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April 27, 2008
Sneak Preview
Posted by Michael at 06:57 PM | Comments (1)
April 23, 2008
John Ashcroft Faces the Public
Read this account of our former Attorney General trying to collect a nice, easy speaker's fee at a Tennessee college, then remember that the professional media types care more about flag pins and bowling scores.
Speaking of Ashcroft, here's a blast from the past.
Posted by Michael at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
The Hillary Campaign
...is starting to look like a college basketball game where one team trails by 14 with a minute to go and is still fouling to stop the clock. Nobody likes those kinds of endings.
Posted by Michael at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
Nantucket
I finally went to Nantucket for the first time ever last week. It was a long, long day trip, but it was very cool and I heartily recommend it. Here are the pictures.
Posted by Michael at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2008
To Paraphrase the Late Charlie:
Wesley Morris, you can have my visible undershirt when you pry it off my cold, dead back.
Posted by Michael at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2008
The Mall Will Kill You
Listen, not a year goes by - not a year - that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some old fogey which could have easily been avoided had some grandchild - I don't care which one - but some grandchild conditioned him to FEAR and RESPECT that escalator.
(First spotted at Pax Arcana.)
Posted by Michael at 01:31 PM | Comments (2)
April 07, 2008
Pieter-Dirk Uys at Zero Arrow Theatre
I got a chance last night to go see Elections and Erections, a one-man show by Pieter Dirk Uys (as part of the American Repetory's blogger outreach program). I hadn't known a lot about him before I went; the best way I can describe him is as a South African, more political version of Eddie Izzard. In that you have to be pretty smart to keep up with him, he frequently calls back to jokes from earlier in the show, and he does much of his performance in a dress.
Calling what Uys does a "one-man show" isn't exactly accurate, either, since half of his act is performed in costume and in various characters. He even does a puppet show. Some of his characters are inventions (like his Evita Bezuidenhout, a flat-out mockery of Afrikaner upper-middle-class morality), and some are real (Mother Theresa, Bishop Tutu, and Winnie Mandela all show up during the program). All contribute to his relentless skewering of South African society and its awkward transition from its despicable past into its uncertain future.
It certainly would have helped to know more about South African politics than I did, but Uys does a remarkable job breaking it down for ignorant Americans. (Like the piece of work that is the country's Minister of Health, who thinks AIDS can best be fought with a garlic and beetroot diet.)
Uys does a really nice job balancing the funny with the intensely personal. He tells one gripping story of an apartheid-era fling that, if discovered, would have ended with him in big trouble and the other guy probably killed. It's kind of jarring after the funny bits, but it really does illuminate some of the fear and insanity of the time.
The show will be playing at the American Repertory's Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square until May 5th; many of the shows will also involve guest speakers and political discussions about South Africa's past and future. The whole schedule is on the ART's website, and is definitely worth checking out.
Posted by Michael at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2008
There Are Times I Wish I Didn't Personally Know My Entire Audience
There's a joke I'd really really really like to make about a news story today. But I won't. And it's killing me.
Posted by Michael at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)
April 02, 2008
I Married a Suspense Novel
From Boston.com this morning.
Posted by Michael at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)