Minutiae and Flux

Rewrites

carlaching — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:33:40 +0000

Tagged: Rewrites

Brooklyn Rooftops

carlaching — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:20:41 +0000

Tagged: Brooklyn

Marathon

carlaching — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:15:39 +0000

I have been on something of a theater marathon lately. Six days in a row, I went to readings or shows which included War Horse, Tommy Smith’s Fire Men, Don Nguyen’s Red Flamboyant as part of Ma-Yi’s Labfest and Vampire Cowboys’ The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G. Inspiring. Then, I got in a car with part of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and drove 12 1/2 hours to Louisville to see Jordan Harrison’s Maple and Vine and A. Rey Pamatmat’s Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them. Maple made me think. Edith made me cry.

The thing about seeing theater this good, a collection of theater this varied, is that it really gets you to thinking about what keeps you in a seat. What moves you. What sticks to you like cobwebs for days after you’ve seen something.

I have been trying not to think about this as I hammer away at the rough hewn Fast Company and try to smooth its edges (or keep it jagged in just the right places) and shine it just enough for our First Light reading next Tuesday. The thing keeps changing on me. And it’s pushing my capacity. I’m having to use everything I think I know, and it still might not be enough. We’ll see. It’s finally gotten fun to be writing it, so that is a good thing. Con men. Magic. Basketball. It’s good to have fun. It’s good to be scared. Right?

14

carlaching — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:18:36 +0000

Oh, my god. It’s here again.
www.2g.org

It’s almost new year’s

carlaching — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:13:25 +0000

Somehow, I managed to take the whole fall off and not even realize it. I guess I was distracted. Or overly focused on what was in front of me. Or something.

Looking forward to 2011. There is a lot to be grateful for and I am both curious about and hopeful for what’s on the horizon.

When the skies dumped two feet of snow on a grumpy city, something possibly transformative happened. People had to stay put at home with loved ones. Or play in the snow. Or stay put with loved ones in another city. While the struggle to get home is mighty, I have had more smiles flashed at me, had more of those random five line dialogues passing someone on the street (the sidewalk ballets) than in a long time. I had two hour-long conversations with strangers this week. Just sitting there, minding my own business, eating my french fries, and then a sidelong glance, and the ever-so-tentative initial attempts at conversation. With a retired Scottish lady I-banker and a former pro-footbal player.

I hope that these are the kind of collisions that continue to come. That this snow storm isn’t the only deus ex machina of coming times. We need people to be so disarmed by, oh, say, the forces of nature that all the walls come down. They need to express delight, confusion, sadness to someone. And so they reach out to you and your world gets a little bit bigger. And you learn a little bit more. And you’re connected for a second.

Those of you who live where there are no seasons, I feel bad for you. Maybe that’s why Paul Thomas Anderson made it frogs for the Valley. May you have frogs, then.

Tagged: holidays, new york city