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Hello readers, time for a bit of shameless self-promotion.

Correction. Time for a bit of shameless promotion of the arts!



I have registered to ride in the UPAF's Ride for the Arts in Milwaukee. That's a boke ride, for those uninitiated. I will be riding 12 scenic miles from Summerfest to Miller Park and back for a couple reasons.

1) Get my butt into some kind of exercise regiment (I do sit at a desk all day for my job and stare at a computer screen)
2) Raise money for UPAF (United Performing Arts Fund - kind of a "United Way" for Milwaukee Area Arts organizations) and the Milwaukee Rep Theatre.

So, please check the link below:
http://events.upaf.org/ride/BradKostreva

or click the title of the blog if you can find just a smidgen of $$ you would be willing to sponsor my rider-ship. I see 0% of the money raised, the Milwaukee Rep sees 50% (because I am riding on the Rep's team) and UPAF sees the other 50%. The Milwaukee Area Arts Scene is one of the most under-rated in the major cities of the U.S. Members and Affiliates of UPAF stretch from the city of Milwaukee west to Brookfield / Elm Grove, and south as far as Kenosha.

I have had the opportunity to see plays, musicals, and whatnot at many of the organizations that UPAF supports, as well as Milwaukee organizations that are not under the UPAF umbrella and need to relay on other funding methods to keep going.

From the UPAF website, the organizations that benefit from UPAF include:

UPAF Members:
Bel Canto Chorus
Danceworks Inc.
First Stage Children's Theater
Florentine Opera Company
Milwaukee Ballet
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Milwaukee Children's Choir
Milwaukee Public Theatre
Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
Next Act Theatre
Present Music
Renaissance Theaterworks
Skylight Opera Theatre

UPAF Affiliates:
Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre
DanceCircus
Festival City Symphony
Frankly Music
In Tandem Theatre
Kenosha Symphony Association
Ko-Thi Dance Company
Latino Arts
Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra
Milwaukee Choral Artists
Milwaukee Opera Theatre
North Shore Academy of the Arts
PianoArts of Wisconsin
Racine Symphony Orchestra
Sunset Playhouse
Theatre Gigante
Wild Space Dance Company
Windfall Theatre
Wisconsin Philharmonic

So join me and boat-loads of others in supporting the arts scene through sponsorship of my ride, or, if you decide you absolutely despise me and all I stand for, feel free to check out the UPAF website and if compelled, donate directly.

Thanks everyone for listening to my pitch!!!!

Ciao!

Happy Star Wars Day Everybody!

And now, a collection of anecdotal Star Wars thoughts in no random order whatsoever.

Thanks to a few others for their contributions:

- "May the 4th" be with you!

- A Joke:
What did the R2 unit say to the Mon Calamari?
"Bleep boop beep doo whee!!"

- Why does a guy named "Solo" have a partner?

- Is there anything a buttload of Force Lightening can't solve? Well, until it unloads a Phantom Menace in your pants...

- "Ewoks" funny after riding a Bantha all day... (Groaner Foul!)

- How many midiclorians does it take to make a Jedi? Apparently a bloodstream full at first, then, as happens, science gives way to mythology and the force becomes a mystical energy that makes lightening come out of your fingers.

- Really Empire? After the first Death Star was destroyed because of an exhaust port that caused a chain reaction, you didn't think that the MASSIVE HOLE in the next Death Star big enough to fly a Millennium Falcon through would be a problem?

- We need to hide Anakin's (Vader's) kids from him to protect them from his evil ways... I KNOW!!! Let's hide one of them on his HOME PLANET!!! Even better.. let's hide him with his FAMILY!!!!

- When did Han Solo's handcuffs "fall off" after he was frozen and before Leia thawed him?

- Here's a tough call... what was more damaging to the legacy of Star Wars: Jar-Jar Binks, or the entire "Clone Wars" CGI Movie?

- Sorry, that was a trick question, clearly the Wookie Family Christmas Card takes that cake...

- Top Five parodies of Star Wars from #5 to #1
5) Something Something Something Dark Side (Family Guy)
4) Family Guy: Blue Harvest
3) Robot Chicken Star Wars
2) Robot Chicken Star Wars 2
1) Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace

- Little known fact: Hayden Christensen caused more re-shoots during his lightsaber scenes because he kept making the sound effects of the lightsaber during filming.

- Estimated Cost to build the Death Star: $43,000,000,000,000

- What's George Lucas' obsession with "de-handing" people via lightsaber?

- Did... Did Darth Vader just say "People will come, Ray"???

Well, that's all I have for now...

I have just joined "Twitter" or as I like to call it, Facebook on ADHD, so I highly recommend you follow "TheBradK" on Twitter for my latest quicky Musings.

Ciao all!

B

11315 Days of Glory

Poor Earth... It has now been subjected to 31 years of me being on it. Or, as the title suggests, 11,315 days (give or take a leap day or 8).

Well, all I can truly say is "Happy Birthday to me, all hail.... YOU!"

What? Yeah. See, it's come to my attention that life is pretty crappy without the friends, family, and comrades we associate with. We come from different places, we will probably all go different places, but the crossroads of life where people meet, and sometimes journey together for seconds, minutes, days, and years, well my friends, those are the reasons life is so amazing and great. My life has been amazing and great, and it's thanks to you. Even Ditter.

So what have I learned in my 31 years? Well, some of life's simplest lessons.

Do unto others... That may seem ridiculously simple, but, it is about as true of a lesson as one can learn. And it's difficult. It's even difficult to do so in a selfless way. In some respect, many times people "do unto others..." for purposes of making themselves feel better or elevate themselves to a level of moral authority. That's kinda icky really, it takes what is intended to be something done out of love and respect for fellow humanity and makes it a perverse thing. So, do unto others is a good rule when the intention is (as best as one can do) altruistic.

Friendship and love can last forever... but it takes work. That work is well worth the effort.

Take responsibility for your actions. That can be hard. It can hurt. It can hurt those you care about. But, things in your control are in your control. The mistakes we make are usually repairable.

Help. Sometimes people ask for help, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they don't know they need it. Help when you can. Support when you can't.

Be respectful of others opinions. Surprise, everyone's different and even those that agree usually don't agree 100%. So, be respectful of others opinions.

...

and more. But why be preachy?

Let's get to the latest fun...

Last week I had the opportunity to serve on a jury. This was my first time (They found me, I don't know how, but they found me... RUN FOR IT MARTY!!!). I got to serve on a criminal case where the charges were 1st Degree Attempted Sexual Assault, Armed Robbery, and False Imprisonment. The maximum sentence was 81 years for the accused.

Not Guilty on all three counts, and what was more amazing to me is what we on the jury guessed really happened instead of what this man was accused of. It appears that to hide a coke habit, and to put guilt on the accuser's boyfriend, this accuser made up this lie (which she admitted she never would have taken to the police without her mother's coaxing) and threw this guy under the bus so as not to admit to her discretion. WOW.

Now, again, that's our guess. What we certainly saw was that the story she told was not true, so our best theory as to the truth came up with this terrible string of events.

My play is well on it's way. Act II is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it finished in the next couple weeks. I am very excited to set up a "reading" of it with some actor friends of mine to further develop it, and hopefully, I can work with some acquaintances on the West Coast to start a workshop.

Finally, I want to congratulate the cast and crew of both Milwaukee Rep's Route 66 and the UW-Parkside Theatre Department cast and crew of As You Like It for putting on some exceptional theatre I got to see this weekend. Bravo!

With that, I would like to leave you all with a quote:

"Never Start Something You Can't Fini..."