Last night, thanks to the generosity and connectedness of Miss Kati Voluntine, I got to enjoy the California Shakespeare Festival's excellent production of Anton's Chekhov's The Seagull. At first, I was surprised at how funny the show was, and at the end, impressed again by the poignancy. Part of that is probably due to Tom Stoppard's translation, and part due to the excellent production. Even the set and lighting were excellent (in my uninformed, inexpert opinion) - the moonrise is a wonderful effect. As an added bonus, I got to sit next to, and converse with Marcia Fulk, better known as Ash Lee's mom. The Seagull runs through Sunday afternoon, so check it out.
While I'm raving about works of art, y'all should try and acquaint yourselves with the Flaming Lips' masterful album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots . It's sort of a concept album, sort of not, as many but not all of the songs concern a Japanese girl named Yoshimi and her battle against the seemingly unbeatable killer pink robots that are terrorizing her city. Sample chorus: "Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me, but you won't let those robots eat me." There's also a song about a robot attempting to learn to love.
My previous experience with the Flaming Lips was limited to the novelty single "She Don't Use Jelly." This album is a lot different than that - a lot more sophisticated, and complex, and... heartfelt. The Flaming Lips are yet another band that I've discovered recently, and that Dustin was already listening to back in high school. Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk At Cubist Castle was the first album in which I noticed this Dustin-Sean-five-year musical time lag. Does this mean I'll be listening to the Inflatable Supermodels and lots of punk rock in 2007?
ok i have got to get my hands on that album. pink robots! yeah!
i thought that the seagull's translation by stoppard was incredible. it occasionally seemed heavily reminiscent (to me at any rate) of his play arcadia. the discussions of art and what it means to make art/create art seemed overdone at first but by then end i was loving it. i don't know if i could say it was a highly "enjoyable" play, but i did really like it.
do you have copies of those albums (olivia and lips)? more to the point, can I have copies? i don't have much to offer you except waitin for a superman (also lips) but i bet you have it.
I don't have any other Lips. I'll bring you your own personal, burned copies whenever we meet again. So, Waitin for a Superman would be welcome.
Michele: The Seagull also reminded me of Arcadia, in the art-discussing-art aspect. Plus, I think there's inherent quality to a native Hungarian (I think) still keeping puns in an English translation of a Russian classic.
I didn't really have fun at the show, either, but I did appreciate it a whole lot, and had a lot to think about. It also ends really abruptly, which I thought gave it lots of added weight.
dood. he's czech. CZECH. :) you should have gone to see the invention of love with us cause 1)tom stoppard was THERE and 2)it gave you absurd amounts of things to think about. but that was a long long time ago. i mean...CODY went with us. that's saying something right there.
me too with the copy! me too! i've got umm......AQUA! you wanna? "come on barbie let's go party...aw, aw, aw, yeah."
I saw him a few years ago on campus, when there was a presentation sponsored by the math department(!) discussing "Arcadia." They did a few scenes from the play, poorly, and a professor interviewed Stoppard about the play. Sadly, it was one of those interviews where the interlocutor has a lot of theories about the meaning and inspiration for the play, and asks questions solely about those, regardless of how incorrect they might be.
Interviewer: Lord Byron's daughter was a mathematician. Was that the inspiration for the Thomasina character?
Stoppard: You know, that would have been clever of me, but I didn't actually know about her when I wrote the play.
Interviewer: (pause) Well, Lord Byron's daughter also had a tutor...
Stoppard: *Damn you, pretentious UC Berkeley math department fuckers!
*imaginary
hee hee hee... stupid math fuckers beleaguring the mental genius which is tom stoppard, (czech), with stupid questiongs. not unlike kristen's question to the man, "do you like my shoes?"
i saw arcadia performed at my alma mater (yes) and it was an incredible performance. oh man. so fucking good. it was done in the round too which was really cool. and this wonderfully adorable gay boy played the tutor. damn i forget his name. uber cute anyway.