I’ve been sitting on this Superamas blog post for two days, hoping that in sleeping on it–and sleeping on it again–some strikingly intelligent or insightful way to describe this show would occur to me. That did not happen. As far as I can tell, this bright, superficially stunning show sets up several scenes and then, […]
TBA
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Strip Mall Transcendence in L’Effet de Serge
The Imago Theatre is my least favorite TBA venue. Granted, the sound is better than at PSU’s Lincoln Hall, but the seats are uncomfortable, it’s always freezing, and the women’s restroom has curtains instead of doors so you can never tell if the stalls are occupied. Somehow, though, my least favorite venue manages to house […]
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Tim Etchells: Sight is the Sense that Dying People Tend to Lose First
I think people at this year’s TBA festivities have been spoiled by the likes of Mike Daisey, Daniel Beaty, and other folks who, while certainly subversive and cutting-edge and blah-de-blah-blah-blah, also offer up plenty of good old fashioned straightforward entertainment to keep you engaged. How else to explain why more than a dozen people simply […]
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Linda Wysong: Backyard Conversations
“I have mixed feelings about this place,” Linda Wysong admitted during her show yesterday afternoon. “This place” is the South Waterfront, and the show, Backyard Conversations, is an exploration of the strange little world down there, south of the Ross Island Bridge. If you’ve got any interest in how cities are born and constantly reinvented, […]
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Dispatches from TBA
We’ve been busy li’l TBA bloggers this week. Check out: My blow-by-blow of yesterday’s noontime chat about cognitive dissonance, in which no one knows what cognitive dissonance means, and Stanya Kahn tells Mike Daisey that there’s no meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans. (His face! You shoulda seen it.) Patrick’s review of the 9/11 showing […]
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Noontime Chat: Cognitive Dissonance
Yesterday’s noontime chat found Mike Daisey, Harry Dodge, and Stanya Kahn discussing “cognitive dissonance.” And maaan oh man was it a treat, in a “two cultural trains traveling different directions colliding spectacularly” sort of way. When a moderator introduces a subject by reading the Wikipedia definition of the term under discussion, as Mark Russell did […]
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Ohmega Watts at the Works
Video of Ohmega Watts ‘n’ the band from the Works last night, brought to you as usual by AllenInk Tonight at the Works, Neil Medlyn hosts Our Hit Parade, a contemporary take on the ’50s musical sketch show Your Hit Parade that’ll feature festival artists covering this week’s chart toppers. Should be a fun one…
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Mike Daisey at T:BA
Here is a brief survey of topics in Mike Daisey’s new work, If You See Something, Say Something: Airport SecurityThe Department of Homeland SecurityThe Trinity Nuclear Test SiteApocalypseThe Rand CorporationHerman KahnThe Neutron BombPickpocketingWorld War TwoGeorge Washington’s Farewell AddressThe Worst Hamburger in the World Looking over this list, you might think this performance would be a […]
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Saw Something, Saying Something
Here is a brief survey of topics in Mike Daisey’s new work, If You See Something, Say Something: Airport SecurityThe Department of Homeland SecurityThe Trinity Nuclear Test SiteApocalypseThe Rand CorporationHerman KahnThe Neutron BombPickpocketingWorld War TwoGeorge Washington’s Farewell AddressThe Worst Hamburger in the World Looking over this list, you might think this performance would be a […]
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Mellman! Everett! Sexercise Live!
Even though it features a video of Neal Medlyn humping a mattress while wearing a tight blue unitard, Sexercise Live! isn’t really performance art. It’s purely performance or purely art, depending on your perspective. My perspective (and rightly so in my opinion) was drunk. From that perspective, I was perfectly comfortable, sitting in the darkness […]
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Sojourn’s BUILT
This is too little too late on Sojourn Theatre’s excellent BUILT, which ran last week at the South Waterfront, but here’s what I say in the paper this week about the show: As exciting as it is to experience top-tier national and international performing artists, it’s also a sheer, smug pleasure to see how well […]
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Mike Daisey is Awesome!!!!
Last night at the Works, the Reggie Watts-hosted Occurence saw performances from Rush N Disco, Joe Van Appen, Mike Daisey, tEEth, and Watts himself, as well as short films from Watts’ co-producer Tommy Smith. Rush N Disco and Joe Van Appen were underwhelming. In both cases, I couldn’t determine if the acts were parodying bad […]