Stuff of the Day: 3/20/07

THEATER COMMENT OF THE DAY:

Saw "Journey's End," a WWI play that concerns itself with the ways the different characters internalize the near certainty of their imminent, senseless deaths and with the relationships they are able to forge in the face of this. The play --which takes place entirely in a British military bunker near the German Zone border--would have been merely quite good if not for--SPOILER AHEAD! SPOILER AHEAD!...--a single stunning dramatic moment that elevates it to an exceptionally moving theatrical event.

At the end of the play, we experience the characters running out of the bunker and onto the unseen battlefield above. The lights go out and we hear mortar fire and bombings in the dark--growing nearer and nearer until they build to a deafening crescendo that allows us to experience an acoustic intimation of what one's final moments during battle might feel like. Then the lights come back up and we see the entire cast of characters--whom we've spent the last 2 hours with--posed statue-still in their battle gear--directly in front of a war memorial wall with the names of the dead inscribed upon it. The image hits us with sudden mortal force. What makes it so powerful is that this dramatic revelation of the characters' collective demise is taking place in the theatrical space designated for bows and courtseys. Where actors often awaken from their onstage deaths to appear for their curtain call, here, the curtain call is doubling as a revelation of the characters' deaths. It is a gasp-inducingly powerful inversion. The lights fade to black and come back up--revealing them all still frozen in their posthumous glory. Only after three dips of the lights do they take off their helmets and, still in character, acknowledge the applause of the audience. It's a truly powerful theatrical moment with extra-theatrical--indeed ontological--resonances.

PROPOSED BAND NAME OF THE DAY:
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Vicarious Cheese.

PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION OF THE DAY:

Analysis of choking: (As in Jana Novotna choking. Not Latrell Sprewell choking or Mama Cass Eliot choking.)

It's the psyche choosing the certainty of self-subversion over the uncertainty of experience. It is a perverse assertion of the primal need for control--at all costs.

IMMODEST UTTERANCE OF THE DAY:

I'm a master of all trades. Jack of none.

HYPOCRISY OF THE DAY:

Bush and Cheney railing against all critics of the administration for possibly jeopardizing our national security in the battle against "the terrorists" all after having themselves leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent to the press. Arggggghh.....

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"You know what I can't stand? The irrepressible human spirit."

ANECDOTE OF THE DAY: (Or anecdotal evidence that cell phones can damage your brain)

I call a friend on his cell phone. We are talking for a bit. Part way through the conversation, I notice that distinct sound (if one can call it a sound) of wandering attention or multi-tasking entering the call from his end, despite my unrelenting wittiness and charm. After about a minute of appreciably diminished conversational presence, he tells me he has to go. A couple of minute later. I get a call back from him.

-You're not gonna believe this. In the middle of our call I started getting distracted because I couldn't find my cell phone!
-You mean the cell phone on which you were talking to me?
-Yes!!!.
-Wait...so you're telling me it then took you another minute of searching after hanging up with me to locate it and call me about it?!?
-Yes!!.

Wow, the conversation had been worth it after all.

IMAGINED EXCHANGES FROM A RE-UNION:

a)

-Well, I've built a thriving private practice, have an appointment at the university, have been married for 20 years to my beuatiful wife Sarah. We have three beautiful children, Rebecca, Jonathan and David. Oh, well I could go on and on...but how about you?

-Well, I bought a new chair.

b)

-Well, I went to law school and practiced for a few years. The I seque-wayed into the business world and became the CEO of one of the smaller Fortune 500 companies. And then I had an epiphany: The fate of the earth is more important than the fate of my bank account. So I quit, got a PhD in environmental science and now run a not for profit environmental think tank in Washington, where I live with my beautiful wife--who is a concert pianist-- and my two kids--the second of whom--wow, I can't believe it!-- just began college. Where does the time go? Hey, how about you?

-Well after college I fell through an unsuspected tear in the fabric of Being, was exiled from life, logos and law and have never fully regained my traction in time. But it's good to see you.

DAVID CARUSO OBSERVATION OF THE DAY:
The David Caruso de-liver-y.

In addition David Caruso's creepily empathic "I feel your pain and I want to gently penetrate you pain from behind" vibe, one must also comment on the uniquely cheesy cadence of...his...de-liv-er-y. I would like to do a taped parody of David Caruso reading the pledge of allegiance. Or the small legal print on an ad. Every sentence ending in that absurdly portentous tone--that rhythm of inane epiphany.

TEDDY VEGAS'S OBSESSIVELY LISTENED TO SONGS OF THE DAY:

"I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" by Colin Hay
"Intervention" by Arcade Fire

SPORT AND SOCIETY COMMENT OF THE DAY:

Rose admits betting on his Reds "every night": report (Can OJ be far
behind?)

You know it's funny. We celebrate a CEO who has the confidence to buy his own company's stock. Why do we condemn a manager who is confident enough to bet on his own team to win? It's not as if he was compromising the integrity of the game by betting against his team and throwing games. He was always betting on his team. Don't get me wrong. I never really liked Pete Rose. Pugnacious little bastard beat up my boy Bud Harrelson. He was ugly and flinty and unlikeable and had the worst haircut of the pre Donald Trump era. But if I'm a team owner, not only do I not mind my manager betting on his team to always win, I downright WANT my manager to be betting on his team to always win. I see absolutely no conflict of interest there. Hell, it should be mandatory.

QUOTE OF THE DAY #2:

"It would be difficult to fill his footsteps"

-Kyle Farnsworth on Mo Rivera:

I'm sure it would have been equally hard to follow in his shoes.

It used to be that athletes were ridiculed for their cliches (See Susan Sarandon's riff in "Bull Durham.") But now they can't even get their cliches right.

RANDOM SINGLE SENTENCE PORTRAIT OF THE DAY:

He was a passionate believer in the big empty gesture.

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Posted on 3/20/2007 ( Permanent Link )
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