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The Play
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2576
"A Play, A Play, what could be more boring than a play!" - Homer Simpson
On Saturday I went to see a play. There were tickets, gift certificates, they had to be used up. And so I found one I liked and went to exchange them, but I made a mistake, quoted the wrong play, I was confused. SO many posters on the walls. And after the tickets were printed I explained my error but the clerk, the friendly clerk, told me what a fortunate mistake I'd made, how he wanted to see the play himself for which I now had tickets, it was going to be a good one, and I thought that perhaps this was one of those happy accidents life sometimes offers and decided to take my chances.
Now there is a convention that Canadian writers don't criticize other Canadian writers. This because, in the small world of Canadian publishing and Theatre, there is the distinct possibility that the writer you slight might find him or herself in the position to review your work. And we'd like them to be kind. So the play, the first run of a new local play, and the playwright, an award winning local playwright, shall remain nameless.
So to the play.
It opens very much like a play. I'm impressed with the staging, there is a stage, there are props and set decorations, actors and actresses. It must have been very expensive.
And there is that deft and snappy dialogue, it reminds me of Mamet, or Pinter. It dovetails together, each player finishing the others sentences, long pauses where I check my watch. 90 Minutes with no intermission.
They have given us surveys to be filled out before we enter the play, I've left mine blank, time now, when the lights are up, to peruse it, perhaps I should have filled it in, there's a prize....
There is a sense of mystery in this play, it opens with it, the first scene, a man being interrogated by an unknown stranger. "Who is he?" we wonder. And there is romance, a woman torn between her true love and her abusive husband. "Who will she choose?" The suspense is unbearable. But that is not the mystery. No, the mystery is too mysterious to be summed up here, it's an existential sort of mystery, strange characters interacting with our protagonist, then disappearing from stage...."Who is this stranger?" we wonder again, but it's not revealed, not right away, that's part of the mystery. And the other part is the way the characters forget themselves, find themselves in strange, inexplicable circumstances."How strange and inexplicable" we think. That's the other part of the mystery. And there is still a third mystery generated by the play, and that is how I came to be here, in this theater, checking my watch....
The play proceeds, well, like clockwork.
There's metaphor too, but I'm not sure I understand it. The lead character in the play, he's a metaphor for something, but I can't quite place what. It's a mystery.
More mysteries. More Drama. It's very psychological, this play. The props are good, too. There's a chair that the actors use for sitting in when required to by the script. And doors that they go in and out of. Sometimes the lights dim and you can't see them appear on stage, so it's like a bit of magic when they come back on and there they are. More mysteries. More play.
Then there's the finale. This is when the mysteries are finally revealed. It wasn't about the play, after all, we find out, it was about the meaning of life. Our existence. It's very snappy the way it wraps up, all the plot ends come together, mysteries explained, our involvement with the characters, our emotional investment, is tidily brought to it's existential close. With no cheating or shortcuts, just the way you'd expect after 90 minutes.
And so that was it. 90 minutes of "The Play". All in all I would say that the writer, in this instance "The Tortured Artist", used the medium of theatre very well to communicate his views about times-a-wasting to us, the tortured audience.
The Experts
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 2727
Every week it's the same. The news reports on the latest financial developments. Their sources are "The Experts".
There are many indexes of the financial system. Commonly referenced ones are things like "Interest Rates" and "Unemployment". Other indexes include the cost of living, real estate, consumer confidence. The list goes on.
But what all of them attempt to do is reassure us that things are not really, really, as bad as they seem.
Every week the newspapers run a report on the real estate market in and around the Calgary area. Prices of homes, how long it takes for them to sell, how many are on the market, etc. They consult with "The Experts" and write up articles that advise people that while things are bad, they are not really as bad as they seem. Things will get better.
"The Experts" in this instance are usually comprised of somebody from the Calgary Real Estate Board and an informed mortgage broker. Or, to simplify things somewhat, a banker.
Now it's odd we consult these experts, because none of them saw the bank collapse in the US coming. None of them foresaw the recession we're in. Or none went on record as seeing it coming. Which is odd, because even a blind person with a remedial knowledge of money and economics could have seen it coming. What I think it's likely that a great many of them were indeed idiots and didn't see it coming, I think it's more likely that many of them did see it coming but couldn't pull themselves away from the trough that was easy money for long enough to warn anyone.
Now there are a few reasons for this. The first of which would be greed. Nobody wants to get off a free ride. And, truth be told, the consequences of greed would only be borne by the greedy in small measure. Realtors now making double, threefold what they were a decade ago aren't likely to advise you you're overpaying. Bankers making money lending to buyers aren't likely to advise you to wait until prices drop so you can carry only half the mortgage. If, like some, you saw it coming you would simply lie a bit aside, and at the time this was brewing there was lots to be laid aside. Maybe move it offshore, or invest it in gold. You can profit from crisis if you know how to play the game. The second reason might be loyalty, anyone who warned that the "Boom" was a bubble was subject to cruel censure and scathing public ridicule. Many fine examples can be seen here (Peter Schiff enduring the informed opinions of his expert collegues). If you came clean with a reasonable assessment or prediction of where the economy was heading and worked for a bank or Real Estate Board, you'd be unemployed. And the third reason is that to give bad news in this instance has a strong element of self fulfilling prophecy about it. If, for example, you warned that house prices were ridiculously high and would soon be dropping, that people had better sell now if they hoped to realize any sort of profit or minimize their losses, then of course there would be panic in the market, people would rush to sell their houses, and prices would plummet.
Nobody likes bad news. People who stretched themselves far beyond their means don't want to hear that their investment is losing value at a rate of $1000.00 per week.
SO armed with this information the media still consults with the Oracles of Finance and issues summary reports about the state of the nation.
"Things are bad now, but will pick up soon...." is the message. Occasionally at the end of an article they will append a short fact list which directly contradicts their predictions. Phrases like "Slow housing starts" and "Market Adjustments" conceal the truth, imply that things will improve. Meanwhile unemployment rates jump by 2, 3, 4%. Realize that when unemployment rises, so do consumer bankruptcies. That when house prices drop, consumer bankruptcies increase. If you're not working chances are EI isn't going to pay you enough to carry a $400, 000+ mortgage. Chances are if you're carrying a $400, 000 mortgage and prices drop to $300, 000 you might rethink carrying your mortgage and simply walk away from the debt.
And when people realize this there will begin the domino effect, more bankruptcies = more foreclosures, more foreclosures = more houses on the market, more houses on the market = lower prices, lower prices = more bankruptcies (*see above; as people walk away from higher mortgages), and the cycle continues until prices reflect a "Fair Market Value".
By "Fair Market Value" I mean that direct correlation between the costs of materials and labour and the price of the final product.
In the past 10 years that relationship has been lost. "Fair Market Value", in the understanding of realtors, means "What are you willing to pay?" or "How much can you possibly borrow?".
The phrase "Fair Market Value" scares the shit out of bankers and realtors. Realtors, because it implies the end to a boom that made many of them millionaires. Not bad for a job that requires only a few months training. Bankers because they lent money they can never hope to recover against properties that were appraised grossly above "Fair Market Value".
Still the media approaches the Oracles of Finance for their monthly assessments. Despite knowing that it's against their interests to even slightly tell the truth, that their interests run contrary to the truth and facts, that the truth will crush them, they ask them their opinion.
Despite knowing that their greedy lending strategies and skewed prognostications are in no small measure responsible for this mess they are consulted, their opinion, in this instance, is invaluable.
They are, after all, "The Experts".
Don't trust the experts.
The Quiet House
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2536
The children have left. At first there is the breath of relief, time, now, to get back to work. There's much to be done. And I sign into the computer and check my emails.
And then there is the silence. The strange, overwhelming silence that hits you like a freight train when you weren't expecting it. The house is quiet. Dead quiet. With the children gone it'll be an hour, maybe two, before the mice come out to play in the garbage.
And I wasn't expecting it but I'm missing them already.
Public Art - The Toynbee Tiles
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 2072
I love public art. By public art I don't mean that art sanctioned by city councils and governments, that's not art. There is nothing even remotely artistic about it. Governments and Jury's simply don't have the wherewithal to judge art.
No, by public art I mean art given to the people, slipped surreptitiously into their diet of news and misinformation without their knowing. Art that seeds thought. Art that raises questions.
Crop circles are one example. Some people put them down to space aliens trying to communicate with us. Personally, I subscribe to the view of a group of guerrilla artists. Whatever you think, they have become a sort of cultural meme.
Another example I'm very fond of are the Toynbee Tiles. They consist of a linoleum and asphalt blend of tile that's layered into the pavement of streets. Examples have been found in many major cities, the identity of the artist remains unknown. Typically the tiles state:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.
Or some variation thereof.
Further reading:
The NY Times (1999) on the Toynbee Tiles
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