Part of the reason I've been so scarce lately. I'm in this, as well as writing an original song for the show. It's the first three weekends (Thurs.-Sat.) in May. Let me know if you're gonna be there!
Penetralia
Stone Soup's 5th original play
The Actors Theatre Workshop
145 W. 28th Street, NYC
May 4-20, 2006
The inhabitants of Penetralia live in the secure knowledge that all business is everyone’s business. A communication system, both advanced and ancient, keeps everyone in the know. But the idyll is forever disrupted by a disturbing discovery, as a mild-mannered Professor fully realizes his mind’s potential. Stone Soup’s fifth original production explores secret-keeping, and the frightening consequences in a society that criminalizes it.
Click Here for Tickets or call 212-352-3101
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
We do what we're told
WFMU has an amazing post on their blog about Stanley Milgram's Obedience experiment in which subjects were tested to see how they responded to an authority figure asking them to torture another human being. There's even a documentary! Though I think they unfairly slag Peter Gabriel, it's a must read.
I find myself often thinking of this little experiment when confronted by authority figures in my own life. I talk a pretty good game when I'm just chatting with friends or talking to my lady, but in the midst of the confrontation, I tend to be less strong. I've been pretty well conditioned, I have. I would have to say that the point of most initiation is to come face to face with one's conditioning, and by so doing, learn to overcome it. I hope I shall arrive soon.
I find myself often thinking of this little experiment when confronted by authority figures in my own life. I talk a pretty good game when I'm just chatting with friends or talking to my lady, but in the midst of the confrontation, I tend to be less strong. I've been pretty well conditioned, I have. I would have to say that the point of most initiation is to come face to face with one's conditioning, and by so doing, learn to overcome it. I hope I shall arrive soon.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
What's goin' ahn
My review of Portuguese duo Dead Combo can be found here at Escrever Sobre Musica e Impossivel.
Tomorrow night I'll be performing with synonymUS at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with Kelly Tsai. You should come check it out!
And Stone Soup, the theatre collective that I'm currently in rehearsal with for a new play is having a Barking Beauty Pagent to raise money for the ASPCA and for the new show. If you're into dogs in cutsey clothing, this one's for you!
Tomorrow night I'll be performing with synonymUS at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with Kelly Tsai. You should come check it out!
And Stone Soup, the theatre collective that I'm currently in rehearsal with for a new play is having a Barking Beauty Pagent to raise money for the ASPCA and for the new show. If you're into dogs in cutsey clothing, this one's for you!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Easter!
At church this morning, I was feeling bored. Yes, sadly, I think my current experiment with Christianity will need to have a radical change in parameters in order to remain relevant to my current experiences. But, it was Easter, I sing in the choir, so I was at church. And bored. The priest was discussing the Gospel of Judas (which I think is a fantastic find, both theologically and historically) and altogether missing the point, in my opinion. In his words, this new Gospel said that Jesus “cut a deal” with his persecutors, when it quite clearly doesn’t say anything of the kind.
It actually just says (in my opinion, and IANATheologian) that Judas was in on the crucifixion, not just as betrayer, but as part and party to the plan for redemption, and that his was (aside from Jesus) the most difficult role. He not only had to betray his friend, but he had to be the scapegoat, the one reviled throughout history as the quintessential betrayer. But he did this, and did it well, because he loved Jesus, and Jesus asked him to do it. It reminds me of a Jorge Luis Borges tale that pretty much says the same thing, only Borges goes so far as to say that Judas was the real savior, because not only did his do the hardest job of the crucifixion tale (betray his friend, accept the hatred and scorn of millions throughout history), but he also is still suffering even to this day in Hell. That he suffers for us the tortures of Hell for all eternity that we might never have to experience them.
But I digress. I was bored until we started singing the hymns for the day. And with one line I remembered.
“Now the queen of seasons, bright with the day of splendour, with the royal fest of feasts, comes its joy to render.”
They make think they’re talking about Mary, but we know better, don’t we? Here’s another one:
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green
Though the roots of Christianity may be in some life-denying, rule-bound form of Judaism, there’s a Pagan overlay grafted onto it that makes it quite palatable, if you know where to look. The myth of the dying son/sun is, of course, everywhere in the mythologies of Europe, and in Christianity we celebrate it today, Easter. We decorate the church in flowers and green, baptize babies and speak of the symbolism of new life signifying the death and resurrection of the Christ. But you and I, dear readers, we know they’ve got it backwards. Eternal life is now, right here and now in the renewing of the seasons, in the birth and growth, maturation and “death” of the earth in every year. The good earth, which is both mother and destroyer, shows her good side this time of year. We good children of the planet have a duty to share in the fecundity of spring!
The thinly veiled paganism of Christian ritual did my heart some good, I tell you what. I went out of there with a “spring” in my step and a song in my heart. It’s a beautiful day, kids. Go out there and get laid for Jesus.
-------
UPDATE:
And in case you think I'm a bit to hippie-ish, click here to watch parasitic worms crawl from the orifices of their hosts and remember - nature is creepy.
It actually just says (in my opinion, and IANATheologian) that Judas was in on the crucifixion, not just as betrayer, but as part and party to the plan for redemption, and that his was (aside from Jesus) the most difficult role. He not only had to betray his friend, but he had to be the scapegoat, the one reviled throughout history as the quintessential betrayer. But he did this, and did it well, because he loved Jesus, and Jesus asked him to do it. It reminds me of a Jorge Luis Borges tale that pretty much says the same thing, only Borges goes so far as to say that Judas was the real savior, because not only did his do the hardest job of the crucifixion tale (betray his friend, accept the hatred and scorn of millions throughout history), but he also is still suffering even to this day in Hell. That he suffers for us the tortures of Hell for all eternity that we might never have to experience them.
But I digress. I was bored until we started singing the hymns for the day. And with one line I remembered.
“Now the queen of seasons, bright with the day of splendour, with the royal fest of feasts, comes its joy to render.”
They make think they’re talking about Mary, but we know better, don’t we? Here’s another one:
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green
Though the roots of Christianity may be in some life-denying, rule-bound form of Judaism, there’s a Pagan overlay grafted onto it that makes it quite palatable, if you know where to look. The myth of the dying son/sun is, of course, everywhere in the mythologies of Europe, and in Christianity we celebrate it today, Easter. We decorate the church in flowers and green, baptize babies and speak of the symbolism of new life signifying the death and resurrection of the Christ. But you and I, dear readers, we know they’ve got it backwards. Eternal life is now, right here and now in the renewing of the seasons, in the birth and growth, maturation and “death” of the earth in every year. The good earth, which is both mother and destroyer, shows her good side this time of year. We good children of the planet have a duty to share in the fecundity of spring!
The thinly veiled paganism of Christian ritual did my heart some good, I tell you what. I went out of there with a “spring” in my step and a song in my heart. It’s a beautiful day, kids. Go out there and get laid for Jesus.
-------
UPDATE:
And in case you think I'm a bit to hippie-ish, click here to watch parasitic worms crawl from the orifices of their hosts and remember - nature is creepy.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Me and Mia - part 2
You may remember a post I wrote last year about Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and their song about bulimia and anorexia. Well, YouTube has a video for the song that inspired one of the best poems I've ever written and you can see it right here - plus any thing that gets more people to hear that song is a good thing: it's AWESOME!
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