Extradimensional Christmas Songs and Tootsie Roll Pops

Lisa Randall is on Charlie Rose right now, talking about her work in physics. The subject is fascinating, and her passion is so engaging. Extra dimensions? Energy transfers between them? Humans trapped in a pocket of localized gravity? The universe is not what we think it is. She's got a new book out - Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions. I'd love to read it. Here she is as a guest on another show.

A few holiday observations: in retail and commercial settings, Christmas music is enough to make me want to change locations. I'd rather go home hungry or without urgently-needed household items than sit through another rendition of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time." And I like Paul McCartney.

I'm not a grinch. And I don't hate music. But that repetition of the small number of songs that exist in that genre really hurts my brain. And it makes me feel sorry for workers who have to hear that stuff for eight hours at a time. They hate it. I know, because I ask them.

Also, just out of curiousity, around the holidays, how much time do we spend in consumer pursuits of goods/decorating/party planning versus time spent in actual religious observation, or with family? I don't think our behaviors ring true with what we purport the holiday to be about. I know this isn't a bold new assertion. I'm just sayin'.

Comedy and Creative Tidbits

I went to the Spitfire show Wednesday night on behalf of the Bastion and had a couple of great conversations with Jena Friedman, an i.O. chick, and Laura Mannino, a visiting comic from NYC who produces the Mintyfresh shows at Mo Pitkins. (I know it's lazy, but here's the link to what I wrote about that.) It was so great to get out of the house after so many weeks stuck indoors, and dang if I didn't need a laugh and some comedy chat.

Sloan joined me later, too, and it was a fantastic night. K-Rock is hesitant to write about the Spitfire girls on the Bastion, since she's their producer, and she's loath to admit her important role in Chicago comedy these days, but I'm here to tell you the girl is a brilliantly talented producer, and all of her hard work results in the creation of some wonderful moments between creative people. (Ya hear that, girlie?)

I came home feeling very lucky once again to have been tapped to run the site, because it gives me such amazing access to really smart, cool comedians. Everything I ever dreamt about comedy when I still lived back in Indiana is right here at my fingertips, and I count it as a huge blessing. All I really have to do to do my job well is hang out, be interested and friendly, and ask questions. Early on after Nate offered me the job, I felt a little underqualified. "I just moved here, and I really don't know that much about Chicago comedy," I said. Now I realize that didn't matter. I didn't have to know everything walking into the situation. I just had to follow my curiosity and learn as I went.

Sloan recently filmed a Daily Show audition for a comedian friend of ours, at the behest of his manager, (not sure if it's okay for me to mention the name, so I won't), which is just another example of our lives overlapping and us pulling a lot of cool creative people into our circle of friends. She also has lots of my crazy-ass comedian friends asking for her help with their short comedy films, which is totally awesome, and yet, takes time away from the million and two short films we want to shoot together.

It seems like every conversation we have, especially the kind that include random tales of urban ridiculousness and often awkward and annoying situations, ends with us screaming with delight and going "can you imagine if..." and then us fleshing out a comedy short film. Of course, Sloan has to finish up that pesky science degree first, freeing her up for more time for all the cool opportunities that are presenting themselves for her.

Also, I'm hot on a that book idea I've been mumbling about. I'm pressing my Second City teacher and mentor Nancy to keep me committed to seeing it through to the proposal stage. I've reformulated the concept of my first book a million times, and now I've locked onto a theme I know will work, and potentially be really good stuff.

On that note, I've got some "real" writing to do, so I'm outty. See ya laters.

Faulkner and Butler

“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics,
good and bad, and see how they do it. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then
write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the
window.”

- William Cuthbert Faulkner

"I know a lot of people are where I was several years ago, when I was getting started with writing, wondering how they might get started as writers. And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - every day, no excuses. It's so easy to make excuses. Even professional writers have days when they'd rather clean the toilet than do the writing. Second, read every day. Read voraciously and omnivorously, whatever's out there..."

-Octavia Butler