Culture – Page 24 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

A Few Memories About Aging: Croquet, Neckties, Lessons Learned and Unlearned

All of sudden an old, yet seemingly very capable man, was old, yet seemingly incapable.

I wrote a little something about aging and my memories of how I came to understand, or not, what that concept means. This was spurred on by all we’ve lived through since Joe Biden’s debate performance, but it’s not so much about politics as it is about my grandfather, croquet, baseball and neckties.

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You can read Croquet, Neckties, Lessons Learned and Unlearned all on the Medium publication, Ellemeno.

Thanks to David Todd McCarty and NatashaMH for giving me the space.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Nick Offerman Sings Proud To Be A Kamala Man in Hysterical Parody

Nick Offerman sings Proud To Be A Kamala Man as only Nick can.

My old buddy and iconoclastic actor Nick Offerman took to the Comics for Kamala gathering online last night and unveiled his parody rendition of Proud to Be an American, rechristened as Proud To Be A Kamala Man.

Nick and I tackled Robert Schenkkan’s opus The Kentucky Cycle years ago before his career took off like lighting in a bottle as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation. One late night (there were many) over a pool table, Nick described the two-part 6 and 1/2 hour production as not a play, but a way of life. There are stories.

But back to the video, here’s a taste of the lyrics:

“I’m proud to be a Kamala man, who has quit the GOP, because I can’t just abide by a man who’s tried for 34 felonies. And I’ll proudly stand up and face the facts that the men that I once cheered are a bunch of wingnut white nationalists … Well, those guys are fucking weird.”

Sung from the perspective of a MAGAt who’s changed his stripes the rest is just as fun, with a few exceptions for scansion issues. Check it out yourself.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Toddling around with toddlers, politics, the Overton Window and dash of satire.

We’re in the dog days of summer and the dogged days of an election cycle that keeps getting weirder by the day. Today’s Sunday Morning Reading will have it’s share of politics, a look through the Overton Window, and close out with some satire. Enjoy!

Speaking of weird, David Todd McCarty tells us What We Mean When We Say Weird.

Not weird at all, but a warning to be well heeded. Marc Elias tells us that The Fight To Certify the Election Has Already Begun. Pay attention to this folks, becuase the fight isn’t over with the election.

The concept of Christianity has taken a hit that it might not recover from. Some are trying to fight back. Eliza Griswold gives us The Christian Case Against Trump.

Joan Westenberg gives us an explainer of the ever shifting Overton Window. If you don’t know what that is check out The Overton Window: An Explainer. Heck, check it out regardless.

Natasha MH finds some guidance from a toddler in The Teetotaler and the Toddler.There’s always magic and redemption in watching the young ones discover the world. One day we’ll learn not to screw that up.

Brilliant and Dispassionate. Jim Bauman takes a look at who intelligence benefits and who it hurts.

Michaela Zee highlights an interview with Vince Vaughn who says R-Rated Comedies Aren’t Made Anymore Because the ‘People In Charge Don’t Want to Get Fired:’ They ‘Overthink It.’ I’m not sure it’s overthinking as much as thinking more about making money, rather than thinking about telling a story.

And to close things out this week, Garret Epps posits a satirical spin on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Fitting, since we seem to have turned current day debates into a parody. Check out The Lost Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Trump Saloon.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

The Marsh Family takes on J.D. Vance in Parody Song

This is just too good not to share. Using Abba’s Dancing Queen as the tune, The Marsh Family does a terrific parody song that hits all the notes we know so far about the MAGAt candidate for Vice President J.D. Vance.

The lyrics are just too damn clever. Bravo! Well done. Share this around, watch from your couch and enjoy the laughs.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: Showered with Nominations In Awards Season

Great recognition for a wonderful team of theatre artists for a special production.

Well this is exciting news. Our production of The Lehman Trilogy at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis was nominated in seven categories for The Ostrander Awards. As always any recognition is more than appreciated, but when you have a special production with a special team it is even more special.

Nominated from our team include:

Iza Bateman for Props

J. David Galloway for Scenic Design

Rachel Lauren for Lighting Design

Joshua Crawford for Sound Design

Myself for Direction

Myself and our Stage Manager Emma White for Production

And in a terrific nod to the three amazing actors who carried the load, John Maness, Michael Gravois and Kevar Maffitt were nominated not as an ensemble but together as one Leading Actor in a play. That may not make much sense if you don’t know the show, but these three amazing talents literally became inseparable as one in creating the hundreds of characters that fill this challenging piece of theatre. I can’t think of a finer way to honor the incredible performances they gave and the amazing work it took to get there.

Kudos to all involved as well as all of the other nominees. Thanks to the Ostrander folks for the recognition and thanks to the great folks at Playhouse on the Square for the opportunity for us to tell this amazing story. We’ll find out if we won anything on August 26th.

Photo above by Sean Moore.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Ghostlight Is a Must See

One of the best films of the year.

Perhaps it’s because I’m an old theatre hand who knows all the tricks of the trade in what some consider the world’s second oldest profession. Perhaps it’s because I’m just an old guy trying to figure out the ups and downs of life. Either way, the film Ghostlight touched a nerve. It is one terrific story that uses the magic, hilarity, and hubris of making theatre to help tell an unerring tale of humans dealing with a grief so profound it can take your breath away, while breathing abundant life and delivering layers of complexity into a remarkably simple and well told story.

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Ghostlight is a tender and intimate independent film featuring a family dealing with their grief after the suicide of a son and brother. By accident, the struggling blue collar father stumbles into participating in a small town community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. Eventually his family also folds into the production, while he stumbles further into playing Romeo.

It might sound like something out of the Mischief Theatre Company’s misadventures with the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and The Play That Goes Wrong, but this little backstage adventure takes a different tack to find its way into your heart.

The story takes its time unfolding and revealing its mysteries with great care and surprise. And the surprises are many. The cast is superb and the direction is sublime. Ghostlight is in limited distribution in art houses currently but deserves a wider audience, which I hope it finds once it begins to stream.

If you get the chance or can make one, this is one to see. I expect this to end up on many best of the year lists.

A couple of side notes: The three leads playing the family are a family in real life, adding yet another layer to this marvel. Also, as a Chicago theatre practitioner it was great to see so many Chicago faces in the ensemble all doing remarkable work.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

The world gets meaner, uglier, and stupider, but Sunday mornings are still for reading.

The world continues to spin off its axis. And yet, it is another Sunday. So, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

One of my theatre professors used to say that we weren’t really doing theatre “unless someone with guns showed up at the box office to stop you from selling tickets.” Given how things are going these days those words keep coming back to me. Especially after reading this article about Svetlana Petriychuk and Yegenia Berkovich, who were put on trial by a Russian military court and found guilty of “justifying terrorism.” Check out Valarie Hopkins’ article Russian Playwright and Theater Director Are Convicted of ;Justifying Terrorism.’

Steve Radlauer and Ellis Weiner continue their excellent serialized tale, The Split, with Chapter Thirty-Six at The Wonkette. I highly recommend you check out the entire thing.

You might want to prick up your ears at this one. David Rothkopf discusses America’s Death Wish.

Scammers and Con Artists are in vogue these days. To some it’s the American Way. Check out Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia by Lauren Smiley. It’s a wild ride.

NatashaMH and David Todd McCarty each recently took a dip into the technology and design pool and how it splashes all over our culture. Natasha took a trip to the what she calls ‘Planet Apple’ via the new Apple Store in Kuala Lumpur and not only marvels at the design of the store but might have lost her Android religion in the process. Check out Taking a Bite of the Apple. Meanwhile McCarty thinks that the further technology allows us to advance the dumber we become in Better Than Ever But Worse Than Before.

Returning to the sentiment that opened this week’s edition, check out White Supremacy With a Law Degree: How Do We Escape ‘The Originalism Trap”? By Paul Rosenberg.

George Dillard says We’re All Hostages of Ego as he discusses the fate of our country and how it relies on the psychology of two elderly men.

Who’s Spoofing Who In this Ron Perlman ExxonMobil Spoof?

Fun and deadly spoof. But who’s spoofing who?

Ron Perlman is the perfect voice for the oily ExxonMobil ad spokesman in this terrific spoof of an ad from YellowDot Studios. It’s one crazy spoof.

But then again, isn’t this just as much a spoof about us?

Be honest. After watching this tell me there’s anything that you didn’t already know ExxonMobil, other oil companies, and politicians were doing.

Carry on. Or as the ad says, “get off your asses and do something, you fucking peasants!”

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Clowns to the Left of Me Jokers To The Right

What a sticky mess we’re in.

Well this is a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. The media/political party industrial complex has put us right where they want us to be. Spinning, Whirling, Scared. Confused. Befuddled. Pissed Off.

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As I watch my grandson propel himself around his surroundings this weekend with the reckless abandon of innocence, I can’t help but wonder at the wonder of it all. Watching him realize the consequences of waving an ice cream cone around in the heat of a summer night was a heartbreaking humorus lesson in beginning to see the light. The whirling and spinning only stop when gravity takes over and it all ends up a mess on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile back in the world of knowledge and supposed wisdom, it seems those of us in the rareifed air of adulthood who know better have become unconcerned if not unmoored from the law of physics.

After Joe Biden’s interview on ABC last night it seems we’re completely at the mercy of upcoming news cycles, whether we tune in or tune out. It’s starting to feel like it’s going to be an endless summer, fall and beyond. It’s an unending episode of Lost, where confusion reigns at the expense of narrative and plot. At some point it has to end, but there doesn’t need to be an end, just an endless supply of Special Features.

Sadly, whenver this spins to an end that end that will only help the party of convicted felons and child rapists help us end it all. But that can be spun up and away too.

I’m heartsick that the Democrats have fallen into depths beyond disarray, with new depths still to be plummed apparently. I’m pissed off that what used to be the GOP is happily using this ramapaging forest fire as cover to run and hide from Project 2025, while they continue to scan for more to burn.

The world feels like it’s caught in a lyric somewhere between Tommy Roe’s Dizzy and Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle With You, with some sort of AI generated click track back beat played by a boy band wearing Supreme Court robes, pretending they understand Hip Hop.

Goodness knows when this will all fall down. But then goodness has nothing much to do with any of it.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Great 4th of July or Any Day Message About the US

Send this to your friends, your enemies, and anyone else who needs some sense knocked into their heads.

If you’re struggling like I am with the fundamental changes happening in this country as we hit the 4th of July, play this ad from John Cena about what it means to be an American.

Don’t just play it, send it around. Every day. Each and every day. Especially to those who’ve lost the plot.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.