Buskers, Bloggers, and Being

when you can keep peeling through the layers and there is more there.  and perhaps you cry a bit at the end.  Somewhat of a surprise was the film “Hancock” starring Will Smith.  Its storyline was indeed like an onion, the layers kept peeling away, surprising with more than just plot twists.  I have to give its writers/et al credit;  the ending wasn’t quite the blatantly expected obvious one … there was more than one scenario that could play out.  Of course the viewer doesn’t quite believe the title character is going to die at the end … after all it didn’t follow a usual sequence for a tragedy.  However, I have to admit my mind was racing with so many scenarios at the climax, I was forced to quit analyzing and just watch the movie … dammit.  Watching through my fingers a bit, as the ZAP POW CRASH FX were there … but there because that was how the movie was billed.  A bad boy superhero movie.  And if you were dense enough, or drunk enough, or defeatist and unsentimental enough, you could sit back and watch the ZAM BLAM show and let the underlayers go undiscovered.  It sells tickets, eh wot?

What is Will Smith philosophizing?  That we are attracted by forces of destiny to our one true mate, but if we coexist too closely together in space and time, we will be destroyed as our vulnerabilities are exposed?   A good subject for a late night latte session in Barnes and Noble, but not for this blogger this early AM.  My inner life related the most when both superheroes are dead and down for the count (or so it seems).  Life can be such shit, and then you die.  In the meantime, wear clown shoes.

One film I saw a few days ago on cable that wasn’t like an onion was “Hairspray”, the film version of the Broadway musical remake of movie of the same title.  Whoever thought John Travolta playing drag in a fat suit was a good idea has access to some interesting pharmaceuticals.  Or maybe they needed the marquee name.  The project certainly needed something.  Like my impression of the movie version of “Rent”, this was one musical show that worked a lot better on a stage.  IMHO.  Maybe some other time I , or some more cinematically enlightened person, will be able to explain how in making the stage show “big” enough for the big screen, even with a former film version as reference, the overall result was much much less than either of its predecessors.   Now here is a frightening thought … a film version of the stage show “Legally Blonde”. 

It is a mark of the experience of the leader of our workshop that by the end of the second day, our group has developed a level of “community comfort” that is unusual unless the moderator/leader actively strives to develop the types of bonds (or conflicts) that they consider conducive to the work.  In our work, it is necessary to feel capable to take risks and be comfortable with the context to make good work.  In an ordinary class structure this level of relationship usually takes about two weeks to evolve without specific catalysts.  For me, I decided Bruce Marrs would be allright when he mixes plaster without a lot of anal precision - by look and feel.  I actually got to mix the first batch, and it seemed all wrong to me - and it turns out it was.  It had gotten too humid and portions of it had actually set and made little rocky bits throughout that wouldn’t mix in at all.  

I have never been able to suss out exactly what it is about creative endeavors and theater in particular that supports a level of openness - at least in communities that are focused on the work and not on the fame game.  I’m quite sure there are few contexts in life that individuals who have known each other for less than 48 hours will be examining the most intimate details of their life and identity like we all did tonight applying the brown paper strips to our plaster face positives.

Then we had an impromptu tango lesson as our workshop teacher is multifaceted in their creative outlets and at one time was a dancer and now also plays tango music and is playing tomorrow night.  

Beginning with community rite - hold hands and step into circle

Exercise - pushing at a low level instead of standing up

Throwing the Ball - and Oompah/Vortex ball exercise

A variation of the Wooosh game only using clapping as base action

Then instead of moving into mask performance as we did yesterday, we went to mix plaster and pour our faces in positives so they could cure by the afternoon and we could squeeze in a neutral mask made of brown paper mache.  
     Notes:  
Pouring:  No. 1 casting plaster; apprx ratio 1:2 water to plaster
                  ”the hawaii mountain” pouring method of measuring 
                   pour from forehead into lower face
                   vibrate - slapping
                   holding carefully ( or in sand ) 
PaperBAG  Mache 
               vaseline positive surface - wet strips of brown paper bag - hand torn crunkled up
                 wall paper paste - layering  

Afternoon Mask Work:
               Finished paper plate entrances
               Did paper plates with a “group mask” entrance and a ‘bit’
               Did characters with entrances

“Freshwater Road”

“The Girls Who Went Away”

“Out There”

“I Cannot Tell a Lie”

“Chinese Cinderella”

“Princess”

the latest in the alphabet series

Other good books I have already read:
“The Glass Castle” the autobiography of Jeanette Walls

“Wild Swans” by Jung Chang

Books I Want to Read:
I Walked the Line by Vivian Cash 
It Happened to Nancy By Beatrice Sparks 
Lipstick Jihad 

you come inside and feel so wonderfully cool and the inside temp is 82 degF.