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Richard S. Beam

#11 Quotes, Part 1

11/22/2014

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Mike Nichols died a couple of days ago.  That makes me a bit sad, as he made many important contributions to the entire entertainment industry.  As I listened to this news, a number of famous folks commented about what he had meant to them.  One of them, Meryl Streep, told a story about something Nichols once said to her about directing.  She reported that he had said something like, “Directing is a lot like sex.  You always wonder if you are doing it right, or if some other guy doesn’t do it better.”  (I may not have this exactly correct, but I believe that it’s close.)  From my own experience, I had to agree that this is completely true.

However, what this story did for me (in addition to making me think that I wish I’d said it) was to remind me of the quotes I have been collecting over the past few years.  In recent years, whenever I have encountered something in a book, play, movie, whatever, which struck me as being especially clever, profound, pithy, witty or otherwise worth remembering, I’ve tried to write it down in a Word document labeled as “Quotes.docx” on my computer.  So, I thought I would use this entry to talk about a few of these.

When I watch the news on TV, I am all too often reminded of our (collective) failure to follow J.M. Barrie’s suggestion: “Shall we make a new rule … from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary.”  I do realize that this is all too unlikely to happen, especially in our political life (which is too bad), but I have never found that trying (I admit I don’t always succeed) to be kind doesn’t really hurt (and isn’t much work).  I suggest it.    


Randy Pausch, in The Last Lecture, suggested that, “If you’re really a problem solver, you know yelling at somebody rarely solves the problem, and if it does, it does so in the short term with tremendous long term negatives....”  I think that this statement of his, and the quote from Barrie, tend to lend support to each other and that these comments are both really suggesting the same sort of thing.    


On the other hand, I don’t wish to appear too naïve, or “goody-goody.”  I am aware of the fact that the world isn’t going to just change because I wish it could be a kinder, gentler place.  That, in fact, there will always be unpleasant aspects to life.  Rick Boyer, who was on the English faculty at WCU and was the son of one of my high school teachers, wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche called The Giant Rat of Sumatra (this title is mentioned by Watson in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, but the story is one of those which Doyle never wrote/published).  In it, Boyer has Holmes suggest to Watson that, ”It's best not to be too optimistic.  Remember; pessimists are surprised as often as optimists, but always pleasantly.”  I like this because it reminds me not to get too carried away with the idea of expecting the world to be “nice,” although I certainly wouldn’t suggest that one should go about with a chip on his/her shoulder expecting unpleasantness, because it’s almost sure to be found, under those circumstances.    


I think that it’s entirely likely that kindness is not a state of being, but a decision.  And, as Gandalf says in The Fellowship of the Ring, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”  Somehow, deciding to try to be kind seems harmless, and more likely to make life easier for us, and others, than making the alternative choice.   


I think that a great deal of life revolves around the choices we make.  We can choose to make our own lives (and those of others around us) pleasanter, or less pleasant.  I think the first is preferable.  This doesn’t require a great deal of effort, skill or ability.  But, as Albus Dumbledore said in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”    


I urge you to try to make wise choices, ones which will, ultimately, make your life (and the life of those around you) happier, healthier and more satisfying.    


I expect that I’ll touch on some more of the quotes I’ve collected sometime, but I think that will do it for now.    


More later…
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#10 42nd Street and other stuff

11/19/2014

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This is a rather unusual entry because I feel some obligation to offer anyone who may be wondering where I’ve disappeared to some explanation as to what’s been going on.  Next time, I’ll get back to my more usual ramblings about weird stuff of interest (probably) only to me.

I haven’t posted an entry for a while because I’ve been travelling for the better part of two weeks and been away from my computer.  My iPad works fine to get email, but it really isn’t very satisfactory (to me) for doing much in the way of writing.  While on the road, Bonnie and I did get a chance to catch up a bit with some family whom we haven’t seen in a while and to check up on our “old” (still unsold [sigh]) house in Sylva. 

Our stay in WNC was cut a bit shorter than originally planned because of the impending cold snap and possibility of snow (which did develop into crummy travel conditions and record cold).  That meant that we didn’t get to see the opening performance of Stage & Screen’s production of 42nd Street.  I did sneak into the final dress, however, and I enjoyed the show considerably.

Okay, I’ll admit to being somewhat prejudiced towards Western’s program (both Theatre and MT), but, after all, it was a big part of my life for 43 years.  There’s also the fact that I do know many of the current students, still, so there’s a certain bond there, which probably also clouds my judgment.  Still, I did enjoy the production, even if, like all theatre people, there are things which I think I might have done a bit differently.

I will confess that I did have a good deal of trouble identifying some of the students on the stage, particularly the women, due to the period wigs (styles) and the fact that hair color for the character didn’t always match that which I associate with certain faces.  Actually, I found this helpful in a way, as I was less concerned about watching my former students and more involved in simply enjoying the show as a “civilian.”  I will also confess that I got some pleasure several times from suddenly identifying who THAT was when I finally recognized someone on the stage.  In any case, I had a good time and was glad to see a couple of my colleagues in the house and to see some of my former students after the run and before notes.  I would have stayed longer, but we did have a good deal to do before we could leave the next day, so I did have to get back to the house.

I’m not going to critique the show, but there are a couple of comments I would like to make about it.  One of the great awkwardnesses of undergraduate theatre is the fact that the basic casting pool is composed of (almost exclusively) 18-22 years olds, while authors writing for the commercial stage tend to create characters from a much wider age range.  While I thought that the Western students handled the “older” characters pretty well, I confess that the production would probably have been stronger with more mature actors in those roles as they would have been easier to accept as the “established, senior” characters, as opposed to the “kids” in the chorus, which were more age-appropriate for college students.  I don’t wish to be misunderstood, though; I DID enjoy the production!  That doesn’t eliminate the possibility that it might have been improved under different circumstances.  As I said, this is an ongoing situation with undergraduate productions and the only way around accepting it as a fact of life is to open up casting to non-students, which rather defeats the purpose of providing the production experience to as many students as possible.  I understand the problem as I have faced it as a director myself and I agree with the choice of desiring the broadest possible student experience, even if it does mean some sacrifice to the production in the greater scheme of things.

One thing did concern me a bit, however, and that was that I didn’t get much of a sense of excitement in doing the show from the cast.  I understand that it was final dress, it was a week night, there were classes the next day, the week end had almost certainly been long and hard, everyone was tired, and the audience was very small and much of it was designers and others working the show.  Still, the reason for rehearsal is to get in the habit of doing the right things in the right way.  I think that includes getting “up” for the show.  I’m not suggesting that the performance that evening was bad.  I DON’T think it was, but it did seem a bit “uninspired.”  There was something of a sense of routine about it, which I found a little disappointing.  Of course, a well-rehearsed show SHOULD be acquiring a sense of routine by this point, but it’s the performer’s (cast AND crew’s) job to (somehow) make every performance special.  The audience (the reason for our existence) hasn’t seen this performance before and it’s our job to imbue what we do with a sense of excitement and precision which will make it special for them.  I just wish I had gotten a bit more of this from this performance.  ‘Nuf said.  I DID enjoy it.

I look forward to, occasionally, diverting this blog into specific comments about specific shows I have seen live or in movies, but I think that will be the exception, not the rule, so my next entry will, I expect, be about one of the more usual things which I find interesting, puzzling, confusing, or amusing.

I’ll be back….


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#9 Grammar & Language, Part II

11/5/2014

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Several of my readers commented favorably on my first blog post (the one about graffiti), which included the idea that word choice (language usage) is important, or at least can be.

In any event, I was watching the local news recently (it COULD have just as easily been the national news, but it was, in fact, the local) and a reporter (it could have been the anchor, I don’t really remember) gave the tease, “Coming up next, accused trooper’s killer captured.”  I was immediately confused by this statement.

What it actually SAYS, of course, is that the killer of an accused trooper had been captured.  I don’t think that was the intent, however.  I THINK the actual intent was to say that the accused killer of a trooper had been captured, which is something else entirely.  If that were actually the case, it would have been more accurate (not to say clearer) to say, “Coming up next, trooper’s accused killer captured.” which is no more words and seems MUCH clearer (and, probably, more accurate).

I think this reinforces my notion that the words we choose and how we use them matters.  After all, the same words are being used in both the original phrasing and my rewrite of it, but the message is completely different.  That’s important.  Yes, one can probably figure out that the story was about the capture of an accused cop killer from a more complete context or by listening to the story “After the break,” but one shouldn’t have to do so, especially when it’s so easy to make the “tease” clear and accurate.  Who knows, if they had done this, I might have been more likely to work up some interest in the story.  Instead, being completely fed up with negative campaign ads supported by various PACs and other “special interests” during the “break,” I turned off the TV and went to bed.

I was distracted to a local TV station’s web site as I was working on this, and just caught another interesting case of mispronunciation on the part of a “national” reporter (see, I don’t just pick on local news).  In reporting about the casting of a movie version of Jobs (a biography of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple), the project was referred to as a “bi-OP-ic,” with three syllables and the emphasis on the middle one, instead to calling it a “BIO-pic” with two syllables and emphasis on the first one.  To me, (okay, I’m prejudiced), the second sounds like a biographical motion picture, but the first sounds like a disease, or at least a medical condition.  I think (one can’t be sure) that the intent here was to refer to a movie, but, again, the actual use of the words and (in this case) their pronunciation, makes a good deal of difference to their comprehension. 

Word choice, word order and pronunciation (for the spoken word) DO make a difference.  I think that’s one of the reasons why I am so fond of dramatic literature.  I’ve found that a great deal of drama, uses such highly crafted language (word choice, order, poetic meter [when appropriate], etc.) that at least I’ve found that meanings, even of unfamiliar ideas, seem quite straightforward most of the time.  I find this particularly true of Shakespeare’s works where, even if I don’t know the exact definition of an Early Middle word or expression, I can usually get a fair handle on what is meant from the context, stress, etc. even before I look at the “Notes.”  (Yes, I’ll be happy to admit to looking at those little references in most published texts, although I will also state that they aren’t always very complete, so they don’t always help a lot.  I’m digressing, however.)

To get back to the point, as I wrap this up, the words we use and how we use them not only say something about us (level of education, how much we care about the topic under discussion, whether we’ve actually tried to think things through, etc.) but, probably more importantly, they can make our meaning and intent clear, or confusing.  I’ve found that people don’t like to be confused. 

I keep seeing that ad for Discover card where the one character speaks about “frog” protection and the other talks about “fraud” protection.  I confess that I have to wonder if this doesn’t actually suggest that they aren’t especially worried about actually communicating with their customers as to what their product is and how it works, instead of the idea that “We’re a hip, fun company!”  Okay, maybe I have no sense of humor (I think I do, but I won’t argue the point), but I think that the lack of clarity is annoying and it certainly doesn’t encourage me to rush out and get a Discover card.

I think that not going out of the way to create confusion is a good thing.  Communication is difficult enough.  Therefore, it seems like a wise choice to try to engage the brain before speaking or writing.  This may be especially true today, when so much gets on the Internet, where it NEVER disappears and can come back to haunt you later.

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    Just personal comments about things which interest me (and might interest others).

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