Thursday, July 19, 2007

simplify media - share yr music library with friends...will be cool if it works as advertised...

i am using simplify media to give my friends and family access to my
music library. set up is fast, and the software is integrated with
apple itunes.
to play my music, download simplify media for mac or pc from:

http://www.simplifymedia.com/welcome.html

once installed, click the 'invite' button and use my screen name: ornery

it's simple, safe and free.

this actually seems like it will be pretty cool, but I won't know for
sure till somebody else I know signs up...

M

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

so...

at the bar
after the show
feelin' ornery
rather be home
drinking alone
nothing I drink there
so the bar it is
i'd picked up residue
from the negative
energy around me
two good friends
in bad bad moods
eventually had some
good conversation
then remembered
a rumor
a rumor
i heard
a rumor
i tend to believe
a rumor
that if true
means a friend
has actively worked
against me
against my interests
against my artistic life
and then i realized
it was not just
residual badness
reverberating
through my night
but the idea of
betrayal and
pettiness
and with my head
in that vodka filled
and angry place
i proceeded to
let my hostility spill out

if any splashed on ya,
i apologize.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

i was not

I was not always the freethinker I am today.

In Jr. High School, at a church lock-in (friend's church - I had stopped going to church already), after a taped seminar about the "evils of rock'n'roll", complete with backmasking and satanism I
actually raised my hand and said something to the effect of,
"I always knew rock'n'roll was bad,
I just didn't know why or how bad."

true story.

I know now that the "evil" of rock'n'roll is its portrayal of a world without consequences. Back in jr. high I was still listening to country music exclusively. There will never be a great rock'n'roll song about a hangover - most country songs about drinking are not about partying, but about hard drinking - drinking alone - drinking to forget -

here I am again
mixing misery & gin
sitting with all my friends
and talking to myself

in the world of rock'n'roll it is always Saturday night. In the country, Sunday morning comes all too soon and it is a reckoning...whether it is Sunday Morning Coming Down or That Word Broadminded is Spelled S-I-N there is a sense of consequences to yr actions - a sense of the cost of being lost.


In high school I berated and lectured my girlfriend when she
got drunk. She snuck liquor out of her parents liquor cabinet
and when she told me I got crazy mad...
I only get that mad now when people take away my whiskey.


have to go to work now -
this post came about because Atrios mentioned
growing up at the height of neo-puritanism,
"Reagan and A.I.D.S.",
and I think often
of how that era shaped me and people my age...
and I don't even have time to go into how
the neo-puritans warped my ideas about sex...

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Dark Matter - Thursday Night - Pay what you like, what you can, what you want, blah blah, just come out...

we'd love to see you on opening night...
fr real...
thursday night
8pm
midtown arts center

make the umbrella holder happy and call for a reservation even...
832-418-0973

Mike Switzer
(a.d. and stage manager, Dark Matter)

www.mildreds.umbrella.com

Dark Matter:
Five Gothic Tales of Horror
By Don Nigro

Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company takes a journey to the dark side of
romance this summer with five short plays of gothic horror by Don
Nigro. The plays include:

Lucy and the Mystery of the Vine Encrusted Mansion. An eccentric
comedy that is a "Gorey drawing come to life" in which a girl,
'sixteen and lost', becomes entangled in a tale of her own invention
that may not allow her to return from it sane.

The Malefactor's Bloody Register. A true story of abuse and murder
from the pages of the notorious eighteenth century compendium of
crime, The Newgate Calendar, in which three young girls tell of the
horrors they suffered at the hands of a mad midwife. "One lived, one
died, one was lost. Which is which?"

Higgs Field. Andromeda awakens from a dream about ravens and runs to
Higgs Field, where surreal metaphors of modern physics spring to life
as a Gothic nightmare.

Darkness Like a Dream. A lonely actress cast as a fairy in A Midsummer
Night's Dream leads a man on an eerie journey through a labyrinth of
dark country roads, growing more and more afraid of what will happen
when they stop.

Joan of Arc in Autumn. A young woman speaks about her confused
memories of her life and martyrdom, which now seems like a dream in
which there is much whispering and everything is burning. Perhaps she
is a mad girl found in a brothel; perhaps not.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact: 832-418-0973 or email mildredsumbrella@hotmail.com


Who: Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company
What: Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror
When: July 5, 6, 7, 9,12,13,14,16, 19, 20, 21
Where: Midtown Art Center, 3414 LaBranch at Holman
Price: Preview Show, Thursday, July 5- Pay What you like
Saturday, opening night party and show- $25.00

Other shows:
$10.00 on Thursdays
$12.00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Two "pay as you like" Mondays, July 9 and July 16

Monday, July 02, 2007

Dark Matter...who, what, when where and why...

Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror by Don Nigro

Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company takes a journey to the dark side of
romance this summer with five short plays of gothic horror by Don
Nigro.

The plays include:

Lucy and the Mystery of the Vine Encrusted Mansion. An eccentric
comedy that is a "Gorey drawing come to life" in which a girl,
'sixteen and lost', becomes entangled in a tale of her own invention
that may not allow her to return from it sane.

The Malefactor's Bloody Register. A true story of abuse and murder
from the pages of the notorious eighteenth century compendium of
crime...

Joan of Arc in Autumn
July 5th-7th, 9th, 12th-14th, 16th, and July 19th-21st

Midtown Art Center, 3414 LaBranch at Holman

Preview Show: Thursday, July 5th - Pay What you like
Click Here For Tickets
Saturday July 7th, Opening Night Party and Show: $25.00

$10.00 on Thursdays

$12.00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

"Pay as you like" Mondays, July 9th and July 16th


so, at the bar tonight with some other folks who worked on the show...
and a flier is handed to someone who sits at our table...
a flier for the show -
it has who, what, when, where and price...
no why?
he asks, "where is the why?"

I thought about it a lot on the way home,
and there are certain whys to see theatre,
and whys to see this show...
here is a drunk and rambling combination of the two...

theatre,
like all art,
holds a mirror
up to you -
if it is good,
and you are willing
to look -
it can show you
not just things
you've never seen,
but things that you
never would have
imagined were there.

It does some other very specific things too -
and I'm still trying to nail them all down,
but I'll tell you this -

you are watching
real people
go through
real things
on stage
and when we fire
on even half
our cylinders
we can give you things you'll never get
once removed
through a screen...

This show
is about
the nature of time,
the relationship
between power
and gender,
the things one might
be willing
to sacrifice
in order to feel
"in control",
the true nature
of the unseen world,
what it means
to hear voices -
to have vision -
and the horrible things
we are capable of -
how we can break
others as we are
broken and all
in the name of the lord
(have no doubt,
the monsters are human,
even if they claim to be
punishing you for your sins...)

and oh yeah,
it's a helluva show...
funny, creepy, unsettling, thoughtful, beatiful, real,
and yes,
entertaining...

and it's cheap,

inexpensive tickets
mean you can take me out
and buy me a drink after...

how's that for a deal?

Kid Ornery

(mike switzer - stage manager and a.d. on Dark Matter)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

drunk blogging

I.

I am
a hardcore
humanist.
what does that mean?
I believe
the question of God
is unanswerable
and therefore
we must
get better
at handling
this shit
ourselves.

to let go
and let God
is simply to let go...
if that is yr choice,
so be it...
but recognize it.

we are all we've got
and we have
to do better.
if you believe God
helps those who
help themselves
then I assume
to some degree
you agree.

embrace the mystery
we don't know
we can't
get on with it

push past it
to what you can do

jesus christ!
that sounds like just
so much more
mumbo-jumbo

but folks,
it's all I've got.




II.


I don't believe in gurus.

I think everybody
knows their road...
some of us
just need
to learn
how to walk.


i don't believe in the mind/body split really,
but i know that, sometimes,
my body
and
my mind disagree
on everything
from tacos
to sex

why is it
that my tongue
and my brain
like things
that make
my stomach
and my bowels
so unhappy?

I'd rather not
even think
about the
disconnect
and connect
between
my two heads.
Thanks.

I don't believe in anything really

I only know what I experience

but my experience says that my actions
have consequences
and so I must accept that as reality,
be it real or not.



III.

I believe that
even I do not
understand
my own actions

one hemisphere
of my brain
tells the other
stories
about why I do things
and these
stories
then justify
other things I do

the stories grow
and become
a history
with patterns
and cycles
and morals

and then
suddenly
yr lost
and
you surprise yrself
yr capable of something
else

and you tell yrself
a new story.


IV.

by the way,
I am drunk and
more wrong than right

and yet,
I say -
take care of yrself,
nobody else will.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

tonight

going to see these guys:



instead of getting some much needed sleep...

Saturday, June 16, 2007

REAL ART (and politics and culture)

REAL ART (and politics and culture)

Stealing and shitty performance are tried and true methods of resistance that date back to slavery, at least. I mean, what can you do when your options are extremely limited? Easy, do a bad job. The sad thing is that a lot of these workers might actually feel a bit guilty about ripping off their boss, about doing nothing while on the clock. They shouldn't. Wal-Mart treats their employees like shit and this is what they deserve.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

been a while...

moved into the new place

seem to have found a fairly stable internet connection

getting things somewhat back on track...

finished up Lower Depths and had one night off
then started working on the next MU show

stage managing and AD'ing for

Dark Matter - Five Gothic Tales of Horror


Is everyone you know as crazy as everyone I know?
are they all having crazy times?
seems to be what is going round, round here, these days...

hope yr life has some of the good crazy...

Kid Ornery

Monday, May 21, 2007

Bloggin'

Internet is off and the lower depths is over.
Starting work on the mildreds summer show today and working on the move.
Havent talked to one of my best friends in something like a month and
another friend is around a lot after a girlfriend induced absence.
Ran into a friend at tdu's notsuoh show who said she loved me.
Said i had it all together which leads me to believe she doesn't know me at all.
Went on a date - with someone else - which went well but also
highlighted some of the ways i am a mess.
So here i sit
at the candy store
typing on my phone and feeling the confusion fill my head.
Whoohoo!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

HandStamp: Local players crash the art car parade

for those of you what missed us in the parade...

HandStamp: Local players crash the art car parade

look for more pics (Ayn got some great ones) soon...

M

Saturday, May 12, 2007

art car parade

today was great...
we played Lennon's "I don't want to be a soldier"
and Ra's "Space is the Place"
tdu was #87 in the parade
riding around in a loverly
design by ayn
pulled by shelley's "Mpeach" truck...

"Make Noise
Not War -
The Defenestration Unit"

yeehaw!

and now it is off to more lower depths...
playing at notsuoh at 3 am,
working at noon and playing at super happy
4 pm tomorrow

yeehaw

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Austin Chronicle: Arts: Mr. Not So Frivolous: Wallace Shawn bares all about writing, why he does theatre, and that play he wrote with all the sex

The Austin Chronicle: Arts: Mr. Not So Frivolous: Wallace Shawn bares all about writing, why he does theatre, and that play he wrote with all the sex in it

There was a friend of my parents who was interested in theatre, and a friend was always saying about certain people, "He's a real professional," or in some cases, "Oh, he's not a professional." And from the time I was a boy, I knew there was something about that that I didn't care for because if the people are professional, it sort of implies that it's something they're doing competently, but they don't really care about it that much, and when they go home they can forget about it, and I suppose that's the feeling I had. And I'm not sure that's worth my time as an audience member. If I'm going to spend an evening watching some people, I want to see their soul. I want to see something that's terribly important at least to them. If it isn't that important, just a job, why should I go out and watch them?

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Thursday, May 03, 2007

billy childish interview

The Lower Depths

we opened tonight.
we kicked ass.
really.

there is a lot of great stuff happening in this show.
come see it.

PERFORMANCE DATES
ALL SHOWS BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 8:00 PM
Weekend Shows: Fri/Sat May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19
Pay-What-You-Want shows - Thursday, May 3 and Thursday, May 10

there is talk of adding a monday pay what you will on the 14th

LOCATION
Freneticore Theater
5102 Navigation
Houston, Tx 77011

TICKETS
$10

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION
832-283-0858
OR
dccommune@yahoo.com
www.doschicastheatercommune.com
http://myspace.com/doschicascommune

www.DosChicasTheaterCommune.com