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I’m just typing here to let you know that I’ve ordered for you and sent out a DVD called Forks Over Knives. I was recently referred to it by Mike Geither, who was my playwriting professor at CSU.

The conversation came about because I was talking about the movie Food, Inc. which I had just watched, and how the American food system was not only corrupt, but dangerous. I was talking about how Kirsten and I were looking to buy food from local farms and CSAs (community supported agriculture) associations. I was really miffed because in grocery stores you see all this product marketing and labeling that shows sunshine and farms, etc, when really most of the products in stores come from 4 or 5 corporate industrial farms that could give a shit about anyone’s health or safety.

Mike told me about Forks Over Knives. In it there is detailed information that the Western diet POISONS the vast majority of people who ascribe to it. Not by design or malice, of course, but because the evolution of man has not prepared the body for the diet that we have today: high in sugar, salt, fat, and animal protein. There is such a vast amount of data that points to the fact that the eating of meat, dairy, processed sugars, etc. causes cancer, heart disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, allergies, etc., that I just could not ignore the parallels. One of the lead researchers is from the Cleveland Clinic. I am changing my diet for good. Kirsten and I have been talking for a while about changing our diets and the diets of [our children]. This is the foundational change that we will point to. We are going to ease into the transition, and we are not likely to be as radical–meaning we’ll eat, occasionally, some cheese and free-range eggs, etc. But we will be discontinuing the consumption of meat because the evidence points to how devastating it is to the arteries, heart, and how the consumption of animal proteins and by-products causes cancer of the liver, colon, breasts, etc. Not to mention the hormones, antibiotics, and other crap that has been injected into the food supply for so long.

A while ago I asked Dad what he was doing to change his diet in the wake of his colon cancer and he said that he didn’t know and hadn’t seen any resources to help. The DVD I’m sending is a wake-up call for me, and I hope it is for you, too. It is accompanied by a book about diet and has recipes that advocate for an all vegetable, whole foods diet. The DVD talks about cancer and how such a diet REVERSED many of the forms of cancer and other diseases people had, as well as their heart conditions–far more so than prescription medication. Kirst and I are under no illusions about how difficult such a transition will be, especially with kids; and I have no doubt that it will be tough for both of you, given the cultural history of food in this country. I cannot, however, be more convinced of what this DVD has to say and the necessity of making the change.

Went and saw Middletown by Will Eno last night at Dobama. It was a strange show. First, given the nature of the play (life in a small town) and Second, the varied cast of characters and events (being somewhat eccentric, etc), and Finally, the epic sweep of the thematic content (life, death, love, the universe, our place in it, etc.) there are obvious parallels to Our Town by Thorton Wilder.

The play is engaging, for the most part, and the first act is filled with a strangeness that is difficult to describe: things, events, characters, and ideas (statements) are juxtaposed with other things, events, characters, and ideas and the clashing of the two creates a dissonance that is abrupt and sometimes very comic. The statements from characters and language used is equally abrupt and strange and it is clear that Eno is playing as much with words and how they mean and just the raw sounds of words, as he’s playing with big ideas. If you, dear reader, are like me, occasionally you’ll say a word and the word will sound so strange in your ears that you’ll repeat it again and again until the word itself loses meaning and just becomes this guttural sound that is disconnected entirely from anything. Some of this is at play in Middletown. This notion of the strangeness of words and their association with concrete things in the world is one of the arguments, often, for learning to speak a second language or even a third, because learning another language is learning to see the world in a different way, for instance, the Spanish language associates all nouns with gender. So the moon is “la luna” a female object. The sun “el sol” is a male object. And virtually everything has this gendered nature. This causes one, I think, to experience the world differently. For an example of the dissonance and clashing I mentioned above, early in the play, I’ll go with the librarian example (having been one myself and being always interested in the stereotypes of the profession), one of the “main characters” Mary (Carly Germany) goes into the library to request a library card. This request is met positively by the Librarian (Laura Starnik) who says, “Good for you dear. A lot of people figure, ‘Why bother? I’m just going to die, anyway.’”

What makes for strangeness and good fun does not, however, make for good “deep” connections with characters. This sort of strangeness and light-hearted non-committal to characters in any meaningful way results in a very surfacy attachment and interest in them, and, as with may Eno plays, there is a tendency to just sit and think and try and keep up with his use of language and the strangeness of his ideas. I saw Thom Pain at Dobama several years back, and it was the same thing. Except there you have an exceptionally intimate encounter with one man who is baring his soul, or trying anyway, and periodically covering it over with neurotic defense mechanisms to keep you away from his soul. It is a passive agressive experience of the highest order and equally fascinating to listen to and contemplate as fast as you can. What works well in Thom Pain, though, does not work as well in Middletown. With Middletown there genuinely feels, at times, as if there is an earnestness to the attempt to reveal something beautiful and terrible and deeply real about the human condition, and I would say that on a few occasions this succeeds. But for the most part it does not, simply because there is so much of the Thom Pain cynicism and comic clashing happening. There are moving moments with the Police Officer (Jason Markouc) and the Mechanic (Fabio Polanco) when they reveal their inner demons and troubles to the Librarian–who has known them since they were little boys (again, small town angle); but most of it gets lost amidst the easy laughs and verbal gymnastics that are Eno’s trademark. Like his play Tragedy: a tragedy, there is something smug about the sorrow, something removed and distant–sort of a “I know you’ll think this is moving, but I don’t, in fact, I’m more entertained by your thinking this is moving than in really moving you.” It’s like psychologist sitting behind a one-way mirror to observe the suffering and distress of another person, but not really empathizing with it or feeling it himself–perhaps even joking about it.

I do like Eno’s work as he is truly a remarkable thinker and his use of language is stunning; and Middletown is no exception. There were points in the play where I felt that longing and epic reach of Our Town–that sense of individual isolation, even in the midst of others–that makes Our Town so powerful. But, as Mike Geither and Chris Johnston noted, whom I went out with after the show, there is a deep earnest sincerity in Wilder and a genuine love of people and their weaknesses that comes through in Our Town that does not come through in Middletown. The only question is, what is Eno’s intent? Maybe he doesn’t want you to connect at all. Maybe he wants the audience, which the play engages frequently, to be removed–a la Brecht–to not identify with or emotionally connect with the characters. The only question that remains then, is “to what end”? Eno could be saying something about the disconnected nature of our modern society, compared with Wilder’s society. Given his outstanding thrashing and skewering of the local news media in Tragedy: a tragedy, that just might be the case.

The set for this play at Dobama was fantastic, so hats off to Laura Carlson. And the cast was fantastic for this production as well, including Robert Hawkes, Tom Woodward, Emily Demko, Mark Mayo (who was performing after surgery, no less), Maryann Elder and my former MNO classmate, Dianne Boduszek.