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While the geeks cream their jeans waiting for the iPhone, I'm waiting (much longer) for PT-141. And that ain't a patrol boat:
“With PT-141, you feel good, not only sexually aroused,” reported anonymous patient 007, a participant in a Phase 2 trial, “you feel younger and more energetic.” Said another patient: “It helped the libido. So you have the urge and the desire. . . . You get this humming feeling; you’re ready to take your pants off and go.”Not that I need any help, mind you...
Cleaning up some old bookmarks I decided to pay UBUWEB a visit and came across Orson Welles: The One Man Band, a 1995 documentary by Vassill Silovic that features fascinating bits and pieces from the numerous projects Welles started but never finished in his later years. It's 90 minutes long, but if you're like me it's completely fascinating. One can only wonder what Welles would have done in the age of digital video, when the costs would have dropped immensely. Of particular interest to me are his readings from Moby Dick. Has Melville ever sounded this good?
Went to a sneak preview last night of Werner Herzog's first big-budget Hollywood film, "Rescue Dawn," about Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), a US pilot shot down over Laos and how he escapes internment. My review will come later, but in the meantime my friend Jon has pointed out this New Yorker profile on making the film from about a year ago. Apparently, Herzog (with whom I share a birthday) likes to do things his way:
The fact that Herzog has been making films for more than forty years, many of them acclaimed as works of unnerving originality, didn’t shake the collective judgment that he was doing it all wrong. The mood on the set was toxic. Josef Lieck, the first assistant director, who has worked with Wim Wenders, said, “For a man of his age, it’s a very . . . raw talent. It’s more like an eighteen-year-old running into the forest.” A costume designer complained, “He doesn’t know basic things about filmmaking, things that simply make it easier to tell a story. He thinks that these things will undermine his vision, but they won’t.” Harry Knapp, an assistant director, said, “There is a silent war on the set. We’re all in a state of shock.” Herzog, for his part, politely ignored the crew’s complaints. Zeitlinger explained, “When making a film, Werner tries to pretend as if nobody is around but him and the actors.”That the film is very suspenseful and gripping shows how much all the crew's opinion really mattered. The article is long, but a hoot.
Rolling Stone has an article up about Who Killed the Record Industry. Answer: the companies themselves.
So who killed the record industry as we knew it? "The record companies have created this situation themselves," says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. While there are factors outside of the labels' control -- from the rise of the Internet to the popularity of video games and DVDs -- many in the industry see the last seven years as a series of botched opportunities. And among the biggest, they say, was the labels' failure to address online piracy at the beginning by making peace with the first file-sharing service, Napster. "They left billions and billions of dollars on the table by suing Napster -- that was the moment that the labels killed themselves," says Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of management company the Firm. "The record business had an unbelievable opportunity there. They were all using the same service. It was as if everybody was listening to the same radio station. Then Napster shut down, and all those 30 or 40 million people went to other [file-sharing services]."I would also add a few other factors:
Also, why don't record companies sell CDs for cheap at concerts? That's a major audience who are ready to impulse buy. I'm sure there's some stizoopid legal reason for this, but I've always seen this as a missed opportunity.
I'm apparently three months late, but I didn't see anybody else post this. Annie Liebowitz shot a 16-page film noir story for Vanity Fair. And, well, everybody is in it: Jack Nicholson, Naomi Watts, Peter O'Toole, Sharon Stone, Penelope Cruz, and more!
Much better than the current Africa issue with its wrap-around cover, mostly because I don't have to see the awful faces of Bush and Rice. As my friend Chris said the other day, after all the destruction this man has caused to this and other countries, why does the MSM insist on still throwing him a bone? The "oh, but he has a progressive Africa policy" excuse is just lame, lame, lame.
A very odd Chinese painter. Although the artbabble go on about propaganda posters and such, isn't the manga influence obvious?
Actually, I've already been. I went last week for the first time in my life (!) and I have the photos to prove it. Start here please.
BlueGrassRoots goes to check out the idiocy of the Creationist Museum, one more blot on an already sullied American reputation.
Early in the museum, the visitor is given advice on the proper mind frame to have for your visit: “Don’t think, just listen and believe”. As you can see in the picture below, Human Reason is the enemy and God’s Word is the hero. Descartes represents Human Reason, saying “I think, therefore I am”. But God tells us there no need to waste your beautiful mind, for God says “I am that I am”.Insert Popeye joke here. Really the whole "museum" is just one more version of the traveling revivalist show, with dioramas from Eden to the awfulness of today, full of drugs, pedophelia, and Ted Haggard. Just this time there's dinosaurs (for the kids!)
Simon Sellars interviews Simon Reynolds about J.G. Ballard
One of my fantasy projects that I toyed with for a while was a book on Ballard and Eno. They do seem of a type in some ways and they are patron saints of postpunk to an extent. But the project founders immediately owing to the fact that they are so eloquent about what they do and such brilliant writers, that there’d be zero role for any critic or commentator. There’d be very little to mediate or interpret, as they’ve said it all, so much better. They know what they are doing. I suppose you could historicize them, contextualise them. Ballard with the milieu he emerged out of in the Sixties, which was based around the ICA, right? And Eno with the UK art schools.
In some ways the affinity seems as much temperamental as anything ideas-based. There’s this wonderful Englishness. You imagine they would get on like a house on fire, trading ideas over whisky and soda in the Shepperton living room. One thing they both do is take ideas from science and set them loose in culture, find applications. Ballard is like a British McLuhan, except much better because he’s a far better writer, and a better thinker too – more original, more convincing. Eno is almost like a British Barthes, in some ways.
ONSTAGE: Taking the Finnish line - Lit Moon presents four theater words from Finland
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:12 AM
Norway had Ibsen. Sweden had Strinberg. But more than that, those countries had promoters of their most famous playwrights in the English-speaking world.
But what about Finland? Enter Mikko Viherjuuri, a Finnish playwright, director and man with a mission. Also enter Lit Moon Theatre Company founder John Blondell, who was ready to listen. Now, they're about to give Finnish theater some exposure with Lit Moon's Midnight Sun Festival, opening tonight.
The festival has a short list of creative names local audiences should get to know, but that's just the beginning.
For two weeks, Lit Moon, in cooperation with Center Stage Theater, will present four examples of contemporary Finnish theater for the first time ever in America.
Two years ago, Blondell got a message from Viherjuuri, who was literally carrying around a suitcase full of plays representing the best of Finnish theater. He was trying to meet California companies, directors and agents to promote his country's theater.
"I really liked the guy," Blondell says, "and when he came to Santa Barbara, he stayed with us."
Upon reading the play "Queen C," Blondell knew he wanted to direct it. At first he was toying with the idea of a multicultural festival, a mix of different countries' plays, but Viherjuuri's suitcase was too inviting and too full.
Apart from "Queen C," directed by Blondell, Viherjuuri directs Anna Krogerus' "For Sheer Love of Me," a family drama featuring a smart, self-aware 10-year-old on a collision course with her self-involved parents. After its 2006 premiere, the play was a popular and critical success.
Midnight Sun will also offer two staged readings. Mika Myllyaho's "Panic" focuses on three seemingly successful middle-class men, about to snap under the pressures of modern society. As the comic but serious play progresses, they take on the roles of psychoanalyst and patient, trying to help each other.
"The Finnhorse," by Sirkku Peltola, explores the conflict in modern Finland between the rural tradition and the pressures of being part of the new Europe. The Finnhorse (or Finnish horse) of the title may be a noble creature, but Jay, the young man at the center of the play, would rather trade it for a Harley-Davidson. Maurice Lord, artistic director of Genesis West, will direct the reading with members of his company.
"Queen C," however, will get Blondell's full company and treatment. "There will be a Lit Moon quality," he says. "It will be oriented to the actor and with strong images. But I certainly won't be carving the play up. . . . I'm trying to reveal the play for what it is."
Based on the life of Queen Christina, the 17th-century Swedish monarch, the play explores a woman who lived by her own rules. It premiered in 2002 to acclaim, and will be the oldest play at the festival.
"I try to discuss power and loyalty," playwright Laura Ruohonen says, "and see what the impact is when the one claiming power is female, a wild girl and princess. . . . I believe that drama can and should exist both as theater and literature. That's what makes it so challenging."
Viherjuuri says: "This festival is the first step. I've been told it's innovative for me to promote these plays the old-fashioned way . . . but I believe in eye contact. I'm still surprised that these doors have opened to me and Finnish theater."
LIT MOON'S MIDNIGHT SUN FESTIVAL
When: tonight through June 17
Where: Center Stage Theater, Paseo Nuevo, upstairs
Tickets: $25 general, $12 students, seniors
Information: 963-0408 or www.litmoon.com
SOUND BYTES: COLIN HAY
Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
June 8, 2007 9:03 AM
"Are You Lookin' At Me?"
COMPASS RECORDS
Twenty years after this former Men At Work frontman set off on a solo career, his ninth album finds him relaxed and still able to knock out the melodies. It's not an ambitious album, yet neither is it bland. Hay ruminates on life -- the title track, half-sung in his thick Scottish brogue -- and death -- "Lonely Without You," which manages to be both touching and funny -- in equal measure, and could have a hit in "Land of the Midnight Sun," if radio still made a place for artists this quirky. Recommended.
ONSTAGE: More 'Lesser' - Director returns to 'Children' 22 years after SBCC production
By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:27 AM
"This is the ultimate role for a deaf woman," TL Forsberg says about her lead role in "Children of a Lesser God," opening tonight at the Rubicon Theatre. "Then again, maybe it's the only role."
Forsberg is only half-joking. Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" first premiered in the early 1980s and introduced audiences to the world of the deaf through a romance between James Leeds, a teacher of lip-reading, and a deaf former student, Sarah. The film version made Marlee Matlin an Oscar-winning star. As for the theatrical event, few plays involving the deaf have come since, says director Rod Lathim. And none, he says, match "Children" for its power and effect.
"It's not a play that gets produced much," Lathim says. "The biggest challenge is finding an actor to play James. Not only does he have to work artistically and dramatically, but he has to be skilled in sign language. If I had not gotten Remi (Sandri), I would not have done this."
Lucky for Lathim and Sandri, they worked together in 1985 on "Children," when it played at SBCC's Garvin Theater.
"At the time, I thought I was too young for the part," Sandri says. "But it was a fantastic challenge. Rod told me it would probably be the hardest thing I'd ever learn . . . but it was a chance to stretch and see how far I could go."
Years later, Sandri needed little convincing to return to the part. "Rod just called me up," he says.
"The difference for me this time around," Lathim says, "is that I have a full staff and all-equity actors. I don't have to run around (doing many jobs), just focus on the actors."
Lathim spent 18 years as founder and artistic director of Santa Barbara's Access Theatre, which produced original musicals and plays that incorporated the talents of artists who were deaf, blind or physically disabled. So he is making sure "Children" appeals to the non-hearing community, too, with special shows that will be completely interpreted using shadow signing.
Forsberg has been onstage for most of her career, either through acting, dancing or singing as part of her band, Kriya. She lost most of her hearing at age 8, but can read lips, sign and speak. "Children" gives her a chance to return to acting. The play brings up issues of identity among the deaf, she says, who make choices between the hearing and non-hearing worlds.
Lathim agrees. "Since the play was written, there have been great advances in technology," he says. "Back then the cochlear implant didn't exist. Now people have that choice. But that choice has also created politics that I can't even speak about (with authority). I understand both perspectives."
A little bit of those politics can be found in the play in Sarah's initial refusal to learn to lip-read. But out of that conflict between teacher and ex-student springs the relationship and their falling in love.
It's a universal theme, Sandri says.
"How do two people find a way to talk to each other when both use different kinds of language?" he says. "Everybody has those questions. How do you compromise? How do you know when to back off, or when to keep going? In the end, it's a love story."
'CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD'
When: 8 tonight through July 1
(7 p.m. Saturday, Wednesday, June 20 and June�27); 2 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays. Signed performances: June 27 through July 1; no signed show July 28
Where: Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura
Tickets: $25 to $49
Information: 667-2900 or www.rubicontheatre.org
IN CONCERT: Three women in Coma rise - A newfound complexity is apparent on three-piece band's latest album
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:55 AM
With a name like Girl in a Coma, music fans will be forgiven for thinking this three-piece all-female outfit sounds like a Morrissey/Smiths tribute band. After all, their name comes from The Smiths' 1987 single. But have one listen to "Clumsy Sky," the first single off the band's debut album, and one hears an alternate world in which Patsy Cline was born decades later and started a punk band.
"That's funny," lead singer Nina Diaz says when the Cline comparison comes up. "The first song I ever sang with my mom was 'Crazy.' But really, I'm influenced by whatever I'm listening to at the time."
Which is true for the whole band. The members of the San Antonio-based Girl in a Coma have spent their formative years absorbing decades of musical influences: The Smiths, Joy Division, The Ramones and Jeff Buckley all share CD shelf space.
"We still get a lot of Morrissey fans turning up," the band's drummer, Phanie D, says. "People come thinking we'll do Smiths songs, but then they stay anyway."
After seven years, the band got its break through Joan Jett, the leather-clad 1980s rocker who has influenced countless bands with her independent vision and attitude.
The band -- sisters Nina and Phanie D and childhood friend Jenn Alva -- took part in a TV show that initially meant to follow a number of Latino bands. As a surprise, the producers got Joan Jett and her longtime producing partner, Kenny Laguna, to watch the band and offer advice. Instead, Jett and Laguna signed Girl in a Coma on the spot to Blackheart Records.
"Joan is a role model for us and like a big sister," says Alva, who plays bass. "I think she sees an innocence in us, like when she was in the Runaways."
The album and the increased touring are a nice payoff for a band that started in high school, where Alva and Phanie met in art class.
"Phanie asked me if I could play an instrument, and I lied and said I could play bass." Jenn says, laughing.
Phanie says she wasn't planning to become the drummer, but, well, nobody else appeared to fill the position.
With Nina on vocals, Girl in a Coma set out to conquer a little corner of their hometown. San Antonio, with its Tex-Mex culture, was more of a metal town, but the band soon joined the city's nascent indie and ska-punk scene. Nina's voice continued to improve, as did her guitar playing.
Now the new album, "Both Before I'm Gone," features songs from that seven-year period, although as the band has matured, the arrangements have become more complex, with keyboards added on some tracks and Alva and Phanie adding harmonies. The harmonies give an edge to the lyrics, especially on the ballads.
Nina is circumspect in talking about her lyrics, which deal with matters of the heart. " 'Clumsy Sky' is about . . . something I went through, a state I was in," she says, choosing her words with care. "That song just came out of me, fast. If I have to push 'em out, then they might not be worth it."
GIRL IN A COMA
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Muddy Waters Café,
508 E. Haley St.
Cost: $5
Information: 966-9328
Plain White Tim - From Bright Life to White Hot
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:59 AM
Followers of Santa Barbara's rock scene may remember a band called Bright Life from a few years back. Signed to Capitol Records, they released one record, went on tour and even inspired a song by Sugarcult.
Tim Lopez remembers Bright Life well, because he played guitar for them. Now he returns to the area as guitarist for Chicago-based pop-rockers Plain White T's, who play this week's KJEE Seaside Beach Ball. How did a Santa Barbara native find his way to the Windy City?
"I was caught between projects," says Lopez, who has been with the band nearly four years, "and they needed a guitarist. I got offered the position the first day (of auditions)." After the release of the band's 2002 album, "Stop" (some of which was recorded in Santa Barbara before Lopez joined the band), the Plain White T's lineup solidified. Fans took to Lopez quickly, and he took to the band.
"When you tour in a van, it's not long until you feel part of the group," he says. "I knew I had been accepted when fans stopped asking where (the previous guitarist) was."
So far, 2007 is turning out to be a good year for the Plain White T's. Their single "Hey There Delilah," written by lead vocalist Tom Higgenson, climbed to No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock charts and to 27 on the Hot 100.
"The band has a traditional, Midwest, hardworking attitude," Lopez says. "They definitely think Chicago is the best place in the country."
But Lopez still counts Santa Barbara home, since his parents live here. He only wishes his successful band could get a chance to play Santa Barbara.
"We nearly did," he says. "We were scheduled to open for a band at the Bowl. My parents even bought tickets in advance, but in the end the scheduling didn't work."
For now, Lopez and the Plain White T's will have to stick to Ventura, and hope friends and family will make the drive, along with hundreds of fans, new and old. n
More info available at http://www.plainwhitets.com
KJEE'S SEASIDE BEACH BALL: The Queens and I - Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen part of ever-changing Stone Age roster
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:00 AM
Signs of Summer: Popsicles, beach towels, flip-flops, barbecues. Add radio-friendly rock bands arriving en masse to that list.
Large rock festivals like KJEE's Seaside Beach Ball, coming to the Ventura County Fairgrounds today, have become a way to expose a roster of popular and up-and-coming artists to the maximum amount of like-minded fans. One month ahead of the Warped Tour, the Beach Ball brings to the sunny city to the south a lineup featuring the famous (Queens of the Stone Age, former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman, now solo artist Chris Cornell), the hip (Sum 41, Plain White T's) and the buzz-worthy (Cold War Kids, Shiny Toy Guns).
For Troy Van Leeuwen, guitarist with Queens of the Stone Age, these festivals are a good way to make new fans and to play short sets to an already-hyped crowd. "We just came off KROQ's Weenie Roast festival," he says. "They had a revolving stage, and so you come on already playing. It's crazy."
The KJEE stage might not revolve, but the Queens will be turning heads with a set that unveils many of the new songs on their fifth album, "Era Vulgaris," set to drop in a week.
"The previous record ('Lullabies to Paralyze') was dark, but that has provided us a chance to do something like ('Era Vulgaris')," Van Leeuwen says. "We're tapping into stuff we hadn't even seen before."
Those who have heard tracks -- the band leaked a few, some popped up on the Internet, and press at Austin's South By Southwest festival heard most of it -- are using terms like "electric" and "nervous" to describe the Queens' new direction. Van Leeuwen agrees.
"This album is full-on, electric, buzzing, fuzzing, crackling, popping!" he says.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails lent his vocals to the title track, which was eventually left off the album and now exists as a free download and bonus track in the UK. The group knew Reznor from a previous tour, when they were opening for him.
"He was super-duper professional," Van Leeuwen says about the session. "Trent came down to the studio well-prepared. He nailed the song, then said 'See ya' and left."
"Era Vulgaris" features vocal appearances from Julian Casablancas from The Strokes and Mark Lanegan, formerly of Screaming Trees.
If there are any constants with the Queens, they are Joshua Homme on lead vocals and Homme's need to change the lineup, especially when a tour arrives.
"This album is super-well-produced," Van Leeuwen says, "and so we added members to get all those notes onstage."
To that end, the touring band features Michael Shuman from Wires on Fire on bass and Dean Fertita from The Raconteurs on keyboards.
Already some months into the tour, Van Leeuwen says the songs from the new album are morphing into something else.
" 'Battery Acid' has become more frantic," he says. "There's a lot of nervous energy in it. It's such a weird centerpiece to the record. That and 'Misfit Love' are the funnest grooves we get to play."
After the Beach Ball rolls up its tent, Van Leeuwen says he'd love the band to tour and play less-visited areas of the country. (He won't get his wish, however -- the band hits Europe soon).
"We'd go to places like Truckee, which is up past Bakersfield," he says. "Way out there. We'll call it the Duluth Tour, I think."
I just started using FoxyTunes with my Firefox browser and I kinda like it. It puts a music player controller down at the bottom right of the browser window, which fixed one thing that was bugging me recently: switching from Firefox to iTunes and back again (over and over again). So I went looking and found this.
But it also has oodles of Web 2.0 goodness: you can use whatever is playing and use Foxytunes' portal to return a page of related searches, including YouTube, LyricWiki, Last.fm, Flickr, Google, Hype Machine, Rhapsody, Amazon, and more. It's reedonk.
Man attaches mini-digi camera around the neck of his cat and is able to see what Mr. Lee gets up to during the day. I find the whole idea (and the results) quite hilarious.
AND SO IT GOES - Neil LaBute trains his eye on race and gender relationships in Ensemble show
By TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Not just a blistering treatise on race, Neil LaBute's "This Is How It Goes" delivers a course on unreliable narrative in theater. Like the skin of an onion, layers of truth pull back as the play progresses until we're never really sure about the truth of the matter. And Mr. LaBute does this without disappearing inside his own cleverness. Part of the reason lies in the play, but the rest lies with the cast and crew of Ensemble Theatre, assembled for this season's final show at the Alhecama Theatre.
"This is how it goes," says the unnamed Man, played by Aaron Serotsky, in the play's opening lines. He strolls on with the confidence of a man who's just been bought a beer and asked to tell his life story. From his entrance onward, we are his captive audience, and we must follow. "I may be an unreliable narrator," he laughs, like a naughty child. Uh-oh.
The Man has returned to his small hometown, having left behind a law career to focus on being a writer. At the mall, he runs into Belinda (Shannon Koob), a former cheerleader and the Man's former crush. The Man has lost weight, Belinda notes. Belinda looks the same, he says. But she's married with two kids, and her spouse is Cody, who had been the track team star in high school.
Cody (Adam Lazarre-White) is black, and his interracial marriage to Belinda raises eyebrows in the community. Or at least that's what we're told. The only raised eyebrows we see belong to the (white) Man, and he struggles to deal with his feelings. Is his jealousy simply between two men or between two races? Does one cover, or offer an excuse for, the other?
The Man needs a place to stay. Cody and Belinda rent him the guest house over the garage, and the Man sets about trying to get back into Belinda's heart, capitalizing on the attraction he felt when he first met her at the mall.
Somewhere in the middle of this straightforward story, things begin to bend. Belinda appears with a black eye and we get a flashback as to how she got it. Or how the Man thinks it happened. And then we get one more version, based on Belinda's version of events.
Which version do we prefer? And is the scene's believability based upon our own assumptions about race and gender?
Recently in town, another company's production of Mr. LaBute's "The Shape of Things" featured a devious art student who manipulates her clueless boyfriend and then drops him, her experiment finished.
Sometimes Mr. LaBute's less interesting works feel that way too -- the audience the victim of a manipulative voice. But "This Is How It Goes" progresses beyond that and presents so many versions of an explosive situation that one could almost pick 'n' mix the outcome that feels the truest . . . or the most comfortable.
By the final scene, we're not sure who's fooling whom, but all come out of the situation with what they (think they) want. In that sense, "This is How It Goes" is a comedy, but set in a minefield.
And though we know it's coming, somehow the dropping of the n-bomb still elicits a gasp from the (primarily white) crowd, which director Jonathan Fox and his cast must have appreciated. In such an intimate space, the word swelled to the size of the whole room.
The performances are uniformly excellent. Mr. Serotsky has the kind of warm, open face that makes us want to hear and believe his story. (I can't imagine that sort of feeling elicited by Ben Stiller, who took on the role in the play's initial New York run). Mr. Serotsky plays the Man as almost too nice, and for the first half, his decisions don't make sense, until the second half sheds new light on them.
Ms. Koob's Belinda comes at us half-translucent, half-opaque, weighed down by the realization that she's stuck with the choices she made during high school, yet wise enough to figure a way out.
Her sadness, though rarely expressed, is palpable.
And Mr. Lazarre-White's Cody is all guarded macho-strutting, but built on a proud foundation, guarding his father's memory and emulating his business sense. Race issues directly tie into his economic status, and he wisely knows that the further he rises, the more people will want to take him down.
Jonathan Fox moves these intelligent characters through their chess-like game, and one comes out of the evening having felt something very important was and still is at stake, way beyond the walls of the theater.
'THIS IS HOW IT GOES'
When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through June 24
Where: Alhecama Theatre,
914 Santa Barbara St.
Cost: $25 to $37.50
Information: 962-8606 or www.ensembletheatre.com