Reboot!
Good evening and thanks for dropping by Occam’s Barber Shop!
This project was spun off from my Renaistre Productions project shortly after launch so that Renaistre could focus fully on its primary mission of promoting new and exciting artists to new audiences. I liked the idea of having an ongoing intellectual discussion like those I enjoy with my friends, and hated to see the content Cody Nicoletti produced be lost forever. Banking on the idea “if you build it, they will come,” I decided that if I and my peers enjoyed waxing on abstract concepts, there surely must be some audience for it in the booming blogosphere.
Occam’s Barber Shop will be an ongoing project featuring the thoughts, opinions and analyses of young intellectuals on any variety of topics they find suitably stimulating. You may think of this as an online magazine publishing thought from an ecclectic array of contributors. It is my hope that the content published here will generate new thought and discussion among whatever company we may come to enjoy in the future. I cannot emphasize enough how important the contributions of readers are to the exchange, creation and synthesis of ideas. Use the comment boxes at the end of each article!
That’s all for now! I’m looking forward to the stimulating discussion ahead.
Nudity and Poetry
So. The more Ken talks to me about where we’re heading here, the more excited I get myself. As a hopeful actor/playwright/theatre scholar, this kind of exposure would be a wonderful tool to have for feedback and support. Ken was up in Muncie, stopped by my place, and we headed to Motini’s to hear some poetry.
The first girl that was there read some anecdotes about Ireland; while I’ve never been to Ireland, I found most of her quips entertaining. The next poets were great – Ken did some footwork after I had to leave; hopefully we’ll have our mutual friend that read post some things.
As for trying to bring art to the masses, if you’re in the Muncie, IN area, check out Ball State’s production of Hair opening on Sept. 24; it runs through that Sunday, and then finishes the run off the next Tues. through Oct. 3. Directed by Karen Kessler (director in Chicago; her theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, just opened a show called Mistakes Were Made) the production has been running full force since the start of school. I personally look forward to it. And YES, there will be nudity; we didn’t let BSU scare us away from it. If you’re interested, let me know, I can get you the phone number to the box office.
To recap:
1) Hopeful for some original poetry here soon
2) Hair at Ball State University Theatre, opening next Thursday
3) A Red Orchid Theatre’s Mistakes Were Made if you’re in Chicago
- Cody
*Editing note*
This post has been transported from another blog by Kenneth Michael for continuity purposes.
Liveness
Okay, since we’ve figured out a bit more of a direction here at Renaistre, I have an artistic thought to put out there.
I’m working on my honors thesis for my undergraduate degree, and I’m starting the massive research phase of it in the upcoming months. There’s a book by P. Auslander called Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture that deals with the threat of the media of the 21st century on live theatre and performance.
A fascinating book on the theory of what makes live theatre different from things like movies and how it may or may not survive. If you ask most theatre going folk, they’ll tell you live theatre is different because you can “feel the energy” of the actors, or that the events that occur on stage carry a static that is released into the room. Now, I’m not sure about you, but I’m from a fairly practical and scientific family. If I make a statement such as this, I usually will receive a fair amount of jeers and musings.
So, I set out to find if I could put together a logical explanation for why live theatre seems to be different, other than there’s no camera, there’s actually people and you don’t need to make sure the DVD player is plugged in. I’m in the beginnings of flushing out the idea, but so far I’ve a couple of scientific theories and historical experiments (borrowed handily from physics – thanks Ken).
That being said, you now have an idea at least of what kinds of things Ken, our friends, and myself talk about in our spare time. Not always this heavy, but I really look forward to developing the concept.
- Cody
*Editing note*
This post has been transported from another blog project by Kenneth Michael for continuity purposes.
Hello World!
Alright then. Welcome to Renaistre. A quick overview of what this place is and who we are is fairly simple: Ken and I met in college, maintained our friendship after his graduation this last spring, and decided that two hopeful, intellectual, and open minded young men might be able to keep up some sort of interesting dialogue via blogging. Sounds familiar, I know, since every pair of college aged guys that know just enough to be dangerous thinks they’re interesting. We try 
Where are we going? Who knows. We could just chat about what we like – music, art, literature, the occasional sporting event, what have you. Where we go depends on the months ahead and whatever readers we can muster would like to converse about. Or, maybe some revelation will hit Ken and I – we’re both pretty passionate about our beliefs and talk about them with one another – particularly when they clash. I don’t think he and I have ever had a massive falling out due to it either. We agree on a lot, we agree to disagree on a lot. So, perhaps this’ll turn into a place to discuss ideas.
Even as I write this, a friend that’s a pension actuary is debating universal health care with Ken and I via facebook. Having done a bit of the actuary thing, I understand where he’s coming from, but (while I won’t speak for Ken) my heart will always speak louder than numerical analysis – it’s why I’m not an actuary anymore. Yes, there are cases it’s pointless to continue care for, i.e. the 90 year old that received a stint for her heart – but guess what, you already pay for that via Medicare. But, at the end of the day, I think NO ONE is in a position to say one life is worth more than another. Some people think with universal health care, that will happen. I say it already is by saying “You have a preexisting condition, I’m sorry. NEXT!”
A day in the life of two hopeful, intellectual, and open minded young men. Are you interested yet?
Peace be with you.
-Cody
*Editing note*
This post has been transported from another blog by Kenneth Michael for continuity purposes.
