Time: Wed, 01-May-2002 18:16:07 GMT     IP: 216.201.187.178

There does indeed seem to be a trend to bust out the funny.  
Which is why it felt a little odd to do a dramatic piece there at 
No Shame (my piece was Rapist and the Murderer).  

It was interesting to see how the audience took it.  We got a lot 
of laughs at things that I didn't know were funny.  I'm not sure 
if that's because the piece is actually funny or if the audience 
was in a light mood due to the three humorous pieces which went 
up before us and were therefore expecting something else in the 
same vein.

Time: Wed, 01-May-2002 21:36:13 GMT     IP: 205.188.196.47

I think a lot of the laughter probably did come from the fact 
that people were preset in the mood for comedy...but also some of 
the dramatic irony of your piece, the tension derived from the 
fact that we know we're sitting here looking at a murderer and a 
rapist.  So some of the lines came across as very "knowing," such 
as the rapist's subtle inferences about how it's more fun when 
they don't want it.  Laughing both at the fact that we know this 
guy's a rapist, and at the discomfort of watching two people that 
most of us would probably not want to be associated with.  
However, i think the comedy helped it...as i think comedy helps 
all drama (true drama, the best drama, is able to incorporate 
both comedy and "tragedy" or seriousness).  I think without the 
comedy, it would just be a very laden and dark piece about these 
two not so nice people sharing a drink.  Giving them a sense of 
humor, intentional or not, makes them more real and more human, 
makes them more relateable.  Which to me is SOOO much more 
disturbing.  :)  Curious to see the rest of the play now, too.

Time: Thu, 02-May-2002 03:13:06 GMT     IP: 128.255.174.15

Dear Nick, you are my friend. I know you in real life.  Why are 
you moving to Austin?  Don't go, Nick.  I would miss you.  I'd 
probably cry.  The world will cry because of you.  You will cry 
because of you.

Time: Tue, 07-May-2002 19:23:01 GMT     IP: 66.68.112.221

Since she's been getting so much press these days on the 
No Shame board, I thought I'd tell ya that the Pussy Lady, 
whose name is Heather Barfield, is going to have a No 
Shame inspired benefit for her impending departure to NYC 
to go to grad school at NYU. It's Saturday at the VORTEX 
theater (got to www.vortexrep.org for directions.) I'm not sure 
what time it starts, I'll get back to ya on that. It's another 
kinda pay to play thing, but it's all to help out a fellow artist.
If you love Heather or hate her, come and show your stuff.
Courtney

P.S.  the rats will be there. the good ones, that is.
P.S.S. go see Catch 24, too.

Time: Fri, 17-May-2002 20:04:28 GMT     IP: 198.214.102.146

Hey No Shamers,

Are you ready to rock tonight. I have advance word that it's 
going to be a pretty great show.

Someone told me the earth will tremble.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Shando

Time: Sat, 18-May-2002 05:50:05 GMT     IP: 66.25.166.195

Damn tonight's show was a real clunker - the first and only 
time I wanted my $2 back!    Let's run down the never-ending 
misery of the evening:

The White Boy Rap, a worthy addition to Hell's soundtrack.   
Please sir, can I smash your keyboard into a thousand 
broken pieces?   

The Taxi Cab video - this was far too long.  A cute one-trick 
pony, a good laugh at one minute, but what about the other 
nine minutes?

Weird Solo Bitterman rant. There's always that one guy.   
Save it for the poetry slam.

Typewriter Psychic, perhaps the highlight of the show, but 
far too rough.  Some small effort at costuming would have 
helped immensely.

A dismal entry by Stooge - has Ratgirl gone postmodern on 
us?  

Goth Girl on the Telephone Dance.   They still have the firing 
squad in Texas, don't they?

Art is Death. Well, it was short.

Live at the Improv with the Velvet Gook.  WWF action, no 
shame style.

Everyone else, if I can't remember you, you stunk.


Subj: 	BoardRoom: re: Give me back my $2
Date: 	Saturday, May 18, 2002 12:54:16 AM
From: 	shannonmccormick@hotmail.com
To:   	noshTh@aol.com


Time: Sat, 18-May-2002 07:54:10 GMT     IP: 128.83.128.142

Wow Knuckles, I don't know who you are, but I think you totally 
missed the boat on tonight's show.

More of my thoughts later, but why don't you post with a real 
email address. Afraid?

Shando

PS--Ratgirl was post-modern before post-modern.


Subj: 	BoardRoom: thank you
Date: 	Saturday, May 18, 2002 11:24:07 AM
From: 	creature@go.cc
To:   	noshTh@aol.com


Time: Sat, 18-May-2002 18:23:52 GMT     IP: 67.209.32.154

I just want to thank Shannon for providing a venue in which 
people can do whatever the hell they like.  Some good, some flat 
out strange, and even a few long standing private jokes for new-
comers to puzzle out.  I just needed a deadline imposed by 
soemone else, and an audience to show it to.

THANK YOU SHANNON! making Austin not so scary for us

P.S. If anyone besides HK and mitch the Pooch have any comments 
on the telephone dance I would love to hear them via email or on 
the board. 


Subj: 	BoardRoom: Last night's show kicked my soul in the
Date: 	Saturday, May 18, 2002 4:35:08 PM
From: 	jtmaxwell@aol.com
To:   	noshTh@aol.com


Time: Sat, 18-May-2002 23:34:42 GMT     IP: 205.188.200.57

There wasn't much last night that i disliked...the only standout 
piece that i wasn't somewhat enthralled by was the Charlie Rose 
Show sketch (though, to be fair, i'm just as bored with the real 
Charlie Rose Show so maybe they did a better job at it than i 
thought). It did have a couple of moments, and it was nice to 
see Stooge get some stage time (love your hair, Steph!)...but 
dammit, i was looking forward to my monthly fix of evil. ;)

As to the rest...i'm going to try and do this sans order, which 
as i noted last time is of great difficulty. If i miss anyone, 
i'll post a sequel in the ill advised notion that any of you 
give a fuck what i think. Let's start with my total faves, the 
few highlights that made me forget for a few shining moments the 
amazing Yoda fight sequence in Episode II. For the record, 
Jeremy Lamb and Chelsea Gilman are a dynamic duo of creative 
power that will raze this corrupt world in a burning ring of 
fire and rebuild it in three days...and they will do all of this 
with a PS2 and a microphone. The delectable sweetness of their 
piece last night, the cinematic use of the different "camera" 
angles, the way Chelsea's prewritten monologue synched up so 
perfectly with Jeremy's game playing skills...it was not until 
after the show that i realized that Chelsea had been reading 
while Jeremy was playing live. I thought all along that the 
entire piece had been choreographed and pre-recorded. Even 
Jeremy's accidental "arrest" worked in much nicer than just 
about anything could have. Bow before your liberators, the gods 
have deemed it so. 

Solo's Lament...i read this piecemeal while it was still in 
development. I helped come up with the name "Solo." I heard Bill 
perform it a couple of times. And it's still amazing everytime i 
hear it. As i noted earlier on this board, Bill Stern owns every 
one of our weak asses and i propose all No Shamers riot outside 
UT Dallas until they allow Bill Stern to transfer to Austin 
permanently.  The subject matter, the beats he put together, the 
amount of flow in his rhymes...this wasn't just "oh look, a 
suburban white kid rapping with his keyboard." This was 
something genuine and brilliant, y'all.  Real skills and 
intelligence. And now there can be no doubt about whose turn it 
is.

Art is Death (i think). Y'know, the poem one...sorry, i was too 
busy being inspired to catch the title. This was a well written 
and if not thought provoking, then certainly verve provoking 
rallying cry to the artist and his quest for expression, for 
freedom, for some greater truth. If at all possible, i would 
love to get a copy of it. A more perfect and fitting call to 
arms for No Shamers and our ilk, i cannot imagine.

Uncle Wife. Okay, at first i thought this was going to be little 
more than some shock value jokes strung together through a 
monotone monologue. And while that was an element of it, the 
structure of said jokes was amazing and well timed, nicely 
spaced out and not at all simplistic. The entire time i felt 
like i was listening to some hybrid of Jack Handey and William 
S. Burroughs. Which, of course, means i loved it.

Honorable mentions to a few other pieces. I don't know about 
anyone else, but the "goth girl on the telephone dance" was 
highly sweet to me. The hardcore music, erratic and at times 
hyperactive motions, the utterly sympathetic look on the girl's 
face...maybe i've just been watching too much butoh over the 
past several months (in fact, i sure i have), but this struck me 
as almost the anti-matter version of butoh...the inverse, the 
opposite, the adversary...as if this and butoh ever came into 
contact, all of reality would negate itself. I don't know a 
whole lot about dance or performance art, but i know i liked 
this. Loved the structured chaos, loved the color palate, loved 
the long hair and long gloves...in short, loved the individual 
elements but i guess i lost some of the meaning so the end 
result only comes out as "like." But a high like.  :)  
Typewriter psychic. I love the Mikes, more than life itself. And 
this was a funny idea with some very nice moments. But it was a 
little rough, could use a little more rehearsal...still, very 
nice. And i knew Joplin bought that typewriter for a reason, 
even if he didn't know what.  ;)  Sugartoes Sells Out. Okay, 
it's No Shame, so i figured out pretty early on the guy in the 
back was a plant. I think a lot of people figured it out along 
the way. But my favorite part of this was how the laughter that 
had been so raucous at the beginning went to dead silence as 
soon as there was some awareness that a black man was in the 
audience. We don't laugh at the racism inherent in Gook's stuff 
because we think it's funny or because we agree with it, but 
because it's a shameless mockery of that kind of humor and, 
frankly, because it leaves us a little uncomfortable in our 
safely liberal and predominantly white skins. Yet the second 
that something "other" was introduced, someone who might be 
genuinely offended we all shut up for fear of being labeled as 
racist or at least of finding racist humor funny. Sugar toes 
played us brilliantly. Celebrate that fact, and think about what 
it tells you about yourself. My only gripe with this was my 
desire to see it almost go further, to fuck with our minds and 
bend the reality of the stage a bit more. The threat of the gun 
was somewhat predictable and the "death/pain" was somewhat 
overwrought. I actually wanted to believe something was 
happening, but a couple of points made it difficult to. Finally, 
Julie's video piece. Great fun, but could've been much more 
playful. Maybe it's just that we're seeing a piece of a greater 
whole, and i do want to see it in it's wider context. Overall 
though, my favorite part had to be halfway into it when everyone 
else started figuring out what was happening in the "blurred" 
segments (maybe it's just my depraved mind, but i figured it out 
on the first time). 

Mitch the Pooch. And i guess i should address this Harry 
Knuckles guy too (since he seems in the same vein). I have been 
in many quite memorable flame wars, some real and some 
manufactured by people like this Mitch person. So let me address 
the Mitches of the world.  You are not clever. You are not 
cool.  And you are not helping.  You are not serving some 
greater purpose with your negativity no matter how rationalize 
it to yourself. We don't need opposition just so we can rile 
ourselves into a frenzy to prove you wrong or "defend our 
endeavours." There are enough bastards in the world trying to 
grind us down and fit us into neatly segmented ideas and 
concepts without some poser with the gall, the pretension and, 
yes, the modem to mock the creative spirit we have rallied under 
in some misbegotten idea that it helps. It does not. Why don't 
you use these vast abysses of time you seem to have on your 
hands and actually create something or genuinely and sincerely 
support others who do instead of staging a conflict that many of 
us are already fighting? It is a war for expression, for the 
freedom of ideas and spirits...artists, philosophers, 
storytellers: we are warriors and soldiers in a silent battle 
fought on many fronts. Everytime that curtain rises or a book is 
cracked or you hear the opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth or 
Freebird, we win some small victory. Everytime a theatre has to 
stop a production due to pulled funding because some local 
interest group was "offended" by the subject matter or some 
comic book shop is raided by a rural Sheriff's department for 
daring to mention the word "sex" or Congress holds some hearing 
on the new Eminem album, we lose.  We're already fighting a war. 
We don't need pretend enemies with nothing better to do. Maybe 
you were just joking around, Mitch...but you're still a bastard. 
People who say shit like that and mean it are assholes...people 
who it and don't are jackasses. You're still an ass and a 
fucking punk, Mitch. And since you'd rather play make 


Subj: 	BoardRoom: anonymous postings on web board
Date: 	Saturday, May 18, 2002 7:31:22 PM
From: 	NoShTh@aol.com
To:   	noshTh@aol.com


Time: Sun, 19-May-2002 02:31:43 GMT     IP: 172.129.145.3

Dear everybody,

Due to recent illegal activities on one of the other web 
boards, I have been forced to adopt new policies for the No 
Shame Message Boards that require all postings to include 
a valid email address, and your correct name or some 
similar means of identifying you in the reader's mind.  (e.g. 
Rev. Maxwell and Jobber Ratgirl are acceptable nomes du 
post because a typical No Shame goer should know who 
that is.)

Henceforth, anonymous and pseudonymous posts will be 
deleted without comment.  My apologies for any 
inconvenience this may cause you.

Please note: this is a website policy and not a mandate of 
your local No Shame.

...Jeff
www.noshame.org