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 |  "Putting on the Game Face" |
  This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity. Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys. |
| Writing in Resonance Shakespearian English is already archaic and does not exactly flow smoothly into our bio processors….We simply don’t speak that way any more, construct sentences in that manner. Taken by themselves we recognize the words but their arrangement and the richness of the prose is difficult at first blush to deal with. However in the day when it was spoken it was understood readily enough not just by the upper class but by the lower as well. As a matter of fact Shakespeare’s English is laced with vulgar innuendo and filthy metaphors that were found amusing to everyone up to a certain point. That point was when the queen said disdainfully, “I am not amused.” Suddenly any humor the prose purported to evaporated. A couple days ago I gave you Hotspurs soliloquy out of context and I know it had some of my devoted readers scratching their heads. Hold that thought. Concurrently I suggested that monologues should have a resonance and that was why I included the excerpt. That a Stage play gives weight to dialogue that does note exist in a screen play or most anywhere else for that matter, and historically writers of stage plays had their lines valued on the quality of resonance they imparted. As a matter of fact writers who wrote language that was deficient in meter, or rhyme…..resonance often had their works ridiculed. Today this is no longer the case but keep in mind that in he heyday of the English Language it was and it separated the great writers from the wannabies….. It is important to keep this in mind because resonance certainly elevates your writing to a higher level and it can be disguised as prose so that only your subconscious will pick up on it…..and I can assure you your subconscious will, even if you are too unschooled or experienced to note the difference. So what I am thinking about doing is to tell the students to write a monologue in prose and stack the sentences atop each other. then go back and try and give it some meter, or musicality of some sort. Finally return it to paragraph form as if it were normal prose. It will give your thought monologues a quality that is unique from your novel writing prose….At first the reader is likely to pick up on it….but an actor will pick up on it in a big hurry. When I had my stage play Andromache read one of the older actors stopped in the middle of a soliiloquy and said ….”Hey this is pretty good stuff.” Imagine how I beamed sitting there next to my wife. For tomorrow's blog I intend to put Hotspur's soliloquy into modern prose and then do the stacking and then show how Shakesphere did the metering and perhaps how I would update the metering into modern language. Only for illustrative purposes mind you….I am not a pimple on the master’s derriere but it might be a worthwhile exercise to show readers what I am talking about with a bit more specificity. |
Happy Mother's Day, I hate kidney stones. They kick my butt. Twice a year I wind up at my urologist and he gets ready to go in and get one only to have it pass at the last minute. I feel like an inmate on death row who gets a reprieve. What’s the purpose of going to the doctor I reason since I always seem to be able to pass them eventually? Anyway when they pass from the kidney to the bladder there is a little opening the jagged little rascals have to shoulder through and gee willikers does that ever smart. The best thing I can take is Motrin….that stuff works better on my system than any narcotic. Anyway last night was one of those nights but today I feel much better. At breakfast I talked to my buddy Hobo. He is a fellow car builder but he is much better at it than I am. When I explain some of my techniques he just shakes his head. He sold me some fenders and a hood for a forty Ford and one fell out of the back of my pick-up on the way home. It happened just down the road from his shop and another customer picked it up and returned it. Wouldn’t you know of the four (4) I bought it was the only one I really needed. So today I worked on my Studebaker and one of the fenders does not line up with the right rear wheel. I think the original S-10 had an accident and the frame is bent…I will take it to the frame guru next week. I found a glass guy who will come out and fix the windows. That will be a big improvement. Linda will be flying in on Wednesday night and It will be good to see her again. I know she is about played out by all that happened with her Dads heart surgery. Luckily he seems to have taken it well and hopefully it is one of those crisis that will get them to look to the future. I was going to write about resonance so let me record the ideas so I don’t forget them. Idea #1: Beck talked about the days prior to TV when there were radio dramas like Fibber McGee and Molly, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, the shadow and all those great programs. In a sense Shakespeare started all that with his tickets that enabled holders to listen only from the courtyard of the Globe theater. Get the connection….Radio…Listening in the Courtyard. Idea: This gets us to the resonance thing. Yesterday I talked about Shakespheres use of it in his monologues and dialogues too. I think I will ask the students to have a conversation with their significant other and have that other explain something they do well. Then copy what is being said as completely as possible…..Having the reciter of the tale have to slow a bit might alter their tale telling speech pattern but probably not so much as to make a difference. Then take the sentences and stack them one on top of the other and begin to look for a rhythm or beat to the speech patterns. People actually do have these unique resonances in the way they speak….If the writer can capture these the reader will pick up on it and know they are listening to the real deal and not the writer simply talking to themselves. So I caught the ideas by the coat tails and will try and pick up on them down the road when I am in need of an idea to write about. Happy mother’s day all you ladies and on behalf of men everywhere I salute you. What you have to put up with is much worse than kidney stones. |
| Resonance in Monologues Well my culinary blog did not attract a host of impressed gourmets. It was received on about the same par as my leadership and automotive blogs. Since I gave away all my cooking tips in a single effort I won’t be following up on any more food tips. It is still a little early but I intend to try and get my students to put some resonance into their monologues. Initially I was going to have them try some rap but after sleeping on the idea decided it wasn't such a good one. Still rap is a form or resonance and I need to get them to interject it into the monologues. The first cousin to the stage play is the musical and guess what the monologues are in a musical. Yes, Yes! You are all so clever…..SONGS! Now everybody knows that all songs have resonance or they wouldn’t be songs. But a monologue does not have to be a song. Shakesphere used poetry….a whole lot of iambic pentameter. Read Hamlet or Macbeth or the Henry’s …… This is Hotspurs soliloquy which provides a splendid example…I liked it so much I memorized it after Vietnam. I am not trying to impress anyone with my recollection but this is truly great stuff….Actually it was spoken to Henry by Hotspur and thus probably does not constitute a thought monologue but is rather a spoken monologue…. If there is such a thing. People certainly don’t dialogue like this example in casual conversation….however lawyers do get a bit long winded in opening and closing arguments. My liege, I did deny no prisoners But I remember when the fight was done. When I was dry with rage and extreme toil Breathless and faint, leaning on my sword, There came this lord neat and trimly dressed. Fresh as a brides groom, his chin new reaped Shown like a stubble land at harvest home He was perfumed like a milliner And twist his finger and thumb he held a pounced box Which ever and anon he gave his nose and took away again. Therewith angered when next it came there Took it in snuff….and still he smiled and talked. And as my soldiers bore dead bodies by He called them untaught knaves…unmannerly To bring a slovenly and unhandsome corpse Betwixt the wind and his nobility. With many holiday and lady terms he questioned me Amongst the rest demanded my prisoners in your majesties behalf. I all smarting with my wounds being cold To be so pestered by this popinjay Out of my grief and impatience answered neglecting He should or he should not…. For he made me mad to see him shine so brisk And smell so sweet, and talk so like a waiting gentlewoman Of guns and drums and wounds, God save the mark. And were it not for these vile guns, he himself might have been a soldier. This bald and unjointed chat of his I answered indirectly …..As I said And I beseech thee let not his report come current for an accusation Betwixt my love and your high majesty. Since nobody has ever heard another’s thoughts they can be expressed any way the writer wants to, however historically they tended towards song or poetry….I think that free verse would work well if it had a little rhythm. I think I will suggest the playwright begin by writing monologues in straight prose and then going back and trying to apply as best they can a little resonating grease….What do you readers think….Is it worth the trouble? |
| Batching it on the Farm, While Linda is in Georgia I have been eating out some but mostly doing my own cooking. My wife is a great cook and so I don’t normally get to cook much although I do grill the steaks. I am particularly fond of Porterhouse steaks and in this part of the country they raise a lot of Angus beef. There is one grocery store in Adams that deals exclusively in Angus beef and that is where we shop for our meats. On a Porterhouse steak there are two textures the way they slice it here. One is on the tenderloin side of the bone and the other is like a T-Bone. At least that is how I categorize the textures. I give Linda the tenderloin part and I take the other side. Now that she isn’t here I eat both although the dogs, if they have been good, get to help me. Since I cook the best steak I have ever eaten allow me to digress and tell you how I do it. One each side I put salt, pepper, dried parsley, garlic salt, Kikkoman Sause and my secret ingredient, the barbeque sause that comes with the McDonalds Chicken Nuggets. I turn the grill up and throw it on…walk out to the mail box and back and turn it again….and again…and again…and then it’s done. I also make the best French fries in the world. Here is my secret receipt. Slice some Idaho potatoes….Those slicer presses work good but you can do it by hand just as well. Once the potatoes are sliced, soak them in fresh Luke warm water. Bath them about 4 times until all the milky stuff leaches out. Then take them and spread them on a table and let them dry. If they shrivel up a bit and turn brown so much the better. Then cook them in hot grease until they turn brown. Salt and enjoy. If these fries are not ten time better than anything you get at a fast food place I will kiss your butt in front of Wall Mart and give you ten minutes to draw a crowd. My salads are also particularly good. You buy a bag of the pre tossed at the supermarket, throw a hand full on a plate and add your favorite dressing. Washing your hands first is a good idea. I like those "Texas Yeast Rolls" my wife makes but when she is gone have to settle for loaf bread. If it is over a week old wrap it in a paper towel and microwave it for fifteen seconds and slather it with Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter with canola oil. Not only does it freshen it up it is supposed to kill the mold. If you are in a hurry however, nothing beats a Healthy Choice Salisbury steak frozen TV dinner. Follow the directions to microwave. |
| Gathering Wood, If you could see me cutting wood you would get a big laugh. I wear a safety helmet, safety glasses, hearing protectors, a respirator, heavy leather gloves, chaps and heavy boots. I buy the wood from a guy named Cal and when he drives by and sees me working he pretends he doesn’t see me so he won’t have to admit we’re acquainted. Even for Wisconsin I tend to overdo the safety gear, but I have sustained minor injuries in all these areas and it is better to have your friends chuckle than have a lung full of saw dust or worse. Cal does land clearing for the agro-industry and business is booming….any kind of decent wood he stacks up on his back forty and I buy it from him. Last year he sold me forty full cords of cherry for a real friendship price….This year he sold me sixty (60) full cords for ten dollars a chord. I tried to get him to send the truck over to unload it at my place and he said that for that price I nod my head, close my mouth and write the check. Exactly what I did. When I got out of the Military I financed a small custom cutting operation the first winter. That is when I discovered how close the margins are in the wood business. Now I operate solo. I trust myself more than someone hung over with a chain saw. If you cut with somebody and they get hurt it will be alleged sooner or later that they were your employee. That I should have had workman’s Compensation insurance on them….yada yada yada…. It isn’t worth it. As I get older I can only cut for about an hour or two, and then split, load, transport and stack. It keeps me in shape and a person needs to stay active at my age. When I get home from a morning’s work, I eat lunch and take a brief nap. Then I go out and work on my trucks. After supper I do my WdC work to wind down. And that is how my life goes these days in case anyone in my “Army of Readers” is really interested. I am very happy and lead a great life. Percy |
| Agenting I have this book, Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. I read it for several hours last night and got discouraged. There was only one Agent I would consider submitting a query letter to. The whole tone they conveyed was don’t contact me I am too busy to be bothered. What got me started on reading this huge guide was an idea that if one of my students produces what I consider to be a production quality play I might help them through the process of getting it staged. Also in the back of my mind is the doing some amateur agenting here at WDC. There are some quality manuscripts being written that will never see the light of day if they aren’t agented or at least intelligently presented to a publisher. Anyway I need to get off my duff and go cut some wood. I ran out this winter and resolved to cut a little every day rather than try and do it all in September. I also need to spend some time working on my pick-up Studebaker... not to mention my class which is beginning to show some promise. percy |
| Yankee raised in Dixie Well I got my first student reply on the Lounge Forum for the One Act Play Class. She should be a real asset to the class and has a well-developed writing background . Linda called this morning and sounded discouraged. That family of hers is toxic. I thought when I married her forty-five (45) years ago that I could lead her from the darkness of some not so good early life experiences. She is so smart and such a cool person and devoted wife. Unfortunately her parents still have some invisible strings that she has never been able to sever and I feel her getting sucked back into the vortex of that dysfunctional assortment of controlling personalities. I hope this marriage of ours doesn’t turn out to be a lease agreement. She has developed into a confident, self-assured and vital life force, exactly what they’re looking for at this juncture in their miserable lives, where they've made a complete mess of things and need an intelligent minion they can have handy to pull the frets on. Sounds like a real life drama, don’t you think? A tragedy in the making is what it is. Oh well maybe I am over reacting and making it out to be worse than it is. My two daughters turned up at the hospital and gave their mother some moral support. They won’t even stay in that dark house….Stayed at Chateau Elan. Those two girls are powerhouses who have the dark side of their characters well under control. They are a force in their communities and families and run a tight ship. I am so proud of them. They say when he settled Georgia, Oglethorpe, emptied the jails, brothels and asylums to find women for his colony. They certainly have some beautiful ones down there, who can be nutty as fruitcakes. The men have a thin, lean and ratty look and a strong bond with these enigmatic women. Up her in Wisconsin the mindset is quite different. It is strong Northern European and they love their cars and gadgets more than their wives. Not so in the south. The reason everyone is so polite down there is because there is that virulent streak of violence that is unforgiving and best not let out of the bottle. Southern males are the best soldiers in the world and kept the civil war going long past the point where it should have petered out. I know, you think I’m nuts and don’t know nothing….Well I’ve been around the block and seen a raft or two of shit. I’m worried, but will try and stay focused on the ball. |
| A rainy night in Georgia I must be the stupidest person on the planet. For the past month my service has gotten slower and slower until it almost ground to a halt. I thought it might be atmospheric problems, a virus or maybe some server problems at WDC. Finally I decided it must have been the recent storms that pushed the dish off the satellite. I decided to call my service provider and after hours of getting my email to come up found a little note. “You have exceeded your bandwidth allocation of 6K MB and your service capabilities have been reduced until the proper threshold is once more achieved.” Can you believe that? For three years I have been using this service and that has never happened before and if that isn’t enough it is a “Rolling” threshold which means it never returns to zero. It’s like a checking account balance that has to go down before you can expect service….is that creative or what? Now why? I asked did, I have to discover this from an arcane message on my email that I never would have looked for were I not was searching for the service number to my provider. I mean if your machine is on the verge of grid lock what would compel you to waste a precious action looking amid my wife’s email junk yard? Why not a telephone call left on an answering machine….? Well if the object was to get me to upgrade my package they succeeded….This thing is jumping now like a pin ball machine and there is no real alternative in the country to the satellite. The only machine in the house set up to receive email is the desk top in the basement. Upastairs I use almost exclusive my wifi laptops one on my desk and the other next to the bed. Maybe I ought to consider a different set-up. Sometimes my wife leaves the machine running on line instead of shutting it off….Maybe that is the reason we used up hours in the standard package….Yes indeed blame it all on her….is that the American way or what? Actually I miss her down in Georgia taking care of her wacked out parents. I know you will think me unkind for calling them that but that is only because you don’t know them. Most people wait and give their money to the church after they die but not my in laws. They handed over their savings and mortgaged their house, while they still have a long run left on life….It’s their money and lives I suppose and heavens know Linda and I don’t need anything in the form of an inheritance but that sounds like a rather bizarre and extreme action on their parts. We still love them and will try and help but its heart rending to seem them in such desperate straits when this all could have been easily avoided. |
| What we take for Granted My wife’s father is in a bad way. I took Linda to Madison and she flew out to Atlanta this Morning. They might not even operate. Linda is a cardiac nurse at Marshfield, a top heart hospital in the country. When she heard the technical findings of the pre-op report she was very discouraged. I told her she needed to stop thinking like a nurse and start thinking like a daughter. (Whatever that means….sort of popped to mind.) I am the first to admit to my own serious shortcomings but when I see some of the stuff going on around me I want to scream. There are some extremely dumb SOB’s in this world. I better drop it there, lest one of them casts a dull lamp on this blog. After dropping Linda I got back barely in time for Easter Services….I need to go to church wether I think I need to or not. It was very nice… I am not a big hit in the congregation however, when things have gotten bad in the past I have been asked to get involved. I found and hired the current pastor…The previous two were glib but made my hackles rise. They didn’t last long. The current pastor is what I call the real deal. God really likes this woman and she might not be Billy Graham, but her heart is into the job to the max. The first year while she was learning I got to be her heat shield….Now that the church is growing in membership and vitality all those petty and heartless comments are forgotten. When I got home I did some raking and looked around. There is so much that gets put on the back burner in winter it will take me until fall to catch up. My medical problem turned out to be a kidney infection and it really wacked me. I decided it is time I start getting rid of this junkyard of “restored” vehicles I have accumulated. When I cranked my M-34 Military Truck however, it came right to life. I think that will be the one I sell first. It is my “Woods” truck and is in pristine shape. It is still cold and we wonder if spring is ever going to come….Time to take the dogs for a walk and contemplate how good God has been to me. Easter Sunday…..probably not a bad day to be thinking about the things we often take so much for granted. |
| Easter I have been to the gates of hell On Admission’s Day. I have stated the merits of my case To the unanswered silence, Watched death circle, As I wept bitterly. Finally with nothing left to offer I said, “Take me Lord… No more quibbles Or empty promises See? the bottle of bull shit Is all poured out… I'm your servant Lord And if you don’t want me… (I can understand that.) Leave me to your service such as my caloused heart allows… at any given beat." And I felt a warm glow and… A strong hand jerk my collar And raise me from the abyss. “The reason I love you, miserable excuse for a man, Is because there isn’t one.” |
| Linda I have to tell you about my wife Linda. She is not a full blown obsessive compulsive but she runs back in the pack. The other day in the supermarket I watched her trying to decide what jar of pickles to buy. We like the stackers and she must have gone through forty (jars) looking for one that didn’t have any rinds in it. As I watched her totally absorbed in this unnecessary task I realized how much I really like her….sort of got blurry eyed. Last night however, I was not in the same frame of mind. She was watching the DVD of “The Kings Speech “in bed on her little red DVD player. Now I realize that if that is is what she enjoys doing I ought to shut up and let her have at it, but I was not feeling good and was in a bad mood. Anyway when the movie ended I saw out of the corner of my eye the screen scrolling with all the names of everybody on the planet involved in the production. Now most normal people don’t read that stuff but my wife is in a different category….For fifteen (15) minutes she sat reading every name, like she thought she might know someone on the list. Finally I told her to quit compulsing and turn out the light. I hurt her feelings and she was still ticked off this morning. When Linda and I found each other she was a huge project to turn into an Army Wife. I swear she and her sister were hidden under a mushroom their whole lives. That had to end fast and it was an agony for her. Plus she had to live with me. The job description for an Army Wife runs at least thirty-six typewritten pages and involved moving every two years, managing the checkbook, dealing with separations (In my case that was not an extreme hardship) and holding the family together. There were none of these tasks that she ever clutched on except she failed the sign test in Germany when she went to get her drivers license. This was the girl who never studied in her life and always got straight “A’s” She was absolutely mortified never having failed at anything of an academic nature… Did I chortle about that….her dyslectic husband who was on a first name basis with failure. My older daughter is just like her…she has the same powerful mind but is not quite so compulsive….years of training under my tutelage had her well prepared for life….When she got frustrated she liked to pick a fight with me…At first I didn’t understand but gradually caught on, that all that emotion had to find a vent and I could tell when I sat down at the supper table how the dinner was going to go. My younger daughter has the same violence inside her but has to simply explode once or twice a year….Personally I preferred fighting with my older daughter than having to pick up the pieces while my younger trembled and shook. I see myself in both those girls and no doubt it simmers in my five (5) grandsons. I apologized this morning and blamed everything on my fever....Am I a fraud or what? |
| Bo Brister I have some kind of flu and saw the doctor yesterday. He gave me some medications and my wife the nurse is making sure I take them….Of course I’ll do that…. Anyway last night the fever broke and often in a fevered state really strange stuff comes to mind….even stranger than usual. For example the resonance of the following poem kept cycling through my mine screaming out to be recorded….Then the dog Chloe nuzzled by hand and I let the two outside to do their business, while I scribbled it down. Bo Brister, Had a sister Her name was Ellie May And I went and kissed her When she came out to play We hopped the scotch together And passed the time of day Bo Brister, had a sister Her name was Ellie May Is that a fevered poem or what? |
| Warts on Example One Act Play When I started my class at NHA Diane pointed out that I was using a lot of technical terms that everyone might not be familiar with. So I wrote a Dictionary of Common Playwriting Terms that will go on some of the Course pages with links to “Rules of Thumb,” Introduction, Example of Comprehensive Outline, Sample Play and some of the other aids I have created to help with understanding of the process. Like I mentioned earlier this requirement really ballooned beyond all expectation. My latest student actually took the survey. This was encouraging, not that I should be complaining, because the start of the course is still two weeks off. She also made some humorous comments on my assistant instructors, Cornelia Cobb and Matty Rosen…. When I decided to include them I was thinking about two possibilities. First that if I had to be firm I would write the feedback from Matty’s desk….If I had to be encouraging from Cornelia’s’ and if I was providing technical comment from Percy’s. I am still mulling that one over. Second was the outside chance that some day the class might become over booked and I could assign the role of Matty and Cornelia to the assistant instructors….I know, I know….I am such a dreamer…..Like WDC is a Mecca for Playwriting. There are four (4) students that have signed up so far and if that is the extent of it I will consider this start-up and shake down run successful, from an attendance standpoint. I have gotten a great cross section of students from a high schooler, to a part time writer, to a retiree to a very sophisticate lady that goes to the theater in New York on a monthly basis. Imagine, if you will, who the student is really going to be? What I need to do now is zero back in on the lesson plans….The first four are essentially complete, and I have place holders written for the rest. I’m not sure that I want to lock myself down on phase two of the course because I envision that each of the students will need to be working on different aspects of their play….For example one might have some structural issues, others, timing and I might want to use these last classes to zero in on the most glaring deficiencies. When I wrote my Example One Act Play for Illustrative purposes, I wanted to show an example of the growth that took place from the Comprehensive Outline to the first draft. I wanted to make sure I included everything and when I read it again after a couple of weeks I shook my head and noted that this play has some serious warts. I hope my students don’t think this is an example of my best work. Still it is a first draft and in the intent of the course could develop it into something better. It’s the sort of thing I’m expecting/hoping/anticipating the student will come up with. It occurred to me, that as a final exam I could ask them to list the ten (10) worst things about it. |
| Rewrite of Andromache Actually I was thinking about rewriting Act 1 scene 1 Right now it begins with Philistes escape Monologue Next is the scene where the captives are gathered outside the Palace. Menelaus shows up and talks briefly with Andromache, gets word of what is happening inside the palace, talks to Helenus about his wife Helen and is told that a son of Hector will rule Greece. He resolves to get rid of the boy Astynax. Instead I am thinking of starting the scene as Priam is boarding up the doors….Hecuba and Andromache have a meeting where Hecuba gives the talisman to Astynax. Then Andromache gives a monologue….as she finishes Pyrrhus and his Greeks burst inside and the battle begins on stage. Pyrrhus kills Priam after they have an exchange….Aneas arrives with Trojan reinforcements and Menelaus arrives with his Spartans…. He tips the tide of battle and the Trojans flee leaving the women and children behind. Menelaus and Andromache have a dialogue as Pyrrhus watches….He is struck by her poise and beauty….Menelaus moves on to Helenus and finds out where Helen has been taken. Helenus gives his prophesy and Menelaus becomes indignant, ordering Pyrrhus to take the baby from Andromache. She weeps and wails but Pyrrhus follows orders. Menelaus tells Pyrrhus his intentions and Pyrrhus ends the scene with a Monologue. This would accomplish several things more aligned with dramatic principles. First the audience would get to see the fight inside the Palace instead of being told about it. Next the audience would get a good look at Andromache the Central Character. Next they would see the gut wrenching taking of the baby from Andromache. Next Menelaus would foreshadow his plans for Hector’s son. Finally Pyrrhus would show his fundamental sense of decency. Later in the play is a scene where Andromache and Hermione, Menelaus daughter get into it…. In the competition at the University one of the judges wrote it sounded too much like a soap. Personally I think the Greeks invented the soap when they did drama but maybe the play does sag in the middle and could be tightened up…..I’ll have to think some more on that on. |
| Socrates on Poetry I suppose a poem should start out with the thread of a beautiful thought however, my experience is that they just start out. A line pops to mind and the rest follows. I often write poetry like this that sounds good and I have no clue as to any underlining meaning….Socrates in his dialogues spoke of excellence and collecting examples of the leading poets works and confronting them as to what the poetry meant. I paraphrase (Socrates)…. “And so I went to the poets with examples of what I considered their best works and questioned them as to the true meaning….I am almost ashamed to tell you this, but the least of you could have better explained the meaning of their poems than they themselves.” I had to really chuckle when I read that because I felt he was talking directly to me. Sometimes mine starts with a resonance….all I have to do is kick back and think of some of the structures used by my favorite poets. For example Kipling….“You can talk of gin and beer, while you’re safely quartered here…or send to penny fights like Aldershot….but if it turns to slaughter, you’ll do you work on water, and lick the bloomin boots of him that’s got it.” That’s the opening to Gunga Din and I might not have it exactly right but I summoned it from recollection…. So I’ll come up with something like… She can do what’er she wants and I won’t hold her back. Let the record plainly show I cut the broad some slack. What ever’s said, let no one claim, I kept her on a fetter. Or that I stood on rightousness and held the law to letter. She had her chance to do the dance. I hope she’s feeling better. Now this is a good example of a resonance that just found it’s own path. This is an example of what I think Socrates is talking about. I’m not sure what it means….do you? |
| Stage Reading of Andromache When I wrote my stage pay “Andromache” I was a member of the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. I arranged for a stage reading, took my recording gear and with my wife went there for the reading. The casting director met me and the scripts had been distributed and the actors were highlighting their parts. There were about twelve seated in a line on the stage while the audience sat below. It was a pretty good turn out with about fifty (50) spectators. I am not encouraging anyone to read it but the play is in my port for anyone who is interested. Anyway here is a synopsis of what happened. Prior to start one of the more experienced Actors commented that the monologues were extremely well written and he spoke with the casting director a bit disappointed that he had not been given a larger part the. His reading was exceptionally well rendered which having seen it for the first time that night amazed me….However the skill of several of the other actors was also very impressive. The leading actress was an attractive girl of Asian American heritage, however all the cast were extremely talented. Now in a staged reading I had been led to expect it to be simply that…It is not an enactment or any such attempt but rather a clear and lucid reading to find out what the play sounds like. However, that is not what happened. As the Central character began to read her part she became extremely emotional and instead of settling down the state continued with an intensity that only grew. The other actors looked at her and sort of scratched their head but for reasons that escape me to this day I can’t attribute what fostered her reaction….At times it bordered on hysteria. My sense was that she wasn’t acting as much as she was reacting to the script….Maybe she had some emotional baggage that the monologues triggered but it got to the point that she struggled to get through it. Most of these readings I had heard at the Center were One Acts and Andromache was a full length play. When the reading was over there was a period where the audience was encouraged to comment. One Woman, a playwright ,heavily involved in drama there, commented that the whole reading would have been worthwhile, if only for the monologue where Bresis describes her ideal man. She asked if she could keep that page to use in auditioning female actresses. Several commented that they felt like they had just witnessed the actual play. This was a valid comment because as the reading progressed the actors became more and more animated in their reading and it was almost like the play was trying to come to life. One gentleman, apparently well versed in Greek Drama spoke harshly that the play sugar coated with poetry that which was basically an ugly rape scene. He also pointed out and correctly that Aggememnon and not Menelaus was the key figure in the war. I knew that but bumped him up in importance anyway. The man was both agitated and sincere in his comments… Another said the play was too long and needed to be pared back…That the palace battle scene needed to be shown and not told of second hand and that it really needed the heck scrubbed on it to make it shorter. Now my readers will have to take my word that the play had a powerful effect for a staged reading which are usually little more than a clinical rendering of the lines and suggested to me the potential of the drama. Actually it was the first full length I had written and I wish I had known when I wrote it everything I do now about drama…yet even so it exceeded all my expectations. In the end I still weep when I read it. Following the reading I further refined it and submitted it to a number of contests and it took third in the reading at a major University however was not selected for a staged production. So here it sits gathering dust, but what a hoot it was bringing it to life and through the process. I am now thinking about rewriting act 1 scene 2 for reasons I will talk about tomorrow. |
| Converting Stacked Prose into Metered, Rhyming Verse. I wanted to show my readers that I am capable of metered, rhyming verse. I think this form of expression was the genesis of poetry as primitive people sat around the campfires and used the mnemonics to record their verbal histories. Who would argue that poetry is easier to remember than prose. Its almost like it weaves its way between your neurons….Who out there can’t remember the first few lines to “’Twas the night before Christmas?“ Keep in mind now that this blog thread, started with the word “Resonance.” Karen read it in the blog and wrote her poem….and I wrote some free verse to try and catch and explain the thread of her mood….what she was thinking as she wrote. Hold this thought for just a moment. Many countries had Academy’s of fine arts and in order to get into one there were certain basic requirements….In the French I think you had to demonstrate that you could draw a realistic rendering of something. This was to prevent the old Monkey with the finger paint scam. I always thought that was a good idea and if there was a branch for Poets they should be required to write a metered rhyming poem. Those who malign structured poetry ought to at least demonstrate that they have a capacity to write it. PIcasso could actually draw. My detractors have accused me saying that my free verse is prose chopped up into little pieces, however before I attempt to show that I can do structured rhyme, let me relate a most amazing thing that happened yesterday. Karen came up with a stanza yesterday shown below. Seasons of reasons and poems that rhyme, readers and writers of varied kinds. Is it poetry, prose or a word in time? What matters the answer if it touches my life? As a kid one of my favorite authors was Baroness Orczy....She wrote the Scarlet Pimpernel. Her central character was an English noble named Percy. Today when I read Karen's poem it prompted a recollection....the sound was like a scent from the past that you try and recall...the poem flashed with a resonance of something Lord Percy recited while pretending to be effete in order to disguise his identity. > > They seek him here, they seek him there > Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. > Is He in Heaven or in Hell? > That damned elusive Pimpernel. The amazing thing is that the resonance in the third line of Karen's poem matched in my mind the resonance of the third line in Orczy’s poem. Now it's not the same meter, or the same rhyme or even the thread of a similar thought….it's simply a similarity in resonance. If you can hear it let me know, because it's to me a clue to what resonance is…. Often when reading a short story or novel I catch a line that has a Shakesperian resonance….it's distinct and unmistakable and I never know if it's random, concidence, subconscious or whatever. Anyway here is my attempt to turn stacked prose into metered and rhymed poetry. Stacked Prose (Free Verse) On a Good day for no Reason: Today I went out to the truck feeling good. I turned the key and the engine sprang to life. It had a nice rumble that got me to thinking good thoughts; Not the gut wrenching stuff my nightmares are made of. I always try to be a decent fellow but don’t always succeed. Haunted by insensitive words and acts of spite I often flash back and stiffen with dread…wincing! “I hate it when you do that!” my wife says. But today was not one of those days. Metered and Rhymed Poetry Today I woke a feeling good Didn’t stop to question why “Don’t look that gift horse in the mouth…” I reasoned with a sigh Birds sang and breezes blew As I climbed in the truck Turned the key, the engine caught Was that a stroke of luck? And there I sat a listening To the resonance I heard ‘Amid the sweet vibrations Loath to say a word Thoughts of dreams I dreaded Tactless things I’ve said Those foggy recollections That tossed me in the bed Gone they were, glad for that As Linda came to say “My you’re looking chipper And what a lovely day.” |
| Another Good Day for no Reason I have always loved poetry. Kipling is my favorite and then Shel Silverstine and then Dr. Seuss.... The intellectual elite malign rhyme and meter and verse making many low and disparaging comments regarding it. The reason is, in my view, that they can't write it and the best they can manage is prose chopped up in little pieces....when they attempt even that. Not that I would criticize free verse which when done right is every bit as poetic and inspiring as all the rest.....I just hate it when my snotty professorial relatives sit around in the summer at Lake Woe Begone and play their stupid little "Stump the Chump" games designed to show each other how really smart they are. Having to listen to their political views and snide commentary on "Art" and what it constitutes it only adds insult to injury. My goodness...does that rant ever make me feel better. Ahhhhh, now where was I? Anyway I do not consider myself much of a poet even though I have written it all my life. All my stuff traditionally had meter and rhyme although of late the difficulty of the strucures have become fatiguing and I have gotten lazy. Now what I attempt to do is use chopped up prose to capture the thread of a beautiful thought and then try converting it into a poetic monologue. Now step one is to come up with a beautiful thought and be patient with me as I explain the process. First I have to be inspired as I was with Karen's poem....She took the word "reason" and wrote the poem below. The initial step in being thus inspired, ie.using a poem for inspiriation, is to explain what it means. This is always high drama because as often as not I don't get it right. I explain the poem and the poet askes me what I was smoking when I read it. My response is "Hey! this is what it translated to in the pea brain of Percy Goodfellow...." Anyway let me now take Karen's poem and explain to my "army of readers" what it means. On a Good Day for No Reason: The title means that the poet work up feeling good and chose not to analyze it to death...She thanked God and let it go at that Everything and nothing resonating in my mind unfiltered rememberings of a good and pleasant kind In the first stanza she relates that her mind was in neutral and good and pleasant thoughts flooded through it....they resonated warmly, unfiltered. So often it's the trouble and the torment of the past which muddles up my thinking and contrives to last and last In the second stanza she informs the reader that this is not always the case. Sometimes her thinking is not clear and the fog stays around for awhile. But today on this good day, for no reason I can see contented feelings flutter in the soul inside of me. In the thrid stanza she reaffirms that this is not the case at the present, she doesn't know why or reallly seen to care, and basks in a warm glow of contentment. Now I liked this poem and wrote one of my own inspired by her thoughts, translated into Percy Goodfellow English. On a Good day for no Reason: I too awakened Today I went out to the truck feeling good. I turned the key and the engine sprang to life. It had a nice rumble that got me to thinking good thoughts; Not the gut wrenching stuff my nightmares are made of. I went out to my '46 Studebaker Pickup and cranked the engine. The resonance sounded good and I got to thinking good thoughts instead of bad. I always try to be a decent fellow but don’t always succeed. Haunted by insensitive words and acts of spite I often flash back and stiffen with dread…wincing! “I hate it when you do that!” my wife says. But today was not one of those days. I tried to convince the reader(myself?) that at heart I'm not such a bad fellow even though I am beset at times with the recollection of dark things....That these flash into my mind and I START! and my wife snaps at me, but today that didn't happen. So you see how a word Karen read in my blog, prompted her to write a poem that captured the "spirit" of her thoughts and that I read her poem and wrote some chopped up stacked prose that said essentially the same thing....filtered through my mind and translated into my words. (See how the flutter of butterfly wings have made their way from Texas to Wisconsin?) Now unless Karen jumps in here and gets me to spinning in a new direction, I think tomorrow I will show the reader one of two things....Either I will demonstrate that I have some capacity for turning stacked prose into real metered and rhymed poetry or I will take the stacked prose and expand it into what I call a poetic monologue. either exercise should be fun and provide the grist for the next blog. |
| On a Good Day for no Reason. When a human being takes an action it's like planting a seed. This is particularly evidenced when children are watching and pick up on what the adults do but it certainly isn’t restricted to children. It’s like a butterfly flapping its wings in Kansas, affecting the weather in China. I believe that….that everything that people do is constantly being reconciled and brought into harmony by nature… ; That we are instruments of God’s creation that uses life to effect change. That as long as there is life there will be God….. He/She will remain immortal as long as there are living things that scurry about the Universe. In recent history we have learned a lot about physical things but the spirit has lagged woefully behind…we are no further along today than we were in biblical times in our understanding of the spirit. It almost seems like the bible was written to try and explain in terms we would understand the unexplainable… Like “In the beginning was the word.” Or “make a joyful noise onto the Lord.” or “….enter into his presence with singing….into his court with praise…” Sorry I am not a biblical scholar and I am sure there are many more that a serious student of the “Word” could call readily to mind. Now what we are discussing here is “resonance”, vibrations, sound and it would appear to me that a scientific search for God would begin with an exploration of sound. From sounds we get language, rhythm, pitch, duration, and music. If we are serious about getting a handle on the spirit I would definitely start with the study of sound. Because I was never a tier one intellect and at best a tier two I realized early on that all wisdom was not reposed in a single mind and certainly not mine. I discovered in the Military the importance of networking and this is accomplished largely through sight and sound. Sight is used to display the physical world both realistically and abstractly, i.e. imagery and symbols. Symbols include numbers, graphs, and models and letters that form words. Sounds are used in language we use to amplify the visual imagery which grows in importance as the premier sense that human beings choose to exercise. I would call it the sense of science and we have really made great headway with that. The resonance or the sound however is the sense of the spirit….I know! I know! I am starting to bore you again….where is all this leading you cry out in agonized frustration? It’s looping back onto that age old discussion here at WDC….the difference between poetry and prose…the difference between the “Word” and the “Light” the difference between the tangible and the intangible. If you read the comments to my blog you will note that a poet named Karen frequently responds and along with Legerdemain jerks my chain and gets me spinning off in all sorts of tangents. I can only think up so many blogs from the resources of my pea brain and rely on networking from those around me. The inputs are in the form of symbols that form words that get fed into my bio processor from a living human mind as opposed to coming from my own or some muse who happens to be cruising the area. This allows me to use two minds instead of one to spin up and as much as people malign “Management by Committee” I think networking is a very power means of multiplying the power of human mind. Karen sent me a poem today…I have read others at her port and in her blog and they resonate with me. In my last blog the word "reason" got her spun up and she wrote a poem…. This was my response to the comment she provided. For some reason I see drama as the marriage of poetry and prose. In the monologues I see the poetry as most evident and in Musicals we see these monologues spring to song. When that author friend of mine asked me what" resonance" was I felt bad for her. Then I saw the germ of it in her writing.....another friend told her to take a poetry course and she declined seeing it as matter somewhat down on the priority scale. Maybe one semester we should think about adapting the one act play course into a Musical course and we can teach poetry using the monologues, turning them to song and maybe a form of RAP. I thought about doing this but felt it was reaching for that proverbial “French fry" I write about. .Drama under Shakespeare brought poetry into harmony with prose and showed the power of what the two can accomplish together. Anyway reading your poem inspired this one which is more aimed at evolving into a monologue. On a Good Day for No Reason Everything and nothing resonating in my mind unfiltered rememberings of a good and pleasant kind. So often it's the trouble and the torment of the past which muddles up my thinking and contrives to last and last. But today on this good day, for no reason I can see contented feelings flutter in the soul inside of me. On a Good day for no Reason Today I went out to the truck feeling good. I turned the key and the engine sprang to life. It had a nice rumble that got me to thinking good thoughts; Not the gut wrenching stuff my nightmares are made of. I always try to be a decent fellow but don’t always succeed. Haunted by insensitive words and acts of spite I often flash back and stiffen with dread…wincing! “I hate it when you do that!” my wife says. But today was not one of those days. |
| Democracy….An Ugly but Necessary Institution I might be a grump but I’ve always struggled to be a decent person. If you aren’t hugely smart that's the only recourse….for the wrong reasons as well as the right. Often I find myself doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and I know God is shaking her head and saying Mercy, Mercy, Percy, Percy. For example we have a town clerk who is extremely bright and hard working…That is the best kind of public servant….someone who always knows best with the energy to make it happen. As it often happens with such people they have their detractors….People who don’t like her and there are always these grumbles to find someone to run against her….yeah right…People think all a town clerk has to do is take minutes at a monthly meeting….get real…It is a huge job and running local elections is a small but complex part of it…The chairman is replaceable as are the supervisors….The treasurer would be more of a challenge but doable, however, the clerk….I shudder to think what her loss would mean to the town. So I told her the other night she has my support for the right as well as the wrong reasons….She asked what those were and I responded because she is an honest person, a decent human being, is the best person for the job and would be darn near impossible to replace. You see the distinction there….“Right reasons/wrong reasons?“ I think the reasons people give for what they do tell a lot about who they are. Now this brings us to the word “reason” and people tend to give it a very generous latitude….Many of the things people give as reasons are not reasons at all. They are gut generated, emotional inclinations or hunches, made on the spur of the moment. There are rational reasons and emotional reasons and the term “Emotional Reason” is actually a contradiction in terms. Before the Greeks invented the problem solving process, emotion, self interest and power were the arbiters in decision making. This process has not gone away, however rational problem solving has replaced the traditional process as being the most political correct. This is because science uses the rational process and people like to claim that the weight of science is behind their decision-making. So what they do is make their hip shot decisions using emotive reason and then go retrospectively and explain it using the scientific process. One of the great amusements in life is seeing this played out over and over….I think I will write a play where this is the theme so the audience can see it in action….It’s sort of like hidden dialogue….I’ll call it "hidden reason" and would no doubt garner a Pulitzer Prize… if it didn't hold up to ridicule one of the great dodges the pseudo smart like to use. Politicians are the worst for this, but we all do it all the time…They vote a straight party line and then explain the “Reasons” for what they did….There is no reason to it at all…Its all monkey see, monkey do. For the rest of us is the stock phrase....well you know the "real reason I did it was thus and so.... One of these is the Hate me Hate my dog reason...Have you ever seen someone who always take the opposite position just to get your goat? Theoretically in a Democracy a person is elected from one party or the other which shows their natural policy inclination on issues….However they are still expected by the electors to examine each issue on its own merits and make laws that are in the best interests of all the voters…..not their personal self interest, or the interests of the special interest groups or the interests of their political party but in the best interests of the people….DUH! Is there anyone who thinks the process comes even close in this regard? When the Greeks invented democracy they would have been the first to tell you that it had warts…as a matter of fact most of the great statesmen they produced called it a terribly ineffective process, however they went on to say that it was ten (10) times better than the second runner up. |
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