The Vs. Studio Blog

Now matter how bad the day is going, you always have a chance to begin again. Awareness is the key. You need to first realize things are going off the skids before you can course correct. A daily meditation practice might be helpful.

Two sports analogies that might also be helpful:

In hockey, at the end of each period, a Zamboni machine comes out and smooths over the ice.

In baseball, during the 7th inning stretch, groundskeepers come out and drag mats across the infield to smooth out the dirt.

Both require a break in the action. And both are somewhat meditative if you allow yourself to just sit and watch.

P.S. – H/t to Seth for inspiring this post.

“What’s worth doing even if I fail?” -Brene Brown

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” -Reinhold Niebuhr

“Although we wish it was otherwise, the struggle for justice is never completed in one lifetime or one rebellion. The shifting of systems, the turning of hearts, the forgiveness of oppressions and the dissipation of anger (righteous or not) takes time. It is not easy to confront injustice. It requires solidarity and the inevitable loss of life. It requires that each generation aver, “we are ready to be free by any peaceful means necessary.” -Dr. Barbara A. Holmes

“And…and you know what, maybe I’m crazy. But when I walk through a forest that I saved, when I hear the sound of wind rustling in young trees, trees that I planted myself, I realize that I have my own little bit of control over the climate. And if after thousands of years one person is happier because of it, well then…I can’t tell you the feeling I get when I plant a birch tree and I see it grow up and sprout leaves, I…I mean, I fill up with pride, I…” -Astrov in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (Annie Baker adaptation)

“To plant a sapling and then to actually care about what happens to it a thousand years from now…to think that hard about the future of humanity…People like him are rare, and they deserve love.” -Yelena in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (Annie Baker adaptation)

What’s worth doing even if you never see the fruits of your efforts? That the only ones who will benefit are future generations, a long way off.

Whatever is revealed to you upon asking the question, do that.

P.S. – Correction to yesterday’s Peace, Love and Understanding post. Two loyal readers pointed out that Nick Lowe wrote and recorded the song first. In 1974, with his band, Brinsley Schwarz. Elvis Costello covered the song in 1978, which was actually released as a B-side to Lowe’s solo single “American Squirm.” The cover saw great popularity and was later included on the American version of Costello’s 1979 album “Armed Forces.” (H/t to Mark and Ron.)

As I walk through this wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity
I ask myself, “Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred and misery?”

And each time I feel like this inside
There’s one thing I wanna know
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? Oh-oh
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding?

And as I walk on through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong, and who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony, sweet harmony?

‘Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? Oh-oh
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding?-song, (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding? by Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Elvis asked a great question: “What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding?”

What is so funny about it?

Why can’t we have it?

And don’t accept the status quo or premise “that’s just the way it is.”

All great change and advancement starts with first asking the question, being open to what is revealed and then taking action. Drip by drip. Step by step.

Perhaps someday, peace, love and understanding, won’t be so funny. It’ll just be the way it is.

P.S. – This awesome Nick Lowe cover of Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ masterpiece.

P.P.S. – Speaking of doing the work, these wise words from Patti.

The saga continues
Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang

Olympic torch flaming, we burn so sweet
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat -song “Triumph” by Wu-Tang Clan

“Whatever anyone does or says, for my part I’m bound to the good. In the same way an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim: ‘whatever anyone does or says, I must be what I am and show my true colors.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

When your team wins, it feels great for a short while, and then it ends.

When your team loses, it feels awful for a short while, and then it ends.

What never ends is the work. That’s your true north. It’s always there, waiting for you. You can count on it.

What are you passionate about?

What do you care enough to sacrifice for?

What change do you seek to make?

What art do you wish to create?

What actions will you take?

Focus on doing the work. The work, the work, the work.

I was far away, standing in the rain before the sleeping lion of Lucerne, a colossal, noble, stoic lion carved from the rock of a low cliff. The rain fell, obscuring tears. I knew that I would see Sam again somewhere in the landscape of dream, but at that moment I imagined I was back in Kentucky, with the rolling fields and the creek that widens into a small river. I pictured Sam’s books lining the shelves, his boots lined against the wall, beneath the window where he would watch the horses grazing by the wooden fence. I pictured myself sitting at the kitchen table, reaching for that tattooed hand.

A long time ago, Sam sent me a letter. A long one, where he told me of a dream that he had hoped would never end. “He dreams of horses,” I told the lion. “Fix it for him, will you? Have Big Red waiting for him, a true champion. He won’t need a saddle, he won’t need anything.” I headed to the French border, a crescent moon rising in the black sky. I said goodbye to my buddy, calling to him, in the dead of night. -excerpt from the essay “My Buddy” by Patti Smith in The New Yorker

You know what today is don’t you?

It’s Sam Shepard’s birthday! He would’ve been 81 today. Happy birthday to the legend and fellow Scorpio brother.

If you’re looking for a break from today’s maddening and non-stop election news cycle, then why not celebrate Sam and read one of his great plays. Or his book of short stories, poems and monologues, Hawk Moon. Or one of my personal favorites, his quasi-diary of autobiographical reveries, Motel Chronicles.

And for a few minutes of levity, check out this clip of Sam and Patti playing music together. It will make you smile.

“At one point, when [Steve] Martin and [Robin] Williams had been dominating the table, he [Nichols] abruptly said, “Let’s change parts,” and had [Bill] Irwin read Martin’s role and [F. Murray] Abraham read Williams’s. He let the scene play for some time before saying, “Okay, that’s enough.” Martin nodded and said, “I learned a lot” from reading Lucky. Nichols replied, “It’s not so easy, is it?”” -excerpt from the book, Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris

For the actor…

If you’re having trouble figuring out what you want in the scene, trying reading it from the other person’s point of view. Switch roles. Their action might become more obvious to you. With which case you can then just pick an opposing action for your actual character. Presto! Instant conflict and now it’s a fun scene to play and a compelling one to watch.

This is also a great exercise for the director in rehearsals. Mike Nichols used it throughout his career including in his production of Waiting For Godot (excerpt listed above). Just like Steve Martin found out, switching roles can engender empathy throughout the entire ensemble.

Walking in someone’s else’s shoes is never a bad thing. In rehearsals and in life.

And after all, isn’t that why we do and see theatre in the first place? To gain a deeper understanding about the entire human condition.

“There is taste in people, visual taste, taste in emotion — and there is taste in acts, taste in morality. Intelligence, as well, is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas. One of the facts to be reckoned with is that taste tends to develop very unevenly. It’s rare that the same person has good visual taste and good taste in people and taste in ideas.” -Susan Sontag

“Good taste is simply to have a well formed opinion, in accordance with the realities of the Good and the True.” -John Folley

“The way I revise is: I read my own text and imagine a little meter in my head, with “P” on one side (“Positive”) and “N” on the other (“Negative”)… This involves making thousands of what I’ve come to think of as “micro-decisions.” These are instantaneous, intuitive – I just prefer this to that… I just have a feeling and react to that feeling, in the form of a cut phrase, or an added word, or an urge to move this whole section, and so on. And then I do that over and over, for months, sometimes years, until that needle stays up in the “P” zone for the whole length of the text…With each choice, even the smallest ones, the story becomes more and more…well, it becomes more her, you could say. There’s more of her essential nature in it, more of what will distinguish her from all of those other writers out there. And gradually, the story starts to become something she couldn’t have foreseen when she started out – bigger, more complex, smarter, funnier, whatever.” -George Saunders

“When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.” -Picasso

If you want to develop your talent, first develop your taste. As so much of talent is taste. Knowing what you love and why you love it. And then making what you love.

For more on this, read Brie Wolfson’s excellent essay.

It’s scary to make and then release your art to the world.

But you know what’s even scarier?

Not doing it because you’re afraid of what people might think.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Unleash your inner wolf.

A stunningly good poem by Kahlil Gibran that I’ll just let speak for itself…

“Fear”

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.” -Epictetus, Discourses

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing . . . to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” -Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

A consistent theme of this blog is embracing the Stoic principle that while we don’t control the events of our lives, we do control our outlook on these events. Here’s a story that reinforces this timeless wisdom (h/t to Sahil Bloom’s always excellent Curiosity Chronicle for providing)…

Two salesmen were sent by a shoe manufacturer to a rural part of India to investigate and report back on market potential.
​
The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here. Nobody wears shoes.”
​
The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here. Nobody wears shoes.“

Exact same event.

Two completely different outlooks.

You get to choose.

And it is your choice that dictates everything that comes next.

So, what’s it gonna be? What choice will you make? What path will you take?