Austin Improv

I am going to try and go to this on Saturday. It says to invite a friend, so that is what I am doing. I hope some of you will try to to to one of these.
I am friends with Cesar Alvarado. He is a great guy with lots of good information.

A Call to Men-Austin

A Grassroots Group Shifting Social Norms that Define Manhood in Austin
FREE Gathering
It is time for “well-meaning menâ€

Re: Ted and all of his efforts to stem violence against women

Me thinks thou doth protest too much

What are you hiding?

Women should talk to their husbands in fear - 1Peter 3:17
To slap (shlap) a woman...if she's a bitch...is not the cruelest thing you can do to her - Sean Connery

Gasp! The Bible and Sean Connery are wrong?!!!

Please don't let anybody take this seriously...

mpbrockman wrote:Please don't let anybody take this seriously...

I meant, of course, my post - not improvstitute's seminar...

York99 wrote:Re: Ted and all of his efforts to stem violence against women

Me thinks thou doth protest too much

What are you hiding?

Me thinks it is my career. I work at SafePlace. That is my job and what I believe in. Besides...most others won't speak up or try to do anything to prevent violence against women. If I don't do it...who will? Most men are what we in the business call bystanders. Standing by and doing nothing is giving abusers permission to batter and rape.

Also, to be blount, my wife is a rape survivor. It is something I feel very strongly about.

Can I count on you being there, Justin?

I didn't know you worked at Safeplace.

When'd you stop teaching?

kbadr wrote:I didn't know you worked at Safeplace.

When'd you stop teaching?

I stopped teaching in January. I actually have worked with SafePlace for about 3 years (mostly summers) with their youth theatre company (thanks to Shana ). They offered me a full time job as a Boys Group Counselor in August, but it paid about 14k less than my teaching job. I just couldn't do it (but I strongly considered it). In December, they offered me a position as the Choose Respect Project Director. Choose Respect is a teen dating abuse prevention initiative sponsored by the CDC. My job is to implement and market the initiative locally and evaluate it's effectiveness. So far, I have primarily been working in schools, but the community piece is coming. I am the only CR Project Director in the whole world (pretty sweet). What I do here locally will be replicated all over the country (via the CDC) in the coming months and years. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to have such a huge impact.

This was probably more than you wanted to know, but I there you go. I get carried away when I am passionate about something.

ted is my new hero.

improvstitute wrote:

York99 wrote:Re: Ted and all of his efforts to stem violence against women

Me thinks thou doth protest too much

What are you hiding?

Me thinks it is my career. I work at SafePlace. That is my job and what I believe in. Besides...most others won't speak up or try to do anything to prevent violence against women. If I don't do it...who will? Most men are what we in the business call bystanders. Standing by and doing nothing is giving abusers permission to batter and rape.

Also, to be blount, my wife is a rape survivor. It is something I feel very strongly about.

Can I count on you being there, Justin?

Well said, Ted.

Good on ya Ted. Thanks for putting it so beautifully.

shando wrote:Well said, Ted.

Oh, fine. I mock meaningless improv memes and get called holier-than-thou. Ted teaches children, helps battered women, and tries to prevent rape and suddenly it's OK to be holy. This community has a clear double standard.

Also, Well Said Ted would be a good band name.

I've only run into a battered woman situation once (that I was aware of). And indeed the man and I "had words." Woman wouldn't leave him, though. Tough times, that.

Keep fighting the good fight.

I salute you, Ted. Thank you for doing this important work.

improvstitute wrote:

York99 wrote:Re: Ted and all of his efforts to stem violence against women

Me thinks thou doth protest too much

What are you hiding?

Me thinks it is my career. I work at SafePlace. That is my job and what I believe in. Besides...most others won't speak up or try to do anything to prevent violence against women. If I don't do it...who will? Most men are what we in the business call bystanders. Standing by and doing nothing is giving abusers permission to batter and rape.

Also, to be blount, my wife is a rape survivor. It is something I feel very strongly about.

Can I count on you being there, Justin?

I figured you worked in the field or something. I was obviously just messing around. Sorry if I hit a sore spot with jokes.

Also, I'm in Phoenix right now, so I won't be able to make it.

Best of luck.

Thanks for all of the support. I really appreciate it. I will keep doing the good work!

Justin - no need to apologize. I knew you were joking. I just used that as an opportunity to keep it from turning into a long string of jokes. I didn't want people to miss the purpose of the original post.

The session was great (but poorly attended). We talked about what we can do as men to get more involved. It was a great discussion. Very insightful. Cesar is a very laid back cat. I really like his style...relaxed and informal. There is no fingerpointing and nobody was wearing a beret. It was just a cool conversation with lots of feeling and purpose.

If any of you can make it Tuesday night, it would be great...women included. They were very open to having women there (sorry I wasn't clear on that before this morning). I can't make it Tuesday b/c I am shooting my Unnecessary Sequels trailer that night.

If any of you want to have a discussion about things you can do (even little things), I'd be happy to be a part of that. Anything you can do is better than nothing.