To write or not to write: New Year's Resolutions

I've written in the past about my usual end of year ritual in terms of resolutions.

Then I saw this list of things happy people do, and these look like things I should be doing too.

And, there's this list of resolutions, written in 1942 by Woody Guthrie - I wonder how he did with them...


In addition to being clean, taking care of himself and loving the important people in his life, I'm particularly fond of items 17-20:
17. Don't Get Lonesome
18. Stay Glad
19. Keep Hoping Machine Running
20. Dream Good

May we all keep our Hoping Machines running as we dream good in 2012.  Happy New Year!

Recent Gender inequality stuff/Reminder for Counting Actors December

Two recent news items to point out:
1) A British theater company that puts women's stories onstage may lose its funding. Read that here.
2) Forbes does all kinds of year end lists of actors in relationship to how much money they make and how much their films make - the highest grossing actor of the year - Daniel Radcliffe.  Their 'best actors for the buck' list - which compares a star's salary to how much their film makes - starts with Kristin Stewart and Anne Hathaway at #1 and #2.  This is great, but you could also call this list the 'not agressive enough negotiators' list.  The list that struck me as most interesting (and it's written about here). is the list of 'The Hardest Working Actors' list - from 2007-2010, counting movies (not animated) that earned over $20 million, these actors names appeared most often: 1) Jason Bateman 2) George Clooney and 3) Matt Damon.  Morgan Freeman is the only person of color on the list (at #4) and the only woman on the list is Amy Adams at 8.

And, if you've read this far, maybe you've got something to contribute to Counting Actors for December?  Send it in!  Go here to read how.

And, this is my 101st post! Happy Holidays and thanks so much for reading so far. 

recent reads

Two terrific recent reads for me are John Lithgow's autobiography, and the Esther Freud novel Lucky Break.

In Drama: An Actor's Education, Lithgow covers his childhood and early years as an actor through his first films and Broadway success.  A fascinating small detail: the future Coretta Scott King was one of his childhood babysitters!  His stories of growth and learning, whether through playing Lenny in Mice and Men through many student matinees or from watching the actors work at the Shakespeare festivals run by his father, are moving and honest and also well told.  While I read it in just a few long sittings, some friends have said this is a great backstage book to read in the 10 minutes you can grab here and there.

I learned about Lucky Break after reading an interview with Esther Freud.  Esther is not only one of Sigmund's great granddaughters, but turned to writing while she was a struggling actor as something to do between gigs. She wrote Hideous Kinky, which became a film with Kate Winslet, and from that point became more of a writer than an actor.  Lucky Break is a novel about the lives of a group of actors who attend the same drama school in London, then move through the various highs and lows of their careers.  It reminded me of the old Theatre Shoes (and other Shoes books) by Noel Streatfield, only with more of the daily life (family, relationships, paying rent) included.  Freud is very candid about how difficult the business is for women, and a lot of the book is tedious and heartbreaking, but very very realistic.  Required reading, especially for the starry-eyed younger actors who want to know where they might be when they're 30.