No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on May 6, 2014

My theatrical career was a varied one. I was mainly a stage manager but did just about everything else behind the scenes as well.

My father first taught me tool basics. I think one of the most useful classes I took in high school was shop where I got to play with really big power tools and learned how to operate a lathe.

So I had the basics when I started building sets in college. I had some really good teachers who took the time to make sure I was doing things correctly.

I enjoyed it a lot.

Last week I had to fix our couch. Two of the legs had broken so it was an adventure to sit on it.

I turned the couch over and figured out the repair. Went to the hardware store and got what I needed. Came home and fixed the couch. Solid as a rock now.

Lighting was another skill set that I was able to use. Before the computerized lighting boards of today, we had the old fashion levers and rheostats. They were fussy but I had the right touch to run them so I earned extra pocket money running light boards. I also learned how to hang theatrical lighting. While at Yale I had an excellent lighting teacher so I had the principles of lighting as well as practical application. That has helped me with my photography. I also learned how to balance electrical loads with circuit boxes, which had helped me in a variety of arenas.

Sound was something I stumbled into. The sound operator got very sick and I was drafted to run the sound board. The designer quickly figured out that I had the ‘ear’ for sound and was quite delighted to pass on what he had learned. To this day I can listen and tell you what is right and wrong with live sound. Peter has gotten use to me muttering, “balance it out” “Back off the bass” “Not so much treble”. I am good at balancing voice and music and again earned some good money doing so.

I learned a lot about plumbing while working in theater strangely enough. I learned the basics from my dad and now can take care of basic problems.

I learned about make-up from some of the best. I learned how to make leather comedia masks from a master mask maker. I learned costuming from a lot of different people. I also learned clever tricks in cleaning clothing from my costuming buddies. Vodka is your friend esp. if it is the really really cheap kind.

I have used my theatrical skill set a lot over the years for many things that have nothing to do with the theater.

I am grateful for all the skills I learned during my theatrical career.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 1, 2014

I have noticed that on Facebook that Thursday seems to be the day to delve back into the past and post a photo or some remembrance of the past.

This past Tuesday I put up some photos of some of my work from the late 80s and early 90s so I guess that’s my throwback.

Reflecting on the past is an interesting exercise for me. I have one of those brains that remembers too much. I can remember stupid things that happened in elementary school to this day.

My first memory is apparently from when I was probably about 18 months from what I could tell my mom. She had knee surgery and I have a clear image of sitting and watching my father help her sit down in a chair in the living room and helping her prop up her leg.

I have memories of being at the beach and the tide went further out that I had ever seen it exposing beach and tidal pools that I never saw again. There were fish in the tidal pools and lots of crabs walking along the beach.

I remember being at the opening of the Center for Puppetry Arts and working my way through the crowd so I could get a picture of Jim Henson. The crowd was a bit out of control and Jim got pushed into me. He turned around and Kermit, who was on his arm, asked me if I was all right. That was a surreal moment and yes I did talk to the frog.

One of the photos I got that day with my Kodak camera
(For the VI: This is a black and white photo of Jim Henson and Kermit the frog with a whole bunch of people surrounding them.)

I remember my time at the good ol’ Yale School of Trauma (drama) as we called it. I can remember going into Earl Gister’s office in my 3rd year and having a screaming argument with him about pulling yet another actor from a new play we were working on. The funny thing was that Earl had throat cancer so he talked through one of those handheld voice boxes but his acting ability and gesticulation let me know that I was being yelled at too. We kept the actor since I could prove to Earl that it was going to be a serious hardship.

I remember the day Caroline was born still very clearly. I don’t remember the pain of labor (thank goodness) but I do remember the relief when I heard her cry for the first time. I remember that they put her on my chest with her ear on my heart while Peter cut the umbilical cord. I said to her, ‘Welcome to the world my baby girl’.

I remember so much both good and bad. I can reflect on my past and have very few regrets in my life which is a good place to be.

I am grateful for my experiences that make me who I am today.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 28, 2014

Yeah, I know I have been rather quiet but I really haven’t had much to say. Crafty Tuesday for tomorrow is a bit of a blank but I am sure I’ll come up with something.

Things around here have been pretty stable in that not much is happening outside the norm, which is nice considering how outside the norm we were a year ago. However by this point we were getting back to normal or what passes for normal.

It has gotten warm enough that Caroline and I can walk to school, which we are going to do this morning. We talk about various topics along the way. There is stuff that strikes us as funny. I can usually get her giggling pretty fast if I want.

Tonight we are going into NYC to see the Marvel screening of Spiderman 2.2. Always fun to watch a film with a room of people who “get it”.

So that’s the story around here. A little slower pace until we crank up again for the summer season.

I will say that the rain the other day was useful because I woke up and didn’t have a pounding sinus headache.

There are some subjects I have been thinking about writing but some of them are only really interesting to me and others are hot button issues.

I am looking forward to X-Men Days of Future Past. I do think after watching a couple of the trailers, I have sorted out how Chuck is walking around. But it should be fun.

Whelp off to get the kidlett breakfast and make her lunch for school.

Hey, if you have a topic or prompt you would like for me to write about, I am open to them. If you have questions you want answered for Crafty Tuesday, please I am blank blankety blank on that right now.

Hope y’all have a pleasant day.

I am grateful for things unsaid.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 24, 2014

This is one of those times that several things happened several places on the Internet and in real life (or pseudo real life since it was email exchanges).

We talk about the problem of the Internet that you never know if who you are talking to is really who they say.

Twitters odd solution is a checkmark stating that the person has been verified as who they really are. Funny thing is that Peter has been on there for over two years and he has over 11,000 followers and he has proved time and time again that he is who he says he is but still no checkmark from the powers that be on Twitter. But @PeterDavid_PAD is Peter on twitter. Feel free to follow. I am on twitter too but don’t use it as much. My twitter handle is @KathODavid.

I am on tumblr too but I have just started there. I am Puppetmaker40 which is pretty much my handle in a lot of places starting with my live journal. It’s my pinterest handle as well. I am still sorting out how to use that site.

I learned at a very young age that lying on your resume or CV was a very bad idea. Padding it was forbidden as well. I grew up in an academic household and that CV was the ticket to tenure. Lying on it would get one shown the door for fraud pretty doggone fast. It just wasn’t done.

During my theater career, I had to deal with some actors and designers who claimed to have done all kinds of rolls over the years that they hadn’t done. I think my favorite was watching a stage manager I worked with give someone an out on a role they said they did. The actor insisted that they had done the role and the stage manager informed them that they didn’t since the stage manager had been the stage manager for that particular show and they know exactly who played the role. There was a lot of hemming and hawing after that on the actor’s part.

Occasionally I will get emails from various people inquiring about other people and the veracity of these people’s claims. They come to me because they know that I know other people who are involved in the situation or can get in touch with someone who is in the know. So I have been quietly debunking or confirming things for people over the years.

I think I get angriest when I see people lying to others and their actions cause harm to others. This harm can take many forms including financial, mental and even physical.

And the Internet has made this even easier to do. People can hide behind names and personas that don’t really exist. They can appear and cause harm and vanish only to reappear elsewhere rinse and repeat. Some are not that clever and are found out. Others have been getting away with it for years.

One would think that given the Internet and the vast resources at our fingertips, it would be easier to shine the bright light of truth onto the pit of lies but there are still shadows that can be hidden in.

So the adage of take anything you read on the Internet with a grain of salt is one that I subscribe to.

I am grateful for the honest folk on the Internet.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 23, 2014

Yep, the pollen is in the air. The particulate matter that now annoys my nose is everywhere. I use to not have allergies but in my dotage my body has decided that it doesn’t like pollen any more. I have never done well with mold.

At least the Mets are at 500 right now. They still don’t know how to work their own specially designed for them ballpark but everyone else does.

NBA is in playoff mode. There have been some interesting calls by the refs.

I am participating in some thing on Live Journal called the Real Live Journal Idol, which is having its ninth and final version right now. I do it because I enjoy writing essays based on prompts from the owner of the contest. This year I have been trying to come up with some real twists on the prompt given and it has not be easy but it has been educational.

This past week the prompt was “step on a crack”. My mind went immediately to DEVO but I am a child of the 60s, 70s and 80s. But that was the low hanging fruit so I mulled it a little more and came up with an essay that I think does the job nicely.

In writing that essay I talked about how a young woman spoke to me about how she admired how I could hold my own in a group of men. I had to tell her honestly I don’t see gender. I mean I see gender but it doesn’t really influence how I speak to someone. For me people are people and I don’t see how speaking differently to one makes any sense what so ever. Then I thought about how more of my close friends are male rather than female. So I apparently don’t speak “female” well but I wouldn’t know how to if I tried.

I don’t care about gender, race, religion, sextual orientation, or political beliefs when I talk to someone. I care about the person I am talking to. I have some friends that we both know we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum but we are still friends. I was once informed by a gay buddy that I was not a fág hag because I wasn’t trying to straighten anyone out. I treated gays like people not some precious unicorn to be collected and shown off. People are not just one thing. People are a myriad of thoughts, emotions, experiences, and beliefs.

Doesn’t mean I get along with everybody. There are some people I rather not interact with. And there are people who prefer not to interact with me. Their loss since I am a pretty interesting person to know.

I am grateful for those people who enrich my life by being in it.

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