Robert Bettmann – Page 68 – Robert Bettmann

Pinball Wizard

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I went to an interesting “Networking event” last night. It was hosted by CreativesDC. CreativesDC is a ning-group/social utility that is trying to crowd-source artistic activity. If you’re a local artist, or local interested in the arts, it’s worth it to join up. Free, too.

The purpose of the event was to mingle, and also to get ideas for the District’s Creative Economy work. Sakhina Khan from the Deputy Mayor’s office for Economic Development was there with the consultant who is doing the research. It was organized by Philipa Hughes (Pinkline) and Neil Takemoto (Cooltown beta – creators of the DC ning.)

It was a really interesting group of people. I had a good time seeing people I knew, and meeting lots who I didn’t know. I sort of stopped having a good time, and wish I had left earlier.

I heard this song – Pinball Wizard – a few days ago, and it made me think of how what we don’t have can influence what we do have. That deaf, dumb and blind kid: sure played a mean pinball.

I fixed the problem I was having with the header in my freelance site this morning, and installed a rotating image in the sidebar.

It’s Personal

I just watched ‘Taken’, the new movie with Liam Neeson online. I hate to encourage bad behaviour, but for those who don’t know, if you google streaming movies, you can pretty much watch anything in the theaters right now on your computer. Of course, sometimes it’ll be a bad copy, dubbed in russian, with chinese subtitles, but most of the time they’re pretty good copies. What’s the morality there? We don’t get such slick Hollywood movies if “we” don’t pay for them. I would never have paid for that movie in a theater, but I digress… The story-line is quite simple. Liam Neeson kills bad people who are tormenting and killing good people (including his daughter, who they’ve abducted.) She was abducted to be forced into sex work.

What’s the morality there? If they aren’t forced into it, prostitution is all good? Not infrequently people find themselves desperate, with few options, and plenty of bad people there to encourage them to worse choices…. Prostitution is peachey if done out of economic desperation? Prostitution is peachy if not done out of economic desperation? I digress, again.

The line in the movie that sticks with you is when he kills yet another bad guy. The bad guy says: “It wasn’t personal”. This particular bad guy runs the auction house where Liam’s daughter was sold. Liam says: “It was personal to me.” The good part of the movie is seeing all the bad people get obliterated. Most of the time that doesn’t happen, though. Most of the time we just don’t see them.

HIPS was founded in 1993 by community and police representatives in response to recognized need for specialized services for youth engaging in sex for gain in Washington, D.C.

HIPS reaches over 100 sex workers each night on outreach and makes over 8,000 contacts each year. That is from the HIPS website.

Just because we aren’t seeing it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And most of the time Liam Neeson isn’t there to make it personal. I don’t know what the solution is. It seems as long as there is demand, be it for bootleg whiskey, cocaine, or young women/men, people will fill the supply. Prosecution is critical. Support for the vulnerable is critical. So is encouraging responsible personal choice from everyone you ever come into contact with. That’s the best I got. And if you can, please consider supporting HIPS with a donation today.

One of the great things about doing well in capitalism is that it buys you distance from things. It buys you isolation. I’m inspired by the people – including the people who work at HIPS – who voluntarilly confront difficulties that they could buy their way out of sight from.

All Good Men thoughts

I’ve been working on the script for “All Good Men”. All Good Men is my name for the adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s fimscript The Doctor and the Devils into a dance/theater event.

The characters are very complex. Because the story deals with societal acceptance issues, I’m considering re-accenting parts of the story. There are some interesting parallels between the main storyline – people who are killed so that their bodies can be sold as cadavers to medical schools – and sex work. One of the main characters – who gets killed – is actually a tavern-girl/hooker. The killers are motivated in part by need, and in part by greed. I’m thinking about bodies, bodies for sale, and how that will work in as part of the production.

I’m thinking of highlighting that issue in one of the dances.

So I’ve been working on the text, figuring out where the dances might go, and what the dance might be performed to. I know that some of the dances are going to be performed to the read script. But at least at one point, music will overwhelm the read text, and dance will occur to music. I’m thinking about using this beatles song at a place where development occurs between three sets of characters, in subsequent scenes.

I heard the song on the radio the other day and thought it might work well for this. I don’t want to be too simplistic in creating my images for the audience. But it’s a nice song, and can be used both directly and ironically. I might use it.