If you have built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Thoreau
***************
Hello Mark
***************
Every great achievement of the human being has begun with a dream, a magical day dream, an impossible dream, a castle in the air, a "pie in the sky." And along with the dream sometimes comes hope. The unfortunate thing is that often it stops with hope, with a big maybe, but with the depressing idea that whatever it is isn't possible, so forget it.
When all the blather, bluster, ideologies and idiocies have passed into history and basically forgotten, what will be known to be the really important description of the 20th Century? I think it will be space travel. In the last hundred years we have witnessed the emergence of aircraft as the most popular form of transportation for long trips in short periods of time. And the hundred years were topped off by space travel, men and women flying into outer space, and living there. The International Space Station - the castle in the sky, as Thoreau put it.
We have seen men walking on the moon. It was an impossible dream for many centuries. That is something, I think, should be considered and never forgotten about. How many millions of people. for thousands of years, have stared up at the moon and wondered what it would be like to be there. All of it was accomplished by those with the intelligence and imagination to build the foundations under it. Many said it was impossible for man to go to the moon. If we can walk on the moon we can walk on other planets. Anything is possible to the one who, like Don Quixote, puts his armor on, takes his spear, saddles up and chases after the star.
To dream the impossible dream ...
To fight the unbeatable foe ...
To bear with unbearable sorrow ...
To run where the brave dare not go ...
To right the unrightable wrong ...
To love pure and chaste from afar ...
To try when your arms are too weary ...
To reach the unreachable star ...
(Joe Darion)
There are hundreds of reasons why a thing can't be done. There is one good one for why it can, and that's the doing of it. Someone once said "Imagination is intelligence having fun." No matter how difficult and sorrowing it is, no matter how hostile the territory, no matter how long it takes, don't fold your dream up and tuck it into the bureau drawer. Leave it lying around, underfoot, in your way. And sooner or later your imagination will grab onto the right foundations to make it be. The impossible dream is yours, so is the unreachable star.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***************************
This invitation is still open for anyone and everyone to post an entry of their own on my journal, Vagabond Journeys http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/.
A new year is upon us and since it is a time for celebrations, remembrances, resolutions and plans for the future I think people have things to say.
Not to take away from the postings on your own journals, but to add to the joy of my own is why I invite you to write for me.
I want to read what your thoughts are about this magical time of the year. This invitation is open to everyone: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Agnostics, Atheists and the Uncertain or the Confused. Tell me your thoughts on any subject you wish.
There are no limits in regard to length. The only limitation is that, for reasons so far unexplained to me, my blog does not take photographs, animations, videos or pictures of any kind. I deal in words.
Please accept my invitation. Send your entry to my email address dbdacoba@aol.com I will copy and paste it into my journal and it will be displayed promptly. You may sign your name or not as you wish, and you may leave a link to your blog or your email or not, as you wish. I will do NO editing or censoring. Eloquence is not necessary, mind or heart or both is all.
I have 13 Guest Authors so far. Check them out.
All are welcome. Admission is free.
DB - The Vagabond
***************************
Showing posts with label Thoreau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thoreau. Show all posts
Monday, January 23, 2012
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Watch Your Back
It's as hard to see one's self as it is to look backwards without turning around.
Thoreau.
***************
I could name names, but I won't. There are and have been some well known people in show business whose professional personae are the opposite of what they are really like. There are performers you have seen and enjoyed who project a positive demeanor in their work, some have been comic actors, musical comedy heroes, friendly, kindly, likeable types who are gifted entertainers and whose gifts stop the minute they walk off stage or the camera shuts off.
Fortunately I have never had to work closely with any such skunks, but I have seen them in action and heard tales, some of which are too graphically sick for me to repeat here.
Here are a few ways such moral criminals work. An actor will do his best to make another actor mess up and then when they are backstage or when the camera is off blame the other guy for messing up. I knew an actor who refused to say his lines properly until opening night. He didn't gave a clean cue. We never knew what he was going to say. When on opening night he got his lines right, we weren't prepared for it, we hesitated, the timing was off and afterworld he criticized us for being unprepared. I knew an actress who jumped on people's lines and wouldn't let them finish and then criticize them for taking too much time. I've known actors who will stick their faces out from behind scenery to intrude on others and get a laugh.
You see this in films, on stage and on TV and radio. I once worked with a radio announcer who was a gifted broadcaster. But his gift as a human being stopped when the microphone went off. He was very clever and funny. But his humor consisted mainly in making fun of other people. It was very amusing as long ss you weren't the subject of his jokes. His meanness was more than a streak, it was the armor he wore and the skin that covered him.
We shared a studio. I worked in the morning and he in the afternoon. There was a stuffed rocking chair at the control board where we worked. One day I fell and hurt my back. It wasn't a serious injury but it was painful for me to sit in that chair. I found a straight back chair, put the other one aside and used it. It helped. I always put back the first chair for him before he came on. One day I forgot and he became so enraged he hid the straight backed chair in the garage. When I came to work early the next morning, I couldn't find it. The morning show was too busy for me to take the time to find it, so I had to do a days work in great discomfort.
Unfortunately his nasty humor wasn't confined to when the microphone was off. He would say anything about anybody over the air. One day I said to him "Watch your back" the people you talk about it don't like it, they will be resentful. His answer was "I don't care." So sure enough one day he insulted the wrong person and was fired instantly, taken right off the board while a record was playing and sent packing. The boss took over, The clever cracked pot announcer left town.
I may be an innocent soul, but I have never understood that kind of behavior. What gives a person the right to think that just because he is popular he can be reductive to those around him. How can a person be so successful at pleasing and influencing others and yet have no strength of character? What does that sort of misbehavior do fo the world? And what does it do to rob the person who does it of the best of themselves? What does the rest of the world see of us that we don't see? We can't see the trail of good or evil, seeds or garbage we leave behind us without turning around and looking. So turning around often is what we must do. For it's in turning around, watching our backs, seeing where we've come from, what we've done and the impression we have made on the world, that can help us to understand ourselves. It takes courage, something the bully lacks but the wise person welcomes..
As Robert Burns put it, "O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us."
DB ' The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Thoreau.
***************
I could name names, but I won't. There are and have been some well known people in show business whose professional personae are the opposite of what they are really like. There are performers you have seen and enjoyed who project a positive demeanor in their work, some have been comic actors, musical comedy heroes, friendly, kindly, likeable types who are gifted entertainers and whose gifts stop the minute they walk off stage or the camera shuts off.
Fortunately I have never had to work closely with any such skunks, but I have seen them in action and heard tales, some of which are too graphically sick for me to repeat here.
Here are a few ways such moral criminals work. An actor will do his best to make another actor mess up and then when they are backstage or when the camera is off blame the other guy for messing up. I knew an actor who refused to say his lines properly until opening night. He didn't gave a clean cue. We never knew what he was going to say. When on opening night he got his lines right, we weren't prepared for it, we hesitated, the timing was off and afterworld he criticized us for being unprepared. I knew an actress who jumped on people's lines and wouldn't let them finish and then criticize them for taking too much time. I've known actors who will stick their faces out from behind scenery to intrude on others and get a laugh.
You see this in films, on stage and on TV and radio. I once worked with a radio announcer who was a gifted broadcaster. But his gift as a human being stopped when the microphone went off. He was very clever and funny. But his humor consisted mainly in making fun of other people. It was very amusing as long ss you weren't the subject of his jokes. His meanness was more than a streak, it was the armor he wore and the skin that covered him.
We shared a studio. I worked in the morning and he in the afternoon. There was a stuffed rocking chair at the control board where we worked. One day I fell and hurt my back. It wasn't a serious injury but it was painful for me to sit in that chair. I found a straight back chair, put the other one aside and used it. It helped. I always put back the first chair for him before he came on. One day I forgot and he became so enraged he hid the straight backed chair in the garage. When I came to work early the next morning, I couldn't find it. The morning show was too busy for me to take the time to find it, so I had to do a days work in great discomfort.
Unfortunately his nasty humor wasn't confined to when the microphone was off. He would say anything about anybody over the air. One day I said to him "Watch your back" the people you talk about it don't like it, they will be resentful. His answer was "I don't care." So sure enough one day he insulted the wrong person and was fired instantly, taken right off the board while a record was playing and sent packing. The boss took over, The clever cracked pot announcer left town.
I may be an innocent soul, but I have never understood that kind of behavior. What gives a person the right to think that just because he is popular he can be reductive to those around him. How can a person be so successful at pleasing and influencing others and yet have no strength of character? What does that sort of misbehavior do fo the world? And what does it do to rob the person who does it of the best of themselves? What does the rest of the world see of us that we don't see? We can't see the trail of good or evil, seeds or garbage we leave behind us without turning around and looking. So turning around often is what we must do. For it's in turning around, watching our backs, seeing where we've come from, what we've done and the impression we have made on the world, that can help us to understand ourselves. It takes courage, something the bully lacks but the wise person welcomes..
As Robert Burns put it, "O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us."
DB ' The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tarnished Tapestries 8/07/09
How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.
Thoreau
**************
You're welcome here, rain or shine.
---------------------------
Happy are those artists who achieve success at an early age. As long as they keep going they know that their works will be bought. But why do we hear of someone who publishes his or her first novel at the age of 75 or 80? That's a good question.
Many years ago I got a phone call from a man I didn't know. He told me he had written a play and wondered if I would read it and give him my opinion. He told me it was about the assassination of a famous political leader in England. It sounded like a good drama so I agreed to read it. He had it delivered to my building and I started to read. I wasn't particularly tired but I feel asleep midway through the first act.
He had made a series of fundamental mistakes. First of all it began with a chorus of men rolling beer kegs into a pub. It was a musical. I thought maybe it was a comedy about death, so I read on. Then he struggled over writing British dialect. One should not try to write dialect unless one knows it thoroughly. Otherwise just say they are Englishmen and leave it up to the actors to do the right dialects. Then he brought into the pub the character of George Bernard Shaw. One shouldn't bring Shaw into a play unless one can write dialogue for him which is at least as clever as his own, The assassination was a foregone fact. There was no suspense, no distress, no danger. And finally, there was nothing of the writer in the play, no point of view, no character speaking for or against the author's own ideas. In fact, there were no ideas. It was a straight narrative of events. No doubt the author's history was correct, but it wasn't a play. I sent it back with my opinions and that was that. The play was never done.
When I was asked what kinds of roles I played as an actor, I answered that they were either autobiographical or wish fulfillment. In a certain sense those are both the same. They were autobiographical because I made them that. I always drew from my own life experiences, either lived or observed, to fill in the important areas of the role. The rest was invented.
Every work of art is autobiographical to one degree or another, That can't be helped. The good artist can never completely disassociate himself from the work. Nor should he try to. The reason that fellow's play didn't work is because there was nothing of himself in it.
I've had a few exhibits of my paintings and won a couple of awards. But I have never sold anything through an exhibit. No one is publishing my essays or stories. So why do I do it? I do it because I have to. It's like breathing or feeding myself. One good reason for older folks to write is wisdom. Wisdom doesn't necessarily come from intelligence, it may come from a life lived. My words are often torn from the obscure, inner pages of my being. I am not rich or famous but I have stood up to live 7 decades of a difficult, adventuresome, vagabond life and now I am sitting down to write about it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
______________________
Spend a day without worry.
****************************
Coin I put before the wrong deep, worm. (9)
Thoreau
**************
You're welcome here, rain or shine.
---------------------------
Happy are those artists who achieve success at an early age. As long as they keep going they know that their works will be bought. But why do we hear of someone who publishes his or her first novel at the age of 75 or 80? That's a good question.
Many years ago I got a phone call from a man I didn't know. He told me he had written a play and wondered if I would read it and give him my opinion. He told me it was about the assassination of a famous political leader in England. It sounded like a good drama so I agreed to read it. He had it delivered to my building and I started to read. I wasn't particularly tired but I feel asleep midway through the first act.
He had made a series of fundamental mistakes. First of all it began with a chorus of men rolling beer kegs into a pub. It was a musical. I thought maybe it was a comedy about death, so I read on. Then he struggled over writing British dialect. One should not try to write dialect unless one knows it thoroughly. Otherwise just say they are Englishmen and leave it up to the actors to do the right dialects. Then he brought into the pub the character of George Bernard Shaw. One shouldn't bring Shaw into a play unless one can write dialogue for him which is at least as clever as his own, The assassination was a foregone fact. There was no suspense, no distress, no danger. And finally, there was nothing of the writer in the play, no point of view, no character speaking for or against the author's own ideas. In fact, there were no ideas. It was a straight narrative of events. No doubt the author's history was correct, but it wasn't a play. I sent it back with my opinions and that was that. The play was never done.
When I was asked what kinds of roles I played as an actor, I answered that they were either autobiographical or wish fulfillment. In a certain sense those are both the same. They were autobiographical because I made them that. I always drew from my own life experiences, either lived or observed, to fill in the important areas of the role. The rest was invented.
Every work of art is autobiographical to one degree or another, That can't be helped. The good artist can never completely disassociate himself from the work. Nor should he try to. The reason that fellow's play didn't work is because there was nothing of himself in it.
I've had a few exhibits of my paintings and won a couple of awards. But I have never sold anything through an exhibit. No one is publishing my essays or stories. So why do I do it? I do it because I have to. It's like breathing or feeding myself. One good reason for older folks to write is wisdom. Wisdom doesn't necessarily come from intelligence, it may come from a life lived. My words are often torn from the obscure, inner pages of my being. I am not rich or famous but I have stood up to live 7 decades of a difficult, adventuresome, vagabond life and now I am sitting down to write about it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
______________________
Spend a day without worry.
****************************
Coin I put before the wrong deep, worm. (9)
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