It seems he is the first major producer, or among the first, to produce a Broadway show funded by community investors. With median investments between $20-40, and demographics including priests, teachers, and truck drivers pitching in for Godspell. He is also the utilizing social media in real ways, and has published 4 books on producing.

His streamlining seems to find an audience that establishes a greater attraction to the actual story and not all the special effects. As producer Lauren Bies put it, “This he found to be true, and when shows closed, went on the road with bare bones. Suddenly, they began to make money…and better reviews.”

The stremlining and pre-audience involvement is quite salient, I suspect… And his results demonstrate. People begin to pre-immerse, and then also carry that of the dramaturgy into their daily lives. They tell stories to their friends, try to immerse others in moments that inspire them, and represent some of the facets of the staged-divine in their relational character with friends and coworkers.

Imagine a social ‘flash’ event where all those captivated by a forthcoming production wore a certain accessory that was component to the production. It passes in public, but also is a social hook to talk about Theater, and the event in which they are ‘audience-wise’ involved.

Or changing your Facebook profile image to one of several illustrated character vignettes. These would be provided by the production, and would be familiar based upon the yearly Facebook ‘doppleganger’ event, where people make their profile images at of a famous person they most resemble.

Ken is part of the future of theater I society.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a Hebrew student, but non-native reader, I found the Pritzker edition of the Zohar to be the best I’ve read. The Zohar is a work of vast depth, however, and this edition did not substitute for a lack of knowing the allegorical subtleties of gematria. I’m sure the editors sought a balance regarding the amount of footnote material presented, give that this edition is 75% notes and 25% content. Readers not familiar with the verse of Torah upon with the Zohar is commenting will need a bible beside them to keep the flow of the original, and contextualize the commentary. I think this is the most voluminous rendering of the Zohar’s light to-date.

View all my reviews

Stolen iPhone police incident number

You’d like to think that in a time where we have such slick, instant feedback, don’t-big-bro-me-bro, omniscient technology… that you could actually use find-my-device location services to get your phone back!

Imagine the scenario: you’ve setup your fancy-pants iPhone with Apple’s own Find My iPhone app, tested it and are feeling good about the sense that you can avoid searching for an hour before realizing it was in the car or at work.  You come home from a walk to a local coffee shop and the phone is nowhere about.  Fire up the re-location service…. and get sent down a long winding path of realizing that the more important part of the service can’t really do it’s job.

In my case, the situation turned out to be theft.  I realized this in 15-20 min when I got back home and realized the loss.  Was it at the shop?  Was it picked?  Fire up the Mobile Me find service and….. there it was, half-way across town in another district.  Phenomenal – the perp. must have had somewhere to go already.

Night’s falling now and we’re driving to not-exactly-the-nicest part of town.  We call the local police en route and explain the situation.  They’ll meet us down the street from where the perp. is hanging out.  After waiting, we see the phone has gone on the move again to a nearby house, and tell the police we can be met there instead, and are thusly informed we now have to meet them at one fixed place – gas station in the area.  OK, riveting man-hunt put on hold.

The police actually take almost an hour to show up.  “It’s a busy night,” they tell us with all the dispassion of life-threaening emergencies.   A group of sirens-blazing, don’t stop for traffic lights, police cars goes past us at different time while we wait, underscoring that some nasty stuff is happing in the area.

An officer eventually shows, with one of the most flooring pieces of information that evening: they won’t help us. Why?  “Because there’s no case law for police to use whatever technology you say you have there to find your lost phone.” I very-diplomatically give him the example that the same technology allows us all to get turn-by-turn driving directions.  We arrive at the point that it really comes down to the need for a warrant.  I propose (what I think is) a perfectly sober scenario: Go to the location of the phone, watch it move from that house, and if it’s being carried by a single person then confront them and ask for it back.  A group of people will be a shell-game that needs a warrant, so basically there’s one scenario that is safe way to be gutsy and set a precedent.

The officer isn’t that kind of guy, so I’m left to contemplate vigilantism and private investigators.  Friends would late offer to go Punisher on the guy, but that wasn’t until after we’d bailed and headed back to maybe still get decent seats for Tron Legacy.  Two slices of cheesecake comforted us instead.

The big moral of this story is that phone tracking services are only useful at reminding you the phone is in the car, or maybe fell off the tractor in the East Field.  So be sure you don’t pay anything for this kind of service unless you’re trying to keep tabs on children who are already well-mannered enough to stay out of trouble on their own.  If it comes to police necessity, it seems they’ll leave you hanging.

Thanks, Apple, and all the other companies offering services like this.  Make the next into relationship formation with law enforcement and the bench.

An opportunity arrived to investigate the parish of St. Mark, after its gothic-evoking exterior elements were spotted from the street.  The site is current in use as a club venue called Seven Candles – turned over to the business sometime after 1988 when the building was given over in dispute.

It's still much like this, but with a wild dance floor and aerial acrobats

The feel of the place is great, particularly if you get there by 8 or 9pm, before it’s packed with people and takes on their mood.  Sushi is served in one of the side rooms until 1am.  The chapel, closed to the public, has an array of symbols that interestingly complement the rest.

The chapel sits in the NW corner of the building. The gusset tops form a ring of stained glass panels, alcoves of fleur de lys above a full-moon / disc, and five fronded palms, alternating. Two arches divide the room into three sections. Each arch is compose of reinforced square angles to follow the two slopes if the ceiling. This gives the arches the shape of the Hopi kivas – a square upon a larger square.

The eastern wall is three window panels. The centermost bears a gold caped nun with a central white stripe upon her robes.  The stripe is compose of 9 squares, and is ended top and bottom each with a half-square.

Her arms stretch out as the crucifix, but hands open to embrace. She smiles. Subtle to the cobalt background panel illumination are rays emergent from her head, high above which is a serif-cross (even arms) in red, evocative of a rose.

Beneath her in the panel are two flower-like designs, green and gold. The design is like four pin oak leaves to the diamond corners, the square corner 3-barbed points like fleur de lys.

The background surrounding each design and the nun is a vessica, double walled.  The vessicas interlock in a diamond arrangement, the nun’s head centered over one.  In the space of the wall is marks like rain or tears or thorns? These raise up the lower half of the vessica, the top half as garland, and evocative of the Apprentice Pillar. Outside the walls in the background is more oak leaf like pattern – forest like.

The entire border of the glass is patchwork of green and gold, red and white.  Most of the panels have a pattern like bark.  Two panels are red outline crosses.

The stone wall in which the window panels are set is painted with a tesselation of gold crowns in the spanish style, the glorious light radiating down from them in 9 rays. Vertical bands, floor to ceiling, of gold ivy and crosses – the ivy on green and the crosses on red – separate the crown tesselations. Beneath the cereal window panel is painted a Christian cross, it top truncated by the window above.

Painted on the wall to the left, amid a green field holding gold fleur de lys, is an Alpha surrounded by a triangle of black with gold borders. The right, amid the same field and trangle, is an Omega. The Alpha bears the same shape as the Omega except including the ‘lintel’ bar.

On the north wall adjacent to the alpha, and amid its own red field holding gold crosses, is an emblem of St. Mark. It is set upon white with a circle, a scroll bearing the name of St. Mark is surmounted by a winged sphinx. The sphinx bears a lion’s head – full mane, in the Coptic style, surrounded by a halo.  His right paw rests upon an open book.

Alas, these last paintings were seemingly not original to the parish’s founding in 1889.  The chapel, dating to the founding, is known as a Chapel of the Holy Comforter and from this photo in 1975, the walls were not covered the patterns and emblems that they do today.

Overall, no archeological discovery here – but it seems like someone may have attempted to make prominent the feminine amid the coptic / egyptian garments of ‘St. Mark.’  The builder’s inscription was not evident on the first visit, but given there was something surreally calming about the the dance floor and aerial acrobatics as I looked down from the VIP floor reading my book on grail legends – I’ll look next time I’m there.

Psychedelic Medicine

Ed. Michael Winkelman, Thomas Roberts

It is said that a medicine’s power can heal or hurt in equal proportion.  Rarely is the sentiment more appropriate than in the study of psychedelic medicines.  The insights presented in the two-volume set, Psychedelic Medicine, edited by Michael Winkelman and Thomas Roberts, stand for the healing capacity of such medicine.  For those outside the field of clinical / therapeutic treatment of addiction, and whom may assume that all addiction is inherently linked to drugs, will find these books illuminating.

The authors are clean in presenting that they do not condone, nor even intimate guidelines for the public consumption of psychedelic medicines.  Rather, they frame what attempts have been made to define the best practices for their use within the setting of experienced and professional care.  As such, this works sets itself as a touchstone in the proper research and development of new medical practices.  It is, in this early stage of the field, an encyclopedia and bibliography of the most significant scientific studies into psychedelic medicines.

Volume one reviews social context, history, applications and legality.  Volume two carries through numerous reviews of clinical work with an object toward best-practices.  The researcher will find it indispensable.  For those that have used these substances outside of professional contexts, it is an illuminated look into the future framework by which such substances may gain acceptance.

The authors offer several important ideas in their writings.  One is the notion of “psychointegrator technologies.”  The concept is intended to highlight any technology, from a medical drug to digital media, that has a specific range of affect upon consciousness.  This forward-thinking idea is founded upon work ranging from the application of psilocybin for depression to the use of virtual reality systems in the treatment of phobias and post traumatic stress disorder.  Furthermore, the authors go so far as to propose a business plan for the establishment of a institute that leads the cultural application and advancement of psychedelic medicine and psychointegrative technology models.

The only real want for improvement in the books is in having Robert’s last chapter of volume 2 – profound in its history and perspective on the future - become the introductory text to each volume.  These works simultaneous are a banner for harm-reduction and best practices within the field of psychedelic medicine, and a roadmap for how the knowledge from psychedelics research will go beyond their use to impact culture and technologies broadly.

Cons

There are a number first possible issues that come to mind.

The biggest one is that bottom of the screen is sometimes a place that sites will float their own menu bar.  If such an ad unit overlays a site menu and inhibits user navigation, the advertiser and ad supplier forever be evil with little hope for recovery.  The host site will also lose lots of face.  The the ad unit to sense an existing floater in this region could be challenging – to unpredictable….  Not a happy engineering endeavor.

Also, I get used to the notion that when I scroll down, ads go away.  This breaks that relationship to ads, and may keep up any ire I develop, in forcing me to close the ad.

Pros

That said The non-rectangular ‘skline’ is a nice touch, as it allows for a new dimension of branding.  As much as I generally disfavor what is displayed to me in web ads, I actually get excited to see how companies would take advantage of this opportunity to brand themselves.  It’s a challenging area, as breaking outside of a box region can go from tacky to terrible fax paux – but the successes will be big wins, I think.

Click-throughs, CPC, CPM

I’d expect higher than normal click-through rates, but with a caveat.  My sense is that there will a sharper break-point between for traffic given on quality ads vs. terrible ads.  Since this ad unit remains on-screen all the time, I personally expect the ads therein to be more beautiful and enjoyable… as well as more yielding and semi-subtle.  This is a great opportunity to please the visitor and win brand status.  If I get any weight-loss-flashers or other wank there I’d be very upset at the site that allowed that kind of trash to be stuck at the bottom of my screen.  Even average ads will enter into the It’s Not Pretty category and be displeasing.  So I think those managing this ad unit (Premium Access & affiliates) will have to be more selective in screening & applying an ‘aesthetics policy’ to the advertisements that go out.

Given all that, I’ll also expect the cost to use the ad unit, in CPC / CPM will be higher.  Not the level of a video ad, but higher than traditional ad units.

It’s interesting that all of their initial advertisers for this unit seem to be gaming companies.  I think it says something to the comfortability that the gaming culture has with novel experiences.  The sports industry would probably find a way to put their glitter and polish out through it, too.

The costuming was one the the things to which I paid the most attention.  The dress did much, in symbolism, movement, and aesthetic. The following notes are follow in series with the performance held in Tempe, AZ.  Without the ability to have any images to associate with the text, we’ll all have to do our best……!

The opening act had dancers with closed-sleeved garments.  The closed sleeved were in part a practical invention to offer protection to the emperor, since martial attacks would be inhibited.  In a way this felt like a form of veneration to the audience, being the opening act.  I noted that a masterfully-executed dance could conceal a hidden sword within the flowing sleeve.  It would be quite difficult, but not inconceivable.

Behind the actors, in all performances, was a video projection for a backdrop.  This worked well in the production, as it allowed for very elaborate control of the set without the production cost of physical stage-pieces.  One video had a streaming collage of human figures, perhaps Buddhas and Quan Yins, which took the appearance of a river of souls… which had a striking effect.  In some of the acts, figures on the video would swoop to the bottom of the screen – the stage floor – and then an dancer would jump up from behind a stage article, meshing the video and live performance in a very satisfying manner.

Mens attire  included a layering of sash, kilt, skirt, and pants.  Shoulder wraps were decorated at edge.  The Yellow Emperor’s attire included and additional belt of fine embroidery, along with other legendary attire. Pennants held aloft behind him were edged in fur.

For the Udumbara flower, ladies tunics and pants were gradiented in color.  The Udumbara flower, a symbol in classical Buddhism, was conveyed as a symbol of prophesy.  One of the striking things to me is the way in which ‘the arrival of prophesy’ is conveyed in every lifetime.  It is oft used as a pageantry and instrument of the state (even autonomous and un-landed states) to inspire its people to their achievable heights.  Whereas they prophetic story is itself rooted in timelessness, it’s arrival can be individual or cultural.  Indeed, the cultural arrival may be not more than emergence from the aggregate of personal arrival.  All prophesy then may act in a manner evocative, at very least, of the entangled, multiple, and fractional models present in physics and consciousness.  Where exists, and how large, is the tribe whose members live now the same prophesy?

A dance-line with oscillating movement had its ‘rolling’ double around the middle of the line before the wave traveled to the end.  Men pants were tied / wrapped at shins, like the finishing to high shoes or boots…. somewhat pirate-like.  Shoes revealed their ability to move quickly and strongly.

The Yi dance was like rainbows opening and closing.  Slow daintiness, then blooms springing open.  Done all by women, and transmitting an essential side of the feminine aura.

There was an act portraying an ancient character with a magic fan.  The fan was scraggly, and not pretty.   Notably, the prince had ‘rabbit ears’ that we composed from feathers (red), and he was garmented in blue and red.   Lady headdress was dangling balls and elaborate knotwork, like Masha’s at BM 2008. The fan-wielding legend rides away on a cloud at the end.

Another act had mens pants tied above knee, to accent the pant looseness at calf.  Hair was in topknot above a headband.  Belt with tassels and kilt.

The fan dance was like a divine fluid of color and motion…. that I can eat.  Ladies wore dancing aprons – a nice touch on the domestic erotic.  Their fans opened to full circles – like bloom…. and shield of enticement.

The first act to demonstrate openly that the troupe is falungong told the story of a family hurt by a punk gang outfitted in communist sickle & hammer vests.  Qian Yin and Buddhas arrive in salvation and rebirth.  The Qian Yin ladies’ shawl hangs at half-way at the back, as angel, one loop over shoulder down the arm.  It brings to mind a language of the shawl (unless there is a better name for this long strip of fabric).  What difference does the swoop at half-back mean compared with a swoop down to the waist, or just across the shoulders?

The erhu solo reminds me what that life lived in China had in part so-loved….  Only the briefest pursing of lips, once, hinted that every piece was not the musician’s favorite!

Male drummers – their bracers hold and accent loose sleeves evocative of a dress shirt. Top knots and headbands again.  They also wore breastplates, which dovetailed with the purpose of holding the drums.  In Mesopotamian cultures, breastplates were adorned with magical amulets, and were a kind of technology unto themselves.  The association of the two, magical and drum-related, both hold the evocation of a ‘suit’ for some technology.  I can’t imagine now a way to make a breastplate work in any general public scenario – it’s just too non-standard.  One military can get close, with their pins, and even then draw unusual attention in public.  But given something ceremonial or otherwise given to the ritual expression, I see a way to wear it.

For the Phoenix dance, ladies dress were decorated near the edge with weighted petals that encouraged folding and effects of motion.  It was something like a the way a fan folds, but with the increased range of the skirted pleats.  It would be stunning on an open, flowing lady’s sleeve.   The procession line of dancers composed the phoenix tail, and was sharp pageantry.

The story of the Monkey King told that he came from the stone that is the essence of heaven and earth.  He wore a beret with a slightly-pronounced & decorated band plus a pin.  The sage wore a flower-like crown with tassels that included fabric-like ‘ears’ that hung down. He wore mala beads and robes with several sewn-in bands at the level of the thighs and otherwise… almost evoking the lok of an iron-strapped trunk.   Wise man, bearded, had a necklace of huge beads and winged headband.

The Mongolian chopstick dance was probably my personal favorite. Tablewear – was taken up an aesthetic level, and was made seductive.  Love it.  Wing embroidery on dresses, which below the waist were cut in long sections, and those sections layered like flower petals, but with square cut corners.  Feathered headband. All in white and gold, creating a skyward ideal.  The bundles of chopsticks click-click-click-click off the body, silk napkin tied-with streaming along, as the the ladies twist back and forth, kneeling-to-standing-to-kneeling, in a dance that had the distinct sense that it could be done in a kitchen or dining room…..  Snap of chopsticks like the ruffle of wing feathers.

The legend of Mulan – not told in he Disney style. The Imperial scroll with decree was nice accent; presenting the Word to someone on a brightly dyed fabric of gold and held by finial-ended bars will really put someone into the mood.  The movements of her father were as to cradle her head, when right is given to her.  Upon Mulan’s return ladies were out again with Shields of Spring.  

Another act had billowing sleeves that were gossamer enough to move with slightest breeze and movement made.  The best justice to do to the description is to watch the scene in Dune were the Reverend Mother leaves the emperor’s chamber upon the arrival of the Guild navigator.

Tibetan men wore a good mix of silver and brown, with fur. Multiple bead colors mixed with turquoise, and were the same color as headbands with knot and hangs/drops of the material. Again, the long sleeves, too long for hand exposure, spoke of Peace.  We should all realistically remember that non-violent revolution is revolution none-the-less.

A spiritual performance included video of many layers of counter rotating rings of Chinese characters, that evoked the image of a fung shui compass taken to divine levels.  Men had ‘riding crops’ ending in large white horsehair plumes, that I would have been best worn at the belt when not dancing.

…. and outside at the gift shop, ‘music bags’:  tiny purse-like little decorated pouches with music boxes inside.  Lovely little things!

Emergy
Maria Michails-Posidis
Master’s thesis: Harry Wood Gallery

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a boat that, through the act of rowing, energizes lights in the enfolding space to illuminate delicate photographic cels.

The work directly names the existence of an ephemeral, if not transcendent, aether capacitated within all life around us. The rhythmic work…. of a being alive… metabolizes and enriches that unseen nature around us into visibility. The work suggests our evolution – of a new sensory organ by which we may know the world.

With each stroke the space pulses with the evidential glow of life. The work, like a simulacra, reenacts the same vital process that we perform at each breath – the cultivation of life. This respiration evokes awareness, regardless of the artifice, that the world around us is desperately sensitive to all of our actions.