Jaded Optimist Coloring Book

I suppose the answer is easy: I have things to say and not enough people were visiting my prior blog which was costing me way too much money. So here I am. Read what I have to say or not. I have really only one ground rule for this blog: I will always say what’s on my mind with woefully little filtering. I expect no less from others who wish to chime in.

Some background: (I seem to love semicolons. If you hate them, this blog will annoy the hell out of you). I am a skinny bald performance artist on the board of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. My lottery number didn’t get chosen this year (2008), again, and I’m a tad crabby about that fact. I’ll live. I believe in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the largest totally un-juried (hence the lottery), uncensored performing arts festival in the US. It’s fair, balanced, open to all, transparent, out of control and much much more. I just hate that I’m not in this year. I will, however, be in the Indianapolis Fringe later in August (thanks to my dear friend Loren Niemi), so all is not bleak. More on the Indy Fringe later.

I’m a performance artist. What the hell is that? Am I a storyteller? Not according to many of the local and national storytellers who find my art a tad too edgy (lots of sex, politics and very strongly held opinions). Do I do “plays”? I don’t think so. At one of my 4 colleges I majored in theater, and what I do today is definitely not what I did back at dear old Marlboro College. Am I a slammer? I’ve done some slams-poetry and story. But slams are too limiting as an art form. Too often slams are in bars, and playing to drunks leaves a lot to be desired. I mostly do solo work, but sometimes not. I dance. Tap. Ceili. My dad was a renowned single-named tap dancer and I used to be the artistic director of the Irish Arts Centre in NYC. But I’m not really a true dancer. I sometimes do a George Carlinesque type of show, and John Belushi was a dear friend. They’re both dead, which makes the world a more miserable place. I look like Larry David and am often as bilious. I guess I’m a just a performance artist.

I have a day job that has me on airplanes at least several days of almost every week. What I do is something I am not at liberty to discuss, but let’s just say that it is a form of performance art and speak no more of that.

I am a a progressive libertarian. I came to this conclusion/title quite by accident. I was sitting in a room full of very conservative, very religious “clients” in Houston Texas. My back was out. I was on some pain pills that someone whom I had never met kindly offered. When a question regarding my politics was raised, I came out with “I’m a progressive libertarian.” I couldn’t say far left wing Democrat. I would have been (or at least felt) ostracized. So I became a progressive libertarian. And the more I though about that label, the more I began to like it. I am a strong, assertive, opinionated get government out of my personal life sort who cares deeply about the downtrodden of the earth and the commonweal. I began to ask myself why I have so loyally voted Democratic my entire life. I began to ask just what the Democrats actually stand for, and came to the conclusion that as a party, they stand for absolutely nothing other than the fact that they’re not Republicans. OK. I get that. Now what else? Obama seems to be pro-gun (I’m sort of OK with that), favors faith based whatever (I am very very not OK with that), is waffling on the US invasion of a sovereign nation known euphemistically as the Iraq War (again, not OK). Evey knee-jerk liberal’s icon, Paul Wellstone was a huge supporter of the Defense of Marriage Act in Minnesota (should have been titled the It’s OK To Bash Gays and Lesbians Act, and that is a big not OK with me). C’mon Dems, when was the last time you got excited by a presidential candidate? Al Gore? I don’t think so. John Kerry? His only claim to fame was that he married well. Twice. Forget the Republicans. At least the current crop. To them the Constitution is little more than an obstacle to be gotten around. So there you are. I am John Stuart Millsian progressive libertarian with a wicked sense of humor. Much more on this when I’m less sober.

2002.

Back to the Minnesota Fringe Festival . I will see a ton of shows. i will review all that I see. I will say exactly what I think of what I see. I will raise a few hackles. I usually do. Remember, however, my views are strictly my views. They do not reflect anything official even though as I said earlier, I am on the the board of the Fringe. Come back often and see what I have to say about the Fringe. My reviews will not be dry and technical or overly artsy. I am not nearly as erudite as Matthew Everett and his mother, but I am often more controversial and cause more fights.