March 2012

• Go Musicals on Greg Mankiw’s blog!

  Posted by gmadmin   |   March 31, 2012

  Greg Mankiw gave a shout-out to Go Musicals on the #1 economics blog in America!!! http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-my-inbox.html

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
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• Tampa!!!

  Posted by gmadmin   |   March 15, 2012

  Arrived here in Tampa on Tuesday for the Florida Thespians Festival. I’m staying at a funky little hostel a couple miles from the convention center and renting a bike. Yesterday I went with some folks from the hostel to Weedon Island where I hiked around for a few hours and took in all the great scenery. (I may go back after the festival with a kayak.) After that I went and scoped out the University of Tampa. No exaggeration, that school is a PALACE ON THE WATER!!! I am one Sundevil who loves his alma mater, but dang – I sure wouldn’t mind spending another four years going to school in Tampa lol. I may shoot an email to some of the theatre faculty there and see if I can pay them a visit while I’m in town.
  Today I biked along the bay, looked at some gorgeous houses, grabbed coffee in Hyde Park, and eventually made my way to Ybor City as I killed time before setting up my booth at the convention center. Ybor City was pretty cool. Reminded me of Mill Ave in Tempe (I guess every city has one). By that time I realized that I was seriously sun-burned. You’d think as a Phoenix boy I would have been ready with sunscreen, but I was arrogant. I thought there was no way Tampa could be as hot as my home town. Well, I was wrong – it’s just as hot, plus it feels hotter because of the humidity. Now I’ll go to the conference looking like a tomato lol.
  I had planned to pick up some Cuban cigars while in Ybor, but when I saw the prices I made for the door. $80 for the novelty of puffing a few cigars that’ll only make me stink and feel like crap afterward? Pass.
  There was a pack of Thespians on the trolley ride back to the convention center. They were going to see Jekyll and Hyde at the Stratz Center tonight. I would have gone but I think it was going to be packed. Anyway, seeing all those energetic young people made me stoked about the festival tomorrow. I’m so glad I’m here! (Just wish Leah could be here with me.)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
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• Encounters with Beauty

  Posted by gmadmin   |   March 4, 2012

  Just spent the day soaking in the Senora desert at the Saguaro National Park and Tucson Desert Museum. Reading the plaques and learning about the desert flora and fauna, I started thinking about how we handle encounters with beauty. Works of art, nature, people, history, politics, math – no matter what it is, I always approach it the same way.

  When something stirs my emotion or catches my interest, the first thing I do is just observe it. I give it my full attention. Gradually the observation becomes active and the imagination is engaged. I want to be able to see and feel and hear and maybe even smell and taste the thing even in my mind’s eye. The process is meditative. It’s what you do when you stop, look, and listen.

  Next there is learning. I delve into the history, the complexity, the details of the thing. The more I learn, the richer it becomes. Already the distinction between subject and object is dissolving. I find myself melding with the thing, losing myself in the object of my attention. Almost everything is intrinsically interesting. Like looking at a Magic Eye picture, when you engage the complexity of a thing the chaos gradually takes form.

  Then I want to share it. Talk about it, show it to others, spread the experience. “Hey, read this.” “Come look at this.” “I want to show you something.”

  Finally I have to create. Take the object of beauty and transform it into something new. If it’s a fact from history, I want to transform it into a story or a portrait. If it’s a beautiful plant or animal, I want to transmute it into a work of art. For me, that’s where musicals come from.

  This last part is so important. It’s why I create. If people are going through life without creating anything, I honestly don’t know how they manage. I create because there is so much beauty in the world to encounter, and I don’t know any other way to let it pass through me. The input has to become output or else the whole works will break down.

  People need to be producers of art at least as much as they need to be consumers of art. It’s how we handle our encounters with beauty.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
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• Blackbird: the Musical?

  Posted by gmadmin   |   March 3, 2012

  A day at the Pima Air and Space Museum. So many amazing airplanes! (Including an SR-71 Blackbird!!!) An aviation-themed musical, perhaps? Interesting fact: The way pilots find out that they have been selected to pilot an SR-71 is to wake up one morning to find a Blackbird painted on their driveway!
  
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
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