The Annekenstein Monster

There are a handful of directors whose latest project will always pique my interest, no matter what.

John Waters is one of those directors. His latest movie is called A Dirty Shame. The trailer looks like this might be fun. That it has been rated NC-17 only makes it more appealing.

Too, I love you, Edith Massey, wherever you are.

Our show was reviewed in the August edition of The Buzz, under the headline Mature Content. I thought I’d post my thoughts on the review.

If I had any criticisms of ‘theatre reviews’ in The Buzz (and, of course, on those rare occasions that a review of a “local” show actually appears in The Guardian), it would have been that they were not reviews so much, but, generally, endorsements written by a fan/friend of the people involved in the show being reviewed. On a small island, where so many in the arts community know each other, it’s difficult to be willing to make negative comments on a production. To this end, reviews have become little more than another form of advertising (and, it should be noted, for productions with such limited budgets as ours, they are welcome advertisements). With this in mind, I’d like to applaud The Buzz, and reviewer Jane Ledwell for writing a review that actually contains more than laudatory comments and fluffy praise. In fact, I find, lately, that The Buzz seems to be more willing to print ‘critical (and fair)’ reviews than it has been in the past. This is good.

I cannot really complain about most of the criticisms that Jane offers. Generally the comments she makes are valid for the opening week performance that she saw. There are a few points she makes that I disagree with, but these are merely point-of-view, or matter-of-taste comments, and her view and taste is just as valid as mine.

Some things I would like to address, though:

– “They need to drop the pop culture impressions and bad accents-other-than-the-Island-one (which risked being obscure, absurd, racist, or poorly executed).” I was (along with the rest of the people in the production) confused by this sentence. I was not sure what “pop culture impressions” we do, or what “bad accents” she was referring to. The somewhat troublesome implication that we “risked being… racist” raised a few eyebrows within our group as well, as we couldn’t figure out to what Jane was referring. Her reply to an email questioning that implication left us, frankly, dumbfounded. I don’t think it’s fair to Jane to reprint her response here without her permission. Perhaps it will suffice to say that her interpretation of a certain character’s origins and purpose is surely hers alone, and maybe speaks more about the need to analyse and find meanings behind comedy than it does about the intentions in making comedy. Sometimes a funny voice and costume is simply a funny voice and costume.

–“I was just disappointed that “Sketch-22” alienated part of its audience with crude material when the truly “mature” content still had edge and still got laughs.” This is a fair comment, we have found out. It was, perhaps, unfortunate that Jane saw the show during the first week of our run. We have since realised that some of the crude material was a bit too juvenile or shocking-for-shock’s-sake. After week one, the show was cleaned up (and shortened) somewhat, so hopefully, we’ve found a better balance between taste and distaste.

– “Rob provides the show’s most truly “mature” content”. I hope this means what I think it means, and it’s not just another way of saying that I’m the oldest in the cast. 🙂

– I’ll not comment on her wish to see more Seagalls or shamless hussies.

After reading the review a couple of times, I’m still not sure if Jane liked the show. She says she wore herself out laughing and that the show is hilarious for those not easily offended. This implies she liked it, yet the general tone of the review seems, to me, to somewhat bely that laughter and hilarity. Maybe it’s just my frail ego reading too much into the criticisms?

Still, apart from that one mis-guided opinion on us risking racism, I appreciate very much having a person write critically about our show.

Thanks, Jane. And, thanks, The Buzz.

Yes, you’ve come a long way, baby. But I gotta say, you’re tampon commercials are getting a little too… descriptive.

Used to be the closest we’d get to any sort of reference to the actual goings-on was a woman (and before that, a man in a white scientist coat) who’d pour a pleasantly innocuous blue liquid on two tampons, showing how one was more absorbant than the other. Or we’d see an animation of a flying tampon, to illustrate the fact that such-and-such brand now had wings.

Now, though, they seem to have turned a corner in their marketing direction. Case in point, the latest ad, which shows a couple of women, in tight, pale slacks, who have been supposedly crouching down behind a sofa, waiting for a surprise party “Surprise!!!”. The voice-over talks about how awful it is when a gal’s been in a certain position for a lengthy amount of time and then suddenly changes position, causing the embarrassment of leakage and shifting, or some such thing. The ‘leakage’ line happens just when the visuals show the women jumping up to shout ‘surprise!’, and then freeze frames. I literally have to avert my eyes from the television, in fear that I’ll catch a glimpse of some leakage. And what an ugly word. Leakage. Ugh.

I really don’t like the images this commercial conjures up in my head when it’s on as I’m eating my suppertime hamburger, taco or sloppy joe.

Can’t they go back to the way it used to be. Suggestive advertising was so much nicer. How about some nice animated butterflies flying out from the crotchal region? Or a cartoon of a beaver building a dam in some idyllic stream, surrounded by lush vegetation? Or get Bambi to be your spokesperson.

Or even go back to the scientist guy telling women that such-and-such napkin will serve you fine. Just fine. Didn’t you trust that guy, girls? I trusted him. He was a scientist. He must’ve known. He probably did leakage research with copious amounts of pleasant blue liquid.

Can’t we bring him back?

Confed Centre cancels ‘Men’ show

CHARLOTTETOWN — The poor tourism season has struck the Confederation Centre of the Arts, forcing it to cancel one of its summer productions.

The play Broadway Heroes: A Salute to the Great Leading Men was scheduled to play in the Studio Theatre in August. CEO David MacKenzie cites poor ticket sales for the cancellation, and blames this summer’s downturn in P.E.I.’s tourism industry.

“This year’s tourism is down significantly to date,” says MacKenzie. “We were aggressive in our selection of productions and the number of productions this year. With visitation being down we wanted to concentrate on the shows that are doing better.”

David MacKenzie says the centre will not be cancelling any more shows this season.

It’s not the downturn in this summer’s tourism industry, David. It’s a show called Broadway Heroes: A Salute to the Great Leading Men.

That’s the reason nobody was buying tickets.

Some of the anti-Bush people have been supposing that Osama Bin Laden will be ‘found’ in the next couple of days, during the Democratic National Convention. Some presume that Bin Laden’s location is already known, and that the US government is waiting for the most opportune time announce his capture, and that during the DNC would be a goot time, taking headlines away from the democrats.

I cannot believe that the Bush administration would be so blatant as to do this during the DNC. I don’t think it’ll happen, but I sure hope it does. Poor some gasoline on that conspiracy, folks.

Do it. Do it. Do it.

This season of Six Feet Under certainly seems to have dropped a notch or two from the incredible quality of writing of its first three seasons.
This post isn’t about that. This post is about incredible acting.

I really enjoy small acting moments. A movie, play, whatever, can be not so good, and I can come away happy if there are a couple of great acting moments in it.

Last night’s Six Feet Under (which was a pretty good episode, actually) had such a moment. It was a scene, probably 20 seconds only, without dialogue. Without giving away this season’s plots (I know some readers are watching previous seasons on DVD and would rather remain in the dark about this season), I’ll just say it’s a scene between David and Nate. David is standing at attention, at yet another funeral. Nate comes down the stairs and simply stands beside David. The range of emotions that David goes through in about 10 seconds is simply wonderful. Nate smiles in recognition of David’s response. That’s it. That’s the scene.

If I was to compile my favourite film/video moments, that’d be on it.

Another moment that would be on it comes from Sketch 22. In one of the video segments there is a moment when a crashing noise occurs, and Josh Weale performs what I consider to be a perfect double take.

Well done, Michael C. Hall, Peter Krause, and Josh Weale.

It is a week away from pre-season training camp for NFL teams. Those of you who have been reading this place for a while will know that I am a Miami Dolphins fan.
You may also know that I literally can’t wait for the NFL season to start. It is really the only sport I have a true passion for. The Dolphins are the only sports team I have a true passion for.

This has not been a good off-season for the Dolphins. Still, as always, I was full of hope. It is my duty as a fan to be full of hope. Why was it a difficult off-season?
Well, the Dolphins needed to address their largest weakness, which was their ineffective offensive line. They didn’t do that. Instead, they have a bunch of rookies who will likely get eaten up (Still, being an optimistic fan, I hoped that they’d all surprise us and perform to an acceptable level). They tried to find a General Manager, and failed (no problem says optimistic fan). They brought in Dan Marino, Miami hero and icon, to be President of the team. He quit a week later (odd, thought Optimistic fan. Odd, but not too damaging). Their beloved Offensive Coordinator, Norv Turner, left to a plum college head coach job (could hurt, but let’s give the next guy a chance). The guy that replaced him quit about a month and a half later after suffering from exhaustion. (okay, this is getting weird thinks Optimistic Fan). The current OC is a babe in the woods, this being his first opportunity with the position. The Dolphins have an adequate quarterback in Jay Fiedler, but all agree an upgrade was essential. They went and got another team’s third string qb, AJ Feely (at too high a cost, may feel) to compete for the starting position. (Just watch. He’ll prove to be a shining star who was never given a fair chance. This is his chance). Currently, a week out of training camp, it seems Feely isn’t up to competing against the incumbent adequate qb (there’s still hope, says I). A couple of the Dolphin’s players were arrested/charged with crimes, one of which involved a player assaulting his pregnant wife (it should be noted that she was also charged with assaulting him, I think) (okay, this happens all the time in the NFL, so no big deal, as far as snuffing out the flames of hope).

Even after all that, a truly awful, chaotic off-season, I had hope for the season. This would be the year, I thought, that expectations on/from the Dolphins would be lower, and the team would rise above it all and be the surprise of the season.

I believed that, firstly because I am an optimistic fan, and secondly, because the Dolphins have Ricky Williams. Without question, Ricky Williams is the star of the team. The running back, around which the entire team has been built. Just adequate qb? No problem, hand it off to Ricky. Rookie OC? No problem, just hand it off to Ricky.
Ricky Williams is such a great player that other teams are forced to defend against him specifically, otherwise he’ll eat them up. Ricky Williams is an elite running back in a game of elite running backs. Ricky Williams has the ability to set new records for rushing in a game and in a season. Ricky Williams is All That.

Most importantly, Ricky Williams will win us (the Dolphins and their fans) games this year. Even after a horrible off-season, I’ve been looking at perhaps 11 wins this season.

All hope is pinned on Ricky Williams. I am such a fan of the Dolphins, and such a fan of the potential of what Ricky Williams can do for this team, that, when he joined the team two years ago, I actually bought a McFarlane figurine of Ricky Williams. Yes, Ricky Williams is important enough to me that I bought a doll of him. And I love the doll.

Today, I discover, Ricky Williams has suddenly decided to retire. At the age of 27. In the prime of his game. A week before training camp starts. Leaving the Dolphins without any valid offensive weaponry. They are sunk.

I am hope-broken. I’ll not be getting NFL Sunday Ticket this year, just to watch the Dolphins lose 12 to 14 of 16 games this season.

It is a sad, sad, sad football day for me.

If God wanted to truly test Job, he should’ve pulled this stunt on him.

One of my favourite PEI blogs to read is Frankie‘s. I find her observations to be funny, quirky and unexpected. From her remarks regarding this blog, seems she’s a fan of this place as well.

Until last night, our mutual appreciation club had never met. Last night, however, Frankie introduced herself to me after coming to see Sketch 22.

I had some preconceptions as to what she looks like. These notions were somewhat solidified when I asked Cynthia to describe her. Cynthia had met her when Frankie became involved in Cyn’s The Vagina Monologues last year.

So, anyway, I had a vague mental picture as to what I imagined Frankie to look like. I imagined her to be a cool, kinda subtly-hip looking mom. Turns out she is pretty much that, only not so mom-ish.

Then I started to wonder what she was expecting of me, and I immediately, horrifyingly thought of one particular image of me last night on stage…traipsing around on stage wearing nothing but black socks and a black velvet diaper, pale-white belly jutting out, leading me wherever I went.

Frankie, whatever you were expecting, you probably weren’t expecting that.

sigh

Had the incomparable fish and chips (breaded, with crispy crispy fries) at Cedars today. And you know, it tastes even better when you are merely a couple of hours away from a two-week vacation.

Yes, I’m on vacation for two weeks. I’ll be hanging around, close to home. My goal is to get as much beach experience in as possible. I’ve not been a beach bum for quite a number of years, but I think I’m ready to give that a go. I hope my milk-white body doesn’t totally revolt.

One of my favourite PEI blogs to read is Frankie‘s. I find her observations to be funny, quirky and unexpected. From her remarks regarding this blog, seems she’s a fan of this place as well.

Until last night, our mutual appreciation club had never met. Last night, however, Frankie introduced herself to me after coming to see Sketch 22.

I had some preconceptions as to what she looks like. These notions were somewhat solidified when I asked Cynthia to describe her. Cynthia had met her when Frankie became involved in Cyn’s The Vagina Monologues last year.

So, anyway, I had a vague mental picture as to what I imagined Frankie to look like. I imagined her to be a cool, kinda subtly-hip looking mom. Turns out she is pretty much that, only not so mom-ish.

Then I started to wonder what she was expecting of me, and I immediately, horrifyingly thought of one particular image of me last night on stage…traipsing around on stage wearing nothing but black socks and a black velvet diaper, pale-white belly jutting out, leading me wherever I went.

Frankie, whatever you were expecting, you probably weren’t expecting that.

sigh