INSPIRO ROBUSTAS - get inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I was commissioned to write an inspiring email each Friday to some teammates on a project. To give it focus and direction, I choose to theme it as "on this day...". Thus my new series: Inspiro Robustas.

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On this day, in 1994, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) was sworn into office as US Supreme Court Justice. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, she was only the second female justice, after Sandra Day O’Connor; and she was the first Jewish justice appointed to office in over two decades. RBG is considered to be first generation American, as her father was an immigrant, and her mother born to immigrants.

At the time of her nomination, she was viewed politically as a moderate, but since has become the senior member of what is referred to as the court’s “liberal wing”, and has advocated for a unified voice and opinion among members of that group. Among her opinions, she has most notably published her views on abortion, gender discrimination, search and seizure, and international law. She is most well-known and popular for her tireless efforts to move woman from the perceived second class status. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (r)
and Kate McKinnon as the Justice (l)

And in addition to her distinguished legal career – quite unlike her fellow justices -- her fame has grown into celebrity, and she is featured regularly as a pop culture icon with a documentary film about her in theatres now, several published works including a workout book, she was even one of Glamour’s Women of the Year and Time magazines 100 Most Influential People. RBG now inspires rap songs, memes, portrayals on SNL, paintings in the Smithsonian, the naming of new species of insects, even Halloween costumes.

And while her inspiring career has been spent largely fighting for gender equality, she does at least as much to inspire young girls and women to set their goals higher and reach farther than before. 

 

The Doctored Gin Martini

A drink a day will make you live longer.
No a drink a day will not make you live longer. 

While we continue to debate the efficacy of a drink a day to lengthen life, I propose a truce in the info-war. And in the peace that follows, I suggest you try a delicious gin martini made from "doctored up" gin. I found this idea first in a ladies magazine -- I wish I could find the reference now -- of a somewhat Indian, saffron-gin infusion. Last weekend I picked up a cheap bottle of gin and thought, "hey this is the day". But then of course, I couldn't find the recipe anywhere. So I did a google-search and found a bunch of suggestions to purchase, but only one solid reference to making this at home but through a two-week steep of spices. The original recipe was a stove-top affair. So I remembered what I could, used the details from the online directions...and viola: Doctored Gin. The greatest benefit here is that all the spices are known to have healthful effects. So drink up,  and possibly live longer. Or drink up and enjoy what time you got. 

 

Doctored Gin

1 bottle of good gin (Bombay is the preference)
1 pinch saffron
1 cinnamon stick
1 whole clove
1 cardamon pod
1/4 c white sugar

Combine all ingredients into a saucepan, heating gently and stirring to match. Do not boil. Simply heat until the sugar is incorporated. Allow to cool to room temperature.  Strain back into the original bottle or into a decanter.

Serve as a martini, on the rocks or shaken and served up. Or you can try with tonic.

Trope's Empire

I've really been digging reading the analytic breakdowns of tv tropes located here. Firstly, I love that there's a name for...like every trope! What's it called when there's always a happy ending on a show? Old relative dies and leaves the main character money? And it's all cross-referenced. So for example, if you look up Joanie Loves Chachi, you'll come to Happy Days spin-offs and the original series, which will then lead you to Jumping the Shark which will then give you a really in-depth listing of ways to Jump the Shark (whether it be by cast change, character or plot development, gimmick, or behind the scenes developments which can be seen on-screen), and finally numerous examples in everything from tv/film and fan fiction, to comic books and gaming.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON: you will waste your life, happily, at this site.

"Crap!" Stage

Crap. I'm at that stage of this podcast writing, and I just can't do it. I can't finish it. I have 3 episodes un-named...why did I start so large? Why do I always start so big? It's ridiculous. It would be different if I built it up to this size.

I've got 3 episodes unnamed, without a theme. I've got 6 episodes still to write. I feel out of ideas right now. I need someone else to write one of them, it's not my voice. I need a major rewrite on all of the ones that are actually done. I'm an idiot. God.

Why do I always do this to myself? People coming over: why don't I make 3 entrees? Friend stopping by: I'll bake a cake? Need to develop a short podcast format: why don't I go for a 10 episode varied-format structure, and hey let's make sure they're completely scripted and have an over-arching storyline/theme. Jesus.

I could kick myself for being such an idiot.

Know thyself

"The greatest gift is self-awareness. That's when you realize the beauty of life. If you're not self-aware, then you're lost." - Pharrell Williams, Esquire Magazine, February 2017.


"I'm revamping here." - Eustace Allen, after reading the above.

How to do standup in 3 days

I've spent the last week building a stand up set.

Yes you read that right. After years and years of being sort of anti-standup (thank you 1990's for that legacy), I was cast in a role that encouraged it. In fact, it required it. The Comedy Roast of Scrooge was a skewering of Charles Dickens' famous miser, administered by most of the major characters from A Christmas Carol. Then Scrooge does his roast of everyone, including the audience. Hilarious in idea, but the actual process was such an intense prep with only 3 rehearsals, and as many days to write a set for the first time.

How to write a standup set in 3 days

Subtitle: You probably can't, but it's possible in 5

Day1
I came in thinking "oh I can do this" with the addendum "by opening". Thankfully, I didn't have anything to do on Day2, because the feedback at the first rehearsal was "you have work to do, by opening" since I had nothing yet written. By midnight, I had my first draft: wordy, over explained, low payoff on the joke: not a great combination, but at least a start.

Day2
I starting writing from the moment I got up. I got to the point that I was trying out jokes on Rob every time we communicated during the day. He was not impressed. The rest of the day was culling and refining. I finished my set just in time to get to rehearsal and find out that it was a boring 13 mins, and it needed to get down to a hilarious 7.

Day3
I took the morning off, but started back on it just after lunch. I spent nearly 5 hours culling, rewriting, using a thesaurus for word choice, cutting, recutting. I got the set down to a good series of laughs at 9 mins, but at rehearsal it was still too wordy. And it was clear the tact I had taken was too soft, it needed to be quicker, shorter, more for the throat. I felt angry, hurt, betrayed, scared. I went to bed telling Bob Cratchit jokes and trying to figure out how to grill Jacob Marley one little bit harder.

Dayoftheshow, y'all
I woke up telling jokes, everything had a punch line. That continued while in the line at Starbucks for a eye-opener. I called Rob to confess my fear of failure, and it continued there. I fired up my old laptop determined to start over, cutting out nearly every original joke I had and ending with 7 jokes on a really blank page, almost all about Tiny Tim. I sat down and wrote every new joke I could. I added at least 25 new jokes, only to cut more than half. Then I did that again. Now I had an interesting set, but it needed order. I flew through and sorted them out to a solid two page set. But there were still a few clunkers that I held on to for prides sake.

At performance, I pulled it off with a lot of charm but it was still slow and too long.

Refinement
Ok so this is now Day5 for those that are counting. Maybe you can do it faster, given that Day1 was largely wasted. All my previous days experiences made this day a blast and made it easy as pie. Firstly, I had a performance with an audience under my belt, so I knew which jokes didn't work. If I couldn't get the joke out quickly -- if I stumbled too much on the delivery or if I couldn't deliver on the punchline, it was marked for cutting. Here are my suggestions:

1. Focus on the goal to give your audience a great time.
2. Nothing is sacred, don't hold on to anything.
3. Be a mercenary about editing the setup. The goal is to get it down to the fewest number of words to get the punchline.
4. Be kind to yourself: start with a goal of two mins of solid jokes. Then build up. Don't try the other way, like I did; it only caused more work in culling.

Letting go of the rope

A number of years ago, in a crowded bar some friends of mine were talking about letting go of a rope. I had no idea what they meant, and so inquired. They said they were talking about becoming a professional artist, how much it was like hang gliding. They described a boat towing the glider in the sky, and then you release the rope and fly on your own. They said that as long as the boat was towing you, you could never experience the exhilaration of flying.

As they described this, I broke out in a sweat. It's a thrilling, apt and terrible analogy - all at once. And so began my descent into denial.

• You don't have to be a professional to be an artist. (very true)
• Professional artists have to sell out. (compromising is part of any business)
• The skills that are necessary to be an actor are the opposite of what's needed to become a professional. (and that my friends is why the support industries started)

I said all those things and about 10 more years worth of arguments against. And then five years ago, I accidentally fell into the professional world slightly again. What ensued was nothing short of self-sabotage, if I'm being honest. I started getting some notice, hooked up with an agent who said, "We can do this". I followed that with moving out of town and breaking the entire structure of my life: left my cheap apartment, centrally located; put everything in storage; cashed out my 401(k) and moved into my parents spare room.

Sure it was a cop out. But I'm going to state here and now that I think that was a necessary journey for me. I needed to do that to decide for myself where I was going, and also to rebuild the structure so that it was secure. Now I have an amazing boyfriend and home life, solid friendships, a killer agency repping me.

How do these two stories fit together? They don't. It's a mixed metaphor at best. I've tried writing this post for almost three months and each time it gets worse. So -- honestly -- the only tie together is that they both are about going professional and about my life right now...

Oh also, I'm letting go of the rope.