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Friday 23 May 2008

Wonderfully mad.

It's been a while. Sorry. I have been somewhat busy -- notably with the wonderfully mad 48 Hour Filmmaking Competition last weekend. I know so many great crazy people here. Why did I want to leave, again?

(It's not till September, mind, but I've made my choice now. I'm going to be in California, that's as much as I've decided to say on this blog. Perhaps wonderfully mad people won't be so difficult to find over there, either.)

Speaking of wonderfully mad people, last night I had the absolute privilege of taking part in a public reading of an unfinished play written by a friend of mine. It's the first proper creative interaction I've had with her since I got back from the UK, actually. I walked into the auditorium where the reading was taking place and the first thing I noticed was the smell of incense. The second thing I noticed was that -- well, of course -- she'd had the sense to eschew the separation between stage and seats in favour of setting up cushions and a few benches on the stage itself. She had candles and nibbles, and a few friends along to help her out, and when she asked me how I was, I felt the uncomfortableness in my simple 'fine' (who is ever simply 'fine'?) -- but she said nothing of it and I knew I'd loosen up. It's been too long since I've entered one of her spaces, carefully and fearlessly imagined with absolute openness. She was playing the Beatles over the sound system while she set up and I had the odd urge to dance. The last character I played for her loved to dance. It was my character's central metaphor (she was a poetic type). I think my character would have liked to be a dancer, actually, but she worked in a craft shop, which she liked, too, because it was fun to play a small part in helping people make stuff. And yes, that's mostly just back-story which only made it to the stage in little things like having her knitting in one scene.

My playwright friend believes in a hundred things that ought to be anathema to my skeptical self. She believes in astral projection and yoga whatnot and in a sort of global consciousness and I don't know what else. If it wasn't her, maybe I'd say more often that I don't believe a word of it, maybe I'd make more firm statements like I do when my best friend from high school starts talking like she thinks Tarot cards could actually tell you something. But it is her. This is her space and I worship her space with its free-flying creativity. Cutting takes place elsewhere; this is where things grow. I just can't say 'Don't think that'.

She almost never asks anyone else to believe along with her. She asks people to imagine. I think she prefers imagination. She believes in the power of the mind to subtly influence the world, and for that purpose an imagined thing might even be stronger and more organic than a believed thing. And so, in her space, I leave behind the truth of the world and accept the truth of myself. This is subjective space. Objective space is important, too, but it can wait.

7 comments:

John Evo said...

A few days ago I contacted Ex because Babs hadn't been posting for so long. Magically she posted the following day. 2 days ago I emailed him because you hadn't posted in a good while, and mysteriously you posted today. Clearly I now know how to bring back the missing. Ex has powers. I consider it proven.

When you come to California, get in touch with me. You can come over and my wife will make you some terrific Caribbean dish that you won't soon forget.

Good to see you back around.

Alon Levy said...

I've only been to California once, on vacation. But I know New York brims with wonderfully mad people, and from what I've heard, Los Angeles and the Bay Area are no different from New York there.

John Evo said...

Lynet, just remember these four places - Hollywood, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice. You'll find what you are looking for.

Lynet said...

Thanks for the invite, Evo. But -- you don't cook? You old-fashioned old codger, you!

Odd to think that there could be such a place as 'West Hollywood'. I'm so used to thinking of Hollywood as an idea rather than a place.

John Evo said...

I do indeed cook, but I know you'd enjoy my wife's fair much more than mine. You like meatloaf, I'm your guy!

Hollywood is a myth and a place. Like Mt. Olympus.

West Hollywood is a separate township that abuts Hollywood, you guessed it, to the west. It is the most famous gay community on the West Coast - sort of our Greenwich Village. It's has some entertainment fame, but not studios. More music clubs and restaurants.

John Evo said...

"fare"... whatever.

Maria said...

Reading play, especially an unfinished one has to be exciting.
Your friend is correct imagination
is majorally important,and our
minds cab bend reality.