From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #158 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Friday, September 22 2000 Volume 01 : Number 158 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 00:30:36 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell": Deseret News From: Janus Wilkinson To: Mormon News Subject: MN LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell": Deseret News 17Sep00 A1 Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 23:10:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell" OGDEN, UTAH -- A very heated debate over a Utah High School's plan to put on the musical "Godspell" has led to questions about the LDS Church's position on the musical. Ogden High School had planned to put on the musical but with such a controversy going on, the production may be delayed. Some protesters in the Utah town say the play is too religious. Others say it is sacrilegious. School officials and supporters say the message behind "Godspell," is one of community healing, and they vow that the show will go on. One parent of a student had asked the School Board to cancel the play saying that it had no place at a school. Another complaint came from the assertion that school officials passed on incorrect information, stating that Brigham Young University had once performed the play. That information was incorrect and may have influenced many people into supporting the school's decision to present the play. Harold Oaks, BYU associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications, said "Godspell" had been presented as a high school workshop but never as a university production. He also said that while The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had taken a stand that the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" did not present Christ as a deity, the Church had not taken such a stand on "Godspell." Those in favor of the production say the messages promoted in the play are tolerance, forgiveness and loving one's neighbor, without a specific religious belief being promoted. Source: Godspell' has some parents upset in Ogden Deseret News 17Sep00 A1 http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,195014493,00.html Associated Press Too religious or sacrilegious? Both sides are adamant >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 01:44:43 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: RE: [AML] Moral Issues in Art On Wed, 06 Sep 2000 09:35:18 -0500 "Todd Robert Petersen" writes: > to call something didactic is actually to position oneself > against it more than it is a claim about the work itself. One must > say, "I am above the lesson, more refined than the lesson being > given here" in order to claim it as didactic, which is a > particularly venomous breed of pride. I grew up with an artform which is purely didactic and propagandistic. Its whole purpose is to teach me to behave in certain ways and convince me that if I don't my life will be miserable. I often despise this art form, and many millions of others do, so much so that our distaste for the art has driven the artists to find ever more clever ways to tell us that we're stupid if we don't do what they want us to do, and to make us laugh at being told our lives are worthless without their help. In _Down the Tube, or, Making Television Commercials is Such a Dog Eat Dog Business It's No Wonder They're Called Spots_ Terry Galanoy starts chapter 5, >>>>> Someday. I hope to meet you. In person. Then, when you start to say something--on your very first words--I'm going to go to the bathroom without and excuse-me or a fare-thee-well and I am going to flush the water over your words and I am not going to come out until you have finished talking. (p. 66 in the Pinnacle paperback ed., 1972, which, to my disappointment, omits the subtitle.) <<<<< I read this book over 25 years ago at a time when I thought it might be interesting to try and check out every book in the Provo High library, and actually read a few. (I've always thought of it as one of the first, with a call # in the 0s, but I suspect it was in the 300s, sociology (not that I checked all the books out between 00 and 300, project fizzled before I got out of the 0s). Can't find it in the Provo or SL city or county library catalogs, Orem's hyperterminal is too slow, and BYU doesn't use the Dewey decimal system.) It's a funny book, but what I've most often recalled over a quarter century (my doesn't that make me sound old and wise--of course I've always been a wiseguy) is this rather rude paragraph. I read the book because I liked the title's playfulness and because the dustjacket said Galanoy would discuss his reasons for leaving the ad industry after 25 years. I suppose this paragraph, which introduces an anecdote about water engineers who correlated some peak water usage patterns with the times when commercials were showing, shows Galanoy's sense that even though he finds the ad industry manipulative and exploitive he was an adman because he had something he wanted to say, and felt it was worth listening to, but I've often wanted to offer this retort: Someday I hope you invite me as a guest to your home, wanting to hear what I have to say, and then, every time my conversation is most interesting I'm going to interrupt myself and make a sales pitch, and I'm going to tell you you smell bad and your bald spot makes you less sexually attractive and that the culmination of your life's work and struggle for recognition and social justice is to have a cigarette marketed just especially for you, because "You've come a long, long way"--indeed, I'm going to insult you in every creative way I can think of, and then I'm going to expect you to buy the stuff I'm trying to sell, or at least keep inviting me into your home. The difference between advertising and the Pieta and Dada and "The Wasteland" and punk rock, which Todd gives as examples of didactic art is not simply a matter of degree. Of course all art teaches, but it doesn't follow that a work of art whose primary purpose is to make sure we get the message differs only in degree from a work of art that treats the audience as an equal who can choose to take the message or not. Nor does it follow that everything that tries to teach is worthy of an audience, or even that everything that wants to be taught ought to be taught. While I was looking for the call # for Down the Tube I found another Terry Galanoy book, _Charge it : inside the credit card conspiracy_ (New York: Putnam, 1980), and then my credit card company called me. Free hotel stay just for trying their card protection for 30 days, then just $15 a month for 12 months. If I cancel the service in the first 30 days the free hotel stay is mine to keep. All he needs to do is verify my address. (Hmm, I could use that for the RMMLA convention in Boise next month.) 'Hold the line please, Jerry.' Mentioned it to Donna. "I'm not interested in the service, but could use the hotel room." She answered, "Well, three months at $15, there's your motel." I went back to tell Jerry that what I would probably do is use the hotel coupon and cancel the service before the month was up, so I didn't feel right accepting his offer since I had no interest in the service, but he had hung up. I don't need every service that's offered me. I don't need scare tactics. I don't need to cash those $50 and $100 bribes AT&T sends me to give them my long distance business. I don't need Art to tell me my breath stinks. Donna will do that just fine, and she won't broadcast it to the whole world. Is it venomous pride to think I don't need the messages this particularly didactic art form is trying to teach me? Maybe. Our relationship to television advertising is psychologically quite complex. Why do we keep inviting into our home something that tells us every chance it gets how helpless and stupid we are, that threatens us with embarrassment and shame (waitresses will torment us by chanting "Ring around the collar") if we don't do what it tells us? I keep remembering a laudatory article about cable tv back in the early 70s. Reader's Disgust was exulting about how cable was going to sweep the country and it would be the end of network tv, because who would want to sit through all these endless commercials when they could get commercial free tv? I wasn't convinced. I still don't have cable, and my favorite radio stations are KUER and KUSU, or any NPR station. I've never made a pledge. (We offered KUOW $5 once first year of grad school, but I can't feel virtuous about that--they never sent a payment envelope, so I didn't have to make good on the sacrifice.) I'm one of those people Ira Glass is targeting in his wonderful, off-beat pledge-drive ads, "Think about it, you're listening in the most boring part of the year. You're listening to a pledge drive. You, my friend, are a lifer." Donna hates the pledge drives. Maybe we should take refuge in cable tv, but when I've been where it is, operators are right there, standing by. Darn, I hate it when a new thought spoils my zinger ending, or when the original ending reasserts itself: Having dissed my of ads, I was quite moved in conference a few years back (October 1993--really? that long ago?) when Bp. Robert D. Hales told about how he and his sister were running through the house one day roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth and making mischief of one kind or another (hey, that's catchy. Maybe I could get Maurice Sendak to illustrate it), and their father was working on an ad campaign in the room below, and kept asking them not to make so much noise. Finally he bounded up and talked to Robert: "He explained the creative process, the spiritual process, if you will, and the need for quiet pondering and getting close to the Spirit for his creativity to function. Because he took time to explain and help me understand, I learned a lesson that has been put to use almost daily in my life." I suppose we all need such a corrective, might take the venom out of our pride. Harlow S. Clark ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 08:31:10 -0400 From: Richard Johnson Subject: Re: [AML] Loud Laughter At 04:16 PM 9/20/2000 -0600, you wrote: >"D. Michael Martindale" wrote: > >> If an LDS comedian did a standup routine on the temple >> ceremony, I would have to walk out. I think loud laughter and >> lightmindedness represent a state of mind where we forget to reverence >> sacred things, not just laugh louldy or feel in a giddy mood. > >I think it's more than that even. It's a state of mind of the owner of the >"standup routine" or whatever form the art may take. Look at Phyliss Diller >for instance. For years, her routine regularly made fun of her husband, >Fang. He hardly seemed the ideal husband. Yet she is married to him to this >day. Obviously, Fang is not a real person and Phyliss' opinions about him do >not reflect how she really feels. If Fang were the Chruch, Phyliss' routined >should be considered as light-minded, no matter how scathing it might be. Not that I fundamentally disagree on the point illustrated, but Phyllis and "Fang" were divorced more than ten years ago. Richard B. Johnson Husband, Father, Grandfather, Puppeteer, Playwright, Writer, Director, Actor, Thingmaker, Mormon, Person, Fool I sometimes think that the last persona is the most important http://www2.gasou.edu/commarts/puppet/ Georgia Southern University Puppet Theatre - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Loud Laughter I like Jason's definition of "Loud Laughter." I will tell you that I am = a hired "loud laugher" at the Villa. It encourages performers and makes = the show BETTER if you can believe it! I am a LOUD LAUGHER (as those in = the car going home from Cherry's will attest). It's a habit now. It is = what I call CHEERLEADING. And I agree with all of these smart comments = people are making to separate the two. I have also been a victim of LOUD= LAUGHTER when I was a stepmother, and it HURT and KILLED. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] MN LDS Church Will Keep Promised Valley Playhouse, Will Become Shops, Offices: Salt Lake Tribune I would guess finances, Thom. Arts are poor. I feel sad, too. But we live= in capitalism. Marilyn Brown - ---------- > What I was bemoaning is the idea that the Church thinks that businesses= can > use the space better than an arts program. Why didn't they sell the = space to > the Utah Ballet Company for instance? > > Thom - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 10:38:06 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] Mormon Lit Icons Marilyn's comment on loud laughter reminded me that if there's anyone who deserves the title Cheerleader in Mormon lit, it's Marilyn herself. She unfailingly has words of praise and support for people's accomplishments. Which made me wonder: What other "icons" of Mormon literature can we nominate here? Any Fathers or Mothers of Mormon Lit out there? Den mothers? Drill sergeants? I open the floor for nominations. Jonathan Langford Speaking--whimsically--as List moderator - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 09:47:55 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: Re: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ Michael wrote: >I'm calling _Bash_ morally dubious >because it's sending it's message to the wrong audience and >thereby >doing more harm than good.=20 I suppose I can understand this in some contexts. My black friends can = tell jokes about black people that white folks can't; that sort of thing. = But I don't understand it in relation to Bash. Are you suggesting that = Neil should not have marketed his play widely? I have to really protest = that pretty strongly. I mean, it's hard enough for LDS artists to get a = hearing, and Neil's one of the first LDS playwrights whose work has gotten = out there. Are you saying that this play would be less morally dubious if = it weren't successful? =20 Fact is, we can't control who our audience is going to be. Because of the = way Neil writes, he has to hope that his audience is fairly sophisticated, = or they're going to string him up. His plays are deliberately shocking; = he's a post-modern naturalist. I mean, I was at Sundance, and I saw the = reaction people had to In The Company of Men. Most everyone got it. A = few didn't, and they wanted to stake him to the nearest ant hill. People = were walking up to Aaron Eckhart and saying "I hate you." And Aaron would = say "no, you hate the character I played." And they'd respond, "No, I = hate you for playing him." Didn't happen a lot, but it happened. =20 Okay, so Neil writes Bash back at BYU, and produces it here, all very much = under the radar. And now he's a big deal, and his agent says "what else = do you have." Neil gives them Bash, and they produce it, and boom, = another big success. I don't get how this is morally dubious. =20 Are we assuming that the non-LDS people who flocked to see Bash are all of = them the sorts of people who think religion equals homophobia, violence = and intolerance? Isn't this a pretty harsh judgment? Why can't we assume = an essential good will on the parts of our non-LDS brothers and sisters? I think we have to trust our audiences more. I think we need to trust the = LDS audience, or we're never going to get anywhere. We can't be saying = "oh, our audience is a bunch of illiterate bozos, they'll never understand = the incandescent brilliance that is My Work." We need to write up to, not = down to our brothers and sisters. But we also need to trust the audience = outside LDS circles. I suspect that most of the audience that saw Bash = knew what they were going to see, and I think most of them got it, = understood why his characters are Mormons, and how these on-stage Mormons = differ from their Mormon friends, acquaintances, or neighbors. I suspect = some audience members reacted the way Michael fears they might react, with = greater, not less intolerance. Well, that happens. Not much we can do = about it. But I just shudder at the thought that we should, for heaven's = sake, make our art safer. =20 Neil does what he does, and hopes everyone will get it. His career shows = that most people will get it. I, for one, love the fact that he's out = there. I love the chances that he takes. I also thought Your Friends and = Neighbors was a lousy movie. I wasn't embarrassed by it because it was = written by a Mormon. I just though it stunk. Eric Samuelsen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 10:04:34 -0600 From: "Steve Perry" Subject: Re: [AML] MN LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell": Deseret News RE: "Godspell in the news" > Some protesters in the Utah town say the play is too > religious. Others say it is sacrilegious. School officials > and supporters say the message behind "Godspell," > is one of community healing, and they vow that the > show will go on. One parent of a student had asked > the School Board to cancel the play saying that it had > no place at a school. Another complaint came from > the assertion that school officials passed on incorrect > information, stating that Brigham Young University had > once performed the play. That information was incorrect > and may have influenced many people into supporting > the school's decision to present the play. > My wife was in "Godspell" at BYU in her junior year--albeit a senior project and not on the main season.... > Harold Oaks, BYU associate dean of the College of > Fine Arts and Communications, said "Godspell" had > been presented as a high school workshop but never > as a university production. He also said that while The > Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had taken > a stand that the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" did > not present Christ as a deity, the Church had not taken > such a stand on "Godspell." Arrrgggghhhh. This stuff drives me crazy. It usually depend on the production. Some folks are offended at "Lovely Ladies" in _Les Mis_, but you can see how it could really be taken to town and lewd-ened up if you chose to. Or toned way down (hard to get around those great lyrics though :-) "Rich men, poor men, leaders of the land, see 'em with their trousers off, they're never quite as grand..." etc, etc.). The "Superstar" production I saw was directed from the viewpoint that Jesus WAS deity... how else do I interpret the fact that he floated forward from the cross (like Salvador Dali's painting?) and then ascended from the cross right up into the lights--much to Judas' amazement? The Godspell songs are great too..."All Good Gifts," which, come to think of it, I should arrange for my ward choir.... and so many others.... I've seen two productions of Godspell--one was spiritually uplifting, funny, cleverly directed, etc. The other was just plain stupid and poorly done, and was borderline blasphemous to me, not because of anything they said or did, but because the actors had no clue what they were dealing with. Like a troupe of trained baboons doing a Nativity scene for our Christmas edification--I wouldn't blame the monkeys, it's not their fault. Whew! That one hit a nerve.... time for tylenol... Steve - -- skperry@mac.com http://StevenKappPerry.com "Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 11:19:54 -0500 From: Todd Robert Petersen Subject: Re: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ D. Michael Martindale wrote: >The entire (generally conservative) American society beat Matthew >Shepard to death? The entire (generally conservative) American society >is afflicted with hatred or homosexuals? This is the very stereotype >that I think _Bash_ reinforces. I agree for the most part here, but I feel it is important to mention that the kids who beat Shepard were on something like the 11th day of a meth binge, which contributes to a state of mind that makes these kinds of violent acts, not only common, but likely. Also, according to 20/20, if I remember correctly, one of the two was an inactive member from a part-member family. Still the conservative, religious right in America is generally the site of organized or institutionally-subsidized hatred of the homosexual. I go to church with people who, I think, would beat a gay person under some circumstances--some kind of sexual advances or something like that. That has, as Martindale pointed out, more to do with Oklahoma and their community politics than anything, despite what I just said. Confusing enough? I've only read BASH, but I have the tape and will be watching it this weekend. Critics have lambasted Labute for creating one-dimentional characters who are not people, but villains. I'm not sure I agree that this is all he does, but, arguably, there's something to it. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 12:42:36 -0400 From: Richard Johnson Subject: Re: [AML] Loud Laughter This whole "loud laughter" thread makes me nervous. If there is anything for which I am well known over a broad geographic area it is loud laughter. I have tried laughing quietly, chuckling, you know the bit. The result was a disaster. Either I lost track of what I was laughing about, hearing only my own muffled Heh, heh, heh, or I touched on strangulation or suffocation throwing all those near me into a panic or a 911 call. It is a clearly identifiable calling card. When I was working as an actor at the San Diego Shakespeare festival in 1958 or 9, I went with several of the other members of the cast to see the new film _South Pacific_. (This was in the day of the old movie palaces- a theatre with two balconies, true Cinemascope and several thousand viewers) About half way through the movie I felt a touch on my arm. Standing next to me (in front of someone else, I was not sitting on the aisle) was an old high school friend whom I had not seen since we graduated together from Pocatello (Idaho) High School in 1952. He was a sailor stationed in San Diego. He said "I was up in the balcony and I heard you laugh. I knew it had to be you so I have been walking up and down the aisle trying to spot you." Seven or eight years had passed and we were a thousand miles from where either of us would expect to see the other, and he still recognized my laugh. Sadly, if "loud laughter" is a literal term just meaning "laughter that is'loud'", I am doomed. Richard B. Johnson Husband, Father, Grandfather, Puppeteer, Playwright, Writer, Director, Actor, Thingmaker, Mormon, Person, Fool I sometimes think that the last persona is the most important http://www2.gasou.edu/commarts/puppet/ Georgia Southern University Puppet Theatre - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 12:39:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Ivan Angus Wolfe Subject: Re: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ > "Morgan B. Adair" wrote: > > > Mormons are a (generally conservative) > > part of American society, which (as demonstrated by the Matthew > > Shepard beating death) is afflicted with hatred of homosexuals. > Yes - but as Terryl L. Givens shows in the book "Viper on the Hearth" - despite all our attempts at assimilation, Mormons are still considered the "Other" in American society. We have yet to fully assimilate - we are still considered by most people to be a bunch of interesting (perhaps a little weird) religionists that are focused mainly in Utah, with a small scattering elsewhere in the west. I was amazed to discover how many people beleive there are no Mormons back east except for a few missionaries who will try to convince you to move to Utah. Mormons are not really considered to be "one of us" by American culture at large. We are still the "other" and what we do is not connected to the "us" of those who will most likely see "Bash." So of course they'll walk away thinking "boy - those Mormons sure can be evil - but not me!!!" because they don't consider Mormons to be one of "them." Mormons have nothing to do with their lives. We're still rare enough to be weird. - --Ivan Wolfe - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 14:42:37 -0400 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] MN LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell": Deseret News > > LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production > of "Godspell" OH! OH! OH! OH! aaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh! This just sends me over the moon! And I'm too mad to clearly explain why! I have loved Godspell since I first heard the music, and then three years later when I sat in the audience watching my choir teacher perform in it. Then I caught the movie on television, one time, and it was years later in 1996 I watched another live performance of it put on by HS kids who did an absolutely wonderful job. I cried at the end, and gave one of my rare standing ovations. The story is wonderful, sure, anyone who knows the scriptures knows that the story isn't told exactly the way Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John told it, but according to experts neither did they tell the story the way it happened, or should I say it wasn't translated the way it really happened? The story is still wonderfully told, we are still taught to love our neighbors, not to covet or steal, and a host of other truths that as LDS we also teach. The songs are fun, sweet, campy, and sad. What better message can we give people than Day by day Day by day Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray........ To see thee more clearly Love thee more dearly Follow thee more nearly Day by day As LDS, what is our three fold mission? Day by day Day by day Oh, dear Lord, three things I To perfect the Saints To redeem the dead To proclaim the gospel Day by day It has always been a secret dream of mine to perform in Godspell, or even be part of a production team for it. I know the entire score by heart, and its all I can do not to get up on stage and dance. So much can be done with it, it could even be adapted to LDS standards more, but in my opinion, that might take away from its spirit, for also in my opinion, _Godspell_ has a sweet spirit. These people complaining about it, are probably the very same people who quote anything from _Saturday's Warrior_ as gospel (don't get me wrong, I love SW) and believe they are descendnts of Benjamin Steed. FWIW, I have never sat through more than five minutes of Jesus Christ Superstar, and the music leaves me cold. By the way, _Godspell_ is now out on video. Debbie Brown (who clearly made several references to items of Mormon lit) P.S. Is this debate material for a future Eric Snyder article? - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 15:25:58 -0400 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] MN LDS Church's Position Sought Over High School Production of "Godspell": Deseret News Like > a troupe of trained baboons doing a Nativity scene for our Christmas > edification--I wouldn't blame the monkeys, it's not their fault. > > Whew! That one hit a nerve.... time for tylenol... > > > Steve Pass the tylenol this way Steve and thanks for the laugh. Debbie Brown (who is listening to the soundtrack from _Godspell_ as we speak. And then its off to RS where I will preceed to play my violin and butcher _Redeemer of Israel_ for the folks at the nursing home, and maybe lead them in a rousing chorous of _Amazing Grace_. Ok, I'm done being lightminded.......for the moment - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 22:55:42 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] Help Finding a Play Andrew Hall: ... We show up at the church, and go into a room that is decorated to resemble the interior of an airplane. Soon after the movie begins, the plane "crashes", and we are escorted into the spirit world. I forget what all happens, but we visited representations of the various kingdoms, I think. At the end we went into the chapel, and saw this short play. ... _______________ You may be thinking of two different things here. The "airplane crash" activity is sometimes called Flight 409. It is very effective when done as originally written in the mid 70s, but if much is added to it, it does not work as well. There are other plays or skits about waiting to have temple work done, who's going to do it, did it get done right, etc., that resemble the one you thought you saw in the chapel. (Personally, I prefer the positive ending ones to the one you described, when used at those kinds of youth activities.) But I've never seen Flight 409 combined with one of the other skits or plays. Larry Jackson ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 23:31:58 -0600 From: "Morgan B. Adair" Subject: Re: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ On Thu, 21 Sep 2000 01:15:06 -0600 "D. Michael Martindale" writes: > > The entire (generally conservative) American society beat Matthew > Shepard to death? The entire (generally conservative) American > society > is afflicted with hatred or homosexuals? No. I said that American society (all of it, not just the Mormon or conservative parts) is afflicted with hatred of homosexuals. It's a generalization, so you and I can reassure each other that I'm really talking about that other guy over there. Still, it's a common enough malady that its effects are widespread. >This is the very stereotype > that I think _Bash_ reinforces. Why does this stereotype exist? I don't think Neil Labute created it ex nihilo. Dallin Oaks said (Ensign, Oct '95) that gay-bashing is "obviously" a condemned practice, but not so obvious that he didn't have to say it. On the other hand, to say that _Bash_ is a play about a couple Mormon kids who beat up a gay man is too narrow a reading. The play says that the origin of violence is hatred; that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. MBA (Morgan B. Adair) ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 08:42:14 -0500 From: "Todd Robert Petersen" Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Lit Icons Clearly Richard Cracroft belongs in the pantheon of Mormon Lit Fathers along with Eugene England. I would say Elder Oaks as well, since, if I'm not mistaken, his name was on the masthead of early issues of Dialogue. And for a strange nomination, I offer up the western historian, Richard Etulain. He is not LDS, rather an unapologetic Evangelical. He and I have had a number of conversations over the last few months about faith and literature, and this summer we bumped into each other in Powell's books on Burnside in Portland, Oregon. While we were speaking about the nature and quality of writing in the American West, he exhorted me to not leave out my faith. He said that it's part of what's going on out here, that's it's who I am and can't be forgotten. That's the kind of cheerleading from without that we really need. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 14:47:51 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] Query on Kenny Kemp I'm working on the literary news section for Irreantum and wondered if the tail end of the following statement is accurate: Kenny Kemp won grand prize in the 1999 Writer's Digest National Self-Published Book Awards for his memoir Dad Was a Carpenter: Blueprints for a Meaningful Life, which grew out of his earlier Dialogue essay that won an AML award. Let me know! Chris Bigelow - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 10:08:06 MDT From: "Tom Kimball" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Tom Kimball Introduction Name: Tom Kimball Occupation: Book Guy, Publisher Residence: American Fork UTAH Background: Former Government Employee, (In other words I had a lot of time to read on the job) former Lead Supervisor for the Cottonwood Mall Deseret Book, former Book Buyer for Benchmark Books. Currently looking for people that have manuscripts with Mormon content that want to be published. Specifically Histories, Biographies, Bibliographies and serious Fiction. Would love to do a Biblio-Mystery about Mormons. If anyone knows anyone working on the above categories have them contact me by Email or call Tom Kimball Acquisitions Editor Greg Kofford Books 1 801-492-9275 _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #158 ******************************