WCArts Blog

We Don't Do Porn -- a new music video from WCProductions

2009-02-23T17:51:00.001-06:00

Whenever we mention our name, WCProduction (Wet City Productions), there's always a looks or a question which we have a standard response -- We Don't Do Porn -- and we really don't. check out the website for more music videos, short films, comedies, etc.

It's Madeline Long in "The Illusioness"

2009-02-14T16:15:00.001-06:00

It's Madeline Long attempting one of the riskiest illusions in the history of magic. Even the great Harry Houdini never dared take this challenge (and we're pretty sure the Davids Blaine and Copperfield don't even know about it).

Madeline, on acting in Chicago

2008-12-23T09:32:00.003-06:00

My left hand is stuck in the garbage disposal
while my right acts
and a snow storm
is trying to blow me over.

- Madeline Long, 12.22.08

When Love Comes Around, I'm Gonna Catch That Train (or, it's on mornings like this)

2008-08-09T10:28:00.002-05:00

It's on mornings like this when all the faces on the el are dead silent staring into the void that is their upcoming routine in an office or behind a counter... mornings when only a few passengers are reading the paper or listening to their iPods... mornings when Josh feels lucky to be alive and although his fate for the day is much like everyone else on the train, there is something about him, maybe his souls seems to breathe a different air.

Josh surely isn't the coming Messiah, to those waiting, nor does he hold even the smallest of answers as to why, or how, what, where, when, etc.

It could be love and most likely is... Yes, we'll say it is because it's the truth, but regardless, it's on mornings like this, our protagonist, a struggling writer, struggling in the sense that he is still working towards being able to quit this average daily existence and acquire one of someone who eats from his writing.

It's on mornings like this that Josh misses the crowded ride of an overpopulated commute where everyone must stay alert less they bump into and invade another's space, that sacred space held-tight with white knuckles on grimy silver poles jutting from faded train walls below adverts that everyone on the train has had embedded into their memory over the past month.

What's the next stop? How many will get off? Will I acquire more space? How do I maneuver around these people to get a dose of the oxygen everyone sitting down owns?

It is a bustling mass that hovers over the dead silent who sit and stare up on mornings like this, probably thinking how lucky they are to be stagnant, waiting still for the end of the world, a so called rapture.

So you see, it is on mornings like this when it feels to Josh that he is the only one standing, living, he reminds himself of the more crowded days to remember he is not alone on this earth, or this train.

Livin' On Credit

2008-05-08T20:21:00.003-05:00

These things seem to happen more and more to the struggling writer in Chicago whose day job it is to keep a website up-to-date for a medium sized law firm downtown. He gets paid well and enjoys the company of associates he inhabits office space with nine to five Monday through Friday. Developing a marketing strategy to keep the firm afloat and the team employed. The times being what they are though Josh continues to squander his money away towing the line and encountering days where he can only afford what his credit card will allow. So when a homeless man walks up to him and ask for change, the exchange goes something like this...

HOMELESS MAN: hey, man, you got change?

JOSH: no.

HM: i just got change from a white guy. he gave me fries. tried to give me his sandwich, but he was with his girl, you know?

J: uh huh.

HM: why is it that black man don't give no money to black man? i got to get money from a white man? a white man gives money to a white man. why can't a black man give no money to a black man?

J: i don't know.

HM: that hurts me.

J: that sucks.

HM: i got really trully hurt. why is that? I don't understand. come on, man. you got some change. get me on the bus? I got to get to 69th and Ashland. you know where that is? i can get on from there. I just need two dollars to get me there. four dollars, man. you got money.

J: i don't have anything.

HM: you lying, man, but you're all right. come on, man. why don't no black man give black man money? i don't get it. i couldn't do nothing when I thought about that.

J: it's fucked up.

HM: you got two dollars, I can get to 69th and Ashland. you get me there. come on, man. i'll show you I get on the bus. i ain't fuckin' with you.

J: and i'm not fuckin' with you.

HM: you lying, man.

J: i'm not lying.

HM: yeah you are, but you're all right. let me tell you. look me in the eye. why does the white man give the white man money and the black man don't give the black man money? that's fucked up.

J: i agree.

HM: come on, man. i know you're lying. get me on the bus.

J: i can't get you on the bus.

HM: whatever.

[At this point Glenn Proud an actor and director friend of Josh approaches.]

GLENN: how's it going?

JOSH: good.

HOMELESS MAN: come on, man. you got two dollars get me on the bus.

G: all i got it change. i don't have two dollars.

HM: all right, all right. give me what you got.

G: here you go.

HM: thanks. come on, man. you got some change?

J: no.

HM: you lying, but you're all right with me.

J: i'm not a liar.

HM: whatever.

The Homeless Man walks away. His attempt is what they call futile. Though Josh got to thinking long after his meeting with Glenn about the fate of LiveWire Chicago Theatre, the not-for-profit theatre company they run, and going to work another full day, twenty-four hours later, Josh got to thinking... "I should have swiped my CTA Pass."¹

¹Because there may be a lot of homeless or stranded people out there I want to impart a wisdom. Ask the guy in the button down shirt and long black coat, slacks, nice shoes and a latte in his hand, "Can you swipe your card so I can ride the bus to see my girl."

Mission Accomplished

2008-05-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

Soldiers: The Desert Stand closed this afternoon. On the ride to the airport, my parents ask me, "How does it feel after a show closes." Instinctively, I respond, "sad," but that is brief. Work lives on and the folks who work with you and work with you well are the ones you miss and there in lies the sadness, however, you know, and again, those that work with you and work with you well are the ones that will live on, in the work and in life. Such good company, collaboration and collective thinking went on in this show, this production. Like a spider web or a world wide web, the chain reaction of positive union and future development occurred. This is what builds. And we are building it in America. Chicago. The shock waves ripple in the air though and air is universal. We've all got to breathe. Take a breath. Can you taste it?

CS Weekly is a great source of inspiration and that inspiration is visible in the area of my e-mails using Google Mail or Yahoo! or Hotmail that requires no scrolling...quotes. and sometimes it is beautiful even because sometimes both quotes speak to me...

Benjamin Franklin says, "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Yes, and some of us do both, wouldn't you say, Benny?

Jack Lemmon says, "It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is." As we sit in traffic to the airport which we will arrive in time for the parents to depart from their whirlwind visit to Chicago. to see the World Premiere of Soldiers: The Desert Stand, a serious play on war...written by their son...They ask, "got anything new on fire?" In fact, I'm writing an adaptation of Gorky's The Lower Depths. I aim to set it in America. Today. A play about poverty. Economics. Drama. Comedy. Life.

In lieu of award acceptance speech, I mention the folks who made this play happen are Glenn Proud, Madeline Long, Cory Conrad, Allison McNeela, Chris Zdenek, Becca Coren, Danielle O'Farrell, Erin Barlow, Liz Larsen-Silva, Vanessa Hughes, Tresa Makosky, Amber Hilgenkamp, Anders Jacobson, Erin Fast, Eric Branson, Maya Kuper, Sebastian Aguirre, Deborah Proud, Suzanne Bracken, Parisa Leduc, the Side Project Theatre and LiveWire Chicago Theatre

The War Ends This Weekend

2008-04-29T13:27:00.001-05:00

Final Weekend - buy tickets today!

Apartment Hunters

2008-04-25T00:08:00.004-05:00

Playwright, Joshua Aaron Weinstein, and his girlfriend, actress, Madeline Long, are looking for their first apartment together. They have seen almost a dozen places in the past week and haven't found anything...yet. Still over a month away from their expected moving date, things are tense, but optimistic. A nice place matters.

So, they enlisted the help of an Irish born rental agent, whom we will call, Sean, to protect his anonymity. They arrive late to the meeting due to the need for sustenance and he is on the phone when they arrive. Five/ten minutes later he is off and they all get in his car to check places out. The first place is nice and the three are engaged in conversation that is key to Sean's success as an agent. Customer Service. As long as he's friendly and attentive, Sean feels he does a good job. Madeline and Josh decide to pass on the first look as the bedrooms are small and the layout is odd.

The next place they look at seems to have been built and designed in the 70s. it lays right next to the el and a train goes by as the couple looks over the place. Not for them. They move on.

By now, Sean knows Madeline is an actress and Josh a writer. He inquires more about their work and they tell him about the play currently being produced by LiveWire Chicago Theatre, which is a dark comedy on the war. Sean bounces into a diatribe about America's presence in Iraq and how it is never mentioned that an estimated 1 million Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. On the other hand, Sean goes on, it is important for America to establish a presence in the Middle East due to the price of oil, and our dependency on it. It's a necessity to remain there for another 10 years while we find alternative resources, right?

In the midst of his statement, Sean relates an image of chickens stuffed in cages and how at first glance this is disturbing, but when you think about it, if we were humane and only kept a certain amount of chickens in the cages, the price of chicken would go up. more chickens equals less cost.

They walk into the third apartment on this note and there is a photo shoot going on. Madeline and Josh peak in, though they both know the place is not for them. Neither is the agent. The ride back to the office is awkward. Even though Sean is not getting a sale, he tells one last story about a woman he met in the back of a taxi. You see, she had crutches on and as she was getting in, at 3 in the morning, she didn't hear the driver over the clatter say the cab was occupied. Sitting in the back was Sean, who didn't care much because she was going his way and within two blocks, he had convinced her to go dancing at at bar open until 4am. Our assumption here was that Sean is a ladies man, but he finishes the story with, "I went to her wedding. so, that worked out."

Later, Madeline and Josh talk about the day like it was the end of the world because nothing is out there that they like and looking for apartments is general misery... until they realize that 1) if America stays in Iraq for another 10 years, the Iraqi body count would reach over 3 million (and chances are, the price of gas will remain the same); 2) Madeline is a vegetarian, so why not let chicken prices go up, and show some humanity for once?; 3) Sean is apparently a loner and quite possibly jealous that these two are in love and moving in together; and 4) the city is vast, more apartments can be found and the perfect place is out there.

the search continues...

German Burgers

2008-03-16T22:55:00.001-05:00

two cousins, Max, a biomedical engineer, and Josh, an unemployed writer, sit down in a German style diner, Christl's for a late lunch. they are in the city of Palatine, a suburb very north and west of Chicago. a village. Josh, living in the city, took some time to get up to Max in Evanston. the drive to Palatine was about forty-five minutes. there is a drum store near Christl's that was their original destination, but it closed at four today and it's about four-twenty when Max and Josh press their nose up to the darken store looking at all the drum sets. Max says something very clever and to the point about the store being closed and the situation at hand. Josh doesn't have paper or pen. it goes unrecorded. They walk over to Christl's in the snow where they now both sit.

"You gotta try the Goulash!" shouts another patron who seems to be familiar with the management, but they also attempt to keep a distance when he gets in their face or up in their business as kids like to say. Apparently, the Goulash is good, but it stands at fifteen dollars which is a little steep for the unemployed writer and Max doesn't seem too convinced that Goulash at Christl's is very good. You could say it was a bit awkward.

Max and Josh come from a mixed conservative-reformed Jewish family. I should have said that earlier. I only mention it now...Well, it is the 21st century, but when you think about it and consider two Jews walking into a German diner... That and the drunk asshole yelling at them to order the Goulash.

Max and Josh order cheeseburgers and fries. A side of Goulash is available and they both partake. They discuss their general idiocy about not checking the closing time for the drum store especially in the 21st century when technology puts information right at their fingertips. The Super Bowl is discussed as Josh is a fan of the NY Giants. And they talk about the NCAA Duke Blue Devils, Max being from NC and a huge fan. The coffee tastes like water and with the amount of spices in the Goulash, the substance could be from any century. they are both fine. The cheeseburger is good. A good German cheeseburger. The pickle is carbonated. The juices. When you bite in, the pickle juice is carbonated. It's weird, but satisfying.

The old lady in the kitchen needs a lot of attention apparently and the waitress spends her time defending the advances of the lingering drunk, talking with the cook and waiting on the few tables open, including Max and Josh. service is slow. no mind. no rush. it's snowing outside, so might as well take your time. Then in time, two men, a younger and an older man come into the diner as if they own the place. Walking around. Checking things out. Laying their coats in a booth.

They do own the place. Or at least the older man does, but the younger is definitely a relative if not son. The place is nearly dead so there is no work to be done at the moment expect speed up the drunks departure with their complete indifference to what he has to say. They do this while sitting in the booth behind Max and Josh looking at a catalog with items such as swords and armor and other war supplies dating at least to the 20th century. Before the drunk left, he tried to start a heated debate about the quality of swords made in Pakistan, but the German owner refused to participate other than sighing or making comments such as "uh huh."

Max and Josh were ready to leave and bear the winter snow back to Evanston then back to the city for Josh. Max had a gig that night. Josh had writing to do. maybe he wrote this. The waitress finally brought the check. They paid and left. This was a lengthy process as well in the German diner and Max and Josh were able to hear the younger man speak with his nose in a catalog, "It would be funny to show up wearing a Nazi uniform." Some fair or event we assume the youth was going to dress up for, in a Nazi uniform. The father figure gave his son the same indifference he gave the regular drunk.

In silence two cousins walk back to the car. "Who closes at 4 o'clock?" Laughter.

Wanna buy my screenplay?

2008-02-27T22:29:00.003-06:00

[the unemployed Chicago writer, Josh, has a g-Chat with his unemployed LA actor friend, Clayton. time recorded.]

4:10 PM

Clayton: how much?
100 dollars?

Josh: 100,000

Clayton: oh. um.
i'll get back to you.

Josh: come on
do it
do it
do it

Clayton: fuck it.
okay.
sold.

Josh: sweet
i'm gonna quit my job on Monday

[Josh, in fact, has a job that starts on Monday that he will not be quiting despite the outcome of this g-Chat.]

4:11 PM

Clayton: okay, cool. i'm going to make your movie, and make millions of dollars, any of which you'll never see.

Josh: as long as I see the 100,000 i'm fine

Clayton: fair enough
i also get to say i wrote it

4:12 PM

Josh: that'll weigh on your conscience, not mine

Clayton: you'd be surprised how little i'm affected by my conscience.

4:13 PM

Josh: then it looks like we've got a deal.

Clayton: i'll put the money in escrow tomorrow

Josh: i'm sure my lawyer will know what that means

4:14 PM

Clayton: tell your lawyer to tell me what it means after i do it.

Josh: according to wikipedia, the money is now mine

Clayton: fuck. that was fast.

4:15 PM

Josh: that's what she said!

[the rest of the conversation cannot be disclosed.]

Bodega

2008-02-25T12:06:00.004-06:00

[an unemployed writer, Josh, walks into his neighborhood bodega and gets a fifth of Seagram's 7 and a liter of 7-up. sidling up behind him is a drunk American asshole from Chicago.]

DRUNK: Canadian whiskey? Why'd you wanna buy Canadian whiskey?

JOSH: Is there a problem with that?

[the drunk considers]

DRUNK: No, no problem. I mean, Irish or Scottish, Kentucky even -

JOSH: I like all those, tonight it appears it's Canadian.

DRUNK: Seems sort of un-patriotic.

JOSH: Tastes good with 7-up.

[the Latin cashier mumbles]

CASHIER: I can't drink the stuff.

[an epiphany]

DRUNK: I know. There's pussy involved. There's got to be pussy involved. You were sent on an errand...

[transaction complete. Josh turns to the drunk.]

JOSH: You're exactly right. Have a good night.

[Josh exits to laughter where he drives to a friends house with his girl for movie night. Upon arriving, he relays his encounter and one friend, a crippled Russian Ph.D student of philosophy, Aleks, inspects the bottle and states.]

ALEKS: Blended and bottled by: The 7 Crown Distilling Company, Norwalk, CT.

JOSH: Not Canadian.

[end]

Soldiers: Recruitment

2008-02-11T00:24:00.000-06:00

Clips from Soldiers: Recruitment presented at the Ruth Page Center as part of the Mordine & Company's '800lb Gorilla in the Room' on December 13, 14 & 15.

directed by Glenn Proud
written by Joshua Aaron Weinstein
starring Madeline Long, Cory Conrad, Ryan Musil & Vanessa Hughes, Deborah Proud or Liz Larsen-Silva
Lights/Stage Management: Julian Pike
Production Manager: Atalee Judy

LiveWire Chicago Theatre presents Soldiers: The Desert Stand at the Side Project Theatre April 10 - May 4.

more info at www.livewirechicago.com

The Rabbit Foot

2008-02-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

[A Russian Ph.D student of philosophy, Aleks, recently injured from a racquetball accident and an unemployed American writer, Josh.]

JOSH: How is the footing?

ALEKS: My footing is good. How is the hunt?

JOSH: The hunt is still on... Where is that damned rabbit?

ALEKS: Do you think the rabbit was killed with that one stone that killed the other rabbit? Or how does that one go?

[a pause]

ALEKS: The footing is huge among logic students.

JOSH: Assuming you told the truth, it is no surprise your foot is a hit. What will you do for an encore?

[a pause]

JOSH: I think the mind-set is that there are many rabbits out there to catch... If you can.

[a silence]

ALEKS: I show up floating above the floor while both of my feet are broken.

[a beat]

ALEKS: As I land, a gigantic rabbit appears out of a hat that says 'logic' on it.

[fin]

186

2008-01-21T00:18:00.000-06:00

i think one hundred and eighty seven hold some significance maybe 186 does too I was just noting that it has been a while since I've blogged so I figure I should highlight it in some way...

we put together another great 'It's Madeline Long' video recently. I'm waiting to hear about licensing for a song I'm using. I scored half of it. The other half needed something else. I'll let everyone know when it's available. Until then, here's a promo I did for the series:

I should mention I started uploading videos to FunnyorDie.com. It's a hilarious site for comedy, which helps when you're searching for the funnies rather than the editorials. you can find us on YouTube as well.

Soldiers: The Desert Stand is up-and-coming. Closer every day. a dark comedy playing on America's war-department absurdities. LiveWire Chicago Theatre presents at the Side Project Theatre April 10 to May 4. www.livewirechicago.com for more information. Tickets available March 1st.

Madeline Long has sunshine coming out of her ass. Thought I would let you all know. She's play Natalie in the next Phillip Dawkins play directed by Stephen Cone up at the side project theatre. thesideproject.net

still looking for full-time employment, but I've been keeping myself busy.

recruitment week 1

2007-11-30T00:16:00.000-06:00

i still believe that theatre and art in general which I must say to contribute to the belief that there is a universal for lack of a better word system is in play for all art forms and not just theatre but I say theatre because I am a part of that and am working on a play as we speak in no better terms i still believe that theatre and art in general contribute to a society free to move and grow and the growth of an artist and the movement we can create only exists if we let exist no matter how big or small the struggle or story you play.

glenn gave three actors about ten minutes to play around with a moment in the script which called for a fight. after ten minutes they presented the fight they created and from it glenn shaped for about twenty minutes and there was a fight scene played out before our eyes. cory and I laughing along entertained. maya in the corner fixing a score. more more more, I say.

come check it out on December 13, 14 & 15 as part of the MCDT 800lb Gorilla in the Room peformance at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

prefers automatic

2007-11-26T22:58:00.000-06:00

sometimes we need a push
when life is pulling us around
sometimes we need to push back
before it pulls us down

collections

2007-11-13T13:48:00.001-06:00

i recently had to be my own collections department for a web job I did. when phone calls and e-mails weren't being returned, I decided I needed to make an unexpected office visit. when making this decision, I thought I should bring someone along for protection, but then thought better and went solo. my client wasn't there. i left a message on his desk and in a matter of days, he responded and we set up a time for me to come back. i returned and got my money. it was a terrible experience and I will no longer do work for this client or take referrals from the guy who gave me this lead. guilt by association is a bit drastic, but there's more to that one I'm not going into on this blog.

so, in the past two weeks since I've been laid off there have been a couple instances where collectors have come to our office looking for money owed to them. both collectors brought muscle. neither became violent though both were extremely irate. it seems like a good time to be losing my current position (we're also being sued on a couple accounts).

it's a matter of economics, right? or is it humanity. i mean, people's words these days are losing meaning. i won't go into specifics about the office situations, but there is little humanity involved. greed abounds.

land

2007-11-12T12:23:00.000-06:00

i have in my lifetime since I first joined the workforce which can be charted back to high school when I worked at a Dry Cleaners now been laid off (or fired, terminated, canned, given my pink slip, walking papers, etc. etc. etc.) from two positions. the first was quite alarming and surrounded a trip from Erwin, TN to Peoria, IL where I stopped at a pay phone to call my employers (a married hippie couple i'd been traveling with, playing music under the name, Patchouli) and instead of just telling me where our hotel was located told me location and that "we can no longer financially support you." ouch! i was in Indianapolis, IN and had another three and a half hour drive to Peoria, or a much longer drive back to Erwin, where my stuff was. I decided to get a face to face, which wasn't pleasant and I was pretty much a wreck for a couple weeks. It wasn't really being fired at the time, it was the way I was fired. yes, that's the business, but from a happy hippie couple that I had basically left everything else to live and travel with, it sucked. on top of this, they had just purchased 24 acres of land in the Appalachian Mountains. It appeared they cared more for undeveloped land than a future as a traveling trio.

so, I've come to my second position where I am now laid off. the real estate market is doing terrible and I work at a company with non-performing agents and no real care for any sort of marketing system. my position is no longer needed and my salary is too high to keep me on. the company is drowning it seems. the kicker is that very recently, the owners have been working on a deal where they bought a large piece of land they hope to develop on. the deal has been costing them quite a pretty penny daily and if it comes through, they will reap a large reward. however, in more recent news, the deal is on the edge of falling through and it is my assumption that if it does, the company will be in even deeper water. bottom line, it's a really good time to get out. I thank the owners for showing me the door on this one, but I can't help feel it is this whole land thing that I keep getting screwed by.

i understand the importance of ownership and land ownership has been so important to the civilization we're accustom. maybe it's time I started grabbing my piece. it is a buyer's market. only, I need a job first. if anyone knows of anything, drop me a line. just make sure the company doesn't have any land deals they're working on.

extension of excitement

2007-11-05T15:20:00.000-06:00

not only is PT Anderson's(1) new film There Will Be Blood(2) coming out late December, I just watched an excellent preview and noticed in the credits that there will be original music by Johnny Greenwood(3).

Footnotes:

1) PT Anderson is director Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia and Hard 8 fame.

2) There Will Be Blood is based Upton Sinclair's novel Oil

3) Johnny Greenwood plays guitar for Radiohead

common criminal

2007-10-29T13:09:00.001-05:00

the Swim Cafe is approximately 4 block from my apartment (2 blocks east, 2 blocks north). i'm parked facing east and if I continue that way I'll have to cross the highway, head south a couple blocks past my street then head west a few more block and come back up north a couple to Huron, where I live. it'd be much easier, in my opinion, to wait for traffic to clear, make a U-Turn out of the spot and take a left at the Stop sign, right on Huron and I'm pretty much home. so it goes...

I've done all that when I hear sirens behind me. I quickly get over to let the paddy wagon following me pass. it doesn't. I feel I haven't pulled over and when I look in my mirror I see the cop in the passenger seat getting out. Oh! shit. he's gonna come yell at me to move so they can pass. I hit the gas a bit and make the turn I'm pulled over at and find more space between parked cars to get over all the way. the wagon follows and stops. OH! shit. they're pulling me over.

the female cop comes to my window, "license and insurance." confused, I hand over my license, which I've already pulled out and look for my insurance. "do you have your insurance card with you?" I have insurance, but I don't think I have my card with me. "you have to keep your insurance card with you, you know that?" I know, I don't have it. "do you know why I pulled you over?" no. "you made a U-Turn back on Chicago." i see. she starts to walk off. "is this your car?" yes.

madeline and I rifle through the rest of my papers to see if my insurance card is anywhere to be found. no. I do all my billing online now. I don't think they send me a card anymore. I think I have to print it out. I haven't done this. so it goes...

she takes a long time with the paperwork. I'm definitely getting a ticket. I've never, never, never been asked for my insurance. i have been pulled over before. it has always been license and registration. this situation is very odd to me. i know I should have my insurance card with me, but I have been a pretty safe driver for some time. ask my insurance company. now, it seems I am getting in trouble for not having it. the paperwork is taking an awful long time.

when the female cop comes back she tells me that she's holding my license and I must send in the paperwork she's handing me in order to get it back. some sort of bond situation. "why is my license being taken away?" I ask politely (Madeline commented later on the politeness of my questions). she responds with venom, "I could take you down to the station and hold you for not having your insurance card. I also could've made you come to court." o.k. so I send this in and get my license back. I apologize for the day you've been having. so it goes...

that last bit I didn't say. i just sat there. o.k. she is obviously not happy with my U-Turn and deep down inside she must hate bearded men in their thirties who drive 2001 Honda Civics. it was really a simple question I posed. why? but apparently, you can't ask why, you must just accept that the cop has the power to enforce whatever they feel about the situation at hand. yes, I am very happy I didn't get taken down to the station and do not have to appear in court, but aside from the mistake that they were trying to pass me and the minor traffic law I violated, I was never aggressive toward the officer in the situation. apparently, though, the officer decided that she needed to be aggressive toward me. assert her power, etc. etc. etc.

like a common criminal, I now drive around without a license, but a yellow slip of paper that states my license was taken from me. I can pay a fine and have it go on my record, pay a fine and take a class and have it cleared or attest in court that this cunt cop was in the wrong. of course, I was in the wrong and any sort of appearance by me in court would only prove her right even more. I could go to court, stand up and explain that I felt the cop placed undue emotional stress on me. 'I felt like I could break down, your honor. it was a minor traffic violation and I felt like I was being bullied on the playground. I thought police officers were supposed to be "civil" servants. not uncivilized aggressive byotches. I was in the wrong on the offense, your honor, but there was no reason to try for the cop put undue stress on me by being terrible at her job.' the gavel would come down and I would be made to pay and a mark would go on my record and the cop would walk out of the courtroom star badge entact and no pox on her house except that which I stir up in my mind. so it goes...

karma is a bitch, bitch. I wish I could be around when it comes and bites you in your tight ass, but I sleep at night knowing you are living unhappily and without humor or peace of mind.

caffee

2007-10-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

i rarely make it to work at 9. told in my interview some 2 and a half years ago now, it was make apparent that coming in at 9 wasn't high priority (on my first day, no one was in the office until 9:30), more important was to do my job, the tasks assigned. i do this. to some chagrine at times, but I do this.

since arriving in Chicago, now a little over 3 years ago, I started drinking coffee. never suited me before, but for some reason it made living in the city that much easier. where I currently live there are so many choices for coffee in the morning I find that rather than hitting one shop everyday, it is much more enjoyable to hit a different one everyday. the amazing thing is that this is possible and with very little driving out of my way to do so...or walking, as I like to do when it's not tits ass cold...

Starbucks will be mentioned first to get it out of the way. While most staff is friendly at two convenient locations within a couple blocks of my apartment and work, getting in and out with a Grand Vanilla Latte (Skim Milk) and an orange juice is never easier, though always a little more expensive.

Ritz Tango is by far my favorite cup, but there is only one barista and it is always the same dour barista. more often than note, though, there is no one in the shop so the quick cup is easily gotten and the drink is always better than any other shop (the only times I have been displeased is when it is not the dour barista working...though hats off to the owner as well because when he is in, the cup is just as good). the other great things about Ritz is that they have empenadas. when in need, this is a great stop.

Mercury Cafe is such a warm place that I have forgiven them for booking a Goth meeting at the same time I was trying to do a staged reading. If folks showed up to our event I would have been more upset. I did ask once about Lox on a bagel and the barista (not Alex, the owner) gave me a dumb look and asked what that was. Salmon, I said. Huh? she looked/said. no lox, I'm o.k. with that, but don't know what it is, you need a sign...The coffee is always great and the price is right. Sandwiches are superb for lunch or dinner, always filling.

Swim Cafe needs to get their shit together because they have the most people working there and the slowest turnaround. The food is excellent and the coffee is great, but even when ordering a bagel with cream cheese and lox, it will take about fifteen minutes to receive said order. five folks seem to be working towards something every time I am in the place, but none seem interested in getting the customer's order. I can't fight the cravings for the turkey wrap sometimes, so I make sure I have time before walking in. (And don't ever try to call ahead, they will put you on hold and when you give up and walk over there, the phone will still be on the counter waiting to be picked up again).

Arabia Cafe is a hookah bar/coffeeshop. I haven't partaken in the hookah yet, but the coffee is good and the atmosphere is fine. From my assumption, the owners just moved here. I walked in one day and Seasame Street was on the wall-mounted flat screen TV. there were no kids around. I watched the barista making my coffee and she had one eye on the machine and the other on the TV. You gotta learn the language somehow. it's how I learned. props to Arabia.

Lovely is like a slice of pumpkin bread. it is so quaint and delightful. the only problem I have is that my first visit ended in a terrible cup of coffee. I decided to give it another chance and they redeemed themselves. now, I've been back a few more times and when the need for some baked goods hits me, they got the goods.

Leticias is a bit far from the apartment and work, but on the weekends, Lady Madeline and I like to hit it up for the best Vanilla Lattes in town. like candy. they also have delicious sandwichs and their bagel with cream cheese and lox is yummy.

Flo is more of a breakfast joint (they also have an exceptional lunch and dinner menue). I went in there the other night to get an order to go and they made me a Cafe Latte instead of a Vanilla Latte. it was awesome.

so, that's 8 or 9 coffeeshops in spitting distance. for the coffee lover in me, not too bad a place to be. not mentioned, though, is the diners/breakfast joints. maybe that's a blog for next week (Flo, Hollywood, Windy City, Blue Line, Bialys, etc). whew!

time - the essence

2007-10-19T15:34:00.000-05:00

how do you fast-forward thru time to see things now that you can't until then? it doesn't give you something to look forward to though it satisfies desire in an instant. i'm sure not gonna try, but, well, sometimes I damned well want to.

philosophical bullshit aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing 'I'm Not There' (the new movie about the lives of Bob Dylan) and 'No Country for Old Men' (the new Joel and Ethan Coen movie).

finished reading The Google Story and those guys have a shit-ton going for them. fortunately, they live in a country where you can blur the lines of ethics and causality. "Don't Do Evil" is their mantra. "Evil" is whatever they say it is. They live and work on principals that they fought tooth and nail to get. You'd think the fuckers wouldn't bend to no one. Well, they bent to China, according to the book. It's o.k. guys, you still hold every bit of information about anyone who has ever done a google search or set up a gmail account, you've even got vans driving around the country recording us all so we can see where we're going before we get there and for that matter, see where we've been after we've gone...if we're lucky, I guess. oh! yeah, they also make billions on internet advertising. fuckers.

Drinks Before Dinner was also a great play I read recently. A dinner party, before the party and one of the guests decides to be disruptive and hold everyone hostage with a gun he got off some kid on the street earlier that day. he forces the group to tie up the guest of honor, a local government representative and nearly blows the guys head off. he is merely looking for an engaging conversation about anything and everything and hopes that after the ordeal they could still have dinner. we'll not everyone makes it, but the last line of the play is, "well, we should all sit down to dinner." (or something like that) great, absurd, brilliantly written.

and last night the lady Madeline treated me to the Profiles production of 'Some Girl(s)' which was stellar. they even performed the deleted scene which Madeline has been using as one of her monologues. the first in their Season of Labute, I hate them for stealing all the good plays and love them for giving me the opportunity to enjoy. a must see.

shooting some more 'It's Madeline Long' this weekend!!!

peace.

storyboard for "It's Madeline Long's Enlightenment Manual"

2007-10-12T15:01:00.000-05:00

Coming Soon!

Check out more "It's Madeline Long" videos here

p-u-t i-n rehearsal

2007-10-05T16:29:00.000-05:00

with no competition for power

&

lack of independent television

let your fingers do the ramblin'

2007-10-01T15:20:00.001-05:00

i was e-mailing my lady, Madeline's her name and found myself letting my fingers ramble more than usual. it could be the Claritin-D or the lack of sleep (been a cold lately) but I thought, well, while they're moving I should blog a bit without any sort of conscious thought about what to blog about.

thursday I was finally about to see The Collector, which LiveWire has currently mounted up at The Side Project. i was first impressed by our production staff for putting together such an engaging stage picture. my next impression was the actor play Clegg, Matt Kelly. he puts on one hell of a performance that shouldn't be missed. the script, I've always said, is great literature, but it is either something in it or the staging that lacked a sharpness. the time shifts over a month within the play and while there were elements to suggest and indicate these shifts, some seemed forced while others were completely lost. in the end, I felt like I had spent 2 hours with these characters, which was about as much as I wanted to spend with them, but I think the play would have had a stronger impact on me if I had walked away feeling I spend the entire month.

in Elmina's Kitchen, the show I've been longing to see for a couple years now and finally got to see this Sunday (with my lady), a cast of West Indian characters struggle with their place in Britain's Hackney neighborhood. the cast of the play were all completely engaging and 100% inhabited in their characters. in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood, for 2 and a half hours, I felt like I was in Elmina's Kitchen and feared whatever lurked outside the storefront door. What was going on inside the restaurant was just as heated and while there were a few moments that didn't seem to fit (like the grandfather's calypso singing or the random old man with very little wisdom to put forth) the whole of the story hit me like a ton of bricks. fathers and sons. youth rebellion. love. hate. good. bad. blood clot! [translated, Holy Shit!] while most American plays end happily ever after, Elmina's Kitchen represented what I like most about British theatre...life isn't always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes, life dumps on you a whole lot of shit and shit stinks long after it's dumped if you don't clean it up right quick. the protagonist of Elmina's Kitchen, Deli, learned this the hard way...the way he's been learning his whole life and the way he's gonna keep on learning. Deli's cycle isn't over yet and in Elmina's Kitchen he wasn't able to break it. leaving the audience heartbroken.

i had to miss the third show I was to see on Sunday night due to my cold, but I had the chance to lay on the couch and read some more. since moving my TV to Madeline's house, i've had the chance to pick up some good books & plays I've had on my shelf to read. LiveWire is also in search of good plays for their upcoming season. last night I read an original work by Lawrence Levine called Territory (which has been made into a movie you can rent on netflix, haven't seen it myself) and lacking the ability to sleep, I also picked up Dawn by Elie Wiesel. I'm a huge Wiesel fan and am trying to make it through his cannon. each of his books leaves my wrenched. Dawn tells the story of a soldier who is part of the Israeli resistance during the British occupation and Israelis plight for an homeland in Palestine. another soldier has been captured by the British and is sentenced to death. the resistance takes prisoner a British soldier and marks him for death unless their comrade is released. Elisha, our soldier protagonist, his executioner. The night before the dawn of the execution, Elisha tells us how he's gotten to this place and how everyone that has touched him has made him who he is and his actions are now their actions and their eyes, his eyes...it was as timely as anything out in the theatres now or told on the local news. it is in fact more important than anything out there as well as it tells an uncensored tale, one so believable it is only fiction to the unbelievers. don't beat yourself up. this is war.

other books/plays I've read recently are Maltese Falcon (another Dashiell Hammett detective novel). my second of his books. great stuff. couldn't wait to turn the page. Here by Michael Frayn, he's a brilliant playwright and his dialgoue was both engaging and hilarious. it was a couple piece so that was fun too. I like some of his other stuff better, but it was a good read. Songs of the Dragon by Young Jean Lee. a Korean-American tour-de-force. it made me want to continue being a playwright and not just break the boundries of my craft, but bulldoze them to a fine dust I can create magic with. A Dark Dark House by Neil Labute. one of my favorite playwrights proving once again way he'll go down in history. tackling abuse, brotherhood and what it trully means to be in love. ouch! that's all i've got to say.

what else? is this not enough?

i'm excited by the prospect of being...doing...everyday.