Today is Churchill's Birthday.

RINGO LIVES!

I also saw this show, called Blue/Orange. It was outstanding.Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search This is the most thrilling and crucial play in London, and now is the time to catch it, with a shockingly good new cast that plays the jazzy intellectual riffs of the script to perfection and brings a physicality to a piece that could easily be just a talking-heads show.

I saw this production in London.
Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search Which is better? The consoling lie or the unpalatable truth? It is the enduring theme of American drama from O'Neill onwards; and it is certainly what animates Tennessee Williams's once-banned, emotional piledriver of a play now getting one of its rare but welcome London revivals.

The following is a letter to the Washington Post by the writer of Kit Marlowe, which Studio Theatre is producing. I think it is very interesting.




Wednesday, November 21, 2001; Page A22


In his Nov. 7 review, Nelson Pressley refers to the Studio Theatre's production of my play, "Kit Marlowe," as "rather silly" and says it "doesn't really have a heart." I am writing to say that not only do I agree with Mr. Pressley, but I found his comments to be generous and forgiving in the extreme. What must be pointed out, however, is that Mr. Pressley did not, in fact, review "Kit Marlowe" by David Grimm, but a play that should have been billed: "Kit Marlowe as cut, edited, adapted and rewritten by director Michael Chamberlain, without the permission or knowledge of the author." That would have been a more accurate title to the production.

"Kit Marlowe" premiered last year at the Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, George C. Wolfe, producer. The Studio Theatre production is its first regional theater production. It is also my first professional production in the District. In trying to pass off its butchered version of my text as "Kit Marlowe" by David Grimm, the Studio Theatre has grossly misrepresented my work to the D.C. theater community, its patrons, staff and critics.

According to the contract that the Studio Theatre undertook with Dramatists Play Service Inc. (the publishers of the play), no cuts or changes may be made to the text without the express approval of the author. Not only did I not give my approval -- I had no knowledge of it. And had I not decided that it might be fun to go down to Washington to see the play, I would probably never have learned of it.

In his production, Michael Chamberlain has gone through my play, scene by scene, cutting out the heart of each one, effectively removing the emotional center of the play and rendering it a nonsensical exercise in posturing and machismo. But not only did he cut dialogue, he added dialogue of his own creation (one of the characters even prattles on in Spanish -- for no apparent reason). And he didn't stop at dialogue -- he invented whole new characters: splitting Sir Francis Walsingham in three -- Sir Francis Walsingham and two "inventions" (listed in the program as Sir Walsingham's Servant, and Sir Walsingham's Bucket Boy -- whatever a Bucket Boy may be).

But all this is not about a writer's wounded pride. It is about the unethical behavior of the Studio Theatre. It is about a professional theater's total disregard for its contractual obligations. It is about shoddy administration and artistic ineptitude. Finally, it is about the paying audience members who buy a ticket, assuming that they will be seeing the play whose title is printed on their program. In presenting this production, the Studio Theatre has cheated and deceived its own patrons.

Shame!

DAVID GRIMM

New York

All I know is, I leave the country for two weeks and the Redskins are now in the lead in their division. I still don't believe it.

I have arrived in London, and found an internet cafe. (It's actually more internet than cafe.)
Here are some first impressions.

Like any city in America, you can evidently walk no more than 4 blocks in any direction without finding a Starbucks.
Some movie called Harry Potter opens today. Have you heard about it? Is it coming to the States?

Actually (and this should be of interest only to Joel) they have re-released the Harry Potter books with new, "adult" covers. I can only wonder what the illustrations are like.

I'm thinking about what Joel said. I'll get back to you.

I'm a published poet!!!!
Okay, its just some football haiku, but it was selected for inclusion in Slate's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column.


Oh Darling, Your Eyes Are Like Limpid Logos By Gregg Easterbrook
Redskins win three games.
Schottenheimer is still coach;
I fear four and 12.
—Adam Magazine

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall We know who won the election in the sense of who's actually president. Nothing is going to undo that. We've also known for some time that the specific, limited recounts Gore lost in the United States Supreme Court wouldn't have put him over the top. Maybe this means that Ron Klain's a &#@$-up. But, again, for present purposes, who cares?
The only question that's still out there is who really got the most votes. For the historical record, if all the votes had been accurately counted under Florida law as it existed at the time, who would have gotten the most votes in the state? And the study seems to say pretty clearly that that 'who' was Al Gore.
To me, that seems like the story.

Arts in stagnation?

Adam muses that perhaps... "Artists (including musicians, visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and us theatre folks) are just playing out the work of our predecessors from 1945 to 1980.... I could be totally wrong. But I'd like to get your input." Very well; rant mode commence.

My main objection is that no one can know what's going on in an art form without -- you know -- paying attention. In Adam's case, I might believe that he has some link to the theater world. But I also happen to know that he doesn't listen to music or read fiction. This is a poor basis for judging that nothing new is sprouting under those particular suns. So the theory would have to be re-stated as "Headline News, talk radio, and idle chatter have not recently penetrated my conciousness with the conclusion that a particular artistic trend, in any field, is actually a revolution."

Specifically, what is new? Well, I can make a few suggestions thru the filter of my own limited knowledge. In video (movies and TV) there have been some experiments with non-linear time, multiple points of view, and the unreliable narrator -- e.g., "Memento", "The Usual Suspects", the Pinter episode of "Seinfeld". Of course, video is an inherently conservative art form. Video takes direct control of sight, hearing, and pace, tending to bypass judgement, and it works best when it appeals to the worst in us. Maybe that makes an experimental film more painful than an experimental book. Anyway, most of video's progress has been in effects and animation -- technical advances, but those too have an element of artistry, as any lighting designer can tell you.

Popular music? Hip-hop has been lively, and it's not the same as rap, I know that much... There are good things coming out that I do listen to. Music I like tends to cherry-pick elements from multiple influences, with an emphasis on musicianship, and come up with sounds that move your feet and your mind at the same time. But writing about music is like boinking about architectiure.

Speaking of which, architecture has changed a lot, and mostly for the better, since the 1980's. Remember all that faux-Deco shit in mauve and jewel tones? But I think that Frank Gehry's building are starting to all look the same. I like this Santiago Calatrava guy better.

Writing? I don't read much that's brand-new. But there does seem to be a trend toward meticulously researched historical backgrounds. This could be a healthy change from the well-criticized tendency of fiction writers to make other places, peoples, and times into whatever the author's personal preferences desire. Several such scholarly novels focus on a secondary but historically real character who was close to an interesting moment, movement, or personality. I think we got there from "Wide Sargasso Sea".

I have to say it, there is some brilliant stuff in comix. It's OK, I don't expect you to believe me. But this is one art form that has changed drastically in the last twenty years. You don't have to read Ben Katchor or Spiegelman's "Little Lit" or even Neil Gaiman or Frank Miller or crazy Dave Sim. But you really should read Chris Ware. He's just so brilliant. A 24-page Chris Ware comic can knock you on your ass in a way that countless 300-page novels have failed to do. I'm serious. You've been warned. End of topic.

I'm greatly ignorant of what's current in painting, photography, and sculpture. All I see is what's in the New Yorker. But I do have hopes for the return of beauty.

Overall, I want art of that presents small, fleeting pleasures on a harshly-lit background. Half a peppermint patty on a bed of dirty arugula. I could go on about that, too, but I have chattered more than enough and have to go to bed. Someone else comment now, and if possible, do it with a regular post, not that weird blog-back thing that puts your words in some other window. Thanks to Adam for providing this forum for rambling.

Maybe the best theory we can come up with is "It takes 20 years to know what's a revolution".

-- Mr Joel

The New Yorker: ESCAPE AND EVASION by SEYMOUR M. HERSH Referring to the October 20th raid on the Mullah Omar complex, some Delta members told a colleague that it was a "total goat fuck"—military slang meaning that everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Thanks for the translation, Sy. I might not have figured ou that a "total goat fuck" was a bad thing.

Boston Globe Online: Print it! So when you gaze at the stat sheet and see that Jordan had a comeback-high 32 points in a comeback-high 41 minutes, do not be fooled into thinking the Michael Jordan you remember is playing for the Wizards. This Michael Jordan is a good player, but he is also someone teams can deal with. And he is playing for a coach in denial.
''I pay no attention to Michael's individual stats,'' explained Doug Collins. ''You guys do a good job of that. I look at 32 points. I look at the good things. I don't dwell on the negatives.''
Dwelling on them is one thing. Ignoring them is another. Is it really possible Collins thinks he didn't see what he saw?

I'm working on a theory -- the last twenty years have seen no major innovations in the arts. Artists (including musicians, visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and us theatre folks) are just playing out the work of our predecessors from 1945 to 1980. I'm not sure this is true, but its something I'm thinking about.

For example, in pop music, the last new ideas (whether good or bad) were disco, rap and punk. The movies made all their innovations between 1967 (the repeal of the Hays code) and 1977 (Star Wars). Theatre hasn't done anything new since the 1960's, except for the mega-musicals, which aren't really anything new. The visual arts are just spinning wheels, repeating the trends of the 50s and 60s.

Again, I could be totally wrong. But I'd like to get your input.

Wear one of these and you might as well just get a "geek" tattoo.

Here's the review from the Washington Post of the show I just designed. (He doesn't mention design, but I though people might be interested anyway.).



'Rapture': Less Than The Sum of Its Nuns


By William Triplett
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, November 7, 2001; Page C08


How do you solve a problem like Lucrezia?

That question and many others lie at the center of "Rapture," Jeanne Marshall's new play about a musically gifted nun, currently receiving its area premiere at MetroStage in Alexandria. Though Marshall never really answers or resolves those questions or the various subplots they engender, her script certainly has the makings of a complex melodrama about machinations inside a 17th-century Italian convent.

The young Sister Lucrezia (Michelle Shupe) has a talent for composing devotional hymns, but in a style that papal authorities have declared incompatible with Catholicism. Sister Camilla (Catherine Flye), one of Lucrezia's three aunts who are also nuns at the convent, secretly arranges for a tutor to help develop her niece's promise. Camilla and her sisters have a reputation for being a little liberal, something that puts the nose of conservative and ambitious Sister Beatrice (Laura Giannarelli) severely out of joint.

For the most part "Rapture" shapes up as a war Beatrice and Camilla will fight for the soul of Lucrezia. But there's also a war for control of the convent: Someone has written an anonymous letter to Rome alleging embezzlement and sexual depravity inside the convent, prompting an investigation that has removed the abbess and left open the question of who will take over. (Beatrice is hot for the job.) But then Marshall also throws in issues of class and snobbism as well as -- late in the action -- an unconvincing crisis of conscience for Beatrice and a sudden resentment in Lucrezia over her father abandoning her as a child.

Is this about a struggle against irrational authority? About talent crushed by the untalented? Or simply about how the uglier parts of human nature can worm their way into even the greatest ideals? It's not clear: The various themes and subplots, while interrelated, never coalesce dramatically. Marshall fails to pull everything together in the end (and there are some clunkily written plot pivots, like Beatrice's convenient discovery of Lucrezia's music lessons). But the beginning and middle are rife with schemes and dreams that gain momentary resonance in director Diana Denley's simple, elegiac production.

Flye gives a moving performance as a fragile though determined woman. As one of Camilla's (real) sisters, Jennifer Mendenhall is also effective, portraying a rather street-smart nun who still believes in the power of goodness. Beatrice is the script's designated heavy, but fortunately Giannarelli restrains her performance when possible. When the character has her bout of conscience, it feels contrived, but Giannarelli almost makes you believe it.

Gary Telles' hapless and contented music tutor, brief as the role is, inserts itself into memory mostly because the performance is so impressively gentle. With few gestures and expressions he conveys the world of a middle-aged man whose own dreams long ago faded. And as Lucrezia, Shupe isn't a problem at all: She draws a clear enough portrait of a young, self-absorbed woman-girl whose talent is as much a source of pain as inspiration.

Like Lucrezia, "Rapture" shows promise in need of discipline.

Rapture, by Jeanne Marshall. Directed by Diana Denley. With Brilane Bowman, Lynn-Jane Foreman and Richard Mancini. Set, Dan Schrader; costumes, William Pucilowsky; lighting, Adam Magazine. Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes. Through Dec. 2 at MetroStage, 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria. Call 703-548-9044.



© 2001 The Washington Post Company

I'm watching the new show 24 on Fox. It's pretty damn good. It amazes me that the same network that brings you dreck like Temptation Island and Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire also has supported some of the best shows on television -- particularly the Simpsons.

Salon.com People Speaking of Britney casting herself as the ingenue, the perky popster says that while she doesn't mind being compared to Madonna, she thinks there are a few key differences in the way she behaves on- and offstage. "I may wear something that shows my belly," she tells Vogue, "but other than that I haven't done anything crazy like ... like I haven't masturbated on a bed!"

I am not responsible for the water main break on Miltary Road this morning. I was there more than 15 minutes before the break at 9:17 p.m.

Ocean Spay cooperative members get cranthrax-- its cranthractic.

Here's another thing that irritates me -- the Lord of the Rings movie, and it hasn't even come out yet.

Here's some stuff that irritates me:

The movie Gladiator.
Almost every commercial on the radio.
People who back in to parking spaces.

From my friend MCR:

Things that irritate me:
(1) Klezmer music.
(2) Mr Holland's Opus.

Hugh Hefner has 7 Playmate "girlfriends." That, in itself is neither that interesting or that funny. But if he referred to them as Sneezy, Bashful, etc, that would be funny.

The Facts of Life reunion is coming on Novembver 18!! Until then, check out Lisa Welchel's website, which may be one of the more annoying things I've ever seen.

Tom Tommorow's weekly This Modern World cartoon in Salon is just about the best political commentary in America.

It's Blog Update Monday

-- I guess I was wrong about the whole Mariano Rivera thing.

-- I guess I did forget to note that the news item re. marijuana was from the UK.

Yes, the Redskins have won three games in a row, but that has not yet dampened my pessismism. The Skins have an off-week and then play a real football team, the Denver Broncos. In Denver. Two weeks of constant Schottenheimer will put the Redskins back into a funk. Then the Broncos are going to destroy them.

The Redskins -- 3-5 on the road to a glorious 6-10.

Did I mention that roll on deodorant users get banthrax? Or that Akiro Kurosawa might contract ranthrax?

From: Michael C Rosenstein
To: Adam Magazine
Subject: no more bob


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/eo/20011104/en/_quot_bob_quot_succumbs_to_quot_seinfeld_quot_curse_1.html

How many weeks was that?

Why I'm Glad the Yankees Lost

Some might feel that New York "deserved" to win again, because the city has been through a lot. But, to quote Clint Eastwood, deserves got nothing to do with it. We all love to root for the underdog, not just because it makes for dramatic victories, but because there's a strong spirit of ostracization in America. Our mistrust of aristocracies runs deep. No one should be too rich or too inflluential -- it's bad for the game. (Why we couldn't tap that feeling to decisively defeat a legacy presidential candidate, I'm not sure...) Anyway, while the Arizona team is not exactly a bunch of plucky rookies in home-made uniforms, the Diamondbacks win still feels like a victory of meritocracy over plutocracy. And that's the way it should be.
-- Mr Joel

Blogback seems to be working. Try it!

I'm trying to add Blogback -- "BlogBack allows visitors to comment on your weblog posts, without the need to host the service yourself. For free."

This weekend's family functions reminded me once again -- you can't have fun without alcohol.

If you get it in Florida, it's tanthrax.
If you are male, it's manthrax. Female, womanthrax. And if you are a man in woman's clothes, it's tranthrax.
Soccer moms get minivanthrax.
Pilots on the Kessel run get Hanthrax.
If you contract it from your computer, I'm afraid you've got lanthrax.
All of my professors get Danthrax.
In Teheran, they could have an outbreak of Iranthrax.
80's pop stars get DuranDuranthrax.
Bridge engineers get spanthrax.
At FedEx Field, you could contract fanthrax.
The Nanny gets Franthrax.

Nerd Thrills and Fleeting Fame

This is a very silly thing that makes me happy: the success of a whim. See today's PvP comic strip and be sure to scan all the way down the page.
-- Mr Joel

I'm watching Lawrence of Arabia on one of the HBO channels. I'm reminded of two things: that its one of the greatest films of all time, and that I hate pan-and-scan.

The car parked in front of me had one of those "Jesus Saves" bumper stickers. I don't know about that, but Mariano Rivera sure does. Why do they even bother playing the World Series anymore?

A Sensible, Possibly Even Very Important, Letter from an Unreasonably Handsome Celebrity

Forgive the long post, people, but the Great Gatsby here has got it right. -- Mr. Joel

=====
A Letter From Robert Redford
Dear Friend,

It is understandable that we Americans feel an almost reflexive need for unanimity in trying times like these. As a nation, we are rightly consumed with responding to the terrorist attacks on September 11th. But, at some point -- and I think we're beginning to get there -- we need to take a long-term view even as we are reacting to the current crisis. Really important domestic issues facing us before all of this happened -- education, energy and the environment, health care -- still have the same dimension and consequence. But we have to recognize that it's much more difficult to discuss and debate them in the aftermath of Sept. 11th. Unfortunately, disagreement is sometimes characterized as unpatriotic during times such as these and open, thoughtful discourse is somewhat muted. The gravity of the current situation is not lost on any of us and we all want to do what's right to insure our national security. It is with this in mind that I felt compelled to write you today.

A handful of determined U.S. senators, encouraged by the White House, are arguing that national security requires the Senate to rush a pro-oil energy bill into law. They have vowed to hold up normal Senate business and attach the bill to every piece of legislation that comes to the Senate floor. So far they have failed in what The Boston Globe is calling "oil opportunism." But with President Bush, himself, now calling for rushed passage of this disastrous bill, intense pressure is building on Senate leaders to succumb to the emotions of the moment.

Using our national tragedy as an opportunity to advance the narrow interests of the oil lobby would not be in the best interest of the public. This bill, already passed by the House, would not only open the Arctic Refuge to oil rigs, it would also pave the way for energy companies to exploit and destroy pristine areas of Greater Yellowstone and other gems of our natural heritage. As important, it would do nothing to address energy security.

I'm asking for your immediate help in stopping this legislation. After reading my letter I hope you'll take action at http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic and then forward this letter to your friends and colleagues.

Last spring, the Bush administration and some members of Congress said we had to pass the president's oil-friendly energy bill because we were facing the most serious energy crisis since 1973. But here we are, a mere six months later, and the energy crisis has vanished. Due to a slowing economy and falling demand, the prices for gasoline, natural gas and home heating oil have plunged. Meanwhile, the much-feared "summer of blackouts" in California never happened, largely because consumers and businesses made dramatic cuts in energy use by launching the most successful statewide conservation campaign in history.

With no energy crisis to scare us with, the administration and pro-oil senators are now promoting their "Drill the Arctic" plan under the guise of national security and energy independence. Don't buy it. It would take ten years to bring Arctic oil to market, and when it arrives it would never equal more than two percent -- a mere drop in the bucket -- of all the oil we consume each year. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to energy independence or even to affect world oil prices.

We possess a mere 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but we consume fully 25 percent of the world's oil supply. We could drill the Arctic Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, and every other wildland in America and we'd still be importing oil, still be paying worldwide prices for domestic oil, and still be vulnerable to wild gyrations in price and supply. As The Atlanta Constitution put it: "Burning through our tiny oil supply faster will not make our country more secure." I'd go further: increasing our dependence on oil, whether that oil comes from the Persian Gulf or the Arctic Refuge, practically guarantees national *insecurity*. And we know that it will bring more habitat destruction, more oil spills, more air pollution, and more global warming. The public health implications will be devastating.

If our nation wants to declare energy independence, then we have no choice but to reduce our appetite for oil. There's no other way. We need to rely on smarter and cleaner ways to power our economy. We have the technology right now to increase fuel economy standards to 40 miles per gallon. If we phased in that standard by 2012 we'd save 15 times more oil than the Arctic Refuge is likely to produce over 50 years. We could also give tax rebates for existing hybrid gas-electric vehicles that get as much as 60 mpg. We could invest in public transit. We could launch an "Apollo Project" to bring fuel cells and hydrogen fuel down to earth, allowing us to begin the mass production of vehicles that emit only water as a by-product. The list goes on and on.

In this climate of national trauma and war, it is up to us -- the people -- to ensure that reason prevails and our natural heritage survives intact. The preservation of irreplaceable wildlands like the Arctic Refuge and Greater Yellowstone is a core American value. I have never been more appreciative of the wisdom of that value than during these past few weeks. When we are filled with grief and unanswerable questions it is often nature that we turn to for refuge and comfort. In the sanctuary of a forest or the vastness of the desert or the silence of a grassland, we can touch a timeless force larger than ourselves and our all-too-human problems. This is where the healing begins. Those who would sell out this natural heritage -- this spiritual heritage -- would destroy a wellspring of American strength. What's worse, their rush to exploit the wildness that feeds our souls won't do a thing to solve our energy problems.

There are plenty of sensible and patriotic ways to guarantee our nation's energy security, but destroying the Arctic Refuge is not one of them. Please tell that to your senators. They urgently need to hear it because the pressure is on to move this pro-oil bill to a vote in the next few weeks. It will take you only a minute to send them an electronic message from NRDC's SaveBioGems website.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic.

And please forward this message to your family and friends. Millions of Americans need to know about this cynical attempt to promote the interests of energy companies at the expense of everyone else.

Sincerely yours,
Robert Redford

For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more attractive person, order "How to Be Popular." Send a business-size, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $5 (U.S. funds only) to: Dear Abby Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Postage is included.)

The answers to your Christmas problems.

Least loved Halloween Treats:

1) Toothbrush -- give me a break. Traditionally distributed by dentists. Explains dentistry's awful public image.

2) Pencils.

3) McDonald's gift certificates. Gee, thanks. Now I get to bug my parents until they break down and take me for fast food.

4) Candy Corn -- what the hell are they, anyway.

5) Oversized Red Hots. It burns, Mommy, it burns.