I voted early in Ohio YEEEAH!

This picture is taken from a 1912 Suffrage March in New York City. Sometimes it's important to take a moment to stop and appreciate the right to vote. It's pretty crazy that women have only had that right for 88 years.

Standing in line today in the basement of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in downtown Cleveland, I was only mildly irritated at having to wait for an hour and half to receive my ballot. Mostly I was just really excited to vote and the mood there was surprisingly cheery. Filling out my paper ballot I made sure to go over it multiple times just to make sure there was no way for it to disqualified, and then I sealed it and put it in the ballot box. Pretty simple.

4 More Days! I know there are a lot of people who are feeling really scared and cautious, understandably so, but I say, what's wrong with hope? Just go for it. Get excited. Put all your positive energy towards Obama out there. Believe.

People are Awesome

So I'm in Chicago right now visiting friends, which has been excellent, and a few of them turned me onto what's probably the best site I've seen to come out of this election. If you haven't already seen it, you have to check it out. Drag your mouse around and explore the brilliance.

And while I'm on the topic of awesome and funny political sites and videos, the McCain Obama Dance Off is another classic. I really don't know how people do this stuff.




Keep hope alive

I'm sick of you being so dark when I'm so impish and whimsical!

Now I'm suddenly all about the video links because I've finally learned how to do it. So this clip is from "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" starring John C Reily (DePaul Alum) and the movie is a touch on the dumb side but this Beatles scene had me hysterically laughing and this line that Jack Black says as Paul McCartney is one of my new favorite movie lines ever.

On to some high art. There's an interview in this weekend's NY Times with actor-director Simon McBurney who's directing the current Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" and he has some very insightful and inspiring words which cut to the heart of what I believe is so powerful and unique about theatre:

"The only reality of the theater exists in the mind of the audience. That audience looks collectively at what is going on on the stage and collectively imagines that this is real. ... But what is more fundamental is the notion that when everybody laughs together or, last night, when I heard people around me collectively sobbing, at that moment we are bound together not by our bodies sitting in the theater but by a collective imagination. At that moment we understand the lie that what we think is only our own, that our internal lives are only our own. At that point our collective imaginations become one imagination and my internal life becomes the same as your internal life, which is what Aristotle understood when he analyzed tragedy. It’s a collective act in which we collectively understand something about being a community together. The moment we understand that, feel it, we feel a kind of responsibility in which we must collectively help and take responsibility for each other. That is part of the definition of our humanity and, if you like, if it’s not a contradiction in terms, our animal humanity. Of course, that is part of what “All My Sons” is about."

Collective imagination. Animal humanity. Word.

A Little Theatre Humor for Ya

So you have to be a little bit of a fan of Beckett and/or Charlie Rose to fully appreciate this video, but it is just done so well that I had to share it. The more you watch it, the funnier it gets, truly. Thanks to Michael for the link and to Bob for helping me figure out how to post videos. I'm a little slow with the technology, so bear with me folks.

Clevelanders: 11 more performances to go for "Goldstar,Ohio" so come check it out

New Yorkers: 15 more days until I'm back in the city so get ready for that- i miss you!

Holla!

So we had our opening weekend of "Goldstar, Ohio," and there is a very nice review in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Thank you, Tony Brown.

So now I have a few days off and I'm going to chill in Columbus with my dad, and I'd like to share a few recipes with you.

Here's one for a vegan challah from my fav vegan website, post punk kitchen and here is one for a more traditional challah recipe. Making challah is time consuming but really fun. Kneading dough can be really therapeutic. Also since the Thanksgiving holiday is approaching, here's a good one for a vegan pumpkin pie.

I'm feeling all homemakery now like I should give decorating tips, but I'm not really good at that stuff at all. Here's to fall! Go find some leaves to play in.

Plug Plug

So "Goldstar, Ohio" had its first preview last night and we open on Saturday- very exciting. There's been some good local press so far- the playwright, Michael Tisdale, was interviewed Wednesday morning on this wacky Cleveland morning show, "That's Life" with Robin Swoboda, and there's a little video clip of a rehearsal in there as well. There's also a nice article this week in the Cleveland Scene. So check that out, and tell everyone you know in Cleveland to come see this play!

And it's been cloudy and dreary for the past few days so here's a picture to cheer us all up.

Cornhole

I learned a new game this weekend that is apparently an Ohio tradition and it's called cornhole My boyfriend doesn't believe that it exists, but here is the proof. It's actually a pretty fun game especially when you get one in the hole. (I can't write that without feeling a little dirty.) On that same day I also played in a multi-age kickball game with an oversize ball AND went bowling in my neighborhood at a totally classic bowling alley where you still have to score yourself on paper and you can watch the ball come back to you on the ramp. I'm not a stellar bowler by any means, and in general, I don't really excel at sports, but whenever I do have a sporty day, I'm reminded of how fun it is to get outside and run around and be competitive. It's good for you.

OMG

So I meant to post this on Sunday, but my internet connection has been totally on the fritz. Sorry for the delay.

After a grueling 12-hr day of tech rehearsal Saturday, I found it quite refreshing Sunday morning, on my day off, to leisurely ride my bike to the laundromat. It was a gorgeous day, and as I rode through my neighborhood, I enjoyed noticing the political signs people had on their lawns. I felt a surge of happiness each time I passed one of the many Obama-Biden signs, but every time I passed a McCain-Palin sign, I just felt like saying, Boooo!, and I wondered about the people living in these houses.

So I don't know what rock I've been living under but I only recently learned about the reports of McCain-Palin supporters shouting "Kill him" and "Terrorist" at rallies, which totally floored me. (see Frank Rich's article in the New York Times this weekend for a great analysis about that) But then I discovered something even more bizarre.

The Pray for Sarah Palin website includes a prayer map that records the number of people praying for Sarah Palin- currently up to 4864 in 3113 different zip codes throughout every single state. There is a pledge at the bottom that says, "I pledge to pray for peace, protection, and wisdom for Sarah Palin and her family." Okay, the wisdom part, yeah, I guess she could use some of that, but under Why You Should Pray is a quote from Ephesians stating "put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil." Hmm, I wonder who the evil enemy is this scenario? I know that I shouldn't really be shocked by this, but I find this tactic of pandering to people's fears and breaking everything into a good vs. evil dichotomy to be incredibly repellent. The most disturbing part is that is works- history has shown that in times of instability, the general public is very vulnerable to scare tactics- it's more comforting to identify a source of "evil" that you can fight against than to grapple with a much more complex issue that lacks any easy answers.

I'm still working on seeing whether or not I can vote in Ohio. Three weeks left! Wow.

Warm Fuzzy Vs. Cold Prickly

So I was talking to my brother the other day and he was explaining how my 3-yr-old nephew has a poster at school of a Cold Prickly Character and a Warm Fuzzy Character and the teacher encourages them to act warm fuzzy towards each other and not cold prickly, and I thought that was a pretty awesome philosophy. So in an effort to cultivate some warm fuzziness I thought I'd dedicate this post to one of my favorite things- snuggly puppies like this one above. That makes me endlessly happy.

All too often I find it's very easy for things to get me in a cold prickly mood-- rainy dreary weather, rude people, dealing with insurance and phone bills and other super irritating phone calls where you have to go through a 10-minute long menu before you can talk to a real person. But, I do find, though, that when I look for it, there are so many moments in a day that can lift my spirits- like seeing a cute puppy or a beautiful fountain or kids being funny or the bus driver waiting for someone who is running to make the bus. Good things are out there and good people are out there and sometimes it just feels good to remember that.

Speaking of good things, the writer and director of "Goldstar, Ohio" were featured on Cleveland Public Radio yesterday- it was a really great segment about theatre and politics--the whole thing is about an hour long and they come on for the last 15 minutes, so check that out. We open in a week so spread the word!

What is the Deal with People Not Voting?

Ok, so yesterday was the last day to register to vote in Ohio so I was out there on the streets trying to scrounge up the last few voters who have yet to register. We were supposed to stick to 1 location so they had me posted all day outside a Family Dollar store in Lakewood. Overall, people were pretty nice and I ended up registering 9 voters, which was great, but once again, (Walmart Redux) I was shocked by the number of people who said that they did NOT vote. Even more surprising, this was coming from a cross section of people- young, old, male, female, black, white. Their responses were so ridiculous I started writing them down. Here are a few of highlights:

-You know what they say? Don't vote. It only encourages them.
-Never voted, never will! It's all politics, they're going to put whoever they want in there.
-I voted 3 times against Bush and look what happened, so I don't vote anymore.
-No, I don't want to. I'm not gonna be a part of it.

These are people who are watching their wallets and obviously care about the economy, but they feel alienated from their government. Coming from a place of privilege, it's easy for me to be optimistic and say, this presidential election is incredibly important and it WILL have an effect on individual's lives, but part of me understands why people feel turned off from politics. This is the part that is totally terrified that Sarah Palin is enticing people with her winks and "middle class values" and "I'm gonna talk straight to the American people."

I don't really know how to appeal to the non voters at Family Dollar. The ones I encountered seemed so set in their ways, I doubted anything I could say would influence them. It's clearly a sign of a much larger and more complex issue in our country of people not voting. I'm interested in what people have to say about this. Why do you vote?

Good Thing, Bad Thing

The awesome children's theatre troupe I was a part of at Tufts University (Traveling Treasure Trunk) had a great way of starting each rehearsal where we would go around and say one good thing and one bad thing from our day. So in that spirit, here is my good thing bad thing for the week.

BAD Thing:
So after having a great day registering 23 voters yesterday at Bryant and Stratton College, today I was back in Brooklyn, OH stationed outside of a Walmart. I had huge reservations about canvassing in that type of location but apparently we were given permission by the manager to be there. Well, I lasted about 30 minutes before I was like, get me out of here! First of all, it was a really cold and windy day and I'm a total baby about being cold. Second of all, it's really challenging to try to talk to people as they are on their way to or from shopping, and thirdly and most unfortunately, most of these people were really unpleasant! On a given day canvassing for 5 hours, I usually have 1 maybe 2 people whose response to voting is a flat out "No. I don't vote." I got 5 or 6 of those responses in half an hour- I was floored, totally dejected, and ended up coming home early. Here's a well written article from a few years ago about the dangers of Walmart.

Ok now for my
GOOD Thing:
My boyfriend was recently here visiting from New York (obviously GOOD thing) and we went to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, which was mostly memorabilia, but all in all, a pretty good time. Nestled in the basement level, though, was a small artifact that blew my mind and instantly made the entire museum worthwhile: a handwritten four page letter that Madonna wrote in 1977 during the fall of her freshman year at the University of Michigan to her good friend that was in college in Montreal. She wrote something like- I know my dad is going to be disappointed but I'm planning on dropping out after this semester- I just have to get to New York- She already seemed so sure of herself and what she wanted. Say what you want about Madonna, but the woman knows how to go after her dreams, and on days when I'm feeling uncertain about life, she's all I need for a little boost.