let's realistically look at this. as i write this a TV in the other room loudly relays the sound from washington of a cathedral tolling its bell 40 single times for the 40th president of the united states who died just a few days ago. this is the kind of symbolism i enjoy. it makes sense. stopping the mail today does not.
how do these two things relate? an old man has died, so people don't get their paychecks, social security, or welfare in the mail. of course, reagan didn't care too much about people who needed these things anyway. why should the country have to put it's business on hold so that a handful can say goodbye? when i die, i hope people still get their mail. and i hope the symbolism of people remembering me will not interfere with things that have nothing to do with it.
i understand postal workers are federal employees and if you give everyone the day off in washington, you have to give the day off to all federals, but come on. some federal employees are necessary to the daily function of the country. do you think the FBI took the day off? The Secret Service? Of course we all know the CIA has taken a lot of time off lately, LIKE THE LAST DECADE. and what about those federal employees in iraq. did they take the day off?
and now improv talk.
i'm in ohio right now doing a little tour of duty for the her majesty's comedy army. i taught a class wednesday and thursday nights to a group here in dayton called smartypants. i taught them in march as well and they appear to be moving along nicely.
something dawned on me during the thursday workshop. we were working on solo improvisation and i had brought my new banjo with me. back in the day when i would hold auditions, i would make auditioners play an instrument and improvise a song. most likely, they wouldn't know how to play the instrument and had never improvised singing before. doing a song all by yourself on an instrument you can't play is a hugely difficult task in front of a bunch of strangers. but what you learn about a performer is how committed they are to the work they're doing right then. if they show the, "man i suck" face, you know they lack confidence and the ability to sell their schtick.
last night in the workshop, i had them play the banjo and sing a song. the first guy that went was a guy who'd only been improvising for a few months. i could see he was nervous being alone on stage, so i made him go first. (what a jerk i am)
he fully committed to the song, sucked efficiently on the banjo, and was a terrible singer. but his committment to the act won us all over in the workshop. it was hilarious. everyone was dying, and i couldn't even tell you what the lyrics were he had improvised. i have no idea what the song was about. i just remember it was one of the funniest damn things i've seen in a while. as long as a person commits to their actions on stage, the quality of the work is less important. it was funny to watch him suck badly on the banjo, but truly funny that it didn't seem to bother him. in fact, he was so proud of the fact that he sucked, he wanted to go again after everyone else had gone. and he sucked again, and it was still funny. everyone who went sucked at it. but it was their conviction that made it great to watch. and i will say that one student had enough experience on stringed instruments that he could actually play a bit. in a way he was a bit handicapped. when he started playing everyone might have thought, "oh this guy can actually play, i bet he can sing and rhyme well, too." he set up some pretty high stakes for himself to conquer. but he did overcome that handicap because his lyrics were hilarious and he rhymed really well.
so something that dawned on me during their singing was to film different people across the country playing my banjo and trying to improvise songs. altogether it was a hugely funny thing to see, and if clips of their songs had been strung together on film, it would be hilarious, believe you me.
seeing gorbachev go through the rotunda and visit reagan's coffin was an interesting image. it made me think of two boxer's who have just spent 12 rounds beating the crap out of each other, trying to hurt the other person so bad they can't stand. but when it's all over they embrace. i bet after gorby left the rotunda and went to denny's with his buddies, they talked about how stupid it was that they stopped the mail and how pissed off he was because its one more agonizing day before he gets to hear the new beastie boys cd he ordered off of amazon.
STOP THE TERRORISTS. DON'T STOP THE MAIL.
b
