The Importance of Being Earnest...

Well...my life just got a little busier today. I got some great news. I have been approved for funding and have secured and confirmed all the dates, and it looks like Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell is going to have the first step to a theater program.

My proposal to direct Oscar Wilde's "The importance of Being Earnest" has gone through and I couldn't be happier. That's the good news. The bad news: my life just got turned upside down. Between teaching five classes and directing a play, who knows when I'll have time to sleep or eat. But that goes along with the territory I suppose. I do think theater is a vital part of any community and I am happy to be one of the people who will hopefully make something of it here.

We do have the Roswell Little Theater here in Roswell and I hope to form a healthy, amicable relationship with them. I plan to work with them as much as they are willing to; there is no reason for competition. The more options of things to do in this town the better! And if it all goes as planned, its the beginning of great things to come.

Of course there is always a chance that it will fail miserably and this will be my swan song as a director, but hey, that's the chance you gotta take.

So, make your plans now: November 17-19, 2006. ENMU-R presents: "The Importance of Being Earnest". The first 20 out of towners to respond to this post will receive free tickets to all three performances and a beer. That's right, a beer!

Even Roswell...

every once in a while gets some press. Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting to hang out with Jimmy Santiago Baca for a bit (yes, smoking has its advantages...while everybody is inside, it was me and Jimmy shotting the shit outside). For those of you who might not know who he is, Baca is a poet, novelist and movie maker with more then 14 books to his credit and he made the film "Blood in, Blood out". He's taken in most of the awards there are to get in the field. So needless to say, getting him at our school to give a talk, reading and workshop was a pretty big deal for us.

Let me start my review of his visit by telling you how wonderful of a person Mr. Baca is. It is apparent from the things he does in his life that he cares. He is on the road, working with underprivileged kids, explaining to them why they matter and how poetry matters. He himself has had a tough time of it, spending a long time in prison (where he began to read and write). He has turned down prestigious positions to keep up his work (though he has taken some of them for a while to pay the bills). He has a few travelling companions who were once on the outside of societies graces as well, and who now are poets. That's right, thugs-r-us and we are poets too. How you like me now! Mr. Baca's peeps were as enthusiatic as he was and great to talk to. One of them, Jason Yorcic, has recently got his first book published. I read it. It's not bad for a first book.

Anyway...enough of the ass-kissing. Here's my thought-provoking question of the day. Mr. Baca stresses experiencial writing; writing form experience. He says that's the only way to do it. My question is simple: Do poets like Baca and now Yorcic get the press and publications and awards because of their stories or their work? Does the fact that Baca has gone through so much make him a better poet? Or does it make him a sympathetic poet with a story worth hearing? I'm not sure what I think. I've read three of his books and I think they are okay. But, they speak to lots of people who love them and these are people who would usually scoff at any poetry. I actually have a lot more to say on the subject, but I am more interested in what y'all think.

Any thoughts?

Ouch...that smarts!!!

Monday. Monday. I hope all of your weekends went splendidly. Mine, well, let's just say not so great. Most of the weekend I spent grading papers and entering mid-term grades. Thank goodness that is finished.

But the weekend kicked off with a thud as I was a participant in the Knowledge Bowl. To get an idea of how it went, stick your index finger as far down your throat as you can. You'll know you are there when your plumbing starts going in reverse.

Yes, the Knowledge Bowl was that good. Let me just tell you, I suck. There are lots of excuses I could give (and I will), but the fact of the matter is that I was just no help. Out of a possible 90 questions asked in the three rounds our team was in, our team answered 21 correctly. Out of the 90, I would say only about 70 were answered correctly. 21 was not enough for us to advance to the finals. Of said 21 questions we got right, I correctly answered, hold on, let me count, oh yes, ZERO of them. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Goose Egg. Oh I looked good sure, with my Willie Nelson braids hanging down and my bandana around my head, but unfortunately I also was wearing his thinking cap. Hell, Willie probably would have gotten at least one question.

Now before you start thinking that the game was fixed, or that they only asked math questions, let me just say, it was fixed!!! They only asked Math questions!! No. not really. But, one of the problems is that evidently there is a study guide available on line (who knew) and many of the questions that were asked were directly from the study guide. Some of these people memorized the dang guide!! So they would ask a question "What French" BUZZ.. Answer: Costeau. That is correct. Next question. How can you compete with that. I wouldn't memorize the thing even if I knew it existed and had the time! So, many of the questions I might have known were answered before I knew the question!

Also, the answers bothered me. They would ask a poetry question and I would answer it correctly and they would tell me it wasn't the answer they were looking for. For instance, if they were to ask something like, "name one part of a book" and you said, "the cover", they would say, "I'm sorry, that's not the correct answer. The correct answer was "page". How frustrating is that!?!?!

Anyway, I better stop before my blood pressure goes through the roof. I'll just keep chanting my Lao Tzu mantra: Those who say do not know; those who know do not say...Those who say do not know; those who know do not say...Those who say do not know; those who know do not say...Those who say do not know; those who know do not say...

Much better.

Knowledge Bowl

Tonight I join an elite special task force specially selected to provide the answers to the seemingly unknowable in what is called: The Knowlegde Bowl.

Yes, our team, "The Willie Nelson Preservation Society", will be putting it all on the line as we battle other Grand Puppas in an intellectual bru-ha-ha. There's a rumble in Brighton tonight! Stand back! There's a hurricane coming! Not in the face! Not in the Face! Spoon!!!!

Why our team has that name, I do not know. What I do know is that somehow I got conned into getting braids and wearing a red bandana today. Will the Preservation Society have what it takes to defeat those who would snag our glory? Find out Monday in my next post titled: "Ouch That Smarts!" or "It gave me the Willies!" or "I got buzzed at the Knowledge Bowl"! Until then my fellow brainiacs, have a good weekend and don't be sniffing too much of the Einsteinium!

Misanthropic Poetica

In the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been convinced to put together a manuscript of my poetry to try to get it published. I have struggled with the idea for a long time with the usual questions one might ask oneself regarding putting together such a thing: Is my stuff any good? Who would want to publish it? What is the point of it? I mean, do I need other people to read my work? Do I really feel the need to get rejected over and over again and possible never get a bite?

Tough questions when your work is at stake. Of course, I should mention that its not as if I think my work is the greatest stuff ever inked. Heck, friends who I have the uptmost respect for have gently told me as much. The few publication credits I have are all poems I wouldn't choose to publish myself! But the fact is, there is alot of poetry out there I can't stand that has made its mark, so why not me? Critics of my work say it is too sophmoric, too accessable, and not up to the standard of what "real poetry" is. I won't argue. What do I know...I wrote it. But, I will say that my work is purposefully accessable. Maybe I read too much Taoist and Zen poetry in my life to get away from the simple. Truth and simplicity...what more can a poet aspire toward?

Anyway, with that in mind, I remembered my favorite lines of Moliere's "The Misanthrope". Alceste, while criticizing Oronte's horrible sonnet tells him, "Surely you're under no necessity to compose;/Why you would wish to publish, heaven knows./There's no excuse for printing tedious rot/Unless one writes for bread, as you do not./Resist tempatation, then, I beg of you;/Conceal your pastimes from public view." (Act I, Scene II, lines 174-179).

Why dear Alceste? Why indeed!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's an old british Police Box!?!?

You knew it couldn't be kept away from us for long, didn't you? The new Doctor Who series that ran its first season over the pond last year is coming to the best night of television: sci-fi fridays. That's right, starting March 19th (check your local listings), the Doctor makes his return to America. And this time there's no playing around. It isn't some cheesy Fox movie that sucked for us Doctor Who fans and for anybody else that watched it. No, this time it is for real, and you don't have to wait until 12:30am on a Sunday night to watch it on PBS. No interuptions from telethoners asking you to support great programing like this. You just get all of season one, in order, each week for three months.

Hopefully Sci-Fi will get season two next year. I have seen the whole of season one and it is fantastic. Of course, I have been a Who fan since I was a kid, but I think even those who have never seen it will get a kick out of it and those who might not have liked it in the past might also check it out.

So Sci-Fi hits the mark again. Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, the ever surprising Battlestar Gallactica and now Doctor Who! What will they think of next!?!?