Flexible Thoughts

Pulp Shakespeare

Well, now that it's been six months, I'm spearheading a new attitude for myself, it's called: Embrace L.A.

This weekend I hit up an art faire and some small theater action, and there was something similar about both experiences that points to a larger trend. In our information-overload digital age, nothing is unique in its wholeness.

At the Beverly Hills "Affaire in the Gardens Art Show," many of the artists presented high-end canvas prints of their paintings (sometimes using fancy terms like glicee to indicate something more than a computer print). And not even in small-batch limited editions. This was a trend noticed at the Renegade Craft Faire as well. It's great that artists are finding ways to support themselves; however, it's just a nicely-inked print, then what value does this art object have long-term? These are just Pokemon cards for the hipster crowd; whereas, a brushstroke still denotes an artists labors that are an emotional and financial investment for the buyer. By turning this paradigm on its head, will artists lower their overall value by making their work cheaply ubiquitous?

As for the theater, there's a definite movement of antiquated and new. The other month, went to see the Jane Austen improv team which was hilarious and quirky. So thought I'd give some other mash-up a try and went to Pulp Shakespeare. The concept is fun; however, if you haven't seen Pulp Fiction (or haven't seen it recently) you spend the entire time trying to sort out what's happening in the movie and then carrying it to the scene. Thus, the Shakespearean language is just a device rather than being transportive to another time/place. I think this lies in the fact that the Pulp Fiction script does not lend itself to emotional portrayals. Overall, the acting was good and a special call out is deserved for the guy who played the Sam Jackson character—he was commanding and his impersonation of that character came through effectively, while still being tongue-in-cheek.

In the world of performance, this trend is fascinating because although not all of it will hit, there's always been something interesting in re-setting Shakespeare (think the Ian McKellen version of "Richard III")—how do our modern stories flesh out when seen through an antiquated lens?

 

 

Corporate Propoganda Alert

 

Phrased like a signature bill from the Republican Party, the Fan Freedom Project aims get the masses charged up over the fact that Ticketmaster wants a closed-loop, paperless system and then they could just add surcharge after surcharge with no in sight. Only, Ticketmaster already adds surcharges up the wazoo—they're like a domestic airline!—so how does them going electronic have anything to do with fan rights? It means fans can't sell their tickets if they don't go to the event. In some ways this is bad, such as the payee is required to show up to the event—thus if you live in NYC and want to buy tickets as a present for your folks in Boston, then you have to show up with your credit card to swipe your parents through the turnstile. Major drag.

However, there's a major upside to Ticketmaster going paperless: Suddenly, scalpers can't get a hold of as many tickets and thus there's more real tickets left for fans. So although the Fan Freedom Project is likely to financially supported by legal-scalpers like StubHub, it's incredibly dubious that they're legitimately fighting for fans rights. [NOTE: I paid 150% per ticket's face value for Conan O'Brien at Radio City last Spring—didn't I get scalped?!] Granted, it's not a perfect system—but considering how difficult it is to get a ticket to an event these days without going through these legalized scalpers, well, I'd rather take the middle-man out of it and pay all the surcharges to Ticketmaster (which is still cheaper than the Conan O'Brien ticket).

Falling for Fela

 

The father of Afrobeat used music to stand up against the corrupt government Nigeria. Decades later, he has been brought back to life and immortalized in a Broadway production ("Fela!") that is less musical theater and more a transportive concert experience where the audience is in The Shrine, Fela's famous nightclub in Lagos in the 1970s.

The first half of the show makes it nearly impossible to stay in your seat as the music pulls to make everyone want to dance, and in between songs Fela (played by the amazing Sahr Ngaujah—ladies, please note that his fine six-pack abs captured the attention of every woman in the house ... he said a line that was quite serious, but all the lasses were to busy being tickled by the rock-hard view) tells tales of his background, what makes him who he is, plus how we are all in the same boat (suffering from corruption, colonialism, corporatism ... all of which still impacts Africa). The second part of the show is a twee more "spiritual" yet lacks the story to make it feel fully realized; however, the show ends on an up-song. Overall, the show is not to be missed!

 

Back in 2003, The New Museum had a great multimedia show ("Black President") from artists inspired by Fela's work and his legacy.  Personally, the artwork itself was one of my favorite shows in all the years of living in New York and was what made me realize what kind of influence Fela Kuti had ... that his dreams were bigger than music, but to really have had a vision of Black President .

 

 

The Un-Stiff Circus

The last time I saw the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was Burning Man '96—and they were the best, most engaging, daring performance artists on the playa ... and maybe all of North America (sorry, Ms. Abramovic). That show had two particular pieces that stand out in my mind less for  shock value, and more for theatrical professionalism; however, the acts were shocking.

First was an act of love and fire, where a female performer wore a special strap-on and fucked her male lover up the ass. Oh, sure, everyone does that, but this was special as her "penis" was on fire.

Second was the doctor and the doll where he drew blood from the girl, painted her cheeks with the blood and then stuck the needles through her arms, decorating her like a sculpture. 

They were both beautiful and elegant.

I've been wanting to see them since and don't know why I haven't since moving to NYC. Anywho, last night at Galapagos Art Space they hosted the monthly variety night ... and 14 years later I was equally impressed as the same gentlemen, Keith, from those other two acts accomplished a trick he'd been trying for 3+ years: he placed a modified screwdriver with a ball & cup attachment up his nose and then proceeded to catch said ball in the cup. It was strangely amazing and the crowd went wild. 

This is truly a dedicated group of performers keeping alive the old-timey traditions that made the sideshow  enticing, curious, and clear as to why people run off to join the circus.

FT Talks: Serra Hirsch (part 2 of 2)

Kicking off my new talk show series that investigates creative process, Flexible Thoughts welcomes the fantastic and extraordinary Serra Hirsch. This is part 2 of the interview we shot 6 weeks, and in this particular section we discuss Serra's fascination and zeal for creating winning Halloween costumes.

By the way, if you missed it, check out part 1 where we discuss how Serra became a puppeteer and her new collaborative work about the painter Salvador Dali.

For more information about Serra and her puppet world, check out her Puppet Junction website.

On with the show!

FT Talks: Serra Hirsch (part 1 of 2)

Kicking off my new talk show series that investigates creative process, Flexible Thoughts welcomes the fantastic and extraordinary Serra Hirsch. The interview will be posted in two parts (check back in two weeks for part 2), and in this particular section we discuss how Serra became a puppeteer and her new collaborative work about the painter Salvador Dali.

For more information about Serra and her puppet world, check out her Puppet Junction website.

On with the show!

Quad-Country Sing Along

Set in Denmark. Sung in French. Written by the British. Playing in New York. Why, that'd be "Hamlet" the opera.

On the stage of the Metropolitan company for the first time since 1897, Shakespeare's tragedy comes to life in an interesting way within the opera convention—especially during Act IV where Ophelia commits suicide (seen at the halfway point in the trailer/video). As my friend leaned over and whispered about the scene, "Ya can't do that 8 performances a week."

Removing the need to follow the dialogue, made watching a completely different pleasure as the focus on one of the world's best stages with premier singers, musicians, and stage hands came forward while the story could for the most part be overlooked. Tthe over-the-top use of "blood" was surprising and unexpected, as was the life-sized grave, and the company as a whole was beautiful to listen to (in any language). The who's who and how it all sounded is better left to seasoned critics.

Although, all I kept thinking through this death-fest was, "ooo, A Night at the Opera" ;-)

Marx Brothers: "A Night at the Opera"

Dinner Theater that Isn't Grand

Went to Grand Opening's dinner theater performance with "Vicky and Lysander"—a well-heeled couple who've opened their "home" to 12 dinner guests for the evening. An interesting premise with an abysmal execution, the improvisational play is insulting, racist, and downright grouchy. Devised from characters the actors created as students at NYU, the imagined richie-riches show absolutely no nuance of what life is like for the wealthy—only dull, old-fashioned, bland stereotypes. And the only way to make that work is to use the sterotype to push forward another agenda of so that the comedy and fun invites the entire audience in; however, these actors imagined that saying they go to St. Bart's and discussions about the time they interacted with a "brown boy," were alienating.
 

Dinner consisted of going around the table where everyone said his/her name and something that was an interesting fact or two about themselves. However, if V. or L. got bored, they'd pass over someone or insult them. And if the conversation started to veer into something off-script, it was flogged immediately thus ruining any true interaction. After the meal, V. and L. showed a slideshow of their travels, and then before the end of the evening did a tarot reading for one "lucky" guest.

Image from the Vicky and Lysander slideshow of horrors ... uh ... travels

There seemed to be no greater purpose for these characters and if it was only improv, the show would still be much improved by cloaking the verbal arrows. The daggers thrown in an old '40s movie have more bite and wit than repeated "brown" people comments. <snooze>

In fact, this  sketch was contrasted by the fact that one of the real ticket-holding guests actually was super wealthy (her family owns 30+ racehorses)—and she was a gracious, down-to-earth woman ...unlike the bitter hosts.

And Now for Something Completly Different ...

Click and watch, you won't be sorry:
http://trololololololololololo.com/

Playtime for Grown-ups

Went to see Adsit & Gausas the other night—to be clearer, that's Scott Adsit (30 Rock) and Christina Gausas (Late Night w/Conan O'Brien)—the improv comedy duo who put on a one-hour play. And, man, is that fun to watch, but must be even more fun to perform.

Which got me thinking about Del Close, and led me to this inspiring interview with Tina Fey. There's a lot of great aspect to improv that certainly are worthwhile as a philosophy on how to live.