IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY (or, IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD)

I don't know why I do this...

I don't know why I get involved in Facebook comment thread discussions about JFK.  Differentiating between possible trolls and earnest, heartfelt people who want a discussion is so difficult.

Anyway, I posted this as a response to someone who still thinks that Lee Harvey Oswald was aided by a second shooter.  



If he was shot from the front, and there was, in fact, a conspiracy, then you have to accept that the assassination of William McKinely by Leon Czolgosz was a conspiracy. I mean, really, who could believe that a known anarchist would be allowed to approach the President of the United States? You have to accept that the assassination of James A. Garfied by Charles Guiteau was a conspiracy. And Lincoln's...?

There have been roughly 31 attempts or plots on current and former Presidents that have made major headlines. Four plots that succeeded in execution. Two others succeeded in hitting the target (Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan). However, only one of the attempts appears to be a government conspiracy, and that was the attempt by Saddam Hussein to kill George H.W. Bush in Kuwait. Every single other attempt that involved a group of people on domestic soil could only be called a conspiracy because a group of like-minded individuals got together with a plot to kill the president. The one that succeeded that involved something remotely resembling a true conspiracy plot was the assassination of Lincoln. And yet, still, that attempt was headed and carried out by a man, John Wilkes Booth, who's own brother, Edwin Booth, stated his brother had mental problems.

In fact, in almost every single case the assassins were stated to be "agitated," or seemed "unstable" prior to the shootings for years by those closest to them. This is the one defining factor of each and every attempt on the head of state in a relatively peaceful and stable nation like the United States.

Andrew Jackson had a man point 2 guns, which misfired, at him in front of the White House. God knows how many plots tried to kill Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt was shot at by a true crank...when he was running as a 3rd party candidate. Argentine anarchists tried, and failed, to kill Hoover...before they could even get to try.

However, Giuseppe Zangara might be the guy you're looking for. He's the guy who tried to kill FDR, but failed. His motives have never been clearly established. He may, or may not, have been hired by the mob to kill the Chicago mayor and the new President then. Still, who knows...? Lone gunmen are kind of live wires with weird motives anyway.

A guy named Stern Gang sent letter bombs to Truman. A few Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill him too...in Washington DC.

Kennedy had two or three other attempts on him during his presidency. One had been thwarted just a few weeks prior that was supposed to be carried out by four people. They wanted to shoot him while he was going under a highway overpass. Here's a strange fact to consider though before its suggested this proves there were several conspiracies in the works all around JFK. It was not a federal crime to kill or threaten the President at the time. The approach to all of this was just a shrug of the shoulders. There was actually little the government could legally do to monitor possible assassins. However, after 11/22/63 those attitudes, and laws, toward such a thing drastically changed.

Still, there was more. A guy named Arthur Bremmer wanted to kill Nixon. He killed George Wallace instead. A guy named Samuel Byck wanted to kill Nixon too, but got killed in a shootout instead (He took his own life when he realized he lost).

A follower of Charles Manson tried killing Ford.

An unemployed drifter tried to kill Carter.

John Hinkley Jr. thought he had a great way to impress Jodie Foster...by shooting Reagan.

A bunch of whack jobs tried to kill Clinton. Osama bin Laden even put a bomb under a bridge in '96 to try to kill him.

An assassin for the 2nd Bush apparently had "emotional problems."

Oh, and President Obama has had a bunch of attempts on his life, some through the mail in the form of ricin.

Sorry, for the mound of information here, with this many attempts on our presidents' lives (and these are just the ones on Wikipedia) you seriously think the government is hiding something from us about a sinister second shooter? I lived in Dallas for 3 years. I've been to Dealey Plaza. There isn't, and wasn't in 1963, really anywhere to run to except a giant parking lot behind the now mythical Grassy Knoll. It's not so mystical and when you stand there it's completely plausible and acceptable that Oswald killed him.

The man in the umbrella and trench coat didn't do it. Mr. Zapruder didn't do it, or capture anyone else doing it. It was Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, on the 6th floor. You know why? Because he was a poorly educated, somewhat skilled marksman, with severe emotional problems. He was 24, had been rejected for residence in the Soviet Union (and that is an accomplishment only the most unstable mentally or intellectually could achieve), married to a Russian woman in a somewhat volatile relationship, had a kid, and a dead-end job. Sorry, he fits the profile of almost every last single other nut who tried to kill the other presidents.

Kennedy was shot from behind. End of story. If you want a conspiracy, apparently Zachary Taylor and Warren G. Harding may have been assassinated. Now why aren't we talking about those mysteries? Oh right...there was no one standing around with a camera.

Patti Smith, NYC, DC, and Baltimore

I posted a link to the following article on Facebook.

Patti Smith Says NYC Is Closed, Find A New City

I got some interesting and varied responses to this posting, especially since I added my own comment: "Kind of what I thought..."

The responses it produced came from a New York based Assoicate Producer at a film company who attended Southern Methodist University with me:

"I was at a party of NYC performance artists and Penny Arcade said the same thing. Interesting right?"

NOTE - For those not in the know (I wasn't) Penny Arcade is a performance artist in New York City.  

The next response was from another New York resident, someone with whom I attended Towson University, who is now the Artistic Director of a prominent theatre company:

"I think this is dogmatic. New York nourished me as a young broke artist. Certainly, it isn't the NYC rendered in Patti Smith's Just Kids but it still feels inspired and creative to me."

The following response came from an independent musician who has composed music for productions I've created in Washington DC and was referring to him and his wife and their time in New York in relation to this posting:

"It's why we left"

The final series of responses came from an actor who lives and works in Washington DC.  He offered these three replies:

1)  "yup. the young and hungry searching for artistic fulfillment end up feeding into the service industry and are too exhausted after 16 hour shifts to make a difference. NYC is for the established, the young who want to struggle, and/or the wealthy."

2)  "that said, I wouldn't trade my years there for anything..."

3)  "dude, I'm thinking that it's Baltimore's time..."

For those of you who don't know, I live in Baltimore.  I've been hearing this about Baltimore for some time.  It's changed a lot over the years, but all I could initially offer as a response was this:

"Maybe."

I had a lot to say...about New York, Baltimore, and even Washington DC.  There were also people who "Liked" my posting.  God knows what the hell that means.

Do they like that artists are fleeing New York in droves?
Are they thrilled Patti Smith thinks the city is a cultural wasteland?
Do they agree with me?

Whatever.  

I'll save you their partial biographies since they only shared little white thumbs rather than opinions.   I weighed my options, considered some of the politics I should play with people who are both friends and professionals, and what I should write in response...if I should write any real response at all.  Then I thought, "What the hell...  I'll just write what's on my mind."

This was my extended response to the conversation:

I think this is less about Patti Smith's lost New York, or Sarah Jessica Parker saying it's "too pricey," or Madonna saying it's boring, or even David Byrne saying the city as he knew it is gone. It's about something else that is happening.

An arts scene will always be alive in any city. The state of its health is always in flux, or defined by the eye of the beholder. It's never going to fully die, but it might find itself in periods of being on life support. Anyway, again, how one defines that is in the eye of the beholder.

The more troubling thing I keep hearing is just how expensive the city has become in such a short time. DC may not be as "pricey," but is experiencing a similar kind of "accelerated gentrification" (I think that's the term used by The Post a few months back). I agree with P-. The end point is that fewer and fewer people from the class people like Patti Smith came from can afford to live in that city and actually practice their art, craft, whatever. Hell, I know people who have "regular jobs/careers" outside of the arts and are dancing on the razor's edge of being able to afford living there, or in DC.

What to do? I don't know. Some leave. Some stay and fight. Some succeed. Some fail. Others start ashrams. Find your place. Find your fight. Find your ashram...I guess. Or a safe and affordable suburb?

As for Baltimore...?

I've lived here on and off since '98 when I first came to school at Towson University. Back then I would never have even STOOD on the corner of North and Howard in what is now called Station North. Back then I thought of it more as NO MAN'S LAND. Maybe I thought that because it looked and felt dangerous as hell...and there were these kids who rode by on mopeds and four wheelers (two kids to each vehicle) popping wheelies while holding little brown paper baggies, weaving in and out of traffic.

I saw those types of kids a couple of years ago, but now there's a pizza place on that corner. As they rode by I went into it. It's called Joe Squared. Every time I eat there I can't believe I am eating a meal at that corner. Go there. Eat there. I recommend either the Irish Pizza, or the risotto with venison and arugula. They are both divine.

Baltimore has that going for it.

Joe Squared's full address is:

133 W. North Ave.

Baltimore, MD 21201

They have a location in Power Plant Live, a performing arts venue in the Inner Harbor, but I hate that place...and so should you...unless you're going to the National Aquarium.  Then you're fine.  

NOTE - The Irish Pizza has Roasted garlic cream, corned beef, potato, caramelized onion, mozzarella and Swiss cheeses.  It's really something else.  

THE INTERNET IS A CREEPY PLACE

The internet is a really creepy place.

I am writing this blog post not to just reiterate what has already been made apparent by countless stories of cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, and news about the government's "surveillance" of phone records (or whatever it was they were doing by culling billions upon billions bits of data).  I writing to ask if anyone has received messages similar to ones I received this past weekend, and to determine whether or not they were just bots, or something worse.

I got some strange semi-threatening anonymous messages in my email inbox from two different sources.

One was delivered as part of a connection request on the professional website LinkedIn. It was sent from a profile name that was listed as "not available" and was listed as being employed with, or part of, something called "Assassin at Brotherhood" and apparently this person is (according to the profile) based in Owings Mills, MD. Anyway, the message was as follows:

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE 
I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU 
I KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOU DO 
CHEERS

I thought this nothing more than probably a crank, or an internet "bot"...until I got another message delievered to my personal email, and was submitted to there via my personal acting website.

I got the message on the same day (two days ago...but didn't see them until today). This message was submitted by someone using the email unknownnumber15@gmail.com. A similar message was submitted to me from this sender as well:

I SEE YOU 
I HEAR YOU 
I WATCH YOU AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA 
JUST KNOW I'M WATCHING 
CHEERS

So I am reasonably unnerved by these two messages and a little unsure as to who to call, or if there is anything one can do with anonymous postings like these. I haven't responded to either message, and don't know if I even want to bother. I have started making inquiries with some friends in law enforcement about how to proceed with this, so I'll see what that brings.  However, I am also writing this blog post just to see if anyone out there has received messages like this.  I could use some peace of mind these are just "bots," or general anonymous "pranks" people pull on each other in this age and are done en masse to just annoy people.

Anyway, I am considering pulling down my profiles everywhere now because of this.  Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Still, if anyone out there has a similar story to this I would love to hear it.

My Accomplishments for the Academic Year of 2012 - 2013

 So I was asked by the chair of the Theatre department at Carver Center (where I currently work) to write down my accomplishments for my end of the year evaluation this upcoming Friday.  I went overboard with detail...not to impress my bosses, or to curry favor, but to evaluate just what the hell I did this year.  Also, I'm curious why I'm so damn tired and exhausted lately.  As the list grew and grew it has become clear

 

This is the list.  Still, this only includes the stuff I remember doing, and doesn't include lost, or (temporarily) abandoned projects.  It doesn't include the things I tried to do and just fell apart before my eyes.  I tried to just focus on the positive. 

 

- MK

 

·         Teaching - Developed a new class (Acting I), which incorporated exercises and projects based on the work of several theatre theorists (Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Michael Chekhov, etc.).  Also, collaborated with Joseph Ritsch on merging this group with the Directing class throughout the year in order to provide directing students with actors in scene work, and actors an opportunity to implement acting theory work with peer directors.

·         Professional Development –Prior to the school year (Summer 2012), taught in the Shakespeare Summer Camp program for the Tony Award winning Shakespeare Theatre Company.  Taught primarily students of ages 10-12 in an early summer (late June to early July) session that culminated in a “mini-production” of Much Ado About Nothing, which I co-directed.  Also, was invited to work with older students (15-18 years old) in the Advanced Camp as a substitute for a colleague, and was asked to help block/choreograph difficult large ensemble scenes in their culminating production of Love’s Labours Lost.

·         Professional Development – From September to November, rehearsed and performed in a critically acclaimed production of Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek at Washington DC’s Theater J.  During the course of the production I was also able to receive direct personal feedback from the playwright, Polish ambassador to the United States, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the artistic, cultural, international, and historical significance of not just the text, but our production in particular.  The production was chosen by The Washingtonian as one of its “Top 12 Plays of 2012” and was also nominated for Best Resident Production Award at The Helen Hayes Awards.  An interview about my personal history and its connection to the piece was conducted with The Washington Post (http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-16/lifestyle/35500464_1_krawczyk-labor-camps-poland).  Also, provided the script and dramaturgical research material to Katelyn Shanklin in order to aid her in developing a new lesson plan for material related to Elie Wiesel’s Night.  We are also planning a collaborative lesson in which I will visit her class to talk to students about how we approached the text as actors.  Finally, one of my students (to my knowledge) was able to attend the production, and I was able to speak to him, and his parents, about their reactions/thoughts after the show.

·         Professional Development – Performed extra/background film acting work for an independent film called Jamesy Boy, sometime in early December. 

·         Professional Development – Was approached to become the Executive Director and to help develop the Mission Statement, and the legal/financial foundations for a new Montgomery County based arts group called “M.Y. Actors Society” (aka – Montgomery County Young Actors Society).  The group focuses on introducing young people of Montgomery County to productions and the realities of working in the acting profession in both film/TV and theatre.

·         Professional Development – Was asked to submit materials by a colleague, Dara Weinberg, for a possible theatre grant project titled End of The Line, which is about personal experiences of people of Polish or Jewish heritage in relation to a grandparent.  I submitted written material which became large chunks of the script that is currently being performed by Polish actors in theatres in Poland and Hungary.

·         Professional Development – Was part of a theatre field trip with the theatre students to see Double Edge Theatre’s The Grand Parade and was able to talk to my students about the process of creating new work.  Also, took part in a weekend workshop with the theatre company in order to further immerse myself in their devised theatre process.

·         Community Outreach – The work in Our Class led me to take part in a project with a soup kitchen in Washington DC called “Miriam’s Kitchen.”  Initially I was simply one of two cast members invited to take part in a conversation with several homeless people who frequent the soup kitchen (and Theater J) and are members of its arts group to talk about the difficulties in developing a production that spans around 80 years of history.  However, the majority of the conversation ended up focusing on the difficulty of “being a part of on-stage trauma night after night…” (which can be found documented in the following link: http://www.theatrewashington.org/content/because-we-matter).  Because of this talk, one of the participants from the group personally requested that I read his written work in public for a projects called Stories from The Kitchen, a one-night only event during which some of the homeless people from the group, as a means of art therapy, have their work read aloud/performed by a professional actor on the stage at Theater J.  This event took place on December 19^th, 2012 and I read a piece titled, “Oh Canada.”    

·         Professional Development – Co-produced, rehearsed, and remounted/performed a critically acclaimed production of Ivan Vyrypaev’s play Oxygen with Taffety Punk theatre company, located at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in the Eastern Market area of Washington DC.  The production was originally developed over a  6 month period in 2012, and received another 6 month rehearsal/re-contextualization period from January to late March 2013 for a 4 week performance run. Also, the show featured new music, composed and performed exclusively for our show in the style of late 90s/early 2000s “east European electronica”, by DC based bands The Caribbean, E.D. Sedgwick, Electric Blanketland, The Gena Rowlands Band, The Inexhaustible Chalice, and Jupiter Rex.  The production was chosen to be archived on video by the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive (WAPAVA) for its cultural/artistic significance.  Also, participated in an audience talkback with a Russian cultural group to talk about the cultural significance of the text, and the process of contextualizing it for an American audience.  Several of my students were also able to attend the performance and talk to me about their reactions.

·         Guest Speakers – Was able to have several guest speakers come in to work with the students in our program.  Emma Jaster (an international and DC area choreographer/actor) and Joe Isenberg (a Helen Hayes Award winning fight choreographer) came in to work with Freshman acting students on a movement workshop that incorporated both basic dance and fight choreography, and those two also gave professional evaluations and feedback to the Audition Seminar students.  Also, Paul Diem (former Fellow and now a current member of the Single Carrot Theatre Company Acting Ensemble) came in on two separate occasions to work with the Freshman ensemble and the Audition Seminar students.  Once was on basic monologue performance evaluations.  Another time he worked with the Freshman on ensemble work generation and with the Audition Seminar students he led a workshop on the realities of working in the Los Angeles acting community.

·         Directing – Directed a production of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour.   Developed a concept that didn’t change the text, but allowed for dramatically increasing the stage time of all student actors playing even minor characters, which increased their overall involvement in the collaborative process.  Also, empowered two students to take on significant leadership roles within the company during the rehearsal process.  J.A. (Junior - Theatre) was brought on to be Assistant Director and took on significant responsibilities involving staging large scenes, and working individual moments with other actors while other work was being done with the rest of the company with the Director.  Also, I cast M.R. (Sophomore - Music) who plays Lois Fischer.  M.R. was given the given the task of being Music Director and coordinating the harmonies sung by the actors playing the young students in the production.  Also, incorporated elements from the exhibition of Robert Miller’s work into the overall color scheme for the costumes of the adult characters in the play, and used several visuals as inspiration for different aesthetic choices in the production.  Personally, I’m really proud of the fact that several students who have viewed the production feel compelled to come multiple times, or have already seen it twice.  This includes both theatre and non-theatre students.

·         Coaching – Coached several acting students outside of class in order to prepare them for college auditions.  Several of the students I helped coach, along with other acting teachers, were accepted to schools such as Hofstra, Pace, Rutgers Mason Gross, Howard, Bowling Green, UMBC, Nazareth University, and Towson University (among others).  Also, independently coached several other students in order to prepare them for theatre auditions in the Baltimore area theatre community several of whom were cast in local productions.

·         Carver Community – Gave my time to several business and literary students who wanted to do interviews for the various publications/writing projects being done here at Carver Center.  K.Y. (Business) interviewed me for two different articles.  One was on the effect of theatre and film on the populace in terms of views of homosexuals, and the other was a profile on C.G. (Theatre).  T.H. (Literary) interviewed me for an article on The Children’s Hour process.  D.S.M. (Literary) interviewed me for a literary profile project.  R.A.(Literary) asked me to answer an email questionnaire on another teacher.

·         Prime-Time Day – Successfully ran two devised theatre workshops for Dance students from the Freshman and Sophomore classes.  The workshop was one I run with my Freshman students in order to develop FSE pieces, but this workshop was slightly reworked in order to 1) engage the dance students in showing them their ability to create independent theatre pieces with their dance training, and 2) engaging them in a feedback session of what the workshop meant to them as dancers.  Received particularly moving and enlightening feedback from the Sophomore group that their work rarely engaged them in a way that asked for their personal input, or emotional experience and that this workshop truly helped them engage in their work in the creative process in a new way.

·         Auditions – Helped administer incoming Freshman auditions for the 2013-2014 year on the initial day of auditions, as well as several makeup days for students who either missed the initial audition, or appealed the results of the initial audition.

·         Teaching Assistant – Was able to empower I.C. as T.A. for my Audition Seminar class to give enriching and necessary feedback to her peers/colleagues, as well as lead two entire classes as instructor on how to audition for the camera in both close-up and wide-angle shots.

·         IN TOTAL – I might be wrong about this, but some students might have either learned something about acting and theatre, and some might actually like it more, or at all, now.  I’m going to assume that happened with at least a few kids.

On Teaching and Guns

A friend of mine, Brian Normoyle, posted this comment on his timeline around December 18th, 2012:

From my friend Lucas, a bit of reason I've been saying since Friday:

"I have heard so much stupidity over the last couple of days, so let me take one piece of it and amend it so that it makes sense. 'If only the teacher had been carrying a gun....She would have died with a gun in her hand, and several children would still be dead.'"

This kid used a military-style assault rifle than fired many, many rounds in a matter of minutes. You don't solve that problem with MORE guns in a K-4 elementary school.

I've been wanting to write my response for a few days now to this topic.  I just started writing and this is what came out.  I thought I'd share it with the world...you know...for perspective.

Here it is:

I've been working as a teacher the last year and a half. I can't believe that people have been saying that teachers should be armed. 

As a teacher I don't want several things:

1) The expectation that I am the member of the SWAT team, or a stationed member of the armed forces in your school. I am not a trained killing machine. I am a teacher and an actor. Forget the notion that I am a soldier RIGHT NOW...but...for the sake of conversation...here are some more of my concerns.

2) The added liability of being blamed if, God forbid, any of my students should be killed by a mad gunman. I can just hear the cries now. "HE'S to blame! He had a gun and didn't use it properly! Now let's sue HIM. He clearly had an opportunity to stop this madness and didn't do it in time with his gun!" I'd really be looking forward to the double guilt put on me by myself for general survivor's guilt, and then the mad guilt of a mob looking for someone to blame as revenge.

3) Any of my students KNOWING that I am secretly packing heat... Some students are already shy. Knowing their teacher is carrying a firearm is not going to add to them "opening up." I can already see the ones who keep their eyes averted from everything in class out of some secret shame now cowering in a corner for pure fear of their teacher going off the deep end. Also, some youngsters welcome a challenge of authority. I think having a gun on a teacher would be like sticking a giant "ULTIMATE CHALLENGE" sticker on his/her forehead and dare some students to do something dumb...like reach for the teacher's gun. There are some boys with abundant amounts of testosterone, and girls with territorial tendencies who are always trying to test a teacher. In both these cases I can just imagine the ONE student who is a little erratic reaching for the weapon for the sheer bliss of saying to his/her friends, "I went for the gun! Did you see that?!" And did you see the teacher getting carted off to jail for...[fill in reason here]? This leads me to the next point...

4) As fun as it is to muse about such questions as an absurd joke (and actually...it's not), I don't want the following to become a normal reality: "When do my students become viable threats to me, and when am I allowed to draw my weapon on them?" Seriously, when do I get to consider their posturing toward me, making aggressive movements against me, or even their possible attacking me at all a reasonable enough threat to draw my weapon? When do the ones I'm protecting become threats themselves? Do I get to use SWAT team techniques with other teachers on them? Do we get to draw our weapons in the case of student fights in the corridor? Why the hell do I have to ask these questions?!

5) I don't want to consider any of the other thousand, or so, liabilities I can't imagine right now. Seriously? How many other ways will my safety and my liability be threatened if I carry a weapon in general? Will we have an "accidental discharge policy" if my weapon malfunctions and a projectile unwittingly kills one of my students? Jesus...I could go on and on.

Anyway...that's my rant on this subject.
I would also like to add that no teacher is a cross between Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland's Opus and Tom Berenger in The Substitute. They're much more like Edward James Olmos in Stand And Deliver. They struggle to impart lessons using cajoling or dry wit, compassion for those who struggle to keep up, and assertiveness of character with those who step out of line with disrespect...not by drawing a gun. And...maybe don't look to movies for examples. Maybe...TALK to teachers. Actual ones.

With all the madness of idiots suggesting arming teachers (and they're STILL suggesting it!), I thought this was appropriate to post here.  Supporters of such ideas think they're protecting the children because evil and insane people are always hard at work circumventing society's rules...so it doesn't matter to pass any laws to make it harder to shoot up schools.  There may be no rest for the wicked, but there is also no relief from the morons.

January 18, 2013

This whole thing might not be for me.

I spend a lot of time wondering what really is for me.

I spend a lot of time staring at my little red passport, wondering, "When do you and I get to go away together?"

I spend a lot of time...period.

It's a currency I can't find in my wallet lately.

Maybe I'm just burnt out.

I have a feeling it might be more.