cell phones

Thoughts On My Phone

July 15, 2021 at 9:46 am by Claudia

The David phlox I planted many years ago is in bloom. Just like coneflowers, it self-seeds, so I get to see it spring up here and there in the big garden bed. It’s a tall version of phlox so it has a lot of impact.

Speaking of impact, the crazy weather has had an effect on some of my hanging plants, and has yellowed some leaves on the limelight hydrangea. Here and there on the property, I can see some changes due to the extreme heat we had as well as all the rain. There’s nothing I can do, of course, but observe it.

Yesterday, much to my surprise, the sun came out in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe my eyes! And it’s out again today. We’ll make sure we appreciate it while it’s here because the dreaded ‘chance of thunderstorms’ is back on the docket for the next five days.

I’m over it.

I didn’t get any painting done yesterday. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood. And it was very hot and humid early on, so the a/c had to be turned on and I tend not to paint when it’s blowing air throughout the kitchen.

Don and I were talking about cell phones this morning and I’ve decided that I’m going to start turning mine off for a chunk of time every day. They’re too addictive. I’ve done it in the past, but I always fell back into old patterns. Really – how important do I think I am? Aside from phone calls and face time with my sister and nephew, the rest of it is designed to be addictive; instagram, twitter, games, photos, apps, social media. I managed to get by without any of it for over half my life. I don’t think I got a cell phone until my late forties and in that case, I bought it to be able to communicate with Don on our cross-country move. (We were driving separate vehicles.) When I was teaching I used to say the last thing I wanted was for my students to be able to contact me during my down time. Now, if you’re teaching anywhere, but especially at a university, students can text you and email you all of the time. I can’t imagine anything worse.

The cell phone has ruined much of the experience that is live theater. I’ve written about that before on this blog. It’s appalling. Not only is the experience ruined for the audience, but let me assure you, actors can see the light from the phones when they’re onstage. I remember when our biggest worries were someone coughing a lot or opening up a candy wrapper. Now, it’s the constant buzzing and ringing of cell phones because apparently no one can turn their phone off for two hours.

It used to be that the rehearsal room was an almost sacred space – a space for the actors and the director. No one came into the room who wasn’t part of the creative team. It was a space in which to create, to feel free to take risks without anyone else there. Now, every show has a social media team and those people are constantly invading the space, asking actors for a photo, for a quote, and then, once the show is open, there is the whole ‘takeover’ thing. The Instagram Takeover by so and so – whatever actor has been drafted into doing it for that night. It happens on every show nowadays. It happened on Margaritaville. I finally had to stop following some cast members because they were being sucked into generating social media content that looked exactly like it was – a hyped-up performance backstage. Another actor in the dressing room! Look at this actor backstage! Some of the dancers are warming up! I’m going to ask all the actors a question and share it with you! Aren’t we fun and silly!!

Oh, my heavens. I know I’ve officially become an old fart with this post, but why does everything in the theater have to be hyped on social media? Why can’t the actors and crew and production staff just do their work? It isn’t right. Furthermore, it strips the magic right out of the experience.

If you were in the room with me, you’d have heard a big sigh just now. Some days I long to go back to a simpler time. I certainly long to go back to the kind of theater experience I had for most of my career. It seems almost quaint now.

I have so much more to say but that’s enough for now.

Anyway. My phone will be turned off for a few hours today. I’m going to make myself stick to that.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Re-entry

February 16, 2020 at 11:13 am by Claudia

The view from my apartment window in Hartford. I was on the tenth floor this time instead of the usual fourth floor apartment and I had a better view.

These little trips are always so intense; packing, taking along some food and some coffee – whatever I might need for two days – the drive, toting everything 5 blocks to the apartment (this time in extremely cold and windy weather) unpacking, eating a frozen dinner, then off to the theater to take notes. The next day; writing up the notes, packing everything up, cleaning up the apartment, disposing of the trash, wheeling my suitcase 5 blocks or so to my car (which was in a parking structure right next to the theater), then grab a bite to eat because I won’t get home until 7 pm, then four hours of rehearsal and notes for the actors. Back in the car for a two hour drive home. None of it is difficult, necessarily, just a change from my low-key everyday life. Don and I have these kinds of days when we’re employed and then we go through re-entry when we’re back home. I’m grateful, of course, for employment and for the chance to change things up a bit, to interact with the actors and technicians. Keeps me sharp! It’s all good.

Most of the way home yesterday, I got to watch the most beautiful sunset! It was at its peak as I headed toward the Hudson River. Just gorgeous.

Jane Eyre looks good – they’re still in the middle of previews, those performances that are pre-opening night. That means they still rehearse during the day. The actors are pretty tired out at this point, so they will be looking forward to their day off tomorrow.

During Friday’s performance, a woman’s cell phone kept going off. She happened to be two seats away from me. Once? Okay. We all make mistakes. Three or four different times? No. The worst was when it kept ringing and ringing and I watched her push little buttons and look perplexed and STILL it kept ringing. This went on for a couple of minutes. I finally turned to her and said, “You have GOT to turn that off.” She responded that she was trying. Most cell phones have a button you can hit that will silence the phone. Maybe she was unfamiliar with the phone? Familiarity wouldn’t have been an issue if she had just turned it off before the show started.

Here’s the thing: There is an announcement at the top of the show reminding everyone to turn off their phones. It started to dawn on me, and I had this confirmed by one of the actors in the show, that in spite of the announcement, most people nowadays don’t turn them off. They put them away, or hide them, but they’re still on. The fact that they feel they can’t turn off their phones for a couple of hours for a live performance is a sad one indeed. The actors say that they can see the blue screens from the stage. So can fellow audience members.

I watched the people who were seated in our section – they were aware of the phone going off, clearly, but I realized they had now become used to this kind of thing happening. They accepted it. So, is this now going to be the norm?

It’s so disrespectful.

I found myself wishing that Patti Lupone had been there. Patti Lupone, who famously got so frustrated with an audience member’s constant texting during a performance that she reached down and took her phone away.

Here’s her quote from an interview: “We work hard onstage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down. When a phone goes off or an LED screen can be seen in the dark it ruins the performance for everyone else – the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage. I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work onstage anymore. Now I’m putting on my battle gear over my costume to marshal the audience as well as perform.”

Don has said much the same thing – he has experienced it over and over again. It has soured him on theater; this, after over 50 years in the theater. It obviously wasn’t an issue during my acting days, but it sure as heck is now. As it is, when I’m attending a performance or working at a performance, I have had to remind people to turn their phones off more times than I can count. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of educating someone who doesn’t realize that the actors can see the blue screen. But most of the time, it’s because that person is so tethered to the phone that he or she simply cannot turn it off. That, my friends, is an addiction.

Today: laundry, cleaning, reading – the usual.

Okay. I have to hit Publish.

Happy Sunday.

Day Two of the Challenge

September 10, 2019 at 11:22 am by Claudia

I have a deep love for pansies. Just like last year, they’re still going strong several months after I planted them. In fact, they were the first flowers I planted in pots – in early April. One of my pansy pots was still thriving in November of last year. Don’t know if that will happen again this year, but they are definitely plucky little beauties!

This new challenge I have set for myself – that of shutting off and then staying off my cell phone and laptop after I’ve checked in with both in the morning (including writing a blog post) – is showing me just how addictive a cell phone can be. At one point in the afternoon, I had the phone next to me because it was charging off my laptop and, boy, I had to actively, even aggressively, resist picking it up to ‘check in’ with Instagram. All while I was reading a book. It was fascinating and more than a little revealing.

It is an addiction, you know. Reams have been written about it. They’re convenient yes, but they’re intended to be addictive, and we see evidence of that everywhere we go. From those who walk down the street with their heads downward, looking at their phones, to those who can’t turn off their phones in a theater during a live performance because they might miss a text (who is that important?), to those who must document via a selfie everything they do in the course of a day, to those who share a meal with someone only to be looking at a screen the entire time. No one is that important. It’s all smoke and mirrors, designed to make us feel more important. But really, there’s a serious issue at hand if one’s sense of self-worth comes from a virtual life lived inside a phone.

I’m not nearly as bad as that, but I do have my issues. It’s time to take control of that. I made it through the vast majority of my life without a cellphone. Without a personal computer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for both. But I have to remind myself that when cell phones were first available, I said to everyone, “The last thing I want is for everyone to be able to reach me when I’m out of the office, or driving, or walking on the beach.” I held off for a long time before I bought one, and we only did that because we were driving in separate vehicles on our move across the country to New York and wanted to be able to stay in contact with each other in the case of an emergency.

I love having a smartphone and I don’t regret using one. It’s enormously helpful in my professional work and I love the visual stimulation of Instagram. The iPhone camera is so good that I often use those pictures for the blog and for Instagram. But I am putting my foot down. I refuse to let it dominate my day.

I’ve declared war.

Today, we’re driving across the Hudson River to investigate a small independent bookstore. I’ve been there before, but it’s been many years. Don just finished his book and is looking for a new one and he’s sort of exhausted the inventory in our local bookstore.

A little adventure for the day.

Happy Tuesday.

Re-entry

Day Two of the Challenge

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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