MeyerBros

Unprotected feet carry you through a dark room
Guess where the furniture is before you smash your toes
Like tripping and giggling through an exciting encounter
Flirting shamelessly
The goals are clear: get to the light switch, the door, or the bed
Just don’t let him scratch your unshielded heart in the process
Through I suppose being barefoot is half the thrill

The poem isnt the interesting part. In fact there isnt one. An interesting part I mean. Should the title be “Flirting with Disatster” or “Flirting With Your Eyes Closed in a Dark Room”?

i’m in Cambodia on SST with a group from Goshen College. my real family has been asking for some photos of me with my host family here in Cambodia, and I thought this was the easiest place to post them.

the first one is a photo of my house. this is the main (and only non-bedroom) room in the house. my cot is to the right, covered with a red and white sheet.
the next one is my family. clockwise from back left: brother Sam’oun (22), brother Piseth (26), brother Sehung (28), sister Sambok (30) who lives down the road in her shop, and brother Tanheng (36) who lives in Australia with his wife and one child. In the front row are my parents, mother Simen (56) and father Saran (60) Ngin.
the third photo is me with my family eating dinner at the “dinner table”.
the fourth one is 5 of my classmates with me in Khmer language class with Mr. Meng.
the last photo has both of my parents.

or something. bought my first car a few weeks ago - had my first accident last night. divine justice.

ran a green light and payed the price. silly me.

lessons to be learned (beyond the obvious jesus bit):

• when the cop says “the tow truck is on it’s way - you can go now” what he means is - “find someone with a tow-strap quick, you moron - they’re going to drain your pitzy bank account so fast you’ll think it’s the rapture.” there wasn’t a translator on hand. i left. (charged me two days storage (in well under 24 hours) and an extra fine for sweeping the intersection)
• when the insurance company says you are covered - they mean unless you aren’t. and a hit-and-run motorist is very different from an uninsured motorist, because, you see, he could be insured.
• when the light is green you are in grave danger of being side-swiped by a big-ass Ford or Chevy with a shiny new paint job. them’s is the real pimp new wheels.
• jesus want’s me to drive a jeep. who would have thought?

In my history class, we were asked to write a short paper telling our thoughts on the 9/11 and how they have changed after five years. I realized that one of my main feelings after hearing the news of the destruction was hope. I thought that maybe the US would wake up and realize that we can’t keep on stomping on everyone else. Its kind of obvious now that my dreams weren’t fulfilled and there are a lot of wars going on. So pretty much, I was totally wrong.

i live at new world arts, though i can occasionally be found working, eating or sleeping at other places.

danny and the deep blue sea opens in two weeks. it clicked the other day and if we weren’t an a three day hiatus from it, we’d be on a roll. (i’m sure we will be when we come back, but it’s hard to take a break right when you hit the real thing). we’re doing some exciting things, and it looks like we may even have the gold mine pickers working with us (still up in the air a bit). very very sweet. i’m riding the wave on that one.

fear/falling has been filling in the cracks at this point. a rehearsal here and there when we can’t be rehearsing for danny/deep. it’s a harder way to work, and i’ll be glad to focus in on it one danny opens.

every show i work on hits an awkward stage around adolecence. struggles with it’s sexuality and trips over itself. it’s voice breaks and we’re all a bit embarassed for it. but it seems to be the same wise and simple piece of advice from Michelle that always helps me find my way through it. it’s a piece of advice she credits her actor training for.

“stop trying. you don’t have to do anything.”

oh yeah. we have this idea as actors and directors that it should be hard work - that we need to do more for it to be good - but often the opposite is true.

i’m looking forward to walking into tomorrow’s fear/falling rehearsal with renewed sense of simplicity. i may also set my backpack page to send me a reminder in mid-january - in the middle of rehearsals for Limonade Tous Les Jours - to stop trying. I know I’ll need to hear it.

For those of you interested, download this (Windows) program to remind you of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries of your friends and family. Developed by David Glick with a requested $5/computer fee. Click the link below to download:

reminder.exe

what? guilty pleasures? no, i feel no guilt for being addicted to the indianapolis colts and american football. ok, i’ll come right out and say it — i’m really pumped for the Hall of Fame Game (Oakland vs. Philadelphia) next weekend, and even more the nationally televised preseason opener (Indianapolis at St. Louis) on august 10.

for those of you who follow american football (mainly carl, i suppose), i think the colts are going to be a big contender again this year. Edge was a great player, but Addai has speed and the ability to make big plays, and i think he’ll be impressive. i suppose it depends somewhat on his intelligence and how quickly he can pick up the crazy audible and offensive game-plan system that the colts use (according to Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz, it’s “more complicated that the federal tax code”).

in short, i think dominic rhodes and joseph addai can carry the ball, block and receive as well as edge could, at least by the end of the season and into the playoffs, which is (i hope) when it will really matter.

in other (similar) news, wide receiver reggie wayne showed up to training camp wearing former teammate edge’s new arizona cardinals jersey.

and now, changing sports, floyd landis has been (unofficially) accused of doping in his amazing stage 17 win of the tour de france. his first test was positive for having an abnormally high level of testosterone, and we’re still awaiting the backup sample to see if it shows the same thing. landis claims he has naturally high testosterone levels, which is possible but unlikely. hmm, we’ll see what happens…

—your local sports geek

so after downloading 17 widgets off of the dashboard top 50 list (check it out Mac users — there are some cool ones there), david told me about last.fm. it automatically “scrobbles” (records) the music that you listen to on your computer, which…hmm…has some helpful purpose i’m sure. but it’s fun, and you can see what music your friends are listening to and find people who listen to similar music. you can also create custom streaming radio stations. and best of all, you can successfully waste an entire afternoon and not feel guilty about it.

in other news, floyd landis lost the yellow jersey today, but not to a main competitor. i think he’ll be able to get it back this week.

so i saw Syriana the other night (i should note that i watched most of the movie by myself, because aparently it wasn’t good enough to keep the attention of hannah and kelly for more than 45 minutes). i thought it was a decent movie, but way too complicated to really understand without rewinding a few times. i have to admit that i actually watched 3/4 of the movie, read the wikipedia synopsis, and then finished the movie. i had most of the plotlines and characters correct, but there were a few things i definitely would not have caught without reading the synopsis, even after watching the entire movie. perhaps the characters are a bit stereotyped (especially how all Arabs are presented as puppets of the US). oh, and it criticizes the US, which is why columnist Charles Krauthammer says “Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction.” well, i’d like to see him try anyway.

The other evening I was on the way home on the London Underground, waiting for the Northern line train. I walked onto the platform and sat down on one of the benches beside a middle aged man. At first I didn’t notice anything unusual about him; he had tight cropped hair, calloused hands and his skin looked like a man who had spent much of his life in the outdoors. But some of the details were slightly off, like the bottom of his trousers which were tightly cuffed in a way not usually fashionable among men of his age.

A minute or two after I sat down, a train pulled into the station. As it blew by us and then pulled to a stop, he frantically scrawled six five digit number in red ink across a single page of his notebook. 57801, 57301… Though he had been staring straight ahead the entire time, he had somehow managed to read the numbers of each of the six carriages in front of us as they had whizzed by. I realized I was in the presence of a tube spotter and a very good one at that.

As the tube train pulled away from the platform, the man leaned back in visible satisfaction and took a swig from his soda. He was having a great time. As we sat waiting for the next train he began quietly, gruffly humming to himself in an unself-concious. It wasn’t an unpleasant sound, but enough to clearly signal that he was not aware of the social conventions or norms of the space. He vaguely flipped through his notebook and I saw six carriage numbers scrawed broadly across each page. There must have been at least 40 full pages. As he absent mindedly caressed the pages, I began to recognise patterns that were familiar to me from working with autistic clients.

Soon the next train could be heard, roaring down the tunnel. I watched my new friend lean forward in anticipation, his pen poised above his notebook as the air rushed out of the tunnel ahead of the train. And then it was upon us and past us. Again as it went passed he fixed his stare straight ahead for one second before his hand jumped across the page scrawling six more long red numbers. It was my train, so I got on and left him there, sitting happily on the bench by the platform.

this is an expiriment in reviewing a book in the style of the book itself. don’t trust it. in fact, i wouldn’t bother reading it. it goes bad by the end of the first paragraph, and paragraph three is entirely innapropriate. some of the comments might be interesting though. you could just skip to them.

this isn’t right.

this is right. it’s the only way to do this, get it all over with at once. it’ll be great. self referential and everything, just like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, except more so because it’s a review written in the style of the book. maybe even from the perspective of the author. no. yes. or as me writing as the author or the other way around. a self aware review mixed with vacation memoire about a memoir book. it’ll be the best thing i’ve ever written. it is the best thing i’ve ever written. you’re going to love it. you do love it. you hate it. i can tell you hate it. you’re never going to talk to me again. i’ll become depressed and and start drinking too much - random sex without condoms - AIDS - and then you’ll feel sorry. why don’t you like me anymore?

i really wasn’t that impressed with several things. AHWOSG, for one, and the eiffel tour for two. also versailles and AHWOSG again. the book just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. i wasn’t sure it went anywhere. the eiffel tour and versailles certainly did not go anywhere. they were big.

i should probably also mention that i haven’t had much sex in a while (with or without condoms) and even masturbation has been lacking. and while i know i will be judged by all of you for saying that, it doesn’t really matter because i could be lying. i am lying. maybe i’m lying. if i am i apologise, but still think you deserve it.

the point is, the book didn’t do much for me. neither did the french revolution. french cheese on the other hand… and oh the fondue… etc.

orgasmic, you might say.

is this pornography? how will we know? can we define the destinction between art and porn? can dave eggers define it? bobby meyer-lee? who’s definition would we go by?

how about mental illness? who defines that? who has it? what should we do about it?

racism?

this is an apology for this post. i’m very sorry. i’m not sorry. blame dave.

1. sum up family vacation in france
2. review heartbreaking work of staggering genius (book)
3. review blue/orange (play)
4. list projects/books in the works
5. take a shower

Eduardo Machado is a Cuban (/American) playwright with a lot to say. He gave a pretty gutsy talk a couple weeks ago that I find inspiring, challenging and moving. I am in the midst of finishing up plans for the next New World Arts season, and some of what he said hit me right in the gut.

He weaves together thoughts about immigration, the wall being built on the Mexico border, and his own experiences as a green card-carrying immigrant. His treatment as an “outsider” by a profession (theatre) that I believe should be on the cutting edge of acceptance is appalling. This flows into his thoughts about theatre, about not trying to make audiences happy, and about bravery. He rails against rampant entitlement issues, including the “entitlement” to be trained as a theatre artist - which really just plays into making theatre more corporate-minded.
(more…)

spur of the moment michelle mentions that i need to get film footage of paris for Limonade Tous les Jours, a great little duet/play by Chuck Mee that we’re talking about for this season at New World and dad mentions that he has an old video camera that may or may not work so we get it out and play with it over footage of derek bontreger and doyle preheim at the damn in “The Town Where No One Got Off”. it worked.

so then we’re running to wal-mart because it’s the only place still open and buying miniDV tapes so i can do my thing when i realize i really really want an mp3 player for the trip and they have them fairly cheap and i could sell it on ebay later if i want to so here goes. and there went.

now i’m listening to it and it’s working fairly well. well enough for this trip.

france, here i come: OO AE DOO FROMAGE? DOE NAE MUA POO DE FROMAGE. EH LA VEH. (merci)

Today Charletta and I followed in Hannah and Jonny’s footsteps and went to check out Hadrian’s wall. Turns out its pretty much like Jonny described it, complete with latrines, infloor heating and gorgeous scenery. Since he’s pretty much described the construction and posted photos, I thought I’d digress along some related bunny trails.

Our guide for our trip today was Colin, Charletta’s colleague at Bridge Builders. He’s a local and enjoyed tearing along the local roads which he was quick to point out are distinctively Roman with their determination to go straight over any obstacle rather than around them as most other local roads do. We mused about the way this fit with the Roman ethos in general. I pointed out that roads in the American midwest also have this tendancy.

Along the same lines we speculated a bit about the impetous for building the wall. As Jonny explained, Hadrian claimed that the wall was to keep out Scottish barbarians. But that might not have been its only purpose. Colin pointed out that the wall was also probably a handy way to keep farmers from heading north to escape Roman taxation. Furthermore, upon reading many of the helpful plaques installed by English Heritage sites, we discovered that everyone passing through the gates in the wall were required to pay a poll or tax.

Does this sound familiar? Powerful imperial leader uses fear of violent attacks against citizens to justify clampdown on local citizens and building a really long wall?

hannah and i made it safely to bulgaria this afternoon, though we were an hour late or so. we were picked up by Susan Hunsberger (Hannah’s aunt on the Graber side) and driven the 30 minutes to their amazing new house on the side of a mountain overlooking the outskirts of the city. we sat around and had some snacks (and tried the local beer), sat in the jacuzzi, and watched England beat Paraguay in the first full day of the World Cup. now getting ready for supper. not bad, not bad at all…

So we saw Jane Eyre tonight at Trafalgar Studios on the West End. Great directing, great acting, great set, great lighting–great show! The company is Shared Experience, and Polly Teale is co-Artistic Director. No wonder they’ve performed After Mrs. Rochester a lot, and now also Jane Eyre and another one she wrote called Bronte. Helen Edmundson, who wrote Mill On the Floss used to be a member of the company as well. But yeah, it was definitely worth the amazing 4th row center 17.50 pound seats (man I love London’s student concessions).

Tomorrow morning we’re up early to catch a 5:30 am cab to Heathrow airport, and then on to Bulgaria!

on our last day in newcastle, we took a boat ride out to the farne islands and saw a bunch of birds. it was windy (and became very foggy), but the cuteness of the puffins made up for the weather.

then we went and saw yet another castle: bamburgh, which is still being lived in.

on the way back to Newcastle we stopped by alnwick castle and gardens, which as i mentioned earlier is being lived in by the percy family (the current duke and duchess of northumberland). this is where the quidditch matches from harry potter were filmed, among other things. it was definitely a tourist trap, but still rather interesting.

yesterday morning we visited belsay hall, garden and castle, and we got to watch some very serious croquet players warming up.

yesterday afternoon we traveled by train to London and arrived at London Mennonite Centre just in time for a nice supper with Tim and Charletta and then a game of San Juan with the above-mentioned and their friend Joel. good times–and they baked me a birthday cake, which certainly made for even better times. thanks, tim.

LMC is such a beautiful place; I could stay here for a long time just relaxing. instead, i’ll leave really early tomorrow morning for the airport and eventually bulgaria. tonight we’re going to try to see “Jane Eyre” at Trafalgar Studios on the West End. It’s written by Charlotte Bronte, and adapted and directed by Polly Teale (who wrote “After Mrs. Rochester”). if we can’t get tickets for that, we’ll try to see “Sunday In the Park with George,” which aparently is a pretty amazing production. we’ll see.

we’re spending a lot of time trying to decide what we’re going to do with our last week here in europe, after the 15-day family par-tay. we’ve narrowed it down to 4 options: hike across england on hadrian’s wall, come back to LMC to relax and see shows, go somewhere random (Italy? Spain? Corsica?), or find a cozy B&B or Hostel in southern France or Eastern Switzerland. anyone have any suggestions? we like: hiking, good food, affordable lodging ($20-40/person/night), and beaches, if possible. we could do without beaches if we have nice weather for hiking instead. so let us know where we should go…

to be honest, i didn’t expect newcastle to be near as beautiful or exciting as it has been. well actually, i’ve seen very little of the city of newcastle, but the surrounding area is great. my mind has spent most of the trip so far in 100-300 a.d. (don’t ask me what that means). today we hiked a beautiful section of hadrian’s wall. apparently, roman emperor hadrian thought it’d be a cool idea to build a wall across northern england to keep the scots out of the roman land. this was built some time in the 2nd century, and much of it is still standing today. (we’re standing on top of the wall, and you can see it extending over the ridge in the background. it’s stone, with grass growing on top).

there’s a castle/fort every 5-8 miles, and then a tower every mile in between. we began in the ruins of housesteads fort and hiked east for 2 hours, some on the wall but mostly on the trail beside it. the ruins of housesteads fort itself are pretty darn cool, and include a very “advanced” latrine.

they sat on wooden benches around the edge of the room and water flowed in one side and out the other, so they basically had flush toilets. simply the fact that these stones (even the water troughs) remain 2000 years later boggles my mind… there was also a room (for the commander) where the floor was missing and we could see the gap under the floor for heated air that travelled up vents in the walls. man, this fort was more advanced than my house!

luckily, that’s a lie. but anyway, it was impressive.

tomorrow we see some puffins on an island, and a castle that’s still in use. it’s where the current duke and duchess (the percy family, who also owned warkworth castle) live. it’s the place where the quidditch matches were filmed for the harry potter movies, and the stadium is on the castle grounds. you should be jealous by now…

oh, by the way, i added photos to my last post too, so check that out again.