When I was a kid, we went to the Ringling Bros. Circus a few times. (I still have the program). I had never been to the Big Apple Circus. When we saw that it was in Bridgewater a few years ago we went (Tabitha was a baby and fell asleep after the intermission). The year after that, the kids both enjoyed the show. We missed last year due to a scheduling conflict.
When we heard that this was going to be grandma’s last year of the show, we decided we had to go. For those of you unfamiliar with the Big Apple Circus, the one constant every year is “Grandma:” an old clown lady who meanders into the ring, causes mischief and is generally very funny. Grandma, played by Barry Lubin, is leaving the show because “Mr. Lubin will spirit Grandma away to Sweden, where he moved last January to live with his partner, Ann Hageus” (NY Times).
I assumed there would be a huge send off to Grandma, but it was a surprisingly low-key show for her. She had some great bits and was very entertaining (as always) but there was no major farewell. Oh well.
The big surprise for our show was that Dr Oz was the surprise host. And he handed out really stinky paper rulers (I can’t get over how badly they smelled) so that we could all measure our waists to see if we were fat or not. Okay, first of all most of us don’t need to measure to see if we’re fat. Second, this is a circus–not a single foodstuff out there is good for you. Was I really going to measure my waist while holding my kids’ cotton candy. No, I was just going to feel like a fat schlub. Yaay! Fun for the whole family.
My biggest victory of the night was when Dr Oz came into the crowd and his publicist asked if I (we) wanted to meet him and I was able to curtly say “No” and watch her look of surprise. I have better things to do than to meet a TV doctor, thank you very much.
Raritan Valley Community College continues to impress me with their wonderful selection of performances. And this was another amazing one. It had me literally slack jawed.
The Peking Acrobats (let’s start simple) are acrobats from Peking, China.
As the show opened, there were ropes hanging from the ceiling (not secured to the ground). And then several men came out and climbed the ropes. Which would be no big deal, except that they climbed them like monkeys do–or more literally as if they were walking up the rope while holding on to the rope like a grappling hook line. From there they proceeded to leap back and forth between the ropes, winding themselves up and then rapidly spinning down until they almost hit the floor. Nothing I write will convey how amazing it was to watch.
And the best part about it was that that was, when all was said and done, perhaps the least interesting part of the show. (more…)
[ATTENDED: February, 20, 2012] Dan Zanes at State Theatre
President’s Day was Family Day in New Brunswick. And despite the bitter cold, we had a nice time walking around, seeing the Philadelphia Zoo exhibit and, most of all, seeing Dan Zanes.
We have loved Dan Zanes since we were first introduced to him (like everyone else–as soon as we had kids). I knew that Zanes was in the Del Fuegos, although (even though I lived in Boston for many years) I’d never heard them. I have since listened to them but found them to be lacking, especially compared to Dan Zanes’ solo stuff.
So Dan Zanes has been releasing children’s albums for a number of years, now. He has access to some pretty high-profile guests (his album Night Time features Aimee Mann, John Doe, Lou Reed and Dar Williams). But even without the high-profile guests, the records are fun, warm and very inviting. (more…)
[ATTENDED: February 18, 2012] Harlem Globetrotters
When I was a kid, The Harlem Globetrotters were the coolest thing ever. I played basketball in grammar school, but I was pretty bad (short with no vertical leap), so seeing guys who were amazing ans also silly at basketball was wonderful to me. I whistled “Sweet Georgia Brown” a million times. I showed off my amazing “trick” shots at friends’ houses and during gym. I tried to bounce basketballs off of everything. Of course, I never did learn a lay up, but that’s beside the point.
And the Globetrotter commercials were on TV seemingly all the time. Like this one:
How cool, to slide across the floor, roll a ball down your back and make crazy baskets.
Of course, I think I remember the Globetrotters more from this show, which featured the voices of the all-time greats: George “Meadowlark” Lemon, Freddie “Curly” Neal, Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, J.C. “Gip” Gipson, Bobby Joe Mason, and Pablo Robertson (okay, these last three I don’t remember).
Twenty-two episodes were made in all, and I’m pretty sure I saw all of them (the old lady and the dog never made much sense but that’s okay too).
Suffice it to say, the Globetrotters left an indelible stamp on my world. But I never saw them live. So, imagine my delight when a few weeks ago, I won a contest for four free tickets to see the Globetrotters! I was pretty psyched. (more…)
[ATTENDED: February 17, 2012] Richard Thompson at the McCarter Theater
I have seen Richard Thompson live many times. By my last count I think it must be five or six. I’ve seen him solo and with others, I’ve seen him at Festivals and small venues. And he never disappoints. RT makes an annual (or nearly annual) pilgrimage to Princeton’s McCarter Theater and the crowd is devout. The last time Sarah and I saw him was on his 1,000 Years of Popular Music tour (a wonderful extravaganza) with olde instruments and two backing players. But every show is different and you never know which incarnation you never know which RT you’re going to get.
This tour was just RT and his guitar and our show proved to be a (mostly) request show. Whether it was meant to be a request show is unclear (he just did three all request nights in NYC). For tonight’s show, he definitely had songs in mind but the crowd politely asked for other songs and he accommodated (he doesn’t always).
Sarah and I laughed at the demographic of the audience (a lot of gray-haired ponytails here, Sarah noted–and that was just the men). And yet next to us were a group of young rocker kids, so we were neither oldest, younger, coolest or squarest. But none of that mattered because RT bridges all groups. It was just he and his acoustic guitar, and he played slow ballads, serious rockers, funny songs and a few classics.
I didn’t know the first couple of songs (which surprised me) but it’s possible they were brand new, because why would he start what proved to be a greatest hits set with a bunch of obscure songs? Well, he’s a conundrum. Maybe anyone who was there can fill me in on the setlist.
After the first song the requests came. RT explained that he had hoped to do some songs that he wanted to play and he hoped that those songs would be ones that we wanted to hear. So obliging! When the crowd convinced him to play Britney Spears’ “Oops I did it Again” (a song he played in his 1000 Years retrospective) we knew it was going to be a great show.
This past weekend, my family attended Aga-Boom, a “theatre of physical comedy and circus arts.” It was incredible, and it was hard to believe that this was performed at the Raritan Valley Community College theater, which is nice and all, but seems small potatoes for a troupe that was part of Cirque de Soleil and which has been in Vegas and on Broadway.
Aga-Boom‘s show is perfect for all ages–my kids loved it, but I may have laughed more than they did. There are three clowns, an older woman, a goofy “large” clown and a kind of morose alien-looking clown. None of these are you typical “clown make-up” type of clowns. In fact, I found the lady clown’s make up to be amazing–astonishingly emotive and expressive. And the morose clown was all white face with a completely fake nose and a simple red frown line for a mouth and yet wow, they could convey everything.
There are several set pieces. The first is a joke about paper getting stuck to the lady clown. It’s a good introduction to the paper conceit that runs through the show (the stage “curtain” is a large sheet of paper! It morphs into this amusing/intimidating section where the morose clown (dressed like an astronaut with (a wonderful detail) a water cooler bottle on his head as a space helmet–is mad because the woman clown accidentally launched his ship into space.
Then comes the goofy clown who does some amazing juggling with a suitcase. I’ve never seen anything like it. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: JONATHAN FRANZEN-Commencement Speech (audio) (2011).
You can hear the entire speech from the Kenyon College site.
[READ: May 28, 2011] Commencement Speech
On May 21, Jonathan Franzen gave a commencement speech to the students of Kenyon College. When I think about my commencement speech (from Judy Woodruff of CNN), all I can remember is that I had never heard of her (and when I typed her name just now I got it almost entirely incorrect–the only thing right was the “wood” part). I don’t recall a single thing that she said. [It’s also fascinating that I can’t find any record of this speech anywhere online–what a different world it was twenty years ago]. I rather expect that most people feel this way about commencement speakers. I have to wonder, if Jonathan Franzen had spoken at my college, would I have cared? Is there even a chance that I would have read any of his novels (had they been published of course) when I was in college? Would I be treating this any differently than my whatever speech in 1991?
But I like Jonathan Franzen and I wanted to read what he had to say.
His speech is about love. Love is kind of an odd topic for a commencement speech, isn’t it? I mean, aren’t they supposed to talk about the Future and Jobs or something? Or maybe even sunscreen? But really, what is more useful for a 21-year-old to think about than Love. Franzen hits the nail right on the head about Love, how it is a dangerous, risky proposition to put yourself out there, to take off your veneer and reveal all of your flaws–and hope someone will love you. Not new or novel, but still true.
The way that Franzen gets into this subject is through technology. It seems weird and artificial at first, but it’s a wonderful way to get into a young audience’s state of mind. They were probably all looking at their iPhones while he was extolling the virtues of his new Blackberry (the old person’s phone, right?). And when he segues into Facebook (who even knows if he has an account–but he seems to be well-versed with it, so maybe he does) you can imagine students raising their head in familiarity (maybe even updating their status) and wondering (as he puts it) if this 51-year-old guy is going to dis Facebook. (more…)
ATTENDED: WEIRD AL YANKOVIC-Live at the State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ May 19, 2011 (2011).
I’ve seen “Weird Al” live three times now and I have never been disappointed by the show. The first year my friend Matt and I waited out by the bus and got the bands’ (minus Al’s) autograph. The second time we waited even longer and Al had an autograph (and picture taking) session in the theater after the show (how cool is that?).
This year, Sarah and I didn’t wait around afterwards (kids at home) but the show was still great. Al made a joke after the first song thanking his opening act, Technical Difficulties. (There were indeed 45 minutes of technical difficulties before the show, but Al’s joke made us quickly forget it–and, kudos to the State Theater: I ordered my tickets online from their site and the day after the concert, the theater owner sent an email apologizing for the delay. Classy!).
Sarah had never seen him perform before, so she was pleasantly surprised by the set selection. I was also surprised by the set selection because he pulled out a few older, more obscure tracks (“Frank’s 2000″ TV” (!), “You Don’t Love Me Any More”–complete with Al smashing a guitar!). But he also dazzled with some new tracks from his forthcoming album.
The set opened with the polka medley (“Polka Face”). This is the first polka medley that I didn’t know any (well almost any) of the sped up songs, but it’s always a treat to watch them play it live. The one complaint with the show was that the sound in the theater wasn’t very good (which is surprising given that it’s an old theater) so it was hard to make out a lot of the words, especially to the new songs–and what’s Al without the lyrics?). But his new song “I Perform This Way” (parody of Lady Gaga’s “I Was Born This Way”) was fantastic (Al was dressed up like a cartoon peacock).
Yes, costume changes. One of the most entertaining things about Al’s shows is the costume changes. For all of his big video hits, he comes out dressed like the video (the band does as well, although it’s a bit more subtle). So, we get the Amish garb in “Amish Paradise,” the Michael Jackson red jacket for “Eat It”–(another surprise) and, my personal favorite, the fat suit from “Fat.” One of the funniest costume changes was for a song that will sadly not be released on the album (but you can hear and download it here), “You’re Pitiful,” in which he wore multiple T-shirts (about 5) which all expressed some kind of funny comment (anyone know who was the face on one of the shirts?) and finally ended in a Spongebob Squarepants shirts and tutu.
So how does he do all of these costume changes? In between songs, when the band runs offstage, they play wonderful video clips. Some of the clips are from his TV shows, some are faux documentaries, and the best are interviews that Al splices together (you can see a whole bunch here) which are hilarious and surprisingly mean-spirited. I wish he would release them (and any other AlTv segments) on DVD, but I imagine that no one would ever give permission for that–check out the Kevin Federline one, for instance. But they’re all pretty great.
The crowd was also totally into it (including the guy behind us with an Al wig (and a Harvey the Wonder Hamster). And the age range was fantastic–from kids to grandparents. My only hope is that my kids are old enough to come to a concert next time he comes around.
Oh and a brief word about his band. He’s had the same four guys with him for years and years and years. Rubén Valtierra is the newest member of the band and he’s been with them since 1991. Jim West (guitar), Steve Jay (Bass) and Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz (drums) have been with Al since 1980. They are tight as a drum, can play incredibly diverse styles at the drop of a hat (check out “CNR” which sounds exactly like The White Stripes) and they all seem to have a lot of fun on stage (see them jump in the air on “Fat” or the crazy vocal-only solo at the end of “Yoda”
–which I think is longer than ever and totally mind-blowing).
[READ: May 21, 2011] This is a Book
I recently read Martin’s “This is Me” in the New Yorker. “This is Me” is, along with about 100 other things in This is a Book. I also heard Demetri Martin on NPR a few Sundays ago and he read a few short things from This is a Book. And they were quite funny.
Indeed, the funny things in this book are really very very funny. It seems to work that the shorter the item, the bigger the laugh. Conversely there are a number of longer, extended jokes which just go on and on, like a Saturday Night Live sketch that just won’t end. Those quickly lose their humorous value. Fortunately there aren’t too many of those in here.
What makes me smile a lot about the book are the jokes he plays with book conventions. So the title page says “This is a book by Demetri Martin called This is a Book by Demetri Martin.” Or the previous page:
Also by Demetri Martin
*
*Nothing yet. This is his first book.
The book opens with “How to Read this Book.”
If you’re reading this sentence then you’ve pretty much got it. Good job. Just keep going the way you are.
I’m not going to spoil the rest of the book (or talk about each piece). But I will mention some real highlights: (more…)
[LISTENED TO: November through December 2010] A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I initially ended this post with: “Even though this audio was unabridged, it felt a bit like hearing an abridged version. I suspect I shall have to actually read the novel again in 2011 to see what I missed.” Well, I assumed that the audio was unabridged. But now I see that there is another recording which is 7 discs as opposed to my copy’s 3 discs. Gadzooks! In tiny print on the back of the box, I see now that this is abridged. NO WONDER I felt like so much was left out of the story. It actually made me think that the story wasn’t all that coherent. As such, you can kind of disregard this post until I listen to the unabridged version (which is available free for download here).
So, back to my initial review:
I was listening to this audio book while exercising. The fact that it took me as long as it did to finish the audio book is more of a testament to my lack of exercising than the book itself. Although I will say that unlike Dubliners, I found that listening to this book (and again, perhaps it was the distance between listenings) to be somewhat unsatisfying. And of course, as with all of these Naxos CDs, the vocals are recorded so quietly (except when he starts screaming–the hellfire sermon is so loud it scared my family upstairs) that you really have to try to listen hard to hear the whispers. The final chapter–Stephen’s diary–is read so quietly it was hard to hear over the exercise machine, even with the sound up all the way.
So this is the story of Stephen Daedalus before Ulysses, when he was, as the title states, a Young Man. My favorite memory of reading this book was when I read the opening aloud to a sick friend who thought that I was messing with her:
Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo….
Stephen is of course, baby tuckoo, so this novel is more than just the young man days. But from this baby story, we quickly jump to Stephen at school and we see an episode that impacted his whole life: boys who were teasing him pushed him into a stagnant pool of water. (more…)
This collection covers the last five stories from the book. They are all longer stories, especially the fantastic novella “The Dead,” which runs well over an hour. The titles included in Part II are:
A Painful Case
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
A Mother
Grace
The Dead
These last five stories look at (continuing the theme from my previous post) middle age and later life. The protagonists are all older, and as with the first part, they all must deal with harsh realities and even death.
“A Painful Case” is the first story in the book where the title doesn’t directly apply to the protagonist (even though, of course, it does). Mr Duffy is a solitary man. He goes out from time to time but is not really social. At a concert he meets Mrs Sinico and they form a friendship. Her husband approves of the friendship because he believes that Mr Duffy is really after their daughter. The relationship grows stronger and stronger and Mrs Sinico feels closer to him than she does to her husband. Then, Mrs Sinico make a gesture indicating she’d like a more intimate relationship. Mr Duffy is immediately turned off by this and vows to himself to see her no more. This leads to a quote that I assume is not original to Joyce, and yet it is still common today: “Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.” The strange thing about this story is that it then jumps ahead four years. We learn that Mrs Sinico took the dissolution of their friendship very hard indeed. And naturally, Mr Duffy is made to rethink his life choices. It’s yet another story of despair. (more…)
When I was a kid, we went to the Ringling Bros. Circus a few times. (I still have the program). I had never been to the Big Apple Circus. When we saw that it was in Bridgewater a few years ago we went (Tabitha was a baby and fell asleep after the intermission). The year after that, the kids both enjoyed the show. We missed last year due to a scheduling conflict.
I assumed there would be a huge send off to Grandma, but it was a surprisingly low-key show for her. She had some great bits and was very entertaining (as always) but there was no major farewell. Oh well.
