those films are viewable here. He's coming down from Seattle to direct our film this weekend. We have a lot of talented folks involved in the project! I'm one of them.

Our film will be premiering next week at:

Regency Fairfax Theatres
7907 Beverly Blvd.
Tuesday July 14th, 7:30 and 9:00 pm

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here!

Let's fill some seats, people.

Number 12 Looks Just Like You.

2009-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

The Twilight Zone is my favorite series of all time. Rod Serling's promise was to take good writing and bring it to the home viewers, and that promise was kept every week! This episode is one of my favorites: Number 12 Looks Just Like You, written by Charles Beaumont. Beaumont is also one of my favorite short story writers.

Submitted for your approval:

Things I missed in college.

2009-06-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

The wicked art of the immortal Wally Wood.

Please check out my new blip account. I'm picking at least a couple of new songs daily and would love to have new listeners. If you dig Pandora, this isn't too different. The difference is that Pandora keeps rotating the same songs through and this system tends to bring up a lot of cool new stuff. So sign up for Blip and start listening. I'll listen to you too.

I love this article that I stole from Susie Bright's Facebook feed: What I learned at my first orgy. Personally I've never attended nor participated in an orgy. I just love the final conclusion at which Greta Christina arrives.

added later:
I've been thinking about the concept of polyamory lately. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's the idea of having established more than one relationship or planned non-monogamous relationships. This idea sounds really complicated to me. I would say that if I could handle a relationship, it would probably be with one woman.

However, I know more and more people who are living in polyamorous relationships. When I hear about this, my first reaction is to filter it through my own beliefs in my own ability to deal with jealousy, to imagine multiple viewpoints, to remember the times I've been burned. Is it possible to maintain such a relationship? All the evidence I've read suggests that it's more difficult than a one-on-one relationship. It might be possible, but it would take a stronger person, a group of people who are each individually stronger than me.

I think that's why the article is so refreshing for me.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm

2009-06-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Josie Jacobs, from whom I stole this clip.

Mary Roach is the author Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. This video features her speaking about orgasm. I didn't notice any specific human nudity, but there are some moments that might be questionable at work. Buyer beware.

The L stands for love!

2009-06-09T02:06:00.000-07:00

I'm totally listening to the original cast recording of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant. It's kicking my ass in the most bestest of ways! From what I've been told, you probably won't get to see this performed, ever. Xenu has deep pockets.

I honestly don't have any love or loathing for Scientology. I'm just a fan of a good satire.

This evening I watched the Tony Awards and I was stoked to learn that Hair won the award for best revival. That makes me happy since it's the only Broadway show that I've seen in the last decade. Also, I just love the show in general and have done for years. This new production just burst off the freakin' stage.

At some point, I'm gonna have to get the cast recording.

Lefties don't need special rights

2009-05-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

I'm about as gay as I am left-handed. Which is to say that I can write with my left hand if I make myself do it. It isn't pretty and it never feels right.

I was thinking up this whole analogy about how left-handed folks were once shamed and chided into behaving in a right-handed way and how that was similar to the way that gay folks are often shamed and chided into behaving straight. If you believe that sexual orientation is as biologically ingrained as handed-ness then it shouldn't be too hard to understand.

In my research, I found one person who said basically what I was thinking but from the gay/left-handed perspective. Go there to find my basic conclusion, but from an insider. I'm not suggesting that left-handed people are gay or vice versa. If you believe that gayness is genetically programmed ("Oh, my girl takes after her aunt Susie") then it makes sense. Though they were once expected to change their ways, being a left-handed is now more-or-less considered natural and not sinister, pun intended.

Some have argued that being gay requires a behavior, that men who are attracted to other men and women who are attracted to other women don't need to act on those impulses. The sin of gayness, as described above, is a sin of acting the way that one's heart tells them to do rather than squelching those feelings. It makes sense to me that teachers and parents tried to purge the left-handedness out of children. Would it have to do with making kids more "normal?"

This is to me what the whole mess is about: encouraging normalness. As a strange person, I have to take offense. Don't get me started on "tradition."

I imagine that being a leftie and learning to write with one's right hand would be similar to being gay and marry a person of the "appropriate" gender. This appears to be, after all, what opponents of gay marriage would encourage. However, marrying the wrong person would seem to be much more horrific to me.

Why is it said that the existence of same-sex marrieds threatens the existence of marriage as an institution? It seems irrational to me. Put in this same point of view, it seems as if folks were complaining that left-handed kids threaten to infect a whole school with the Southpaw flu.

I once tried signing my name with my left hand. I'm still all right.

One of Dem Bums

2009-05-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

This I Believe was a radio program conceived by Edward R. Murrow in which prominent people and normal folks could share 600 words about their system of thought. It was launched in 1949. Decades later, the show was relaunched as a series on National Public Radio. In the time since then many of the articles have been collected in a series of books, also called This I Believe.

In the 1952 edition of This I Believe Jackie Robinson, the famous first African-American baseball player wrote a passage that puts me in mind of the current events of today:

... I can tell [my children] too, that they will never face some of these prejudices because other people have gone before them. And to myself I can say that, because progress is unalterable, many of today's dogmas will have vanished by the time they grow into adults. I can say to my children: There is a chance for you. No guarantee, but a chance. And this chance has come to be, because there is nothing static with free people. There is no middle ages logic so strong that it can stop the human tide from flowing forward. I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe - and with every fiber in me - that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past to discover the truth of today; and perhaps find the truth of tomorrow.
I believe in the human race.
I believe in the warm heart.
I believe in man's integrity.
I believe in the goodness of a free society.

"If I had to do it all over again, I would do it."

2009-04-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

This entire morning has been filled with the news that Frankie Manning, the Ambassador of Lindy Hop, has died. Credited with creating the first air steps of the dance, his legacy is far more than can be described in a short missive.

This clip dates back to the 1980s, I think.

This was surely one of the first things I watched in my own Lindy Hop education. Since then, a generation of dancers have been gifted with his inspiration.

I remember the moment I first saw the flyer for the Harvest Moon Swingout in 1997. I had learned East Coast Swing a month before and had planned to delay learning Lindy Hop for another few months. Then I saw the flyer at one of the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association Saturday dances. Frankie Manning would be teaching Lindy Hop the following weekend! I hadn't learned the step yet, but the common thought at the time was that it was nearly impossible to learn. So I bought the Frankie Manning/Erin Stephens instructional video and got to learning on Sunday. Then I took Erik and Sylvia's Lindy Hop class at The Derby on Monday and worked on the basic step for the rest of the week.

By the time I got to the class on the following Saturday, I hesitantly joined Frankie's beginning level class. I really didn't have an idea of what to expect from the man. This was in the days before YouTube. I thought he would be an old white guy, and I might have been intimidated by the mere idea of him. In class I warned my partners that I had only started learning the dance the week before. Most were pleasant, if not a little put off by my warning. They were patient with me and perhaps surprised by my progress.

Wow! The man at the head of class had this joyful timbre in his voice, like he was on the verge of spilling his laughter over the crowd! He was absolutely not the scary white man that I had imagined. Frankie Manning had an excitement during that class that surely carried over into the way I feel about the dance today. Hundreds of dancers in the room were with him that day and I'm convinced that was merely a drop in the bucket.

That night at the dance, they played the first Lindy Hop clips I ever saw, including Hot Chocolates, still reversed in soundie form. In the film, Frankie was the man wearing the overcoat. It was that night that I first began my quest to find more dance footage, years of wandering through obscure video stores and wading through films and catalogues to find the merest glimpse of Lindy Hop.

If anything could be said about that week, I learned that Lindy Hop wasn't impossible after all. Lindy Hop could be as easy as walking, only filled with exuberance, replete with joy!

So Frankie Manning, I thank you many times over for the love you shared, not just in the dance but in life. You have meant so much to so many people. For me, your laughter lives on in my own teaching. Your joy will live on in the generations to come!

Crossing the medium divide

2009-04-13T02:39:00.001-07:00

Caffeine-induced ramble ahead:

This afternoon, while I played Marvel: Ultimate Alliance a thought occurred to me.

Comic books are big business. However it's a business around a medium that appears to be on its last legs. Now it seems that the most popular comic book characters are merely grist for the mill. I sometimes wonder if the net worth of the history of comic books is the vault of properties from which so many movies, television shows and video games are produced.

I have been a life-long comics reader. That last bit is emphasized because the action of reading is important to me. So often people have asked me if I have collected comics and my response is often "No, but I read them. They tend to collect themselves." If we believe Scott McCloud, the notion that comics are read is vital. One qualitative difference between a film and a comic is that the film is paced entirely by the editor. While the layout of a comics page is determined by the artist/creator, the reader is left to move at their own pace through the images.

Another key theorist in comics is the late, great Will Eisner. One of his complaints that I remember is (and I'm near certainly misquoting) the stories in comics always revolved around the notion of pursuit. The super-hero meme is only one facet of the world of comics. Yet most folks can only think of super-heroes when the word comics are discussed.

That's all well and good. When it comes to it, though, it appears that comics and all print publishing are undergoing a huge shift as their respective media become obsolete. As has been reported elsewhere, new generations of children are not being introduced to comic books in those formative years. Instead, they learn of those memorable characters through movies and video games. In fact, it seems that video games may serve to this new generation what comic books did to the 1950s kid. That's the generation that was hit by Seduction of the Innocent.

This would appear to bring us full circle. However, to go a little past that, I think to the potential of video game stories. It's clear to me that the majority of video game adaptations tend to work in that same "pursuit story" mode that Eisner supposedly complained about. Can the player complete such and such objective? If not, keep trying until they do. The stories don't ever seem to do much beyond that. It feels to me like story developments are in service to the action. I don't know that I can remember a game where the pursuit was the Macguffin for a richer experience. It seems to me that there's untapped potential in the video game arena.

Suuuusaaan!!

2009-04-12T08:36:00.001-07:00

Apparently there's a running theme with my animated crushes. Read along and see if you can guess.

Francesca is the undeniable femme fatale from Mad Monster Party. Designed by Jack Davis of Mad, she schemes her way into our hearts. I'd be your creep any day!

Then there's Sally, from The Nightmare Before Christmas. She's a maudlin sweetheart who's always falling apart at the seams.

Sally, sigh.

Most recently, Ginormica. She really deserves to be seen on the big screen!

I'm not sure who designed her, but it's clear that the makers of Monsters vs. Aliens have a love for classic monster b-movies of the 50s. Seriously, it is even better in 3D. I wouldn't say that lightly.

She might be the most relatable character of the bunch. It's also cool that this 50-foot woman is the central character of the film!

Art repeats life repeating

2009-04-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

I read this story and remembered a book that I really liked. It was called My Generation, featured in a comic called Vertigo Pop! London, by Peter Milligan and Phillip Bond. It starts on the 60th birthday of pop star Rocky Lamont and concerns a secret he has kept for thirty years.

Peter Milligan is easily one of my favorite comics writers of the British invasion so long ago. His work is hit and miss, but always worth a look.

A short thought about magick

2009-04-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've only briefly studied the writings of Aleister Crowley. He was known as the Great Beast, known as a demon worshipper and from what I can gather most of his reputation was bluster designed to scare away the rubes and attract the free-thinkers. If I can sum up a portion of his thinking: love is more important than law; practice Yoga; trust your own will; keep your mind and heart open. He died in the 40s in a boarding house, addicted to heroin.

That's an extremely truncated summary. I may be completely misrepresenting the guy. I won't say he was a great man, because who can know. He was certainly complicated. Even though there's a picture of Crowley at the top of the post, I don't think this is really about him.

I had a thought this week that I made sure to write down:

Magick is the ability to transform one's world. One must first accept their circumstance, then they must see opportunity and put their will to work.

A multi-colored cardboard diorama

2009-03-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

Spoiler alert - the plot and events in Watchmen, both the book and the film. This was originally posted on the Ships and Giggles board.

Weeks later, I've talked with a lot more people. Some of them liked the movie and others thought it was garbage. At least one of those people who didn't like the movie went back and read the book afterward. So as an ad campaign for the book, I guess it worked out. With regard to my own feelings on the movie, I still can't say I like it.

The folks who liked the film seemed to respond most to its visual elements, though a few here have suggested that the musical choices were interesting as well. I can not disagree more violently with the latter, though the former... I'd have to say yes, it's certainly a pretty film.

I'm watching Across the Universe at the moment, and I think that Zack Snyder tried to do with Watchmen what Julie Taymor did with the Beatles. While I'm not sure that either is a great film, they're really pretty. I find the performances in Across the Universe to be much stronger, and obviously Taymor didn't use direct visual reference to the Fab Four. I think of the Watchmen film as a sort of cardboard diorama of the book. I still haven't heard or read of anyone saying whether the movie adds any additional value to the Watchmen experience. If you can think of a reason why anyone who has read the book really needs to see the film, I hope you'll please respond.

To compare the movie to its source material, it seems necessary to consider the elements that were changed from the book. Most of the changes I feel were in aid of making the conclusions for the audience: the song choices, the score over Veidt's opening speech, Manhattan's ability to let everyone see the world as he did, Dan Dreiberg's scream at the end of Rorschach. None of these are elements in the book. For a film that fans claim was so true to the source material, these little things make a huge difference. As I have said before, I initially felt that the choices were on-the-nose. In further consideration, that hasn't changed much. Where this is most vitally different from the source material is that I have always felt that Watchmen book let its readers come to their own conclusions and that was important. How much do we suspect Veidt when we first meet him? Do we really need to know specifically how Dreiberg might react at the end? Might he not have been much more pragmatic? Also, what happens to the metaphor when there actually existed a team called The Watchmen?

I'm still bothered by the addition of lengthy fight scenes and the gratuitous sex scene. That opening fight scene is completely out of character for The Comedian, I feel. Especially in light of his emotions in light of discovering the conspiracy. Watchmen to me is a book of conversations, where violence takes place in the context of those conversations.

Which brings me to Malcolm Long. Other than being a confidante to Walter Kovacs in the film, he doesn't serve any purpose. In the book, he serves in so many contexts - he is the well-adjusted person who is finally touched by the abyss and moved toward heroism, at least in my interpretation. Other than the obvious gag of showing Kovacs the blot-tests, what purpose does he serve in the film?

Click on the image for a closer look.

I'm not ready to conclude these thoughts. I'd like to hear your comments.

What a difference a day makes!

2009-03-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

They told me that packing for the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon would be something like getting ready for a summer camp. I brought 12 t-shirts, one for every couple of hours and I was gonna leave my laptop at home. The 24 Hour Fitness Ultrasport didn't have wireless, so I would just have to rough it.

Here's the run-down: hundreds of participants volunteer for the weekend to go to a giant party. Before they come to the party, they ask their friends and family for donations, the proceeds of which will go to The City of Hope. In exchange for the donations, the participants promise that they and/or their team members will be on the dance floor for the entire duration. Live bands, contests, dance classes, great company - it's not a bad deal in the least. In past years, the event has raised an annual average of over $100,000 to benefit cancer research. So it's a giant party that helps to make good things happen.

Pictures by Mike Wolfe unless otherwise noted.

I was the leader of Team Old School. The team had originally been made up of dancers who liked classic jazz music and who were inspired by vintage dance footage. This year, I invited some of my students to join the team. The more bodies the better. At the outset of the event, we had over a dozen members. We were planning a bake sale, and I made sure to remind everyone that a bathing suit makes you that much more welcome in the jacuzzi.

About the bake sale, Jen Hollywood is famous for her cupcakes (she'd bring Caramel Mocha and Chai spice, as well as a secret stash just for the team), at least in our friendly circles. I'm a ribbon winning pie-maker (I was experimenting with Kiss my Buttermilk again and had the idea to make Ginger Apple pie, modified from this recipe) and Karin Pleasant would pitch in with cookies and brownies.

When we got there, we pulled a spot between The Cult of the Eye and the Swingin' Clientele. We also had a spot next to the free water and the restroom, so go Team Old School! The other teams made up for our lack of youthful enthusiasm. Most of the folks that I spoke to seemed a little perplexed about the Cult, but they seem like fun folks. I heard that they have a party called Waffles of the Damned, where they get together for waffles and zombie movies.

Moon-faced and starry-pied

Laurinda Steinmeyer brought our tent set-up. I hadn't met her before but she'd been dancing in Orange County since the early 90s. She's one of the Disneyland generation - those dancers who learned at the weekly dance there. She had a ton of supplies, including our tent, chairs and tables. She also made our really cool Team Old School sign, including some required information about skin cancer and the team motto:

Team Old School - It's like New School, but Old.

Tise Chao is a founding member of the team. I believe she dates back to The Derby, like I do. We like to tell the same in-jokes back and forth, about whipped cream and beef & broccoli.

Todd, Tise, Rachel and Jonathan
Thanks to Tise Chao for this pic

One of my favorite bands had the marquis spot for the weekend. Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five with Hilary Alexander. These cats know swing!

Old School members Laurinda Steinmeyer and Mike Lopez
Thanks to Laurinda Steinmeyer for the pic.

Jen Hollywood (yes, that's her real name) drove in from Santa Barbara to participate in the event. She's comes from that late 90s Santa Barbara crowd, I think. I've known her since one of the Laughlin bus trips back in the day. She still comes down to dance in Los Angeles from time to time.

A few of the other members of Team Old School, including some students of mine from my class at LindyGroove: Ashley Mee, Mike Wolfe, Kirsten Welge and Jorge Estrada.

There were a ton of classes scheduled that weekend. It was good having the students on the team, because they were on the floor when we old fogies were restin'. That Jorge was our team madman. I think there was barely a moment when he wasn't on the floor. He was definitely doing a lot of the heavy lifting for our team, being on the floor when everyone else was asleep.

In the meantime, I spent a lot of time conserving my energy. If by conserving my energy I mean hanging out with cute girls.

Photo by Paul Almazon

Do I have a thing for cute blonds with glasses? You decide.

Did I mention dance contests? There were several that weekend.

Video by Roxie1589

This Jack and Jill was the first contest of the weekend. For the non-dancers reading a Jack and Jill is a contest in which dancers are partnered up randomly. In the footage above, I'm dancing with little Morgan, a new dancer from the inland empire who was probably the youngest participant at the event. There were plenty of babies around, but mostly they weren't working too hard.

Wait a second. Matt from the Cult of the Eye was selling a minute worth of holding his baby for a buck. That little cultist had to have been the youngest one there!

Photo by Laurinda Steinmeyer

Bernard of Hollywood and Karin Pleasant represented our team in another contest that night. I didn't see it, but apparently they won a hundred bucks for our team. I think I might have been in the jacuzzi when that happened. Congratulations to Bernard and Karin!

Here's a video with Bernard and Karin in the semi-finals:

video by Matt Jenkins

Here's clip from one of the jams that weekend. I think this is around 1 in the morning, but who can remember?

Video by Matt Jenkins

This is what happens when you dance in the jams: pretty girls spooning. That's just a lesson for you non-dancer folk: dancing is fun and mental.

Photo by Tom Hong

The Atomic Cherry Bombs:

Video provided by Shesha Marvin

Event MC Kyle Smith. Photo by Laurinda Steinmeyer

Shaheed Qaasim and Amanda Marchand. Photo by Shane Karns

At 6am I made a parking trip. What our team does is we collect all of the team parking stubs and then send out one person every four hours to re-park and get new tickets. This means that we can park for free at the event and it also gets us out of the building in case someone's feels like getting outside. I always forget that the parking lot is open access after midnight, so we did this for several hours without need. But better than having to explain the plan to someone in the wee hours of the morning.

Photo by Chris Gandhi

Then there was the only class I took that weekend. I hadn't heard of Aubri Siebert before, but she did the annual wake-up class, which had previously been done by Mikey Pedroza. She taught a bright charleston routine and for a non-morning person was pretty much a charmer for the folks in the class. I'd take a class from her again in the future!

By the way, I brought pajamas but forgot to change. I did change between the wake-up class and later, but I haven't found any pics from those hours.

Photo by Paul Almazon

One of the perennial competitions at this event is the t-shirt customization contest. Every participant gets a shirt, but some very creative folks spend most of their time making their shirts their own. This year saw some of the fiercest competition to date, with designers making bringing in heavy equipment to make their elaborate creations.

Where were you at 6:30am on March 14th? This is where I was.

Video by Matt Jenkins

The solo stylings of Danny Maika. Photo by Krystina Torres

One of the surprises of the weekend was a late morning performance by singer/songwriter Danny Maika. I've known Danny since the early Memories days and he's really been putting some great tunes together. He did a set of mostly classic rock covers that were surprisingly danceable. One of the highlights of the weekend was his one man rendition of Don't Worry, Be Happy. He sold a bunch of CDs that day and they're definitely worth a listen.

By the time 2pm rolled around, I had had 15 non-consecutive minutes of sleep. The event raised close to $128,000 for the City of Hope. The Cult of the Eye really did their work, raising over $21,000 by themselves. That baby rental plan really worked out!

The two top team Old School earners were Karin Pleasant with $555 and and Mike Wolfe with $465. If we take into account the $100 that she earned with Bernard in that contest, she's easily past $600. Good work and congratulations to Team Old School!

At the closing ceremony every year I get teary-eyed. Shesha and Nikki presented the ceremonial check. Then, much like summer camp, it was time to clean up and go home.

There's still time to donate to the event, if you're reading this before the end of March 2009. Since the event ended the totals have been upped past $130,000. Please visit www.danceathon.org for more information.

Ed Brubaker's Angel of Death

2009-03-02T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ed Brubaker is the new king of hard-boiled fiction. His comic with Sean Phillips Criminal hits in sucker punches to the soul. He's the guy who killed Captain America and if you haven't heard of him by now, you should look him up.

This is the first of ten episodes about Eve, a cold-blooded killer. It stars Zoe Bell, who did that death-defying car-roof scene in Death Proof . I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. Check it out:

From Crackle: Angel of Death Ep 1 "Edge" st arring Zoe Bell

The one that doesn't talk

2009-02-23T10:09:00.001-08:00

I've been a fan of Penn & Teller for years, ever since I saw that first PBS special they did. There was something about the way that they went against the grain of the tradition; they often revealed the secrets behind the tricks. Still there was a sense of wonder and craftsmanship in their work.

I had two of their three books, and used them both to aggravate and amaze my college friends. There might be more books now, but I only remember three. I remember a deaf friend of mine just bawling me out for one bit. Man, good times!

Nowadays they do a show called Bullshit of which I've seen a season or so. I follow Penn Gillette on Twitter. He's the one who did all the talking. He was the voice of Comedy Central for a long time. He's the one that most people remember. Teller on the other hand, never said a word during their act. So I took great delight in reading this story:

The Las Vegas Weekly - A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)… TELLER!

Thanks to Neil Gaiman, from whose Twitter post I stole this link.

6 weeks to 300!

2009-02-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took my initial test for 200 sit-ups. Today I'll take my test for 100 push-ups. I'll start the programs on Monday and Tuesday respectively. I was considering P90x, but these programs are free and will tide me over until Augie is finished with his DVDs.

I haven't gone to a gym in over a decade, though I've been relatively active. Last time I was working out was when I was working with Ben & Sheri's team, and a hiatus between that and The New York City Ballet Workout (book and DVDs 1 & 2).

Wish me luck!

Red over left, blue over right.

2009-02-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

I'm glad that Ray Zone is still making comics. I remember the first time I ever put on those funky specs, the ones that turned flat red/blue images into multi-layered space-scapes. It was called Battle for a Three Dimensional World, written by Ray Zone and with art by Jack "The King" Kirby. I bought it from a 7-Eleven, where it sat on a rack behind the register. I must have been 11 and I certainly didn't know who Jack Kirby was at the time. For me it was about that weird trick with the glasses.

Ray Zone was the guy who brought the tricks back to the trade.He has worked with legends, like the aforementioned Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Neal Adams, Dave Stevens.... He's even had a hand in work with some of my favorite authors, including Alan Moore and Grant Morrison.

Whenever I see a 3D comic, I make sure to pick it up. Thanks to Sara who picked up a set of plastic 3D glasses for me. The paper ones always fall apart.

It's 8 f'in thirty!

2009-02-05T15:59:00.001-08:00

Let the Hazing Begin!

2009-02-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Oh wait, it's not that kind of pledge week.

Y'all should join KCRW. I'm volunteering during their pledge drive. You should consider sharing your love. And by love, I mean cash.

In case you need some reminding about KCRW's music programming:

Sia

Cat Power

Beck performing with The Flaming Lips

Check out their streaming music station to hear more of what they're about.

I mean, they don't just have great music programming, they were also one of the first NPR stations to feature This American Life. As far as I'm concerned, KCRW is ahead of the curve.

Plus crazy freebies and giveaways to anyone who makes a pledge.

And if you really want to be hazed, I'm sure something can be arranged.

Spears me baby, one more time!

2009-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

It's not like Britney Spears is known for being a great songwriter or anything, but I love these two covers of her oeuvre:

I heard this cover by Travis on KCRW years ago. You might have heard it since then. I'll be volunteering during the KCRW pledge drive next week, so if you want to support all the cool stuff that they do, consider giving them a call!

I think this cover was covered for use in the Lindsay Lohan remake of Freaky Friday, so double coverage there.

Pandora turned me on to Yael Naim, probably from my Feist channel. Birthweek circumstances gave me the opportunity to buy some new music so I picked up her record and have really dug it so far.

In case anyone is curious about the treats I had out for my birthweek celebration at LindyGroove last night, I bought three flavors of ice cream and sorbet (Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs, Cardamom and Lemon Basil) from Carmela Ice Cream at the South Pasadena Farmers' Market to go along with a Croix de Lorraine cake that I also purchased there. They were thoroughly eaten, including the Lemon Basil sorbet which had melted.

The birthday dance was a mob and was over before everyone who wanted in could get in. So I guess if anyone is at Memories tonight they can catch up with me there. I'm planning to see The Class in a little bit and eat at Lucky Devils afterward.

Blood in the Gutter and Blood on the Sand

2009-01-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

Two considerations today, they're both oddly sexual though all of the links and pics that I will post are safe for work, more or less.

Thanks to Sylvia Sykes who reminded me in her very cool 16 things (one of those Facebook chain letters that I usually ignore but in this case found to be a very compelling read; I mean if you know or know of Sylvia, you're probably at least a little curious about her!) about the author of one of my favorite books:

The Curious Sofa, A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary

Of which, this is the first page.

I'm honor and duty bound (no spoilers here!) not to say any more about this book in public, but it's easily one of the greatest technical works visual storytelling genius that I have encountered. However since I've spoiled a little bit in the title of the post, if you understand Scott McCloud's notion of blood in the gutters, then you'll have an idea of what I mean. If you read this and the only consideration you have is that "it's weird" then you probably should read it again until you see.

If you read this and approach me about the book, we will have a conversation.

As a follow up to my post about The Other Sexual Storytelling, I think it intriguing to link to Tony Comstock's latest blog, YouTube, Iran, and Gay Sex. This link is also troubling in an entirely different way. Go read it now, then watch the video and we'll discuss it later.

I'm really not ready to talk about it yet. I haven't built up the context for conversation.

Universo Week of me!

2009-01-23T10:14:00.001-08:00

My usual birthweek celebration starts soon (um, I don't know... tomorrow? Schedule below!) And I almost never get presents, at least not historically. I guess people usually don't have an idea of what to give me. Which is why I think it's cool that Amazon now has a Universal Wish List, that lets a user add items from any site they want. This lets me get as obscure as I would like to be. I have included at least a few items that people CAN'T buy, because why break with tradition?

(Oh and the complete series of the Wire is currently available at $134.99, which is 50 bucks more expensive than the price I got it yesterday and still a hundred bucks lower than retail. Go get one!)

Just to give you an idea of my lack of present-accumulating prowess, last December, I got three presents that weren't cash. One was the new Nerdcore calendar (thanks Mike!) and the other was two pairs of boxer shorts - one featuring Stewie from The Family Guy (and boy do I hate that show) and the other emblazoned with a skull and the logo from Miami Ink; since the only person I know who might be interested in that also is a producer on the show, extra-awkward. Anyway, it's nice to have new boxers. At least they're comfortable. But Mike made it clear why people had trouble knowing what to get me: can't get me games because I probably already have them and what else does anyone know about me? Mike does understand that I like nudity and nerdiness, so his present is probably the most me-appropriate item I can remember receiving. The other item in that me-appropriate list was a hand-made clock featuring the cover of the first issue of Zot!, and I took that so dearly that I nearly ruined my life over it. Long story and not for reading.

I really didn't mean for this post to be a plug for Amazon; I think it's interesting to see the items that people crave. That's what I'm after here. I really don't expect someone to go buy me the Vivid-Ed titles or Sex Scenes (how awkward would that be? Maybe awesomely awkward!) but I really appreciate the thought that someone might try to learn me from a consumer perspective. It's also a list for myself of things that I should remember to buy.

Anyway, back to the original reason I was posting. Here's my schedule for the week:

Tomorrow: dinner in Little Ethiopia with a cast of dozens.

Sunday: Farmer's Market breakfast, Pitchcar tournament at Game Empire, open gaming and dancing at the final night at The Derby (I'll be verklempt) featuring Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five.

Monday: Disneyland (free admission, baby!) and The Floor, and probably dinner at Lucky Devils next door! The Floor is probably the coolest dance place I have visited and Lucky Devils has the best veggie burgers (made in store, not packaged) that I have had.

Tuesday: Paladino's

Wednesday: Open gaming at Game Empire

Thursday: Lindy Groove (I'd like to invite 5 non-experienced folks by Tuesday. Let me know if you want in)

Friday: Stompy Jones at Memories!

Here's a video from The Floor:

I'm gonna plug the hell out of this place, because I want everyone to be there!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space.

2009-01-21T10:45:00.001-08:00

I have been spending time listening to recordings of Jack Kornfield, a leading Buddhist teacher, over at D.I.Y. Dharma. There's a lot there - hours and hours of listening.

I have never considered myself a spiritual person, and generally consider myself an Atheist, a Discordian, and a libertine. I remember when I first understood that I did not believe in a God; that what people learned was more often than not used to control them. I was riding my bike with a friend and he suggested that the Devil was the person who made you fall off and get hurt. The rational side of my brain suggested that this idea of Satan was there to give people an easy out; that people did not have to be responsible for their pain if some outside force had exerted itself upon them. So I said that I didn't believe in a Devil and shortly thereafter didn't believe in God either.

In my later experience, there appeared to be just as much hypocrisy as benevolence with those of faith. Gang members would return from prison having been baptized born-again Christians, often to repeat their crimes but now forgiven; religion would be used as a means of social exclusion; wars fought mindlessly; religious leaders would suggest ideas that I found disgusting and their followers would simply nod their heads and follow the party line.

That's no different with mainstream Atheism. I'm really bothered that significant Atheists can be so disrespectful to those with other belief systems. I understand where this anger comes from, but I don't feel that it helps in any real discussion. Maybe it helps some folks feel a bit more empowered. I don't know.

I'm neither a fan of the hyper-rational memes being suggested - for instance that the only things that exist are the things that you can see and touch. I've been an irrational Atheist for as long as I've known and that works for me. I feel that the God-meme is a device that can be used in many ways. However, it is fine enough for me to act in kindness and to understand when people don't believe or behave the way I would.

Let's not suggest that I fault people for their spirituality. In fact I applaud the search for meaning in a person's life. There are problems in the application to my reckoning, but it's also kind of beautiful.

I've spent at least a little time studying Robert Anton Wilson and Aleister Crowley, the Kabbalah and the I Ching. I've read the Bhagavad Gita and now I'm listening to Jack Kornfield.

I hadn't seen this video before writing this post, but the song has always moved me:

Spiritualized, Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space

The Other Sexual Storytelling

2009-01-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

I was surprised this morning to see myself name-checked on Tony Comstock's blog, (one image on link not safe for work, however the post is interesting so check it out!). The post regards the history of the MPAA - those folks who make the movie ratings and the progression of the X rating through the NC-17 rating. I responded again with a consideration about sexuality in narrative, stories where graphic depiction of sexuality is warranted, at least where I believe it to be warranted.

For those not familiar with Comstock Films, they produce award-winning, sexually graphic documentaries featuring couples discussing their relationships and sex lives, intercut with footage of their lovemaking. I've only seen Matt and Khym, but I'm curious to see more.

Here's a portion of my response, with included links:

On the whole though, doesn’t the cinema’s barren approach to sexuality reflect the lack of discussion that society has put into it? That we feel that sex is a “dangerous topic,” means that we associate it with darkness. It seems to me that many folks feel the need to talk about sexuality in hushed tones and thanks to you for endorsing a more open view.

Perhaps strangely, I find the occasional joyful sex trip in comics more than cinema. Even though I grow tired of the industry on the whole, it does seem to have room for folks who couldn’t (or don’t want to) get their stories told anywhere else. A couple of light-hearted porn strips like Xxxenophile (NSFW) or Small Favors makes the porn comics world worthwhile. I still want to see serious discussion of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls.

The last link brings up the interview I did with Melinda Gebbie a couple of years back. Part two of that interview can be read here: Lost Girl Found. I'm really proud of that interview, so I'd love for more people to read it.

This whole discussion brings up some thoughts to me. For purposes of discussion, I generally think of the label of "Porn" as pertaining to stories told in order to help get someone off, or to inspire its audience to touch themselves or others. More often than not it's the narrative version of a lap-dance or a virtual brothel. It's a very profitable market and has always been, as far as I know.

The question I'm considering at the moment is about that line between Porn and other sexually graphic storytelling (see, I don't even have a word for it yet!). One significant difference is that Porn more often than not has not much to it in a literate sense; the goals of the characters are simple and predictable and it seems that there is really no potential for growth or evolution, those elements of story that make us relate to stories in emotional, intellectual or spiritual ways. I'm reminded of Victorian porn ("I'm spending! I'm spending!") though the formula probably goes back a bit further.

Perhaps it works differently in pornographic novels. Pornucopia, by Piers Anthony is probably the first that I read and for an obscure book which I only read once, I want to assume that it was wholly influential to my sexual worldview, or at least the way I view sex in fiction. It is self-proclaimedly pornographic, but I remember relating to and caring about the characters, especially the main character, Prior Gross. Maybe other porn novels are better, but I haven't read many. This was wild for me, back in my Xanth-reading days. Maybe what made it fun was its airy quality, like reading those pun-tastic fantasy stories.

It seems to me that the other sexual storytelling (would anyone like to suggest a phrase?) is more often than not quite bleak, as Tony Comstock suggested. When an art-house director approaches graphic sex, the results are often depressing. That might have more to do with art-house directors than the notions of narrative sexuality, but what are you gonna do?

Going back to the Fight or Fuck post, I think that these impulses are generally exclusive, and I still endorse an inclusive worldview by far. However, now and then I have a new conversation and realize that the sex and violence aren't mutually exclusive. I would hope that the two activities were separate, but life is occasionally more complex than the way I would wish. Sexuality can be joyful, but it can also be traumatic.

Maybe it's that last that brings out the navel-gazing in the bulk of film-makers. I believe that sexually graphic storytelling has a potential to be much more than that; healing, uplifting, inspiring, revelatory. I wonder if these kinds of stories will grow out of the porn world or out of projects like Shortbus or Comstock Films. All I can hope is that those stories come eventually and that the world is less afraid when they do.

Film Genre: Pornography

2009-01-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

If you've had a decent amount of conversation with me, you'll know that I'm an advocate of pornography. At some point I'll have to rehash my history with the genre, but I think I'll save that for later.

Eon Mckai and Kimberly Kane spoke in a class at my alma mater, UCSB. Film Genre: Pornography. Apparently the class started the year after I graduated. I wish I had been there.

I've been following his work since Art School Sluts, and anyone who wants to use a moniker after the lead singer of Fugazi is okay by me. I've try to make it to the DVD release parties when I can. Eon is a decent fella if you ask me.

Art School Sluts, by the way, is as far as I know the first porn film to have been inspired by a comic book and which also preceded it's legit-film adaptation. If you haven't seen Art School Confidential, by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, I'm not sure that it improves upon the source material, but Mckai's film is a trippy take on the subject.

What I wore on New Year's Eve

2009-01-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

In trying to figure out how to post pictures on blogger, I'm dedicating a post to the guys who made the jacket that I wore on New Year's Eve.

It's from these guys called 7 Lightning Bolt. I picked it up at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, where I get my weekly vegan soul food and raw cane juice breakfast every Sunday. It was during one of these breakfasts when I looked up from the gutter and saw this hanging at the back of their booth. At the time I bought it, it was one of a kind, but they assured me that they'd be making more. If you know me, don't buy it. I'd hate to have an embarrassing fashion faux-pas. Otherwise, they have a lot of incredible, hand-stitched designs.

I want to buy another jacket from them at some point. It'll have to wait until the budget opens up again. Maybe before my birthday.

Tangentially, have I mentioned how much I love the Amazon Universal Wish List? You can add items from any site. Almost no one knows how to buy presents for me, so this invention really brightens my afternoons.

This is how Hollywood feels to me.

2009-01-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

I was watching Commentary! The Musical, which is one of the commentaries on the Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog DVD, all done in song. It was in the third act of the commentary when I heard something that reminded me of the brief time I really wanted to be an actor in Hollywood, about the early-to-mid 90s. I even had a stand-up act, which focused on growing up the only Asian kid in East Los Angeles. One of my bits was about how there were no Asian role models for me, except for Short Round from Indiana Jones and Hong Kong Fuey. I've written about that elsewhere, but it bears repeating.

Anyway: here are the song lyrics from the Dr. Horrible website:

Asian in the Movies
Music and Lyrics by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon
Performed by Maurissa Tancharoen

As far as I'm concerned, the song gets it right. So kudos to Maurissa Tancharoen for expressing this sentiment through a venue that might actually be heard by an audience.

Things haven't changed all that much, Harold and Kumar notwithstanding. Even Whedon's shows, of which I am largely a fan, haven't really ever cast a significant Asian character. There was that one lawyer on Angel, but they never used him for anything.

When will I ever use this?

2009-01-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a question that is often asked by American High School students with regards to math: "when will I ever use this?"

It seems like a simple enough practical consideration. Most professions don't require the calculation of complex differentiation. One can certainly be a happy and successful person without being able to solve a basic Algebra problem. How is Mathematics an essential realm of knowledge?

For the sake of disclosure, I'll add that I stopped studying math after my freshman semester at UCSB. The first professor in that college Calculus class was so dry that I couldn't maintain an interest, and since I didn't require additional math for my major, I didn't waste the time and money on it. That said, I've had brief conversations with math majors and the kind of stuff that they studied sounds interesting to no end.

I had been considering this notion over the holiday break. I feel I've outgrown the Cold War reasoning that more students should study math and science so that we can beat the Commies in the Space Race. My love for math comes from a much more compassionate place.

In doing my cursory research for this article, I found this column from The Washington Post: What is the Value of Algebra?, by Richard Cohen. In it Cohen supports those same adolescent suggestions that math is largely useless. I can't disagree more.

Here's the weird thing, I feel about math the way I feel about the arts, literature, philosophy, history, even religion and spirituality... it's all vital knowledge. I can attest that as a student I didn't enjoy the way that one subject or another was presented. I can certainly say that I didn't agree with some of the ideas suggested by my teachers; often later I found that it was my perspective that needed to change, while at other times, it was just that the teacher wasn't doing a good job of communicating the information. The thing that I have learned about learning on the whole is that simply because I don't understand something I should not assume that it's not worth the trying.

Putting this in the context of that first question, "when will I use this?" The concrete answer is that you might never use the specific proof that confirms the Pythagorean theorem. The larger answer as I feel it is that the skills you had to learn to make that proof (and possibly simply to understand and apply the theorem) are more worthwhile.

As I mentioned before I resent the notion that math is solely helpful to the military-industrial complex. No slight to my JPL and CalTech friends is intended. The workings of mathematics are fundamental and profound. Mathematics is like a philosophy or even a mantra.

Here is an outline of my understanding of and approach to basic Algebra:
1) Algebra is simple.
2) Write down a first notion (these are often called givens)
3) Write down that notion a second time with a minor alteration (in Algebra these are most often substitution or manipulation) - keeping in mind that one usually should work simply
4) Repeat step three until you find the requested result.

That's not very different from the way I would teach algebra to a middle-school student, save for the one-on-one practical examples that I won't demonstrate here. Practice (after good examples) is the thing that makes math easy.

In the writing of this I was reminded of Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, who taught Daniel to Wax on and Wax off. In Daniel's rational mind he asked "why is he making me do all this housework?" If you've seen the film, you'll have an idea of what I'm suggesting. Make your body repeat an action and it will come easily. Make your mind repeat a specific meme and it will evolve.

There's a long list of ideas that can be learned from practicing math. The bits I want to appreciate most at the moment are related to the basic exploration of the world. There's that bit of Algebra where one starts with a basic expression. That's not different from starting from some point and ending somewhere else. The idea that one can take their first and continuing steps to understanding a concept that at first might seem alien is very powerful and appealing to me.

That one could study universal concepts that come without political dogma is even more beautiful to me. It's a way of sharing a viewpoint with the world.

Love isn't rational. Neither is math. I'll give this some more consideration before I continue.

My pick for movie of the season is...

2008-12-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

Milk
Watch the trailer

With thrilling performances, a timely/timeless story and gorgeous cinematography, Gus Van Sant's biopic of Harvey Milk really won me over. It's seriously the best film I've seen all year.

Keep in mind that I haven't seen The Wrestler yet. That opens today, and I'll see it when I get the chance.

What are you watching?

To smooth or not to smooth?

2008-12-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

After spending a bit of time at the US Open Swing Dance Championships over Thanksgiving weekend, I kinda got fascinated with the differences between modern Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing. The two dances both evolved from similar roots, the West Coast and Jitterbug communities both inspired by dancers from the New York ballrooms of the 1930s.

There are plenty of places to find information on the evolving of styles, so I'm going to skip ahead to my short thoughts on the subject. It's a bit of a ramble, and probably going to be ongoing, but here's a beginning.

First a couple of examples of the dances as they are danced now:

West Coast Swing

Lindy Hop

There's an essential set of differences between the two dances. Lindy Hop is a primal dance, urban and boisterous. It follows the pounding of the bass and pulses like an animal. West Coast praises smoothness and sexiness; is rhythmic yet strives to defy the beat of the drum.

The comment I have heard most from West Coasters with regard to Lindy Hop is this: "we don't bounce." This follows the Southern California Lindy Hop tradition of smoothness. If we look to the old school swing dancers who were present at the birth of West Coast Swing, they praised smoothness above pretty much anything else.

The Dean Collins Lindy Hoppers - 1983

The central figure in the link between Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing was Dean Collins. Collins is credited with bringing Lindy Hop from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to Los Angeles. Many of his proteges still dance and teach today. There's a longer conversation in this, but I think it's better saved for a later time.

Anyway, onto more comparisons. As I mentioned before Lindy Hop is an urban dance. I think by contrast it would be easy to suggest that some influences in West Coast would remove those urban influences. It seems to me that in addition to smoothness, West Coast loves prettiness. On the other side of the fence, Lindy Hop has a sense of humor and a deep connection to its roots.

I'd briefly bring up Ballet and Modern Dance as a contrary comparison. I think I'm going to have to save those thoughts for later.

Anyway, if you have thoughts on the subject, I'd love to read them.

Fight or Fuck!

2008-12-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is a notion I've been considering a lot since the passage of Proposition 8, with a large numbers of people at odds. It's not a situation with an easy answer, but it's still worth a major consideration. We have two groups with ends that are seemingly

When cultures are in opposition, they have two choices: fight or fuck!

That's a thing I learned from one of my favorite writers, Alan Moore. If it needs explanation, let's look to his classic Miracleman series (known as Marvelman in the UK) Spoiler alert for those who plan on reading these wonderful stories.
Marvelman was essentially a Captain Marvel (Shazam!) rip-off that flourished in England during the 1950s. Alan Moore revamped and revitalized the character in Warrior magazine, and the series was released as Miracleman in America. It was a dark deconstruction of a four-color world, set in the late Cold War 1980s. Along with the superhero in the sparkly blue tights, there kid sidekicks grown to adults, an aging nemesis, and an impending sense of doom.

The story featured Mickey Moran, an aging reporter, who through an accident of fate remembers after many decades that he had been empowered with the abilities of Marvelman. Filled with the twistedly morbid thrills of violent action and derring-do, the story was much more interesting in regards to the question of who was more important: Mickey Moran or Marvelman? Eventually, Mickey Moran gives in to let Marvelman take over.

Meanwhile, there's a war between two alien cultures, the Warpsmiths and the Qys. The Warpsmiths were an alien culture centered upon the principles of teleportation. The Qys were a race of creatures with many bodies which could be traded at any time, essentially a magical transformation. These two cultures had been warring for ages, with no end in sight.

When it came down to it, there would be decades of bloodshed ahead. When called upon to help, Marvelman is hard-pressed to find an answer, but Marvelwoman (I mentioned grown kid sidekicks, didn't I?) appears with a response: your cultures can either fight or make love. That is, they could either continue their thanatic path or they could approach synthesis, find a way to appreciate each other. Given this simple and primal logic, the two races form a truce, and the rest is for you to read.

With Promethea, which is essentially Moore's grimoire told as a superhero adventure story, Moore considers the concept of solve et coagula. That's the idea of taking things apart and putting them back together, possibly in new and different ways. It's a recipe for creativity in short, but it would seem to be another way to approach the situation of two warring cultures.

What this means to me, with regards to the ongoing culture war is that the two movements must meet in the middle. In the long run I believe this to be inevitable, but in the meantime many battles will be waged.

There's a lot more to discuss here, but the post is long enough for now.

Also notable is A.A.R.G.H (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia). Published by Alan Moore's Mad Love Publishing. It railed against Clause 28, a British law essentially striking the word "homosexual" from any official government discussion, and with the aim of making it impossible to discuss gayness in schools. If you can find this book, it's pretty wonderful, however Moore's own work, a poem called The Mirror of Love, has been re-published by Top Shelf with new artwork by the amazing Jose Villarubia, and is well worth a read.

An unexpected influence of mine: Sanford Meisner

2008-12-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

In case anyone doesn't know, I'm a jitterbug. That means that I dance Lindy Hop and other dances rooted in the Jazz era. I've studied a lot of dances in my lifetime, but the dancing and music of that period have resonated most with me in my life. I teach dance and have a very eclectic range of influences.

You might think it weird, but one of the primary influences on my dancing is a guy named Sanford Meisner. Sandy was one of the prominent acting teachers of the twentieth century. He was a founding member of The Group Theatre, which was the birthplace of Method Acting in the 1930s. Meisner rejected Method Acting in the quest to find an approach to performance that was more honest.

The famed playwright Arthur Miller (you know, you must have read or heard about The Crucible or Death of a Salesman while you were in High School) said with regard to Meisner that "He has been the most principled teacher of acting in this country for decades now, and every time I am reading actors I can pretty well tell which ones have studied with Meisner. It is because they are honest and simple and don't lay on complications that aren't necessary."

I first learned about Meisner late in my college career. I had read all the requisite acting books, and done my preliminary explorations of improv technique. When I graduated from UCSB, I immediately enrolled in a Santa Barbara City College acting class in which the teacher was known for working with exercises based on Meisner's. The most fundamental exercise is known as Repetition. Two actors face each other and repeat very basic observations at each other. For instance:

"You're wearing a blue shirt."
"I'm wearing a blue shirt."
"You're wearing a blue shirt."
"Yes, I'm wearing a blue shirt."

The technique would be built upon as the class progressed. Actors would be trained to learn to make the most basic of observations and learn to pick up on the impulses that their partners feed back.

The repetition exercise might seem silly to some, but for me it was the beginning of a way of viewing the world. As I have mentioned before, it became a major influence in the way I approached the Lindy Hop.

I'm currently halfway through watching Sanford Meisner Master Class. Here's a preview:

It should be mentioned that by the time his students came up with the idea of recording his technique, Meisner had had his larynx removed due to throat cancer. He relearned speech using a technique that required him to burp his words. It was a bit unsettling for me to listen to him speak at first, but I find that the lessons are still completely worthwhile.

During an early lesson in the video, Meisner notes that "the most difficult thing to learn is the art of simplicity."

Let's be clear, just because something is simple doesn't mean that needs to be mediocre or boring. The importance of simplicity in this technique is that it is honest and true. In fact, if followed to its end, the technique of simplicity, I believe, leads to performance that is more vibrant and moving.

Now to the connections that I make between Meisner's technique and the Lindy Hop, Meisner most praised the basic idea of listening to one's partner; the notion that I could really observe very simple impulses in the circumstances of the dance (let's include the music, the room and the weather, etc.) I find that I approach the dance in a very simple way.

There's one dance exercise I've used again and again that I remember basing directly on Meisner's repetition: in a course of repeated swing-outs, one partner will initiate a basic movement - lifting the shoulder or kick-ball-changing here or there. The other partner during the next swing-out is tasked with repeating the movement. Perhaps it's not as deep as the original Repetition exercise in practice, but I think the basic skill of making and responding to basic observations is really important in the dance. It's one way to approach the simplicity I strive to realize.

I feel that when I approach a partner, that I am completely in the moment, and one hopes that occasionally that moment can be exciting.

There's much more to Meisner's ideas than I've been able to discuss in this short post. In the meantime, here's a link to a documentary that's fully available on YouTube: Sanford Meisner - Theater's Best Kept Secret.