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Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.
wednesday 12/01/2004
Children on stage singing about Wonder Woman�s breasts
Monday I put a thing saying there�s be more catch-up later this week.� This be it:
A Musical:� The Friday after Thanksgiving was Paint your Wagon at the Geffen at the Brentwood Theater.� I knew nothing about the musical, other than that it was old fashioned, had something to do with the old west, and that the movie version starring Lee Marvin & Clint Eastwood is supposed to be terrible.
I�ve no idea exactly how much has been changed for this adaptation, although I can make a guess as to some of it.� In this version, the setting is the California Gold Rush, where a man and his daughter discover gold, a town is built, the daughter falls in love with a Mexican Prospector who then gets framed for theft, a town fails, and the man and his daughter lose each other, then reunite as love (though not fortune in a strictly monetary sense) prevails.
I�m guessing the Latino love interest, as well as Black and Chinese miners may not be quite that faithful to the original version.� Not that I care.� This production was good, well acted, well sung, and the songs were infectiously catchy.� Hitting the restroom during intermission, nearly every man in line seemed caught himself starting to whistling the question of �where am I going.�
It was a good time, and if nothing else, I now know where the song A Wind called Mariah comes from.
�
Nonmovie:� I�d decided to drag John to Pasadena with me to see Bear Cub, a Spanish film about a gay man�s life changing when he has to take care of his nephew, but as other smaller/foreign art house movies I wanted to see, by the time I got around to it, it wasn�t playing any more.� I really need to redevelop my seeing movies alone skills.
Expo:� K invited me to check out the Japanexpo at the L.A. Convention Center with her this past Saturday.� It was interesting, and it was also sort of relaxing.� We had no agenda to kept, no goals to met, just some idle wandering about to do, looking at all the displays and items for sale.� The expo was divided into several sections, food, travel, beauty supplies, health, cheap tacky gifts, and cheap tacky anime collectables.� The anime stuff explains the few white and Asian teens running around in a halfhearted attempt at cosplay.
Nonexplainable stuff included why half of the health booths were selling barely tea, why it would be relaxing to lie down in a plastic chamber with a moving ceiling (it was supposed to be an adaptive relaxation cocoon thing, but how relaxing is a ceiling that closes in on you?), or how completing companies selling you amazing knives that can cut through metal �just like on TV� counts as example of Japanese culture.
From the lines at food court area when we had lunch, the most popular item was a tiny bowl of ramen for six bucks.� The vendor must have been making out like a bandit with that one.� Then again, I�ve no idea how it cost to rent a booth space, so maybe not so much.�
The only thing I even halfway tempted to purchase was some ginger infused coffee, which sounded odd, but from the sample I had, didn�t noticeably alter the taste.� Luckily I�m not much of a coffee drinker and left with money still in my wallet.
Dinner that night was at Curry House in Little Tokyo.� We were sat between a table full of late teens and another of folks in their late fifties.� The teens talked about playstation games, K and I (in our late thirties) talked about Buffy and other genre TV shows, while at the third table, they talked about heart attacks and surgeries.� Perhaps there�s a life lesson there.
Another musical:� The Sunday after Thanksgiving was Kushner�s Caroline or Change at the Alhmanson with Tonya Pinkins and Anika Noni Rose repreising their roles from Broadway.� I can see the reasons for the Tony nominations.� They were both very talented.�
The musical (operetta?� as there were no real spoken lines?) was very well done.� The basic description that I had heard regarding Caroline, an African-American maid and her relationship with her employer�s son in the south during the civil rights movement, doesn�t clue you in on how rich and full the story really is, or on how complex the character of Caroline is.�
Reading the playbill before hand and finding out that there are characters named washing machine, radio, dryer, bus, and moon also leads to odd ideas as to what will be going on.� It works much better than it sounds, with them functioning as a sort of greek chorus, and highlighting Caroline�s anger and isolation.
�
There�s some interesting use of repeated ideas, words, and imagery, such as when a guilt ridden Caroline asks god to turn her to salt, and when her daughter later speaks, err, sings of her mother salting the earth so nothing can grow/get near her.
�
Songs were good, including a fun one where kids sing of what they will buy with change they have just been given, from candy to comic books.� I geeked out a bit during a list of their favorite comics, wondering for a moment if the X-Men had premiered prior to 1963, but only for a moment, as the song then went on to praise Wonder Woman; so strong, so beautiful, with her bullet proof bracelets, and her bra with eagle wings over each titty. �Titty, titty, titty� is now one of my favorite song lyrics of all times.
All of this is an overly complicated way of saying that I enjoyed the show.� Although in a near inverse proportion to how much I enjoyed the show, the people sitting behind me were ticking me off.� They sat behind us last time, and presumably will do so again in future shows (a problem of subscriptions).� I have a feeling that with each exposure my annoyance will turn to loathing.� During intermission, the wife complained at how difficult it was to understand the show.� Not merely because she was having difficulty hearing the lyrics (a possible valid concern), but also because the story was too complicated� (she wanted everything spoon fed to her?).� She also complained about how confusing it was that some of the actors would pronounce the maid�s name as Karoline, and others as Kar�lin.� It bothered her nearly as much as I was bothered by her going on about it.
Her husband is an expert in everything, and loudly proclaimed that Jesus Christ Superstar was the first American Operetta and that all new musicals are turning into all singing shows.� Worse, before the show started, he said something about how the true purpose of marriage is procreation, which is why gay marriage is a bad thing.� I didn�t hear this, and the show starting was barely enough excuse for John to keep from turning around and telling the idiot to shut up.� Luckily, they kept quiet during the performance.� Not that I think they liked it very much.� By the end, nearly everyone in the audience was clapping loudly.� From I could see out of the corner of my eye, they didn�t bother and quickly left.�
OK, enough of this.
More later,
nico