Not Doing Dishes

Good morning, Starshine. It is another rollicking Monday, isn’t it?

Don’t tell Ron but I still haven’t done the dishes. I did half of them. Before he left for Vancouver he’d pointed at them and said ‘Why can’t you give these dishes the repect that they’re entitled to?’

Not really.

He’d said, ‘I bet these dishes will stlil be here when I get back.’ And they are. Shhhhh… I did do most of them. But I seem to have this habit of doing things halfway sometime. I think it is a defeating mechanism. That’s why I can’t slice things up into tasks anymore – I’m doing my to-do list by milestone – by ‘state achieved’ instead of by task. If I task stuff out I think that gives me too much wiggle room.

Off from the gym yesterday. Back in the saddle this morning. Waiting for antihistamines and decongestants to kick in.

Kitty barfed last night. I’d given him some Friskies food and I think it might have made him a bit ill. He doesn’t eat soft food very often. Though he is really getting into his daily tuna juice. When I make my lunch of half-can of tuna in one bowl and half cup of cottage cheese in the other (not as nasty a lunch as you might think), I always drain the tuna juice into the food he’s already got in the bowl. He sucks it up like an anteater (or like Renee Zellwegger on Family Guy – did you see that? Or when they threw Meg out of the panic room and she screams ‘I hate you’ and Stewie says ‘They hate you too bitch – just kidding – can you imagine?’ Why do they hate Meg so much? It took me over a year before I realized that Mila Kunis was Jackie from that 70s show and not whatsherface redhead. I wish American Dad was on more frequently. The rerun last night where Stan creates a detention camp in the backyard and detains the neighborhood was funny and the final tableau echoing Lynnie England made my jaw drop.). So yeah, kitty like tuna juice. I know that’s a shocker.

David called yesterday. I didn’t get the directing gig for Handbag’s next show. They found someone that really knows the style and the camp genre so of course they went with them. In the past I’d be all bent out of shape about a ‘rejection’ but I know that it has nothing to do with me. It was just nice to talk directing for the first time in a long time. The play’s gonna be great. Cerda is a genius for doing the obvious ‘next step’ in his marketing and staging. Homage to Joan Crawford? Check. The Birds? Check. Baby Jane? Check. Carrie? Check. Poseidon Adventure? Check. He’s a great example of creating a ‘brand’ that an audience can see ‘Oh Hell in a Handbag productions. I know what kind of show I’m going to go see.’ I think that is one of the biggest things that artists don’t get – or at least I didn’t. Consumers want a predictable experience. You have to market to an emotional state. This fits in with that book I half-read, The Experience Economy. That it is no longer enough to be great – you must be memorable. This also fits in with the Dan Pink book and the Tofflers. That mass production and outsourcing means creativity is your competitive edge – one of the few things you can’t replicate quickly. Think of how playwrights title plays versus how marketers would rename the same plays. Glengarry Glen Ross evokes nothing of the play. But call it 8 Men Screaming Obscenities for 2 hours and there you go. I find as I mature I get more in tune with how important it is to be obvious at all times. People don’t have time for mystery – until they are actually reading the book, taking the class, watching the play.

A big theme lately in my life is What the Hell is the Future? I am trying to frame all these ingredients: creativity, technology, politics, marketing all into some kind of amalgam. I think I can say almagam right? That’s another way to say amalgamation I think I can say amalgam. Mixture? Tincture? Ooo wow. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the word tincture before.

I basically am serenading by colleagues with the usual whining and bitchery. I’ll start with ‘It’s too hard!’ and go to ‘I  haven’t gotten anywhere with anything.’ And then I really start to get needy. Then about an hour later it passes and I feel like a big baby for being so alarmist.

I’m trying to imagine what I want my day to look like. Who I want to be working for or with. I get up in the morning and have breakfast with the kids who then go to school. Come home and do several hours of fun exciting fulfilling work. Then I go pick up the kids and then we drive to the airport to pick up Ron from work. ‘Just a housewife. Nothing special. Nothing great. Like my mother. Busy-busy.’ (That’s from Working right? I always found that show boring. A musical about labor? Yeeek.)

I’m going to a marketing ‘retreat’ in a few weeks. Basically Suzanne’s inviting all her buddies out to a cabin on the lake in Essex and we’re going to hang out and see what happens. Ron’s not coming – I wish he would because I think he’d have fun with everbody – he’s great talking to anyone. And Maryam and I are committed to not Talking Shop too much. I find the less goal-centered I am the better. I just want to get to know these folks for future joint venture opportunities. I find it takes maybe 2-3 years for a first meeting to turn into a venture.

It has been very warm in Chicago this weekend. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m having a panic attack or if I’m overheated or if it’s because I’m walking too fast.

Got great feedback from Tara on book proposal #3. She basically rooted out my own disatisfactions with the proposal. It has a great hook but it is a bit controversial. It’s tough – everyone I talk to about this book their eyes light up and they say, ‘Oh my God, I love it!’ But, I haven’t been able to translate that into the proposal document itself. I’ll work on that this week and get it off to the agent for a look-see (looksy?).

Brief interlude from Stephen Sondheim’s company:

Robert. What? Bobby. Who? I worry. Huh? It’s such a – waste. Oh. There’s no one. Where? In in his life. Oh. Bobby ought to have a woman! Poor baby all alone, throw a hungry dog a bone it’s still a bone.

Do you think that the song Barcelona is this strange blackhole of talent song for Sondheim. It is like suddenly he forgot everything and made an incredibly boring, slow, plodding song? The song is very boring to play, boring to sing, boring to watch.

Hope to have an intern or two hired this week. I think I’ve got at least 3 ‘positions’. Learning coordinator, podcast producer and marketing coordinator.

BBC World Service reported (amidst the madness of the World Cup – can you imagine how much victory sex is going on right now – OMG) that the US took in more taxes than expected this year and that it is because of tax cuts. That trickle down economics seems to be working? I still don’t believe that. It always seemed like a red herring (Macguffin? Macgyver) that the rich politicians put the think tanks to work and oh – surprise! – they say that cutting taxes to the rich benefits everyone. When do we get that Reagan dollar?


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One response to “Not Doing Dishes”

  1. Maryam Webster Avatar

    Goodmorning Starshine! You used it! Ha! Still waiting for my Reagan-Rebate myself…

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