Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Comcast Is Going To Play Nice-Nice and Stop Blocking BitTorrent

When I first saw this, I thought it was an April Fool's joke, but I guess it isn't. Apparently Comcast is doing and about face and is going to play nice with BitTorrent, and I guess whomever else it was blocking traffic from on the Internet.

Money must be changing hands somewhere for this to happen. I'm guessing between the lawyers. But I think the real reason for this is to keep the Feds at a distance.

Interesting info on why the lied boldly about this. Apparently to keep folks from hacking a solution around their blocking techniques.

While managing the pipes needs to be done, I can't imagine this is going to get any easier as the move to more and more media continues.

Via The New York Times

 

Technorati Tags: Comcast,BitTorrent

We Don't Need Another Sniper

Man. Today was crazy and I caught wind of this news of another sniper incident close to our area in brief spurts throughout the day. Of course everyone here is flashing back to the DC sniper incidents and how insane that was. This was about an hour or so from where we live now, and about 20 minutes from where I grew up as a boy.

What is with people that they become such idiots?

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Getting Some Pub

Here's a link to a an article in the Northern Virginia Daily on our upcoming production of Driving Miss Daisy. We're having a blast working on this delicate little flower of a show. We hit the hard scenes towards the end of the play this afternoon, but this cast just shines.

Check out the article. More importantly, come check out the show.

Swarmtracking, Spitters, Twitter and the Like

Lots of folks talking about Twitter lately. What it is, what it isn't, what it could be, what it might be. Steve Gillmor has a fascinating post called Swarmtracking on how he tracks tweets with GMail. Scoble recently posted about what he viewed as the Secret to Twitter. Francine Hardaway added her $.02 on how Twitter has changed her life.

Twitter has certainly changed my life, as it has become something that I really enjoy. When (and if) I'm at my office, or at home on the web, I have Twitter running in Twhirl, and I find that it is a better river news view of what's going on than just about anything. It just sort of chirps along with a continual stream of what's happening, some of which is important enough for me to toss in my $.02, some of which just gets absorbed and moves on. Some of which just makes me laugh, and that is of tremendous value these days.

It is fascinating to see the ebb and flow of those that I follow when something breaks that grabs attention. It is even more fascinating to see when something gets tweeted that gets totally passed by.

I don't think, except using it as a window on to the worlds, gestures, and thoughts of some individuals whose virtual company I enjoy, I've figured out much beyond that as to its value. Perhaps, for me, that's enough.

Unless of course Loren Heiny's point that we're seeing more and more Twitter spam spoils the party. By the way Loren calls it Spitter (SPam twITTER) which I think is the first time I've seen that used, but I could be mistaken. I just hope that doesn't become a popular term because we see too much of what it stands for.

Technorati Tags: NewsGang,Twitter,Spitter,Scoble,Twhirl

Conspicuous Consumption @ $35 a Head

I have no doubt that this will work, but it still amazes me. A business is planning on setting up a chain of movie theatres with tons of amenities that will cost you $35 a head to have a seat and catch a flick. Push a button on your cushy chair and a waiter shows up to take your order for a chef to prepare (food costs more than the ticket.)

I'm just wondering what happens if the movies suck, the way they've been doing lately.

via Variety

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Working with Pros

I am not in the least knocking the mostly teen age cast of our production of Romeo and Juliet when I say this. That group of kids (and some adults) is amazing and wonderful and will always been near and dear to my heart. But what a delight to walk into rehearsals for Driving Miss Daisy with this cast of three pros and get down to work. Things are still nuts here with my schedule, and rehearsal is about the only time that I can focus on one thing at a time. And it is made even easier to do with Faith, Elliot, and Jim, as we plow through the script and bring the show to life. We're having a blast, working hard, and making some great things happen. Makes me want to actually go to work in the morning. (Even though rehearsals aren't until the afternoon.) Audiences are in for a treat.

Technorati Tags: Driving Miss Daisy,Wayside Theatre

The Audacity of Hopelessness

David Brooks in The New York Times morphs Obama's slogan a bit in laying out what he sees as Hillary's dwindling chances for the nomination. He figures she's got a 5% chance. Of course with Mr. Brooks, there's a little bit of delight in the Democrat's continuing to tussle, but he does make some interesting points. He calls it a "Verdun-like pattern."

Before I turned to the NY Times this morning, I picked this up from a link by Michael Parekh, who says he's tiring of the Rev Wright circus. Couldn't agree more with that, but I'm afraid we're all going to have to endure the Clinton's long, last, sad march for quite some time to come.

Eating one's own is just too much of a political sport.

Technorati Tags: Clinton,Obama

Romeo and Juliet Opens Tonight

Well, we're there. Romeo and Juliet opens tonight. That old saw about not working with kids and animals in the theatre can be true, but I have to tell you, through this crazy spring the young people in this show have been an inspiration. It hasn't been easy, but it has been a thrill to be associated with young people who want something so much and work so hard to achieve it.

Here's a link to some local coverage of the show. I do hope you come to see how amazing these kids are.

 

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Racism and Drama

We started rehearsals today for Driving Miss Daisy, the last show in our 07/08 season at Wayside Theatre. Great cast with Elliot Dash, Faith Potts, and Jim Fleming. As we sat down to discuss the show and do a first read, we were all talking about how intriguing it is to do be doing this show in the midst of this presidential campaign that, for the moment, seems consumed by racism. Starting rehearsals on the day of what is being billed as Obama's "Race Speech" heightened the discussion to a degree. I 'd like to take credit for the scheduling, but I can't. And I find that scheduling plays with themes that end up being current again happens more often than not

I'm not sure if where the whole 'race' thing will go during the next weeks of rehearsals, or during the weeks of the run, but it will be interesting to see how audiences respond to the play given what is going on around them.

Being familiar with the play prior to immersing myself in it to get started, I'm wondering how many of our audience will have the same reaction I did once I started real work on the script. I recalled it as a great show with great writing about some powerful issues. But on reading and re-reading I kept being surprised by how powerful a piece it is, and at the same time, how fragile it is. Of course, given that the issue of race relations has been with us and will continue to be, that part isn't the surprise. The surprise is how much we forget or set aside those issues until they come staring us in the face.

It is going to be an interesting few weeks. That's for sure.

Tree House in Paradise

Maybe it is just the crazy period in my life that I'm in, maybe I'm just nuts. In either case, this post on Gizmodo about Finca Bellavista, a rainforest community of treehouses In Costa Rica caught my eye today. Gizmodo likens it to Endor on Earth, without the Ewoks.  No matter, I've been likened to an Ewok before. Tree houses, great climate, and WiFi. Sounds dreamy about now.

Technorati Tags: Finca Bellavista