Am I crazy, or...

Ok, before everyone just answers yes to the question, the thing I'm wondering is whether or not Michael Steele’s TV ad in the Washington market looks more like a spot for a TGIF sitcom on ABC than it does a campaign ad. Seriously, though I have Tivo and usually just fast forward through the commercials, I did happen to catch the Steele ad on Sunday.

First, can we talk about his graphic? I know there are only 5 or 6 people who saw the Shaq movie Steel, but it really looks like the same graphic - only processed with Ulead Cool 3D instead of...well a real 3D FX generator(Maya, After Effects, 3D Studio.) I'm sure it's one of his great ideas to increase "education and opportunity." Second, I really expect that when he looses in November, ABC will put him in the 8:30 slot behind George Lopez, completing the "worst hour of television in television history." Third, he is promising "straight talk about what’s wrong in both parties." Give me a break, being honest about the drag being a republican is on your chances of winning, does not make you any less of a republican or any less responsible for the cornucopia of domestic and foreign relations problems that your party is responsible for, or any less of an idiot. Well maybe a little less of an idiot, but I'm not yet ready to concede that Steele is not an idiot.

When is someone going to ask this guy how he is going to pay for any of the programs he says he supports? Must we really wait for some kind of debate? Get it out there. There are like 15 democratic candidates, I think they should all stop bitching at one another and start asking Steele questions. It doesn't matter who gets the nomination if the democrats pick each other apart. Let’s see who can pick Steele apart the best and nominate that one. Seem fair?

16 days to the MD democratic Primary...72 days the the midterm elections.

Def Republican Jam?

What is Russell Simmons thinking? The hip-hop mogul is apparently endorsing Michael Steele's campaign in MD. He says that Steele has won him over with his platform of "education and opportunity." Why doesn't Simmons ask Steele how he plans to pay for all this "education and opportunity" when his fiscal ideology is based on reducing government revenues (federal and state) while increasing spending. He has removed his previous position on taxes from his website - now the only information one gets from his issue's area is increase spending, or reinstate programs that were working under Clinton, but does not include his view that federal and state taxes should continue to be cut. Where is the money going to come from Mike?

I understand the desire to get behind a public official of the same skin color, but you don't see me helping out President Bush or Radical Racist George Allen. Just because they are white doesn't make them good for the country, and just because Steele is black doesn't make him the best option for Maryland, no matter what his skin color. Moreover; if Steele is going to try and co-op democratic policy, why elect a republican at all? Just because he's black? If that’s the deciding factor, Simmons should be running these fundraisers and voter outreach for the very under funded Kweisi Mfume.

Donna Brazile says this is a "shot across the bow" for the Maryland Democratic Party, but you know what...its race bating. Republicans have always used race bating, but now they are trying to refashion it in order to hold on to the Senate. The party of Racism is using Steele and I am sure he is happy to be used, just like they used Alan Keyes. Lets face it, Michael Steele is no John Conyers, he's not even a Cynthia McKinney.

So what’s it going to take to get Chuck D to come down here and counter Simmons error in judgment? I will personally buy 20 Chuck D solo albums if he will come an neutralize this. I will even put the entire Public Enemy catalog on my ipod if Chuck can change Russell’s mind. As a matter of fact, I’ll endorse Terminator X if he would run as an independent.

Would loosing Texas be so bad?

Does anyone really believe that there is a vast Mexican conspiacy to reannex the American Soouthwest? Must the people of this country be subjected to every crackpot theory that a former 4%er in a Presidental election vomits into what we are forced to concider a book?

Buchanan has always been a racist. He has a vested interest in white people and Generalisimo
Francisco Franco was considered a hero in his childhood home (irony?) So historically, politically, now and in the past Buchanan has been and continues to be a fan of Nationalistic Fascism. Why do people keep having to point this out. He is one of the few in this country that are to the right of the Pro-Theocratic Republicans that control that party.

Just because a person on the right criticizes the President does not mean he has a point. Too often the quest to fill the 24hour news cycle results in filling peoples heads with lies and conjecture that do nothing but fan the flames of hate for hates sake. Buchanan, Colter, Moore, and their like are a poison to debate in this country and should be forced to find legitamate subject matter (which they could if they tried) and to come up with actual source material instead of relying on the "well that s what I think, doesn't it make you mad..." argument.

It is time for Satesmen. Another "black and white" leader will put the nail in the coffin of American debate for a generation. Without debate and reason in this country how will out relativly young country ever grow into our own as a world leader? Right now it's obvious that we are acting like a young dictator to the world, one that acts on impulse and shys away from hard decisions that might benifit the country and the world in the long run. The Bush Administration insists that history will judge them, and that the Iraq decision will be the right one in the long run; but it is becoming more apparent that the war was a rash decision with a short term goal...that has failed.

So Pat, no one is listening...just like 1992...1996...2000...maybe you'd do better selling all those extra copies of "the News Twisters."

Gomez is coming back

Well not to DC, but for my out of town friends, and Brother Ben here are some dates you might want to catch:


Sept 17 The Music Farm, Charleston, SC * (great place to see a show, made Better than Ezra seem good)
Sept 19 Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA
Sept 20 Ryman Theatre, Nashville, TN
Oct 5 Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Oct 6 Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Oct 7 Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

I would trek up to NYC but have to be in a show on those dates, opening and all - Theatre really gets in the way sometimes.

We can dance...

I listen to Air America Radio on the internet while I am work, unless I am doing some real detailed sound editing. and Just as I put my headphones on this morning to bide my time until the Al Franken Show, Jerry Springer is using "Safety Dance" as his bump in. Those of you who saw the Woodpecker over the weekend know that this can be both funny and disturbing. I will probably never be able to hear this song again without images of Andrew Price doing a dance of torture.

Thanks again to those brave enough to see the Woodpecker, and my apologies for any nightmares you might be suffering. Thanks to the Dceiver for trusting me that he was the plays target audience. For those that "couldn't make it" you are all wads of leaking anal fluid - no your fine, you just missed something that simultaneously makes people belly laugh and suffer from insomnia - your loss?

I forgot what it's like to direct something that you really love. I've been on a break from directing for about a year and a half (unfortunately the break began about halfway through the show I directed in 2005.) I lost the desire, or the imagination, the tolerance, the vision...whatever...for it, probably after Anarchist.

Maybe I ran out of things to say, but that seems unlikely. I was more interested in acting I guess, and needed to recharge that muscle before I could dive back in to (in my view) playing all the roles simultaneously - I think I got that from Jim Petosa.

But I really think that I have to have something I really love to direct. I would not be good at directing for hire - I have too much trouble falling in love with a play someone else wants me to do, especially if the goal is just money. Even though money is good, it's just not what motivates me as a director (at least in theatre, the film and editing work is another story.)

So when I have pictures I will post them, and until then I will find something to get mad about from the real world. 79 days until the midterm elections.

We talk about the word, but what does it mean?

Macaca (also written as macaque) is a dismissive epithet used by Francophone colonials in Africa for native populations of North and Subsaharan Africans.^[1] It is derived from the name of the genus comprised of the macaque primates.

By Allen's own admission, his mother is a French colonial born in Tunisia who emigrated to the United States following World War II.^[1] In Tunisia, the word "macaca" is used as a racial slur.

1. ^ Transcript of Interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews for March 29, 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12079685/

So this is how George Allen follows in the footsteps of Jesus? Where is the Christian Left in denouncing this soulless bigot? I say that because I want to hear more about the Christian Left, I know they are out there and I encourage them to get motivated and talk. I know that Liberals would welcome them and there issues to the table, and they would provide a welcome alternative to the Radical Christian Right that has misled so many Christians.

Hey Macaca!

George Allen is a racist. This is not news. The news should be that he is a racist by choice. Because he thinks it's cool. That's right, he's not from Virginia, or the South, and he chooses to bring this kind of hatred into the 21st Century.

Having grown up in the state I have always been proud of the great Presidential history, and the fact that Virginia elected the first Black Governor. George Allen is a blight on the shining star that is Virginia politics (sorry new home state.)

This is perhaps a karmatic moment as George 'Radical Racist' Allen was responsible for dragging Chuck Robb through the mud in order to win the seat that he now holds. The mere presence of cocaine at a party that Robb attended was the cusp of Bigot Allen’s values campaign (I believe there was an affair as well, but you get the idea.) But what Virginia voters need to ask themselves is whether they want to be represented by a Carpet bagging, Racist, with a History of Domestic Violence?

Though Jim Webb isn't really a democrat, he's defiantly a responsible alternative to a, dare I say, asshole, who ruined the Virginia education system and created the economic policy that sent the state into spiraling debt until Mark Warner came along and fixed the mess in two years. At the very least I believe we are now safe from a Allen Presidency - ha! Like that was ever going to happen.

Whats happening

Gomez will head out to L.A. and performing "How We Operate" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on September 22.

And tonight is the opening of the Woodpecker by Brett Williams. DCAC 7:30 pm. Runing for just 5 days, 7 performances, 90 minutes, and about 10,000 curse words.

Just an bunch of 'Aristocrats'

We are now only two days away from what is sure to be the theatrical event of the week...THE WOODPECKER. Here are few questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not you can afford to miss this show:

1) Do I enjoy a good penis joke?
2) Do I find rednecks funny/interesting/heart warming?
3) When I see theatre do I want to sit stunned with my mouth agape?
4) Do dirty Mad Libs make me laugh?
5) Do I find sodomy funny/disgusting/heart warming?
6) Do I want to see theatre that explores the result of politics instead of theory?
7) Do I like air conditioning?
8) Do you want to be a hero?
9) Do you find pain medication funny/delicious/heart warming?
10) What is my favorite curse word?

Come on, you know your curious.

August 12 - 20 @ 7:30 pm DCAC, August 19 and 20 at 3:00pm as well.

A little bit of Arkansas in Washington.

But it's probably a triple word score...

There is no such word as Islamofascism. This word was invented by the Bush Administration for the 2004 campaign, and is used to stir up fear in Americans.

What do you think of when you hear the word Islam? Shi’a and Sunni? Gaza? Mosques? 9/11?

(republicans are betting on the latter.)

What do you think of when you hear the word fascist? Hitler.

That’s right, no one thinks of anything else when they hear the word fascist - even though Hitler was more a mass murdering lunatic than a fascist, for a real fascist you need Mussolini.

So the people that use this made up word want you to equate the extremists Muslims that attack the west with Hitler, and would like you to ask yourself this question:

Wouldn't you do anything to stop Hitler?

The problem is that they are not fascists. And they aren't the Nazi's. They are evangelical Muslims. Maybe now we see why we need to keep people from knowing the most frightening thing about these people, because they are no different from the same kind of homegrown religious terrorists that bombed abortion clinics in the 80's and 90's. There is a significant portion of this country that thinks like them, they are absolutists - so is the far Christian Right. These two groups have way too much in common for either to be doing the work of the prophet they claim to love so much.

So whether they are Islamofascist, Christofascist, or Hebrofascists - it doesn't matter. Terror is terror; state sponsored or rogue, international or homegrown, political or religious. And there is no excuse or justification for it.

Go Ned Go

Best wishes to Ned Lamont as the Conn primary is today. Here's hoping you win by 10 and keep Lieberman out of the general.

Senate Race, again

I have nothing more interesting to talk about. Ok, that's not true, but since I got called twice a day all weekend by the Democratic party I have had the Senate race in Maryland on my mind. It was also heavily discussed at a wedding I attended over the weekend. And a Post article this morning.

I am firmly in the undecided category visa vi the Democratic primary. I checked out Allan Lichtman this morning since the post made a comparison between him and the lat Paul Wellstone. If Maryland could have a Senators as dynamic as Wellstone it would be a great thing for the state, but I am not sure that is what the state wants.

I am not originally from Maryland. I came from across the river 14 years ago (the southern part of Virginia not NOVA) so I do not have the same "Maryland sensibility" as those who are indigenous. But given the kind of service that Mikulski and Sarbanes have provided for the state in the time I have been here, I think that the state is looking for a quiet hard worker. A fiscal hawk, someone who will work hard in the underbelly of the government to make it serve the people better...not just the people of Maryland, but the whole country.

I don't think the people of Maryland are looking for a dynamic Senator that will increase Maryland's profile. I wish we were, there is nothing I would rather have than an East Coast Barack Obama (and Kweisi Mfume is not that,) Paul Wellstone, or Barbra Boxer - it does not seem meant to be, though. That's ok.

We are 5 weeks out, so there is plenty of time to listen up and fall in love with one of the 100,000 Democratic candidates before the primary is over and we just fall in line.

For those of you with a vote in this, the only new news I have about any one candidate is that Ben Cardin once did Scott McCormick a favor, so you know he has a heart. And it does indeed beat. (By the way - if there are any Cardin people reading - tell him to get a hair cut, and drop the wind blown shot from his home page.)

The Comming of the Woodpecker

This is shameless and self-promoting, so it should appear on a blog. A few months ago I was asked by my college friend Ben Hill to participate in his festival of new plays, the Hatchery Festival. I had seen the previous years Playing House since the author was an employee of mine and I knew the entire cast and was intrigued by the idea of doing a real workshop production.

As a director I have had the good (or bad) fortune to have jumped right in to directing full-fledged productions, beginning with Lord of the Flies in 2002. I only started directing readings in 2204 and do them sparingly. On the other hand I do direct about 3 films a year for my day job so I am sort of constantly working the directing muscle, and each of those films is developed from scratch...so I have had some extensive experience with development even if that development is centered are teaching Sociology to community college students.

Anyway, I was supose to direct a different play; Corpus Clyde by...wait for it...Karl Miller...that's right, the now world famous Karl Miller. Due to a career explosion, Karl was unable to finish the play.

Earlier in the year, during the run of The Beard of Avon, my dear friend Michole was in town and we got together for a drink. As we were reminiscing about our idea for doing a show with interconnecting scenes built around a Sikh stand up comedian (it's a lot funnier than it sounds) she gasped and told me there was a play that I would love written by a guy in the writing program at her institution of higher learning (Rutgers.)

A few months later, as Karl was beginning his rise, she sent me the second draft of this play called The Woodpecker. I read it and could not contain my laughter. Or horror. Or disgust. Or emotional response. I arranged for a reading at my home theatre.

The reading was no well attended (there were about nine other readings the same night) but invoked intense discussion. As Karl's script floated away and he rose to the New York stage - the Woodpecker kept churning in my mind. Ben called me to come up with a solution for the Hatchery, since they had the space already. He sent me a play and I sent him the Woodpecker. It was not nearly as difficult to convince the Hatchery.

The play deals with what I see as a typical southern family (though some might say stereotype - not where I am from though) and the idea of freedom. What freedom means both in the domestic and international political sense. Act One deals with the home, the family, and a young man's last day of freedom before going into the army. The Second Act is his experience as a guard in an unidentified military prison. The theme of prison, or cages, juxtaposed with the characters (all five) desires for freedom from various versions thereof has really drawn me in.

Each character has there own relationship to God as well, which really provides a delightful insight to the thinking process of each. Did I mention that one of these characters is a Muslim prisoner? Well he is.

There are many more little tid bits, but I don't think I could fit them in one post - and this one is too long already. So just come and see this thin August 16-20 at DCAC. Come see the other Hatchery shows too, but I will let those directors tell you specifics. I am in love with my show as they are with theirs.