…one of the advantages of no longer being young is that you’re expected to start making up your mind about certain things.
-My favorite critic, Terry Teachout, in his essay, I DON’T DO WAGNER. He’s continuing to put up some of his work that hasn’t been republished elsewhere on the blog.
More of the unexpected from Chicago strangers. Yesterday, I took a taxi home along Division, with my arms full of discount linens from the Roosevelt Target. I talked to the driver about the high cost of living, the low cost of the Midwest, and being a playwright. He suggested that I should, perhaps, look into driving a taxi. At the end of the ride, he told me I was giving him too big of a tip because “you don’t have a job,” and tried to give it back. It was nice, but I made him keep it.
I’ve gotta get my s*** together
‘Cause I can’t live like this forever
You know I’ve come too far
And I don’t want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales…
– Fountains of Wayne, BRIGHT FUTURE IN SALES
A: What do you want to drink?
B: I don’t know. This is my first time here. Something expensive and ridiculous. With coffee and sugar.
A: Do you like chocolate?
B: Yeah.
[A makes a drink.]
B: Oh, that’s cool. That looks really cool. What is it?
A: I get bored with doing regular rosettas – it’s one rosetta and then you twist it and from the side you do another rosetta and then there’s a heart, too.
B: (who needs new glasses) Omigod, there is a heart! I totally didn’t even see that. That’s awesome!
A: Thanks.
B: But I meant what’s the drink?
A: Oh. A mocha.
The fourth is the ultimate, by which I mean coolest, musical interval. Not the third, not the fifth. The fourth.
Ethel. And do you think you will never be able to paint as well as M. Delaroche?
Clive. No – never.
Ethel. And – and – you will never give up painting?
Clive. No – never. That would be like leaving your friend who was poor; or deserting your mistress because you were disappointed about her money. They do those things in the great world, Ethel.
Ethel (with a sigh). Yes.
– W. M. Thackeray, THE NEWCOMES
Chapter 47, in the heart of THE NEWCOMES, which “Contains two or three acts of a little comedy,” is almost entirely done like a play, in dialogue. It was my favorite portion of the entire book. The lovers have escaped from the watchful chaperones and from the author’s digressive narrative, for a very short time. And it was in this chapter, where Ethel asks Clive if he can’t leave art to do something more respectable, something at which he might actually excel, that Clive stands up for himself. He’s not a very good painter, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to quit painting, either. I respected him much more after that.
My roommate and I woke up this morning and discussed Sarah Palin for an hour. When I returned to the Internet, I found some context in an Alaskan perspective on Palin, from the Mudflats Alaska politics blog. (A fellow WordPresser.) The full post is very informative, and goes into a lot more details on the Wooten ethics scandal, among other things. Here’s a sample:
Before her meteoric rise to political success as governor, just two short years ago Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasilla. I had a good chuckle at MSN.com’s claim that she had been the mayor of “Wasilla City”. It is not a city. Just Wasilla. Wasilla is the heart of the Alaska “Bible belt” and Sarah was raised amongst the tribe that believes creationism should be taught in our public schools, homosexuality is a sin, and life begins at conception. She’s a gun-toting, hang ‘em high conservative. Remember…this is where her approval ratings come from. There is no doubt that McCain again is making a strategic choice to appeal to a particular demographic – fundamentalist right-wing gun-owning Christians. And Republican bloggers are already gushing about how she has ‘more executive experience’ than Obama does! Above is a picture of lovely downtown Wasilla, for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Behind the Mug-Shot Saloon (the first bar I visited when I moved to Alaska long ago) is a little strip mall. There are street signs in Wasilla with bullet holes in them. Wasilla has a population of about 5500 people, and 1979 occupied housing units. This is where your potential Vice President was two short years ago. Can you imagine her negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Discussing foreign policy? Understanding non-Alaskan issues?
…artists are gentlemen, though Ethel does not think so.
– Clive Newcome
W.M. Thackeray, THE NEWCOMES
Last night I went to the Montrose Saloon, which has been a Chicago venue for beer and music for over 100 years, to hear my roommate Angela’s old-time string band WABOLABR play. (I know what the name means, but then I’d have to kill you.)
I joined Janna, who’s just relocated to Chicago from SF, an actress and improvisor. We met through friends of friends at a reading at the Goodman. We ate chicken, rice, and beans from next door, drank Old Style (regrettable, but a necessary experiment) and talked about the unlikely, fortuitous journeys that have brought us here.
I am another version of her, or she is of me. She got into town a week before I did. We both have 415 area codes, professional links to TJT and the 16th Street Theater, and took extended Amtrak train trips along the way. And we both agreed that this city has all the resources, artistic generosity, and open spirit you could possibly ask for. Listening to ourselves and asking what would make us most happy and fulfilled, as artists and as people, is what has brought us to Illinois.
I knew it was a trend, coming here, but I didn’t realize how much of one it was. Janna’s profile as a person is very similar to mine, and we’ve taken many paths next to each other, and now we’re both here. This is exciting. It means the collaborators I’ve been looking for are looking for me, too. There have been times in my artistic career where I’ve been afraid of finding my doppelganger, thinking that she, whoever she is, is going to take “the spot” designated for me. That comes from a more competitive point of view. My doppelganger, today, would want to work with me, because that’s all I want to do. And if she’s out there, I hope she contacts me soon. The idea is really appealing. The pie of artistic collaboration is not limited to a certain number of slices. The more you eat, the more there is.
It was the first time I’ve really gone out just to enjoy myself in Chicago, and it was wonderful. The band’s voices echoed like Superballs. I walked Janna to the train station and we felt the windy chatter of the trees and air around us. The air moves so much here that you can’t walk down a street in silence, even when there are no people around – the trees are always, always talking.
I think what they might be saying now is, “Autumn is coming.”
Ere long, I had reason to congratulate myself on the course of wholesome discipline to which I had thus forced my feelings to submit: thanks to it, I was able to meet subsequent occurrences with a decent calm; which, had they found me unprepared, I should probably have been unequal to maintain, even externally.
– Charlotte Bronte, JANE EYRE
It doesn’t seem right to let the week go by without noting that Obama’s acceptance speech made me so proud to be a citizen of our country. I watched it with Robert from a Ravenswood television, eating Chicago pizza, and cheering. The next day, which was yesterday, I looked at everyone around me differently, on the train and on the streets. As if we were all agents of a collective force for change.
When I was in Vancouver in April, talking theater with another group of disgruntled artists, I was taken to task on the foreign policies of the Bush Administration, which is a little like taking candy from a baby. The only response I had to say was “I have a lot of hope for Obama.”
My Canadian theatrical interlocutor responded, “We all do, too,” which reminded me how many other nations have stakes in this election and in our politics.
That hope, which has grown as I’ve traveled around this country and heard people’s enthusiasm for him, and renewed sense of purpose, is now no more a dream. It’s a reality. We got him nominated, and now we can get him elected, and then we can get back to work. And not a moment too soon.
These words have been quoted everywhere words are quoted:
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America’s promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our “intellectual and moral strength.” Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can’t replace parents; that government can’t turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
And these:
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America.
The full text of his speech is here.
Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of Scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Dara Weinberg 