the timboucher experience

I’m getting really good with a jigsaw and have been working gradually on using tools ambidextrously. Have been doing a lot of painting too, which I’ve been enjoying: lots of detailed Old Timey-looking lettering and a faux rock wall for the abbey in Show Boat, which opens in a couple days. I actually had kind of an odd synchronicity the morning that wall began coming into shape. I had a dream about a girl I’m interested in, and when I woke up was reflecting back on the whole Jungian anima thing, and spent the better part of the morning trying out a simple mantra, repeated internally to “conjure” that figure into the light of day, asking this mythological figure to show me her face by repeating SHAKTI SHEKINAH over and over again. Shortly thereafter, someone brought down a statue of the Virgin Mary from the prop attic at the theatre and began painting her black (nigredo). When we went to lunch, the costume girls were doing their usual Thursday ritual - dressing up as some theme. This time it was Madonna (the singer) through the years. The moon will be full in a few days. The last Full Moon brought me here. I wonder what the next will spill over into.

Observations I’ve been collecting in my back pocket in the midst of working. They are scattered, at best…

1. The revival in popularity of “hobo culture” I think may have something to do - on a quasi-Biblical/mythological level - with the Exodus: people being fed up or tired of the way things are, people being restless, longing for change and adventure, people wanting to escape the “Babylon system” as the Rasta say…
2. We take meals communally here. There are various out-lying cabins on our property (maybe twenty acres is my estimate), and a central building which at one time was an inn. The kitchen has a small permanent staff and a rotating crew of people who help out with cooking and cleaning. Meals are served “family style” at long tables. The whole thing reminds me of living at a commune of some kind, or even maybe a cult. A theatre cult, I guess. The point is, living like this works if it’s done right. Instead of a creepy religious element though, we’re all bound together by a common work which we’re all motivated to make as good as possible. Being part of something like that is very heartening compared to living in the “normal” world…
3. Working in a theatre reminds me a lot of being on a sailboat. You have lots of very specific terms to orient you within an enclosed space. That enclosed space becomes sort of like its own little universe and the weird terminology helps you communicate productively with others you’re working with.
4. The Robin Hood DVD I have been watching has embedded advertisements in it - in that 1950’s kind of way for something called Wildroot Cream Oil, which evidently was once a hair tonic of some kind for men. Between that, and working in a theatre whose audience is composed exclusively of rich old white Cape Codders, combined with a lot of reflecting on Renaissance art traditions, and things like Papal patronage has got me thinking a lot about how art is driven by the wealthy, how stories can and are used to drive culture towards ends which serve the interests of those with money, and so forth. It’s a topic I’m going to need to dig much more deeply into from a research perspective, but I’m beginning to see the outlines of something wildly important.

In any case, I have 45 minutes before lunch and having to get back to work. I’m gonna go try and play my guitar a little bit and maybe read about Orpheus. Cheers!

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