Theatre, the Beautiful

My director's notes to my high school's production of 1776.

This is the story of who we are.

Every person has a birth story. Your parents, no matter how present or involved after you were born, have a tale of how you came to be. The day you were born, a group of people gathered to help make it so, and that story remains a part of the great archive of everything in the history of the world.

Every culture has a birth story, too.  The creation of the United States is a Great Story of “Almost.”  It almost didn’t happen.  In fact, when you take the time to study the historical record, it’s easy to see that it probably shouldn’t have happened.

The colonists simply fought with each other too much.

In places like Facebook, Twitter, and in the media, the arguments of this past Presidential election are, actually, not unlike the kind had by the colonists 200 years ago. What should the government be in charge of?  How powerful should political officials be?  What should and shouldn’t taxes pay for?  These fundamental questions of our nation are enduring and essential; your kids and your kid’s kids will likely be arguing them still.

Our Great Story of Almost added a chapter last week with the reelection of President Barack Obama. When we vote, argue, serve our nation, we are doing the same work as those who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Its future chapters will be written in the courage, strength, fears, and resolve of those of us who continue to pick up the legacy of the Founders of our Nation.

As I write this amidst the broken timbers, shredded power lines, and long gas queues of the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I can’t help but see our huddled community as not very different than that of the colonists. We are beset by challenges, split by ideology, and worried about the unknowable future. It’s been a challenging and bleak Autumn for many of us here on the Island.

But there is a hope. The students in 1776 have pulled together and endured. They lost power, hot water, stability, and Halloween. But they met in living rooms to run lines, practice dance steps and harmonies, and support each other. They’ve learned how to fix broken set pieces, verify historical facts about powdered wigs and military dispatches, and remain strong in the face of challenge.

These students are our colonists to the future.  From what I have seen in these past weeks of trial and tribulation, our American future looks bright.

We will endure.

Welcome to the Masquers’ 50^th Anniversary Season: The Season of Power.

Performances:

Friday November 16, 730pm

Saturday, November 17, 2 and 730pm

North Shore High School

Glen Head, NY

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

northshoreartsangels.org

Republican (Media) Wins!

“Perhaps because Fox continued to dominate the sector both in audience and financial terms, it did not change its formula or experiment with new methods of content delivery.”

(The Pew Research Center, State of the News Media 2012).

In the wake of the election, partisans and pundits on both sides have been opining about what went wrong for Republicans. An emerging narrative in the media is that the Republican Party must change.  From MSNBC to FOX to CNN to The NY Times to The Wall Street Journal, pundits have been calling this election a “wake up call” for the GOP. The electorate has changed, demographically, and the Republican agenda simply isn’t representing a majority any more.

Normally, when an electorate shows its colors on election day, political parties look at the results in order to inform tactical decisions.  New strategies are constructed; corrections and alterations are made.

But I think the Republicans will have a hard time changing because of the incredible financial success of Right-leaning media companies. The financial success of a place like FOX News speaks to its dominance of its own market-share: members of the Republican Party. The Republican Party no longer seems to be led by politicians; it seems to be led by vendors selling product. I know this is a broad simplification—but my point is logistical. I don’t think Republicans are stupid. I think the Party has bought into an incredibly profitable, media business model.

When Balance Becomes The Enemy

Right-leaning media sources such as FOX News have inoculated themselves to correction (or even reflection) because sources like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly encourage their audiences to discredit and disbelieve any other news source.

According to many of the loudest on the Right, every other bit of media is liberal, wrong, and/or downright deceitful.

This is not a small deal. Imagine having a doctor who not only tells you that all other doctors aren’t as good, but that all other doctors are also liars.  What happens when another doctor has a treatment that you actually NEED?  You would be tempted to believe that no one else could help you. 

There's no better evidence than this election.  Many of my Republican friends were SHOCKED that Obama won.  They were absolutely flummoxed.  That’s because somewhere in the past 4-8 years, the core of the Republican Party switched from being members of a party into members of a market.  Right-leaning media audiences are huge and loyal, but they have bought more than the news. Customers have not bought the “most trusted” news; they've bought the ONLY trusted news of the Republican Party.

The News Isn’t Good

Can you blame FOX News, Limbaugh, or the rest?  They have an incredibly profitable business model. From a success point of view, you have to admire them. They have, literally, destroyed the competition. But the collateral damage is to the Republican Party-- and to political debate itself.  

With profits like FOX's, can the rest of the press far behind? 

The day after election night on FOX’s "The O’Reilly Factor," the show posted a fresh poll of their own viewers, asking “Do you believe 'The Factor' has been fair covering the election?”  'The Factor' is the show that had FoxNews regulars (and Republican insiders) such as Charles Krauthammer, Dick Morris, and Karl Rove on the day before the election—all who predicted a Romney win.  On 11/06,  O’Reilly himself said, “Romney will win Florida, I just don’t know about Ohio.”

80% of their audience said “Yes, 'The Factor' had provided fair coverage."

You can’t make a happy toothpaste brusher change his toothpaste.  And until wildly successful news sources such as FOX News and Limbaugh fail as businesses, the Republican Party doesn’t look like it's going to change. There's just too much money to be made.

And that’s bad news for everyone-- especially Republicans. 

image credits: The Pew Research Center, ABC News, and FOX News

The 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award

The first award bestowed by iBlogAmerica

I took it all pretty seriously this year. I found I couldn't even finish most of my ideas because I couldn't stop trying to be The Best Blogger You've Ever Read. Sigh. Waste of time, really.

It's all retrospectives in December. Why? Because everyone wants to know what we're supposed to remember from 2011. Well, in order to do our civic duty, we here at iBlogAmerica offer: The 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award.

Let's get to it. What were the best fashion disasters? Dancers for Dancing Amongst the Stars? Viral Videos? It's been a huge year, to be sure. But mostly for weather, politics, and business.

WEATHER

These are a few of my favorite things, of course. We got an East Coast earthquake, a NYC hurricane, and three solid blizzards (including one on Halloween). Pretty awesome-- if problematic (because while natural events are awesome, people's lives get ruined. Like in Joplin. No smiles about that-- or about flooding in Vermont or New Jersey. Awesome weather events often are terrible ones-- and that's problematic. And an earthquake isn't weather, technically.)

POLITICS

Osama dead, gay marriage in NY, the Occupy movement, and the GOP presidential carnival are all huge events from this year. Union busting and tenure ending in education (as we predicted in this blog)-- that'll be big in the years to come, for sure.  The ten year anniversary of 9/11 will stick with us, for sure. The embarrassing US Congress will be hard to forget.  The Arab Spring, of course, the death of Qaddafi (or Gaddafi or Xaddafi or whever), the Russian winter. Kim Jong Il died. That's big in North Korea. The Axis of Evil had a terrible year! And who can forget the End of Days by Harold Camping. Oh, right: probably most of us. But I'm still excited for the Mayans in 2012!

MUSIC

But for art, my other other favorite thing, it was a pretty lousy year. Think about music. Gaga? Perry? Tyler the Creator? Beyonce? Kanye and Jay, Lil' Wayne or Wiz? Not much there. I liked Gaga's drag at the Grammy's (or was it American Music Awards). “Born This Way,” even though it's a naked ripoff of Madonna, is an awesome tag for our time. I'm glad Gaga did it. The biggest music story of 2011 may have been that Amy Winehouse died-- but she was so quickly replaced by the much-less-dangerous-to-herself-and-everyone-else-Adele that no one seemed to notice much after a month went by. The point is: there were few truly huge ideas or styles that will likely survive to next year.

MOVIES

Movies? Um. Harry Potter? Dragon Tattoo? The Tree of Life? Hugo? Melancholia? The Artist? Moneyball? Midnight In Paris? Shame or Guilt or whatever. Gosh, I don't know. Where's the unforgettable stuff? Dragon Tattoo seems like it might affect female stereotype model in Hollywood.  That would be cool.  As for the piece you can't imagine missing? I guess I missed it.

THEATRE

Broadway had Warhorse. That's pretty amazing. Big puppets, like in Avenue Q, but without the irony. Certainly an analogue standout in a year of such digital-tech development. Sleep No More has got to be the most successful installation/theatre piece of many years (all time).  I think it has more to do with shooter-perspective video games than anything else-- but that's a whole other blog.  I guess that I should mention Spider Man and Book of Mormon-- but it's hard to see how either will move theatre very far forward.

TV

I hear that there are tons of awesome shows this year. I don't really watch them-- but I should. Mad Men? American Family? Boardwalk Empire? 30 Rock? I've seen a few episodes but certainly not enough. They're all supposed to be amazing.  Memorable?  Well, Tina Fey is the most important female writer in entertainment.  That's not a small thing.

BOOKS

I read The Submission, by Amy Waldman. You should read it. It's an awesome portrait of race, religion, and politics of our time. I am so glad to have read it in the shadow of the constantly growing World Trade Center. Keep growing, building!

TECH

Siri is big. We will all be talking differently forever. Mark my words (add echo effect here). You wait until the 4 and 5 year olds of today are 14 or 15. They will not talk like robots or anything, but they will be deeply changed by the voice interfacing which is sure to be the greatest thing that Steve Jobs is leaving us all. No, he didn't invent it-- he just made its hardware platform a global phenomenon about 8 years before his company made it standard on the iPhone 4S. Yup, we'll be changed by that one.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

2011's biggest contribution to world history: the Too Big To Fail Movement in Business. Politically, no one is too big to fail. Look at all the toppled world leaders, Republican presidential candidates, and Anthony Wiener-- but don't look too long.

In Business, being Too Big To Fail is the winning strategy. It spawned the Occupy Movement, remains an albatross around Obama's neck, and and will likely lead to all kinds of political and class conflict in 2012. Go BP! JP Morgan! Bank of America! Congratulations to you all.

The idea “Too Big To Fail:” iBlogAmerica's winner of the 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award.

Let me know if I forgot anything.

Thanks for the attention, gentle readers. We here at iBlogAmerica (me) wish all of you (you) a happy, prosperous, and risk-filled new year. Go get 'em in 2012, marshmallow.