Bits and Pieces

1. I attended a great reading last night by Elizabeth Brundage, a novelist and creative writing instructor at Sage. Her new book, A Stranger Like You, looks at power and gender in Hollywood. I got a very dark sense of the story from her reading, which also weaves terrorism and the stoning of women into the plot. It also uses the elusive "second person" narrative, which I hadn't been exposed to since English 101.

I went to the reading last night because I have to miss author Nicholson Baker, who is speaking at Sage next week. For more information on that reading, go to:

http://www.sage.edu/newsevents/events/?event_id=280087&date=2010-10-07&view=monthly

2. Peter Pan has opened and is playing to packed, enthusiastic houses. I am attending this weekend, but only barely got a ticket myself. The musical has been extended by one showing and will now close on October 8. For more information on Peter Pan, go to:

http://www.sage.edu/newsevents/events/?event_id=281036&date=2010-10-01&view=monthly

While I'm on the topic of theatre, NYSTI opens The Miracle Worker on campus this weekend. It features the talents of several Sage students and alums, plus the NYSTI directing debut of friend, John Romeo. It is an amazing story about the power of education to make a difference in the lives of others--don't miss it.

3. I'm preparing a talk on "Assertive Communication" to present for the New York State Bar Association in October. I feel very confident about spreading the message of assertive communication, but what is embarrassing to me is that I don't always practice it. Where do you lie on the scale of communicators: the passive communicator, the aggressive communicator or that dreaded combination of both, the passive-aggressive communicator?

I am certainly learning as much about myself doing this research as I am going to teach to others.

More later...