Lots of little “Oh yeah” moments today:

Surrounding yourself with quality, smart, talented people you can work with and learn from is a good way to get good work done.

That phone call that you keep meaning to make? Make it before it’s too late.

Life is good when good friends are embraced and false friends are dismissed.

Low-Carb ice cream sprinkled with Ovaltine is an awesome snack.

Sometimes you just have to go down the wrong path, just to confirm that it’s wrong and see what you learn from that journey.

Ask questions… even if you think you know, ask questions…

…then really listen to the answer.

“What people say behind your back is your standing in the community in which you live”
Edgar Watson Howe (American Editor, Novelist and Essayist 1853-1937)

“It takes application, a fine sense of value, and a powerful community-spirit for a people to have serious leisure.”
Paul Goodman (American poet, 1911-1972)

“What is virtue? It is to hold yourself to your fullest development as a person and as a responsible member of the human community”
Arthur Dobrin

“When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong.”
Charles Kuralt

“It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual”
Jeremy Bentham quotes ( Philosopher and Activist. 1748-1832)

This isn’t good for anyone:

Financial Woes Put BoarsHead Theatre On Hiatus

The BoarsHead is cancelling their upcoming show and going on hiatus until after the first of the year.

Running the only other professional theatre in the immediate Lansing area, I can tell you that this is a disheartening and disappointing turn of events. I hate to see those folks out of work, and I fear for what this could mean to the theatres in the area. (At the Williamston Theatre we are definitely feeling the effects of the economic downturn like BoarsHead, as are most theatres – I truly hope this is not the beginning of a trend that could be devastating to the Michigan Theatre industry.) Send good vibes and prayers to everyone affected by this.

BoarsHead, as an insitution, has been around for a long time and has meant a lot to a lot of folks – and still does. I hope the temporary break will allow them to come back strong.

In other worrisome news, the local school millage didn’t pass – this is also extremely upsetting. Frankly, I’m shocked. I can’t believe that we’re allowing our education systems to take these hits over and over, and yet still expecting them to turn out students competitive with students from other countries that are, according to the research, passing us by in educating their youth. (“What research?” you ask – See this Washington Post Article on the PISA test.)

Yes, I know – throwing money at the problem isn’t the way to fix it. Of course it’s not the only solution. But it helps, and schools NOT getting money and having to layoff teachers and cut programs is NOT helping either. Properly spent money WILL help improve conditions and results for schools – more money DOES equal more resources, research, staff, faculty and opportunities for our children. This rejected opportunity to help our kids grow is extremely disappointing.

“Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity.”
Erik Christopher Zeeman

“Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
Charles Mingus

“We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience: Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
Edward de Bono

“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.”
Julia Cameron

Okay, it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a softy for stuff about families, kids…

This story just kills me. I’m just going to spend the day wanting to go home and hug my kids, and trying to come up with manly excuses for why my eyes look red and puffy.

This little 6-year old knew that she was very sick and, as cancer took her voice, and her life, she hid notes around the house for her family to find.

I need to spend a day with my kids.

Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal, it’s difficult to score – make your vision of where you want to be a reality – nothing is impossible.
-Paul Arden

Surrounded by goodness at the moment… and a lot of things waiting for my attention, as well!

Today was a wonderful Fall day – had the good fortune to take several walks, the air has that awesome Autumn smell.

Currently watching the New York and Anaheim game… hoping Anaheim makes a late-inning comeback! (But it’s not looking good!)

As I watch the game, I’m surrounded by a pile of scripts, notepads and pages of scenes. I’m preparing to start rehearsals (in about 10 days) for This Wonderful Life at the Williamston Theatre, which will be a lot of fun. I’ve also spent the weekend working with students on some scenework, so I’ve got those next to me here. It’s been a good, productive weekend.

So as I sit here at the computer, on my screen I’ve got my to-do list open, my Evernote account with a bunch of notes open, a screen with my calendar open. A whole bunch of the things that are waiting for me to take care of are all here, and lots of things that aren’t here are lurking quietly in the background (“Hey, Tony, remember how you need to paint the outside trim on the house? I’m still heeeeeere!”)

My son has a fever and is feeling a little yucky. That’s worrisome. We’ll see how he’s feeling in the morning… may need a doctor’s visit.

Ah, the fun escapes, the daily chores, the fun work, the less-fun work, the many reasons we do them all.

And the Angels, after scoring a run to make it a hopeful 3-2 game, just gave up two more to the Yankees, so they’re losing 5-2 now, and they’ve got the bases loaded with Yankees, bottom of the 8th. Nope, not looking good!

Back to my scripts!

Life really can be a wonderful balancing act, can’t it?

So at 9:15 tonight there was a guy outside my house with a flashlight.

Fortunately, it was a DTE Technician.

Turns out there was an electrical problem a few houses down the road, so they were checking everyone’s houses in the area. I called DTE to find out/verify, and to chew them out a little.

I mean, it’s 9:15 at night. And there’s a guy outside my son’s window with a flashlight. You can imagine that created more than a little excitement in the house.

How stupid do you have to be to not knock on someone’s door and say “Hey, I work for DTE, here’s my ID. it’s pitch black in your yard, and I’m going to be back there with a flashlight, tinkering with the back of your house. Please don’t shoot me, call the police, send your dogs out to kill me, or any combination of the above.”

So the guy and I had a brief chat. Then I let DTE know that a good way to piss people off is to scare the crap out of their families by sending people into their yards after dark.

“Well Mr. Caselli, some of our crews work until 10pm.”

“Well sir, we live out in the country, and some of us own guns and big dogs to protect our families from intruders who are skulking around our windows at night. A service call after dark should be announced, not a surprise.”

I mean, come on.

Dumb.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll was born on October 18, 1934 (American writer and clergyman)

Best Quote I’ve read all day:
“Trying to convince people that you’re not an asshole is much harder than just not being one.”
-Shane Nickerson

Yep, we’ve all known some of those guys, eh?

I’m currently trying to go to sleep. The “I’m starting to feel lousy” from this morning has turned into a full-blown “I feel really lousy and achy and gross now”, which is always fun…except that it’s not at all fun.

Unfortunately, as I’m feeling lousy I’m also trying to get a job done, so I’m looking over lots of scripts for scenes and rejecting most of them. I expected to be finalizing these next week, but it turns out the preferred deadline is this week – unfortunately this week has been crazy busy, and that coupled with the aforementioned “feeling lousy” may get in the way of the preferred deadline. Still, I’ve got some better options than I had at the beginning of the week, so we’re getting close.

The final reviews came out for An Infinite Ache, and overall they were very good – hopefully good enough to sell a lot of tickets. I love this show. The spirit, the odd structure, the magic of it, the performances and the simplicity of the production – everyone involved was really operating at the top of their game, and it’s definitely one I feel honored to be a part of.

I no longer have the strength to look at scripts, computer screens, or anything but the inside of my eyelids for the next several hours.