Category: Current Events
-
The Sky is Choking Us (AKA: Never Take Blue Skies for Granted)
Here’s a photo of our street at the moment. Notice those beautifully green hills in the background? Of course not, they are completely covered by a thick layer of smog courtesy of Indonesia. We’ve had occasional bad visibility in the past from time to time, but I’ve seen nothing like this in my ten years…
-
Syrian Refuges: Everyone Needs to Help
The heart-wrenching photos of decimated villages, streams of refuges flocking in all directions throughout the Middle East and Europe, and the poignant photo of a small boy, face-down, dead on the beach has struck a cord for many people. As they should. There are consequences for inaction. We live in a global world, each part…
-
A Mini-Tour for our Award-Winning Play
On the heels of sweeping five awards in the Short and Sweet Theatre festival recently for my short play “Words to Say at the End of the World,” we’re beginning to see that this play isn’t yet ready for retirement. I’ve been asked to have my two amazing actors perform it in three different venues…
-
Government Good Intentions Have No Logic
Four-hundred and fifty pages of Obamacare regulations related to restaurant food labeling is about to go into effect. Does this post need go any further? 450 pages? Who else could make food labeling that complicated? You may have seen in the news that some restaurants, especially pizza chains, are pushing back against the new rules…
-
Trump, Sanders, Carson all Signify the Same Thing (sort of)
I love talking politics. Rarely do so on this blog because the last thing I want is for this blog to devolve into some sort of political debate forum. We’ve all seen the vicious comments which are endemic. I really hate that kind of discourse. It’s both unproductive and uncivilized, yet fully protected by the…
-
Another bookstore closing
Another bookstore closing — this one a major retailer in Hong Kong. The major overhaul in the publishing market continues as traditional, large book retailers are finding it more and more difficult to be profitable. The impact of e-books and Amazon has certainly been slower in Asia than in the USA. There are, I’m sure, many…
-
A Packed House of Laughter and Tears
It’s one thing to write a novel and press the publication button, sending it out into the reader-sphere to be met with an audience of critics. But it is entirely another thing to sit back at opening night of the play you have written and watch talented young actors bring it to life, to see…
-
Opening Night! Nothing like it!
I’ve finally reached this point. It’s been a long ride. I started writing the script which would eventually become “For All Generations” this past spring. Finished it in the late summer and went straight to rehearsing in mid-August.Three months later we are on the brink of opening night. Jitters? For sure! I’m never sure who…
-
A Walk Through Our Final Rehearsal
8:30 Arrive. Set-up and arrange microphones, drama cubes, and props into their proper place. 9:00 The director (me) throws a curve at all the actors and redoes the last piece without warning. We relearn movement, pacing, and timing to match perfectly with the choreographed dancing and music. After about the 4th run-through, they get it.…
Author Mark W Sasse 