America Woman, 6pm Tuesday Nights | A Girl Can Dream... And Plan

When I grow up, I'm hosting a TV show.  Could be this ^,  could be something else, but I've made this little guy my new computer wallpaper because if you don't visualize it, it won't happen.  (Hold on, I'm about to blather...)  I've been ruminating on what kind of show I want to host, planning on creating something that will inspire, entertain, instruct -basically be an enriching experience.  Apparently that doesn't make good television.  Drama paired with an insane amount of stupidity makes great television.  Well, people want to watch what they want to watch, so there you go.  Still, maybe PBS or Lifetime or TLC or one of those kind of cable stations has something...

'Til then, you stay classy San Diego.

Er... I mean, Georgetown, TX.

We're Dirty And We Know It | Christmas Smishmas

I shot a bit a few days leading up to Christmas -snippets of family time and daily life.  Yeah, my kids sometimes wear clothes and when they do, Wilder's are too small and Waverley insists on wearing her big brothers gear.  She's a tomboy.  He's a daredevil.  And they've usually got dirty faces.
That's us -and we don't care.  Sure, it'd be nice to have kids that looked like they came straight from the pages of a Gap ad, but if they did, they'd better come with an assistant.

Though it's a touch late, here's our holiday shenanigans.  I hope you had a lovely season of love and that you have great plans, hopes and dreams for 2013.

Love More. Fear Less. And how acting class relates to real life.

{Yep, I made it.  But I wish I had thought it.}

This fall I started an acting conservatory, A Working Group, taught by Richard Robichaux (most recently of the Texas hit film "Bernie")   It's an intense class.  It's often frustrating as Richard has us learn by doing instead of through lecture; often you don't "get it" the first time, or the eleventh time, but I hear it's a beautiful thing once the shoe drops and instinctive, authentic responses kick in.  When acting ceases to become "ACTING."

We are treated to a juicy weekly poem and his instruction is peppered with rich morsels of quotes, like the one above by John Halcyon Styn.   His teaching style is well rounded.  Heightened language paired with two of his favorite approaches to acting, 1) "F@$# it." and 2) "Easy, breezy, beautiful cover girl." Though I've only been in the class a few months, I take from it that

1. Authentic response instead of planned response makes acting not only watchable, but ridiculously engaging.  And that's what we're going for.
2. Just say it, and mean it.  (But that's really #1.)
3. Art expresses the richness of the human experience and you've got to love that to be in the business of art.

This isn't an in-depth exploration of the course (which is a Meisner based class) or a deep commentary on acting.  I wanted to share the pretty picture from the wonderful quote that Richard often speaks to us through our time.  So much of what we are learning in class directly relates to other aspects of our lives.  It's about being.  Being who we are, not putting on faces, masks, facades.  I have a lot of those to break and I'm thankful for the birthing experience I am getting through the beauty of this class, poetry and art.