It was 15 years ago today that Jeanne Beth Hicks said “I Do” and made me the luckiest man on the planet!
I can’t believe it’s been that long already – I’m amazed at that. I think about how much fun we’ve had, the two wonderful kids we’ve got and the life we’ve built, and I’m amazed.
Happy Anniversary Honey!
The Detroit Free Press and DreamWorks Animation make a fun picture: And baseball is coming SOON!!
10-year old Crossing Guard saves a kindergartner! And, people, pay attention to the road – especially in school zones!
And lastly, here’s a Bunny Taco.
This is a grainy photo that I took with my iPhone during tech weekend of Panache at Williamston Theatre. (click for the big pic!)
It’s a little hard to tell, but in the photo are Alex Leydenfrost, Maggie Meyer and Sarab Kamoo, who are all doing very fine work in the show!
It’s been a very good weekend – lots of hard work from a bunch of talented people – and I’m sure they’re all as exhausted as I am! Time for bed!
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.
-Albert Einstein
Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.
-Ben Okri
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
-Rachel Carson
We’re all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. It’s a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, it’s true, but then so’s everything.
-Charles de Lint
I hope everyone is having a wonderful March 17th!
I’m walking around with a sore mouth because I had 2 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. The Guinness I’m drinking is helping my mouth feel better, though. 🙂
Have a safe, wonderful night!
Following in the lead of several folks on LiveJournal, today’s post will be a simple list of 5 good things from today:
1) Church, Brunch and Hanging Out with my family. Some nice Quality Family Time today.
2) Great Williamston Theatre board meeting. It still amazes and humbles me that people want to volunteer and dedicate themselves to this place we’re building.
3) A nice phone call catching up with my folks, who are enjoying the Florida weather!
4) Tonight I got to watch team USA in a game of the World Baseball Classic – nice. It’s not MLB, but it’s a nice segue to the season starting in a few weeks!
5) Taking my son to the Chelsea Center For The Arts to see his self-portrait, which he did in art-class, and which was selected as part of the Chelsea School District Student Art Show!
Bonus Good Thing:
6) This Guinness I’m drinking… that definitely qualifies.
My 11-year old had a little bit of a rough day today. Without getting into detail, she was sad and a little heartbroken at one of those things that, I think, make a lot of people a little sad and heartbroken as they start their steps into adolescence.
Well, tonight after tucking her in, I lay snuggling her and chatting about life. We talked for a while, and the last bit of our conversation was this…
“Sometimes”, I said, “It’s hard to know what to do in life.”
“Yeah”, she said, “That’s what I have you for.”
I started to answer, but couldn’t seem to find my voice, so I just hugged her tight for a second after that.
After a minute, I said “But y’know, sometimes it’s not easy for me to know what to do in life either.”
She thought for a beat, and replied “That’s what you have Grandpa for.”
I smiled. “Yeah, yeah it is.”
“That’s neat”, she said.
As she drifted off to sleep, her head in the crook of my arm, I thought “Yeah, yeah it is.”
“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
-Andy Warhol
“Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.”
-Jean-Luc Picard
“Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.”
-Horace Mann
and, one of my favorite quotes ever:
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
-Carl Sandburg
We’ve now completed 3 of our 6 shows for the 2008-2009 season.
Panache has begun rehearsals.
This is an exciting show for us, in a couple of ways: It’s the first time the show has been done professionally in Michigan, and we’re proud to be the ones doing it. It’s also a play with 5 actors we’re thrilled about having on our stage for the first time. And, we’re fans of the script. It’s billed as a “Romantic Comedy” which, in essence, is true. But, it’s a romantic comedy for adults. It’s a love story, sure, but it’s a deeper exploration of a couple of people who are, like many of us, flawed. There are real life things at stake, and real life experiences have shaped these people.
I had a great moment today. Director Suzi Regan and her cast have had their first week of rehearsal, and I breezed through the building this afternoon on my way to another project. I’m always inspired when I catch even a glimpse of people working when it’s people who are good at what they do, and love doing it. You can see it as they work, as they talk to each other. It was a great moment today, because I wasn’t really thinking about Panache, I had my destination in mind, but there was the company rehearsing a moment… and I got caught up for a second in the process, and how great it was: the set is looking wonderful, the director was shouting ideas, the cast bouncing around the couch and staircase while the stage managers kept a watchful eye on the whole affair. I watched this team of people breathe life into this moment and I got lost in it. And I was reminded about how simple our goal is, really, when we make a play – we want people to get lost in it. To lose themselves and then, when it’s over, come back to their own lives with a fresh perspective. We want to tell stories that move people (us included) in all sorts of ways, and we hope that it always leaves us all with some new (or renewed) sightline into our world.
So, Panache. It’s funny, heartbreaking, life-affirming, thoughtful and sweet. Most of all, for me, it’s about the power of second chances, of not giving up, of following one’s heart – and THAT, especially right now, is the kind of theatre I want to see.
Tony Caselli
Artistic Director
We’ve sent out a spacecraft to search for planets like ours.
A little bit about Johanes Kepler, just for fun!
Tony Caselli 