Put This On

In the last year or so, since I finished my own personal downsizing, I've had to buy an entirely new wardrobe. With the exception of shoes and socks, almost every piece of clothing has turned over (the only exceptions being some clothes which had been too small [and which are now too big], a couple of heirloom garments [I have a navy blazer from my grandfather - now too big], and a custom-made suit which is way too big, but which my grandmother advised me not to get rid of in case I got re-fat). As part of the rebuilding of my wardrobe and the curiosity that comes with a new toy (that is, a new body), I started taking a much more significant interest in the way I dressed. Color, fabric, cut, style, etc. All of these things are now much more important to me than they were when I was fat. However, when I tried to find some resources to explore how to best suit myself (literally), I came up short. There are plenty of vague how-to-dress sites for women, and a handful for men (usually connected to a brand, which makes them suspect), and even a few independent sites for older men, but not much for guys my age who want to spiff up a bit.

Then, I discovered PutThisOn. They're a web presence all about, as they put it, 'dressing like a grownup.' Part youtube video series, part blog, part shopping portal, and part twitter feed, hosts Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor take you through the finer points of how to move your fashion and style out of collegiate slob and into early-middle-age. Parts of PutThisOn are a little out of my price range ($420 for a pair of shoes is high) and parts are a little too un-me for me (I don't think I could pull off a blue blazer with white buttons and white pants, nor would I really want to), but much of it is terrific.

Three big takeaway lessons from the web series: expensive shoes can be cost-effective if you care for them well (see Episode 2: SHOES), buy shirts to fit your neck, sleeves, and shoulder (you can get the mid-section tailored to fit) (see Episode 6: BODY), and I've been shaving wrong all these years! (see Episode 4: GROOMING).

Seriously, if you are a guy, or know guy, or are near a guy age 22-39 who needs to shape up his style, they should watch this series.

Also, can I borrow a couple of hundred bucks for a pair of shoes?

Getty Center

Play day today! After a quick stop at Stan's doughnuts (S was less than impressed, though I remain transfixed by the delicious refined sugars), we headed up to The Getty Center to see some art and some flowers. The art didn't photograph so well, but the flowers were lovely...

Red and moody.

Blurry lens makes abstractions.

Cactus or flower? Only her hairdresser knows for sure.

Love this shot.

War of the Clowns

I've got a couple of projects coming up in the next few years, but one of the ones that I've been really looking forward to is tentatively called The War of The Clowns. Eli Simon is directing, and it's a piece that we're building for the National Theatre of Romania. They'll keep it in their repertoire to pull out whenever they want it.

Eli teaches clowning at UC-Irvine, and many of his clowning students end up in a troupe that he calls Clownzilla. Clownzilla has four or five shows in their repertoire, most of which I've designed. Some, I've written music for. Some, I've toured to foreign countries to put up. One, Clown MacBeth, is only a Clownzilla show in as much as Eli and I worked on it; the performers were members of a Korean theater troupe. As Eli and I have worked on these shows, we've both learned a lot about this new style of clowning that he teaches and how it can be used to tell story. We're both looking forward to going to Romania next summer to put this piece together.

Recently, we've been doing a lot of research into structure and themes for the show. We've got a rough plot outline of the show, and we're tapping a lot of resources for inspiration. Here are some of the avenues of research that I've been exploring:

* Beach Boys music
* The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss:

* Lord of the Flies
* Hogan's Heroes:


And some other avenues of research that I still need to explore:
* The Green Table
* Johnny Got His Gun
* Catch-22
* Woyzeck
* Rory Stewart - The Prince of the Marshes
* Ken Burns' The War miniseries

We're looking specifically for macabre humor to help keep the clowns dark and funny while exploring the themes of war, so as I sift through the research, I'm looking for examples of humor or dark levity or silliness in war. I'm particularly looking forward to re-reading Catch-22 again!

settling back in

S and I got back from our hiking trip to Montana on Sunday night, and I've been working hard ever since. I'm almost done with setting up my new office and am working hard on the sound design for The Understudy. S has been sending out resumes and looking for work in her biz. We saw Harry Potter last night, which was nice.

That's all! Just a small update!

another black bear!