200. Jake!

Gotta love this poster!
(Thanks, Angelo.)

But in all the excitement about this up-coming concert, don't forget to catch the PLAY BUFFET. Last performances are today and Friday March 13 and 14, at AMP. Just $5.


And now, for a taste of Jake's music (a la Japan tour).

199. SCRIPT FRENZY!

The Office of Letters and Light has announced a change in the Script Frenzy event. They've changed the date from the month of June to APRIL!

That's less than 3 weeks away!

So if you're interested in writing that stage or movie script, a manga novel or cartoon, or even a radio script, now is the time to sign up and gear up. Great advice over at Script Frenzy .

I'm not sure if I can do this in April. I did join last June (I was on vacation.) and it was a lot of fun. Writing a script is difficult, though. Seemed much harder than novel writing!

198. Winners and more winners!

Today was an insane day in the world of student competitions. Regional competitions for Math Court, PGFC, and Thespians! The finals of Mock Trial!

There were students, parents, teachers and coaches actively about in Susupe--especially at the events at Guma Hustitia and MHS.

Congrats to Mount Carmel students who won the Mock Trial competition. Each year the competition steps up another notch. MBA continues to set the bar high and turn in stellar performances. This year, though, the students from MCS consistently advocated and acted through the entire grueling competition, and won the votes of the judges. [Pictures from the final competition--not great, but what I have.]

Great job to all, including the coordinators, coaches, competitors, judges, jurors, and the unsung heroes who simply did small but necessary jobs.

And thanks to Hal Easton and all the teachers and judges who made the Math Court, PGFC, and Thespians competitions happen. The competitions provide an important showcase of talent among our students.

Wow!

197. Something in the Air

I've been writing lately about how disturbing I find letters and interviews printed in our local newspapers with unfounded accusations and barely-disguised untruths stated in them. Obviously, there's something in the air. Or perhaps the art of lying is contagious.

In the publishing/book world, there's a James Frey redux. Only this time it's Margaret B. Jones, a/k/a Peggy Seltzer. Another memoir that received positive reivews is fiction.

There are some differences. One is that the lie was promptly exposed by the author's sister after publication of the book and the news publicity it engendered. So Oprah isn't embarrassed this time.

The publisher has also changed its response --recalling all copies of the book and cancelling Ms. Seltzer's book tour. No chance for extra sales of copies after the scandal, as happened with James' Frey's book A Million Little Pieces.

There's an interesting discussion at Galley Cat about why this problem continues to resurface. While you can vote in a small poll, there's no option that includes "people like to lie; it makes them feel important." Meanwhile, Media Bistro is selling a video lesson on fact-checking.

And if you get tired of the fact-checking problem, you can always read about plagiarism, and its latest incarnation at the NYT, here at SLATE .

196. A Taste for Theatre

I saw the show--Play Buffet-- Friday night. It was well-attended, although not sold out. Fun. As Sylvia said--"another hit." In my opinion, well worth seeing, especially at just $5, but not quite as good as last year's In Transit. That was an A+. This one is just a fun experience. Don't miss it!

195. On Professionalism

I recently wrote a blog post over at DAY IN COURT. I've been feeling the burn of sublimated anger at many of the letters to editors in our local newspapers lately. Accusations tossed about based on prejudice and personal bias, opinions designed to push racial and ethnic tensions higher, and advice that glosses over one's own counter-actions all have me wanting to caution readers --don't believe everything you read in the newspapers. Consider the source. Ask where's the verification.

I made a quiet reference to professionalism, and noted how it adds credibility and clarity. Without it, you have a lot of haze, and perhaps just smoke and mirrors.

And then I came across this guest lecture by the noted scriptwriter John August. It encouraged the Trinity students (and now offers the message to everyone who reads it) to be professional, not amateur, to be "aspiring," not irresponsible, writers.

It's amusing and insightful, and also filled with motherly advice. As I've said to my own daughter each time she writes another school composition, essay, short story, "Do your best, hon. Always do your best." Only now I can quote someone else, someone with more cachet, someone worth heeding.

So we can both be better writers--truly professional.

194. Feeling the Beat.

"It is a matter not of traveling from one place to another, but of uncovering
the destination inside the point of departure." Steve Reich.

THE REST IS NOISE, LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Alex Ross (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) is a history of twentieth century "classical" music. And it rocks with the beat of a chaotic century. Dense with biography and cultural context, it leafs through the pages of time with a close look that is light and clear.

From Strauss and Mahler, who open the century, to Reich and Adams who close it, the sounds of street and country, oppression and rebellion move together and separately (tonally and atonally?) in a hypnotic dance. Alex Ross is brilliant, not just in explaining a complex subject, but in evoking the very essence of music with his language.

This is a great read. It has history, biography, music, culture, and clash in it.

Although there is a clear narrative element, THE REST IS NOISE, achieves something much larger, more panoramic than a trip through the decades from start to finish. Brian Eno's words on minimalism could apply equally to Alex Ross' history of music: "a drift away from narrative and towards landscape, from performed event to sonic space."

Curiously enough, the writer in me wants to rush out, and --not listen to all of the music described elegantly, not purchase the suggested listening recordings, but rather-- find and re-read Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus. And then I want to listen to the sounds of the 20th century!