SLAMBoston Auditions Saturday, Oct. 3

I've acted in the Slam maybe four times now. Every time a great time. Great, crazy audience. Judges that judge you Olympic-style--9.5; 9.8; 9.3...I've won the Slam once (a great thrill, because the Slam really is ten minutes of getting shot out of a canon) and yes, one of my plays, Minot Light is entered in the upcoming Slam.

So, get out there and audition.

Here's the scoop:

Holland Productions Audition Announcement

SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre (trademark of Another Country Productions)

Holland Productions is seeking actors for the November production of SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre (a trademark of Another Country Productions) to be held at The Factory Theatre

Casting Breakdown

CHRISTMAS VISITS by, Charles Watson Malcolm: 19 M; African-American; Lorine: 48 F; African-American; Malcolm's mother

ZOOLOGY by Emily Dendinger Maggie: 29 F; working woman Luke: 30 M; Maggie's husband

A FAG'S LIFE by Kyle Walker 5M Ellis: Early 30s, African-American, someone effeminate visual artist Buff: 40s, Caucasian, publisher of a gay men's style magazine; an Australian accent that may or may not be real Todd: 20s, Caucasian, trick, "gangsta" wannabe Rick: 20s, Caucasian, character in Ellis's comic Tyler: 20s, African-American, character in Ellis's comic

ABSOLUTION by Thom Dunn 2M Donnelly: 50s/60s; a clergyman Simon: mid-20s

MINOT LIGHT by John Greiner-Ferris 3W Stephanie: 20s-30s; a lesbian Andrea: 30s/40s; a lesbian Susan: 20s/30s

HER DYING WISH by Philana Gnatowski 2W Jess: Mid-20s Jillian: Early-30s; Jess's sister

ORI AND ADDISON by James Ferguson 2M Ori: 30s; nervous new father Addison: Slightly younger than Ori

Audition Dates: Sat. October 3rd
Audition Times 12-5
Audition Location: The Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St., Boston
Aud Requirements: 1 minute monologue
Rehearsal Start Date: October
Production Start Date: Monday November 2nd & Tuesday Nov 3rd
Audition Contact Name Victor
Contact Email hollandproductions@gmail.com
Please email Hollandproductions@gmail.com to request a slot between 12-5 pm.
All performers including those of color, seniors, women and performers with disabilities are encouraged to audition and will be given full consideration.

Save Oct. 19 for New Urban Theatre Laboratory

The New Urban Theatre Laboratory exists to use the experimental power of theatre to investigate the stories and voices of those who exist on the margins of society. We seek to bring the stories of the underrepresented to the forefront using the active ingredients of honesty and insight mixed in with equal parts sadness and joy, myth and mysticism, farce and cynicism and above all, truth.

Based in Boston Massachusetts, The New Urban Theatre Lab is also dedicated to exploring new ways that theater can build relationships with local business, and help promote the health of the economy.

Exquisite Corps Theatre opens tonight with Infiinite Story

I'm hoping to check this out. Exquisite Corps is one of the many new theater groups that have sprung up in Boston. Infinite Story is their second production, if memory serves right for me, and the process of making the show, was very organic, much like NXR did for Shhh!.

Four playwrights and 13 theater artists met for a weekend of brainstorming to put together four original plays. Tonight's production of four plays is the result of that collaboration.

You have to hurry. The production runs just this weekend.

Here's the scoop.

Daft

An interesting bit of theater...

Check out Audrey Ryan this Thursday (9.24) at TT the Bear

I saw Audrey Ryan open for The Bittersweets at Club Passim a couple of months ago, and strongly suggest if you get the chance to see her perform to take the opp. I'm on her email list and got this. Just read it and you get an idea of what she's like. Check out her music here.

Here's a YouTube vid of her from a few years ago. She's an eclectic performer. The night I saw her she played accordion, a few percussion instruments, and she worked with a digital loop gizmo to accompany her music.



Here's her email:

So even though I promised to cease playing local shows before my CD release on October 17th I still got offered a few I couldn't resist. I'll be playing tomorrow night at TTs the Bears with Elizabeth and the Catapult which is an indie rock outfit from NYC.

Thursday, September 24th @9pm
TT the Bears
Brookline Ave, Cambridge
9:15 - Audrey
10:30- For Orange Nichole
11:30- Elizabeth and the Catapult

Tix are $10 and it's 18+

I also recently did something I've never done before which is agree to be apart of a "competition" or more specifically a battle of the bands. In general I find these sort of things to be sort of asinine, after all how can you compare different kinds of bands? It's usually apples and oranges...but anyway, I did the first round of the "River Rising Star 09'" competition sponsored by The River 92.5 FM and well...I won...

so the finals are next month on Thursday, October 15th, venue TBA... However, I'd like to emphasize that I'd really just like all my friends and other people who appreciate my music (don't like the word "fans") to come to my dual CD release and documentary premiere of "the Loft Show Upstairs" movie. This is the show not to miss so please put it on your calender, plus there's even free beer and wine!! So how could you not go?

CD RELEASE:
Saturday, October 17th @7:30pm
The Sanctuary @ the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church
155 Powderhouse Blvd.
Somerville

(near Tufts, public transportation from Davis Square, or bus to Teele Square)

$5 general admission;
$10 admission and copy of new CD “I Know, I Know”

Schedule:
7:30pm- opener “Gretel”
8:30pm- Audrey Ryan
9:45pm- screening of documentary “Loft Show Upstairs” (40 minutes)

We will be providing free snacks and drinks including beer and wine while supplies last.

Thanks,
Audrey

And here's a bonus: A YouTube vid of Elizabeth and the Catapult.

Comfortable in my own skin

Sue said two things today that made me feel so good. The first was that the house smelled so good with cooking last night when she came home. Yesterday I made granola and soup and bread, all part of Sue’s and my desire to feel good and live healthy so we can do the things we like to do.

And this morning while we were talking, she said that I was her best friend.

I’ve always had just one best friend (Sue said she’s always been the same way) just one person who I spent all my time with. Plus a few others close friends, but only about four, no more than five. I guess I value quality over quantity. I’ve never been a joiner, prefer being a loner, watching from the fringe, and never liked traveling around in large groups. On the surface it’s just too complicated and too much pandemonium for me, but that makes me look shallow. It’s simply in a large group you can’t do the one thing that I love to do, and that’s have a deep conversation, one on one. Baxter, and don’t ask me how he knows things, but he knows things, said the one thing that I’ve always craved my entire life is intimacy. I like close, and the closer to the bone we get, the better I like it. But it takes a long while to get where you know who you are, and not just what you want, but what you need. Or it took me a long time. Maybe I’m just a slow learner. Maybe there’s more for me to understand about myself. Well, of course there is. But feeling good inside your own skin gives you so much calm strength. I’m not perfect, but it would take a lot to take that away from me now.

The upside to a down economy

I was reading a news article yesterday that Amish view the current economic downturn (CED) as a blessing. It's forcing them to return to their core values, making those who abandoned the farm for the factory and the town, who turned to a wage-dependent job instead of a family business, return to the Amish religious and family-centric life.

Sounds all good to me.

The Industrial Revolution was what broke up the family to begin with, Shanghaiing the majority of the United States' population from Walton Mountain with three generations living under one roof and paying with cash, to the fast life of the city that ultimately ended in a soulless existence living off credit and using either drugs or the television to numb the frayed nerve endings.

I read about another family that eliminated $106K in debt over five years. They racked up that kind of debt, not by fast living, but simply buying new: new cars and clothes. They didn't even own a home. I've never understood people who pay thirty grand for a car when you can buy something used and serviceable (that means a beat up old pickup) for ten grand. But that's still a lot of Gap sweaters and Abecrombie hoodies.

Long ago, my grand plan was to own a small farm--no more than 12 or 15 acres--and garden and raise one or two head of livestock that I could prod into the truck and take to the slaughter house for storage in my freezer. I wasn't a crazy Unabomber type. It was just a continuation of how I saw many of my relatives, who lived on farms in Indiana, live. You're hitting the jackpot when you live a life like, being close to nature and the seasons taps you into a spirituality you won't get in the grandest European cathedral. You're healthy, wealthy (with a good life) and wise from good, fresh, organic food, fresh air, and just the right amount of exercise. You go to bed with a clean conscious because you're tired and you know you've put in a honest day's work. Again, I wasn't talking about going off the grid. I was just thinking about simplifying.

Well, I don't have a farm, love living near the city because of all the intellectual pursuits it offers, but my (and Sue's) instincts to always simplify a bit more have served us well.

Since getting laid off back in December, I've fully realized that I'm happiest working at home, on my own, working with clients to promote their products that I can really believe in. I knew it, it just took another two years in a cube to really drive that idea home. Not that I wouldn't still take a staff job with a company. It would have to be the right one, with the right people, that's all. In the meantime, working at home has let me simplify, and live life more like I like to live it, even though I'm not living it on a farm.

Today is a good example. Right now I have projects with Saucony and MIT's Sloan School. I honestly believe that those two organizations make the world a better place--the Sloan School obviously through education, and Saucony by helping people stay healthy. It's a great day when you can get up in the morning and look forward to your work, because for the longest time I didn't.

Sue and I get some nice quality time together, even though both of us keep very busy. We got up. Sue jumped in the shower while I put the coffee to brewing. I was heading for our home office here later in the day, but because I wasn't racing to get to an office--grinding my teeth to either catch the T or leaving to sit in the parking lots that make up the highways and beltways that circle and crisscross Boston--Sue and I had time to talk and enter the day slowly.

Someone I know who is way up there in an ad agency described his job as trying to drink from a fire hose. Now he says he can't even do that. Our jobs are killing us--literally. The pressure and the anxiety that's out there is lethal. And what's funny is I have anxiety in my life, too. I worry about money, where the next paycheck, project, client is going to come from. It's not easy right now at all. But it's anxiety that I can handle because I feel in control of it. Most who have jobs right now don't feel that way, and they're going to need their paychecks to pay for their heart transplants.

I have a nurturing side. When my first-born came into the world, I wanted to stay home and take care of her, but I was the primary wager earner, which meant I was making a lot of money basically doing something I didn't want to do at a place where I didn't want to go. I finally landed a job where I could telecommute, was able to work and take care of now two kids, but the job was extraordinarily unrewarding, even worse, destructive. Living life in a way you're not meant to live it can not only destroy you, but damage the people around you.

I think this American life we fell into, where both parents go off to work because they "need" two or four big,expensive cars, a big-screen television with every premium package from the cable company, a huge house filled with every finest of everything sapped our souls and damaged our families and relationships beyond repair. I'm not saying live like the Amish. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying we need to live more simply and pay attention to what's important to a healthy life, both spiritually and physically. And more than anything that means paying better attention to our loved ones, and reducing the amount of stress that's in our lives and giving back more time so we can do whatever it is we as individuals do to feel enjoyment in our lives.

So now that I'm home, I can take better care of Sue and myself. This morning I made pancakes, and at the same time made a batch of granola. Towards noon, I took a break and went grocery shopping, came home, put together a batch of chicken soup that I can now smell simmering, and threw ingredients in the bread machine for fresh, healthy bread. Sue's got a crazy job, but it gives me a little bit of solace that I stay at home if I can work to make her life a little easier or more pleasant. And that makes me happy.

Not doing anything Thursday?--check out Holland Productions' kickoff

Got this from Krista.

Holland Productions is kicking off their 2009/2010 season with a benefit at Kitty O'Shea's. I can't make it, I have rehearsal that night, otherwise I'd be there. (Okay, now there's a reason right there to go!) If you're not doing anything and want to hang with some really good people and support live theater and new voices in Boston, here are the details.


Kitty O'Shea's
131 State St.
Boston, MA US

Thursday, September 24, 7:00PM

Help Holland Productions kick off our 2009-2010 season and raise money for our upcoming show, Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh by Jordan Harrison (October 30th - November 15th at The Factory Theatre)! Join us for a night of food, fun, and live entertainment.

Raffle on great items including those donated from The Friendly Toast, Good Vibrations, Rotary, Hypothesis, and the SpeakEasy Stage Company!

Bid in our live "Date Holland Productions" auction.

$10 at the door (includes a raffle ticket)
Cash bar

We'll see you there!

About Holland Productions: Holland Productions believes in honest theatre; theatre that engages the heart, cultivates creativity, and dissolves boundaries. We believe that theatre is truly a collaborative process and we strive to create work where all those involved, from actor to audience, can bring individual experiences to explore. It is our goal to provide a forum for the ideas of contemporary playwrights and a channel for the female voice. Through smart, sensitive, and stimulating theatre Holland Productions is committed to challenging the complexity of reality.

About Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh: Moll, a girl who invents things, wins the science fair with a machine for hearing sounds that can't be heard. But when a shape-shifting Mercenary steals the invention (and her heart), she must embark on a quest to save noise as we know it. In a quirky fable of innocence and experience Moll crosses chasms and rafts rivers into a world where sound is always more than what meets the ear.

Dumb joke

My mother came from a big family due to my grandmother being hard of hearing.

At the end of every day, grandpa would say to grandma, "Well, do you want to go to sleep or what?"

And she'd say, "What??"

The Longest Way

Check it out. This guy walked for a year--4646km through China and recorded the changes to his face--actually his whole head and deameanor. Really cool soundtrack and editing.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Deadstring Brothers--Sacred Heart

Saw Deadstring Brothers over the weekend at the Middle East for the Rolling Rock Beer-B-Q sponsored by Bloodshot Records. Yeah, I actually went to something by that name. Five bucks and a bunch of bands including Graham Parker and Bobby Bare. Jr.

Anyway, despite the lousy sound system that plagues the Middle East (and always makes me think twice about forking over even such a paltry sum because you know it's gonna sound bad) I was glad to get turned on to these guys.

Wikipedia says their sound is reminiscent of the Stones Exile on Mainstreet. Okay. Yeah, I've always liked it when all those English musicians incorporated the U.S. South into their music.

Here's their MySpace link.

It Might Get Loud--great flick about the creative process

It Might Get Loud is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. I was hunkered down in my seat and was so quiet--wasn't fidgeting because of my back--that Sue thought I was asleep. Nope, just really absorbed.

Take three guitarists at different phases of their lives: Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, The Edge from U2, and Jack White from The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, put them on some couches and let them talk about their guitars. Pretty simple concept.

What you get, though, is a lively discussion on the creative process from artists, one who is solidly ensconced in rock and roll's history, another at the height of his creative path, and a youngster, well on his way but still feeling his way along. What you get is a deeper appreciation for each one of these musicians and their body of work, and how they individually used their guitars to share what's inside them.

Jimmy Page is peaceful and almost avuncular, looking back on his life with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. He reminisces on what IT was like. The Edge talks mostly of not only how he works, but why he plays and writes. Jack White talks about his roots and how he's constantly going back to them.

Check it out if you're into music or if you're in any way involved with the creative process.

Just Another Day in Red Sox Nation

Yep, that's yours truly delivering eggs to Dot. The director, camera operator, and the rest of the crew did a great job.


Spec RED SOX commercial; directed by Paul Van Wart (Werk Bros., LA)

Casting by Kevin Fennessy, Kevin Fennessy Casting, imdb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm...

Category: Comedy

Tags: Red Sox Yankees Suck comedy Dot Dwyer John Grenier-Ferris Jae-Omo Zubhuza Rob DiNinni Bradley Van Dussen Avery Hatch

The Low Anthem kicks off west coat tour

An email alert from The Low Anthem gives good news to all those people on the West Coast.

Here it is:

Greetings friends from your tired, sweaty LA road dogs.

It has been our pleasure to play shows for you this summer, all across the midwest, east coast, and New England. But, you may ask, why this coastal bias? When will we make the westward trek? The same path our forefathers traveled so many years ago? When will we cut the bullshit and smell the redwoods? And you may ask, when will we walk down Cannery Row and Sunset Boulevard? When will we cross the mighty Rockies, and swim in the Salt Lake?

Well, my friends, the time has finally come!

We proudly announce our first ever WEST COAST tour this fall in late October and November. We will share the road with compadres Blind Pilot, a fabulous band from Portland, Oregon, best known for playing beautiful organic music and touring on road bikes. If you're schooled in the secret arts of Facebook, do not tarry to use your well-oiled fingertips to let your friends in far away cities know about the tour.

And for those in the fine city of Providence, RI we have a very special hometown show for you to kick off our West Coast tour. On Thursday, October 15 we will be playing the historic Avon Cinema on Thayer Street. The show will start at 8:30 PM with Death Vessel opening. Advance tickets can be purchased for $13 at the Avon during box office hours, or on our website.

Also, we will be playing a show next week at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, MA on Thu, August 27 with our dear friends, Surprise Me Mr. Davis. The mutually agreed upon theme is anything goes - Mr. Davis will be playing our songs, we will be playing theirs, and eventually all inhibitions will fall by the wayside and who knows who will be getting up on stage together. Davis is the frankenstein band of hometown boys The Slip and Nathan Moore, and recently, Marco Benevento.

And for our old-growth friends in the rest of the Northeast, we will be at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY on Wed, August 26 w/ Surprise Me Mr. Davis. Then, we return to Philly to play a FREE concert for the WXPN Artist to Watch series in Kennet Square (Sun, Aug 30). Thanks to everyone for all your support!

Love to all!

Jeff, Ben, and Jocie


New web news:

TLA on Twitter! http://twitter.com/thelowanthem

Daytrotter

New York Times Popcast

Time Out NY Video

Baebel

FALL TOUR DATES
Go here for tickets

August 26 Brooklyn, NY Bell House ^
August 27 Fall River, MA Narrows Center for the Arts ^
August 30 Philadelphia, PA Kennet Square FREE - WXPN Artist to Watch
Concert

(IN EUROPE FOR SEPTEMBER)

October 2 Austin City Limits
October 15 Providence, RI Avon Theater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 17 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
October 18 Portland, OR Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom
October 19 Eugene, OR WOW Hall*
October 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall*
October 23 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour*
October 24 San Diego, CA Casbah*
October 25 Tucson, AZ Plush*
October 27 Austin, TX The Parish*
October 28 Dallas, TX Granada Theater*
October 29 Houston, TX Bronze Peacock at HOB*
October 30 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon*
November 2 Tallahassee, FL Club Downunder*
November 3 Orlando, FL The Social*
November 4 Atlanta, GA The Earl*
November 5 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge*
November 6 Asheville, NC University of North Carolina*
November 7 Norfolk, VA Attucks Theater*
November 9 Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle*
November 11 Washington, D.C. The Black Cat*
November 12 Boston, MA Paradise*

* with Blind Pilot
^ with Surprise Me Mr. Davis

Viva la Vinal Festival in Somerville this weekend

And speaking of Audrey Ryan, she sent this out to to her email list the other day.

Free music; you can't beat that.

Here's the body of her email:

So this weekend is Viva la Vinal Festival 2009, lots of FREE music and fun so come bring your blankets or chairs and spend an evening in a beautiful garden setting…

Friday August 28 & Saturday August 29 from 4-10:00 pm
(rain date August 30)

In the garden at…
The Somerville Community Growing Center
22 Vinal Ave., Somerville (near Union Square)
www.thegrowingcenter.org

Please come join us at this annual neighborhood event as we celebrate the Growing Center and our local artists and businesses.

• Live world, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and singer-songwriter music from local artists
• Children’s music by Charlie Hope on Friday August 28 from 4-5 pm.
• Raffle featuring prizes and gift certificates from local businesses such as the Sherman Café, Hub Comics, Grand, Precinct, Block 11, the Independent, Cantina Mexicana, and many other local Union Square businesses.
• Concession stand with affordable snacks and beverages to help benefit artists and the garden.

The festival is free to the public and all ages are welcomed. Donations are
accepted to support the event.

To check on weather cancellations please call 617-320-0538 or visit
www.thegrowingcenter.org and click on ‘calendar’.

Viva la Vinal Schedule 2009

Friday August 28th, 4-10pm

4:00-5:00- Charlie Hope (Children’s music)
5:00-5:45- David Wax Museum (Somerville folk-Americana band)
5:45- 6:30- Abbie Barret (Somerville folk-country artist)
6:30- 7:15- Akshara Percussion Ensemble (traditional Indian music)
7:15- 8:00- Dan Blakeslee (Boston indie folk artist)
8:00- 8:45- The Accident That led Me to the World (Northampton folk)
8:45- 9:30- Jennifer Greer (Somerville indie pop singer-songwriter)

Saturday August 29th, 4-10pm

4:00-4:45- Julie Dougherty (North Shore folk singer)
4:45-5:30- Chuck Muldoon (Portland acoustic instrumental guitarist)
5:45- 6:30- Rakiya (Cambridge world music band)
6:30- 7:15- Audrey Ryan (Somerville indie rock singer-songwriter)
7:15- 8:00- Danielle Miraglia (Somerville folk-blues singer)
8:00- 8:45- Seymour (Portland indie folk band)
8:45- 9:30- The Points North (Boston bluegrass folk act)

Rod Picott and Amanda Shires--a great opening act

There's nothing like a really good opening act. One that surprises you. One that you can put on your list and watch and start buying their music and you can say I knew them when--and that when was when they were an opening act.

I first heard Bobby Bare, Jr. when he opened for Lucero. Audrey Ryan opened recently for The Bittersweets, and she's a local musician worth learning about. Of course, there was this English country singer who opened for The Cowboy Junkies who actually stopped mid-song because he said he wasn't singing the right words, though I don't think anyone had noticed.

Last night we went to Club Passim to hear Paul Burch. There's always a silver lining to every dark cloud, and not working very much lets me spend a lot of time on Facebook. Wait, that's not really a good thing, is it, even under the auspices of "looking on the bright side." But I was hanging on Facebook yesterday and Club Passim gave two tickets to the first three commenters, so I found myself on the Red Line into Cambridge. And that's how I heard Rod Picott and Amanda Shires.

I guess they met up in Austin. He's from Maine and she's a fiddle player from Lubbock. Now they live in Nashville and play together sometimes, and now they're touring, joking last night that they are calling their tour the 100,000 mile tour or something like that. I guess they're driving around, starting from Nashville, in an old Jeep, and they'll end the tour when the Jeep rolls over 100,000 miles. Anyway, their music--I'm new to them but I think most of what they sang was written by Picott, though there's one murder ballad that Shires wrote--their music can be called kind of country ballads--stories about real life people and heartache with a bit of wry humor tossed in.

She's got a blistering Texas twang voice that she uses with mischief; his is more gravel and barbed wire, but they sound good together, the differences in their voice complementing the other: hers pulling his out of the funk and his keeping the songs serious.

Nice surprises. Check them out if you're looking for some real country tunes.

Structural Engineers needed in Boston

One of my Facebook friends wrote to me with this.

These are tough times for everyone. If you know anyone who is a structural engineer, pass this along. Or even better, just pass it along; let's get viral. Maybe someone will get work out this.

Here's the job:

I am currently looking for Structural Engineers (ES1) to work for my client in lovely Boston, one of the biggest names in the transportation industry. Must be PE and a minimum of 1 year of experience. Work is across Massachusetts, depending on projects.

If you know anyone.... thanks!

Everybody Knows--Dixie Chicks

This song has been rattling around in my head for a couple of days.

I think it's a quintessential trait of a person born in the United States to think that they can reinvent themselves, move somewhere else and start a whole new life, regardless of the past. It's steeped in our popular culture, and is becoming more prevalent as fame transcends talent in our collective psyche. Having been subject to enough people in my life who played judge, jury, and hangman, I can fully appreciate this.

But you can't run from the past. Yeah, the past is done and gone, but it would take a colossal, psychotic effort--repression worthy of Sam Shepherd or Tennessee Williams--to pull it off. And there's a big difference between nuts and nutty. Nutty is okay, but run like hell from nuts.

Anyway, no matter how crazy the person, there are still cracks, and the past will seep in somewhere and do it's work.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is turn around and face the past bearing down on you like a herd of half-crazed wildebeests. It's gonna hurt, but once the herd passes, you can (hopefully) dust yourself off and resume your journey.




Tell me now if you came sneaking up behind
Would you know me and see behind the smile
I can change like colors on a wall
Hoping no one else will find what lies beneath it all
I think I hide it all so well

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows
Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows

Looking through the crowd
I search for something else
But every time I turn around
I run into myself
Here I stand
Consumed with my surroundings
Just another day
Of everybody looking
I swore they'd never see me cry
You'll never see me cry

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows
Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows

You say I'll pay the price
That's the chance that I'll take
Though you may think I'm telling lies
But I just call it getting by

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows

Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows I am just barely getting by

Sugar Mountain--Neil Young

Up until only maybe two years ago, if you had asked me how old I was I would have paused and run a number line through my head, matching the line against reality. There would have been a click somewhere around 17, but then I'd fast-forward to my real age. Somewhere in my psyche I honestly believed that I was still 17. Or that life stopped at 17, or that I stopped growing then...or something.

Now, I feel my age. Not old. Just my age. My real age. And there's something very satisfying and something right and real about all that. I'm at a place in my life and it's here and it's today.

And I love this song, and it's feeling trying to go back, of trying to live somewhere where you're not.

Oh to live on, Sugar Mountain. The nostalgia, the sweet feeling, for sure, but also the sadness and the melancholy.





Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Its so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh, to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And its your first cigarette.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you say you're leavin' home
cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out its real?

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Whister in the Dark staging a reading of my play!

I got some great news Friday night in an email.

Whistler in the Dark, as part of their Whistler Wednesdays stage readings, accepted Red Dog for a staged reading, scheduled for March 3, 2010.

I'm so excited (and honored) to have my play accepted by a group who is giving new voice to theater in Boston.

Stay tuned.