http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/ The meanderings and ramblings of an occasionaly coherent and undeniably charming mid-western theatre major. Copyright 2009 Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:51:38 -0600 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.121 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Welcome to Sparks, the latest edition to our small household. I adopted him yesterday from the shelter in Genoa. He's a needly little guy and quite the talker, but he's sweet and adorable. (This is the best picture I have, I can't get him to stand still long enough!)... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/02/new_addition_to.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/02/new_addition_to.html For Your Information Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:51:38 -0600 Me No Drive in Snow!... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/01/zomfg.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/01/zomfg.html For Your Information Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:16:30 -0600 I need to stop constantly looking at lolcats and get some work done on my website. By my god they are just TOO CUTE. I want a kitty of my own so bad...... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/01/donut_worry_we.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2008/01/donut_worry_we.html Personal Updates Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:32:20 -0600 So the Broadway strike has come to an end today. I guess the city of New York has been breathing down the necks of both sides, as it's costing the city and local businesses millions with Broadway dark. In reading the New York Times article about it, it seems that the compromises were fairly reasonable. Looks like they basically agreed that the number of crew at load-in could be a lot more flexible, that pre- and post-show calls could be extended some without initiating a minimum call (I.E. so they could call crew at an hour and a half to show and not have to pay a full four-hour minimum for that extra half hour.) In exchange for some of the concessions made on the behalf of the Union, the techs will see a higher than standard pay raise. Dammit, I want a pay raise! I'd go on strike, but no one would give a damn. I don't see anything terribly earth-shattering here, but some of the fall-out remains to be seen. I just hope it doesn't start to establish a precedence of justifying cutting into job security with paying more per hour. The temporary contract will be voted on by the members of Local 1 in the middle of December.... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/no_strike_to_sp.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/no_strike_to_sp.html For Your Information Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:24:58 -0600 So I Finished this a while back and just never got around to writing up a summary. I've pre-dated my entry so that I can have a timeframe reference later, though, so don't get too confused. The following is a review of Marriage, A History by Stephanie Coontz. What a phenomenally interesting book! As a reasonably well-eduated person, I've always been aware of the changing nature of the concept of "marriage" over the past several centuries, but never have I seen it explored in such detail with such a keen eye to trends and data analysis. Coontz is a scholar of relationships, for lack of a better phrase; she's written a number of books on the recent history of the American Family and the potential it has for the future. In this prodigious undertaking, she goes all the way to the beginnings of man and continues forward to the present day. It's a interesting to look at how many different types of relationships have born the title of "marriage" - initially a way of forming tribal or familial groups among early man based on the needs for survival, the idea of marriage evolved into political alliances among the upper classes and a necessary team for the division of labor in the lower classes. Although, she shows the reader that even in ancient times, there was love, intrigue, and passion in these political alliances. As anyone with a IMSA Perspectives education can tell you, nothing in history happens in a vacuum. As people began amassing more and more resources, they became more concerned about who would get it when they were gone. Thus steps in the Church, more strictly defining what it means to be married, and beginning the tradition of church weddings that we still practice today. Despite its formalization of the relationship, the Church still considered the state of marriage a necessary evil, a runner-up behind the state of celibacy. The rise of protestantism revived the love in marriage, and a recognition of the partnership aspect of marriage. In the Victorian era, she chronicles the rise of the single bread-winner household, an arrangement that started among the less affluent because it was often more economical to have a person at home preparing goods, watching children and running the household in what was undoubtedly an exhausting way of life. Like most things, people tend to warp a rough situation into a status symbol, and thus it became with the rise of consumerism that the man became burdened with the often overwhelming task of providing for the family and woman began to feel trapped in their own homes. I really should stop here, or this is just going to turn into am old-fashioned book report. Suffice it to say, she's quite through in her analysis of the historical data with only a mild flavor of feminism. I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed by the depth of the research and data here. About a third of the text is devoted just to notes. Nevertheless, I would highly, highly recommend this to anyone vaguely interested in the subject. It's a well-crafted work with clear and concise arguments that provide a facinating picture of how we've loved and what we think about it changes how we want to love tomorrow.... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/marriage_a_hist.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/marriage_a_hist.html Reading List Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:53:15 -0600 ::crawls out from under rock:: As those of you who pay attention to the news may or may not know, IATSE Local One (Broadway stage technicians) has gone on strike. Add that to the Writer's Guild strike, and it's a hell of time to be in the entertainment industry. I can't say that I blame anyone involved in either of these strikes, but it's a shame that the parties have been unable or unwilling to come to an agreement before this measure was taken. Regardless, I'm going to be paying close attention to how these strikes play out and the changes made to their respective contracts, because I know that it will have important ramifications for all of us working in the industry, especially those of us on a contract basis.... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/hell_of_a_time.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/11/hell_of_a_time.html For Your Information Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:41:20 -0600 [I actually finished this a few days ago, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write about it.] A while back, when I read Wicked, I found that I really enjoyed Gregory Maguire's writing style and looked for more of his work. One of the books I found, that unfortunately sat lonely on a shelf for almost a year because my attention has been drawn elsewhere for so long. That book was Mirror Mirror, which is to the tale of Snow White in the same way that Wicked relates to The Wizard of Oz. I really love the way that this man writes. He has a way of making his characters complex and interesting without writing in a manner that declares "This Character is Interesting!". This otherwise wonderful trait is sometimes a fault when it comes to dealing with his main characters. If not for the fact that they take up the most time in the narrative, you might not know that they were main characters at all. I noticed this more in Mirror than I did in Wicked. I sometimes felt, and perhaps this was intentional, that the story was more about the people living and working on the family estate than the family themselves. That's not to say that the main characters are undeveloped, but I felt that I didn't understand them nearly as well as I understood Elphelba. (One of the reasons I was luke-warm about the musical - I felt that they really neglected the core of her character.) What I did like about Mirror was his usual blend of "science" with mysticism. The female antagonist (formally the wicked step-mother) is skilled in chemistry, specifically when it comes to making poisons, however the "dwarfs" begin their lives as entities of rock that, through the influence/presence of Bianca ("Snow White"). The evolution of these characters into self-aware beings is an interesting look into what it means to be an individual, what it means to be a person. Ultimately, it was and enjoyable read, but there's good reason it hasn't reached the level of popularity that Wicked saw. I would recommend it if you read and enjoyed his other work, if you're into things that are a little more fantasy-oriented, but not to those that really desire epic tales on grand scales.... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/08/mirror_mirror.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/08/mirror_mirror.html Reading List Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:51:01 -0600 A long-winded update of the goings-on in my life. http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/08/holy_feces_an_u.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/08/holy_feces_an_u.html Personal Updates Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:39:04 -0600 So, we're officially getting settled in now. We have the cable and internets and everything. Now if we only had a couch....... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/06/settling_in.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/06/settling_in.html Personal Updates Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:08:43 -0600 Oh for christ's sake. She's been convicted of multiple DUIs. She was sent to prison. She's upset about it. Guess what: hundreds of people go to jail every frickin' day and we don't give a shit if they cry. Spend your airtime on things that, you know, might actually affect us, like, say, Bush at the G8. Not some spoiled blonde cesspool of venereal disease.... http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/06/get_a_life.html http://drlynn.dreamhosters.com/archives/2007/06/get_a_life.html Ruminations Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:30:10 -0600