the clock is ticking down

One more day of work and then off for five days.
step by step
bird by bird
brick by brick
I will make it until Friday!
But please not minute by minute or I will be crazy by the time it gets here!

event: PICA's T:BA:08

PICA's Time-Based Art Festival 2008 is coming soon. September 4-15, to be exact. It showcases theater and performances from here at home and around the world. There is a wide range of performance events: some will inspire, some will challenge, some will wake you up or raise some emotions. It's a time to try something new -- step out of the comfort zone of what you know and like and take a little risk. It's only for an hour or two ... unless it is a major event like last year's Gatz (a theatrical production which included a reading of the entire book, "The Great Gatsby"), which was six or seven hours, with a dinner break. And so worth it. That was one example where I thought I'd skip the show, but then decided, what the heck, give it a shot, and don't go back after dinner if I hate it.

I went back after dinner and was there when they closed the book after the final word.





There are passes to be bought if so inclined, or individual tickets. There are some free events so anyone can go. There is a late night events hub, The Works, which has music, spoken word, sometimes film, performance ... and is filled with energy. One of my favorite local performance events will be there, Ten Tiny Dances. And others I haven't heard of.

Every year I find at least one new music artist/group which becomes one of my favorites. This year I have already planned out the events I want to see and, with a couple of exceptions, am scheduling work around the event.

There are also some free artist talks. Some low cost workshops. And fun. And new work. And art. And on-site events. Neighborhood events. It's a big cultural party of the arts and it's only here once a year for ten days.

And did I say, it has energy?!?

There is one major on site event on September 14th which is free and will be a not-to-be-missed event. It's the "The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin " with Third Angle New Music Ensemble and choreographers Linda K. Johnson, Cydney Wilkes, Linda Austin, and Tere Mathern and writer Randy Gragg. This event combines music, architecture, water, dance, performance and creativity for two performances only. Did I mention it's free?!?

Re-Vision

Writing has temporarily taken a back seat. Necessarily, I say and yet I wonder. I survey my surroundings and check my appointment book - a PDA now instead of a book and it weighs only four ounces. Yes, I've been busy with work. Yes, I had a show this week, was out of town on the whirlwind surreal trip to planet Las Vegas last week, and have various homework assignments to grade. *And* I did manage to some writing.

I'm not getting very far with revisions right now. But I know that will come.

Thinking back to my original goal of writing every day - I'm nearly there, even with the income-generating work dominating my schedule. That's good. It's progress. I have a bunch of new material and, soon, I will have time to work on revisions.

Re-vision.

I may not be revising my writing, but I am re-visioning my priorities. When I'm done catching up with the grading of homework for my in-person students, I will start back on revision of some new pieces and a couple pieces I've been working on for a while which feel nearly done.

Sometimes when I've felt a little stuck for how to start writing when my brain is swirling with plays and grades, I've gone to WordLush and used the random list to prime the creative juices. Below are today's words. If you haven't been there - go take a look. They have a Daily Word Spittoon which spews seven words; you can also see previous creations from other lists. The intent is to write something using all of the words. A couple characters have surfaced in some of my spittoon writings, which I plan to revisit when I start my revisions. Today's words are:
* miser
* for profit
* assonance
* sputter
* snout
* perfidious
* medusoid

Cowmmedia d'ell Arte by Serena Barton
as part of the Kows for Kids project

I have a confession

I have a confession. I am a writer and, until recently, I wasn’t writing every day. I wanted to; I planned to; and it didn’t happen. I am not only a writer, I said defensively. I do other things and my day job sometimes starts before the sun rises and ends some twelve to fifteen hours later. Not that I get paid for every one of those hours; it includes driving from place to place which is unpaid, and searching for parking, and everything that goes with this type of work. Self-employment is grand and, sometimes, the hours required to make a few bucks are long.

But I digress.

Over and over I’ve heard that, in order to write, you have to write every day. Because of several failed attempts at daily writing, I committed to writing most days. Some weeks that worked and then, “most days” became, well, four days is a majority, right? Then it was, well, this week was only three, but that’s all I could do. Really. Then that slipped into thinking “maybe next week I can write.”

Several years ago I went through The Artists’ Way with a small group of friends. I did manage to do my morning pages every day and it was helpful. Then one day slipped, then two days. And soon, with a change of careers which meant going back to school, that was dropped. I thanked the Morning Pages for helping me find the new career and told them, “Tata for now, I’ll see you when I come out on the other side of this river of courses and cultural adjustments and have built my new career.” Which I assumed meant two years of college and maybe one to two years of getting established in the new profession.

That was thirteen years ago.

Over the last couple years, I started going to writing workshops and groups again. When I go, I write more. Not surprising, because it helps to be around people who assume I’m writing. I know it’s not really them holding me to my commitment, it’s me. But having a place and people to interact with keeps it higher on my priorities list.

Having a writing partner helps, as well. Two weeks ago I met with my writing buddy and he, fresh from a three week vacation in France, announced that we must Write Every Day. He was reading a book I gave him a couple months ago, which was touting the necessity of daily writing. Yeah, yeah, I agreed. If only we had the time. Yeah, he agreed. And we said we would try to write most days, when we could. We also share the other profession.

Three days later I started this blog. I awoke that day knowing it was time to stop saying, “I will” and change it to “I do.” For whatever reason, I have a blog ethic: if a person is going to do one, you have to keep it up. And for writing – that means to write.

This blog – in addition to my desire to share my experiences and inspirations with the hope they are useful to someone else – is my commitment to myself to write every day. Not everything I write is posted here. My other writing includes revisions, pieces of poems, freewrites from a spark of inspiration – and I’ve been visiting WordLush to gather the list from the Daily Word Spittoon and writing something from that. I have been posting those creations at The Writing Vein Playground.

When I let go of having to sit in one place and write at the same time every day for a specified amount of time or number of pages, guess what happened? I’ve been writing every day! Sometimes it’s 15 minutes, sometimes it’s two hours. Sometimes I’m working a new story or revising an old one. And sometimes it’s this blog and the word spittoon game.

Look folks, I’m writing!

"Black scribbler" by Dot. 1992
12" x 48" silk painting

from the mouth of the Spittoon

In case you haven't visited it yet, I thought I'd give you a taste of what can be found at WordLush, a website with word games. My writing, generated from the Daily Word Spittoon's word list on 1/24/08:

"flailing through time"

As he tossed feverishly in his bed, sheets and blankets threatening to choke or strangle due to flailing limbs, his voice suddenly shot out. Suspended between the crying cat’s howling in the window and the ringing of the telephone, the acronymic words, guttural and raw, wafted down the stairs to the guests sipping tea in the living room. Their host emitted an uncharacteristic onomatopoeic utterance, excusing herself from their presence, to check on her nephew hollering from the guest bedroom on the second floor. She couldn’t remember why she had agreed to let herself be saddled with this boorish lout. Placing one foot in front of the other, she laboriously climbed the stairs, his shouts growing louder in a cacophony with the crazy cat and his Blackberry screeching on his desk. As she entered what used to be her study, the inscription on the doorway sent her back to the day she agreed to take in her sister’s only son.

“Your debt is paid; bless you sister.”

[The word list: *unruly, *saddled, *suspended, *acronymic, *feverish, *onomatopoeic, *inscription].

To see the word list for today, hop on over the WordLush and take a peak. You never know what is going to be found in the spittoon!