Factual Straightjackets

Do you shop at the local produce markets that pop up in your community? I do. I relate to the whole notion of how much it costs to transport food long distances. I heard that because food from the southern hemisphere swirls in the opposite direction of food in the northern hemisphere that there is […]

To Hell in a Handbasket By Do-Gooders

How mean and nasty are you? I’m well shy of criminal mean and nasty but then I’m not talking about crime, I mean more generally about disposition, the essential direction of your personality. I’ve seen perfectly rational individuals once they are inside the construct of a relationship find that they have a pretty short fuse. […]

Forces to Reckon With

I think I am civilized. Finally I have crossed some threshold and arrived. I never much enjoyed being barbaric. My brutish phase has ended. In my twenties I had a temper. I could get so excited I couldn’t remember what I had become so excited about. Regardless I could stay mad for hours even if […]

Tragic-comic reindeer eating

A good street show is funny. You need to appeal to people’s better natures, they aren’t looking for Lear. They don’t want to know what the hell Congress has done now. Of course the pantheon of the tragic-comic life is littered with many terrific examples: George Burns losing Gracie and then rising from his loss […]

Infinite Pleasures

Everything I thought I knew has been thrown into doubt. I had thought today could be much like any other day. I thought I’d go along and get along. I made the mistake of listening to a physicist. It seems that this one universe we live in might be just one out of an infinite […]

I Knew Norman Mailer, I met Norman Mailer, I Miss the Man

Writers have this obstacle to overcome in the ongoing tension between modern brain research and western psychological model and spirituality. As such authors are required to either conform to the conventions of the day, or if they do not invent methods to circumvent these limitations. Here is Norman Mailer in conversation, “When you write novels […]

Free to Play the Game

To celebrate the first day of the rest of my life I had oatmeal. For dessert I took my supplements and finally to get the start of the day off to a rollicking hilarious start I just completed ninety minutes on my recumbent bike. Add to my writing chores I also continue to perform. The […]

Deep Background on an Earl Warren Supporter

Back in ’64 when cigarette smoking remained a virtuous activity for an aspiring up and coming young man San Jose was a place where one of the largest stone fruit crops in the world was still grown. Apricots, peaches, and nectarine orchards were still a defining feature. The Jesuits were still growing wine at the […]

Grass Roots Audience, The Small Time Entertainer, The Fully Funded Heart

The grass roots audiences the small time entertainer plays to is located closer to the heart. We are literally physically closer. Venues are scaled to size. Expectations are held in check. We are paid less money but we acquire a greater bounty of intimacy. We begin our performing careers creating material that is both visually […]

Changing Ground Rules for Teens

It is hard to read the paper and have the headlines not change your mind. What the heck is going on? All I want to do is a show now and again, get a book published, and enjoy the good things life has to offer. I think Syria is easier to understand than a credit […]