Overated?
Even just a bit?
Discuss...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The Whistle Stop Tour
US Senate candidate Al Franken came to do a North Minneapolis meet & greet at the facility where my theatre group performs. Coolio! PMixx & I both streamed his show pretty religiously for the two-odd years it was on, and consider him to be a helluva guy, with the makings to be a public servant of the highest order.
It was nice to see him in person, and pretty wild that he was sitting there, addressing a crowd of supporters, on the same stage I will be performing on in less than three weeks.
It was nice to see him in person, and pretty wild that he was sitting there, addressing a crowd of supporters, on the same stage I will be performing on in less than three weeks.
Al on our stage. Note the ever-improving interior set.
Al, Lucy, & me. Lucy doing quite well, actually, being held by a strange man. This shot is going in a box somewhere right next to the one with me & George Takei.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Underpants
Louise discovers the fleeting price of fame when her underpants drop during the King’s parade, much to her stuffy bureaucratic husband’s dismay. Suddenly, the couple’s "Room for Rent" sign goes down and the renters (all male) seem to want their sugar included. The Underpants is Steve Martin’s riotous adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s 1910 German farce, Die Hose. Things haven’t changed much since 1910… think Janet Jackson’s Superbowl fiasco or the recent Brittney Spears tabloid shots.So, my theatre company has been quietly marching along this season, at least as far as my communication in this venue is concerned. But I guess it is time to mention that we have an upcoming show, The Underpants, by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin), and I'm in it.
You get the gist of the show in the description above. It's a sex farce; and a fast-paced, pun-laden, slapstick one at that. I play one of the renters - Frank Versati - an elegant poet (and foppish womanizer) who works to seduce Louise (unbeknownst to her husband) and makes an enemy of a rival suitor - Cohen, an asthmatic barber who seeks to thwart my efforts.
We play nine shows over three weekends beginning on Feb. 9. For those in town or within striking distance, I'd love to see you there. And for anyone who last saw one of our full-length plays in the community center, this may blow your balls off. We now have a (semi) permanent raised stage, a fully-constructed set with three doors (the more doors, the more hi-larious the farce!), and a full lighting system. The space is hot.
Smell ya later.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Project 365 is So 2007...
See the ambitious endeavor upon which my friend Matt has embarked...
(actually - Kudos to the Project 365ers. Stephen doing what I could not - again - and Aaron for going against the odds)
(actually - Kudos to the Project 365ers. Stephen doing what I could not - again - and Aaron for going against the odds)
Monday, January 07, 2008
Packaged Up with a Bow for T-Clog
He knows where he stands on the issues. He just wants to cut through the bullshit and know who he should vote for.
The Candidate Selector, brought to you by Minnesota Public Radio.
I found it a little frustrating, as there were some issues where I was forced to choose an answer for which I would have added a caveat. But it is what it is.
My candidates, in order:
Edwards/Obama: 25
Clinton: 23
Richardson: 21
Kucinich: 19
Gravel: 15
Guiliani: 10
Paul: 9
Romney: 7
McCain: 6
Huckabee: 4
Hunter: 4
Thompson: 4
T-Clog - this is an example of how someone can be a partisan, but not for the sake of being a partisan. I can answer questionaires and do blind surveys till I'm blue in the face, but I will always end up looking like like a duck, quacking like a duck, and voting Democrat.
The Candidate Selector, brought to you by Minnesota Public Radio.
I found it a little frustrating, as there were some issues where I was forced to choose an answer for which I would have added a caveat. But it is what it is.
My candidates, in order:
Edwards/Obama: 25
Clinton: 23
Richardson: 21
Kucinich: 19
Gravel: 15
Guiliani: 10
Paul: 9
Romney: 7
McCain: 6
Huckabee: 4
Hunter: 4
Thompson: 4
T-Clog - this is an example of how someone can be a partisan, but not for the sake of being a partisan. I can answer questionaires and do blind surveys till I'm blue in the face, but I will always end up looking like like a duck, quacking like a duck, and voting Democrat.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Later Addition: Dan's Take
I returned from a theatre rehearsal about an hour ago to see the results of the Iowa Caucus (see previous post). Understanding that I see things pretty much like Mixdorf (on all things except music and perhaps abortion), and having just wonked out to NPR for the past 45 minutes, let me offer my take on the picture, as it clears a bit.
Democrats:
Obama: To listen excerpts from his victory speech: chills. I'll tell you, there is something about that guy. He is electric, and politicians like him don't come around too often. He is a rock star, and one that seems to be on the right (read: progressive) side of pretty much every issue.
Hillary: To listen to her, she sounded mad. And Stephen, she used that "Ready to be president on Day One" thing. I'm with you on that - it just sounds wrong. It's almost like Obama caught up and passed her as soon as she started that shit. Even if it's just subconscious, I think it's tripping some kind of trigger in the back of people's minds where they wonder if the last 20 years of her life, including her time as First Lady, were not mere "experience" for the job, but a premeditated warmup. And it's freaky. Nobody should be thinking about being president for that long.
Edwards: I can't believe he's in this much longer. I haven't looked at how he's polling in New Hampshire, but it can't be good. He's been working on Iowa for 12 years now, and pretty much just blew his wad to come in 2nd (see Romney, below).
and that's just about it for the Democrats at this point.
Republicans:
Huckabee: Let's get real here. This was not a "winning the hearts of Iowa" thing, nor a huge surge in his popular appeal. Well, there was a little of both of those. But for the most part, this was all about Evangelicals doing what Evangelicals do: becoming politically active when their pastors tell them to. If you look at the non-Evangelical exit polls, he got destroyed by Romney, 3 to 1. I don't think they go for that shit in New Hampshire. The longer this race goes, the smaller the percentage of locked-in support he's going to be able to count on.
Romney: That was about the feeblest, most depressing "there's still a lot of fight left in us" speech I have ever heard. I guess it's what you should expect from A Man With Nothing. And, see "blew wad in Iowa" (Edwards, above).
McCain: This may be the guy to beat - which would be good only in this sense: on the odd chance we have to have a Republican in the Oval Office. Bad, in that I think he'd be the toughest draw for Obama when it came right down to it. That whole bullshit "maverick" thing.
Guiliani: Perhaps this is the last mention we have to have for this awful, mean little idiot (and Man Who Has Nothing #2) who is so close to being done that he should hang it up now.
no one else worth mentioning
Democrats:
Obama: To listen excerpts from his victory speech: chills. I'll tell you, there is something about that guy. He is electric, and politicians like him don't come around too often. He is a rock star, and one that seems to be on the right (read: progressive) side of pretty much every issue.
Hillary: To listen to her, she sounded mad. And Stephen, she used that "Ready to be president on Day One" thing. I'm with you on that - it just sounds wrong. It's almost like Obama caught up and passed her as soon as she started that shit. Even if it's just subconscious, I think it's tripping some kind of trigger in the back of people's minds where they wonder if the last 20 years of her life, including her time as First Lady, were not mere "experience" for the job, but a premeditated warmup. And it's freaky. Nobody should be thinking about being president for that long.
Edwards: I can't believe he's in this much longer. I haven't looked at how he's polling in New Hampshire, but it can't be good. He's been working on Iowa for 12 years now, and pretty much just blew his wad to come in 2nd (see Romney, below).
and that's just about it for the Democrats at this point.
Republicans:
Huckabee: Let's get real here. This was not a "winning the hearts of Iowa" thing, nor a huge surge in his popular appeal. Well, there was a little of both of those. But for the most part, this was all about Evangelicals doing what Evangelicals do: becoming politically active when their pastors tell them to. If you look at the non-Evangelical exit polls, he got destroyed by Romney, 3 to 1. I don't think they go for that shit in New Hampshire. The longer this race goes, the smaller the percentage of locked-in support he's going to be able to count on.
Romney: That was about the feeblest, most depressing "there's still a lot of fight left in us" speech I have ever heard. I guess it's what you should expect from A Man With Nothing. And, see "blew wad in Iowa" (Edwards, above).
McCain: This may be the guy to beat - which would be good only in this sense: on the odd chance we have to have a Republican in the Oval Office. Bad, in that I think he'd be the toughest draw for Obama when it came right down to it. That whole bullshit "maverick" thing.
Guiliani: Perhaps this is the last mention we have to have for this awful, mean little idiot (and Man Who Has Nothing #2) who is so close to being done that he should hang it up now.
no one else worth mentioning
Yay!
Obama wins. 220,000 Democrats turn out!!! That's, like, 1/10 of all Iowans.
It'd be interesting to know how many Republicans came (but, Mixx, I don't feel I have the time to seek out the answer). I do have a theory that they are much less motivated, all but admitting that their field of potential candidates sucks balls.
I also have a theory that the better Obama does, the better Obama will do. I think a lot of groups of people with traditionally low percentages of turnout (black people, young people) will consider jumping on this bandwagon when it looks like the possibility of him actually winning the nomination looks realistic. When I learned over Christmas that Obama was at the top of my dad's list, it was one of my first, "My God, this could actually happen" moment.
It'd be interesting to know how many Republicans came (but, Mixx, I don't feel I have the time to seek out the answer). I do have a theory that they are much less motivated, all but admitting that their field of potential candidates sucks balls.
I also have a theory that the better Obama does, the better Obama will do. I think a lot of groups of people with traditionally low percentages of turnout (black people, young people) will consider jumping on this bandwagon when it looks like the possibility of him actually winning the nomination looks realistic. When I learned over Christmas that Obama was at the top of my dad's list, it was one of my first, "My God, this could actually happen" moment.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
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