Propagating Vaulger Trash One Day at a Time

As I was checking in returned rentals at Rogers today, I found a note in the DVD case of Burn After Reading. It reads:

"Warning! this Dvd is nothing more then vaulger Trash that is Not worth your time! Consider your self warned! very-very-very Bad movie! As God as my witness!!!"

And then on the other side it read: "May God who proves to be bring His Judgement and will against such trash! In Jesus Name may it be so!"

Now I've inscribed the note verbatim here, because I'd like to point out not only how ludicrous it is that someone would bother to write this note and send it to a video store, but how awful this person's spelling, grammar and punctuation is. That's the icing on the cake right here. So, I've written a note in response to this person:

Dear Fundamentalist Christian,

Your note truly made my day. It's good to know that the morality police are alive and well, whether it's shoving pamphlets in our faces on street corners or clandestinely slipping notes in our movie cases. If it weren't for you, whom would we have to defy with every breath, every act of insubordination we commit to keep our art (and our minds) free of censorship? I must admit I am a little insulted though, that you would send me a note so poorly written! What IS the world coming to?? If anything, the real sin here is people like you who degrade our language into something so simplistic that the only concepts we have are one or the other, black and white, right and wrong. Double plus ungood, I say (that's a reference to a book, by the way. It's just more Vaulger Trash though, I wouldn't bother reading it if I were you). Anyway, thanks for looking out for my soul, Mr. Puritan. But next time, please remember to spell-check your fire-and-brimstone notes and save us all the embarrassment.

Yours truly,

Liam

Fallen Art

Here's one of my favourites from my Youtube account. Enjoy!

Alright, so I won't be finished the story for tonight, but I did get a good chuck of it done, at least a third of it. I'll provide updates as things progress. Have a good night, Cyberland!

JOHN CLEESE WCF

Here's a video that I actually came across on a random blog a few months ago. I thought it would be great to share this with anybody who concerns him or herself with the creative process:

Alright, alright!

Enough running. Enough evasive manoeuvres. Enough excuses. Time to blog again.

Having watched Uta Hagen's acting class was extremely inspirational for me. It's basically everything I read about in her book Respect For Acting, only it was far more helpful to see it all demonstrated by her and her students. The woman is, like Whoopi Goldberg said, a force of nature. If anybody will renew my interest in this bizarre art form, it's her. I know I said that after having read her book a few months ago, and then I dipped down again and have strongly considered dropping acting as soon as I'm done the next year. I really was, and I'd be lying if I said it doesn't still tempt me. But seeing Uta and her students in action reminds me just what acting in theatre can really be about. Anyway, it's getting closer to show time as well, and that's fuelling the fire too.

Speaking of Rent, the more I play around with the video camera during rehearsals and pretend to film people, the more I actually want to do what Mark Cohen is doing. I've wanted a camera for as long as I can remember, and doing it onstage really whets that appetite.

I shall be posting a short story on here soon. It's bubbling and brewing as we speak. I only have notes in my head, but it's fleshing itself out with great ease already. I'll devote Thursday night to its drafting, even if it means severe sleep deprivation! That's all I'll say for now, though...

Hello cyberworld,

Sorry for not posting in a few days. I've been busy with Summerstock and watching season one of Battlestar Galactica outside of Stock. My god what a good series. Anywho...

I'm reading The Unfinished Canadian right now, and as I was reading the first chapter, one passage stood out in my mind. The author describes how a professor named Martin J. Gannon points out symbols of national character in different countries. "He says, for example, that the most distinctive symbol of Japan is the spare, landscaped garden...in Turkey, the symbol is the coffeehouse, which mixes elements of the religious and the secular....etc". The particular passage I'm concerned with is this: "In Ireland, it is conversation, the staff of life for a gregarious people in thrall to the melody and meaning of language." My heart sang at this sentence. It resonated with me for very personal reasons, namely that I have a strong affinity for Irish culture, a pride and sense of belonging in its context. I'm half Irish from my mom's side and my dad is in a Celtic folk band, not to mention the constant exposure to Irish myth and legend for my own fairy tale. And then this got me thinking: I'm more proud of my Irishness than my Canadianness, not to mention my Germanness and Danishness. This doesn't seem right, since I've never actually been to Ireland, nor am I particularly gregarious or gifted in storytelling, which the Irish are famous for. Indeed I'd say I'm thrall to the "melody and meaning of language", otherwise I wouldn't be on here journaling, but it's not in the same way. I am only HALF Irish after all. And I hate Guinness. The pride I have is more the product of wishful thinking than anything else; the desire to belong to a heritage as strong and ancient and mysterious as Ireland's. And so what's wrong with Canada that I have to entreat a step-parent identity? Some may argue it is Canadian to have multiple identities and roots, to be a chameleon of sorts. It's possible, but this theory doesn't seem to satisfy. I act as though I am a cultural orphan, having to look elsewhere than my broad nation. Well, if I'm not going to look here I might as well not stay here and call myself Canadian at all! I am not an orphan. But I think that cultural disconnect is very real, if only in our heads, otherwise so many people wouldn't feel like this, prompting people like Andrew Cohen to write books like The Unfinished Canadian. I may not be an orphan, but at times I am certainly a child estranged from his parent. Well at any rate, the search for Canada goes on, until I can know it and love it for what it is.

In other news, I'm debating over word choice for my story. When I refer to mortal human beings, I'm tempted to define the race as Man, rather than Humanity. I don't mean to be sexist at all, but in some ways the word Man, being archaic and obsolete now in our day better suits a more archaic world. I don't want to compromise this world simply because of modern sensibilities. Trust me, this is not something I take lightly, as I wouldn't use it in the context of our real contemporary world. Women and Women's rights supporters have fought too long and hard to be hampered by small yet significant things like language suited to a patriarchal society. But at the same time, I don't like the idea of political correctness running amok and eradicating the possibilities of language, and the decor of my fairy world. Just know that that's as far patriarchy goes in my story. Otherwise I'm determined to make it as balanced as possible in the roles that both sexes play (without making it seem forced and depreciate the many and rich differences between Men and Women in this place). Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.