Happy 60th Birthday to the People’s Republic of China

china-60-anniversary

Conrad Askland, from Mount Vernon, WA USA, is currently living in Macau (SAR) China while working with the Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA show at the Venetian Macao. In Asia he has also performed in Shanghai, South Korea and Japan.

October 1, 2009 – 中国加油，中国万岁

Happy Sixty Year Anniversary to the People’s Republic of China!

It’s a four day holiday for the locals here in China. When locals have holidays it usually means that I work more; doing entertainment shows to accommodate the tourists.

China’s last 60 years has been bittersweet with a unified people exposed to both hard living and the largest economic boom in modern history. At the end of my blog post there’s a link to a great CNN article by Jaime FlorCruz that gives an overview of China’s 60 years as The People’s Republic of China.

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Guy LaLiberte Clowns Before Space Trip

guy-laliberte-092909

Canadian billionaire Quebec-born philanthropist Guy Laliberte, jokes as he puts on a clown nose as he speaks through the glass wall with his family and friends at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

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Stephen Sondheim on Writing for Musicals

stephen-sondheim-studio

“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.”
– Stephen Sondheim

A dwarf can see farther than a giant if the dwarf stands on the giant’s shoulders. With that idea I turn to the mind of Stephen Sondheim for insights into creating new works for musical theater.

I also have the great gift that one of my current co-workers has worked with Sondheim and will purportedly give me more insight into his work habits and ideas.

Here are my favorite excerpts from the Stephen Sondheim interview posted at:
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/son0int-1

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Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween

hongkong-disneyland-halloween

Hong Kong Disneyland turns to a Halloween theme for the evenings of September 18-October 31, 2009. I’ll try to check it out and let you know if it compares to the Knott’s Berry Farm Halloween themes back in California.

Check out Disney’s previews at:
http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/html/Halloween/en_US/

Penn and Teller: Creationism

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BncRhS3NBfk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWEpaLBa6U

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDxF3j4Q4g

The Creationism segment from Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” show.

Includes footage of Duane Gish from the Insitute of Creation Research and also the Cobb County school board in their voting process to include creationism as part of the school science curriculum.

One of the other websites I run is a bible discussion website. The Creation vs. Evolution debate section of that website is located at:
http://forum.bible-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

You can spend many hours there reading debates between “creationists” and “evolutionists”. The debates include specific points of biology and geology. I have been literally amazed to see the amount of effort and research members put into their posts. For me, the most telling element of these debates is to see which side consistently posts documented information to support their side; and to see which side consistently changes the argument mid-stream.

Many US residents are not aware that the creation vs evolution “debates” are primarily an issue solely in the United States. There is not such widespread conversation on this subject outside the USA; although it has begun to spread to Australia.

Penn and Teller are magicians from Las Vegas. They devote a lot of their time to bring up subjects they consider “Bullshit”. If you search their other videos on YouTube you might be surprised to see some of the other subjects they cover.

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Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

This really hits home. Recommended viewing for artists and creators.

“Eat, Pray, Love” Author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

**Update 092909 – I have gone back to incorporating the concept of a Daemon in my creative process and have found it to be incredibly productive.**

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