Author: Matthew Groff

  • Vote Today

    It Primary Day in New York, which is pretty useless. I had written how to get more people to vote, and this morning there was a piece in the NY Times about how New York state does things that seem to hamper people’s ability to vote.

    Full disclosure, I won’t be voting in the primaries as I am not registered with a political party. The process of registering with the Board of Elections as a member of a party is complicated and has to be done well in advance. (yet another reason why turnout is low, and incumbents stay in power.) I preferred to keep my independence, but now I am beginning to feel that to make changes in the system, I have to start taking part in the party.

    Though I am not voting, there are two people I would specifically be voting for today; Cynthia Nixon, and Zephyr Teachout. And by putting my support behind the two of them, I can see that I am still hanging on to my Bernie Sanders ideology; progressivism fighting and gumming up the system, if need be.

    I want to believe that this stance is part of the solution, but I do know that democracy really does run on compromise, and how much of my progressivism and liberal leanings am I willing to find middle ground on?

    Either way, you should get out and vote.

  • Music Leads to Other Things

    When I was a freshman in college at Sam Houston State, Steve Miller’s Greatest Hits was a CD that just about everybody had in their dorm room. This would be 1995/96, and though it was a still a grungy music world, Steve Miller kept popping up. I never put much thought into it, but as I was making a playlist, and put “Take the Money and Run” on it, this thought formed in my head. I wonder why that was, but as soon as I asked, I know that I will never find the answer.

    What was classic rock to me, are oldies to kids today, as my music has passed into classic rock.

    Another song that I put on the playlist “Just Got Paid” by ZZ Top. (I found a live version on YouTube that made me smile.) Having grown up in Texas, this is the kind of song that taps into a Texas spirit that I don’t think is around much anymore. The same way that Stevie Ray Vaughn and Willie Nelson capture a certain attitude of Texas. Not that conservative, wall building tough guy bullshit. It’s a slightly rough around the edges, individualistic, but respectful attitude.

    That actually does bother me, that the perception of Texas to the rest of the country is that it is a deep red land of reactionary crazies, who love God, Guns, stopping abortions and building walls. Hell, they elected Ted Cruz. Growing up there, it was different. Old Texas let people be themselves, and it was nobody’s business what they did.

    Somehow, I got from classic rock to here… Just connecting tangents of ideas today.

  • Power of Rehearsal

    It’s been little over a year since the last time I was in rehearsal for a show. Currently, I am working on a puppet show which I had worked on four years ago. It’s getting remounted and we are taking it on the road for a week. The last two nights in rehearsal, we had the original choreographer with us, and he and the director decided that the puppets needed a new dance, and it’s great. But it was demanding,  hard work. (The puppets are ¾ life size, it takes three people to work one of them, and we have a new person on our team, who is great, but it still takes a little time to get into a rhythm together.) And we have more of it tonight… And I can’t wait.

    This is the stuff that I really love to do, so there really is no surprise that I am excited about it. What does help is that my job recently has become so unenjoyable, that anything that is enjoyable, thusly becomes magnified by infinity! I can’t help but compare the two, for I have to sit through one to get to the other.

    A few points have been hammered home to me this week. One, don’t get good at something you don’t like doing, and that would be my current job. A professor of mine from college said that to me right before I graduated. I keep forgetting this advice, but he has been right every time I take a job to get ahead. Second, since I am over 40 and a pessimist, I had this weird feeling that there could be a chance that this might be my last puppet show. This presumably negative thought has given me a wonderful feeling of being at peace in the rehearsal process, and also made me very grateful for the people I am working with. Third, I remembered the importance of looking forward to something, or as my Grandmother would say, having a goal. Getting up with a purpose in the morning has been wonderful, and I think has made me into a happier person. I want to get at the day.

    It has been a great two weeks, and I only have a week and a half left. I at least know that you should appreciate when you are in a place that gives you unabashed happiness.

  • Football Season

    This was the start of football season, and also the start of another vein attempt for me to try to win in my fantasy football league. I rarely do above .500, but I did have one year that I did win the whole thing, but the problem is that I can’t remember what year that was… Clearly, it had a huge impact on my life. Something that I am very proud of… Can’t stop talking about it.

    The league I am in is made up of mainly college friends, and other theatre people who like sports. It’s not a real competitive group… I know, hard to believe. This year, I thought that I would throw down the gauntlet, and challenge the group, up the stakes with some trash talking. I called people out on their awful trades, poor sportsmanship as some people just stop playing, and well… I was trying to get a little more life in the league.

    Totally fell on deaf ears.

    I got nothing from anyone, other than a reminder from the commissioner of our league that we still needed to kick in our ten bucks for the pool.

    I did see Rogers come back and win last night, and that was kind’a cool.

  • The Vote

    Is anyone out there voting?

    I will be, and I hope more people out there do as well. I also hope that this becomes a habit, and that we start getting to a level, let’s say 80%-90% of the voting age public starts to show up.

    But what can we do to change things? I don’t care about the cause, I just want to make things better.

    First of all, let’s change Election day to a weekend. Two days of voting when just about everyone will have access. Or, make Election Day a national holiday that everyone gets off.

    Next, why don’t we make voter registration automatic when you turn 18? Or, treat it like the selective service act, and make it the law that everyone has to register to vote. I could even see that there would be an option to opt out, because I am sure there will be people out there that just don’t want to vote no matter what.

    What if we encouraged parents to take their kids with them to polling stations? Or provided some form of childcare at polling stations so parent could vote.

    I also wonder why there isn’t some sort of app that is out there that lets you register to vote, or telling you what district you are in, the candidates that are running, issues up for a vote, and where your polling place is.

    The other thing I know is that none of these changes will happen unless we, the public, go out there and demand these changes.