Thursday, November 11, 2010

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's official! I AM A TEACHER!

Best. News. Ever.

I found out on Tuesday that I have been accepted by Teach For America into the 2011 corps! I will be teaching elementary school in Saint Louis, Mo. I'm so EXCITED!!!!

I won't know the actual grade I'm teaching or what school I'm placed in until the summer. Cross your fingers I get to work with the little ones (K-2nd). But no matter where I'm placed, I know it'll be fantastic! I cannot WAIT to start!!

PRAISE HIM!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Pray Pray Pray

I have my final interview session with Teach For America October 19th from 8 am to 9 pm. AHHHHHH!!! Fire up those prayers, people (and keep your fingers crossed).

Monday, September 20, 2010

TfA Update!

Soooo I've been invited back to the final interview session for Teach for America, which is quite exciting! I will be involved in a day-long interview that starts at 8 am. It will consist of a group interview, I'll have to teach a lesson, do a one-on-one interview, sit in on a few seminar-like workshops, and do an activity/quiz. I'm nervous but very, VERY excited. If you believe in praying, now would be a great time! You can also cross your fingers.

I don't know just yet when my day-long interview will be taking place, but I will let everyone know for sure when it is once I hear/sign up. (They are taking place October 18th-22nd). Eeep! I'm really, really excited!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Rose that Grew from Concrete

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

--by Tupac Shakur



Friday, August 13, 2010

What. Is. My. Life.

If you like stories about ridiculous and awkward things, check out this blog about awkward/ridiculous things in my life:

http://whatismylife-erin.blogspot.com/

It's a pretty good read, if I do say so myself. I have quite the assortment of random life stories.


Sunday, August 8, 2010

EEEEEP!

The Teach For America application is up...and I have been working on it! Keep your fingers crossed, and for those of you who pray, fire up those prayers!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Smart, Pretty, and Awkward

My dear friend Julia introduced me to a fantastic blog which has captured my attention. It's witty, wise, and pertinent to life, and I suggest checking it out when you get a chance. Here is the link: http://smartprettyandawkward.com/

Here are some of my favorites from smartprettyandawkward:

How to be (less) Awkward: If a boy takes you to the zoo, he likes you a lot. (truth. at least in my case. I adore anything outdoorsey, and what is cuter than a hot guy taking you to the zoo? Not much.)

How to be (less) Awkward: If you are going to have a facebook photo of you holding a small child, be sure to clarify in the caption whether the baby is yours, a niece/nephew, or a friend’s-to avoid confusion.

How to be Smarter: I really believe that one of the best compliments you can receive is “you’re fun.” Being called fun means that you are easygoing, reasonably humorous, cool to be around, social, chatty, and make others feel welcome and included. It is an all-in-one compliment. Trying to work to earn this compliment, and being generous in giving it out to those in your life who deserve it, is a great way to spend your days.

How to be Smarter: Don’t date boys that make a huge mess at the sugar/milk station at Starbucks and don’t clean it up themselves. People that make huge messes and expect someone else to clean it up, both at sugar/milk stations and in life, are to be avoided. (hahaha, I will NOT be someone's mother. unless, in fact, I actually AM their mother)

i also just really like this quote
“If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?” — Stephen Wright

Goodnight, dear reader. Here's to being smarter, prettier, and (less) awkward. Although I believe a little awkwardness is good for the soul.

If William Shakespeare Ran the Fed

As I was studying for my epic economics final, I came across this lovely article "highlight" in my textbook. Naturally, I decided to transcribe it so all could bask in the glory. Enjoy.

"Suppose William Shakespeare gave up his job as a playwright to become the chair of the Federal Reserve System. In all likelihood, both the principles and practices of the FED and banking systems would be dramatically different.

Imagine Shakespeare writing his first position paper. His instruction to all banks would probably begin with: "Neither a borrower or a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend and borrowing dulleth the edge of husbandry." Doesn't leave banks much room for creating loans, does it?

.....(blah blah blah, a bunch of math/formula stuff).....

With a reserve requirement of 100%, the bank has no excess reserves. It can make no loans. Without the ability to make loans on the strengths of its deposits, the banking system's money creation process grinds to a halt. And that's precisely what Shakespeare intended.

Shakespeare's 100% reserve requirement idea would probably not be the most ppular idea to hit the banking community....WHat would a Shakespere-run FED advise? Probably that would-be-borrowers should rely on their own savings, because using other people's money--borrowing from banks--"dulleth the edge of husbandry." Does such a FED option sound reasonable to you?

And even if most business people are prudent, regardless of whose money is involved, borrowing can end up being riskier than imagined. Shakespeare tells the story about Antonio, a Venetian merchant, who borrowed 3,000 ducats for 3 months from the moneylender Shylock. Unable to repay the loan because his own business ventures went awry--4 laden ships were lost at sea--Antonio would have forfeited his life were it not for a prejudicial court that, violating the spirit of the loan contract, ruled in his favor against Shylock....

...Shakespeare's FED presented the trade-off: monetary stability versus monetary creation--or in real terms, less GDP but less fluctuation in GDP."

The end.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

On the Radio

Beautiful lyrics by Regina Spektor:

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tread Softly

Yeats is one of my favorite poets. This is my absolute favorite poem. Enjoy.

Tread Softly

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

W.B. Yeats

Thursday, July 8, 2010

My Name is Rachel Corrie, Or, My Name is Erin Almand

Excerpt from my journal:
Today was one of the hardest days of my life. Eclipsed only by last night, which is what led to today being the Worst Day Ever. (Last night doesn't count, because it wasn't a full 24 hours). Heartbreak has a way of creeping up on you. More on that later, probably in poem form. To give a bit of background, think back to your first love and the way your heart felt after it was mashed up, put in a blender, and walked across with ice-pick shoes, then handed back to you in a bloody, unrecognizable mess. Picture that. Remember? Then take that feeling and shift it forward about 10 years, to your young adulthood. Seems a bit out of place, right?

Anyway, today was fairly like that. An odd mash-up of extremely strong emotions, confusion, annoyance, frustration, and a good bout of self-pity. All in the context of a middle-school-young-high-school-girl heartbreak. But I'm 21...Odd. Indeed.

So I ranted and raved and spilled tears and then ranted and raved that I didn't even have a right to be ranting and raving (or spilling tears) because I was never official with this guy. I baked. I let my friend distract me with stories. I paced the apartment. I raised my voice and waved my hands, then laughed at my pacing and hand waving. I said bad words. I went to biology class and made jokes with my professor and lab group. I convinced my lab group to ditch the lab and leave early. And then I went to see "My Name is Rachel Corrie" at SLU Theatre. And everything changed.

My Horrible Evening and Day is nothing compared to what most of the world have to deal with every day. They would probably trade their misery for a lifetime of what I consider a "bad day." Civilians trapped in the middle of a war, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families. People who watch their neighbors get shot, who must stand aside and allow soldiers and people who have other beliefs or a different skin color bulldoze their greenhouses, fill in their wells, smash their gardens. People starving, with no way to build shelter, let alone find clean water or food. My Worst Day Ever is the epitome of luxury, what millions will never be able to experience, or even dream about. Who has time to dream when you worry about surviving the next 24 hours?

The second thing that struck me is how parallel my life is to Rachel Corrie. She loved to write. She was always falling in love with someone who was perpetually leaving her. She cared deeply about people, wanted to make a difference, didn't just want to sit and let life pass her by. She was a young 20-something with a giant heart and a desire for change.

After a lovely talk-back, Elisabeth and I braved the rainstorm, and emerged soaking into our apartment. I'm snuggled up in bed, nursing a mike's hard and listening to Jim Brickman and similar musicians on Pandora (what a fantastic website, by the way--I highly recommend it). My Worst Day Ever has been significantly placed in check, I'm feeling artistic in a non-emo way, and just might--if the next song strikes my fancy--find the words to write a poem.

Nothing like a good, social reminder in the form of fantastic piece of theatre to put everything back in place. To re-center your life and focus, remind you that your heart is not only here to serve yourself, to worry about only your own privileged-upper-middle-class-white-American-girl heartache, but here as a gift. I refuse to keep the joy in my heart to myself.

I am Rachel Corrie, and I will make a difference.



Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Nap Dreams


Nap dreams are always the strangest, especially if you can manage to remember them after the fuzzy moments of delirium upon waking up. I'm thinking about keeping a dream journal. In any case, I thought this one was too weird not to be shared....

I was taking a much-needed nap this afternoon and had a CRAZY dream involving Emily Guck, me, Mo, (katie's cat) and a really bizarre elevator.

There was a giant elevator we had to take to visit some important boss person in a really tall building. We are talking about a GAINT circular (I'm not even sure those exist) elevator here--the elevator had a men's bathroom in it!? (which happened to be right around the corner of the "lobby" of the elevator and lacked a door.) Weird. The elevator had to go to the very top floor and would take awhile, which is why, I assume, Emily and I decided to bring Mo. Less weird, let's be honest here.

We get on the elevator with Mo and let her have free roam of the place. About 7 feet above us, running the entire circumference of the huge elevator is a little ledge. It's perfect for Mo to run around on, which she promptly does, and begins to explore the elevator. (Just to give you a visual, the elevator is about the circumference of SLU Theatre's mainstage (from proscenium to proscenium). AKA really huge. Emily and I push the button for the top floor, and we begin our ascent into the sky. We are just standing around talking when all of a sudden, we hear someone in the men's bathroom! Emily and I freeze, and then see Mo begin to creep on the ledge toward the men's bathroom, whose walls did not reach the ceiling of the giant elevator and which, as you may recall, does not have a door. We both jump and grab for Mo, but she gracefully leaps into the men's bathroom, disappearing behind the not-as-high-as-the-ceiling walls.

Panic. Silent, paralyzed panic. Finally, Emily whispers "We should warn him" and I whisper back "ok...you can." She shakes her head and says I should do it, but I'm scared out of my mind and wonder how on earth we are going to explain this conundrum to the important boss man (because obviously he will know about it) and how to cure him of the terrible mood this unfortunate event will put him in once he hears about it.

I clear my throat, close my eyes, take a deep breath, will the butterflies in my stomach to calm down, and say "Excuse me....sir?"

Then I wake up.




Some people say that dreams are our subconscious revealing a deep, dark secret to ourselves. If that's true, then it looks as though I really miss Emily Guck, think Mo is a hilarious whippersnapper, and have a fear of men's bathrooms and "important boss people." Actually, that sounds quite accurate...

Why I act

This is beautiful and worth sharing. I read this from Kiki's facebook, and literally cried. How truthful, beautiful, and eloquent this speech is! This is everything I have in my heart and all the reasons and passions and emotions and thoughts swirling within me! How beautiful! I love this with every fiber of my being. (It's long but worth it) Enjoy.


Jose Rivera’s Commencement Speech To The USC School Of Theatre

Congratulations, we’re all colleagues now.

Having been perpetual students of an art form that can’t be fully learned because all the stories haven’t been told yet, we are now able practitioners.

Not only that, we’re partisans in a great struggle that may seem holy to some and crazy to others, but is wildly quixotic even at the best of times.

We’re all veterans of hope, sergeants and captains of an idealism and courage that seem anachronistic and beautifully, dolefully, painfully antique.

Because what we do, what we are trained to do, is to keep an ancient and sullied and disrespected and much maligned and amazing tradition alive.

We together keep the spoken word from going silent, spectacle from disappearing in the ones and zeros of forgetfulness, great life-and-death themes from dying of malnutrition, enormous characters and souls from the purgatory of indifference and ignorance.

Together we keep the The House of Atreus from foreclosure and the Skryker from extinction and Kent and Salem from dying of cancer and Pozzo from getting too lucky.

We are apostles of language, dreamers in blank verse, aristocrats of sight gags, archeologists of gesture and dance and sword battles and mask wearing and mythic games of tragic and comic consequences.

We bring Falstaff to the party and hope he doesn’t get too drunk and pinch too many butts even as we enter through the back door and try to deliver dream-worlds to the wary and the post-modern and the unsuspecting.

We traffic in awe and metaphors and are impatient with the ordinary and expected.

We fight the inertia of silence and talk too loud in polite locations and there is no Ritalin for us.

We don’t succumb to psychoanalysis and the voodoo of easy answers.

We thrive on complexity and ask that our monsters truly terrify us, that our lovers truly slay us with their passion, that our magicians truly make something out of nothing and hand it to us with smoke and a rakish smile.

We seek connections with the strange and communion with brave souls seeking the truth – not the entire truth, just a piece of it will do – a coin of truth we can keep in a pocket near our valuables, that we can spend in those frightening moments when we don’t know ourselves, when we’re in too deep and some clarity would help, some beauty that could redeem and enliven the night.

We turn awful experience and bad relationships and murdering office jobs and loveless parents and poverty and addictions and angst and loss and death itself into the fearsome gold of art.

We are alchemists and con artists, acrobats and used car salesmen, liars and enlighteners, and we are here to do the earth’s bidding because the earth is screaming out its stories and begging for us to write them down, and act them out, and draw her pretty pictures on the face of the clouds.

What’s in store now that you’ve made it through this training ground of the imagination?

Here are some of the highs and lows you can expect on this amazing journey.

There’s joy as you travel to wonderful places and receive the smiles and affection of new friends made in the crucible of performance, in front of raging armies of critics and prove-it-to-me, I’ve-paid-too-much-for-the

se-tickets, I-saw-it-last-year-in-London audiences and a perfect stranger comes up to you after the show to say they never felt so transported in the theatre before and they understand something about life they never understood until tonight and how you captured her parents’ pain and nobility so beautifully.

Fatigue as you give it everything you have, every single day, every muscle engaged in a marathon that doesn’t end until you end.

Pain because you tell yourself it’s just a gig, just a job, but then you fall in love with it anyway.
Discovery of your limits and appreciation for the breathless power of your mastery.

Bliss when you’ve written that one good sentence; or you delivered that one perfect moment when the lights are on you and only you; or you discover in the text an idea or an image or a parable so true that it makes your audience weep with recognition; or you put out into the world a rendering of a staircase or a costume or a throne of gold in three brilliant dimensions that just last week existed in none.

Awe when you sit backstage, a moment before your entrance and realize you’re about to give the greatest soliloquy in our language.

Gratitude when it dawns on you that you make a living from the honey and perspiration of your mind.

Excitement when you write Act One, Scene One on the top of the first page; and you sit along the wall on the afternoon of your third call-back for your favorite play; and you stand in the back of the house and that moment you worked on for fourteen hours with that actor who never seemed to get it gets the biggest laugh of the night.

Amazement when your lights reflect in the physics of time and space exactly what’s happening in the unlit chambers and labyrinths of the hero’s soul.

Even more amazement when your project, which you put together with faith, spit, and favors turns a remarkable profit in actual U.S. currency.

Humility when you look around and everyone else seems more successful, or richer, or quicker, or better reviewed or living on both coasts and are equally familiar with Silver Lake and Williamsburg.

Relief when you figure out that, like all great cyclical events in nature, your long career will rise and fall and you’ll be hot, then forgotten, then hot, then forgotten, then hot again.

Anger when the words won’t cooperate and the costume’s too tight and you made a grave error in casting the world premiere, or passion seems to be ebbing, or you’d rather have a baby, or the grant goes to your rival, or that barbarian in the second row keeps texting his lawyer, or ten people show up to your reading in a theatre with three hundred seats, or you can’t stand Bushwick anymore, or the McArthur people overlooked you – again – or the sitcom’s too tempting, or your favorite actor’s not available, or the culture’s going north while you’re going south.

Or maybe you’ve forgotten something – you forgot the joy and the magic and the purpose and the need for it all.

But then you remember and come back anyway.

That’s the amazing part.

You come back the next day because even when the words don’t come and the costume’s cutting off the blood to your legs, this activity connects you to your most authentic and naked self, to the child who told sweeping sock puppet sagas and imitated your dad’s big laugh and drew pictures of avenging super heroes, to the adolescent who fell in love with the smell of opening night flowers, to the mature artist who became enthralled with the great blank space, that enchanted oval, on which battles determine the course of history and lovers learned the key expressions of the heart and men and women modeled heroism and humanity and Estragon lost his way and colored girls considered suicide and Proctor wouldn’t sign his name and Arial was free to go and a wicked Moon under a Lorca sky betrayed the idea of love.

You come back to balance art and family, and sometimes your checkbook, because nothing feels as good as the act of acting.

You endure the indifference of agents and literary managers because nothing sounds as nice as the click of that perfect metaphor falling into place.

You put off children, or you put off real estate, or you put off the thousand intangible compromises of the spirit because nothing frees you from the dark enchantments of gravity like this.

You stay up to three in the morning memorizing those sides for your best friend’s new play even though she wrote the part for you and the producers insist you have to audition anyway, because nothing brings you closer to Creation that this.

So why do you do these things?

Why come back when it hurts so much?

What kind of people are we?

How crazy do we have to be to put up with this?

Let’s face it, given the speed of today’s run-away clocks, given the accumulation of power and money in the hands of the very few and all the injustice that flows from that, given the complexity of social intercourse in an age of instant talk and delayed reflection, you’re a member of a different species entirely.

You age differently than the rest of the population.

You try hard not to succumb to the common theories and manias of the crowd.

You speak in tongues when everyone else is speaking in fortune cookies.

You make one-of-a-kind little miracles with your bare and blistered hands for below minimum wage as stock markets soar and die and soar and die.

You write about your existential pain in unsentimental words for sentimental audiences.

Your curiosity is so vast and out of control you don’t know boundaries and you annoy your lovers with your constant need to analyze their every nuance and no answer is ever good enough because each answer leads to ten new questions.

You dream in such vivid colors, you wonder if you can market your sleep as the next cool drug.

Your sensitivity to the pain and joy of others is so acute you might as well have multiple personalities.

You and failure are so intimate with each other you could birth one another’s bawling babies.

You are gifted and cursed with a love of words so intense few other pleasures can move you
like Lopahin’s declaration that he bought the cherry orchard, or what Li’l Bit had to do to learn to drive, or what devils of self-doubt whispered to a beautiful and wounded soul in a psychosis at 4:48 am.

For all this and more you came to this school and sacrificed, and worked your ass off, and delayed some big life decisions, and dreamed exceptional dreams, and fertilized your mind, and kept important promises you made to yourself.

That’s the important part: you kept the promises you made to yourself to stay in it and learn.
So now that you’ve come this far, and we’re in this room, together, what’s my advice?

It’s not a lot.

Love grandly.

Work forcefully.

Listen humbly.

Risk intelligently.

Risk stupidly.

Scare yourself.

Recycle your pain.

Think about greatness.

Make babies and make art for them.

Slay your heroes.

Laugh at yourself.

Betray no one’s trust.

Throw parties.

Make time for silence.

Search and search and search and search.

I could go on, but I don’t think you need any more advice from me.

I think you’re ready.

You, the fighter and hero of this morning’s tale are trained and ready to unpack your Heiner Muller and your tap shoes and your colored pencils and are brimming with ideas and full of courage and full of fight and you know the obstacles and laugh in their faces and the dragons you fight are windmills and the windmills you fight are straw and the time to talk about doing it is over.

It’s time to do it.

So lets go out now, you and I, lets go out and make some art.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Close your eyes, and I'll be gone

So I'll pack up my bags
pick up the pieces
and go home

as if it never happened

Don't look in my eyes
and I won't have to fall

I know nothing of leaving
but I know I can't stay

Just close your eyes, and I'll be gone

I Wouldn't Need You

I Wouldn’t Need You

If I touched myself
The way you touched me
If I could hold myself
The way you held me

Then I wouldn't need you
I wouldn't need you
No, I wouldn't need you
To love me

If I could replace
The things you gave me
If I could see my face
Without the tragedy

Then I wouldn't need you
I wouldn't need you
No, I wouldn't need you
To love me

But I do
So come back
Come back

If you could see the way I act
When I'm alone
If you could hear my voice crack
Over the phone

Then you'd know I need you
You'd know I need you
Oh, you'd know I need you
To love me

***Lovely song by Norah Jones***

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I have fallen in love with San Francisco and the surrounding area.
Instead of trying to describe it, to explain how I love everything about
the city and felt immediately at home here the moment I stepped onto the
street , and how the city offers everything I want in a hometown--an urban
setting, but plenty of flowers and grass, a small-town feel, friendly people,
mountains, perfect weather, a beach, and most importantly, diversity--I'll
show you.

Pictures from Alcatraz:




Pictures from areas around San Francisco:




Photos from Land's End and Seal Rock:






Monday, April 12, 2010

Ponderings from my Balcony

I should be doing work, but the evening is too gorgeous to let slip by. I'm going to miss this balcony in a month and a half--must take full advantage of it now.

It's interesting how much gorgeous weather affects me. I get a jig in my step, and feel light and happy. (More than my usual light and happiness). I write poetry. It's difficult to attend class when the bright sunshine taunts me. He plays with my shoulders. I turn my face up to the sky, close my eyes and just breathe.

All the trees are in bloom right now. It doesn't even matter that my allergies are going crazy, that I can't breathe through my nose, and continually sneeze. Who cares about this tension headache!? It goes away when I lay in the grass, or ride my bike, or play soccer/frisbee. Maybe I'm allergic to the indoors.

I watch a plane blink lazily in the sky. My head is humming Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Saint Louis is beautiful. I'm excited to live here this summer!

When I think about how fast college has flown by, I am amazed. It seems like only a few months ago I was a freshman! But at the same time, it seems far away. Time is weird that way. Spring semester sure does fly by, compared to Fall semester. I wonder why this is? I find it to be true every year. You practically blink when it's March and suddenly you've fast-forwarded to Spring, to mid-April. The pace of the world picks up back up, and I find myself with so much to do but so little time. And the little time I do have left is spent outside--I honestly can't get enough! Maybe someday I'll join a hippie commune so I can spend all my time outside loving on the weather and earth. That would be fantastic, but I wouldn't be saving the world. More on saving the world later.

Right now, this jazz music is helping my lazy mood.

Untitled.

There is nothing like a Spring evening
a balcony,
soft breeze on my skin, jazz in my ear
and a glass of wine

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Useless Facts


I love useless facts, and seem to collect them. This knowledge probably won't help me in any real-life situation, unless I manage to get on Cash Cab or some other awesome useless facts game show.

In any case, here are some useless facts I especially appreciate:

A snail can sleep for us to 3 years

The most common thing people choke on are toothpicks!

Horses, and giraffes, cannot throw up--This is why horses get colic. (I'm not sure if giraffes can get colic or not. I'll google it and let you know)

A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories!

When an octopus gets too stressed, it eats one of its own legs.

Stomach acid can break down a human tooth--and a metal 3 inch nail--in a few days. NAILS, people.

butterflies taste with their hind feet

it's impossible to lick your elbow, unless you are double-jointed

the length of your forearm (from your wrist to the crease of your elbow) is the exact length of your foot (try it!)

Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the USA, but really, it's the 47th. Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio until 1953.

In Georgia, it's illegal to eat fried chicken with a fork.

Every zebra has a different pattern of stripes, like humans' fingerprints.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Alexander the Great's army refused to continue, and he cried in his tent for 3 days, and then decided they could all go home.

Mules cannot make more mules. Mules are made when a horse mates with a donkey.

A group of frogs is called an army.

The term "honeymoon" comes from an ancient Babylonian practice. A bride's father would provide the groom with a month of mead, which is a honey-beer.

It's illegal to chew gum in Singapore.

No building in Washington, DC can be taller than 13 floors. This is so that no matter where you are, it is possible to see the George Washington monument.

Honey is the only food that never spoils.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Lost and Never Found

Have you ever wondered
Where the lost-and-never found items go?
I am nearly convinced they somehow find their way together,
Magically, and live in a lost commune:
The socks that will never see their match again
Thousands of keys, lockless
Pieces of childhood memories, too early to be remembered,
Too simple not to be forgotten—
Unimportant, replaced.

All the pens that disappeared from your bag
Important documents that weaseled their way out when you weren’t looking
Schedules, and credit cards, old photographs, one winter glove
(because you can’t lose both, that would be too practical),
earrings,
various pieces of small plastic items, and Tupperware tops (honestly, where do those go!?) those fantastic sunglasses from last summer
that favorite old sweater
lunch money, and t-shirt money, dues,
date money, birthday money, wallets, spending money, and giftcards
(maybe money should get it’s own “where have you gone” poem)
paperclips and staples
thumbtacks and highlighters
old emails you though you saved
and that paper you most certainly wrote but cannot figure out where you stored it

hundreds of dice from countless board games
monopoly pieces
and cards, but never enough to make a whole deck

all that useless material you crammed for all those tests
half-remembered faces, and half-hearted stories of history,
old cassette tapes
and coins you once collected

And I wonder if this “lost and never found” commune is bustling with activity,
covered in “Found” posters—the opposite of here, the opposite of us.
Found: another sock, looking for its mate,
or maybe:
Wanted: a lock for a lonely diary key. Call 519-7780.

I imagine the rare occasion when a match is found!
The commune will probably throw a party
And I bet if you’re in the laundry room and listen hard enough,
Or somehow manage to squeeze between the seat and the console in your car
You can hear the distant cheering
Each lost item celebrating a match
Breathing in the hope that tomorrow will be their own lucky day
And one of us will lose the exact thing they need.

untitled, or, The Unknown

We dash our wit upon the streets
Your charm, and your face
woo me
as we waltz into the lazy hours of the night

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Game (A Tribute to Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening)

The game we play I think I know
I play it, though I loath it so.
This guessing game is no fun here;
Who's winning now? I do not know.

All my friends must think it queer
that i dislike and do not cheer--
but hopes are dashed and hearts do break;
the darkest game attacks each year.

They give their silly heads a shake
to ask if there it some mistake.
They play with pride and look to reap
their harvest: another heart to take.

The game seems lovely, dark, and deep
but your heart's one I long to keep
so many questions I cannot sleep,
so many wishes I cannot sleep.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?' MLK Jr.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Joy!

I want to serve others. I believe that there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is fleeting, and can be given and taken, but joy is something that is not altered. It exists deep within the human, under layers of sadness and hopelessness. It is what gets people up in the morning. It cannot be changed by experience or heartache, suppression or pain.

The joy that God has blessed me with inspires me to make the most out of every day. I want to help people discover their own joy that is hidden deep within them. Psalm 30:11 says, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” I want to help turn people’s wailing into dancing and to clothe (and shoe) them with joy.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

“On the stage we live on emotional memories of realities.” (pg 307)

I admit, before I started reading Stanislavski’s book, An Actor Prepares, I felt apprehensive. I heard from numerous sources that it would be difficult to wade through all the excess wording and examples to get to the heart of the matter. While I did have to do some sifting, I didn’t mind, because I would up with multiple jewels of knowledge, both true to the stage and to life.

Finding Stanislavski’s thesis proved difficult, for he never says it outright until very close to the ending. I like this, though, because I felt as though I was learning as the fictitious characters in the book learned. Stanislavski’s thesis appears to be that: “An artist must have full use of his own spiritual, human material because that is the only stuff from which he can fashion a living soul for his part.” (pg 328) To arrive at such a place, we must grasp and encompass three important features in our creative process: 1. inner grasp, 2. through line of action, and 3. the super objective. This, in turn, will result in the region of the subconscious (pg 303).

Logically, these make sense, even if we cannot conceptually grasp them completely. Basically, as actors, we must come to an understanding of the character. We must think his/her thoughts as if they are our own thoughts, and mix our own self into their world. Our actions must lead towards the super-objective. We must find the super-objective of the play and make all our smaller objectives fit under that main objective. The actions follow logically if the true super-objective can be understood. But above all, we must play the truth. We must believe in the characters, the setting, the actions, and the super-objective, for if we do not, or if we try to force an action or feeling, the whole thing becomes false. Truth on the stage is whatever we can believe in with sincerity, whether in ourselves or in our colleagues. (pg 142) Stanislavski said it best at the beginning of the book when the Director told one of his students, “You did not act anything, and that was the best part.” (pg 38) You cannot act, you are.

However, it must be noted that you cannot completely give yourself over to a part and lose yourself in it. “Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. You can never get away from yourself. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting.” (pg 192)

This seems to be a contradiction, yet it is not. The material and the character mix with our own life and inner self. This is the best kind of acting. “Always and forever, when you are on the stage, you must play yourself. But it will be in an infinite variety of combination of objectives, and given circumstances which you have prepared for your part, and which have been smelted in the furnace of your emotion memory.” (pg 192) I love this idea of combining yourself and your character. It is something that strikes a chord in the depth of my soul, for I know it to be true. To truly act a part, to actually become a character, you must first find bits of yourself in the character; and then within yourself, you find bits of the character. How poetic! There is a piece of every character I have ever played within me, and all of the characters I have ever played contain a piece of myself in them. “That closeness to your part we call perception of yourself in the part and of the part in you.” (pg 329) Without being able to find a bit of yourself in a character, however small it may be, you cannot play that character justice. I believe that there is always something in someone that will speak to you. It’s why humans connect with each other. There is something universal, or appealing, or similar within someone else that is also within us.

I found lots of other jewels of truth in Stanislavski’s book. I am including some of them in this paper so that I never forget them. “Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.” (pg 47) Ah, how true. Although, as I say practically every day, the life of Erin Almand is anything but ordinary. How lucky I am that I can say this! My life is full of spirited adventure, hilarious moments, poetry, passion, inspirations, desires to save the world, and lots of laughter. This is helpful; it is a necessity for my artistic spirit. “A real actor must lead a full, beautiful, varied, exacting, and inspiring life.” (pg 207) Anything else would leave me unfulfilled.

Other things I found important include this idea: “An actor lives, weeps, and laughs on the stage, and all the whole he is watching his own tears and smiles. It is this double function, this balance between life and acting that makes art.” (pg 288) Gary once told us in Acting 1 class that we should always, at every moment, be watching ourselves. Even in moments of tragedy, falling in love, wild abandonment, happiness, sadness, heartbreak, anger, and everything in between to catalogue our emotions, thoughts, and physicality. The actor within us steps back and says, “Oh, this is what it means to feel _____.”

I also found poetry in An Actor Prepares. He writes, “Nothing in life is more beautiful than nature.” (pg 100) I agree with every fiber of my being. If I need inspiration, or a moment to reflect on beauty, or to find my place in the world again, I simply have to slow down and look at the nature around me. How great is our God, who blessed me with acting talents and a desire to save the world, with compassion and a joy that surpasses understanding. I look at His creation, the landscape and the air and the sea and the animals and plants and humans that inhabit it, and I am in utter awe. Everything points to a loving, living, fantastic creator who made us for a purpose. How stunning, and breath taking, and I feel great and small all at once.

My two ultimate favorite quotes from the book are: “Let me have your feelings without any words, just through your eyes…But I cannot put all the shading of my feelings into the expression of my eyes.” (pg 232) and “On the stage we live on emotional memories of realities.” (pg 307) This, this is the stuff of poets.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Love

Love is strange,

How it creeps in, unexpected

Drops into the open armchair of your heart

Like an old friend

How you hardly notice

Until you’re deep into the cookie jar

And have drained the coffee pot,

Talking into the wee hours of the morn.

By then, it’s too late to bid Love farewell

So you invite him to use your guest room

For as long as he likes

You get almost used to seeing him at breakfast

Both in your jammies,

Slippers on your feet.

Occasionally, you realize the situation

And marvel at the chain of events

That brought Love here.

But most days, it seems normal:

Having Love walk the corridors,

Baking bread, making soup.