Ten Things - Part 2

2
IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.




Full essay here

Ten Things - Part 1

I just ran across a remarkable talk by Milton Glaser, given in London in 2001.  I want to share it with you a section a day, so that you have a chance to think about each point. That's what I'll be doing.


Ten Things I Learned

1
YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

Full essay here

Unbelievables

- I can't believe that I'm still regularly having to wear a jacket. In August.

- I can't believe people seem to think skinny jeans are flattering.

- I can't believe leggings (and tights) are considered acceptable alternatives to pants/trousers.

- I can't believe I let myself wait until the summer to do 'touristy' things.

- I can't believe I'm suddenly living in a war zone.

That last one is the most unreal. Hampstead looks the same as ever, clouds blew through an otherwise pleasant, sunny (if a little chilly) England summer day, people are still out and about (carrying on), and yet...

And yet.

There is a communal tension. I can still feel it, 3+ floors above the street, tucked away in a house off to the side. Stores on the high street were not only closing by 5:00, they were emptying out display windows and packing up shelves of stock before closing the security grilles. One jewelry store even posted notices in the windows saying 'all stock removed', just in case... well, just in case. Walking down the street there are (were) small clusters of people talking together: 'closing' 'hear' 'go?' 'police' 'riots' 'say' 'home' 'cafes' drifting sporadically away from whispered conversations. There is (was) a larger group standing near two Metropolitan Police listening to them talk about... something, while other pedestrians (like myself) who really wanted to stop and ask 'What's going on? Are.. they... coming here? What have you heard? What should we do? Everything is going to be fine, right?' kept moving instead, not wanting to seem panicky or overly concerned or un-British.

I still can't quite figure out how/where this started. A peaceful protest gone bad, over the death of someone who may or may not have been a gangster/drug dealer/party fiend/choirboy. The idea of racial tensions, at least, have been pretty definitively shot down (no pun inte... er...) - it's either the disenfranchised youth rising up and acting out in the only way they can, or a (possibly organized) group of opportunists seizing the moment to loot and burn and destroy, trusting to safety in numbers and using social networking to produce those numbers... none of which actually seems to have anything to do with the initial protest. No one seems to know. The government wants to stop the violence now, figure out the reasons later. Even then, though, will anyone ever be able to say 'THIS is what happened, and WHY'? It's all rumor, speculation, exaggeration... In fact, don't listen to anything I just said. I don't know, either.

Wars and rumors of wars, indeed.

It's unbelievable.

Riots in London

I'm fine. I haven't seen or heard any violence, just been monitoring the news online and the paper. As I sit here in my room at 8:30 in the morning, though, I can hear sirens outside and... I wonder.

Penny Red talks about the rioting in London


It seems a little trivial to be working on a paper and figuring out which shows to go see. I should be doing something. Cleaning up something. Talking to somebody. Listening to someone. Holding someone accountable. Observing, being present. There is a message here, a story, - dare I say it? - a play, and I (a dramaturg) should be finding out what it is. I forget sometimes that theatre is more than entertainment; theatre has always been about social change.

Things don't get much more theatrical than the last few days in London.




And at the end of it all, I am very, very glad I don't still live in Peckham.


Watch out for falling turtles,

Cyd

Bring it on Back

1 Conference, 8 shows, 3 movies (HP 7.2 twice!), 1 awesome lunch date with Phaidra, 2 iPads, and 1 evening hanging out with family (including hilarious nephews and a brand-new niece) I am back in London and buckling down. Following is a list of people I really want to see the next time I take a "working holiday":

(In no particular order)

Christopher

Karen

Tara

Lauren

Mallorie

Sara

Ricky

Stephanie
The GNO girls

Kacey

Michelle

Phaidra

My parents

Siblings and their spouses

Niece and nephews (and nieces and nephews)

My dentist

I'm thinking Christmas break. (This is not necessarily a complete list - it's just the ones I've been thinking about recently that my sleep-deprived brain can remember.)

Trip stories (and pictures!) to follow - is it weird that the first thing I do when I get back to my computer is blog?

Hello, London.

Potent Quotables

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
Benjamin Franklin

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."

Benjamin Franklin

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo DaVinci

                                                                                        "We are all dying of miscellany."    

                                                                                                Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * * * *

Oh, What A Night...

Stephanie: "What I meant to say... I don't remember... I'm kind of like a goldfish."

Charisse: "I like the idea of being a manwhore with standards."
Steph: "It means you'll almost try anything once!"

Mal: "I'm an athletic tutor."
Sara: "Not to be confused with an athletic supporter!"
Charisse: "It's a different level of elastic."

Stephanie: "He got married and they have two kids, and they're ugly. I wish them well. And their ugly little family."

Charisse: "Seriously, it's just so random. They're like... rabbits. Bunnymellows!"
...
Mal: "Hold on - let me chew through my fluffy friends."

Stephanie: "Actually, I'll probably try anything twice - after all, if you try it once and it doesn't work it's not really a fair judgement. So, I'll almost try anything twice!"

Sara: "I don't think what I'm feeling is the Spirit."

Stephanie (holding the open end of a large drinking glass over her mouth): "Rutabaga. Arugula. Various Garden Greens."*

Mal: "Celine Dion's voice gives me a migraine and makes my legs hurt..."

Stephanie: "Rogue olive! Rogue olive!"



EPIC.





*Seriously, try it. Everything is funny when you say it into a glass.

Lest We Forget

The Fourth of July and Religion - Editorial

As the nation celebrates its independence this weekend with the customary and appropriate festivities, it is important to pause a bit to ponder how, unlike virtually every nation on Earth, the United States was founded on ideas, not on a particular ethnic identity. Those ideas are succinctly described in the Declaration of Independence as the "self-evident" truths that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."


That one phrase succinctly defines what matters to Americans. We believe in the rule of law, protected by enumerated unalienable rights that later were specified in the Constitution. We believe government should allow people to thrive through individual initiative by providing them safety and the freedom to find fulfillment as they pursue their own visions of happiness.

And most importantly, we believe that all these things come to humanity as entitlements from a divine creator. They cannot be revoked by any act of a human being. That part of our nation's founding, so essential to the essence of America, seems to be getting pushed aside lately by a host of "isms" that include relativism, secularism, atheism and even commercialism. And yet, without the idea that rights are derived from a higher power, they become merely good ideas, not inherent, inborn traits that are immune to negotiation.


This important truth also is being pushed aside by ignorance. The recent National Assessment of Education Progress test found that American schoolchildren are woefully deficient in knowledge about the nation's history. Only 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated the knowledge and analytical skills to be labeled as proficient, and just 1 percent displayed "superior performance." A basic level, by contrast, denotes only "partial mastery" — and this is where most American students score in history. (Sample questions can be found at www.nationsreportcard.gov.)

Fewer than a third of eighth-graders could identify an advantage American forces held over the British during the Revolutionary War, and only 2 percent of 12th-graders understood the meaning of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case that ended public school segregation.

Without a knowledge of American history, people put themselves at the mercy of political spin or of trendy ideas about the role of religion in society.

The wording of our founding documents, as well as the record of how the Founders felt, makes it clear that the nation's greatness doesn't derive from the rights the people hold, but from the creator who endowed them with those rights.

That is an important truth to ponder this weekend, as are the potential consequences to the nation if it is not taught to each new generation.

The NBC television network recently edited out the words "under God" from a video montage that included schoolchildren reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Championship. The decision to edit those words seemed to be a nod to those who find any mention of belief or devotion in the public square to be embarrassing or disconcerting.

The Founding Fathers, however, believed such discussion was so important they began the very first amendment of the Bill of Rights by saying, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." and then followed that with protections for free speech. They intended to protect the nation from passing laws favoring one religion over another, but there is no indication they wanted to remove the discussion of, or references to, religion in the public square.

Deseret News Editorial