Day: September 19, 2015

Swabbing the Rest of the Deck

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=pirateNow, mates, time to swab the rest of the deck. The cookee said that he couldn’t use these tasty chunks in the stew — they just didn’t blend right. He says we should throw them overboard:

Music: Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County (2010 Studio Cast): “Brotherly Love” (Ryan Bingham and Will Dailey)

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They Thought It Was a Good Idea

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userpic=soylent-greenAye, Mateys, we’re getting closer. The foredeck has been cleaned and swabbed. Now to swap the aft deck. The next bilgewater we’re going to throw over the deck concerns some questionable ideas:

Music: Piano Ragtime with The Dukes of Dixieland: “Bugle Call Rag” (The Dukes of Dixieland)

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Technology on the Poop Deck: Banner Ads, Microsoft, and iPods

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userpic=cyborgEverytime we get a quarter of the poop deck clean, some RSS feed comes along and makes a mess, leaving us to swab it again. Here are some technological arrrrrr-ticles that will soon walk the plank:

Music: The Sammy Davis Jr. Show: “Sam’s Song” (Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin)

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They’ve Outlived Their Usefullness… Maybe

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=pirateWe’re continuing to swab the deck of this pesky news chum. This time, we’re making some things that might be of retirement age walk the plank. Let’s see if they sink or swim:

  • The Boeing 747. One of the books I keep rereading from the early 1970s deals with the birth of the Boeing 747. After 45 years, the old lady of aviation (of the current “models” in heavy use, only the 737 is older) may be ready to retire. It’s engineering is from the past: people are astonished when they see the analogue instruments. The flight controls are all dependent on old-fashioned mechanical linkages. A 747 captain once explained that, if hydraulic assistance on the control yoke is lost, you can still put your feet on the instrument panel, give a big tug and wrench the plane about the sky. You cannot do that on a solid-state Airbus. Airline economics have also changed: International flights can now avoid the big hubs and go directly on long, thin routes between secondary cities. The first generation of high-bypass turbofans made the original 747-100 possible, but it was only ever economical when fully loaded, its efficiency tumbling disproportionately as seats were left empty. In the 45 years since its first flight, engine reliability has so dramatically improved there is no need for four thirsty engines. In any case, the fundamental appeal of the original 747 was its range rather than its capacity. Boeing’s own efficient long-range modern twinjets, the 777 and 787 have made it redundant. And the A380 makes it look crude.
  • Quicken. If you are like me, you probably have years and years of data in Quicken. I think I started using it back in 1994, perhaps even a bit earlier, with a version running on MS-DOS. Well the markets have changed, and you and I are dinosaurs. All the cool kids use online money management, and Intuit (born of Quicken) has put Quicken on the market. Intuit has decided to focus on its small business and tax software, represented by QuickBooks and TurboTax, respectively — both have strong cloud- and subscription-based businesses — and is ditching Quicken because, as a strictly desktop product, it has neither.  Some predict Quicken to be dead in two years. After all, the three units Intuit plans to sell — Quicken, QuickBase and Demandforce — accounted for less than 6% of the firm’s fiscal 2015 revenue, and just 2% of its net income during the same period. For the last 12 months, Quicken contributed just $51 million to the company’s total revenue of nearly $4.2 billion.  They want a buyer that will keep the brand up. It will be interesting to see. I still use Quicken — and their long-retired Medical Insurance Tracking software — and it would be a pain to transition that data (and the data does not belong online).
  • Vinyl Records. On the other hand, vinyl records (which were written off for dead), are seeing a comeback. The NY Times reports that the business of record pressing is now experiencing so many orders they cannot keep up (warning: autoplay video). The problem: how to capitalize on the popularity of vinyl records when the machines that make them are decades old, and often require delicate and expensive maintenance. The few dozen plants around the world that press the records have strained to keep up with the exploding demand, resulting in long delays and other production problems. It is now common for plants to take up to six months to turn around a vinyl order. Still, vinyl is a niche market, albeit a valuable one.

Music: The Slightly Fabulous Limelighters: “Aravah, Aravah” (The Limeliters )

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Spread It Around

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=socialmediaAvast ye mateys. It’s time to start clearing the deck of all these pieces of news chum, before they bring my bookmarks to the bottom of Davey Jones’. So let’s throw some of this bilge-bait to the fishies. This bucket o’chum all concerns social media and aggressions:

Bucket No 1: Lashon Harah.

In these 10 days of introspection between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur comes a very timely post about the use of social media from the Coffee Shop Rabbi. In it, she talks about the Jewish notion of Lashon harah, which prohibits the use of speech to say anything negative or derogatory about another person, even if it is the truth.  There is only one exception: we can say negative things about another if those things are true, but only if our silence would result in injury or severe loss to another person. Think about this the next time you get ready to press that “share” button. The Coffee Shop Rabbi’s article goes into this in more detail; she uses as her example the viral claim that terrorists are infiltrating Europe among the refugees. Although debunked, spreading it can cause great harm. As she reminds us: “Social media is particularly potent speech because it travels so far, so fast. Careless use of it has ruined reputations, destroyed careers, enflamed violence. We need to be careful in using such a powerful tool.”

Bucket No 2: Microaggressions.

There’s an interesting article in Bloomberg View about how grown-ups deal with microaggressions. The author of the article notes that “We used to call this “rudeness,” “slights” or “ignorant remarks.” Mostly, people ignored them. The elevation of microaggressions into a social phenomenon with a specific name and increasingly public redress marks a dramatic social change.” What I found interesting about the article (and I didn’t agree with everything) is her notion about cultural shift:

Western society, they argue, has shifted from an honor culture — in which slights are taken very seriously, and avenged by the one slighted — to a dignity culture, in which personal revenge is discouraged, and justice is outsourced to third parties, primarily the law. The law being a cumbersome beast, people in dignity cultures are encouraged to ignore slights, or negotiate them privately by talking with the offender, rather than seeking some more punitive sanction.

Microagressions mark a transition to a third sort of culture: a victim culture, in which people are once again encouraged to take notice of slights. This sounds a lot like honor culture, doesn’t it? Yes, with two important differences. The first is that while victimhood is shameful in an honor culture — and indeed, the purpose of taking vengeance is frequently to avoid this shame — victim status is actively sought in the new culture, because victimhood is a prerequisite for getting redress. The second is that victim culture encourages people to seek help from third parties, either authorities or the public, rather than seeking satisfaction themselves.

I think we’ve heard folks talk about “victim culture” before: the notion that everything that happens to me is someone else’s fault. Some call it the abdication of responsibility.

But as I said, I’m mixed about the notion as a whole. I do believe there has been a culture of privilege, which creates aggression and privileges not seen by everyone, but there none-the-less. How do we handle these? Writing them off is clearly wrong. Some of the anger I see, however, although heartfelt, it also the wrong way. The problems need to be fixed.

Bucket No. 3: A Sentence is a Bad Thing to End a Preposition With.

One of the most common sources of aggression on the Internet is grammar. The problem is that most of the hard and fast rules we think exist really don’t. It demonstrates that we need to boldly go to that world where grammar is the least of our concerns. We need to not worry about what they will think, or what we use to end our sentence with. Hopefully, we’ll all get along. PS: I’ve discovered a great podcast on words: The Allusionist.

Music: Having It All/Having It Almost (2008 Demos): “Date Is Just A Four-Letter Word” (Liz Larsen, Wendy Perelman, Christa Jackson, Stefanie Morse, Kirsten Chandler)

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No, They Won’t Eat You — Inspired Lunacy in Denmark

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Hamlet (4 Clowns)userpic=yorick[Note: Although I’m posting this on Talk Like a Pirate day, this isn’t in pirate speak. Alas, the “Arrrr” and “Ayeeee” keys on my keyboard are broken.]

Clowns. Some find them scary. Some find them funny. Some just don’t understand them, or think of them solely in their “big top” circus incarnation — the white makeup, the big shoes, the squirting flowers. But real clowns — in the form of true clowning around — are much different. They have an inspired silliness — they just enjoy wild play. Want an example? Look no further than Moonie, a regular at Ren Faire. He’s just silly and funny, playing on and off people. Clowns are just funny.

Now, let’s look at Hamlet. One of William Shakespeare‘s greatest plays. A tragedy, in which everyone dies. Sad. Heavy. Somber drama. Think Lion King drama. But within the play lies…. madness. After all, Hamlet puts on an antic disposition. Right?

Combine the two … clowns and Hamlet and the result is… intriguing. That was my thinking when I received a press release about this show. I’d heard good things about the Four Clowns (FB) company, and unfortunately had to miss their fringe shows. So this press release piqued my interest, and when the opportunity arose to schedule it… I did. Building off a day when I was working at home, I scheduled a Friday evening show (opening night, in fact), and we worked our way through traffic to get to the Shakespeare Center near downtown for Four Clowns Presents Hamlet. I’m very glad we did, and that’s not just because we got to have a great dinner at The Park’s Finest beforehand.

Now, I’m decidedly not a Shakespeare expert. I studied it in high school, and saw the New York Shakespeare’s version of Two Gentlemen of Verona (in fact, it is still my favorite show). I’d also seen Moonlighting’s Atomic Shakespeare. But other than that, my exposure until recently was limited. In the last few years I’ve seen a bit more: Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Old Globe in San Diego; The Taming of the Shrew at Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival and Theatricum Botanicum; As You Like It at Theatricum Botanicum. All of them comedies (everyone gets married). I’ve never seen the big dramas such as Hamlet or the Scottish Play.

As a result, the Four Clowns version of Hamlet was probably the first time I’ve explored Hamlet as Hamlet since 1975 and Mr. Smith’s English Class at Pali Hi. Guess what. It was the perfect introduction to the piece. From the ghost wandering through the audience before the opening to the final closing scenes, it was inspired lunacy. The story came through, but the dark and somber nature heightened through the iambic pentameter wasn’t there to clutter the understanding. In fact, by lightening the tone of the story, the clowns made the story accessible and understandable, despite the difficulties that the language of Shakespeare’s time can bring. Translation: Go see this — it makes Shakespeare accessible in a truly unique way.

Normally, at this point, I’d summarize the story of Hamlet. I’m not sure I need to do that — you may already know the story, or you may have seen The Lion King and know the basis of the story. You can always read the summary at Wikipedia, or read the actual play (it’s in the public domain). The elevator summary is that it is a story of revenge: Hamlet learns from the ghost that his father was murdered, and vows revenge on his uncle, King Claudius — who did the deed and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. To do this, he pretends to be mad. Only his best friend Horatio knows the truth. Hamlet is even forced to hide the truth from his love, Ophelia, and her father Pelonius and brother Laertes. Added to this mix are two fools: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

This, as I’ve noted before, is a classic story. It is one of Shakespeare’s most produced plays, and has been reworked into countless cover stories (including the aforementioned Lion King). Who can find fault with a classic story of revenge and madness, murder and mayhem? But not everyone likes dark heavy dramas.

The Four Clowns Company took this story and lightened it up… by not changing a single plot point. What they did was turn the knob on the lunacy to a 12 when the max was 10, and dial back the somberness and actual violence. This wasn’t to the level of caricature, although Rosencrantz and Guildenstern did seem like a pair of drunken frat boys. They just changed the sanity to silly, and let the descent into lunacy proceed apace.

You get a sense of what will be happening from the pre-show, when the ghost (Joe DeSoto (FB)) starts wandering amongst the audience, making spooky hand motions (I really have no other way to describe it), and encouraging the audience to play along. This is all silent play, but very funny and very reminiscent of how Moonie plays with his audience. DeSoto seems to excel at this silent form of play. You see it again during his actual scenes as the ghost — you just don’t know where he is going to go with anything.

After the artistic director announcements, we meet an overenthusiastic Horatio (Connor Kelly-Eiding (FB)). This overenthusiasm continued throughout the show — Kelly-Eiding seemed almost like a puppy craving the acceptance and full of manic energy. It was just a joy to watch, and I found my eye drawn to her character whenever she was one the stage. Horatio then proceeds to introduce us to all the characters, after which they leave and Hamlet and Horatio encounter the Ghost.

Hamlet (Andrew Eiden (FB)) is initially portrayed as very somber — perhaps the one sane member of this troupe. The lunacy arises when Hamlet puts on the red nose… at which point the unpredictability arises. But his intensity when he delivers Hamlet’s classic monologue from the audience is remarkable, and his lunacy and actions before that only serve to heighten understanding of the classic words.  He was just fun to watch.

The “bad guys” of this story are King Claudius (Corey Johnson (FB)) and Queen Gertrude (Charlotte Chanler (FB)). Chanler’s Gertrude kept making me think of Carol Kane, for some reason. This is a good thing: Kane is a wonderful comic actress, and that sense of comic timing and lunacy came across on Chanler’s Gertrude. Watching her face the first time she gets killed is delightful.  Similarly, Johnson’s Claudius came across more as comic than evil.

The other major family in the story is Polonius (Scotty Farris (FB)), and his two children, Ophelia (Elizabeth Godley (FB)) and Laertes (Joe DeSoto (FB)). Farris captures the befuddled old man well, with some great comic overacting at point. Godley’s Ophelia is sweet — I particularly recall the scene where Hamlet eats the flower and watching her reaction. We don’t see that much of DeSoto as Laertes, but he does do a wonderful job in the swordfighting scene.

Rounding out the cast were Rosencrantz (Dave Honigman (FB)) and Guildenstern (Tyler Bremer/FB), who will later go on to star in their own play. These two men elevated the small courtier role into gag comedy, coming off as a pair of frat brothers on the edge of drunken playfulness.  The torture scene with Hamlet and Horatio is great, and their introduction to the Queen is hilarious.

Four Clowns Presents Hamlet was adapted and directed by Turner Munch (FB). I spoke to Munch after the show, expressing my usual confusion of where the director ends and the actor begins. He indicated that this production was truly a collaborative effort with everyone contributing bits and ideas; his job was to bring the various pieces together and to make them into some sort of coherent whole. He did a great job.

On the technical side… The set and props by Alexandra Giron/FB was relatively simple: some chairs, some fabric. There were more props, but they all worked to establish the appropriate sense of place and story. Lighting Design was by Mcleod Benson/FB, and it worked well-enough. Nothing fancy, but adequately illuminating :-). The back projection scenese were also quite good. There was no credit for sound design; this was too bad, as there were some scenes where sound was used to great effect. Costumes, hair, and make-up were by Elena Flores/FB and worked well. The costumes defined their characters well (the ghost costume was particularly creative). Fight choreography was by Matt Franta (FB), and appeared quite realistic. Rounding out the technical credits were: Technical Director – Matt MacCready/FB; Production Manager – Julianna Stephanie Ojeda/FB; Graphic Designer – Zach Steel (FB); Trailer Editor – Adam Carpenter/FB; Stage Manager – Ashley Jo Navarro/FB; Producers – Jeremy Aluma (FB), Sara Waugh/FB, and David Anthony Anis (FB). Four Clows is under the artistic direction of Jeremy Aluma (FB).

Four Clowns Presents Hamlet continues at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (FB) in a co-production with the Four Clowns (FB) until Saturday, October 10, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM. Tickets are available through the Four Clowns website. This show does not appear to be on Goldstar. It is well worth seeing; one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in a long time. We’re going to keep our eyes open for other Four Clowns productions — they’re great.

Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience member. I’ve been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I’ve been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I’m a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I am not compensated by anyone for doing these writeups in any way, shape, or form. I subscribe at three theatres:  REP East (FB), The Colony Theatre (FB), and Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Through my theatre attendance I have made friends with cast, crew, and producers, but I do strive to not let those relationships color my writing (with one exception: when writing up children’s production, I focus on the positive — one gains nothing except bad karma by raking a child over the coals).  I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.

Upcoming Shows: This evening brings our second show of the weekend: “The Diviners” at REP East (FB). Next weekend sees us going down to La Mirada to see “First Date” at The La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (FB). October was being held for the NoHo Fringe Festival (FB), but they haven’t put up the Fringe shows yet, so I’ve started booking weekends. The first weekend of October brings “The Baker’s Wife” at Actors Co-op (FB) in Hollywood. The second weekend of October brings “The Best of Enemies” at The Colony Theatre (FB). The third weekend of October takes us to Thousand Oaks for “Damn Yankees” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The fourth weekend of October brings “Uncle Vanya” at Antaeus Theatre Company (FB) in North Hollywood. Halloween weekend sees me at CSUN for Urinetown, and then both of us out in Simi Valley for “The Addams Family” at the Simi Cultural Arts Center (Simi Actors Rep Theatre (FB)). The following weekend sees us back in Simi for the Nottingham Festival (FB) on November 7. We then go out to Perris for “A Day Out with Thomas” at Orange Empire Railway Museum (FB) on November 11 (I can’t skip seeing my buddy Thomas and his friend Percy). The bookings for November conclude with Deathtrap at REP East (FB) on November 14; the rest of the month is currently open. December brings “Humble Boy” at The Colony Theatre (FB) the first weekend, followed by a mid-week stint as a producer, when we present The Nigerian Spam Scam Scam as the dinner entertainment at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). December also has dates held for “The Bridges of Madison County” at the Ahmanson Theatre (FB) and “If/Then” at the Pantages (FB). There are also a few other interesting productions I’m keeping my eyes open for. The first is the Fall show at The Blank Theatre (FB), “Something Truly Monstrous”, sounds wonderful — however, it runs through November 8, so squeezing it in would mean a double weekend. The show at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (FB) also sounds like an interesting exploration of clutter —  but “The Object Lesson” only runs through October 4, and I’m not sure we can squeeze it in. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

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