10.27.2004 Editing all night.We're finishing up a DVD of new material, which you will later hear about when I advertise it mercilessly. I hate staying up all night. I hate having to juggle being a perfectionist with the detail-heavy task of editing footage. I will be very happy when we have an editor. I will write and film sketches with a whole new enthusiasm when I don't have to think about the long nights I'll later spend agonizing over the footage, searching for the perfect head-turn, listening for the perfect cricket chirp. You know, nights like these.
10.22.2004 We made a video birthday card this week for our biggest fan, Rachel, the first fan outside of Bard (who isn't a close friend or relative) to come to one of our shows. I know it's probably wrong of me to post her birthday card on my website, but I really like it. I hope she doesn't mind.
10.15.2004 When I'm older, and I look back on all the trivialities I've posted on this site over the past couple years (you know, during the months that I actually posted), I hope that my posts seem a little more sophisticated than these entries. That said, I have my doubts.
"Cincinnatus was not and never was emperor of Rome. There was no emporer in his lifetime because Rome was still a republic then. What he was was a senator who stepped down when his son defamed the republic. That alone would have made him unusual, to relinquish a powerful elected office on a matter of principle. But he is remembered by history because the Roman senate, realizing that a debating society such as they were might not be able to make a decision when the republic was in danger, established the office of dictator. The dictator was to be elected by the senate. The office would last as long as six months--shorter if the dictator could solve the problem in less time. But, in six months, the senate would review the appointment and either remove him and take over themselves, remove him and replace him with another dictator, or give him six more months. Regardless, the man filling that position was supposed to relinquish the dictatorship and the power it entailed.
"What happened was that a tribe in northern Italy, called the Aequi, surrounded a Roman army at Mount Algidus. If the the beleaugered army was lost, it was feared Rome might be lost. The senate decided the time for debate was over. They needed action now; they needed a dictator to save the republic. But they looked around the senate, and realized they didn't trust each other. Whoever they elected dictator would become the most powerful man in Rome and might not be willing to give up the power once he got it.
"Then someone thought of the former senator, Cincinnatus, who had quit the senate in shame. They knew that none of them would have done it if they were in his place. They elected him, sent messengers to his farm where they discovered him behind the plow, and told him he had to serve as dictator. He went to the city, took command of a consular army, and marched north where he defeated the Aequi. A week later he returned to Rome and was now the most powerful man in Rome. But gave up his power, as everyone hoped he would, and went back to finish plowing his fields."
