REINVENTING MOJO : May 2013

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."
Henry Ford

I've been thinking today. Yeah, it's been a while since I do that. Haven't written anything in weeks.

Today marks the conclusion of my 11th year teaching art in an elementary school. Eleven! My previous career lasted for about 11 years. I worked as a sound designer but mostly a theatrical sound technician/ engineer. Also in 11 more years I will be eligible to retire with the rule of 80 (age + years of service.) This is also the 11-year anniversary of this blog. No kidding! I started this thing when I was working part-time at the library. I love the number eleven. "...These go to 11!"

My first full-time job out of college took me to Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine. Twenty three years ago right? I remember walking down the street a week after I got there, and as I was in the crosswalk I saw this girl named Cinnamon (there are not many people in the world with that name) passing by me. She was the director for one of the student shows we did at UC Santa Cruz. I was stunned momentarily so I didn't get to say anything to her. After all, Portland was 3000 miles away from Santa Cruz, the place where we last saw each other. I thought of the song "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

The thing about working in the "theatre" is you get to move around the country frequently, no matter how good or how nice or how dedicated you are. Especially for actors and designers. My first summer stock theater job was at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It's a beautiful rustic charming outdoor theater up the hill in the countryside. One weekend before the season started I ventured down to State Street (equivalent of Santa Cruz's Pacific Garden) on the campus of University of Wisconsin at Madison. Lovely liberal progressive city with tons of coffee shops (this was before the Starbucks explosion), record stores, used book stores, five big lakes and great parks. I spent hours walking up and down that street just watching people, browsing books and magazines and listening to street musicians and drinking tons of java. Espresso, cappuccino, mocha, latte... I didn't drink alcohol back then. I only started having a beer or a glass of wine after I started teaching in 2002. I think my fellow educators can understand that completely.

Anyway, back to Madison, Wisconsin. I can still smell that coffee shop's aromatic caffeine fragrance to this day. Grunge just began in Seattle and Nirvana recorded Nevermind at a local studio (Smart Studios) owned by Butch Vitch before his days with the band Garbage. Didn't know who the heck this Butch Vig was and I was sure not a fan of Nirvana at the time because their music was being played on top 40 radio ALL the time. Eventually I subbed for a DJ one late Sunday night (12-3 AM shift) on the community radio station WORT-FM. I dug Madison, this city was kinda like the Santa Cruz/ Berkeley of the MidWest, but not as culturally diverse, if you know what I mean. Then one day I saw another UCSC student on the other side of the street. I never knew his name, I just know that I saw him previously at Porter College and once in a while at the radio station KZSC-FM. Dude with long curly hair, dark clothing and always wearing shades. Could be a generic Goth in any city, USA? Nah, this was definitely him. I was certain. Oh yes, Madison Wisconsin. Nick names: 77 square miles surrounding by Reality. The People Republic of Madison. A Drinking City with a College problem. Home office of American Family Insurance-that damn catchy jingle I hear on the Tee Vee all the time.

The next theater was Baltimore Center Stage in 1992. I was an electrician/ assistant audio engineer. This was the place where I met my wife. Kathy was a stage management intern. We're still together 21 years later. Or as I thought about it, three decades (90's, 00's, 10's), two centuries (1900 & 2000) and two millennia. I was there in Baltimore, "the city that reads," for exactly one year. Because the next season I was hired as a sound engineer for the Dallas Theater Center. The production manager who hired me was another UC Santa Cruz alumni, Ben Thoron. We knew each other and had some undergrad classes together at UCSC. Ben went on to get his MFA degree at Yale School of Drama. He is a couple of years younger than me. Ben is now the Technical Director at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, America's finest city. There is my point about a career in the theater.

Me and Kathy in front of Baltimore Center Stage-19 years later

It's true about "everything is big in Texas." I had enough of that state after one short year in Dallas, "the Big D." Kathy and I got back together in Smyrna, a city just outside of Atlanta, the city too busy to hate. I did odd jobs, quit theater, and went back to college to get my teaching degree. I got my second bachelor's degree. This time it's a B.S. at Kennesaw State. Even graduated summa cum laude. We moved several times after that, more like another ten times. We got married, bought a house, sold it, rented condo, duplex and different houses. Craigslist. Don't judge. Hard to believe but I've been here in the South for 19 years now. The longest I have lived anywhere.

Oh, the UC Santa Cruz connection continues. Around 1998, when I was still working at the Tony award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta I saw another alumna, Juliette Carillo who was just in town to guest direct a show on the Main Stage. I did remember seeing her in a production of West Side Story about ten years back at our school theater department. Her dad Eduardo was an art professor and did a mural for the set design. I just started the theater program after switching my major from computer science-but that's another topic for another day. I talked to her briefly in the green room during tech one evening. Professor Carillo has just passed away recently so she seemed touched that I remembered him and told her what I thought of his artwork and the groovy times we spent at the University of California Santa Cruz.

These days I work with children. And I mean the students. School is officially out for the year as of today. Here are some ways I say good bye to them: