happy pride

Oo poetry!

So I was driving home from one of my interactive corporate mystery events in San Ramon when City Arts and Lectures popped on the radio with a live performance of poet Billy Collins, perfectly timed with my 45 minute drive home.

I thought his work was witty with beauty that sneaks up and shocks you when you least expect it. Crystal, cutting, completely uninflected and with great timing.

It was a pleasant drive home. Much better than BBC news or energy 92.7 (i think i need to take a few month break from Energy so they can refresh their stable with 5 or 6 new songs)


I really liked this poem about tension

George Carlin

A lot of what I learned about writing, performing and comedy had nothing to do with theater but instead came from a tidy collection of comedy records collected by my parents ranging from Jonathan Winters to Eddie Murphy. One very prominent member of this collection was George Carlin, whose albums FM&AM, Occupation Foole, Class Clown on Toldeo Window Box had a rather disturbingly high rotation in my childhood listenings, perhaps learning the 7 words you shouldn't say on Television a bit too early in my youth (thus all the clever cussing in my plays). I would often play records to get myself to sleep, enabling their power to penetrate even deeper into my subconscious, and Carlin was in steady rotation for my nighttime playing.

Carlin, throughout his career, was a master of language. It was his obsession. He loved to deconstruct everyday phrases and sayings and illuminate their ridiculosity. The seven words sketch is still pretty fucking hilarious today, and feels just as relevant as when it was recorded. (As he says, tits does not even belong on the list) As Carlin got older and more sober, his routines became angrier, but often still hilarious, but I still hold a preference for his hippie dippie mellow delivery of the old recordings which nicely contrasted the intensity of his language. He was always aware of the power of the words he used.

anyhoo, I think he had a huge influence on my sense of humor and approach to comedy, language, and how to keep an audience surprised and laughing.

Thanks, George!

Notable events of the weekend.

• The heat of Friday and Saturday
• Beers in Dolores Park
• Gabriel Fleming's movie, The Lost Coast, at Frameline
• Gabe's movie getting a laugh just by having shots of the outer sunset
• Swimming in a pool
• The gas-x commercial I just heard where the final line is "Your son Rip is on line toot."

don't believe me? Wolanske, did you write this?

6/23 Update - Looks like it got taken down by YouTube. I blame SAG

boom reading in Dallas, TX

Hey people in the DFW!

The fabulous Kitchen Dog Theater is presenting a reading of my play, boom in their New Works Festival tomorrow afternoon!

Go group, rock it out down there.

For those of you in the area, the theater is right here

Thoughts on Meerkat Manor

MTABF and I just watched the first episode of Season Four of Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. We have not watched the show before. But based on the season premiere, I have the following feeling about it:

That show is bullshit.

Basically they have a lot of footage of Meerkats running around and then Stockard Channing tells you how to interpret the said running around of the Meerkats. I, for one, did not believe any explanation Stockard Channing was giving me.

It's just a bunch of Meerkats running around!

microblogging personal thought

2008:Microblogging/Facebook Status updates ::
1986:recording new answering machine messages

did they solve the beading problem?

regretfully, it's a no. It's an improvement over the regular Charmin, but still a no. I dunno, maybe it's my technique.

do I tivo the tonys?

Film Suggestion Number Two -San Francisco and Beyond

A new movie by talented filmmaker, thinker, and basic cable cinema verite specialist Gabriel Fleming!

Coming to Frameline in SF June 20!!
Featuring cameos by George Nachtrieb and Mark Marino!


Get tickets for SF screening
View the film website.

The Blurb
Mark, Jasper and Lily are high school friends now in their early twenties. Mark is gay, living with Lily (his high school girlfriend), while Jasper is straight and soon to be married. A cynical and bitter trio barely connected by their past friendship, they reunite for the annual public Halloween celebration in San Francisco's Castro district. When the huge crowds of costumed revelers fail to entertain them, they begin a quest to find an elusive acquaintance who might provide them with some ecstasy.

This quest is interwoven with an abstracted remembrance of a high school camping trip the three friends took to the Lost Coast, a lush wilderness in northern California, during which Mark and Jasper were involved in a sexual relationship that Mark never got over, and Jasper never acknowledged.

Over the course of their evening in San Francisco the three are forced to confront this past, which has held them all in suspended animation. The Lost Coast explores the complexities of sexuality, repression, and isolation, with a quiet, measured style.

Film Suggestion Number One - Los Angeles and Online!

Hey folks, here are two special screenings of movies you should check out!

Number one:
My brother Ed's very poignant documentary about a group of Gulf War Veterans

All the Way Home
View The Trailer

The blurb:
Three years ago, Montana fishing outfitter Mike Geary was inspired by news reports to organize fly fishing trips for disabled veterans down one of the American West’s most isolated rivers. In this film, we meet a group of veterans that reflects the diversity of challenges facing our returning soldiers. Some, on leave from Walter Reed Hospital, bear the obvious physical wounds of war while others cope with hidden traumas that are invisible, yet dangerous. With a backdrop of the breathtaking landscape of the American West, they share personal stories of war and the resulting challenges for them and their families after their return home. At the same time, a team of volunteers works tirelessly to make the trip an unforgettably positive experience.

The strength of character on display by both the veterans and the volunteers who serve them is a triumph of the human spirit.


FROM THE NATIONAL VETERANS FOUNDATION:

Please join us for the benefit screening of Edward Nachtrieb's "All the
Way Home". This documentary is a one of a kind film that follows a
Montana fishing outfitter and his team of volunteers while they take
severely injured Iraq and Afghanistan Vets from Walter Reed down an
isolated river. It is an awesome and powerful film and we hope that you
will join us.

DATE: Tuesday June 24th 2008
TIME: 7:30 PM Screening with
Reception to follow
LOCATION: CAA


The proceeds from this screening will help us reach our goal of
expanding our call center hours to 24/7 from 12/7. Our "Lifeline" has
taken more than 275,000 calls, and needs to expand in order to support
the new wave of veterans - call volume is up more than 400% in less than
6 months. Also, we remain focused on increasing the reach of our
homeless outreach program ("Street Teams") outside the LA County area.

**New**
Seating is very limited.. If you want to come to the screening, drop me an email and I will try to get you hooked up. Otherwise, check out the website!

A product that is changing my life

That's right, The Emile Henry butter pot. This little ceramic beauty allows you to keep butter at room temperature.

YOU HEARD ME: R effin T!

You fill the chamber with butter and then invert it into a bowl filled with a 1/2 inch of water which seals the butter, keeps it fresh and oh so spreadable. I smush about 1/2 a block of Plurga butter in there and I have been spreading like a maniac. It's one of the best purchases/gifts my MTABF has ever bought/given.

speaking of which, i'm off to the gym now.

am i the only one who loves all of the nytimes' flash election stat graphics?

and finally a personal revelation about where I keep change and how that all of a sudden can become public knowledge

I went to the CoinStar machine the other day after a three year accumulation of spare, non-quarter change.

I actually delayed going to the machine for months due to the fact that I keep my spare change in a wooden box that is designed to look like a treasure chest.

Am I the only one who would feel self conscious bringing their change to the coin machine in a treasure-chest?

(apologies to facebook friends who already knew this happened due to my clever status update.)

(also, there was almost $180 of treasure!)

boom update - texas, DC, Seattle

(official Woolly Mammoth boom graphic)


So, we'll start with some self promotion first.


boom, my apocalyptic date play is showing its tender underarm skin in some magical pockets of the country (with another spot or two TBA). If you happen to be in these chunks of the world, you should be getting really excited:

(in the interest of comparing and contrasting marketing blurbs, I have posted the blurb each theater has used to describe my play, one of which I wrote. I'm not telling)


Dallas, Texas
One Night Staged Reading of boom at Kitchen Dog Theatre
Saturday, June 21 @1pm
directed by Christina Vela

A marine biologist hosts a journalism student in his subterranean biology lab for an erotic "casual encounter." As disaster looms upon the planet, the fate of their "date" takes on monumental importance. BOOM is an epic and intimate comedy of evolution, loneliness, and how to survive.

Washington, DC
boom at Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by John Vreeke
November 2 - November 30, 2008

“Sex to change the course of the world…” A grad student’s personal ad lures a randy journalism coed to his subterranean lab, where he studies fish sleep cycles for signs of the apocalypse. Will their “intensely significant coupling” lead to another big bang, or is mankind’s fate in the hands of someone watching from outside the fishbowl?


Seattle, WA
boom at Seattle Rep
directed by Jerry Manning
November 13 – December 14, 2008

A nerdy marine biologist calculates that the end of the world is near and posts an online personals ad, hoping to romance the girl that will help him ensure the survival of the species. But when push comes to shove, saving life on earth on the first date proves to be a bit of a challenge. Exciting new playwright Nachtrieb brings us this funny, slightly warped and ultimately hopeful look at the apocalypse.

ok its june

I feel revived and READY TO BLOG!!!!!

phew. May just was doing it for me in a sharing/blogging way. But now it's summer (sort of) and I'm ready to share!