Performance

My (imaginary) boyfriend has been busy shooting movies, doing some performances and growing a beard. I hate the beard, by the way, but I love the acting.

That's not just the reason why I can't wait to see him and others in Howard Zinn's "The People Speak". The material itself is just incredibly compelling, by presenting alternative texts and voices to History, to the official story those in power want you and me to agree as being truth and reality : Democracy is in dissent, Democracy is in resistance, Democracy doesn't come from the top, it comes from the bottom.

Here's a list of the performers :

Howard Zinn
Martín Espada
Christina Kirk
Danny Glover
Darryl McDaniels (DMC)
David Strathairn
Harris Yullin
Jasmine Guy
John Legend
Josh Brolin
Kathleen Chalfant
Kerry Washington
Marisa Tomei
Michael Ealy
Michael O'Malley
Q'orianka Kilcher
Reg E. Cathey
Staceyann Chin
Viggo Mortensen

You can read more about the project at Howard Zinn's website.

Veteran/author/activist Lori Perdue read this poem at a gathering of progressive politicians, activists, and artists the other night at Washington's 'Busboys & Poets' venue. I can't say for sure just who it was she was describing in these words, but I suspect we can all think of several potential candidates for the honor... *grin*

Driven 9/25/06

One handed freestyle keyboarding and talking on two cell phones at once, she is driven, on a mission.
She catches my eye.
The buttons on her jacket are mis-aligned, making her collar jump up on one side.
She is unaware of her visage, she is driven, on a mission.
She hangs up the phone in her hand and places it on the table beside her computer,
Seamlessly sliding into another conversation, another gear, another thought process, talking into the phone balanced in the crook of her neck.
She squints at the screen of the laptop in front of her, clicks on something, passes on the retrieved information to whomever exists on the end of the sound wave, and signs off.
Letting the phone slip from her shoulder to her waiting hand, she ends the call with a practiced thumb and the slightest of glances at the tiny screen on the face of the device, and expertly drops the phone into the unfastened pocket of the ill-buttoned denim jacket.

OMG. The dance off! Is it wrong I laughed so hard?

This has got to be the single most weirdest moment in Oscar history and I LOVED every minute of it of the Elements & Motion sound effects choir.

Honestly, I don't know how they could top that next year --but if you want to follow more of my Oscars musings, go to our sister blog, Hollywoodistas.com.

I have mentioned it before, that when I travel for panels or conferences, it takes me a few days to get back into blogging.

Day trips actually get to me more than transatlantic or transcontinental trips. At least I can sleep if the trips are more than 4 hours long. On short trips, I rarely get to rest --even at the hotel. I guess I am a creature of habit that is sensitive to change.

Which explains my kids comment from the other day.

When I travel I get "penalized" for my absence. I don't think The Kids mind my absences so much as their father who then ... ahem ... disappears during the evenings for the next few days after one of my business trips.

This changes the dynamics of evening reading since, due to his work schedule, that's become his one job in the evenings. And it's one job he usually does as I prepare for my second shift of work in my usual 10-12 hour work days.

  

Not exactly a face that would make most women swoon.

When Eva Braun was a teenager, she worked as a salesgirl in the shop of the official Nazi Party Photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. Eventually, she began working as his photography assistant and it was in his darkroom that she first glimpsed the man whose paranoia, gastrointestinal agonies (do the research), and "Vitamin B" shots caused the death of millions.

She fell in love with a face that only a (blind) mother could love. Yeah, yeah, I know...I have slept with men who are unconventially sexy, but I doubt anyone in their right mind would classify Hitler as such. He suffered from constant bouts of noxious gas, had terrible taste in clothes, and quite frankly, that whole trying to take over the world thing just doesn't work for me.

I imagine Eva standing in a darkroom as she watches the glow of his face form into an image that captures her heart. Now, I have no idea if it happened this way or not, although it is documented that she met Hitler in this shop and because Hoffman was the official Nazi Party Photographer, she did see photos of Hitler before she met him. As a woman, I can almost guarantee she was already drawn to him through the photos.

In contrast to its economic equivalent, the measure of cultural capital has long eluded artists, activists, and intellectuals. Studies indicate that the growth of cultural capital is primarily concentrated in several distinct areas of political action we call "emerging markets." By encouraging the open exchange of ideas in these areas, RTMARK allows for innovative market research. RTMARK has developed the first software platform for real-time cultural capital trends analysis, built on an open-source, social networks model. With the launch of its flagship product, Protester(TM), RTMARK will become the first and only company to measure the dynamic growth of cultural, rather than economic, capital.

There's nothing like it! The old, the new, the coming-soon and the never-was blend seamlessly. Multidiscipline, multicultural and lingual, multieverything. I think Cirque du Soleil shows are incomparable even to each other, though the NYTimes review of "Corteo" opening last night suggests it's the only comparison we should even attempt.

[quote=John Rockwell]Drawing, like other major circuses, from the same international pool of small traveling circuses and circus schools, augmented by fresh talent from Eastern Europe and Asia, Cirque du Soleil has elevated the once marginal and innovative "new circus" experiments of Europe into an international brand name.

The Cirque format has surpassed the older-fashioned. . .
This is another exercise in slightly fey Cirque fantasizing
. . . accompanied by the sort of music mimes would make if mimes made music.[/quote]

I saw their resort show at DisneyWorld's Pleasure Island a few years ago, from the equivalent of center court, only three rows from the stage -- at any moment I was sure the tower of 50 chairs would fall directly on my head or a careening vehicle would drive off the lipless edge into my lap. And performers did come into the seats from all directions, you never quite knew what was coming or what it meant. Talk about live!

[via The Brick Testament]
It's the Bible on LEGOS.

That's right. Reenactments of the Bible using LEGOS building blocks. A total drug-free trip. Totally whacked out and awesome.