Stay Plucky

katy koop (n.) a small writer type that won't stop showing up to auditions or trying to make websites pretty

[stayplucky]

Thinking About the Allegory of the Cave

I haven’t been writing a lot lately. It’s been at least a month since my last blog post. In thinking about my life and about writing, I’ve been thinking a lot about “The Allegory of the Cave”.  Hank Green explains it well in this video:

As Hank says, in “The Allegory of the Cave” Plato tells the story of these people tied up in a cave lit only by firelight. They can only see images projected in front of them by the shadows of things passing in front of the fire. That is their reality. Shadows of other things. One man escapes. Somehow, miraculously and  he crawls out of the cave, out of his whole life only to see a world completely new, only to see life in a way that he never considered. He is blinded at first by all the light but he sees the world, in theory, how we see it, in like 3 dimensions. Not shadows- like colors and forms and light. He comes back to the cave and he wants to set the people from his cave life free, he wants them to see what he sees. But they don’t want to. This version of life is completely fine for them. They don’t need it. It sounds crazy. Why would they? He can’t bring anyone with him to enjoy his new life with him and if he stays in the cave, he will always be thinking of that fuller life he knows is in existence. He’s stuck.

In my experience though, it’s not so simple as Plato explains it.

I propose a new allegory- that no, there’s not one big defining moment where you see everything you’ve been missing, but little moments where you break free and yes you see the life that other people have been living but mostly it’s you, standing at the mouth of the cave, looking in- looking at the life you’ve been living. And you think- do I leave this cave? And if so, how?

In the past few months, due both to the things that typically plague college grads (debt, not knowing your place, the grad school question, and just how to get money and keep it) and some minor personal disasters, I’ve had to re-evaluate my whole life. I’m almost two years out of college and I’m not sure how far I’ve actually progressed. I’ve been published a fair amount, I get fairly consistent work in theatre but at the same time I was halfway unemployed and I am yet to meet Virginia Woolf’s requirement of having a room of my own to work. I was staring into the mouth of a cave and seeing that I am actually very far from being wholly self actualized and needed to do more about it. 

I’m still standing in the mouth of my cave and taking my place in front of the fire every night- but I’m working on being able to leave my post grad cave life. I’m on my way to being fully employed with two part time jobs, I’m about to feel more creatively inspired with an upcoming production and doing prep for the going-to-be-amazing Women’s Theatre Festival here in Raleigh, NC (and undoubtedly other places in the triad as well), and I’m saving up to give both me and my sister rooms of our own. I’m still in this cave and I remember past caves and past realizations, and soon I’ll be able to move out of it. 

Also, I’m going to try and write more consistently. Okay- lame personal post over. 

[stayplucky]

Making a Vision Board

100% Honesty, I never thought I’d be making a vision board. I don’t know how it happened, I ending following a lot of interesting and empowered women when I did an Instagram challenge #FromPluckyToNothin

I started following this account called TheChampagneDiet and next thing I knew I was adding the snapchat name ‘glittergutsglam’ as a friend. I don’t think I would have ever run into Cara Leyba any other way. Soon, I was addicted to this girl. Watching her talk about healthy food, doing soul cycle, her journey as an entrepreneur, and her brand new book Girl Code became an important part of my day. Seeing her talk about having an altar of inspiration and success and having a vision board, I started to think- ‘Katy, maybe you need that’.

I’m at a very strange stage in my life. I feel like I’m always at a strange stage in my life, but I’m at a point where I need to make making money a priority but I also need a lot artistically. I ideally need to start a podcast, start getting essays published everywhere, have 2-3 social media and writing jobs that are constant, maybe youtube, perform more, do stand up comedy, and I don’t know start writing a book, and selling products online. I need to be creating 200% more content than I’m already making and I’m very overwhelmed. Maybe I do need to be empowered. Maybe I do need to drink the same Koolaid all these Lady Bosses are drinking. I need a business plan, I need to be clear on Katy Koop brand that I’m selling. I bought some glue, glitter and got some magazines out.

Here are some tips to start your own:

1. Write out a plan for your board

As Elizabeth Rider says in The Reason Vision Boards Work and How to Make Them,

“The purpose of your vision board is to bring everything on it to life. First, think about what your goals are in the following areas: relationships, career and finances, home, travel, personal growth (including spirituality, social life, education) and health.

You don't have to cover each area exactly the same, just take a mental inventory of what you want each of those areas to look like and write them down. Always handwrite your goals instead of typing them, there's something energetic about actually handwriting your goals. From your goals and aspirations, think about what you want on your vision board. Like I said before, what you focus on expands. You'll be amazed at how things just start popping up all over the place once you set the intention for what you want and how you want to feel”

It's important to know what you should be wanting to achieve. Diving straight into it and opening magazine after magazine when you really don't know what you want, is going to be more frustrating than empowering. Write out goals for every area of your life. Like for heath, I want to eat better and feel better so I wrote that down. I also want to find an exercise and love the quotes for “What I think about when I think about Running” by Haruki Murakami, so I wrote him down to look up. Financially, I want to make enough money to pay all my student loans so I wrote that down. Business, I want to own my own business and products. I wrote down The Champagne Diet, Nasty Gal, BinderCon, Hannah Hart, Daily Grace- because those are all female brands and empowered women that I am just into as brands. I just brainstormed that out in every category of my life to figure it out. There’s nothing wrong with having a vision for your vision board.

2. Use Source Material That is Useful to You

If you’re not someone that’s into standard women’s magazines, then don't use them. Think about what images and quotes are actually meaningful to you. As someone that loves both the written word and movies, Magazines are not that helpful to me. I love fashion magazines- like I got Vogue from age 11 on because I love just seeing high fashion photography as art. It’s an art that you can get in your mailbox every day. Vogue’s, and a lot of other  content is mostly  advertising and it’s cool but you can’t be totally fulfilled. Like I love the quote from Beginners

via 60timesaday

So I found pictures of daisies and wrote out the quote. If you can think about source material that is very important to you, like any moment that Meryl Streep has in every movie, you can also just print it out. You can even draw or create images yourself. Just because you see vision boards that are just all pictures and quotes from magazines doesn’t mean it should dictate what your personal vision board should be. It belongs to you, so use content that applies to you.

3. Understand it is a living and growing thing

Whenever I go to New York City, I live by the following mantra:

I am a shark, if I stop moving I will die.

That’s usually because whenever I go, I’m going on a shoestring and a dream. I’ve always spent like 80% of my bank account getting there and finding a place to stay, so usually my transportation budget is very low and I did very poor planning in terms of lodging location and places I need to be. As a person, this new year, I pretty much decided that it's also my motto for life. If I stop moving, I will die. Movement is essential for any creative person. So if you need to add to your board- do it. Whether you just keep making panel after panel and putting it up or you do it as a bulletin board- go for it. Nothing is set in stone. I would just say, don't take anything away. At the end of the year or whatever your timeline is for your board, you should be able to see it. You should see where you thought you were going. Say ‘Yes and’ to your board. I am a shark. I must keep going.

Yeah, I’m pretty proud of my board. So if you wanna make one grab some glue and cut stuff out. Collaging is fun. 

[stayplucky]

5 Lessons to Remember From The Vagina Monologues This VDay

via buzzfeed

I’m pro The Vagina Monologues- I loved it from the day I met it and will never stop loving it. It can be problematic but I love the safe space it continues to create for women everywhere. If you’re a VM’s fanatic like me, you know that February is the month you do it. It’s when all the shows go up, it’s when you donate. 

IT IS THE TIME OF THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES! IT IS VDAY!

I’m an ex-director of it and if I could be mounting a production of it right now, I would be. Or any of her other shows, honestly. But in this beautiful and touching time of year, and with Valentine’s coming up, I thought it would be no better time than to talk about some lessons to take from VMs. It’s can be dark, it can be a little too much, it can be kind of silly, but the play is incredibly important and have a lot to say. 

1. There is no wrong way to love yourself

“I mean I know it should have happened in a bath with salt grains from the Dead Sea, Enya playing, me loving my woman self.  I know the story.  Vaginas are beautiful.  Our self-hatred is only the internalized repression and hatred of the patriarchal culture.  It isn’t real.  Pussies Unite.  I know all of it”

In ‘Because He Liked to Look At It’ a woman learns to love her vagina because a man sat down there and stared at her Vagina for like 30+ minutes, which is super weird. But, there’s no wrong way to love yourself and what you’re about. As long as you get there. Getting to loving yourself can be a weird and twisty road and however you get there- you’re great. 

2. Reclaim the Words People Use to Hurt You

I know everyone’s favorite monologue is not the ‘c-word’ one, but it is mine. I love the word, it’s great. I also love people reclaiming the word ‘bitch’. I think reclaiming the words are amazing because they used to be words to belittle women but to be able to say that you’re a bad bitch is amazing. It’s nice. It’s ours and I love it. I think there’s something powerful in reclaiming hurtful words. I’m into it. Don’t let other people hurt you. Be empowered (even if you aren’t a fan of those words or whatever). 

3. You Have No Responsibility to Someone Else’s Pain

This animation is the best thing I’ve ever seen to convey the 2014 special monologue “And Then We Were Jumping”. 

It was in the monologues I directed and I had like no idea what if was about but I knew it was beautiful. Sometimes people are in a lot of pain, sometimes you’re in a lot of pain and you feel like you’re not allowed to give it to someone. Your pain is your own. Their pain is their own. Just try to be honest about it but don’t let it consume either of you. Just be simple, and see eachother as actual people. You don’t have to take their pain. You can be you. You can be your own person. 

4. Don’t Forget to Add Inclusivity to your Feminism

via 4thwavers

The Vagina Monologues does not have an amazing track record in terms of intersectional feminism. The title of the play actually excludes trans experiences because not all women have vaginas and while I seriously doubt that Eve Ensler interviewed mostly white women, as she was going to a lot of different countries and visiting with homeless and battered women, that’s what a lot of The Vagina Monologues look like because few monologues actually explicitly call for a woman of color. The good news I see is that The Vagina Monologues is a living and growing document. Every year, new monologues are added, some are taken away and theatre companies, as long as the play doesn’t last long past the hour and a half mark, can include older monologues not in the master script. 

‘The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could’, is actually usually the only standard monologue that calls for a woman of color in my experience. Though monologues have been added, like there was a spoken word piece about New Orleans and I have always been of the mind that ‘I asked a six year old girl’ because she says her vagina is ‘A pretty dark peach’. Even though it takes place in Yugoslavia I also think that “My Vagina was my Village” could easily be done by a woman of color, especially because the same thing happens during war, all over the world. For trans narratives, ‘They beat the girl outta my boy’ was added but it doesn’t stay in the master script  you get when you produce it, so you have to find a copy to put in. People that make The Vagina Monologues happen in their communities just have to be creative and open about the casting because that’s what the show’s about. It isn’t an actor’s piece. It’s about normal women rehearsing for maybe 2 days and then using these words to talk about feminism in a safe place. The Vagina Monologues has gotten a lot of heat, because it can be un-inclusive if not done well. I think the lesson of VM’s is how to take a previously predominantly white feminist thing and make it intersectional. Allow your work to grow and change as your ideas do, much like Eve Ensler. 

5. Scary and Messy Things Can Be Beautiful

One of my favorite monologues is ‘I was there in the room’. I mean, don’t know if there’s a human on earth that doesn’t love this one. It’s about birth and it’s just beautiful 

I have this video loaded up to Eve Ensler reading ‘I was there in the room’ but I think this is a documentary of her reading all of the monologues. I don’t know what the subtitles are in but to me it looks like Portuguese, but it might be just spanish. I’m sorry about them but her reading her monologues is beautiful. Childbirth is messy and scary, but like her poem it’s beautiful. I don’t know personally, I’m just going from a lit standpoint. But I mean there are probably scary and messy things about yourself you might hate, but they’re still beautiful and you’re great, and that’s something to remember especially this V-Day. 

Of course, I could write a book how much I love The Vagina Monologues, but I’ll stop there. If you wanna donate, or find a local VMs or maybe make plans to mount one, check it out here.  

[stayplucky]

How to Throw A Dope Galentine’s Day

We are just 5 days away from the most important day of the year:

Galentines day!

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, 

“To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.” 

It’s a day to show all of the important women in your life how much they mean to you and why they are important in your life. It’s like an important part of feminism- women helping each other rather than pitting against each other. It’s an event to kick off Spring with a bang and by bang I mean explosion of feminism. 

Here are things to keep in mind to throwing an amazing Galentine’s Day:

1. Treat Y'all Selves (Food Wise)

Waffles and/or breakfast food is central to every Leslie Knope interaction with any of her lady friends, so of course they do brunch. But if you’re more of a Wine Mom gang, pop some corks and put out some cheese. 

Maybe all you need is boardgames and beers. It’s just like the bachelor party episode- sometimes you need a good steak dinner, a crazy avante garde experience or a crazy group activity, maybe you just need to lip synch to some great 90′s hits.  (Ben Wyatt’s spotify playlist- you’re welcome). 

Whatever you do- it is you guys night. Do what fits you girl. 

2. Show Your Friends Why They Are Important To You

via tvatemywardrobe

Leslie made pillows of her friends faces with headlines from the day they were born. While that turned a little dark, it showed how important they were to her to look up all that information. So give your friend a gift that matters. A gift that shows how amazing of a friend she is. Think about what you’ve been through, what she would love. You don’t have to have organizational binders and a big crazy gift bag, you just need to show that you care. 

Yes. Exactly like that. But in gift form. Or just in this beautiful and wonderful event you guys are throwing together. 

3. Plan Fun Crafts and Activities

via buzzfeed

If it’s an event where you’re not crafting, what’s the point? I don’t think those are our feminist ideals if you’re not crafting. We’re not all pawnee goddesses, so here are some ideas:

Making Flower Crowns 

Decorate Your Dream Journals

DIY Coasters- instead use empowered depictions of women

Paint Wine Glasses

Make T-Shirts

and it doesn’t stop there. You could even do free form collaging, painting, whatever. And okay, you don’t have to craft if you don’t want to Ann. 

via quickmeme

It’s more about just having fun together. 

4. Put Empowerment on the Menu

I mean, that’s the point of Galentines, right? Whether you talk about recent events or just like be proud of all the amazing things you guys have accomplished, Galentines is about empowering you guys as a group of amazing lady friends. If you need a little help, here’s the chant of the Pawnee Goddesses:

I am a goddess, a glorious female warrior. Queen of all that I survey. Enemies of fairness and equality, hear my womanly roar. Yeah!

I am very upset by the quality of that video but I think the blog post needed it. 

5. Have Fun

It’s about having fun with your lady friends. You don’t need to force friendship, or crafts or even empowerment if you don’t need to. You could spend all of Galentine’s watching South Park if you needed to. Just don’t get down this Valentine’s season. Galentine’s is upon us and your girls are here for you. 

Have a Great Galentine’s! Get your binders ready and start planning if you haven’t already. 

[stayplucky]

Why Do We Care What Women Sound Like?

Yes this article is about Hillary Clinton but it’s also about Sarah Siddons, 18th Century Actress

As I was watching the debate last night and seeing some of the things people said about Hillary on Twitter last night, I found myself thinking a lot about my thesis research on Lady Macbeth.

Why? Because my thesis covered the portrayals of Lady Macbeth through the years and for some of the early and great Lady Macbeth’s. For Sarah Siddons, most of the criticism seemed to surround how deep or high she could make her voices. She was supposed to be the most life changing Lady Macbeth ever, she’s in all of the textbooks, but looking in the reviews of the times they were actually onstage, all I could find were pages and pages about her voice. 

via emory.edu

For Sarah Siddons critics spoke a lot about the deepness of her voice, Bernice Kliman noting her “solemn, magisterial tone”. Campbell and Bell both write extensively how she used her voice,Bell writing how certain speeches were “dignified and simple. beautifully spoken”.

One that strikes close to home in the Hillary Camp and also the why-do-you-hate-older-actresses camp is Hazlitt writing about Siddons returning to the stage and reprising her role much later in life. 

Thinking about when she was younger he said,

She was tragedy personified. She was the stateliest ornament of the public mind. She was not only the idol of the people, she not only hushed the tumultuous shouts of the pit in breathless expectation, and quenched the blaze of surrounding beauty in silent tears, but to the retired and lonely student, through long years of solitude, her face has shone as if an eye had appeared from heaven, her name has been as if a voice had opened the chambers of the human heart, or as if a trumpet had awakened the sleeping and the dead

But when he actually spoke about her reprisal performance he wrote,

Mrs. Siddons always spoke as slow as she ought: she now speaks slower than she did[...] the machinery  of the voice seems too ponderous for the power that wields it. There is too long a pause between each sentence, and between each word in each sentence. There is too much preparation. The stage waits for her[...]She moved her lips involuntarily- all her gestures were involuntary and mechanical. At present she acts the part more with a view to effect

It just went on. I was trying to find definable characteristics to split my thesis up on and all I could find were these analyses of her voice. Page after page after page of it, going through how she used her voice in every scene. It’s weird. I know it was like the 18th century, but what a thing to focus on. 

But we’re focused in Hillary’s voice. Like a lot. 

I noticed last night how she was trying to keep her voice deep and grounded and not trying to sound too shrill. I know I do it. Whether in acting a more dramatic role or trying to assert my dominance and say “I’m in charge and I’m the big poppa in this situation Lady in Whole Foods line, you wait your turn”, I consciously deepen my voice. There was actually an NPR episode on how female radio hosts get a lot of hate mail because they use upspeak, or speak higher at the ends of their sentences. 

Huffington Post actually published an article this morning on people criticizing Hillary’s voice over Sanders. 

Last night, and I hate that I didn’t screenshot this when I had the chance, but Bob Cusack, Editor in Chief of The Hill tweeted, 

“When Hillary Clinton raises her voice, she loses”

He did add that the same thing goes for Sanders, but after deleting that tweet and responding to all the people tweeting at him. 

There was an episode of MSNBC’s Morning Joe criticized by this article on Vox. Bob Woodward says in the video, 

“She could make a case for herself if she could just kind of lower the temperature and say, 'Look, this is what I've done, this is what I can do, this is what I believe in.' And kind of get off this screaming stuff," 

and he also speaks about how she doesn’t seem to have esteem in her self and not sure enough of herself like Reagan or Maggie Thatcher to not scream and speak low. 

It just like- why?

There are plenty of problems with Hillary not to have to talk about her voice. I like Hillary, but like why not talk about her confusing answer to how she feels about the death penalty? We knew that she had a confusing weird answer from the last time she ran. Or I don’t know her funding, how moderate she is and whether she’s going to make change, or if her past experience with foreign policy is going to make her not open to really get help from other countries in figuring out things with ISIS. What is going to come up with her investigation of her emails? How is she actually going to help a whole generation of young adults, that as a whole don’t like her that much currently, that have a huge debt burden and have major obstacles to getting in the workforce? What about #BlackLivesMatter? Is she going to reflect the issues of the whole public as opposed to just the white and the female? There are a million other things that could be focused on, but focusing on her voice is just straight sexism. 

Sure, Sarah Siddons was praised for her voice, she was praised how deep and hollow her voice could be. It’s probably not unlike how Woodward feels Maggie Thatcher sounded.

 The thing is though, Lady Macbeth’s character is about abandoning her gender. 

She literally says, ‘Unsex me here’

and fill her up instead with ‘direst cruelty’. Lady Macbeth abandons her gender so that she can have agency and power. Should we ask someone, if they were to become the first female president, to do the same thing? Is it so crazy to want to accept your body the way it is, use your vocal instrument the way it wants to be used, and be listened to? 

A lot of women have high voices and when we speak, it can sound different, but it doesn’t make it something wrong. Theatre reviews don’t spend pages and pages reviewing a woman’s quality of voice anymore. Acting is about so much more than tone of voice and so is politics. It’s 2016 not the 1800s. 

[stayplucky]

50/50

Edited Images via reddit and National Women’s Political Caucus

EDIT: I may have oversimplified the coin toss dynamic of how coin tossing went into play- this npr article breaks it down. Hillary did win. Barely. But she did.

When I started writing this at 2 a.m. like 97% percent of districts were reporting and we were pretty much locked at 50%, 49% Bernie, and 1% O’Malley but we were pretty much calling it 50/50 Hillary/Bernie. I wake up this morning and Hillary has declared herself a victor. On CNN it now says 50% Hillary, 50% Bernie and 0% O’Malley and in terms of the delegate breakdown:

Clinton- 24

Bernie- 21

The Iowa Caucus hasn’t made a decision and I don’t blame them because that is stupid close. Apparently she won 6 delegates via cointoss because that’s how close the votes were. It’s so close. Like I see those numbers and I feel them in my heart. 

This tweet has been my most popular for months,

That’s how I’ve felt since October. It’s January now and Iowa and I feel the same. Hillary or Bernie?

Hillary

I’m in high school, sitting in a Young Democrats meeting, analyzing the debate from the night before and I see Hillary look at Obama, and damn…she wanted to win. 

via the guardian

Look at all that hate. We all know that look. I don’t even know what image I’m remembering, but she gave that look again and again as if to say, 

“Barry, I’m glad you’re sitting down, because I’m about to f*ck you up”. 

And that’s when I knew I liked this woman. 

A Caveat or Disclaimer or Whatever: I love Barack Obama. He needed to win and he’s amazing. I’m not one of the Hillary supporters that holds on and can’t move forward with the party. TBH it’s going to be so sad when he leaves office. He was my first real presidential election. I made cold calls on my pink motorola phone for him. I own a copy of The Audacity of Hope. I worked on the 2010 election even though I wasn’t able to vote in it. The NC Democratic party gave me a teeny tiny scholarship for the just maybe 8 hours I worked in their campaign office. He’s the first president I knew to turn North Carolina even a grayish blue.Honestly I loved that Obama appointed her as his main Lady as his Secretary of State, it was such a good choice.

There’s a reason Barry wanted her in his squad though.She tried to melt his face off with her death stare, but even he knows: Hilldawg is a Bad Bitch. 50% of me says she’s the bad bitch to keep this ship sailing. Who can forget the classic Weekend Update,

Benghazi + the email thing: major, just huge, colossal goof. It’s bad though I can’t believe anything was done maliciously. That’s my stance. I think she really f*cked up, I think as a white woman with a boatload of privilege she did, definitely vote on things that were not good for black women. That said, I think Hillary is prepared. I think she’s a great choice. 

Sometimes in elections I think people forget what Presidents actually do. They have power, but most of the power actually lies within the House and Senate. Obama couldn’t get anything through his first term. It was the saddest thing to see. He’s getting stuff done now, because he doesn’t have to worry about re-election and his house and senate are finally not 100% awful. Do you remember the tea partiers? I think Hillary has thick enough skin to take that. If congress is against her, she’ll be prepared by at least a decade of people hating her guts. Also, a lot of the Presidency is keeping relations with world leaders- I wonder who has experience with that? Oh yeah- former Secretary of State

via polifact

Yeah and that’s probably a picture of her probably unethically using her email server. Honestly though, we all make mistakes. I thought John Edwards was actually a viable candidate and not a human trashcan. At Young Democrats we each were supposed to talk about a candidate someone else got Obama, Karla got Hillary and I talked about John Edwards. I presented why John Edwards, a man who has ties to our community by being a UNC Chapel Hill Alum was a pretty alright choice. I knew he wasn’t gonna be a good choice as soon as I saw him in his first debate. I drew a political cartoon of Hillary and Obama boxing and John Edwards as a kitten whimpering in the corner for extra credit in my Civics and Economics class to give you a picture of how awful he did (if you can’t remember). I’m not saying a big military disaster causing deaths is comparable to supporting John Edwards, or maybe I am. I don’t know. Okay I’m not. But when I think about him I hate myself so much- like his wife and son’s gravestones are like 4 feet away from my house and he just sucks. 

All in all- I like what Hillary represents. She’s been supporting Healthcare reform since before I was born, she lines up with everything I believe in and yeah she’s moderate but you know who else is moderate? Obama. Obama is so moderate. Is wanting Hillary meaning I’m voting with my Vagina? I just think she’s a fair moderate candidate who I was always expecting. I don’t know if that’s wrong.

Bernie

Okay, if I’m 100% honest I would like to say I have trouble telling Larry David and Bernie Sanders apart. Honestly that problem is a +1 for Bernie.

But in all seriousness, Bernie Sanders is the best thing that could have happened to this party

Who coulda thought that a man that looks like that could engage the youth vote so much? Like young people were into Obama, but they were young people like me. Many of the engaged youth were kids that loved politics and studied politics and would have voted either way. Bernie is engaging people that might not have been voting. He’s an actual third party person that is engaging third partiers and lifelong democrats alike. That’s a big goddamned deal. 

Like look at that? He’s like a trend.

I align very left but I believe in the democratic party because when I hear a libertarian speak, I want to throw up. I am amazed and baffled someone so not moderate can even make it here. I am so surprised and excited for Bernie. 

One hand though, it’s very strange for me. It kind of reminds me of how I felt in Young Democrats during election season. This sad sack of a club operates with 3 members all year long while the republicans laugh at us with their club shirts and actual fundraisers, and now you’re here? Now you care? Oh you’re asking us now?

But it’s really good. The amount of engagement is something that gives me hope for my generation.  The people that would normally be saying “I hate politics”, “ugh why does it matter?”, “what’s the point, you know the two party system doesn’t really work”- are actually involved. Bernie is getting people my age who weren’t obsessed with presidential elections starting at age 11, to actually care about the political process in this country. Bernie is waking up the public and by being his totally Leftie self, he’s actually awakening career politicians like Hillary about issues she might have been ignoring. Seeing how Bernie handled #BlackLivesMatter and how supportive he is can only improve discourse. 

Like success story, In like August I was talking to a past co-worker, like typical movie theatre worker 17-20 year old boy, and he said he was thinking of voting for Trump. I didn’t freak out, I had a conversation with him like an adult, said why I was into Hillary and Bernie, and told him some resources like ISideWith, and he actually got Trump and Jeb on that quiz BUT- flash forward to now, this month I saw on facebook that he’s a Bernie Supporter now. That’s a goddamn turnaround, those are people he’s getting and that’s amazing.

Like look at this,

Why did I choose this video for my case for Bernie? During election season, I trust political comedy shows more and also he’s talking to these people like a person. That’s something Hillary lacks, whether it’s because of how she’s been treated in the past or how hardcore and focused she is, she can’t speak like a person like Bernie can. I don’t know exactly why that is, but that’s his appeal. He understands what young people are going through, he understands what we’re going through like hardcore. 

That’s why I feel the bern about 50%

In Summary,

I don’t know. I love Hillary and I love Bernie. I love what Hillary could be, what it could mean for the history books, and that she is just a solid politician. That being said, she has messed up a little, which causes me to worry. Bernie is amazing, he’s done amazing things to bring more people into this election, to make people actually excited about elections again and he’s coming in looking to bring some major change, which I love. The thing is, I don’t see either dropping out, no matter who gets Iowa. Bernie has no real ties to the Democratic party. He’s been an independent. He wanted to run under the democratic ticket, but if he wants to run, he has the support and we could have a real third party contender for the first time in at least my lifetime. I would love them to run together, if at all possible. But I don’t know if Hillary takes it, if Bernie fans would be okay, I don’t know if it is possible to unite the party through a joint ticket and if Bernie ducks out somehow, though I don’t know if he could from the amount of support he still has, if he could make them move to Hillary like Hillary moved her supporters to Obama. People don’t like Hillary. I only know a handful of people beyond me that do. So I have no idea what’s going to happen. 

Also, Trump lost this one to Cruz and while Republicans hate Trump, I’m not sure most republicans are 100% into him . So are we going to get republican cross overs? Could they go to Hillary or Bernie? Bernie is so liberal but people HATE Hillary, especially on the conservative side, even as moderate as she is. 

So in summary, things are getting real. 

But I’d like to settle something, right here, right now-

I saw this tumblr post shared on my facebook 

Let me set this straight- Bernie Sanders is not Leslie Knope. Bernie Sanders is this guy

The extremely liberal ‘other Ron’ that is different from Ron Swanson on every point. 

Leslie Knope is a career politician, that while she believes in social programs , is probably moderate, like who? Hillary. Leslie Knope loves Hillary. That’s a fact. She’s on Leslie Knope’s wall of women, prominently. 

She probably loves Bernie Sanders but if she is metaphorically any politician, she is Hillary. 

The end. I’m glad we settled that.

[stayplucky]

Glitter is Powerful

Have you ever thought about like thematically how powerful glitter is? It is a craft supply that people have DISTINCT feeling about. Like people are actually kind of afraid of it. They don’t want it around because they know all of the mess it can leave behind. When you use glitter, it stays there forever. Like this glitter will lie in the chamber forever. 

Also clothes with too much glitter are too brash, way too much to for people to be around in every situation. No one wants to be blinded every time you step near a lamp.

And glitter online like represents a bygone era of trashiness when we as little 7-13 year old girls would put them in the signatures on all the dumb forums we were on or when we sent chain emails (or when the best of us made their own webpages). 

And despite that, we’re all still totally into glitter

Despite the fact that it’s too flashy, too messy, and too reminiscent of that little girl you left in the early 2000s (just like your poor starving neopets), glitter is still everywhere. Look at any 20 something pinterest feed and you’ll see glitter mason jars and mugs, glitter chevron canvases, ways to glitterize i-phones and hairbrushes, how to glitter your roots, nail patterns, glitter tights and pillows and yes even toilet seats. 

The shiny, messiness of glitter is something I still totally crave. Even though I hear my dad’s chant that yeah, maybe I should channel Audrey Hepburn and wear neutrals and go for a nice classic look, but I want to be Mindy Kaling in Season 1, Episode 1 of The Mindy Project. I wanna be a goddamned disco ball. 

via portable.tv

Just all glitter and no regrets. 

Like glitter feels like it’s about more than glitter. Glitter, in it’s totally-middle-school, incredibly girly way, is a feminist statement. People are afraid of glitter. People think it’s too much, but it shows up anyway and looks good while it’s doing it. And when glitter leaves, you never forget it was here. Glitter is a conversation starter. It’s totally feminine and totally in your face. In a time when we want more strong and diverse characters for women, it’s important to remember that a woman doesn’t have to break guys necks with her thighs to be a compelling character. I’m into it and I love seeing ladies destroy entire armies using only her leg muscles, but you know, the Rom Coms weren’t bad. A woman, who likes looking pretty and you know is dating and looking for love, it’s not a bad story.That’s just like how really feminine women can love beauty and makeup and  glitter and still be good feminists. 

I think that’s where the want for glitter comes from. I think there’s a want for the femme part of feminism. Just like that place where hard core lipstick and eyebrows, crop tops and leggings are coming from. Being a woman is something powerful and throwing a little glitter is just a little something extra. You don’t need it all the time, but like, who doesn’t need sparkle sometimes?

[stayplucky]

How to Write a Dope Rehearsal Report

I’m not the most proficient person in Theatre Tech- I have very little experience on a running crew, I have pretty much only ever operated a light board, and my upper body strength/height pretty much dictates me a ladder spotter rather than a light hanger, but what I do know is that I write dope rehearsal reports (and I got a mad scumble, but that’s not what this blog post is about). 

The reason I’m writing this is because I get so mad at reports I see from other stage managers sometimes. It might be the area I live in, but I don’t think there are many dedicated mentors for Stage Managers to learn the ropes. I think people just throw some forms and line note sheets at them. One skill that falls through the cracks is rehearsal reports, because I’ve seen some bad ones. The first job of a rehearsal stage manager is effective communication between tech and actors. The report being easy and well formatted is the best way to do that. It also holds everyone accountable. So that’s what this blog post is- a Katy Koop guide to writing a good one. 

If anything, my reports are a scoche too detailed. I write every question and everything that comes up in rehearsal. That might be annoying to some, but I have a personal philosophy about rehearsal reports and it’s this: 

If a person, whether tech staff or absentee actor, is not a rehearsal they should be able to see exactly what went down in rehearsal, including whatever questions came up on production. 

That’s why my reports look like this:

It’s not glamorous, but it’s efficient. I try to make up for it with highlighting information and having fun rainbow text in the body of the email occasionally. Direct notes to actors, in addition to the body of the email, I usually put near attendance or near where I put next week schedule because I know that’s where they’ll be looking. 

In reports sent out for a production I worked on props for that had A.E.A. actors, Costume, Makeup, Set, Props, Lighting, Sound, Music and Production all had their own boxes, it logged the equity actor’s hours, included notes for everyone in general, and included the names of people that the report was sent out to. She also sent out a separate call sheet for specific times. Coming from that, I believe it’s necessary for any report worth anything to have the following categories:

1. Name of Show, Production Staff, Today’s Date 2. Start, End and Break times of Rehearsal 3. Attendance (if only to shame the actors) 4. Today’s rehearsal schedule and real time breakdowns of how this schedule was accomplished 5. Itinerary of the next rehearsal and who is called for it 6. Separate and label how you may but have sections to address concerns with costuming, makeup, set, properties, lighting, sound, and general production. 

Add any company logos you like. I don’t do it personally, though I like the flair it adds to many reports. You can either attach this in a document or paste directly into the email. I’m personally in the school of thought of not attaching and just pasting it in the body of the email so everyone can just read it instantly. It takes one step out of the equation for many people likely not to read the report (even though they should). 

Finally, I can’t emphasize enough that I believe reports should be in a chart. Ain’t no one wants to read a full page of endless text. It’s easier on the eyes and better. 

But other than that- Stage managing might not be the most creative job, so you know, the report is pretty much it. It is the most creative thing you get to do. As the point of contact between actors, the director and tech staff, it’s mostly basically customer service work. The report is the one thing that is your creative expression. Sure it’s tedious, but it’s yours. So report away SM’s. It’s your baby. 

[stayplucky]

The Meaning of Suffering

If me and John Green have anything absolutely in common is that we both like talking and thinking about the meaning of suffering (well I don’t know if he likes it, but it certainly comes up a lot). We probably all know the quote from The Fault in Our Stars, 

Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.

It came up again today when I was listening to the newest episode of Dear Hank and John, where a viewer asked that because Inside Out, seemed to suppose that you need sadness to enjoy Joy, what did John think, because of the above quote?

John explained in the episode that while he can’t be sure if experiencing pain affects happiness or vice versa, that saying that ‘pain makes you stronger’ or will make happiness better to someone is just horrible. Because really, it’s just a really insensitive thing to say to someone in genuine pain. Actually, especially in the context of The Fault in Our Stars, because Hazel will never get to that place where she is not suffering. She may be better, she may be living with it, but the suffering and pain will be with her the rest of her life and that suffering will never make the happy or joyful things better. 

That brings me to why I’m writing about this- my senior year at Meredith, I had the pleasure to take a class that I didn’t deserve. I didn’t have the mental capacity emotionally or physically with the time constraints I put myself in and I will always be sorry Dr. Benko that I wasn’t able to put the time and effort into the class that it deserved because it was really the best class I ever took. Apologies to professors aside, in that class we got to delve into the logic of:

If god exists why does suffering exist? and if he is good and not evil and all powerful and all knowing, what is the point of free will or suffering?

Why is the devil in the equation? Does he exist if god is all powerful and could totally just defeat him

PLUS ALL KINDS OF AMAZING QUESTIONS

But I got to read  Bart Erhman in God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question- Why we Suffer on the logic of suffering. Particularly this passage has spoken to me to this day, 

“I simply do not believe it’s true that ‘ Whatever does not kill us only makes us stronger’. Would that that were true, but unfortunately it’s not. A lot of times, what does not kill you completely incapacitates you, mars you for life, ruins your mental or physical well being- permanently. We should never, in my view, take a glib view of suffering- our own or that of others.

I especially, and most vehemently, reject the idea that someone else’s suffering is designed to help us. I know there are people who argue that recognizing the pain in the world can make bus nobler human beings but, frankly, I find this view offensive and repulsive.  Sure, our own suffering may, on occasion, make us better people, other people do not[...]

Moreover, there is a lot of suffering in the world that is not redemptive for anybody. The eighty year old grandmother who is savagely raped and strangled; the eight week old grandchild who suddenly turns blue and dies; the eighteen year old killed y a drunk driver on the way to the prom- trying to see good in such evils is to deprive evil of its character. It is to ignore the helplessness of those who suffer for no reason and to no end. It robs other people of their dignity and their right to enjoy life every bit as much as we do. 

And so there must be yet other answers to why there is suffering in the world. Or perhaps, in the end, there is simply no answer.”

That is page 156-7 if you’re following along. I’m sorry that quote is so long BUT IT IS SO GOOD. 

It’s easy to think a lot about that though- why am I suffering? 

Even the simplest things like being in your-voice-mail-is-100%-full-of-calls-from-collection-agencies-debt and having a really hard time getting on your feet, to health problems, to depression and anxiety and mental illness, to more just unspeakable things, when you didn’t do anything at all. 

It actually feels better to say, you know what, there is no meaning or explanation or silver lining from this. It just sucks.

It might not be the suckiest thing in the world, but it is sucky. This thing happening to you will probably not improve your life, but maybe you can get through it. To me, that kind of feels optimistic. 

[stayplucky]

How to Hunt For Good Content

As you probably already know if you were ever in middle school, Richard Connell defined man, or just humans in general, as “The Most Dangerous Game” in a work by that same title. We see that reference again and again in pop culture, though my favorite is probably Bob’s Burgers

via tastemykidsblog

Where tenants of Mr. Fischoeder fight eachother to not get a rent hike. Not to the extent in terms of murder that other shows might use, but it’s cute. 

In the world of working on the internet however, 

I think the most dangerous game is good content.

Whether you just are in charge of a little blog, actually have or are trying to launch a media platform, or you’re just looking for stuff to pitch editors- you need fresh but interesting content. The problem is, on the internet, there is literally content everywhere. Every second of every day incomprehensible amounts of tweets, posts, pins, articles, memes, grams, and who knows what get posted, and we will never see most of it. What we will see are those 10 things that are super engaging and shareable. How do you determine what is the best thing to harvest the content you’re gonna make based on that?

Even assuming that you’re going to make something that you’re going to share as your brand, there is nothing new. Shakespeare’s plays weren’t even knew when he wrote them. He rewrote Roman plays, which were rewritten Greek Plays, which were written from some tall tale told years ago to help them sleep at night. Content is inspired by other content. It’s just a long chain of inspiration, and to get that inspiration, you need to find the right source. The ancient greeks had the muses, but we have memes. The trick is to find the sources that you need. This is how to find it. 

1. Know What You’re About

Have a niche. This is one of my cardinal sins. I love learning things and figuring things out- so I tend to post about everything, to business, to writing, to food, and a lot about TV. A lot can be said for having a separate food blog, writing blog, tv blog, and business blog- that way you know what you should be finding. Right now I’m focusing on how to create things, because that seems to be my aesthetic of who I am right now. Taking pop culture and bringing it together to speak on what it means to be a working artist. Even that isn’t as focused as you need to be- but if you know what your niche is and what your audience is, you can pinpoint what you’re looking for. Because once you know that, you can pinpoint what you need in your social media feeds.

2. Find Your Holy Trinity of Social Media

I am passionate about Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest for finding good content. Instagram is cute, but the lack of link sharing other than on your profile lacking, Facebook is pretty much useless because all you’re probably gonna reach is friends and family, and Tumblr, I find is too much like my home to really be a place for me to cultivate content, even though I love posting on it. 

It is important to figure out which social media is the best for gathering and cultivating information

If you spend all day on every form of social media, studying everything you can study, you’re going to spend too much time absorbing way too much content to actually turn into something. I say, choose 3. 

To use a catholic metaphor of the trinity, Reddit is the holy father, Twitter is the son, and Pinterest is the holy spirit. Reddit freaks me out, but I’m aware of it’s power. Twitter is much more approachable and Pinterest, like the Holy Spirit, is helpful for getting some information, but if I cut it out, it wouldn’t be bad. 

For your trinity of social media to help you, you have to remember what you’re about.

 I’m into writing and TV, so on twitter I can follow tons of writers and people in entertainment. Based on what they share, I get good content. I see so many more articles and thinkpieces than I ever would anywhere else. 

Lady entrepreneurs love Pinterest. Well, ladies in general. It’s a great visual way to store plans and ideas and is great for marketing blog posts and sharing knowledge how to do business. So that’s what I follow- instead of being assaulted by wedding boards and recipe boards  because I used to only follow facebook friends, I follow web designers, bloggers, business people and learn what tools they’re using and what they’re sharing. 

Reddit is a monster. It’s called the front page of the internet for a reason. I follow everything on reddit: writing jobs and topics on writing, celebrities and tv, business, comedy, art, just everything. Everyone get’s information from Reddit. I wish I was exaggerating, but before something breaks on buzzfeed- it was on reddit first. I think it should be in everyone’s trinity. It’s just a great way to get tons of information and I would start there. 

This could work for any niche. If you’re a food blog- follow chefs on twitter and pinterest. There is a reddit for everything and definitely food. Also different social media platforms are good for different people. Like, I’ve found so many food blogs on bloglovin’ and I’m addicted to all of those video food blogs on Facebook. If you can find social media that works for you and turn it into somewhere you can go for content, it’s going to be good. 

3. Walk Away

Once you set it up, absorb what you need to absorb- do something else. Desperation is the enemy of creativity. Let the news you got simmer in your mind, maybe take out a piece of paper and chart it out, write out your ideas while you can- but then start coloring or do some artwork, read a book, write something else you’ve been putting off. Intense, hardcore, need to write something, to be inspired, to turn this content into content right now- is just going to make you mad. That’s how I got here, writing this blog post- directing myself somewhere different. I was desperate to find a post and I realized maybe I should just write about creating content instead of worrying about finding it? Something will click. Don’t forget ideas, but there’s no reason to stare at a blank document screaming. 

This isn’t a sure fire way to find content, but it’s definitely a step. Finally I think the most basic way to judge content you see, goes back to the concept in Elementary school: who, what, when, where, why, how.

Who is this about? Are they important?

When did it happen? Has it been too long?

What is the big deal? Is there a reason it should be shared further? Where is this happening? Could this happen anywhere else? Why do I care? Does it make me feel anything? How did it happen? What are the mechanics of it?

If you’re still interested and satisfied with the answers, it might be good content. They you just have to figure out how you’re going to frame it and make it your own.

[vitaminwaterdeact0903487]

100% hustle, 0% hype #hydratethehustle #vitaminwater #creatrs exclusive art by josh lafayette 

[stayplucky]

Joy (or the People you’ll meet as a Female Creator)

I was reading Rachel Syme’s article “Pay Women the Money They Need to Make the Culture” early Christmas day, hours before I saw the movie Joy,but it couldn’t be more appropriate. She’s talking mostly about music, but as a writer and someone who wants to create stories on stage, in movies, and on television, talking about how hard it is for women to create their own music resonated with me:

Men run most record labels and streaming services, and the lack of respect for women trickles down right from the top: When asked about why he created Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine said, 

“I just thought of a problem: Girls are sitting around talking about boys. Or complaining about boys, when they have their heart broken or whatever. And they need music for that, right? It’s hard to find the right music. Not everybody knows a DJ.” 

This is who is steering our cultural Death Stars. Men who believe women can’t even find music, much less make it.

She writes about the problem with women working by themselves to make music and how more women can work together in the field,

Women who are paid to create culture are often taught to remain separate from one another because they are breathing rarefied air; don’t disturb the atmosphere. And while I want women to control their own production and do it totally on their own if they have to, the idea of the Lone Female Genius is also holding us back: we need to work together if we are going to topple anything. When women are isolated, they compete instead of conspire. And women should be conspiring! (If that sounds scary, welcome to a double standard; when brilliant men work together, people make documentaries about it. When two or more smart women know each other, it becomes a nefarious secret scheme). Collaboration is an essential part of getting work out into the world that not only feels authentic, but truly intersectional.

Reading something like this could not be more appropriate for Joy. Critics didn’t love it but I did. Maybe David O. Russell was infusing how hard it is to get a movie off the ground and marketing it into the film, maybe the tone of the movie wasn’t 100% coherent, but in Jennifer Lawrence’s Joy, I saw my own trajectory. I saw how hard it is to get money to create something that you know is great, how much people can tell you that making something is a bad idea, that it’s stupid and you should spend your time on something else. The movie was more of a fantastical allegory for what it is to be a female creator and how you meet on the journey. 

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Here are the people you meet. 

1. The Ones who Understand

In Joy, she finds that her ex-husband, while he is kind of a dead-beat artist, was one of her greatest in supporters and helping her believe that her ideas are valid and standing up to other people telling her that she is a bad mother and should just quit. He’s the one that has the connection to get her to QVC and actually sell her product. He’s the one that asks if the lawyer of her investor really knows what he’s talking about. 

via IMDB

In addition her best friend Jackie, also serves as a great advisor and someone that helps her time and again to sell and create the product that she wanted to.She is a woman that is actually a sister that wants to support another woman. 

Because they understand each other, they can actually make her prosper. At BinderCon, I remember that I went to a talk where they talked about the different kinds of mentors, and a peer mentor is someone near your field, but not in it, that understands you and can help you on your way. 

2. People You Have to Prove Yourself To

via celebitchy

It’s exhausting, but there are so many people you have to prove yourself to, just to make people take you seriously. For me it’s that I’m short, look like I’m 17 and always sound like I have a really bad cold. For Joy, it’s that she is a mother that people think doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and think she should just either marry someone or get a another job at another airport (or I don’t know what all of these people are expecting her to do). Once you prove yourself though, once she proved that she could sell once she was the person in front in the camera. That she knew what she was talking about,Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) became one of her biggest advocates and allies. He visited the place of production and they talked to eachother about things that happen in that world. As I learned in the same seminar that talked about Peer Mentors, there’s no reason that someone in the same exact field as you doing the same exact thing will help you. If they’re competing selling, they’re not going to tell you about a brand new opportunity selling stuff. It defies logic. One thing I’ve found in theatre though, you might not be sharing the exact audition posting with the person that’s a similar type to you, but you’re there for them. It’s good when people from the people you like to work with have success. You know, in your community, you’re happy when your peers thrive and you will support them and give a heads up. Are those people your really, really good friends? Hell no. But having a peer that’ll be a bro, but you know isn’t a total bro, I think happens to everyone. 

3. The People that Turn Out to be Rivals

via IMDB

And of course, you’ll meet tons of people that actually want to see you fail. Maybe they’ll pose as people that really want to help like Joy’s Father and his girlfriend Trudy(DeNiro and Isabella Rossellini respectively). Trudy, having a large amount of money from her late husband was approached as an investor, and she and Joy’s Father Rudy used that to control and trap her every step of the way. Because she took their advice, often shamed into doing so by being told she knew nothing about business even though she constantly worked as an accountant for her father’s business(so how little could she really know?), she got herself in way more financial ruin and stress than she needed to. Because they didn’t look more into copyright law, Joy could have almost lost it all. According to the epilogue for the movie they continued to attack her and come back for her. It’s just awful. Sometimes people are only there to belittle and take you down, whether maliciously or not. Throughout the movie De Niro and Rossellini seemed to repeat the one phrase like a chorus,

“That’s Business”

for all manner of sins. But it’s not business. Business isn’t something that you can’t understand, it’s not a crazy and mysterious angry god that holds you like a spider over a flame. Business is two people agreeing on terms and proceeding to do THIS for THIS RATE. Business is promising a consumer that if they give you currency. I know there’s more to do with that like marketing, accounting, investing and all manner of things but there are people that will manipulate you if they perceive you to be lower than them in someway. In addition Joy’s sister also did that in going to talk to her supplier for her and effectively F*cking her over. Maybe it wasn’t inherently malicious, but her family did horrible things to her business and that is probably a reality for all kinds of people. 

And that is only some of the people you’ll meet featured in Joy.

I admit that this blog post took way longer to write than anticipated in taking care of some family business myself. My mom got her foot/part of leg amputated yesterday and it’s been a saga since pretty much New Years Eve. But I seriously recommend it. I don’t know it’s because I love JLaw, but damn.

[stayplucky]

How to Develop a Self Care Routine

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little off lately. I’ve been trying to write a review for the movie Joy for the past several days, but I just can’t do it. My mom is in the hospital because she broke her foot and left it broken for a while and it got infected, so I’ve been trying to deal with that. But I mean I can’t know that she knew she was in pain because her diabetes makes her feet less sensitive, but whatever, I’m stressed and I can’t write anything. Like what can you do when you’re messed up? Develop a way to not be messed up. I don’t have a self care routine yet, but a lot of people develop them to deal with life. Whether they already have a history of depression, anxiety or anything else, it can’t hurt as a person to have a way to take care of yourself, when you’re not yourself. 

But how to develop one? Let’s look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I don’t have a self care routine yet and I don’t have a lot of credibility other than writing a lot of self help ebooks that I lost personal rights to so I can’t go into specifics- but it seems like a good place to start.

via linkedin

We remember this from high school. Sitting in our first psychology class and learning what people need to be self actualized. To get back to the place where you can be creative, where you can solve problems- you need to figure out what you need. Of course, I mean it’s just a theory, but something about it really jives with me.To break down a self care routine, I think you really have to break it down into some key questions:

1. What does your body need? Are you hungry? Do you need water? (do you need to have an orgasm?)

Sometimes I get so upset because I am just hungry. I think that’s simplifying a greater problem, but sometimes you need to sleep, or jack off or eat a burger. Sometimes your body just needs things to put everything in perspective. Not that binging on anything is healthy but knowing what your body needs in moderation can help

2. What do you need to feel safe right now? Is there an object or state of being you need to feel good and like no one is going to hurt you?

Do you need a sweater or a good blanket? A trinket or a teddy bear or a good movie? Whatever you need to feel safe is always the thing that you need. You should never not feel safe, especially when you’re upset.

3. Who do you need to talk to? Who do you need to see so that you feel okay?

People need people and sometimes you need people. Whether it’s someone from your family or a really close friend. It’s good to see people that can help you and take care of you, not totally, but just a little bit. 

4. What can you do to make you feel good? What can you do to make you feel like you accomplished something? Is it an easy task? If not, is there something simple like it you can do right now?

On stage sometimes it can really help an actor to have something to focus on so they can just worry about the task and not try so hard. The same concept can work in real life. It’s not that different because an actors supposed to act truthfully, it’s just a fictitious situation, but we’re not going to get too bogged down in that. There is some task that you can do that will make you feel good whether that’s reading or cooking or running or doing yoga or something artistic. This is the most important but it can unlock you from your own mind. It’s hard to find that particular thing but any task can help. 

There’s a million ways to create a self care routine, but at least using the clues that Maslow gives, there are a couple steps you can take. You can give your body what it needs, then your sense of companionship and then find something you can do, that can help you define and bring yourself to a routine. I don’t have one yet, but I’m trying and maybe you can be on the path to find one too. It’s a great way to start the new year.

[stayplucky]

Spacing Out

How occasional procrastination can help work flow

I’m always guilty of “Spacing Out”- whether that is daydreaming, spending hours on twitter and reddit, or even going on a Netflix bender. While I’m not saying that a tendency towards putting off what needs to be done all the time, at any cost, is a good thing. I got more C’s and even D’s in my college and high school education than I care to admit that are directly related to that tendency.

That being said, now that we all understand that I’m a total garbage bag of a person that can barely accomplish anything- sometimes you just have to. Because honestly, if you want something- you should probably just go ahead and do it.  

It’s the same concept with dieting- if you spend all of that time thinking about how marvelous having a chocolate chip cookie would be right now, maybe you should just eat a chocolate chip cookie. Because what’s the latter? You’re just going to eat more of your ‘approved’ foods to try and fill that craving and end up binging on more food when you could have just eaten a cookie. 

Maybe you do need to watch a youtube video or go on twitter for a bit or get that release you need so you can actually do what you need to do. Because if you don’t, you just end up staring at that blank computer screen wishing you could do the thing you’re supposed to do, but instead you’re thinking of the thing you can’t do. 

But at the same time, it is a slippery slope. Sometimes it’s one John Green video and all of a sudden you’re sitting there 5 hours later watching cats re-enact Harry Potter. That’s not good either. Though cutting out the impulse to do the thing you want to do instead isn’t the right thing to do always. 

Another way to make procrastinate-y tendencies work is breaking down that large task you want to do into smaller tasks and working on it out of order. If I have a list of articles to do, I like to work on the articles from the bottom of the list up, so I’m not 100% looking at how many more I have to do. Or I write an article I know how to write first, or do an aspect of the project that I’m excited about at the beginning, so that gives me the energy and more inspiration to push through to the more horrible aspects of the project. 

Also a lot of the times, you can procrastinate with things you’re really passionate about- you can write that play you want to write, or work on the comic or that video, work on painting or singing. I don’t believe that creativity and working on creating something can ever produce bad things. Like Hitler left the art world and when he did, he became a scourge on humanity. It’s a little extreme of an example but if you’re being creative, I think it can only inspire you in everything you’re doing- even if you lose a couple hours. 

At the end of the day though- sometimes you just have to work. Sometimes smart procrastination helps and sometimes in the darkest of times what helps is the cold dementor’s kiss of an impending deadline. Though hopefully that doesn’t happen often. 

[stayplucky]

Let’s Look at ‘is’ vs.‘are’

original Meryl image via (image edited by me in canva)

I’m not a huge grammarian. With my history of comma splices, I don’t deserve to be. I’m awful. In general, me and grammar had a very hard time- especially in foreign languages. I passed Italian on my conversational skills and I passed Latin on unrelenting extra credit. But in my freelancing lately, and occasional editing, I’m finding the thing that makes a piece sound like it’s not in native english is knowing the difference between is and are.

When the usage of it is wrong, it is just wrong- it looks like a first grader could have written that about me page better. And it’s just hard, so I thought I’d break it down (if not to explain it to myself, but everyone else as well).

 Essentially there are two main rules:

1. If the subject is singular: use ‘is’

2.if the subject is plural: use ‘are’

That seems simple enough:

The dog is upset. 

The dogs are upset. 

But then you have to take into account that singulars and plurals in English are just pure garbage. Sheep, Moose and Deer are all exactly the same singular and plural and it’s easy to lose your way once you get to longer, more complex sentences. So when you get to those you need to ask yourself:

Who or what is this sentence about? 

and you need to ask,

Is that entity singular or plural?

And the rule changes, if the singular subject is you, the verb that always goes with that is ‘are’. You will almost never hear ‘you is’ unless someone is purposely trying to be grammatically incorrect. It’s always ‘are you?’ or ‘you are’. And, if you bring ‘I’ into the mix, the are and is become ‘am’. 

So if we break it down like we do in foreign language classes, the ‘to be’ verb is like this:

I am                     we are

you are               you all (y’all) are

she/he/it is         they are

and you’ll find that ‘are’ occurs more likely than ‘is’, though that also means that you need to be vigilant so you don’t look like an idiot the one time you actually need to use is. 

English is complicated y’all. May the grammar odds be ever in your favor.  

[stayplucky]

What SpongeBob Predicted About Adulthood

When I was little I used to think SpongeBob Squarepants was kind of ridiculous. I even pretended I didn’t love it because my best friend claimed to hate it in Elementary School. I found him out though, as he disemboweled his chocolate oreos and laid out the chocolate disks of creme he said, “they look like krabby patties”. I exclaimed “I knew it, you like Spongebob!” and he said “Sit down Katy”. But it wasn’t just a stupid show, it predicted so much about my adulthood. I too had a crappy minimum wage job and I can’t drive and my life just seems like a repeat of wacky misadventures. Though honestly I wish I could afford to live in a pineapple all my myself. It’s scary how much I am like Spongebob. Here are some other things Spongebob predicted about adulthood:

1. You have to accept yourself for who you are

Who can forget the classic episode where Spongebob doesn’t realize it’s his bad breath repelling people and thinks that everyone hates him because he’s ugly? The whole episode was ridiculous but more often than not, you do have to accept some terrible things about yourself. Like I’ve had to accept that I will never have an attractive butt. That’s a fact. It’s flat. I got a flat butt that quits immediately. Frankly it’s unemployed. But I got great boobs and I’m hilarious (now laugh(please)). Or you have to accept that maybe you’re not great at Sales but you’re charming to talk to, or that I love acting but I’m better at writing. I’m short and stumpy and awkward, and I’m super proud. 

2. What you think you want might not be actually what you want

The episode where Squidward finds Squidward land and finds he’s not actually happy when surrounded by people just like him could not be more telling. It’s sad and it couldn’t be more true. I remember I got upset how isolated I felt my freshman year of college and said/semi-exploded 

 “I thought there’d be people like me. I thought people would talk like I do and think like I do and I’d actually find people like me here”

and my suitemate said,

“Well, what did you expect?”

Because that’s not the way the world works. Most people aren’t like you and if they are, you probably aren’t gonna have a lot of fun.And I didn’t find the people that were artsy fartsy, far left, literary minded people just like me, because there’s no way that would make me happy. I found a varied amount of people within the theatre and literary community and that’s fine. 

Finding your people is important but finding copies of yourself, if that is even possible, is never going to make you happy. 

3. Never try to Force a Joke

The episode where Spongebob rips his pants could not be more real. It was real on TV. It’s an important lesson for me, if not the world: if you try to be funny, you will never be funny. You have to let it happen. Of course you have to work and observe and surround yourself with the right kind of people to make it happen. Deep in my heart, I know the only thing I need to be happy is approval via laughter, but if I try too hard, people will hate me. So it’s an important lesson.

4.You Probably have a terrible Job

SpongeBob works at a minimum wage job everyday harassing a coworker. If that wasn’t my life working at a movie theatre, I don’t know what my life was. I’d build arts and crafts, play blowdart across the movie theatre, sing to myself, try to balance a broom on my fingers... my life at Stone Theatres was basically an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Like Spongebob, you find something fun in the mind numbing boredom. 

5. Sometimes you just can’t handle anything

via

Spongebob breaking down because he deleted everything in his brain but fine dining could not be more real. Every time I try to write something for a client or otherwise, I experience this level of breakdown. Sometimes when I write blog posts I get so overwhelmed by it. I just end up watching netflix or going to do something stupid with my sister. I sometimes just can’t handle the simplest of tasks, like eating breakfast. Realizing that, I think is a part of adulthood. 

Spongebob predicted a whole lot more too. I should have been planning my whole life to be a Squarepants. Honestly our butts probably look the same. 

[stayplucky]

What is Low Poly?

It’s my new obsession. 

I’ve been on a crazy ride these past few days folks. For days I’d been consumed with this need to learn how to design games and to 3D model but I didn’t have enough disk space for Unity, but Lo I bought a pair of 16GB flashdrives and my disk space worries were a distant memory. In the midst of Unity dev tutorials, I happened upon this time lapse video:

To quote Tina Belcher,

via weheartit

It was a style so nostalgic and yet new- it reminded me of playing old video games but also like cubism and modernist expressionist art. It was that crazy style that’s so hot it ads. I remember they made a starbucks cup that looked like it. There it was and it was beautiful. 

So, what is it? According to the google/wikipedia:

Low poly is a polygon mesh in 3D computer graphics that has a relatively small number of polygons. Low poly meshes occur in real-time applications (e.g. games) and contrast with high poly meshes in animated movies and special effects of the same era.

According to Sessions :

The use of low poly art comes from the early days of 3D animation. Mocking up 3D scenes using a low polygonal resolution helped to reduce render times, which greatly sped up the development process of video games and animated movies.

Technology has come a long way, but even today low poly is used to decrease render time. In fact, the low poly “look” has become something of a design trend. Video games, 3D artists, and even illustrators are using simple polygons in their compositions to communicate texture and depth without sacrificing a minimalist aesthetic.

But it’s just cool and I’m into it. 

I downloaded Blender and...I haven’t really hit my stride. It’s terrible. I’m terrible. I don’t understand it. But I’m getting there. 3D modeling has always been my artistic crutch and damn it, I want to overcome it. But here is a dump of some amazing low poly gorgeousness:

1. A Helpful Guide ( I needed it)

2. This super dope witch

3. A Tutorial Series I’m Currently Worshipping 

So that’s the bender I’ve been on this week and honestly it’s probably going to continue.