I DON'T FIND SHADOWS OFFENSIVE

Ah, that first week of Daylight Savings Time. 

It sucks.

Well, I am being a bit dramatic, but that's what I do. 

This week, I teach my normal classes during the week, a workshop at another school this morning, have tech week for a middle school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which opens Friday, rehearsals for The Wedding Singer up in Conifer and Little Shop of Horrors and Chamber of Secrets up in Boulder, and leave for San Jose Sunday for a short trip to retrieve things that have been in storage for a long time. On top of that, my company is co-producing a new play which had auditions that past few days, and we are in the process of getting a new venture funded (more on that in future blogs, I'm sure).

So I'm a little groggy. Like toast with no butter that's been sitting on the counter while I take a call, I'm not quite what I want to be. 

But I'm trying.

I did have a good breakthrough with one of my scripts, and enjoyed that feeling of "Aha!" for a day or so. 

Wow. I think I am griping a bit. Which is never seemly, and all the more unseemly when you take a step back and look at what is going on in the world. The Pandemic still rages, the climate still changes, and it feels like we are on the brink of World War Three.

So, I really can't complain all that much. 

I suppose there are those who would say that complaining about the smaller things in life is a pressure valve of sorts, a way of venting our general anxiety. And I dig that. But I also firmly believe we need to keep perspective, and not be so self-involved that we inflate our problems and deflate the problems we all need to consider.

Deep thoughts, I know.

What fools these mortals be. 

I must say, working on Shakespeare with young people, who for the most part have no pre-conceived ideas about "The Bard", no bardolatry or treating it preciously or familiarity with past productions, is shockingly refreshing. It's like approaching it for the first time. And what is really cool is how, when they simply say the words, honestly and in the moment, how evenly the lines flow. How the language matches the thought process of most of us. 

Makes me happy to be alive. The story, the work, the young actors running around on stage and off. There is magic in this world, and has been since the Big Bang. 

It hides in plain sight, clear as can be, loud and pungent and mysterious and uncomplicated, all at once. 

I think that is my main theme in pretty much everything I write. Life is beautiful, and we all should realize that, but somehow get caught up in our busy schedules, hurt feelings, past trauma, over due bills and so on. Which is tragic. 

All this wonder out there, and we do our best to fuck it up, or pretend it doesn't exist. 

Well, it does. Grab it. Experience it. Share it. Eat it. 

And be cool if others don't. Or if you don't. That's my advice. I know that is a hard thing for some, and not a desired thing for others. 

That's cool too. It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm crazy. If so, boo hoo. I shall enjoy my straight jacket of joy and padded cell of art and nature and love and friendships, and will take visitors at all hours.

Party on. Game on. Flame on. 

On.

Here's a song. It's Karn Evil 9, First Impression, part 2, by Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Also, the new show Sasquatch is co-producing is Puerto Rican Nocturne, which will play at The Bug Theatre this summer. More info HERE. 

STAR TREK OR ROAD WARRIOR

Riding home from work last night was scary. Not because of the traffic on 36. Not because it was so warm in early March and seems to be yet another sign that Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever you want to call it is racing towards up at the speed of light. Certainly not because I'm worried about Inflation, which seems to me to just be the greedy raising prices because they can and to keep the downtrodden downtrodden.

No. 

I was frightened because I was listening to reports about the biggest Nuclear Power Plant in Europe being set on fire after getting shelled by whatever you want to call the Russian Army.

That's some scary shit.

Some China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl meets Strangelove kind of scary shit.  

I think most of us like to think that the threat of nuclear annihilation is over, that the possible end of the world due to our own stupidity went down with the Berlin Wall and now we are headed to the future promised to us all in Star Trek.

But we ain't there yet.

First off, we still have all these missiles. And by we I mean: USA, Russia, Chine, the UK, France, and Chine.

Oh, also North Korea, Israel, India, and Pakistan.

Maybe more.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait. I know. You could have a total asshole who seems kind of crazy be in charge of at least one of those countries.

It really feels like we are at this moment of do or die. Either we get our collective shit together and start living that Utopian Star Trek existence, or we go down the path of Mad Max and the Road Warriors of Doom.

I remember having a conversation about this long ago, right after 9/11, on a balcony with an old friend, in Mid-Town Manhattan. 

Star Trek or Road Warrior.

Life or Death.

I happen to think we need to aim for Star Trek. Seems like that would be a. more enjoyable future to live in. Transporters. Space Exploration. The Holodeck.

Bring it on.

I know it's hard to do. I watch the news and I think, let's just go into Ukraine and fuck shit up and wipe out the Russian Army and then march on to Moscow and kick Putin's ass. Right in the middle of Red Square.

If it weren't for the threat of all out nuclear war and mutually assured destruction, this would be choice number one, violent as it may be.

But that threat is real.

And now, Putin the Fuckface shells a huge nuclear power plant. 

So what to do? 

I have no idea. But I think whatever course we take, right now and in the the future, has to involve changing our whole idea of how the world works, how finance happens, what worth there is to having rich and poor, haves and have nots, and all that.

Like what Jesus tried to talk about before the powers that be said "Fuck that guy" and nailed him to a tree.

I wonder if this is what happened to Atlantis.

We need to stop this. We need to start loving more. Listening more. Giving more. Striving more.

We need so much more, spiritually.

So I write blogs and screenplays and teach theatre and produced shows. 

Hopefully it makes people have a little more hope, a little more compassion, a little more determination to make the world less likely to blow up.

Here's a song. It's Untitled by REM, but I usually call it This World Is Big.

PS: I am co-producing a new play, and we are doing and Indiegogo camapign. If you can, please donate. If not, please share the link:

 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/higher-ground-presents-puerto-rican-nocturne/x/3385268?utm_campaign=contribution_receipt&utm_content=receipt-campaign_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=lifecycle#/

PPS: Please take a moment to breathe. Right Now.