Burning Down the House

The end of summer has always felt downright magical to me. When I was a kid, we actually had three months of summer vacation, and those days of late August bleeding into September were heavenly. The air seemed thicker, the cicadas louder, days spent in the neighbor’s pool more frequent. There was the anticipation of new teachers and classmates, shopping for clothes and school supplies, and a birthday cake right there, in the center of it all.

I've always loved to learn, though there were some subjects I was better at than others. These days, “school” is working with a financial adviser to face my bad monetary self in the mirror. It’s not been easy for me. It’s like taking economics and bookkeeping, both of which I blissfully managed to skirt during my formal education. But still – progress.

It’s also birthday time over here. Well, it will be shortly. For me, it’s not about candles (wait, that's a lie - I love candles), or even about age. It's my personal New Year’s Day, and it’s kind of sacred. This year, it feels even more so. Whatever your feelings on astrological juju, this past Monday was the new moon in Virgo: a period of reckoning and new beginnings, if you’re into that sort of thing (I’m not particularly, but if the moon can affect tides and my mood, I may as well use it to my advantage). I sussed out my top goals for the year to come, and decided how it is that I want to feel every day. (How important is that, you ask? Really damned important.)

And in keeping with the theme of new beginnings and clearing the decks, tonight marks the 90^th anniversary of the burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe. If you’re not familiar, Zozobra is a 50-or-so-foot-tall effigy of “Old Man Gloom” that gets burned to the ground. (Lest anyone think this is a rip off of Burning Man, Burning Man started in 1986, and is all sound and fury, but no soul, sort of like Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome –1985, thank you very much – with all the great costumes, but sadly without Tina Turner. Sorry, Nevada; you lose.) 

I can’t be in my native high desert tonight – indeed, vacations are off the table for a while until I get these checks and balances in order – but through the glory of the Internet, I can live vicariously. SantaFe.com will be live streaming the event, and I've got some piñon and sage incense around here somewhere. Good things are coming. Out with the old.

Theater in the Now: Spotlight On...Amy Lee Pearsall

I just got all chatty on the interwebs! Check out my recent interview on theatre blog Theater in the Now. Among the topics on the table: my upcoming show KING KIRBY, which opens this Friday as part of the Comic Book Theater Festival at The Brick in Brooklyn. It's a great production; come check it out!

Up Next: KING KIRBY

In case you missed the announcement on other forms of social media, my next project will be KING KIRBY as part of the Comic Book Theater Festival at The Brick in June. I am super stoked about it:

Husband-and-wife playwrighting team Fred Van Lente (award-winning, New York Times best selling comics writer of COWBOYS & ALIENS and ACTION PHILOSOPHERS!) and Crystal Skillman (NYIT Award-winning playwright of GEEK, CUT and THE VIGIL) combine their talents with director John Hurley (ACTION PHILOSOPHERS!, LICKSPITTLES, BUTTONHOLERS, AND DAMNED PERNICIOUS GO-BETWEENS and THE VIGIL) to produce the hysterical and heartbreaking story of this titanic figure – how he poured his quintessentially Twentieth Century life into his comics, and the fateful, tragic mistake he made that led the man to obscurity while his creations became known to every person on Earth.

Rehearsals kick off later this week. In the meantime, mark your calendars and check out the Kickstarter campaign!

When it rains...

...wear galoshes. (The puddles won't know what hit 'em.)

animal crackers

I was going through some old photographs tonight and came across a few that I shot of two stuffed animals who appeared, for no apparent rhyme or reason, tacked up to the wall behind my building.

I call this one Violators Will Be Persecuted.

Then one day, some balloons showed up. So this one is called Guantanamo Holiday.

I know. I need help.

Amtrak Residency for Writers

It's been a big week over here in terms of applying for artistic residencies. One of my favorites in the stack: the application for #AmtrakResidency. If you're a fellow writer, you can apply, too. Here's to riding the rails and getting stuff done.

On Stage: March 13 - 14, 2014

Post by Amy Lee Pearsall.