Inciting Incident 15

I ask friends "When did you first feel the need to perform?" This comes from comedic absurdist and ukulele player Andrew Tisher.

Compliments

Punam: I like the way you eat yogurt.

The other day Punam said this to me and it just made me feel happy. Compliments are great and everyone needs them. Big ones, small ones, inconsequential ones, what have you. People need a certain amount of validation. A certain amount of positivity in their lives. Humans are social creatures and we need to know(and be reminded) that other humans like us.

I've noticed recently that a lot of people can't take a compliment. People shrug them off or deflect them. I don't know if it's unwanted attention or what. It's easy on Facebook to say whatever you want but when someone tells you to your face they like the way you look or like what you did onstage or whatever the automatic reply is often a deflection.

You may feel ugly or grumpy or out of sorts but if someone compliments you take it for face value. Enjoy it. Let it lift you out of the funk you're in as opposed to letting it dig you even further in it because you're sure the person is saying it just to be nice.

Sure people say things just to be nice sometimes. But if a friend or loved one compliments you more often than not it's sincere.

Soak it in.

British TV Is Way Better Than American TV

Tisher recently turned me on to the BBC series Black Mirror. Its like an updated version of the Twilight Zone which focuses on technology and the effects of our reliance on media. It has a rotating cast with each episode standing on its own. All six episodes are great, two are outstanding. The Entire History Of You set in an alternative reality where most people have a 'grain' implanted behind their ear which records everything they do, see or hear and Be Right Back about a widow using all of her husbands past online communications and social media profiles to create a new "Ash" virtually. The show isn't perfect but is always engaging. It raises pertinent questions that it seems most people aren't asking. It's got edge, it challenges the viewer. Black Mirror is the first TV show in a long time to really make a statement.

The final episode in the season aired this week and it just makes me wonder. Why aren't there any shows on like this in the US? Why isn't there any programming that really challenges the viewer? Any programming that takes any risk?

Recently the best shows I've seen, the ones I've got hooked on have all been BBC shows: Jeckyl, Luther, Sherlock, and now Black Mirror. They all take risks, have engaging actors playing engaging characters, have stories that actually move, and have definitive narrative arcs.

The problem with US TV is that, for the most part, it's run by studios who are sluggish and complacent. A bunch of people who are satisfied with the status quo and have no desire to try anything new. There is so much TV in the US which is just mind-numbing time-waste. The same people doing the same things ad infinitum. People want to watch a variety of stuff, people want to be challenged, to be engaged, but they settle for whatevers in on. I think the studios need to give their writers more leeway to develop projects they think are interesting as opposed to something they know will get the bare minimum of viewers to satisfy Pringles.

We also need to do away with such long seasons and series. Sit-coms, sure, they can go on as long as their viewing necessitate but TV drama is a different story. Shows like The Killing, The Following, The Walking Dead, FlashFoward, and Lost especially(to name a few) would have benefited(would still benefit) from a fixed number of episodes. A story line that is sketched out. A definitive narrative ending. Just because a show becomes popular doesn't give the studio the right to elongate it and ruin it. TV is a story telling medium, tell good stories, good stories have a beginning a middle and an end.

And Netflix, House Of Cards is just West Wing with worse dialogue and more sex. Step it up.

Graffiti 90

Recently I've felt a little bogged down. By negativity and judgement. I know these things will get me nothing but they are easy, slippery, sucking things. I have to remind myself daily to avoid them. To expel them. To keep my heart open and inviting. To keep my mind clear and kind. To keep my spirit hope filled.

"The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows." -Stephen King

Out Of It

At the Schwa show tonight I checked out about half way through. It wasn't that the show wasn't going well because it was. We were moving really fast and getting a lot of laughs. At a certain point I realized everything I wanted to do or was trying to do or ideas that I had were being passed over, deflected, interrupted, overrun. And I decided to stop trying.

I felt really funky afterward. The first show I've had in a long time where I came off stage not having had any fun. We talked it over and I think my teammates were all a little surprised about how down I was about it. They certainly didn't mean to make me feel bad and they all felt sorry about it.

I talked to Craig about it in depth and it made me realize the situation a little clearer. The show was going a certain way, had a certain pace, had a certain feel, and I just didn't really want to play that particular kind of show. I wanted and was trying to do some grounded scenes and that just wasn't the show for that. It was a high-energy pedal-to-the-metal type show and I didn't want it to be that. And that's fine. From time to time you aren't in the mood or you take a back seat in a show and that's fine. You just deal with that. For me I almost never take a back seat in a show so when I feel myself doing that I don't like it. That's something I need to work on. Also I'm a professional. I should act that way. If a show is going on I'm not crazy about doing I still have the ability to contribute and participate. I have the skill, I need to work on the maturity or presence of mind or whatever to deal with it, suck it up, and pitch in. If my ideas aren't being accepted push it and get them in there or go whole hog with someone elses.

Overall it was a learning experience. I didn't enjoy the show but I think I learned more from it than from the last month of really fun shows.

We learn more from failure than success.

'The Gatekeepers' & 'Beautiful Creatures' Reviews

The Gatekeepers is a documentary about the history of the Shin Bet, the Israeli secret agency involved with anti-terrorism, as told by six of its former heads. The film moves fast with shockingly honest interviews from the six heads juxtaposed with found footage and animated sequences. The film doesn't presume you know a lot about the the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but doesn't spend a lot of time outlining it, it drops us in at the beginning and tells us how it was from the Israeli perspective.

The film moves incredibly fast but never outstrips its audience. The amount of information presented is astonishing but the real finesse of the film is that its all conveyed successfully. Coming out of the film you feel like you understand or at least you have the beginning of an understanding. The honesty, directness, and unapologetic attitude that all of the men have is also a strength of the film. It raises interesting questions on the idea of life and death, politics, and espionage.

But in the end, like most documentaries, it leaves us with questions not solutions.

See It.

Beautiful Creatures is a teen fantasy romance movie based on the book of the same name. The film follows Ethan, a small town boy, as he falls in love with witch-to-be Lena. The big conflict in the film is that as Lena approaches her 16th birthday she can either be chosen for light magic or dark magic depending on her true nature. Is it good or is it evil? Where does Ethan fit in?

In the vein of Twilight but with far superior dialogue, characters, and plot. It's an enjoyable coming of age romance with magic.

Rent It.

Anti-Comedy

im a poo poo train conductor and i live in a garbage house. my house is made of diapers that all the little babies poo poo and pee pee in. its stinky! every morning i roll out of all the used poo poo and pee pee diapers and go down to the poo poo train station for a long day of work on the fart furnace. i eat beans all day and fart all kinds of farts in the fart furnace to make the train go. the stinkiest farts make the train go the fastest. ppppppffffffff, luuuuuurrrrrp, bammmmmmffff, blooooooouuuurrrrrrpppp, ppplllllurrrrrb. those are the farts i fart into the fart furnace all day long. sometimes when im on my lunch break i still have to fart so i run to the end of the train and fart off the caboose to speed up the train. like a rocket! the train is all made of poop so everyone who rides it is stinky all day long.

poopoopeepee stinkstankstunk.