A few updates for everyone.
First, I just bought some property on the internet so I'll be moving my blog there over the next few days. I'll need the cyber u-haul to come get my stuff.
Moving? To a permanent home? That's right, I'll be at www.twintowersplay.com from now on. Of course blogger will automatically direct you there, so unless you still type in your url's by hand you'll be fine.
What's the occasion? I finished copy editing my play (actually my mom did) and this is a little reward. As soon as I get my act together (aka do my SVA homework) I'll be mailing this thing to producers, contests and festivals. Yahooo!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sex Addiction
I just saw two movies in a row where one of the characters was a sex addict, or perhaps a love addict- someone who can't seem to spend a night alone without a woman. In Woody Allen's Vicky, Christina Barcelona, Javier Bardem's Character moves from one partner to the next, unable to be alone, unable to say no, unable to resit seducing any woman he feels is vulnerable. In the Choen Brothers' Burn After Reading, George Clooney's character finds another woman the moment his wife or lover is out the door. He constructs elaborate sex toys in his basement and carries his 'wedge' around with him like a baby's blanket.
Clinton was a cheater. Edwards is too. And in my play, Trevor is a sex addict. He can't go two seconds without female attention. When he's rejected or ignored (or doesn't get what he wants) he runs to another. And while he appears to be oversexed, he can never get enough. What is this pehnomena? Why is it so pervasive? Why do we ignore sexual helath for men? And how have out our cultural and political aversion to discussions about sex make it almost impossible for boys and men to understand their own bodies.
For Trevor, his sexuality is the devil. It comes to him, distorts him, demonozes him and ultimately destroys him as he uses sex to get what he really wants- love. Sex is a magnet for so many emotions. It draws in all our fears, anxiety, frustration, pain and desire and rolls it into one. Sorting it all out can be difficult- without reflection and self knowledge, impossible. Any emotion we repress will find a way out somehow, and during sex and intimacy these emotions have a chance to escape.
Sex, and its appropriateness, is constructed according to a great number of norms. When and where we live determine what is appropriate and what is wrong, making it difficult to understand what is acceptable sexually. If it was not OK 50 years ago, is it OK now? If they do it Latin America, can we do it here? The main point of Twin Towers though is that sorting this out is easier that it seems. The answer to all our questions is written on our own hearts. Not in the laws or the doctrine of any church but in the cathedral of our our own soul, the judge and jury of our own constitution. Sex or no sex, gay sex, gay marriage- if it's done out of love it can't be wrong. Period.
Clinton was a cheater. Edwards is too. And in my play, Trevor is a sex addict. He can't go two seconds without female attention. When he's rejected or ignored (or doesn't get what he wants) he runs to another. And while he appears to be oversexed, he can never get enough. What is this pehnomena? Why is it so pervasive? Why do we ignore sexual helath for men? And how have out our cultural and political aversion to discussions about sex make it almost impossible for boys and men to understand their own bodies.
For Trevor, his sexuality is the devil. It comes to him, distorts him, demonozes him and ultimately destroys him as he uses sex to get what he really wants- love. Sex is a magnet for so many emotions. It draws in all our fears, anxiety, frustration, pain and desire and rolls it into one. Sorting it all out can be difficult- without reflection and self knowledge, impossible. Any emotion we repress will find a way out somehow, and during sex and intimacy these emotions have a chance to escape.
Sex, and its appropriateness, is constructed according to a great number of norms. When and where we live determine what is appropriate and what is wrong, making it difficult to understand what is acceptable sexually. If it was not OK 50 years ago, is it OK now? If they do it Latin America, can we do it here? The main point of Twin Towers though is that sorting this out is easier that it seems. The answer to all our questions is written on our own hearts. Not in the laws or the doctrine of any church but in the cathedral of our our own soul, the judge and jury of our own constitution. Sex or no sex, gay sex, gay marriage- if it's done out of love it can't be wrong. Period.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Thoughts
As you may know, I'm a full time photography student at the School of Visual Arts studying digital photography. What drew me to the program was the potential for images to draw in a large audience, regardless of their language skill or education level. With internet technology, images with emotional impact can circle the globe in seconds.
Photography is a means, not an end. In one of our readings, Sebastian Salgado says, "Photography can change absolutely nothing; the most that it can hope for is to show that some things ought to be changed." Is that not true of any art? Do we not face this in our every day lives? How oft
en do we want our friends to not make that really bad choice, to have our parents act differently, for our government to be moral and proactive. And what can we do about it, except express ourselves any way we can, maybe provide an alternative, a few words that offer hope or an alternative way of living. We, as Epictitus stressed in his Manual for Living, must know what we can change and what we can not. We must change what we can, and not worry about that which is out of our reach.
The only conflict lies in that we never know what is truly beyond our reach. If we determine that something is out of our control, we may simply write it off and never try to bring about change. And that writing off may limit ourselves to a narrow, pedestrian existence. And at this point we return to art, or perhaps simply expression, a targeted one, takig into account that which we would like to change and providing an alternative through a kind word, some advice, an image, a story, a song, a play, a film. However you can bring your vision of a better life into this world, you must do so, never knowing what impact it may have on others. Like a stone thrown into a pond, we will never know how far the ripples extend. So, to Salgado, photography can change absolutely nothing, but a vision of the way things ought to be can change absolutely everything.
Photography is a means, not an end. In one of our readings, Sebastian Salgado says, "Photography can change absolutely nothing; the most that it can hope for is to show that some things ought to be changed." Is that not true of any art? Do we not face this in our every day lives? How oft
en do we want our friends to not make that really bad choice, to have our parents act differently, for our government to be moral and proactive. And what can we do about it, except express ourselves any way we can, maybe provide an alternative, a few words that offer hope or an alternative way of living. We, as Epictitus stressed in his Manual for Living, must know what we can change and what we can not. We must change what we can, and not worry about that which is out of our reach.The only conflict lies in that we never know what is truly beyond our reach. If we determine that something is out of our control, we may simply write it off and never try to bring about change. And that writing off may limit ourselves to a narrow, pedestrian existence. And at this point we return to art, or perhaps simply expression, a targeted one, takig into account that which we would like to change and providing an alternative through a kind word, some advice, an image, a story, a song, a play, a film. However you can bring your vision of a better life into this world, you must do so, never knowing what impact it may have on others. Like a stone thrown into a pond, we will never know how far the ripples extend. So, to Salgado, photography can change absolutely nothing, but a vision of the way things ought to be can change absolutely everything.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Spreadshirt
Yes, it is still bothering me- who bought a shirt on Spreadshirt last week? I e-mailed the nice folks at Spreadshirt (when you work someplace you immediately become 'folk') and they told me that for security purposes they couldn't disclose th#@%what? Security purposes? I'm not selling weapons. Anyway, whoever bought it got an old version of the shirt. Please check out the LATEST VERSION of each shirt based on your comments. Plus, I have a new logo, above, and a spiffy background.
Regardless of who bought a shirt, THANK YOU! The more people who buy shirts, the faster this think hits broadway. And a true production note, the play is being copyedited for errors and should be ready to show producers next week. And I actually have the names and addresses of two producers. We are moving forward!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Freedom
I was talking to James about my play, and mixed in between the subtle criticism and the overt hatred of a very weak second draft came a statement: make sure you know what your play is really about. And that remains the question: what is Twin Towers really about? Two childhood friends meeting up? Life in the Bronx? The psychology of an Iraq war veteran?
Today I'll have to say that Twin Towers is about freedom, and about what freedom does to one who is balanced and one who is not. Freedom can release one man and ruin another. Bondage can suffocate one man and keep another from falling to pieces. I'd like to explore freedom as a concept, and about different types of boundaries and bondage. Leave a comment if you have an experience to share. The philosophy of freedom is vast, and so is the depth of human experience about this topic. Please, join in!
Today I'll have to say that Twin Towers is about freedom, and about what freedom does to one who is balanced and one who is not. Freedom can release one man and ruin another. Bondage can suffocate one man and keep another from falling to pieces. I'd like to explore freedom as a concept, and about different types of boundaries and bondage. Leave a comment if you have an experience to share. The philosophy of freedom is vast, and so is the depth of human experience about this topic. Please, join in!
The Airport
I went to the airport on Monday, and for the first time in ages I wasn't the one leaving. Instead I saw seeing a good friend off to her native Indonesia. And while saying goodbye was sad, the place itself, the endless desks, huffy guards, clicking of high heels and squeals of luggage rollers, the smell of bad airport food and duty free perfume, the pushing and shoving and finally that last hug, it churned up a host of other memories, other airports, other times, other lifetimes. If I hadn't gone out there to JFK I probably wouldn't have reflected on my own departures and arrivals in this journey.
It reminded me that life is a continium of burying and rediscovering, rejecting and reclaiming, loss and gain. These cycles take place in the human heart, and can not be accessed on purpose. Try as you might to meditate on that which is most important to you every evening, if you didn't do anything during the day you'll find your soul is as empty as your cubicle- your inner you is a reflection of your outer expereince. I found that you have to go out and experience life, wherever it may take you, in order to have roughage to chew on when you do get down to meditate. You can't search an empty room. You have to fill it first, fill it with experiences. And in that sense you have to let life take you, and make opportunities of the randomness.
At the same time, your outer life is a reflection of your inner you. If your inner self is tarnished or tainted, so is your world, no matter where you are. Purifying yourself helps to clean the world you live in and move forward. When your soul is clear you'll find that although life does indeed take you places, the places you go will be nicer and nicer. So in a sense, when I went to the airport, I didn't have to go anywhere, because the moment took me to a dozen other airports- Bishkek, Istanbul, Vienna, Tashkent, Madison, Logan, and back to JFK. Reflecting on those airports will take several days, if not months. But it will insure that my next real flight is in the right direction.
It reminded me that life is a continium of burying and rediscovering, rejecting and reclaiming, loss and gain. These cycles take place in the human heart, and can not be accessed on purpose. Try as you might to meditate on that which is most important to you every evening, if you didn't do anything during the day you'll find your soul is as empty as your cubicle- your inner you is a reflection of your outer expereince. I found that you have to go out and experience life, wherever it may take you, in order to have roughage to chew on when you do get down to meditate. You can't search an empty room. You have to fill it first, fill it with experiences. And in that sense you have to let life take you, and make opportunities of the randomness.
At the same time, your outer life is a reflection of your inner you. If your inner self is tarnished or tainted, so is your world, no matter where you are. Purifying yourself helps to clean the world you live in and move forward. When your soul is clear you'll find that although life does indeed take you places, the places you go will be nicer and nicer. So in a sense, when I went to the airport, I didn't have to go anywhere, because the moment took me to a dozen other airports- Bishkek, Istanbul, Vienna, Tashkent, Madison, Logan, and back to JFK. Reflecting on those airports will take several days, if not months. But it will insure that my next real flight is in the right direction.
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