It’s me! At least according to the Austin Chronicle. A couple of weeks ago reporter Wayne Alan Brenner came to play Maestro with a bunch of us improvisers and wrote up this article about it.
He writes:

And what I gained that evening, if not the title of Maestro – won, that evening, by the charming and stupendously talented Shana Merlin – was a newfound respect for my fellow combatants, for the very act of improv itself.

For the full article, click here:Austin Chronicle Maestro Review

On a Brenner note, I went to the Dionysium this Tuesday and Brenner gave a fascinating lecture about maps and cartography. It was about how maps are only for non-locals–people unfamiliar with the territory, and made some parallels to the patriot act and the government’s interest in knowing everything about its citizens.

I really love the Dionysium. It’s an old fashioned forum of ideas. The kind of stuff you miss when you’re out of college. Lectures, debates, speeches. I don’t think I’ll ever forget a Halloween themed lecture on prions and mad cow disease.