I've Killed It

Thanks Urban Outfitters.
Blue blanket not included.

Ooooooh Yeeeaaahhh

As promised, photos of the repainted 1969 GTO:

Cheap Chic(k)

I love it when someone looks at my $50 Nine West purse and says, "Is that a Coach?"

Score

And now a subplot.

Ha! Yesterday I cashed in on a bet with Trev. At stake was $5 on whether my parents, who are restoring their 1969 GTO (they are original owners), would change the color from Midnight Green to red. My mother wouldn't tell me what they had decided. We found out yesterday when we got to their house, where she made us stand in the driveway facing the street while she opened the garage door and let us turn around.

Photos forthcoming. I left the camera cable at home.

You've Been Served

San Francisco companies, take notice: The most ballsy and edgy theatre I've seen all year hasn't been in the Tenderloin or in the Mission, it was last night in Vallejo.

I know, I was shocked, too.

Under artistic director Jon Tracy, Darkroom Productions presented a loose adaptation of Trainspotting, which probably would have been a Northern California premiere had a group not produced it years ago at SF's Edinburgh Castle pub. It closed last night. If you didn't see it, you fuckin' missed out.

Trainspotting was a pure, in-your-face production, yet stripped of any artsy pretensions and certainly stripped of any amateurish, just-out-of-theatre-school tricks. On a set littered with crates, a few pieces of furniture and a TV, director Tracy created gritty, kinetic scenes: rad, slow-motion Jean-Claude Van Damme fight scenes or creepy heroin-induced fantasias, to mention a couple. His minimal yet precise lighting design and John Epperson's brilliant sound design (with Warren Sandoval's original music) served the play perfectly, neither one overpowering the other.

Travis Mullins kicked ass as Mark Renton, as did Victor Ballesteros as his mate Tommy Begbie. While Ballesteros's wide-ranging credits include San Jose Rep, Teatro Vision, Willows and the Mountain Play, Mullins is based in Sacramento with only a few credits. We should be seeing a lot more of him; his performance was completely present and devoid of any obvious false notes. Rob Dario and Jena Rose turned in equally committed and strong performances.

Jon Tracy and Darkroom Productions is the real deal, a much-welcome alternative to fringe theatre that has turned safe over the years. This production showed a passion, with talent to back it up, of a company with really nothing to prove and nothing to lose. Well, maybe they feel a little differently. But they filled the house with a bunch of 20-30-somethings that could have been mistaken for a SF audience.

And the Fetterly Playhouse, located in a unlikely strip mall, is quite a marvelous little space, judging from the house (I don't know the technical specs). A small black-box space with fixed seating and a great, deep playing space versatile enough for warehouse-feel productions like Trainspotting and more traditional musicals like those that Vallejo Music Theatre produces. And because it's in the back, there's no street noise!

Some of Tracy's upcoming directing jobs include Aurora Theatre (the Global Age Project) and Richard III at Artaud, but Darkroom seems committed to Vallejo, which, as weird as it may sound, I think is great. For years, if SF magazine was to be believed, Vallejo has had potential. The main problem is that the city has never been able to figure out the best use of Mare Island, and there are really no jobs in the area. But, only about an hour from San Francisco, it has some pretty affordable real estate. It just needed a burgeoning artistic fringe, and that finally seems to be happening.

I'm Only Half Serious

You know, I sorta wanted to stand up in the middle of Brundibar and say, "Don't worry children, he's just an organ grinder." Well, no, not really. Because that would be just rude, and would get me kicked off all the press lists and probably get me a not-so-complimentary mention in local theatre columns: "When Theatre Editors Go Bad."
But, really, he's just an organ grinder. A street artist! Oh, the irony! That a play at Berkeley Rep demonizes a street artist. I mean, how did Berkeley Rep start out after all? Who were the people who started it? I mean, the people who came to be in Berkeley Rep's extended family? And now, today, after completing a beautiful second space and collecting money from all sorts of funders (ahem), they tear down a character that represents the root of theatre, tearing off his clothes and stealing his prosthetics, exposing him as a little sniveling coward, a fake. Not to mention the fact that he's supposed to represent Hitler anyway. A street artist? Hitler?

Pick of the Weekend

This week, I've got two shows that are flying under the collective radar and are also closing on Saturday.
I'm also going to both of them.

Tonight I'm hitting Luna Park, a workshop production of a play by Caridad Svich, commissioned by the International High School. I've long been a fan of Caridad, who is always getting honorable mentions with the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and even Cutting Ball's Risk Is This festival, but never seems to get a full production in the Bay Area. Really, a production, even a world premiere of hers is long overdue. So, I'm skipping opening weekend at the Magic, where yet another out-of-town playwright is getting a premiere, and going to this instead. Becuase Caridad is one out-of-town playwright I support!

Saturday I'm going on a little Sherlock Holmes type adventure. For in Vallejo, Vallejo of all places, where only community theatres live, there's an uppity company called Darkroom Productions (not to be confused with the Dark Room in SF) who's presenting Yes, Trainspotting.Trainspotting. They also did some improv around Halloween called something like Dead Men Don't Get Any Booty. So, the big question is, who's their audience? And, of course, are these productions good? Because I've been visiting Vallejo most of my life (relatives), and have had some extended family involved with some of the companies up there--the last thing I saw was a dinner theatre production of The Sunshine Boys. I know. So, if Darkroom Productions rocks, well, then Vallejo is finally becoming the next hot spot. I'm veeeerrrry curious!

Crab Season in the News

Trevor's Tenders in the Fog has closed, but the subject of the play, local crab fisherman, made the front page of the SF Chronicle today. It's the first day of crab season, but the Chron reports that fisherman are refusing to take the boats out. Why? Because Pacific Choice (if you really paid attention to the play, you would have noticed the name change) is trying to drop the prices they pay to fisherman, and the fisherman, who have been hurt by high fuel prices, are having none of it. Last season they fisherman were paid $1.70 per pound, but this season PC is suggesting $1.50, according to the Chron. Read the article for all the details.
Although the core of Tenders in the Fog wasn't about the conflict between fisherman and Pacific Choice, Trevor still included a lot of research about local crab fisherman and the industry in general in his play. Tenders is clearly a play that focuses on a rather unsung local population--local fisherman are not celebrated the way that people in Alaska or Maine celebrate theirs.

Norway Gets It

Norway's culture minister declared that many of the problems among the poor are also found in artistic communities, according to Aftenposten. The country is commissioning a study on "the state of the Norwegian artist."
Finally, someone had to draw the connection.
Thanks to ArtsJournal for the clip.

The New AT

Anyone seen the new American Theatre? Ahhh, color, ohhhh. I'm so jealous.

Where I've Been

So, the reason I haven't yet seen There Be Monsters (see below) is because I've been almost everywhere else. And a overzealous theatregoer even needs a night off. I never knew housecleaning could be so exciting. But not as much fun as the shows I've seen...and considering I always seem to see Serious Theatre, what a treat to see Ray of Light's production of Bat Boy on Halloween weekend, perfectly located in the Victoria. Man, that show should still be running!

And then the same weekend it was The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy over at Intersection. It's great fun seeing the Campo Santo regulars tackle a musical. If you like the company already and the show isn't sold out yet, I'd take a look.

And last weekend it was Killing My Lobster Nothing Is Original. It had actually been quite a while since I've seen a Lobster show, and this was a fun night, too. (I'm saying "fun" a lot; I don't think I've been able to say that a lot until now.) Well, I reviewed that for the Guardian this week, so you'll have to check over there.

We broke down and finally joined Netflix. We finally got fed up with Blockbuster when their DVD jammed during a really good scene in Kinsey. Just kidding. No I'm not. Anyway, we started right off with The Life & Death of Peter Sellers. Trippy and absurd stuff. Brilliant. Next up is Closer. I'll fit that in this weekend between...

Corteo at Cirque du Soleil. As a civilian, I'd long since given up on Cirque, mostly because I didn't want to pay upwards of $60 to sit behind a post. But then the press invite landed in my box, and I jumped around the office. Yes, I'm lame, and I shouldn't have admitted that out loud. But now I'm actually reviewing press, so I'm legit. Was it only last year that Cirque's opening night was cancelled due to a storm? It had to have been the year before that! Anyway, all I remember was being jammed into the lobby tents, and then wouldn't open the doors, and the tops of the tents were snapping every which way. I thought, No way are they going to do the trapeze numbers. I knew they were going to cancel, and at about 8:15, they did. And then everyone tried to get their $15 back from the parking lot attendants.

But I know that won't happen this year!

And then, my guilty pleasure holiday treat just may be White Christmas on Sunday. But I don't know; I mean, it's not the same seeing a Christmas show before Thanksgiving. In fact, it feels completely unnatural. I'll have to find something else in December. Last year I had great fun at ODC's Velveteen Rabbit. See, if you're going to do these guilty pleasure holiday shows, be sure to a matinee with all the kids. The year before that it was SF Ballet's Nutcracker, and all I remember was the people in front of us feeding their kids a box of See's candy through the whole show!

Pick of the Weekend

And the winner this week is There Be Monsters at Exit Cafe. Why? Because it's Dan Carbone! I've already pushed this show over at SFist a couple of weeks ago (actually, almost a month ago!), but it's still playing, so go see it already! You've got until November 19. OK, I actually haven't seen it myself, yet. But Carbone is a trip, a genius freaky trip.

RIP Blogging Stats

Welcome StatCounter.com. Now I can track all ya's again.

Stats Anyone?

I wonder if Blogging Stats knows they've got a major site problem. Or else they like kicked all their users out. All I know is that their button disappeared from this blog, and I can't login to their site. And of course there's no way to really reach someone. So, if anyone out there has some enlightenment to share, do share!

As Long As There's Theatre Coverage

Anyone else out there as tired as I am of the war between the city's two alternative weeklies? And last week, spurned by the New Times takeover of Village Voice, Neva Chonin chimed in. OK, so she got her start at the Guardian, OK, fine. Maybe I'm crazy, but I actually read both papers, I don't know why, let's just say, to read the theatre reviews, maybe? I've written for both papers, too. Look, I can appreciate the cries for a an independent press, especially when it comes to politics, but what's really annoying me is that Ms. Chonin and the like pay no attention to arts coverage when they soapbox. Because here's the thing: both papers local theatre relatively well. Not as well as we would like, but hey. Even when New Times homogenized the local papers, thy expanded arts coverage with the "Performance" section. And when Chloe Veltman went to the Weekly from the Guardian (not everyone is a loyaltist), she started pushing for more space, and seems to be getting a few more inches. Besides, she writes extremely incisive reviews, some of the best reviews around. And the East Bay Express writers get a fair amount of space, too. And the Guardian thankfully hasn't relegated its listings to its site only and runs several "mini-reviews" in them, which I contribute to from time to time.
I'm sure Chonin doesn't have enough space to look at the papers holistically, from section to section, but judging from her rant, it doesn't seem like local theatre matters to her at all: "I do remember [the Village Voice] was one of the few publications writing about things that mattered to me in the three decades that followed -- cutting-edge music, progressive politics, indie film." Previously she mentions "New Times' unmistakably bland template of syndicated reviews and articles." Hmm, I don't quite remember reading syndicated theatre reviews.
So, OK, from a political standpoint, let the war rage on. But don't let the arts, especially theatre, become a casualty.

Rent's Due This Month

Rent is opening this month in theatres, and the TV commercial campaign is out full force.
Here's what one session of cable TV surfing yielded:
"Five hundred"
[Click]
"twenty-five thousand"
[Click]
"measure a year"
[Click]
"they call"
[Click]
"twenty-five thousand"
Just stay away from the channels between A&E and Animal Planet.

Think Karma

Who knew being a magazine editor could be so hard? Today I was accused of Bush administration-like tactics. Wow, and we don't even publish reviews. Most all the content we put out is positive. So suddenly I'm compared to a near-Fascist regime. That'll knock your inner balance way off center!