Think about it...  a dream job, a $10,000,000 wire-transfer into your checking account, fame, power, a place in history? This is the subject of the Actors Workshop of Sacramento's latest stage production Road to Nirvana (Arthur Kopit) starring 2012 elli award-winner Eason Donner. Eason plays Jerry, the ex-best friend of Al Sereno, played by critically acclaimed theater actor Stuart Campbell. Al invites Jerry to LA to discuss the possibility of coming on board to produce the life story of global pop sensation, Nirvana, played by local theater darling Nicole DeCroix. In a non-stop tale of friendship and sacrifice, Jerry is lead, inch by inch, down a dark and dangerous road...  the road to

The easiest thing in the world is to have an opinion about how someone else should live his or her life. There is a kind of stimulation one gets from sharing such outlooks, which is most likely the reason for the popularity of reality TV. We all come built with the apparatus to evaluate, label, and judge other people according to the set of values we have established in our minds. But the question is; why do we love doing it so much? Is it because we enjoy the mental exercise of comparing and contrasting different life styles? Is it because we genuinely want to help other people get on track? Or is it quite simply because it makes us feel superior to other people? My guess is that for the

          Have you ever instinctively known not to get involved with someone because of the way they make you feel? It’s not that they look unusual, or say anything particularly out of the ordinary, but nevertheless, there is a deep feeling of apprehension that can arise from being in someone’s presence. It is the same feeling that warns us not to walk down an alley at a certain moment even though we may have done so the evening before with no hesitation. I would describe this experience as an intuitive hunch or gut instinct. Apparently, cops get them all the time, and even rely on them quite heavily in certain situations. But how do we know it’s our intuitive instinct talking rather than

       There are those who believe that taking an interest in fashion is essentially unethical. They feel it leads to such vices as vanity and materialism, and that it breaks society into classes, the fashionable and the unfashionable. Although I do agree that if the fashionable are not careful such undesirable effects might occur, it does not seem accurate to suggest that they must. Indeed, if it is used wisely, I believe fashion can bring many positive things to our lives as well. The question is, how do we use fashion wisely?        People tend to look up to those with a sense of style. The fashionable are often perceived as successful, popular, and even intelligent, placing them in a p

        The history of philosophy is teeming with unsuccessful attempts to argue for or against the existence of the human spirit. This is because if such a thing does exist, it dwells outside the realm of pure reason, in a place where the rules of logic no longer take hold. As a result I’ve never taken much of an interest in intellectualizing this matter personally, and although I certainly do not intend to prove anything here, a thought came to mind recently that may be of interest to some.         Have you ever felt a moment of perfect clarity about what to do in a difficult situation? Not based on logic or reason, or soaring emotion, but a simple feeling of certitude beyond all sense o