So we’re about done moving, and May is about a third over with.  Which means it’s time to get back to work on ‘Belief.’  I hate that working title, but right now it’s all I got.  Must…finish…by end…of…May…*gasp*… *wheeze*…

I’m getting him a crackpipe with his initials engraved in gold on the mouthpiece.

AT LEAST SPELL HIS NAME RIGHT!  

Though the rest of your analasys is probably correct, as anyone else who has grown addicted to Chuck Palahniuk’s prose can attest.  You likely will feel used, abused, violated, and abandoned…but left with a tiny tiny barely visible speck of hope that will later fall out of the hole in your pocket when you’re not paying attention.

I’m referring of course to the stack of things that the government keeps doing that just makes no sense and pisses me off.  There is of course the war.  There is the propaganda and the lies being used to justify the war.  There is the un-Americanizing of America going on where people are being criticized for doing no more than exercising their rights to speak their minds.  And now this thing I hear on NPR this morning.  Totally unrelated to the war, but still a reminder that the system is geared to benefit the wealthy class.  Apparently, the IRS is coming up with innovative new ways to make people who work for tips report all of the tips that they have received in order that they may be more properly taxed.  This includes waiters/waitresses, taxi drivers, haircutters, tattoo artists, any line of work where tipping is customary.  Nevermind all the innovative ways that the wealthy have to protect their prescious millions from taxation, no no no, we have to leave that alone, we shouldn’t punish the rich for being rich, that’s COMMUNISM!  No, we need to go after those thieving minimum wage tip earners.  They’re the ones bringing this country down!  Uh, waitress?  More coffee over here?

Testing shit to make sure it’s not broken on Sunday morning. It blows.

Okay Brandon, you said it yourself, you said it to me, you are on a deadline.  Your first draft will be written by the end of April, and your whole play will be done by the end of June.  So there, it’s out there, it’s public, now you can’t puss out. 

And while I’m holding other people to deadlines, I’ll just stick my own out there.  I’ll just say I’ll have a draft ready for LGT to read by the time ‘Goat’ is over, that’s April 6th. 

Deadlines are wonderful inspiration.

I had no idea about the correlation between these two seemingly unrelated roles, but I learned this morning on NPR from a soldier’s wife that if you are protesting against the war, then you are siding with the terrorists. Who’d’a thunk it?  I’m glad that she and others with such incredible analogy skills were able to crack the terrorist’s code and show that the world that cries of “Peace!” were actually cries of “Jihad!”  I never knew that there were so many terrorists all over the world and even right here in Austin, even amongst my closest circle of friends.  Shit, what about me?

No really, are we perhaps witnessing the administration of the most evil president our country has ever had?  The havoc he is wreaking is completely overwhelming, like Dahmer in charge of the army.  I’m praying to every god in the book that the democrats find themselves a viable candidate who can do some ass-kicking and get this serial warmonger out of office so that we can truly “restore dignity to the office of the Presidency.”  Mr. Clinton?  Can you hear me?

Look at what Julie said in an email:

“Travis- I will give you copies of my Scene Plots tonight and you, as Stage Manager, will be in charge of assigning who moves what during scene transitions.”

IN CHARGE!  ME!  The power is intoxicating, my head is reeling!  I will do my master’s evil bidding with surgical precision.  Move that bench!  Push that table!  Yank that leg!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

At least not so often.  I’m referring, of course, to Audioslave.  Their show at the music hall last night KICKED ASS!  For an opener, how perfect is this?  Chris Cornell came out with an acoustic guitar and sang “What’s so Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding.”  Fucking beautiful!  A friend had told me that Chris Cornell’s voice sucked live, but I found this not to be the case on the night of March 11, 2003 in Austin, Texas.  And of course, it was great to see Tom, Tim, and Brad back on stage rocking out where they belong.  As is the case with many concerts I go to, I found myself hearing new meanings in songs that I hadn’t paid much attention to before.  For example, the chorus to “Last Remaining Light.”

“If you don’t believe the sun will rise,
Stand alone and greet the coming night
In the last remaining light.”

I’d never paid much attention to that song before, but when I heard it last night, it about made me weep.  It made me thing about the state of the world that we’re living in today, how we’ve got this rogue president dragging our country, kicking and screaming, into a war that people all over the nation and the world are condemning.  But as inevitable as the war seems right now, people are still speaking up, and that makes me happy, in a bittersweet sort of way.  Anyway, enough politics.  The show kicked ass.  Oh, and I saw a fratboy with a longhorn tattooed on his back (instant marker for a MORON) get beat down for being an asshole in the moshpit.  Justice in action y’all.