Say what?

I took a life expectancy test. I died last year.

Who woulda thunk it?

I am having a good day ... doing taxes! Say what? A break in the routine, I guess.

Zero sum

After the good news, three rejections yesterday. Nature of the beast.

Looking good

First significant initial interest in TITANIC BLUES from a theater company I admire in the southwest. Onward.

Yes!

Doctors Need To Talk About Death Instead Of Trying To Keep Patients Alive At Any Cost

Read it

The root of our ills

From the ending of my one-man play American Gadfly, the story of Senator Wayne Morse:

MORSE

            So if you asked me, Wayne Morse, name

            the one thing in our country that you

            think will do more to strengthen

            American foreign policy in the next

            half century, you might be surprised

            at my reply. I would say, Do something

            to protect the educational standard of

            American boys and girls.  Do something

            to protect American brain power. 

            Because the only sure and lasting

            defense of peace is a highly educated

            and enlightened citizenry.

Clearly the Trump era is only possible because of the collapse of American brain power. We have millions of poorly educated citizens who vote from ideology and conspiracies and ignore facts and reason. Morse nailed it.

The director/producer who brought this to life 16 years ago wants to revive it. I wish her well.  

"Otherwise we are lost"

Doomsday clock

Faced with this daunting threat landscape and a new willingness of political leaders to reject the negotiations and institutions that can protect civilization over the long term, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today moves the Doomsday Clock 20 seconds closer to midnight—closer to apocalypse than ever. In so doing, board members are explicitly warning leaders and citizens around the world that the international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War.

Mindless

In a political climate where facts don't matter, reason is ignored, ideology drives meaning ... how can the impeachment process possibly function or obtain results? It can't. So we witness a sham and a disgrace. 

He liked Titanic Blues

Feedback from an actor friend, who in fact played the lead in my first produced play back when I was in grad school.

Sharp as a tack. Great story. Nicely paced. Characters fully formed. Weather Underground framing works well. ... Take a curtain call on this one.

Ah, to find a director with this mindset. 

Good question

Why Aren't the American People Marching in the Streets Over McConnell Cover-Up in the Senate

Read it.

FDR

From The Palmer Report:

In a speech he gave in 1910, Franklin D. Roosevelt said the following words: “I will tell you who is the real menace in American political life—not the king; he does not exist and never will; not the dictator, but the boss; the man who does by manipulation, by intrigue, by alliance with crooked judges, by crooked business men, by the assessment of judges, in every way that is contrary to the principles of good citizenship, the man who by doing all that gets enormous political power and exercises it as he chooses, that man is a menace.”

Impeachment?

Getting old

We caught a matinee musical in downtown Portland yesterday, and as we were getting dressed for it, the same thought occurred to us at once: we're too old to do this. That is, it's time to be taken to events in a retirement facility bus, rather than doing all the driving and parking ourselves. We're on the same wave length about this, which is good.

But we made it to and back without difficulty, even driving home at night, which I hate to do. I don't want to do it again soon, however.

We're content to do practically nothing.

One foot after the other

The title of this blog has never been more true. Lots on my plate, too damn old, too damn slow, but I'm hanging in. 2020 is a transition year, we hope to move into a retirement community on the river by year's end. One foot after the other.

Eight theaters giving TITANIC BLUES a serious look. More coming, I think. It needs a home before I pass.

What world leader?

CONFIDENCE IN TRUMP

COUNTRY	NO CONFIDENCE	CONFIDENCE
MEXICO	89%	8%
GERMANY	85%	13%
SWEDEN	81%	18%
FRANCE	78%	20%
SPAIN	78%	21%
NETHERLANDS	74%	25%
GREECE	73%	25%
CANADA	71%	28%
UK	67%	32%

Vibes

Been a while since I've marketed a stage play and I'm reminded of how different it is from marketing a screenplay. Theater folks are so much more polite and nice and filled with good manners. Sometimes in film I felt like I was dealing with shady used car salesmen. Not the case in theater. Interesting.

My first ten pages are working. Getting requests for full script.

Transitional year

We're on a waiting list, about a year long, to move into a not-for-profit retirement community on the river, actually not far from where we live now. Much downsizing to do, so we'll make use of the waiting time.

Meanwhile marketing the hell out of TITANIC BLUES, a hard sell, but getting a few nibbles. Reality today is too cruel to want to see a play about it.