little swoon

Your Catfish Friend
by Richard Brautigan

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them."

adaptation is what its about

So much of what we see on stage these days is an adaptation. Same with movies of course. It has been an exceptionally rare case where I thought a book would be better as a movie, a movie as a play, a play as a movie. I honestly cannot remember one instance where I thought that the original would be better served in another media, save for The Godfather.

Now we not only make a movie from a play or book, we then take the movie and make it back into a play. Let me correct myself here. We take a musical and make it into a movie, then make it back into a musical, which will be remade into a film, no doubt, in another ten years. Where is the originality? Is there really nothing else to write about?

The latest in the endless cycle of commercialized spectacle is the High School Musical phenomenon. My Smallers love this thing. It makes me gag. This is a televised musical that is basically Grease updated. After its success on television it was made into the stage version, and the CD, and the book, and the ice show, and the toys, lunch boxes, back packs, you name it. It was in fact created not for artistic value, but for commercial. What can we say about the health of American theatre when the trend is to serve up blockbuster movies on stage?

Take a moment to read this article which is so much more eloquent than I am about this subject. What I love most are Margulies' thoughts about the imagination. Very worth five minutes of your day.

it's a skill

Smaller just came out of his room stark naked on the way to the shower. He karate chopped his naked way down the hall complete with kicks and hi-ya's, into the bathroom and directly onto the can where he looked at me proclaimed "What? I have to poop."

it all stands for something

So I bent to the economic pressures of having Smallers and such and got a job. Granted its part time, and its a contract position, but its in an office, and there are acronyms. My oh my are there acronyms. How offices love their precious acronyms. They put initials to things that don't even need shortening, but hell, it makes it all sound so much more official. I am still learning what they all mean, but once I do I will begin my mental game of making up alternative meanings to the acronyms. I got so good at this in my last office job, I would actually crack myself up and have to stifle laughter whilst sitting through an intolerably long meeting. I am a bit rusty. It has been about 4 years since I have worked an office job, but I will overcome. I also need to polish my salutatory head nod. This greeting is par for the course in the professional world for anyone who you do not really know, but they work in your office. Gotta give the nod, but don't overdo it or you come off looking like a freak.

Don't cry for me. I will be OK. I have new slacks so you see, there are pluses.

K.I.T