Just Checkin' In

“Playwriting is the last great bastion of the individual writer. It's exciting precisely because it's where the money isn't. Money goes to safety, to consensus. It's not individualism. That's why sometimes I get very frustrated watching plays. I'm like: ‘Man, you have the shot here to say anything and this is what you're saying? This boring retread of a play I've seen 500 times, this denatured Arthur Miller? I mean you could do or say anything that's within the bounds of the law if you don't harm anybody physically, and this is what you're doing?’ Theater is just too exciting a prospect to be left to dullards.”
—John Patrick Shanley

This quote is from an interview with the playwright in the New York Times which, to me, hits the nail on the head.

(“You’re just saying that because you’re not making any money.”

You’re so right. I went into this to make buckets of cash, and I’m still amazed it hasn’t happened yet. Sigh…)

* * *

Well, I’ve left you guys alone for a little bit, for obvious reasons. It still feels like a funeral at my office (all of my co-workers both voting for Kerry and convinced that enough people would see what a thoroughly bad administrator Bush is. We came close, but alas, close only matters in horseshoes).

Of course, the really sad part is that there’s really nothing to say. It seems as though Bush won fair and square, and was elected this time.

The positive part is that the race was close. Mainstream media is saying Bush has a mandate, which he really doesn’t. I mean, if the numbers in the popular vote were reversed, the Republicans would be insisting that this was just a statistical fluke, and Kerry didn’t really deserve to win, and he won by too narrow a margin to be taken seriously as our leader.

But, as Pete and I were talking about this last night, the people who voted for Bush don’t like logic. They think logic…and facts…are bad things. So I guess we shouldn’t, y’know, make sense in our arguments anymore, we should be emotional.

“Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? Y'know, I read this in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, y'know, get some bricks and baseball bats and really explain things to them. …Satire doesn't work on guys with shiny boots.”
—Woody Allen

On one hand, this is very bad and very sad. On the other, it is fun for me seeing the far left IMPLODE. Having never been a supporter for Bush but never particularly impressed with the left’s message (or — in the theatre world — agitprop political theatre), at least it’s fun to see people completely convinced Kerry would win have heart murmurings.

Well, it’s because I’m a sadist (just kidding — sort of).

Remember, people: we survived Reagan. This too, shall pass.

* * *

Nosedive is getting ready for our adaptation of A Christmas Carol. I’m pretty excited about the cast and the venue (UNDER St. Marks, on St. Marks between 1st & A). Also, I think I’ve been able to convince Pete that we should serve spiked eggnog at the show.

Granted, some people think it’s elf cum, but I still like it for the holidays.

Anyway, that’s just what’s been happening.

Cool quote.

Shitty election results.

Excitement for play.

I’ll be back with more eloquence.

And bricks and baseballs bats (anyone wanna come out to the South & Midwest with me is more than welcome).

Crawling out from under the bed,

James “Evangelical Christian” Comtois

November 10, 2004