On the brink

hello, friends,

i've been watching both CNN and THE DAILY SHOW on a regular basis and frankly, it is impossible to tell what is real and what is satire. the situation in the middle east is so staggeringly awful that i find it hard to believe that life in the US continues in such an oblivious way. we're idiots in so so so many ways.

here is my point of view on the matter. i believe that the holocaust was one of the worst atrocities man has committed against itself in the history of time. i believe that slavery, the armenian genocide, the various slaughters made by the british over the centuries in the name of "civilization," the bosnian crisis and the nightmare in the congo were all equally horrifying. like many of you, i have been aghast at the terror in darfur.

i cannot get on board with israel on this one. i just can't. i am prepared for the onslaught, but let's be honest -- it is awful on BOTH sides. BOTH sides are wrong, so horribly wrong. the whole region is one that carries centuries of mistrust and misdeeds. each and every country, from israel to palestine to lebanon to syria, has the right to exist on the same parcels of land. there is no answer. and my heart breaks for everyone and i feel completely helpless.

good chum lindsay forwarded this link from a blogger in beirut: http://mazenkerblog.blogspot.com/. check it out. and if you have a blog that you'd like me to share with others, send it along.

be good to each other.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,
volansky

Make it Better

hello, friends,

in the middle of fast and furious rewrites with both playwrights -- i'm amazed at their ability to turn around great, solid work in such a short time. there's a symposium tomorrow night at 8PM on the topic of "let them eat cake? audiences and performance in the 21st century" that should be great: eduardo machado, sociologist michal mccall and poet/hyperlinker michael joyce and me. fun abounds! then, the readings begin on friday at 8PM and continue saturday at 3 and 8 and then sunday at 3PM. drinks on sunday night. we're at the adrienne on sansom between 20th and 21st. come along -- for specifics, go to www.playpenn.org. and this year, we're doing nothing but thinking about the much-loved and missed veronica. here's to you, my friend.

today's message was inspired by a passing comment i heard on the street two days ago. one teenage girl smacked her friend on the arm and barked, "make it better." the hitt-ee said, "okay, okay, okay." it seemed so simple, so obvious that it really stuck with me. wanna make poverty a thing of the past? go here: www.one.org. interested in the work of doctors without borders (whose membership includes my former pediatrician, dr. jerry erhlich!) and their efforts towards providing emergency medical services? go here: www.doctorswithoutborders.org. howsabout the protection of our first amendment -- and of those who report it? learn more about the international federation of journalists: www.ifj.org. maybe it has to do with pets: www.hsus.org or health coverage and other issues related to and for children: www.childrennow.org or possibly even a grand experiment involving books and park benches at www.bookcrossing.com.

i guess my point here is again "do something." don't be a slacktivist. make it better. if a teenager can play along, surely you can too.

on another front, it is my great pleasure to welcome to the world kendall madison simms, born at johns hopkins yesterday, july 12th. she weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces and is 19 inches in length. her surgery date, likely to be friday or saturday, will be decided soon, so keep her, her parents karen and steve and her unsuspecting brothers jake and greyson -- they have no idea what a baby sister is going to do to their boy-ish lives. -- in your thoughts. congratulations and much love.

and if you get a chance to watch a repeat of the "american masters" show on woody guthrie, do so.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,
volansky

National Cemeteries -- At What Cost?

hello, friends,

another good day in rehearsal yesterday. i'm working on two plays this year: lucy thurber's SCARCITY directed by brian mertes and BAD FOR THE JEWS by peter morris and directed by danny goldstein. we're having a bang-up time killing trees (ironic, huh, given the post from yesterday) with all of the rewrites.

today's message is as a result of the trip to minneapolis. as betty was dropping me and morgan off at the airport, we passed fort snelling national cemetery. this is what we saw from along the road and through the gates:

i don't know how many of you have been to arlington or one of the other 123 national cemeteries in 39 states, but it is really a sobering sight. there are over 2.5 million war dead buried in these cemeteries from every conflict in our nation's history. it makes one stop and wonder what the purpose of it all is.

so, today's message is: "at what cost?"

if you take a look at a cemetery like arlington, or fort snelling, or cave hill or any of the others (see http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/cems/listcem.asp for a complete list) that i've been to, you will see row after row after row after row after row of these simple white headstones. how many of us actually absorb it? it is impossible for one human to take in all of it, but don't we owe it to them?

on a related note, don't we owe it to them to read their names when we see the box listed in the "new york times"? don't we owe it to them to be silent for a minute while the "newshour" shows the photos of the recent dead in iraq or afghanistan.

answer the question.

i am happy to report that sylvia poggioli (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101034, our favorite NPR gal) is partying like a rock star with the players of the italian world cup team. after surviving bosnia and the recent papal elections, sister, you deserve this:

am i right?

have a good day, folks.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,

volansky

Dawn of a New Day

hello, friends,

here at volanskyism, we've been getting up fairly early to go to rehearsals for playpenn, which are held from 10-7. as most of you know, i don't generally see 10AM, so it has not been "fun" and my gym attendance has fallen a little short (however, i can still kick a lot of ass -- and the ass is smaller!).

sorry, shiny objects.

at any rate, as i was in a barfy feverish state the last two days (don't you hate being sick in the summer?), i realized that i was living a metaphor. it IS a new dawn. isn't that exciting?

to that end, i am going to get political.

the folks on the other side of the aisle are SO GOOD at putting everyone on message every day with cutesy little phrases ("cut and run," anyone?) and not-so-subtle backdrops that i thought i would take a cue from them.

since it seems clear to me that this side of the aisle can't quite pull that off as effectively as, say, i can, i thought i would pitch in and do my part.

today's message: "it's HOT, you little snot!"

i recently checked out the EPA's global warming site and, as suspected, there is a disclaimer at the top that suggests, like evolution, that global warming is only one theory among many. this is the environmental protection agency people.

here's just a little bit of info about the role of carbon dioxide (that's us) in global warming. just so we have the facts right:

Warmings take about 5000 years to be complete. The lag is only 800 years.
All that the lag shows is that CO2 did not cause the first 800 years of warming,
out of the 5000 year trend. The other 4200 years of warming could in fact have
been caused by CO2, as far as we can tell from this ice core data.

The 4200 years of warming make up about 5/6 of the total warming. So
CO2 could have caused the last 5/6 of the warming, but could not have caused the
first 1/6 of the warming.

It comes as no surprise that other factors besides CO2 affect climate.
Changes in the amount of summer sunshine, due to changes in the Earth's orbit
around the sun that happen every 21,000 years, have long been known to affect
the comings and goings of ice ages. Atlantic ocean circulation slowdowns are
thought to warm Antarctica, also.

From studying all the available data (not just ice cores), the probable
sequence of events at a termination goes something like this. Some (currently
unknown) process causes Antarctica and the surrounding ocean to warm. This
process also causes CO2 to start rising, about 800 years later. Then CO2 further
warms the whole planet, because of its heat-trapping properties. This leads to
even further CO2 release. So CO2 during ice ages should be thought of as a
"feedback", much like the feedback that results from putting a microphone too
near to a loudspeaker.

In other words, CO2 does not initiate the warmings, but acts as an
amplifier once they are underway. From model estimates, CO2 (along with other
greenhouse gases CH4 and N2O) causes about half of the full
glacial-to-interglacial warming.

how's that for some stuff? the source is www.realclimate.org.

that's the message for today. now get out there and spread the word.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,

volansky

Drop Kick

hello, friends,

thank you all so much for the phoners and emails you left regarding the last post. and i am most sorry for bumming out uncle larry -- his extended summer vacation should not included thoughts of suicide on my behalf. and i do apologize for going down the rabbit hole a bit -- between the wedding in minneapolis, the start of playpenn (www.playpenn.org) and a recent tummy upset, i've been remiss in checking back in .

but i think it is important to remind ourselves of the power of communication, whether it is spoken or physical. we are not one another's mind reader and nothing any one of us can do will make a complete and utter understanding of what the other is thinking possible. however, by listening and clarifying and, well, let's be honest, dramaturging, we can perhaps come close.

i've found, in recent days, that i've been doing a lot of questioning and talking and it all seems good. i am learning so much about myself and others that it continues to shock me that i've been around for so long knowing NOTHING. yikes. but i feel grateful to have such great pals to keep me propped up.

so, on to several topics.

first, the wedding was beautiful. there was weeping, sunshine, lake harriet, joy, commissioned plays and a lot of great friends and reunions. so happy to see kling, ackermann, kokernot, halvorson, marnich/blessing -- way too many to mention. betty was a FANTASTIC co-pilot, along with the mysterious widow grant (you know who you are...) -- and if you ever get to minny, make sure you take a look-see at the carrie/andy lovenest. so lovely.

while in minneapolis, i visited the mall of america, which, for the record, won. i walked for about 4 1/2 hours and frankly didn't get to see all of it. however, i did buy a BRA. here's the deal:

i've been watching stacey and clinton and they have repeatedly mentioned that no matter how small you are, the girls will fall. coupled with chirps of "oh, shelley, please get a bra" from both mama and sister sue, i felt the time was right. i walked into the victoria's secret in the mall of america and said, aimlessly, "i've not owned a bra since 1984 -- can someone help me?" craziness then ensued and a hush fell over the store. ashley and two of her closest cohorts whisked me into the design area, tossed 13 different kinds of bras my way and poof! i am now a proud owner of a 38B (stop laughing, i am too a 38B) one of these:

the only difference between this picture and the actual bra is that mine is in ivory -- this color happens to be "naked."

okay, stop laughing.

in related news, i am also the proud owner of a new leather sofa in the color of "cognac." if you are in the philly area, i invite you to come over and check it out: a dog-ass free comfy sofa. it is GREAT. the living room is in the middle of a transformation, so do check in for updates.

finally, i have to comment on the fact that the idiots in new jersey that have been fighting over the budget are ALL DEMOCRATS. if i were howard dean, i would come up, smack all of their heads together and say, "pull yourselves together, idiots. we're supposed to be fighting with the republicans." oy. november looks very bleak.

must return to dramaturgy now, but a special little shout-out to jelliott, who has become an addict of volanskyism...sooner or later, they all fall.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,

volansky