U.S. Fringes are Local Festivals, Plain and Simple.

local vs national

A Caveat: I know a lot of organizers of Fringe festivals personally through a variety of circumstances. These opinions are my own and are no reflection on the huge amount of respect I have for the dedication, perseverance and aptitude they demonstrate to bring alternative and small scale theater to their communities. 

Also, I’m up to anyone disputing this but I want the math to back it up, not just general numbers. How do out-of -towners payouts differ from local producers?

Last year  published a post called To Fringe or Not to Fringe in which I broke down what the circuit was like. I have only toured fringes in the U.S., and only if I’ve done extensive research on them so that I’m not walking away in the red (although I have anyway). In my previous post I spoke briefly about how some fringes can have a local focus where out-of-towners such as myself get lost in the shuffle. I realized something however… Continue reading →

Daydreaming for the Fuck of it

Insert imaginative expression and possible non sequitur here.

I’m constantly daydreaming. Unfortunately these wonderful and playful aspects of my imagination get met with a pragmatic set of questions:

*Could I get a grant for that?
*How much time would it take to develop into a full piece?
*Do I really need a suspended trapeze that is two feet off the ground that I only use for a 2 second inside joke? Continue reading →

The Cult of Optimism within the Hardcore Movement

Image courtesy of Bent Objects by the amazing Terry Border!

The word cult gets thrown around a lot. Whenever someone uses the term it is usually aimed at a group of people who are behaving in such a manner that arouses suspicion. We live in a society, therefore we need each other. It’s pretty simple. We cannot sustain ourselves without other human beings. However we parcel ourselves off into subsets of subsets to find those who seem like-minded. This way we cannot only get things done but we can also establish some level of trust. Once this happens it’s very easy to be persuaded into ways of thinking and feeling that aren’t necessarily your own. Continue reading →

Look Ma, A Sub-header!

My ears are not meant for your amusement.

The world of blog marketing is a strange one. These SEO giants in Buddy Holly glasses, keyword wordsmiths and blog title snubbers are on a mission: To get people to keep reading something they probably half care about in order to ultimately getting them to share the post or follow through on a call-to-action. That means getting them to buy your shit or sign up for your email list so you can convince them later to buy your shit. Continue reading →

Mental Illness is soooo 2012

In the wake of the Newtown shooting there has been a lot of talk about needing to open up the conversation about mental illness. As I started listening to the coverage and conversations I started to get peeved at how the term was being thrown around as if it encapsulated every mental state that may have a negative connotation. As an artist and metalhead it also brings to light the necessity to get clear about the stereotypes associated with being a “creative type”. Continue reading →

Subjective Success in the Self-Help Web

I’ve been thinking a shit ton about success as I work on the final part of my one-man trilogy on the underbelly of the self-help movement. Kicking Ass and Taking Names (tagline: Measuring Success One Failure at a Time) has been one of the projects I’ve been mind dumping onto my laptop all of December. It’s been a lot slower than expected. Continue reading →

The Holidaze Hump

The holiday season can be one of the roughest times of year for many and I am included in that contingency. It’s when I start listening to a lot more metal with titles like Waiting Out the Winter. It’s also a double edge sword in terms of creativity. The end of November through December is when I have the biggest impulse to write. This December I started to finish a memoir, write the third part of my one-man trilogy on the underbelly of the self-help movement and began a one-act play that started percolating this past summer.

While all this energy to create is stimulated I also can hit a wall in terms of depression. Continue reading →