Saturday, October 23, 2010
The View From Where I'll Be
A new friend gave me a perfect book yesterday....listen to this from Eric Maisel's A Writer's San Francisco:
"I 'm American by birth but an urban writer by nature. My true homes are Paris, London,
New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, and the world's resonant cities. I am calmest in a Paris jostle a
Manhattan stampede and edgiest hiking a mountain trail or shopping at WalMart. Everything in
the universe may be equally spiritual but not equally congenial to a blue-state person like myself
with a horror of orthodoxy and of the grandiosity of ordinary people.
I need cafés, video stores that stock independent films, and bars where everyone is an
outsider....I need a place a full standard deviation above the mean....where, when a house
catches on fire, half the people who rush out to watch are Spanish-speaking ladies
and the other half are working - from - home lesbian graphic artists."
And there's a sentence or two in those first paragraphs about needing a place "with more knowing smiles than blank stares and more wry asides than hate-filled sermons"....but we can get to all that later, since I have a feeling this book given to me by my new friend Leslie will have a lot more I will wish to quote from, and let you all share. This book already speaks to my soul, and I am grateful for it. Thank you, Leslie....and for the Virginia - California mixtape as well....when was the last time you guys got a mixtape from a new friend? I feel , gratefully, like I'm back in high school, waiting for my future to begin with a new person I have a crush on, and the new person in this case is a new city: San Francisco, and my new friend Leslie is the high school pal who got us together and knows more than we do...which in this case is accurate, since she has lived in my new city love, and does indeed know more about it than I do! And she gave us a mixtape to play along the way!!! I mean, c'mon! How perfect is that?
She also loaned me my first Jeannette Walls book, and I am deep down into it already, and am at that stage where I resent having to do a matinee because it will get in the way of my reading this book! I can barely wait to get back to it later this afternoon and will probably be able to return it to Leslie on Monday! The 2011 Big Read I am trying to put into place before I leave ( so that my successor will have something to work with and put more firmly into place and succeed) is being built around our book of choice Great Tale and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe and the community theme is about creativity and mental illness: the fine line between the two. So we chose a writer who was plagued by mental health issues all his creative career, and Leslie is the new person at our local Library and she is being a tremendous help in getting these initial parts of the Read together with me. I am grateful for that, but am most grateful for a new friend that speaks so clearly to my sensibilities.
It's of course quite strange the way these things are falling into my path: a book by SF Chronicle writer Adair Lara practically falling into my hands at the local Barnes and Noble, that has resulted in my enrolling in my first SF writers workshop....a new person at our local Library who has lived in SF....(she could have landed at any other business in this town, but it's the Library of all places, where we were fated to meet, underscoring all sorts of themes lacing together the quilt of my imagined future there in that city...), but if there's one thing I've learned in my long life so far, it's to trust what naturally comes my way with ease and surprising resonance.
So, this new book, that has in its title two of my newest favorite words: "writer", and "San Francisco":
thank you, Leslie. It is sitting here on the table, pulsing with life, beckoning me to make a cup of coffee and snuggle down on the sofa with it, crack it's sweet pages and dive into the view it presents: the view from where I'll soon be living.
My heart is racing.
"I 'm American by birth but an urban writer by nature. My true homes are Paris, London,
New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, and the world's resonant cities. I am calmest in a Paris jostle a
Manhattan stampede and edgiest hiking a mountain trail or shopping at WalMart. Everything in
the universe may be equally spiritual but not equally congenial to a blue-state person like myself
with a horror of orthodoxy and of the grandiosity of ordinary people.
I need cafés, video stores that stock independent films, and bars where everyone is an
outsider....I need a place a full standard deviation above the mean....where, when a house
catches on fire, half the people who rush out to watch are Spanish-speaking ladies
and the other half are working - from - home lesbian graphic artists."
And there's a sentence or two in those first paragraphs about needing a place "with more knowing smiles than blank stares and more wry asides than hate-filled sermons"....but we can get to all that later, since I have a feeling this book given to me by my new friend Leslie will have a lot more I will wish to quote from, and let you all share. This book already speaks to my soul, and I am grateful for it. Thank you, Leslie....and for the Virginia - California mixtape as well....when was the last time you guys got a mixtape from a new friend? I feel , gratefully, like I'm back in high school, waiting for my future to begin with a new person I have a crush on, and the new person in this case is a new city: San Francisco, and my new friend Leslie is the high school pal who got us together and knows more than we do...which in this case is accurate, since she has lived in my new city love, and does indeed know more about it than I do! And she gave us a mixtape to play along the way!!! I mean, c'mon! How perfect is that?
She also loaned me my first Jeannette Walls book, and I am deep down into it already, and am at that stage where I resent having to do a matinee because it will get in the way of my reading this book! I can barely wait to get back to it later this afternoon and will probably be able to return it to Leslie on Monday! The 2011 Big Read I am trying to put into place before I leave ( so that my successor will have something to work with and put more firmly into place and succeed) is being built around our book of choice Great Tale and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe and the community theme is about creativity and mental illness: the fine line between the two. So we chose a writer who was plagued by mental health issues all his creative career, and Leslie is the new person at our local Library and she is being a tremendous help in getting these initial parts of the Read together with me. I am grateful for that, but am most grateful for a new friend that speaks so clearly to my sensibilities.
It's of course quite strange the way these things are falling into my path: a book by SF Chronicle writer Adair Lara practically falling into my hands at the local Barnes and Noble, that has resulted in my enrolling in my first SF writers workshop....a new person at our local Library who has lived in SF....(she could have landed at any other business in this town, but it's the Library of all places, where we were fated to meet, underscoring all sorts of themes lacing together the quilt of my imagined future there in that city...), but if there's one thing I've learned in my long life so far, it's to trust what naturally comes my way with ease and surprising resonance.
So, this new book, that has in its title two of my newest favorite words: "writer", and "San Francisco":
thank you, Leslie. It is sitting here on the table, pulsing with life, beckoning me to make a cup of coffee and snuggle down on the sofa with it, crack it's sweet pages and dive into the view it presents: the view from where I'll soon be living.
My heart is racing.
Labels: San Francisco, Writing
Friday, October 22, 2010
GOING PUBLIC!!!
Funny....how many times I write the word "pubic" when what I mean is "public"...in fact, what isn't all that funny is what a bad typist I am...never took a course in how to do it right, so I learned how to type really fast using two fingers...I use more fingers now, but my technique is so bad, i am so untrained, i practically make up my own language as I go...but by the time you all see what I write I have cleaned it up, and it's therefore readable.
Soon, however, maybe in this very blog entry, i may leave a sentence or two as I originally type it and then provide a translation....it should provide a laugh or two!
I sent word out to a lot of people today that my blog is available for them to read, and i told them all they had to do was go to www.evalynbaron.com and click on the "blog" button and they'd get to these entries. Lots of people told me in response that they already follow my blog...and for that I am grateful, as I have written before. But now I want to begin to take my writing more seriously, and so i want to encourage others to not only read me, but comment and dialogue with me as well...on the blog style, technique, content,etc.
It will never be what is commonly referred to as a political blog...if anything substantive will be written in these particular spaces, it will be about art, theatre, life, acting, creativity and love...maybe it can become the place where all my acting students, past, present, future, can talk to me about their needs and problems...maybe it can become a forum for that sort of discussion...i would always welcome discussions of that nature, and in fact if any of you are reading this: go ahead: ASK! Give me your tired rehearsal questions, your hungry career questions, your poor confusions that yearn to breathe the free air of productivity: and I will answer you , I promise!
I will never give advice on most things writers give advice about, because I know so little, really, about finance, politics, tech issues, gaming, computer problems or anything like that...but I do know about acting, and I do know about teaching it, and i do know a passion when I see and read one....so, be not afraid, dear pals: ask me things....bring up a topic or two...let's rumble!
I would love this blog to be a pkaxw qhew I xould get thigns off my chest - and where others can too, not being afraind....(OKAY, now the previous words and attempts at making a sentence are good examples of how I can usually type and make a mess of things, in that attempt to make sense...fun, isn't it? I mean another language is right there, isn't it?)
Anyway: i 'd love to get truly enraged in this blog...take no prisoners, name names and place blame...become a bitchy blogger...truly lambaste those who I think are untrue, untrustworthy, un-lots of things....I'd love to raise hell and tell truths as I see them...and maybe, when one day I am provoked enough, I will do just that...but for now, I still feel the constraints of good manners holding me back, and, besides, I've been reprimanded enough in the past to still feel wary of talking candidly....and that is not a bad thing...i have had to learn some hard and valuable lessons about good taste, consideration for others, and carfulness...and i hope I have learned them....but there are things that do need saying...and maybe one day soon, those things will be said...by me, as representing only my P.O.V., and no one else's...but that could be genuine contributions to the popular dialogue.
I truly do not want this to become a gossip blog: but I do want it to be engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.
And so, the rambles shall continue: stick with me, and we will go down roads where the shopping will be interesting, the fruits juicy and with lots of benches along the way to sit on and rest! I will write, and you will read, and together we will create new avenues of shared thought.
Let's.
But for now - after a rigorous performance of WHERE TROUBLE SLEEPS - i must to bed, perchance to dream about the fog horn gods of San Francisco Bay and how they are waiting for me to return!
'Night all.
Soon, however, maybe in this very blog entry, i may leave a sentence or two as I originally type it and then provide a translation....it should provide a laugh or two!
I sent word out to a lot of people today that my blog is available for them to read, and i told them all they had to do was go to www.evalynbaron.com and click on the "blog" button and they'd get to these entries. Lots of people told me in response that they already follow my blog...and for that I am grateful, as I have written before. But now I want to begin to take my writing more seriously, and so i want to encourage others to not only read me, but comment and dialogue with me as well...on the blog style, technique, content,etc.
It will never be what is commonly referred to as a political blog...if anything substantive will be written in these particular spaces, it will be about art, theatre, life, acting, creativity and love...maybe it can become the place where all my acting students, past, present, future, can talk to me about their needs and problems...maybe it can become a forum for that sort of discussion...i would always welcome discussions of that nature, and in fact if any of you are reading this: go ahead: ASK! Give me your tired rehearsal questions, your hungry career questions, your poor confusions that yearn to breathe the free air of productivity: and I will answer you , I promise!
I will never give advice on most things writers give advice about, because I know so little, really, about finance, politics, tech issues, gaming, computer problems or anything like that...but I do know about acting, and I do know about teaching it, and i do know a passion when I see and read one....so, be not afraid, dear pals: ask me things....bring up a topic or two...let's rumble!
I would love this blog to be a pkaxw qhew I xould get thigns off my chest - and where others can too, not being afraind....(OKAY, now the previous words and attempts at making a sentence are good examples of how I can usually type and make a mess of things, in that attempt to make sense...fun, isn't it? I mean another language is right there, isn't it?)
Anyway: i 'd love to get truly enraged in this blog...take no prisoners, name names and place blame...become a bitchy blogger...truly lambaste those who I think are untrue, untrustworthy, un-lots of things....I'd love to raise hell and tell truths as I see them...and maybe, when one day I am provoked enough, I will do just that...but for now, I still feel the constraints of good manners holding me back, and, besides, I've been reprimanded enough in the past to still feel wary of talking candidly....and that is not a bad thing...i have had to learn some hard and valuable lessons about good taste, consideration for others, and carfulness...and i hope I have learned them....but there are things that do need saying...and maybe one day soon, those things will be said...by me, as representing only my P.O.V., and no one else's...but that could be genuine contributions to the popular dialogue.
I truly do not want this to become a gossip blog: but I do want it to be engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.
And so, the rambles shall continue: stick with me, and we will go down roads where the shopping will be interesting, the fruits juicy and with lots of benches along the way to sit on and rest! I will write, and you will read, and together we will create new avenues of shared thought.
Let's.
But for now - after a rigorous performance of WHERE TROUBLE SLEEPS - i must to bed, perchance to dream about the fog horn gods of San Francisco Bay and how they are waiting for me to return!
'Night all.
Labels: Writing
Friday, September 17, 2010
Writing the Future
"Fabulous, fresh early morning in this lovely town: cool, moist harbinger of a delicious Fall to come: all seems possible."
I'm quoting myself above - a post I put on FB yesterday morning...and it got such sweet response from people, all of whom complimented me on my way with words, my ability to describe...I mean, people are so very nice when it comes to my casual writing, and I really appreciate their comments, because I love to write , have written privately for so long, and am about to leap of the cliff of the "Familiar" out into the limitless space of the "Unknown" and writing is the very thing I want to be able to hang my hat on, so to speak...
I no longer care if I am identified as an actress or director anymore...not that I don't deeply appreciate all I've gone through to accomplish what I've accomplished through the years - I honestly am grateful for every bit of experience and success (and even the failures) that I've had...no ...don't misunderstand me: I love the life in the theatre that I've had...i honor it...and highly value every moment of it...i do NOT take it all for granted. Truly, I do not.
I am glad for it.
But, at my advanced age (!!) I understand now that life has so much more to it - has so much more for all of us - than the titles we assign ourselves early in our lives. When we are younger, it's important for us to be able to define who we are by a phrase, usually associated with what we do to earn money: "I am a lawyer"..."I am an architect"..."What I do is TV commercials"..I am what I do...etc...Much like beginning acting students who, early in their training seem to need a definitive technique, usually associated with some famous teacher or writer of acting texts, to tell them HOW to do it, HOW to become a good actor...and later they learn that to be a truly fine actor requires an open-ness to all techniques, a willingness to use whatever makes the building of the character they play fullest, most resonant, truest...we respond to what is needed.
ANd, the way I'm feeling now - with San Francisco looming on the horizon - is more open, willing and sensitive than I've ever been in my entire life, to what is needed...what will be called for...what will be asked of me in the service of fully expressing my self, my life in the service of improving this planet.
And if that means writing a book to tell about the true love of an odd family-so be it...if it means volunteering in a museum, or feeding the hungry...okay! If it means directing kids in a musical over in Berkeley, I'll do that...but if it means sitting by the side of the Pacific and doing nothing but think,inquire, analyze, meditate? THen I will somehow find the patience and endurance to let my self be still.
My problem has never been finding things to DO...my life has never wanted for "busy-ness". The real challenge for the coming time is learning how to be still, how to trust, and how to enjoy the stillness.
I'm practically joyous ( some days) with the anticipation of the fears I will feel...i almost welcome them as signs of growth and expansion into areas of my self-expression yet to be discovered.
What will be? Will definitely be. ANd my blood rushes at the very thought.
I'm quoting myself above - a post I put on FB yesterday morning...and it got such sweet response from people, all of whom complimented me on my way with words, my ability to describe...I mean, people are so very nice when it comes to my casual writing, and I really appreciate their comments, because I love to write , have written privately for so long, and am about to leap of the cliff of the "Familiar" out into the limitless space of the "Unknown" and writing is the very thing I want to be able to hang my hat on, so to speak...
I no longer care if I am identified as an actress or director anymore...not that I don't deeply appreciate all I've gone through to accomplish what I've accomplished through the years - I honestly am grateful for every bit of experience and success (and even the failures) that I've had...no ...don't misunderstand me: I love the life in the theatre that I've had...i honor it...and highly value every moment of it...i do NOT take it all for granted. Truly, I do not.
I am glad for it.
But, at my advanced age (!!) I understand now that life has so much more to it - has so much more for all of us - than the titles we assign ourselves early in our lives. When we are younger, it's important for us to be able to define who we are by a phrase, usually associated with what we do to earn money: "I am a lawyer"..."I am an architect"..."What I do is TV commercials"..I am what I do...etc...Much like beginning acting students who, early in their training seem to need a definitive technique, usually associated with some famous teacher or writer of acting texts, to tell them HOW to do it, HOW to become a good actor...and later they learn that to be a truly fine actor requires an open-ness to all techniques, a willingness to use whatever makes the building of the character they play fullest, most resonant, truest...we respond to what is needed.
ANd, the way I'm feeling now - with San Francisco looming on the horizon - is more open, willing and sensitive than I've ever been in my entire life, to what is needed...what will be called for...what will be asked of me in the service of fully expressing my self, my life in the service of improving this planet.
And if that means writing a book to tell about the true love of an odd family-so be it...if it means volunteering in a museum, or feeding the hungry...okay! If it means directing kids in a musical over in Berkeley, I'll do that...but if it means sitting by the side of the Pacific and doing nothing but think,inquire, analyze, meditate? THen I will somehow find the patience and endurance to let my self be still.
My problem has never been finding things to DO...my life has never wanted for "busy-ness". The real challenge for the coming time is learning how to be still, how to trust, and how to enjoy the stillness.
I'm practically joyous ( some days) with the anticipation of the fears I will feel...i almost welcome them as signs of growth and expansion into areas of my self-expression yet to be discovered.
What will be? Will definitely be. ANd my blood rushes at the very thought.
Labels: San Francisco, Writing
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Today Is My Birthday
.....and all the Happy Birthday greetings i've received on Facebook, without the day even really starting yet, remind me how rich and complex my life has been , so far. Facebook is a modern miracle ,isn't it? The electronic gathering of years' memories, forgotten friends, moments thought lost in time forever, only to have them re-surface in a very immediate, colorful, present manner: Facebook is our true commune, our local village, our campfire....
Pretty stunning ,really, when you stop to think about it: to be able to hear from so many people so instantaneously, cutting across years of forgotten time....it's a mere hop, skip and jump to actual atomic travel: i wish I were at Sea Ranch, and POOF!!! I'm there in an eye's blink! At last, no more need to board an airplane...just think it, and you're there! Of course, if I am scared of plane flight, i can't imagine I'd actually trust all my personal molecules to get anywhere at the same time....imagine losing that luggage??? But I'd be willing to give it a try if it happens in my lifetime!
Lifetime: the time a life spans for a single human being. It's not that I feel I am getting old...that's never bothered me..it's that running out of time thing that gives me pause. Each superb experience I've been having in my life these past years makes me realize how powerful this living is, and if it's this good this late in my life, I must trust it will only get better as I continue to gather more wisdom and experience, including the gliding into the last quarter of my life: aging. And when I think of it like that - trusting and anticipating with joy the adventures ahead - I am fine. Very fine indeed.
My Barter Adult Acting Class alone is enough to give me all the joy I need for now: it continues to be one of the better adventures of my creative life. We have just begun the 4th session of it - with a core of devoted regulars surrounded by gifted newcomers - and the waiting list continues to grow. Clearly, there is a need in this community for a class like this: where men and women with a love for theatre, an idea about learning how to act in front of an audience, a passion for live expression of this sort, can go on a regular basis and work it out. Each class gets better and better. More surprises each time, better work each time, more commitment each time from more and more students. I truly love this class.
It gives me back incalculably, more than I could ever give to these students. Odd how the Education component of my Barter life has taken precedence over pretty much all else...i mean, I am enjoying the process of directing TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE - Gannon M. and Danny V. are gifted and good men to work with - and the process of dissecting, discussing and forming the event has been stimulating. The show will be good. I am reasonably sure the audiences will receive something valuable from this production. THey will be moved to laughter and to many cleansing tears, no doubt. It's a powerful piece of theatre. But, I am consumed with getting Spring and Summer classes up and running...challenged by the possibilities of how to bring more theatre education to more and more people of all ages. And,so far, each experiment in scheduling has been successful. Having a devoted small core of teachers at this point only helps make it all easier, especially since they are all such good teachers, as well as devoted people. And so my Outreach work has taken true precedence over what used to be the core of my life: acting and directing. This continues to surprise me , strangely, because I've thought of myself as an actor for so many years, but it also feels totally right and natural for this time in my life: the next level, if you will.
Soon, I'll have to start rehearsals for the shows RIck has cast me in for the remainder of this season, and that will be an interesting shift of energies. It will certainly be a drain on the number of hours I will be able to spend at my Outreach desk...but, well, we'll see how that goes. There'll probably be a lot of changes happening , and I anticipate all of them with excitement - some fear - but mostly happiness, as the sun rises on this day of my birth: Happy Birthday to me! And to all of you, I send love.
Pretty stunning ,really, when you stop to think about it: to be able to hear from so many people so instantaneously, cutting across years of forgotten time....it's a mere hop, skip and jump to actual atomic travel: i wish I were at Sea Ranch, and POOF!!! I'm there in an eye's blink! At last, no more need to board an airplane...just think it, and you're there! Of course, if I am scared of plane flight, i can't imagine I'd actually trust all my personal molecules to get anywhere at the same time....imagine losing that luggage??? But I'd be willing to give it a try if it happens in my lifetime!
Lifetime: the time a life spans for a single human being. It's not that I feel I am getting old...that's never bothered me..it's that running out of time thing that gives me pause. Each superb experience I've been having in my life these past years makes me realize how powerful this living is, and if it's this good this late in my life, I must trust it will only get better as I continue to gather more wisdom and experience, including the gliding into the last quarter of my life: aging. And when I think of it like that - trusting and anticipating with joy the adventures ahead - I am fine. Very fine indeed.
My Barter Adult Acting Class alone is enough to give me all the joy I need for now: it continues to be one of the better adventures of my creative life. We have just begun the 4th session of it - with a core of devoted regulars surrounded by gifted newcomers - and the waiting list continues to grow. Clearly, there is a need in this community for a class like this: where men and women with a love for theatre, an idea about learning how to act in front of an audience, a passion for live expression of this sort, can go on a regular basis and work it out. Each class gets better and better. More surprises each time, better work each time, more commitment each time from more and more students. I truly love this class.
It gives me back incalculably, more than I could ever give to these students. Odd how the Education component of my Barter life has taken precedence over pretty much all else...i mean, I am enjoying the process of directing TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE - Gannon M. and Danny V. are gifted and good men to work with - and the process of dissecting, discussing and forming the event has been stimulating. The show will be good. I am reasonably sure the audiences will receive something valuable from this production. THey will be moved to laughter and to many cleansing tears, no doubt. It's a powerful piece of theatre. But, I am consumed with getting Spring and Summer classes up and running...challenged by the possibilities of how to bring more theatre education to more and more people of all ages. And,so far, each experiment in scheduling has been successful. Having a devoted small core of teachers at this point only helps make it all easier, especially since they are all such good teachers, as well as devoted people. And so my Outreach work has taken true precedence over what used to be the core of my life: acting and directing. This continues to surprise me , strangely, because I've thought of myself as an actor for so many years, but it also feels totally right and natural for this time in my life: the next level, if you will.
Soon, I'll have to start rehearsals for the shows RIck has cast me in for the remainder of this season, and that will be an interesting shift of energies. It will certainly be a drain on the number of hours I will be able to spend at my Outreach desk...but, well, we'll see how that goes. There'll probably be a lot of changes happening , and I anticipate all of them with excitement - some fear - but mostly happiness, as the sun rises on this day of my birth: Happy Birthday to me! And to all of you, I send love.
Labels: Adult Classes, Facebook, Writing
