Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Today on Five By Five Hundred, I've posted a little preview of a larger prose serial I'm working on. So it's cryptic, sure, as part of a much larger whole, but I think it stands decently on its own. Enjoy!
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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).
The Beauty of Meat Loaf
This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, but this week on Five By Five Hundred, I decided to take some prose and apply it to music. Meaning, I've tried to recreate a song with words instead of music. And what better song to try this little experiment on than Meat Loaf's (and Jim Steinman's) magnum opus "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)," because c'mon, that song's awesome. Also I'd advise you read all the way to the end...
"'THAT'" on FiveByFiveHundred.com
Memories of Betrayal
Here's a short little teaser trailer I put together for our production of BETRAYAL at the Huntington. I think this one in particular is pretty neat -- but then again, I might be biased. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08sam5XB6es]
Too Busy
First of all, thanks to everyone who came to our Alejandro & the Fame show this past Saturday. We completely sold out the venue, which is always a cool feeling*, plus Shaymus Moynihan and the gang at the Midway treated us with some truly fantastic hospitality while we were there. (Read: free drinks) Anyway, point is: it's Monday, and after a hard day of writing, I've got a new piece up at Five By Five Hundred about time. We could all use more free time, yeah? And yet, somehow, no one blames the government. Maybe they're taking all of our free time, hrmmm? Even though it's supposed to be free?
Yes, I know, that sounds ridiculous. But it made for a fun little flash fiction sketch.
"FREE TIME" at FiveByFiveHundred.com
*Although, at the same time, it was kind of depressing, because apparently people come out in droves to see 5 guys shredding their way through Lady Gaga songs, but no one cares about original music. But I digress.
This Saturday — Alejandro & The Fame In JP!
Boston's premiere all-male Lady Gaga cover band plays the Midway Cafe in JP! Doors at 8pm! Be there! I can literally walk my equipment over to the club from my house! Wooohoo!
Oh yeah, and here's the Facebook event. Whoops. Sorry, I got excited.
And remember: just dance, motherfuckers
They Like Me! They Really Like Me!
GOOD NEWS: The 2012 BroadwayWorld Boston Award nominations are out, and my play True Believers has been nominated for a ton of them, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, and Best Ensemble (they seem to have gotten rid of the "Best Play - Small/Fringe" category this year, jerks) BAD NEWS: Now you have to go vote for me. With every email address you have. Also tell your friends to do the same. Or else The Cyborg Head of Stan Lee will come to your house and destroy your soul. KTHXBYE.
(also, while you're at it, vote for my girlfriend M. Bevin O'Gara's incredible production of Love Person at Company One, in all of those categories, too, 'cause she's awesome.)
(you can also vote for the Huntington in all of the Large Theatre categories as long as you're there, ya know?)
Memory, Time, and Infidelity
Here's a little behind-the-scenes documentary that I put together for our upcoming production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Huntington. This was one of the first plays to famously explore a nonlinear chronology, which is one of its more interesting qualities (basically, LOST owes a lot to Betrayal). Anyway, check it out. Previews start Friday! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBcAW2uCqHo]
Tomorrow We Vote For Our Lovers
Because everyone's obviously feeling inundated and overwhelmed with all of the political commentary consuming the Internet, I decided this week to give everyone a break, and write something quick and simple about love and romance for Five By Five Hundred instead. Just kidding. It's a metaphor, fool.
"New Girlfriend" on FiveByFiveHundred.com
Superhero Politics
Instead of the usual political opinions, I tried instead to write a piece that explores politics without being overtly political. Although my editors at Tor were initially hesitant of the controversy, they were ultimately pretty pleased with the product! And so, my latest article at Tor Dot Com explores the centrist politics of Brian K. Vaughan's Superhero-Turned-Mayor-Of-New-York-City epic Ex Machina, which actually takes an impressively (if ultimately depressing) nonpartisan view at the ups and downs of American politics, only with lots more punching and invaders from alternate realities (obvi).
"Ex Machina and the Great Political Machine of Brian K. Vaughan" on Tor Dot Com
All Actors Are Robots (no but seriously)
In an effort to combine my seemingly disparate interests, I pitched an idea for a new column to my editor at Tor.com, focusing on the depiction of sci-fi and fantasy in the world of theatre. People don't typically think of plays as being bastions for weaving elegant tales of aliens and dragons and cyborgs (oh my!), but in fact, you'd be surprised! (In theatre, we just cover up the "genre" gimmick by giving it some pretentious name like "magical realism" or "futurism" etc). Anyway, here's the first of such columns, exploring RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots), a Czech play from the early 20th century that actually introduced the word "robot" to the world.
"SFF Onstage: Rossum's Universal Robots" on Tor Dot Com
One Minute Play Festival!
This year, I had the honor of being asked to contribute two plays to the annual One Minute Play Festival, and I have to say, writing a one minute play is a much bigger challenge than you'd expect it to be. The festival hits the stage in January, and I'll share information about the performances when I have it. In the meantime, I posted one of the plays as my weekly post over at Five By Five Hundred, so you can check it out there. Generally speaking, these plays are meant to be open-ended vehicles for the director, more than a chance for the writer to show his stuff, but I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out.
"The Call" at FiveByFiveHundred.com
Awake
I'm sure I'll go back and post my specific feelings about this at length, but my friend Scotty passed away this weekend. For now, instead of getting into the emotional stuff, I shared one of my favorite memories of my Scotty over on Five By Five Hundred, because frankly, it was the only thing I was capable of thinking of. Rest in peace, brother.
"Scotty, Or That Time I Wasn't 21" on FiveByFiveHundred.com
Now Or Later Opening!
Now Or Later officially opened this past Wednesday, and we couldn't be happier with the results! Okay, well, I guess we could a little bit, but overall, the reaction has been pretty fantastic for this "heady and provocative" 75-minute political thriller. So here's a little somethin' I put together to show off the overwhelmingly positive audience reaction, along with some footage from the production itself:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDJCgUDEKc&w=485&h=273]
Because There's Not Enough Political Bullshit Filling Your Facebook Feed....
...so here's a new video I made about our current production at the Huntington, a prescient new play called Now Or Later that's set on Election Night. While the last piece focused on the First Family drama at the heart of the play, this one explores the eerily relevant politics of the play (which was actually written 5 years ago, but feels like it was written right now. RIGHT NOW). Check it out:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8CR3nXxSCU]
Betrayal Begins
We just started rehearsals today (well, rehearsals in Boston; there were a few preliminary days of tablework in NYC) for our upcoming production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, one of his most highly regarded plays. The show runs November 9 - December 9 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre, under the direction of Maria Aitken aka the mom of the director on SMASH aka the lady from A Fish Called Wanda aka fucking Maria Aitken. Anyway, here's a video I made of our Artistic Director Peter DuBois talking about the production:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOhQBRYb-So&w=485&h=273]
Another Oldie But A Goodie (angsty?)
Not much time to write again today*, after a busy weekend at New York Comic Con that didn't get me back to Boston until midnight, so here's a re-post of an old poem/song I wrote in...I think 2005. Looking back, it's definitely the product of a 19-year-old, but don't think it was necessarily awful, as far as the poetry of 19-year-old Liberal Arts students is concerned. Check back next week for something new!
"Atlantic Avenue" at FiveByFiveHundred.com
*not that I haven't been writing anything at all in the last week, which I have actually quite a lot, but nothing that would be appropriate for 5x500 in either form or content. more articles and/or long form works-in-progress.
Gettin' Personal With Now Or Later
Here's my first short documentary about the American premiere of Christopher Shinn's edgy political drama Now Or Later at the Huntington. This video focuses on the personal family relationships at the heart of the play, which is full of eerily prescient political issues, considering it was written 4 years ago.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ9GLnvEr_8]
The show runs October 12 - November 10 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston, and features my good friend (and fellow Emerson alum!) Grant MacDermott in the lead role. You should probably check this one it now or later (now being before Election Day, obviously).
Batman and Robin Will Never Die!
Is there anyone alive who doesn't agree that Batman is totally awesome? No? That's what I thought.
It's also well documented by anyone who's ever met me that I have a serious fascination with comic book writer / chaos magician / Scotsman / rockstar / occasional fictional character Grant Morrison, who, by sheer coincidence, has been guiding the adventures of the Dark Knight for the past 7 years or so as the man behind the pen. The good folks at Tor.com were kind of enough to let me indulge my Morrison obsession and love for clever poetic puzzles, and I re-read his entire story (so far) to provide a critical analysis of what appears to be his deconstruction of the identity of Batman -- both as a symbol or piece of mythology, and as the man himself behind the mask, Bruce Wayne.
This undertaking proved to be much more epic than I had originally anticipated, but I'm still quite pleased with the end results. So check it out, even if you haven't read all of Morrison's Bat-epic (but really, you should probably do that).
"How Grant Morrison’s 7-Year Batman Epic is Becoming the Ultimate Definition of Batman" on Tor Dot Com
Pretentious Poetic Firefly References
Not much time to write for FiveByFiveHundred.com today, as we had a big fancy Open House at the Huntington (stupid having to work on holidays* grrrrr). So instead, I've re-posted a poem that I wrote about 4 years ago or so, about romance, assholes, and Firefly. Because really, what else is there to talk about?
"Mal Means Bad (in the Latin)" on Five By Five Hundred
*All personal moral dilemma with Columbus Day aside.
Basketcase
Truth be told, I've always thought The Fourth Green Day has the best job in the world. He gets to reap all of the benefits of being a rock star, without any of the hassle -- no publicity, no scandals. Hell, he doesn't have to write the songs! He just plays the parts on tour (and let's face it, Green Day doesn't write particularly difficult tunes). But he still gets the chance to stand on stage and rock out to an adoring crowd, and get paid handsomely to do so. If you offered me that gig, I've take it in a heartbeat.