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Thursday, June 30, 2005 Dawn as Actress I've been good about posting this month. :-) The news: A few weeks ago, I had my first theatre audition in about three years (how time flies!); I had exactly one day to prepare, which included learning a song and finding myself a monologue appropriate for kids. Tuesday morning I woke up and got the word in my inbox: I'm in! So come fall I have a paid gig doing children's theatre, focusing on elementary schools in underprivileged areas (the first leg of the tour is five weeks in Detroit, later expanding through the rest of Michigan--I think there's an out-of-state portion somewhere there too). This is great--I haven't done real theatre in forever. (Don't worry though, I'll still have time for plenty of music.) I think my last show was two summers of the ever-popular A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Nichols Arboretum (for those who are in Ann Arbor: yes, they're doing the production again this year. That makes three out of the five summers that Shakespeare in the Arb has been happening, three out of five summers that they've done the same play). After the first year, most of the cast vowed we'd never do an outdoor show again--we were rained out multiple times, cold--cold in Michigan in July and August!--running around in skimpy fairy costumes, and half the cast ended up with performance-related injuries. For example, Titania stepped on part of a tree and it pierced her foot, which meant that afterwards a golf cart brought her from location to location in the Arb between scenes. Most of us came back for another run anyway. But after the second year I was done. Yet "Midsummer" is still my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies, probably due to the fact that it was the first one I ever saw performed; I think I was in fifth grade when I saw the high school's production, went home, and immediately read the entire play. (There you have it, kids can understand Shakespeare. Interestingly enough, during "Midsummer" we did a few performances just for schools, and the elementary schoolers were probably our best audiences. I remember well-prepped kids silently mouthing the lines with us as we spoke. And even more kids looking at the fairies in awe.) But for all its magic, I probably won't be able to sit through another production of it in the near future; I'm still rather Midsummer-ed out. Mmm, I'm excited about all of this. 
^ Top | 6:10 AM | | | 
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 Blogger Support Woes Edit: Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions, especially Brian, for fixing the Blogger bug! Normally I love Blogger--I've used it since the creation of this blog in Feb. 2002. But this is somewhat trying. First, I sent a message to Blogger Support about the issue with the whitespace on this blog that just appeared in the last publish and now appears on the first page of every archive. After responding to the initial "screening" email, which again listed all the Blogger help articles, I reiterated that my issue wasn't addressed there. To which Blogger Support replied: Hi there, My reply the same day: Did you even look at the post? The Help article doesn't apply; first of all, the column has been fine for the entire time I've used the template--months, almost a year--and this issue is happening on archive pages too that have never experienced this problem before. It's the first post on every page in the archives and current. Their reply two and a half days later: Hi there, Great. That means this formatting issue is, for all intents and purposes, here to stay. I guess I'll redesign the page when I get some time and see if it's happier. ^ Top | 10:49 AM | | |
Friday, June 24, 2005 Note: Apparently Blogger is having issues that I can't fix on my end of things--sorry for the temporary format ugliness. The Joys of the Internet I googled myself--admit it, you've all done it too and I at least can claim to be doing "market research" or something along those lines--and spent an incredibly entertaining half hour looking through the results. It's nice to know that "Dawn Xiana Moon" will bring you right to this site, and after a page, "Dawn Moon" will bring you here as well (searching for the words rather than the phrase, I didn't try that). But among the more amusing items: 1. Someone from Blogcritics.org stumbled across this website and decided to review my CD. Apparently he liked it: "In this day and age of cookie cutter 'American Idol' music, where the emphases are on the next big hit, it is refreshing to find someone that brings passion and feeling back to their music." 2. I found myself linked on someone's site under "Friends and Acquaintances"--for the life of me, I couldn't figure out who I knew in Madison, Wisconsin named Rob. Until I looked at the URL and discovered that it was Rob Shereda! I haven't talked to him in forever--while on the exec board of Students for Life we had a blast poking fun at our president (all in good fun, Andrew is a good guy) and life in general. Rob definitely brought out my sarcastic side.... 3. I'd almost forgotten about this, but Christianity Today once quoted a film review I wrote (actually, it was the first piece I'd ever really published, a scathing review of Star Wars: Episode II). "Somewhere along the way, it seems George Lucas lost sight of his original vision and caved in to marketing pressures and the urge to show off his technical wizardry. The movie was better than I feared, but worse than I hoped it would be." 4. Ricke, who's now in the process of recording my full-length CD (more on that later), posted a blog notable for this line: "[In Toledo, we had] excellent Chinese food at some little place that I still don't understand how she knew about...." Don't you know, there's an underground network of Chinese people spreading the word on restaurants with awesome food, even if they are local holes-in-the-wall. (Ahem: Carolyn, I really am Chinese you know.) In all seriousness though, I found out about that place thanks to a Singaporean cousin who got her MBA at the University of Toledo and ever since, my family will go out of the way to eat there anytime we're near Toledo. So it's almost an international underground network. :-) 5. Brian Thomas from Kaleo Fellowship, which is apparently a church in CA, wrote what looks like a well thought-out essay on Christianity and the arts. And referenced a Relevant Magazine article I wrote on the subject. "Moon points out that we have a tendency to think that our culture is morally looser than the 'good ol' days,' but historically we know this is not exactly true. We bemoan the violence of modern videogames, but think about the Roman games (literally death-matches)." This is one of my pet subjects, so I'm definitely going to read the article in its entirety later. 6. Back when I was about to release First Verse, my brother posted the full lyrics to "Self-Destructive" on his blog, followed with "buy her CD... support my sister." Awww. ^ Top | 7:50 AM | | |
Wednesday, June 22, 2005 Kielbasa Kings and Polka Masses Apparently there's a band in Michigan called the Kielbasa Kings. (Stop by their website and take a look at their logo. Hilarious.) Hmm, I bet they get paid more than I do. And a Catholic church that has an occasional polka mass. Polka mass. The mental image that won't go away is a bunch of girls in elaborate, brightly colored dresses prancing around through the middle of a very solemn assembly of priests and parishioners. And then the priest serves communion. I can't get a good grasp of what a polka mass would be like.... ^ Top | 12:14 AM | | |
Monday, June 20, 2005 Kafka and Art I was first introduced to Kafka by Carmen, a flute-playing senior who usually shared a stand with me in band my freshman year of high school. She was reading The Metamorphosis for an English class, and over the next couple of days I read most or all of the story during breaks while our director would rehearse chunks of pieces we were playing with other instrument sections. That's all it took--I was hooked. Some time later our forensics team (a loose term) watched the 1987 film of Steven Berkoff's stage adaptation. (Little did I realize then that the man playing Gregor Samsa is none other than Tim Roth, who is phenomenal especially in his physicality; he turns very convincingly into a dung beetle, moving in ways you wouldn't expect a man to be capable.) And then of course everyone reads Kafka in their own high school and college English lit. classes. If you're me, you read his work with relish on your own: I just finished The Trial last night. It's something of a contrast in my personality that I have a tendency to laugh constantly, or, as one friend puts it, "Dawn's rest position is a smile," while most of art that I'm drawn to and create has a tendency toward darkness or melancholy. Not necessarily darkness without hope, as in Kafka's nilihism, but the exploration of emotions and situations, of struggle that may or may not end with victory or happiness. Perhaps this is because such work seems more honest, more real--"A Hunger Artist" in contrast to Tolstoy's late Christian parables ("The Three Hermits," for example, reads more like a sermon illustration than a short story), even though both contain elements of the fantastic or otherworldly that also tend to draw me into a story. Or perhaps it's because it's ridulously difficult to write something both substantive and thoroughly happy. Is it possible to have true happiness without first surviving trials, without suffering? To close my ramblings, the conclusion of Andre Dubus's "A Father's Story," one of my favorites: Why? Do you love them less? ^ Top | 4:43 AM | | |
Friday, June 10, 2005 The Musician Interviewed I've been interviewed twice this week, once by Dan and Tom from the program Left Turn on Bird Street on KRBS 107.1 FM in Oroville, CA and WCRV in Cherry Ridge, PA, and the second by Shawn from Mihaven.com. Talk about diverse groups: Left Turn on Bird Street is decidedly on the political left, featuring news, interviews and serial adventures, while Mihaven.com focuses on Christian bands in Michigan (granted, I'm not a band and I'd run far, far away from the label of "Christian music"--ugh). The radio interview hasn't yet been posted on the website, but you can read my interview with Shawn. Some choice excerpts: "Hey, every Asian child seems to study piano or violin at some point." "Questioning God isn't wrong--he invites our questions, invites us to engage with him intellectually; doubt is healthy. The problem comes when we just passively doubt without seeking answers, without talking to God himself." "I hate shallow, cookie-cutter music--I want to make art that's honest, art that has passion, art that actually means something." "One important lesson I learned was that in a postmodern, disconnected culture, we need to reach out to others in community--it's so much more effective when we demonstrate God's love in our interactions.... And God has a huge heart for the poor and marginalized in the world--we as Christians need to be faithful to demonstrating love through serving them as well." "Maybe it's because I've played it the longest, but I've always been most connected with the piano. For me, home isn't necessarily a place or a group of people, it's a piano in a dark room." ^ Top | 11:36 PM | | |
Sunday, June 05, 2005 Memorial Weekend, Part II Part I of the four days of BBQing: Why do ducks have webbed feet? BBQ #3 was held in a park that apparently everyone in the world decided would be great to spend a Sunday afternoon in--parking was practically impossible. Cooking salmon and corn on the tiny propane grill took forever (remember how I said everyone in the world decided to go to the park? There weren’t any charcoal grills left). In theory, this was supposed to be a dancing event. In actuality, only the salsa dancers did much dancing--all the lindy hoppers ended up playing Frisbee. Notable moments: due to a distinct lack of silverware, plasticware, or anything besides hands and fingers, eating the aforementioned salmon was something of a challenge. Also, watching Melanie bound after the Frisbee like a puppy was quite entertaining. (Imagine a cute, prone-to-laughter blonde girl in a skirt spotting the Frisbee, inevitably way above her head, looking up, waving her hands frantically and running around trying to get it--she usually missed, but she tried anyway.) Later that night: I hosted a blues party that actually consisted of more lindy hop than blues. But with around five swing dance instructors in the room, the lone non-dancer got a lesson (with the proverbial "too many chiefs"). But hey, he came dancing with us later that week, so it couldn’t have been all that bad. BBQ #4 was on Easy Street. (Yes, I have three friends who live on Easy Street--awesome name, isn’t it?). We cooked most of the remaining salmon from the day before and (surprise, surprise) played more Frisbee. I also managed to convince everyone that they wanted ice cream (not too difficult), so we made a run to Coldstone and beat the line that grew exponentially after us. And then the weekend was over. Mmm, relaxing. ^ Top | 12:10 AM | | |
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