So I tasked myself with a snacksperiment yesterday. Here’s what I came up with.
Banana Lemon Cream Crunch
1 - lemon sugar wafer
2 - small squirts ready whip
3 - banana chips placed on top of whipped cream
For a Lemon Chocoloate Cream Crunch make the above and substitute flat chocolate pieces for banana chips.
Just wanted to share a new writing exercise that bore some fruit last night. I’ve been wanting to come up with plots that are somehow attached to THE BIG IDEA. It’s tough to write a novel or play that stands up without a truckload of meat inside it. So this is a new method for me and it produced 2 good story ideas in 1 hour. Let’s call it a Waterfall Exercise
Step 1 - Write down 5 concepts, big ideas that are easily identified. Use only a couple words to describe the concepts. For example: information overload, no access, random violence, teen pregnancy, a sucker’s bet.
Step 2 - For each concept write two metaphors. E.g. for information overload a firehose filling up a test tube. If you want to get fancy you can try an inverse like looking for an answer in a blank encyclopedia.
Step 3 - For each metaphor write two plot ideas / story summaries. These should sound like the story pitch, one sentence that describes the agent and action of the story. They don’t have to be a strict extended metaphor. The metaphors from step 2 are meant to seed your subconscious to spit out story ideas. Ideally those ideas may have some relationship to the big idea that you started with.
Try it an let me know if it works for you.
We got some love on the last project from Miss Swanhuyser of The SF Weekly. Although I don’t exactly know what “(Yes, that Sean Kelly)” is supposed to mean, we were grateful for the coverage. Now I get some much needed rest to database, write and party. It was a great project. The cast was a pleasure to work with. Noona whipped into shape in 10 days and the cast party lasted until sun-up. Click the picture to read the whole thang.
“The troupe’s new show, The Last Voyage of the Omega, bites Starship Troopers style hard and follows a “crew of hard-partying space travelers” as they get stuck on planet Earth; science fiction ensues. Writers Helena Nolan, Sean Kelly (yes, theSean Kelly), and Jon Fast toss their actors into campy goofball scenarios partially influenced by pre-show audience Twitter voting. This is Episode 2: Space Babies. Episode 1: Mind Poison is explained real fast beforehand. The onstage talent, which includes comedian Mike Spiegelman, is up to the task of wearing asymmetrical shoulder pads, holding dry-iced cocktails, and shouldering names like Carlotta Catorce the Cthuhlu. Are you cool enough to not care whether any of this is too dorky? We are.” -Hiya Swanhuyser
I just had a reason to create a table of all four major sports teams. See Sean’s Giant SQL Page for the mysql sql. There are 126 unique men’s pro sports teams and five teams that share a name:
Just a quick note, Heist a Crow got a write-up in the 96 Hours section. I think the writer does a great job sifting through all my philoso-babble to explain the action of the play. Click [Here] to read it.
Hey everyone,I’m in a photography exhibition at the Showcave this weekend in Los Angeles. If you’re around Downtown LA, check it out. I’ll be presenting ‘The One That Got Away” a series of photographs of toy dinosaurs. Location and reception info below the pic.
Opening ReceptionSaturday April 26, 20087PM - 11PM1218 1/2 TempleLos Angeles, CA 90026Photo FictionsNew Narrative Photography by:JX WilliamsRodney AscherEric NordhauserNicolas McCarthyThe Blacksmoke OrganizationAnton Koslov MayrMark BoswellLouisa Van LeerJohn TerreyPeter AtencioMolly McAleerJason WishnowLes’ JeffesGuest Curated by Rodney Ascher
Just gave my presentation on financial data-loading using php and mysql at the annual Mysql conference in Santa Clara. It was my first ever professional presentation and hopefully didn’t bore too many folks.
Here’s a link to my page and presentation. It include a few php functions as prototypes for scrubbing and loading mysql data.
Best part of the conference was listening to Callaghan from the google dev team lay down the science on improving InnoDB at the code level for better multi-core performance. Everyone was in the room, Widenius, Heikki Tuuri and more.
Some of you know that I do a thing called ‘Success Hour’. The term was actually coined by Mason and Jean-Francois. Success Hour is where you meet some peeps for 1 hour at a cafe or some place conducive to a wireless work jam and you quietly jam on projects.
And it’s working. Ledia finished a couple art grant proposals on the hour, Mason has learned a lot about Unix systems administration, many playwrights and some illustrators have done good work on multiple pieces, coffee has been drunk by the gallons, life-goals achieved. Join us. I’ve had the pleasure of hitting save on the final draft of The Heavy Hand and the first draft of Rock Story during the hallowed hour.
You don’t have to be a writer or whatever. You just have a project you want to work on and you need that extra motivation of meeting someone at a designated time so that you’ve cleared your schedule and focused your mind.
Leave a comment and I’ll add you to the list.
Yeah and participation is like that Mark Silverman song: ‘totally fucking free’.
It’s been a lo-o-o-ng five weeks of prep and year in the writing. And finally, my latest play is up. It’s called The Heavy Hand. Take only as Directed by Helena Nolan. The cast is awesome. I r’ve re-united with Jon Fast, Dave Chambers and Mike ‘Spiegelmania’ Spiegelman for this and it’s been very rewarding to work with the old hands of comedy in a tragedy. I also get to work with Tina Arriola again and Eden Nelson my scene partner from Lysistrata. And there’s some new, talented blood as well with Esther Selk playing an all business Homicide detective and Maggie Mason as a closeted lawyer.
-s
Opening Thursday 2/7! Check out KnifeBeatsFinger’s newest original play.
The Heavy Hand is a gritty bar-room family drama of addiction, love, romance and murder. A skilled bartender tries to save what’s left of her family while pouring drinks for the people who are hopelessly in love with her … until someone gets hurt. Will anyone escape from the depths of alcohol, sex and drugs to break out on their own? Or will greed, and the torrid affairs of the heart, steal hope from a brighter future? One thing is for sure, no one will be left unscathed by machinations of The Heavy Hand.
Premiering downtown at the wonderful Stage Werx Theatre, a re-imagined space designed and operated by the theatrically-inclined McKenzie Sisters.
The Players: Tina Arriola, Maggie Mason, Eden Nelson, Esther Selk, David Chambers, Jon Fast and Mike Spiegelman.
Directed by Helena Nolan. Written by Sean Kelly. Set by Paul Andrew Hayes. Costumes by Sheena Pee.
Seats are only $12 in advance or at the door. Seating is limited.
Advance tickets: http://www.acteva.com/go/kbf
Wheelchair access available.
Mature themes and language.
Address:
533 Sutter Ave SF, CA 94102
gmap: http://tinyurl.com/35lese
Show Dates:
Thursday 2/7 8PM
Friday 2/8 8PM
Saturday 2/9 8PM
Sunday 2/10 2PM
Friday 2/15 8PM
Saturday 2/16 8PM
Sunday 2/17 2PM
Thursday 2/21 8PM
Friday 2/22 8PM
Saturday 2/23 8PM
Sunday 2/24 2PM
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