CollisionWorks

Not much theatre news, except I got dates and times mixed up for when I was planning on seeing the new Trav S.D. show that closes this weekend that a lot of friends are in - I was supposed to go tonight, and I can't see it any other day. Nice work. Sorry friends. Everyone else, you have three more days to see it, and it's supposed to be great. See HERE.

I got distracted, and the day's schedule done gone all wonky, by going in for the first time for jury duty today which was interesting and okay, however I got picked to be on a jury in a civil case (as an alternate yet, so I have to sit through it all and then NOT get any say in the matter). The trial starts next week, so at least I'm not back in tomorrow.

Tomorrow night is the season-opening party at The Brick. That looks to be a good time. Then I'm light-designing the new Nosedive show and doing additional tech help on Robert Honeywell & Moira Stone's new show at The Brick. Penny Dreadful coming up again, too.

I am missing tonight's not-so good time - the Palin/Biden debate - through the pleasant fact that Berit and I don't have television. We have a television of course, a big one, and lots o' videos, but very deliberately no antenna or cable, so I'll just read the reports and transcript later, and maybe subject myself to some online video of bits of it if I feel masochistic. Right now, I'd rather look at videos I'm saving up.

So instead of the horrors of the current rotten political debate, how about a commercial pitch from Johnny Rotten?

( Never Mind the Bollocks, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! )

I was a little put off by that ad at first, but my friend Sean noted that, as always, it was just another example of how any form of true rebellion is stolen, de-edged, incorporated into the Status Quo, and used to sell stuff to us, and there's actually something heartening in seeing Johnny Rotten now transformed from "antichrist" to "symbol of England."

Sean also, years ago, made the statement that Johnny Rotten and Brian Wilson were the two living people he believed were to be forgiven any and all screwups they will, have, or may have committed in their lives, as the greatness of their finest work wiped away all their sins. He added that dead people who got this same forgiveness were Buddy Holly and Frank Zappa. I tend to agree.

Sean and I went to a book-signing for Rotten's autobiography when it came out, and got to have a brief conversation with him. There were some young punks (in two senses of the word) across the street from the bookstore, with signs protesting Rotten's having written (and now SELLING!) this book as a "sellout." Very silly. So when Sean and I approached him together, we brought it up:

SEAN: So, uh, did you see those people across the street, protesting you?
ROTTEN: (honestly taken aback and confused) Aw, YEAH, what's that all about, then? What are they angry at me for?
IAN: Making money.
ROTTEN: (with great realization) OHhhhhhhhh! COMM-u-nists!

I just read an article where someone was complaining that "viral videos" have gone downhill in the last few years, pointing to this one below as an example of the kind of charming, funny, bizarre and inexplicable videos that people used to send around that you don't see so much anymore. I don't know if that's true, but I'd never seen this before and it was indeed funny and inexplicable:

( Valentine for Perfect Strangers )

Strange things are indeed happening everyday, as Sister Rosetta Tharpe once noted, and here are four other examples of the amazing singing and guitar playing of that great performer:

( Sister Rosetta Tharp rocks the gospel, early 1960s )

Also from the 60s - in fact, like me, 40 years old - here's a piece of video newly out on DVD, a performance by Harry Belafonte that was cut by CBS from the Third Season premiere of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour as it includes footage from one of that nasty Summer's nastier moments:

( The Whole World Is Watching )

Ah yes, the world is full of fine fine superfine people, and here's a real sign one of them has on their front yard:

Personally, I regard him more as a 50/50 cotton/poly blend . . .

If you have a problem with the "Muslins," maybe you can make a request of your own Savior . . .

And, in the midst of all this, for cheeriness' sake, here's 13 adorable seconds of catness:

( The Sliding Cat )

Keep your heads up.