So, last Sunday, my little brother was up in Valhalla, New York and he had an accident. He slipped and fell down a long spiral staircase. He suffered several broken ribs, a bruised lung, some facial fractures and a very serious blow to the head.

He's currently in the hospital up there, under intubation. They say the CT scans, spinal tap and blood tests all point towards good things, but it's a "wait and see" situation now.

My little brother is in a coma. And he may wake up tomorrow. Or he might never wake up.

Any good vibes, prayers or positive thoughts you guys could send his way would be deeply appreciated.

What follows is a repost from my tumblr. I saw the quote reblogged from a student of mine and was shocked into silence. For a moment. Then I wrote the response, which follows.

“What men mean when they talk about their “crazy” ex-girlfriend is often that she was someone who cried a lot, or texted too often, or had an eating disorder, or wanted too much/too little sex, or generally felt anything beyond the realm of emotionally undemanding agreement. That does not make these women crazy. That makes those women human beings, who have flaws, and emotional weak spots. However, deciding that any behavior that he does not like must be insane– well, that does make a man a jerk.

And when men do this on a regular basis, remember that, if you are a woman, you are not the exception. You are not so cool and fabulous and levelheaded that they will totally get where you are coming from when you show emotions other than “pleasant agreement.”

When men say “most women are crazy, but not you, you’re so cool” the subtext is not, “I love you, be the mother to my children.” The subtext is “do not step out of line, here.” If you get close enough to the men who say things like this, eventually, you will do something that they do not find pleasant. They will decide you are crazy, because this is something they have already decided about women in general.”
— Lady, You Really Aren’t “Crazy” (via sparkamovement)

And now, the response....

Conversely,

Sometimes men are horribly wronged by their ex. Sometimes the person they loved and trusted did something hurtful, wrong, and destructive to their life. When these men step forward and talk about their “Crazy Ex”, they may in fact be trying to describe someone who was willfully negligent in her care of him. Someone who lied, cheated, stole, was physically or emotionally abusive. Someone who got him into dangerous situations, someone who took and never gave back. Someone who made outrageous demands of time/money/sex/attention and was unwilling to give of those herself. Someone who felt the world was there to serve her and fulfill her needs.

Sometimes a “Crazy Ex” is one who didn’t respect the relationship or the man she was partnered with. And sometimes we say “Crazy” because it’s easier than saying “The woman who tried to hurt me so badly that there was a time I never thought I would be okay ever again. Please don’t do that to me.”

Something to consider.

~FightGuyCL

I just had quite possibly the busiest week I've ever had, that wasn't about all one thing.

Monday: All day workshop at Kilmer Middle School. Then I ran down to South County to start a last minute choreography job for West Side Story. (They open real, REAL soon and had zero choreography ready to go)

Tuesday: All day workshop at Kilmer Middle School. Then down to Fairfax to start work on Sweeny Todd's blood effects and to check on the trap door. Again, a last minute job, they opened on Friday.

Wednesday: All day workshop at Kilmer Middle School. Started feeling kind of sick. Then ran back down to South County to choreograph the opening of West Side Story. Got home, feeling really sick, running a fever and very nauseous. Went to bed around 6:30, woke up at midnight, checked my email, went back to sleep til 7 am.

Thursday: Feeling better, no fever. Still a bit fuzzy in the head and nauseous, but, things do do, so one more into the breech. Went to the Kennedy Center to help Robb with the KACTF scholarship workshop. Good times. Then off to Sweeny Todd for their dress rehearsal to make sure all was well. Things were square, and I started to feel awful again, so it was back home and to bed for me.

Friday was a bit more relaxed. I got to Herndon High School at 7:20 in the morning to start work on MacBeth for them. Then I was home, feeling sick for a while. More nausea. Then I had my last West Side Story rehearsal. Let me tell you, it's HARD to wrangle 20 teenage boys into pretending to be violent.

Saturday was an early dentist appointment that went late enough that I missed a tech rehearsal for Oklahoma. The only one I could manage. Oy.

So...yeah. That's my week. Right now? Enjoying a day off to clean and catch up. Feeling a bit better. Weird that "Urge to Throw up" was my only symptom.

See, here's what bothers me.

There are certain venues where we can't back out of. Or at least, not yet.

I've watched and read a lot of FAQs and critiques and suggestions and freakouts about the Star Wars Prequels.

Some great ones....

Red Letter Media has a 70 minute video review/critique Here, which is really well done, when it doesn't wander grossly off topic.

Death Star PR recently posted an FAQ that tries very hard to be really funny, but doesn't really pull it off....but I can't find it. Their site is not so easy to navigate...

And then I saw this video on Topless Robot... Where a guy gives 12 minute explanation of how Episode 1 might not have been so god awful, with only a handful of changes.

In case you've been living under a rock for a while, most people did not enjoy the Star Wars Prequels. They all completely fail in nearly every single storytelling and movie making concept. For example, who is the protagonist in episode one? And who is the antagonist? And are those two ever in direct or even acceptably indirect conflict? No.

What's my point? Well it's simple. George Lucas could, if he wanted to, hold a press conference tomorrow. He could say that he'd decided to do an entirely new approach to the prequels. To re-do them, from scratch. He'll write new stories, hire writers to work on them, hire a new batch of directors and a brand new cast. He'll stay on as producer and oversee the project. And this new trilogy of films could be called the Alternate Universe prequels. He could throw catch phrases at them, like "Re-imagining", "re-booting" or whatever.

He could do all that. And we'd see them. We'd see them by the thousands. A lot of people would go see them twice. And George Lucas would make a boatload of money.

Everybody wins.

But that won't happen.

Because that would requite one, very simple thing.

It would require admitting that George Lucas made 3 bad movies. That his standing prequels really aren't all that good. That he, personally, isn't a very good director and certainly not good with people and actors.

And that simply won't happen.

Not that it can't. The art world is replete with people admitting that their efforts on a certain project weren't great. Metallica redid their album entitled "Load". Bryan Singer admits that Superman Returns kind of lost it's way. William Inge rewrote his play Picnic because he wasn't really happy with it.

That's it. It's that simple. Someone has to step up and say "Hey, sorry about that. Let me give it another go."

"Scrubs makes a lot more sense if you view it as an alternate universe wherein everybody is a Theater Major first and their actual job second."

This is what I woke up to today.

I think what happens is that my brain switches over to "Happy Fun Time Channel", when the news feed gets to be too stressful.

:sigh:: People are Le Dumb.
I'm selling a camera lens on ebay and I said, "It's compatible with all Canon EOS cameras, like the 60D, 7D, Canon Rebel and T series."
and I've gotten three questions that are all a variation of "Will this work in my 50D/T1i/T3i/5D?" All cameras that are from the Canon EOS line.
I'm like....look guys, look at the front of your camera.
Does it say "Canon", on the top?
Does it say "EOS" on the right?
Are those written in crayon?
If you answered yes, yes, no, then this lens will probably work in your camera.

Also? If you can't figure out very simple stuff like this, maybe a DSLR camera is beyond you, and you're just wasting money.

Friends with Benefits, 2011
Directed by Will Gluck (Easy A, Fired Up!)

Cute movie. Lots of fun, great energy. Spends most of it's time lampooning classic Rom-coms and resisting the idea of becoming one. And it actually pulls it off a bit. Lots of cute moments.

My only negative comment is how sex is portrayed in this one. Uh...maybe I've been doing it wrong all these years, but I have never been involved with sex that works like this. And about how the downer moment (required in all RomComs, about 3/4ths of the way through it, so that we worry that it might not work out after all!) seems a bit forced, especially in how long it goes.

JT and Mila Kunis both perform well, aside from some very strange bits here and there (Hollywood sign...seriously...) and they jive well with their supporting cast. There is a number of great scenes with JT's family that really shine.

I think, comparing this to Will Gluck's other rom-com, Easy A that the strength of his work lies in giving his actors room to run. Easy A had some real powerhouse actors who ran with what they were given. Here, we get a bit, but not nearly enough of that.

Overall? It's fun, it's cute. It says awkward things about relationships, but I think it does so in a harmless way.

2nd assessment at the gym

Scored a 17 out of 40. Which is one point higher than last time. I didn't get the full breakdown to see what I improved in, but it'll get uploaded to my page on the gym's site and I'll be able to check that out later.

16.9% body fat. Which I think it a little higher than it was last time. I looked through my LJ and I sadly did not write down what it was last time around. It gives me my score on the site, but not the actual percentage. Hmm...according to my score it must've been between 16.5% and 17.5%.

So even though I gained about 8-10 lbs in the past 6-7 months, my body fat percentage stayed about the same. Good to know, I suppose. That would imply a building of muscle. Or at least a building of muscle and fat in equal amounts.

Note to self: Zyrtec does not help with the coughing/allergy problem.

Also it makes your hands shake and your heart rate elevate.

Please discontinue.

This is not fun.

Fondly,
~Your bod

Eight Things I learned from 50 naked people

It's an interesting article from the point of view of a massage artist, but I find a lot of it applies to photography as well. I see a lot of what she's talking about in my subjects and the subjects I see in other people's work.