Standard

As a rule, I’m pretty jaded. Pierced your kidneys? So last month. Tattooed your retina? Woman, please. Had all your teeth extracted in the name of performance art? How very.

But every so often, I come across something that makes me say, “Huh?” This is one of those times. (Some of you might be interested to note he’s from Atlanta. What the hell is in y’all’s water, anyway?)

Thanks for the link, Steve. I think.

Standard

For the past month or so, my life has been a relentless search for angles–marketing angles, that is. How can we pitch this to the public? To the press? What’s our next project? What can we do to build on what we’ve already done? And so on.

A few years ago, I would never have seen myself doing this. I had very clear ideas about what’s entertaining and what isn’t. Back then, good art was all you needed; mount a good production, and people will come crawling out of the woodwork to see it.

Then I had a course in arts marketing, I realized that good art is as much about the public as it is the product. You don’t just bring in Robert Wilson to direct Yoko Ono’s latest dreck and assume that you’re going to sell out a three month run.

I know, it’s obvious. But I find it funny how much I’ve changed my tune.

And every so often, I wish I could sit back and enjoy things.

Standard

I’ll probably catch a lot of flack for this–especially from my boyfriend, Yankee that he is–but I can’t help feeling a little conflicted about the state flag issue going on in Mississippi. On the one hand, I understand how some folks feel the current flag is a symbol of racial inequity. And I’m sure the state’s surprising number of white liberals feel just as guilty as can be about having it fly over the capitol building nearly 150 years after the Civil War.

On the other hand, it’s a flag. And if a flag’s supposed to represent anything, it’s identity–national, regional, or statewide. I could see how a new flag would be important in the formation of a new state, but that’s not happening. (And no, I don’t buy the pr/marketing angle that the Mississippi of 2001 is a “new” Mississippi.) Flags are graphic symbols; a new flag should symbolize something newly important, something newly profound, something newly shared. The proposed new flag does none of those things. And there’s a good chance it would only enhance racial tensions throughout the state.

I also don’t buy the notion that a new flag is somehow going to encourage massive amounts of new business investments in the state (one of the major incentives pushed by the “new flag” side). It’s not the flag that’s a turn-off to Fortune 500 companies–it’s the poor quality of public education and the general lack of kick-ass corporate tax breaks. Trust me, I know: we’re having the same problems in New Orleans.

Of course, being the pomo homo that I am, I’m aware that my sentiments are influenced by the fact that (a) I’m a white male, (b) I no longer live in Mississippi and have little investment in the issue, and (c) I have a certain fondness for the rebel insignia due to the numerous Ole Miss games I attended as a wee lad. Not that any of that would keep me from opening my big fat mouth….

Standard

So…

(a) I forgot to mention how fun it was to hang a bit with James this past weekend. You never know what to expect with web friends; happily, James continues my lucky streak.

(b) Another web cutie has reared his well-trimmed head.

(c) Theatre and theater are two different things. My friend Jack brought this orthographic issue to my attention, so I figure now’s as good a time as any to clear up the confusion.

Simply put, theatre refers to the art form, theater to the physical site at which it is performed. Ergo:

George Bernard Shaw wrote many theatre works, but heaven forbid you actually go to a theater to see one performed.

Or:

Last night, Xavier and I saw the most amusing piece of theatre in the parking lot of the 7-11,

but,

As I walked out of the poorly-designed theater and into the street, I was nearly run down by an unmarked vehicle driven by a woman who, for all intents and purposes, might have been the ghost of Bella Abzug.

Pretentious? Perhaps. But it’s all in the name of good grammar.

Standard

Lord, how’d I miss this? A thoroughly reasonable, rational editorial in the Times-Picayune criticizing the anti-civil union bill currently being debated in the State House of Representatives? How’d that happen?

Standard

During my brief New York residency, there was an amazing public art project on 42nd Street. Called simply “The 42nd Street Project,” artists took over abandoned shop fronts between Broadway and 8th Avenue and did as they pleased with them. Todd Oldham gussied up an erstwhile peep show with kitchy 60s designs. Nam June Paik installed a few dozen monitors and played endless loops of his video work. But to me, the best was the work of Jenny Holzer, who placed her truisms on the street’s many empty theatre marquees. Walking down the sidewalk, glancing up at the marquees was a jarring experience: where you might expect to see titles like “The Young and the Hung XXII” or “Kitten Natividad’s All-Girl Revue,” instead you got little lectures, little epiphanies. It was breathtaking, in a way.

Today, while waiting for some documents to upload on my blazing 56k dial-up, I was flipping through a book of Ms. Holzer’s and accidentally rediscovered some of these pieces. For the both of you who’ve never seen/heard them, here’s a few of my favorites:

YOU LIVE THE SURPRISE RESULTS OF OLD PLANS.

IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER.

THE BREAKDOWN COMES WHEN YOU STOP CONTROLLING YOURSELF AND WANT THE RELEASE OF A BLOODBATH.

SPIT ALL OVER SOMEONE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MILK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT HIS PERSONALITY FAST.

Standard

Bear with me, folks. I’m dealing with:

1. An aging, whiny, ludicrously insecure actor (wait, that’s redundant).

2. Projects I never knew about, all of which have deadlines I can’t possibly meet–at least, not without a batallion of monkey butlers schooled in Quark who’ve been trained to do my bidding.

3. About a squillion production details for current and upcoming shows.

4. Renovation of a 160-year old house (still).

5. A Great Coffee Famine, which began when my Mr. Coffee decided it didn’t want to hold water any more.

6. Two flea-ridden hounds and a cat that’s prone to knock over breakables at 4:37am with frightening regularity.

Surprisingly enough, taxes aren’t on my to-do list–somehow I got my ass in gear and filed ’em early. Who knew?