'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Minnesota Fringe Festival '05
By Baron Dave Romm
Please forgive the site specific column today. Most of you won't be able to make it to Minneapolis for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Your loss. Still, many of these performances travel the circuit and might appear somewhere near you. I wish to encourage experimental theater and conceptual art. And besides, I've been going to too many live events to listen to CDs.
As of this writing, I've beaten my old record and have seen eight Fringe shows... and it's only the middle of the fourth day of the eleven day festival. What follows are my reviews of the eight I've seen so far that have been posted on the Fringe Festival site . I'm a tough reviewer, and have yet to give anything the highest, five star, rating. Also listen to the two most recent Shockwave Radio shows (link below) for interviews with performers. At some point, I'll put up the iPod interviews I did with various people, but they're not ready yet.
Kung Fu Hamlet, four and a half stars
"Dubbed Into English": Returning to the Fringe, Kung Fu Hamlet feels like
professional martial artists getting revenge on 11trh Grade English
class. The show a combination of choreographed fight scenes, broad
acting, offstage vocal work and Shakespeare... and a little of a lot
of things. Allen Wong, in the title role, knows his movies and the
cast uses a variety of fighting styles to great effect. Whether you
know the original play is unimportant as they flit from scene to
scene, fight to fight, visual joke to visual joke. The Illusion
Theater is a good venue for this production.
Pentecostal Wisconsin, four and a half stars
"Growing Up Pentecostal": Ryan
Paulson tells his life story growing up in a Scandinavian
Pentecostal town with wit, humor, sharp observation and even respect
for many of the church-centered town of his youth. His family and
friends are not spared, but we know them more, and even understand
them a little. We also understand Ryan and the choices he makes. The
one-man show features guitar playing (and a sing-along) to illuminate
his journey. The well-written and well-acted monologue gets laughs
from (but rarely at the expense of) the people around him and the G_d
who doesn't talk to him. A highly enjoyable hour.
The Princeton Seventh, four and a half stars
"A Play In Two Acts": The Princeton Seventh is very funny at times,
but isn't really a comedy at heart. It's a cleverly constructed
story of writers and poets, fame and lost opportunity; great writing,
great acting. The hour-and-a-half play is in a restaurant, so you
can order food and drinks!
The Scrimshaw Show, four and a half stars
"Wildly funny and ribald": The Scrimshaw Brothers get to display
their individual talents in this cabaret-style show. The routines are
hilarious, and the interstitial video bits are great. It's an
hour-and-a-half of politics, news and blue humor. The improv/audience
question segments are more hit-and-miss, as these things tend to be,
but they keep the guffaws coming. The guests (which change every
show) were good. Not for kids, but for most anyone who appreciates a
ribald belly laugh.
Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban, four stars (but I should
have given is another half star)
"Funky Tone Poem": There is no fourth wall in this funky tone poem.
The actors scamper in and
out of the theater-in-the-round, scattering potatoes and optimism in
the face of death. The story is both tragic and funny, the acting is
sharp and the music/special effects amplify the surrealism. The
performance runs a bit more than an hour, but this is the kind of
show that the Fringe does best: Experimental, participatory, gritty,
emotional.
Boob Toob, three stars
"Beware Simulated Reality!": Boob Toob is an ambitious project that
doesn't quite gel. Claire Simonson's one-woman, live-camera
multi-media show tries very hard and sometimes succeeds. The show
starts off with the Nazi plan to use television to spread their
propaganda to the world, and then she really gets mad. TV broadcasts
'simulacra' and not reality, and her far-reaching history and
personal anecdotes illustrate her point. But it's all been said
before, and she offers no solution save smashing the set. The
production I saw had numerous technical problems, which didn't help.
Still, any production that tells the story of Philo T. Farnsworth
can't be all bad and watching Claire change from one simulacra to
another is fun.
L'an: Four Jewish Characters In Search of Israel's Future,
two and a half stars
"Issues discussed but not argued": I didn't get mad, not once in the
entire hour. That's unheard of in a discussion of Israel and the
Palestinians. The issues are laid out very broadly, and serve as a
good introduction if don't know much about any of the Jewish sides
(and you probably don't unless you're Jewish). But despite the
contentiousness of the characters in the play, I never felt like
there was a real knock-down Talmudic argument. Okay as part of The
Spiritual Fringe, but the lines could be drawn a great deal
sharper.
Chicks In Space, two stars
"A Utopian Ideal That Misses": I wanted to like this show, I really
did. It's a spoof of many science fiction themes and I usually like
that sort of thing. But this show misses the mark. It's not very
funny (though there are a few laughs scattered along the way) and the
allegory is heavy handed (except when it doesn't work). To be fair,
the production I saw was beset by technical problems and the feminist
I was with liked it considerably more. The costumes and sets are good
and the acting is fine. On The Muppet Show, the Pigs In Space segment
is around three minutes and then ends before the laughs go dry.
Chicks In Space had about three minutes of great material stretched
into an hour.
Next week, I'll report on the other shows I've seen, and maybe other stuff too.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a Live Journal demi-blog, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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A Question
from Bruce
Have you heard that Jenna Bush has decided to join the military and
volunteer to fight in Iraq? No? I haven't, either.
Thanks, Bruce!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Sarah Klein: Paradise Regained (metrotimes.com)
Detroit's legends of burlesque reminisce
Sarah Klein: Vamp camp (metrotimes.com)
The Exotic World Burlesque Museum is a sparkling journey through past and present, for women of all ages, shapes and sizes. A dusty former goat ranch located in the middle of the desert in Helendale, Calif., just off Route 66, it was the former home of stripper Jennie Lee.
Mark Crispin Miller: Excerpt: None Dare Call It Stolen
... on Election Day, twenty-six state exit polls incorrectly predicted wins for Kerry, a statistical failure so colossal and unprecedented that the odds against its happening, according to a report last May by the National Election Data Archive Project, were 16.5 million to 1.
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman: Did the GOP steal another Ohio Election? (freepress.org)
The Republican Party has -- barely -- snatched another election in Ohio. And once again there are telltale symptoms of the kind of vote theft that put George W. Bush in the White House in 2000 and then kept him there in 2004.
This time an outspoken Iraqi War vet named Paul Hackett ...
Norman Solomon: The Incredible Blight of TV Punditry (AlterNet)
Robert Novak's outburst on CNN this week is one more sign of the decline of television journalism.
Stolen Elections: Articles (freepress.org)
Purple Gene Reviews
'Osama'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot, sunny day.
The kid wanted spaghetti for supper all week & I'd been putting it off.
Ran out of charcoal today, so he finally got his wish.
Honours Artists
Jamaica
An artist who designed several album covers for late reggae star Bob Marley was among a group recognized by Jamaica's government in a ceremony marking the island's independence anniversary.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson presented Neville Garrick with his Award for Excellence on Saturday night, in honour of his contribution to Jamaican music.
The well-known Jamaican producing team Sly and Robbie, Barbadian saxophonist Arturo Tappin, concert pianist Orret Rhoden and the roots-reggae group Culture also received excellence awards during celebrations to observe Jamaica's 43rd year of independence from Britain.
Sly and Robbie later performed a version of the Marley song War accompanied by Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who recorded an album of reggae covers in Jamaica earlier this year.
Jamaica
Thousands of thespians, comedians, musicians and even mimes descended on the Scottish capital Sunday for the opening of the Edinburgh Fringe - the world's largest arts festival, and arguably the most democratic.
At the Fringe, anyone can register, pay a fee, find a venue and put on a show. That means a raucously diverse program whose 1,800 shows encompass college revues, up-and-coming bands, star comedians and avant-garde theater.
Where else could a U.S. high school production of "Footloose" share a program with a rap version of "The Canterbury Tales" and a musical about a presidential assassin?
This year, many of the performers have war, terrorism and politics on their minds.
"This year is, by common consent, the most political Fringe for a long time," said the festival's director, Paul Gudgin. "It's not just theater. It's the comedians, dance, musical theater - we've got musicals about the war on terror."
Edinburgh Fringe
Shot Trying for Britney Photo
Photographer
A photographer was shot in the leg with a BB gun outside a home where he believed Britney Spears was attending a bridal shower Saturday evening, authorities said.
It was unclear who fired the BB as the photographer was staking out the event at the Malibu home, sheriff's Lt. Steve Smith said. He said firefighters bandaged the man's leg and he went to a hospital.
The photographer, identified as Brad Diaz, was about 200 yards from the home outside the home's long driveway when he was hit, Smith said. He was one of about 10 photographers standing in the street.
Photographer
Camcorder-Piracy Crackdown
Curtis Salisbury
A Missouri man is the first to be indicted under a new federal law that prohibits people from secretly videotaping movies when they are shown in theaters, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
Curtis Salisbury, 19, used a camcorder to make copies of recent releases "The Perfect Man" and "Bewitched" and then distributed them through illicit computer networks that specialize in piracy, the Justice Department said.
Salisbury, who faces up to 17 years in prison, could not be reached for comment.
Curtis Salisbury
Fighting to Preserve Women's Rights
Iraq
The yellowing photo shows a woman in a knee-length, sleeveless dress. Her short hair blows in the breeze. She wears glamorous dark glasses against the summer glare.
The time is the early 1960s. She could be in John F. Kennedy's America, but she's in Iraq, at a time when it was ruled by one in a string of military strongmen.
Today, few Iraqi women would dare to wear such an outfit. Most cover their arms to the wrist. Only wisps of hair stray from their head scarves. Skirts are often nearly ankle-length.
Jinan Mubarak looked down at the photograph and shook her head.
"I can't wear what my mother was wearing at that time. It's really sad," she said. "Women had better conditions then. Now, they are challenged every day."
Iraq
Environmental Damage Seen From Shuttle
Eileen Collins
Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."
Eileen Collins
Who Never Was
'Princess'
After years of lying in cold storage, the mummified body of a young woman once thought to be an ancient Persian princess will be buried later this month by a Pakistani welfare group.
Found in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta in 2000, the body was at the center of an archaeological and diplomatic dispute for two years before scientists at Pakistan's Atomic Research Council pronounced it just 20 years old.
Iran swiftly withdrew claims on the mummy that some people believed had been stolen by grave robbers from burial grounds of the Sasani dynasty, which ruled ancient Persia between the Fourth and Eighth Centuries.
'Princess'
Grandfather Of Samba
Jongo
In the old slave quarters of a colonial coffee plantation, conga drums echo in the night air. A couple in white whirl and glide across an earthen clearing as villagers sing of sharecroppers, coffee planters and slaves long dead.
The dancers pause, and applause thunders through the village. Lights from a TV camera crew illuminate hundreds of Brazilians gathered at the Sao Jose plantation for a colonial-era celebration that once seemed all but extinct.
It's jongo (pronounced ZHON-go) - part dance and part spirit religion ritual, a legacy of the African slaves who worked in the coffee fields near this city 135 kilometres northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
For a lot more, Jongo
In Memory
Ibrahim Ferrer
Ibrahim Ferrer, a leading voice with the hugely popular Buena Vista Social Club of vintage Cuban performers, died Saturday, his representative in Cuba said. He was 78.
Known for his trademark cap and graying mustache, Ferrer was a wiry, animated figure who clearly enjoyed performing Cuba's traditional "son" music of the 1940s and 1950s for new generations of fans.
Among a group of older Cuban performers recruited by U.S. musician Ry Cooder, Ferrer performed on the "Buena Vista Social Club album" that won a Grammy in 1999, and was among those appearing in the film of the same name.
Originally from Cuba's eastern city of Santiago, Ferrer was born on Feb. 20, 1927, during a dance at a social club after his mother unexpectedly went into labor.
Ferrer was still a boy when he began singing professionally with Santiago groups in 1941. By the late 1950s, he was a well-known singer performing regularly with the late, great bandleader Pacho Alonso.
Ibrahim Ferrer
In Memory
Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings, the suave, Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, died Sunday. He was 67. Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, died at his New York home, ABC News President David Westin said late Sunday.
Broadcasting was the family business for Jennings. His father, Charles Jennings, was the first person to anchor a nightly national news program in Canada and later became head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s news division. A picture of his father was displayed prominently in Jennings' office off ABC's newsroom.
Charles Jennings' son had a Saturday morning radio show in Ottawa at age 9. Jennings never completed high school or college, and began his career as a news reporter at a radio station in Brockton, Ontario. He quickly earned an anchor job at Canadian Television.
Sent south to cover the Democratic national convention in 1964, the handsome, dashing correspondent was noticed by ABC's news president. Jennings was offered a reporting job and left Canada for New York.
As the third-place news network, ABC figured its only chance was to go after young viewers. Jennings was picked to anchor the evening news and debuted on Feb. 1, 1965. He was 26.
Critics savaged him as a pretty face unfit for the promotion. Using the Canadian pronunciations for some words and once misidentifying the Marine Corps' anthem as "Anchors Aweigh" didn't help his reputation. The experiment ended three years later.
Assigned as a foreign correspondent, Jennings thrived. He established an ABC News bureau in Beirut, and became an expert on the Middle East. He won a Peabody Award for a 1974 profile of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Jennings returned to the evening news a decade after his unceremonious departure. In 1978, ABC renamed its broadcast "World News Tonight," and instituted a three-person anchor team: Frank Reynolds based in Washington, Max Robinson from Chicago and Jennings, by then ABC's chief foreign correspondent, from London.
Peter Jennings
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