Who would you write a fan letter to?

Thank you for your lovely note. I enjoy your posts as well. You are part of a group that includes littlek and msolga (among others . . . if I continue listing, I will forget someone so I don't like to make these lists) who make me want to go directly to a thread when I see their name posted.

Actually, I would write a fan letter to Tina Fey as well. My son collects movies and television shows on his computers (I think he has four) and urges me to watch along with him. I am on either season 2 or 3 of Thirty Rock, which I love.

Fey created great characters and a realistic set of work place exchanges. I remember Fey saying, several years ago, that she didn't like performing. However, she is a great comedic actress. I loved SNL when she was the chief writer and Amy, Maya and Rachel were in the cast. While AMy, Maya and Rachel may be better actresses than Tina, Tina has both the writing and acting talent.

Prof. Plain:

U 've shown by your posts r so badly perverted to the left,
in the direction of citizens' docility and helplessness
that if one of your own children armed himself in his own defense,
u 'd oppose that.

Every predatory event is a contest of power.

U 've shown by your posts that if your child were confronted (alone)
by a predatory emergency, u 'd prefer that he or she be HELPLESS,
and that the predator have a MONOPOLY OF POWER to control the situation (e.g., weapons).

U 'd prefer that your child (victim) be HELPLESS in the face of such emergency
and not able to control that emergency with superior fire power.

As a conservative, libertarian Individualist,
if I had a child I 'd desire that he 'd be very well prepared, EQUIPPED,
trained and well practiced to be able to successfully DOMINATE and survive such a threat.

I favor the dominance of good over evil.





David

Well this thread sure is veering off course, not that David here can hear me since putting me on his ignore list. But I do enjoy reading is off the wall comments and persistently ambiguous babbling.

I do too and I think that secretly David would like to write POM a fan letter. He certainly never tires of talking to her. I think I enjoy their exchanges almost as much as he must.

You're welcome POM and thank you.

I think she is incredibly gifted comedically. I don't know which season it is because it's all jumbled up over here, they show two episodes a night on week nights, sort of how they used to show back episodes of SNL on a different channel in the US every weeknight- I used to watch them and laugh as I cooked supper- now I watch her and laugh instead of cooking supper - we eat really late because of her.

But there was a really funny one the other night where she and the new handsome cast member are secretly friends with benefits that highlighted all her bad but endearing habits. She's just so funny.
Oh and there was an episode with Jan Hooks playing Jenna's white trash (sorry but that was the term she used for herself) mother. I think that was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

I haven't watched the movie Tina's done with Amy Posner because I'm afraid I'll be disappointed. It's called 'Baby's Mama' or something stupid and looks juvenile - I might give in though and watch it. Rachel Dratz was on Thirty Rock - she played an eccentric, elderly cat lady. She was nearly unrecognizable. I like her too. I also really loved Ana Gasteyer when she was on SNL and Cherie Oterie. There were some funny women on that show.

Yeah - I told my daughter the other night - if/when I move back to the US, I'm gonna apply for a job on the Thirty Rock set. I don't care if it's just washing the dishes or emptying the trash. I would love to work on that set.

Many years ago, someone wrote a piece about how women can not be attractive and funny. That's why I think Joan Rivers has had so much plastic surgery but the thing about those SNL women is that most of them are attractive.

I avoided "Baby Mama" for the same reasons.

I lived in a town adjacent to the towns in which Dane Cook (not a fan but my son is) called home and the town where Rachel Draitch grew up. Rachel comes back to visit her parents and stops by the local bookstore and causes pandemonium. Amy grew up in the town the other side of Rachel's hometown where she was the star of the drama department.

The night Dane hosted SNL, I thought it was Eastern MAssachusetts' week!

Never written a fan letter don't suppose now's the time to start. If did, there's a handful small enough people I'd comment to from the 6th grade teacher to Bobrowski others too along the way. Not into letter writing or being a fan so it won't happen.

Sturgis!

good to see you

I'd write you a fan letter if it made you post more often.

Thanks. Still working on refining writing skills. Infuriating when able I am to speak but words go in reverse order when writing. I catch a lot of them, miss many more. Not complaining really, after all I'm still alive...I just need to practice writing more, was told that's the key.

Hope all is good with you and yours.


(and now letter fan list extends to include another)

Hi Sturgis
You can practice your writing here. Seems to be working just fine.

Sturgis, I'm sorry that the frustration continues.

However, as Intrepid has noted - practice with us!

Take advantage of some of the word games on days that you're having trouble with writing (five word game etc) - then come blast us out of the water on the other days.

Truly - so glad to see you post.

ehBeth and Intrepid,
I will definitely try. It improves then I get lazy, then excuses are made. The word games half scare me now but I'm aware they are key. Sweating just thinking about but that could be humidity.

Nothing wrong with your sense of humour

of course it's the humidity!

it's the same problem here

I have been working on a project inspired by Gertrude, Hamlet's mother; the Celtic Sovereignty Goddess and an absolutely rubbishy book by a crackpot descendant of the Earl of Oxford.

I spent a great deal of time this summer researching Shakespeare, including ushering at Shakespeare and Company in the Berkshires. The last 'play' I saw was Tina Packer's Women of Will. An old friend that I haven't seen in at least 35 years was mentioned in the program.

Tina's play helped me enormously with my research and I am working on a fan letter to her.

The problem with a fan letter is that it makes the author sound so "me too," if not so "I adore you!"

Interesting!

I don't recall that I ever wrote a fan letter but it is oddly coincidental that I had already decided to do so before seeing this thread!
I am less knowledgeable about music than many people --undoubtably due to a longstanding addiction to politics, news and talk radio upon which I wasted too many years, but recently, on XM Satellite Radio, I stumbled upon ch.13 'Willie's Place' (named for Willie Nelson) which streams 24 hr a day of 'Texas Swing', Texas Honky Tonk', and classic country songs.
I got reacquainted there with old favorites like Hank Williams Sr., George Jones, Hank Thompson, Jim Reeves etc etc. AND...I have particularly become a HUGE fan of longtime, pre-eminent, Country DJ (and award winning songwriter!) seventy-eight year old Bill Mack.
Bill has a wonderful show daily on XM-13 from noon till 3pm which he does with his wife Cynthia ('Sweet Cindy').
Bill Mack is appears to be friends with virtually every country singer of note and usually has one or more on his show in person or via phone.
He is warm, funny and has an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. But what has impressed me most is his obvious sincerity and his unfailing friendliness and kindness!
He has won me over as a daily listener!
While I tune in for the great music and the guests and all of the wonderful stories, I think the greatest draw is simply HIM, an exceptionally a warm and kindly 'friend.'
I plan to write him a letter of thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain?

I was thinking about the fact that when you listen to or watch or are exposed to something or someone on a daily basis and they affect your life in a positive way, they do become a part of your life in much the same way that a member of your family is- you would miss them if they went away or weren't there anymore.

I'm a big fan of comedy. And I remember it was in 1998 I think that Phil Hartmann and Chris Farley both died - Chris Farley first in the winter and then Phil Hartmann in the late spring, and it hit me then that even though I didn't even know either one of them, I would really miss them both. And I thought, 'How can you miss someone you've never met?' But there are people who I feel that I've come to know through their music or the laughter they bring me.
And my life would have been different if I hadn't 'known' them - or known of them and what they do - even if they never know me specifically - as anything more than a fan of their work.

I think it's good to tell people when they're doing a good job.

"...I think it's good to tell people when they're doing a good job..."

Absolutely, aidan!
There are so many deserved compliments that we casually retain in our hearts/minds... even though they might be just the SUSTENANCE that the person we admire desperately needs!

Perhaps, the "me too" feeling is unique to this particular situation because I am working on a play about Shakespeare's women. It will be . . . if ever finished . . . a very different play.

I read a book by journalist Ron Rosenbaum who said that directors have as much insight into Shakespeare as scholars. Tina has been an actress and director most of her life and she's played most of Shakespeare's women. I've largely been a Shakespeare enthusiast who experienced periods of intense involvement with the plays, followed by years without them. I toyed with the idea of presenting an academic paper on the character Shakespeare called Gertrude for 20 years. Putting Gertrude at the center of a play occurred to me a few months ago, which led me to usher at Shakespeare and Co.

So, Tina and I both feel Amelia Bassanio is the perfect candidate for the Dark Lady. That's a popular theory now. But, as someone wrote, after reading the Sonnets, one will decide Shakespeare was a heterosexual, a homosexual and a bi-sexual! After all, the Dark Lady could be a construct.

We both have thoughts on the cross dressing issue. I remember a paper on sumptuary laws (which included legal strictures on dress) during the Elizabethan Era. Women were frequently fined for dressing as men. They did this to travel . . . perhaps more easily without a side saddle, perhaps, for greater safety while traveling. To me, the fines meant that women did don men's clothes at the time and this might be reflected in the plays.

Tina points out that when Will's women are "in their frocks" and try to speak the truth, the results are terrible. They generally end up dead. However, when they assume male dress, they are able to speak to people who listen to them. That's a powerful observation.

This is taking too long but my problem is how to write to her about how grateful I am for that insight and how important it is without fawning, without turning her off is a problem.

Then there is the matter of whether to add the insights I have. Tina points out that Ophelia is a woman in her frock. I watched three Hamlet films this summer and two offered rather masculine versions (Richard Briers and Bill Murray) of Polonius paired with actresses (Kate Winslet and Julia Stiles) who, while young when they played the role were not ingenues. Those portrayals changed how I feel about Ophelia . . . that it was not Hamlet that pushed her off the edge. Tina's insight reinforces mine. So, will writing about that sound just too "me, too!"

I have been writing some of the speeches for the women I have picked. I'm not certain which women will be left standing should the play ever be finished. I'm still reading and still watching performances.

It's an exciting project and it is not sufficiently formed to ask for a professional opinion, which is a subtext here.

Did I put you to sleep?