Pam on Esty

Pam (whose blog is awesome and is called Phantasmaphile) contributes a blog post over at Etsy, describing some unique romantic gifts.

Take a look, you lovers.

A few days away

I'm off for my day job on a week-long work trip, so blogging will be scarce this week. I mean, it sort of is every week, but it's probably especially true this week.

That doesn't mean I don't love you. I do. Love. You.

Star Wars: Uncut - Director's Cut

Hoo boy. Is there anything more geek joyful than this love-letter? This is the entire original Star Wars, edited together from a billion fan-films. The reason God made the Internet.

Media Narrative Fail

So if Santorum actually won Iowa, and Gingrich is in the lead in most new polls in South Carolina (and Rick Perry gives Gingrich both of his voters); how exactly is Mitt Romney marching to the nomination?

Sean Williams on where the money comes from

Over on the NYIT blog, Sean Williams talks about where the funding comes from for many small theaters in NYC, and I'm sure elsewhere. Read all about it here.

Sean's done a lot of very successful producing on the Off-Off scale, and it's definitely worth a read. If I could be so bold as to sum things up a bit, he notes where most of the funding comes from (not grants or donors!) and then he says that a comparatively light and cheap style means that we're more flexible than larger theaters. That Off-Off should embrace a $10,000 as a whole lot less than it costs to make a movie, and that, in a way, is a good thing.

While that's true in some cases (not all, of course) I think there's a big missing piece.

In my view, small theaters do not ask for money well. (To be fair, it's not unique to small theaters.) We're partial to fundraisers and IndieGoGo and tossing in our own cash from day jobs. In the development world, one of the best ways to actually get someone to give you real support is to sit down with them, over lunch, at their home, and ask them for money in person. I have a job where I do this, in fact.

I'm open to be challenged on that point, but I'm curious if many small theater operations out there spend much of their time in meetings where they actually make the case for support to a single donor, and frame the highest possible gift for that individual?

Read here.

Facebook and Twitter and Websites oh my

Did you know I have an author page that you can "like" on Facebook? And a website that provides information on my publications and bio and photos from my work? And a twitter that you can follow?

Because I'm very modern, people. Up-to-the-minute. I'm "with it."

Matthew Paul Olmos's thoughts on the people and those who provide for the people...

I don't know Mr. Olmos personally, but I think this all merits some conversation and introspection. Read on.

Cat attacks baby

You know what? I'm thinking on a few fun posts to write up, and working on a few different projects, and that's all great.

But this is the internet. I don't have to have substance. I can just post this.

Buy My Books

My blog's version of pop-up ads: I plug my own books.

Three of my plays, including GLEE CLUB, can be found on Playscripts.com. All three were well-received during their initial productions. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. Why not throw them in a digital cart? 

(whistling, looking away)

So, yes, there has been a blog post written about the "whiteness" of Broadway that attracted quite a bit of attention. I've basically avoided it. I feel like I will either come off off like a pious scold or a person that's way too accepting of unacceptable things. It's a blog-problem. A bloblem.

There is already a fiery comments section, and I don't feel the need to dip my toe in that water.

And so, here's the link. It's likely you've already read it. If not, go for it.

Mummers

It's a little late in the season, but this made me bust a gut.
Traveling Group Of Medieval Mummers Is America's Top Pick For Holiday Entertainment

An Open Letter to Contemporary Writers

Dear books I've been reading lately,

I would not like to read anything else that sounds like this:

Horton poured over the folder of papers he'd received from the Mr. Gundelbaum's sister. He'd looked at each photograph at least fifty times each. The smile was the same. The sweater she was wearing. The street she was standing on. Still, he knew he was missing something. What was it? How could he not see?

He ate a melted cheese sandwich, with mulit-grain bread, lightly toasted, with a side of sauteed kale and garlic. His coffee, Peet's, of course, was prepared in a paper cup. No cream, two sugars. 

Or this

Dread King Horgaard sat in the great hall, his crown weighing heavily upon his brow. With a single stroke of his hand, he had ordered the deaths of Haarsgaard, Marta Jarl-Bottom, and his cousin TreeFall the Felt. Soon, the Bastards of Belt Pike Creek would be at his gate. Damn them and their Askinash God.

To commemorate the executions, he ate boiled quail and gooseberries, with spiced ground potatoes, a stew of crab and lentils. He washed it down with a delicious honey mead.

Or this

The summer was not summer at all, but spring in reverse. Granny is dead, sure, but that doesn't mean she can't speak to me. There she is now, coming up the path, ghostly, sure, but real as real gets anymore. I mean, if I can't even call my own father my real father, who am I, at the ripe age of seven, to conclude that anything is true or false? To consider reality, one must have a foundation of reality, after all.

I made a green salad, just for Granny, with fresh herbs from the garden I've been keeping in her honor. Turnips, parsley (from the store, yes), carrots, all with a light vinaigrette. The taste of Granny and Summer in those turnips! Paired with a chardonnay, cold.

Enough already.

Love,
Matt

Thoughts on Iowa

Watched a bit of CNN last night, to check in on the Iowa Caucus results, because I like to see what the central, depressing, miserable narrative is from the horse's godforsaken mouth. Went to bed with Santorum and Romney neck-and-neck.

A few quick thoughts on what I saw:

Ron Paul's concession/on-to-New Hampshire speech was just so awful and I have no idea why people like this guy. I'm honestly mystified. This is the Republican version of antiwar? A guy who is antiwar not because he's generally a man of peace (he isn't, he has plenty of vitriol to go around) but because he's an isolationist. He also doesn't believe in partnership with NATO, or "getting involved in other people's affairs." This guy doesn't think the war was wrong because people died. He thinks the war was wrong because war means getting involved with countries that aren't our own.

He perpetuated the myth that vaccinations are linked to autism. He believes we should return to the gold standard and dissolve the Fed. He wants to get rid of the Department of Education. Plus, he blathers. He sounds just barely lucid.

Newt Gingrich is a delight. This is the man who battled against campaign finance reform and led a smear-heavy, brutal campaign against everyone who politically disagrees with him. He literally calls Democrats "dangerous." Then, he takes umbrage, umbrage I say, that he was buried by political attack ads. Fantastic. He's going to take his whole party down in flames, just to be an asshole. I love it.

Santorum won in Iowa (and he did, let's face it, he got within 15 votes of Romney with almost no money) because he actually did the retail politicking and because he's the only far-right bigoted conservative out there for the far-right bigots to vote for left. Plus, he and Romney look alike. These people want someone that LOOKS like Reagan, more than someone who governed like him.

Romney? Jesus. There's a reason Republicans feel like they have a settle on this guy. He's their John Kerry. Wait, no. He's worse. I actually liked John Kerry, but why did everyone go for him? They thought he could win. We all thought Bush was awful and vulnerable so we should pick a guy the rest of the country could maybe get behind.

Unfortunately, you see where that sort of logic gets you. Romney has no pluses. He just lacks the minuses of the other candidates. His own financial accomplishments - running a business - makes him look like the villain of the story, not the hero. His "I'm not a career politician" line is instantly disintegrated by the fact that he was the Governor of Massachusetts, ran for office many times, and seemingly has been running for President, for a living, for something like five years.

Anyhow, these are not stellar candidates. That's not news.

Three things that stuck out to me, from the news coverage alone.

First, the fact that the news does not bring up Santorum's bigotry is shameful. If a politician was a known, professed racist, would the press focus on his views about tax policy and "family values?" It's like talking about a member of the Klu Klux Klan's views on the Gold Standard. (Wait...this all sort of brings us back to Ron Paul, uncomfortably.)

Also, this insistence, by Republicans, that they're Reagan-like is horrifying. First of all, Reagan presided over some seriously awful shit, like the denial of the AIDs crisis, a massive arms-race, and Iran-Contra. He wasn't a hero. Plus, he would have found the current crop of conservatives far too ideologically rigid. He was, when it came to tax policy, able to compromise and find something reasonable to do when pressed. I guess he wasn't a slave to Grover Norquist.

Finally, listening to the Republicans describe Obama is bizarre. The right wing has actually invented an entirely different person than Obama and called that person "Obama" and they hate that fake person. Obama, himself, is moderate almost to a fault, has achieved tremendous military victory, and has searched for market solutions to problems like health care reform all along. It's like listening to a funhouse mirror. So to speak.

Something theater does better than the movies

3-D.