husband & wife
washburn street cemetery
scranton, pa.
“No teacher, preacher, parent, friend or wise man can decide what’s right for you- just listen to the voice that speaks inside.”
-Shell Silverstein
NPR’s Ann Powers makes a lot more sense of out the Cyrus video than I was able to in this insightful, if long, article from last week.
Take this byte for example:
…when the self become a selfie — when people start approaching themselves and others as things, to be posed, bartered or possessed, rather than as beings with rich and infinitely various inner lives —morality becomes destabilized, making it difficult to determine the difference between a playful risk and real one, or even between violation and fun.
OK, so now what?
I haven’t seen Spring Breakers yet, but plan to soon.
I think my stalling is partly because I’ve pulled away from the mindless party I used to justify as adventure necessary to the artist’s experience. Maybe it was, but it’s not now and since I’ve committed to take a more mindful path of spiritual practice and discipline, watching this kind of line-walking “fun” is almost painful.
People need to reach their own conclusions on their own timeline. I get that. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt if we, all of us, this society, could just press pause for a minute and examine what we really want to get out of this life and what our responsibilities are to ourselves and each other, and what is the best way to go about getting there. You know before we burn up our potential in a hazy cloud of imitation and hangovers of dissatisfaction.
-ag
First Friday Scranton
July 2013
Love this essay. This is why I’d rather insist on taking chances, on always working to instigate the new unknown let’s just try it and see what happens, than fall back on what I already suspect will succeed because there is “no room to fail,” as they say.
Restless dissatisfaction with self and its accompanying anguish make great things happen. So if I am thinking I can handle a theatrical challenge I lose interest. I am driven to do things I do not know how to do and I strive to create situations precisely where I do not know what’s happening or going to happen.
“What were in effect doing is training children to see that women and girls are less important than men and boys. Were training them to perceive that women take up only 17 percent of the space in the world,” she says. “And if you add on top of that, that so many female characters are sexualized, even in things that are aimed at little kids, thats having an enormous impact as well.”
-Geena Davis, founder of The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Really enjoying the results of Kristoffer Diaz’s #freescenes experiment.
This is the difference between you (read me) and a Pulitzer Prize-losing playwright. 😉
The backstory is here. The text of the scene is here.
The Heavy Lifting. | New #freescenes! This one came my way courtesy….
“In 2011, the Modes of practice symposium held in Stoke on Trent explored contexts and professional sensibilities for artists ‘in an age of austerity’. A manifesto was drawn up by artists and arts workers present, designed to create strength of purpose and solidarity amongst practitioners.
The manifesto stated:
1. Be active: support each other.
2. Be active: be an activist.
3. Be active: be an artist.
4. Value yourself, your time and your skills.
5. Share your knowledge and resources.
6. Focus, strategise and plan.
7. Be critical – be fair.
8. Know your rights.?”
via Paying artists: funding, frictions and the future | News | a-n.
Cleopatra’s allure had little to do with her physical appearance and a lot to do with her intellect, character and, apparently, the tone of her voice. When you consider how deeply involved both Caesar and Antony became with her, it is obvious that there must have been something more at play than just a sexy young body. After all, both were notorious womanisers and would surely not have fallen for Cleopatra on the basis of sex alone.
Gregarious Expressions 