{06 March 2009}
for a really excellent primer on what the hell happened to our banking system, check out this week’s This American Life: Bad Bank. (podcast is available free, usually for a limited amount of time).
the upside is that it explains shit in a really clear simple manner. the downside is that it pretty much made me want to go get all my money and bury it in a jar in the back yard.
{25 February 2009}
About Face Theatre
Magic Theatre
Theatre Jeune Lune
American Music Theatre of San Jose
Seaside Music Theatre
Milwaukee Shakespeare
Shakespeare Santa Cruz
House Theatre
of course, there are many many more theatres than what i listed up there, those are just companies that are large enough to be nationally recognized or else local to my own vital theatre scene in chicago.
i’m just wondering how many times theatres in financial crisis are going to be able to post an appeal to the tune of “give us xx dollars by next tuesday or we’ll be forced to close our doors!” before the american public grows weary of these bailouts. or not weary, but just unwilling, unable, to give enough money. all of the theatres listed above tried that tactic in the past year, some met with success, some closed their doors for good. don’t get me wrong. i’m all about funding the arts. it’s my livelihood, for god’s sake. i’m pro-government, -foundation and -individual sponsorship. there is no functional model where theatre can be produced here in american funded on ticket sales alone*. but i am skeptical that going “holy crap! we can’t make payroll!” isn’t going to meet with the same criticism coming from a not-for-profit arts organization as it is from a major national bank. because my own question is the same, regardless of the company: how did you not see this coming?
the answer is that many arts organizations have limped along with large debts and poor financial management practices for a long time. and in years of The Good Economy, many of those theatres were able to get a free pass. credit was extended and extended again. individuals and foundations were generous without asking hard questions about the company’s bottom line. but the fact that arts organizations don’t function on a dollars earned/dollars spent model doesn’t mean that we are exempt from fiscal responsibility. it makes it about 100 MORE important. i look at companies who were skating along with $1,000,000 in debt that suddenly got their line of credit yoinked and say, “you MUST HAVE KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN SOMEDAY!” it drives me bonkers.
it sucks sucks sucks to have to program smaller projects, hire fewer actors, fewer artisans, to rely on lower-quality, cheaper labor, whatever. all of the companies i work for/with are doing that now and in their upcoming seasons. but you have to do the hard thing if you want the organization to survive. lop off the finger to save the hand (god that’s a gross analogy – why did i just bring gangrene into this?). i write this knowing that i’m going to have to face those hard decisions many many times in the coming year – when i take over my new theatre position in July, it’s knowing full well that i may have to make hard decisions about how much employment i can offer to talented professionals, how many resources i can make available to the creative team. i know full well that i’m taking a risk that i could be joining a company that could be a victim of the recession in a year (they tell me their books are solid but…you never know these things until you get there). but for all my bleeding heart liberal ways, i am as practical and proactive at heart as any one human being can be. what i can tell you is that, as much as i am able to control it, we won’t be deficit spending on my watch.
and while i’m not getting all sunshiny about the Great Depression that is bearing down on us, i truly do believe that working against those constraints forces artists to make better, more creative work. does a bolt of $500/yard silk REALLY help us tell the story?
* don’t get me wrong, plenty of small theatre companies function without significant sources of contributed income. but they don’t make it on ticket sales alone, either. they make up for it by not being able to pay their employees. what you can’t pay for in dollars, you can pay for in sweat equity. and this works, but only up to a point. there’s a limit with what you can do when your reason for getting up every day doesn’t pay the rent. there is finite amount of energy and time available to each of us.
{18 February 2009}
proof that winter will, in fact, end. perhaps the sudden thaw in Hyde Park was due to Obama’s visit to his hood this past weekend?
{30 January 2009}
the, er, definitive list.
to date, i have read 78 of them. attempted and failed two*, and quit one in protest.** and seen an additional 21 in film or stage adaptations.
i have some concern that if i settled down to read the remaining 922 books, during that time there’d be a 1000 other books written that i’d need to read, and i’d be right back where i started.
*gravity’s rainbow and satanic verses. in my defense, i was in college when i washed out on both of those books, and my brain was pretty full up before picking up Pynchon as bedtime reading.
**american gods, because, as unpopular as this will make me, i haaa-aaate neil gaiman.
{28 January 2009}
a friend’s gchat status message reads:
fantasy Jeopardy categories that will win me $157,000: Oscar Winners Since 1980, Indie Rock Band, Excel Functions, CTA Tips, Violet!, Punching Your Job in the Face, Potent Potables
okay, comment box. what are your seven fantasy Jeopardy categories?
my (evolving) list is:
stage blood (making, usage, cleaning up of, )
running physiology
recipes for macaroni and cheese
things my cat says (or, “my cat goes mrow”)
alice in wonderland
organizing things with excel
ways to procrastinate going to bed at a reasonable hour
{25 January 2009}
a motivational speaker at a conference i went to last year repeated the mantra, “if you want something, talk about it” to us about a dozen times.
so, goal: lose 10 lbs.
i figure getting it out into the hands of the internets might help keep me honest. because the only thing more embarrassing than blogging about my diet is probably having to blog about failing to diet. or so i figure. the goal is to get to my goal weight (130) before i leave for california june 15th, which is 20 weeks from now.
what are you too embarrassed to blog about, comment box?
{23 January 2009}
this just became my new favorite 10-minute meal:
Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing
1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar (optional, i prefer without)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (or more than 1 if you like some serious kick)
1 small garlic clove, finely choppedCook the quinoa according to package directions.
Stir in the green onions, black beans, and cilantro.
Puree the remaining ingredients together in a food processor; pour over
quinoa and stir to coat with dressing. Serve warm or at room
temperature.Makes 4 – 6 servings.
ps – oh yeah, it paired beautifully with some crusty bread and goat cheese
pps – buyer beware: this keeps in the fridge beautifully, but the chipotle sauce got spicier once it had time to sit and contemplate its navel overnight.
{17 January 2009}
those of us in the theatre industry rarely get those three-day weekend monday holiday things. if we’re lucky enough to get a day off at all, it’s usually on a monday, in which case the fact that banks and post offices are closed is just plain inconvenient.
which is why i’m stoked that my tech schedule is giving me sunday and possibly much of monday off this week. whoo! and then on tuesday i will be celebrating the day that everyone has been anxiously awaiting by attending a friend’s inauguration brunch, aptly titled, “Ditch Work For Your New President”. tuesday morning = pancakes + barak obama? yes, please.
in the mean time, obama has urged everyone to consider MLK Day to be a day of national service. so if you’re lucky enough to have the day off, please consider volunteering for a community event. there are services events like helping out in shelters and food pantries, and also a lot of drop-off events, so if you don’t have a lot of free time you can still help out by donating an old coat to a shelter or coat drive, give blood to a blood drive, food to a food drive (i’m starting to get a drive theme here…), etc.
so go on, thank your lucky stars for a three day weekend, and go find a service event in your hood.
{11 January 2009}
a little more photoblogging, then i’m done. i think (nearly*) all the handmade christmas gifts have been wrapped and shipped and received, so i can finally blog some finished objects here without spoiling anyone’s surprise.
napkin rings i made for my sister-in-law. they are knitted from very thin wire with beads worked into the wire fabric, then sewn into tubes and curled into the doughnut shape. the pattern, Venezia, came from knitty.com.
lace scarf i knitted for my grandmother. this pattern is also from knitty.com. although it’s a relatively easy lace pattern, as lace patterns go, it hasn’t changed my opinion that knitting lace is a hateful, hateful activity. lace is something that i only knit for very special gifts for very special people.
the muffler i knit for my brother’s girlfriend, Carrie. the pattern came from a user named “mintyfresh” on ravelry.com (i think you need an account in order to access it). i loved the idea of a muffler instead of a scarf, something that you can just loosen when you come inside instead of having to unwind, have it drag on the floor, etc. i used my favorite cotton yarn for this, made by Blue Sky. it’s super soft and organically grown.
sweater and hat set for my new niece, Geneva. its about a 9 mo old size, so it’ll be a while till she can wear it. i didn’t love the wiggly texture of the yarn i used, but the color is pleasingly bold. and it’s cotton, which i think is important for baby gifts – no itchy wool on sensitive baby’s skin!
muffler for my roommate, Anne. i cribbed the design from a scarf i saw at anthropologie, and made up the pattern myself. the design is nice, though i’m not happy with the yarn i used (Lion Brand thick n quick wool ease). it was too stiff. the more i knit the more i realize how concerned i am with the drape of the yarn. i think about drape when it comes to fabric, but i realize that knitting is simply the process of creating fabric, and the drape of the finished product depends on the drape of the materials you start with.
next up? i’m making this hat for my mother (she did request a colorful hat!), another belated christmas that i can’t write about here yet, and then maybe finally something for myself. of course, at the rate at which people i know are getting pregnant, i might just have to be a baby hat and bootie-knitting machine for the rest of time.
*well, come on, it wouldn’t be christmas without at least one gift being delivered in february.
{09 January 2009}
happy new year, internets!
it’s time for the catch-up post, photoblog style.
thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday. orphan thanksgiving, as hosted by the gracious Keenans is a wonderful, four-day turkey extravaganza, where guests and friends are welcome (and do) return for leftovers throughout the weekend. which is good, considering the quantity of food that we created this year. it included two turkeys (one smoked, one brined and then roasted), salads and green beans and Palmer Cheesy Beans (don’t ask) and i think three kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls, and of course booze of all kinds. my contribution is a vat of turkey gravy (why is the quasi-veggie in charge of making the meat sauce? i have no idea. but i’m good at it). oh, and don’t forget the Ice Cream Freezer and the Pie Triumvirate. i heart my chicago family.
in december, my roommate, anne, and threw our annual holiday party, Fondukkah! the party in which we celebrate all things christmas, hanukkah, swedish, and cheese. why those four? it’s the ideal recipe for the pan-cultural holiday party, something for everyone. we have a tree and gifts and cookies set out under the stockings (hung over the radiator with care) and the usual trappings of christmas, we have latkas and dreidels and hanukkah traditions, we make a swedish smorgasbord of glogg, meatballs, crepes with lingonberries, cured salmon, and, to top it all off, several pots of fondue. culturally, if not in practice, anne is jewish, i’m catholic, we’re both from swedish families, and in case none of that resonates for ya, everyone likes cheese. admittedly, this was not a party where a vegan could nosh with abandon.
in my gradual quest to become a competent baker*, i have recently moved from cookies and quick breads into the realm of pastries. on christmas eve i made my second attempt at making pie crust (and an apple pie) from scratch, and was pretty pleased with the results. the process took about three hours, at least three hours, but, really, what else does one want to do on christmas eve morning than watch the snow fall and bake an apple pie? i’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to a blemish-free appearance, but the crust was delicious, light, flaky, fully cooked on the bottom and not at all chewy or tough (these are all improvements over my previous attempt). the recipe (thanks cyn!) came from Cook’s Illustrated, and the secret ingredient is…vodka. for real. what’s up, food science?** aside from vodka, the key to pastries is to keep your fat (butter or crisco (shudder) or whathaveyou) COLD at all times. it needs to be chilled between every step, or the room temp and your warm palms will emulsify the grease and then you don’t get the desired flaky texture.
continuing on the theme of holiday sweets was our the modern art gingerbread house. the kit provided the pieces and instructions for making a gingerbread train, but how boring it is to just follow the directions. carrie, the art major in the family, deserves most of the design credit. i mostly just functioned as a backseat designer/peanut gallery. oh, the cat helped, too.
there was snow, and lots of it. and skiing! (though not nearly enough of that). but i got to finally break in my new birthday skis and boots. this is the first time i’ve had new gear since i was in high school, and the technology has definitely changed. up until last week i was still skiing on my pair of 185cm K2s, long skinny skis that were so cool when i bought them in, oh, 1994. while i’ve loved those skis and they’ve served me very well, i’m pretty happy to change my allegiance to my new nordicas. shaped skis, what a concept! the epiphany i had about shaped skis was realizing that half of what i need to do is simply get out of the way and let the skis do the work. if i just relax and stop working them so hard, they practically turn themselves. i can’t say that about the old K2s.
and finally, some gems from travel, including the ipod vending machine (las vegas has everything), the handmade-quilts and guns store, and the some other things you only see in idaho:
oh, yeah, i’m writing this on january 9 and our christmas tree? still up. still lit. i feel a little guilty about it, but it’s not still up out of pure laziness, but a combination of laziness and my continuing love for having a bright, shiny ornament in the living room. i’ve been taking special note of how many other apartments on my street have trees still glowing in their windows. apparently, i am not alone in my love for holiday decor lighting the dark days of january. it’s better than the store windows full of spring fashion, yo. it isn’t nice to taunt chicagoans with displays of sundresses and tank tops when there are 10″ of fresh snow on the ground and the lake is frozen over for the foreseeable future.
how were your holidays, comment box?
*actually, it’s really just that my favorite way to procrastinate is by baking.
**gluten, which forms when water and flour combine, can’t form in the presence of ethanol. so the point of using vodka is that you can have liquid that makes the dough pliable and workable, but it doesn’t count as water. clever, no?
