Day: April 29, 2016

Theatre Planning — Hollywood Fringe Edition

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy2 Comments

userpic=fringeTicketing for the Hollywood Fringe Festival opens Sunday morning. Here are the shows that I’m currently planning to see, if they don’t break the budget. There are additional shows of interest that we couldn’t fit into the schedule. Note: This is just a paste of my favorites from the Fringe Website.

  • 30JJ OR BUST: THE WORLD IS MY UNDERWIRE. It’s surprisingly what comes up when you’re living as a 30-double-J in a 34-C world.
  • ALIEN VS. MUSICAL. What happens when the world of musical theatre meets the most terrifying alien in cinema history? The award winning ALIEN VS. MUSICAL returns for 2016 and it’s bigger and better than ever!
  • ALL ABOARD THE MARRIAGE HEARSE. Sean and Amy are a typical co-habitating, Catholic/Jewish couple who love each other and share common goals…sort of. Now, after four years, Amy wants to get married but Sean does not believe in the institution. The game is on! Don’t miss this acclaimed, international hit romantic comedy!
  • ALL THE BEST KILLERS ARE LIBRARIANS. In this action-packed comedy, Lauren Van Kurin (“King of Kong: A Musical Parody”) stars as a shy librarian recruited into the thrilling world of professional assassinations, international intrigue, and forbidden romance. **WINNER** Season Ten of “Serial Killers” at Sacred Fools Theater
  • CODE:197 DWB (DRIVING WHILE BLEWISH). Benny Lee Harris Lumpkins Jr, a.k.a. Ben-El David, a.k.a Benny Weinberg, or is it Benny Lee Harris Weinberg-Lumpkins, whatever, he is Blewish, a.k.a. Black and Jewish. Oy Vey! Sababa? Why Judaism? These questions are answered and more at the only Oneg at hff16. Special appearance by Diversidad.
  • EINSTEIN! Einstein comes back from the beyond. Upset with the way his image has been cheapened, he tells us the remarkable– sometimes harrowing, story behind relativity and his struggles as a father. Told through humor and heart, Jack Fry breathes life into one of the most intriguing icons of all time.
  • HAMLET . Shakespeare’s Hamlet cut and adapted for modern audiences. Set in the 1940s in a struggling Las Vegas with the mob as the Royal Family.
  • LAMPREY: WEEKEND OF VENGEANCE. Lamprey is having trouble with her husband at home, her partner was just murdered, Internal Affairs is riding her ass, and a homicidal killer is gunning for her. This might just be the best day of her life! The Lamprey premiered at Serial Killers at Sacred Fools.
  • MY BIG FAT BLONDE MUSICAL. It’s not over ’til the fat lady sings. My Big Fat Blonde Musical follows Terri as she fights her insecurities and learns to measure her worth by talent rather than the size of her pants.
  • MARK TWAIN ANSWERS ALL YOUR QUESTIONS. Fresh off his award-winning performance at last year’s Poe Show,* Mr. Mark Twain is back with his one man show! This June at the new Sacred Fools space, Mr. Mark Twain will be shooting out the lights with stories, observations, and general nonsense (with extra nonsense on the side). If he fools around long enough, he may even say something worth repeating.
  • SQUEEZE MY CANS. The Church of Scientology had actress Cathy Schenkelberg for 14 years; 5 years after leaving them behind, she has the courage to tell us all about it. This hilarious and horrifying story unfolds under the direction of Shirley Anderson.
  • SWEET LOVE ADIEU. Romeo and Juliet meets Monty Python in this hilarious comedy of errors from multiple award-winning British verse playwright phenomenon, Ryan J-W Smith. Winner – The International Award – Hollywood Fringe Festival 2015. “The Bard Mark II – Genius!” – BBC. “A damned good romp” – British Theatre Guide
  • TELL ME ON A SUNDAY. Directed by the award winning Calvin Remsberg and starring Shannon Nelson (“Drop Dead Gorgeous” and “Absolutely Filthy”), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s classic one-woman musical that charts the course of an English hat designer’s romantic misadventures from NYC to LA and back again.
  • THE OLD WOMAN. The true life story of his mother’s heartbreaking journey into dementia, confronting the inevitable truth of aging, and coming to terms with his own mortality. A beautifully moving story peppered with moments of absolute joy and humor. “★★★★!” – CBC “Masterful storyteller” – WFP
  • THE TOXIC AVENGER MUSICAL. HFF FIRST FOR THIS OFF-BROADWAY HIT! A light-hearted rock musical chemical spill. Good versus evil, love versus murder, nuclear waste versus New Jersey. Based on **that** infamous B Movie, TOXIE is factory-run-off fun, but a bit risqué. (13 and up, please.)
  • TITUS ANDRONICUS JR.. Murder…Cannibalism…Kids! Shakespeare’s bloodiest play performed by a cast of middle school students under the direction of a teacher suffering a nervous breakdown… What could go wrong?

Some shows that we considered, but couldn’t fit in, included A Little Hamlet, Who Are You Anyway, Doctor in the House, Vintage Box, Charming, The Human Test Subjects, Suckin Injun, Still Got It, The Story of Dick the Pussycat, My Manana Comes, Quaddafi’s Cook—Living in Hell, Cooking for the Devil, and many others. Go to the website and click on shows: there are over 274 to choose from.

Tickets go on sale May 01, 2016

Share

What We Eat, Where We Eat, How We Eat

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=pastramiAs I sit here eating my lunch, food is naturally on my mind. It may be on yours as well after this post. Here’s a collection of food related news chum: articles on what we eat, how we eat, and where we eat:

  • What We Eat: Marred Fruit. Our country wastes tons and tons of food each year because we’ve been led to believe by the media that our food must look perfect. Guess what? Not only does your food not have to look perfect, eating marred and ugly fruit may actually be healthier for you. It turns out that the mechanisms used by the plant to fight off infection from the damage actually makes the food better for you.
  • What We Eat: Avocados. Here, supposedly, is a method for ripening a rock-hard avocado in 10 minutes. I haven’t tried it yet.
  • What We Eat: Cracker Jack. Cracker Jack, that snack-food of Baseball, is ditching the prize in every box for a QR code. A sign of the times, but also (if you think about it) disenfranchising for the poor that cannot afford internet access or phones to read the codes.
  • What We Eat: Internal Impacts. It turns out that what we eat and drink has a significant impact on our internal microbiome. Coffee, tea, water, wine — these are loved by the biome. Sodas and artificial sweetners — bad for the biome. Foods like fruits, vegetables, yogurt and buttermilk can increase the diversity of bacteria in a person’s intestines. Foods containing loads of simple carbohydrates appear to reduce bacterial diversity in the gut. Of course, medicines we take have a big role as well. This cements my belief that we’ll soon discover the best weight loss method, and the best way to be healthy, is to treat our biomes right.
  • How We Eat: Exercise Doesn’t Help Lose Weight. Increasingly, the belief that you exercise to lose weight is turning out to be a myth. That’s not to say exercise is bad; rather, exercise is important for overall health and wellness. However, the calories you burn exercising just aren’t enough to make a significant dent in your weight.
  • How We Eat: The Clean Plate Club. If you are like me, you were brought up in the generation that believed you needed to clean your plate (for those starving children in China), and that it was a crime to waste food on your plate. Here’s an article that opines that plate size is a big reason for the obestity epidemic. Basically, the notion is that our plates have grown in size, and we were raised to “take a plateful and eat it all”. As such, we’re increasing portion sizes without realizing it. It is certainly something I’ve believed on the dining out side for a while: restaurants serve you too much food because food is cheap, and you need to see a lot of food to justify the prices you need to pay to cover labor. I think it is true at home as well. I’ve been consciously been trying to use smaller plates.
  • Where We Eat: Hollywood Bowl. There’s a new food lineup at the Hollywood Bowl this summer, and you can learn what it is in these pictures. This year, the Bowl has partnered with James Beard Award-winning chef Suzanne Goin and business partner Caroline Styne—the team behind local hotspots Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern and The Larder—to bring a range of delicious new dining options to the historic amphitheater. The new partnership will replace the Patina Restaurant Group, which will catered the venue’s numerous restaurants, markets, and food stands for over 15 years. The overhaul features all new offerings that will appeal to a wide variety of tastes, including everything from tacos and BBQ to wood-grilled fish and grab-and-go salads. The new food and drink options will be scattered throughout the venue, and will include a burger stand, a wine bar, a raw bar, a marketplace for sandwiches and salads, as well as several fine dining options. They’ll even have retro-style food trucks parked around the venue for quick bites.
  • Where We Eat: Portos. Here’s a great article on Portos Bakery, and the work required to keep it in operation. There is evidently method to the madness of the place. They are working on finding just the right balance between being busy, and being too busy that customers go elsewhere.
  • Where We Eat: Mexican Kosher Groceries. Here’s a neat article on a Catholic grocer in Mexico City that caters to the Jewish population needing to keep Kosher.
Share