Please watch this video clip. Please.

 culture  No Responses »
Nov 252011
 

For those of you who have followed my blog, you know that I’m not running around waving the “Gay Marriage” flag.  I’ve struggled with the issue, wondering how I relate to it, how my past, present, and future relate to it, and whether it’s something that I really completely understand.

Jay Jackson, a great dancer/choreographer that I worked with in LA this month, posted this video on his Facebook page, and I stumbled upon it in the top right hand corner stream.  I read his comment and clicked on the link.  I watched the video, and in the last few moments, I gasped.

I knew what was coming, and I still gasped and got really choked up about it.

Take a look.  It’s full of truth.  Deep truth about what it means to be committed to someone.  And why people deserve the right to be recognized as living in a committed relationship, if that’s what they want.

I don’t mean to insinuate that all committed relationships have to be named the same way or look the same way.  Absolutely not.  I’d prefer that we maintain the freedom to be different and to define our relationships on a case by case basis, but this video clip is the most effective statement I’ve seen about marriage equality.  And there’s no protesting or flag waving.

Simply put, lives are on display.  Nothing more or less.  Make sure you watch to the end.

Please take a look.  And share with your friends and families.

I’m scratching my head about this one, y’all.

 culture  No Responses »
Nov 172011
 

I’m supposed to be writing a lecture on Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and I’m struggling.  I logged on to my Twitter account, and I see some tweets about Occupy Wall Street.  I start poking around and getting confused, as I’ve been for two months.  Confused because I feel like I should be completely behind this movement, yet I feel completely disconnected from it.  I’m trying to listen to voices coming out of the movement and also to colleagues and friends who I know are supporting the movement, but I’m still struggling to find the connection.  I’m not willing to give up trying, but I’m still not quite ready to drink the juice either.

So I check out The New York Times to see if there’s anything that will help me understand.  That’s after watching a video online that someone posted of a series of clips of police doing violence to occupiers as they cleared Zuccotti Park.  Pushing, shoving, milk in the eyes to deal with the Mace or something.  I don’t know.  Again, I felt disconnected.

On the Times site, I happen upon this video story that I’ve embedded below.  It’s about a guy from Connecticut, 35 years old, out of work for two years, gets a job, and then after six months he quits the job to join the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Then the park gets cleared, and he has nowhere to live.  Lots of education, working towards a PhD at some point.

As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but wonder why this guy quit his job.  After being out of work for two years, why would he quit a job after finally finding one?

I can imagine that maybe his job isn’t fulfilling.  He so much as said so in the video.  But given the moment that we’re living in, is it wise to quit a job?  I’m sitting here feeling confused.  Scratching my head.  Wanting to feel sympathy for this guy, but finding it very hard to understand the choices he’s made.

I think that some people might try to tell me that the Times (a loathed “mainstream media outlet”) somehow manipulated his story.  Made it into what they wanted it to be.  Fair enough argument.  I would just respond by saying that this guy chose to allow the cameras to follow him around for the past month.  If he’s 35 and has advanced education, he should have some understanding of media representation and its ramifications.

It’s moments like these, when I question a choice like the one that this guy has made, that I know that I’m my father’s son.

My dad and I don’t always agree politically or socially.  I know he’s scratched his head about some of the choices that I’ve made in my life, but my father has worked for about 40 years for 50-60 hours a week selling auto parts.  He has worked in the same store for all of those years.  I worked with him as a part time parts boy and delivery boy off and on from the summer before 8th grade until I was 22 years old.  I watched how hard he worked, and I experienced firsthand his expectations for his co-workers and employees.  I don’t know many other people who have the work ethic that my dad has.  Except maybe my Uncle Bill, who my dad worked for many years.

My dad used to tell me that I better learn some common sense.  I had a lot of academic gifts, but the common sense took awhile to kick in.  The first time he said it to me, I got really mad.  But it’s some of the best advice he ever gave me.

My dad never had time to quit his job and occupy a park.  He had the huge responsibility, along with my mom, of raising five kids.  My dad never sat down at work, unless it was to work with an adding machine or a computer terminal at a desk.  If I leaned against a shelf or sat on a ledge, he told me to stand up.  Replenish the Valvoline Oil.  Stock the air filters on the shelves.  Dust the products that haven’t moved in awhile.  Sweep the floors.  Don’t stand around.

My dad did not model quitting for me.  Nor did he model standing around.  And he also didn’t model idle chatter.

Maybe that’s why I’m having trouble connecting to Occupy Wall Street.  I know stuff is happening there.  People are marching, people are teaching, people are voicing their concerns, people are occupying things.  People are quitting their jobs.  People are getting arrested.  People are planning next steps now that they can’t sleep in the park.

But what’s really happening?  What’s actually changing?  What’s getting done?

This son of a hard working Baby Boomer would like to know.

A report on Glee Sex. I have some questions, HLN.

 art, culture  No Responses »
Nov 102011
 

I checked CNN.com this morning, as I usually do, and saw a link for a video entitled, “‘Glee’ sex scene ‘goes all the way’.”  I watch Glee only occasionally, usually on a long flight on my iPad.  I like the show, but I’m certainly not a Glee fanatic.  I’m particularly appreciative of the way the show has handled the character of Kurt, and I do tend to follow some of the news stories that have emerged around his story lines.

I had read that there was some controversy about the upcoming sex scenes on the show, as they would feature Kurt and his boyfriend Blaine handing in their “Guardian of the V” buttons.  Of course, this did not surprise me, as people love to whip up a storm about any affection displayed between gay people, and then if that affection is between gay teenagers, it means that we’re teaching everyone how to be gay at the age of 12.

Side note: I watched plenty of episodes of All My Children, Dallas, and Three’s Company as a kid, and none of the straight sex scenes on those shows taught me how to be straight.  I’m still the way that I am.  And very happy about it, thank you, Sally Moral Majority Pants.

So nothing surprised me about the views represented on the HLN report (embedded below), but what did surprise me was the footage that the report used to highlight the controversy.  First off, Kurt and Blaine are mentioned, but the footage of Rachel and Finn is played repeatedly throughout the report.  These two characters also had sex in the episode.  We don’t see any excerpts of the scene between Kurt and Blaine until 2:45 into a report clip that runs 3:16 on the internet.  And the excerpt runs for 15 seconds.  Additionally, the scene clips between Rachel and Finn are very gentle, feature some audible dialogue, and appear quite romanticized.  The scene clips between Kurt and Blaine show the two shoving each other and rolling around in the back seat of a car.  While the later scene might be a more accurate representation of a teenage first encounter, I can’t help but wonder about the juxtaposition of these two moments within this news report.

Granted, I have not watched this episode of Glee, so these representations may accurately represent what happened between these two couples on the show.  However, I do find it curious that HLN used these clips in this way, without providing more context.  Why is the straight couple represented by the romantic clips and the gay couple represented by clips that I would initially view as somewhat aggressive and lacking tenderness.  We are not given the chance to hear the dialogue between Kurt and Blaine, so we’re not sure what they’re saying.  It’s a subtle and subliminal way of commenting about a sexual encounter between two young men.  Maybe Glee‘s creative team needs to be taken to task here, but even so, HLN should do some thinking as well.

The clip is embedded below.  I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts about this.

 

Making art at a rapid pace…and feeling great about it!

 art, creativity  No Responses »
Nov 082011
 

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of working with 11 young artists, alums of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ signature program, Young Arts, and a production team of amazing collaborators to create a performance project that was seen by audiences in Los Angeles at the Colburn School, the Steven J. Ross Theater at Warner Bros. Studios, and the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center.

We worked like crazy for three days doing 10 out of 12s (10 hours of rehearsal in a 12 hour period), and then we loaded the performance into a new venue three days in a row.  It was a wild and crazy seven days of work, but I had an amazing time with each of the artists.  I also learned a ton about LA and working in these different venues, particularly the Warner Bros space.   These young artists have incredible talent and skill, and yet they also maintained a level of commitment and professionalism that made me very proud to call them collaborators.  I will not forget their generosity or their patience.  I also worked with a team of six other professionals on the production and management end of the project, and they too reminded me how much a dedicated team can accomplish, even in the face of challenges, large and small.  I had a great week!

Below, you can see the marquee announcing the performance on Thursday evening at the Warner Bros. venue.  It was an exciting moment.  For all of us.