Not An Addict, Baby
I know that when reading this blog it sounds like I'm addicted to doom, gloom, stress, and bad spelling, but that's not true. It's just that I assume that's the interesting stuff to read about. I mean, I just assume that friends thinking, "Oh, I wonder what Clinton's up to" don't want to read ...
"Went to the wineshop today. Had an okay one. Stacked some beer, talked to some customers, got the weekly email out a day later than I wanted to ... again. Waiting for the boss to get me the wines for the Friday tasting. Boy, does he do too much. -- Came home, put my feet up, made dinner, drank some beers, watched some DVDs. Boy, that Battlestar Galactica is a good show. I wonder if her breasts are fake. -- Called a friend who lives in such-and-such a state. Boy, I have a lot of friends living far away. I wonder if her breasts are fake ..."
You see? That's just not as exciting as ...
"Finally got off my ass and worked to get a reading of my play. I needed five actors, just five actors! One Eurpean American woman, one European American man, one African American woman, and two Af Am men. I was able to get everyone but the second Af Am male, but I wanted the reading to go ahead. So, I took a page out of other people's books and scheduled it when I didn't have the full crew, just hoping I'd get the last person in time. (Hey, "Magic of Theater," right? Things always work out, right?) Also, I had waited so long that we were coming up on UVA exams and graduation. Two of my cast were students. A week later and they would be gone.
"One of them had an exam on the date of the reading, so I moved up the time. Moving up the time meant I couldn't reserve a room at the library like I planned, so I had to scout for the space.
"Two days to go, found a space for the reading, but where was a final Black male? People I invited who originally said they could make it are now emailing saying they have to leave early, they have to come late, they can't come at all. No worries. This reading will go ahead! Wait, my friend Richelle comes through! There's a member of her cast for the show she's in who's willing to do the reading even though he's already in performance for another show! Bonus!
"The day of: I've got the space; I've got the people; I've emailed scripts to them. (I'm too poor to pay for copying.) We haven't been able to meet for a rehearsal so it'll just have to be a cold reading. But wait! That morning, I get an email from Af Am female UVA student. "Too much to do. Won't show up. Sorry. Let me know if I can help again. Toodles!" Arrrgghh!! I call Richelle and beg her to read, even though we both agreed she should just listen, even though she's leaving early. I don't own a printer yet, so I sneak into work to print off a script for me. Theft of office resources! Sorry!
"I get there, set up the space. Of the ten people I invite, three show up (and one brings a friend) (none of the African Americans (Yes, including Richelle.), important ears to have, I thought, for a play about race). But that's okay, because only one actor shows ... and he doesn't have his script! ("I didn't know we were supposed to bring it." Gahhagahh!! What about that email I sent out detailing parts and who speaks when in group pieces? Did you just memorize all that or were you planning to wing it? (Thought, not said.)). We stand around. We talk theater. It's a nice cool morning. I eventually declare the reading a bust, break down the space, and go home."
You see my point? It's just as I've always said. It's more interesting when the breasts aren't fake.
"Went to the wineshop today. Had an okay one. Stacked some beer, talked to some customers, got the weekly email out a day later than I wanted to ... again. Waiting for the boss to get me the wines for the Friday tasting. Boy, does he do too much. -- Came home, put my feet up, made dinner, drank some beers, watched some DVDs. Boy, that Battlestar Galactica is a good show. I wonder if her breasts are fake. -- Called a friend who lives in such-and-such a state. Boy, I have a lot of friends living far away. I wonder if her breasts are fake ..."
You see? That's just not as exciting as ...
"Finally got off my ass and worked to get a reading of my play. I needed five actors, just five actors! One Eurpean American woman, one European American man, one African American woman, and two Af Am men. I was able to get everyone but the second Af Am male, but I wanted the reading to go ahead. So, I took a page out of other people's books and scheduled it when I didn't have the full crew, just hoping I'd get the last person in time. (Hey, "Magic of Theater," right? Things always work out, right?) Also, I had waited so long that we were coming up on UVA exams and graduation. Two of my cast were students. A week later and they would be gone.
"One of them had an exam on the date of the reading, so I moved up the time. Moving up the time meant I couldn't reserve a room at the library like I planned, so I had to scout for the space.
"Two days to go, found a space for the reading, but where was a final Black male? People I invited who originally said they could make it are now emailing saying they have to leave early, they have to come late, they can't come at all. No worries. This reading will go ahead! Wait, my friend Richelle comes through! There's a member of her cast for the show she's in who's willing to do the reading even though he's already in performance for another show! Bonus!
"The day of: I've got the space; I've got the people; I've emailed scripts to them. (I'm too poor to pay for copying.) We haven't been able to meet for a rehearsal so it'll just have to be a cold reading. But wait! That morning, I get an email from Af Am female UVA student. "Too much to do. Won't show up. Sorry. Let me know if I can help again. Toodles!" Arrrgghh!! I call Richelle and beg her to read, even though we both agreed she should just listen, even though she's leaving early. I don't own a printer yet, so I sneak into work to print off a script for me. Theft of office resources! Sorry!
"I get there, set up the space. Of the ten people I invite, three show up (and one brings a friend) (none of the African Americans (Yes, including Richelle.), important ears to have, I thought, for a play about race). But that's okay, because only one actor shows ... and he doesn't have his script! ("I didn't know we were supposed to bring it." Gahhagahh!! What about that email I sent out detailing parts and who speaks when in group pieces? Did you just memorize all that or were you planning to wing it? (Thought, not said.)). We stand around. We talk theater. It's a nice cool morning. I eventually declare the reading a bust, break down the space, and go home."
You see my point? It's just as I've always said. It's more interesting when the breasts aren't fake.
posted by - caj at 8:11 AM
5 Comments:
1) I love you for using the term "European-American" - I do, and while most people just accept it even if they don't use it, one idiot at a Park Slope Co-op meeting responded to my use of the term in a discussion about diversity by saying, "I don't consider myself a European-American, I consider myself a BROOKLYN-American!" It was all I could do to keep from rising again and saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you - The Problem, Incarnate."
2) Ahem, speaking of Brooklyn, a) you haven't called your friend here lately, and b) again, I don't think you'd have that problem with finding African-American actors here. (Don't worry, I'm not seriously campaigning for you to move to a city you hate, I'm just pointing out that we do have our good points.)
Dear Clinton,
Why do you care about the citizenship of your actors?
Signed,
The Problem, Incarnate
I don't mean to say that everyone should run around identifying themselves by their race/citizenship. It's just that in this case it was precisely race-"blindness" that was the problem. We had a bunch of liberals. Two black women were saying they felt co-op members treated black members differently than they treated white members. Of course, this met with a chorus of, "Oh, no, no, surely not here"'s. I felt that if this genuinely well-meaning group simply looked around them they would notice that they were in a group of people that was about 95% percent white in Brooklyn, NY and it would be clear that there was a problem, and that the claims of these women should be considered. In doing so, I used the terms African-American and European-American. That was when the guy said he considered himself a BROOKLYN-American.
"Let me know if I can help again."
suggests that she has in some way BEEN a help.
I expect W to say that any minute. He's been such a help to this country!
You are right about my not wanting to read about you serving wealthy wine consumers or consuming products intended to entertain or intoxicate (There's some famous line about the opiate of the masses I'm forgetting... But I'm sure he wasn't talking about TV). Not because it's too boring or too happy or too every-day. But because you are an astoundingly talented, qualified and useful person. But until you admit that you are, and work like hell to make your life different than the talentless drones around you, you'll have no other stories to tell but Charlottesville BS. Eyes on the Prize? Or eyes on ENTERPRISE?
There's no way I'm a better or more talented person than you are, but every day you settle for the C'ville party-line BS you prove that environment matters most. It just makes me so sad and frustrated.
Wanna hear something weird?
All my Euro-American friends are on Live Journal, and my precious few Af-Am pals are on this thing.
Here's to communication and equality!
:/Lee
On another option for the ethnicity id: from my stint on the Rez in NM, I picked up the term "Anglo" (no hyphen, sorry.) It was shorter than Beligana (Dine for white woman) that my students used. I use it most of the time for folks on the pink spectrum - but living in a southern port city, I'm finding that most folks down here don't jive w/"African-American" because many of them consider their background much more diverse... so it's "black" or "person-of-color" (of course, if I say p-o-c, i automatically id m'self as a yankee!)
and keep keeping us informed, CJ - it makes me miss you just that smidgen less... espec when I get to read Lee's comments too! ;)
xonif
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