intellectual properties

live to tell

sometimes i feel like all i do is go to work, go home, eat, sleep, and party on the weekends, rinse, repeat. but it’s not, i do a lot of other stuff too. perhaps because they are short and non-repeating, they seem to take up less of my life than the things that i do over, and over, and over again. anyway….

tuesday, we went to see Wanderlust @ The Marsh, a 90-minute monologue by Martin Dockery (not a lot on the web about that guy, so no good link), who is an old friend of Reagan’s, and, as it turns out, one hell of a storyteller.

the story started with a meditation on his 10-year non-career as a temp, including a very long temp position at the NYSE. similar to the “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” vonnegut quote i posted a few weeks ago, if you’re at a temp job for several years, isn’t that your job? isn’t that what you do, even if you are temporary? he had a blunt realization that he wasn’t just pretending to work in a cubicle at the NYSE; he WAS working in a cubicle at the NYSE. holy shit.

so that combined with inability to commit in love (“wanderLUST” does not only apply to travel) prompted him to take off for West Africa in search of his Big Meaning, the experience of which was not unlike our first attempt at doing the same in Thailand : the world is the world no matter where you go, and, it’s true, as they say: no matter where you go, there you are. attempting to run away for yourself never works, and expecting the other side of the world to somehow be more mystical and magic than the part of the world you live in is a high bar to reach. as it turns out, life is life all over. the end result was a realization that what you experience along the way is the magic: constantly searching for the Big Awakening while being bored with the “pony ride” you’re on just leads to never ending search: unquenchable wanderlust.

so obviously i identified with this very much, both because of the EXTREME travel-related wanderlust i’ve been experiencing for…years….which is now coming to a head with the “big plans” we have for 2008, and also because of general feelings of ennui with my current idiom as a whole. learning to be happy with what one has/where one is at…. that’s the greatest challenge of life. it does not mean i think we should not seek, but seeking endlessly despite the magic around you is just plain tragic.

wednesday we went to a benefit/celebration for my friend jayeesha’s budding NGO, mind power collective, an organization for “progressive educators” who believe teaching is a social justice action and that teachers have a responsibility to a) fight for justice in the educational system and b) teach their children about social justice issues and how to fight against inequality. good hip hop, good times.

and then last night, miranda and i went to the 48 hour film project – san francisco screenings to see the film produced by my friend danielle of missing piece SF. the 48 hour film project works as such: each crew is given 1. a prop (in this case, a jar of coins) 2. a line of dialogue (“Call me when you hear anything.“) and 3. a genre (horror, action, romance, etc.). everyone then has 48 hours to a)write script b)shoot footage c)edit d)submit. i’m sure many of them write generic scripts ahead of time that they then just try to adapt to the genre (which was VERY obvious in a couple of cases), but it’s still a hell of a challenge. many of them were decent, and i hate to think that i’m biased, but i do think Missing Piece’s film was the best. hopefully she’ll post it online soon and you can watch. it was great to see so many inspired and creative people in the theatre, all totally geeking out on the 48 hour film idea and supporting their friends in these ridiculous artistic endeavors.

so back to my wanderlust: i fully recognize that i live in an amazing city and am surrounded by this constantly-inspiring community of writers, artists, designers, singers, dancers, and all that a true bohemian wants and needs to keep body, mind and soul nourished. yet, still, there’s a big wide world out there i’ve never seen. will i, like martin dockery and The Alchemist, wander in the Sahara only to find that what i’m searching for is here? probably. but the trip will still be worth it, if nothing else, for the stories.

Filed in art, autobiographical, bay area gems, travel | Tagged with missing piece, wanderlust | Comment (0)