Measure for Measure, Weird Al, and Babylon 5
Measure for Measure:
Rule 1. Never trust the Duke
Rule 2. Never trust the Friar
Rule 3. When the Duke and the Friar are the same person - RUN.
We saw Measure for Measure at Shakespeare in the Park on Saturday. It was really fantastic. And they did cool things with the casting - they had far fewer people (intentionally) than they needed, so people were doubled up. Angelo and Claudio were the same, which was a very interesting choice. And every single cast memeber played the Provost at one point or another - who may be the only truly sympathetic character in the play. This became mildly problematic when the entire set of characters is required to be on stage for the last scene - ah, the 4th wall violations! It's an interesting play, with lots of powerful interplay about justice, mercy, and salvation - and a seriously WTF ending. The play ended and Steve sat up and said "What!?" Ah, good old Shakespeare. This and MacBeth are Joel-Henry's favorites - and it's easy to see why.
Weird Al:
We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real
We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real
Cellphones, cellphones...
Let's get real
Last night we saw Weird Al in his Straight Outta Lynwood tour. I am always impressed by him. He did nearly every song on the album (except my two favorites: My Pancras and Don't Download This Song - oh well) and thankfully reserved both "Stuck in the Drivethrough" and "Confessions part III" for the medly. Both brilliant songs, but not something I need to sit through again. And he did "Pitiful" which was a treat, because he's not legally allowed to record it. "Complicated Song," "Ode to a Superhero," and "E-bay" were also in the medly, and he did "Why does this always happen to me" (although is pianist is not quite as good as Ben Folds). As in the last concert of his I saw, he did the Saga Begins/Yoda double feature, complete with Tocatta and Fugue and the amazing rhythmic interlude in the middle of Yoda. It starts with traditional Indian vocal rhythm (da DIN da tirakita etc) and just builds and builds and builds - and the three of them do it all perfectly in time. It never fails to blow my mind. And Yoda may be my favorite of his songs. He also proved that he can get out all of the lyrics in "White & Nerdy" without digital enhancement - as well as using a segway as a stage prop. For such a short guy he has really remarkable stage presence. As well as a phenomenal use of costuming and interfacing with technology. In addition to his celebrity interviews, we got clips of King of the Hill, the Simpsons, and Johnny Bravo. The two lines that stick in my head are:
Hank (to Bobby): Weird Al Yankovic blew his brains out in the late 80s after people stopped buying his records.
Johnny Bravo: You can fly?
Al: We're the Blue Falcon, Don Knotts, and Weird Al - we can do anything!
Heh. I've also never seen him trash anyone so hard as he did Kevin Federline. Wow. Look up that interview on YouTube or something. Another interveiw I had never seen before was with Michael Stipe, wherein they co-wrote the song "We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real." This was the song he did as his encore. It was beautiful. He was like "anybody who has a cell phone, stand up, hold it up, and sing along!" And we did. He followed this with "Albuquerque" - thereby pairing his shortest song with his longest song. Very ingeniously done, I think. It was a truly lovely night.
Babylon 5:
We've just started season 2. Heh. I had to hide the title sequence from Joel-Henry for a while. Lord Refa has been introduced (hiss!) I had forgotton that the TechnoMages and GREEN!PURPLE! were the same episode. Heh. Let the Way of the Long-Haired Hippie begin! Bester is on the splash page! And, of course, Lou Welch FOR THE WIN! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for Zack Allen...
...Poor Londo...
And they say there's nothing to do in Columbus!
Rule 1. Never trust the Duke
Rule 2. Never trust the Friar
Rule 3. When the Duke and the Friar are the same person - RUN.
We saw Measure for Measure at Shakespeare in the Park on Saturday. It was really fantastic. And they did cool things with the casting - they had far fewer people (intentionally) than they needed, so people were doubled up. Angelo and Claudio were the same, which was a very interesting choice. And every single cast memeber played the Provost at one point or another - who may be the only truly sympathetic character in the play. This became mildly problematic when the entire set of characters is required to be on stage for the last scene - ah, the 4th wall violations! It's an interesting play, with lots of powerful interplay about justice, mercy, and salvation - and a seriously WTF ending. The play ended and Steve sat up and said "What!?" Ah, good old Shakespeare. This and MacBeth are Joel-Henry's favorites - and it's easy to see why.
Weird Al:
We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real
We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real
Cellphones, cellphones...
Let's get real
Last night we saw Weird Al in his Straight Outta Lynwood tour. I am always impressed by him. He did nearly every song on the album (except my two favorites: My Pancras and Don't Download This Song - oh well) and thankfully reserved both "Stuck in the Drivethrough" and "Confessions part III" for the medly. Both brilliant songs, but not something I need to sit through again. And he did "Pitiful" which was a treat, because he's not legally allowed to record it. "Complicated Song," "Ode to a Superhero," and "E-bay" were also in the medly, and he did "Why does this always happen to me" (although is pianist is not quite as good as Ben Folds). As in the last concert of his I saw, he did the Saga Begins/Yoda double feature, complete with Tocatta and Fugue and the amazing rhythmic interlude in the middle of Yoda. It starts with traditional Indian vocal rhythm (da DIN da tirakita etc) and just builds and builds and builds - and the three of them do it all perfectly in time. It never fails to blow my mind. And Yoda may be my favorite of his songs. He also proved that he can get out all of the lyrics in "White & Nerdy" without digital enhancement - as well as using a segway as a stage prop. For such a short guy he has really remarkable stage presence. As well as a phenomenal use of costuming and interfacing with technology. In addition to his celebrity interviews, we got clips of King of the Hill, the Simpsons, and Johnny Bravo. The two lines that stick in my head are:
Hank (to Bobby): Weird Al Yankovic blew his brains out in the late 80s after people stopped buying his records.
Johnny Bravo: You can fly?
Al: We're the Blue Falcon, Don Knotts, and Weird Al - we can do anything!
Heh. I've also never seen him trash anyone so hard as he did Kevin Federline. Wow. Look up that interview on YouTube or something. Another interveiw I had never seen before was with Michael Stipe, wherein they co-wrote the song "We all have cellphones, so come on, let's get real." This was the song he did as his encore. It was beautiful. He was like "anybody who has a cell phone, stand up, hold it up, and sing along!" And we did. He followed this with "Albuquerque" - thereby pairing his shortest song with his longest song. Very ingeniously done, I think. It was a truly lovely night.
Babylon 5:
We've just started season 2. Heh. I had to hide the title sequence from Joel-Henry for a while. Lord Refa has been introduced (hiss!) I had forgotton that the TechnoMages and GREEN!PURPLE! were the same episode. Heh. Let the Way of the Long-Haired Hippie begin! Bester is on the splash page! And, of course, Lou Welch FOR THE WIN! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for Zack Allen...
...Poor Londo...
And they say there's nothing to do in Columbus!