We're doing fantasy. You're welcome, Stormlight Archive fans. Most likely you would use the word epic. My entire personality is first law. People keep trying to beat you and I don't know that anyone yet has. ["Top 10 Best Fantasy of All Time"] Top 10 best fantasy of all time, according to me. I do have an old video that is my best favorite books of all time. That is not what we're doing today. And that is also an old list that needs to be updated, something that I plan to do quite soon. I also have a video on top 10 trilogies where I had a bunch of rules for myself that they had to be finished, that I had to have finished them, etc. We're not doing that either. We're not doing individual books today. We're not doing all books. We're not doing specifically trilogies. We're doing fantasy. Anything fantasy. Now, the only rule is that I don't include in this anything that I would personally regard as more broadly just speculative fiction. To me, and I don't know exactly where that cutoff point is, but to me there's some books. So for example, American Gods. I love American Gods and it is certainly speculative fiction, but it was not a contender for this list because this list is like predominantly series that are sort of other world, epic world, high fantasy. Again, all of these categories are pretty nebulous, but I just want to be clear about that. That this list is for fantasy series in the more traditional sense of what you regard as a fantasy. Most likely a series, most likely a world other than our own, most likely magic, most likely you would use the word epic to describe it. And again, I said it in the beginning of the video, but want to be clear. So I'm restating it. This is according to me. There is nothing objective about this list. This is simply my opinion based on what I have read so far in my life. Oh, and last thing, this is in no particular order. I could not possibly rank them. So this is just a top 10 list in the order in which I wrote them down. You can speculate about what it means that I wrote one down first and only thought of another one as 10th, but they are in no particular order. So number one, let's just get it out of the way. The first law, might you ever cry me? Half the videos in my channel are about the first law. So I really don't feel like I should or can say too much about it right here. I have read every first law book more than once except for the very last one than the one that just came out last year. And I will be rereading that this year. So I will very shortly be able to say that I have read all of the first law books more than once. This year I've been hosting and co-hosting a read-along for the books on Bethany's podcast. And I'm sure next year I will find a fresh reason to reread the books because it'll just feel weird to not be reading them. I will figure out a reason, never fear. This probably is number one. I said several times this list isn't in any particular order that's not ranked, but first law, I mean, let's be real, it's number one. Just by the virtue of the sheer number of times that I've read those books. I interviewed Joe Abercrombie, which is pretty much the high point of my life. It's all downhill after that. My entire personality is first law. If you haven't read first law, I kind of don't know what you're doing on my channel. Like you must be sick of all the videos, popping up in your feed that you're like, well, I haven't read first law, so I don't care about this. I guess I'm glad you're here for whatever else it is that I sometimes talk about that's not first law. If you haven't read it though, and you need a couple of reasons to read it, these books are very cynical, filled with yellows humor and are clearly written by somebody that is a history buff. They are among the OG grimdark, not the OG grimdark. They're just, they're incredible. If you are a character-driven reader, if you are not a character-driven reader, I don't know how you're gonna do with first law. But if you are, what are you doing? Read first law. Number two on my list is The King Killer Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.  King Killer Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss is, we'll always hold a special place in my heart. The first book I do think is the best, but we only really have two to judge from. We also have the Slow Regard of Silent Things. I'm one of the few people that actually really, really likes that book. But The King Killer Chronicle is, it's just so good. Which I know it's not terribly descriptive. But like I said, if you are a character-driven reader, I recommended you read first law. If you are a prose-driven reader, then you must read The King Killer Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss because the care and attention that is given to the choice of every single word and when it is used and how it is used and where it is placed in concert with the other words that were equally carefully chosen. It is just a masterpiece. You just feel like the craft oozing off of every page. It is poetry in prose form. It is just immaculate as concerns prose. People have criticisms, your mileage may vary as pertains to the character, to the story, to the magic, to the world. But the prose, I think it's pretty hard to find fault with. You may not care about prose. You may prefer windowpane prose, which this is not. But it is carefully, carefully chosen. And it is beautiful to read. It is one of the, the name of the winner particular is a book that more than most every other book I've read, not more than every book I've read, but it is among the few that really almost every line makes you want to pause to just kind of digest it, to kind of marinate with it for a second. It's just, it's just filled with lines like that. One of my top quoted quotes that I just, it has come up so often in videos, especially collaboration videos, that I used to have to look it up to say it because I'd be like, oh, Patrick Ross has a great quote for this and I've like let me pull it up. And now I don't have to pull it up anymore because I've said it so many times that it's tattooed on my brain. And that is to love something because it's easy. It's like putting a penny in your pocket, but to love something despite, to know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect. And that is the kind of prose you can expect from Patrick Ross. So you haven't read The Cancular Chronicle. I don't care that it's not finished. It doesn't really matter. It's not that kind of series. That's not, that's not really what we're doing with that. Like yes, I have questions. There's things I want resolved. I would like to know where this is going and where it's going to end. But it is more journey than destination. You're welcome Stormlight Archive fans. It is the beautiful prose. It is the beautiful journey. It is the beautiful moment-to-moment experience of reading those books, of living life alongside Kvoth, of hearing the poetry of the story. It is the sensory experience of hearing about the places he's in, the sights, the smells, the sounds, the tastes. That is what it is about. And again, I would like more. I would like a conclusion, but I'm very happy to reread those books over and over again until such times I have more because it is always a joyful experience. Next on my list is The Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch. Another unfinished series. And their progress is being made. I believe we should have The Thorn of Ember Lane. Soonish. Unlike King Killer. This one is one where the way the third book, which is what we have so far as three books, where the third one leaves off, it's not like King Killer. We're like, well, the journey is so beautiful. No, I'm pretty angry and I have been angry ever since I finished that book. However many odd years ago because it is quite a bombshell cliffhanger ending that it just leaves you with that. And then he just disappears and doesn't write the next book for years and years. So be forewarned if you have not read those books. The third book will leave you gasping for more. It will leave you deeply unsatisfied. That being said, I have no regrets about reading those books. Those books are phenomenal. They keep getting better and better with each one. This is a series that it's not beautiful the way that Patrick Roth is writing is, and it isn't darkly cynical the way that first law is, but it has kind of a bit of both in it because Scott Lynch is a wordsmith. He has some excellent herds of phrase, some excellent quotable quotes. The banter, the dialogue between the characters and the gentlemen bastards is immaculate to start with and just gets better and better and better, which is a neat trick. I was laughing out loud reading Republican thieves, which is not a thing I typically do reading books, even books that I like and do find amusing. And the lushness of this world, again, it's not the way that Patrick Roth is writes where it feels poetical and emotional and beautiful for that reason, because it's the significance of the scent to you and what memory that evokes for you, et cetera, et cetera, which is gorgeous to read. But the gentlemen bastards books are just a lush sensory experience where you really do feel immersed in the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of this world and not again, not so much in an emotional, poetical way as a just onslaught to your senses. I feel like Camor, which is where the first book mainly takes place, which is the very Venetian style city, the place just leaps off the page. You feel transported to it. You feel that you can see and smell and taste and hear this place and the characters, they leap off the page in the way they banter with each other. They feel like a crew of characters that you are hanging out with, that you are spending time with, that you are gallivanting through and across Camor with. It is a page turning immersive, a transformative experience that again just gets better and better and better with each book. So I have extremely high hopes, no pressure for Thorne of Emberlane. And yeah, the cleverness. I suppose if I had to choose one word, maybe I'll do that with each of the books. So we'll go back now for a second. But for gentlemen bastards, if I had to use one word to describe it, I would say clever. For King Killer, if I had to use one word to describe it, it would be beautiful. If I had to only use one word to describe first law, I would say cynical. So moving on to number four, The Ravensmark Trilogy by Ed McDonald, which is just so painfully underrated. I take every opportunity to talk about this series and people still tell me, oh, I've never heard of that. Really? Really? Cause I've talked about it. The Ravensmark Trilogy by Ed McDonald is quite grim dark. I would say darker than the first law. Darker in terms of tone and darker in terms of levels of violence. And it is a lot more fantasy. First law is very low magic. The Ravensmark, I think Alan put it really well when he said that it's kind of lovecraftian in some of the monsters that it has in it. I think that's an Ash description. It takes place in a sort of post-apocalyptic in feeling fantasy world. It is nevertheless a fantasy world with magic, but it is taking place after a magical cataclysm that has left a toxic wasteland that is the result of magic, which again feels very much like a nuclear fallout, even though it is magic. There is a doomed data device that again it feels nuclear. It is not, it is magic. And the monsters feel, as Alan said, lovecraftian.  And it kind of straddles the line between fantasy and horror. There are some really harrowing things in that trilogy. It's not a light read. There are some truly unsettling things. And one of the most unsettling things in the trilogy is not actually that viscerally gory or anything like that. It's just a scene where something happens that it's not possible, it's magical. So this isn't something that I could actually, you know, be afraid of happening to me in reality as far as I'm aware. But contemplating it nonetheless, it chills me. Every time I think about it, thinking about it now is unsettling. It's so well written. The political aspect of it, the sort of conspiracy style plot of it is sort of reminiscent of Jean Le Carré, but again in a fantasy setting. There are nefarious forces. There are unknown forces of the government might be doing things or we might not be doing things. We're asking all of the right questions to the wrong people. Are the wrong questions to the right people? And we get in trouble for that. We being our main character, Rai Hall Yal Harrow, and it just unfolds in a very interesting and immersive way that it's not light, but it is so well done. And again, it's very, very dark. So reader be warned, it's not a happy or light read.  Number five on this is The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. I have not finished reading The Realm of the Elderlings.  I am part of the way through the Tawny Man trilogy, which is the third trilogy in this series of series. So I've read nine books from Robin Hobb. I've read the first two in the Tawny Man trilogy and I've also read the novella The Willful Prince and the Pyebold Prince. So that's nine books. So I think that's a good sample size to make this determination. Robin Hobb is one of the best authors I've ever read from. Even at her weakest, it's still knockout stuff. And I'll go a little more in depth into what this is like, but if I had to use one word to describe The Realm of the Elderlings, it would be emotional. Robin Hobb really has a way of tanking you into the headspace and emotional states of her characters in a way that it will utterly wreck you. And it doesn't feel like torture porn. It doesn't feel like it's melodramatically wallowing in a way that's emotionally manipulative. She's just taking you in deep into the sangies of these characters and she is not letting you brush it aside or move on. A lot of fantasies will have characters go through horrible experiences, but then the quest moves on and we move on and the pay lip service to, oh, it's been a hard road. But you don't really see that, not in a really real sense. Robin Hobb characters, it's been a hard road and boy do you feel it on every page. So for that reason, it's not for the faint of heart. It's not horrifying. It's not super dark and violent, though it is, it can be violent. It can absolutely be violent. It could arguably be as dark as anything you'd find in Grimdark. However, I do not believe that it should be categorized as Grimdark because the perspectives from which she tells her stories are almost invariably pretty hopeful and positive and good perspectives. They are not the sort of cynical, nihilistic, ambition-driven, evil perspectives that you might find in, say, the first law. But the events of the books could rival what you'd find in the first law. Her character work is absolutely stunning for this reason in a way that is somewhat similar to Joe Abercrombie, but is also, again, different because she really goes in deep with emotions in a way that Joe Abercrombie, as much as he is a character-driven writer, even he doesn't really go that deep with people's emotions. And also, again, the perspective she tells it from are characters that are, they're naive and hopeful and sincere. And so a lot of things just cut deeper for characters like that because they care more and caring more means you are more vulnerable to being hurt emotionally. And boy are they ever. But her world is lush and filled with so much lore and imagination and mystery. So it is one of the most transportive experiences for that reason. And just the way that you feel for the characters is I've never really read anything like it. The camera ran out of battery. But I think I was saying that Robin Hobb, the most character-centric writer, at least in fantasy that I have read. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she gives Joe Abercrombie a run for his money and he is one of the most character-driven writers. But Robin Hobb, she hasn't beat. And again, she also has a lot more sort of lore and magic in her world than Joe Abercrombie does. I know this sounds like I'm saying that she's better than Joe Abercrombie, so she should be my number one, but I'm sorry. First law is still number one. But Robin Hobb is fantastic and I cannot recommend highly enough. Number six on my list is Under the Northern Sky by Leo Carew. I think it's Carew. I originally thought it was Carew. Then I thought it was Carew. Now I think it's Carew again. I don't know. Someday, I would like to speak with a man. And if and when I do, then I'll learn from him how I'm supposed to say his name. Under the Northern Sky is a series that I've been chilling for ever since I read the first book, The Wolf. We're waiting for the third book that was still due to be released this year, although it's been pushed back to later in the year than I originally intended or scheduled. Under the Northern Sky is a book or series that I have often said is perfect for me. Unlike some of the other books on this list where I'm just like, oh, if you love fantasy, you gotta read it. Or like, do you love character-driven stuff? You gotta read it. Under the Northern Sky I think is excellent. Don't get me wrong. But I think it has less universal appeal than some of the others. Like the reason that it is a favorite for me why it sits so high in my regard is it's reasons that are more specific to my personal interests, my personal experience, what I personally look for and take pleasure from reading about. So if you don't know because I haven't mentioned it in like a minute, I studied anthropology for my undergrad degree. And I don't know if I studied anthropology because I think this way or I think this way because I studied anthropology or perhaps it's a bit of both but things that have a anthropological bent to them tend to really work for me. And when I read The Wolf, it felt insanely anthropological to me. And so when I looked it up because I was like, this is so good. I must know more. Who is this author? Are there more books? This is amazing. So I was pretty unsurprised to learn that the author also studied anthropology. Though his focus was more biological than my focus was because the anthropological nature of the book and the care, the way that I talked about Patrick Roth, this is care and attention to word choice. That is Leo Carew's attention to anthropological things in his books. Now this series, I guess it breaks the rules that I set for this list because it doesn't take place in a different magical fantasy world. It takes place in our world but an alternate version of our world. So it is alternate history fantasy. So there isn't any magic. It is just an alternate, I guess a parallel universe if you will where he asks the question, what if more than one humanoid species had survived the Ice Age to form language and culture? And already that sounds pretty anthropological. I've complained before about historical things not being paid attention to by authors and them just being, throwing things willy nilly in their worlds or fantasy as well, people throwing things in willy nilly and not really thinking through the ripple effect of that, how that would affect other things, why this would have come about in the first place and having thought through why this would come about what else would necessarily had to have happened or also be in place or this other thing to be in place. Like that sort of holistic view of your world and that is absolutely where Leo Karoo's head is at with his world. He's looked at what we do know about Neanderthal, what we do know about their biology, what we can surmise about their, the way they thought and perceived the world which is necessarily, at the biological level different from homo sapien. And okay, if that is the case, if they did still develop more complex ways to organize themselves, more complex ways to communicate, more complex ways to have a culture the way that we have now, what would that look like and how would it be necessarily different from what homo sapien came up with and put together for itself. And on top of that, how would now developed homo sapien and developed Neanderthal get along or not? So there's just so much thought put into the culture of the Neanderthal people that he has created, this sort of further developed Neanderthal people where it feels so entirely thought through, so organically developed, so real. It's hard to believe that it's not. And the way that this would have displaced what we actually have had happen in history with the map of our world, right? So we had where homo sapien took over and formed settlements and exists would have to be different if we're making space for other humanoid species doing that for themselves. So how this has changed the political map and geopolitical questions and power struggles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He's thought through all of those things to craft a fantastic world and cultures for his books. And then also told a story that all of that aside is just a good story that has characters that I personally really enjoy reading about, that I really root for, that I find fascinating, that have pretty epic, fascinating struggles. There is a conspiracy sort of element to this that I know I compared the Ravensmark to Jean Le Carré, but someone else, and I will find it someday, blurbed one of the books or Leo Kerou or Kerou to compare it to Jean Le Carré. I think they said it was like Game of Thrones as written by Jean Le Carré or something like that. Which, I mean, it does have that sort of like political conspiracy element to it, which I enjoy a great deal, which goes even further into that in The Spider, which is the second book. It is even more of a political thriller, if you will. But it takes place, it's a medieval, battle-centric, politics-laden, epic fantasy, but with no magic. Takes place in our world. It's just, it's so well done. But the things that I care about so much are what make it a five, or what make it 10 out of 10, or what make it favorite of all time. So other people who have read these books have been like, well, the battle was pretty good. The strategy was pretty good. It was pretty exciting. It was, it was pretty interesting. I mean, I don't know why it's an absolute favorite of all time for you, because like, you know, like that was, that was all good, fine. Like, I would read more. And I'm like, well, it's the anthropology. It's the culture building he did, the language architecture. It's the fact that he went to the trouble of explaining how the Anakin people have three different words for friend, and they mean three different things. And these are what they all mean in the context in which they would be used. Things like that that have me drooling. So if that sounds great to you, I cannot recommend highly enough. And it definitely has earned its place in my top 10. I cannot say that it would be guaranteed to be on everyone's top 10 if you don't care about those same things. But if you do, check it out. Number seven is as trite and cliche as it gets, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I was so relieved to like the books because I've been a huge, huge fan of the movies ever since they came out and I've seen them more times than any human should. But the books, they're pretty good too. I especially cannot recommend highly enough Andy Serkis's narration of them in the new audiobooks that were recorded very recently. Andy Serkis is a fantastic narrator and I really hope he narrates more things. The Lord of the Rings, it's the OG. It's the one that started it all and it is still a really great read. Is it a bit dated? Is it a bit more perhaps difficult to get into for a modern reader? Sure. It definitely has more of an arms length, fairy tale, mythic type of storytelling. It is not intimately character driven the way that first law or one of the Elderlings or really almost any of the other books on this list are because it's an older form of storytelling that is more inspired by myth, by sagas, by legend. And if you read sagas, they are not close third person in-depth character studies. That's really not what they're about. So that being said, it is a lot more, it is a lot closer to the characters than an actual myth would be. But it is more mythic in its storytelling. It is, it's really still phenomenal. And to this day, the achievement is quite staggering. The way I went on and on and on about The Wolf and Under the Northern Sky and how much attention and detail, how much work went into crafting the culture and the world, et cetera. Tolkien, again, the OG, it cannot be overstated how much attention and thought was put into the crafting of the world of Middle Earth. The cultures of Middle Earth, the languages of Middle Earth, the history of Middle Earth. It's insane. The amount of detail that Tolkien has in there and how much thought was put into that. And it really does make it feel like this real place. Like there's a reason that people mimic it to this day because there's just something about it. It feels so authentically its thing, its own thing. It feels like a place, it has its own history, its own lore, a life of its own. It feels like it has to exist outside of just the author's imagination. It is so painstakingly crafted. And the story itself is a great one. It's again, often been mimicked and it is not the most. I, it's hard to say, is it outside the box because it was kind of one of the first to do this. But I mean, it is a very sort of traditional story of overcoming evil, of good versus evil, right versus wrong about friends coming together and through the power of goodness and love and kindness overcoming nefarious forces. It's a very traditional type of story, but it holds up for a reason. There's a reason that's a traditional type of story because there's something about that type of story the shape of it that's still to this day, we find something in it to identify with we find something in it that is compelling. And I mean, Tolkien was the OG for a reason. There's a reason people read this and went, I must try to do this myself because wow. Very few have come anywhere close to it. So well done, Tolkien. People keep trying to beat you. And I don't know that anyone yet has.  And that is the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. I love Six of Crows so much. I cannot say for all of the things that I just said about Leo Carew or about J.R.R. Tolkien or even Patrick Rothfuss. The strength of these books isn't in like amazing attention to the details of this insanely crafted world. It's pretty standard, it's pretty basic. It's leaning heavily on real world places and trusting those inspirations to be your guide and how to envision this. They are very obvious parallels to real cultures, places, et cetera. So when you read it, you're like, oh, this is fantasy Norway. Oh, this is fantasy Amsterdam. Oh, this is fantasy Russia. So you can just sort of be like, okay, I get what we're doing here. You don't have to explain it too much. I get it, it's Russia with magic. Okay, cool. The strength of Six of Crows is in the characters and is in the character dynamics and what she has chosen to represent. And the story is actually also really well crafted the way that it unfolds. The secrets that are kept from the reader, the plot twists, the way that things resolve in ways that are both thematically significant and also structurally in terms of the plot and how it unfolds and doesn't that make sense is also really satisfying. So the first book is mainly a heist story and the second book is sort of dealing with the fallout of that heist. And it's called Six of Crows because we have six main characters.  It's Ocean's Eleven, you know? We've seen it before, we've seen it again but every book in YA that came out after Six of Crows that did this was like, oh, it's trying to be Six of Crows. She just did it so good, you know? Everyone else that came after her was just copying her. I mean, Loki, they kind of probably worked. She was real successful. Six of Crows, the way it threads the needle of both representing a lot of different things, representing different sexual and gender identities, representing different levels of ability, neurodivergence, representing race and class and cultural conflicts and identities and representing bigotry, representing all of these things, showing all of these things, having all of these things influence the story and influence the characters and be in some cases, significant to the identities of these characters but they are not the identities of these characters which is the difference. These characters are never defined by those things in a way that is their entire personality or is their place in the story. They are not the gay one. They are not the neurodivergent one. They are not the BIPOC one. They, those are things that affect who they are. They are very real things that they may or may not have to deal with. They are very real things that may or may not affect how they relate to each other, how they speak with one another, how they behave around one another, how they react to the world around them. While being a duology that checks about every single box there is for representation, it is not at no point feels like it's composed of tokens or composed of people placed in it simply to check boxes. It's that makes sense. These feel like characters that are all three dimensional characters and many of the things these characters have to deal with relates to gender and sexual identity, relate to neurodivergence, relate to PTSD, relate to their racial identity within this world. And these are things that they have to deal with, but that is not who they are. And that is what is so masterful about these books. And it doesn't just pay lip service to these things. It shows real ways in which this affects them and how they possibly overcome it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that overcoming it means it is now solved and gone away. It's a thing that you struggle with every single day. It's a thing that you may not be able to overcome and you simply have to live with it or overcoming it may be so difficult that it's a problem unto itself. It doesn't simplify or gloss over any of these issues. It includes them in real ways that affect these characters that feel like real people because of the way that they interact with their world and how they are affected by a variety of factors. It's just Chef's Kiss and it's also just a super fun read with a fantastic banter, memorable moments, a great rip roaring page turning plot. And it's just all around Chef's Kiss. Absolute masterpiece. Can I recommend Hylianna? Number nine on my list is The Slang of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Here is another example of insanely great world building but more grim dark. So sort of the best of both worlds between Tolikine and Joe Abercrombie, although Joe Abercrombie came after and was inspired by George R.R. Martin. But Abercrombie is not really that concerned with large amounts of history and lore and all of that good stuff. Like it's just not an interest that he has for his world which clear doesn't bother me all that much. But where Tolikine is telling a story that is arguably allegorical and it is definitely good versus evil and good triumphant over evil and it is very clear who is good and who is not good. And in that sense, a very traditional fairy tale type of story. George R.R. Martin is a world of grays. It's a world of grim dark. It's a world of violence. It's a world of hard choices. It's a world of realistic consequences. It's a world where good does not always win and what even is good. So it's like reading Abercrombie-esque characters but in a world that is as lushly fully realized as anything Tolikine could write. The amount of detail that's gone into constructing the history and lore and geography and cultures and languages and everything about the world of Song of Ice and Fire, it's probably not quite on the level of Tolikine because Tolikine literally invented his own language. Like it's hard to beat that. But it's getting there. It's up there. It is very extremely impressive. Reading Fire and Blood, the prequel that is a Targaryen history, it is like reading a history book and a dense one at that. And that is difficult to do. If you think it's boring to read, that's fine. That's totally valid. But it is impressive and it is difficult. It requires an insane amount of attention to that kind of detail. And for that reason, like it's again, it's hard to beat a Song of Ice and Fire, even if it's not your cup of tea, even if you find the grim darkness of it hard to read or perhaps his story does not interest you. That's valid. But similar to what I've said about a few of the others, it is hard to find fault with the amount of effort that was put into building this thing. Like that is impressive regardless of your personal tastes and feelings. But I do also think that the storytelling is extremely good. His prose isn't as beautiful as Rothfuss's. It's not as clever and witty and bantery as Scott Lynch's. It's not as just cynically on point as the first law. But he has great prose. He is actually a fantastic storyteller, which is a thing that I think gets overlooked a lot, especially because of the show leaving such a bad taste in our mouths. But there's a reason that show is a success that it was because when it was basically verbatim regurgitating the books, it's great storytelling. It's great pacing. It's great character development. He again, his character building, it's not really on the level of Hob or even Abercrombie, I would say. But it is getting there. It is very near to that. And he also just has such a huge cast of characters that is something that Hob and Abercrombie perhaps have stayed away from for that reason because it's hard to do deep dives on that many characters. And the way George R.R. Martin still gives you a pretty good sense of this amount of characters in a way that makes them distinguishable and gives you a reason to want to follow them because their stories have gripped you, even if you've just barely kind of got a glimpse of them. The way that they are changed and shaped by the world for good or for ill, that make you question what you thought, what you believed. We wouldn't have first love without A Slang of Weiss and Fire because it was A Slang of Weiss and Fire that made Joe Abercrombie go, oh, fantasy can be grimdark? Well, hold my beer. So thank you, George R.R. Martin, for inspiring my favorite author. I just finished rereading A Slang of Weiss and Fire with my friends Jimmy from the Fantasy Network announced from Alex Nieves. And rereading those books was just, it was such a great experience because I think we have collectively forgotten what a good writer George R.R. Martin is.  But I mean, they didn't stop being good because more people read them. They didn't stop being good because a show was made. They're still great. There's a reason people read them. There's a reason a show was made. There's a reason we still talk about them to this day. They're on the great lists for a very, very good reason. And if you haven't read them or haven't reread them in a while, take another gander. It's some pretty knockout stuff. Last on my list is, I know I said Raven's Mark is super underrated and it is. And it's probably less known than the one I'm about to say. But this one is also criminally underrated. And that is The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin. I do not understand why this series is not talked about more, why there are not hardcover editions, why this isn't, why it's praises aren't sung to the high heavens by every single person that reads them. And I also don't understand why more people aren't reading them. What are you doing? The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin is so insanely good. Especially the first book. I do think the first book is the best of the three, but the entire trilogy as a whole is a masterpiece. This is more, I almost didn't put on this list because I wondered if perhaps it would be more appropriately categorized as sci-fi than as fantasy, but ultimately I do think it's more fantasy than sci-fi. I guess if I have to choose. Because it is very, it is uncertain where this is taking place or if any of this is possible. Like it gives you the feeling that perhaps this is a future in which these things have been made possible by technology, but I guess it's sci-fantasy. Cause it really is straddling that line where I'm like, is this sci-fi? Is this fantasy? I really don't know. I really don't know. The way that N.K. Jemisin writes in this holistic way, which is a thing that is a theme that's been coming up over and over on this list where her world at no point feels like an idea was stuck in that was thought of in a vacuum. And it was like, wouldn't it be cool if my world had this thing in it? But I have not thought through how that affects everything else. I have not thought through what would have to have happened in order for this to be a thing. This world is so organically and holistically written that when you are dropped into it with zero hand holding and zero explanation and zero exposition and zero info dumps when you're just tossed in and expected to swim, you're able to because it just makes sense because her world feels so utterly organically developed where the way that people are behaving, what they are saying, once you begin to pick it up, it makes sense.  You're gonna start to pick it up. Same thing in broken earth. You'll be confused at first. Like, I don't know what they're talking about. I don't know what this means. I don't know what these categories are or what these names are, but it becomes apparent because it couldn't really mean anything else the way they talk about it and what led to this happening and the way in which society reacted to this, the way in which society caused this. These all feel like they are the organic results of the occurrences that there have been. It doesn't feel contrived. It doesn't feel like she's like, I wanna tell a story about this and it doesn't really matter because this is not really how people would react to this. She writes it in a way that is so brutal to read about because of how completely believable it is. The way that people treat other people. The way that people have reacted to a harrowing world in a way that has only made it worse for fellow man.  It's like, no, I absolutely see how this would have happened and it's painful because you're like, yeah, that's probably not too dissimilar from what would happen if our world did become the way the world is being described in this book. The world itself is harrowing on its own, just contemplating a world in which climate change is rampant where basically the world that you live in is the enemy where it is inhospitable to you living on it, to humanity being on it. And humanity responding to that by itself would be a harrowing story. But the way that humanity has hurt itself and has divided itself against itself while trying to respond to this threat is it's just so well done. It's so well done. I don't really have the words for it. I've never read anything like it. I will ever read anything like it again. It is absolutely chef's kiss. One of the best things that I have ever read. It is gobsmackingly good. And if you haven't read it, what are you doing? So those are my top 10 fantasies of all time. Let me know in the comments down below if you've read these, if not, why not? If you disagree with this list, feel free to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well, but I'll see you Saturdays so like and subscribe, and on my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.


Hello there, it's Sandy with the long-awaited Dutch Bunny Portrait card that I previewed a few weeks ago and this bunny is from Colorado Craft Company. It's a little wide for an A2 size card, especially when you put a body on it. It fills the whole card front, but I'm going to give you some tips on how to handle that when we get to the finished portion at the end. But the coloring comes first and I'm using Copic markers. The pictures that I looked at of a Dutch Bunny had a tinge of purple to them and depending on the light or the type of bunny or all different kinds of things, you might see blues in there. Sometimes it's fun to put another color underneath because then when you put your grays and your blacks over top, they have the flavor of a different color underneath of them and that just changes them a little bit so they're not just kind of a plain dull kind of a cool gray or something. It just adds a little flavor and you'll see about the ears in a few minutes because I'll explain why I put some pink in there even though they don't have pink in their ears.   Her eyes would disappear if there were no highlights in there so look for the highlights because it'll still read as black as long as you have some good contrast in there and some good black shadows but you do need to have some kind of highlights in there. Since I've got that blue violet underneath, this is going to have some little feeling of purple highlights. Most people won't notice it but it's different than if I just used cool gray markers so try that sometime and see if you can tell the difference, maybe color half of an image with an undercoat of a color and then half without and see if your eye can tell the difference. Sometimes it's just a matter of training your eyes but I suggest that it is true. So I'm putting some gray over that pink. The insides of their ears are thin and you can kind of see the flesh through it so that's where the pink comes in giving that a little bit of different color to the insides of the ears. So the bunny that I was looking at had just kind of some general pink around the nose, just some real soft areas and then I'm going to make yellow flowers. These are uneven flowers, they're not evenly distributed so one of the things that I wanted to do is add in some shadows first with a purple, a complement of yellow and then go in and add some negative spaces because there can be openings in these because they're very loose flowers, this little head wreath that she's wearing just has some openings in it so I'm going to draw those openings in by putting the color of the bunny that's behind it and that's going to make them look a little bit more open and loose of a wreath, that kind of thing. So if you're using a brown bunny, put some brown in there. Next is the body because this is a headless bunny stamp and if you want to ground it then put a body on there for a bunny like this. Technically the shoulders are white but this would be kind of seeing a little bit of the blackness around the outside edges of the back part of the body so I'm going to call it good even though the bunny that I was looking at would have had just white all over and then I'll add some white shading coming up from the bottom, a lot of that's going to get trimmed off because I stamped this on a much bigger piece than I was going to need and then I'm going to add some shading around the chin in the mouth because the shading that you put under the chin and then at the bottom side of the head is going to be the stuff that adds depth and dimension so it looks like the bunny's head rests in front of and above the top of the chest and where the neck would be. I guess bunnies don't really have necks very much and then I decided to add some shading on to the nose as well so that I could have the snout look like it's popping out so that the white white is on the tip of the nose and then I went to my white pen and I knocked back some of those black lines that were drawn in that because I wanted it to appear whiter and then some of the whiskers were getting lost in the black so I just went over those with a white pen in the area that was black so now for the crazy trimming I wanted to trim the left right and top so that they were into the image that the ears would pop out from it so I had to on the one side I could just stop trimming before I hit that spot on the other side I had to mark it on the back so I knew when to stop my trimmer the top is going to be even harder so what I'm going to do is trim into the ears just in the black area because I can hide those cut lines because I need to be able to bend those ears when I do the trimming and you'll see what I mean I'm disassembling the trimmer there's a safety bar on here that you can unscrew and pull out so I could shove it in there and bend the ears so that that white part is the only part that gets cut straight across you could also do that with a knife but this seemed to be a little bit easier to do and then I just put scotch tape on it and no one is going to see that there's cut marks there and I have ears that pop out I cut a yellow border so that I can have some yellow before it hits the black card base and popped all of that on dimensional adhesive the inside could have an Easter sentiment a hello sentiment kind of whatever and it's going to be a really cute card to send in the spring so Easter is coming up right away if you're not done with your Easter cards yet you best get on it so next I want to tell you about the video hop that I'm part of and it's for Jessica Frost Ballas who just reached 10,000 subscribers and she has gathered a bunch of prizes so please do go to the link in the doobly do and that will show you where to go next which video to go see how to go register for prizes but before you go if you have not hit the subscribe button and the little bell beside it then please do so as you can get notified when my next video goes up and I will see you again very soon have a wonderful day and a happy Easter and I'll see you soon take care


I don't know many people in the theatre that I could pick up the phone and call and pose a simple question about a playwright or a trend in new play development or the practice of a producer or a theatre or some sort of project that's going to happen in the future and receive the smartest, most thoughtful, sensitive and perceptive answer based on years and years and years of doing what's right for playwrights, what's good for playwrights, what history has shown us is good for playwrights, what prevailing wisdom will warn us about but if I need to make that call, I would call Todd London. Todd London is the Executive Director of New Dramatist and in doing so he has championed hundreds of playwrights across his 15 year time there but his collective love for playwrights as I think most of you know doesn't just stop with New Dramatist, it found its way into that seminal study Outrageous Fortune, The Life and Times of the New American Play which began this really long, long overdue conversation between theatres and producers, literary managers and dramatists the world over that book has become the starting point for so many important conversations that affect every single one of you sitting in this room so not only is he a friend of mine, he is truly a friend to every one of you, ladies and gentlemen, Todd London as you may have noted from Gary's introduction I'm not a playwright, for the past 15 years though I've made a sort of suckers bet with the theatre staking my ambition and professional happiness, my sense of fulfillment and accomplishment on you I work alongside of playwrights, keep their company, I run with them, fight their fights, celebrate their accomplishments witness and pay tribute to their growing bodies of work two and a half weeks ago I married a playwright it sounds like the title of a 1960s sitcom I know and as you all probably realize living with a playwright is a lot like the 1960s I contribute to a column called HowlRound the new online journal that Pauli Carl edits out of Arena Stages New Play Institute the column is called A Lovers Guide to the American Playwright I'm not a playwright but I've come out publicly now as a lover of playwrights and so I was elated and profoundly honored when Gary asked me to speak at your first conference I want to tell you what it means to live and work as I do surrounded by you I want to give you this Lovers Guide to American Playwrights to let you see some of what I see when we were researching outrageous fortune, Amy Freed who makes a reckless habit of writing large cast plays confessed that she enjoyed the feeling of being an anachronism I feel like I'm making the last buggy whip in America we are maybe a room full of anachronisms our wagons hitched to an aching old horse birching the poor beast on with the whips you've made we are maybe as blinkered as that old horse in denial of the shiny hybrids and computer driven rigs sipping around us ignoring the fact that our lame clip-clop in real time and space may rely on outdated ideas of space and time when studies show that audiences no longer value liveness and when we experience time moving every rich way all at once with unity overwhelmed by simultaneity at Neutrometis our logo is still a fountain pen there's a vintage Underwood typewriter on the top shelf of our new play library as if that old war horse were the eternal symbol of our profession I noticed there's a similar machine on the brochure for this conference we have entered the tweens of a new century but which century? as many of you know Neutrometis shelters a community of about 50 playwrights in an old Lutheran church in midtown Manhattan the building used to house in addition to the church proper a thrift store and a soup kitchen where hundreds of men mostly were fed throughout the immigrant days and depression years of the early to mid 1900s where their families could find cheap used clothes and presumably spiritual solace it is now only somewhat metaphorically a mission church for playwrights we offer writers laboratory space time and human support for seven years free of charge they grow their work there and their artistic selves and true to the soup kitchen roots this inspired company of writers feeds each other sometimes literally the altar area is now a writing studio with wireless access the sanctuary and thrift store have been turned into workshop theaters the soup kitchen is now a library lined with the unpublished manuscripts of many of the nearly 600 writers who have passed through Neutrometis since its founding in 1949 this library as much as anything tells the story of continuity community and legacy that are at the heart of what Neutrometis does what the guild does and what we are doing here today we have found on these library shelves such hidden gems as type scripts by James Baldwin and Robert Anderson with their penciled marginal notes I pulled the Mimeo of a little known Maria Irene Forney's play called The Red Burning Light of the American Way of Life my favorite find was a stage manager's copy with blocking notes of a full length play by August Wilson it had the unfamiliar title Middle Hands Lunch Bucket checking out the cast list I realized I was holding a first draft of Joe Turner's Come and Gone now the shelves are full of new plays and 40 years from now someone will pick one up an unknown or forgotten play by Nilo Cruz or Lynn Nottage or David Lindsay O'Bear and she will break into a similar sweat her heart will pound and the link will be made again your program says this is called After Outrageous Fortune but I'm calling this speech What a Difference a Play Makes a title I got from the playwright Marcia Norman when I asked if she knew a good song about playwriting it was the spring of 2009 we were 10 days away from Neutromanus major fundraiser our annual luncheon responsible for 20% of our budget the gala takes place in the dazzle of the Broadway ballroom of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square it's attended by much of the Broadway community eager to be seen at a 20 time Neutromanus turned 60 years old that spring so we decided to honor one of its first member playwrights from the early 50s Horton Foote sadly and frighteningly for us Horton died a few months before the gala so we were faced with a double problem one how to celebrate the most humble of writers in such a glitzy space and two how to create an entertaining afternoon while still acknowledging that we had inadvertently staged a memorial service so I went looking for a song Horton's grieving family would be with us we didn't want to do anything to insult his memory or vulgarize his tribute maybe a gospel song from one of his beautiful family plays too maudlin, too christian is there somewhere out there a perfect song about being a playwright? well no Marsha emailed back excitedly suggesting that we write new lyrics to Maria Grieber and Stanley Adams what a difference a play had day makes and call it what a difference a play makes as you may have already guessed we didn't it's a catchy phrase though and it's stuck in my head it worries me in the same way that I was worried when I saw the title of the American Theatre Wing's recent book the play that changed my life of course plays make a difference of course if you round up a couple dozen playwrights or actors they'll be able to single out the play that changed their lives but two plays really make a difference and if so what kind of difference? to whom? do plays really change lives? maybe they once did but do they still? aren't these notions a bit hyperbolic a bit self-satisfied? are they the cliches we live by that allow us to do our fun art making with the sense of importance that comes from actually valuable work? I don't know I love my job I think playwrights are awesome I love reading the hundreds of plays I read a year I like it okay though not with anything like the intensity I had in high school college discovering plays by Edward Albee John Gwear, Sam Shepard, Irene Fornes and Miri Baraka, Lenford Wilson, Tina Howe and yes, Marsha Norman I long instead for good movies long quiet stretches of time with an absorbing novel I'm hungry for music for my iPod but I work in the theatre I'm a rabbi and a church playwright so I constantly question my faith not in the talent of the writers who amaze me day by day but in the enterprise itself this throwback profession whose innate old-fashionedness pricks me every time I say I work for a company with the word dramatist in the name new dramatists underwoods buggy whips no, I didn't find a song for our gala instead we have playwrights read short scenes by other playwrights alumni of new dramatists who had like Hortonfoot died recently our vibrant and very much alive writers celebrate the dead senior writers Horton, Robert Anderson, William Gibson and also their peer writers who had in the previous couple of years died painfully young August Wilson, Lin Alvarez John Beluso, Oni Fayed Alambley would we feel the difference a play makes does the difference a play makes pass like a current from writer to writer one era to another and so electrify a whole continuous lineage of human endeavor how appropriate that these questions bubbled up around Hortonfoot it is hard to imagine a playwright more out of step with his times than he is there is no body of work in the American theater to compare with his no one has written for so long about so few square miles the concentrated plot of land in Horton, Texas that is the land of his family for nearly 70 years he tried to stop time by remembering Horton was a very merciful God he sought to possess an entire world by loving it ceaselessly he dared to bring the dead back to life it is a vanishing world he writes the world of these plays no not a vanishing world but a vanished world I think sometimes that Randall Gerald speaks for me in his poem thinking of the lost world all of them are gone except for me and for me nothing is gone nothing is ever gone nothing can be proved as long as there are people to remember to write it down nothing can be lost as long as there are artists brave enough and persistent enough to try and capture the ephemeral grace of our lives but is it true that nothing is ever gone is it possible that plays themselves are disappearing the dramatic literature itself will go the way of the satyr play or burlesque or the living newspaper and if we need to keep on keeping on what are we doing in form what are we preserving Robert Anderson author of tea and sympathy and I never sang for my father also died that year throughout his five decade writing life he kept a note taped to his typewriter that said nobody asked you to be a playwright how do you respond to that cold water truth the same way Bob Anderson did and Horton and hundreds of other playwrights have you respond by becoming impossible of the thing that nobody asked you to be you respond by writing those plays nobody asked you to write that no one may ever produce you respond with the crazy obsessive beautiful bravery of the artist cultivating a garden that no one may see and that no one may ever want to walk with you you find your faith where you can you hope the world will meet you where you live this is by any stretch the world in the most consistent and practical ways has no intention of meeting playwrights where they live I don't have to tell anybody in this room where the energy of our culture and the attentions of our young are directed we have good cause to worry the marginalization of theater and playwriting even the American theater doesn't care to meet playwrights where they live for the past 40 years our theaters have spent considerable money, energy and personal hours on the cultivation and production of new plays they've hired large administrative staffs built monumental buildings for all their organizational energy however these theaters have proven unable to create sustainable structures for supporting writers over time for what Molly Smith yesterday called a dignified life for playwrights bodies of work like Horton foots are almost inconceivable today from 2005 to 2010 as Gary told you we started the theater development study that became outrageous fortune Tori Bailey, Ben Pesner, Zanni Volos and I gathered data from 250 playwrights across the career spectrum working professional playwrights who by all industry indicators were among the most successful writers at their stage of development we extensively surveyed nearly 100 theaters about their work in new plays with new plays in the field in general we then tested this hard data by traveling to cities across the country holding meetings with playwrights artistic directors and leaders in the field of new play and playwright development followed by interviews with agents commercial producers, playwright, educators and others we published our findings a year and a half ago in the book Ben and I wrote and spent another six months traveling the country presenting the conclusion stimulating local conversations and brainstorming solutions please excuse me if you've heard this before but I want to briefly highlight some of the findings as you playwrights describe it the American non-profit theater our art theater is corporate, board driven, risk averse and formally conservative it lacks old artistic leaders and is overly even obsessively concerned with pleasing a subscription audience that is much older than the theater's artists way more conservative and may not even be an audience audience may be the convenient term artistic directors use when they're really talking about a handful of large donors or keyboard members or as one artistic administrator put it the theater's assets and the bad news is that within this climate our research shows that the economics of playwriting are impossible it is a profession without an economic base and all the practice within it must be prepared to be a otherwise employed or being poor the typical successful playwright earns between $25 and $40,000 when averaged over a five year period with nearly a third earning under $25,000 annually slightly more than half of that income comes from sources unrelated to playwriting to day job of the approximately 49% of a playwright's total income that comes from playwriting related activities including teaching, TV and film writing only 15% of the study's playwright's total income comes from production related activities i.e. licensing publishing, grants, awards commissions, royalties in other words an average working professional playwright whose resume you'd look at and say that's a successful early career or emerging or mid-career or even established playwright is making between about $3,800 and $5,800 a year as a playwright only about 3% of a playwright's meager income comes from royalties the foundation of the playwright's compensation that 3% means $750 to less than $1,200 a year on average over five years unless you think this is about young bohemians our average study playwright is 35 to 44 years old and the sampling includes winners of Obies, Tonys and Pulitzers all this to say despite implicit promises of MFA recruitment brochures there is no career track for playwrights no lifelong path hardly any career there of course you live this and know it you've probably been following last weeks blog postings about Tony Kushner's assertions in time out in New York that he can't make a living as a playwright that probably no one can you want to sustain middle class income you want to earn on par with senior staff to reduce you you want healthcare playwriting is not the answer in short the mechanism of the theater I'm glad you can still laugh in short the mechanism of theater has cast playwrights out of the in their workings of the theaters themselves the economics of theater the economics of theater has not just marginalized but impoverished them are the leaders of American theaters where they live no for that we would have to give up our health insurance and head for the poverty line or at least the temp agency we'd have to do the math in accordance with our so called values and we'd have to live by it I include myself even as the head of a small non-profit very small I earn more than most of the playwrights that I serve and what about audiences are they willing to meet playwrights where they live we know that the culture in general the theater as a form but even the theater going population within that culture is to beat a dead idiom staying away in droves according to a December 2008 study by the National Endowment for the Arts the percentage of US adults who attended a non-musical play over a 12 month period fell from 13.5% or 25 million people to 9.4% or 21 million people over 20 years the playgoing audience has been dwindling by slightly more than 1% a year for nearly 20 years the figures for Broadway may be even more disheartening the decline in attendance at plays new to Broadway during the same 20 years is 41.6% so what are we doing here MFA programs are pumping out more playwrights than at any time in America's history saddling them with debt they will as playwrights never be able to repay you meanwhile are playwrights are condemned to an economic environment that is impossible within an ecosystem that is at least broken and at worst profoundly hostile to the artist and the individual creativity within which it is inconceivable to either build a body of work alone or as part of a theater company experiment and sustain growth are for playwrights as much a thing of the past as well maybe American drama think about O'Neill for a moment the rest of uneven brilliance of his early works the way he tried everything see plays, mask plays classical tragedy, expressionism the great messy churning of his nascent theatrical genius and think about how that would have played out today without a province town players or theater guild or Broadway that produces new American work how could he have wrestled with scale with non-naturalistic techniques with all the chaff you have to sort through to get to the wheat how could he have brought the years of internal struggle and external quietude that separated his early productivity and his later master works or Clifford Odette's where would he have come from if not the group theater or all being without the sensational attention garnered by his earlier plays how will he have survived how would he have survived his long time in the theatrical wilderness the time that made his renaissance over the past dozen years possible or again, Hortonfoot how can you sustain a loving body of work in a field that won't sustain you that won't excuse me but I have to say it love you so we find ourselves in a strange land the people in this room make their lives in a world that is if not leaving them in the dust at least pushing them to the side paying them on the cheap and voting against their relevance with fleeting feet the name of the song I take my title from was originally what a difference a day made past tense singers changed the song and so it comes to us in the present is it possible that the difference of play makes is also past tense that plays made a difference in the days of Miller and Williams the early primes of Hansbury and Albee those years of off-off Broadway but that the present is too imperfect that the present of playwriting is a thing of the past for me personally this is all a challenge first and foremost to idealism to those idealistic impulses that got me and I suspect most of us into the theater in the first place yes Shaw warns against idealists yes O'Neill shows us people nursing their pipe dreams like desperate drunks with only a few drops left in the bottle still the ideals are there desperate, delusional or even destructive as they might be the ideal of individual voice the ideal of imagination the ideal of creative freedom the ideal of the artist as the soul in the machine of the institutional capitalist culture the ideal of theatrical communion and sacred exchange the ideal of a world if only on stage where mind, heart, spirit and body work together to get us through the confused drama or pathetic comedy that is life the ideal which pumps in the blood of every writer I know that insists we take the world ways of the world personally that we respond to it wholly that the world we have inherited is ours to recreate rewrite and revise happily as Molly so passionately argued last night some of the findings of outrageous fortune are undergoing revision we knew when we were working on it that we were part of a moment of change David Dower was researching what he called the new works sector on a grant from the Mellon Foundation funders like Mellon were reevaluating their priorities long-term efforts were starting to pay off it is now an explicit imperative in our field to improve conditions for playwrights that is my way of saying what Molly said last night when she described a moment of great energy and intention around playwriting we have together made this happen the Guild's multi-year push for theaters to give up subsidiary rights participation has swayed the center theater group in LA and recently New York City's Roundabout and public theaters breaking the ice on a previously frozen situation what your former president, John Wyman describes as a weird seismic shift tomorrow you'll hear from Julia tomorrow you'll hear from Julia Jordan who casually called a meeting of women playwright friends and wound up leading the charge for gender parity on American stages with immediate results Julia with Martian Norman and Teresa Rebeck created a new award the lilies which has in two years honored dozens of women some overlooked in the theater the Guild has agreed to permanently fund it you've heard about I hope I'm right or now I guess even now you've heard about arena stage one of our first regional theaters embracing its historical responsibility to lead five playwright residencies for three years with salary, health benefits housing, budgets of their own the commitment of at least one production a thriving new play institute hosting five national convenings each leading to actions of their own as a result of one of these convenings two separate black play festivals were launched by playwrights in a single year small theaters like New York's new playwrights realm are offering other theaters money to incentivize second productions and maybe as an indication of the reality of this changed landscape and the power of your collective voice theater communications group has spent the past year doing something that has not done in its 50 year history holding national conversations across the field that focus not on institutional health but on the individual artists within the nonprofit theater the ground on which you stand is shifting these are just a few of the many sides the ground on which you stand the phrase makes me think of the late August Wilson the magnificent example of his purpose full of the seriousness with which he took his task your task how grandiose the young Wilson must have sounded a fellow playwright asks what are you working on Wilson responds I'm writing a 10 place cycle one for each decade of the 20th century it will encompass slavery the African diaspora the migration of 5 million blacks to the north and the lives of Africans in America against the backdrop of our evolving culture one character is as old as slavery she'll die at 287 they're meant to be performed in every theater in the country and then on Broadway what do you say to that ambition who dares dismiss it will a troubled profession trample it will statistics of a dwindling audience keep it down attention must be paid you bet your ass and so 10 plays later we have something no American playwright has managed before we have the sweep and magnitude of Wilson's epic century cycle we have this panoramic collage of holocaust horror and celebration of strength joy and resilience what he calls the highest possibility of human life where do we look for inspiration where do we look to pump up our ideals in hard times because the fates marked me down as a theater geek I look to playwrights because we know as every child knows that when you stare at a thing it grows larger a flower, a face, a play we are among those people who stare at plays and when we do the machine of the culture quiets and the soul in the machine speaks the institutions that were once the hope of the American theater and that are now its well intention to 800 pound gorillas shrink in importance individual talent sizes up the institutional theater isn't evil at all it's misguided, it created important new paths and then inevitably got lost on some of them it too often treats the individual artist with a sort of proprietary neglect I own your opportunities I neglect you you and the guild know precisely how to respond assert individual voice and vision and organize your strength your magnificent example is in each of you alone and in all of you together that great swelling oxymoron a community of writers I live with playwrights for seven years watch them grow bodies of work it's my way of staring and when I write about them when I celebrate the living or eulogize the dead I touch something even if I can't completely understand it something is the difference their plays make this something has to do with freedom it's the only word I have for it it's the thing about which playwrights have taught me the most I've learned about it from the size of august's people the things they carry the selves they carry despite the constriction they labor under I've learned about it from less well known playwrights from adventurers like Carlisle Brown and Liz Duffy Adams the great maximalist Glenn Berger and the architectural minimalist Melissa James Gibson from Octavio Solis Diana San Eric N Stephen Giergis Marcus Gardley Daniel Alexander Jones and Annie Baker all exquisitely adamantly themselves Lynn Nottage's refusal to write in a single voice David Grimm's refusal to tame sexuality David Greenspan's refusal to be anyone but David Greenspan you are slippery free-thinking beings you playwrights Houdini's in a corporate culture escapists from the boxes critics put you in keepers of ecstasy and empathy speaking on voice and in tongues simultaneously holding fast to your point of view and suspending it utterly so that the populace of your plays reveals a vision you are slippery because you strive after freedom knowing and this I have learned from you that freedom is a practice you can aspire to it but never attain it personally, artistically politically and historically freedom is fleeting we glimpse it in the holy material of our ordinary lives art makes us happy because it gives us a glance at our potential for freedom you are slippery and you teach me freedom but not because you are free you are not you are like all writers plagued by bitterness which is the real enemy and which threatens even the most talented and enthusiastic among you the poet Robert Kelly put it perfectly bitterness has killed more poets than neglect and poverty combined I wish you release from bitterness you aren't free because you're forced to spend so much time thinking about money you aren't free because of the double whammy of neglect and lack of resources that breeds envy an envy that fuels that killing bitterness I wish you release from envy you aren't free when you remain passive blaming the faults of the theater on everyone else instead of asserting your natural role as leaders in the field the rights have historically been leaders of theaters and capital T theater and I pray you make it so again no I don't pray it I exhort it you have the facts in front of you the economic facts you generally and genuinely share a critique of your field you know which way the wind is blowing and you know what's getting lost in the wind on the other hand you have before you examples of do-it-yourself of playwrights from Escalus to Young Jean Lee Richard Maxwell and a pair of Chicago 20-somethings Chelsea Markintel and Laura Jackman you have before you examples of playwright leadership from Shakespeare and Moliere to Emily Mann, George Wolfe and now Che You you have examples of playwrights' generosity to other writers from Edward Albee's foundation to the teaching devotions to Smith, Naomi Azuka and Marcia Norman excuse me you have examples of the collective power of playwrights from the playwrights company on Broadway in the 30s to 13p in the workhouse collective today you know playwrights working on ensembles Kirk Linn of the Rude Max and playwrights who work in communities like Allison Carey and the dozens of cornerstone playwrights who followed her you have playwright bloggers shaping the field's debates you have your playwright idols mentors and go's you have each other and you have power you just have to use it passivity and blame defaults of the creative life in a market economy are irresponsible they are the swandering of gifts which to me is the unholiest of holies New Dramatists was founded 62 years ago by a disgruntled playwright after a frustrating meeting at the Dramatist Guild this unknown playwright rallied the guild leadership Howard Lindsay and Russell Krauss Moss Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein Maxwell Anderson Elmer Rice, Robert Shrewwood and others her name was Michael O'Hara you don't know her plays but her founding visions has served more playwrights more lastingly than anyone theater history what will you do with the gifts of this weekend what will you begin what will you make happen one of my favorite playwright troopers was written from a living playwright to a dead one from John Guare to the visionary Thornton Wilder Guare goes in search of the essential Wilder and finds two of them Guare writes Wilder reminds me not of one but of two great American poets William Carlos Williams found the problem that confronted them in their youth was where to go for experience to feed their art Williams stayed in New Jersey as a doctor and found his source of experience there Hound fled to Europe to leap into world's culture like a man who contains the spirit of his lost twin Guare tells us Wilder found in his life and art quote a way to live in his bifurcated world in his own home and roaming the world Guare finds the distinction of Wilder the doubleness of his way of seeing maybe this is the kind of difference we make when we stare at plays when we stare at bodies of work difference in the sense of differentiation difference then the assertion of individual voice and vision becomes the leading edge of a life or death struggle against homogeneity institutionalization against monoculture difference guides us to the abundance and profusion to the glorious diversity of all living things but here's the really beautiful part of Guare's tribute having located Thornton Wilder's distinction, his double distinction Guare follows Wilder's own example and connects him to all the playwrights before and since remember the philosophers Guare again take the image of the parade of philosophers from Pullman Car Hiawatha and the skin of our teeth and imagine that parade not of philosophers but of playwrights from Escalus on down through Plautus and across Vitha and Calderon and Marlowe and Webster and Dryden and Bain and Stringberg and Shaw and Wild and Pinheiro and O'Neill and Hellman and Orton and Albee and Hansberry and Shepard and Mammet and McNally and Wilson and Kushner to every member of the drama skill and to the next class of playwrights leaving Yale or NYU or Juilliard or whatever drama school or no drama school here each generation saying finish my work finish what I started these are the questions I leave behind what a brilliant gesture a playwright's gesture we find difference the distinctions of voice and being and then we join them in a grand parade trumpeting connection and continuity lineage and legacy the unfinished work the dead bequeaths the living all those playwrights all those plays those that will be forgotten those that will be remembered and those that will lie and wait to be discovered


The driver and passenger of a horse-drawn buggy were severely injured when they were hit by a pickup truck near Long Prairie. On Tuesday, around 6.30 a.m., 20-year-old Eli Yoder and 16-year-old Dan Yoder, both of Long Prairie, were traveling westbound on Highway 27 in their buggy. According to the Todd County Sheriff's Department, 35-year-old Joseph Keco was headed in the same direction in a truck. Keco came over a hill near 223rd Avenue and rear-ended the buggy. According to a Minnesota State Patrol report, Eli Yoder was taken to St. Cloud Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Dan Yoder was taken to Long Prairie Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Keco was not injured during the crash.


This story is entitled The Secret Diary of a Wolf. Here, Wolf has his diary tucked under his arm. The story is written by Felicia Law and illustrated by Leslie Danson. The wolf kept a diary. He tended to forget things if he didn't. On Monday, tease three little pigs. Tuesday, choir practice. Wednesday, my birthday. Friday, exercise. Saturday, visit mom. Sunday, catch up with diary. And his life was pretty busy. On Monday, for example, he had one of those naughty days. The kind of day when everyone gets cross with you because you're having lots of fun. It's a good way to start the week if you're a wolf. Monday. When I got home, I was tired out. It was all that huffing and puffing.   I was only teasing. On Tuesday, he went to choir practice with the rest of the wolf pack. The wolves got into a huddle and howled. Some howled the high notes while some howled the low ones. It helped if there was a full moon. Somehow, they all howled better. See the sign? It says Tuesday, choir practice. Bark, chorale. On Wednesday, it was the wolf's birthday. He sent himself a card and bought himself a present. That way, he knew his birthday wouldn't be forgotten. Wolf wrote in his diary. Wednesday. Today is my birthday. And I got a card and a present. It was a lovely sheepskin coat. And I look great in it, just like a sheep. It was my best birthday ever. On Thursday, Little Red Riding Hood came knocking.  Will you chase me through the woods? Will you gobble up my granny? Will you put on her nightie and hide in her bed? Wolf wrote in his diary. Thursday, Little Red Riding Hood came knocking again. She wants me to play all these weird games with her. Where does she get her ideas from? Honestly, she frightens me to death. Anyway, I hid under the table until she got tired of knocking and went away. On Friday, the wolf decided to go out and do some wolfish things. This mostly involved chasing other animals who were smaller than himself and who got easily scared. But then, a few animals chased him. And that wasn't nearly so much fun. That night, he watched a movie. It was called Peter and the Wolf. Wolf wrote in his diary. Friday night. The film started well.  Clever wolf, I thought. But I didn't like the ending. The wolf got caught by this child, Peter, and was dragged off to a zoo.  Just for eating a duck. On Saturday, the wolf went to see his old mother. She was bony and wrinkly and lived in an old wolf's home. She still had her dressing gown on as he was a bit early and he had to help her put her teeth in. Wolf wrote in his diary. My mom has to sip her tea through a straw because she's got no teeth. I told her all about the film, Peter and the Wolf. I changed the ending to make it more exciting for the wolf.  On Sunday, the wolf got up really late. He knew he shouldn't, but there didn't seem a lot else to do. He ate a boiled egg to make sure he had his protein. And then he read the Sunday papers. He especially liked reading the book section. And this gave him a brilliant idea. A quite brilliant idea. Everyone seemed to be writing about themselves. Football players, models, TV celebrities, famous people and even spotty teenagers. They all kept diaries. And these diaries were made into best-selling books. The wolf put his diary into a large brown envelope and wrote the address on the front. He would post it tomorrow. You never knew. Sunday, the wolf wrote in his diary. Sunday. So it's gone. I sent it to my favorite publisher. I said I was a famous author, which is a big lie. But what else do they expect from a wolf? You see how many copies of the wolf's book are on the table. And underneath it says best-seller.


Lunatic pundits, as it's all but certain we're on the cusp of a massive war with Russia. The Ukrainian-born MSNBC favorite Alexander Vindman, best known for his role in the Trump impeachment, has informed the network's viewership that we are almost certainly on the cusp of a war with Russia comparable to World War II. I think we're basically just on the cusp of war, the retired Lieutenant Colonel told MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on Friday. I think it's all but certain in my mind that there's going to be a large European war on the order of magnitude of World War II, with air power, sea power, massive ground force offenses, and my concern right now is making sure that the United States is postured for that outcome. I think there's little to be done to avoid it at this point. Rather than yell and scream like a normal human being at Vindman's incendiary claims about a near-certain world war against a nuclear superpower, Wallace merely asked Vindman to clarify that he did indeed believe it's a foregone conclusion that there is going to be a military confrontation with Russia on the level of the Second World War. Vindman maintained throughout the appearance that there was going to be a war with Russia, that it would be large, and that it would involve Ukraine, and that Russia would be the aggressor. I hope to God I'm wrong, Vindman said at the end of the segment, but I'm willing to go ahead and raise this alarm to put my credibility on the line to make sure people are paying attention. This massive claim should be treated very seriously. It should be treated seriously not because it's well-founded. Moon of Alabama explains that Moscow has no good reason to launch an unprovoked attack on Ukraine, and war is entirely avoidable, and Kev is telling the public to stop worrying about a Russian invasion.  Think about it.  If his claims are not true, then a U.S. news network just aired brazen disinformation about a matter of unparalleled importance, and ironically did so right after the U.S. State Department published a lengthy report on the dangers of Russian disinformation on RT and Sputnik, which was in turn ironic because, as the dissident explains, the report is itself packed full of disinfo. Hello virulent Russia hawk, Michael McFowl appeared in the same MSNBC segment as Vindman, but took a less hysterical approach, saying he doesn't know what Putin is going to do.  McFowl later claimed that Biden was too focused on opposing China during his first year in office, causing the Russia situation to get out of control. I am very prepared to just flat out state that we are on the cusp of war, Vindman countered in disagreement with his fellow propagandist, citing as evidence a movement of Russian troops into western Russia while conveniently admitting the fact that thousands of them have since withdrawn from the area. Nothing either of these clowns say should be taken as true. Any random schmuck off the street would be better qualified to offer opinions on Russia than dopey mainstream liberal pundits who've spent the last five years being consistently wrong about that nation. But we should take very seriously the fact that they are working to insert these narratives into public consciousness. To my knowledge, Russian state media have not been telling Russians that a world war between nuclear armed nations is all but certain. To the best of my knowledge, only western propagandists are indoctrinating westerners with such madness. You can learn a lot by simply watching who is pushing what narrative. The idea that it's already too late to stop a world war level conflict with a nuclear superpower is profoundly dangerous. If the public can be manipulated into accepting this as fact, then their priorities shift from insisting that their leaders prevent this unthinkable event from being inflicted upon our world, to supporting whatever might protect them and their loved ones from being destroyed by it. We collapse into the same learned helplessness we're trained to sink into when we're told that a given political candidate is inevitable, or a given grassroots effort is doomed to fail. And if that mind virus does take hold, we may be certain that the same brainwashed human livestock who've been scoffing at us for warning that all the Cold War escalations over these last few years can lead to hot war, will be the very first to double think their way into a complete cognitive 180 and begin assuring us that hot war is inevitable so there's no use trying to prevent it. Someone benefits from all this, and it ain't you. This comes as withered Gerontocrats in the U.S. government bravely proclaimed that it's time to give Putin a bloody nose over the latest tensions. It comes as tons of U.S. supplied weapons pour into Ukraine, and it comes as the U.S. president himself announces that he believes a Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely. These people are playing games with the lives of everyone on our planet, and they don't even seem to understand that that's what they're doing. This is so, so dangerous. And there don't seem to be any adults behind the wheel. We're being pied pipered off a precipice from which there is no return by blind men with their hands in their pants. We the citizens of this planet cannot allow this to continue. We've got to find some way to stop these pricks.