You are hereEssays on Life

Essays on Life


Memories of Our Movies

 Act NaturallyMy Life and Apar FilmsPart I: Beginnings(Clayton Rogers and the Parfarganian Menace, 1969) 

ACD Daze

There were four of us: Tom (“Siny”) Sinclair, Alan Saly, Christian Doherty, and me.[[wysiwyg_imageupload:945:]]

From the Editor 24: Discipline

(DON'T) LET THEM EAT CAKE from HABITAT, DECEMBER 2010[[wysiwyg_imageupload:225:]]Being on a board is like being on a diet. You know it’s for your own good, but it can get very tedious. Sure, you should eat soup and salad but doesn’t the cream-filled chocoate cake seem so much tastier? It must be better for you, right? You feel good after eating it – until you’ve eaten so much that when you look down you can’t see your feet anymore.

Patrick Macnee

A CLASS ACTBy TOM SOTER

A Guy Named Joe

JOE, WE HARDLY KNEW YEBy TOM SOTER and TOM SINCLAIR[[wysiwyg_imageupload:11:]]

Jerry's Fantasies

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:10:]]A BLAST FROM MY PASTMy Life as an Improvisor, Pt. 2"Tom, you'd better sit down," said the voice on the other end of the line. "I want you to be prepared for what I'm about to tell you.""I'm sitting down," I said, not recognizing the name "Janet Smith" on my caller ID nor the voice of the man on the phone. "This is Jerry Patterson, Tom." "Jerry Patterson," I said slowly. I paused. "It's been a long time."Twenty-five years, in fact.

From the Editor 18: Tenure

GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY[[wysiwyg_imageupload:133:]] from HABITAT April 2010It all started with a handshake.

From the Editor 17: Cons

SNAKE OIL SALESMANfrom HABITAT, March 2010             [[wysiwyg_imageupload:130:]]Mr. Haney lives on. Not the actual Mr. Haney – actor Pat Butram, who played the unusual salesman on TV’s Green Acres from 1965-71, died some years ago – but a close facsimile.

From the Editor 16: Noise

 MOT RETOS[[wysiwyg_imageupload:127:]]from HABITAT, FEBRUARY 2010It was the first time I had heard this particular theory of behavior. “In a co-op,” said the articulate board president, “it’s an 80/20 situation.” Initially, I thought he was talking about the (in)famous IRS requirement that 80 percent of a cooperative’s income had to come from the residents and only 20 percent could come from its commercial space. But no – that now-defunct rule was nowhere in sight. He continued: “Eighty percent of the shareholders are good neighbors; the other 20 percent are looking to cause trouble.”

The Pink Elephant Spontaneous Arts Show

MY LIFE AS AN IMPROVISERPart 1[[wysiwyg_imageupload:195:]]The man was missing an arm. That was obvious.I was teaching my Tuesday night improv class at the Lucy Moses School when a new student came in. And he was clearly missing an arm.