Perchance Nothing

(I just discovered this post that was saved as a draft but never submitted. Better late than never I guess?)

I don't dream very often. I've always suspected this is a consequence of the copious amounts of medication I took throughout my youth, but who knows whether or not that is true? In any case, I just had a rare dream, and will now attempt to relate as much as possible to you.

I have just finished up a conversation with some minor comedian whose name I wouldn't be able to recall in the waking world anyway, we are standing on a tree-lined street by my old elementary school playground. Up walks Last Comic Standing host Jay Mohr, and I flag him down and tell him how I can't believe my incredible luck meeting two comedians in one day. We talk briefly about comedy and television, he says he hasn't heard good things about the previous comic, and then goes on his way. Across the street from me is a garage sale, so I cautiously wander over and who should I find but Robert Stack. Wow, I think, this is a real celebrity, not just a TV celebrity like Jay Mohr or the first guy. I notice a brown box full of old records, the one on top is the soundtrack to an experimental feminist film produced by Disney in the early seventies, called Dau Fratham. It is an operatic musical about a futuristic society where women are second class citizens. It tells the story of a man who hunts and kills four criminal women before committing suicide, and is told through the eyes of a fifth woman, the title character, who ends the film with a melancholy aria. We don't talk about the details of the film, but they're all there in my memory anyway, as though I'm some expert on Disney's experimental feminist movement. Stack comments that he knew the woman who played Dau Fratham. I haven't seen the film but I do know her from her voice work on a much more family friendly Disney film. Stack ends up buying the record for fifty cents, telling me that it is probably the last copy in existence and is worth much more than that. As he departs I leaf through the brown box of records but find nothing else of value.


So yeah, good luck interpreting THAT. Go on, I dare you.

YA Website

I'm posting twice on the same subject, so you know I'm serious.
An oft-cited maxim is that you're either part of the problem or you're part of the solution. I've never been a fan of these kind of polarizing statements because they promote the kind of "Us vs Them" mentality that leads to unpleasant things like College football fans, Political protesters, and suicide bombers.
However.
The idea is not totally without merit, and there is a yawning gulf between the Young American's internet potential and its' actual online achievements.
It is my intention to clearly outline my proposal for the Young Americans digital experience, with the clear understanding that in this instance, those with the power to change things are a decidedly different subset than those with the desire to change things.

1. Fix the YA website.

The YA Website is a perfect online representation of the YA Warehouse. The comparison is both unflattering and instructive: it exists as an outmoded, cumbersome, and generally embarrassing front for what is in reality an international non-profit entity. Someone's "best efforts" aren't commendable just because their services come cheaply, and even improved aesthetics and design principles won't fix the site's architecture problems.
The front page should load quickly and act as nothing more than a hub to other places. Send convention show clients to a place where they can look at publicity photos, short performance clips, and see a list of the groups long and storied success as entertainment for corporate events. Keep it simple and quick, and let your corporate clients know that hiring you puts them in the esteemed company of some of top corporations in the world (Coke, IBM, Dodge, etc.)
The Outreach section should be subdivided into specific sections for teachers and students. A simple feedback section will ensure a constant string of positive testimonials, (with incorporated editorial control of course,) and the site needs a much, much more efficient submission medium for photo submission other than email.

More to come if I still care later.