Every Day Is New

OK, so maybe it's the fact that I just recovered from a nasty stomach bug where I couldn't do much except wallow in self-pity, but I feel like I've got a new start on life. Throw in the fact that the New Year is just starting and you generate all kinds of push towards self reflection. (Plus I was just out walking the dog and there's not a lot to think about while he's getting caught up on his canine communications. Sniff, sniff.)

There were a lot of things that I didn't get accomplished this last year. Of course, not everything actually fits into a year schedule. I spent a lot of time on smaller projects which left some of the bigger projects dangling. So this next year is going to be the year of the Big Projects. And since I have several of those I have to recognize that I might not get them all done this next year. But that's OK.

I have books and scripts where the first draft is done and I need to get them on to a second and third. And I might just have too many to be able to get all done in a year. Which I'm going to say is a good thing. I just need a big board on the wall with a list of them all, so when I find myself not sure what to do, I can just pick something off the list.

But then I'll need a second board to add all the new ideas I get, since that won't stop just because I'm working on finishing up the old ones. I think I might actually need a wheelbarrow full of notebooks that I take everywhere with me just so I can keep everything organized. (Perhaps someone could develop a small portable device that a person can carry around that can be used to store and organize data?)

But even as I try to make these big plans for the year, I do need to keep in mind that even if I do try to plan for forever, I need to do my best to live for today. Plans, even the best laid ones, can be changed, whether they've gone astray or not.

 As the “philosophers” Phineas and Ferb are known to say, “let's make today the best day ever.” And despite what you might have read on Facebook, that doesn't place any limits on tomorrow. Oh sure, some days you're going to still end up with a nasty stomach bug or something else unpleasant, but that just gives you an easy starting place to try to make the next day better.

A Christmas Story

My memory doesn't seem to function like other peoples. At least, from the way they talk it doesn't. I don't really remember any particular Christmas. All my memories just get all jumbled up together into just one big impression of Christmas.

Early Morning of the Comet

Comet ISON is out in the early morning sky. Back in 2012 when it was discovered, at the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) in Russia, the hopes were that it would be a bright and impressive comet. As it has gotten closer expectations have been scaled back. But just recently the brightness increased and it has now become visible to the naked eye.

Lodi Crane Festival

Once again I'm back from the Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi. It was an odd year, while we did seem some of the cranes, I didn't see too many species of birds. I suspect the warm, dry, windy conditions made the viewing poor. Though maybe it was the end of Daylight Savings Time (one of the great evils of the 21st Century).

Art in Action

Recently (Oct 19th) I dropped over to Ventura for their annual Kinetic Sculpture Race. For those that don't know this is a “race” where people have built human powered vehicles (mostly based on bicycles) and race them through four events.

Give Us 10

We all have stories. Big stories and small ones. Some are things that have happened to us, while others are things that have happened to people we know. Still others are things we've just made up. Not every story is one we really want to share, while others we'll tell to anyone that will sit still long enough to listen to the whole thing. And sometimes we tell the same story to the same people over and over again. Sometimes we don't remember we told them, while other times, we tell the story again because it is important to us.

Moon Rabbit

I write quite a few plays. Most are pretty short, ten minutes or so. So I keep my eyes open for places wanting short plays. Last year I saw a notice for one in Canada and they had a rule that (if you weren't Canadian) you had to have one of the characters say “I see a rabbit”.

Well I let that sort of percolate in my brain. And somewhere back in the dusty file cabinets of my mind an image came up. Like an old Ripley's Believe It Or Not, it seemed to have something about some cultures saw a rabbit on the moon instead of the man on the moon. Well off to the Internet I went and did a search on moon and rabbit. And just like my dusty cobwebbed memory had said, some cultures do see a rabbit on the moon.

So delving into Wikipedia I read up on some of the myths that arose to explain why there was a rabbit on the moon. And two of the stories were remarkably similar. And they were from separate continents. There was an old Aztec tale about the god Quetzalcoatl and a Buddhist tale about Sakra, a Buddhist “god”. Both tales involved the god traveling and being hungry and the rabbit sacrificing itself so the god could eat. And in return the god put the rabbit's image on the moon.

So now I had an image that I wanted to use for my play and after a short time I knew what I was going to do and the play wrote itself quickly. I was able to have a reading of the play at Fiddler's Crossing Open Mic Night a week or two before the deadline to submit the play. With Debbie Martin and Cambria Hynes doing the two parts the play was well received. Though I did notice something that I felt needed fixed, did a very minor rewrite and sent it off to Canada.

Well, to make a long story short, it wasn't picked for their festival, but that wasn't the end of my little play. For some time now Gary Mazzola and I have been collaborating on some projects and he decided that he wanted to make a film of my play. And with the help of some of the actors with Tehachapi Community Theatre the film “moon rabbit” has been completed. The video is available on YouTube. Either go to YouTube and search on “moon rabbit mazzola” or type in the link 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctg3KUdq95I. I think the resulting film turned out wonderfully.

 So go and watch the film and see where my inspiration that came from a dusty old memory took me. But I can't sit back and rest on my laurels. I need to get back to writing. The deadline for our own TCT festival is coming up and I need to get something written for it. I wonder what dusty old memory I can find for that. (If you think you might have a ten minute play to share, go to http://tctonstage.com/playwrightsfestival.html and consider submitting for the festival next spring.)