A Fifteen Minute Limit
David Mamet's 'Speed the Plow' at A.C.T. is really good. You can read The San Francisco Theater Blog review here.
Meanwhile, The Great Plotnik has a good friend who has unbelievable phone stamina. Plottie does not. The friend believes if he just keeps explaining, if he just keeps approaching the same issue from a slightly different angle, Plotnik will eventually give in.
Plotnik keeps saying: No. It's a bad idea.
His friend says, well, what if you look at it this OTHER way.
The man is a dear friend, so this morning Plotnik figured out how to proceed. He told his friend that from now on he should look at his watch whenever he calls anyone in the 415 area code. He should pretend he is the Handsome Prince and he is talking to Cinderella and it's fifteen minutes before midnight. Fifteen freaking minutes and the conversation terminates, end of story, kaput. If he can't make his point in fifteen minutes, the point needs sharpening. God, Plotnik hopes this works. His left ear is killing him.
Plotnik used to have more phone stamina. He used to have freeway stamina too. He could drive on the freeway for two hours to get to a gig, work the gig and then drive two more hours to get home. He can't do that anymore.
And he had idiot stamina. He could listen to talk radio.
No longer. He figures he has a certain amount of hours left on the planet. Even if the number, Praise (S)He to whom all Praise is Due, is in the millions, there is a termination point. Plotnik is damned if he's gonna spend more than fifteen minutes of any of those hours on the phone, whether the slipper fits or not.
posted by DAK @ 10:10 AM
4 Comments:
We used to have a coworker who could come into your office and talk for hours (remember Blogmaid?). We set up a routine where if someone noticed he was in someone's office, we would go to our office and call them, providing an easy way to end the siege.
I have little phone patience, and never have. I still like freeway time, as long as it's moving. I still listen to sports talk radio, but I have low stamina for it.
Good luck with you friend. It could take 30 minutes just to explain all this (and why you wear glass slippers).
This is why I pretty much hate the phone. Even worse: cell phone to cell phone—static and feedback. Eh? Say that again?
We are terrible phone people too. The worst are the folks who have had one or two cocktails and want to talk/talk/talk. Thank god for emails and blogs.
Regarding "Speed The Plow"...
I've not figured out how to register w/google at the theatre site, so I'm commenting here!.....
But, is it worth $82? $17 - $82 that's quite a spread for theatre tickets to a non-musical. Just want to know how to best use my limited theatre going budget. (if only I were there to even half-seriously consider this!)
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