Pic Marsha Took

Excuse me while I trouble you,
with a pic of the big G.W.:

NY Theater Now Review

We got a great review of our FringeNYC production of O'Brien & O'Brian from Nita Congress at NYTheater Now:

'Enright’s dialogue is breezy and crisp, filled with non sequitors and snappy comebacks (example: “You remember what Martha Stewart went to jail for? Lying to the government.” “And I felt so much safer when she was locked up.” And “Maybe you should specialize in divorce. I hear it’s steady business.” And “Don’t thrown your life away on a gender that won’t make you happy.”) The play and its characters are friendly and good-natured.'

The reviewer does suggest that our intermission is too long, or perhaps unnecessary - that it breaks up the fun. It's an interesting question. Without intermission, the play runs about 80 minutes. Most people can comfortably sit that long without needing to stretch their legs. So that argues against having an intermission. On the other hand, the play's 2 acts take place on 2 different days, and on the 2nd day the characters are returning from a court hearing, so one is naturally tempted to do a costume change to outfits that are dressier.

But I'm grateful for the great review,
so right now what I'm going to do
is offer my contrition
for that lengthy intermission!

Full Stop

In local news, in federal court:

"The former chief executive of a red-light camera company changed her plea to guilty on Thursday in a scheme that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to secure $124 million in city of Chicago contracts."

She gave the green light
to behavior that wasn't right.

Wipe Out

If you have an email server,
and you need to wipe it clean,
don't take a dampened dishcloth
to the case of the machine.

I think a random splatter,
made up of zero and one,
written over and over,
is what will get the job done.

And then, just to be careful,
douse it in gasoline
and drop a match upon it
so your data's never seen.

2 of 5

Here are people in line for our performance today at 4:30 in the afternoon. We had a nice crowd, which pleased me greatly, since I'd had nightmares that we'd have 3 people or something!

Show 2 of 5

Did not take a dive. 

A Plea To Air Traffic Control

Air traffic control,
tomorrow I roll,
to New York and then,
Chicago again.

Please, please, let's
manage the jets
so that when I roam,
I do end up home.

Chicago Gangs on Facebook

Felonious bands
enhancing their brands:

"They aren't using the Internet as much to recruit members or to organize illegal activities as to mostly post or watch often violent videos intended to tout their gang or an individual member, the study found."

Facebook is the most popular site according to this Chicago Tribune article.

Now, on the face of it (ahem), it's not a good idea to post videos of your own felonious activities online, where they can be scooped up by the police and used to convict you. But, then again, these are not people given to caution.

In the future, all life will take place on the net.
For police, that may be the best news yet!

We Opened

We opened in NYC. I sat in the back, the better to gauge the audience's attention. They were quiet when they weren't laughing. Quiet is good! It means they want to know what happens next. 

So much for our opening show. 

Only four to go. 

High Comedy

When a giraffe

Begins to laugh

Does it start in his head

Or his belly instead?

After 2 Nights in New York

Glad to be in my own bed,

My pillow under my head. 

At Midday

Tech rehearsal at Fringe NYC,

Which looked good to me:

Change of Plan

I've decided to change my flight. 

Due to a flash flood warning,

I'm flying into New York tonight

instead of tomorrow morning. 

AKA Bishop's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace, also known as Wild Carrot.
Took a pic and thought I'd share it.

Theater side note: when my play, Wild Flowers, started, we used some fake yellow flowers as the wildflowers that make an appearance in the show. But by the end of the run, the actors had switched to picking some of these fresh for each performance.

Pigs Cleaning Apples

By careful experiment it has been seen,
that boars prefer their apples clean!

Well, they claim to have observed this in some wild European boars:

"Here, all adult pigs and some juveniles of a newly formed group carried apple halves soiled with sand to the edge of a creek running through their enclosure where they put the fruits in the water and pushed them to and fro with their snouts before eating. Clean apple halves were never washed."

Why would you bother to clean
something already pristine?

Fire Sprinklers

When they first came out they were all ugly. Nowadays, they cleverly don't come out until they're needed - when there's a fire - when you are guaranteed to not care about their looks:



See? You order one like this, and you set it up in a dropped office ceiling, and from below it looks like this:



Such a lovely shiny cover
for a spray-and-soak device.
It doubles as a mirror -
with no increase in price!

Splat

In the city by the bay,
urine may ruin your day:

​"Concerns about San Francisco's decaying light poles were ignited Monday night after one corroded by urine toppled onto a car, narrowly missing the driver."

Your driving experience may be less than placid,
when your light poles are soaked in uric acid.

So Called Targeted

I'm amused. Sites I visit are presenting me with ads for FringeNYC. No doubt this is occurring because I have done some searches on the festival or have visited the festival website.

But, you know, I've got a show at the festival! I don't need to be advertised to! As a matter of fact, I've paid to advertise my show a bit.

So, if you want to advertise something, be aware that "targeting" isn't always as targeted as you'd like.

Probably you've had the experience of buying something on the net - and then continuing to get ads for it. For rarely purchased items, this doesn't make much sense. Presumably the advertisers don't know your demand has already been supplied.

So, seriously, Fringe NYC,
don't advertise to me.

Life with Labradors

"If you hold your food low, your food will soon go."

Book Club - The Ride Home

After discussing Paradise Lost,

We drove down a street where the wind had tossed

Tree trunks and limbs along our path,

And it looked very much like signs of wrath. 

Reality Show

Some people think Trump should be disregarded as a reality show performer. But I am haunted by the lines from a Sting song: 

"You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians

They all seemed like game show hosts to me. "

A lot of our press is devoted to treating the presidency as a reality show. It's often remarked on that journalists like to treat political campaigns as if they were horse races, personality contests, searching the footage for moments of drama to feature for the camera.

And so I don't think that the fact he's a fast talking camera hog is really the reason to dump

The Trump.