One thing....leads to Another.....

As in life, while writing sporadically in this venue, one thing leads to another....a kind of stream of unconsciousness. Not really a stream, even. A trickle.

For Example:

Today is the birthday of Playwright Lee Blessing, who wrote a very good two-hander back in the mid-eighties, titled, A Walk in the Woods. It was a series of conversations between the American and Soviet Ambassador, who would take time off from the negotiations to walk in the woods and talk. I hope, one day, to do this play. Sam Waterston and Robert Prosky were the original cast.

Which led me to:

When I was first certifying in Stage Combat through the Society of American Fight Directors back in the early nineties, this play came to me as the basis of the scene my partner and I had to fight through. For those of you that don't know the test, you have seven minutes to do three meticulously rehearsed fights (in this case, hand to hand, rapier and dagger, and quarterstaff) and they must be integrated into a scene that will support the altercations. It's to make sure that you are not only a good fighter, but can justify the movement within an acting exercise. My partner and I decided to be the Soviet and American Ambassadors, who have finally reached the moment when they decide to f**k decorum, and kill each other.

The funny footnote to this.....five days before the test, the Soviet Union fell, which threw our scene into a bit of turmoil. But, we adjusted; we added a line about "New Government" and "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" and we were off to the races.....

Another thing:

Dick Tracy debuted in Newspapers on this day in 1931. I drank my morning coffee (my morning coffee being consumed at around 9 pm last night, mind you) from a Dick Tracy coffee mug, given to me by a lovely redheaded woman I dated while in Missouri, back in the early nineties. The mug was part of the publicity campaign for the movie in 1990.

And another:

Jimmy Hoffa was elected President of the Teamsters Union on this date in 1957. Back when I was a citizen of the Detroit Metropolitan Area, I often ate at the Sly Fox restaurant where he allegedly ate his last meal. It's gone now, of course.

And lastly:

Janis Joplin died on this date in 1970. She is often quoted as saying, "Every night I go out and make love to 20,000 people, and then I go home alone." She is often imitated, but never equaled.....and while some people will pop in the DVD of THE ROSE to get the feeling again, I simply turn on the IPod, and turn on PEARL. Smoke and Jack Daniels and Passion.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Buster Keaton!