Monday, June 29, 2009

Dancing with Clay

It's fun to merge passions. I combined a couple of my current interests for this montage of "So You Think You Can Dance" stars Randi Evans and Evan Kasprzak's performances, with "Everything I Don't Need" sung by Clay Aiken.


YouTube link to view larger

love, hosaa
singing and dancing are everything I do need!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson and The Futurist

The Futurist magazine has so rarely covered celebrities that I could almost instantly pull up the article in which we used a photo of Michael Jackson.



It was the August 1984 issue, and we used MJ as a representative of one of the "Nine American Lifestyles," an article by eminent social scientist and futurist Arnold Mitchell of SRI International.

MJ represented what Mitchell termed the "I-Am-Me" generation. The caption reads:


Entertainer Michael Jackson symbolizes young people moving away from the outer-directed values of their parents and turning inward to find unique ways of expressing themselves. The confusion and contradiction of this "I-Am-Me" group is evident in their tendency to be simultaneously exhibitionistic and demure, narcissistic and self-effacing, confident and insecure, innovative and conforming, says Mitchell.


The only other celebrities whom The Futurist has featured (to my best recollection) are:

* Actress Ellen Burstyn, who helped fete futurist/inventor R. Buckminster Fuller at the World Future Society's 1982 conference (her photo with him appeared in our conference coverage in the October 1982 issue).

* Pop princess Britney Spears, whose image was used to illustrate the growing influence of pop music over traditional American music and the potential future demise of folk music. (November-December 2003, World Trends & Forecasts, "Where, Oh Where, Have the Good Old Songs Gone?")

* The Black Eyed Peas, whose anti-hate rap anthem "Where Is the Love?" was cited as a sign of a possible values shift in hip-hop culture. (July-August 2004, Optimistic Outlooks, "Values Shift for Urban Music?")

* Clay Aiken, whose use of the celebrity spotlight to focus attention on including individuals with special needs into programs with "typical peers" earned him recognition as a Visionary. (September-October 2004, "Enabling the Disabled to Serve")

Of course, the unexpected and untimely death of the "King of Pop" serves to remind all of us that our pop culture icons are more than merely symbols of our civilization. They are very much human beings, who live, love, and struggle for the best futures possible. Just like the rest of us.

ETA - gosh, how could I have forgotten Arianna Huffington! Pictured with Al Franken during their stint with Comedy Central, Ms. Huffington illustrated the concept of "celebritizing" oneself to improve paychecks. (June-July 1998, World Trends & Forecasts, "Marketing to a Celebrity-Obsessed Society")

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Edward Duke

June 17, 1953 - January 8, 1994

Happy Birthday to Edward Duke, who would have been 56.







Loved. Still.

love, hosaa
looking for the silver lining

Monday, June 15, 2009

From Decadence to Decay: King Lear

This is not a review, but a recap...

One of the great pleasures of belonging to an informal reading group (so small that we sometimes don't even get a quorum for our monthly Sunday-afternoon-at-the-library readings) is that we are sometimes invited to attend dress rehearsals at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's productions at Sidney Harman Hall or the Lansburgh. (Near the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C.) So, along with other of the STC's friends, volunteers, ushers, student groups, were a few of us from the Shakespeare Readers ...


invited to see the new production of "King Lear" starring Stacy Keach.

Here is the video interview of Stacy and the director.
http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/digital/0809_7.aspx

This production was updated to 1990s Eastern Europe, roughly paralleling the breakup of Yugoslavia. Reduced to the essence - this "Lear" is sex, violence, tempests, helicopters, holocausts, naked butts, and iambic pentameter. The fall of King Lear starts in the decadence of a posh but seedy hotel, as he symbolically divides his realm among his three daughters by slicing up a gaudy red and green cake (roughly emulating the topography of the kingdom) and offering chunks to the daughters who must declare their unparalleled love and devotion to him.

Wicked daughters Goneril and Regan one-up each other on the excesses of their love for their father; they're rewarded with huge slabs of the realm, and they and their husbands devour their slices of cake greedily. Humble Cordelia points out that if her sisters loved their father so much, how could they have enough love left their husbands? Cordelia, Lear's favorite and most caring daughter, doesn't suck up to him, which bruises his vanity. He banishes her, and she sets off with one of her suitors, some guy from France.

The rest of the play is really confusing to me - I wish I'd studied a plot and character summary before, but just didn't have time. It all goes from seedy decadence to utter decay. The King goes mad, his bad daughters abuse him horribly while engaging in all sorts of lewd acts. There is one older guy who is loyal to the king, and the bad daughters' bad boyfriend rips his eyeballs out. Meanwhile, Lear wanders around in the storm, rips his clothes off and dances off like a crazy person (yup - Stacy Keach's big old bouncing backside).

There's choking and shooting and raping in this show, too - all done on stage. Gosh! I don't think I want to be an actress when I grow up anymore!! How it was all staged is remarkable, but still very confusing and disturbing to me.

Since it was technically a rehearsal, the director could have stopped the action at any point to make adjustments, but he never did. I only spotted one flaw - when one of the evil sisters came in with a line of dialogue a bit too soon and interrupted the other. Everything else, as far as I could tell, was perfect. Just WAY too much sex and violence on stage for my taste.

Long show - first act was an hour and forty minutes, and the second was an hour and ten minutes, according to the director--I think it actually went longer. It ended at about five till 11! And with my wonderful ability to find my way home in the dark (not), I got home at about 10 till midnight.

I love theater even when I hate the show. Lear is one of the most depressing shows you'll ever see. Wrenching and awful and fabulous!

love, hosaa
taking my Shakespeare modern

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Ford's Theatre Museum

I'm very impressed with the renovated museum devoted to Lincoln that will be reopening this summer in downtown Washington, D.C. (equidistant between Metro Center and Gallery Place subway stops).

This 14-minute "flyover" of the project, and what you can expect when you visit, illustrates some very sophisticated museology. It combines information with interactivity, with particular attention to the experiential aspects of learning. I LOVE the four-story stack of books that is the centerpiece of the learning center, showcasing Lincoln scholarship.



Well done, Ford's! I'll be there.

Go to: Ford's Theatre Museum

Thursday, June 4, 2009

What's in a Name?

I've been a supporter of the Bubel/Aiken Foundation for almost six years. I haven't seen the press release yet, but I understand that its name is being changed.

Clay Aiken--co-founder and Chair of the foundation that provides education and other resources for promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities into programs with their "typical" peers--has long said that he wanted the Foundation to be sustainable without the need for his celebrity spotlight.

I've sent in my share for a place at the table at the October "Champions for Change" gala. Their good work will continue to need our support, no matter what they call the Foundation! I champion them, I champion their change.

(Now I only wish I could steal all their good ideas to help my own organization, the World Future Society. Stay tuned....)

love, hosaa
not naming names