LET'S SEE WHAT FATE BRINGS US

As Robert Plant said, it's been a long time sing I rock-n-rolled-n-blogged. But I have had several people tell me that the blog helped them get through the shut down, and that made me think maybe there is merit to my blog beyond just me letting my thoughts land on this electronic page. Also, I felt like writing on it again. So here I am, rock me like a hurricane, to use another song reference. I think most of my language is either a song or movie or tv reference of some type. Books too, and a bit of poetry. And of course theatre. I suppose we all are quoting something we heard or read at all times, making verbal collages of our memories. 

In any event, I am here again, with more of said verbal collages for you all to read. I hope you dig it. I hope I dig it. I hope. I hope. I hope. That's a reference to Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, the short story by Stephen King made in to the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one of the few film adaptations of a book I thought did it right. I love Stephen King, always have. Since I was around twelve and got handed a copy of Night Shift. Something about the way he describes people and places resonates with me. Makes me think we live in the same world, experience life in a similar way. I ate up his novels as quickly as I could for many years. I remember camping at Pinecrest Lake with my buddy Chris Carver and his family and reading The Shining, and getting completely lost in that story. The fact that the main character is a father losing himself to alcoholism probably contributed to my immersion in that one seeing as it was something I had witnessed and was still witnessing when I read that story. On top of that, King has a clear love of rock-n-roll, which I do as well. And he quotes some awesome writers, usually at the start of a chapter, or by having some character in one of his stories talk about a book they've read. I never would have read Watership Down if not for it being mentioned in, I think, The Stand. 

If you haven't read The Shining or The Stand, please do. Right now. I'll wait.

Okay. Everyone back? Good.

Moving on. Somehow I went to Stephen King. Maybe it's because it's Halloween time. Or because I am speaking of writing, and he is one of my heroes. I read his book On Writing over the summer, and was reminded yet again of how much I adore his work. I am fairly certain I would not be who I am, or communicate in the way I do, if I had not read so much Stephen King growing up. No doubt, there is a whole generation of people who speak the way they do, think the way they do, in part due to The Hunger Games. Or the Harry Potter series. Or Percy Jackson. You get the idea.

I wonder if anyone thinks a little bit differently because of what I've wrote? I suppose that is something I can't worry about all that much, or I'll become like a self conscious actor, unable to be in the moment, constantly second guessing my each and every word.

Well, sorry if I've made you think things... No. I'm not sorry. Not if I made you think, or feel, or do something in your life. Unless you've become a serial killer or some other terrible thing. In that case, I am very sorry and hope you stop.

So. A quick update on me. I am working on several shows right now: Holiday Inn at StageDoor; Spike at the Mercury Cafe; Harry Potter at Reel Kids; and The Wizard of Oz with my company, Sasquatch Productions, at the PACE. 

I'm also going to the Austin Film Festival next week. Very excited. My script The Belvedere Jungle is a Second Rounder there, as is my play Burning the Old Man. I'm going to take part in a Pitch Fest, go to a ton of panels, and eat lots of breakfast burritos. Beyond that, let's see what fate brings me.

Let's see what fate brings all of us. So much going on in the world. Trump fans still living in an alternate universe. Global warming getting worse. Pandemic not gone yet. We got a lot of fixing to do. A lot of anger to let go of. A ton of love to find. We can do it. I know we can. But we are still in that time of flux. I do not know when it will end or where it will lead us. But I do think writing, singing, acting, laughing, and loving will get us where we all need to go. 

Here is a song for you. It's See the World by Gomez. I dig it. Also, if you get a chance and are in Denver, go see: Young Frankenstein at the Vintage; Steel Magnolias at Cherry Creek Rep; and Murder on the Orient Express at StageDoor. And read some damn Stephen King!

 

Oogie Boogie Man

We're watching the mini-series version of Stephen King's The Stand right now- the one from the early nineties, which seems like it wasn't that long ago but somehow is. How did that happen? i really don't get this whole concept of time and movement and life and death. i know that everything in the past, from the beginning of the scene i'm watching right now (Rob Lowe as Nick Andros just left the jail in Arkansas) to a million years ago are all the same distance from me- what is it that Tom says at the end of The Glass Menagerie? There is no greater distance between two places than time, or something like that. i know that to be true. However, there are these time worm-holes, powered by memory, that span that vast distance of experience in the blink of the eye. i think that as we go along in this world, we all become time travelers- occasionally popping through these portals and finding ourselves in a room that hasn't existed for fifteen years or more, talking with some people who no longer walk the same roads we who call ourselves alive do. And as we move along the highway, it happens more and more often- i'll be sitting at a wedding reception, and in the time it takes to pour some cream in my coffee, i'll go to several other wedding receptions from days that somehow have gone by, never to be seen again by waking eyes.

i just think that's weird.

i wonder what if John McCain ever time travels- if he's ever shot back to some other event in his life. i bet he does. i was watching some footage a little over a week ago- which might as well be a million years ago- and McCain was giving a speech, and some nut job in the audience yelled out "terrorist!", and McCain got this look on his face or regret, of sorrow, of "oh boy, i really did sell my soul, didn't i?"- and i think maybe he went on a little journey right then, to some other time- maybe to some moment where he learned about dignity and having a soul- like i said, it's pure conjecture. But i think it happened.

What is happening to us, as a nation? We're so full of anger and fear and sorrow, we don't know what to do. It's like the past eight years have been a variation on Captain Tripps, the man-made plague let loose on the world in The Stand, only instead of killing our bodies, this version has killed ninety-nine percent of our soul. And now, as we wander the wastelands, we have to decide whom to stand with- the Walking Dude, who caters to our more selfish, fearful half, or with Mother Abigail, who appeals to our better angels.

i have hope we will go with Mother Abigail, but it's going to require sacrifice.