My longtime theatrical collaborator, David Dower, is far away, in Washington, D.C. So as we collaborate on our new piece, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?, we are experimenting with communicating via Twitter (among other methods, like the old-fashioned telephone call).
If, for some reason, you’d like to join us on our continuing journey (which, admittedly, will sometimes seem obscure or confusing, as you will be joining us a dozen years into our overall conversation), you can go on Twitter and “follow” warholjew (that’s me) and WarholDir (David). And if you feel moved to offer a reply, or argument, or question, you can send out a Twitter tweet with “@warholjew” (but not the quote marks) embedded in your message — such as:
@warholjew You call yourself a Jew?
Or:
@warholjew, I knew Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol was a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no Warhol Jew!
That way, I will be sure to see your tweet. (Add “@WarholDir” as well, and David will see it too.)
Also, as with all Twitter streams, you have to read from bottom to top — i.e., in chronological order. And to take in the whole conversation, you’ll have to hit “More” a few times, to get to the beginning — which is to say, bottom. (Do Twitter streams in Hebrew start at the top, I wonder?)
My hope is that this can be another way for me to improvise within a community — an extension of my live improvs at theaters — and to get more of the feedback that I find so invaluable. My fear is that none of this will be of any interest to anyone, and that I am pissing (my Twitter stream) into the wind.
But I have to say that, so far, it’s been really helpful — exciting even — to be able to jump out of the shower, jot down a bunch of 140-character-max ideas as warholjew, and then — not long after — find a series of David’s brilliant responses waiting for me the next time I check. And I’m curious to see whether this can become a community thing as well, with your input.
At the same time, by the way, I continue to maintain my ordinary, ecumenical Twitter and Facebook identities. Oh, and I also still exist in the physical world — though in a much less organized way.
Josh, I have been following your “regular” tweets for some time now, and I can’t wait to become part of your new community experiment. Someday, I even hope to see you in person again! And yes, I’m David’s Mom. BTW, his sister follows yours tweets, also.
Wow, so great to hear from you, Sandra! I didn’t realize I had so much Dower Power behind me!