Mountains and getting started

Hello Bloggy Friends!

So it is the first day of this wonderful month and this internet thing of mine is obviously very much on my mind. I am currently in Banff, at the Banff Centre doing a programme called the "Playwrights Colony." The idea of living in a colony is both terrifying and very sweet, and the reality of it is neither, really. Well it is sweet if we're to take the 90s slang use of the word: Super Sweet. But it certainly feels as though I'm here to do something, even if I'm having a hard time getting around to the thing that it is I'm supposed to be doing. Writing a Play. There are plenty of other things to focus on in the meantime. I have been swimming in the pool once, done a yoga class (the fact that procrastination could actually push me towards a fitness regime, even such a half *ssed one is incredible) I've watched four movies, including Pretty Woman in French on television. (Une Jolie Femme. Which is much improved by replacing Julia Roberts' voice with an elegant french woman's.) I've been in a fellow playwrights reading, started strategically planning my meal plans to get the most out of the allotted amount of money we're given each day, spoken on skype several times with my partner in crime and crime fighting - AND, had a dream that this very blog was turned into a porn site, which horribly became much more popular than it currently is. (Which makes sense.)

Basically what I'm saying here is that I've been here for four days and I've accomplished a whole lot that isn't writing.

But this isn't to say that I'm not preparing to write. I think I may be. I think at this point I've had to accept that procrastinating is part of my process. And in this case it doesn't feel as much like procrastinating as it feels like - getting ready.

I've got two weeks left here and I've got to say that this is the kind of place that is obviously geared towards that moment when you drop everything and stop living so that you can be writing. Maybe that intimidates me a little. Okay, replace maybe for probably, and replace probably for "of course it does." BUT I also feel that there is an energy here that I need to pause, rest, stop to catch - like a radio frequency - I know it's here, I'm just trying to tune into it.

In the meanwhile I have (surprisingly) been spending less time on the internet than I usually do, even though it's always here, waiting for me in my room at the end of a long day. I've also been sleeping less than I'd expect. And My Gawd, I've actually been using my gym membership. I think that all of these facts can only foreshadow positive things. A kind of living for the present that brings writing into it somehow. Not unlike how things were in Greece - but much quieter, more introverted, and geared towards that.

I'm excited to start. I'll let you know when I do.

In the meantime, I just saw the Shop Around The Corner and it blew my little mind.

Little Things

So the blog has been real heavy on the work related chat lately, hasn't it? Allow me for a moment to pull back on that and just get into the little things - the things that make life worthwhile. (Doesn't BAC have a festival called "52 reasons for living?" Oh MAn. You promised NOT to chat about work.) Anyway here are a few things that made me happy this week.

1) When I saw two dogs wrestling by Columbia Road market. One was very very big and the other was very little. (Yes, they were wrestling. Not sexy wrestling. Just the regular kind. A group of people gathered to watch. They'll attest to it.)

2) When the boy I tutor wanted to take a five minute break to read me the short story he wrote in class. And the writing was good. Like really good.

3) When my friend Al and I drunkenly discussed breasts at 4am.

4) When my friend Nils and I went for curry and he said: "I bet they serve curry in heaven." Twice.

5) When my friend Daniel left a message on my voice mail in a very professional tone of voice, reminding me that he recently beat me at chess. I laughed out loud on the street and a man in a suit stared at me.

6) This:

7) Enthusiasm. In general. Zealousness. I just wanted to write the word Zealous. I know it was quite unnecessary after writing "enthusiasm", but have you ever typed out Zealous? Try it. It's awesome.

It's the little things that get you.

Safety Dance

Just so you know, on the well meaning advice of mr. Ed Rapley and Littlebulb, both who saw a rehearsal of the show last night and gave me some feedback - there is now...

A Dance.

There used to be this very Live Arty meets Bob Dylan sequence where I held up a series of Flashcards that described a dance, because, you know, it's way better to describe a dance than to actually see it. But the friends complained that this was too cliched, and so now I attempt to do what the flashcards describe.

I'll say no more. If you're coming you'll see it. If not, you can pretend you saw it by reading these flashcards:

To the song "Pictures" by Galaxie 500:

Sign: This isn’t the end of the show.

Sign: I just felt like you guys needed to see something a bit different in this part.

Sign: If I were a dancer I’d be doing a dance right now.

Sign: if you can pretend that I’m doing a dance right now I’d really appreciate it.

Sign: I only usually dance when I’m alone or really drunk.

Sign: First I’d be Doing some sort of physical gesture that seemed appropriate to the subject matter of the show.

Sign: I’d want it to be subtle though, so that you might even be like, is she really dancing?

Sign: Maybe I’m just imagining it?

Sign: Then I’d kind of do something bigger, only slightly bigger, but not as subtle as the first dance step.

Sign: So you’d know you definitely weren’t imagining it.

Sign: And now is when I’d really bring it full throttle and do something big and grand and beautiful.

Sign: So right now you’d be feeling really inspired and excited for me to keep going.

Sign: You might even be crying.

Sign: If you could pretend that’s what I’m doing right now I’d really appreciate it.

Sign: That was a dance interlude.

Sign: In case you were wondering what that was.


See? That's exactly what I will *actually* do. AND I'm gonna get drunk on stage right before I do it. Can't wait.