And Now For Something Completely Different...

Well.  Lookee there.  Three - almost FOUR - months since my last post.  I'm obviously falling down on this whole blogging thing... heck, I'm not even doing all that well on my other blog (http://www.OregonFilmandTVDollars.com.)

Hey, what can I say... life happens.  I could go on at length about about what's been taking my time over the past few months... my work with the Oregon Media Production Association, for instance, or some of my other little projects... but eh.  If you've been reading this blog for any period of time you've seen plenty of apologies for the inconsistency of my posts, and if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you're probably up-to-date anyway.

Instead of just passing my mea culpa's your way, how about I offer you something new?  A couple weeks ago I was sitting around enjoying Trish and my back yard, and I thought It'd be nice to share that warm fuzzy feeling with the world.  So, I've been pulling out my Flip video camera and recording short videos of the happenings in our little green space in SE Portland.  I'll upload these videos periodically to my YouTube channel - if you have a YouTube account, feel free to subscribe to the channel so you can see the latest little "Scene From Our Back Yard."



Of course, I can't guarantee you I'll be any more consistent with these little videos than I am with blog posts... so there's that...

Hope you're all doing well!

Harold

It Can't Happen Here... Right?

Hey there everyone. Long time no talk, huh?  Yeah, I know, I know... apologies, Mea Culpa, etc (you can always tell how busy I am by how often I update this blog and OregonFilmandTVDollars.com... which hasn't been too often of late, so you can draw your own conclusions.)

Even with everything that's been going on, though, I wanted to take a minute today to let you know about a very cool project I'm going to be part of tonight, Monday, October 24 at 7:30 PM.  Portland's Fuse Theater Ensemble is joining theaters around the country to perform a staged reading of It Can't Happen Here - an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel that was performed in 22 theaters (in 18 US Cities) as part of the Federal Theater Project in 1936.  The nationwide readings commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of those Federal Theater Project readings.

So, why should you care about a play written in 1936?  What possible relevance could it have to the world we're living in right now?  Well... the book (and the play) were written during a time when no one could find a job... when the median income in the united states had hit rock bottom and didn't look like it would ever rise... when people were taking to the streets to demand a change.  In a situation like this, it's easy to see how people could fall in line behind a charismatic leader who promised to make things better (no, I'm not going to put a current-events link on THAT one... I'll let you draw your own contemporary conclusions...) even though s/he could turn out to be a dictator.

That's what this play is about, after all... it envisions a fictional America where a powerful president becomes a dictator - abolishing labor unions, free speech, and the free press. His sinister allies, known only as "the Corpos," recruit unemployed and dissatisfied young people and intimidate anyone who opposes their agenda. "No one agreed on the play," Hallie Flanagan told an audience some months later, "but everyone had to see it. It was called good, bad, savage, mild, American, un-American, Fascist, communist, too far left, too far right, a work of genius, a work of the devil."

I hope you'll join me tonight at Theater! Theatre! (check HaroldPhillips.net for the address and a map link)  for this celebration - and cautionary tale.  Admission is free, though donations for Fuse Theater Ensemble and Occupy Portland will be accepted.