The Best Medicine?

What a difference a week makes. Last Monday morning who could have predicted the events that would transpire in the days ahead? The Boston Marathon bombing... Senate vote on gun control... the Texas fertilizer plant explosion... oy. Hard to find much to laugh about, yet last week also marked my return to performing with the Royal Berkshire Improv Troupe, and we had our first rehearsal on the same day we all learned about the bombing.

The Berkshires are not that far from Boston, and over the last ten years I have made frequent trips to Beantown... I have some truly fond memories, both personal and professional, and would certainly count it as one of my favorite cities. So it was unnerving to learn about this attack on a city with such charm and history, during a public event that has come to symbolize such good will.



As an event, the Marathon is also about endurance and triumphing over adversity. Keeping this theme in mind, the city of Boston certainly honored the victims of this tragedy. Last Friday was surreal, as I drove to work and heard news about the manhunt for the bombing suspects and subsequent lockdown of the area. All day long we were glued to the internet or TV trying to keep up on the latest of this very tense ordeal...

Photo courtesy and © Spectrum Playhouse. All rights reserved.

So as the evening rolled around, it was something of a release to join my improv comrades for our show at Lee's Spectrum Playhouse. It's odd... I remember starting RBIT over twelve years ago, right after September 11th, and there was something similarly poignant back then about being able to soldier on in the midst of darkened skies...


I haven't been to a RBIT rehearsal or gig in a few months, and there were a few changes. First, our friend and co-founder Frank La Frazia has moved to Brooklyn to further pursue his career. This meant filling the leadership role which he had provided for most of the last decade. I decided to step up and host the show, which was a new experience... not something I have done too often in this context, but it felt good. We had a meeting this past weekend to talk about the future of the group and it seems there is a desire to keep moving forward.

Waving goodbye to our friend Frank. Photo courtesy and
©Spectrum Playhouse. All rights reserved.

At this point, if I am to remain active with the group, I need to be able to take it to the next level as a performer. I have been checking out some performances recently with Schenectady's resident improv group, The Mop & Bucket Company— these guys certainly know their stuff... dipping into long-form improv, and benefitting from a fairly seamless presentation of their performances. 


My fellow improv buddy Paul and I decided to take one of their open drop-in classes, and it was nice to get some outside feedback on how to strengthen our improvisational skills. The best piece of advice: jump into scenes without knowing what you're going to do. I tend to want to come up with the most clever lines, but that's not what this is about... it's more about being instinctual and truthful, which I understand... it is challenging, but most definitely funny seeing actors react in the moment and try to figure it all out.

Courtesy and ©Spectrum Playhouse.
All rights reserved.

So in the midst of all this uncertainty, our Friday show went great. It felt a bit more spontaneous, while still having the benefit of good rehearsal to support an underlying structure. I think I could actually keep at this for a little while, as long as the rest of the group stays committed... they seem to be. And so we move on... until the next big challenge... unavoidable, but not necessarily insurmountable. 

Post-show, as we celebrated at a nearby pub, news came over one of the TV screens that the second bombing suspect had finally been caught. It was pretty wild how in this new technological age things had been "resolved" so quickly... of course I feel for the friends and families of the victims, who are left with the task of finding some kind of peace...

Related Link:

www.berkshireimprov.com

(Wishing For) Peace on Earth...

We've been enjoying our visit with family in Rochester, but were saddened by the news yesterday of yet another senseless tragedy... this time in Webster, New York, the very next town over from where I grew up. The site where two first responders were killed and two others injured after arriving at the scene of an early morning fire, is actually right near one of my parents' favorite restaurants... What makes this even more sickening is that the fire was an apparent ambush by yet another crazed gunman. 

These men died as heroes, no doubt about it... but following the tragic school shooting in Connecticut two weeks ago, and happening on Christmas Eve... it's all so terribly sad. This is far from what I expected to hear about during my return home... reminding how precious life is. My heart goes out to the victims' friends and families during this Christmastime.

Related Link:

"4 Firefighters Shot, 2 Killed at Webster, N.Y., Fire," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, December 24, 2012

Keep Your Head Up...

Just got back from my Rochester moving trip. We're going to keep moving by heading out to see the band The Lumineers tonight in Albany... it's a free show, so I hope we manage to get in! 

Still processing the sad news from last Friday's tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I noticed that the media posted a collection of photos of the children who were killed... it really hits you in the stomach, as this story becomes more and more personalized.

In light of this tragedy, I think these lines from The Lumineer's song "Stubborn Love" seem appropriate:

"It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all... the opposite of love's indifference. So pay attention now... I'm standing on your porch screaming out... and I won't leave until you come downstairs...So keep your head up, keep your love... keep your head up, my love..."

http://thelumineers.com

Innocence Lost

I had to take a quick trip back to Western New York today, in order to retrieve some furniture that has been waiting for our new home. I used most of the train ride back to catch up on the tragic story of last week's shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. It was unnerving to read the newspaper, and see the list of victims' names and their ages... some as young as six years old.

We met several kids during our holiday parties yesterday... their spirit and innocence is a joy to behold. I always enjoy trying to entertain and make them laugh, and they in turn definitely inspire me with their enthusiasm and untarnished view of the world.

But how does an adult reconcile the fact that so many young, innocent lives were lost 
last week? What does putting your faith in God mean when he would allow such evil to transpire? I have been questioning a lot this year... struggling to come up with meaning for the way certain events have transpired... we all have challenges, but what justifies something like this happening...?

I won't go any further here tonight into my thoughts on gun control or treatment for mental illness... instead, I prefer to share this NPR story I heard this morning, honoring the life of one of the beautiful children that was taken from us far too soon. At least reading through the article, I get the sense that she too made a difference, no matter how brief her time here was...

...

Last night I met a friend and former colleague out in the Berkshires. She was back in town doing some research at the Museum, and we all celebrated her return, looking forward to hearing about her new life in Dallas, Texas. One of the topics that came up last night was how easy it was to obtain a gun in her new hometown. 

This morning I ran down to the Museum around 10 a.m. to meet with a reporter and give him a tour of the Alex Ross exhibition. It was business as usual... I then did a little holiday shopping in the store, and ran down to the archives to check in with my visiting friend. How quickly the tone of the day changed when I got back to my office... it was here that I first heard the shocking news...

Like the rest of the nation, I can't understand how we have experienced yet another mass shooting. The fact that it included 20 innocent children makes it hit home even more... the senseless killing of innocent people... where does this end? How do we prevent this from happening again?

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Newtown, Connecticut.

Never Forget

Yes, I remember where I was in September 2001. I had just passed the first busy summer at my new job in the communications department at Norman Rockwell Museum, was still getting a feel for living in the Berkshires (an odd adjustment), and looking into new performing opportunities. At work we were getting ready to debut an exhibition of Rockwell's work at the Guggenheim in New York City (a big deal), when I first heard the startling news that a plane had struck one of twin towers of that same city.

It sounded like a tragic accident, and I felt a bit protective--a year earlier I had been working in New York (interning at a video production company), and was still hoping to relocate to the Big Apple. I remember a clear, blue sky that morning, and I recall the radio being turned on for more details... then we learned that a second plane struck the World Trade Center. 

I don't remember the weather from that point on... just a feeling of the day growing darker and darker. Confusion and some concern over whether there would be more attacks (there were... the Pentagon and Pennsyvania). Being a video production guy, it was ironic that I didn't have television at that time (still setting up my apartment, and reception in the Berkshires was lousy without cable--a time when I shouldn't have needed a digital converter). I listened to the radio non-stop... heard stories from friends and co-workers... talked to the girl I was dating at the time, and finally went over to her family's house to see pictures of the towers burning and filling the sky with chaos. The visual that really got to me was on the front page of the paper the next day or so... a photo of people choosing to jump out of the struck buildings instead of being engulfed by flames. Man, that affected me... 

It was a really strange time. Maybe it was better that I wasn't in New York, but I really wanted to be--more than ever. I ended up donating blood and doing some other volunteer work. It was the only time I seriously thought about enlisting.

I remember this TV special... a sort of memorial concert, and U2 playing. Somber. black and white. Felt unlike any concert I had seen in the U.S. It was quite moving:

There were flags flying everywhere... after a few years, it felt like a bit too much, but in this current time of partisan politics, it's somewhat hard to remember how "united" the country felt right after the terrorist attacks...

I waited to visit Ground Zero. When we opened the Rockwell show at the Guggenheim months after the attacks, a couple of my colleagues caught a train down to see the area... I wasn't ready to experience that... or rather, I didn't want to treat it like some sort of sight-seeing spot. 

It was four years later when I finally traveled to Ground Zero. I had been in New York to attend a concert and conduct an interview with my favorite band, A-ha (on September 11, 2005, actually), and the day after felt like the right time to finally see the site. I was shooting b-roll footage of the city at that time, but I don't remember filming there. I looked around at the tributes... marveled at the gaping hole where the buildings once stood.

Two years ago I went back to the site, and this time filmed the area rather extensively for some visuals I was creating for the Spoken Word Almanac Project. The process of rebuilding seemed slow... there was some controversy about a mosque being built near the area... New York still seemed hard, but a little more sympathetic... or maybe I had just gotten more used to the city, having rented an apartment there for several months.

Last year, on the tenth anniversary, I attended a beautiful interfaith ceremony with Sarah and her family in Albany. It was touching... a time to reflect on this national tragedy that still stings... still seems so inconceivable... and honor the fallen--paying respects as we do every year. They may have hurt us, but at the same time, I recognized the progress... the resolve to keep moving. 

I also remember thinking in my head about my exciting plans to propose to Sarah in just days... positive... sweet vibes... another affirmation that life was just going to go on...