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	<title>Potluck</title>
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	<link>http://potluck.com</link>
	<description>A Smorgasbord of Systemic Succulence, Dynamic Delicacies and Miscellaneous Munchies</description>
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		<title>Songwriting for a 24-Hour Theatre Project</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2013/05/songwriting-for-a-24-hour-theatre-project/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2013/05/songwriting-for-a-24-hour-theatre-project/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 18:33:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paradigm Shift]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Songs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theatre]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1651</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Invitation In mid-March, my friend and colleague Kat Koppett asked me if I&#8217;d be involved in a pretty unique way in the 3rd Annual Capital Region / Berkshires 24-Hour Theatre Project, which premiered last night, Saturday, May 18, 2013. In this project presented by WAM Theatre and The Mop &#038; Bucket Company, a crowd of theatre artists gather in a big room on a Friday night. Five playwrights are each teamed with a director, a stage manager and a cast of from three to five actors, with everyone&#8217;s names (and the cast size for each play) selected out of hat/bowls. A &#8220;prompt&#8221; is given &#8212; a brief phrase &#8212; and the playwrights have until early the next morning to delver a new one-act play inspired somehow by the prompt. The five plays&#8217; brand new companies, along with a full complement of designers and technicians, rehearse and produce the plays throughout the next day and present them in a show that Saturday night. Two years ago, I was involved in the region&#8217;s first 24-Hour theatre project as a composer/musician, making myself available to whatever the production might need. I didn&#8217;t end up being asked to compose anything, though I did [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>You and Me and Her or Him</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2013/05/you-and-me-and-her-or-him/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2013/05/you-and-me-and-her-or-him/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 01:00:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Songs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paradigm Shift]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theatre]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1649</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This song was one of three songs written for the 3rd Annual Capital Region / Berkshires 24-Hour Theatre Project. For more information on that event and the process of writing the songs for it, see Songwriting for a 24-Hour Theatre Project. Music and lyrics: By Mark S. Meritt Lyrics Intro He: There&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve been hopin&#8217; And I hope your mind is open In the past the subject&#8217;s left you less than gleesome She: I know that our relation- ship could use some lubrication But I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m ready for&#8230; He: A threesome? Verse 1 He: It would be exciting She: But I would be so scared He: That&#8217;s the way adventure goes She: But I&#8217;m just not prepared He: It would add such color She: I like us as we are He: So much possibility She: It just might be one step too far He: It would be so novel She: But we are both so green He: It could forge a stronger bond She: Or drive a wedge between He: I believe the benefits would outweigh the occasional spat Turning two to three With you and me And her &#8211; She: &#8212; or him &#8211; He: Like [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Mad Libs with 30 Rock and Gandhi</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-30-rock-and-gandhi/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-30-rock-and-gandhi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:02:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mad Libs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motion Pictures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1630</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The other Mad Libs posts I just did this week &#8212; on Looper and The Terminator and on Frasier and Joey &#8212; reminded me about another set I did, practically on a dare. Netflix told my wife that she&#8217;d like the television series 30 Rock after the movie Gandhi had been recently watched. She wondered how they could possibly be connected. I came up with this. From a traditionally oppressed group (Indians; women), a protagonist (Mohandas K. Gandhi; Liz Lemon), whose first name references a relationship with a god (Mohandas means servant of the Hindu god Mohana; Elizabeth means oath of God) and whose last name refers to something round and bright yellow (Gandhi means sun; Lemon means lemon), uses talents for communication, writing and leadership (orator, writer of books and journals on Indian freedom, spiritual leader of the movement for a free India; former actress, author of feminist tome Dealbreakers, head writer of The Girlie Show). The protagonist joins forces with similarly oppressed allies (Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, other Hindus, etc.; African Americans such as Tracey and Toofer, Jews, other women such as Jenna, etc.), including even people who&#8217;d be looked down upon by most others from the protagonist&#8217;s own [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Mad Libs with Frasier and Joey</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-frasier-and-joey/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-frasier-and-joey/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:02:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mad Libs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motion Pictures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1628</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Playing Mad Libs with Looper and The Terminator reminded me about another astonishingly similar pair of projects. Years later, here are the Mad Libs for the television series Frasier and Joey. A hugely popular NBC Thursday night Must See TV sitcom whose title is a single word that is a plural noun (Cheers; Friends) is about a group of people in major East Coast city (Boston; New York) who enjoy each other&#8217;s social company and especially like to spend time together at a popular neighborhood spot known for its beverages (Cheers; Central Perk). One particular character (Frasier; Joey) is known especially for how his level of intelligence can be humorous for other characters and the show&#8217;s audience (hyper-intellectual; not so bright). He&#8217;s also known for a particular level of taste in food (gourmet; casual gluttony for common unhealthy foods), and what he does for a living requires him to have an understanding of people&#8217;s inner motivations (psychologist and professor of psychology; actor who must understand people&#8217;s objectives and personal psychology). At times he had different levels of romantic involvement with at least one other main character (Diane, Lilith; Rachel, Monica in a flash forward, Phoebe in a brief kiss), but [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-frasier-and-joey/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mad Libs with Looper and The Terminator</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-looper-and-the-terminator/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2012/10/mad-libs-with-looper-and-the-terminator/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:57:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mad Libs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motion Pictures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1621</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Looper is one of the best movies I&#8217;ve seen in a long time. Don&#8217;t let what follows lead you to think that I felt it unoriginal. Because it was highly original. Go see it and you&#8217;ll be richly rewarded. And yet it&#8217;s amazing how well we can play Mad Libs with this newer movie and The Terminator. Spoiler alert &#8212; stop now if you don&#8217;t want Looper spoiled for you. In the future, a group of cold-hearted violent characters (self-aware machines; criminals led by the Rainmaker) are responsible for a death campaign against another group of characters who are significantly responsible for the first set of characters being able to do what they do (people who created the machines before the machines became self-aware and saw people as a threat; Loopers who are hit men for the criminals but against whom the Rainmaker wants vengeance). The second group becomes engaged in fighting back. In that future, one side of the battle (the machines; the Loopers) discovers that the other side would not be engaged so effectively in the battle were it not for the existence of one particularly effective male leader on that other side (John Connor; the Rainmaker). Using [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>SpinTunes 5 Judging Wrap-Up</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2012/08/spintunes-5-judging-wrap-up/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2012/08/spintunes-5-judging-wrap-up/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Songs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1604</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Except for a few loose ends (like announcing the winner) that are in others&#8217; hands, SpinTunes 5 is pretty much done, at least for me as a judge. It&#8217;s been interesting, challenging and worthwhile. Thanks to Spin for inviting me. My experience judging hasn&#8217;t changed my mind about any of my previous recommendations for SpinTunes. I feel them all more strongly than ever. Now that I&#8217;ve been a judge, I&#8217;ve got some added perspectives. Here are some reasons to be a judge and advice if you do, new recommendations, and finally some regrets. To Judge Or Not To Judge Not that I think it should be mandatory, but I think any SpinTunes regulars ought to judge at some point, like putting your time in on jury duty to serve your community. There are downsides. You can&#8217;t enter songs unless you&#8217;re willing to wait until the contest is over to do only shadows. It takes time &#8212; a whole lot if you want to do a really good job. You open yourself up to criticism and can&#8217;t expect to please everyone every time, just the same as you do when you put your artistic work out into the world. Some of [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Some Thoughts To Help With the SpinTunes #5 Mini-Opera Challenge</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2012/07/some-thoughts-to-help-with-the-spintunes-5-mini-opera-challenge/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2012/07/some-thoughts-to-help-with-the-spintunes-5-mini-opera-challenge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Jul 2012 17:47:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Songs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1597</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Spin+judges didn&#8217;t get to fully talk through the mini-opera challenge before it was posted. I don&#8217;t blame anyone. We&#8217;re all busy people. But I&#8217;m concerned that the challenge post as it stands may mislead some entrants. I speak for nobody but myself, and maybe it&#8217;s not something a judge should do in this situation, but I&#8217;d rather do something now to help entrants get moving on a good track than stay silent and risk that we all end up with something less than the best possible crop of mini-operas we can get for this round. So I&#8217;d like to share some thoughts on what I believe a mini-opera is and how those thoughts will come into play at least in my own judging. I&#8217;ll give some additional examples, too. Again, I speak only for myself, and all entrants can take or leave everything I say as you wish. An opera is a dramatic work. That doesn&#8217;t means it&#8217;s &#8220;interesting or emotional&#8221; as opposed to &#8220;boring.&#8221; That means it tells a story through characters communicating and taking action. I&#8217;m looking for that kind of story. &#8220;Written in the Wind&#8221; may be from a musical and have two characters interacting with each [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://potluck.com/2012/07/some-thoughts-to-help-with-the-spintunes-5-mini-opera-challenge/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>SpinTunes 3 Wrap-Up Recommendations</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2011/08/spintunes-3-wrap-up-recommendations/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2011/08/spintunes-3-wrap-up-recommendations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:41:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Songs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=1000</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After my first SpinTunes competition last year, I posted a lot about both my experiences going through SpinTunes and my thoughts on songwriting contests in general. This year, I knew better what to expect and so didn&#8217;t have as many thoughts along the way. I probably wouldn&#8217;t even be writing this post if it weren&#8217;t for the fact that Travis Langworthy, who runs SpinTunes, asks everyone for feedback, with particular questions as well as an open door to whatever other comments we might have. The additional comments I had to share with him don&#8217;t seem particularly private or sensitive, so I figured I may as well post it here as well. Maybe it&#8217;ll even help drum up support for some of these ideas. For the most part, I&#8217;ll just end up reiterating my recommendations from last year, though with some added insight that comes from added experience. Before moving onto to the meatiest stuff, I want to just mention briefly my thoughts on eliminations and voting systems, as well as the issue of qualification vs. judging. Increasingly difficult challenges: In a competition with eliminations instead of cumulative scoring, the contest would likely be that much more rewarding to contestants and [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Lost, Found: Finally</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2011/05/lost-found-finally/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2011/05/lost-found-finally/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 15:59:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lost Found]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mythology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paradigm Shift]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philosophy and Religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology and Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Television]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=977</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If You Don&#8217;t Have Something Nice To Say&#8230; On May 23, 2010, Lost signed off with The End. Finally, the finale, after years of mystery. A few days later, one of my local libraries hosted a discussion. Someone there told of how she thought the last season&#8217;s Sideways world was real, the result of the series&#8217; characters having successfully changed history by thwarting the Oceanic plane crash that began the series and changed their lives. Then it was my turn. After I shared my take on the final episode, this other person said she could not stay. She got up and left. I hadn&#8217;t started watching the series until after the fourth season ended, catching up on the entire series-to-date in about a month. After that, I decided to blog episode by episode. With so much ground to cover once again and a fairly busy life, time wasn&#8217;t on my side, and I gave up on it indefinitely. Toward the end of the series, I wrote a few more posts and intended to write about the finale, in the service of at least getting to some of my bigger ideas. Between the finale itself and various things show-runners Damon Lindelof [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://potluck.com/2011/05/lost-found-finally/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Global Population Speak Out 2011</title>
		<link>http://potluck.com/2011/02/global-population-speak-out-2011/</link>
		<comments>http://potluck.com/2011/02/global-population-speak-out-2011/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 04:15:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark S. Meritt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://potluck.com/?p=975</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[2011 is the second consecutive year of my participation in the annual Global Population Speak Out, which strives to increase awareness of how the size and growth of Earth&#8217;s human population are fundamental drivers of the ecological crisis our planet faces. Sustainability has been a central interest of mine for my entire adult life. I wrote an award-winning masters thesis on the subject and have undertaken significant additional research on it and related subjects, from ecology and system dynamics to organizational development, psychology and more. All of this informs, both directly and indirectly, the work I&#8217;ve done over time as a writer, artist and businessperson. With proper attention to sustainability, countless other pressing issues in the world would automatically be taken care of and rendered obsolete. Without the needed attention, those other issues are merely worsened &#8212; and may become obsolete only through the extinction of the human species. A solid understanding of population dynamics is crucial to the pursuit of sustainability &#8212; and therefore to the future of people on this planet. As part of GPSO 2011, I am pledging to publicize, through updates to all my social networking accounts, the GPSO itself &#8212; Global Population Speak Out &#8212; [...]]]></description>
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