travel

I was in my car for a good 9 hours yesterday as I drove down the California coast in the middle of a major storm. Driving in the rain, hydroplaning and almost getting rear-ended by a giant truck puts a lot of things in perspective.

First of all, why in the frickin hell did I agree to do this show? Why did I agree to leave my home for five weeks? What am I trying to prove?

I must say that the play I am working on is lovely - everyone is lovely.

I am just 500 miles from home. I have to uproot my child for three weeks and bring her here with me. The husband has to be overly stressed becuase he has to single dad it for two weeks (one on either end of the five).

So the question is: is all this worth it? Is the traveling, free-lancing thing going to be what I do or do I just need to make sure I only work locally? Do I need to change my vocation? Next year when the kid is in kindergarten it is going to be harder to just pull her out to come with me to do a gig. I miss her terribly and I have only been gone for 32 hours.

The last time I did this it was easier. I was paid more so I was able to hire a Nanny the whole time. Perhaps I just need to set my price tag a bit higher so that I can afford to have some of the things I need and not rely (really impose) on the kindness of family and friends to help me thru it.

I should just break even doing this show. So financially it is not really worth it. But, the question is - did I say "yes" becuase I am terrified of not getting asked again? Or did I say "yes" becuase I really want to do the show (which is lovely but does not alter the way theatre is done.) or becuase I am just a masochist.

On the bright side, I am back in my old haunts and will get to see a lot of friends. But, isn't that what vacations are for?

2009 recap part II

I forgot to put a little "*" next to the books I loved... so check it out again. In some cases I was quite surprised.

And a notes about the movies - I think it is interesting in what format I see the films. If it is a DVD or Blueray that means it was in the Netflix Queue. If it says HBO/or Cable - I watched it on TV (and in some cases not letterboxed). I am utterly fascinated as to what I spent $$$ on - aka seeing it in the theatre...

taking ones own advise

I am doing an exercise that I assign my students on the first day of class. It is a list of 28 questions. I got the list from one of my favorite artists when I trained with her company. I haven't done the list myself in about 5 years and I gotta tell ya, it is frickin hard. The point is to open yourself up to the what is important to you NOW in this moment in time. They are silly questions but quite illuminating. I am stuck on many of them. I thought it would take me a half hour - but it is now up to 90 minutes to answer the questions...
hopefully this will focus me...

too many ideas swirling about...

Resolutions

This year I only have FIVE:

1. Decrease my impact on the environment
2. Write
3. Plant a garden (which is part of the backyard project that will probably take a decade to finish).
4. Exercise daily.
5. More quality time with the kid and husband.

2009 Recap

Yet again I kept track of all the books I read and all the movies I saw.
I did not track Theatre or TV, perhaps this year I will add those things...
Please note: I started teaching a class on Disney in 2009.

Books 2009
Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by arianna huffington
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Vol. I & II by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
Horse Heaven* by Jane Smiley
When You are Engulfed By Flames by David Sedaris
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Moby Dick* by Herman Melville
Watchmen* by Alan Moore
Team Rodent by Carl Hiassin
Foucault's Pendulum* by Umberto Eco
Disney Version by Richard Schickel
The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
Before the Animation Begins by John Canemaker
Disney Discourse by Eric Smoodin
The Magic Kingdom by Steven Watts
The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Snow* by Orhan Pamuk
Negotiating with the Dead* by Margaret Atwood
The Disneyization of Society by Alan Bryman
Good girls and wicked witches by Amy Davis
From Mouse to Mermaid Edited by Elizabeth Bell
The Mouse that Roared by Henry A. Giroux
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* by L. Frank Baum
The Iliad* by Homer Robert Fagles translation
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien
Three steps on the Ladder of Writing* by Helen Cixous
The Four Quartets by TS Eliot
Little Women* by Louisa May Alcott
When Nietzsche Wept* by Irvin Yalom
Laying Ghosts to Rest: Dilemmas of the Transformation in South Africa by Mamphela Ramphele
And Then, You Act* by Anne Bogart
No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Aave the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan
Walden* by Henry David Thoreau
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Movies 2009 (lists films I saw for the first time this year)
Rosemary's Baby* (HBO)
Cyrano* (great performances PBS)
Broadback Mountain (DVD)
27 dresses (HBO)
Love in the time of Cholera* (DVD)
The Dark Knight Rerurns (DVD)
Pinocchio* (DVD)
Enchanted (DVD)
Hercules (Disney version VHS)
Little Mermaid II: Return to the sea (DVD)
High School Musical (DVD)
Bottle Shock (DVD)
The Elephant Man (Cable)
Appaloosa (blueray)
Star Trek* (theatre - the new one)
Religilois (DVD)
Milk* (Blueray)
Taking Chance (HBO)
The Reader* (blueray)
Spirited away* (DVD)
Up* (theatre)
Underworld II (DVD)
GhostTown (DVD)
Underworld: rise of the lycans (blueray)
Synecdoche New York* (DVD)
Lion King 1 1/2 (DVD)
Onmioji (DVD)
Revolutionary Road (blueray)
The Visitor (DVD)
Mamma Mia (HBO)
Perfume, the Story of a Murderer* (DVD)
Watchman (Blueray) --- I did read the graphic novel prior to seeing the movie
Princess Mononoke * (DVD)
Coraline *(Blueray)
Angles and Demons (DVD)
Tropic Thunder (HBO)
The Wrestler* (Blueray)
Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure (DVD)
In My Country (DVD)
Amandla! A revolution in four part harmony (DVD)
Slum dog Milionaire* (HBO)
21up South Africa (DVD)
The Kite Runner (HBO)
Repo! The Genetic Opera (Blueray)
The Princess and the Frog (theatre)
Little Mermaid III: Ariel's beginning (TV - Disney Channel of course)
Cinderella II (DVD)
Wild strawberries* (DVD)
Avatar* (in the theatre! In 3D)