Saturday, May 15, 2010

Information Archaeologists and a Futurist's Desk

Today in Twitter land...

WorldFutureSoc Archaeologists should study the desk drawer I'm cleaning out: Rolodex cards, plastic file tabs, Post-It fax notes, lots of dead rubber bands

WorldFutureSoc: ...desiccated crumbs of cranberry muffins, reading glasses Elton John would consider OTT... What's a #futurist w/o longitudinal data?

WorldFutureSoc: ...ooo, a Pantone chip: C=0 Y=65 M=90 K=20 ;-) my favorite color!

WorldFutureSoc: ... two sticks of Beemans! SCORE!!

WorldFutureSoc: Sorry, @paleofuture, I had to throw out the extra floppy disk labels I just found. They were nasty. ;-)

WorldFutureSoc: I have no idea what these little keys go to, but I'm afraid to throw them away.

WorldFutureSoc: Paperclips, re-recycled for years RT @fayfeeney My #bizrelic: Redi-reply memos - triple copies w/ carbon paper. What's yours?

WorldFutureSoc: Found another Pantone chip: C=100 Y=0 M=90 K-40 We love our primary colors here at The Futurist magazine!

WorldFutureSoc:
Okay, desk drawer cleaned. (Sort of.) Worst crud: the mess from a bottle of Wite-Out that leaked. Yuck.

WorldFutureSoc: Best finds: two 29-cent Elvis stamps, a loupe, T-square, protractor, compass, and one of those little curvy things for drawing curves.

WorldFutureSoc:
So concludes the tweet-story of a #futurist cleaning a desk and finding the history of the Information Age. Thank you, thank-you-very-much!

love, hosaa,
dreading cleaning out the filing cabinets next

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Around the World without the Balloon


Danisha Crosby, Round House Theatre
Back from the Round House production of Around the World in 80 Days, which we are urgently warned in the program does not feature a balloon. That was a movie thing. There was no balloon in Jules Verne's book.

What I love about the productions at RH recently has been the musicality of the dramaturgy and the heavy emphasis on dance in the blocking. It isn't a musical, but it's musical. In AW80, actors suggest the motions of trains, boats, and other conveyances through their choreographed leans, shakes, and jolts.

And then of course there is the audience-pleasing coconut-clopping "horses," a nod to Monty Python that brought a smile to my face as I pictured King Arthur and Patsy rather than Passepartout trotting on stage.

Silliness ensues throughout; world cultures are caricatured on an equal opportunity basis, though I do wonder why I should be more uncomfortable with the gross caricatures of Asians than of the Brits and Americans. Because it's acceptable to laugh at ourselves but not at others?

Through the spirited jaunt, Phileas Fogg (performed by Mitchell Hebert) is a stoical pillar of gentlemanly sensibility - mathematical and precise. How does such a man launch himself into such an adventure? It's a mystery; perhaps hubris is a powerful enough force to tempt a man from logic, for along the way he is rewarded with the illogic of falling in love.

Around the World in 80 Days plays at the Round House Theatre, Bethesda, Maryland, through May 30. This concludes the 2009-2010 season for RHT, and it is the first season that I have thoroughly enjoyed every single production (even the one WaPo hated, The Picture of Dorian Gray). I'm not even sure I could pick out my favorite (leaning toward Asher Lev); all were thought-provoking, but AW80 was certainly the most entertaining.