Cleveland UnPlain Dealer

I just read that Don Rosenberg lost his
law suit filed against the Cleveland Orchestra
and the Cleveland Plain Dealer for conspiring
to fire him, simply because he told the truth
as he saw it.  I have a lot of sympathy for
Rosenberg, but if newspapers were expected
to stand up for the truth, what would happen
to the First Amendment?

Given the proximity of this suit's outcome
to Lebron James leaving Cleveland, Susan Goldberg
and the Cleveland Plain Dealer should expect their
names to be forever linked to Dan Gilbert and
the Cleveland Cavaliers, both institutions
finding their leadership to be quite awkward
in dealing with ungrateful employees working
in the public eye who won't meekly toe the line.  

(The most interesting discussion I have found of
the controversy is here:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/classicalmusic/2008/12/demoted_cleveland_critic_sues.html

Some of the comments add quite a bit to the discussion.)

As to judging Franz Welser-Most's significance in the classical
music world, I think a good indicator of his importance lies
in the fact that outside of Cleveland it's hard to find a
classical music fan who even knows how to spell his name,
much less who has a firm opinion of music making abilities. 
----              

Sports Fans

_                            _                               _

Going by the numbers, being a sports fan
makes no sense.  Only one team a year
wins a championship.  Every other team's
fans end up to some degree unsatisfied.

The further you go, the more painful the
loss.   The Black Hawks won the Stanley
Cup after 49 years of struggle, and it was
the Flyer's who felt like a team of destiny
whose fans suffered the most.

The amount of suffering sports affords its
fans is much greater than the joy.   So why
do we think sports spectatorship is worth it?

Desmond Morris believes that sports takes
care of our hunter - gathering instincts in
a society where we're cut off from the
primitive expression of these instincts. 

The jolts winning and losing give the fan
also seem related to the urge to gamble with
its uncertain rewards system, the excitement
of which for some becomes highly addictive. 

Sport fans become addicted too, but to the
excitement in other people's lives, not their
own winnings and losings. 
_                            _                               _

BAJALICA

_ ___  ____   ______     ________       

You'll notice a new link in the sidebar of my works,
though the work has been up a while actually.  

It's to a youtube entitled BAJALICA or "Healing Chant."

Natasha Bogojevich, a wonderful contemporary composer,
wanted to write a piece for various instruments (winds in
the case of this version, though not all) electronic drone
and video.  Natasha and I have collaborated on 4 pieces,
3 of which have been completed and the fourth to be
performed in the fall or winter.   I think she's a genius, but
at first I didn't know why she wanted visuals to add to
her incredibly powerful music.

After I was done though, I realized that my images were
an intensifier to her work.  For one thing, most people
don't have attention for new music anymore.  The
images help keep the mind still, so the ears can listen.
(It's somewhat analogous for my needing to write in
a coffee shop surrounded by noise and distractions.)

She had one important rule.  No images of people.
It was the exact right amount of direction I needed to
figure out how to set images which help other peoples
eyes really hear her music not only with their ears but
with their whole nervous system, electrified up and
down the spinal chord.

Bajalica  pt 1

BAJALICA  Pt 2

I shot this with a consumer grade still camera set on
video.  I knew I couldn't compete with great
cinematographers on professional equipment, so
I went the other day, focusing especially on
different forms of movement.

This video has been shown dozens of times
as part of live performance, including at the Maryenski
Theater, the most famous theater in Russia. 

;/'''

Grand Hotel, Mackinack Island

Tonight I had to put on a jacket and tie
to make a phone call.  My children were
sleeping in our hotel room, and the Grand
Hotel where we are staying has a policy
that you have to wear a jacket and tie to
hang around in the halls after 6:30.

(It's a funny hotel.  There's a sign that says
Your Room is Free if our Clerks Don't Smile
above the check in desk, and our clerk didn't
smile.  How do you collect on that?  "Excuse
me, but you didn't actually smile, can I stay
an extra night?"    There is also a big sign
which warns, No Tipping!  which may well
be the reason the clerks aren't smiling.)

Still when I got to the lobby to make my
call, the director with whom I'm collaborating
had to bag out for a sick child, and I spent
the time working on my short play,
The Youngest Detainee, about the youngest
detainee at Guantanomo Bay.

Walking back to my room, I passed photos of
John Kennedy and Harry Truman and other guests
of this hotel which has played an outside role in
history - given its remote location - and I wondered
if part of its lore would someday be that Hurt
McDermott worked on The Youngest Detainee in the
lobby.  If so, the little factoid will never compete
with the fact that Somewhere In Time was shot here.

My 2nd Shortest Story

________________                  ________________

Wisdom is hard to come by, my father always said,
which may be why he never found any.

From which, the lack thereof,
resulted all our heartbreak and suppressed tears.

Is this a story?  Does it conjure a world
 for you?  Cunningly made?

Does Ἀπόλλων Ever Give Διόνυσος or Διώνυσος His Due?

Ἀπόλλων & Διόνυσος or ΔιώνυσοςA

All right, I'll give you the Apollo/Dionysus dichotmy
if you'll admit it was Apollo who suffered more for love.

Still even we followers of Apollo must sometimes give
Dionysus his due.

Who Could Deny the Healing Power of This Reveling?


Start Wearing Purple

And who could resist the Wanderlust Kings? (sic 'em)

Ἀπόλλων & Διόνυσος or ΔιώνυσοςA

The Redoubtable Steve Key

I ran into one of my favorite actors, Steve Key,
in the streets of Chicago of all places.   He had
just come back from a national tour with
Steppenwolf in Tracy Letts's August: Osage
County, a play with a deceptively hard to
remember title. 

Steve has what I consider the trickiest role to cast in
BLACK MAIL, my most recent film.  He played
the cop who romances  a Presbyterian minister
who is in every way above his head.   She is
beautiful, better educated and has veneer of
sophistication he can not match; but in the
same way Benedict ends up with Beatrice in
Much Ado About Nothing he wins
her heart by knowing how to take his time. 

Beyond his acting talent, Steve is just a wonderful
guy, and it was such a joy to see an open seat
next to him on the bus.  Being an independent
filmmaker entails making films with about 1% of
your time - if you're successful, that is - you spend
about 10 times that trying to get a film up and a lot
of time writing.

It's a real gift to run into someone who thinks of
you primarily as a filmmaker!  It helps you get
through the 90% or so of your life you spend in
exile from the film community.  It puts a smile
on your face.
`_/