2ndclepunkbuddha

During this past year, I was taken out to a few comedy nights to see amateur stand up comedians perform their acts before an audience.  I fully admit, this was never something that I had patronized in the past, but these experiences left me with a sense of what comedy really is.  Like the tragic and happy masks that are the symbol of theater, this went into these realms.  In all happiness is sadness, and all sadness is happiness.  Yin and yang.  The first few rounds definitely had their share of sadness.  We were in the basement of a building which doubled as a bowling alley / rock club with chairs assembled around a makeshift stage.  Here the amateur, hipster comics would step onto the dimly lit stage, depending on their height would be brushing an air duct pipe with their heads, and entertain the modest group before them.  As they were amateurs, their material was not delivered the best way possible, and more often then not their efforts we...

It's now been several weeks since starting my teaching career officially.  While the experience has had just about a million and one stories and personal growth factors, far too many to be named in this meager medium with the right amount of description, one thing that is certainly different since my day is this aspect of Character Building.  With the kindergarteners it's easy, since there is a great amount of Social Vocabulary and Life Skills which are to be built with kids that young.  Upon chatting with the kindergarten teachers about exactly what they do in the first few weeks or days, their primary concern with kids that young is to teach them social skills.  Here we watch cartoon videos who are performing basic interactions of greetings, handshakes and saying "Nice to meet you.  My name is Bob."  From there, I always assumed that the basic interactions would be said and done with.  Not true.  From first until eleventh grade (as the place whe...

Slowly but surely the movie is coming to fruition after a variety of set backs.  Everyone involved is working hard as their schedules and finances permit.  I knew that the director would one day call out of the blue and say "today's the day" and I would be off to the studio.  Fortunately I am in a position where my schedule will be fairly flexible and free for the next few weeks until I go back to work, so this is not a problem.  And since I am free like the bird, I will help in the causes around me and not make excuses for not doing said things.  I got notice from the director that the big day was coming to include me all of a sudden tomorrow.  However, I did not check my email until about 2 in the morning.  Oh no, tomorrow?!  Timing and scheduling was not a problem, I was free and able to be with them as long as possible with whatever needed to be done and I was willing.  It just so happened I had a problem with my presentation. When I ar...

My esteemed colleague E contacted me through Facebook recently with a proposition.  We had met last year on the MegaBus on the way to Chicago for Durandemonium 2013.  After recently moving to my city, she asked if I wanted an extra ticket to Blossom to see the Vans Warped Tour.  I laughed for a moment when this was put before me.  For those of you who are not familiar, the Vans Warped Tour is a touring music festival that has been going across America, primarily featuring punk rock music on a variety of stages rather than just one, sponsored, of course, by the shoe manufacturer Vans, which appeals to skateboarders.  This year is the nineteenth anniversary of said festival, and I had never been to it before due to schedule conflicts, one thing or another, and, quite honestly, I was never into skating.  Also, at some point, one realizes that they are a bit too old to do certain things; and, skateboarding is one of those things that one gets too old to do quic...

I read a wonderful quote from Kurt Cobain not too long ago.  It really has nothing to do with who said it, but it was one of those moments when it just makes sense to you all of a sudden : "Thank you for the tragedy, I needed it for my art."  Much of art, whatever medium you choose, is really motivated by tragedy.  Songs are written about broken hearts, paintings and drawings are created depicting innermost feelings and thoughts, and a variety of writings are dedicated to such illustrations.  There is a lot of meaning in that little symbol of the yinyang, which is like those two classic masks depicting happiness and sadness as it applies to theater arts.  Just as much is motivated by joy and happiness, to be sure, but most there is more to be found in the darker sides of life.  Recently, I have become a tagalong for one new venue in which to display one's art, and it's usually a tragic one : comedy. I have seen many people who think that they ar...

The movie has yet to come to fruition in which I will be posing naked within.  Making movies is not cheap and finances are tight, plus the director's car was broken into and much of the footage already shot not containing me was stolen.  Fortunately for him the majority of his students have saved the information in bits and pieces, but it all has to be spliced together.  Until further notice, my participation in the movie has been put on the back burner.  With that being said, there happened to be a few opportunities since then that have appeared since that have pushed me into the foreground of being naked for the sake of art.  Deciding it would be best to ease oneself into the process rather than jump into the icy pond full force, I accepted the offers.  I was even paid $20 for my time.  Appropriately enough, the first time it happened was in a house which was in a state of disrepair in a sketchy neighborhood, but I was not a situation where I was b...

I had read in a David Sedaris story years ago, appropriately enough called "Naked" in a collection of short stories by the same name, that it is disconcerting to be talking to someone on the phone knowing they are naked.  Circumstance sometimes interferes with things, as he referenced when they say "You caught me on the way to / as I was just getting out of the shower".  In this instance, he was talking to a man at a reservations desk at a clothing optional resort in which he was about to make his reservation for a stay there.  Of this I have no immediate plans to do so; but, as I have been looking at the proverbial Bucket List (although I hate that term for a goal list) as of late since I am staring at age 40 on the horizon, I began to think of nudity and situations in which I have been. My experiences with nudity have been few and far between, most certainly, outside of the ordinary situation.  Though I have a few friends who enjoy going to pagan nudie ...