Saturday, June 29, 2019

2018 updates -- complete

News from 2018
(copied from my main updates blog -- and moved here)

recent performances 

  • 12/28/18 filming "Karate Christmas Miracle" playing Laura; d Julie Kimmel; p Ken Del Vecchio
  • 12/23 8 pm PIT Theater -- Mashed Potatoes Holiday Mashup
  • Sketch of NY Alumni Show December 21, 22 and December 23 at 2:45pm Producer's Club d Joe DiNozzi; some sketches here (first 2 written by me. warning: 3rd contains profanity) Transport I; Transport II; Bad Secret Santa
  • 12/16/18 Class show Musical Improv 101 d Eric Gerson, UCB East photos after show
  • Bronx County Chorus,  12/9/18 4pm  -- here's my blog 
  • 12/4/18 "Sleeping Ugly"  at http://www.regalheightsrehab.com/
  • 11/29/18 "Sleeping Ugly" at Joseph Belsky House, Brooklyn, NY
  • 11/27/18 "Sleeping Ugly"  at PS 195, Bronx NY (older group of kids than first performance)
  • 11/26/18 Bronx County Chorus outreach concert, http://kingsharbor.com/ 7pm
  • 11/20/18 "Sleeping Ugly, at Preschool of America, Battery Park
  • 11/19/18 "Sleeping Ugly" at PS 195, Bronx, NY
  • 10/26-28/18  R6 -- 3 private performances in Portland, ME
  • 9/23/18 Cherub improv rehearsal with John Swift
  • 8/18/18 105th Annual Randolph Mountain Club Charades
  • 8/4/18 Participated in the Randolph Foundation Story Slam.  My story can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hxmkL35CQg
  • 7/26/18 9pm ET first airing of "Bizarre Love Triangle" on "The Perfect Murder," Investigation Discovery; can be streamed here https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/the-perfect-murder/full-episodes/bizarre-love-triangle
  • 7/2/18 Diversity Jam & Mixtape at The Magnet Theater https://www.facebook.com/events/232110630903811/
  • 6/5/18 Musical Mixer at Magnet Theater
  • 5/30/18 Mixer at Magnet Theater
  • 5/5/18 improv & monologue with Spooky Doings photos of me on stage
  • 5/4/18 reshooting my music video for my song "Villain Song" Set photos here
  • 4/16/18 "Creative Block" a film I appear in has been selected by the Philadelphia Independent Film Awards -- Please check my blog for other festival information for this film Blog link
  • 4/12/18 Filming "Mandatory Gun Laws," d. Mark Hubatsek
  • 4/8/18 Contestant in Cabaret Showdown https://www.facebook.com/events/222476835160743
  • 4/8/18 Cherub Improv Rehearsal
  • 4/3/18 Diversity Mixer, Magnet Theater
  • 3/18/18, 4p.m.-5:30p.m., "The Boy in the Window," playing "Catherine," d Tym Byrz, The Point CDC, 940 Garrison Ave, Bronx NY 10474, 718-542-4139 -- more info at this blog Boy in the Window blog link to film of part of the performance
  • 3/14/18 release of my webisode for Answers to Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0b_deeT1FU 
  • 3/10/18 filming "Leshiy" playing "Crone" in Rockland County d Ben Anderson & Sawyer Purman
  • 2/8/18 Moriches, NY Filming Episode 501 of The Perfect Murder #ThePerfectMurder playing Mildred -- link to tweet with set photos d Kevin Kaufman @kaufmanfilms on Instagram
  • february: staying home a lot out of fear of flu -- but I did have a couple of gigs on TV shows, but I can't talk about them, because they're confidential -- more later
  • 1/19/18 filming in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, with "Uncomfortable Revolution" http://www.urevolution.com/ -- what not to say to cancer patients
  • 1/16/18 My commercial live on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBQ-xxt40HU
  • 1/16/18 performed in the Magnet Musical Mixer at the Magnet Theater
  • 1/14/18 Filming "Answers to Everything; Episode 2" playing Dena, d Greg Lakhan, Bayside Queens
  • 1/8/18 performed at the Diversity Improv Jam at the Magnet Theater More info about this event
  • 1/6/18 performed with "Spooky Doings" at the Triple Crown Ale House link to FB event link to photos

performance courses completed
  • Musical Improv 101 with Eric Gerson UCB 10/20/18-12/15/18
  • "Musical Improv Power Up" with Jon Bander NYMIF 10/20/18
  • Mary Tierney's acting class at Theater for the New City 1/16/18 instagram photo


Legal courses completed


Misc


Shows & Media consumed this year
  • Josh Groban & Idina Menzel 11/18/18 Madison Square Garden
  • Lucia Micarelli, 11/10/18 Ethical Culture Society
  • Second Boy in the Window workshop at The Point, Bronx, NY.  I wasn't in this one, because it was later in the play that is being written.
  • "Always, Patsy Cline" at the Weathervane Theatre, Whitefield, NH
  • "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at the Weathervane Theatre, Whitefield, NH
  • albums bought recently:  Soundtrack for "Bohemian Rhapsody"; Peter Hollens “Legendary Folk Songs”; Lucia Micarelli “An Evening with Lucia Micarelli” (CD & DVD); Lindsey Stirling “Brave Enough”; Greyson Chance “Somewhere over My Head”; Josh Groban "Bridges" 
  • I'm a subscriber to the NY Philharmonic, so I've been to several of their shows
  • I went to see "Farinelli and the King" on Broadway
  • Movies recently seen in the the theater: Bohemian Rhapsody, BlacKkKlansman, Won't You Be My Neighbor, Ocean's 8 (which I was supposed to be background in, but I'm not visible), Solo: A Star Wars Story, A Wrinkle in Time, The Shape of Water, Black Panther, 
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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Important issues

I've taken a couple of these polls recently where they ask you what issues are important to you.  These polls have been on progressive websites.  I've been short of shocked that they don't mention reform of election law -- given the nightmare we've been through recently.  Here are some possible points


  • elimination of plurality take all voting (12 of 13 swing states in 2016 had no majority winner); 
  • recall elections for federal office (by direct majority vote -- since it's unlikely that small states will agree to eliminate the electoral college for the initial election, but several states have recall elections); 
  • requirement that federal candidates reveal 1040; 
  • candidates receiving political contributions from businesses should be precluded from voting on legislation affecting those businesses; 
  • statutory rubric for invalidating elections where there is substantial foreign interference; 
  • return to paper ballots that are manually counted
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Friday, June 14, 2019

Tulsi Gabbard and Syria

So I'm having a discussion on FB messenger about Tulsi Gabbard. I decided I want to memorialize it here. I'm not going to repeat the words of my interlocutor, just my words. 

This was about Tulsi Gabbard's stand on Syria, her visit to Assad, and her cautious statements about the standard story of who used chemical weapons there. It might be a little hard to follow without his words in between, but I hope you will get the idea. I'm adding some things in square brackets to clarify. I am preserving the structure of the message bubbles in the conversation -- even tho, perhaps, proper editing would suggest combining some of these into paragraphs

********

There are serious questions of who used the chemical weapons

But the point is that we can't help these countries. That's been clearly established in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our military intervention causes enormous suffering, but does not cure the problem. 
We can't help the Syrian people by escalating the war
Remember that the corporate media smears people who are against war. They're part of the military industrial complex
I think there is reason to doubt our government's characterization about what is going on in Syria. They lied to us about Iraq. I don't know that journalists are actually able to investigate this properly, in view of ongoing hostilities
However, I find the US holding chemical weapons while condemning others for using them hypocritical. We dropped napalm and agent orange on Vietnam
 Yet, ultimately, the devastation we wreaked there had no positive effect
We need to remove the log from our own eye first
 As to what happened in Syria, I sympathise with Tulsi for doubting
She went there. She listened to Assad. She made her own decisions as to what to believe.
She was a nurse in Iraq. She saw first hand what happened there. She doesn't want that to happen again. I agree
 My dad came here as a refuge from the holocaust. We bombed Germany, but refused to take refugees [my dad was fortunate to get a student visa]
We fight in Syria. We refuse to take refugees
 I don't know that she believed him [Assad]. But she has doubts.
Granted, I think Obama [who started our involvement] was far more moral than Trump, but that doesn't mean he didn't make any mistakes [e.g. Possibly about chemical weapons]
 We have no moral high ground to stand on here. That is false
Yes, brutal dictators are bad, but what we're doing to the people in the countries we attack is far worse
 War is the greatest human rights violation, aside from genocide
What we did to Vietnam, to Iraq, to Syria is far worse than their governments' abuses
I'm not saying that dictators are good. I'm saying that our military invention is worse, that we can't help those people by intervening militarily. We overthrew Saddam Hussein and instituted violent anarchy.
 Being progressive doesn't mean we have to blindly disagree with Putin about everything
My dad's laboratory in Madison was bombed by student radicals in 1971, who claimed to be trying to achieve peace. They missed the Army Math Research Center and hit my dad's laboratory instead. A student was killed. My dad had to be forcibly restrained from entering the ruins to look for other students. Finally, the fire department went down, and found Dave Schuster under the rubble, still alive, though injured. 
 My dad had no offsite data storage. 25 years of the records of his research were destroyed, research that was part of the basis of the cloudy crystal ball model of the atomic nucleus. 
I have no sympathy for self righteous bombers
 The fact that we've had a good government, at least for white people, domestically, doesn't justify our bombing countries with a worse domestic government. That's nonsense. 
Our international behavior has been, in many cases, execrable

***********

#Tulsi2020 #tusliforpresident #tulsiforpresident2020 #tulsiforamerica #tulsigabbard 
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Sunday, June 9, 2019

Boy in the Window

Here's some information about a show I just completed

Playwright: Jones Price Daniels
Title: "Boy in the Window"
Location: Hudson Guild Theatre/ Summerfest 2019
Director: CJ Williams
Dates: 8/15, 8/17, and 8/18


This production was only 3 scenes from what is going to be a full length musical, ultimately.

Cast interview with me:





This is the ad for the show on New York Festival Site
http://newyorktheaterfestival.com/boy-in-the-window/ 

Meet the Playwright ad in Times Square Chronicles Magazine

Gofundme for this show here If you can't go, it would be particularly helpful if you could donate, because they're going to have ongoing workshops as the playwright works on the script


Previous blog about this show
Cast for this summer


Why you should see this show:

This is an intriguing look at a young, gay, black man trying to find himself. It's actually only three scenes from what will be a full length rap musical.

I find the selection of characters from the urban landscape fascinating. Also the rap fugue that we're going to do is beautiful and moving. 

#nysummerfest2019 #boyinthewindow
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Thursday, May 23, 2019

Abortion is a Blessing

I posted the following on FB

When I was growing up, the mother of one of my friends ran an illegal abortion referral service out of her home. She wrote a book about her experiences, called "Abortion is a Blessing." This book is now out of print, but is available free of charge on the website of The Freedom from Religion Foundation, of which my friend is now president, succeeding her mother. I started reading this book, but found it too upsetting, because of the extreme hardships imposed upon pregnant teenage girls who couldn't get abortions. Perhaps people will want to read it

https://ffrf.org/legacy/books/AIAB/

*****

It appears that FB is blocking the above post as violating community standards.

I protest. I don't think this should be blocked. It's not fake news. My friend's mom's act of civil disobedience should be discussable.

Addendum:

I may have misinterpreted the message I got from FB. It arrears appears that people did see my post  after all



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Friday, April 19, 2019

April updates

I have a new reel


I've been performing with Cherub Improv, a volunteer group that performs in hospitals, nursing homes, and for young people -- and also gives workshops.  I've got an agent in L.A. now, so I'm hoping that will prove fruitful.

I was in a children's production of the Wizard of Oz April 7, where I played both the wicked witch and Glinda. Here are some photos on Instagram 




My art show has been moving through some libraries in Brooklyn: Borough Park, Mapleton, and now Cortelyou.  Flyer for my current art show


The most recent movie I saw was "Alita Battle Angel."  I also went to see Aladdin on Broadway.

I was recruited to file an amicus curiae brief in SCOTUS, which was due on tax day, so I had a hectic weekend.

 Upcoming choral concert.


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Thursday, April 18, 2019

Impeach? Or invalidate?

The Mueller report apparently concluded that there was substantial interference, but could not prove that Trump colluded with the Russians. Why is collusions dispositive? Wasn't the election nevertheless invalid, independent of collusion?  

People are assuming that SCOTUS wouldn't invalidate it, because there is no constitutional provision for such an action —  but courts in other countries have invalidated elections where there was sufficient tampering. I wonder if they were following constitutional mechanisms, or just flying by the seat of their pants.

The constitution has been interpreted to incorporate the English Common law, wherever that law was not abrogated by specific constitutional or statutory provisions.  The Common Law is a system of cases dating back for hundreds, maybe even over a thousand years.  Many aspects of our law, such as the “reasonable man” standard for negligence arose out of the English Common Law.

The English Common Law, historically, had two parts.  One part was called “law” and one part was called “equity.”  “Equity” included injunctions and laches.  The idea of “equity” was that where the result of law was too harsh, or non-sensical, a judge could, in limited cases, substitute his own judgment for the law.

Certainly, contracts are always voidable for fraud in the inducement, even if there is no provision in the contract for voiding them.  It seems to me that, by analogy, a statutory election could be invalidated given sufficient tampering or fraud.

Perhaps we ought to be considering a constitutional amendment regarding when tampering would give rise to invalidating an election, but maybe it isn’t necessary.  

It disturbs me that no one is considering this possibility.  No collusion, in everyone’s minds, means Trump until 2020, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
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