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.

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.

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.