Today I played superheroes with my daughter. We chased and ran around pretending to have magic powers. I was the villain and I was taking wadded up sticky balls of tape, pretending they were explodo-bombs, and placing them around the house. She had to find them and unstick them and stop them from exploding. I then upped the ante and began to stick them on the dogs and made them run around. I played mission impossible music and did countdowns 5-4-3-2– to make it a little more exciting. She found all of my evil plans and saved the world and the dogs. And she did it all in plastic Cinderella heels. I then collapsed on the ground defeated and she walked over just as the music ended. She looked at me and let out a victorious “Haa Haa Haa!I did it! I won!” She then stepped on my defeated villain chest with her heel and stuck out her tongue and walked away all bad-ass.

Later we had dinner while listening to The Beatles and we just laughed and talked about stuff at the table for about a half hour. While doing this it hit me how great and beautiful she is. And how I was once her age. But because of so much crap that was going on in my family I never really did anything like this with my parents. They loved and cared, no doubt.But I can’t honestly remember them asking me “How was your day?”, “How are you doing?”, or “Wanna hear something funny?” I can’t even remember my whole family ever sitting down to even eat together too often. And as I looked in her face I realized I was once a four year old and I was just as awesome as her. And dammit I deserved to have the type of day that she just had with me when I was a little kid. I deserved to be told I was loved and I deserved to be played with and all that stuff.

I tell you this because I want you to know that a lot of us in some ways got gypped when we were younger. And when we are neglected or ignored as kids it can affect us. It gets internalized and it comes out in weird ways. Self worth. Insecurity. Whatever.I guess I just wanted to say to some of the people that have seen the show and have written me in recent days that you deserve to be told, right now, that you are great and beautiful and charming as hell. And you deserve to have good things happen in your life. And if they have not been happening because of other people or because of our own screw ups then you can change it. You can still be the hero in your unfinished comic. You can find your superpowers and use them and maybe not save the world…But you can save yourself and YOUR world. You can stand on life’s frickin chest and look down on all the crap that almost defeated you and laugh. And you can stick out your tongue or your middle finger (Unless you’re MY daughter..Sticking out your tongue is fine) and say “Haa-Haa! I won!”

-John

A student told me they didn’t want to read Hamlet. So I put it in Facebook terms for them.
Hamlet’s status update:

“My dad is dead. My poser uncle did it. He’s banging my Mom. I love my Mom. No, I Rrreally love my Mom. Ick. So, did you guys see Paranormal activity? Just me? Because I think I saw…Anyway. Ok. So, forget that part about my mom..I actually like this goth girl. She’s a lil sketchy. Quiet! Damn voices in my head! So, uhm yeah she likes me too…But it’s complicated. Now she’s dead?! WTF? Mom! STFU! BTDubbs..He’s not my Dad! And I’m NOT going on Meds! Ugh! So confused. SMH. New tweet. Yay! Flash Mob w/some theatre kids! Woot! Total Indie Play! Ugh. Total sh*t show. Whole play thing was like bad idea…Just sayin. FML”

_john

Daughter: (Upon seeing homeless man lying on ground bleeding.)Dad, what is that guy doing?
Me: He got hurt honey. He fell and hit his head on the stone wall. That’s why I called 911 a few minutes ago. To have someone come help him.
Daughter: Why did he fall?
Me: I’m not sure. He looked very weak and tired when I drove by him on the way to pick you up from school. And he couldn’t stand up. And then he fell. I tried talking to him but he couldn’t really talk. And he was all bloody. So I called the ambulance ’cause I had to get to your school.
Daughter: Why was he so tired?
Me: I don’t know. He might have just been tired but he also might have drank too much and got dizzy. When someone drinks too much they call that being drunk. And when someone is drunk they can’t really walk or talk too well sometimes.
Daughter: Like lady Gaga?
Me: Ha ha. What do you mean?
Daughter: Madison at school says that Lady Gaga drinks beer and then says bad things and is a bad person.
Me: Well I don’t know what Lady Gaga does but some of her songs are fun but maybe some are not for kids. We like that one song bad romance right? And if she said or did a bad thing, I don’t think it makes her a bad person. I think sometimes everybody does bad things. Sometimes you say things and are mean. Right? Sometimes daddy says those adult words or I don’t always act right. But like if you drink too much…OK, like sometimes when people drink too much.. they get drunk and it’s harder to control those things. Sometimes it’s like people change and they can’t control how they act and like they can hurt themselves like that homeless guy. And sometimes it’s really bad and people change and they can hurt others.
Daughter: Like the incredible Hulk show?? Like the hulk? He just changes?
Me: Yeah! Exactly.
Daughter: A lot of people think the Hulk’s mean but he’s not but like he is when he’s green and sometimes he destroys and wrecks stuff and then he turns back to regular.
Me: Yeah. I like the hulk though. Even though he destroys stuff I keep wanting him to get help.
Daughter: Me too. I like him way better than Spiderman. Even though I wish I could be spiderman except called spider girl but they don’t make a spiderman costume for girls like in my size.
Me: I like ‘em both. We should go to the comic book store and buy one of each comic.
Daughter: Yeah. And we can read them tonight for the bedtime story.
Me: OK.

Today the air and sun grab
their charcoals and demand we sit
still to be their subject.

That they may draw
everything for us
with precision.
That we
may see
dead
leaves
shaking their fists
at their tree as they fall.

That we may do likewise.

-John Morello 11-26-11

Today I was reminded of a poem I read some years ago and have never been able to get out of my head.
So here you go.

Skunk Cabbage

A rattle of winter-stiff grass in the bog
and in the sheep shed
a ewe, mother-mumbling deep in the throat
two lambs still orange with birth.

The ewe is busy licking the larger, butting her
toward a teat, paying no attention to the runt
in a corner, giving up.

It’s all quite peaceful, this dying. Everyone
wants it. Already the ewe is digging a grave
as she licks and butts,
is scratching a trough in which to nudge what
didn’t work out.

I rub the runt angrily. He has no right.
I work his legs, force his mouth against a teat,
knead his neck to start the swallowing,

and force the milk. Too fast. He chokes,
eyes bulged,
and from the nose, small bubbles, unbroken.
It’s an act, I tell the legs to kick, the eyes
to look lively. They don’t,
they mean it.

Digging a grave at the edge of the bog,
the muck in love with my shovel, sucking it in,
down I go. This death is all there is.

And from below,
from the roots of skunk cabbage
(that yellow-spotted purple thrust to come)
a sharp sour scent muscles up, says
Live God damn you, live.

-Rennie McQuilkin
From the collection “We All Fall Down”
Swallow’s Tale Press
©1987, Rennie McQuilken

“Do not worry about not smiling. I hardly ever smile. But that does not mean I am not smiling in my brain”

Max from the movie “Mary and Max.”

http://rockyhill.patch.com/articles/one-man-show-teaches-students-about-drinking#photo-8242252

Comedian and writer John Morello brought his one-man show “Dirt” to ?Rocky Hill High School Wednesday morning to show students how to avoid the dangers of alcohol and drugs without giving them a lecture.

About seven or eight years ago, Morello started his “Dirt” show as a side project. At the time, Morello was doing stand-up comedy.

After performing the show in a theatre in New York, a teacher in the crowd asked him to perform his routine at a high school. Though he was nervous, Morello agreed and it blossomed from there.

“I started working with kids,” he said. “I wanted to make young people feel less alone.”

He now does more than 100 shows a year, mostly in the Northeast.

Morello, who has more than 15 years of stage experience, does not preach to the students, but uses comedy to get a message across to them.

“I am gonna tell you a story through characters,” Morello tells the students.

One of Morello’s characters is a depressed high school girl who has a bad night with drinking and is raped by an upperclassman. Morello also plays Jason, the town “stoner,” and David, a student who has isolated himself from his family because of prescription drugs. The final character is an old man named Hank who has to deal with his grandson’s addiction to drugs.

The school assembly, which was hosted by the Rocky Hill Coalition, tackled topics like underage drinking, drug addiction, peer pressure and the portrayal of drugs and alcohol by television and the Internet.

“He does not come here to lecture to you,” said Rocky Hill High School Principal Mario Almeida. “You are going to laugh your butt off.”

Morello has been hit hard by tragedy. About 12 years ago, he lost one brother in a drunk-driving accident. Shortly after his brother’s death, his other brother started using drugs and eventually became addicted to heroin.

Morello said he always thought there was a certain type of person who became addicted to drugs.

“I didn’t know it would be the kid who slept in the bunk bed above me.”

In 2003, his brother died of a drug overdose.

Rocky Hill Coalition Advisor Lori Stanczyc said the show is a “not-so-in-the-face” approach to talking about drugs and alcohol.

“I think the kids appreciate that,” she said.

Hi everyone.
As you know I am not much of a “joiner” type and I don’t think I have ever asked for a donation to a cause but I am asking you to consider supporting me and some friends as we join the “Out Of The Darkness” walk this Saturday in Boston. It is a walk to raise awareness of suicide and to also raise funding in the study of suicide prevention. Its a worthwhile cause and they are efficient with their donations. Please consider donating by using the link below.
Thanks,
John

“he came to my school today ! and one girl stood up at the endd of it withh tears pouring down her face and said “thank you soo much !”

I was messing around with Garage Band on my Macbook this morning and I decided to record a piece I wrote a while back titled “BB Gun.”
This is a one take “demo” recording and a rough draft. Complete with dog whine and bark in background toward the end. But it’s always fun to let others into the process.

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