A bit of an update...
Aug. 5th, 2005 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroserose...which will probably turn out to be a bit of an understatement, as I have more than a few things to write (type? post?) about today.
Some of you may have noticed that, despite my professed (and still-held) aspirations of becoming an actor/singer of some note, I haven't done much to further that goal lately. While I suppose I could say something along the lines of "I've been too busy" or "classes are over and I wanted to have the summer off", and even have it be partially true, it's really just an excuse (and a rather pathetic one at that). So I'll go into the main reason why.
The production I was in as part of my acting class this spring was sort of a wake-up call. I knew that being part of a production was a lot of time and energy, but I don't think I quite understood exactly how much time - specifically, the driving-home-at-midnight-for-two-weeks-before-production bit. Not to mention the being-bitchy-for-three-weeks-because-I'm-balancing-this-on-top-of-work-and-school part. So I guess I wanted to have some time to think things over again and decide if I really wanted to do this again.
Well, the truth is...I do. I think I may well be insane because of it, but then, I've heard the theory that all actors/performers are inherently insane, because otherwise we wouldn't subject ourselves to such crazy schedules and huge chances for ridicule. I'd say that sounds about right.
Unfortunately, I wasn't really sure how to go about it again - when I showed up for the spring auditions it was rather anticlimactic, and since then I haven't really done a whole lot of networking in the Perseverance theatre community. But my mother (being the font of wisdom that she always is) suggested that I not worry about it - since this is my life goal and aspiration, the opportunity would present itself. All I had to do was keep an eye out.
Well, on Monday afternoon I was off running some errands, and I see a girl hitchhiking by the side of the road. It's my day off and I don't have much to do (and this being Juneau, the chances of a hitchhiker stabbing you to death are relatively low), so I pick her up. We get to talking, and it just so happens that she's headed over to Perseverance Theatre to get a receipt or something like that. So I take her over there, and go in, and there's David (my acting teacher from last semester who directed our production). I tell him that I'm interested in auditioning for Hair this season, and he says that they're doing auditions for King Island Christmas, which he's directing, and why don't I audition for that and he'll keep me in mind for Hair?
So now I have an audition at the end of the month, and I've borrowed the KIC soundtrack from Kristi (really nice lady at the library I used to work at; ironically enough she lent it to me before and I never got around to listening to it). I'm going to try and learn a song called "The Gift of Trouble" to sing. I wasn't intending to auditon for King Island as well, but I have a feeling David might've asked me because he'd like me to be in it (he's obviously seen me perform before and heard me sing, though not in a performance setting). Even though it's not as fun as Hair would likely be, I certainly wouldn't mind being in it - it's a rather Disneyesque musical (a bit oversimplified and optimistic) but still enjoyable. After all, it's a Christmas story; if it wasn't optimistic, it wouldn't work, now would it? =)
Now if I can just manage a decent audition...
Meantime, I managed to create all sorts of controversy on a certain LJ community by suggesting that (*gasp!*) perhaps it's not necessarily cool to make fun of Scientology as a religion. Yes, Tom Cruise has said/done some odd things in its name, but that doesn't mean that all its followers/practitioners are either brainwashed or horrible people, just the same way that the existence of Jack Chick and his Chick Tracts doesn't necessarily mean that all Christians are incredibly straight-laced fundamental. (Quite frankly, I find Scio to be less offensive than a lot of religions, especally the ones that send missionaries to my door.) Unfortunately, Scio seems to be the topic du jour to mock, and when large numbers of people are agreed on something, one or two voices tend to get drowned out in the herd mentality, no matter how logical or reasonable they might be. People have never been known for rationality in large groups, I guess. There were a couple of quotes that I particularly liked, though, if only because the "logic" behind them was so blatantly flawed:
"They're a brainwashing cult, not a religion, and they exert considerable strength to censor the media and influence governments." (If so, then, as someone else pointed out, why are several governments refusing to give them church status and [in one case] calling for their disbandment?)
"Basically, you pay Scientology all the money you have and then some, then learn aliens came to earth some odd years ago, blew up -other- aliens and ghost aliens cause all our problems." (My mother, who is a licensed attorney with 16 years of practice under her belt and generally a very logical person, has been into Scientology for some time now. If she'd heard anything about aliens (let alone ghost aliens), I very much doubt she would take it as seriously as she does. Yes, it's a rather expensive religion, but there's no coercion involved - if you want to pay, you can, and if not, no one's going to kick you out.)
{As to why Scientology is mockable} "Because Lisa Marie Presley thinks she can testify in front of Congress that there is no such things as ADHD or any form of mental illness?" (While I don't necessarily agree with their position on our system of psychiatry, even I can see that it's inherently flawed. However, Lisa Marie Presley is entitled to her opinion, and if Congress is going to believe her over any number of accredited sources, that's not Scio's problem.)
I dunno. I honestly don't know why I bothered; I haven't yet simply because I happen to agree with one of Brian's favorite sayings - "Arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics - even if you win, you're still retarded." There's very little chance you're going to be able to convince anyone of anything when they have any number of people willing to flock to their defense (or offense), especially when you're not there in person. Charisma on the internet is limited to how one types, spells and uses punctuation, and that's generally just not enough to make people even think twice. In person I might be able to convince a few people that belittling Scientologists is equally uncool with belittling, say, Jews or Christians, especially if they were alone, but online it's just not going to work.
But hey. At least I can say that I did, in fact, speak up. And there seemed to be at least one other person who was decently informed and intelligent. Seems to be becoming a rarer and rarer combination these days.
And people ask me why I'm as reclusive as I am...
Some of you may have noticed that, despite my professed (and still-held) aspirations of becoming an actor/singer of some note, I haven't done much to further that goal lately. While I suppose I could say something along the lines of "I've been too busy" or "classes are over and I wanted to have the summer off", and even have it be partially true, it's really just an excuse (and a rather pathetic one at that). So I'll go into the main reason why.
The production I was in as part of my acting class this spring was sort of a wake-up call. I knew that being part of a production was a lot of time and energy, but I don't think I quite understood exactly how much time - specifically, the driving-home-at-midnight-for-two-weeks-before-production bit. Not to mention the being-bitchy-for-three-weeks-because-I'm-balancing-this-on-top-of-work-and-school part. So I guess I wanted to have some time to think things over again and decide if I really wanted to do this again.
Well, the truth is...I do. I think I may well be insane because of it, but then, I've heard the theory that all actors/performers are inherently insane, because otherwise we wouldn't subject ourselves to such crazy schedules and huge chances for ridicule. I'd say that sounds about right.
Unfortunately, I wasn't really sure how to go about it again - when I showed up for the spring auditions it was rather anticlimactic, and since then I haven't really done a whole lot of networking in the Perseverance theatre community. But my mother (being the font of wisdom that she always is) suggested that I not worry about it - since this is my life goal and aspiration, the opportunity would present itself. All I had to do was keep an eye out.
Well, on Monday afternoon I was off running some errands, and I see a girl hitchhiking by the side of the road. It's my day off and I don't have much to do (and this being Juneau, the chances of a hitchhiker stabbing you to death are relatively low), so I pick her up. We get to talking, and it just so happens that she's headed over to Perseverance Theatre to get a receipt or something like that. So I take her over there, and go in, and there's David (my acting teacher from last semester who directed our production). I tell him that I'm interested in auditioning for Hair this season, and he says that they're doing auditions for King Island Christmas, which he's directing, and why don't I audition for that and he'll keep me in mind for Hair?
So now I have an audition at the end of the month, and I've borrowed the KIC soundtrack from Kristi (really nice lady at the library I used to work at; ironically enough she lent it to me before and I never got around to listening to it). I'm going to try and learn a song called "The Gift of Trouble" to sing. I wasn't intending to auditon for King Island as well, but I have a feeling David might've asked me because he'd like me to be in it (he's obviously seen me perform before and heard me sing, though not in a performance setting). Even though it's not as fun as Hair would likely be, I certainly wouldn't mind being in it - it's a rather Disneyesque musical (a bit oversimplified and optimistic) but still enjoyable. After all, it's a Christmas story; if it wasn't optimistic, it wouldn't work, now would it? =)
Now if I can just manage a decent audition...
Meantime, I managed to create all sorts of controversy on a certain LJ community by suggesting that (*gasp!*) perhaps it's not necessarily cool to make fun of Scientology as a religion. Yes, Tom Cruise has said/done some odd things in its name, but that doesn't mean that all its followers/practitioners are either brainwashed or horrible people, just the same way that the existence of Jack Chick and his Chick Tracts doesn't necessarily mean that all Christians are incredibly straight-laced fundamental. (Quite frankly, I find Scio to be less offensive than a lot of religions, especally the ones that send missionaries to my door.) Unfortunately, Scio seems to be the topic du jour to mock, and when large numbers of people are agreed on something, one or two voices tend to get drowned out in the herd mentality, no matter how logical or reasonable they might be. People have never been known for rationality in large groups, I guess. There were a couple of quotes that I particularly liked, though, if only because the "logic" behind them was so blatantly flawed:
"They're a brainwashing cult, not a religion, and they exert considerable strength to censor the media and influence governments." (If so, then, as someone else pointed out, why are several governments refusing to give them church status and [in one case] calling for their disbandment?)
"Basically, you pay Scientology all the money you have and then some, then learn aliens came to earth some odd years ago, blew up -other- aliens and ghost aliens cause all our problems." (My mother, who is a licensed attorney with 16 years of practice under her belt and generally a very logical person, has been into Scientology for some time now. If she'd heard anything about aliens (let alone ghost aliens), I very much doubt she would take it as seriously as she does. Yes, it's a rather expensive religion, but there's no coercion involved - if you want to pay, you can, and if not, no one's going to kick you out.)
{As to why Scientology is mockable} "Because Lisa Marie Presley thinks she can testify in front of Congress that there is no such things as ADHD or any form of mental illness?" (While I don't necessarily agree with their position on our system of psychiatry, even I can see that it's inherently flawed. However, Lisa Marie Presley is entitled to her opinion, and if Congress is going to believe her over any number of accredited sources, that's not Scio's problem.)
I dunno. I honestly don't know why I bothered; I haven't yet simply because I happen to agree with one of Brian's favorite sayings - "Arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics - even if you win, you're still retarded." There's very little chance you're going to be able to convince anyone of anything when they have any number of people willing to flock to their defense (or offense), especially when you're not there in person. Charisma on the internet is limited to how one types, spells and uses punctuation, and that's generally just not enough to make people even think twice. In person I might be able to convince a few people that belittling Scientologists is equally uncool with belittling, say, Jews or Christians, especially if they were alone, but online it's just not going to work.
But hey. At least I can say that I did, in fact, speak up. And there seemed to be at least one other person who was decently informed and intelligent. Seems to be becoming a rarer and rarer combination these days.
And people ask me why I'm as reclusive as I am...
