Digestible Linkage

In addition to spouting off a fair amount this past week, I’ve also been catching up on reading. Sadly not novel reading as my attention span has yet to recover from the Death Flu, but I’ve been reading many interesting and varied articles across the interwebs – enough of them that I feel compelled to share some of the highlights:

Fellow LA Theatre Slave, Gedaly, has a great piece on how theatre still markets itself like it’s 1936. While I believe intrinsic changes need to occur at the AEA level to even begin to move us forward (because even non-equity houses fear the wrath of the AEA), I do concur that internet marketing, specifically in video form needs to be made better use of in productions. The secondary hang-up is that in small theatre, which needs the marketing most, the desire to find inventive ways of incorporating video marketing is often there but the manpower to make it happen on less-than-no-budget is not. That speaks more to the inherent lack of non-actors and designers involved in theatrical ventures (that aren’t revivals or rip-offs of tried-and-true hits) than to anyone directly involved in a production, but it still is a root cause of this problem.

Author J.S. Chancellor has decided to go for pomp (and hopefully avoid broke) in advertising that his new (and unfortunately partially leaked) novel will be available for free download in March. As a starting novel in a series, this grand gesture could garner enough support from readership to gain buzz and profit for the succeeding novels.

Chamber Musician Today features a guest blog on how/why to join a vocal ensemble. While it lacks a bit in the directional ‘hows’ of joining (i.e. what to be prepared for in different ensemble types and what to expect in audition/interview processes, and how the rehearsal and performance schedules can differ between various groups), it does offer several varied options for vocal groups and what might appeal to potential members. As someone who’s constantly toying with the idea of finding a new vocal home, this gave me a little push to maybe give it a go.

This interview with Andrew Chambliss would have knocked me on my ass, if I hadn’t already been on it. There’s nothing new or astonishing in the article; it’s just a successful writer-geek talking about his work and those he’s worked with. However, as he’s a) a phenomenal, young writer and b) has worked on shows with writers I worship and adore, it’s pretty much a geekgasm-causing insight into the inner-world of writers I would love to know and would consider myself lucky to emulate.
TV writers also hold a bit of enigmatic awe for me as the concept of anyone’s mind working that fast, let alone a room full of people working at that pace, astonishes me.

All right, so I can’t help but be a bit self-indulgent as this final link (via CJDirector) is to a site which put me on their main page. I’m down in the ‘Health’ section, which is a little off for the entry, but I will certainly take publicity in any form I can get – especially for this entry on music snobbery. I will use pretty much any avenue I can to headbutt the ignorance out of people resistant to Hanson.

So-and-So on…

Thus far I have rather failed in my ‘embrace Fauxbruary’ mantra due to succumbing to my largest time/emotional-suck addiction: theatre.
Now, were I in a divulgatory and supercilious frame of mind, I might expand on a great many reasons why I feel the need to leap into situations in theatre; however, with my current sleep deprivation that would reach Epic Snark levels in about two sentences and then devolve into an intense rant which would probably give people a whole different impression of me.
Instead I will attempt, in my over-exhausted haze, to convey a little message about life addictions and how we use them to avoid engaging ourselves in activities we either should be or would rather be doing. We all have them. Sometimes we call them hobbies, other times obligations… chill-out time, organized social activities… all these things teeter on the edge of a line which, for those of certain temperaments, can very easily spill from leisure activity or enhanced social interaction to obsession. The biggest problem with something you like doing becoming something you do all the time is stagnation (closely followed by over-exhaustion). You become so involved that it consumes your life in ways you never intended for periods of time which far exceed what your dedication was meant to be. No matter what you learn, who you meet, how enriching experiences may be, it will continue to eat away at other areas of your life more and more until what was once a fun and exciting break from mundane life necessities or aggravating creative struggles becomes both mundane and aggravating.
As I see it, you have two options at this point: continue with this obsession in the hope that sweeter waters are around another bend in the road – and vow to take it easy on yourself next time (which is good when you’re committed to something you can’t in good conscience abandon), or take a mother-lovin’ break (which is what to do when option one fails miserably, or when you have a better ability than I do to say ‘no’ to people). Well, after five years of following option one, I’m finally about to stride down the path of option two, and I must say that as exhilarating as the prospect is, it is also utterly terrifying. Why? Peril number two in the extracurricular-to-obsession realm is safety.
Once you find that activity, hobby, video game, travel blog, etc. which consumes your life bit by bit, leaving it (or even easing off in a controlled-dose-of-weaning way) not only equates to the possibility of losing whatever new talents, skills, friends, connections and whatnot you’ve built, it’s a loss of emotional safety. By becoming so involved in this endeavor you have effectively shut off other areas of your mind and emotions to concentrate more on your obsession. Now, reconnecting with those parts of yourself, and the world, can seem counter-intuitive. You’re safe, you know your way around, you like the people, you used to like the obsession… so what’s the point in letting it go for a while (or ever)? Again, stagnation -- AND the fact that the very safety you feel when enveloped by your obsession transforms into fear of doing something new and different (when wanting something new and different is what likely got you into your current obsession in the first place).
So while it is with an inordinate amount of fear, uncertainty, and a dash of reluctant sadness that I take temporary leave of theatre, it’s for my own personal, creative, and professional development that I need to step out of comfort’s loving (and smothering) caress and run headlong into a terrifying blackness of potential. Here’s hoping beyond the black I find new lights, and that one day those lights will lead me back to seeing the light in theatre again.

Blog Sprint

This blog currently has no focus, which I only state to warn you that I have no idea what it may turn into. So what's the purpose of this entry? To write and keep writing.

See, when you're a participant in NaNoWriMo, the internet bestowed this miraculous and devilish networking tool on us called Twitter. Through Twitter emerged writing encouragement from the good people in NaNoLand in the form of word sprints. Since NaNo is centered around word counts, sprints came along to help people crank out words (sometimes a specified goal, sometimes not) in a certain amount of time.
While this is an extremely useful tool during NaNo month, it's also good for writing in general. So many times writers sit in front of their screens or notebooks or typewriters (yes, some people still use them) staring, seemingly, into space. For those who aren't or don't know writers, this staring does not equate to, say, a dog gazing at the wall for no particular reason, or a bored teenager in physics class daydreaming of being anywhere but physics class (or school period). When a writer stares off into space it's typical that the writer is conversing with a voice -- or voices -- inside their head, attempting to cull inspiration from the depths of the mind and translate that inspiration into words. Anyone who's needed to come up with a speech or announcement in a very short amount of time under immense pressure has an inkling of what this feels like.
None of this is original in concept. As long as there have been writers there has been writer's block. What I love about word sprints is they give you a deadline -- without pressure. Your goal is to write as much as you can, but no one says it has to be brilliant or original with perfect spelling and grammar. That's what editing is for. The point is to write and write and write until your fingers ache, whatever enters your mind, and then stop.
Some people don't work well in those situations, but I think it's more beneficial than detrimental to any writer. As with the general idea of National Novel Writing Month, the point is not perfection or completion but creating something from nothing, and dedicating a specified time of your life to it in order to end up with something that would not exist without your dedication to the project. This type of creative push can be applicable for all types of creative endeavors. Any kind of artistic venture carries its own style of writer's block as part of the package. What kind of music could be created if people took occasional composing sprints? What might be painted or sketched in a canvas sprint? What might be captured on film during camera sprints (an idea which forms many 24 or 48 hour film festivals)? What theatre might be created during a Fast and Loose adventure? If you're a creative type, next time you see one of these pop up, stop thinking about all the ways it can't work for you, and just go for it. Creating, unlike some aspects of 'real life,' carries much less risk for trying. Other than a bit of time, you have nothing to lose.

See, twenty minutes of sprinting and I created a blog that I otherwise may never have gathered the thoughts to compose... and in the few minutes it's taken you to read it, I hope you understand the benefit in just trying. Despite what Yoda says, when it comes to creating, 'try' can be a powerful force on its own, leading to much more doing.

You think killing people will make them like you, but it doesn't; it just makes them dead.

It's been slow going with the progress of goals the past few days. LIFE (reality, not the game) intervened as it tends to do in August and threw BS at me which rendered me incapable of creative, productive thought. Then the most extraordinary thing happened: on a complete whim I decided the time had arrived for me to investigate a little stage show called "A Very Potter Musical." In between yelling at my cell carrier and cleaning and stressing out, I'd take 15-20 minutes to watch this gem in sections on YouTube. By the end of the weekend I'd watch both the original and the newly released "A Very Potter Sequel," and bought the soundtrack.
This is how obsession works for me: Find something to indulge in at the right time, come to love it within minutes, then devour it like a hungry, hardworking family at Thanksgiving dinner.
What kept me enraptured of this particular show wasn't just that it's produced by a group of students at U of M, or that Dumbledore, Ron and Harry are huge Zefron fans, or that the music is unexpectedly catchy and fun (though all these points make it totally awesome). What appeals most is the obvious love these people have for the Harry Potter world, and the complete unabashed bashing they do to it with such reverence and love. It's the ultimate in parody because it so obviously adores its source material -- and no one can make fun of anything so well as someone who loves it entirely. That kind of inspiration and cheek goes a long way in my world.
The music in the sequel is more advanced, though not always as catchy as tunes in the first. I found the original to be more satisfying and a little better written than the sequel, but still more than worthy of viewing. The absence of Hagrid is lamentable, though the Hulk-esque Goyle provides great comedic fodder. The cast overall is solid with a few standouts, namely Draco Malfoy in both shows, Quirrell and Voldemort in the first show, and Lucius Malfoy and Umbridge in the sequel (incidentally, the same actor plays Voldemort and Umbridge -- through the writing and his performance an amazing thing happens: you start to love both those horrid characters. Really love. And kind of want to molest make your cuddle bear lick from head to toe be close to...).

Overall, anyone who loves Harry Potter in a nice, safe way (i.e. you don't treat it as your bible) really should check this show out. Yeah, it's an 'amateur' show, but these amateurs are damn talented and dedicated -- and FUNNY. Very, very funny.
For final encouragement, I give you these four words: Death. Eater. Kick. Line.