.com-ing!

The more dirt uncovered. The more excited I get about the world of law enforcement! Whoohoo! Well done CBS 4. Well done.

Read the transcripts if you don’t have much time. Definitely watch the video on the CBS 4 page (linked after the click). What’s that? Absolute power corrupts absolutely? Never heard that before. Sigh.

Both CT reps said “Yes” along with 49 others. 1 stood by and watched while 48 others said “No” By defeating this procedural motion to suspend budget rules, the Senate halted progress on a bill to create a $140 billion trust fund to compensate workers exposed to asbestos. Vote — Rejected!

The movie, not the town up the road from here, after having read ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author‘ by Luigi Pirandello, I feel like I’m caught in a matrix. Who is real, what is real. Does anything affect anything, anyone… Truly?

Of course the answer is yes but wow. What a day.

In class we discussed many ideas on what is real and what isn’t. Of course it’s all academic. There is a reality, and there is a world we all try to live in. Even if only for moments during the day. This would be rare but hey it could happen. Human beings wear masks so often we seem to forget to take all of them off. At some point in their day or even their life. Today I read a very interesting article linked from /. about how the unconscious mind makes better decisions than the conscious. Strange and interesting. Do I believe it? Very much so.

In the present US culture we, the people, don’t seem to know what we, as individuals, really want. Sure we’ll all make a fuss and scream and shout at one another. Blah, blah, blah. Take off the mask, sit beside someone, and speak plainly, without anyone else ready to back you up, and see how far you go. How long into the conversation can you go without giving a safe answer and actually answering how you truly, wholeheartedly, unabashedly feel? One minute? Two?

We are so defensive and scared to speak our true minds it makes complete sense to me that the unconscious mind makes better decisions. The conscious is too busy worrying about who might be upset if something is said, or worse! Implied! Oh NO! Then we’re worried about who we really are. Am I okay as a person. Is this immoral? Did I leave the stove on. What about lunch, did I bring it. Should I be eating this… Again? Uh, I hate those stickers. Watch where you’re going you idiot! Hey, be quiet. Uh, I hate this song. Where did I see that movie again? Was it 42 times or was it 64 times we did that last year. Wow! Yea I said I’d do it so give me a few minutes okay?

Right, so we’re all good with making a sound, comfortable decision with all that going on… Yea, I thought not. And what do we do when we get a chance as well? We step away from the daily grind. I read comic books, read news on-line, read plays, watch movie and T.V. shows, etc. Recently I realized I hadn’t read a comic in over a month. How’d I notice? I finished reading Wizard magazine and felt a release of stress. It was a feeling I needed and it was a world I missed. Another world. Characters with traits I hope attain and retain while doing my best to unlearn traits I dislike that I see as well. They seem so real. Characters. They’re living a life we mundane can only dream of. Never is a moment wasted. Every word spoken has a life and death significance. It’s all on the edge! The place we say we want to be but rarely ever find ourselves. It’s okay to admit it even though few will.

Pleasantville’s characters live and die by their choices. That’s what they think at least. Bud’s mom is so ashamed of her appearance that she hides it from her husband.

“Hide me, hide me! I want to be important and unique but you need to know I’m just like you see.” = ) Nobody famous said it. I’m just making a point.

I love films like Pleasantville. Having watched it again it definitely falls into the top 5 of my favorite films. Crimson Tide, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Iron Giant, Pleasantville, etc. Yes I only wrote 4. I don’t have a list here that is official and sealed.

A smart, funny, challenging film that echoes my favorite quote: “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes - US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

We need alternate realities or we seem to lose focus on the one reality we actually live and breath in. I wonder if studies have been done to restrict people from having the freedom to read, watch, etc. other realities compared to a group that is allowed the choice to read, watch, etc. Hmm. I cannot get enough of compelling characters and stories. They reach me in ways daily life seems unable. Stretching, pulling, inching that extra tiny bit we never think is possible and then going further. The life they ‘live’ IS something extraordinary. It’s everything compressed into a slice. And that slice is what we want (deep down inside).

When I tell people that I’m working on my graduate degree they are typically happy for me. Well, uh, yea. It’s pretty damn cool. It’ll take two more years, yadda, yadda, yadda. What most people fail to appreciate is the amount of energy spent on a theater degree. Sure it sounds all fun and artsy, but the fact is a huge amount of time is spent each week just on class work alone. Everything Thursday I sit with a book for 2-3 hours reading about the history of theater and the play for the week. This semester we’re read and will be reading:

20 Jan A DOLLHOUSE
27 Jan THE FATHER
3 Feb THE CHERRY ORCHARD
10 Feb MAJOR BARBARA
17 Feb SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
24 Feb MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
3 Mar ENDGAME
10 Mar DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN
31 Mar THE HAIRY APE
7 Apr THE BROWNING VERSION (separate edition)
14 Apr DEATH OF A SALESMAN
21 Apr a radio play to be distributed in class
28 Apr FENCES
5 May FEFU AND HER FRIENDS
12 May ANGELS IN AMERICA, PART ONE

Last semester was another story. The Greeks filled all our heads for weeks and weeks on end. This is all for a class that meets once a week for two hours. The other (adding up the hours in my head) 2, 4… 10 hours spent in class range from studying lines to breaking down text so that each word has importance and meaning. It may seem trivial but think about each word used during a day. Not one word is wasted in a conversation. Everything means something.

The theater, in our digital world, has not lost its place in society. Instead, the 00 11 world has proven that use of language is more important now than it has been in years. We communicate through abbreviations and l33t talk.

bustedmic - b
s-ben-real - yo
bustedmic - mmm pizza
s-ben-real - o rly?
bustedmic - = )
s-ben-real - rly
bustedmic - brb yo. cell is buz’n

I digress entirely. Ha.

It’s not easy to work full time and study for a degree “part time” - especially MFAs. MBAs are nothing to shake a stick at of course. I simply have no experience nor have the desire at present. emma recently started a class - yea marriage perks - and has said it should be one or the other - work or study. While I agree I also don’t. Because I’m taking classes my mind is better able to focus on work. I appreciate that dichotomy of my day to day life. At one point I’m helping a faculty member, the next, they’re teaching me something. It’s a feeling best experienced than described.

So in the summer of 2008 I will officially be a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. It will have taken 5 years. The first two were truly part time. This year will be my heaviest class load. The next two years should be very manageable. I figure between 6 and 9 hours of class per week. A monumental difference from the present 12 hours/week I am enrolled in this year.

Should you be considering a graduate degree and wonder if you should work full time and take classes in the evening or weekend I suggest taking one class for a semester or a year. If you’re not a full time student… What’s the hurry? Give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is you learn something and make some new friends. There are worse things that can happen. Oh, and yes, even if you have a family. One of the grad students JUST had a baby. I think it was during the first 2 weeks of school. Make the time. It’s worth it for everyone involved.

And then there was one. Mr. Broderick. Yea, you! Over there at NVCC! I haven’t forgotten about you. You’re the last person I have to get back in touch with m’boy. Wow. One. Happy happy. Joy joy!