I said I was attending the Thinking Woman’s Fringe, but that doesn’t mean I’m not seeing funny shows.  It’s just that all of the funny shows I am seeing are also intelligent.  Nancy Donoval’s storytelling flawlessly integrates humor and intelligence and I never get tired of hearing her tell.  Since I’m her Girl Friday this year, doing last minute ( Read more... )

The Twisted Grin-Assorted Tales to Amuse and Alarm
Mindless Mirth Productions
Augsburg Studio
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN

Thu., Jul. 30 @ 10:00 p.m., Sat., Aug. 1 @ 5:30 p.m., Thu., Aug. 6 @ 8:30 p.m. , Fri., Aug. 7 @ 8:30 p.m. , [S] Sat., Aug. 8 @ 4:00 p.m.

http://www.fringefestival.org/2009/show/?id=974

Kenneth - what is the frequency? In ( Read more... )

From July 30-August 9, I will be reviewing Fringe Festival shows.  Reviews will appear on the Minnesota Fringe Festival website of each show, although long reviews will be truncated.  All reviews will also appear here.  For general information about the Minnesota Fringe Festival, go to www.fringefestival.org .

Death Camp Diaries
Howard ( Read more... )

I’ve had a couple of people ask if I dropped them, accidentally or on purpose, off my Ordinary Time list.  In truth there has been very little of the ordinary to my time recently - or I haven’t been sure what the real ordinary is.

The last time I sent out a broadcast email with blog links was after the entry on September 14, "Chiropractic" ( Read more... )

This story was told as part of a performance, Saving Pagan Babies:  Catholic Culture Clashes, featuring myself, Ann Reay, Loren Niemi, and Curt Lund at the Spirit in the House Festival, February 27-March 9, 2009.  I am grateful to my fellow performers for helping me shape this story, and for producing such jewels of their own; to storytellers ( Read more... )

I did not write a Christmas letter in 2008.  I started to.  This was as far as I got.

The Random House Unabridged Dictionary has four definitions of epiphany, only one of which - “a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi” - is capitalized.  Since there’s not ( Read more... )

Halloween was scary this year. First of all, my coworker Linda brought Kitty Litter cake in to work, and I had to watch people eat it. I don’t care how many tasty ingredients it includes, the idea of Scoop and Snack just makes me gag. But apparently crisis line counselors are made of stronger stuff. When staff found out my level of discomfort, they ( Read more... )

The economy blows, but can you blow off the economy?  Unfortunately not.  I'm looking for Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed behind the counter at the Bailey Savings & Loan, lending away their honeymoon, but Frank Capra isn't directing this film.

This morning I woke to MPR tellinng me the Asian markets had gone down ten percent while I slept.  But those ( Read more... )

There is a passage in George Eliot’s Middlemarch about the patterns created by the flame of a candle against scratched glass. The image has one meaning in the context of the novel, but in my memory it has aligned itself with other truths:

Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all ( Read more... )

I don’t have a lot of experience speaking Truth to Power, but I know about the power of lies. I was six years old when I told my first. And because the universe has an amazing sense of reciprocity, I immediately got a lie back in return. 
I can follow a trail of lies like breadcrumbs, back to that day. 
I am sitting on a red plastic chair at the gray ( Read more... )