New Name for Everything

(View from my window, New Year's Day.)

Our first session has ended here in Jeju, it was only four days but I was sad to see some of the kids go, but we got 24 more new ones today. I finally got to sleep in this morning, the first time I have slept past 7 in Korea! Which was felt really good. Then we took the campers staying between sessions down to the movie theatre in the superstore Lotte Mart the catch phrase for Lotte Mart is "More Than Life" which is pretty sweet. We saw a very weird film called "The Last Godfather" starring Korean star YoungGu a weird Charlie Chaplin, Mr Bean, Ernest blend who is wildly popular here in Korea. Even though the movie was made for Koreans, it was all in English, really horrible english with minimal plot, but English nonetheless.

The sun has still yet to make an appearance here in Jeju, but tonight I am going to make the trek down past the Korean megachurch to see the ocean. Even though I have been going out in Jeju and seeing various things, I dont have much of a sense of how close or far away things are. I know also that I am very close to Mt. Hallasan, the highest point in Korea but because of cloud cover there has only been one day I was able to see the foothills covered in tangerine farms. Tangerines are very big here, they are not like the Floridian variety I grew up with, these have thicker skins and are much sweeter, none of the citrus tang Americans are used to. Speaking of Americans, since food was scarce after the Korean war Americans imported lots of food which has infused itself into staples that the locals consider their own, including Spam which is popularly used in a soup which translates to "Army Base Soup" a meal that any time I am in a restaurant is recommended to me since I am American. Culinarily speaking, this country is astounding, I knew about kimchi and korean bbq, but the soups and breads have been a wonderful surprise. At every meal in the cafeteria there is the option of a spicy salty soup, which if anyone knows me, what more could I ask for? Hope all is well back in the states.

tweeting about my breakfast

this week on several different NPR programs, there were jokes about people tweeting, facebooking or blogging about their breakfasts. somehow the idea of sharing information about our breakfast is an especially inane impulse. that said I want you to take a look at that picture above this text. that is what my breakfast looked like this morning while I was on the phone with my sister.

there is an enormous amount of information and misinformation about my life in this little slice.

the time of day I am having breakfast? this guy must have had some wild night because he is sleeping so late (no.)

the paper newspaper? this guy is way over 30(no.)

access to a nice camera, french press coffee maker, and chess board? total yuppie kid (yeah, probably.)

his mug says Tampa? so he must be happy about the rays winning(yes.)

EVK cup? this guy is a total klepto

(well, it was localized upon one central los angeles cafeteria,

but yeah.

it was a skill honed in the wilds of maine.

12oz cups are, in fact, a privilege.

(this answer doubles as a haiku to my adolescence) )

is that a recreation of the famous game when Andrew beat his brother in online chess? I've always been his biggest fan. (thanks, my games with friends name is slow owls)

The recently neglected track of the day: On the Radio - Regina Spektor (I think even my music disliking sister would like this song)

nancy can ride her vespa

so, I've heard when big guys(myself being 5'10" have to rely on the testimony of others) walk into bars or are just out in public* in general, people threaten to fight them more often than their shorter counterparts. as aforementioned, since I am regular size I do not get this type** of aggressive attention (except in the la cienega coffee bean parking lot). since I have announced I am a chess teacher though, everyone who meets me quickly says, "oh I should play you" or the weirder, "my boyfriend is russian***, you should play him."

some People just say they didnt know that was a job.

some Just want to talk about owls.

some Ask why I spilled their coffee.

some Questions arent even related to chess.

people just ask questions.****

*by far the coolest link.

**not as cool as retro publix.

***not as cool as movable type.

****anyone need any postage?

comic genealogy

I recently realized the links on my blog are quite similar to Stephen Colbert's "The Word" in terms of humor. It is important (or massively narcissistic (or both)) to know one's comic roots. I like to think I find myself on a comic family tree with Woody Allen, circa Annie Hall, circa the opening monologue, which I believe is one of his best written pieces. This places me in the same family as Larry David Jason Alexander and to a lesser extent Jerry Seinfeld. This sense blends in with my definite comedic father, Bill Murray (ignore his striking resemblance to my pediatrician's husband). A professor(no not that one) I had once described my sense of humor as recognizing the same "screaming madness" as Bill Murray, although for a period of time last winter I probably was taking things too far. Honorable mention on my comic family tree goes to Jeff Goldblum, Bradley Whitford, Ira Glass and John Cusack. The biggest philosophical drive behind my comedy definitely goes to the Bush Administration, in particular the DOJ and AGs, for teaching me there is no such thing as too destructive or too crazy, and lastly nothing, nothing is sacred. A friend of mine once likened my comic sense to Sherman's March to the Sea, and simply refers to it as, "scorch the earth".

Completely unrelated but somehow similar, in performances I tend to make references to movies or songs or anything that have found their way deep into my subconscious. It is not always overt or intentional, but I will lilt a sentence a certain way, or move a prop in a way that harkens to some piece of art I love. The most common thing which recurs is a reference to Christian Slater in the 80s teen movie, The Heathers. Heathers isnt the best movie ever made, but I think because I watched it so many times while falling asleep when I tell jokes on stage I find the same caustic dryness that Slater had at that time. The most similar resemblance is from a song, Alice's Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie. In practically every play, I find I steal some turn of phrase from the song, normally during a long stretch of text, most frequently I return to the "you may find yourself in a similar situation" line, or the near hysterical (seinfeld esque honestly) pitch Guthrie's voice reaches when talking about files in folders in Washington DC. The man who has fused himself most closely to my cerebral cortex though is Garrison Keillor. The man who made me scream as a child because of his hypnotizing fluency, still appears every time I go on stage. Thanks WUSF.

an ode to southern california modernism.

when your name is as common as wright, you learn there are many wrights in many fields(like kitty hawk). I find it to be kind of a rorschach test of a person of what famous 'wright' they identify the last name with.

the people I truly love are those who know 'wright' as Frank Lloyd Wright. who I love because of his contributions to southern california modernism, but more particularly how that movement manifested in the southern california middle class home later. my friend ian lives in one of these houses, but his beach house in laguna niguel is the best example I have ever spent much time in. here it is in a few pictures.

drew carey walks into a bar

let us entertain conjecture of a time where you have limitless power. you have had a self titled sitcom. your glasses are a signature trait.

monday night rolls around.

nothing to do.

where do you go? the big foot lounge.

why? because its karaoke night.

what songs do you sing?

undercover angel

indian lake

the 110 south

when I graduated college I was worried not being in school would give me some disconnect from community. there was always something comfortable about belonging comfortably to a community, waziyatah, tampa prep, and usc normally being my communities. tonight as I was driving though I realized I am part of a really cool community of all the people who came out west looking for something, it spans across time to oklahomans risking life and limb to see the pacific ocean. the life and limb I risk to see my friends in manhattan beach on the 110 south is not exactly comparable, but you know what I mean. also LA has so many actors, that even though it is a fierce competition there is wonderful community among the artists. just today a playwright friend and me talked about just getting together some friends to work on a script in development. this is the kind of work I love doing, and its really invigorating.

these revelations are wonderful because I had been watching these civil war documentaries. every time I watch those documentaries I totally assume I would have died in war before age 22 at any other point in history.

the youtube mashup

For four years I was in a bfa acting program. I can only really explain the program as equivalent to locking 20 massively insecure, self loathing narcissists, megalomaniacs (myself included) in a room together, making them work on projects, and generally encourage them to go even more insane. It was during this time I would sit in my dorm room, turn my iTunes on shuffle, and watch the tv on mute and cackle to myself. Then I started to surf youtube and make these mashups intentionally, so without further ado I encourage you to watch the visual on this video the best cat video you'll ever see and the audio from Prince's "Pussy Control."

Track of the day: G.R.I.N.D. (Get Ready Its a New Day) by Asher Roth