Excerpts from the past couple days

2.

I must keep up with West of Here by Jonathan Evison. It’s this great novel about a fictional town of Port Bonita in Northwest Washington. It follows an ensemble of characters from the late 1800s who are out to tame the land and manifest their destinies. Then, Evison mixes it up with the folks who live in it during 2006—complete with shattered hopes and a general sense of “I’m stuck and haven’t done anything with my life.”

4.

Got a LOT of notes from yesterday’s run of An Enemy of the People. To be honest, I got upset by the sheer quantity, but they are detailed and will only make the performance better. I intend to review them a couple times before Sunday’s run. It’s all about telling a clearer, more compelling story. It’s not personal.

7.

The Hunger Games book is on my nightstand. I cannot crack it open for fear that is all I will do for the entire day.

10.

This entry is inspired by David Shields’s book Reality Hunger, which is a collection of quotes and writing about paving the wave for a new genre of literature. It’s post-post modernism / fusion reality (I made that up) that is so strange. I expect to write more about this. But he is fascinated with the idea of reality, memoir, and form. It’s a call to arms. He has no qualms about plagiarism. In fact, I think much of the book are actually quotes from other sources. He didn’t want to attribute them, but I think his publishers made him write a list of sources in the very back.

11.

I don’t know what to make of the book just yet, but it’s fresh, and promises to say quite a bit about social networking and reality television. I’m trying not to race through it (and I’m also trying to stay with West of Here).

12.

I’m not saying that West of Here is a bad read or anything like that. What I am trying to say is this: I want to keep my intake of media/culture/art/what have you more contained. So that means NOT having a bookmark in 5 different books at the same time.

15.

I was tempted to go to the Cities this weekend. There are some great events going on. But I’m glad I opted for staying in town and laying low. This means, yes, I’m still in bed at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. I did get up for coffee and some cereal.

17.

Today’s inbox was quite full, for a Saturday. Most of them were comments on Facebook for a fan page I moderate. But another one was from the head of a graduate acting program. But it was a cryptic message. I didn’t even want to write about this, but obviously, it’s on my mind. I can say that it wasn’t an offer, but it wasn’t a rejection either.

19.

Say what you will, but I think Anne Hathaway is stunning and quite a good actor.

20.

Say what you will, but James Franco is amusing.

21.

I am, however, upset about his Ph.D. in Literature stint.

What I Read/Saw in 2010

I've been doing this for a few years, it seems. Here' s list of the plays and books I read this year (along with plays/theatrical events I attended).

2010

Books Read:

1.       Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (novel)

2.       A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart (non-fiction)

3.       Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (novel)

4.       Unincorporated Persons of the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland (poetry)

5.       The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (non-fiction)

6.       The Play That Changed My Life ed. Ben Hodges (non-fiction)

7.       Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner (non-fiction)

8.       Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving (novel)

9.       Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin (short stories and poetry)

10.   If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home by John Jodzio (short stories)

11.   Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (novel)

12.   The Song is You by Arthur Phillips (novel)

13.   The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender (short stories)

14.   Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine (graphic stories)

15.   The Magicians by Lev Grossman (novel)

16.   Training of the American Actor ed. Arthur Bartow (non-fiction)

17.   Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (novel)

18.   The Art of Recklessness by Dean Young (non-fiction, poetry criticism)

19.   The Best American Non Required Reading 2010 edited by Dave Eggers (mix of non-fiction, fiction, lists, comics, etc – skipped a few stories, may come back later)
20. Skippy Dies by Paul Morris (I'm not quite finished, but I'm 450 pages in. It's about 630 pages long, so it's definitely a 2010 book rather than 2011. I make these official rules up).

Plays Read:

1.       Death and the Ploughman by Johannes von Saaz (re-read)

2.       John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik Ibsen (re-read)

3.       White Lies by Peter Schaffer

4.       Black Comedy by Peter Schaffer

5.       Parfumerie by Miklos Lazlos

6.       Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin (re-read)

7.       An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

8.       Blasted by Sarah Kane

9.       Marisol by Jose Rivera

10.   The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg

11.   The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice

12.   Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare

13.   King John by Shakespeare

14.   The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh

15.   The Crowd You’re In With by Rebecca Gilman

16.   The Retreat From Moscow by William Nicholson

17.   As Bees in Honey Drown by Douglas Carter Beane

18.   The Turn of the Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher

19.   Moonchildren by Michael Weller

20.   Love’s Labour’s Lost by Shakespeare

21.   The Odyssey by William Randall Beard

(I totally failed my "Shakespeare in a Year" challenge. I may revive it this year. Who knows. I'd like to be more well-read in more contemporary "canon" though. So we'll see....I don't feel too guilty about this.)

Plays Attended:

1.       Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage (Torch)

2.       Rock ‘n Roll by Tom Stoppard at the Park Square Theatre

3.       Hughie by Eugene O’Neil at the Goodman Theatre

4.       Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett at the Goodman Theatre

5.       Macbeth at the Guthrie

6.       Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl with the Prospero Theatre Company

7.       Brief Encounter Kneehigh Theatre Company at the Guthrie

8.       The Comedy of Errors at the Great River Shakespeare Festival

9.       Enchanted April by Matthew Barber at the Commonweal Theatre Company

10.   The Sweet Stuff with Chased by an Elephant Theatre Co. (world premier)

11.   A Streetcar Named Desire at the Guthrie

12.   Titus Andronicus at the Great River Shakespeare Festival

13.   Blue Collar Diaries at the Commonweal, presented by Michelle Myers Berg

14.   The Scotsboro Boys at the Guthrie

15.   Mother at the Commonweal, presented by Bente Borsum

16.   The Passion of the Hausfrau, presented by Bess Welden

17.   The Turn of the Screw at the Commonweal Theatre Company

18.   Is He Dead? at the St. Croix Festival Theatre

19.   Tartuffe at Concordia University, St. Paul

20.   La Bete on Broadway

21.   Brief Encounter on Broadway (some of the cast was different)

22.   A Little Night Music on Broadway

23.   Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera (not really “theatre” per se, but still goes on the list in my book)

24.   Little Women at the Commonweal

Here's my list from last year. I didn't read nearly as much, but I saw a lot more theatre (lots of different kinds). I suppose that's what happens when the Theatre/English degree isn't nipping me in the bud.

READ: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Amazon Page


Set in the not-too-distant future, Lenny Abramov struggles with his job and budding love for Eunice Park. Mostly set in Manhattan, everyone carries an äppärät (think iPhone-type apparatus). No one reads books for fun; they scan text for information (streamed on their äppäräts, of course). Venezuela is the greatest threat to America. People are ranked according to their credit scores and f*@%ability. You don’t dare be seen or “streamed” with a Low Net Worth Individual.

Think 1984 meets Kurt Vonnegut and a dash of something else. I wish I could point my finger on what that is, exactly. Maybe you should just read it.

What is most striking about this reading experience is how I wavered between grinning at the ridiculousness to being quite horrified. This book is scary, hilarious satire. It reflects the world the world we live in RIGHT NOW. People don’t know how to communicate with each other. The English language is slaughtered. Everyone is consumed with their rankings in comparison to others.

Chapters alternate between Lenny’s diary entries and Eunice’s emails and online chats with other friends and families. What’s clear from these characters is that they yearn, need some kind of connection. They both find it through writing, which I find very interesting. They also love each other in a complicated, rather messy way. It’s not wrapped up in a nice package. It’s endearing and unsettling at the very same time.

This is a book that resonates and leaves you trembling.

I totally succumbed to this book because there was a ton of buzz about it on various blogs and things. And the book has a hilarious trailer, which includes James Franco.