Turning Pro

The accompanying graphic has nothing whatsoever with the main subject of this entry. I just wanted to share with all my faithful blog-readers a frozen entree I have been enjoying on a regular basis lately! :-)

What I really want to talk about is my latest determination to focus way more seriously on my visual art, which I have been dabbling in only semi-seriously for the past year, after so many years of hardly focusing on it at all.

I'm currently reading this wonderful book by the author Steven Pressfield (one of his other books is "The Legend of Bagger Vance" ) called "The War of Art." He writes about the difference between the professional and amateur level of artist, entrepreneur, anyone working on a diet/exercise plan, social/political activist, anyone working on a Recovery or Spirituality program, educational degree, or anyone working on any other long-term goal, commitment or relationship. So that list would include all humans!

The difference between the professional and the amateur is this:

Professionals work at it every day. Pros do not take the day off if they are tired or have the flu or don't feel like it.

Pros do the work.

Amateurs, on the other hand, dream about doing the work, fantasize about it, have grandiose ideas about it, while staying utterly fearful and resistant to actually DOING anything about it.

SO, as of today: I'm turning Pro. I'm going to work on some artwork for two hours beginning at 9 am sharp. No interruptions. Two hours to start with. As opposed to zero hours, or 15 minutes-- the schedule I have been keeping. I'm not going to worry about trying to sell my artwork, I'm just going to worry about doing the work itself.

I'll let you know how it goes. :-O!!!

I'm not sure where blogging fits into this. I'm not sure where supering at the Opera fits into this. More Shall Be Revealed.

UPDATE: I did it! Yay! Results tomorrow on my Art Blog.

Monsters and Caffeine

I don't know why-- it just sounded like a good title for this morning's entry.

I've been drawing at least one page a day in this little sketchbook I got as a Christmas present last year. I have some pretty cool drawings in there. So yesterday I had a bit of time to kill before one of my scheduled activities and I was sitting in one of my new favorite cafes enjoying a hot caffeinated beverage. Suddenly, the table wobbled and my hot caffeinated beverage spilled all over my little sketchpad! Now all the edges of the pages have a hot caffeinated beverage stain on them.

:*-(

Drawing: Time/Confusion

What I'll Be Wearing Next Halloween

I found this image in a New York Times review of a theater piece, "Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati" by a Mexican theater company called Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes. It played last weekend as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. You gotta click on this pic to see it in all its glory!

I don't really want to experience the life of a castrato (OUCH!) thank you very much, but they did apparently have thrilling voices. In the era of Baroque Opera (think Handel), they were most often cast as the heroic/romantic male leads.

I am just digging all the plumes!

According to this Times review, Voltaire and Rousseau spoke out against the practice of castration of singers, while the Roman Catholic Church "turned a blind eye." I was SO surprised to read that!

"Influential Nodes"

My SF Opera Supernumerary pal, SFMike of the Internationally Renowned blog Civic Center sent a nice email yesterday encouraging me to keep blogging regularly and narcissistically (sp?). He himself has been making more and more connections through his own blog which he pours a lot of talent and energy into-- he's now getting invited to fancy PR events at the Symphony, etc. Here's some of what he wrote to me:

Your blog is all about You, You, You and Nothing But You. Not many people can pull off that kind of narcissism, but you do it really well with a mixture of sincerity and self-deprecating humor that's all your own. So continue on without apology, and welcome back to the blogger matrix. It's all about linking up to each other.

Thanks Mike! :-)

Photo: Blast from the past, MOI in "La Forza del Destino."

GlinkArt4Sale

Hey kidz, remember my other blog? Remember when I was trying to be an artist and sell my work? Well, I'm still fiddling around in that direction, making progress at a snail's pace.

Yesterday I showed a friend this drawing I did about my fears around showing my artwork to galleries and cafes to possibly show there. This is a horrible phone-pic image, but the cartoon bubble of the scary big figure says "Your art sucks, go away!" The little figure frowning is MOI. This is my paranoid fear! Oy Oy Oy!

So an ironic thing happened. My friend really liked the drawing and I offered to sell him a B&W copy of it for the grand sum of fifty cents! At first I was only gonna charge him twenty-five cents but he offered me twice that.

And therein lies the reason I am a goddamned poor starving artist-- well, aside from all the frozen entrees I eat.

Still, believe it or not, I'm psyched that I sold another piece of art. That makes four pieces I've sold so far.

Samson et Dalila Newz

I had my costume fitting Friday morning. I'm going to be playing what is called an "Acolyte"-- another name for sort of a priest-- we are in attendance with this (Evil) High Priest of the Philistines, who is against Samson and the Hebrews. Six of us will also have the pleasure of carrying the dead body of the leader of the Philistines off the stage. Later, in Act III we will get to stick around for the "Bacchanale" or: Drunken Orgy. Yay! :-)

Pictured at left is the glorious Olga Borodina, who will be reprising her role as Delilah. I saw her in the opera back in 2001 and she fucking took my breath away. You do not want to mess with this lady!

This 'n That

A photo of MOI taken by another super pal, David Norton. Acting goofy.

I'm thinking of changing my middle name to "Frozen Entree." I'm sure eating a lot of them these days...

My summer obsession is Big Brother 8, despite my better judgment. I'm also obsessed with Jackie's Live Feeds blog.

I have a costume fitting coming up for Samson et Dalila. Don't know what my role is yet; I think I'm gonna find out at the fitting...

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!

I read through all the fine print in the Blogger instructions for Profile Photos and found out that you have to copy and paste the SECOND URL html, which is the style format, not the first. When it comes to stuff like this, I have the attention span of a Gnat with ADD.

Meanwhile I am cycling through other fab Rosenkav pics, most courtesy of the highly talented Mike Harvey. This one is of MOI and my fellow Rose Presentation Couriers.

Aren't we pretty? Check out our pumps!!!

I realize that this is all rather self-obsessed. Oh well. There's other stuff going on in my life that's about carin' and sharin' with others, but much of it is of a more personal nature, and I'm not into chatting about all that on the 'Net these days, at least not presently...

AlbGlinka and his Magic Baton, plus: Musings on Life in 18th-Century Vienna

Another Rosenkavalier pic, this one of Moi posing with one of my props-- a baton that became increasingly bejewelled by the Props Department with each successive dress rehearsal.

I am not done processing this opera! I am currently viewing this DVD of it that I got from the library, a very lavish production from 1985 by The Royal Opera, London, directed by John Schlesinger (director of, among other famous movies, Midnight Cowboy). The Marschallin is played brilliantly by Kiri Te Kanawa. The production values are even more exxagerated than the one I was in, if that's possible.

I'm writing this next part for myself-- non-opera fans can zone out if they want... :-)

The weird thing about the plot of Der Rosenkavalier is that the Marschallin is portrayed in the libretto as a fairly virtuous and wise aging female aristocrat-- she visits church and an elderly uncle regularly, and yet she is also having an affair with a 17-year old boy while her husband, the Field Marshall (whatever that is) is off on a hunting expedition! She starts off the opera in bed with this boy!

Maybe that's just the way things were in the 18th-century amongst the aristocracy, both male and female? Maybe the sexual part of this relationship was not really consummated, and that a playful flirtation was considered okay? Or, maybe the composer and librettist were writing a story that was meant to scandalize polite society and show the dark underside of the ruling class? It does not seem like the Marschallin character experiences any guilt whatsoever for being unfaithful to her husband. The strong emotions she feels are over the passing of time, her own aging, and realizing that she has to give up her love for this boy so that he can be with someone his age. I guess maybe you could read into all that a realization that she should just stop her fooling around.

I'm reading this awesome novel by Balzac, Lost Illusions, which takes place in Paris and a smaller province of France in the early 1800s. A similar plot, with one of the aristocratic ladies and a young poet, Lucien, involved in a dalliance. Except that here, the character of Madame de Bargeton (gotta love the names!) tries to remain faithful to her husband while he is still alive, as to do otherwise would be to incite terrible scandal in society.

These are some of the thoughts that are floating around my head, when I am not catching up on the doings inside the Big Brother 8 house!

Taking a break from Tech Troubles

I'm going to share a bunch of other Der Rosenkavalier pics here... this one is of a group of us supernumeraries posing with our Marschallin, (princess/rich lady) Soile Isokoski. She's in her costume for her Act I morning toilette... of course you see moi, far left, in my forest green velvet!

I got cast in this fall's Samson et Dalila (English: Samson and Delilah, lol), a gorgeous opera by Camille Saint-Saëns. It's the seaspn opener which is always fun, plus there's a planned free hi-def simulcast that will take place at AT&T Park, site of the recent baseball All-Star Game. Our new General Director David Gockley is trying to bring opera to the masses with events like this.

I'm not sure of my role(s)/costumes yet; should hear this week.

It appears that I did not get into this other opera that I auditioned for, kinda pissed about that.

Okay, let's try this again...

(Thanks Wil!)

Lower resolution version, let's see if it works...

Nope, when I try to copy and paste the html of the pic, it's so long-- it doesn't get saved. I don't know why. :-(

It's Time...

I'm changing my photo in my profile. The Madame Glinka glitter lips are so 2006.

It's all about hot Der Rosenkavalier uniforms now.

AAARgh! Can't get it to work!

I Miss Der Rosenkavalier!

It ended last Sunday.

:*-(

I miss my wigs, costumes, the music, the cast, the Banda music offstage in Act III, dressing up like a hot 18th-century Viennese Policeman.

The one consolation: I get to grow back some (real) facial hair.

Photo: Moi, my fellow Policeman Ray S. and center, our fearless Police Commissioner, Adler Fellow Jeremy Galyon.