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November 19th, 2009
05:05 pm - Questions from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sabotabby, Church of Bolding edition
Leave me a comment saying "Fuck off, lady!"
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
1. Most overrated playwright?
Oh MAN, I'm not sure I can really get into the local scene without risking wrath or hurt feelings (and also being irrelevant to anyone not in Edmonton), so I'll go all-time here:
Henrik Fucking Ibsen. Hands down. That motherfucker's been pulling the wool for 150 years. His plays are kinda impressive and elegant in their structure, especially considering the competition at the time, but they are fucking lifeless and simplistic, and...oh, just shut up Henrik Ibsen!
2. In the musical of your life, what song would be your big flourish?
Like from another musical? Probably either The Road You Didn't Take from Follies (I am shooting blind with this link as there's no sound at work, but it looks to be from a legit production), or Finishing the Hat from Sunday in the Park With George (couldn't find a good video of it). Something by Sondheim, for sure.
3. What skill or talent do you wish you had?
Sight-reading music.
4. What do you secretly love about hipsters?
Oh, I do actually admire much of their taste in pop culture, and happen to enjoy many of the same things myself. In terms of taste I'm actually very hipster to a degree (for the moment), minus the fashion sense or lack thereof, or different lack thereof. What sort of infuriates me about that scene is the conscious, self-aware and almost proud shallowness, and the over-reliance on smirky irony. I like snark and irony as much as the next guy, but goddamn, kids, it's a spice, not the whole dish! And the ironic blue collar posturing kinda makes me wanna break fingers too.
5. Describe your ideal piece of utterly pretentious performance art.
Morgan and I already cooked this up. It's called Brace Yourself for...DAVE! My friend Dave comes out onstage, flanked by two very muscular thugs and just starts ranting about whatever. Periodically, and with increasing frequency, he starts ejecting audience members from the theatre, aided if necessary by the muscular men. Once there are several ejected audience members in the lobby, two of them (who happen to be plants) start bitching that he always does this, and start telling stories of Dave's legendary cruelty. As more and more audience members are ejected, the rancour grows, and one of the plants complains to the theatre owner or AD that Dave is kicking people out again. The owner flips out "not again!", and marches in to chastise Dave for ruining the show. By now there is probably no audience left in the theatre, so everyone watches as best they can from the doors of the theatre as Dave gets into an altercation with the owner, eventually overpowering them and punching them out. he then sics the muscle men on the witnesses in the doorway. At the plants' urging everyone clears out of the door, and scatters to hide, as Dave roars with power in the empty theatre. Just as it seems the muscle men are going to burst out of the theatre into the lobby, instead the sound of a full house giving a standing ovation erupts from the empty theatre for a full two minutes. Any souls brave enough to stick their head through the door will see that the theatre is completely empty, devoid now even of Dave or the muscle men. Curious.
And that, my friends, is Brace Yourself for...DAVE!
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August 22nd, 2009
09:46 pm - Yeeee-HUH?
Oh my fucking god everyone, this is the best thing the Onion AV Club has brought to my attention:
Stick around til 1:18, you won`t regret it.
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July 26th, 2009
July 8th, 2009
04:07 pm - Musical Theatre Dorkitude!
Watched the film version of West Side Story the other day. By "watched" of course, I mean "skipped from one dance sequence to the next". Cause...while it was very edgy at the time, it has not aged well. The cornball slang, daddy-o. The kinda facile social commentary. Et cetera. There's an interesting scene or two every act, there was actually a lot of sharp writing going on. It just, like I said, hasn't aged well. Even the usually reliable Stephen Sondheim, doing just the lyrics on this one, hadn't fully found his voice yet.
But two things are still well worth taking in: The weirdly ballsy epic dance setpieces, and Leonard Bernstein's fuckin aces score. This is not full-out jazz dancing. This is Jerome Robbins lifting jazzy social dance of the time and cool/tough kid swagger and filtering it through ballet. The stylization takes some getting used to; the famous finger-snapping, these tough New York gang types (daddy-o) busting pirouettes, etc. But if you can acclimate to it (and not everyone can), god DAMN there's some fine dancing going on.
I submit for your approval my favourite squence, Cool. The lyrics are not for the Sondheim time capsule, that's for sure. But check out the tense, claustrophobic choreography. What I really appreciate about much of the dancing in WSS is that it was conceived FOR the camera. The camera is a part of the dance. Check out the way framing and perspective and editing add so much to the rhythm of the choreography. And that panicky, cascading music, and the subterranean car-park setting, and it all just swirls it into a fever dream made of awesome. yeah things get corny occasionally (POOOOW!), but whatever. It's fucking glorious!
DADDY-O!
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July 6th, 2009
01:40 pm - Pleasant surprise
Readin The Black Daliah by James Ellroy. This is my first exposure, outside of film, to Ellroy, and I was a little wary. One of my favourite movies is based on a book of his (LA Confidential). Pulpy stories often play better as movies than they do as prose, and Ellroy's kind of gleefully ridiculous public persona made me wonder.
But you know I got two paragraphs in, and the rhythm just carried me along. I'm at about page 7 now and I'm not worried. This guy, he knows how to make the words dance.
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June 15th, 2009
01:59 am - NYC so far
Taxi to Edmonton International at 430am for 7am flight. Largely uneventful flight to NYC, 7 HOURS later (returning will be like TEN...ugh...). Taxi ride to Brooklyn. Brooklyn's pretty cool. Humidity will never be cool. Having fun dorking out theatre style with queencallipygos. Good food so far.
Shows seen:
Your Lithopedian or something like that, a play queenc was reviewing and had an extra ticket for. The actors were very good and funny as hell, but the script and direction were pretty terrible. I was never bored or anything, but...
Avenue Q: Very funny. Great premise with a great followthrough. It's not a lifechanging show or anything, but it does what it does very well. It totally earns its hit status.
Our Town: This is one of my favourite plays, and this was an astounding production of it. Very large cast, very simple staging, very underplayed. This show is all about simplicity and honesty in its performin style, and the cumulative effect. Extremely well-handled. Very moving. I hope this grows legs.
At Our Town, I tipped the coat check guy, and he immediately called me back to show me the 20 I'd dropped in his tip jar. I KNEW it would happen. I was never aware til now how dependent I was on the color of Canadian money to identify it. American money seems to be different colours too, but it's kinda all varying shades of pale green, so...
So far, fun times!
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June 12th, 2009
June 9th, 2009
11:52 pm - I never went to my HS grad, but I bet it wasn't like this
One of my favourite comedians giving a commencement speech at his old high school.
Highlight: "You can vote, start a family, go to war or have a beer. Just kidding. You're only mature enough to shoot our enemies in the face."
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June 1st, 2009
May 25th, 2009
08:30 pm - Drunk History
This is oldish, news but new to me, and this will not be up everyone's comedy alley. But I've been getting a kick out of Drunk History. Basically the filmmakers get a buddy of theirs wasted and then get them to talk about an historical event, which is then reenacted in the style of the History Channel, with the drunken rant as the voiceover, and the actors lip-syncing all the sometimes confusing dialogue. It's pretty funny, but if you're at all squicked by drunk people, it's probably not for you. Also, in one or two of them (mostly the Ben Franklin ones), there's a bit of barfing, though not in the example below:
Like I said, not everyone's thing, but I thought it was funny!
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May 23rd, 2009
08:35 am - TV GLEE PARTY!
So a few weeks ago, I excitedly posted the trailer for the new Fox series Glee, raving that it seemed to have a lot of potential. Finally got to see the pilot yesterday. Or...my understanding is it's more a first episode than a pilot, that there are definitely at least half a season worth of episodes scheduled. They aired it a few days ago and are going to let buzz build over the summer (or, alternately...fizzle out, I guess). And, yeah, it's still hovering in the potential area. I like to imagine that this gives them time to retool before going to shooting. Cause...while I largely enjoyed myself, it could use a bit of tinkering.
( Cut for spoilery stuff. )
I've also been turned onto a great, brutal little comedy series, Party Down, that runs on the Starz cable network in the US, about a loser catering company in Los Angeles and all the hopeful or not-so-hopeful losers who staff it.
( Cut, basically for long. )
I'd also just like to say I'm happy that Dollhouse got renewed. I'm not 100% sold on the show yet, but it definitely gets the ribbon for Most Improved, and Joss Whedon pretty much has endless goodwill from me. Plus, season two is always where his shows really take off hard. Makes you wonder what we missed with Firely, huh? But over and above more Whedon on TV, I'm taking it as a good sign that Fox is starting to look at paradigms other than the Neilsen ratings as an indicator of a show's success or potential. They're thinking about DVD sales and online viewing numbers and playing a longer game. Dollhouse has another 13 episodes to prove itself, and it looks like Fox is content to stay out of it this time, aside from a drastically reduced budget, which will probably shake up the format. But hell if anyone can write around a drastically reduced budget, it's Whedon & co., who did Buffy on a relative shoestring for years. Here's hoping the gamble pays off for them and Fox realizes - and then the other networks - that taking risks does pay off if you do it right.
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May 16th, 2009
11:18 am - RELIEF
Just had a phone chat with the director of my New York reading...always a nerve wracking experience, talking about your script with a director you haven't worked with before, so much room for misinterpretation, some directors have a weird idea about what their job is, plus a lot of them are just plain bad. And I mean working, acclaimed directors. Terrible.
But my mind is officially put at ease. All of his questions were actually about the story and the characters, and they were good questions, and ones I need to think about for rewrites. He obviously had read the script well and liked it, and I just generally got the vibe that he knows how to get a show up. Plus he's got a ton of acting experience himself, always a plus with my stuff, since I tend to be thinking about the actors more than anything else when I write.
One less thing to worry about, yay!
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May 15th, 2009
11:21 pm - I hurt myself laughing.
THIS is brilliant comedic performance:
Seriously, the deadpan commitment is just astounding.
Thanks t Mr. Ron Pederson for bringing this to my attention.
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May 12th, 2009
12:49 am - okay let's try that again
see if i fixed this...cross-posting from dreamwidth
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May 8th, 2009
06:20 pm - CAT UPDATE
And now she seems totally fine. Little weirdo.
We'll still be keepin an eye on her though.
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10:43 am - Our Poor Kitty
Pigeon the Cat, the cutest little thing, is actin' all funny, and it's got Morgan and I a little worried. Cat people, any thoughts?
The situation: I came home last night to discover that she had not eaten all her food. Most of it, but there was still 1/3 or 1/4 left. Very unusual for her, usually it's gone within 10 or 15 minutes of being put out. She also seemed to be really low energy. Her purr seemed weak, and she did all the same Pigeon-stuff, but just sort of half-assed. No tear-assing around the place jumping on things and constant chatter, which is her usual MO after someone gets home. I tossed her some of the dental kibble we give her as treats, and she seemed interested in them and chased after them, but once she got to them, she'd either half-heartedly chew them for a second and then spit them out, or else just stare at them. This is highly unusual; Pigeon is ALWAYS down for eating.
I looked around the house for poop or kitty-barf in weird places, made sure the litter box was clean (all things being relative), etc. All seemed normal. Except mopey, non-eating Pigeon.
This morning, she was still herself, friendly, seemingly eager to be fed, but after an hour and a bit, apparently she'd only eaten about half her food... She's still friendly, and seems lucid and all, just low energy and not eating.
The vet says she could just be low energy because she's not eating her normal amount, and as long as she is eating something, we should just keep an eye on her until she can get in there on Tuesday, but if she stops eating completely before that we should take her to the emergency vet (duh). She also said it could be psychological, but she does seem to be normal other than being low-energy.
It's really frustrating.
Anyone had this, have any ideas?
I'm sure she'll be fine, but it is disconcerting...
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May 5th, 2009
10:45 pm - Oh Groucho...
I watched Animal Crackers at the right time in my life and this scene pretty much rewired my brain. Have never quite been the same since. I could listen to all the logical twists and turns all day. You can probably stop watching after the cops file through; the scene ends with a rather insensitive racial crack. Yeah. Problematic movie that way, certainly a product of its time. But I can't deny the long streaks of genius.
This is another scene I've always loved, where Groucho pitches a somewhat lopsided version of poly, while simultaneously making fun of Eugene O'Neill's play Strange Interlude, which was a bit of a phenomenon at the time:
Yup. That's the Groucho persona. As a certain spider might have put it: "SOME PIG!"
And seriously, hats off to Margaret Dumont and Zeppo Marx, too. They're working just as hard in this scene, with none of the glory. Being the straight man to Groucho is like riding the bronco for 15 seconds.
Sometimes I geek out on Marx Brothers. Sorry!
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09:00 pm - snazzy pic
Greedy Shakespeare is BACK, bitches! Not sure what happened, but... there ya go.
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May 4th, 2009
11:45 pm - Hey guys remember this?
A little blast from the past.
This is just hilariously uncomfortable.
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May 3rd, 2009
04:49 pm - the internet at its purest.
One of the things I love most about the internet is that in days of yore, only smartasses from North Carolina would have fallen in love with this bizarre commercial:
I fiercely hope this is real, and not som Tim & Eric-esque found-style comedy.
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