What's happenin...

A list of updates:

My draft for the Africa Trilogy is done! Starting rewrites soon.

Just finished a new play Man in Love. We start rehearsals here at school for a workshop production in December. Details coming soon.

Shows are closing on Broadway. Some of 'em have been around for awhile but others haven't. Any way the pen drops it doesn't look good, people.

Speaking of the bizness, I read a good article in the nytimes today that illuminates the battle over theatrical rights between theaters and playwrights. I'm learning about all this as it comes my way so it's good to hear opinions from other folks.

I renewed my site and domain for another year which usually ushers in my immediate need to upgrade the resources and tools I use to build and manage my site. (I'm deciding between building something using wordpress.org or indexhibit.org) I'm doing research and have come to discover it takes a lot of time to establish a decent, simple, clean static site. I don't really have that amount of time...and I don't have the funds to buy someone else's time to build it for me. (sigh) So, things may take a minute to shift on my site, but I"m working on it. You can always stop by here to get the deal on things.

Any bits of advice/guidance would help. (no iweb references, please)

A shout out...

The big finish of my 10-minute play on Monday night was mentioned on the New York Magazine website:

"The night afforded the opportunity to watch many an absurd situation: David Cross and Rosie Perez fake-fucking on a pile of stuffed animals..."

fake-fucking courtesy of yours truly... :)

After the whole SHA-BANG

Yes!

I'm on the other side of the 24 hour plays on Broadway.

I had a GREAT time and only really panicked once while writing my 10-minute ditty titled "Post-Modern Prayer." It was some time around 330a that I felt doomed, but a quick talk from fellow scribes got me back into it.

I had the pleasure of writing for David Cross, Rosie Perez, and Craig "muMs" Watson. They took my whacky thing and made it work. So a great big thank you to them. It was intimidating to write for such wonderful people, but I didn't really have enough time to let my nerves get the best of me. It was a sink or swim moment so I was backstroking like nobody's business.

The Urban Arts Partnership is a wonderful organization that gets arts into the schools. So, I'm glad I could donate my time to help them out. Great. Great.

P.S. David Cross is AWESOME.

Black Rugby

There's a really lovely nytimes video about the country's first all Black rugby high school teams coming out of Washington.



[Click the pic to watch it]

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson at 71 (1949)

"Manners and Behavior can take you where money can't take ya--no matter what color you are in America."

24-Hour Plays on B'way

Holy smokes, gang!

I'm gonna stay up all night on Sunday and write a 10 minute play!

It's going up Monday night on Broadway.

Bundy, Dancy, Nixon, Perez, Schreiber, Stiles, Wood, et al. Set for 24 Hour Plays

By: Brian Scott Lipton · Nov 14, 2008 · New York

The newest edition of The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway will take place at 8pm on Monday, November 17 at the American Airlines Theater. Proceeds will benefit Urban Arts Partnership, which uses the arts to educate under-served New York City schoolchildren.

Actors who are currently scheduled to take part in the one-night-only event include Aasif Mandvi, Elizabeth Berkley, David Cross, Hugh Dancy, Rachel Dratch, Michael Ealy, Mamie Gummer, Peter Hermann, Justin Long, Anthony Mackie, Julianna Marguiles, Diane Neal, Cynthia Nixon, Rosie Perez, Kim Raver, Horatio Sanz, Annabella Sciorra, Liev Schreiber, Brittany Snow, Julia Stiles, Maura Tierney, Alicia Witt, Jennifer Esposito, Sanaa Lathan, Mums, Pablo Schreiber, Matthew Settle, Ben Shenkman, and Elijah Wood.

Participating playwrights will be Christina Anderson, Ellen Maddow, Adam Bock, Terrence McNally, Beau Willimon, and Ben Karlin. Directors will include Jessica Bauman, Ari Edelson, Peter Ellenstein, Lynne Meadow, Thomas Kail, and Josie Rourke.

The evening's special musical guest will be Laura Bell Bundy with M. Ward.

For tickets and information, call 212-868-4444.

Rhymefest ft Michael Jackson - Mike the Mentor

Lyricist Rhymefest is Kanye West's roll dog way before the fame and fur coats.
He's great. This is from the Man in the Mirror mixtape he dropped in 2007(?). It's a Michael Jackson dedication album. It's funny, smart, and cool.



I heard this song "Mike the Mentor" the other day and fell in love with it. How great to hear Michael's fluffly lil voice next to Rhymefest's phat tongue:



[Click the pic to stream the whole mixtape...it's niiiiicccceee]

Common - Universal Mind Control

FIRE!

the coolest 14-year-old i know

Okay, I don't know David Alvarez, but he's cool.

He's one of the three teenager boys alternating the lead role of Billy Elliot in the Broadway musical.

He's Cuban-Canadian. Started taking ballet lessons when he was 8. Three years later got a scholarship to attend the American Ballet School. He speaks Spanish, French, and English. Plays piano. And he seems very sweet.

Apparently the theater hasn't announced which boy will play Elliot at each performance but I'd love to see Alvarez if at all possible.

[click the pic to read an interview]

Booming wrist

I posted about the turntable design. And here's an addition to the Flud wrist watch line:



[click le pic for more]

Mane stylin, profilin'

I feel bad for this horse. I can't imagine how long he had to let some nut braid his hair and put Rick James beads in it. The price of beauty, huh?

[click the pic for more]

Gold Finguh...

This is gawdy and fantastic! I can't find much reliable info about this 1981 Pentax camera, so I'm not sure what the story is behind this bit of magic. Just look at it.

The Pentax LX Special GOLD:

Pro-found

So just like a good chunk of the world I was ecstatic Tuesday night.
It was wonderful to be a part of such a profound, joyous, and inspiring moment in American history.

It also made me realize we, as a nation, haven't had one of those moments in a long long long while.

Let's get down to business.

Election '08

GO VOTE.

GO VOTE.

GO VOTE.

I did, and I cannot tell you how nervous I am about all this. I sat, disappointed, the last two elections, and I'm sick of it.

But I think this time will be different. I think. I hope.

It's time to celebrate who gets elected this year. It's time to be proud. It's time to be hopeful.

Here's to Obama!!!

My 2 cents

The big day is coming...

[click the pic for more info]