About a month's worth.

Whew. Imagine, if you will, a film in which the frames do not retain their individuality, but rather drag, one into the next, to create a kind of smeary, streaky blur. This has been my last month or so.

It started with the pirate bang, which was the sweatiest of parties, but very, very fun.




After the Bang, the whole "Love's Labours Lost" crew went to Jose's for food and more dancing. This is one of those images that repeat most frequently when looking back over the past month or so: eating and dancing at Jose's until sunrise. We dance salsa, merengue, bachata, argentine tango and tango nuevo. Songs like Paolo Conte's "Via Con Me" and Elvis Crespo's "Suavemente" string together dozens of nights, it seems, of learning new steps and enjoying ourselves to the fullest.

Another image is that of rehearsal - lord, was there a lot of that - and, thankfully, also performances. After all of our hard work fixing up shakespeare's least performable play, the shows were, by all reports, wonderful. We received a flood of compliments, and had perfect weather for all but one night. Oh, and I may or may not have played a ridiculous academic modeled after Martin Walsh and Final Fantasy 10's "Lord Widebottom," and that performance may or may not have involved dancing around with horns on my head.






The best part of the show, though, was getting to work with old friends like JP Dutka (pictured here with me as we sped along in a golf cart; I am driving), Carol Gray, and Beca Fried. I also made a number of new and very good friends, whom I will miss terribly.



See, that's the conclusion to this month-long collage: I'm leaving. My job, as many of you know from speaking to me, has not turned out to be what was expected or promised. It's really very frustrating, and as that job was the main reason I moved back...

So it's back to NYC, to a job that pays very well in a city full of opportunity. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be going back in crazytown, leaving this (albeit pleasant) retirement community. I'm entirely too young and resourced to be anywhere I'm not challenged and excited and productive and happy. It's time for a new movie to start.

There's another bang this saturday, if you're in town. You should go. I'd like to see you. (Yes, you.) Or contact me. Soon.

So for now, I've got to get back to my farewell tour of friendly ann arbor faces and start packing. See you back here in less than a month (i promise, this time).

His name is Jose, you killed his father

Now do you see why I've been having so much fun lately?

Haditha as the act of irrational minds

You can read all about it at this link (and at the NY Times), but the short-story version is that an investigation has been launched into the events of last November, when U.S. Marines reported having been attacked by insurgents. The probe is not completed, but has thus far uncovered evidence and accounts from locals and other Marines in the area suggesting a very different story. According to these sources, the Marines involved were not provoked, and instead gunned down 5 men at a bus stop and women and children in 2 nearby houses. Reports estimate two dozen deaths.

These are not the acts of rational, sane, or otherwise stable people.

I know comparisons all have their limitations, but I recall my mother - at the beginning of this conflict - likening Iraq to Vietnam. Have we now seen the resurgence of the same mentality which led to My Lai?

Krapp's 26th

The 25th of may marked my 26th of birthdays. Begun with administrative business at the RC, my day was vastly improved by a trip to see my parents and sister Hilary back in the D. Dinner ensued, and was accompanied by the collection/creation of pirate garb for the upcoming Pirate Bang. Then I jetted back to Ann Arbor to see the midnight show of X-men 3 with some kids from the cast, and then several of us went back to Jose's, where he made baloon animals, juggled, and did his T-trex impression. Then we played Xbox and found it had become 5 in the morning.

This was a rough birthday. 26 feels very old. Lots of "what am I doing with myself" and so forth. Incidentally, I have been much reminded of Krapp's Last Tape, and, in lieu of tapes, I have begun a new tradition of taking a picture of myself every year on my birthday. So...26, eh?

In which I talk about my kitchen and sports. Thrilling, no?

First and foremost, the Matrix quinceanera was a really incredible experience, but I'm going to tabel that topic until I can get some pictures - because otherwise you might not believe the things I would say.

Here is an "after" picture to accompany the "before" picture of my kitchen. I'll pause while you take the appropriate sigh of relief.


Now then: it is my duty as a detroiter to talk about basketball (if you live near here you do not doubt this). Yes, the loss of the Red Wings was upsetting, particularly because we may have seen the last of Steve "if you tape my body back together I'll go out and win this game" Yzerman. But hockey is a game where the best team has only a slightly better chance of winning. There's way too much luck involved in hockey to adduce it as some sort of model for procedural justice. Also, there may be a curse on the President's Trophy.

I offer this description to contrast hockey with basketball. Yes, there is still a great deal of luck involved, but lucky bounces are far less of a factor in this high-scoring game, and ball movement is much more controlled than puck slapping. Basketball, particularly playoff basketball, is about team strength. For a while it seemed like everyone except LeBron James was off their game. No one is 100% great every game. But the difference came when the pistons team stepped up (e.g. lindsey hunter's explosion in the 2nd half of yesterday's game, Tayshaun Prince's Marathon of Good Basketball)and Lebron's team didn't. His team, without his stats, went 7-for-36 in the second half.

And I have to say I think it's about the way LeBron is hyped. His coach and all the announcers talked about how the key was to get LeBron the ball, and that other players shouldn't step up but let James make the plays. Well, guess what, kids? Despite everyone who maintains ad nauseam that he is, LeBron James is not Superman. He is great, but he will get tired. He will eventually be stopped by a good defense. In the long run, no single good player can outplay a good team. What kills me is that no one, except the detroit press, seems to get this. LeBron's team gets broken in the 7th game, goes down hard, and all the announcers can say is, "we're very excited about what's to come from this phenomenal player, LeBron (King) James. This is an amazing start." Ugh.

Woo, soapbox. Until next time, (best Mason impression) DEEEEETROIT BASKETBALL!

Standing, and on your shoulders the shoulders of giants...or something like that.

A few of the aforementioned puppets.
From left to right, Mother Jones, MLK, Cesar Chavez, A. Philip Randolph, The Woman who Outshone the Sun, Ralph Bunch, and the almost-finished Fear.

An insane amount of delicate work goes into making giant puppets, and here Maryann, the program director for the community puppets, continues that work.


There are so many amazing puppets to wear, carry, and otherwise bring to life!


And finally, last but certainly not least, is Fear. Poor old Fear here was a very early construction for Matrix, and, I am told, has always been a very difficult piece to work with. Even after an initial father-and-son buildathon to give Fear his first real body, I have still had to rebuild that body twice to get it to balance Fear's massive head. The hand pictured here, however, is supasweet and was constructed by the very odd (for me to see) pairing of Matrix executive director Shaun nethercott and Athena (though the lion's share of the construction was all athena).


Being around these pieces now and having worked on constructing and paper macheing them in the past really makes me happy, and i have high hopes for saturday.

Um...somebody stole my kitchen.

This is what I came home to today.


Lots of giant puppet repair lately, as we gear up for this coming Saturday's 15th Anniversary celebration for Matrix Theatre Company. 10 a.m. at Holy Redeemer on Vernor, folks. It's going to be puppet madness.
To which, of course, you are all invited.

I did NOT have a date.

Um...while I certainly am flattered that quite a few of you have such faith in my ability to get dates, the "salsa dancing date" mentioned in the last post was (as I hoped you would conclude from my description of the picture) a very long time ago. Like January of '05. The current wave of salsa/merengue/tango has nothing to do with that date.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, though. In other news, my first tango lesson was a lot of fun (well, mostly the all-level practica was very fun, the class itself was kinda slow).

And then JP Dutka and I played music for a long time. Then we went to the bookstore, and I bought a book about poisoning people. Yay!

Hi, Royce! ... and then, tales of the Spaniard! [Edited]

Greetings to our newest reader, Royce. Incidentally, he started reading on 5/9, which I take as sufficient justification to claim that Royce da 59 reads my blog.

EDIT: My source was apparently having a senior moment, or was drunk, or possibly both. Apparently the new reader is actually Pete, not Royce. Sadly, there is no Pete Da 59, so this is bad news for all of us. This is the last time I try to do anything. At all. Ever.

And now, onto an extremely abridged version of a convoluted tale: I am now in a play with a spaniard named Jose, who, after I mentioned to him that myself and some other kids from the play had recently gone salsa dancing, insisted that we all go tango dancing, and, two days later, salsa dancing again. I have had more fun dancing than I have spent time sleeping in the past few days, and I was so enchanted by Argentine tango that I'm going with some of the aforementioned folks to Tango lessons on wednesday.

Maybe it's the spring in ann arbor, which explodes like sweet-smelling green fireworks. Maybe it's the release of frustrations from months spent indoors wasting my time in meetings and at home by myself. But now I'm acting and directing again and playing the bass for hours at a time, and dancing my brains out.

Below, incidentally, is a very hilarious picture I found online a long time ago. I was going to go on a salsa dancing date with this woman, and sent her this picture, in jest, with the caption "this is how we will look!" Only she didn't get the joke, and actually replied, "well, I'm not sure I can bend like that, but okay, we can try!" Le SIGH. Yes, do that, madam, and I'll try my hardest to make my hand burst into flames while wearing an expression of sheer madness. Would you go on a date with someone who suggested this? Because you shouldn't.

Three things you must learn

1) Avoid Da Hip Hop Witch! Seriously. I know, I know, you look at the box and you see the amazing line-up of hip hop talent in the credits. And you see the funny plotline described on the back. DO NOT BE FOOLED! Da Hip Hop Witch will hurt your soul!

2) Do not call me during Lost. Why does this happen? You have 167 other hours in the week you could call me, and you don't. You all call on Wednesday from 9-10:02, when I am watching with rapt attention as a fabulous story unfolds. That story does not benefit from your making my phone vibrate.

3) If you ever have a dream wherein Chauncey Billups joins you and and a bunch of strangers for dinner at a restaurant, don't let those strangers be rude to Chauncey - even if you get the sense those people are supposed to be your friends. Asking him about basketball again and again - like whether he prefers to face Cleveland or Washington - will make his face melt and he'll slide backward through the wall on his chair while you end up in a Museum with peanut butter on your feet. Just trust me on this one. Obviously LeBron and the Cavs would be the better choice.

Checking In

They're going to start having to call this "bLONGing" in stead of "bLOGGing"if I keep up this "once every couple of weeks" frequency with posting. So, at the request of those who have e-mailed asking for updates (read: Sarah), I provide the following lengthy document.

First things first, the space Bang. I've talked about the Bang before, and this one was no different. Well, except for the "space" theme. Nothing wrong with a tinfoil mohawk and shirt, kids.


So the Bang was ridiculously fun, and the next one (conveniently two days after my birthday) is on May 27 and is the Pirate Bang!

The Bang fell between Easter Vigil Mass and a very sleepy Easter morning. In my easter basket, in a joking resonse to a recent coloring debacle, I found a few coloring books. One of these was what can really only be termed a remedial coloring book, and is totally hilarious. Most of the pictures include animals with dumb, confused expressions...
and a lot of images about helmets and how much fun it is to wear them. I'm going to leave that one alone.

After Easter weekend, I finished up teaching for this semester by administering a final. Then I jetted to NYC to celebrate Greek Easter (a.k.a. Greekster), see some friends in the city, and, as usual, have horrible dental problems.

I hate dentists and dentistry. No other profession seems to be so replete with inept practitioners, and if it weren't for the rare exceptionally good dentist like Dr. Jim Sarji in Brooklyn, I'd probably just give up on the whole profession. (incidentally, my woes of late have stemmed from faulty work done by previous dentists)

Woo, tangent. Athena met me at Laguardia and presented me with the coolest Dinosaur T-shirt ever (pictured below).


We ran around the city, checked out Obscura, and went to FAO Schwartz for some fun with the cutest stuffed puppies ever.




Then we played with Legos for a while. Pictured below, of course, is Lego Princess Athena, whose recent work at Treehouse Animation on Lego Batman premiered on Cartoon Network on Saturday! She is the coolest!

Greekster was very fun. I have never easten so much lamb in my life, and Athena ate so much lamb she broke her hip. Um...at least that's how I'm going to tell the story. It was great!




We had some more fun in the city, watched the not-entirely-unterrible movie Silent Hill, and had a very nice dinner in Brooklyn with everyone's favorite future Rabbi, Andrew Goodman. I also failed miserably at arranging to see some of my favorite New Yorkers (mango pancakes, anyone?), but there's only so much a person can do.

Upon returning from New York, I underwent another emergency dental fix-up, and spent the next few days painkiller-ing it up. On friday Beca and I ran an all-day training on arts-centered education techniques at the UM Detroit Center.

And that, I think, at long last, brings you up-to-date. Hopefully I'll be a little more punctual in the future. Thanks for reading!

Take this job and blog it

If this were a news article, the dateline would read "Slow lane, MI." Let me adduce this picture of my phone, which left me an alert message to tell me I had missed zero calls.

But I've not been entirely without fun. I attended an horrendously boring training for Americorps, which provides some of my funding, but it was so very very bad that I and those with me had a wonderful time making fun of the program, and I got to meet some genuinely cool people.
Then I was able to run a class I've been wanting to try since I started teaching, of which I have taken the accompanying picture. There was an activity to get students into the story of a refugee from Somalia; then, once a context for and interest in the issue of immigration had been generated, the students were tasked with creating an original piece of theatre which would involve an audience. Their audience, they were told, would arrive in one hour.

They did a wonderful job, and what resulted was a very interesting dicussion of immigration and a very involved and interested audience.

And then, Athena came to visit! Wow, she must really like Michigan. Or something. We had fun on Saturday making giant puppets at Matrix with my dad, spent a lot of time relaxing, watched the Warriors on DVD and the uber-stupid Stay Alive at the movies. We also played outside and colored. I was having such a good time that I forgot to take any pictures, so I have provided the following picture - in which I create her likeness out of her favorite food, wagon-wheel pasta. I think I got the bangs just right.

incarcerated, not inhuman

Naomi and I attended the PCAP prisoner art show on north campus today. The art was amazing, and so expressive and sad all at the same time - once the pieces are created, they are taken from the prison and cannot be returned. Most of the works had been purchased (but were still on display) by the time I got there, although I did find and buy one I really liked. The show runs until wednesday! Here are some pictures of the other pieces (taken with permission of the organizers):


The one with the garments was an offering called "clothing the children"; the artist had created a child-sized prison uniform.

























The pieces depicting scenes from classic hollywood horror movies are really incredible. The artist used only pen on matchbook covers to create his works. There was a large display of his work - maybe twenty pieces in all - but none for sale.

Tancredi-ble! (Ugh, seriously?)

Every so often I will step out on the town, and this past Saturday I was invited by my friend and fellow "shakespeare in the arb" alum Virginia to attend a concert performance of Rossi's opera Tancredi at Hill. Though the second act dragged, the first act was fabulous. And at just about 3 hours in length, the demand on the leads would be obvious. I was astounded by the actresses playing Tancredi and the female lead, who kept up very beautiful and suitably loud performances all that time. I always greatly enjoy seeing people who are really good at something practice their art.

And speaking of being "really" good and practicing one's art, perhaps this opera has given me the final inspiration I need to being working on Donkey Kong: An APEra of Love and Barrels.

Supplies! He wasn't kidding. Red Snapper IS very tasty.

Now that I live life mostly on the solo tip, I have been trying to find new ways to entertain myself. One is cooking new foods. I prepared foods for myself (albeit simple stuff) in Brooklyn all the time, and now I'm branching out to try new things. Recent highlights include Red Snapper, White Bass, Lance Bass, a bevy* of vegetable side dishes, and a cut of discount meat so large it could only be called El Gigante. Still simple stuff, but fun to make nonetheless.

*in keeping up the carnivocentrism of this post, I used "bevy" - primarily used in english to describe a group of animals - when listing the vegetables. Also, you may have discerned that I now maintain the hobby of terribly bad jokes, funny only to me.

My dad could blow up your dad

This is a selection from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms website for kids, where the children of ATF agents were asked to depict what their parents do at work. What is so undeniably awesome about this particular picture is that it really makes you think about what this kid actually believes his parents do. Like, if you asked him, you know the answer you'd get would be a thousand times more interesting than the truth. I like knowing that some young artist has this amazing idea floating around in his head of a world where his daddy gleefully and shirtlessly blows things up all day.

Wait, this thing doesn't update itself?

Although that's probably a good thing, because I certainly can't think of that many ways of saying "yeah, so, I worked, and then walked around some by myself."

Thankful am I, therefore, for the smattering of recent highlights. First, Sarah came to town to see me (and yes, also, presumably, her family and her long-term boyfriend). She introduced me to the fabulous Kerrytown market, we enjoyed the warm weather, and we boldly investigated the very top of the "Bert and Ernie" clocktower. It's always so good for me to spend time with Sarah.

And then, this weekend. Athena came to visit! It was my mom's birthday! There was a new play at Matrix! Really, you'd do well by yourself to just read about the weekend here. To further assist in characterizing this weekend, I adduce the following cutest photographic evidence ever. Behold!

So that was pretty awesome. In other news, well... all the other news from the world seems to be bad and getting worse, no? I spend a LOT of time watching and reading the news, like I'm looking for the part where it all turns out to be a joke. After watching the Bush Q&A sessions both yesterday in Cleveland and today in Washington (the latter was said to arise directly from a WaPo article challenging Bush's example of "progress" in Iraq while speaking in Cleveland), it's clear we're into a whole new level of doublespeak here. It's no longer a matter of Bush ignoring the voices of dissent - he now claims to "understand the concerns" being raised by Americans, but his rhetoric is now marked with a visible irritation at our being displeased - as though our concerns are silly and we need to stop bothering him so he can do his job. Could we please stop complaining about financial and national security, the quagmire in Iraq, and the crumbling education system and just go to war and/or jail already? Thanks, that'd be great.

I think I just wet my pants

This is so tremendously hilarious and must be watched.

Make sure you've got sound on. Some of the best stuff is toward the end.

NYC Spring Break 4: So, anyways...

I tried alcohol for the first time! That stuff is GREAT!

No, no, just kidding - I was born a teetotaller, and I'll die a teetotaller. We thought this would make a good picture. Think I can get an endorsement contract for beer?

I figure I should spend at least one post describing what I actually did while in New York*. I got to spend time with some very dear friends and my eldest sister. I was able to enjoy NYC nightlife - including a Detroit-themed bar (?) and a 1960's living-room-themed bar - and walks around the city, both with the lovely Athena. I just plain had a wonderful time in a place of great fun and culture.

*When in New York City, Dr. Science stays at the Royal Regency Funthena Arms Hotel. The Regency Funthena: It's where you stay, because you're me. You most certainly miss it a lot already.

NYC Spring Break 3: There'll be no one to blog to about this

There ought to be a law, such that the three kids pictured here cannot be in the same place at the same time; if a plane hit Coffee Shop in Union Square while we were having lunch, the internet would collapse. Or something.

Really, though, how did I get such amazing friends as these two? Beautiful, brilliantly creative, fabulously cultured and altogether captivating - they're the best of the good ones, y'all.