Vagabondism #65 "To eliminate pain is blessed. To overcome pain is noble. To live in pain every day without complaining is heroic."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
What Do You Think?
Don't be a blueprint. Be an original
Roy Acuff
******************
"Well, that's the way they did it in the movie."
Something I've never understood is why some actors and directors insist on producing a play to look like it was in the movie. Directors will search for an actor who looks like the actor in the film and it doesn't much matter how good he is as long as he looks the part, or the part as it was on the screen. And I've known actors who will go through elaborate make up and hair styling to resemble someone from a film.
I've played "A Christmas Carol" a number of times and often there was a fresh view of the story, but sometimes the director wanted to reproduce the film. How stupid! If I can deliver a reading of a line that is fresher, more interesting and more relevant than the fellow in the film why should I be forced to do it his way?
I lost an audition for Big Daddy in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" because I wasn't fat. Burl Ives, who played it in the film, was fat. But nowhere in the script does it call for Big Daddy to be fat. I went on to play him in another theatre and nobody minded that I wasn't fat.
I've also observed the same imitative trait in speech. I've gone into the first day of rehearsal and heard some actor trying to sound like Marlon Brando, or Al Pacino, or Rex Harrison.
Discoveries are not made through imitation. Once you choose to be like, look like or sound like someone else you put aside creativity and imagination, two of the greatest gifts a human being can carry into life.
I don't care if it's a performance of a play or a great piece of music, if it's a garden, a chocolate cake or a rock band. I don't want to see or hear what someone else did. I want to know what you think.
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up.)
***************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Roy Acuff
******************
"Well, that's the way they did it in the movie."
Something I've never understood is why some actors and directors insist on producing a play to look like it was in the movie. Directors will search for an actor who looks like the actor in the film and it doesn't much matter how good he is as long as he looks the part, or the part as it was on the screen. And I've known actors who will go through elaborate make up and hair styling to resemble someone from a film.
I've played "A Christmas Carol" a number of times and often there was a fresh view of the story, but sometimes the director wanted to reproduce the film. How stupid! If I can deliver a reading of a line that is fresher, more interesting and more relevant than the fellow in the film why should I be forced to do it his way?
I lost an audition for Big Daddy in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" because I wasn't fat. Burl Ives, who played it in the film, was fat. But nowhere in the script does it call for Big Daddy to be fat. I went on to play him in another theatre and nobody minded that I wasn't fat.
I've also observed the same imitative trait in speech. I've gone into the first day of rehearsal and heard some actor trying to sound like Marlon Brando, or Al Pacino, or Rex Harrison.
Discoveries are not made through imitation. Once you choose to be like, look like or sound like someone else you put aside creativity and imagination, two of the greatest gifts a human being can carry into life.
I don't care if it's a performance of a play or a great piece of music, if it's a garden, a chocolate cake or a rock band. I don't want to see or hear what someone else did. I want to know what you think.
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up.)
***************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Monday, June 6, 2011
Vagabondism 64
Vagabondism #64 "I would rather give up fear, anger and resentment than to run a hundred miles, but running a hundred miles is easier."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
On The Hellway
If you're going through hell...keep going.
Winston Churchill
*****************
Hello Coban Guatamala
**************************
This is a true story. It happened to me in November of 1960.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The driver pulled over to the side “Down there is the Highway. It'll take you west.”
“Thank you very much” I said and got out. I looked ahead and saw a ramp that led down to a highway. It took me almost half an hour to walk down to it. I hoped I wouldn't be stopped by any State Troopers as I stepped out on to the edge of the road. I held out my hand to a line of cars that was coming, but none stopped. I started walking. It was quite dark though only around mid afternoon. After about half an hour of walking, I was to face one of the worst episodes of my journey.
At first there were just minor flashes of light in the sky. Softly rumbling thunder followed. Then the rain came down in a sprinkle. I kept walking. I had no choice. I thought that with the rain someone might take pity on me and stop. False hope. Soon there was a full thunder and lightening storm. The rain grew to a major downpour. Great flashes of lightening streaked across the sky making a split second of day light showing me trees, fields and distant hills, but no buildings.. Rain water was flowing from the road into the side where I was walking. It was so heavy that even if someone had wanted to stop for me they probably couldn't see me soon enough. In the distance I could see the lightening touch down, followed almost instantly by a loud crack of thunder. I tried to stay calm but the lightening flashes were coming so frequently that I had a hard time keeping myself from crouching down on the road, covering my head and waiting. Every time a car passed I was splashed with water. And whenever a truck passed, which was often, it was like having a bucket of cold water thrown in my face. The lightening flashes were coming closer and more often. Still the trucks came and each one drenched me with a fierce bath. Then I saw ahead of me two lightening bolts smack down on the road, one after another, with sharp cannon shots of deafening thunder. Now I was frightened. I was so wet from the rain I could be an easy target for a lightening strike. I didn't know what to do, to stand still or keep moving. There was no shelter.
Back when we were crossing New York State Chuck stayed behind the trucks so that the air currents would help pull the motorcycle along and now these same currents were showering me with misery. I wondered if there was some sort of justice in it, some pay back. Even if so, or even if not so, I would have to bear it. One has to live with the circumstances of one’s choices. I was old enough and smart enough to know the truth of that, but it was no help. Every time I saw a truck coming I would just brace myself for the cold, wet crash against my body.
After several hours of this awful baptism I was soaking wet. Then there came a cold wind. It moved the lightening part of the storm to the other side of the highway but it was biting into my face. In one of the flashes of light I saw a bridge ahead. When I finally got there I stood under it hoping to dry off a little bit and get away from the wind. A few minutes later I was relieved to see a Cadillac pull over with a middle age couple in the front seat. But when I got in, the driver looked at him with a frown and said “Oh!”
The woman next to the man said “Oh dear. We thought you were our son. He’s on leave and promised to meet us under one of these bridges.”
“I’m sorry” I said and went to open the door.
“Well, wait” said the man, “we'll drive you to the next bridge. Maybe he’s there.”
It was several miles to the next bridge, but their son wasn't there either. The man stopped the car and I got out wishing them luck finding their son and thanking them for the ride. They drove on. I had dried off a bit in their car so I decided to keep walking and as I did I thought about that surreal experience of mistaken identity. Those people could have been my parents and I could have been their son in some other saga, in some other universe. The characters were interchangeable.
It was getting very late now. A few more trucks and I was just as wet as I had been before, but as night came the splashes were getting colder and the rain grew into a deluge. But I walked on. Everything was wet and cold from my head to my feet. Occasionally a car would honk as it passed me as if to say “Get out of the road, dummy.” But I got used to that insult. It was the trucks that were hard to bear, but I knew it wasn't the drivers’ fault.
I noticed the traffic letting up and getting sparse. It must be late, I thought. I came to another bridge and stood under it for a while. But I moved on when no one stopped for me. I hoped the couple with the Cadillac had found their son. I wanted to be their son, to be on leave, to be relieved, to be in a Cadillac with parents, to be taken home where it is warm and dry, to have something to eat, to sleep in a bed.
The heavy rain bashed at me as the trucks went by. I had walked many miles for many hours. I knew eventually I would find someplace, I was certain of that. It was just a matter of when, how much further and how long I would have to bear this misery.
Gradually, almost invisibly, lights began to emerge through the rain. As I walked on they grew brighter and I could see that they were not the lights of a street lamp or a house. As I got closer I could see it was a bar and restaurant. It was in a group of buildings on the other side of the highway. The bar was the only place open. I struggled across the highway as quickly as I could when there was no traffic coming. I opened the door of the bar and went inside. It was warm and dry.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
------------------------------
Never give up.
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Winston Churchill
*****************
Hello Coban Guatamala
**************************
This is a true story. It happened to me in November of 1960.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The driver pulled over to the side “Down there is the Highway. It'll take you west.”
“Thank you very much” I said and got out. I looked ahead and saw a ramp that led down to a highway. It took me almost half an hour to walk down to it. I hoped I wouldn't be stopped by any State Troopers as I stepped out on to the edge of the road. I held out my hand to a line of cars that was coming, but none stopped. I started walking. It was quite dark though only around mid afternoon. After about half an hour of walking, I was to face one of the worst episodes of my journey.
At first there were just minor flashes of light in the sky. Softly rumbling thunder followed. Then the rain came down in a sprinkle. I kept walking. I had no choice. I thought that with the rain someone might take pity on me and stop. False hope. Soon there was a full thunder and lightening storm. The rain grew to a major downpour. Great flashes of lightening streaked across the sky making a split second of day light showing me trees, fields and distant hills, but no buildings.. Rain water was flowing from the road into the side where I was walking. It was so heavy that even if someone had wanted to stop for me they probably couldn't see me soon enough. In the distance I could see the lightening touch down, followed almost instantly by a loud crack of thunder. I tried to stay calm but the lightening flashes were coming so frequently that I had a hard time keeping myself from crouching down on the road, covering my head and waiting. Every time a car passed I was splashed with water. And whenever a truck passed, which was often, it was like having a bucket of cold water thrown in my face. The lightening flashes were coming closer and more often. Still the trucks came and each one drenched me with a fierce bath. Then I saw ahead of me two lightening bolts smack down on the road, one after another, with sharp cannon shots of deafening thunder. Now I was frightened. I was so wet from the rain I could be an easy target for a lightening strike. I didn't know what to do, to stand still or keep moving. There was no shelter.
Back when we were crossing New York State Chuck stayed behind the trucks so that the air currents would help pull the motorcycle along and now these same currents were showering me with misery. I wondered if there was some sort of justice in it, some pay back. Even if so, or even if not so, I would have to bear it. One has to live with the circumstances of one’s choices. I was old enough and smart enough to know the truth of that, but it was no help. Every time I saw a truck coming I would just brace myself for the cold, wet crash against my body.
After several hours of this awful baptism I was soaking wet. Then there came a cold wind. It moved the lightening part of the storm to the other side of the highway but it was biting into my face. In one of the flashes of light I saw a bridge ahead. When I finally got there I stood under it hoping to dry off a little bit and get away from the wind. A few minutes later I was relieved to see a Cadillac pull over with a middle age couple in the front seat. But when I got in, the driver looked at him with a frown and said “Oh!”
The woman next to the man said “Oh dear. We thought you were our son. He’s on leave and promised to meet us under one of these bridges.”
“I’m sorry” I said and went to open the door.
“Well, wait” said the man, “we'll drive you to the next bridge. Maybe he’s there.”
It was several miles to the next bridge, but their son wasn't there either. The man stopped the car and I got out wishing them luck finding their son and thanking them for the ride. They drove on. I had dried off a bit in their car so I decided to keep walking and as I did I thought about that surreal experience of mistaken identity. Those people could have been my parents and I could have been their son in some other saga, in some other universe. The characters were interchangeable.
It was getting very late now. A few more trucks and I was just as wet as I had been before, but as night came the splashes were getting colder and the rain grew into a deluge. But I walked on. Everything was wet and cold from my head to my feet. Occasionally a car would honk as it passed me as if to say “Get out of the road, dummy.” But I got used to that insult. It was the trucks that were hard to bear, but I knew it wasn't the drivers’ fault.
I noticed the traffic letting up and getting sparse. It must be late, I thought. I came to another bridge and stood under it for a while. But I moved on when no one stopped for me. I hoped the couple with the Cadillac had found their son. I wanted to be their son, to be on leave, to be relieved, to be in a Cadillac with parents, to be taken home where it is warm and dry, to have something to eat, to sleep in a bed.
The heavy rain bashed at me as the trucks went by. I had walked many miles for many hours. I knew eventually I would find someplace, I was certain of that. It was just a matter of when, how much further and how long I would have to bear this misery.
Gradually, almost invisibly, lights began to emerge through the rain. As I walked on they grew brighter and I could see that they were not the lights of a street lamp or a house. As I got closer I could see it was a bar and restaurant. It was in a group of buildings on the other side of the highway. The bar was the only place open. I struggled across the highway as quickly as I could when there was no traffic coming. I opened the door of the bar and went inside. It was warm and dry.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
------------------------------
Never give up.
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Vagabondism 63
Vagabondism #63 "Down with the effete, anti-intellectual snobs! Up and onward to the common, blue collar thinkers of great ideas."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
R & R
There are many ways of going forward but only one way of standing still.
Franklin Roosevelt
******************
Hello Blackfoot Idaho
*************************
Built into almost every work schedule is at least one day off a week. In the theatre it's usually Monday and it's known as the Day of Rest. If the show is still in rehearsal there won't be much rest for the actors who will be still memorizing lines and peering into the script to find threads of action and volition for their characters.
In some areas time off is known as Rest and Recreation (R&R), also known as Rest and Relaxation, or Rehabilitation, or even Regeneration. But I have a different translation of those initials, it's Rest and , Rest and Recreation .
I don't know where the rest part comes if your recreation is playing golf or tennis, going to the beach, taking the kids to the amusement park or firing up the back yard barbecue and inviting the neighbors over, unless it's when you crash, exhausted from all the fun you had.
In my neighborhood, on the first nice day of Spring, the repair work begins. Lawns are being mowed, hedges trimmed, wood chopped, leaves blown around, roofs fixed, windows replaced, gutters cleaned and such. The neighbors are very busy getting the place fixed up so they can enjoy the nice weather. The problem is that the repair work goes on until the last of Autumn. There is no sitting in the back yard and enjoying the cool breeze and the gentle chirping of birds because someone is repairing something and making a racket doing it. Which is why I usually stay indoors during the day.
My house mate on the first floor, who works on a computer in an insurance agency, told me today that she has never known anyone who has as much computer trouble as I do. I spent most of Friday and Saturday morning tracking down all the places where my password is accepted because some pirate stole it and has caused me and others a lot of trouble. I think I've done it. Time will tell. But there are other things wrong that need fixing. Among them I get windows that pop up telling me I have to do things that make no sense and this is the second time I'm writing this entry because at least once a day it signs off with no warning, it did that and I lost everything I had written. More calls will have to be made to Verizon and AOL. I will spend a lot of time repairing the damage that has happened. It is much too often that in order to do the simple things I like to do here I have to clean up, fix and restore the very device that allows me to do those things.
So that's my day off. The Day of Repair.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Franklin Roosevelt
******************
Hello Blackfoot Idaho
*************************
Built into almost every work schedule is at least one day off a week. In the theatre it's usually Monday and it's known as the Day of Rest. If the show is still in rehearsal there won't be much rest for the actors who will be still memorizing lines and peering into the script to find threads of action and volition for their characters.
In some areas time off is known as Rest and Recreation (R&R), also known as Rest and Relaxation, or Rehabilitation, or even Regeneration. But I have a different translation of those initials, it's Rest and , Rest and Recreation .
I don't know where the rest part comes if your recreation is playing golf or tennis, going to the beach, taking the kids to the amusement park or firing up the back yard barbecue and inviting the neighbors over, unless it's when you crash, exhausted from all the fun you had.
In my neighborhood, on the first nice day of Spring, the repair work begins. Lawns are being mowed, hedges trimmed, wood chopped, leaves blown around, roofs fixed, windows replaced, gutters cleaned and such. The neighbors are very busy getting the place fixed up so they can enjoy the nice weather. The problem is that the repair work goes on until the last of Autumn. There is no sitting in the back yard and enjoying the cool breeze and the gentle chirping of birds because someone is repairing something and making a racket doing it. Which is why I usually stay indoors during the day.
My house mate on the first floor, who works on a computer in an insurance agency, told me today that she has never known anyone who has as much computer trouble as I do. I spent most of Friday and Saturday morning tracking down all the places where my password is accepted because some pirate stole it and has caused me and others a lot of trouble. I think I've done it. Time will tell. But there are other things wrong that need fixing. Among them I get windows that pop up telling me I have to do things that make no sense and this is the second time I'm writing this entry because at least once a day it signs off with no warning, it did that and I lost everything I had written. More calls will have to be made to Verizon and AOL. I will spend a lot of time repairing the damage that has happened. It is much too often that in order to do the simple things I like to do here I have to clean up, fix and restore the very device that allows me to do those things.
So that's my day off. The Day of Repair.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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