15 things Kurt Vonnegut said better than anyone else

http://www.avclub.com/articles/15-things-kurt-vonnegut-said-better-than-anyone-el,1858/

Some thoughts on the mood of Next Door

     What actually stuck me the most reading this was the memories it invoked of being a kid and listening to radio or watching TV late at night alone. It felt as though someone was talking directly to you. The hypnotic voices of late-night DJs would create a sort of trance where, in the dark of your room there was only you and that voice. It's almost a mystical experience.

It made me think of two other short stories which had evoked some of those similar feelings. While the content is fairly different, they both evoke this experience. At the end of Next Door things have returned to normal - no one is dead, the neighbors are back together, the woman is gone, and it's almost like the whole thing never happened. There's also some of that in these stories - when you return to reality you question whether the whole experience was totally real.

Mr Goober's Show: http://www.astralgia.com/webportfolio/omnimoment/fiction/goober/index.html

Reading of Candle Cove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVS4Agu5LTg

Twilight Zone

It seems like we should have a Twilight Zone screening- any favorite episodes? I really like "To Serve Man".

"Wouldn’t you pay $5,000 to be indistinguishable from everybody else?"

jumping on the Twilight Zone train...

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Things are getting crowded.

Some Twilight Zone for ya.

Cliché, I know, but reading these makes my mind automatically go to the Twilight Zone music.

EPICAC

I just found they are interesting. :) Maybe we can make an epicac-skirt.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

When I read "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" I think of the cramped quality of tenement housing.  I also picture the future as kind of grimy and not shiny and traditionally "futuristic." I think that the farther we progress into the future the more we as a society will effectively revert.

Hearing Aids!

According to my friend wikipedia, there are LOTS of types of hearing aids! Ear trumpets, BTEs (behind-the-ear aids), ear molds- y'all, there are even DISPOSABLE hearing aids. Back in the mid-20th century, hearing aids looked like this-

The wearer holds the transistor, and the wire sends the sounds into the earpiece. In the 80's, transistors were a bit more wearable. They looked like this-

Fashionable, no? Today, most BTEs look like this, resting comfortably, as the name suggests, behind the ear-

But what does CONFIDO look like? The device is "a direct wire to the worst in us." Would a physical wire invite that invitation? How much does Ellen "tune in" to Confido? Confido's tag line is "Everybody's best friend!" How does its physical appearance confirm or negate that tag line? Practically, how big should Confido be? What shape, size, color? And what time period does the short story adaptation take place in? A BTE would look futuristic in the 60's, but a transistor would look ancient in the 21st century.

Overpopulation and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"

New York's Cemeteries, NYTimes

One thing that the story "Tomorrow..." reminds me of is the size of New York's Jewish Cemeteries. I always pass them when visiting friends in Queens and Brooklyn, and the way the tombstones are crowded together gives me such a clear picture of the size of the city (which , in the future setting of the short story, stretches out into Connecticut). 

Musings by Thomas McPhee

"The futuristic city picture is almost exactly what I was thinking for Tomorrow.... in terms of it being crowded, dirty, and kinda depressing/existential."

"The "Credit Where Credit Is Due" comes from the Lost soundtrack, and is almost sort've cliche in and of itself in terms of its own usage in the show, but I think is fitting music for a poignant moment, i.e. when EPICAC dies but yet leaves the poems for his love, even if he can't have her."

""Ghosts of a Future Lost" comes from the Requiem For A Dream soundtrack (again, kinda cliche in terms of soundtrack-y-ness and for that I apologize), but I think the tone of the song for me really captures a lot of what's going on in Confido.  There's this sense of tension slowly building, something's not right, and the innermost thoughts are creeping out and over everything, not in a directly antagonistic way (at least, not at first), but it slowly builds and seems almost innocent at times."

All-Nite Sam

Some far-out radio DJs- Stan Burns and "Rosko" Mercer (the first major African-American radio DJ). Listen to that sweet broadcasting voice!

How Do You Imagine the Future?

These are the responses you all put on your contact forms. Thought you might get a kick out of some of the answers (or just get depressed). Unfortunately, there were some great drawings I simply cannot recreate in text. One about a broccoli forest...

"If we can't get our collective shit together, it'll be a dirtier, poorer, more depressing version of now. If we manage to somehow get it together, it'll be a cleaner, happier version of now. (Happy face) vs. (Sad face). IT'S ALWAYS THAT SIMPLE RIGHT?!"

"I'm looking far ahead- as humans strive to improve their lives by removing everything unpleasant, will we lose some part of the human condition? Is that human experience worth saving?"

"Enough food for everyone!"

"Town of Churches and Banks (copyright symbol). Everything is banks/churches. Also hipsters who hate it but don't do enough to change it."

"To be honest I really think that the world is just going to turn grey and dusty (sad face). We're all screwed!"

"Complete connectivity! No privacy, very Brave New World. The internet is both the opiate of the masses and our strongest hope to fight malaise and inaction."

"Alien invasion. Flying houses."

I was telling Thomas about this album- They Might Be Giants came out with a children's album a few years ago called Here Comes Science (2009) that kicks butt! Here is the opening track (and music video- the CD came with a DVD!) called "Science is Real!"

-Lizzy

Kurt Vonnegut giving his lecture on "The Shapes of Stories". In his own way, of course. I have a full copy of this lecture in his book, A Man Without a Country (2005), if you're interested in reading it. As an exercise, it might be fun to draw the graphs of our stories. How does "boy meets girl" change when it becomes "robot meets girl"?

-Lizzy

How I feel starting Division III-

Hello! Welcome to The Tomorrow Project blog! This is a space for dramaturgical musings, aesthetic ideas, and cat videos relating to our production. Post often and liberally! But please, sign your name at the bottom of posts.

-Lizzy