For the one or two people who may actually see and read my little corner of the internet, give a hand in saying no to a proposed ordinance in Chicago. This proposed ordinance (scheduled for a vote tomorrow) will negatively affect small entertainment venues such as my beloved Factory Theater. Here are the cliffnotes (thanks to Allison Cain who forwarded the savechicagoculture.org post detailing the ordinance):
The “Event Promoters” ordinance requires any event promoter to have a license from the city of Chicago and liability insurance of $300,000, but that’s just the start:
“Event Promoter” must be licensed and will pay $500 - $2000 depending on expected audience size.
To get the license, applicant must be over 21, get fingerprinted, submit to a background check, and jump over several other hurdles.
This ordinance seems targeted towards smaller venues, since those with 500+ permanent seats are exempt.
Police must be notified at least 7 days in advance of event.
There are many problems with this ordinance, which can be viewed in full at Jim DeRogatis' blog on the Chicago Sun-Times website. I'm specifically drawn to section A of 4-157-020 License–When required–Exclusions: "No person shall engage in the business of event promoter without first having obtained an event promoter license under this chapter." Basically, it's creating additional overhead and fees for smaller venues that are already struggling financially while not subjecting larger, richer venues to the same fees. Essentially taxing the poor while protecting the rich. The liability insurance is a valid requirement, but it seems like a small shield of legitimacy to hide behind while sneaking in additional fees (such as an Event Promoter License) for venues that already bear large financial burdens. This ordinance is being presented as something to combat illegitimate underground promotions, but it will hurt many small venues that are legitimate entertainment businesses that already have liability insurance and PPA (Public Place of Amusement) licenses. The language of this ordinance is unclear and it sets a very negative precedence of adding additional fees to entertainment venues.
Here's the latest update from Jim DeRogatis: a Q&A with Alderman Eugene Schulter, chairman of the city licensing committee. His responses are very poor, in my opinion. Here's an example:
Q [DeRogatis]. I think that many people in the music community don’t understand why a promoter’s license is necessary if you’re dealing with a venue that is already PPA-licensed.
A [Alderman Schulter]. The problem, Jim, is that you don’t know who is handling that part of the business. Unfortunately, we’ve had incidents in the city where people have been murdered, people have been accosted, there have been fights, and what we’re trying to do, our goal is not to hurt anybody, but to really help the promoter as well as the person in charge of the venue. Because right now, the only person that really is responsible is the person that runs the venue. I think that this gives a different status to the promoters, and I think that is a good and healthy thing. The community that these events are held in should know who’s hosting these events.
It's pretty bad form to jump to scare tactics (fights, accosting, murder, etc.) to push an extra layer of fees and administration on any venue. The community, the city, and anyone who is interested can check the paperwork to find who handles the PPA license, and why does "the community" need a controlling interest in who is hosting entertainment events? Entertainment is not being forced on anyone, and how will more fees and overhead protect "the community" from these vague references to violence?
I still don't see a valid response to these added fees for smaller venues, I don't see the need for adding an "Event Promoter" and I still believe this will be an extremely harmful measure. So, to the two or three (at most) people who read this, please make yourself heard if you don't agree with this ordinance.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
1985 - A Good Year in Entertainment
1985 was a really long time ago. Doesn't feel like it. I remember watching a lot of good entertainment that year. Back to the Future was '85, of course. Remember that little "We Are the World" collaboration? I'm also pretty sure 1985 was the first time my family got a VCR. Just so I can feel nice and dated, here's what I was watching a lot of in 1985:
Ah, Anime in the '80s...(love the theme songs)
Ah, Anime in the '80s...(love the theme songs)
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Charlton Heston: No One Did Cheese Better
The one reason I was sad to hear about Charlton Heston's death was because now the man who delivered some of the cheesest movie lines with such engrossing conviction is now gone. Plus, it makes me feel old to know that another actor from so many classic films has died. Touch of Evil is one of my favorite movies, and even though Charlton Heston was completey out of place (you know what I mean if you've ever seen this movie), he was still a major part of that film. Mr. Heston's body of film work speaks for itself. Okay, there's more than one reason why I'm saddened by the death of Charlton Heston. I won't miss his NRA endorsements, but I was watching Planet of the Apes on the Friday before Heston died and I remember who protected Val Kilmer in Tombstone. I'm not interested in debating the political ins and outs of his life, and though I give him credit for never wavering from his stance, I find it strange that a guy who played so many roles portraying a struggle against an oppressive state would become such a staunch conservative after what conservatism has come to stand for politically in the past decade. What I am interested in is celebrating cheese, and Heston was a master. So, for my pleasure (and yours) and a tribute to some damn fine movie roles, here's a brief Charlton Heston soundboard from
Soylent Green
and, of course, from Planet of the Apes.
Bloody Baboon!
Insane, Walking Pestilence!
You Led Me on a Leash!
A Madhouse!
You Damn Dirty Ape!
And, of course, the crowning achievement: Damn You All to Hell!!!
To see a better list of Charlton Heston stuff, go to The Charlton Heston Online Shrine page where I got these sounds.
RIP, Taylor.
Soylent Green
and, of course, from Planet of the Apes.
Bloody Baboon!
Insane, Walking Pestilence!
You Led Me on a Leash!
A Madhouse!
You Damn Dirty Ape!
And, of course, the crowning achievement: Damn You All to Hell!!!
To see a better list of Charlton Heston stuff, go to The Charlton Heston Online Shrine page where I got these sounds.
RIP, Taylor.
Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis! ("Mi Casa") Continues. Part Six: Remember, New Perspective
Continuing a piece about my home town, it's odd military history, and my position within.
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
PART FOUR: Start Your Engines. The people start building the bomb (in more than one place).
PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test. The first detonation of an atomic bomb at Trinity, New Mexico.
GREETER
Flashback to July 24, 1945, eight days after the Trinity test. At the Potsdam Conference, President Truman decides to tell Stalin that America has the bomb. (PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN and JOSEF STALIN walk on stage and pantomime the scene that GREETER describes.) However, unsure of how the dictator will react, Truman decides to make the announcement by a casual aside comment, telling Stalin that the United States has a powerful new weapon. Reports vary as to the exact reaction of Stalin when Truman made the comment, but most agree that Stalin looked impassive and did not seem overly concerned with the announcement. (HARRY S. TRUMAN goes to the side and watches STALIN closely.) Russian reports state that Stalin did this on purpose to protect Russia’s own nuclear program.
(STALIN looks off-stage and whistles loudly. IGOR KURCHATOV appears quickly.)
STALIN
(Whispers to KURCHATOV) Better hurry up. Or you will be shot.
(KURCHATOV exits in a flash. STALIN follows him.)
GREETER
By 1949, the Russians had detonated their own atomic bomb. On September 23, 1949, President Truman made the announcement.
PRESIDENT TRUMAN
We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R. (Exits.)
GREETER
The Cold War was in full swing and the Arms Race was on. Los Alamos played a critical role in the Cold War as the National Laboratory continued to be weapons development center. The town remained highly guarded and secretive due to the dangerous work being done in the Lab and the possibility of Russian spies stealing nuclear secrets. And there we have it. (Addresses COLIN MILROY) Mr. Milroy, you’ve had a chance to hear about the history of Los Alamos and share your own thoughts. What about looking at the town from a social perspective?
COLIN MILROY
For the first few years after I moved away from Los Alamos, people would ask me jokingly if I glowed in the dark from radiation upon hearing I grew up in Los Alamos. It was surprising that I got this same question from every part of the country I lived or visited. The Lab dominated employment at Los Alamos ever since the town began. As a result, Los Alamos is filled with scientists: physicists, engineers, biologists, and on and on. My father was an exception as he worked at the only hospital and was the only urologist in town. When I was growing up, all of my friends’ fathers were scientists. Most of their mothers, like mine, were homemakers when we were children. Due to the highly classified nature of the Lab’s work during the 1970s and 1980s, work at the Lab couldn’t be discussed. There were many elements of Los Alamos that gave it a militaristic identity that I simply accepted because I had not really been exposed to any other kind of town. A machine gun guard tower still stands in one of the three entrances to the town. The machine guns and guards are no longer there, but the tower stands as a stark reminder of the “secret city’s” way of life in the early 1940s. There are several areas surrounding both Los Alamos and White Rock that are fenced off with barbed wire fences and signs that read, “Keep out. Explosives.” Certain areas of the town were mined and fenced off when the town was built in case of invasion from German or Japanese forces. A vivid memory I have of my early childhood was playing football in the backyard with my friend Bobby Colston. As we played, there was a muffled boom and the earth shook slightly under our feet. This had happened before, and we did not concern ourselves because we had learned that it was just another underground bomb test and our moms had told us not to worry.
(JAMESON, BLOCH, LUKÁCS, RODCHENKO, TROTSKY, BRECHT, and MARX all give an exasperated sigh and shake their heads. COLIN MILROY looks nervous and self-conscious, as usual.)
GREETER
We're actually not interested in the social aspects of your life. History is over. This is analysis. Remember, the point is new perspective.
COLIN MILROY
I learned new things I didn’t know before.
GREETER
There’s more to perspective than facts.
JAMESON
Perhaps we can be of assistance.
GREETER
Very well. Let the Marxist critics share their thoughts.
JAMESON
Historicize. Los Alamos arose from World War II, a very desperate time. Los Alamos helped create and produce the most powerful weapon in the world at the time. The atomic bomb not only gave the United States unconditional surrender from the Japanese, but the ability to dictate terms to the world or face the threat of nuclear annihilation. Therefore, the world and production could be molded entirely through U.S. interests. The United States could also command the world through entirely new means. Traditional warfare no longer applied. The United States had a weapon that no one had ever seen before. It was also the most efficient weapon ever made. With just one bomb, tens of thousands of lives could be ended instantly. Warfare and global politics were revolutionized and the Cold War became the new conflict between Russia and the United States with no direct confrontation of each other’s forces. It could be argued that Los Alamos helped create the modern world. But compare what was being done in Los Alamos with military and political conflicts of the past. Did Los Alamos really do anything new or was it just holding to a form? Los Alamos developed superior weaponry for the United States to defeat its foes in warfare. Now think historically about the wars between England and France in the Middle Ages. English archers used the longbow to kill thousands of French soldiers and cavalry from a distance that was not thought possible. England developed superior weapons to defeat the French. Think of what the barbarian hordes must have thought when they saw organized Roman legions with iron shields and blades. The Roman Empire dominated Europe for centuries not only through superior organization and tactics, but also through superior weaponry. So Los Alamos was only holding true to form in creating superior weaponry for its ruling forces. And what was the point to building superior weaponry? To destroy the enemy more efficiently. To force the submission of opposing forces. To broaden an empire and impose a particular brand of social and political thinking. Los Alamos also helped get other countries started in copying the form, as Russia raced to build its own atomic weaponry to match the United States. England, France, India, Pakistan, and other countries would soon follow. Everybody wanted a piece of the new weapon, and they wanted it as fast as possible.
GREETER
You don’t seem to have quite the vocabulary that Fredric Jameson does.
JAMESON
In case the audience actually needs to be reminded, they are watching a play and I am not Fredric Jameson. I’m just as actor.
BRECHT
You’re watching a play, you’re watching a play, you’re watching a play!
GREETER
Thank you, Mr. Brecht.
BLOCH
I, for one, am fully supportive of this form of expression. Instead of having facts and testimonies read to them, the audience gets to see actors tell true stories. Not only that, the actors get to put their own thoughts and emotions behind the words that others spoke before them. Feel free to express!
LUKÁCS
Keep it simple!
BRECHT
You’re reading a play, you’re reading a play, you’re reading a play!
GREETER
Thank you, Mr. Brecht. Now, Mr. Trotsky, would you like to share your thoughts?
TROTSKY
Well, I’ve seen this all before. It’s all very dramatic and fascinating, but we’re looking at lives of individuals, not of groups. While this all may be very fine, I’m afraid that there is too much self-promotion here. We’ve seen individual lives, heard individual stories, and this play is entirely about one individual.
COLIN MILROY
Sorry.
TROTSKY
(To COLIN MILROY) Well, I guess it’s to be expected. You are deeply rooted into Los Alamos as a town because you grew up there. You also have been part of a privileged class. Meaning varies depending on your perspective. You’ve come from an insider’s perspective. I think you knew your perspective before you sought out to criticize. The question now is how will this contribute to society and the future? Are you building a bridge to anything?
COLIN MILROY
I’m still figuring that out.
RODCHENKO
Well, at least this is a paper in the form of a play. I like the idea of manipulating the form to get a new perspective. Looking at something differently.
GREETER
That’s quite enough simpering for appreciation, Mr. Rodchenko. Thank you.
(BRECHT gets ready to shout again, GREETER cuts him off.) Yes, they know.
BRECHT
Just wanted to make sure. Is everybody thinking yet?
GREETER
And now, members of the audience, (a drum roll starts, GREETER speaks in a booming voice) the granddaddy of them all, Karl Marx!
TROTSKY
Couldn’t resist the individual theatricality, could you?
GREETER
We all have our weaknesses and our perspectives. Mr. Marx, please.
MARX
Oppression. Think of the social dynamics of Los Alamos during the construction of the atomic bomb and the social dynamics created by the rise of nuclear power. From a macro and micro perspective, the privileged were asserting their will over the underprivileged. There were social hierarchies built into the Lab itself. Los Alamos gave the United States the most privileged status as a superpower in the world. It did so through uprooting individuals from their surroundings and remaking their areas in northern and southern New Mexico into a place of scientific and military consumption. If anything, Los Alamos has served as one of history’s strongest means of promoting Capitalist thought through military might. Those with the greatest means continue to protect their means to the detriment of those who have less.
COLIN MILROY
Rats.
MARX
Sorry, dude. That’s how it is. By the way, I also appreciate theatricality.
COLIN MILROY
Thanks, man!
GREETER
I believe that Mr. Trotsky made a good point. Are we on a bridge to anything? What do we do now? We’ve seen how Los Alamos serves as a means of creating domination. Domination for the privileged over the underprivileged. Many other fabrics of American society advocate these same means. How do defend the underprivileged and achieve social balance? How do we stop domination from being an acceptable social action? Mr. Milroy, what do we do now?
COLIN MILROY
Members of the audience and readers… (Long pause.) Remember to think, analyze and make choices for yourselves. The play is over.
END OF PLAY
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
PART FOUR: Start Your Engines. The people start building the bomb (in more than one place).
PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test. The first detonation of an atomic bomb at Trinity, New Mexico.
GREETER
Flashback to July 24, 1945, eight days after the Trinity test. At the Potsdam Conference, President Truman decides to tell Stalin that America has the bomb. (PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN and JOSEF STALIN walk on stage and pantomime the scene that GREETER describes.) However, unsure of how the dictator will react, Truman decides to make the announcement by a casual aside comment, telling Stalin that the United States has a powerful new weapon. Reports vary as to the exact reaction of Stalin when Truman made the comment, but most agree that Stalin looked impassive and did not seem overly concerned with the announcement. (HARRY S. TRUMAN goes to the side and watches STALIN closely.) Russian reports state that Stalin did this on purpose to protect Russia’s own nuclear program.
(STALIN looks off-stage and whistles loudly. IGOR KURCHATOV appears quickly.)
STALIN
(Whispers to KURCHATOV) Better hurry up. Or you will be shot.
(KURCHATOV exits in a flash. STALIN follows him.)
GREETER
By 1949, the Russians had detonated their own atomic bomb. On September 23, 1949, President Truman made the announcement.
PRESIDENT TRUMAN
We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R. (Exits.)
GREETER
The Cold War was in full swing and the Arms Race was on. Los Alamos played a critical role in the Cold War as the National Laboratory continued to be weapons development center. The town remained highly guarded and secretive due to the dangerous work being done in the Lab and the possibility of Russian spies stealing nuclear secrets. And there we have it. (Addresses COLIN MILROY) Mr. Milroy, you’ve had a chance to hear about the history of Los Alamos and share your own thoughts. What about looking at the town from a social perspective?
COLIN MILROY
For the first few years after I moved away from Los Alamos, people would ask me jokingly if I glowed in the dark from radiation upon hearing I grew up in Los Alamos. It was surprising that I got this same question from every part of the country I lived or visited. The Lab dominated employment at Los Alamos ever since the town began. As a result, Los Alamos is filled with scientists: physicists, engineers, biologists, and on and on. My father was an exception as he worked at the only hospital and was the only urologist in town. When I was growing up, all of my friends’ fathers were scientists. Most of their mothers, like mine, were homemakers when we were children. Due to the highly classified nature of the Lab’s work during the 1970s and 1980s, work at the Lab couldn’t be discussed. There were many elements of Los Alamos that gave it a militaristic identity that I simply accepted because I had not really been exposed to any other kind of town. A machine gun guard tower still stands in one of the three entrances to the town. The machine guns and guards are no longer there, but the tower stands as a stark reminder of the “secret city’s” way of life in the early 1940s. There are several areas surrounding both Los Alamos and White Rock that are fenced off with barbed wire fences and signs that read, “Keep out. Explosives.” Certain areas of the town were mined and fenced off when the town was built in case of invasion from German or Japanese forces. A vivid memory I have of my early childhood was playing football in the backyard with my friend Bobby Colston. As we played, there was a muffled boom and the earth shook slightly under our feet. This had happened before, and we did not concern ourselves because we had learned that it was just another underground bomb test and our moms had told us not to worry.
(JAMESON, BLOCH, LUKÁCS, RODCHENKO, TROTSKY, BRECHT, and MARX all give an exasperated sigh and shake their heads. COLIN MILROY looks nervous and self-conscious, as usual.)
GREETER
We're actually not interested in the social aspects of your life. History is over. This is analysis. Remember, the point is new perspective.
COLIN MILROY
I learned new things I didn’t know before.
GREETER
There’s more to perspective than facts.
JAMESON
Perhaps we can be of assistance.
GREETER
Very well. Let the Marxist critics share their thoughts.
JAMESON
Historicize. Los Alamos arose from World War II, a very desperate time. Los Alamos helped create and produce the most powerful weapon in the world at the time. The atomic bomb not only gave the United States unconditional surrender from the Japanese, but the ability to dictate terms to the world or face the threat of nuclear annihilation. Therefore, the world and production could be molded entirely through U.S. interests. The United States could also command the world through entirely new means. Traditional warfare no longer applied. The United States had a weapon that no one had ever seen before. It was also the most efficient weapon ever made. With just one bomb, tens of thousands of lives could be ended instantly. Warfare and global politics were revolutionized and the Cold War became the new conflict between Russia and the United States with no direct confrontation of each other’s forces. It could be argued that Los Alamos helped create the modern world. But compare what was being done in Los Alamos with military and political conflicts of the past. Did Los Alamos really do anything new or was it just holding to a form? Los Alamos developed superior weaponry for the United States to defeat its foes in warfare. Now think historically about the wars between England and France in the Middle Ages. English archers used the longbow to kill thousands of French soldiers and cavalry from a distance that was not thought possible. England developed superior weapons to defeat the French. Think of what the barbarian hordes must have thought when they saw organized Roman legions with iron shields and blades. The Roman Empire dominated Europe for centuries not only through superior organization and tactics, but also through superior weaponry. So Los Alamos was only holding true to form in creating superior weaponry for its ruling forces. And what was the point to building superior weaponry? To destroy the enemy more efficiently. To force the submission of opposing forces. To broaden an empire and impose a particular brand of social and political thinking. Los Alamos also helped get other countries started in copying the form, as Russia raced to build its own atomic weaponry to match the United States. England, France, India, Pakistan, and other countries would soon follow. Everybody wanted a piece of the new weapon, and they wanted it as fast as possible.
GREETER
You don’t seem to have quite the vocabulary that Fredric Jameson does.
JAMESON
In case the audience actually needs to be reminded, they are watching a play and I am not Fredric Jameson. I’m just as actor.
BRECHT
You’re watching a play, you’re watching a play, you’re watching a play!
GREETER
Thank you, Mr. Brecht.
BLOCH
I, for one, am fully supportive of this form of expression. Instead of having facts and testimonies read to them, the audience gets to see actors tell true stories. Not only that, the actors get to put their own thoughts and emotions behind the words that others spoke before them. Feel free to express!
LUKÁCS
Keep it simple!
BRECHT
You’re reading a play, you’re reading a play, you’re reading a play!
GREETER
Thank you, Mr. Brecht. Now, Mr. Trotsky, would you like to share your thoughts?
TROTSKY
Well, I’ve seen this all before. It’s all very dramatic and fascinating, but we’re looking at lives of individuals, not of groups. While this all may be very fine, I’m afraid that there is too much self-promotion here. We’ve seen individual lives, heard individual stories, and this play is entirely about one individual.
COLIN MILROY
Sorry.
TROTSKY
(To COLIN MILROY) Well, I guess it’s to be expected. You are deeply rooted into Los Alamos as a town because you grew up there. You also have been part of a privileged class. Meaning varies depending on your perspective. You’ve come from an insider’s perspective. I think you knew your perspective before you sought out to criticize. The question now is how will this contribute to society and the future? Are you building a bridge to anything?
COLIN MILROY
I’m still figuring that out.
RODCHENKO
Well, at least this is a paper in the form of a play. I like the idea of manipulating the form to get a new perspective. Looking at something differently.
GREETER
That’s quite enough simpering for appreciation, Mr. Rodchenko. Thank you.
(BRECHT gets ready to shout again, GREETER cuts him off.) Yes, they know.
BRECHT
Just wanted to make sure. Is everybody thinking yet?
GREETER
And now, members of the audience, (a drum roll starts, GREETER speaks in a booming voice) the granddaddy of them all, Karl Marx!
TROTSKY
Couldn’t resist the individual theatricality, could you?
GREETER
We all have our weaknesses and our perspectives. Mr. Marx, please.
MARX
Oppression. Think of the social dynamics of Los Alamos during the construction of the atomic bomb and the social dynamics created by the rise of nuclear power. From a macro and micro perspective, the privileged were asserting their will over the underprivileged. There were social hierarchies built into the Lab itself. Los Alamos gave the United States the most privileged status as a superpower in the world. It did so through uprooting individuals from their surroundings and remaking their areas in northern and southern New Mexico into a place of scientific and military consumption. If anything, Los Alamos has served as one of history’s strongest means of promoting Capitalist thought through military might. Those with the greatest means continue to protect their means to the detriment of those who have less.
COLIN MILROY
Rats.
MARX
Sorry, dude. That’s how it is. By the way, I also appreciate theatricality.
COLIN MILROY
Thanks, man!
GREETER
I believe that Mr. Trotsky made a good point. Are we on a bridge to anything? What do we do now? We’ve seen how Los Alamos serves as a means of creating domination. Domination for the privileged over the underprivileged. Many other fabrics of American society advocate these same means. How do defend the underprivileged and achieve social balance? How do we stop domination from being an acceptable social action? Mr. Milroy, what do we do now?
COLIN MILROY
Members of the audience and readers… (Long pause.) Remember to think, analyze and make choices for yourselves. The play is over.
END OF PLAY
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
CERES. The Next Factory Theater Show (Good Press Already Coming In...)
Here's what the critics are saying about Ceres!
"...here's the rare anticorporate play that offers more than just the vantage point of the disgruntled, unappreciated workers on the bottom rung." **** (FOUR STARS) Time Out Chicago
"...high-octane energy..allows theatergoers to feel like privileged voyeurs in the lions' den of high-volatility investment brokers... leaves us with the message to question the beast even if it's lavishly feeding the cow." Centerstage Chicago
"...a solid cast...I was very impressed with several of the actors and the characters they brought to life." Steadstyle Chicago
Directed by: Angelina Martinez
Written by: Heather Tyler
Featuring: Rob Biesenbach, Gretchen Carter, Ruta James, Jen LaForte, Christopher Marcum, Alex Moore, Chelsea Paice, Missy Styles, & Chas Vrba
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm through Saturday April 26th
Tickets: $20.00
Factory Theater at the Prop Thtr 3502 N. Elston Ave.
Ordering Tickets: call 866.811.4111 or order online by clicking here.
Set against the backdrop of Chicago's Financial District and one broker's surreal subconscious, Ceres takes us into the lions' den of hot-shot investment insurance brokers, sneaking a glimpse into the dubious actions of clandestine Unit 57 and its Board of Directors. Inspired by the demise of one of our nation's oldest industries and those caught in the middle of a scandal that continues today, Ceres exposes moments of truth and volatility, camaraderie and outright betrayal, where the world of corporate governance permeates individual beliefs of what is ethical - and desirable - in business and in life.
I'm so proud of our little company. This is a show with a lot of fine work in writing, directing, production design, and acting. I love the distortions the play exposes in the business world and the story of one woman's struggles with identity while trying in that same cutthroat world. Don't take my word for it. Get your tickets & go see for yourself.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Baseball's "Opening" Day
The BoSox defeat the A's in ten innings. In Japan. That's cool & all, but I feel bad for anyone who had to start watching baseball early in the morning. It's also going to be a lot of jet lag for the teams involved. Yes, bringing the international flavor to baseball is all well and good, but I'm going to feel more excited when the season starts here in a few days. It can't be here soon enough, especially since we got four inches of snow in Chicago on the first day of Spring.
Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis! ("Mi Casa") Continues. Part Five: This Is More Than Just a Test
Continuing a piece about my home town, it's odd military history, and my position within.
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
PART FOUR: Start Your Engines. The people start building the bomb (in more than one place).
GREETER
Back in America, work proceeded on the atomic bomb. Los Alamos was a fortress city and the work was protected with the highest levels of secrecy. Uranium was processed and supplied from a Manhattan Engineer District laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There was only enough uranium to build three bombs. The first was finally tested at Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945 at 5:29.45 AM. The deadly force of atomic energy was finally on display, in more ways than one. The explosion turned the desert sand into green glass, blasted dust and smoke thousands of feet into the air. People as far as fifty miles from the detonation sight suddenly were bathed in light brighter than sunlight. Some called it, “the day the sun rose twice.”
(Some of the Witnesses to the Bomb appear. JOHN R. LUGO, DOLLY ONSRUD, ROWENA BACA, EVELYN FITE TUNE, WILLIAM WRYE and HELEN WRYE all enter and stand in a line on stage. As each individual speaks, their placard is held up by an actor on the side of the stage. When the individual exits, their placard is dropped.)
JOHN R. LUGO (Placard reads, “U.S. Navy Aviator flying transport plane at 10,000 feet going to West Coast at time of detonation.”)
I saw this tremendous explosion to the south of me, roughly 55 miles from my position. My first impression was, like, the sun coming up in the south. What a ball of fire! It was so bright it lit up the cockpit of the plane. I radioed Albuquerque and got no explanation but was told to not fly south. (Exit.)
DOLLY ONSRUD (Placard reads, “Rancher living roughly 20 miles from Trinity, ground zero of test-site.”)
I woke up, looked out my window and saw a mushroom cloud rising from the other side of the mountains, right where my cattle used to graze before the U.S. Army took over my land three years earlier. They just blew it up. I never got any land returned to me, and I never got compensated for giving up my ranch out of patriotic duty. (Exit.)
ROWENA BACA (Placard reads, “Grandfather José Miera owned the Owl Bar, 35 miles from Trinity site)
The Owl Bar was a popular hangout for the area’s scientists and soldiers. The night of the test, friendly MPs went to my grandfather’s house, woke him up, and told him to stand in the street out front because he was going to see something he had never seen before. The sky suddenly turned red. It illuminated the inside of the house I was in, reflecting red off the walls and ceiling. My grandmother shoved me and my cousin under a bed because she thought it was the end of the world. (Exit.)
EVELYN FITE TUNE (Placard reads, “Lives on ranch 24 miles from Trinity.”)
My husband and I were away in Nevada when the blast went off. No one knew what was going on out there, and of course none of us ever heard of Los Alamos or the atomic bomb. Finally, on the way back we went to a movie house in Denver and watched the newsreel. When they showed the hills around the blast area, my husband said, “Hell, that’s our ranch!” My friends and I visited the test site soon after. We found the hole, we picked up the glass, we climbed the twisted and melted parts of the tower. All those people grew up and married and had kids. Nobody that I know of ever turned up sterile. (Exit.)
WILLIAM WRYE (Placard reads, “Lives in house 20 miles northeast of Trinity.”)
My wife and I were returning from Amarillo the night before the explosion. We got to Bingham and there were eight or ten vehicles and all kinds of lights shining up on the clouds. We were stopped by an MP and a flashing red light. After we told them who we were, they let us go on to the ranch. We were so tired we must have slept right through the blast. Next morning, we were eating breakfast when we saw a couple of soldiers with a little black box out by the stock tank. I went out there and asked what they were doing, and they said they were looking for radioactivity. Well, we had no idea what radioactivity was back then. I told them we didn’t even have the radio on. For four or five days after that, a white substance like flour settled on everything. It got on the posts of the corral and you couldn’t see it real well in the daylight, but at night it would glow. Before long, my whiskers stopped growing. Three or four months later, they came back, but they were white, then later, black. The cattle in the area grew white hair along the side that had been exposed to the blast and half the coat on my black cat turned white. (Exit.)
HELEN WRYE (Placard reads, “Lives in house 20 miles northeast of Trinity.”)
People weren’t afraid of the government then. It was a time of innocence. People were trusting. We had never heard of an atomic bomb. (Exit.)
GREETER
People directly involved with the project also have thoughts to share.
(BERLYN BRIXNER and RAEMER SCHREIBER enter.)
BERLYN BRIXNER (Placard reads, “Chief Photographer of Trinity test.”)
I was to shoot 16-millimeter black-and-white movies from every angle and distance and at every speed. There were bunkers at 10,000 meters or 6.2 miles north, east, south and west from the site. I was stationed at the bunker north of
the test site. I was one of the few people given permission to look directly at the bomb at the time. I had calculated for a ten-sun brightness like the theoretical people told me. When the bomb went off, the whole filter seemed to light up as bright as the sun. I was temporarily blinded. I looked to the side. The Oscura Mountains were as bright as day. I saw this tremendous ball of fire, and it was rising. I was just spellbound! I followed it as it rose. Then it dawned on me. I’m the photographer! I’ve gotta get that ball of fire. There was no sound. It all took place in absolute silence. (Exit.)
GREETER
The bomb proved amazingly effective at destruction. The effects of radiation would soon become known not only to people like William Wrye, but to a much fuller extent for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If we flash forward in time for a brief moment, we can hear another inside perspective. This on the effects of radiation for a later bomb test.
RAEMER SCHREIBER (Placard reads, “Head of Core Assembly team for Operation Crossroads in May 1946.”)
Operation Crossroads was a postwar Navy show that destroyed a fleet of surplus warships by two atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In May, the cores of the bombs for Operation Crossroads were being checked out in a Los Alamos testing lab. Ted Perlman and I were taking readings from the initiators at one side of the room, and Louis Slotin, who assembled the core of the Trinity bomb, was seated at a table twenty feet away with a plutonium assembly. All of a sudden, there was this flash and a clatter and Louis says, “Well, that does it.” He probably knew that he was a dead man. The core sat among a nested set of spheres of beryllium, a neutron reflector. What he did was to lower one of the hemispheres of beryllium over the core sitting in the bottom half and hold it open with a screwdriver. The idea was to lower it down to where there was just a small gap and, if it gets critical, then you could just stop it at that point. You could waggle the screwdriver and make it multiply or quit. But the screwdriver slipped. The thing dropped completely closed, and that made it super critical, prompt critical. It was stopped by the expansion of the core and beryllium, but it was enough to put out a lethal shot of radioactivity. Slotin opened the assembly with his bare hands. It stopped it from sitting there and cooking, which would have been a pretty sad mess. So it got Louis, and it didn’t do Al Graves any good. He was a little farther away. All that happened to him was that he lost his hair. We all got the hell out of there. We went back up around the corner in back of the shielding wall and Slotin and Graves proceeded to write down the events, to make a record of it. Slotin began to get nauseated and a little crazy. We were all taken to the hospital. We were all OK except Slotin, who died in agony nine days later. (Exit.)
END OF PART FIVE. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
PART FOUR: Start Your Engines. The people start building the bomb (in more than one place).
GREETER
Back in America, work proceeded on the atomic bomb. Los Alamos was a fortress city and the work was protected with the highest levels of secrecy. Uranium was processed and supplied from a Manhattan Engineer District laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There was only enough uranium to build three bombs. The first was finally tested at Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945 at 5:29.45 AM. The deadly force of atomic energy was finally on display, in more ways than one. The explosion turned the desert sand into green glass, blasted dust and smoke thousands of feet into the air. People as far as fifty miles from the detonation sight suddenly were bathed in light brighter than sunlight. Some called it, “the day the sun rose twice.”
(Some of the Witnesses to the Bomb appear. JOHN R. LUGO, DOLLY ONSRUD, ROWENA BACA, EVELYN FITE TUNE, WILLIAM WRYE and HELEN WRYE all enter and stand in a line on stage. As each individual speaks, their placard is held up by an actor on the side of the stage. When the individual exits, their placard is dropped.)
JOHN R. LUGO (Placard reads, “U.S. Navy Aviator flying transport plane at 10,000 feet going to West Coast at time of detonation.”)
I saw this tremendous explosion to the south of me, roughly 55 miles from my position. My first impression was, like, the sun coming up in the south. What a ball of fire! It was so bright it lit up the cockpit of the plane. I radioed Albuquerque and got no explanation but was told to not fly south. (Exit.)
DOLLY ONSRUD (Placard reads, “Rancher living roughly 20 miles from Trinity, ground zero of test-site.”)
I woke up, looked out my window and saw a mushroom cloud rising from the other side of the mountains, right where my cattle used to graze before the U.S. Army took over my land three years earlier. They just blew it up. I never got any land returned to me, and I never got compensated for giving up my ranch out of patriotic duty. (Exit.)
ROWENA BACA (Placard reads, “Grandfather José Miera owned the Owl Bar, 35 miles from Trinity site)
The Owl Bar was a popular hangout for the area’s scientists and soldiers. The night of the test, friendly MPs went to my grandfather’s house, woke him up, and told him to stand in the street out front because he was going to see something he had never seen before. The sky suddenly turned red. It illuminated the inside of the house I was in, reflecting red off the walls and ceiling. My grandmother shoved me and my cousin under a bed because she thought it was the end of the world. (Exit.)
EVELYN FITE TUNE (Placard reads, “Lives on ranch 24 miles from Trinity.”)
My husband and I were away in Nevada when the blast went off. No one knew what was going on out there, and of course none of us ever heard of Los Alamos or the atomic bomb. Finally, on the way back we went to a movie house in Denver and watched the newsreel. When they showed the hills around the blast area, my husband said, “Hell, that’s our ranch!” My friends and I visited the test site soon after. We found the hole, we picked up the glass, we climbed the twisted and melted parts of the tower. All those people grew up and married and had kids. Nobody that I know of ever turned up sterile. (Exit.)
WILLIAM WRYE (Placard reads, “Lives in house 20 miles northeast of Trinity.”)
My wife and I were returning from Amarillo the night before the explosion. We got to Bingham and there were eight or ten vehicles and all kinds of lights shining up on the clouds. We were stopped by an MP and a flashing red light. After we told them who we were, they let us go on to the ranch. We were so tired we must have slept right through the blast. Next morning, we were eating breakfast when we saw a couple of soldiers with a little black box out by the stock tank. I went out there and asked what they were doing, and they said they were looking for radioactivity. Well, we had no idea what radioactivity was back then. I told them we didn’t even have the radio on. For four or five days after that, a white substance like flour settled on everything. It got on the posts of the corral and you couldn’t see it real well in the daylight, but at night it would glow. Before long, my whiskers stopped growing. Three or four months later, they came back, but they were white, then later, black. The cattle in the area grew white hair along the side that had been exposed to the blast and half the coat on my black cat turned white. (Exit.)
HELEN WRYE (Placard reads, “Lives in house 20 miles northeast of Trinity.”)
People weren’t afraid of the government then. It was a time of innocence. People were trusting. We had never heard of an atomic bomb. (Exit.)
GREETER
People directly involved with the project also have thoughts to share.
(BERLYN BRIXNER and RAEMER SCHREIBER enter.)
BERLYN BRIXNER (Placard reads, “Chief Photographer of Trinity test.”)
I was to shoot 16-millimeter black-and-white movies from every angle and distance and at every speed. There were bunkers at 10,000 meters or 6.2 miles north, east, south and west from the site. I was stationed at the bunker north of
the test site. I was one of the few people given permission to look directly at the bomb at the time. I had calculated for a ten-sun brightness like the theoretical people told me. When the bomb went off, the whole filter seemed to light up as bright as the sun. I was temporarily blinded. I looked to the side. The Oscura Mountains were as bright as day. I saw this tremendous ball of fire, and it was rising. I was just spellbound! I followed it as it rose. Then it dawned on me. I’m the photographer! I’ve gotta get that ball of fire. There was no sound. It all took place in absolute silence. (Exit.)
GREETER
The bomb proved amazingly effective at destruction. The effects of radiation would soon become known not only to people like William Wrye, but to a much fuller extent for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If we flash forward in time for a brief moment, we can hear another inside perspective. This on the effects of radiation for a later bomb test.
RAEMER SCHREIBER (Placard reads, “Head of Core Assembly team for Operation Crossroads in May 1946.”)
Operation Crossroads was a postwar Navy show that destroyed a fleet of surplus warships by two atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In May, the cores of the bombs for Operation Crossroads were being checked out in a Los Alamos testing lab. Ted Perlman and I were taking readings from the initiators at one side of the room, and Louis Slotin, who assembled the core of the Trinity bomb, was seated at a table twenty feet away with a plutonium assembly. All of a sudden, there was this flash and a clatter and Louis says, “Well, that does it.” He probably knew that he was a dead man. The core sat among a nested set of spheres of beryllium, a neutron reflector. What he did was to lower one of the hemispheres of beryllium over the core sitting in the bottom half and hold it open with a screwdriver. The idea was to lower it down to where there was just a small gap and, if it gets critical, then you could just stop it at that point. You could waggle the screwdriver and make it multiply or quit. But the screwdriver slipped. The thing dropped completely closed, and that made it super critical, prompt critical. It was stopped by the expansion of the core and beryllium, but it was enough to put out a lethal shot of radioactivity. Slotin opened the assembly with his bare hands. It stopped it from sitting there and cooking, which would have been a pretty sad mess. So it got Louis, and it didn’t do Al Graves any good. He was a little farther away. All that happened to him was that he lost his hair. We all got the hell out of there. We went back up around the corner in back of the shielding wall and Slotin and Graves proceeded to write down the events, to make a record of it. Slotin began to get nauseated and a little crazy. We were all taken to the hospital. We were all OK except Slotin, who died in agony nine days later. (Exit.)
END OF PART FIVE. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Returning to My Roots While Writing About My History
Forgive the long, extended posts of the Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis. Once everything's up, I'll create better organization on the sidebar.
I'm returning to New Mexico this weekend for a visit. It's been over two years since I've been to my home state. I don't know if Los Alamos will be on the agenda since my family now lives in Santa Fe and the driving distance between towns in New Mexico is at least 45 minutes. New Mexico is a BIG state, where it's 45 minutes between every town, and it'll take a full eight hours to go from one end of the state to the other. Yet, New Mexico has as many people in the entire state as the population of Chicago. This is a hard reality for people from the east and midwest US to grasp.
It's also a strange difference to go from a place like Chicago where there is an large fresh water source right by the city to New Mexico, where there is no water. My family has to buy their water if their well doesn't get enough run-off from snowfall or the sparse rainfall. No leaving the sinks or showers running to wait for hot water, keep the toilet flushes down, and be prepared for chapped lips. In Chicago, there's never an issue of too many flushes or water being left on.
Since I'm writing my history and about to physically re-visit it, I wonder how it will look and feel having been away so long. Even if Los Alamos isn't a part of our visit, I can't help but wonder if the barbed wire fences put in to prevent a Nazi invasion in 1944 are still up in the canyons surrounding the city. I'll have to drive past the guard tower at the front of town to find out.
I'm returning to New Mexico this weekend for a visit. It's been over two years since I've been to my home state. I don't know if Los Alamos will be on the agenda since my family now lives in Santa Fe and the driving distance between towns in New Mexico is at least 45 minutes. New Mexico is a BIG state, where it's 45 minutes between every town, and it'll take a full eight hours to go from one end of the state to the other. Yet, New Mexico has as many people in the entire state as the population of Chicago. This is a hard reality for people from the east and midwest US to grasp.
It's also a strange difference to go from a place like Chicago where there is an large fresh water source right by the city to New Mexico, where there is no water. My family has to buy their water if their well doesn't get enough run-off from snowfall or the sparse rainfall. No leaving the sinks or showers running to wait for hot water, keep the toilet flushes down, and be prepared for chapped lips. In Chicago, there's never an issue of too many flushes or water being left on.
Since I'm writing my history and about to physically re-visit it, I wonder how it will look and feel having been away so long. Even if Los Alamos isn't a part of our visit, I can't help but wonder if the barbed wire fences put in to prevent a Nazi invasion in 1944 are still up in the canyons surrounding the city. I'll have to drive past the guard tower at the front of town to find out.
Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis! ("Mi Casa") Continues. Part Four: Start Your Engines
Continuing a piece about my home town, it's odd military history, and my position within.
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
------
GREETER
By January, 1943, the population of Los Alamos had risen to 1,500. By January, 1944, the population was 3,500. Work began immediately.
(SERBER enters with a notepad, working on his lecture.)
ROBERT SERBER (Placard reads, “Oppenheimer’s assistant. Delivered lectures to scientific staff members about design of nuclear weapons.)
“The object of the project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast-neutron chain reaction in one or more of the materials known to show nuclear fission.”
OPPENHEIMER
(Leans in from off-stage.) Psst! Don’t say “bomb.” The workmen might overhear the lectures. Say, “gadget.”
SERBER
“We are working on a ‘gadget.’” (Exits.)
GREETER
By October, 1943, the Special Engineer Detachment, or SED, which was part of the Manhattan Engineer District, began to staff the Laboratory. The SED was made up of scientists who had been drafted into the army. The SEDs were comprised of electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineers. Twenty nine percent held college degrees. By the end of 1943, 475 SEDs were working and by 1945, there were 1,823 SEDs working at the Laboratory. These were military scientists who had to wear uniforms. During the course of the Manhattan Project, forty-two percent of the Lab wore uniforms. Nevertheless, the SED were permitted to be non-commissioned officers, and many never had to attend basic training and were exempted from drills, unlike most of their military counterparts. Their place of privilege was resented by some.
(Dirty and ragged MILITARY PERSONNEL walk across the stage, carrying equipment. An SED in a sparkling uniform walks on from the opposite side of the stage, working out calculations on a notepad. The MILITARY PERSONNEL watch him cross the stage.)
MILITARY PERSONNEL
I got to get a transfer into that unit. (Exit.)
GREETER
But the civilian scientists enjoyed privileges that their SED peers did not.
(SED comes back on with his WIFE.)
SED WIFE
What you mean I can’t get a job? I can’t even stay in Los Alamos with you?
SED
Major De Silva won’t allow the wives of SEDs to get jobs in Los Alamos and he won’t let us bring in family.
(SCIENTISTS #1, #2, and #3 enter in their white lab coats, their arms around their WIVES, chatting about housing and life in Los Alamos. They cross the stage and exit.)
SED WIFE
What about them? They get to have their families with them.
SED
Those are civilian scientists. They’re higher up. Most of them worked at universities before they came here and got extra perks to come work here.
(MILTARY PERSONNEL come back on, carrying heavier equipment and looking more ragged than before.)
MILITARY PERSONNEL
Hey, could you give us a hand with this? Oh, that’s right. Wouldn’t want your uniform to get dirty.
(MILITARY PERSONNEL exit grumbling. SED and SED WIFE exit bickering. GEORGE KISTIAKOWSKY enters with GEN. GROVES and OPPENHEIMER.)
GEORGE KISTIAKOWSKY (Placard reads, “Headed SED Division in charge of explosives at S-Site, an explosives test site.”)
They’re unhappy. Morale is low. We’re working hard and doing a lot of the same work as the scientists, but we don’t get any of the perks as the civilian scientists.
GEN. GROVES
That’s because they’re your superiors. You’re the junior scientists and technicians. Everyone follows chain of command. The higher up you are, the greater the benefits you receive.
KISTIAKOWSKY
The SEDs are my staff. They work for me and report to me. I understand the chain of command.
OPPENHEIMER
The SEDs are highly respected among the scientists. They should be rewarded. Remember, we don’t want morale to drop.
GEN. GROVES
You civilians don’t get to tell me what to do about Army matters!
KISTIAKOWSKY
Very well, I’ll resign.
OPPENHEIMER
Oh, dear.
(MAJ. T.O. PALMER enters. OPPENHEIMER, GEN. GROVES, and KISTIAKOWSKY all turn to him.)
MAJ. T.O. PALMER (Placard reads, “Replaced Major de Silva as commander of SED in August, 1944.)
Ahem. I think I can help with this.
(GEN. GROVES, OPPENHEIMER, KISTIAKOWSKY, and MAJ. PALMER exit.)
GREETER
Major Palmer developed a system that made promotion recommendations for groups and divisions of the SED. This helped morale, but conflicting military and laboratory duties remained a problem. (As GREETER speaks, bedraggled MILITARY PERSONNEL continue to do their grunt work.) Meanwhile, over in Russia…
(JOSEF STALIN and LAVRENTI BERIA enter.)
STALIN (Placard reads, “Dictator of Russia.”)
Another purge well done, comrade. Now, I have a project for you.
BERIA (Placard reads, “Head of NKVD, which killed millions of Russians during the Great Purges.”)
Yes, comrade.
STALIN
My spies have intercepted this document, the British MAUD Committee Report. It shows plans to build a bomb of incredible power. This may just be an imperialist trick, but the Germans are besieging Stalingrad. We need all the firepower we can get. Molotov and I have decided to put you in charge of building a new weapon that can be developed from these plans. Citizen Kurchatov is Molotov’s choice for the head scientist. (IGOR KURCHATOV enters.) Make sure this research provides useful information.
BERIA
Yes, comrade.
(STALIN exits)
BERIA (to KURCHATOV)
Make yourself useful or you will be shot.
IGOR KURCHATOV (Placard reads, “Developed Russian atomic bomb.”)
Yes, comrade.
(BERIA and KURCHATOV exit.)
END OF PART FOUR. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
PART THREE: Flash Back-Flash Forward. Work on the top-secret project begins.
------
GREETER
By January, 1943, the population of Los Alamos had risen to 1,500. By January, 1944, the population was 3,500. Work began immediately.
(SERBER enters with a notepad, working on his lecture.)
ROBERT SERBER (Placard reads, “Oppenheimer’s assistant. Delivered lectures to scientific staff members about design of nuclear weapons.)
“The object of the project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast-neutron chain reaction in one or more of the materials known to show nuclear fission.”
OPPENHEIMER
(Leans in from off-stage.) Psst! Don’t say “bomb.” The workmen might overhear the lectures. Say, “gadget.”
SERBER
“We are working on a ‘gadget.’” (Exits.)
GREETER
By October, 1943, the Special Engineer Detachment, or SED, which was part of the Manhattan Engineer District, began to staff the Laboratory. The SED was made up of scientists who had been drafted into the army. The SEDs were comprised of electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineers. Twenty nine percent held college degrees. By the end of 1943, 475 SEDs were working and by 1945, there were 1,823 SEDs working at the Laboratory. These were military scientists who had to wear uniforms. During the course of the Manhattan Project, forty-two percent of the Lab wore uniforms. Nevertheless, the SED were permitted to be non-commissioned officers, and many never had to attend basic training and were exempted from drills, unlike most of their military counterparts. Their place of privilege was resented by some.
(Dirty and ragged MILITARY PERSONNEL walk across the stage, carrying equipment. An SED in a sparkling uniform walks on from the opposite side of the stage, working out calculations on a notepad. The MILITARY PERSONNEL watch him cross the stage.)
MILITARY PERSONNEL
I got to get a transfer into that unit. (Exit.)
GREETER
But the civilian scientists enjoyed privileges that their SED peers did not.
(SED comes back on with his WIFE.)
SED WIFE
What you mean I can’t get a job? I can’t even stay in Los Alamos with you?
SED
Major De Silva won’t allow the wives of SEDs to get jobs in Los Alamos and he won’t let us bring in family.
(SCIENTISTS #1, #2, and #3 enter in their white lab coats, their arms around their WIVES, chatting about housing and life in Los Alamos. They cross the stage and exit.)
SED WIFE
What about them? They get to have their families with them.
SED
Those are civilian scientists. They’re higher up. Most of them worked at universities before they came here and got extra perks to come work here.
(MILTARY PERSONNEL come back on, carrying heavier equipment and looking more ragged than before.)
MILITARY PERSONNEL
Hey, could you give us a hand with this? Oh, that’s right. Wouldn’t want your uniform to get dirty.
(MILITARY PERSONNEL exit grumbling. SED and SED WIFE exit bickering. GEORGE KISTIAKOWSKY enters with GEN. GROVES and OPPENHEIMER.)
GEORGE KISTIAKOWSKY (Placard reads, “Headed SED Division in charge of explosives at S-Site, an explosives test site.”)
They’re unhappy. Morale is low. We’re working hard and doing a lot of the same work as the scientists, but we don’t get any of the perks as the civilian scientists.
GEN. GROVES
That’s because they’re your superiors. You’re the junior scientists and technicians. Everyone follows chain of command. The higher up you are, the greater the benefits you receive.
KISTIAKOWSKY
The SEDs are my staff. They work for me and report to me. I understand the chain of command.
OPPENHEIMER
The SEDs are highly respected among the scientists. They should be rewarded. Remember, we don’t want morale to drop.
GEN. GROVES
You civilians don’t get to tell me what to do about Army matters!
KISTIAKOWSKY
Very well, I’ll resign.
OPPENHEIMER
Oh, dear.
(MAJ. T.O. PALMER enters. OPPENHEIMER, GEN. GROVES, and KISTIAKOWSKY all turn to him.)
MAJ. T.O. PALMER (Placard reads, “Replaced Major de Silva as commander of SED in August, 1944.)
Ahem. I think I can help with this.
(GEN. GROVES, OPPENHEIMER, KISTIAKOWSKY, and MAJ. PALMER exit.)
GREETER
Major Palmer developed a system that made promotion recommendations for groups and divisions of the SED. This helped morale, but conflicting military and laboratory duties remained a problem. (As GREETER speaks, bedraggled MILITARY PERSONNEL continue to do their grunt work.) Meanwhile, over in Russia…
(JOSEF STALIN and LAVRENTI BERIA enter.)
STALIN (Placard reads, “Dictator of Russia.”)
Another purge well done, comrade. Now, I have a project for you.
BERIA (Placard reads, “Head of NKVD, which killed millions of Russians during the Great Purges.”)
Yes, comrade.
STALIN
My spies have intercepted this document, the British MAUD Committee Report. It shows plans to build a bomb of incredible power. This may just be an imperialist trick, but the Germans are besieging Stalingrad. We need all the firepower we can get. Molotov and I have decided to put you in charge of building a new weapon that can be developed from these plans. Citizen Kurchatov is Molotov’s choice for the head scientist. (IGOR KURCHATOV enters.) Make sure this research provides useful information.
BERIA
Yes, comrade.
(STALIN exits)
BERIA (to KURCHATOV)
Make yourself useful or you will be shot.
IGOR KURCHATOV (Placard reads, “Developed Russian atomic bomb.”)
Yes, comrade.
(BERIA and KURCHATOV exit.)
END OF PART FOUR. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Just to Break Things Up a Little...
The Baseball Season can't start soon enough. Baseball symbolizes Spring, warmth, a well-earned reward from a shitty winter, and hopeful healthy competition alongside beer and peanuts. I recently wrote about my absurd quest to get baseball season tickets, and I have tickets for two games this year so far. The season won't start for another five weeks, but I'm so ready. Especially after our latest snowstorm, which gives us 51 inches so far in 2007-2008, placing this wretched winter in the top 20 of Chicago snowfalls. Yeesh. Oh, bring me baseball soon, and gimme a good season. (do not jinx, I pray)
Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis! ("Mi Casa") Continues. Part Three: Flash Back - Flash Forward
Continuing a piece about my home town, it's odd military history, and my position within.
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
------
Part Three: Flash Back - Flash Forward
GREETER
Flashback! (Actors around stage can make flashback sound effects if they feel like it.) Oppenheimer had been planning the Laboratory with some of the world’s most prestigious scientists since September, 1942.
(Actor on side of stage holds up placard reading, “Sept. 19, 1942. Meeting in Chicago to plan new laboratory. Attendees: Oppenheimer, John Manley, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, Arthur Compton.” A group of actors gather around OPPENHEIMER. )
OPPENHEIMER
Since our work will be of scientific nature, the leadership will be civilian, even though the military will be actively involved. We’ll collect all of the best
Physicists from around the country! (Circle around OPPENHEIMER disperses.)
GREETER
Flash forward back to early 1943! (Again, sound effects from actors if desired.)
Oppenheimer recruits scientists for the new laboratory.
OPPENHEIMER
(A group of actors congregates around OPPENHEIMER again.) Want to come work at a new laboratory?
SCIENTIST #1
What are we researching?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you.
SCIENTIST #2
Where’s the laboratory?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you.
SCIENTIST #3
How long will this take?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you. But it’s brand new and very important work, I swear.
SCIENTIST #1
Maybe.
SCIENTIST #2
I don’t know. Sounds OK.
SCIENTIST #3
If it’s Oppenheimer, it’ll be good work.
OPPENHEIMER
You’ll be paid better than you are now at the universities.
SCIENTIST #1
Really? That’s good. Who’s funding this?
OPPENHEIMER
Er…um…the Army.
ALL SCIENTISTS
The ARMY???!!!
SCIENTIST #1
We’re building a weapon!
SCIENTIST #2
We’ll have to attend boot camp!
SCIENTIST #3
There will soldiers everywhere messing things up!
SCIENTIST #1
We’ll be taking orders from drill sergeants!
SCIENTIST #2
They’ll be taking target practice and blowing things up!
SCIENTIST #3
We’ll have to wear army uniforms!
(All the SCIENTISTS run away, screaming in terror.)
OPPENHEIMER
This’ll be a hard sell.
GEN. GROVES
(Enters from off-stage) How’s the recruitment going?
OPPENHEIMER
It’s not working. We can’t work in a militarized laboratory. No one from MIT or anywhere else will want to work under military control. There will be friction and loss of morale. I might lose some of the people who have already agreed to come here. We must have scientific autonomy.
GEN. GROVES
This laboratory will be under the control of the Army. Deal with it.
OPPENHEIMER
Can we have a little compromise here?
(GEN. GROVES rolls his eyes, but comes over to OPPENHEIMER. They confer with bowed heads for a few moments, muttering gibberish. They shake hands, GEN. GROVES exits.)
OPPENHEIMER
(Claps his hands. A group of actors as SCIENTISTS gathers around him again.) This laboratory will be developing an instrument of war through experimental scientific and engineering studies. Though we are working on a weapon, the first period of work will be on a strictly civilian basis. During the second period, no sooner than January 1, 1944, the large-scale experiments and handling of highly dangerous material, the scientific and engineering staff will be composed of commissioned officers. (Mutterings of approval from SCIENTISTS.)
GREETER
Fifteen of the thirty-three scientists that Oppenheimer set out to recruit came to Los Alamos. (SCIENTISTS exit.) Starting in December, 1942, Oppenheimer visited the architects and engineers on a bi-weekly basis, constantly refining plans for the new town.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS (Placard reads, “Helped with design plans and building of Los Alamos.”)
(Walks in with large spreadsheet labeled “Design Plans.”) Geez, this is getting weirder and weirder. What did you say this was going to be again?
OPPENHEIMER
Uhm, a heavy bombardment range.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS
This sure don’t look like a heavy bombardment range.
OPPENHEIMER
Well, that’s all I can tell you.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS
Hey boys! Another change for the “Buck Rogers Project!”
(Groans from off-stage. ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS exits.)
GREETER
In January, 1943, the first staff of “Project Y,” as the construction at Los Alamos had been named, arrived to begin work. (COLONEL J.M. HARMAN and GENERAL LESLIE GROVES enter.)
COLONEL J.M. HARMAN (Placard reads, “Military Commander at Los Alamos.”)
What a mess. 40 miles from the nearest railroad, no natural gas, limited water, totally inadequate roads. Why are we building a town here?
GEN. GROVES
Security from military attack.
OPPENHEIMER
The idyllic setting.
GEN. GROVES
(To COL. HARMAN) C’mon, hurry up! We don’t want those damn Nazis to build a super-weapon before we do!
OPPENHEIMER
Yes, do hurry up. I can’t believe we had to wait until February.
(A large crowd of SCIENTISTS and STAFF goes by the three men.)
COL. HARMAN
People are already moving in? Are you crazy? There’s hardly a road, we don’t have enough cars, and I don’t even have eating facilities! I’m shipping in box lunches from Santa Fe! I’ve got to do all the laundry in Santa Fe, too!
SCIENTISTS AND STAFF
(Off-stage) This is a little uncomfortable.
OPPENHEIMER
Just look at all the lovely scenery!
GEN. GROVES
Let’s start mining those canyons. That’ll slow down anyone who wants to attack.
(OPPENHEIMER looks nervous. All exit.)
END OF PART THREE. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
PREVIOUSLY ON "Mi Casa":
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project.
PART TWO: Introductions. In which the players of this one-act socialist analysis first pop up.
------
Part Three: Flash Back - Flash Forward
GREETER
Flashback! (Actors around stage can make flashback sound effects if they feel like it.) Oppenheimer had been planning the Laboratory with some of the world’s most prestigious scientists since September, 1942.
(Actor on side of stage holds up placard reading, “Sept. 19, 1942. Meeting in Chicago to plan new laboratory. Attendees: Oppenheimer, John Manley, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, Arthur Compton.” A group of actors gather around OPPENHEIMER. )
OPPENHEIMER
Since our work will be of scientific nature, the leadership will be civilian, even though the military will be actively involved. We’ll collect all of the best
Physicists from around the country! (Circle around OPPENHEIMER disperses.)
GREETER
Flash forward back to early 1943! (Again, sound effects from actors if desired.)
Oppenheimer recruits scientists for the new laboratory.
OPPENHEIMER
(A group of actors congregates around OPPENHEIMER again.) Want to come work at a new laboratory?
SCIENTIST #1
What are we researching?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you.
SCIENTIST #2
Where’s the laboratory?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you.
SCIENTIST #3
How long will this take?
OPPENHEIMER
I can’t tell you. But it’s brand new and very important work, I swear.
SCIENTIST #1
Maybe.
SCIENTIST #2
I don’t know. Sounds OK.
SCIENTIST #3
If it’s Oppenheimer, it’ll be good work.
OPPENHEIMER
You’ll be paid better than you are now at the universities.
SCIENTIST #1
Really? That’s good. Who’s funding this?
OPPENHEIMER
Er…um…the Army.
ALL SCIENTISTS
The ARMY???!!!
SCIENTIST #1
We’re building a weapon!
SCIENTIST #2
We’ll have to attend boot camp!
SCIENTIST #3
There will soldiers everywhere messing things up!
SCIENTIST #1
We’ll be taking orders from drill sergeants!
SCIENTIST #2
They’ll be taking target practice and blowing things up!
SCIENTIST #3
We’ll have to wear army uniforms!
(All the SCIENTISTS run away, screaming in terror.)
OPPENHEIMER
This’ll be a hard sell.
GEN. GROVES
(Enters from off-stage) How’s the recruitment going?
OPPENHEIMER
It’s not working. We can’t work in a militarized laboratory. No one from MIT or anywhere else will want to work under military control. There will be friction and loss of morale. I might lose some of the people who have already agreed to come here. We must have scientific autonomy.
GEN. GROVES
This laboratory will be under the control of the Army. Deal with it.
OPPENHEIMER
Can we have a little compromise here?
(GEN. GROVES rolls his eyes, but comes over to OPPENHEIMER. They confer with bowed heads for a few moments, muttering gibberish. They shake hands, GEN. GROVES exits.)
OPPENHEIMER
(Claps his hands. A group of actors as SCIENTISTS gathers around him again.) This laboratory will be developing an instrument of war through experimental scientific and engineering studies. Though we are working on a weapon, the first period of work will be on a strictly civilian basis. During the second period, no sooner than January 1, 1944, the large-scale experiments and handling of highly dangerous material, the scientific and engineering staff will be composed of commissioned officers. (Mutterings of approval from SCIENTISTS.)
GREETER
Fifteen of the thirty-three scientists that Oppenheimer set out to recruit came to Los Alamos. (SCIENTISTS exit.) Starting in December, 1942, Oppenheimer visited the architects and engineers on a bi-weekly basis, constantly refining plans for the new town.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS (Placard reads, “Helped with design plans and building of Los Alamos.”)
(Walks in with large spreadsheet labeled “Design Plans.”) Geez, this is getting weirder and weirder. What did you say this was going to be again?
OPPENHEIMER
Uhm, a heavy bombardment range.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS
This sure don’t look like a heavy bombardment range.
OPPENHEIMER
Well, that’s all I can tell you.
ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS
Hey boys! Another change for the “Buck Rogers Project!”
(Groans from off-stage. ALBUQUERQUE CORPS OF ENGINEERS exits.)
GREETER
In January, 1943, the first staff of “Project Y,” as the construction at Los Alamos had been named, arrived to begin work. (COLONEL J.M. HARMAN and GENERAL LESLIE GROVES enter.)
COLONEL J.M. HARMAN (Placard reads, “Military Commander at Los Alamos.”)
What a mess. 40 miles from the nearest railroad, no natural gas, limited water, totally inadequate roads. Why are we building a town here?
GEN. GROVES
Security from military attack.
OPPENHEIMER
The idyllic setting.
GEN. GROVES
(To COL. HARMAN) C’mon, hurry up! We don’t want those damn Nazis to build a super-weapon before we do!
OPPENHEIMER
Yes, do hurry up. I can’t believe we had to wait until February.
(A large crowd of SCIENTISTS and STAFF goes by the three men.)
COL. HARMAN
People are already moving in? Are you crazy? There’s hardly a road, we don’t have enough cars, and I don’t even have eating facilities! I’m shipping in box lunches from Santa Fe! I’ve got to do all the laundry in Santa Fe, too!
SCIENTISTS AND STAFF
(Off-stage) This is a little uncomfortable.
OPPENHEIMER
Just look at all the lovely scenery!
GEN. GROVES
Let’s start mining those canyons. That’ll slow down anyone who wants to attack.
(OPPENHEIMER looks nervous. All exit.)
END OF PART THREE. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Friday, February 15, 2008
Mad Cap Socialist Self Analysis! Continues ("Mi Casa") Part Two: Introductions
Continuing a piece about my home town, it's odd military history, and my position within.
Incidentally, here's what my home town used to look like.
Now, back to the Blogzine...I'll call this series MCSSA or "Mi Casa" for short.
PREVIOUSLY ON MCSSA! ("Mi Casa"):
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project
------
Part Two: Introductions
Setting: A theatre.
(As the audience walks into the theatre, they should see a placard mounted on an easel that says, “Welcome Into the Theatre! The Play Will Be Performed In Here.” Audience lights and stage lights are at the same level as the audience comes in and gets seated. As the audience comes in to be seated, the actors playing ERNST BLOCH, BERTOLT BRECHT, FREDRIC JAMESON, GEORG LUKÁCS, KARL MARX, ALEXANDER RODCHENKO, and LEON TROTSKY are waiting to help the audience to their seats. Each actor is wearing posterboard placards around their necks with their character’s names written in large letters. The placards should be large enough to cover the actors’ chests so their character names are the actor’s most noticeable feature. Other actors with names of other influential Marxists or Marxist critics will also be milling about the theatre, greeting the audience and helping them to their seats. When the play is ready to begin, the GREETER comes on stage, and the other actors congregate in a line in front of the stage.)
GREETER
Good evening, audience. Tonight you will be seeing a play, performed here in the theatre. We will be making this play together as we, the actors and technicians, will put a play on display for the purpose of getting a reaction out of you, the audience. Keep in mind that this is a play. The purpose of this play is to examine the identity of one town from a Marxist perspective. That town is Los Alamos, New Mexico. Some of you may be familiar with this town, some may not. We have provided everyone with historical handouts within their programs. Hopefully you’ve had ample time to examine them. These handouts detail the physical history of Los Alamos, New Mexico and its influence on the development of the atomic bomb. The handout also covers some of the effects of the development of nuclear weapons and the arms race as well as Los Alamos’s later role in the Cold War. Now, let’s bring the purpose of this play out to the stage so that the play can begin. Allow me to introduce Colin Milroy.
(COLIN MILROY walks on stage, looking shy and embarrassed. He waves sheepishly to the audience.)
GREETER
Members of the audience, the purpose of the play you are about to watch is for this man to understand his hometown better. To gain new perspectives from which he can critique. We will help him define his own perspective and give him new tools for examination
JAMESON
Historicize!
BLOCH
Artistic reality: feel free to express!
LUKÁCS
Artistic reality: keep it simple!
RODCHENKO
Look at this differently!
TROTSKY
Haven’t we seen this before?
BRECHT
You’re watching a play!
MARX(Gestures to the audience and speaks to the other actors) Would you quit oppressing them from your supposed position of superiority?
GREETER
(Trying to pacify things by settling the actors down) Now, now, let’s not get over-excited and act stereotypically. We have to think carefully. Get a new perspective. We have to re-examine, not oversimplify. Now, as I was saying, you may refer to your inserts for additional information as we give a short re-enactment of the history of Los Alamos. Mr. Milroy, please have a seat in the audience.
(The actors remove their placards and disperse throughout the stage. NOTE: As actors enter the stage to play their different roles during the re-enactment scenes, other actors on the sides of the stage will hold up placards with the characters’ names written in large letters. The side actors will keep holding up the placards for the duration of the scene.)
COLIN MILROY
This is a little confusing. (Goes and sits in a seat in the audience marked, “Reserved.”)
GREETER
The year is 1942. The United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan have all been investigating the possibility of building an atomic bomb since two German scientists first split the nucleus of uranium in 1938. Russia, initially unconcerned with the possibility of building an atomic bomb, started its research after Soviet spies intercept a report from the British MAUD committee in 1941 detailing England’s research into building atomic weapons. Igor Kurchatov is put in charge of researching the atomic bomb. In America, J. Robert Oppenheimer is put in charge of the American atomic bomb project, called the Manhattan Project. The location of the nuclear weapons deign laboratory is chosen. It will come to be known as Los Alamos National Laboratory, or “The Lab” for short.
(OPPENHEIMER comes on stage with GENERAL LESLIE GROVES)
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER (Placard reads, “Prestigious University of California Professor, Nobel Prize winner, picked by Groves to head Lab as general in army of scientists)
This place is perfect for the laboratory.
GEN. LESLIE GROVES (Placard reads, “Commander of Manhattan District Corps of Engineers)
Yes, this is better than Jemez Springs. We can control access to the town through the mesa’s main entry road and use the surrounding canyons for explosives tests.
MAJ. JOHN DUDLEY (Placard reads “Manhattan District staff in charge of finding suitable lab sites in western U.S.)
But there’s hardly any water!
OPPENHEIMER
Look how pretty it is. Look at the Sangre de Cristo mountain range! That’ll be good for morale.
GEN. GROVES
Yes, the military staff and commanders will need to be kept happy.
OPPENHEIMER
Military…? Excuse me?
DUDLEY
Fine, Eggheads. All I’ve had to work with is finding a place for a laboratory that’s building I don’t know what and having a staff size anywhere from 265 to
600. Jemez Springs was fine, but big Mr. Oppenheimer has to have final approval.
A.J. CONNELL (Placard reads, “Director of Los Alamos Ranch School”)
(Enters the stage with ASHLEY POND during previous conversation) Ahem. Excuse me, but I’m running a school here. This is a natural habitat where Troop 22 of the Boy Scouts of America can “learn by doing” in the outdoors, following good President Teddy Roosevelt’s ideal of a vigorous life.
(ROBERT PATTERSON enters.)
ROBERT PATTERSON (Placard reads, “Undersecretary of War”)
Sorry. I just approved the land’s acquisition. The military will be taking over the property and we’ll be using your buildings. The property is condemned. Signed and dated in a letter, December 1, 1942.
ASHLEY POND (Placard reads, “Owned land where Los Alamos Ranch School was built. Founded school.”)
Aaaaugh! I’ve owned this land since 1918! The air is clean and healthy here, perfect for outdoor wellness. We’ve been building up this school since 1920!
CONNELL
Yes, I’ve added college curriculum courses. We just had our highest ever enrollment of 47 students!
GEN. GROVES
We’ll use the Big House as bachelor quarters, that garage will become a fire station, the arts and crafts building can be used for housing and a nursery school…
DUDLEY
We’ll have to start digging immediately.
POND
So much for my peaceful, natural habitat.
(Current Los Alamos has landmark named for Ashley Pond)
CONNELL
We’ll have to close to the school. It can’t be transplanted out of this habitat. I’ll send a letter to the alumni. (To PATTERSON) At least allow us to finish our current term. We’ll work through Christmas vacation.
PATTERSON
When will the term end?
CONNELL
February 8, 1943.
OPPENHEIMER
February????!!!
PATTERSON
Very well. You may finish your term.
GEN. GROVES
What a beautiful military installation this will be!
OPPENHEIMER
Ahem, yes, about it being a “military” installation…
GEN. GROVES
(To OPPENHEIMER) Gather your scientists!
OPPENHEIMER
Yes, well, I’ve been talking to some of the best university professors all over the country…
GEN. GROVES
Excellent! Send me their measurements. We’ll start requisitioning their uniforms. (Exits along with PATTERSON, DUDLEY, CONNELL, and POND.)
OPPENHEIMER
Oh no…
END OF PART TWO. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART THREE: Flash Back - Flash Forward
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Incidentally, here's what my home town used to look like.
Now, back to the Blogzine...I'll call this series MCSSA or "Mi Casa" for short.
PREVIOUSLY ON MCSSA! ("Mi Casa"):
PART ONE: History. A timeline of important dates in this project
------
Part Two: Introductions
Setting: A theatre.
(As the audience walks into the theatre, they should see a placard mounted on an easel that says, “Welcome Into the Theatre! The Play Will Be Performed In Here.” Audience lights and stage lights are at the same level as the audience comes in and gets seated. As the audience comes in to be seated, the actors playing ERNST BLOCH, BERTOLT BRECHT, FREDRIC JAMESON, GEORG LUKÁCS, KARL MARX, ALEXANDER RODCHENKO, and LEON TROTSKY are waiting to help the audience to their seats. Each actor is wearing posterboard placards around their necks with their character’s names written in large letters. The placards should be large enough to cover the actors’ chests so their character names are the actor’s most noticeable feature. Other actors with names of other influential Marxists or Marxist critics will also be milling about the theatre, greeting the audience and helping them to their seats. When the play is ready to begin, the GREETER comes on stage, and the other actors congregate in a line in front of the stage.)
GREETER
Good evening, audience. Tonight you will be seeing a play, performed here in the theatre. We will be making this play together as we, the actors and technicians, will put a play on display for the purpose of getting a reaction out of you, the audience. Keep in mind that this is a play. The purpose of this play is to examine the identity of one town from a Marxist perspective. That town is Los Alamos, New Mexico. Some of you may be familiar with this town, some may not. We have provided everyone with historical handouts within their programs. Hopefully you’ve had ample time to examine them. These handouts detail the physical history of Los Alamos, New Mexico and its influence on the development of the atomic bomb. The handout also covers some of the effects of the development of nuclear weapons and the arms race as well as Los Alamos’s later role in the Cold War. Now, let’s bring the purpose of this play out to the stage so that the play can begin. Allow me to introduce Colin Milroy.
(COLIN MILROY walks on stage, looking shy and embarrassed. He waves sheepishly to the audience.)
GREETER
Members of the audience, the purpose of the play you are about to watch is for this man to understand his hometown better. To gain new perspectives from which he can critique. We will help him define his own perspective and give him new tools for examination
JAMESON
Historicize!
BLOCH
Artistic reality: feel free to express!
LUKÁCS
Artistic reality: keep it simple!
RODCHENKO
Look at this differently!
TROTSKY
Haven’t we seen this before?
BRECHT
You’re watching a play!
MARX(Gestures to the audience and speaks to the other actors) Would you quit oppressing them from your supposed position of superiority?
GREETER
(Trying to pacify things by settling the actors down) Now, now, let’s not get over-excited and act stereotypically. We have to think carefully. Get a new perspective. We have to re-examine, not oversimplify. Now, as I was saying, you may refer to your inserts for additional information as we give a short re-enactment of the history of Los Alamos. Mr. Milroy, please have a seat in the audience.
(The actors remove their placards and disperse throughout the stage. NOTE: As actors enter the stage to play their different roles during the re-enactment scenes, other actors on the sides of the stage will hold up placards with the characters’ names written in large letters. The side actors will keep holding up the placards for the duration of the scene.)
COLIN MILROY
This is a little confusing. (Goes and sits in a seat in the audience marked, “Reserved.”)
GREETER
The year is 1942. The United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan have all been investigating the possibility of building an atomic bomb since two German scientists first split the nucleus of uranium in 1938. Russia, initially unconcerned with the possibility of building an atomic bomb, started its research after Soviet spies intercept a report from the British MAUD committee in 1941 detailing England’s research into building atomic weapons. Igor Kurchatov is put in charge of researching the atomic bomb. In America, J. Robert Oppenheimer is put in charge of the American atomic bomb project, called the Manhattan Project. The location of the nuclear weapons deign laboratory is chosen. It will come to be known as Los Alamos National Laboratory, or “The Lab” for short.
(OPPENHEIMER comes on stage with GENERAL LESLIE GROVES)
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER (Placard reads, “Prestigious University of California Professor, Nobel Prize winner, picked by Groves to head Lab as general in army of scientists)
This place is perfect for the laboratory.
GEN. LESLIE GROVES (Placard reads, “Commander of Manhattan District Corps of Engineers)
Yes, this is better than Jemez Springs. We can control access to the town through the mesa’s main entry road and use the surrounding canyons for explosives tests.
MAJ. JOHN DUDLEY (Placard reads “Manhattan District staff in charge of finding suitable lab sites in western U.S.)
But there’s hardly any water!
OPPENHEIMER
Look how pretty it is. Look at the Sangre de Cristo mountain range! That’ll be good for morale.
GEN. GROVES
Yes, the military staff and commanders will need to be kept happy.
OPPENHEIMER
Military…? Excuse me?
DUDLEY
Fine, Eggheads. All I’ve had to work with is finding a place for a laboratory that’s building I don’t know what and having a staff size anywhere from 265 to
600. Jemez Springs was fine, but big Mr. Oppenheimer has to have final approval.
A.J. CONNELL (Placard reads, “Director of Los Alamos Ranch School”)
(Enters the stage with ASHLEY POND during previous conversation) Ahem. Excuse me, but I’m running a school here. This is a natural habitat where Troop 22 of the Boy Scouts of America can “learn by doing” in the outdoors, following good President Teddy Roosevelt’s ideal of a vigorous life.
(ROBERT PATTERSON enters.)
ROBERT PATTERSON (Placard reads, “Undersecretary of War”)
Sorry. I just approved the land’s acquisition. The military will be taking over the property and we’ll be using your buildings. The property is condemned. Signed and dated in a letter, December 1, 1942.
ASHLEY POND (Placard reads, “Owned land where Los Alamos Ranch School was built. Founded school.”)
Aaaaugh! I’ve owned this land since 1918! The air is clean and healthy here, perfect for outdoor wellness. We’ve been building up this school since 1920!
CONNELL
Yes, I’ve added college curriculum courses. We just had our highest ever enrollment of 47 students!
GEN. GROVES
We’ll use the Big House as bachelor quarters, that garage will become a fire station, the arts and crafts building can be used for housing and a nursery school…
DUDLEY
We’ll have to start digging immediately.
POND
So much for my peaceful, natural habitat.
(Current Los Alamos has landmark named for Ashley Pond)
CONNELL
We’ll have to close to the school. It can’t be transplanted out of this habitat. I’ll send a letter to the alumni. (To PATTERSON) At least allow us to finish our current term. We’ll work through Christmas vacation.
PATTERSON
When will the term end?
CONNELL
February 8, 1943.
OPPENHEIMER
February????!!!
PATTERSON
Very well. You may finish your term.
GEN. GROVES
What a beautiful military installation this will be!
OPPENHEIMER
Ahem, yes, about it being a “military” installation…
GEN. GROVES
(To OPPENHEIMER) Gather your scientists!
OPPENHEIMER
Yes, well, I’ve been talking to some of the best university professors all over the country…
GEN. GROVES
Excellent! Send me their measurements. We’ll start requisitioning their uniforms. (Exits along with PATTERSON, DUDLEY, CONNELL, and POND.)
OPPENHEIMER
Oh no…
END OF PART TWO. TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART THREE: Flash Back - Flash Forward
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Monday, February 11, 2008
I Got My Place in Line!
Yes, I registered for Cubs Season Tickets. In actuality, I registered for a spot on the waiting list. So my current spot on the list is 81,627. Daunting? Hardly. I need that many people ahead of me so I have time to put together the dough to pay the fee. Once an amount of people over four times the size of my home town take their turn, I'll be ready. I can already smell the peanuts and beer from the ballpark.
Thank God spring training starts in two days. This has been a mean winter.
Thank God spring training starts in two days. This has been a mean winter.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Back to the 'Zine: Mad Cap Socialist Self-Analysis! ("Mi Casa") Part One: History
Back to the publishing aspect of this site, here's another composition. Socialist literary analysis and the odd military history of my hometown with a little self analysis to boot.
LOS ALAMOS AND THE BOMB
A Socialist Perspective in One Act
TIMELINE
December, 1938 – German scientists split the nucleus of uranium, demonstrating the ability to release energy from the nucleus.
September 1, 1939 – Nazi Germany invades Poland. World War II begins.
June 22, 1941 – Germany invades Russia.
July, 1941 – The MAUD Committee, a British agency, prints its final report on Britain’s research into atomic weaponry. Soviet agents intercept most of report and bring it back to Russia in September.
March, 1942 – In Russia, Lavrenti Beria writes a memo summarizing the intelligence he had collected from Britain and the United States. He recommends that the Soviets create a team to investigate building an atomic bomb.
October, 1942 – General Leslie Groves asks J. Robert Oppenheimer to head Project Y: the construction of a new laboratory specifically for designing and building atomic weapons
December 1, 1942 – Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson acquires land in and around the Los Alamos Ranch School for the new lab’s site. The Ranch School’s land is condemned and taken over by the military. The school is allowed to finish its final term.
January, 1943 – Construction of Los Alamos and the National Laboratory begin.
February 8, 1943 – The final term at Los Alamos Ranch School ends.
July 16, 1945 at 5:29.45 AM – The first atomic bomb test at Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Aug 6, 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
Aug 9, 1945 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
September 24, 1949 – President Truman says Russia has atomic weapons.
May, 1946 – Operation Crossroads: two atomic bombs detonated at Bikini Atoll.
November 3, 1972 – Colin Milroy is born.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART TWO: Introductions
Go to PART THREE: Flash Back - Flash Forward
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
LOS ALAMOS AND THE BOMB
A Socialist Perspective in One Act
TIMELINE
December, 1938 – German scientists split the nucleus of uranium, demonstrating the ability to release energy from the nucleus.
September 1, 1939 – Nazi Germany invades Poland. World War II begins.
June 22, 1941 – Germany invades Russia.
July, 1941 – The MAUD Committee, a British agency, prints its final report on Britain’s research into atomic weaponry. Soviet agents intercept most of report and bring it back to Russia in September.
March, 1942 – In Russia, Lavrenti Beria writes a memo summarizing the intelligence he had collected from Britain and the United States. He recommends that the Soviets create a team to investigate building an atomic bomb.
October, 1942 – General Leslie Groves asks J. Robert Oppenheimer to head Project Y: the construction of a new laboratory specifically for designing and building atomic weapons
December 1, 1942 – Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson acquires land in and around the Los Alamos Ranch School for the new lab’s site. The Ranch School’s land is condemned and taken over by the military. The school is allowed to finish its final term.
January, 1943 – Construction of Los Alamos and the National Laboratory begin.
February 8, 1943 – The final term at Los Alamos Ranch School ends.
July 16, 1945 at 5:29.45 AM – The first atomic bomb test at Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Aug 6, 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
Aug 9, 1945 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
September 24, 1949 – President Truman says Russia has atomic weapons.
May, 1946 – Operation Crossroads: two atomic bombs detonated at Bikini Atoll.
November 3, 1972 – Colin Milroy is born.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Go to PART TWO: Introductions
Go to PART THREE: Flash Back - Flash Forward
Go to PART FOUR: Start Your Engines
Go to PART FIVE: This Is More Than Just a Test
Go to PART SIX: Remember, New Perspective
Sunday, February 03, 2008
"Believe It or Not," Financial-Style
A quick run-in with what to believe and the unbelieveable in my world of finance. Junk mail, both of the digital spam variety and the material snail mail, is an unavoidable reality. Mail and/or spam promises lots of credit cards or an unending supply of sexual enhancements. Sadly, no more Horny TEENage SLuTz wANNT me BAD bad. That must have been the 90's spam phenomenon before the male enhancement drug phenomenon. Mostly, junk mail spam is simply irksome. I've even had a wee little spam draped on to my writing in the comments of this post. On the one hand, at least I know that's a popular post because of the spamming attention it got; on the other hand, I don't do this for some fool to post their meaningless links here. Usually, no one reads this site, so I don't worry. That's sort of the anonymity I'd been able to settle into in my email and financial affairs existence. Any pre-approved credit notice I get is instantly trashed and any sort of enticing sweepstakes notice meets the same fate. Worldly and wise, no? I'm not going to be taken in by any half-baked scheme and I'm smart enough to research everything so I can avoid being victimized, right?
Not so fast. I got something through the mail, did my research, protected myself, and still got an unexpected little shock in a way I'd never imagined.
I received a statement in the mail detailing a court decision in my favor against many credit card companies. Naturally, I liked the looks of this mail, it did look like an official court document, and it says I'm entitled to money. That last part, of course, gives me pause because there isn't such a thing as free money. But this rather extensive statement says, in short, that a settlement (subject to final approval) has been reached in Antitrust Litigation against Visa, MasterCard, and Diners Club card brands because of foreign transactions between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006; if I made any overseas charges on those brands of credit cards during that time period, I'm entitled to some money. The letter and court documents came from www.ccfsettlement.com. I was skeptical. Through my research, I discovered I was not alone. I was satisfied that this mail was legitimate when I found an MSNBC article explaining the court decision. I did think that it would be easy for a dedicated web designer to fake all of this and I could be blindly submitting my info for anyone to receive. Granted I'm only providing my mailing address, but still; why give anyone any contact information anymore? I question what to believe in media since current technology has enough editing tools to create very believable fakes of people, places, and documents.
The problem was, while I was busy researching and supposedly protecting myself, I learned that my identity had already been stolen years ago, completely unnoticed.
I would never have known had I not started to look at buying property. Thanks to a real estate agent, I learned that my identity via my ss# was taken by a "Raymond Joe" in 2001 for a Sprint account. My financial identity is probably one of the last ones anyone would want to steal because I've done enough damage to own credit in the past and have had to build my financial self back up slowly over the past few years. I'm also lucky that I only got one small theft of my vested self, at least that I know of now. I don't have the first clue how anyone would get my ss# or why they would use it to only open a lousy Sprint account for a few months. Ironically, Raymond and Joe are both family names and Sprint fired my uncle during downsizing years ago.
It was odd putting up all my protection only to learn I had already been robbed. Strange thinking that anyone would be foolish enough to steal my identity, mostly because I didn't think it would get anyone very much, yet finding out it had already happened a long time ago, to my complete obliviousness. And to think someone took a little piece of me out there, looking to better himself. That's oddly flattering, but it's attention I can do without.
This wasn't a quick run-in at all.
Not so fast. I got something through the mail, did my research, protected myself, and still got an unexpected little shock in a way I'd never imagined.
I received a statement in the mail detailing a court decision in my favor against many credit card companies. Naturally, I liked the looks of this mail, it did look like an official court document, and it says I'm entitled to money. That last part, of course, gives me pause because there isn't such a thing as free money. But this rather extensive statement says, in short, that a settlement (subject to final approval) has been reached in Antitrust Litigation against Visa, MasterCard, and Diners Club card brands because of foreign transactions between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006; if I made any overseas charges on those brands of credit cards during that time period, I'm entitled to some money. The letter and court documents came from www.ccfsettlement.com. I was skeptical. Through my research, I discovered I was not alone. I was satisfied that this mail was legitimate when I found an MSNBC article explaining the court decision. I did think that it would be easy for a dedicated web designer to fake all of this and I could be blindly submitting my info for anyone to receive. Granted I'm only providing my mailing address, but still; why give anyone any contact information anymore? I question what to believe in media since current technology has enough editing tools to create very believable fakes of people, places, and documents.
The problem was, while I was busy researching and supposedly protecting myself, I learned that my identity had already been stolen years ago, completely unnoticed.
I would never have known had I not started to look at buying property. Thanks to a real estate agent, I learned that my identity via my ss# was taken by a "Raymond Joe" in 2001 for a Sprint account. My financial identity is probably one of the last ones anyone would want to steal because I've done enough damage to own credit in the past and have had to build my financial self back up slowly over the past few years. I'm also lucky that I only got one small theft of my vested self, at least that I know of now. I don't have the first clue how anyone would get my ss# or why they would use it to only open a lousy Sprint account for a few months. Ironically, Raymond and Joe are both family names and Sprint fired my uncle during downsizing years ago.
It was odd putting up all my protection only to learn I had already been robbed. Strange thinking that anyone would be foolish enough to steal my identity, mostly because I didn't think it would get anyone very much, yet finding out it had already happened a long time ago, to my complete obliviousness. And to think someone took a little piece of me out there, looking to better himself. That's oddly flattering, but it's attention I can do without.
This wasn't a quick run-in at all.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
This Link is Posted Mostly to Remind Me of Where to Go With Questions Like This (And I Make My First Horror Movie Reference in over Six Months)
This is what's been on my mind a lot lately:
Whether to buy property or to continue renting.
A stressful but fun conundrum. Plus, I get to use all sorts of quirky economic calculators. Bad-case scenario: become a living version of the The Money Pit, only I don't have anywhere near the liquidity for Danny Aiello to bail my ass out. Best-case scenario: a nice looking place like the one in Poltergeist, but without the graveyard foundation and demonic spirits. Here's the problems. With buying, I can't help but think that something unforseen will rise to the surface and wreak havoc. Not ghosts or flying furniture, but water heaters that explode or a roof that was weaker than it appeared. On renting: I don't believe I have to answer to some outdated stereotype of being an "adult" by owning property. Also, if I'd been an "adult" and bought property a couple of years ago like many advised I should, I'd be rather up the crapper now financially. Renting is safer and more mobile, but it's also shitty. I'm tired of having so much of my environment out of my control. I'm tired of not being able to truly and totally work on my own space. I do want my own house just to have it be my own and make it into a home. I just don't want it to haunt me in the real and imagined sense.
Whether to buy property or to continue renting.
A stressful but fun conundrum. Plus, I get to use all sorts of quirky economic calculators. Bad-case scenario: become a living version of the The Money Pit, only I don't have anywhere near the liquidity for Danny Aiello to bail my ass out. Best-case scenario: a nice looking place like the one in Poltergeist, but without the graveyard foundation and demonic spirits. Here's the problems. With buying, I can't help but think that something unforseen will rise to the surface and wreak havoc. Not ghosts or flying furniture, but water heaters that explode or a roof that was weaker than it appeared. On renting: I don't believe I have to answer to some outdated stereotype of being an "adult" by owning property. Also, if I'd been an "adult" and bought property a couple of years ago like many advised I should, I'd be rather up the crapper now financially. Renting is safer and more mobile, but it's also shitty. I'm tired of having so much of my environment out of my control. I'm tired of not being able to truly and totally work on my own space. I do want my own house just to have it be my own and make it into a home. I just don't want it to haunt me in the real and imagined sense.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Firewall's Still Being Nice...And This is About Music...in case anyone's watching
Amazing. I can still write and post here. This will have to be hit and run because I'm working on four publications simultaneously and the firewall might bite me in the ass at any minute. For Edmond, my best friend (and anyone else who was alive and young in the '80s), what happens when you somehow revisit the music you couldn't get enough of during our teenage years? What happens when you listen and the past comes back up in images and feelings, or even lyrics? Take New Order, which I just heard on satellite radio, or The Cure (coming to Chicago in May), and other such favored "alternatives" that we listened to, or maybe the so-called "harder" stuff like Skinny Puppy, the Dead Kennedys, Boston, or eighties Metallica: what do you feel when you hear? I'm sometimes embarassed by the overwhelming dramatized cheese of the music in that era, because I flung myself full-force into some of those songs. Other times, I feel defensive and self-important. It was the 80's, dammit! That was my youth and that was the sweet time of goth-rock, hair bands who wore makeup, and other such androgyny. "That-was-my-time-and-I-loved-it-and-piss-on-anyone-who-doesn't-love-the-eighties-or-wasn't-alive-to-hear-the-coolness." Usually, head-shaking follows these thoughts. Still, I gotta feel the love, because of memory attached to music, regardless of cheese level. Wonder what imbedded attachments are being formed to this generation's crap? I hope Fall Out Boy never inspires a contemplative moment.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Whether It Will Last...
My place of employment (where I am a copywriter; I'm actually being paid to write which astounds me) normally blocks Blogger through their firewall, but for whatever reason, I'm able to sign in during writing hours for the first time in months. No guarantee it will last, so I'll use this time for an update.
Biggest personal update: my wife and I welcomed our first child on October 1, 2007. He's beautiful and it's been utterly exhausting. There's no way to properly describe how tired one gets with a newborn, but I found I could function for 36 hours straight. Granted, I was irritable, exhausted, and insane but I was functional at a basic level. Luckily, the little guy is really good-looking and has a terrific personality. Other updates: the Factory Theater rolls on. Dirty Diamonds was a critical and commercial success. It was part of the Best of 2007 in the Chicago Tribune, selected as a Metromix pick, and received great attention from audiences and critics. Timeout also gave Siskel and Ebert a nice write-up alongside some history of the Factory. I'm very proud to be in the ensemble of such a fine company.
Having a newborn in the family has completely erased any semblance of my previous existence, but I guess that's sort of supposed to happen. He was a long and painful time coming, and adusting to him along with keeping other stuff in order takes a lot of time. Still, I try to keep abreast of writing, theater, and movies, but all of that has slipped back a bit. Best movie I can recommend now is Juno, but I haven't seen many, so there may be some good movies I'm missing. Writing-wise, Pulp Friday is being developed into a play, and Clarity in Amsterdam was never published but a few things can certainly be fixed within it.
Hopefully, there will be more entries here soon. What say you, firewall?
Biggest personal update: my wife and I welcomed our first child on October 1, 2007. He's beautiful and it's been utterly exhausting. There's no way to properly describe how tired one gets with a newborn, but I found I could function for 36 hours straight. Granted, I was irritable, exhausted, and insane but I was functional at a basic level. Luckily, the little guy is really good-looking and has a terrific personality. Other updates: the Factory Theater rolls on. Dirty Diamonds was a critical and commercial success. It was part of the Best of 2007 in the Chicago Tribune, selected as a Metromix pick, and received great attention from audiences and critics. Timeout also gave Siskel and Ebert a nice write-up alongside some history of the Factory. I'm very proud to be in the ensemble of such a fine company.
Having a newborn in the family has completely erased any semblance of my previous existence, but I guess that's sort of supposed to happen. He was a long and painful time coming, and adusting to him along with keeping other stuff in order takes a lot of time. Still, I try to keep abreast of writing, theater, and movies, but all of that has slipped back a bit. Best movie I can recommend now is Juno, but I haven't seen many, so there may be some good movies I'm missing. Writing-wise, Pulp Friday is being developed into a play, and Clarity in Amsterdam was never published but a few things can certainly be fixed within it.
Hopefully, there will be more entries here soon. What say you, firewall?
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Coming to the Factory...
The next production from the Factory Theater (my happy place of residence as Ensemble): a gritty bit of crime, trickery, and a hidden stash of loot. Sin in Vegas, guns in faces, and a femme fatale looking aces (or is it spades?) Oh, and I will be bartending Saturday for the benefit performance. Care to wager I pour you the best damn drink ever?
Here's a show teaser:
$30 bucks for a soon to be classic show, open bar, kick ass tunes, and partying with the one and only Factory Theater???
COME ON!
Further information on the Factory Theater
Here's a show teaser:
$30 bucks for a soon to be classic show, open bar, kick ass tunes, and partying with the one and only Factory Theater???
COME ON!
Further information on the Factory Theater
Monday, September 24, 2007
100th Post
After a year and a half (and some REEEEEALLLY long gaps between writing), I've finally achieved my 100th post to this blog. Sadly, my motivation for writing this post comes from the end of an era. I was a (part-time) contributing writer to Like You Really Care and a long-time fan of the site. It was a healthy combination of political awareness, pop culture commentary, self-deprecating humor, silly fun, and a writing community. I was honored to be a contributor, and I'm sorry to say my contributions to that site fell sharply over the past year due to (among other things) my company firewall's blocking of Blogger and my own issues. Hell, I've barely contributed to this site for a while. With that said, I'm very sorry to see such a good blog go away. Arlo blogged long before blogging became as mainstream as it is today. Still, I'm inspired by Arlo's openness to change; it is good to move on to other things and I wish Arlo and the other contributors the best of success. Change has always made me jumpy, especially when unexpected, but Arlo is right that there are new things to be done now with online writing forums. Arlo's previous work and proactivity to start anew inspires me to finally take the plunge of building my own web domain; I have ideas and plenty of material, but I've never taken the time to register and write the HTML to make my own site. I think that LYRC gave me the feeling that I'd always have a public forum with other writers to work in, and that feeling, along with addressing my other priorities, made me complacent. Today, I took the first few steps to registering a domain and I am gathering material to put there once it's set up. I need a company firewall-proof domain in which to write, and Blogger ain't it. So thanks to Arlo for me letting play for a bit and thanks for Like You Really Care; it was very good while it lasted. Finally, thanks for getting me up. I've got tremendous changes coming momentarily in my own life, and not just in online writing. I plan on making a better online forum a significant part of those changes. And I hope people will come out to play.
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