Monday, April 21, 2008

This Circus Life...

Okay, so there's your life, your significant other, your friends, drinking, talking, movies, the stuff of an actual life that you lead, the real stuff that matters to you...

...And there's work, Day-job-Land, boring but time-consuming, the complicated dance of doing well enough that you don't get fired, but not caring too much that you lose focus of the salient point: you do this for the money...

...And there's the work of this life, the plays to check out, the readings to go to, parties to schmooze and connect, keeping a finger on the pulse, who works where now, who's getting produced, who's looking for what scripts, the constant hustle...

...And, eventually, there's the art stuff, the actual writing, and re-writing, constructing plots, looking for inspiriation, building your own perfect little house to live in for a while, trying to find the time to go back into the half-finished stuff and polish it off, all of the work that should really matter...

...And there's this, writing this blog, trying to make changes, trying to do more for the field, thinking about what's going on, looking at the big picture...

...And the circus music starts up, you can smell the sawdust and popcorn, and you juggle, you toss it all up in the air and keep it moving, only spending a second or two with each one before up it goes and something else is in its place. They toss you new things, set things on fire, rev up the engine on the chainsaw. You go up a ladder, across a tightrope, dive into a pool, all the while, juggling and juggling, hoping you don't drop something fragile, something that can't be brushed off and tossed back up, hoping, when it's done, you have all of your appendages. Maybe a few new scars, but nothing too bad.

Sooner or later, though, you do drop something. It's going to happen.

So, this is a long way of saying, I kinda dropped the ball there. It got a little hectic and I had to go and live my life for a bit. It's still hectic, but I missed this conversation. I'm going to try to keep up my end.

5 comments:

isaac butler said...

welcome back from your first unintentional blog hiatus! if you keep this up, it won't be your last.

happens to the best of us!
isaac

Philucifer said...

And to the worst of us!

No harm, no foul.

Freeman said...

Don't listen to them! I'm furious!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Brenda said...

Hello,

My name is Kaity Moss, and I work Walker and Bloomsbury Publishing. We are currently getting the word out about our new book, ‘Notes on Directing’ and we were hoping to send you a free copy. However, to send it to you we need a name and address. Maybe, if you fancy the book you can review it in your blog. I would appreciate it if you sent a response with your information to this e-mail- Brenda.Johnson@bloomsburyusa.com

Thank you so much for your time, we hope to hear from you soon.



~Kaity

Walker & Company

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY, 10010