Off on a tangent

Then again, maybe it's not the artists' faults if they just follow what's become a standard form.  Shrug.  We are not alone in that, look at resumes and cv's and academic journal articles.  (Sure, I suppose there should be some standard, but why is it that one?  And once you know it, why can't you bend it?)  The last of these gets my biggest scorn, if they made them readable (i.e., didn't throw in a bunch on unnecessary, and I might add, at this point, meaningless, words-nothing wrong with the format itself) the average person might actually wade through and read them.  And if we could go to the source for the information, we might be better off and more informed than having to have the science (or whatever) translated and dumbed down for us by someone who probably has a bias or a word limit.  Seriously, think about that.  Sure some of the formulas might be difficult to understand, but the general concepts, the hypothesis, the findings and the possible implications should be readable, but as it is, they tend to get buried in unnecessary verbiage.  Every time you go through a translation/re-interpretation, you lose content.  Was it important? Maybe, maybe not, but someone else just made that decision for you.  (This is similar to an issue I have with not teaching handwriting; our country's founding documents are handwritten.  The average citizen should be able to read these for themself.)  (John Oliver made a joke about how boring talking about Net Neutrality was, and that's true for a lot of policy and science.  It doesn't need to be, but it often is.  We get too bored to pay attention, and then decisions are made that affect our lives, for better or for worse.)

I might be done now.  I'm not as articulate as I'd like to be, still I think it's important.

Here's a profile shot of a cute goat for putting up with me.  (There are birds nesting right outside my window, in the roofline, I can see a blur of flight and hear the chirps as I write this.)

Picture of a goat, May/L Herlevi 2014

Circus

Cold out.  Chilled from waiting for the bus, entertained myself by singing a Swedish Christmas song out loud while I waited (there wasn't anyone else at the stop.)  Surprised myself by knowing all of the lyrics.  I'm still cold.

Went to a circus workshop after work tonight, with an Australian performance group called Circa.  It was fun and incredibly generous.  Only 1 1/2 hours, but it was free.  We spent an hour learning some improv "language" in pairs, and then split the group in half and had one group watch as the other one improv'd in the space.  It's the tools they use to put a piece together.  I have a ticket for tomorrow night, excited to see what they do.  Also excited that I have something to share with the clown group I go to, stuff we can learn and practice.  I wasn't sure if I should sign up for the workshop, the invite was ambiguous about how much experience you needed (turned out you didn't need any, just a willingness to participate), but one of the dance professors convinced me to go, in fact, she emailed them...I'm glad I listened to her.  I finally signed up yesterday.  Originally, it was only open to ticket holders, but I think with so many students out of town, they opened it to the general public.  As it was there were only 24 of us, including the performers.

I have a coaching session tomorrow morning, so need to get my monologue memorized, it is mostly, but I want help shaping it, so I need it off book.  It's pretty short, 52 seconds last time we timed it.  It was originally for the general auditions (I had two minutes total to work with), but I didn't end up doing it.  Most auditions seem to use sides (from scripts).  I should work with her on that, too.

No closer on deciding on the living situation.  Mañana.

Here's a tree picture.

5:30 Light/L Herlevi 2014

January 6

Here's the photo for January 6, 2014.

 

January 6/L Herlevi 2014

Cheers

It's January 1rst, 2013 and I am dry for the month.  Ate too much last night.  It was tapas, and all very good.  My favorite thing was this sliced, sour apple with honey-lemon-cream cheese and pomegranate seeds, really worked together.  Not Spanish per se, she just had a pomegranate she needed to use.  I was gonna leave earlier, but I don't like waiting for a bus there, and asked a friend to drive me home, so we stayed until 1 am.

Less than five days 'til it all starts up again.  It feels like months since I've seen everyone.  It feels like more than a week since I've been at work.  I did check email, I know I'll have to hit the ground running tomorrow, but one more day off until then.  Back to "Lord of the Rings" and black-eyed peas (for luck.)

Happy New Year!

Fennel and light/L Herlevi 2014

Let the madness begin

20 hours of rehearsal this week, plus working full time, plus the application for the scholarship is due, and I need to work on the monologue...I'll be glad when the audition and the show are over. There doesn't seem to be enough time, but it'll all work out, I suppose. At least I have my lines down...although I always think I do until I'm standing and trying to move at the same time. I have them down when I am sitting. Funny how that changes. It's mostly just the one page with the overlapping dialogue I have trouble with. Most of the characters have repeating dialogue, with maybe just one word or the number of times words are repeated each time changing. We haven't rehearsed it together enough. Crud. Once again I am sick. Wonder what that's all about?  Maybe I should stop drinking that juice with chia seeds. Will make for a fun bus ride. I should probably pack my props and performance clothes now.

Hacked back a blackberry bush last night, the yard waste bin is full. There were ants on the plants, and when I went to the grocery store later, I picked an ant off of my neck while I was talking to one of the food prep guys. It was probably the only one, but for the rest of the evening I felt like I had bugs crawling on me. I still feel like I have bugs crawling on me.

I need to check the bus schedule. I turned down a ride to the concert because it was really early, but I wonder if riding the bus will give me enough time to change and warm up vocally? I don't want to wear this dress on the bus.

Here's a picture of the western sky last night. Lots of interesting clouds. That one cloud in the middle first reminded me of a dove and then a dragon. There's a sun dog, too. Time to go.

Western Sky/L. Herlevi 2013

Too much stress

So stressed-out right now, feel like all of my energy is bound up in my head and my chest ready to shoot out of my mouth at any moment. Will be so glad when this week is over. Deep breathing, not helping.  Pre-emptively apologizing to people in my vicinity, and trying very hard to control myself outwardly. Did get the voice-over written and recorded, and my classmate completely understood my stress, which is a relief: she wouldn't have taken it personally, like I don't take hers personally. That's a nice place to arrive at. (But I'm still high-strung right now.  Maybe I should go sit against a big tree, or in a forest.) Have dealt with garbage, paying rent, kitchen was cleaned up, sink was repaired, old tv hauled away, lawn mowed...now the last painful phone call to get thru due to communication planets being misaligned for me last week. Need to face up to it and get it over with.

Last night in Finland/L Herlevi 2012

(Late evening, at a lake outside Helsinki, watching the sun's fire extinguish one more time, before leaving for home. July 2012.)

When I walk outside, the sun is warm, and a flock of swallows sweeps between the buildings, sensed only by their chirping, reverberating against the stone. Then. Silence.

Happy Friday!

Above a sink-L. Herlevi