Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

An Actress at Work

Sometimes acting gigs come from the strangest places. My lovely wife, Thomasin, picked up a job this weekend to play Marilyn Monroe. Turns out one of our Wayside Theatre audience members was looking to have a Marilyn look-alike sing Happy Birthday to her husband. The location of the gig, the 18th hole of a local golf course!

Ah, well. Thomasin got dolled up and is off to do the do. Anxious to hear how it went when she gets back.

Marc Orchant's Book: The Unofficial Guide to Outlook 2007 Now Available

Good friend and fellow Tablet PC MVP Marc Orchant reports that his book, The Unofficial Guide to Outlook 2007 is now shipping. I've enjoyed reading and listening to Marc's journey as he has been writing this book. If you're looking for ways to wrangle more productivity out of the tools you use, Marc is one of the best resources out there on that front. Congrats, Marc! I'll be waiting for my autographed copy! ;)

When Rehearsal Takes On New Meaning

Every now and then when I’m directing a show, there comes a magical moment in the rehearsal process. Sometimes it happens early on, sometimes it happens very late in the process, sometimes it doesn’t happen until we get in front of an audience. What’s the magical moment? It is when all the effort to make things work suddenly fall away for the actors and the play just materializes right in front of your face, as if it were happening for the first time.

That happend last in last night’s dress rehearsal for Stones in His Pockets. The two actors, Larry Dahlke and J.J. Kacysinski have been doing superb and brilliant work throughout the process on this very difficult play. Watching them work is a lesson in what this business and this art is all about. They have to play 15 characters with shifts and character changes that happen instaneoulsy without the benefit of costumes to signal the change. It demands great skill and stamina, and it is a real bear to make work. We’ve been heading to this moment for awhile, and when it all clicked last night, you could just sense that something wonderful happened.

Every play has an instance where it finds it’s life. But last night’s instance was somehow more magical than most. It was a blessing to be in that theatre last night and experience it. It will be a blessing today to see it happen in front of our first audience.

JibJab Jabs The News

The JibJab boys are at it again, this time taking pokes at What We Call The News. Not their best effort, but it is fun. Even a few notable bloggers make a brief appearance.

 

What We Call the News | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

Curiouser and Curiouser

More on the hate speech/death threat issue. Doc Searls received an email from someone, Alan Herrell,  many think may have been involved in the ugliness.

I am no longer me. My main machine despite my best efforts has been hacked, my accounts compromised including my email. and has been disconnected from the internet

You need to read the entire thing on Doc's blog. This thing just gets spookier by the minute with more layers than an onion.

Also, Michelle Malkin weighs in with a point similar to one I made yesterday. While this may upset many in the tech blogging culture, this kind of thing is almost well worn in poetical circles.

Blogosphere Behavioral Scientists Bang On Their Keyboards

In the wake of the recent episode of death threats and obnoxious, boorish, and, what looks to be criminal, behavior being tossed at Kathy Sierra, (it might be too soon actually to say "in the wake of") there are lots of posts on lots of blogs. The majority praise and lend support to Kathy, calling out the folks guilty of the behavior. A few jump on that "chorus" and throw a penalty flag for piling on. Scoble is protesting by not blogging for a week. (That just makes no sense.) Defenses have been issued. Codes of conduct are called for and being written. Sturm and Drang everywhere.

There are a couple of interesting twists that puzzle me. I believe that the acts committed are reprehensible and the perpetrators should be punished. That's beyond my purview, other than to state my beliefs. But I don't think this is a blogosphere or tech blogger culture thing exclusively. I also don't think this is an anti-female thing exclusively either. It happened to a female blogger. I think that's where the exclusivity stops. The issues are much bigger and, sad to say, just as prevalent in all aspects of society. Many, myself included, began posts about this by saying you're going to get smacked sometime or the other if you hang out your blogging shingle. No different than any other walk of life. Heck, our political culture thrives on lying, deceit, and the destruction of others. The winners are the ones that do it best and we celebrate that fact. I hate that. But it is true.

This is one of those dark moments that we bump up against in life that come around every once in awhile that remind us, sometimes all too sharply, just how close we are to our baser natures, no matter how far we think we have progressed.

It is a disturbing moment. It is one that was perhaps inevitable, (with only the spark being in question),, and no matter how much conversation and good intent comes out of this, it will happen again.

The Onion Now Does Video News

Watch out. The Onion is now doing video news. This could be fun.

 

Death Threats To A Blogger

This just saddens and mystifies me. Yes, the web and the carnival that can be the blogosphere can be an ugly place at times. You hang out your shingle and folks feel free to take their potshots. But issuing death threats to a blogger? Wow. A bigger wow is that they were tossed at Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users.

Kathy lays out what she can in what feels like an "I won't be around for awhile" post. She takes the immediate and personal and transitions it into an article about violence in language. Read her post. Makes you think. Makes you query.

I hope Kathy gets tons of support on this and finds her way to keep blogging. I think most reasonable people do.

Chicago's El Train At A Breaking Point?

This article in The New York Times says that Chicago's El Train system might be nearing a breaking point. I rode the El every day for 20 years (give or take a day or two here or there.) I can't imagine the city without it. And if there's money involved that accounts for all the pub these days. Smoothing the way for something.

A $1 Million Dollar Laptop. Why?

I don't get it. Why market a $1 Million dollar laptop?

 

Via Gizmodo