Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Joyce Carol Oates

 Hazards of time travel

Page 141
Free will is a delusion, for most of us. It's a pleasant delusion, like the anticipation of Heaven which, though it never arrives, it's comforting to contemplate. More realistically, free will is like suggesting to a paraplegic
That he has the choice of getting up and running in an olympic competition.

This is a quote from one of her characters, a behavioral list. And it reminds me, a Scott Adams. Who is always telling us things we can do, but saying we don't have any choice in the things that we do.




Says who

Today, Dragon said I was a good person. Or something like that.

I was simultaneously relieved, and worried.


Evolution of a Blog

A Blog can be several things.

I remember one of my students at the library, basically screaming what is a Blog? And of course, didn't know she was being loud. And, libraries aren't silent anymore. There is just a little glass wall between us and the people on the computers, you know, the patients who want silence the most.

So, today, in this blog post, I'm throwing out some ideas but I might want to think about later. But then I'm also venting of things I should let go of, and just putting things into the record in case I want to know when something happened if I ever decide to go back and look at this blog sometime in the future.

At the cast party, Andrew turned to me and said, are you auditioning tomorrow? And instantly, it occurred to me, but that's the kind of friends I need to have. You know, somebody who knows what I'm interested in, and thinks I'm capable of pursuing it, and just throws out a question that may help me or interest me.

My so-called friends, tell me things like oh, you can't really sing. Or, why don't you have a real job? Or Snidely, I guess you don't have to work? Now, these people are either involved in my financial affairs, or they're not. And if they're not, why do they have an opinion about them? And if they don't like my singing, believe me, I completely understand that. But why do they have to say it?

It reminds me of the lady, who went to the book club meeting to tell the author that the book contained too much cursing. Well, I probably would have thought the same thing. But there's no reason for me to tell the author that. The author probably knew how much cursing was in the book.

Yesterday I went car shopping, and it was mentioned that everybody has an opinion. And that's usually said when somebody doesn't want to hear somebody else's. The manager ask my car shopper if she had undergone some tragedies in her life, no he said, did you have a tragedy because he thought that explained her directness, and wanting to know all about a car. And I think that's a good lesson for me, because questions definitely have their place. And I'm glad I didn't just buy that car. Because chances are, it may have run for a month or less. Then again, we're just taking our best guesses with cars.

I think mechanics, and car salesmen, and new car salesmen, and car rental places, I do a better job for customers if some of their services were combined.

Why can I pay someone, a monthly fee,, and they can just give me a car and the minute it stops working, I can trade it for another one, and I don't care what it looks like. There's got to be a price point I wish we would all benefit from this. Many people want a certain car, and many people want their own car, and many people Define one another by their cars, but I just want something that works.

At Lynn, during Paint Your Wagon, somebody wanted to know what I drove, because they were trying to pigeonhole me. At Southwest, two people talked about cars and how they feel bad having people see what they drive. And it's true, if you show up in a better car or in a white shirt with a tie, you can get more money for whatever you're charging. The haircutter yesterday said that when she worked at an exclusive salon the only difference was about a half an hour. And the price. I told her to go back into theater. And she said there's no coincidences.

So I auditioned yesterday, in a little rehearsal space, that was very hard to find because they're all these numbers streets that aren't really in order. 2 thought of that?

And speaking of design flaws, this McDonald's, was remodeled and now the tables are ugly, with a real thin table top designs that seems really cheap, and a two-tone color scheme that looks cheap. I don't understand what exactly is worse about it, but it seems to have less friendly Nooks that used to encourage visiting among the patrons, and other the color scheme seems like it would be inviting, it's kind of like boring brown and white. I haven't put my finger on it, but the place seems smaller. And I bet they spent a lot of money on this.

And they continue to hire people that don't speak English very well.

This is a problem in America. Customers want perfect American accents, and people without perfect American accents wein opportunities.

Yeah, text to speech I'm sure that's what I meant.

They want opportunities. But how do I offer accent reduction classes without being a racist? When did racism become as bad as serial killers?

 we've been talking about the Hispanic hierarchy and who's at the bottom, and who admits that they're at the bottom, and I think hierarchies are the problem not which particularly hierarchy we're talking about.

There's a hierarchy of Education which is confused with intelligence. There's the hierarchy of skin color which is confused with cultural differences. There is the hierarchy of money, which is confused with success and or worth.

 anyway, I think the two selections of they call the Wind Mariah and Bill common are great contrasting songs and I can do both of them. And especially sitting on the floor for one was a good idea.


When I started this blog, I was into typing and find some colors, and now I just want to talk and I went text-to-speech to figure out what I'm talking about. I was previously into punctuation in and capitulation standardization and now I'm just over it.





































Friday, March 15, 2019

Lynn University

 I think this green room, is where Brock and Michael came 4 the debate.

I had a long conversation, with someone who is very involved in the debate here but then went home and watched it on TV. And we stood on the stage, and saw the coins embedded where the debate took place there.

Working with two new musical directors, I ainu producer-director and a new choreographer.  I like Katie, because I think she understands it all.  Doesn't try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. 





There's a painting on the wall of a famous lady with Aviana parasol, and I think it's Renoir. Outside, there's a statue of it and I was thrilled to see the poppies before I knew they were fake, because they seemed so perfect around that figure.

I've seen the painting itself, Like A reproduction itself, there are no poppies. Nothing like poppies. So how did it seem so right to me, a familiar thing in an unfamiliar way, unknown to me. Rather Mandela ish.

I seen so many Mandela effect videos, and the only things that strike me AR the globe and in this one it's disturbing too.

So I'm in The Green Room, I don't want to capture this moment, and here's the other picture on the wall.

This is a new chapter, but it may just be a page long. I have no idea.

At this point, I've done three shows at the Lake Worth Playhouse. And one at Barclay. A paragraph


This is my second Paint Your Wagon, and my first show at Lynn.

I got the call to be in A Little Night Music, which I could not do because of this. And I got a text to be Henry Ford in Ragtime.

I audition for Camelot, not Oliver for some reason, Lend Me a Tenor, which was a joke, because they didn't even have any clear about anybody's voice ranges.

And I auditioned for Young Frankenstein. And then I couldn't audition for sweet charity, because of this.

And, although I can't dance at all at Lake Worth Playhouse, here I am at Lynn with tons of choreography, and I know they're all lying, but I must not be as bad as I think I am. Although, it's going to look like a joke, or somebody who can't dance, which is true. But I don't want to do it if it's not funny.

Choreography is so tricky. And almost always looks dumb. A bad dancer is worse can a bad actor and a bad singer is worse than a bad actor. But an okay dancer just is not entertaining. Although an okay singer can be okay.

I want a new vision for choreography, just like I want a new vision for casting. Just like I want a new vision for audiences.


































Monday, March 11, 2019

Today at Lynn University

I scoped it out Friday.

The email didn't give me an address. But even if it had, I wanted to be there before I had to be there at 9 am.

Today, I was running early, since I decided not to go to McDonald's, and I went around the block near Lynn and that took a long time. Over the river, through the woods, over 95, along the Airport and back to where I started. But I was like 10 minutes early anyway.

I didn't know where the salon was, but luckily it was right next to the stage. We got some time on the stage. And I met a lot of people. One person I knew, from Bye Bye Birdie, and I was kind of glad. But kind of surprised and kind of sad, that nobody from Paint Your Wagon at Lake Worth Playhouse was there.

It's great to do a work again, and even better as a different character.

I was Salem.

Now I'm Sandy.

The choir sounded good immediately. And they seemed a lot like other theater people I've met.

Some are real singers, and some are real actors, and I suppose, but some of the girls are real dancers. One of them walks like an a dancer.

The lunch setup is amazing, if somebody wants a lot of food. But, if you just want a snack, I think it's eight bucks. And, eight bucks for all the food you'd ever want. I had the best salad, and homemade potato chips, and a couple desserts, including some to go.

But, with my new eating habits, which are eating less amount and eating less often, I really shouldn't eat that much at one time.

But it sure was a pretty salad and it will be hard not to do that every day. But at the same time, it feels good to know what's good for me.

I think most of my issues come down to stress reduction.



For some reason, I hadn't noticed all my lines in my script like I thought I had. So, I was one of the weak links. But, they didn't bother me at all, because I know the show, and I don't have that many lines, and I'm glad I have a little line to sing by myself, about double the size f a little line I seen by myself in Evita.

It was nice to meet Elizabeth Taylor look alike.

And, the differences between professionals and amateurs, and skill levels, and what actually comes out through a performance it's just amazing to me.

Study is great. Experience is great. Passion is great. Preparation is great. But it's something more than that. Some people just shine in certain situations. And truth be told, professionals are just unprofessional in different ways, Ben amateurs are.

Attitude is everything. No, attitude is 80%. But you know, 80% is a b. And I've seen lots of performances that were lower than that and lots that were higher than that.


































Started Joyce Carol Oates time machine book yesterday

I probably love every one of these novels.


Saturday, March 9, 2019


This happened today

Just, you know, printing out my contract for a gig.

Back to Writing

Here at the lieberry- where everybody likes to tell the person who calls them, "I'm at the lieberry," I am typing on blogger instead of speaking text-to-speech.

That means I'm correcting capitalization and using punctuation other than commas and periods...  although I noticed yesterday that when I said "dot dot dot," text-to-speech knew what I meant.

The lady next to me on a computer told her caller, after she told them, "I'm at the lieberry," that she was looking at books.  I think she thought that sounded better than "I am using the computer."  She also told the guy, or person calling, that she was at the lieberry; "a place I know you don't know much about."  That was particularly awesome.



Today I went into Rainbow Food Store and it was like a store in a foreign country; say Egypt or Greece or Hungary, that was trying to look American, or else like a Dollar store here (not Dollar Tree) owned by a non-native.

The products were American but the display and the close aisles and the food freshly cooked and the clientele just aren't within my cultural milieu at all.  They kind of look like people I know, and they speak English, and dress like people I know, but the "other side of the tracks" was apparent.  I can see how a few decades ago "those" people and "our" people despised one another.  There's no need for that, but since so many Americans dislike foreigners, and that's how they seemed to me, kinda....   well, there you go.

Assimilation is something some people try really hard to do.  And some people don't.  But, interestingly enough, if someone stays on one side of the tracks their whole life, they can certainly feel assimilated with the community they know so well; so I guess it's a really good idea that busing happened.


Friday, March 8, 2019

Trivia

Third-place Tuesday, second place Wednesday, first place Friday.

Johnny Q's




Johnny Q's



Dixie Grill & Bar





Remembering today

As we are near Saint Patrick's Day,

The day I brought some Shamrock Shakes to work and didn't share any with a certain person.

I brought three of them, for two people and myself, and I guess I was evil, because I didn't give any to certain person.

It would have been so easy to get an extra spoon or an extra bowl or cup and share a little. And, they taste like chalk anyway. But that's not the point, the point is I was so miserable, that I couldn't understand how to give somebody something.

Now, the other two people who has Shamrock Shakes, just don't seem evil to me. Well, one of them maybe dot-dot-dot








I got to use of a car

 And I feel like an amputee who's just regrown a limb.

This may be the first visiting grammar error

I have seen.

I'm wondering if the difference between everyday and every day.

I thought I knew. But, could Disney be wrong?





Sunday, March 3, 2019

Returning to the scene

 Last night, I went by Southwest, make that, the Southwest library at dr. Phillips.

Today, I find myself right across the street from the Mexican place where I ate with Nicole and Otto and emmaline. And where I called symbol and I paid for my truck the second or third time.

On the way up to Orlando, I stopped at the nasty BP and you had Junction. I'm so glad they're putting in a new gas station there. Somebody has to up their game or go out of business. It is ridiculous. And they even sell food there.

I went to Disney too, just inside the gates, where we got Disney pops that time, or did we just look for them there?

We ate at the Chinese buffet, right next to El Patron where I ate with Amanda and Billy. They want it authentic, and I had no idea. I don't think Americans eat authentic Mexican or authentic Chinese. Anyway, Adecco asked the same exact question. Are they authentic?

I guess since I like Taco Bell, I don't care about authenticity. But El Patron is awesome. And Billy thought it was authentic, at least according to Amanda.

I can tell you this, haven't eaten enchiladas all over the desert Southwest, it is different, and I wonder if Tex Mex actually means East Texas Mex?

I returned to my condo and found it different. And left it with a three-year-old and a forty-year-old inside. I could feel the neighborhood coming together. Talk to Carlos on the phone and in person. Met a little baby across the way, talk to the couple across the hall and across the way. And made wonderful new friends who called the Sheriff's.



Will see where this goes when I return to the scene.














Firstorlando praise

 Well, they've done it.

They still sound great. But luckily they struck the stage so maybe I can get it there.


Friday, March 1, 2019

McD's

To Orlando McDonald's, so far, have delicious looking pastries.

Some of them also have donut sticks, which I haven't tried yet.



Paint Your Wagon and kids these days

 I was listening to K Cruz, a YouTuber with a very specific point of view. And she was saying that people are getting less white, meaning that white people's kids are a little darker, and I've heard before and noticed that black people's kids are getting a little lighter. Wendy Williams says everybody's going to end up looking like The Rock with indeterminate race. But today I see something different. Echidnas little darker than his parents, but anyway.

I don't even know what that word is, text to speech, I certainly didn't say that.

I also noticed another anomaly. Is a fat mom who is fatter than her fat kid. It's usually the other way. The younger generation fatter than the older, if both are fat.

I'm studying my music, and will always remember Jody asking me during edita, you know what I mean, to come back for Paint Your Wagon. What a treat you have to do that Musical. And to be able to do it again now a year later. What are the chances of that? That is so unlikely.

First paid gig for singing since 1979? I'm not sure if it's true, but it sounds good.

How long has it been since I had a violin get? Relatedly, today I noticed a rejection letter from a job oh, I don't know a decade ago oh, to be a voice teacher. I didn't think I ever had the nerve to try to be a voice teacher, until maybe this year. I mean, once I talk computers without knowing anything about them, I decided I might be able to try other things. But I've never even had a voice lesson. I firmly believe that when the student is ready the teacher will be there because the teacher is sometimes life, and sometimes a book, and sometimes the conversation, and so forth.

I'm excited to see in these new or her soul, no, new rehearsals, if we're going to do some of the songs we didn't do at Lake Worth Playhouse.

And it will be fun to see, now that my condo is cleaned up and I have a roommate, if I live here or stay there. I just might get a show,  or I just might come back and work at Disney.  Then of course there's always a library  but somehow I feel past that.  But I really loved it.  And I think it's great if people have a chance to do something they love. show,