John A. (Jay) Cross

Done with "Aminta" for now, on to Jacapo Sannazaro's "Arcadia & Piscatorial Eclogues". The reading of Pastoral literature from the 16th Century and before continues.

This is quite different in presentation. It takes place in the countryside, but the nymphs and women are spoken of but never are part of the dialog. This changes the atmosphere of the stories a lot.

Another quick quote from "Aminta": 'He does no Business that thinks too much.' This is advice from a wingman trying to get a nervous would-be lover to go meet the girl he's obsessed with.

22h

#CdAHistory The Europeans didn't get enough people together to run the show, but the US East group did PLUS, Chiara and I translated a fun play called "The Jewish Wedding".

Here is a nice line from a pastoral between two shepherds lamenting about unrequited love: "The Lamb feeds on the Grass, the Wolf on the Lambs; but cruel Love feeds on Tears, and never shews himself satisfied." - "Aminta" by T. Tasso.

Didn't get far with Aminta yesterday. Reading it today. It is lovely. It is a bit too wordy for popular performance today.

I have been on a spree of reading pastoral-related literature. I just finished Isabella Andreini's "Mirtilla", and am now about to start Tasso's "Aminta". My goal is to better understand how 16th Century Italians saw these plays, and to see how better to perform them.

I listened to an audiobook called "Daphnis and Chloe", which was written in the 2nd Century CE. It is a pastoral taking place in Arcadia. It's interesting seeing how folks 1900 years ago viewed the stories I've been studying from 450 years ago. Next up "The Eclogues".

'Melodious' ir 'Malodeous' be careful with you enunciation.

#CdAHistory We went through a Pastoral play that was published in 1611, and then had some discussion about love and life in Arcadia, and how it might inform us as to how the humanist Italians saw the period of Greek Lyric poetry. Great session.

We are in the part of the election season when you cannot trust any poll. Everyone has a reason to bias the results up or down to try and maximize both donations and desperate votes. This will be a long two weeks.

I had a great meeting with a kindred spirit who teaches physical theater in Orono. We'll get together again in a few months.

A month or so ago, I ordered some LED panel lights from TEMU. TEMU is really bad about putting specs and technical details up for their products. So for a very modest price, I got a very modest product. These panels will be good for lighting your face for Zoom meetings, not general theatrical use.

They arrived this morning. I'm sure I have family or local friends that would like one, so it isn't really almost no money poorly spent. They'll make nice gifts.

Today is both No Kings Day, and this evening, I am doing lights for a fashion show at the local second hand shop.

Stuck in the too many things to do trap again. I know the solution is to just do some small ones and work my way up through the list. I just finished the smallest a few minutes ago. On to the next.

I'm having a perhaps too many successes in terms of progress toward my Commedia dell'Arte goals. I either need to more actively involve other people or get a lot more organized. Maybe both.

There is a lot of fuzzy information about the Yandex data centers being destroyed. I am curious as to how many of the bots trying to influence our election are not from Russia. Are the bots in the remaining half also from Russia, or are they from other sources. If so what other countries?

How many are from US data center bot farms?

Today, some out of town friends from Ohio are on the East Coast for the first time. They want to visit Salem MA. I'm going to join them there this morning. I don't plan to dress up for it. Side note: I am descended from George Jacobs Sr. who at 83 was the oldest of the people they executed.

We're going through a very complicated commedia scenario called "Li Scambi". This is our third time through it, and it will take a lot of work to straighten it out, but I think it can be done. It is a high energy play with a lot is mistaken identity and letters.

We looked at Act 3 of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida today. Somewhere in there was mentions a Tercel, so a second discontinued model of Toyota in this play. Are there more? I wonder if Avalon gets mentioned somewhere.

I had a mostly good 24-hours. One downer was that a newish friend was in an emotionally fragile state, and tried to make a helpful comment that rattled me. I rejected her help. She needed some help to get back on track. I feel bad about that. Other things are terrific! -- more ->

I got a lot of good advice and new comradery from a theater history professor and author in Georgia. Lots of directions to go in. I just need the time and manpower to go in some of the directions.

Recently got digital copies of some old pictures because my great aunt's daughter recently passed away. I can do all the sadness for the passing, no need to support me on that. While I still have no pictures of my great grandfather, here is a picture of his dog, Mr. Giggs.

Maybe someone who is an expert in dog fashion could date this more accurately.

I don't know much about the picture. My great Grandfather died in 1922, so this picture is from before then. He was born in 1880, so this image has to be from after about 1900. It was probably taken in a studio in the back of a store in Newark NJ.

So many women like sweet Basil because he brings free pizza dough.

Note, the camera angle fails to show that the dough has a non-zero price, but it has no gluten.

I have just finished reading (in print, not as an audiobook) "Directing Intersectionally", which is a non-fiction book about practical approaches to inclusive theater. It's been helpful, and the authors seems to have similar ideas to my approach, but they also have the academic vocabulary.

I have reached out to one of the authors to try and schedule a conversation.

I caught a sniffle. It's been a while since I got one. Nice to know I can still outrun them.

#CdAHistory we went through an odd play today, and luck brought one of the wonderful young people I met in Finland to the session. It's a gray wet day, but I am feeling very cheerful.

The play is unusuall for several reasons including it having magic, but not being a pastoral. And for Pantalone arranging for his daughter Ortenzia to marry Zanni.

I wish I could figure out what inspires me to get going on a project in such a way that I could contrive to make it happen more or less at will. I bring this up because today the muse whispered in my ear, and I am underway again. Coulda started four months ago.

I finished listening to Moore's "Serpent of Venice", and have just begun "Shakespeare for Squirrels". So far it is also entertaining. Also today, I am going through Act 2 of "Troilus and Cressida" with my every other Thursday Shakespeare group.

21 Sept

#CdAHistory This afternoon we went through an old play that had previously defied explanation, but on this pass through it, we made it all make sense. The title character of the play is a servant-girl named 'Perna' which suggests that we need some large round prosthetic buttocks for her.

I went to see the puppet show. It was actually two 45 minutes shows, one with puppets, and another one with a man talking to his previously recorded self on a television. The first show was by a performer who used a wheelchair doing a show with a public domain Steamboat Willy era Mickey Mouse. more

The man talking to his pre-recorded self was a very clever bit. I don't want to say more. Look for Evan O'Television somewhere on the performance circuit.

The Mickey Mouse character was a hotdog vender who couldn't bear working without weed, and in the process talks with his subconscious mind and transitions to being Minnie Mouse. The puppets were pretty gritty. The over-all impact was clever.

19 Sept

I have a mostly low-key day today, catching up on editing scenarios and maintaining a database, but this evening, I have a bi-monthly Commedia dell'Arte meeting, and also tickets to see a puppet show. Fun things tend to crowd together on my calendar.

15 Sept

I'm listening to an audiobook. The narrator sounds like a young assistant pastor reading a long old testament lesson. The text holds my interest, but I may have been spoiled by listening to several consecutive well-narrated books before this one. No names. Not bad-mouthing anyone.

13 Sept

I have felt unmotivated today. Did I eat too much dessert yesterday, or is it just that I'm listening to a slower, less witty audiobook while trying to exercise? Hard to know. Maybe it's none of the above. Press on!

10 Sept

Going through the Shakespeare play "Troilus and Cressida". Some of the sexual imagery seems more obvious than usual. e.g. Act 1, scene 3, line 304, Nestor says of his young wife: "I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver". Is this the earliest known use of 'beaver' to mean lady parts?

9 Sept

#CdATroupes We had a rehearsal last night for a play in which characters disguise themselves as other actors. These are always complex shows that take some time to work who knows that it is a disguise, and how do people react. It's good we have a lot of rehearsals. ... or do we?

6 Sept

#CdAHistory It's been a while since posting here, but things have been happening. Chiara and I just did the 2nd pass translation of a play called "The Four Fake Possessions" but in the play five people pretended to be possessed. It was similar to the Scala play of the same name.

youtube.com"Weird Al" Yankovic You Never Gave Me A TuneupYouTube video by Rare Weird Al

5 Sept

Considering their impact on the music world shortly before his emergence on the scene, you'd think there would have been more Beatles songs parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. There was Taxman -> Pacman, and a quick bit of Hey Jude in a medley... and this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0-...

5 Sept

One of my biggest worries about the next year has been relieved in a great way. I had been thinking that I'd need to use AI to help transcribe a really long old Italian manuscript, but a wonderful person I made as a friend last Winter is doing it faster and better than AI.