Only by throwing oneself
over and over again into the tumult of this world, with the intention of
making one’s voice count – only thus does one really become a person, a being
capable of a miracle: the recreation of the world.
–
Vaclav Havel
NEWS, THOUGHTS, and UPDATES
July 10,
2008
A lovely comment from
someone who read the post on Tom Tresser's
blog:
"I just recently saw Kathryn perform her
show in Fairfield, CT and she was fantastic. With simple props, no
lighting or special effects, and nothing dividing her from the people
watching/participating, she was able to simultaneously create a world of
characters and emotions as well as lay out a line of reason and clear
thinking about some of the most difficult problems we face. This type of
presentation, for me, is the height of the power of creativity."
June 14,
2008
From
Stephanie Mills' In Service of the
Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land
"What restoration could
and should be for in us is the transformation of our souls. In addition to
what this work may accomplish in the land, I yearn for it as the yoga that
will cause us to evolve spiritually, that will restore to us a feeling of
awe in something besides our own conceits. I fervently hope that this work
- in our streets, yards, fields, woodlots, parks, creeks, and watersheds -
does indeed hold the potential to carry us into a postmodern,
postindustrial, postcivilation relationship with Nature. I pray that it is
our way back into the web of life, carrying with us what we know now."
May 8,
2008
Tom Tresser,
a creativity consultant I met at a conference in New Orleans, recently
asked if I'd write an OpEd piece for his blog about why artists and
creatives should get involved in civic life, and about the connection
between creativity and social change. And so I
have.
Enjoy.
May 2,
2008
No, no, clearly I've been
going about this all wrong. From Grist:
Harrison Ford Helps Earth, Showcases The Tragedy Of Deforestation By Having
A Nice Chest Wax
In honor of Earth Day,
it's time we stare an inarguable fact straight in the face: without the
tireless efforts of Al Gore and people in Hollywood, our planet would be
doomed to die a miserable death. Take Harrison Ford, for example. Do you
think the man who gave us Han Solo would spend his Earth Day sitting around
on his lazy ass, just waiting for some punk with a lightsaber to show up and
save the environment? Hell no! Harrison got out there and did his part by
making a metaphorical point about the dangers of deforestation while getting
a nice, classy-looking chest wax in the process. According to Access
Hollywood:
Harrison invited Access Hollywood along as he embarked on a personal project
to promote going green. And just how did Harrison, who is the vice chair of
the global environment group Conservation International, want to get his
message across?
By
waxing his chest, of course. In an effort to showcase the pain involved in
deforestation, Harrison willingly subject himself to the painful process of
stripping his chest of all its follicles.
As Harrison knows, no
one's gonna listen to all this "Save The Trees!" jive when it's some
scruffy-looking Hippie whose overgrown chest hair looks like Bob Ross
standing on top of a rainforest. But when it's a dapper old movie star with
a green earring and a chest as smooth and hairless as Short Round's just-lotioned
bottom? That's one truth that just got a little more convenient.
May 2,
2008
My mother-in-law just sent
me this poem. A beautiful response to all the bad, mad graphs.
For the Children
The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.
In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.
To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:
stay together
learn the flowers
go light
~ Gary Snyder
April 22,
2008
Happy Earth Day one and
all!
I have to say I'm feeling
a little woolly this morning, as I went last night to an eco-talk at
Middlebury college. Gus Speth, Dean of the Yale Forestry School,
trying his best to be both realistic and offer hope. Great guy,
terrific ideas. But it was still a bit of a wrist-slitter.
Talk of all the graphs which should be going to the right and down and
which are going up up up up up instead.
Still, there is a great deal we can do if we
jump feet-first into the fray. So take a moment today to call your
Congressperson to demand solid climate change legislation, check out
21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle
and the NRDC's
Green Living Toolkit.
Now, full of hope as I try to be, it's still
hard, sometimes, shouldering the emotional burden of the falling-apartness
of things. If you're having one of THOSE days, here's a song for
you:
Fear The Sun. Lyrics by me, music by the brilliant
Arthur Blume,
who nailed it on the first go.
April 7,
2008
Just got back from St.
Louis, where our host, Ember Hyde, took me and Melissa to
City Museum.
One of the most remarkable places. Check this out:
Also now finally have some good video of
The Boycott. Thanks to
Mt. Mansfield Media for all their great
work.
March 28,
2008
Once again, sidelined in
my updates by an Excess of Life. Finished up the Alaska Tour with a
fun couple of days in funky, beautiful Homer. Where resides one Asia
Freeman, dear friend for what seems like an eternity, a most remarkable
artist, and visionary behind the
Bunnell Street Gallery.
Homer Sky
Returned to VT just in time for a performance at the
University of Vermont as part of their Step It Up day of climate action.
Then it was off to London, where I got to perform a little chunk of the
show after High Table at St. Anthony's College, Oxford. I'm told
that in the 1000 year history of High Table, they'd never seen anything
like that!
Now have just completed a run of Richard Greenberg's
beautiful play Three Days of Rain at Vermont Stage Company. A
real treat to get to perform with Other People - in this case, two great
actors named Todd Lawson and Tony Roach. I'd forgotten how much
easier it is when you don't have to learn all the lines yourself.
Or even carry much of the story.
At one point in rehearsal, Todd apologized for upstaging
me, and I figured, "Oh, go right ahead. They know what I look like."
Currently about to head for a weekend of performances in
St. Louis courtesy of the plucky little
Hydeware
Theatre Company. They were responsible for one of the
most successful tour dates of The Accidental Activist and I'm
looking forward to playing with them again.
Heading into the final
week of the show, and we've got some great Quotable Quotes!
This is smart, clever, funny, entertaining
theatre that makes political activism appealingly cool while unabashedly
striving to make it part of the everyday fabric of life again.
- nytheatre.com (who made us their Pick of the
Week!)
What surprised me most about The Boycott
wasn't that it was funny, or that it was smart, but that it was moving.
The distress, the sense of being overwhelmed by our climate crisis, and
needing to find a way out that was a real way out, not an escape route,
was palpable, and beautifully acted.
- Jack Viertel, Creative Director, Jujamcyn
Theaters & Artistic Director, Encores! Series at City Center
It's hard to find humor in global warming but Kathryn Blume manages to
do it in The Boycott. She engages, in an entertaining way, that tough
question of "how can what I do make a difference to a global problem?" And
critically, she makes us come out of our denial and confront this planet's
climate crisis with a sense of optimism and hope.
- Peter Lehner, Executive Director, Natural
Resources Defense Council
AND, A consortium of Vermont's Big
Environmental Organizations (that's a technical term) will be awarding me
(in absentia) with an Outstanding Activist Award at the annual Vermont
Environmental Action Conference.
I haven't won anything since high school!
October
27, 2007
I just want to note the
death of my amazing Dad, Phil Blume, an unabashedly brilliant, deeply
moral, wildly funny, and intensely creative man. He was nothing but
supportive of this show - and everything I do and I have been profoundly
blessed to be his daughter.
Last night I had the
strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all
agreed
To put an end to war.
I dreamed I saw a mighty
room
Filled with women and men
And the paper they were
signing said
They'd never fight again.
October
12, 2007
Ok, This whole Al
Gore winning the Nobel the same day my show opens... I planned that.
GO AL!
And here's a shot that Jenny Fulton, brilliant set
designer, took last night:
October 2,
2007
Sorry for the time lag.
There's been a host of computer-related issues this summer. BUT,
The Boycott
is happening! Click the logo there --> and you'll get to my new
website! Thanks to
Vermont DesignWorks for donating their
amazing services to the cause.
Nice benefit concert
preview articles in the
Burlington Free Press
and
The Vermont Times. AND my buddy Philip
Baruth just pimped me in his
blog!
I love being pimped by cute boys.
June 2,
2007
On a somewhat lighter
side, I just did a little audio theater for my friend
Philip
Baruth. He's created a little series called The League
of Extraordinary Republican Gentlemen. All about the antics of
Vermont's unlikely governor, Jim Douglas. In
Episode III, I play House Speaker Gaye
Symington. I think mine is by far the least accurate vocal
imitation, but fortunately, nobody actually knows what she sounds like.
June 1,
2007
I was deeply saddened
yesterday to read the
news of Cindy Sheehan's weary, bitter
departure from the peace movement.
"I will never give up trying to
help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the
good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of
this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and
eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before
it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the
rest of my resources.
Good-bye America…you are not the country that I love and I
finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make
you be that country unless you want it."
She had no idea what she was getting into when
she started this. All she wanted was to find meaning in her son's
death and prevent more deaths from occurring. She certainly no
preparation, no training for how to be a long-term revolutionary activist.
Few people do.
That kind of giving it all away that she did -
giving everything you've possibly got and then some - is an impulse I
struggle with all the time. I want to save the world, right the
wrongs NOW. I want to do whatever it takes. But that's one
person up against a deeply entrenched system, and the system has way more
people, time, and energy on its side.
Seems to me the most challenging question is
how do you fight the fight in a sustainable manner? And how do you
believe that's a workable proposition? The fear, of course, is
that if you don't give everything and give it now, then there is no way to
win. To make the change you want to see.
Maybe, though, it's a shift in perspective.
Gandhi didn't say, "make the change
you want to see." He said, "be the change you want to see."
Which means we need to find a way to be loving, compassionate,
non-violent sustainable wrong-righting warriors. We need to model
that behavior because it's only through ourselves that we can bring it
into the world, and prove that it's possible.
Cindy is another victim of this war - a cycle
of violence which killed her son and then in trying to stop the war, got
turned on her. Certainly by the name-callers and all the people who
attacked her. But she also turned the violence on herself by using
herself up the way she did. And the sad thing is I'm sure she didn't
know any other way. Few of us do. She was operating in the
model, the system, we've been taught in this culture.
Most of us don't get taught patience or how to
strategize or make long term plans. Many of us get started on our
path to activism by flinging ourselves at whatever is brightest and
shiniest or darkest and most tragic with everything we've got.
We only continue on that path - sane and
whole - if we can find a way to live a life as well as live the work.
Even activists need vacations, parties, time at the beach. Even
activists need love.
"Let me say, at the risk of seeming
ridiculous,
that the true revolutionary is
guided by great feelings of love."
- Che Guevara
May 29,
2007
So we got us a bunch of
fun events coming up this summer - both Blumeian and Boycottian in nature.
Ok,
The Boycott is finally up on YouTube! But of course you can also
watch on my Official
Watching Page. The sound isn't great, but all the more
reason to come see the show live in NYC this fall!
May 1,
2007
All Hail The Latest
Supporter Of The Boycott!
Yup. THAT Paul Newman. Setter of the High Bar
for artist/activists everywhere, and maker of the best vodka sauce ON
THE PLANET.
Ten thousand blessings upon you, Mr. N. You are a
truly righteous gentleman, an unbelievable mensch, and a galactic
inspiration to us all.
April 26,
2007
I'll be interviewed
Saturday morning at 11:19 am EST on
Phil
Lempert's radio show Before You Bite. Lime Radio,
Sirius channel 114.
April 25,
2007
Just got back from CA
where we had four performances at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa
Monica.
The Big Event for the trip was that I got
slammed with viral laryngitis, which rendered me utterly incapable of
performing Friday night. Even with a massive shot of steroids from a
highly swanky Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.
So, given that the show must go on
(because we're trying to save the world here), I rewrote the script for 7
actors, pulled people from the audience and we had an impromptu - and very
cold - reading from the script.
I was both grateful that folks were willing to
go along with it, but also a little in agony, as the occasional joke got
missed.
However, great good fun was had by all, the
audience had a terrific time, and I just got this email:
I was in the audience last Friday night in
Santa Monica, CA. What a wonderful experience for me! My
friends and I were a little disappointed that we would not get the
one-woman show but a reading instead. We loved it. I've been
forwarding your website and the quotes from the program to my back east
family members. Thank you for a wonderful play, for making me weep
upon hearing Tolkien again, for the hope.
I also found out last night that a woman who
saw my show in January got so inspired she created a neighborhood
sustainability group that is going so well that they're videotaping their
meetings to share with other groups around the country.
Wow.
April 24,
2007
All worthy things that are in peril as the
world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly
fail in my task if anything passes through this night that can still grow
fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. - J.R.R.
Tolkien
I, myself, could have a
podcast called More Hips Than Hip. Or I could have a new
thing I've just accidentally invented due to my poor typing skills: A
Podcat. Just a daily on-line recording of me chatting with my cat
Toast. Transcript as follows:
KATHY: Hey Toast, how's it going today?
TOAST: Mrow!
KATHY: That new organic blueberry diet kitty
food working out for you?
TOAST: Mrow!
KATHY: And how's the mouse situation in the
walls?
TOAST: Mrow!
KATHY: What do you think, should Gonzales step
down?
TOAST: Mrow!
Broadcast gold, I'm telling you. Ira
Glass, you better watch your ass.
We have the power to make the world
more prosperous and
secure
by reducing dependence on oil, coal and gas. We must ensure that all
people have access to clean, safe, affordable and sustainable energy. And
we cannot allow energy resources to continue to be a source of conflict,
political exploitation or environmental destruction.
We're In This Together. In our interconnected world,
the energy choices
of each nation affect all nations.
If the U.S. kicked its oil habit tomorrow, it would still face a host of
problems as a result of the rest of the world's continued dependence.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. The United
States has by far the largest economy, the most diplomatic influence, and
the most global warming-causing emissions of any country in the world. We
have
a unique power
to shape the world's energy future - and the responsibility to do it.
Right First Steps. Last week, the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee set the U.S. on the right course. First, it approved
a resolution
that would signal America's readiness to rejoin the world's effort
to stop climate change. Then, it approved
a bill
that would get the U.S. to cooperate and help solve global energy
problems.
What's most excellent is that the April 22
matinee will be hosted by State Assemblywoman
Fran Pavley, who was the driving force
behind California's recently enacted climate change legislation. Ed
Begley, Jr., (who was in one of the LA
Lysistrata Project readings) can't make
it, but he'll be taping a little welcome video.
232
million Number of registered vehicles
in the U.S. That's almost one per person!
600 GALLONS
Average amount ofgasoline consumed by one
U.S. car each year
12,000 POUNDS
Amount of carbon dioxide emitted from one
U.S. car each year.
240 Number of trees
needed to absorb the 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted from
one U.S. car each year.
2.7 TRILLION Number of
miles U.S. cars and light trucks traveled in 2004. That's
the equivalent of taking 10 million trips to the moon.
5% Percent U.S.
population is of the world population.
30% Percent of
world's automobiles in the United States.
45%
Percent that the United States contributes to
the world's automotive carbon dioxide emissions.
4 Number of car
companies that support a national cap on global warming emissions.
They are Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota.
0
Number of bills passed by Congress to cut global warming
pollution.
But,
lest you think we're all a buncha whiners here, check this out:
Ladies, Gentlemen, and
Persons of Blended Genders, please meet the eGo. Electric moped.
Tres chic! And, to top it all off...
The Venturi Eclectic.
Completely solar and wind powered. Venturi also created a car called
the Fetish, which they refer to as the "Ambassadress of the electric
vehicle." Gotta love the French! And see - saving the world can
be fun!
March 15,
2007
So check out this website:
They're like the MySpace of the climate change crusade.
Very network/action oriented. And you get to meet the world-savers
from all over the world!
February
22, 2007
Due to the All Work - No
Play maxim, I invite you to stroll on over to meet our friends at
Toys In Babeland,
and their collection of
eco-friendly sex toys! Yaaaaay!!!!!!
February
20, 2007
American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Lists the
Greenest Vehicles of 2007:
Honda Civic GX
Toyota Prius
Honda Civic Hybrid
Nissan Altima Hybrid
Toyota Yaris
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Camry Hybrid
Honda Fit
Kia Rio / Rio 5
Hyundai Accent
Hyundai Elantra
Honda Civic
In other news, John McCain
is decidedly NOT pro-choice:
"I do not support Roe versus Wade.
It should be overturned..."
- John McCain, USA Today, February 19, 2007
Just so we know where we stand.
February 16, 2007
More planet-lovin'! In an
effort to engage billions of people across the globe to combat global
warming, Al Gore, Kevin Wall, Cameron Diaz and the MSN Network have
launched Save Our Selves, SOS - The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis.
Its first event will be Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on
7/7/07 across all seven continents that will bring together more than 100 of
the world’s top musical acts.
And if any of you folks know
Gore personally, would you puh-leeze let him know that I have been
waiting for him to call! Geeze, what's a gal gotta do to get a
little Veeply Attention around here?
February 14, 2007
Love Your Planet!
Get involved with Step It Up - a new group organized by the mighty Bill
McKibben and the marvelous Paul Hawken.
Big day of climate action coming on March 14!
February 11, 2007
Clearly, these guys got an advance copy of the script of my
show - though I call it "The C Prize." I also think it's worth more
than $25 million, but I'm just the artist here...
LONDON, UK (Environmental News Service) -
Former Vice President Al Gore and Virgin Group Chairman Sir Richard
Branson today announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, a $25 million global
science and technology prize to encourage a technology that will remove at
least one billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere
per year.
The Virgin Earth Challenge
will award $25 million to the individual or group who demonstrate a
commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of
anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least 10 years
without countervailing harmful effects.
This removal must have
long term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth's
climate.
Though I must say, Virgin
Earth Challenge kind of goes hand in hand with a sex boycott, doesn't it?
Go, inventors, GO!
February 10, 2007
From the owner of a local
gym:
THANK YOU for bringing your play to this world. I was SO moved by
it. In fact, I purchased my fabric bags from the Shelburne IGA this
week and I’m going to look into harvesting the power from our Spinning
bikes. I have NO idea if we can afford to do whatever that would
take, but I at least want to look into it.
That's the way to save the world, people!
One Spinning bike at a time!
February
7, 2007
It's time again. Tear up the violets and plant
something more difficult to grow. - James Schuyler
February
6, 2007
My neighbor
Jan Cannon,
potter extraordinaire, is also a documentary filmmaker specializing in
projects on sustainability and members of Vermont's arts and crafts
community. He's about to premiere a piece on the global warming
protest march we had last fall organized by Bill McKibben and John Elder.
Marching for
Action on Climate Change:
Five Days
Across Vermont with Bill McKibben and Friends
You can buy the film on his
website. I walked the first day, and it was an incredibly
moving (and gorgeous) experience. Though I blew out my knee two
miles from Middlebury and couldn't participate in the rest of the march.
I'm fine now, though. Thanks for asking...
January
30, 2007
Whew! Opened the
show last night to a sold-out, uproarious crowd. I cannot believe we
rehearsed this thing in 5 days! Kudos to Jason "Triage Director"
Jacobs. Got some audience comments and reviews posted
here. I'd
write more, but I'm whupped and got a serious date with my couch.
January
25, 2007
Seven Days
just published a great preview
article on The Boycott. And
you gotta love a picture that makes ME look leggy! Check it out!
January
10, 2007
A list from SierraMagazine. I think you'll know what it's about:
Consumer Reports now has a
whole eco-website
Greener Choices
which rates products and services from an
environmental perspective.
Highly rigorous in their ratings and very detailed in their information.
January 1,
2007
Happy New Year!
We're excited about the opening of The Boycott on January 30 at
Vermont Stage Company.
If you'd like to book the show, check out the
Performance Calendar
to see about availability.
December
7, 2006
The New Oxford American Dictionary’s
Word of the Year for 2006 is (drum roll please)
Carbon Neutral! YAAAAYYYYY!!!!
(Wave your arms around like Kermit the Frog.)
Also, here's the top performing carbon offset
providers (alphabetically):
This website was built with 100%
recycled, free-range, fair trade, shade-grown, organic, vegan, poly-sexual,
handicap accessible, sweatshop-free,
carbon-neutral,
religiously-tolerant, racially and culturally-embracing, non-violent,
Gandhi-imitating, yoga-practicing, Buddha-inspired electrons,
and every single one of them
wants to meet Bono, George Clooney, and the Indigo Girls.
Join The Mailing List
Fractured Atlas, a non-profit
arts service organization, is serving as my fiscal sponsor.
Contributions made on my behalf to Fractured Atlas are tax deductible to
the extent permitted by law.
