Escape

A day off from everything. Nice.

Except, of course, catching up on and reading about the big ol' stupid world just gets one down.

So, varied subjects to mention or pass on . . .

Re: The Financial Bailout (aka "Your Money Or Your Life!/I'm Thinking, I'm Thinking!"):

Many others are writing about this with clarity, precision, detail, and even humor, and should be read.

Screenwriter toddalcott, who blogs constantly and well about many subjects, has turned to the current situation with appropriate amounts of wit and anger, especially HERE and HERE. He suggests, as many have this morning, writing your Senators and Representatives to let them know how you feel on the matter. I've already done this - with Senators Clinton and Schumer, Rep. Nadler, and Speaker Pelosi - it's easy to find out how to contact them online, and I suggest you do the same.

Isaac Butler points out that apparently phone calls are taken more seriously than emails or petitions (and snail mail is taken most seriously of all, but there's no time for that), but some of us are a bit phone-phobic, so . . . but you can also easily find out how to call them with a quick Google search, if you care to.

Other people I'd suggest reading: Paul Krugman, in general, and a specific post from "Devilstower" at Daily Kos, "Three Times Is Enemy Action," which is a good laying-out of the history of where the current crisis comes from, going back to 1982, and has been picked up by several larger media outlets as a result (extra points from me for the epigram/title taken from Auric Goldfinger).

The fact is that it certainly appears the Government will have to do something, some kind of bailout of some kind to keep the whole furshlugginer house of cards from collapsing - it's just that the current plan just AIN'T IT. You can read an easy overview of it HERE and a draft of the proposal HERE.

I'd like to point out (as a commenter did on Todd Alcott's blog, bringing it to my attention), a section from the proposal that, um, particularly bothers me (emphasis mine) . . .

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Oh yeah. That's great. Just great. Yeah, I trust ya, Secretary. I trust ya.

And along those lines, Wil Wheaton posts a little piece of humor about what kinds of spam this bailout may remind you of, with the reminder that sometimes it's important to laugh to keep from crying. John Clancy didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but did it in a way that made me smile, which is as good. And Mike Daisey posted this image he got from somewhere, without credit (as he is wont to do), which updates a classic National Lampoon cover to our present situation:

Elsewhere in egregious stupidity of a less-vital kind (courtesy of Gawker and Portfolio), Adam Buckman, critic for the New York Post, includes this section in his review of the season premiere of Heroes:

Instead, this show, which was once so thrilling and fun, has become full of itself, its characters spouting crazy nonsense.

Here's one I wish someone would translate for me: "There's a divinity that shapes our ends - rough hew them how we will," spouts the enigmatic industrialist Linderman played by Malcolm McDowell, who should win an Emmy for keeping a straight face while reciting these lines.

Okay. I'm not an all-out snob who thinks everyone everywhere should know their Shakespeare. Even Hamlet (heck, I cut the line from my version last year). That said, I hold critics/reviewers to higher standards. Even then, sure, I can understand maybe not recognizing the quote.

I CAN'T understand not at least hearing that and not thinking, "Hey, that sounds like it could be Shakespeare!" and looking it up before calling it "stupid nonsense" (and I just realized it HAD to have gone by at least ONE copyeditor before hitting print, right? so there's SHARED idiocy here . . .).

Also, does he ACTUALLY need a "translation" of the quote? Really? Sure, plenty of Shakespeare can be hard to understand today - less so if spoken properly with correct emphasis by good actors - but I keep looking at the line and trying to figure out what's so hard to understand about that. Anyone?

Oh - even more . . . now Buckman appears to have commented on the issue as reported at Portfolio, and if it is him, he couldn't even completely understand some of Jeff Bercovici's obvious sarcasm, and thinks Bercovici was calling HIM a "pretentious goober" when Bercovici was making fun of him by joining in and calling the author of the quote he didn't recognize by that phrase, while linking the words to Act V, Scene 2 of Hamlet. Jeez. This is a literate, observing critic with a keen eye, huh?

In less-annoying, just interesting items, I was amused to see a piece in The Guardian about a rise in theatre pieces in England using pre-recorded vocal tracks with actors miming to them live for artistic reasons. This is made out to be some kind of commentary on "our anxious times." Well, maybe. Berit and I shared a laugh though, as I've been doing that in the NECROPOLIS pieces since March, 2000 (for me it was about Determinism). Berit's comment was, "See, the British are going to steal the idea, make it bigger, and then claim to have invented it - just like Punk!" Yup, sounds right to me.

Speaking of NECROPOLIS, none of those plays or The Hobo Got Too High wound up nominated for anything at the NYIT Awards, which are being given out tonight, though all were eligible and I was really trying to push them for this last August, mentioning the Awards in the programs, by email, and here in the blog. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't disappointed by that, but I'm still a big fan and supporter of the organization and the awards, as it's pretty much within the Indie Theatre community for the Indie Theatre community, mainly from and for our peers, so I have some more respect for it than most awards.

Quite a few people I know and respect are nominated, including several old coevals I haven't seen for years but think of fondly, like three of the nominees for direction, Emma Griffin, Damen Scranton, and Edward Eleftarion. Some people have criticized the awards as being just friends giving awards to other friends, but given the judging system, etc. I don't think it really works that way. For the second year in a row I've been pleased to see that shows I checked out in my capacity as a judge, since you have to judge three shows for every one of yours you want judged, and really liked and voted for strongly - from companies that I didn't know, featuring no one I'd ever heard of - have wound up nominated for multiple awards.

Those going tonight, enjoy yourselves. Hope I'll be there next year, but as I didn't push this August's shows as hard as I did last year (I was both distracted by production and depressed about last year's results), I doubt it.

Last night's evening of music at The Knitting Factory was fun but long (and LOUD). Arnold Dreyblatt was wonderful, especially with his temporary "Orchestra of Excited Strings," Megafaun (whose own set I didn't like as much as I'd hoped - what I'd seen online was less folky and more folky-mixed-with-drone/noise). The two openers were also worthwhile, both the prepared-piano stylings of Melissa St. Pierre and especially the solo violin playing of Agathe Max, which I quite dug and recommend - for into on her, her webpage is HERE and her Myspace page is HERE. Great noice/drone/loop work, in a grand tradition that goes back to La Monte Young and Steve Reich but includes John Cale, Fripp & Eno, and Dreyblatt in there.

Well, to feel better about things tonight, either I'll sit around here at home and watch a marathon of David Bowie music videos or see if we feel like going out to see Burn After Reading. Probably the former. It's a day to stay in.

And, for some more smiles before returning to the horrors of the news, two favorite recent items from LP Cover Lover:

Later. Time for Bowie now . . .