Monthly Archives for December 2010

Solstice

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……………………………………..yeh though I walk
……………………………………..in the valley
……………………………………..in the hollow valley
……………………………………..i shall fear no
……………………………………..i shall
……………………………………..I shall fear no
……………………………………..evil
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_¸,.»=椺²° Meet Your Playful Self – http://www.myplayfulself.com

Meet Your Playful Self – FREE – Final Day

Meet Your Playful Self is now available as a download for your Adobe reader.

You can get it as a gift for Christmas (or any other Solstice related Holiday) delivered by Santa Bytes directly to your email. HO HO HOW?

1) Go to Meet Your Playful Self On Facebook

2) Join, like, or lick the Playful Group and send me message with the email address to send the pdf file to. ( I need an address I can upload the file to.)

3) Do this before the Solstice. (Dec. 21, 2010, 6:38 PM EST (23:38 UT), marks the solstice—the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere)

If you want to just buy the ebook go to Payloadz.com $9.99 € – 7.31

Enjoy Yourself!

Meet Your Playful Self

Lights unto Us

La Crosse “Rotary Light Display”

A Light Display on the Mississippi River

A view of the Rotary Light display at Riverside Park in La Crosse, Wisconsin – with a tickle of Handel in the background.

In the middle of the piece you may hear a voice which sounds out of place. It is a comment by my dear friend and I left it in intentionally. It seems an appropriate comment on the way we seem to want to move into stressful and “fast”.

_¸,.»=椺²° Meet Your Playful Self

End of Expectations – My playful son

My son Peter started playing drums when he was in middle school. His kit was in the basement. I don’t know how many different layers of padding and insulation I stapled to the walls down there.

There is an “under story” here. Peter is an addict. One of the lucky ones. He has been free and clean of drugs and alcohol for six years proving that one can front a metal band AND be sober. He is active in AA in Seattle and sponsors many young people who are trying to stay clean and sober.

I am VERY proud of him.

Here is his third (or fourth) band since then doing a parody of  “The Office”. I watched it for about a minute before I knew it was him. (Peter is on the one on the left0.



End of Expectations on My Space. Listen or read the lyrics to the “Remembrance”.

Peter wrote an honest and scary account of his drift into addiction called “The California Kid”. It is in draft form at present.

Meet Your Playful Self

The Workshop – For Teachers, Managers, and Parents


Most board games cost about $15 -$20

The Meet Your Playful Self – Workshop

The last half of the book, Meet Your Playful Self; The Workshop, gives you a detailed, step-by-step map for your own playful group.

The paths or exercises, derived from 40 years of working with improvisers, offer you a short cut to your intuitive, playful self by-passing years of trial and error, frustration, and confusion you might experience on your own.

A decorative cell phone cover cost $9.99

Teachers, Coaches, Youth Leaders

If you are a teacher, coach, or youth leader, you can lift segments to practice with your students. Whether you teach History, Math, Phys ed, or Soccer; you can use the workshop to explore listening as a skill and offer your students a guide to understand when they are listening and when they are not listening.

A ticket to a Lady Gaga concert costs $95 – $188

Managers, Business Leaders

If you are a manager, you can use the workshop paths “Talking Fast”, “Yes…and…”, or “Counting and Listening”; and I promise you will be far ahead in building the “team” spirit that will lift the morale in a department, erase petty conflicts, and as a result, increase productivity, profit, and performance.

A scratch off lottery ticket can cost $20.00

Parents

If you are a parent, you can use the workshop like you might play the game of charades with your children and their friends. You can play the interactive games like “being”, “Zip, Zap, Zoop”, “Clap Around”, or “Playing with an Object” to enjoy the intuitive, playful nature of your own children. As Plato says, “You can learn more about a person in one hour of play than a year of conversation.” What’s more – it works!

A “Would You Rather” card game stocking stuffer costs $40.00

Improvisers, Directors, Actors

If you are an improviser, you know to well how easily the magical intuitive moment escapes you in your work. We don’t even know the why or how, but before we know it we find ourselves in a conceptual, unproductive trap. The exercises in the Workshop offer the best conceptual routes like “The Three Levels of Acceptance” or “Push to 10” to keep your group in the intuitive groove, grind, and gristle.


The book  Meet Your Playful Self costs  $10  ($9.99) through this link

BUY the pdf file for your adobe reader. Click buy now for PayPal secure payment
Buy Now

___________________________________________

Or you can go to the Amazon Kindle site and and get Meet Your Playful Self for the same $9.99.  You can read Kindle books on your computer. ( I did not know this)

Kindle platforms include; Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle (2nd Generation) ,Kindle (1st Generation), Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Android, Kindle for BlackBerry. Plus text to speech conversion.


Meet Your Playful Self on Amazon Kindle

This link will take you to Amazon – Start reading in a few seconds.

The Book is DONE…read it in a few seconds

After nearly 3 years of writing and over 50 years of living, the book (ebook) Meet Your Playful Self is done, complete, finished. So the bytes went out to Amazon and Payloadz leaving me with my life flashing before my eyes. It looked something like this:

You can start reading about being more playful by clicking the “BUY” button, which will take you to a PayPal site.  Just hit the link to pay with a credit card and get the pdf file for $9.99 (That’s under $10.00)

Or you can go to the Amazon Kindle site and and get Meet Your Playful Self for the same $9.99

You can read Kindle books on your computer. ( I did not know this)

Kindle platforms include; Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle (2nd Generation) ,Kindle (1st Generation), Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Android, Kindle for BlackBerry. Plus text to speech conversion.


Meet Your Playful Self on Amazon Kindle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meet Your Playful Self

playful – Table of Content

Meet Your Playful Self will be available on Amazon Kindle in a day or two $9.99 BUT if you order now…..ha ha


It’s been over two years since the beginning of the project. It is fun to read all the chapter and exercise headings sounds like a playful language.

Table of Content

Chapter 1
Your Playful Self
A Collective We of Playfulness……………………….2
Performers and Players……………………………….3
An Invitation……………………………………………..4
Your Path…………………………………………………4

Chapter 2 –
Roots

Puppets and Shadows………………………………..5
Playful People…………………………………………..5
The Ark…………………………………………………..6
Everyone Can Act and Play……………………….10

Chapter 3-
Meet Your Playful Self

Improvisation vs. Playful……………………………12
Playful Intention……………………………………….12
Take the Ball……………………………………………13

Chapter 4 –
In The Beginning

“The readiness is all.”….. …………………………..16
Skinny Branches………………………………………16
Tape Recorder Test of Self Perception…………..17
Looking in the Mirror…………………………………18

Chapter 5
Playful 101 Basic Actions

Yes…And………………………………………………..21
Leaving What?……………………………………. …22

YOU Are What is Left………………………………..23

Why Yes…And…Leads
to a Playful You…………………………………..23
The Playful Challenge………………………………24
Your Life and Yes…And………………………………26

Chapter 6-
Playing with Others

Yes…And Watching Yourself…28
Experiment #1 Watching Yourself Listen……….28
Playing with Yes…And…………………………………29
Interviews………………………………………..31
Experiment #3 Yes…And…in an interview………..31
Experiment #4 Watching the Interview…………………32
Possibility……………………………………….32
Conflict Eraser…………………………………..33
Sample of Conflicting Conversation…………..34
Sample of Yes..And…Conversation……………..34
Experiment #4 Adding on………………..35

Chapter 7
Being as in Human –
The Intention of Being

Choice………………….37
Being Silent………………………………………38
Experiment #5 Playing with Image …………..39
Bridging Your Image………………………………..40
Playing with Others………………………………..41
The Arrival of BEING……………………………….41
Sounds like Fun……………………………………43

Chapter 8 –
Being and Listening

Listening the Greatest Gift We Can Offer……………..44
Non-Listening……………………………………..45
Analysis, Judgment, Evaluation – AJE…………………46
Experiment # 7 Being and Listening…………..47

Chapter 9 –
Being and Stage Fear

Self Conscious vs. Playful…………………….. 49
The Trap of Control…………………………….. 49
Examples of conceptualization/sharing…. 50
Action You Can Take……………………………. 51
Experiment #8-Sharing an Image…………. 51

Chapter 10 –
Being Funny

Conceptual vs. BEING Funny……………..53
The Funny Mistake…………………………….55
Being in the Joke………………………………..56
Experiment # 8 – Being – Telling a Joke 56

Chapter 11 –
The Next Step

The Playful Learning Process……………..58
Golfing without Clubs……………………. …59

Section 2
The Workshop Part 1

Chapter 12
A Bridge to You……………………………….. 60

Chapter 13 –
Setting up a Workshop Space –

Shifting Gears – Real to Playful………….. 62
Setting the Structure………………………….. 62
Who Leads?………………………………………. 63
Arrival………………………………………………. 64
Talking Around………………………………….. 65

Chapter 14 –
Warm Up

Talking Fast………………………………………… 65
Zio, Zap, Zoop…………………………………….. 66
Direction # 1- Zip, Zap, Zoop………………… 67
What Changes? Ha, Ha………………………… 68
Definition………………………………………………68
Tricking Ourselves………………………………… 69
What is the fear in stag freight?……………….69
Clap Around – Passing the Clap……………….70
Direction# 2 – Clap Around……………………..70
Wrapping up Reacting Fast……………………. 71

Chapter 15
Yes…and…

Yes…and…in Practice………………………. …….72
Rotate through – Playing and Observing…..72
Yes…And….in Rotation……………………………73
Direction #3 – Yes…………and..Observation
Statement……………………………………………….73
Resistance to Observation Statement……..….74
Resistance 1 – ? Questions……………………….. 75
Direction # 4 Yes…and…No questions……..…76
Resistance 2 – Shifting…………………………….. 76
Direction #5 – Yes…and…No shifting……….. 76
Resistance #3 – Observing Ourselves – tying.. 76
Direction #6 -Yes…and…No tying………….… 77
Resistance # 4 General vs. Specific………….. 77
Direction# 7 Yes…and….No general………… 77
Free to Fly……………………………………………….78
Direction # 8 Yes…and….Free to Fly……..… 78

Chapter 16
Yes…And…Responding

A response that tells the observation is true..79
Example of resistances in responding ………. 79
Identify the Resistance Exercise………………. 80
Direction # 9 Yes…and..Response………..……81

The Workshop

Part II

Listening and Being

Listening………………………………………………….. 82
Group Counting……………………………………….. 82
Direction # 10 – Group Counting………………. 83
AJE factor Analysis, Judgment, Evaluation.. 83
Direction #11 – Group Counting AJE…………..84
Silence Factor…………………………………………… 84
Direction #12 Group Counting- Silence……… 85
Shift in Tone…………………………………………….. 85
Direction #13 – Group Counting – Silence 2… 86
Finding Your Yardstick………………………………86

Chapter 18 –
Being

Resistance of being…………………………………….. 88
Doing vs. Observing……………………………………. 89
Gagging the AJE………………………………………… 89
Direction #15 Sharing and Image…………..…… 89
You have Observed Playing with Image………. 90

Chapter 19 –
Being in Conversation

Yes+and+Listening+Being=Playful………………. 90
Being Together…………………………………………….. 90
Direction #16 – Being Together……………………… 91
Direction #17 – Being Together 2.…………….……. 92

Chapter 20 –
Connecting the Talking to the Being

Being Together Yes…And……………………………..… 94
Direction # 18 Adding Yes…and………………………. 94
Example of resistance in being and yes…and……..95
Direction # 19 Adding Yes…and…..,….……………… 96

The Workshop
Part III

Chapater 21 –
Five Paths to Play

1 – Strict yes…and…………………….………………………….. 98
Direction #20 Strict yes…and……………………………….. 99
2 – Adding a Piece……………………………………………….. 100
Direction # 21 Adding a Piece………………………………..100
3 – Naming…………………………………………………………..102
Example – Two dimensional box…………………………….102
Example – Naming……………………………………………….103
Direction # 22 To name or not to name……………….. 104
4 – Playing with Story – Speaking Poetry………………. 104
Example: Speaking Poetry…………………………………… 105
Direction #21 Speaking Poetry…………………………….. 106
5 – Dancing Through…………………………………………… 107
Direction # 24 dancing Through………………………….. 108

Chapter 22 –
Mix and Match
Direction # 25 – Mix and Match………………………………110
First Flight……………………………………………………………..111
Direction # 26 – Mix and Match……………………………….111
Regression – Progression…………………………………………………………….112
How about THAT?………………………………………………… 113

The Workshop
Part IV

Chapter 23 –
Object Work

1- Creating an Object…………………………………………….117
Direction # 28 – Allowing the Object to
Create itself…………………………………………………………. 118
2 Grasp and Let go………………………………………………. 119
Direction # 29 Grasp and Let go…………………………… 119

Dancing through with Object…………………………………119

Direction # 30 – Dancing through with Object.. ……..120
4 – Responding with Acceptance………….…………………121
Direction # 31 – responding with Conceptualization.. 122

Direction # 32 – responding withAcceptance………….. 122
5- Defining the Object with Words………………………… 123
Direction # 33 keeping the object Mysterious…………..124
Direction # 34 Naming the objectSpecifically…………. 124

The Workshop
Part V

Chapter 24
Play!

Start with Being……………………………………… . 127
Direction #35 Playful Conversation….………… 127

The Workshop
Part V

Chapter 25
Other Playful Work

Three Levels of Acceptance………………………… 128
Direction #36 Dancing Through – after
The statement is made………………………………. 129
Acceptance – Level 1…………..……………………… 130
Example of conceptual response…………………. 130
Direction # 37 – First Level of Acceptance…….130
Example – Level 2.………………………… 139
Direction # 38 Second Level of Acceptance. ….131
Example – Level 3.……………………………………. ..131
Direction #39- Third Level of Acceptance……. 132

Chapter 26
What is so funny?

Being Funny…………………………………………….. 134
Direction #40 Tellng a Joke……………………….. 135
Direction # 41 Telling a Joke – being…………….135
Being funny and the three levels
Of acceptance……………………………………………135
Direction # 42 – Funny First level of
Acceptance……………………………………………… 136
Direction # 43 Funny – Second level of
Acceptance………………………………………………. 137
Direction #44 Funny – Third level of
Acceptance………………………………………………. 137
Push to 10.…………………………………………………138
Direction #45 Push – First level of
Accptance………………………………………………….139
Direction #46 Push – Second level of
Acceptance ……………………………………………… 139
Direction # 47 – Push – Third level of
Acceptance…………………………………………..….. 140

Chapter 27
Every Day Life Conversations

Moment to moment……………………………………143
Moment to moment 2 – need to release………..143

Chapter 28

The Workshop –
Let us Play!

Congratulations!…………………………………………. 146

Meet Your Playful Self

Feeling pinched? Bernie Sanders Amazing Speech

Below is a better picture from Power Sim Solutions

Whats Going On Here?

* The wealth distribution in the US is highly uneven, with the wealthiest holding the overwhelming majority of all assets.
* The graph shows that the top 1% wealthiest US households own 32.7% of the total US household wealth and that the top 5% hold well over half of all the household wealth.
* Likewise, the graph shows that the top 10% wealthiest households collectively own 70% of all household wealth, i.e., that the bottom 90% hold only 30% of total household wealth.
* The wealth distribution in the US has historically been highly uneven, so the 15-year period covered by the five Surveys of Consumer Finances (see graph above) is not unique.

Two of my face book friends posted the speech delivered by Bernie Sanders (Bernard “Bernie” Sanders – born September 8, 1941- is the junior United States Senator from Vermont, elected on November 7, 2006) in the past week.


Below is a video clip from “Meet the Press” where Mitch McConnel (Addison Mitchell “Mitch” McConnell, Jr. -born February 20, 1942- is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky) slides in a non-answer to a question about extending tax cuts to the richest Americans.

To put a more human face on all the percentages, distributions, political speeches, below is

a short documentary on the current (2009) dilemma that countless Americans are facing. From those on the streets to those who simply cannot afford housing on their low wage jobs in a crippled economy.

Meet Your Playful Self

Playing with Others – Try this #8

An excerpt from the book “Meet Your Playful Self”

Being funny

I believe that laughter is a language of God and that we can all live happily ever laughter.
– Yakov Smirnoff

We all like to laugh. We all like to be funny and enjoy the funny in other people. We all have heard quotes and read accounts of the value of laughter as one of the most healing energies of human existence resulting in longer life, higher self-esteem, and success in business.

So, what is funny? Let’s take a peek at what happens when we find funny. Since all of the exercises have been developed in the course of training people to perform in the theatre as actors or improvisers, the technique of improvisers is a likely place to look for funny.

Improvisation is generally equated with comedy and has been the forerunner of The Second City and Saturday Night Live. Yet, improvisation and meeting your playful self
is not about being funny. That may come as a mild shock to some, since Second City, Saturday Night Live and Whose Line is it Anyway?, seem to be all about funny.

Many people come to improvisation workshops and classes with the idea that they should show how funny they are. In response to this expectation, I don’t know how often I have heard teachers of improvisation say something to the effect of: You will never be funny if you are trying to be funny. Being funny is not the result of doing or saying funny things but doing the steps and following the paths to your playful self. You cannot decide to be funny any more than you can decide to be poised before an audience. You can be funny by opening up and making yourself vulnerable by choosing to take the path to embrace your playful self.

You may have already guessed that being funny is related to being. You cannot just decide on being , but you must follow a path to get there. This leads to how being and being and listening figure into being funny.

Conceptual vs. BEING – Funny

The use of the word being is beginning to ring a familiar tone by now since you have encountered being in sharing an image and being and listening and here it is again in being funny. The very same nagging resistances of self consciousness and AJE (analysis, judgment, evaluation) will deprive you of your freedom to be funny just as it prevented you from holding your image in playing with image. The same AJE rears its ugly head and stands in the way of being funny as it did when it blocked your freedom to and talk in public. AJE has become the usual suspect and is also the barrier to being truly funny. So, here we are at being again in – being funny.

Let’s look at the difference between comedy emanating from ideas or wit, which we will call conceptual funny and comedy generated by emotional identity, we will call being funny. Since the most available and common tool for springing into laughter is a joke, lets look there. A funny story or a joke contains the ideas for a set up and a punch line that we may find funny. Thus we have the long line of situations or ideas for the set-up: the farmers’ daughter, Ollie and Lena, or you are really a red neck …if – jokes.

Why can two different people tell the very same joke, with the result of one getting a reaction of side splitting laughter while the other gets polite smiles?

I would suggest it is because one is being in the story and the other is being conceptual.

When someone says, Hey, here is a funny story, I want to run. What follows is a person, whose motivation is to try to be funny telling a joke, launching into a narrative to arrive at an eventual punch line, at which time everyone is expected to honor the telling of the story by laughing whether is really funny or not.

Being funny is being in the story with the result of engaging the listeners to identify with you emotionally, as a human being. This leads to a laugh stemming from emotional identity. On the other hand, being conceptual is saying words that set up a twist, or punch line which might be funny in it self. The laugh, therefore is a heady laugh.

The comedy of emotional identity is the home of the belly-laugh, when we identify with the players as real people involved in the every-day, real-life situations of being human. The funny comes after our identification with the characters, so we are empathetic with the narrative because the joke teller has moved out-of-control and into the intuitive or playful.

Funniest videos are funny for this very reason, ordinary people doing ordinary things suddenly forced out of a control and into funny when their dress catches on a nail, or they back into a wadding pool, or smash through a fence.

How many times have you watched a TV show, film, or play that is billed as funny and found yourself in the kingdom of The Emperors New Clothes?

You are among the masses that hear a laugh track and observe odd human behavior and are expected to agree with the funny of it all, just as the subjects of the king are expected to react as though the king is fully clothed even though he is quite naked. It is not that the scenes and conversation are not light or full of witticisms. They are. Yet, even though they self generate a laugh track, they do not inspire a real belly laugh. Most of the material in situation comedies on the TV and silver screen , seem to gravitate toward this conceptual comedy of ideas and wit.

My favorite example of a TV situation comedy that was successful on both levels is All in the Family. Here we had the set up of situation, coupled with emotional identity. Mike, Archie, Edith, and Gloria could enter into the wit of comedy like name calling – Meat Head and Ding Bat – yet they each allowed us to identify with them emotionally. They dared to move out of the safety of pure wit and into the real emotional lives of human beings who could cry real tears, and lash out in real cruel anger.

The result for the viewers was real and frequent belly-laughs. The comedy often arrived through subtleties; out of a look, or an action, rather than the words, ideas, and wit. The laughter came from what was going on beneath the words as expressed in their body language. The words of the script may not have been funny at all even though the laughter was loud and long.

So, how does this All in the Family example relate to telling of a joke? A joke teller who relates to the narrative is being conceptual gets the chuckle or polite laughter, while the joke teller who moves beyond the words into being funny, as exemplified by Archie, Edith, Mike and Gloria, gets the belly laugh.

We are conceptually funny when we are relating the narrative of a joke; we believe it is the words that are funny. If the narrative is funny we may get a laugh. In emotional comedy we are moving into being with the narrative and, therefore, being funny.

Being funny is where the deep healing belly laughs dwell.

The Funny Mistake

Another example demonstrating how being conceptual is less funny than being funny, is when something goes wrong in a scene. When the line is dropped, or a drink spills the actors react honestly setting up the funny of emotional identity by mistake. Some of the most electric moments on stage were the result of something going wrong. (Remember the original dictionary definition of improvisation?) You may have heard stories told by actors of the times when someone dropped a line, missed an entrance, or dropped a plate or a glass.

Let us imagine a scripted play where the butler is bringing in a drink on a tray and it slides off and lands on the lap of the unsuspecting actor. What happens? Actors will agree to a feeling of panic of the most intense kind usually described as – YIKES! Suddenly, the moment is up for grabs as the actors must adjust to the spilled drink in the context of the play. The unexpected has moved the actors into being.

What happens to the audience? The play has been rolling along as planned and rehearsed in safe mode. All the lines were flowing at the appropriate times, the actors were relating and moving as rehearsed, and then, the drink spills off the butler’s tray, and the focus of the audience is peeked. They lean forward with great interest, even if they do not know whether the spilled drink was an accident or not. Why?

The audience is engaged because for the first time in the play, the action on stage was not acted. All the actors moved into being. It is real because the actors were emotionally identified. The actors were forced to react in a real way, moment to moment, and the audience pricked up immediately, and without even knowing why.

Do you see how this example of sudden discomfort in a rehearsed play relates to being? In meeting your playful self you are following the steps or paths into being, without the need for the unexpected spilled drink, to end up at the same place of being or being funny.

So, it ain’t about the words. The power of words and talking are vastly overrated in comedy and our day-to-day conversations.

Our facial expressions and body language are far more important and powerful in the message we convey than are the words we are speaking. What is it that activates all of these powerful expressions? How do we get to the emotional life of the words? We bring our words to life and create emotional identity – through being.
Meet Your Playful Self