'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2006 Part II
By Baron Dave Romm
By the time you read this, the Minnesota Fringe Festival will be over. But as of this writing, the final day hasn't started. These reviews will extend into next week.
Meanwhile, I had three Fringe show casts on as guests for last week's Shockwave Radio. I will eventually make the mp3/podcast for my site, but at the moment, you can hear the show on the KFAI archive page: Scroll down to Shockwave and it will be the previous show until 8/19. My guest this week was Tim Mooney (of Criteria, reviewed below), which will be the most recent show until next Saturday afternoon 8/19, at which point it will be the previous show until the following week.
Many Fringe shows travel the US and Canada, and you may encounter them at a Fringe Festival near you. Enjoy.
Note: Watch out for Mars' close approach to Earth August 27.
But first, a quick Political cartoon.
The situation is more complex the
caption, which reads "Says It All."
Still, this is the truth that
tends to be obscured by the terrorists getting media attention.
Jungle
Mary Bang Bang Five Stars
The Poppins Trap The Sherman Brothers have long been among my
favorite songwriters, so I expected to enjoy myself. I didn't expect
tears. All the songs are from Disney productions, and none of them
are done as they were in the movies. The set pieces are great. I
enjoyed the Andrews Sisters version of "Sister Suffragette" and the
Manhattan Transfer version of "It's A Small World"... heck, I enjoyed
all of them. Individually, the singers are excellent. As a group,
they are transcendent. Their voices intertwine beautifully, guided by
medley arrangements that are brilliant, humorous and heart-wrenching.
Maybe it's a bunch of pleasant childhood moviegoing memories crashing
together, but I have to say: Thanks.
In
Hopes of Claudia Four and a half stars
Press 1 For Christianity A journey into Hell, guided by Kevin
Kling superbly accompanied by Simone Perrin. The show was a bit
rough around the edges, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to
see Kling's brilliant monologs or his interpretive dijerido and tuba
playing or Perrin's accordion and guitar that augment her singing.
The small venue works really well for this intimate show, but it
means you should probably reserve a seat early. (Kevin Kling is almost a Mpls
institution, and his shows always do well. He requested this smaller
venue, so it was always crowded. The show's title, which he had to
submit almost a year ago before he had written anything, refers to
his desire that Claudia Schmidt be part of the performance. For a
different take on a similar subject, She, So Beloved, reviewed
here.)
Phyro-Giants!
Four and a half stars
Fun as an unpleasant byproduct A dinner conversation between
four people who get tipsier and more revealing as the evening
progresses, with a self-absorbed waitress coming in at opportune
times. Phyro-Giants are that race of being between the Creatrix and
the Giants who are his enemy. That gets mentioned once, early, and
the banter goes on from there. The characters well drawn, and
likable enough that I wouldn't mind going to dinner with them
(preferably, to a different restaurant). The acting works
splendidly, and everyone's timing is dead on. The dialog and ribald
humor are natural and unforced. I'm not sure I would say half that
stuff in a public restaurant, but I'm glad they did.
Google:
The Musical, Four and a half stars
Wear a pocket protector Never buy version 1.0 of anything,
and this show needs some tweaks to make the plot coherent and the
voices come across better. Some very good lines got swallowed up in
the Thrust auditorium, which is otherwise well-suited for the show.
Having said that, Google: The Musical is almost a killer app. Loads
of fun, computer jokes galore, and even a plot that has something to
do with Real Life (tm). Being a geek (such as myself) helps, but
isn't necessary. Some user-friendly songs and some high-end singing
matches a bright ensemble cast that needs to be individually mic'd.
You should sample this show.
1926
Pleasant Four Stars
The Seventh Guest in your condo A beautiful, beautifully
done, set-piece. Interactive, cooperative and creepy. The audience
(all 18 of us, together) has to solve puzzles to unlock the next
piece of the story. The puzzles don't have much to do with the plot,
sort of like many of the early video games, but that's okay: We had
a grand time working together. I would recommend a) going with a
bunch a friends and b) reserving your tickets well in advance. It
would be nice if the actual storyline were clearer, but the unique
venue is used to great effect. ( I hear a Fringe button is good for
$5 off the purchase of a condo... don't quote me...)
Criteria,
Four Stars
Five and Prejudice Tim Mooney's one man show starts off slow
by explaining the sorry state of the country in the 24th Century, but
the exposition is necessary to set up his character and the situation
his character is put in. Tim effortlessly switches between several
secondary characters and himself as the tension builds. An
examination of the roots of irrational hatred, and how one person can
make a difference.
Watching
Porn Four Stars
It's Not In The Dictionary Watching Porn is about a clueless
guy (much like you or me... well, okay, it's about a guy like me),
who doesn't really understand sex, much less love. Uncomfortable
situations are punctuated by laughs that get bigger and bigger as the
situations become more and more uncomfortable. I hear that's what
love is all about. My only complaint: Not enough real porn. Darn.
Foreign
Exchange Vampires, Three and a half stars
Strange things happened in my meat drawer
Superbly acted and well crafted horror tale, full of humor and
mystery, told by the family it happens to. I never got caught up in
the story, but I did enjoy watching it unfold.
Tape,
Three Stars
Not My Cup of Tea Well scripted (if you like incessant
bickering) and well acted (all the actors successfully came off as
complete dicks), Tape hits several of my buttons: Unpleasant people
doing unpleasant things, ostensible friends ripping each other to
shreds, emotional blackmail, predictable plot. There were some good
lines and the subject matter deserves a sounding board, so I'm happy
to have this kind of play in the Fringe. But I'm pleased that I got
this particular Fringe experience out of my system.
She,
So Beloved, Three Stars
I get the message: It's not enough to be loved A one woman
show, with gauze to wrap her in and a slide projector for exposition.
The show is short (30 min) with lots of repetition and many, many
pauses. Presumably, the pauses were for dramatic effect but I kept
filling the silences with other Fringe shows. She makes her point
early and often, then repeatedly. Emily Gunyou is the essence of
Greek Tragedy even as she dissects the Orpheus legend, but there is a
reason why some plays last three thousand years and she shrugs off
the power of the original. I give her props for a good effort, but
it didn't work for me. (In Hopes of Claudia also dealt with a descent
into hell, and mentioned Orpheus.)
Body
Bazaar Two Stars
An experiment that needs more work The melding of body into
dance isn't new, though they try some unorthodox body convulsions.
Mostly, it doesn't work, at least for me. The ensemble dancing didn't
gel until the second to last piece. Coin-Operated Boy was good.
Carpe
The DM One and a half stars
Stablehands of the Dinner Table Not particularly well written
or well acted scenario of a gaming session that doesn't happen
because romantic squabbles get in the way. A few okay lines and a
few okay characterizations in a very short (30 min) show. The best
plot device was ripped off from the comic Knights
of the Dinner Table. (Animated KotDT for your
amusement.)
88
Improv presents The Hitchhiker One Star
Maybe they had an off night I hate to rate an improvisational
group this low, but the show I saw (Thurs) wasn't funny and didn't
have a Hitchhiker. They claimed audience participation, but they
asked for a name and an occupation in the beginning and that's it.
They should have involved the audience more, especially in the slow
times... which was most of the show.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with 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. Podcasts being reworked. Recent radio programs can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Perlman: Greenland's ice cap is melting at a frighteningly fast rate (sfgate.com)
The vast ice cap that covers Greenland nearly three miles thick is melting faster than ever before on record, and the pace is speeding year by year, according to global climate watchers gathering data from twin satellites that probe the effects of warming on the huge northern island.
Rose Yndigoyen: CosmoGirl! Includes Queer Peers (afterellen.com)
CosmoGirl! executive editor Ann Shoket says that there has been no one flashpoint that led to the inclusion of queer stories, but rather a desire to "talk about the whole range of teen girls' emotions." That range includes emotions stemming from issues of sexuality, which include homosexuality. She says straightforwardly, "Gay girls are girls too. CosmoGirl! is for all girls. So we include them."
Shauna Swartz: Cruising for Comedy: Poppy Champlin (afterellen.com)
Champlin has come a long way since her first foray into comedy: "In college I was doing this cabaret sponsored by the oceanography department and we were all fish. I was a standup fish and I did a fish shtick," she quips.
Neal Broverman: Looking great, kicking ass (advocate.com)
For queer horror fans, The Descent's all-girl premise is an irresistible selling point that doesn't disappoint.
Jane Goodwin: One-Room Schoolhouse (irascibleprofessor.com)
Not everybody is ready for formal schooling at the same time.
Garry Wills: Christ Was Not a Christian (beliefnet.com)
...and Christians cannot really be 'Christlike.'
LENORA CLAIRE: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar!
"Beautiful," "serene," and "full of light" are words that could be used to describe both Julie Newmar and the Brentwood property she's called home for over 20 years. Purrrfectly cast as Catwoman in the '60s TV series Batman, this statuesque former ballerina and Thierry Mugler muse has managed to turn a half-acre that was formerly a dog run with nothing but three trees and some grass into one of the most stunning gardens in all of Los Angeles.
Diane Anderson-Minshall: Alicia Goranson Tells All (curvemag.com)
Alicia Goranson, the Midwestern blonde who rose to fame as Becky Conner on Roseanne, has proven time and again that she doesn't want to be a sex bomb. After leaving Roseanne for Vassar College, Goranson, who grew up in Evanston, Ill., took small roles in critically acclaimed films and challenging guest-starring roles in television series including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Sex and the City. Now a hit in the New York theater scene, her latest film, Love, Ludlow, doesn't feature any lesbians, but it's feminist and queer enough for us to love it anyway.
Christie Keith: Him and Us: The Best Gay TV You'll Probably Never See (afterelton.com)
Imagine a star-studded project backed by Elton John, riffing wildly off his actual life as a superstar. Imagine it as a cross between Sex in the City, Queer as Folk, and This is Spinal Tap. Then imagine it really gayed-up. And there you have Him and Us, a single-camera comedy pilot starring Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) that ABC declined to pick up for its fall schedule.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Brief Episode Guide (tv.com)
JD Reviews
Talledega & WTC
Zoom I NEVER SAW A 00 ON ROTTEN.
SAW THESE TWO FILM THIS WEEKEND. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby THIS IS "SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT" ON REALLY BAD ACID.
A GO0D CAST (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF WILL FERAL) BUT A BAD SCRIPT AND ABSOLUTE ZERO PLOT LINE. WOULD LOVE TO SEE CHRIS ROCK IN THE TITLE ROLE. NOW THAT COULD HAVE BEEN FUNNY. I WILL GIVE IT 3 0UT OF 10 FOR THE LONGEST MANO EN MANO KISS IN THE HISTORY OF FILM.
World Trade Center ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT OLIVER HAS GONE SQUISHY. THIS IS The Passion of the Christ WITH AIRPLANES. WHERE IS JOHN WAYNE WHEN WE NEED HIM?
They Were Expendable OLIVER SPENDS TWO HOURS TELLING US ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT WE DON'T ALREADY KNOW. THIS WASN'T A FILM, IT WAS A FOX NEWS REPORT.
AGAIN, A GOOD CAST WORKING WITH A SUB STANDARD SCRIPT AND A SQUISHY DIRECTOR. TOO BAD. IT COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER.
I GIVE THIS ONE A BIG OO BECAUSE I WAS EXPECTING MORE THAN ANOTHER PAINT BY THE NUMBERS RAH RAH AMERICA IS THE BEST NATION ON EARTH AND ALL THE REST OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS SUCK AND NOW WE'RE COMING TO KILL ALL YOU BASTARDS FILM. PERFUNCTORY PATRIOTISM IS THE BEST.
JD
Hubert's Poetry Corner
HOT AND SWEATY TONGUE DELIGHT
The unstated taboo of late night burning oral pleasure in a small repressed Texas town!
The Ant Bully Rant
Avery Ant
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & seasonal.
No new flags.
British Pensioner Surprise Star
YouTube
YouTube, the popular online home video site, has an unexpected star -- a septuagenarian British widower -- whose soft-spoken, humble manner has won the hearts of users of the youth dominated Web site.
Peter posted his first video on YouTube about a week ago, under the user name geriatric1927 which refers to the year of his birth. He called it "first try."
In the clip, which starts with "geriatric gripes and grumbles" and some blues music, Peter tells how he became addicted to YouTube.
He has since posted another five videos on his YouTube page -- and has had about 79,000 viewings and 6,500 subscribers, putting him at the top of the most-subscribed list on YouTube in the past week.
YouTube
Attacked For Belated SS Confession
Günter Grass
Germany's Nobel prize-winning author Günter Grass has come under attack from writers, literary critics, historians and politicians for his belated confession he was once a member of Hitler's Waffen SS.
The shock admission from the 78-year-old, famous for his 1957 novel "The Tin Drum," came in a newspaper interview on Saturday before the release in September of his autobiography "Peeling Onions" in which he explains why he joined at age 17.
"Even after his admission, Grass remains Germany's most important living author. But he has lost his standing as a moral authority. He cannot be castigated for being a member of the SS ... But he can be for lying about it for 60 years" wrote Bild am Sonntag newspaper columnist Helmut Boeger.
Grass had for decades demanded that Germans come to terms with their Nazi past by coming clean on it. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1999.
Günter Grass
Surprise Guest
Billy Joel
The surprise guest at a free concert of classical compositions by Billy Joel was - Billy Joel.
The actual headliner at Friday's outdoor concert at Heckscher Park on Long Island was Richard Joo, a British-Korean pianist who arranged and performed Joel's music on the album "Fantasies and Delusions" which was released on the Sony Classical label in 2001.
Joel strolled on to the stage during the second half of the concert, sat down at an electronic keyboard and joined Joo for a duet.
Billy Joel
China Bans From Prime Time
'The Simpsons'
China has banished Homer Simpson, Pokemon and Mickey Mouse from prime time. Beginning Sept. 1, regulators have barred foreign cartoons from TV from 5 to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios, news reports said Sunday. The move allows the Monkey King and his Chinese pals to get the top TV viewing hours to themselves.
Foreign cartoons, especially from Japan, are hugely popular with China's 250 million children and the country's own animation studios have struggled to compete. Communist leaders are said to be frustrated that so many cartoons are foreign-made, especially after efforts to build up Chinese animation studios.
The cartoon campaign comes amid efforts by President Hu Jintao's government to tighten control over other pop culture, ranging from movies to magazines and Web sites.
TV stations have been told to limit foreign programming, stop showing scary movies in prime time and have their hosts dress more conservatively and use fewer English words on the air.
'The Simpsons'
Growth Industry
Religion-Related Fraud
Randall W. Harding sang in the choir at Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, Calif., and donated part of his conspicuous wealth to its ministries. In his business dealings, he underscored his faith by naming his investment firm JTL, or "Just the Lord." Pastors and churchgoers alike entrusted their money to him.
By the time Harding was unmasked as a fraud, he and his partners had stolen more than $50 million from their clients, and Crossroads became yet another cautionary tale in what investigators say is a worsening problem plaguing the nation's churches.
Billions of dollars has been stolen in religion-related fraud in recent years, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, a group of state officials who work to protect investors.
Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count - from 1998 to 2001 - the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since.
Religion-Related Fraud
Visits 'Field of Dreams'
Kevin Costner
The corn lining the outfield is tall again this year. The white farmhouse, wraparound porch and picket fence appear unaffected by time. The mythic baseball diamond and lush outfield look just like they did in the film made 17 years ago.
And for a few hours, hundreds of children and parents raced around the bases, played catch or hit soft pitches in the field made famous by 1989's "Field of Dreams."
For 10-year-old Alexis Turner, the visit included a brush with Kevin Costner, the movie's star who returned Friday for the first time since filming ended.
Costner joined about 5,000 people who packed the field for a free screening of the movie. The event, sponsored by online DVD rental company Netflix Inc., is the fifth stop in a 10-city tour featuring classic movies at the locations they were filmed.
Kevin Costner
Non-Partisan In That Repuke Way
"Vets for Freedom"
The Republican lobby group Vets for Freedom is the 2006 equivalent of Swift Boat Liars, the Republican 527 committee whose attack advertisements in battleground states helped sink John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race by smearing him as a phony war hero and a traitor to his country.
Vets for Freedom (VFF) made lame claims to be "non-partisan" when in early 2006 it first appeared out of the blue online and in op-ed pieces in the New York Times and other major papers and in TV interviews. An investigation of the group by citizen journalists at SourceWatch and by the Buffalo News blew the VFF claim of non-partisanship out of the water. For instance, the Buffalo News revealed in June that former White House flack Taylor Gross, who left Scott McClellan's office in 2005 to start his own PR firm, represented VFF and pitched them to papers as non-partisan journalists who would embed for these newspapers and report accurately and cheaply for them from Iraq. Now the camouflage has fallen completely off. Vets for Freedom has registered itself as a 527 committee and is going to run a full page advertisement in Connecticut's Hartford Courant on behalf of Joe Lieberman's renegade run for re-election to the US Senate as a 'stay the course in Iraq' candidate.
The Wall Street Journal reports that VFF is being handled now by Republican strategist Dan Senor* and that it "hopes to run other print and radio ads in the fall, and is also planning on campaign door-to-door for Mr. Lieberman and holding a rally on his behalf."
"Vets for Freedom"
* Dan Senor is married to Campbell Brown of NBC News.
Imposters Headlined Montana Fair
Redbone
A band that headlined a fair last weekend is accused of masquerading as the rock group Redbone, whose hits included the 1970s song "Come and Get Your Love."
The band at the Butte-Silver Bow Fair performed under the name Redbone, but the real Redbone was playing in Wisconsin, said Ron Kurtz, Redbone's manager.
"I've been in the business for 40 years, and I've never ran into anything this blatant," Kurtz said Thursday from his office in Burbank, Calif. He said the fair board was conned.
Redbone
L.A.-Area
Emmys
KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV led the local field Saturday at the 58th annual Los Angeles-area Emmy Awards, held at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences headquarters in North Hollywood.
The joint news operation run by the local CBS-owned stations earned a total of eight awards for its productions and personnel, including the trophy for investigative reporting with its "Danger in the Rear View Mirror?" look into accidents involving MTA vehicles. KCAL separately won five awards to tie Fox-owned KTTV-TV for second behind KCBS/KCAL.
This year's Los Angeles area Governors award went to the multihyphenate humorist Stan Freberg. Known for his radio work and satirical recordings, he made his on-air mark in the late 1940s/early '50s playing the character of Cecil and others in the zany Bob Clampett-produced puppet show "Time for Beany," which aired live five days a week on KTLA.
Among the other awards handed out Saturday in the ceremony hosted by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Horacio Cervantes of Univision's KMEX-TV took the honor for news director. Robert Manciero of LA Cityview 35 was the pick for non-news director.
Emmys
No Ferry To Cross Mersey
Graham Boanas
A 6ft 9in man has become the first person to walk across the River Mersey - without the aid of a bridge. Graham Boanas, 43, from Hull, took just over an hour to wade across the mile-and-a-half wide river. The father-of-two is hoping to raise £100,000 for DebRA, a charity for children with the skin blistering condition epidermolysis bullosa.
Mr Boanas was followed by a rescue team, including a helicopter and hovercraft, in case he got into difficulties in the fast flowing river.
But despite overcast weather he managed to cross the river, which can reach depths of around six feet.
Last year, Mr Boanas who runs an electronics company, became the first person in more than 1,000 years to wade across the River Humber.
Graham Boanas
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