Procrastinet

In Memoriam - Curt Dempster

filed under: Hey, What's The Big Idea

Curt Dempster, the indomitable, irascible and inspiring founder and artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theatre -- my boss at the theater where Youngblood resides -- died last Friday morning. It was a great shock to the EST community, and the shockwaves will be felt for a long time to come.

Hopefully, so too will Curt's legacy and mission - to provide a lasting artistic home for theater artists, refreshingly and remarkably free from the hustle of commerciality. Curt was all about the work, and getting it onstage come what may. He did it for over 35 years, often on the back of nothing more than his own willpower (and a formidable willpower it was).

It has been my priviledge to work for Curt for the last four years. He will be deeply missed.

Pining for the Fjords

filed under: Stuff to laugh at

From KG comes a HuffPo gem, re-casting the debate over Iraq strategy as the Dead Parrot Sketch from Monty Python.

A snip:

Swing Voter: Look - I know a dead policy when I see one. And I'm looking at one right now.

George W. Bush: No... no! It's not dead. It's being re-thought. Remarkable military we have don't we? Wonderful courage!

Swing Voter: Their courage don't enter into it. The policy is stone dead.

Read the whole thing here.

The Weekly Want-It Blows a Fuse: The iPhone

filed under: The Weekly WANT IT

Oh my lordy lordy. There has never - literally never - been a gadget I have so immediately and intensely coveted.

a) It's frickin' gorgeous

b) It integrates all Mac functionality - contacts, calendar, IM, iPhoto, iTunes, Safari - onto one pocketable device

c) Did I mention it's frackin' GORGEOUS?

d) 2MP integrated digital camera. Not a replacement for a real camera, but useable.

Comes out in June. One month after my Verizon account expires, and I have to switch us to Cingular to get me one. I wonder how I'm going to bridge that one-month gap.

GIMME GIMME.

Whoof.

Christmas Cuteblogging

filed under: Dadditudes

While we're on the cuteblogging tip, this is one I meant to post about last week: Max has become a presents addict. After eight days of Chanukah, and the buildup to Christmas, he was extremely let down to be informed that, when all the Christmas presents were opened, that was it on the presents for a while. He came up with a solution:

I will get another present. Tomorrow. On the 26th. I will get a present for Kwanzaa!

Through the power of positive thinking, he managed to make this happen - Hearthsong (a catalog) sh*t the bed with the shipping of his present from Nana, which arrived on the 26th. Just in time for Kwanzaa.

Captain Charmypants

filed under: Dadditudes

The problem with Max's mad verbal skillz is that he's starting to figure out how to charm his way out of trouble. And then sometimes it happens just by accident, when he's just working out what's on his mind.

We were just downstairs, and he's crazy with tired (no nap at home), and had been warned about getting rough. He kicked at me, and I turned off the TV and declared that Mommy and I were going upstairs, and he would stay downstairs alone. His response:

Will you leave the toy? Will you leave a toy to help me? If someone will take care of me, then I will stay down here. If no one will take care of me, then I will be wicked sad.