http://twitter.com/kevinthom

I’m writing little stories there too:

http://twitter.com/microprose

The good news is that I’ll still be writing photography-related blog entries on this new blog:

http://blog.kevinthom.com

That’s it for now!

The show was last night. I’m pleased to report that at 71, The Cos still has It. He seems frailer and slower now. But, there was an unpretentious charm about how he unceremoniously entered stage left without any introduction, ultra-casual in his baggy UMASS sweatshirt and baseball cap. He dawdled across the stage, and settled himself into a comfy chair. But, where time may have greyed his appearance, the truth still shines through his routine. It’s like sitting down with an old friend who’s telling you what’s been happening in his life in the past couple of months. His rubbery facial expressions with an acrobatic voice to match make everything funny, even his first story about having an abscess in his face.  He got his first big laugh of the night by just saying, “I’m going to die.” During that story, he rambled and tangented, and allowed himself to be sidetracked by the audience. Being a brilliant storyteller, however, he never lost sight of his destination. Half an hour later, after so much bobbing and weaving, so many diversions and side-stories I lost count, he tied it all the way back to his very first sentence in a few phrases that hit so fast and so hard that I never saw them coming. It reminded me strongly of the Bassprov workshop I took a couple of years ago. Mark Sutton and Joe Bill likened an improv set to a road trip: you can take all kinds of interesting side trips, but never forget where you’re going.

The bulk of Cosby’s routine has grown along with him. The universal truths have followed him into senior citizenship. The middle portion of his routine was about aging, about seeing doctors, getting a colonoscopy, about being a grandparent, and about being elderly and married. Yet somehow, it’s still funny! During his story about enduring his grandson’s first birthday party, followed quickly by a tangent story about his elderly friend who suffered a chain of side effects from different medications, I laughed so hard I almost broke a rib.

Cosby ended the night with his classic dentist bit. It was like driving home, reaching familiar territory. It’s a bit that I could nearly lip sync, because I’d heard it so many times before. He slipped into it as easily as a pair of old sneakers, and suddenly he was young again. His timing and delivery were of his earlier era. When he finished with the classic, “Look! A rainbow!” he brought the house down. As he waved and left the stage, he got a well-deserved standing ovation. Personally, when I stood for his ovation, I cheered his entire career and the influence he’s had on me as a human being and a student of comedy. Just as I felt honored to have seen Oscar Peterson play jazz piano like no one has every played before, I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this giant of the comedy world.

So I’ve set up bridge to show me the thumbnails on the left, and the full-size preview on the right. Right now, I have to manually set this up every time I launch Bridge. Does anyone know how to make Bridge remember my window set-up so it just launches automatically like this? That would be handy.

I do appreciate some of the concepts she brings out, because I have sometimes felt, both in photography and in improv, that there was something else speaking through me that allowed me to rise to new levels. Sometimes it feels as though I’m just channeling something, because afterward, I wonder, “Where did that come from?” At the same time, it runs against the grain of my natural tendency to insist on full accountability for everything we do. I think that both things can be reconciled though. She insists that we have to keep “showing up for work” in order to catch the inspiration as it is handed to us. And in the same way that I accept that I can not control the weather, I can accept this too.

In any case, watch the video. She’s a wonderful speaker, and her ideas are worth your consideration. Laura sent this out to her mailing list on the weekend, and I’ve seen it a few times since then, so I think it’s catching on…

It turns out this type of writing really suits me. Since each entry is limited to 140 characters, it enforces a type of concentrated and disciplined writing that I really enjoy. How much meaning can I distill into one entry? How succinctly and clearly can I express myself? How strongly can I make someone feel something? After having done a few of these, I now see that I write them exactly the same way I take photos. I try to use the 140 character limit the same way I might use a limit in shooting conditions, focal length, available light, etc. I always want to push the limits. It’s fun to me to see that in some ways, the more I change, the more I’m the same.

A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed : Boy Genius Report.