Playwriting
Writers
Travis - 06:42pm Nov 1, 1999 PST (# 62 of 70)
...I think theater is alive, and always will be; it happens in an unscripted version to all of us, everyday. In its scripted version - usually with darkened lights and focus on dialogue, actors, and sets - I think it grabs people in a way no other art form can. Perfectly-edited movies will never replace the dynamic tension of watching real actors on stage, nor will they ever offer the possibility of something being said a different way two nights in a row. Film is frozen, but a play lives a new life every time a host of humans and props and dialogue all have to work together in holy or unholy concert.
As a writer who has worked for years alone on other types of writing, writing my first play has been a revelation: I can't wait to see what other people may do with it. I think the audience waits for that, too, and they do that more in a theater than in any other type of performance or setting. I just don't see how any other art form will ever replace the anticipation of what a live concoction of ingredients will taste like coming out of the oven and onto the stage.
Walter "Sweetness" Payton
Sports
Torezblack - 09:18am Nov 2, 1999 PST (# 15 of 25)
Why Walter Payton was the man (on the field)
Quick like Eric Dickerson
Freak moves like Allen Iverson (that stutter step was murder!)
Stiff arm that would decapitate a linebacker (like a Rockem Sockem robot with that thing)
Run cats over like Earl Campbell
Went to an HBCU!
Threw touchdown passes in Superbowl.
Why Walter Payton was the man off the field
Dignified. Classy. Worked hard and didn't talk a lot of yang.
The Delights of Downsizing
House and Garden
shellie - 03:41pm Nov 3, 1999 PST (# 52 of 56)
I'm not afraid of the Drain Monster. But the flow of air and line of sight is very real, and so to many of us is the atavistic dislike of sitting with our back to the door, or falling asleep in an unfamiliar place that does't feel safe. That's why so many people have trouble sleeping well in hotel rooms. And soaring ceilings are marvelous and uplifting in large public spaces in the daytime but make most people want to cringe and hug the wall in private ones after dark, especially if they're alone. Most people sleep better when they can see if someone should come through the bedroom door, but more poorly if a natural flow from some other room of the house runs right across their face on the bed. Houses protected by hills are also protected from the worst of storms, unless the open end is into the storm front. If your house is at the junction of a "T", you are more likely to have the disturbing illusion that the oncoming car isn't going to stop (as occasionally it doesn't), and the glare of headlights in your front windows at night. If your front door faces south, it's going to be brighter, warmer and more welcoming in winter. If it faces north, look out for black ice on the porch. Orange with green stripes does not a restful bedroom make. Your unexpected reflection in a mirror facing the bed can startle you when you get up in the middle of the night. Many a table corner in a bad place has caused many a bruise. See? It's all common sense, but it's all written down, even the things you wouldn't necessarily think of. Pick any book that doesn't focus on numerology and Drain Monsters, take what you like, and leave the rest. I have a couple or three, and one of them seems so silly to me that I don't use it. The other two are just full of suggestions to which any good decorator would say "Well, of course!"
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