August 25, 2001
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Well, that's the first time that's happened to me -- I wrote a nice long log about the play I went to last night, submitted it, and it never appeared on my page! Disappeared into electron Limbo. Dropped into the bit bucket. Gone.
This is such a good play, I'm going to write my entry again! Once more into the logs, dear friends...
Last night I went ACT, A Contemporary Theater, to see "Waiting to be Invited", a civil rights drama about four black women going to a sit-in at a "whites-only" lunch counter in 1961 Atlanta. Sherry M. Shephard-Massat based the play on stories her own grandmother told her. Unlike many other movies, plays and books about the Civil Rights movement, "Waiting to be Invited" doesn't focus on the headline figures and dramatic confrontations, but shows only the four women preparing for the event, their personal lives and fears. It draws attention to the millions of people behind the scenes who make a movement, and to the place of true battleground, inside us.
In the program, Shephard-Massat commented on something said by a high-school girl at one of the first performances: "I don't know who this writer is and I don't know who she is writing for, but people my age won't know what is going on. The play was on a whole long time before I understood what was happening." As the author said, "It really surprised me that this generation does not know about what happened to give them their freedom." I went to the play with a young black woman from my writing workshop, and we both agreed that it is important to remember too. In our experience, racism still lives, and we deal with it every day; though in different ways. I won't pretend my struggle is as hard as hers. But in some ways, all -isms are the same, racism and sexism and the classism that says if you haven't got money to spend, don't come into our neighborhood.
ACT Theater has an excellent study guide for the play. I recommend it.
In other notes: I consider all my entries worth reading
-- so I've made it easier to find back-entries by adding a Log Index to your left.
The "Custom Module" option seems to be the most valuable part of Xanga Premium. The Spell Checker takes approximately forever to load; I wouldn't know for sure because I always give up after a minute or so and cancel it. I'm not sure how to use the option to store extra pictures, and I'm a bit leary of it anyway. You can probably tell that I'm a text-oriented person
and I like a simple page design that loads quickly.
Before my trial time runs out, though, I'll test "email posting." If I have something in email form, I don't have to cut-and-paste to post it on Xanga; I can send a Xanga weblog post through email. That might be convenient.
I still have twelve days to decide if the advantages of Xanga Premium are worth paying for. To help me decide, let me know if you use the Log Index and Link List (What I Do While I'm Not Weblogging), okay?
Write On!
Comments (5)
Funny how history is getting shorter and shorter. For most young people, it's anything that happened last week. Are schools really doing that bad a job, or are their little heads just too crowded with important stuff like the latest fashions, beautiful people, and music? Orwell thought that history would be rewritten. That hasn't proved necessary at all, since it's so easily forgotten.
I noted that you signed up for the premium trial and wondered how you'd like it. I tried it, and there were too many features I either didn't need or that don't work on a Mac. But I'm still thinking about it, for that lefthand column. (Which will disappear when your trial period is up. At least mine did.)
I like the index, even though I wouldn't index everything. But how do you get the individual URLs for your entries? Drop me a note about that, would you? I'm sure others might like to have that info, also.
Prejudice in any form is wrong. Today's youth has forgotten the past and few seem interested in learning from their ancestors mistakes.
I recently met a young man online who was proud that his grandfather had been a nazi soldier during WWII. I didn't know what to say, my grandfather left his homeland between the two world wars to escape the madness.
I can't understand not seeing that something is wrong, or learning from it. Glad to know I am not alone.
I use all the premium goodies... so for me it's worth it. You have a wonderful site and I hope you have a great week!
Index, now SOMEONE is thinking! Most excellent.
Sail on... sail on!!!
oh racism is still very much alive, sadly. I think it'll take a lot to get rid of it -but I'm confident we'll someday have a world without it
sounds like a good play!
btw, you have a really beautiful name!!
Comments are closed.