finding a pencil, telling the time

So life is ridiculous. I'm reminded of this over and over. And when it gets bad-ridiculous I try to surround myself with good-ridiculous, the kind that gets you out of bed in the mid afternoon.

So I just thought I'd share some good ridiculous in case late afternoon jimmy-jams are becoming a habit.

purple does not look good with red hats. sorry.

Ok, so this is unrelated to performance or clown or anything, but it is something that has been annoying me for some time.

My mother is getting older. It happens. And often she'll tell me about experiences where she goes into a store that has younger folks working there and no one pays any attention to her. Like she, a potential paying customer, is completely invisible. It's one of those things that, unfortunately, I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't pointed it out. But now that she has I see it EVERYWHERE.

Have you been watching Top Chef? All these young chefs treat Robin, a woman in her early 40s, like she's senile. This episode of Chopped gets down to two chefs, an older woman and a young male sous chef and the sous chef continues to call the woman Grandma. It's ridiculous and I can't freakin stand it. Not just because it affects my mother, though that does drive the point home, but because it totally dismisses the experience and knowledge that these women possess.

I shouldn't even have to say that.

Bah.

So now, to celebrate older women and all their greatness, here's a picture of carol burnett dressed as asparagus.

and two hard-boiled eggs

So I recently heard about this event:

I was super bummed that I couldn't actually go to the show but I was pleased to see that it

exists. or...existed.

Clown Axioms at La Mama (NY)

Clowns ex Machina is Kendall Cornell's continuation of her work with groups of female clowns. (which started as Kendall Cornell's Soon-to-Be-World-Famous Women's Clown Troupe) Clown Axioms is a show of 12 women clowns that "create a poetic yet preposterous world" Expect some interesting takes on female stereotypes, and by extension female clown stereotypes. Last July they did a workshop showing, and now they are doing an expanded show. the show features a number of clowns, including: Amanda Barron, Christine Bodwitch, Kendall Cornell, Melinda Ferraraccio, Kathie Horejsi, Emily James, Ishah Janssen-Faith, Mona Le Roy, Judi Lewis Ockler, Julie Pulmettaz, Maria Smushkovich, and Virginia Venk.where: The CLUB at La MaMa ETC 74 A east 4th St. (between Bowery and 2nd Avenue) cost: Tickets $15 $10 student tickets with valid I.D. call: Box office: 212-475-7710 when: Friday, October 9th at 10pm Saturday, October 10th at 10pm Sunday, October 11th at 5.30pmFriday, October 16th at 10 pm Saturday, October 17th at 10pm Sunday, October 18th at 5.30pm Find out more: clownsexmachina.com, www.lamama.org Especially the "interesting takes on female stereotypes and by extension female clown stereotypes" part. I have long been frustrated by the supposed position of women in comedy and of course women in clowning. There's the whole "women aren't funny" thing that we all need to get over, but it's a stigma that seeps into our personas and routines and as a result we get clowns and comic personalities that are just exaggerated stereotypes of the ones we face in everyday life. I'm speaking largely of the clowning world, but I think it applies to stand-up and other areas too. Way too often you have the wide-eyed innocent infantile woman channeling a little girl mentality to appear cute and confused. Or the overly maternal grandma. Or the sassy hooker clown that's a twisted extension of the innocent little girl clown. God help us. Without getting too heavily into identity politics, it seems to me that just because one is female and a clown doesn't mean one is a "female clown" whose act centers around the fact that she's a she. Often it's explained that a clown is an extension of our personalities, so sure if you're female that could obviously enter into your clown personality. But everyone's got more going on in their personalities than their gender, so a clown should too.