John A. (Jay) Cross

It's awkward talking about friends and relatives that have died recently. I may feel some sense of loss, but it happens often enough now that it feels pretty normal and expected. It's hard to communicate about it with younger people who see it as tragic because I'm embarrassed to show my acceptance.

#CdAHistory The EET group just went through a scenario and we found quite a few things needing some changes. It was a great session, PLUS we recruited a new guy to join us.

I continue to plug away on the scenarios. Lots of good things, but I don't want to burden this channel with micro-successes. It's been a good stretch of time. I hope it continues.

asleep for two hours, woke up thinking about a time when I had been very angry ... so, I guess I'll just be productive until I can go to sleep again. arrgghh.

+++ mostly who is alive and who isn't, but I also don't have a complete list of one uncle's former spouses. I count five living aunts, and there are possibly three more, and I kind of want to count my cousin Hoang ta's mother as an aunt even though she never married my uncle. She's still alive.

Were my two step-mothers only-children? I'm guessing so, but don't know. If so, I had five uncles by blood and two by marriage. The last of them has just gone into hospice care. I had two aunts by blood. One is still alive and healthy. I tried counting my aunts by marriage, but am missing facts. +++

i Sebastiani did select the play we're doing in February. Fortunately it was unanimous. This morning, I will work on making the corrections we identified on Tuesday.

#CdATroupes Last night we (i Sebastiani) looked at three plays. We will have selected one by this next Tuesday, and then will cast it propping for a show in mid-February. Tonight Le Zanzare will work on Act two of "The Crab". Sunday, LSdB will resume prepping "The Treasure". All three will be great.

#CdATroupes Tonight we (i Sebastiani) are going to choose which play to perform in February. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. ... road conditions are awful, so we're doing it on Zoom.

In Act two, the clever servant briefly pretended there was a courtesan that looked like the rich guys daughter, but wasn't the rich guy's daughter, to explain why it looked (in the dark) like one of the young men was embracing the rich guys daughter. That's the whole courtesan thing in this play.

#CdAHistory I am currently going through a play called "The Honest Courtesan". There is no obvious courtesan in the cast list, nor has one appeared through act 1. I'm curious to learn where the play gets its name.

So many scenes in Commedia dell'Arte scenarios mention what some character wants, and almost never describe anything in the second person. I wonder of the percentages of usage are reversed in common usage of modern Italian.

This is likely a font specific error.

Another mild lament. The language specific OCR software I am using has trouble with certain words, but the most frequent is it sees 'vol' (3rd person singular of 'to want') and makes it 'voi' which is 'you' plural or formal. That really throws off the machine translation tool. Gotta keep an eye out.

[Mild Lament] I've been making great progress on the big project, but suddenly the last joint in my right thumb is asking for a break. I guess it is time to get some of that exercise I'm overdue for.

#CdAHistory I'm working on a play, and there is a scene in which Magnifico and Coviello are doing something, and where in most previous plays, they might be called 'i vecchi' (the old men), or 'i buffoni' (the clowns), here they were called 'i stupidi' (you probably translated that correctly).

It is Thanksgiving Day. This afternoon, I'll be celebrating with my wonderful neighbors (maybe 50 of us). Tomorrow I get some family visiting. By tradition they usually do Thanksgiving dinner with my DIL's family, and see us the next day.

that's better than a rusty butter knife!

#CdAHistory Interesting scene requiring some special effects? "Zanni [enters] shaves Scapino's beard and says, "This is a trick." Scapino runs away."
I suspect this could also mean 'removes his beard' since Scapino is in disguise at that point, but shaving lazzi could be fun.

Oooff, same play, near the end of Act two, the women shout "Fire, Fire". Again, probably shouldn't be in the play, if it being performed indoors in a wooden building.

#CdAHistory Every once in a while I stumble on a scene that tells me I can never perform this play. Just saw one tonight. A couple of servants beat up a group of people for reasons that don't fly well today. Sigh. I could replace the two scenes with something else if I like the rest of the show.

#CdAHistory How did they represent fire on stage in the 16th century? I just saw an interesting item in a props list: red to pretend a fire.
So, I guess red cloth.

#CdAHistory Wojtek, Tyfainne, and I just went through the play "The Hermit Woman" (which doesn't have a character who is a hermit). It was much better than I remembered, and we had a great time.

I've got a bunch of music video-editing stuff to do this weekend, plus I'm writing something fancy that a friend will be calligraphing for some upcoming ceremony. Still, I don't want to get behind on my translation project. Busy weekend.

'shocked' I say!

Copying to other social media, thanks.

Wow. That's awful.

#CdATroupes Le Zanzare had a very positive rehearsal tonight. I am proud to be working with these people. The show will have at least one performance in January 17th with lunch and a show at about 1:30PM.

#CdAHistory I'm continuing with the first pass at the next collection. I'm currently working on #16 out of 51. As noted before, these are from a little later time than I first thought. They are good stories, and we will have fun performing some of them.

About a month or so ago, I acquired quite a few Commedia dell'Arte masks, some neoprene, most are leather. They've been sitting around on flat surfaces like the dining table while I figure out how I want to label and store them. I figured it out, and bought the materials. Today is the day.