EXTRA CRITICUM

One of My Fondest Performance Memories

Going through my files, I just stumbled upon this pic which brings me back to one of my favorite moments from two summers ago when I was trekking up and down the I-95 and I-87 corridors performing my solo storefront spectacle, No Place to Hide. During this, my first attempt at this, hosted by the Colonial Theatre in Keene, NH, a choir from a local middle school passing by on their way back from an afternoon concert of their own, stopped at the window and engaged with the strange middle aged man typing in a window.

When I learned they were members of a school choir, I asked for a song and they spontaneously broke out into song, in glorious 4-part harmony. I remember pushing my ears to the glass to try and hear them in all their glory, a reminder of the barrier between us and the human drive to connect no matter what.

Those kids were such an inspiration to me. And on other nights and afternoons when I found myself typing away with no one stopping to interact, I'd recall that moment and it kept me pushing through with the knowledge that there are always surprises waiting for us on the other side of the glass. We just have to persevere long enough to encounter them. 

#Unfriendfacebook

Look what just showed up in my INBox.
Wow, Facebook. You really care. That means so much!

 

Umm... No, thanks. I'm good.
But thanks for everything, Facebook. ;)

Here are just a few of the stories you may have missed. Click on the image to link to referenced article. If you have a story to add, please do so as a comment to this post. Thanks!

 

 

 

Your Best Work Won't Wait

This is the tag line on the home page of my teaching website and underneath my signature on any email I send. But what does it mean?

A few things at least.

First of all, the best work you're imagining will make itself the first work you undertake. You can trust your creative unconscious to see to it that this is always true. And for that reason, in 2020 I urge you to go with your gut.

If that short play you started in my workshop last semester will not leave you alone, go back and see if there might be a full-length waiting to be born. If you told yourself you wanted to finish that screenplay this year yet you keep imagining new ideas for that novel, pay attention to that pull.

That's your mind tugging at your attention the way a toddler might tug at your pant leg.

There's at least another meaning to this bumper sticker.

This Dog Person is Considering Fostering a Cat

The ASPCA hosts orientation sessions for their pet fostering program. I've signed up for one in two weeks. As they explain on their website, in NYC at least, there are many more cats in need of a kind warm place to get centered than there are dogs. So I may end up with one or two furry little bundles of joy (or apathy?) soon. We'll see.

For the record, I blame Cosy Sheridan for this.

Love to hear from any of you who are pet owners. What can this middle-aged guy who's been living solo for much of his adult life expect from all this? Oy, am I anxious! But eager to help.

Last Night at the Moth

Last night at a Moth Story Slam in SoHo, I put my name in the hat and waited. 

And my name was called.

And I told my 5 minute story.

And no one died. (at the venue, at least)

I've been toying with this for more than a few years. That might surprise you if you know that I'm comfortable with public speaking, teaching, writing, singing, etc. etc. I mean, I'm the guy who has often had as my outgoing message on voice mail a recording of me singing some tune in the middle of a NY street off-key. You'd think getting up to tell a 5 min. story to a roomful of folks wouldn't frighten me. But you'd be wrong.

Cosy Sheridan Asks: "Do You Love the Life You've Made?"

Another Tuesday morning bit of inspiration. This time, courtesy of my talented pal, Cosy Sheridan. 

Complete lyric below:

Hey there B job people ! (Not that B job)

So here I sit for over 15 years at my "B" (day actually, get your mind out of the gutter) job, still doing my craft, art, creative stuff, writing, making people laugh, what have you, thinking why am I still here and why do I still feel I need to explain to civilians that I deserve merit for my creative accomplishments?  "I'm a produced playwright damn it !" "I was in an internationally known improv company for 4+ years."  "I've hosted my own talk show/podcast for over 10 years before it was cool and everyone had one" and on and on and on.  "I am friends with Robert Horn who I wrote and performed with back in the day" (He just last year won a Tony for writing the book to Tootsie on Broadway).  Yes I now even name drop stuff like that because it's so frustrating talking to non artists about what I really do and hardly ever get paid for.  Here's the best one which I'm so proud of the way I handled: At Thanksgiving in Kingston NY at my friend Mike's house, who is a sex therapist, (not relevant except for who his guests were) had over a bunch of therapists and myself where an older woman therapist asked what I did to which I replied most of the above.  Her quick and automatic response was , "oh do you make a living at it?" To which I ingeniously replied (I know this was ingenious because my other therapist friends told me so later that evening after she left) "I'm not going to answer that question.  I do all right and I reach a lot of people."  Boo YA !  Finally after 1,000 years in recovery and therapy, I have the self-esteem to handle an age old question that in the past would have made me feel like a loser and a failure.

Tuesday Morning Inspiration Courtesy of Patty Griffin

For those of us who keep on hiking up the road, making more stuff to share with the world, even when sometimes it feels like no one's listening, don't give up. Don't ever give up.

Thank you, Ms. Griffin. 

Lyrics copied below for those of you who (like me) like to follow along, word by word.

My Tug of War: Consistency vs. Change

This year I'm newly focused on consistency, specifically in terms of my schedule. As a independent artist and freelance teacher, I'm starting to see that imposing consistency on my weekly schedule has its value. I'll give you one example:

A little more than a year ago I took up Transcendental Meditation. During the 3-day introductory course, our teacher explained that having a twice daily regular mediation schedule was important to the practice. And so for the first several months I would meditate for 20 minutes first thing in the morning before going to the gym and for another 20 minutes in the evening before dinner. I noticed a deepening and expansion in my thinking within a week. And it went beyond just my creative work but had a positive impact on aspects of life that I might ordinarily not consider essential.

For instance, for my music classes and individual lessons, I teach at the piano. It's an old beat up Steinway grand that I bought for a song at an estate sale years ago when I was living in Boston. I love the piano dearly. Its sound inspires me and it has lots of scratches all over its casings -- most from before it came to live with me but some from a time when a dear friend housed the piano in her living room when I first moved to NYC and was renting a friend's dining room as my bedroom.

This is what practice looks like.

Couple years back while I was teaching in Roanoke, I grabbed a few seconds of footage of this line of folks casting fishing lines on a grass lawn. At first blush I just thought it was one of those amusing visuals for its absurdity.

No water within sight. Just a grass lawn, train tracks and asphalt of nearby streets and sidewalks of downtown Roanoke.

But now as I watch it, I see something I didn't see at first.

My Dad Looms Large

Recently, a friend who hadn't ever seen my kitchen, looked up at the wall and asked, "Who's that gorgeous man?"

"Oh. That's my Dad!"

"Your Dad? Isn't it intimidating having him watching you as you cook?"

Never really thought about it before she asked. I suppose had he been a chef...

But my Dad was a shrink. 

Imagine if I had his picture hanging above my bed!

I think the kitchen's a much safer bet, don't you?