Redemption.

Just as I was about to sit down here and rip into how bad Team America: World Police was, I took a quick tour of a few friends online journals and happened across this...knockout of beautiful proportions. Words of wisdom from Ivan Lovegren, the first paragraph apparently from Matt Landis a local actor/artist.

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Nothing is more encouraging than to open up one's email in the morning and find these words, courtesy of Matt Landis:

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body... but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: WOW! What a Ride!!"

The only better motto I can think of is the ever popular, "Today's a good day to die." I believe that quote is attributed to Crazy Horse. So often people misinterpret that quote as an outpouring of depression or anger. WRONG!!! It is a response to the capitalist have-all-get-more attitude of miscontent. If I am not ready to die today, how can I imagine that I am living today? If you haven't already, read "The Count of Monte Cristo."

And, as always, Project 86 will never die.
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Now I hope I dont get sued for copyright infringement or plagiarism but for me if they manufactured "Inspiration-in-a-can" that would be its package.

How many activities can one man find to delay having to write a paper?

The numerical answer to that I do not know. But I do know that writing this is actually one of those activities, others have included today watching football, sleeping, eating amd watching Mythbusters are among the contestants vying for my errant attention.

So the past few weeks has seen for me a slew of theatrical shows and I just wanted to share some of these with you. (in chronological order of my attendance)
Kusari- A movement piece here at the University. Energetic movement without spoken word. The narrative was driven entirely by lighting, music and the actors body movement. This being my first movement piece it was intriguing at least, but ultimately I didnt enjoy the show mainly because of it lack of interconnectedness.
Metamorphoses- Expertly adapted by The Mary Zimmerman from the ancient works of Ovid. This is the telling of 10 mythical stories. The words, the script of this show are amazing. Another incredible aspect of this show making it unlike anything I've seen before is that the stage is a 10 foot by 10 foot by 2.5 foot pool of water. The depth and the feeling that this gave the the show I thought, was incredible.
Rent- The original Broadway musical staged right here on the Lied Center stage. I was stunned, I was amazed. This was my first encounter with Rent and yeah, I thought everything was wonderful, the music, the acting, the set. Wow.
Medea- Again University main stage. The staging of this ancient Greek tragedy was terrific. The set, the door, the statue, the fire pit, the scrim(for those of you who saw it) was in my opinion very impressive. The acting, all the actors were masked again a first for me, so that was new and intriguing but what the mask does is actually to inhibit the ability for the actor to convey feeling through the face, Next stop -- the body. This perfomance I would say was fairly athletically demanding and ended up wearing on me as well. I felt completely and overly exhausted after this show.
Finally, Neccesary Targets- The story of two american reporters who are assigned to post war bosnia in hopes of writing a book on what they see. 5 Bosnian women make their aquaintance and follows the confusion and inconsideration that ensues. The young and mostly inexperienced cast made this one difficult for me to swallow. I liked the script but thought that it would require a much larger scale to complete. Also, the nearly minute long scene changes were the breaking factor in moving this show along.

Thats it. Other than that, not much. Life has been crazy busy. A time of moving on. I have a few big projects and papers due this week, will hopefully be going to see my best friend in KC this coming weekend and then I start stage managing for a show called Burn This! the next weekend. Pray for me.

Have I ever told you how much it frustrates me when a professor doesnt show up for class. Yes, yes I understand that this is college and that sort of thing happens. But its not supposed to happen for an 8am class when I have two more classes that day. So I cant even go home and sleep.....grrrrr.

Anywho, life is nutty man. One day you think you have the world figured out, the next I ask myself the question of "The world?!?" I have in the past few weeks been wondering whether or not I should take some more time off of school. Which if I take another semester off it would be my 4th and I dont know that I can do that. But...I was thinking that it might just be great if I found an internship in NYC. Think about it, I could work somewhere maybe even on or behind a stage and then at night go see all the broadway shows that I could ever want...or probably more realistically as many as my wallet would allow...which if we're still thinking realistically would be like 1 maybe 2.

So I dunno. UNL is just beggining to wear on me. I am frustrated by all the "same thinking" that goes on here. It seems that most people are here to get by if anything. Not to excel and in closing it is my firm belief that you dont get ahead by not excelling! Anyone disagree?

Do you ever feel that you have just been a complete and total jerk to someone?
I do.

Ripping my heart apart for just a moments bliss.

I've told a number of my friends today that "I am going crazy." To ease some of the awkward tension that creates I quickly and nervously quote Will Ferrell's character from Zoolander "I feel like Im taking crazy pills." Heh heh. chuckle chuckle. Desired affect accomplished.

From there and with a somber look on my face I entreat them to agree that if they see me chew my shoe, please admit me to an insane asylum.

Ok, Im not really going crazy. But then again how am I supposed to know that. No one thinks that they are the one who will go crazy. Then it happens to them. Smack- out of the blue.

This week has been a rough one. A lack of sleep coupled with and caused by too many projects being due and one too many exams. I havent been feeling well. Perhaps that is because I am running on 3.5 hours of sleep at the moment and am about to go perform a monologue of a man in a Lebanese prison that has been there for 2 months and has himself begun to go insane. Does he know that he is going crazy? Does he have that consious thought or does it just happen to him.

After that I am off to the computer lab to finish a screenplay about a washed up superhero who is just looking to fit in. I dont even know my characters anymore.

Later tonight and as a bright spot on the otherwise shiny horizon, I am going to see a professional perfomance of 'Rent' at the Lied. I am excited for that. After? I dont know, perhaps I will collapse, perhaps I will...

I'd like to thank my roomate Ivan for the inspiration to post today.