Ch ch ch ch changes

I went to a conference once where 'Changes' was the theme and all through the event Bowie's Changes was played.  Essentially the conference was good but not that many changes in PR were clearly sketched at the time (late 90s).  When I reviewed the notes maybe 5 years ago when I was throwing stuff out it occured to me again that you don't always see the changes for what they are.  We talked about email and mentioned the web but the full extent of the revolution wasn't clear.

Anyway on a personal note I've been grappling with a few issues of career, family, passion and although what is changing is not obvious yet I have discovered my attitude towards writing is again altering. 

Falling behind the play

Having spent a few months working on a play that deals with climate change, a meteorologist and other issues called 'Weather' I was a little upset to find today another play called 'Weather' dealing with climate change and with a meteorologist is being read at Circa Theatre in a few weeks.

This isn't the first time this has happened. My play Real - looking at Real Estate was in the bag and had been workshopped by Playmarket and was awaiting performance, when Geraldine Brophy toured a play called Real Estate with a grant from Creative NZ. The difference that time was the titles didn't quite match up and mine seemed to have been clearly written 3 years earlier than hers, just not produced AND I didn't get a grant from Creative NZ.

And then there was the time I had a play about a cafe performed in a cafe and 3 months later found some students from Drama school were doing a play about a cafe set in a cafe.

My problems is I'm falling behind. The cafe play I was ahead, the Real Estate play I was ahead but ended up at the same time and the latest one clearly John Smyth had his on the drawing board longer as mine now is only ready for workshopping and his is at the stage of a rehearsed reading.

I'm worried now the next play I write will have me sued for plagarism even though I have no idea what anyone else is up to.

Juxtapositions

One of my hobbies is spotting retail outlets which have two unrelated and odd product lines. I remember well the central Wellington retail outlet for native American artefacts which was also a computer ink cartridge shop. In New Brighton in Christchurch there is a TV repair and gardening outlet. I have seen others, a fish and chip shop that sold sewing supplies is the one that comes to mind.

I'm thinking about these juxtapositions as I am watching the second series of Blackadder, (potato - the episode where Blackadder hires Capt Redbeard Rum to take them on voyage to discover new lands with the hope of marrying QE1 if he makes it round the Cape of Good Hope) as I read the results of the US Democratic primary in South Carolina. Obama has trounced Hillary Clinton and the pundits are blaming Bill and his aggression and noting that Obama has carried 49 % of the youth vote in the Democrat turnout, 24 % of the white vote and a good proportion of white males as well.

Blackadder and the US election system are both farce.

• The US election goes for a year before the election and in the event the popular vote is an irrelevence in the contests to elect delegates to the electoral college who actually make the decision. As seems evident, Al Gore beat GW Bush last time, based on gerrymandering, democratic voters being thrown off the role by Jeb Bush in Florida, and voting machines which didn't work.


• Blackadder is a parody which makes interesting observations about history, actors, elections, kings......


• Barack Obama and Blackadder look very similar according to my small TV and little computer. BarackAddmada


• They're both entertaining to watch.