Alex Burger

Nightclub Debut

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We opened the club a couple weeks ago – I’m still recovering.

On the one hand it was great – 300+ people showed up, a beautiful space, really nice vibe, a mix South African and other African guests.  My favorites were the Congolese diamond traders that showed up early and didn’t speak English but kept changing US$100 bills with me – the new ones I had never seen before and thankfully were not counterfeit.

On the other hand it was a rough – alcohol stolen, we lost money because not enough people came and they didn’t drink enough, some of us worked our asses off while it seemed the bartenders thought their job was just to keep oiling their chests and do a police uniform dance/strip tease that went on for a very long time.

We’ll see how the next one goes . . . .

 

 

11 October, 2014

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Listening to:

Reading:

Quote of the week:
Stephen Schwartz, Robin Lamont, Stephen Nathan: Godspell Thomas S. Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions “Don’t try to tell me that hungry is not an emotion because I feel that shit deep in my soul.”
–A Friend, Nina Gallant

4 October, 2014

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Listening to:

Reading:

Quote of the week:
Norman Chauke: Jazz Dikas A. Igoni Barrett: Love Is Power Or Something Like That “I don’t believe grief ever leaves you.You just learn to live with it deeply rooted in your soul.”
— A friend, Brian Thomas

27 September, 2014

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Listening to:

Reading:

Quote of the week:
Timaya: Bom Bom Shawn Achor: The Happiness Advantage “Oh shame upon earth!
Apollo! Apollo!
Lord of the ways, my ruin
You have undone me once again, and utterly.”
— Cassandra crying out as she sets foot on Greek soil, from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon

Speech (Never Made)

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The speech I wrote (but never made) at my student’s showcase last week.

“Stories are how we make sense of the world. They surround us everyday: from banter at the taxi rank, to chats with friends and colleagues, to talk at dinner – we only need to listen. I can think of no other vocation I’d rather share than to be story teller, each day working in my shop, constructing stories I hope will change the world. It has been an honor to share this story telling world with these students. I invite you now to listen to their stories – and I hope you find, in them, as I have, some extraordinary glimpses of who we are and what we can become. Enjoy.”

Playwriting Class Showcase

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My class had it’s final showcase a couple days ago.  14 students all reading bits of their work.  We did it in a friend’s bar in the afternoon. I found it awkward and at moments wonderful, tedious with bits of brilliant. The director reminded me this is a showcase: the good, bad, and the ugly.  In any case, I still love the students.

 

 

13 September, 2014

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Listening to:

Reading:

Quote of the week:
Digable Planets: Blowout Comb
Aeschylus: Aeschylus II: Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, Fragments “Let me speak, let me spit out my bitterness
Born of grief and nights without sleep and festering flesh
Do you have eyes?
Can you see like mankind sees?”
— Joni Mitchell, Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)