New haircut and a messy room. oh well.

This post makes me sad

This thread... followed by
this post and this are just heartbreaking.


But at least Gawker is being proactive.


or this. Two random guys on the internet are figuring more shit out than BP. Meanwhile you have the CEO and CFO of the damn company sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "WHY ARE YOU BEING SO MEAN. STOP GANGING UP ON USSSS."

They won't even take 1/2 the legitimate suggestions that reputed Marine Biologists and Environmental Scientists are suggesting. Why? Because it's expensive, they may lose more oil, or it will make them look bad. NewsFlash Bro: You are singlehandedly destroying the Gulf of Mexico. And if that oil gets into the Gulf Stream, like a commenter said in the first link, that will basically pollute or infect everything. Do you really think being known as the leading cause for the destruction of our marine ecosystems is a shiny, good, and wonderful thing? No.


And how many months now has it been?
God almighty.

It's been awhile.

I was up in Boston visiting Hayley and her family, surrounded by being emotionally crushed to death by emergency auditions the week before. But I'm back and trying to figure out why my camera won't upload pictures. When I finally figure that thing out, I'll post them.

Other than that... 2 months until I get to go home! I'm thinking of this as summer school. There are aspects of summer school I like, and aspects I hate. Regardless, summer school is reassuring because it ends and you still have over a month of summer left to fritter about. So that's what I'm doing. I'm not an Associate Producer and Company Manager working at a theatre festival... I'm at summer school.

It's the little things that help me.

I also cut my hair. Chopped it off to below my chin with a pair of scissors I found in a suitcase in my room. I feel a bit better with short hair, and my hair itself feels infinitely softer and not like I'm wearing a dry mop on my head.

I'm really tired, but I need to go get ready. The girl who played Puck invited me to her house in Long Island for a Memorial Day party and I need an IV of caffeine.

Oh and before I forget, I bought

for 40% off. So far it's really good, but I'm trying to pace myself out while reading it.



I really need to figure out something interesting to write about. It's not like I can gossip as freely around here. That's just asking for trouble.

I know, I know. I've fallen behind. But we lost 3 actors in the course of 2 days and since then I have been rapid-fire trying to put together an audition for tomorrow. Basically, the concept of hurling myself out the 34th story of my building would have been preferable.

So the rest of the weekend will be mayhem. I have to do this audition, finish up all my stuff for next week since I'll be gone, and go to a reading. Except an update when I'm on the bus to Boston Monday morning.

Until then.


turn around

Shhhh. I don't want to admit that I've been watching GLEE. But I have.
Now, I have many reasons to avoid Glee.

1. Autotune
2. Character and plot continuity
3. AUTOTUNE


But I'm kind of a fan of anyone who's been in HAIR and Jonathan Groff fullfils those very minimal requirements. So, long story short, I've been watching it since he first appeared with jazz hands and show face. And I don't want to like it, and I'm not allowed to admit that I like it to any of the people who I hang out with, so it's become my guilty pleasure. Like eating a box of oreos while watching Biggest Loser.

And the most recent episode of GLEE was filmed by Joss Whedon, with Neil Patrick Harris, and name dropping Patti Lupone- which means I have to automatically watch and appreciate.

I still want to beat Ryan Murphy to death with a choir stand, though.

I promise when I actually do something interesting I'll update.



But let's just say my bosswants to do a staged reading of my play.
...
...
I REALLY NEED TO EDIT.

5 Things: Youtube Edition

1. I'm in love with these guys


2. They stole my karaoke song.


3. If I can pull it off, I'm starting a scene of my play off with this song.

Note: it's sung by a guy.


4. Why is this show so good?




5. And now for something completely different.


WHAT.




Goodnight.

I'm off to see my grandma. She's in New York, staying at the Plaza Hotel, which means I actually have to blow dry my hair and wear tights instead of leggings. Qúe es mi vida.

P.S. This is the view from my "office"

I'll try to get more pics on Monday. It's a beautiful view.

I was supposed to go into work today, but no dice- my boss had a sudden influx of meetings that he couldn't get out of. So I went to the Starbucks across from Joe's Pub and wrote a bit/began reconfiguring my full length. Then waltzed on down (in the god forsaken heat and humidity) to SoHo because I haven't been there in a while. I somehow stumbled onto the set for The Smurfs, saw Anton Yelchin, Top Shop and a lot of hipsters. Then I came back and had a popsicle. Now I'm debating between a nap or actually being productive.

Guess which one will win out...

"Times Square will never be empty again, even after the apocalypse "

first here
this, too.

Now that they're leaning towards homegrown terrorism, I wonder if the fact that it was International Worker's Day/Labour Day had anything to do with the choice of day. In the end, I'm glad that everyone was okay, and those two vendors are badass.

Also, I totally don't even want to think of the mess that will be Midtown, tomorrow.
Though I feel bad that the bomb threat and the oil spill have overshadowed Tennessee.

And that said, in the scheme of world events: THIS one pretty much takes the cake. It's been going on for a couple of days and I've seen hardly anything on it outside of CNN International.
And This, if you want to hear about the war that never ended and that we are still.part.of.

Sometimes I wonder if 2012 wasn't just the day the Mayans decided to stop calculating their calendar for shits and giggles and that it's actually the Apocalypse.

And my post has come full circle. The End.

It's 11 am. It's 80 degrees. It's humid. I feel like I should be in Hawaii with this weather, but I'm not. I'm in this itsy bitsy apartment with air conditioning I can't figure out how to run. I also slept on the floor because it was too hot to sleep in my loft. Oy, my life.

I also just realized that I have 3 plants that are going to die by the end of the summer because I have to leave an no one will be around to water them. Maybe I'll take part in some guerilla gardening. Too bad they need water every day, so I don't know how to solve that problem. Or maybe I'll just put them on a bench in Washington Square Park with a note that they need a good home. The fact that I haven't killed these plants and it's been about 2 months has got to count for something.

On another note, what to do today. I could go to the park and read, though it's ungodly hot and I'll get a sunburn. I could go to Starbucks and read or write. I need to do the latter, I have so many people asking to read my stuff and I"m so far behind that it's embarrassing. I think everyone has this expectation that I actually have skill, something which I am incredibly skeptical about. I furreal start my new job tomorrow. I was in the office on Thursday and Friday, but one was just a catch up meeting and the other was to watch an audition. I still have no clue what my actual job entails/if I get a stipend. I sure hope so. But I'm an Assistant Producer, so that's awesome.

Ok, off to feign productivity despite the heat.

Bomb Scare Prompts Clearing of Times Square

A suspicious vehicle in the heart of Times Square led the police to clear thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.

Reports said the vehicle contained a package that did not explode, and late Saturday night it was not clear whether the package was a bomb. A federal official said the incident was not considered it a terrorist threat and that the New York Police Department had told the Department of Homeland Security to stand down.

Police officials said they received a report about 6:30 p.m. of smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street just west of Seventh Avenue. The authorities found a smoking package in the vehicle. A bomb squad was sent to the scene.

The police were searching for a suspect.

A New York City firefighter who told Reuters he arrived early on the scene said that the vehicle was smoking and that he saw “a flash” from the back of the it. “We put two and two together” and the evacuation was ordered, he said.

Broadway was closed between at least 43rd and 46th Streets, and the police also appeared to be closing off part of Eighth Avenue.

The police said they planned to close down Broadway shows in the vicinity, Reuters reported, but it was not clear whether any theaters had actually been evacuated.

Onlookers crowded against the metal barricades encircling the area, taking pictures with cellphones and video cameras, although only a swarm of flashing fire trucks and police cars was visible.

Many people stayed to watch after being shut out of Broadway shows or prevented from getting back to their hotels, trading rumors about what was happening.

The Toys “R” Us, between 44th and 45th Streets, was empty.

Gabrielle Zecha and Taj Heniser, visiting from Seattle, had tickets to see “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theater on 45th Street but could not get into the 8 p.m. show because the area was blocked off. But they made the best of the spectacle. “It’s a whole different kind of show,” Ms. Heniser said, adding, “It’s almost the equivalent of a $150 show.”

In December, the police closed Times Square for nearly two hours as they investigated a suspiciously parked van, delaying the rehearsal of the New Year’s ball drop. However, the van turned out to contain nothing but clothing.

Godwin's Law

So the new Arizona Law.



I've been reading a lot of comparisons to Nazi Germany- and yes, I get that it does smell faintly of pre-Kristallnacht 1938. I get it. I get that it's a blanket statement that references the policies prior to the 1939 invasion of Poland and not the Holocaust and World War II itself. Evidently, many others are unaware that there is such a thing as escalation.

But. And it's a big BUT here, do we really need to look at another country, on another continent to reference the bullshit that's going on right now? Not really.

The United States has a history of oppression. Seriously, it's not hard to spot. It's upsetting. It's often glossed over in school. The fact that the US is founded on immigrants kicking people out of their homeland and setting up shop...then turning right around and going "do as I say, not as I do" is sketchy to say the least. Hello, Ellis Island. Hello, Angel Island.

Consider the treatment of Chinese immigrants during the late 1800s.* In fact the immigration laws against the Chinese strike eerily close to home. Google it, I dare you. or the Japanese prior to World War II. Granted, you also had the rise of a totalitarian dictatorship that was buddying up with Nazi Germany- but prior to Pearl Harbor the US really wasn't that worried. Maybe it's because I'm from the West Coast, but the mistreatment of Chinese and Japanese is pretty astonishingly terrible- yet Americans tend to forget that it ever happened.

And sorry, but no. I won't be pulling the age ol' "But the Irish!" card, because the thing is- once the accents gone, an Irishman or woman could pretty easily blend into the rest of the melting pot. Maybe a name change here or there. Same with Germans both during World War I and II. There's a reason my family adopted the French version of their German-Alsatian last name. Because they could. A little name change, give it a generation and -BAM- no one's the wiser.

No, in this case, it's based on appearance. You can be stopped because of how you physically appear to others. So I get that the immediate reaction for the Average Person is to scream Godwin's Law, despite The Rule that you never, ever, compare anything to The Holocaust. Even if you're referencing another holocaust or genocide. You just can't. As a historian, I'm all for that. Let events stand apart from one another- BUT, as a historian, see that there are similarities in action. I highly doubt anyone thinks that Arizona= Germany. But history has a tendency to reflect upon itself. It doesn't mean the outcome will be the same, who knows- but it's still the stuff of dystopian literature.

I'll just leave these here:

1


2


3


4


5


6



7





* I'd suggest looking up political cartoons from various time periods. Nothing says more about a culture than the cartoons during that time. Other handy dandy sites to check out: HERE, HERE, Godwin's Law in Action, If you don't know what Godwin's Law is, and fuck it, just wikipedia the shit out of some of this stuff (Like The Immigration Act of 1924. Just remember, footnotes are your friend.


And finally. If you want to read an actually well-written essay on the subject, go HERE. I highly encourage it.