Happy Anniversary!!!

Just realized that today is the one year anniversary of the blog you're reading. Whoever is out there reading this thing . . . it's nice to share. It's pretty amazing actually when I look at the stats and see that there have been people from Russia and Poland, Pakistan, Brazil, South Korea! Amazing. Especially since I don't try at all to get it out there, I just let fly and see what sticks. There are only three people listed as followers of the blog, thank you Bette and Micki and wnhamlet, whoever you are. And thank you to all the folks who came to check me out after I mentioned my blog on Jorma's blog . . . who knew . . . it's an amazing way to build a community, which I guess we're seeing the possibilities of in northern Africa right about now . . . I'd say the revolution starts here, but the only thing I want to revolutionize is my own life. I actually have done a pretty fair job of doing that so far, and it's a continuous work in progress . . . I won't know where I'm going until I get there, but the journey is pretty bad-ass.

It has been an amazing journey this past year I'll tell you that; somewhere along the lines of a dream come true. For an artist to be given the platform to get his work out there is an amazing thing; I'm sure there are writers and painters and such out there who take this kind of stuff for granted, but I'm not one of them, this past year was a golden time . . . and the beautiful thing is . . .I still feel pretty golden about what's happening right now too . . . yes I do have a job, but it's one that I'm pretty happy with, and while I don't have the freedom to move to Woodstock for a few days to rehearse, I sure don't have to worry about commuting or taking the job home with me; so all in all it's just fine.

As for the year of blogging: you know by now that I started this thing to keep a record of what was happening with my solo show, Old Hickory. I had no idea when I started this where it would go, and I sure didn't know that we'd end up doing seven performances at the Fringe festival this year. But the blog has taken a life of its own and sometimes does digress a bit, but that's ok, there are no rules here, it's stream of consciousness pretty much.

So I kept up with the progress of Old Hickory through the One Man Talking Festival through to the Fringe; that same time also encompassed the radio broadcast of my play Where the Rain Never Falls on WBAI (speaking of revolution) with me in one of the parts, that was pretty cool. I also did a nice interview with the public radio station in Albany for the Fringe Festival and that wasn't embarrassing.

So it's been an interesting year. And I can only hope that the coming year is half as bad ass as this past year has been. I do know there are two more dates for Old Hickory, March 18 and 19 (please, stop snowing by then!) and I have entered my O'Neill piece in this year's One Man Talking Festival . . . and I'm continuing to work on new stuff and who knows what can happen . . . I only know that I intend to keep on doing it . . . and I plan to keep on blogging about doing it . . . so fasten your seat belts . . . it's gonna be a heck of a ride!

Enough with the snow . . .

Yeah, winter is lovely and all that, but you have to give me a break please. We've had enough snow this year to last a lifetime, or at least the next five winters . . . I'd like to progress straight to spring now please. No passing go and no $200!

Ok, I got that out of my system.

I had a nice weekend with my folks in Charleston, well . . . not a weekend really: I went down on Sat., got there about 2 pm, and left at around 12:30 on Monday . . . but it was nice to see them. It was that rarest of weekends when there was an ever so brief opening in the winter snows . . . but then I get back and wham.

There it came up again! Sorry.

Read through the new two hander . . . got to let it sit for a moment. Eventually want to take it to the Fringe, but the next couple of sessions I want to take Family Matters. Of course, I see this Tues. is supposed to be - you guessed it . . . more snow. Give me a break!

Here's a sentence I can get through with out the 's' word: looks like two more dates for Old Hickory: March 18 and 19 with Blue Horse Rep. Details to follow. But I'm relatively certain it won't be snowing in March . . . uh oh . . . shouldn't have said that!

That's it for now . . . and I do not want to hear about any damn snow!

Finished stuff . . .

Finished Keith Richards' autobiography. A fun read. You feel like you know the guy after a while. One thing that struck me: I have read a lot of biographies and autobiographies, and usually they are really interesting while the person is struggling away trying to make it against long odds (most of the bios I've read have been actors or writers) but sort of run out of juice after the person gets known. There are exceptions, Life With Monte Cristo, about the early years of Eugene O'Neill is one, of course, it is the first volume (when's the rest coming out!) and ends with him getting famous; another is Chekhov, by Henry Troyat. Now I can add Keith to the list. I found it captivating right up to the last sentence.

I also worked to the end of the current draft of the new two hander. I just have a couple of things to decide as to where one or two passages belong, but then I can let it simmer for a while and see what I think of it then. I hope it works, it is close to my heart, but I guess you could say that for all of my plays . . . cliche alert: they are all my children and I love them equally . . . well . . . maybe some more than others. Next up I get to spend some time taking a hard look at Old Hickory to see if it needs anything, or if it can be bulked up just a tiny bit. Don't want to do anything that screws it up though!

Oh, and not that it matters, but both things I have submitted for for this year ended up with rejection. I was kind of surprised by the Dramatists Guild self production seminar, thought I'd make that one. The guy who emailed me said, 'don't let this discourage you'. My reaction to that was, and I wrote this to him in an email: if I let rejection discourage me, I have no business in this business. He shouldn't need me to tell him that.

A play blog about movies?!

Well . . . yes. There is nothing like theater, but since I had very little exposure to it in my youth, and since I spent virtually every Sat. afternoon at the movie theater, well . . . yes, this post is mostly about movies.

SAG voting is nearing and I've been catching up. Some very good films this year: The Fighter, The Social Network, True Grit, Rabbit Hole (should have been nominated for cast instead of The Kids are All Right, if you ask me), to name but a few; and then the mind blower of the bunch: Black Swan, a truly visionary piece; difficult? Yes. Daring? Double yes. Provocative? I'll say. But also one of the truest visions of what people do for their art on film (not literal truth, but metaphorical . . .ok?).

Natalie Portman gets my vote for leading lady. Before seeing Black Swan I was leaning toward Nicole Kidman, taking nothing away from the other ladies nominated, she had the good fortune to have the best script to work with, and I thought she was quite wonderful. But Natalie Portman did for me in Black Swan what Christian Bale did for me in The Fighter; they aren't performances, they are transformations . . . no one else even comes close.

For leading man, my hat is tipped in the direction of Colin Firth, who I thought was superb in The Kings Speech (I might have gone for Geoffrey Rush as well if not for the aforementioned Mr. Bale).

Supporting woman has to be Melissa Leo in The Fighter (and I think Barbara Hershey could have been nominated for Black Swan as well while we're at it).

Supporting man is, if you haven't gleaned it already Christian Bale . . . no one else comes close.

For the cast, SAG's best picture equivalent; earlier in the year I would have thought The Social Network was the one to beat, and it was beautifully well done; then I saw The King's Speech and thought that was pretty special (Colin Firth especially); but then The Fighter . . . wow . . . what an ensemble, and it was one of those rare instances where it really was an ensemble, they worked off each other so well . . . I'll have to buy that one when it comes out. Black Swan? Nice work all round, and if it wins the best picture Oscar I won't quibble because it is daring film making . . . BUT . . . the SAG awards are for acting not film making per se . . . so I'll have to go with The Fighter for Performance by a cast.

Who got robbed? I would have liked to see Matt Damon get nominated for Hereafter, beautiful work. I also thought that Aaron Eckhart (who I'm not a major fan of) deserved a nomination for Rabbit Hole, he really hit it out of the park. Also, SAG has nothing to do with screenplays, but if Rabbit Hole isn't nominated for screen play they will have to answer to me (I noted that the Golden Globes passed it by).

That's it. Wonderful year for actors . . . some nice performance by actresses, but not too many that were that stunning in the lead category . . . nice to get a vote though.

Now play news:

I ran lines for Old Hickory while running again yesterday. Still a couple of rough patches, but I'll get out the script and dust it off . . . I foresee no problem there; still have to decide whether to add to it or not . . .

Also did about three hours of work on the new two hander as well . . . I hope this one works because I like it a lot.

Enough for now . . . a moment of two to consider Dr. King tomorrow isn't a bad idea; he changed the world . . . or at least chipped away at some of the uglier bits.

OLD HICKORY RIDES AGAIN!

Just got a message yesterday from Lora Lee Ecobelli, the co-AD of Blue Horse Rep, asking if late March is good for Old Hickory up in Lake Carmel, NY. I said yes. Of course. I can't wait. I really want more life out of this show and I'm hoping to figure out a way to make that happen . . . so doing it again is another opportunity to get it out there.

So away we go. Now I think I might try to work some new stuff in. I've been thinking that I can do it without messing up what's already there. If it don't work - out it comes - but it might be fun to play around with. Specifically: an age difference, making the Ex wife younger and meaner . . . if that's possible. I don't know. I have to kind of massage it and see if it needs it or not.

At any rate, exciting news! Away we go! Round two!

Keef's bio

So Tolstoy to Keith Richards. Nice. I'm enjoying his autobiography. The early life stuff was interesting, but it really heats up (as you would expect) when the music part kicks in. The commitment of these guys, who were from nothing, was pretty amazing. Living together in shaky circumstances all in the interest of being an authentic blues band. Wow. The level of commitment is astonishing. But, I guess that is what it takes when you get down to it. If you want something, and can identify that at an early enough age, then nobody and nothing should stand in your way of getting it.

The Stones had no reason to believe they would become what they became; anymore than the Beatles did. There really was no template for it. When the Beatles were banging it out in Hamburg, and the Stones were woodshedding in London . . . none of them foresaw what would happen with them. How could they. Then, as Keith says, in six weeks they went from doing gigs for literally no money to touring with Little Richard and Bo Diddly. After that . . . boom. In both cases, the Beatles and the Stones, they figured they'd get two years out of it.

All this to say it's commitment that is important. You have to decide what you want and how important that is to you . . . and anybody standing in your path had better make sure they are nimble or they'll get run over. Well . . . ok that's a bit too strong perhaps, but that's what it takes. Getting knocked about and rejected is all part of the learning process, it's all part of learning and growing.

The Stones got together and started playing the blues because they loved the blues above all else, and national service had just ended so they figured they had time to go for it. They wanted to be black blues players.

That's the key I think, to any endeavour: doing it because there is something inside you demanding that there is no other way. If you do anything for the money (other than business) then you're doing it for the wrong reasons. If the money comes? Whoopee! But that can't be the primary motivation.

That's my sermon for this Sunday . . . leave your money at the door.

got up and wrote

Got up this morning and instead of heading right out for the Y, I headed right into my new script and got some time in working on that. Nice. I would have a lot more time for the writing activities if I didn't spend time running and working out at the Y, but you know what . . . keeping it together healthwise is pretty important too, and starting the day with some adrenaline is a great way to get pumped for work . . . but the down side is I have to squeeze in the writing . . . it'll be easier when it is warmer out and I can run in the evenings if I'm so inclined, but I'm finding the balance and trying to maintain it.

I have decided that the new piece, instead of being two acts, will be one long thing sans intermission . . . I think that's a good idea . . . we'll see. That way there is no interruption to the flow and you can just keep the tautness intact . . . when I work through this draft and see what I have I'll have a better idea how it's all working, and if it's working . . . I'm cutting a lot, adding some . . . going through every line and not being sentimental about it; it may be something that I kind of liked, but if it strays from the path . . . off with its head!

One of the earliest cliches you learn in this writing stuff is all too true: sometimes you have to kill your babies. Never easy, but it can be done. Discipline and focus . . . you have to be disciplined enough to know when you have to cut something and just do it and you have to be focused enough to recognize that which needs to be excised . . . and to know when it goes off the rails.

May actually have worked through this bad boy by weekend's end . . . then I get to type in all those changes . . . and more rewriting while I do that . . . it never ends!

Fini Tolstoy

So yes I finished War and Peace, making the last few months of '010 a very deep immersion in 19th century Russian history and life. I finished W&P with mixed emotions, yes there was the sense of accomplishment . . . probably what it feels like to finish a marathon, in one way a thank god that's over and in another I can't believe I did it. At any rate, with the Tolstoy the joy of having read these wonderful books far outweighs the work it was at times. When you are contemplating a 1200 page book before you start it, it does seem daunting, then you get into it and it's moving along just fine for a while . . . by the time you're six hundred pages in you look at where the book mark is and you see you still have another six hundred to go! but listen, I wouldn't have bothered with it if it wasn't a great book. The story, the characters, the writing . . . all made it a most enjoyable experience. And, like a marathon, now I can say I did it. And I'm better for it. The insights Tolstoy brings to his characters are timeless and the way they look at the world, despite the fact of their station in life, is universal . . . at least the truths they come to realize are. But I still think Anna Karenina is the better of the two books; it may not have the historical, epic scope, but the focus makes it much more compelling, I think. So bravo Leo!

As to my own writing, still chipping away; I need to get into more of a rhythm with it so it becomes a part of each day; the stage I'm in now is the meticulous read each line and decide if it stays or goes stage, can something be said better, more clearly? Does it need to be said at all? So I'm cutting and adding . . . and one of these days I'll settle on a title for it!

Onward!

Here we are in '011

Welcome to '011. We're here and away we go! I've talked a lot about '010 and what it meant to me; so I won't revisit that now. Moving forward is just that, it's all new, a clean slate as it were. Do I have hopes for the New Year? You bet I do. I feel a lot of growth coming and I have some ideas and expectations that may come to fruition and may take a little while to get rolling, but the important thing is . . . moving the stone a little further up the hill.

What are some of those expectations and ideas? More work on the new two hander; more work on getting Old Hickory to more performances, yes there are plans for this winter, but I mean after that as well; if accepted by One Man Talking, there is the O'Neill piece to consider; exploring ways to self-produce; which ties in with making the job as lucrative as possible. Oh and yes, there is the marathon thing . . . still part of the vision for '011.

Sounds like a full agenda to me . . . let's rock!