EXTRA CRITICUM

Playwright Tammy Ryan on the guns in her plays

Tammy Ryan has a fascinating and troubling piece up on Howlround. Here's a quote:

I have never owned a gun, never touched a gun, never even ever seen a real gun. I don’t share Khakpour’s obsession, but the characters in my plays do. Not in all of them—just the most successful ones, the ones that have been sanctioned by the powers that be as “good,” the plays that receive professional development, multiple productions, get published, and win awards. In each one of those plays a character either, has a gun, shoots a gun, is threatened by a gun, threatens someone else with a gun, is afraid of guns or is somehow traumatized by the violence of a gun.

This is a deeply disturbing revelation for me for several reasons.

To read the full post, click here.

Apocalypse, Now? Serenity Now! A Clip

Apocalypse, Now!

The other night I was on the subway, on the way to meet with filmmaker Peter Olsen, who is directing a jaw-droppingly beautiful documentary The Singing Wilderness about nature writer Sigurd Olson, when a man of about thirty-five sat next to me. He put his earbuds in, took out his portable Playstation, and began playing some first person, military shoot ‘em up game. (I’m not a gamer at all.) I looked at the tiny monitor as his digital self found cover behind walls and blasted away at his digital nemesis.

Cartoon: Like/Dislike

Must we ALL be heard?

File this one under: Absolute Curmudgeon.

There's a billboard outside my office window. It invites anyone to share their "underdog" story on the facebook page of a tire company.

I can only conclude that the tire company is willing to splurge for a Times Square billboard because there is conclusive evidence to suggest our collective need to be heard shows no signs of waning anytime soon. Also then, I imagine someone has figured out that after posting a personal story on a facebook page, people might feel more connected to a tire brand. (And buy those tires?)

Flannery O'Connor: The first HBO showrunner?

Jim Shepard's essay in The Atlantic about the conclusion of Flannery O'Connor's unforgettable short story "A Good Man Is Hard To FInd" got me thinking about contemporary TV series in which the hero (more often, anti-hero) isn't allowed to change too much.

He focuses on what a criminal ("the Misfit") says about an old lady near the end of the story: "She would have been a good woman ... if it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life." Shepard's interpretation:

... He's not saying that a near-death experience would have turned her into a good woman. He's saying it would take somebody threatening to shoot her every minute of her life.

In other words, these conversion experiences don't stick — or they don't stick for very long. Human beings have to be re-educated over and over and over again as we swim upstream against our own irrationalities.

Mixed Feelings About Theft

The question of theft came up for me again recently when my longtime friend and collaborator John Tilley pointed me to a pirated version of my first feature film, ALL THE RAGE, online. Of course, the truth is, pirating is a form of stealing. The person who uploads an entire feature film onto YouTube without permission is theoretically depriving my distributor (and by extension, the filmmaker) from any potential revenue that may or may not have come from those viewers actually buying a DVD or ordering up the title on Netflix.

So, full of righteous indignation, I dutifully followed the link to the YouTube page. I wasn't sure what visiting the link would tell me but I clicked on it anyway.

And then I saw the number of views.

Simple Lessons Learned: #6. Why ask 'why?'

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

When you have every hour of every day to do with as you will, you give yourself permission to try things without needing to offer yourself a convincing rationale. David Licata illustrated this in his blog post, Get Thee to an Artist Residency in his discussion of playing the guitar, something he ordinarily would not have done publicly, but which he found himself sharing with his fellow colonists at MacDowell.

Simple Lessons Learned: #5. Nature's Course

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

Nature can be an endless reservoir for the imagination if we take the time to look and listen. Let nature in and she will reward you.

Simple Lessons Learned: #4. Chaos vs. Order

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

I used to spend a few minutes at the end of a work day, returning my notes into some sort of coherent logical order. Now I've come to believe that may not have been the wisest use of my time.

Meanwhile on Filmmaker Magazine: The Up Films

Michael Apted's Up films are a great inspiration on my work. When I heard that the latest in the series (56 Up) was coming out this year, I had a brainstorm. What would it be like to watch all of those films (total running time, 13 hours) in 24 hours? I pitched the idea to Filmmaker Magazine and they liked it. 

Simple Lessons Learned: #3. Walking

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

Walking is unlike any other form of meditation or any other form exercise. It belongs in its own category.

Simple Lessons Learned: #2. On Reading

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

Reading is of greater value to the imagination than is watching a movie, television, or even listening to the radio. I may be preaching to the choir with this one but I think it’s worth reminding ourselves from time to time. Unlike any other form of entertainment, reading is active. It activates the mind. And reading fiction rewards the soul with pleasure and empathy.

Simple Lessons Learned: #1. Quiet

My time at MacDowell taught me a lot about myself and how I work and live. Every few days I'll post a simple lesson I learned in the woods outside Peterborough, NH.

The first thing I noticed was the powerful impact of silence.

Permission to Cry

I saw Les Misérables this afternoon, and I bawled my eyes out.

But it wasn't because the film version of the famous stage musical was that good.

And I don't think it was because the characters in it were all that miserable.

There's something about seeing another person crying that makes us in the audience want to cry, like the contagion of yawns or bathroom breaks.