Very short article written by a successful vaudeville producer in the early 20th c. He articulates why vaudeville is a successful theatrical form and why it should become "America's national theatre."
Twenty Years of Vaudeville
Poster
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Crash of 1929
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/crash/player/
Link to PBS documentary on the crash of 1929. The first few minutes are an especially good context for the boom-bust cycles of our economy, as well as the underpinnings of our addiction to credit.
Link to PBS documentary on the crash of 1929. The first few minutes are an especially good context for the boom-bust cycles of our economy, as well as the underpinnings of our addiction to credit.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Shadenfreude & our First Run Through
The Designer Run Through and Shadenfreude, or my feelings when David stood me up and said 'it wasn't my fault' while singling everyone else in the audience out for blame.
Even with my involvement in this process, this is the kind of show that forces you to put down the pen to absorb and embrace everything that happening on and offstage. Two things I thought I post about were the audience's relationship to David, and the new 're-doing' of the end of the play.
This run through really highlighted for me various feelings as an audience member. Due to my interactions with David at the top of the show, I felt a real connection to him. When he brought me up during the "it's my fault" speech it was an interesting experience.I honestly felt good, a slight shadenfreude (to borrow the language of the play) against my fellow audiences member who were all feeling the brunt of his blame.
Perhaps it was this specific interaction with him, and the way it made me feel about my fellow audience members, that produced a real "Ah ha" moment when Ben pointed to the American Dream. And I looked back over my shoulder and saw David. I felt viscerally uncomfortable upon learning this. That this was the American Dream, the man who made millions of bad mortgage bundles. This man who essentially symbolized the broken economic system who had made so that I cannot ever imagine making more than my parents. Or affording the house that my parents own, or any house really. And suddenly I felt mad, so mad that this is what the American Dream was. But it made sense to me, despite my anger, that this of course was the American Dream. Otherwise why would people be so negligent in pursuit of their own personal wealth. It was this con man, that had only minutes before made me smile and so before he even opened his mouth I rather hated the American Dream. Because he had betrayed me.
And I realized that before the American Dream says or does anything, there is a visual statement that is made about the American Dream simply because I've had this real connection to David.
Also the final re-doing of the play was a fascinating exercise in frustration. I made more physical moments watching these actors try to re-create their own paths. I was physically uncomfortable and I felt this urges to help them. Correct them. And when the actors let their frustration show, when they said with their voices or body "fuck it," it made me laugh and it invoked in me this sense of release.
This run through really highlighted for me various feelings as an audience member. Due to my interactions with David at the top of the show, I felt a real connection to him. When he brought me up during the "it's my fault" speech it was an interesting experience.I honestly felt good, a slight shadenfreude (to borrow the language of the play) against my fellow audiences member who were all feeling the brunt of his blame.
Perhaps it was this specific interaction with him, and the way it made me feel about my fellow audience members, that produced a real "Ah ha" moment when Ben pointed to the American Dream. And I looked back over my shoulder and saw David. I felt viscerally uncomfortable upon learning this. That this was the American Dream, the man who made millions of bad mortgage bundles. This man who essentially symbolized the broken economic system who had made so that I cannot ever imagine making more than my parents. Or affording the house that my parents own, or any house really. And suddenly I felt mad, so mad that this is what the American Dream was. But it made sense to me, despite my anger, that this of course was the American Dream. Otherwise why would people be so negligent in pursuit of their own personal wealth. It was this con man, that had only minutes before made me smile and so before he even opened his mouth I rather hated the American Dream. Because he had betrayed me.
Also the final re-doing of the play was a fascinating exercise in frustration. I made more physical moments watching these actors try to re-create their own paths. I was physically uncomfortable and I felt this urges to help them. Correct them. And when the actors let their frustration show, when they said with their voices or body "fuck it," it made me laugh and it invoked in me this sense of release.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Krissy and Jenn's first thoughts on The End Of the Play
End of the Play, the Crazy Breakdown...
Jenn and Krissy let us into their thoughts behind the end of the play. After G/C call the fight, "Benjamin Franklin is the winner." The cast begins a chant of "I'm feeling Lucky...I'm so lucky...Let's get Lucky..."
The crazy breakdown is that the play starts over again.
THE ACTORS legitimately as people trying to redo the play, word by word. The rules of this breakdown are as discussed:
-Start with the first scene of the play, unless your Benjamin Franklin and your in it. You do all the scenes your not in, skipping the ones you are.
-There is no rehearsing this.
-ppl are not expected to have every line of the play memorized
-the key to theatrical chaos, is that it's not chaos for the performers
-rule is that if you don't remember something, you move onto the next line, next song, next scene
-probably cannot involve props
-the attempt at doing it perfectly will create frustration and urgency in the performance
When the cast began to ask why? Where does this moment come from? Why do we need to do this?
J- "if you don't re-do the show to the best of your ability, then we've broken the show and there is nothing left to save."
K-"We are re-doing the show to get back to David's line, 'it's my fault.'"
J-"We are challenging the audience to say, 'its my fault.'
The GOAL of getting everybody in the audience to all say 'it's my fault.' is the goal of re-doing this whole play. It's like there's a fork in the road, after scene 9, when David says "it's my fault." ANd since the audience didn't say it then, we have to re-do the show to get them all to say it.
And I had to leave rehearsal just as Kieran was pointing out that we might need to think about a contingency plan.
While all of this is happening the American Dream comes back to life, and crosses really slowly, {ie Robert Wilson's work. The AMD will cross so slowly across the space that it will take him literally the same amount of time to cross the space as it will take everyone else to re-do the play}
Jenn and Krissy let us into their thoughts behind the end of the play. After G/C call the fight, "Benjamin Franklin is the winner." The cast begins a chant of "I'm feeling Lucky...I'm so lucky...Let's get Lucky..."
The crazy breakdown is that the play starts over again.
THE ACTORS legitimately as people trying to redo the play, word by word. The rules of this breakdown are as discussed:
-Start with the first scene of the play, unless your Benjamin Franklin and your in it. You do all the scenes your not in, skipping the ones you are.
-There is no rehearsing this.
-ppl are not expected to have every line of the play memorized
-the key to theatrical chaos, is that it's not chaos for the performers
-rule is that if you don't remember something, you move onto the next line, next song, next scene
-probably cannot involve props
-the attempt at doing it perfectly will create frustration and urgency in the performance
When the cast began to ask why? Where does this moment come from? Why do we need to do this?
J- "if you don't re-do the show to the best of your ability, then we've broken the show and there is nothing left to save."
K-"We are re-doing the show to get back to David's line, 'it's my fault.'"
J-"We are challenging the audience to say, 'its my fault.'
The GOAL of getting everybody in the audience to all say 'it's my fault.' is the goal of re-doing this whole play. It's like there's a fork in the road, after scene 9, when David says "it's my fault." ANd since the audience didn't say it then, we have to re-do the show to get them all to say it.
And I had to leave rehearsal just as Kieran was pointing out that we might need to think about a contingency plan.
While all of this is happening the American Dream comes back to life, and crosses really slowly, {ie Robert Wilson's work. The AMD will cross so slowly across the space that it will take him literally the same amount of time to cross the space as it will take everyone else to re-do the play}
Anatomy of a Scene, Ben In France
The Anatomy of Scene 10:
We read the new draft of scene 10. And 'nuggeted it', summed it up as "Killing the Monster we created."
Some thoughts raised by the new draft were the idea of putting the song from 'Ben-In France' back into the beginning of Scene 10, which would introduce Aaron as the American Dream and create a bit of the bubble before the final bust of the play. And might help with the transition of David into the American Dream. Krissy raised a concern that since we set Benjamin Franklin up as the face of the $100 dollar bill then have him fight the American Dream do we raise any imagery that money is fighting The American Dream.
The cast didn't seem to feel there was a connection in the latter but the idea of bringing the top of 'Ben-In France' back stuck. Ben introduces the AMD to France through the song, to us the audience. And the les filles song helps with the transition from David to the American Dream. Rehearsal went on to handle the many facets of the new Scene 10 on it's feet:
"Ben In France"- Or the Scene where Father Takes Son to the Brothel.
-The cast began exploring the Father/ Son relationship between Benjamin Franklin and the American Dream. The AMD became more of an adolescent in Paris. With Benjamin Franklin and the AMD literally playing catch together onstage.
-Les Filles choreography really became a pastiche of all things France. With everything from sixties dance moves to the cockroach being thrown in.
& While les Filles is still interested in the AMD, they were literally chasing Benjamin Franklin around the stage. The AMD ran offstage as Benjamin Franklin sang, "They truly have a thing for romance." Thus leaving the AMD innocent off the very sexual turn the song takes when the les filles pants Ben. We discussed that the pantsing of Benjamin Franklin isn't about humiliation but sex. The the song in France ends with everyone going off to have sex.
"Woe is me" to the Boxing Match
-In the next part of Scene 10, the American Dream has grown up from an adolescent to a Con Man. As Jenn put it, imagine Bogart in the shadows.
The line in the text that sticks out so strongly, is after Ben agree's to being on the hundred dollar bill. The American Dream says, "Consider it done. Now, Everyone will spend with glee." Then the money chanting which becomes drumming starts, setting up not only the next conversation between Ben and the AMD but really their soon to be fight. This rhythmic chanting/ drumming invokes some old school pre battle imagery for me and apparently the opening sequence to the music man. "Rock Island"
We paused on Fight work, but the a couple quick questions raised by were that we don't want it to be about bringing the fight to the audience but rather than that's where it builds to. And that once we do move an audience-we lose them.
We paused on Fight work, but the a couple quick questions raised by were that we don't want it to be about bringing the fight to the audience but rather than that's where it builds to. And that once we do move an audience-we lose them.
The Depression Era Cartoon that has inspired Scene 10
Click here to watch Confidence, a Depression-era cartoon starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit:
Watch me!
(This video was previously posted but we thought it deserved re-posting due to it's importance! Unfortunately it has been locked from being embedded or directly loaded. So just click above and enjoy.)
Watch me!
(This video was previously posted but we thought it deserved re-posting due to it's importance! Unfortunately it has been locked from being embedded or directly loaded. So just click above and enjoy.)
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The Narcissister
S/he's a performance artist that calls z's self The Narcissister. G/C material for sure!
http://www.narcissister.com/photos.php
http://www.narcissister.com/photos.php
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Ragtime Era Dance
Link: Videos and explanations of Popular 1920's dance
"...many Americans began to find it "modern" to dance their Two-Step to the new Ragtime music from the rural South and Midwest. Some high society ballrooms embraced the African American Cake Walk as "the popular fad of popular society." In the early 1900s, Ragtime music gained a wider acceptance and was soon accompanying the new Four-Step (soon to be re-named the One-Step) and a spontaneous menagerie of "animal dances" such as the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug and Camel Walk, especially among the lower classes....
"...many Americans began to find it "modern" to dance their Two-Step to the new Ragtime music from the rural South and Midwest. Some high society ballrooms embraced the African American Cake Walk as "the popular fad of popular society." In the early 1900s, Ragtime music gained a wider acceptance and was soon accompanying the new Four-Step (soon to be re-named the One-Step) and a spontaneous menagerie of "animal dances" such as the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug and Camel Walk, especially among the lower classes....
Preamble (with capitalization)
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Confederate States of America National Anthem, Video/Song Clips
So technically there isn't a national anthem for the Confederate States of America. Apparently it not as important for them to pick a national anthem as it was for them to establish other things. But there are three anthems that are considered the CSA's unofficial national anthems:
1. Dixie
2. God Save the South
3. The Bonnie Blue Flag-(fast forward to 37 sec in!)
1. Dixie
2. God Save the South
3. The Bonnie Blue Flag-(fast forward to 37 sec in!)
Monday, January 14, 2013
Video Clip: Mind over Money
The behavioral psychology associated with money. The opening scene shows an experiment in which people bid on a $20 bill. The catch is that the highest bid will get $20, but the second highest bidder will have to pay the amount they bid. And bidding ends up going over the $20 the bill is worth.
Then it explores the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, NOVA presents "Mind Over Money"—an entertaining and penetrating exploration of why mainstream economists failed to predict the crash of 2008 and why we so often make irrational financial decisions. The program reveals how our emotions interfere with our decision-making and explores controversial new arguments about the world of finance. In the face of the recent crash, can a new science that aims to incorporate human psychology into finance—behavioral economics—help us make better financial decisions?
Saturday, January 12, 2013
$100,000 Bill!? The Stories Behind The Biggest Coins And Bills In U.S. History (PHOTOS): via HuffPost http://huff.to/VuAj9U
Friday, January 11, 2013
Confidence, a Depression-era cartoon starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGTCchapOk
Thursday, January 10, 2013
You guys.
There are J.S.G. Boggs prints at the Art Institute RIGHT NOW
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Boggs,+J.+S.+G.
And we can maybe see them!
According to my friend who works at the Art Institute and also according to mine own eyes and this here internet, none of bills are on view currently - they're all in storage. However, they're in the Prints & Drawings dept, which has a study center - which means it's possible we may be able to have them pulled out of storage so we can study them. My friend has no particular connections with this department, so unfortunately there aren't any strings to pull. But it looks like we can contact the study center ourselves and set something up.
http://www.artic.edu/collections/goldman-study-center
"Appointments to view selections from the collection of prints and drawings can be made by calling (312) 443-3660 or by e-mailing pdstudy@artic.edu."
Looks like appointments can only be made Tues-Friday mornings (for groups) or Tues-Thursday afternoons (for losers). I work right around the corner and can easily spend a lunch checking this out...anyone else?
There are J.S.G. Boggs prints at the Art Institute RIGHT NOW
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Boggs,+J.+S.+G.
And we can maybe see them!
According to my friend who works at the Art Institute and also according to mine own eyes and this here internet, none of bills are on view currently - they're all in storage. However, they're in the Prints & Drawings dept, which has a study center - which means it's possible we may be able to have them pulled out of storage so we can study them. My friend has no particular connections with this department, so unfortunately there aren't any strings to pull. But it looks like we can contact the study center ourselves and set something up.
http://www.artic.edu/collections/goldman-study-center
"Appointments to view selections from the collection of prints and drawings can be made by calling (312) 443-3660 or by e-mailing pdstudy@artic.edu."
Looks like appointments can only be made Tues-Friday mornings (for groups) or Tues-Thursday afternoons (for losers). I work right around the corner and can easily spend a lunch checking this out...anyone else?
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Sam Upham article
http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v028n2/p0313-p0324.pdf
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Gender Thoughts from Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
'Gender is performative: no identity exists behind the acts that supposedly "express" gender, and these acts constitute—rather than express—the illusion of the stable gender identity. Furthermore, if the appearance of “being” a gender is thus an effect of culturally influenced acts, then there exists no solid, universal gender: constituted through the practice of performance, the gender "woman" (like the gender "man") remains contingent and open to interpretation and "resignification." In this way, Butler provides an opening for subversive action. She calls for gender trouble, for people to trouble the categories of gender through performance.'
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity is a 1990 book by Judith Butler. Influential in academic feminism and queer theory, it is credited with creating the seminal notion of gender performativity. It is considered to be one of the canonical texts of queer theory and postmodern/poststructural feminism.
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity is a 1990 book by Judith Butler. Influential in academic feminism and queer theory, it is credited with creating the seminal notion of gender performativity. It is considered to be one of the canonical texts of queer theory and postmodern/poststructural feminism.
Clip Penn & Teller Card Trick PBS 1985
watch Penn & Teller interact with their audience in this 1985 card trick clip
J.S.G. Boggs - The Art of Making Money
The inspiration for G!C funny money art transaction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEtKSqzpj0Q
Customer stuck with counterfeit money from the post office
Click here to find out what happens if you receive counterfeit bills from a branch of the federal government! (Hint: not much...)
The Great Gabbo (1929)
There's something really magical about this opening ventriloquist act (roughly 1st 2 mins) from The Great Gabbo .
Monday, January 7, 2013
Capitalism n. (OED)
The possession of capital or wealth; an economic system in which private capital or wealth is used in the production or distribution of goods and prices are determined mainly in a free market; the dominance of private owners of capital and of production for profit.
Democracy, n. (OED)
1.
a. Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In modern use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.
b. A state or community in which the government is vested in the people as a whole.
And then I thought this second definition was particularly interesting...
a. Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In modern use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.
b. A state or community in which the government is vested in the people as a whole.
And then I thought this second definition was particularly interesting...
2. That class of the people which has no hereditary or special rank or privilege; the common people (in reference to their political power).
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. xii. 322 The power of the democracy in that age resided chiefly in the corporations.
1841 T. P. Thompson Exercises (1842) VI. 151 The portion of the people whose injury is the most manifest, have got or taken the title of the ‘democracy’. For nobody that has taken care of himself, is ever, in these days, of the democracy..The political life of the English democracy, may be said to date from the 21st of January 1841.
1868 Mill in Eng. & Ireland Feb., When the democracy of one country will join hands with the democracy of another.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Radio LInk: Podcast on Minting A Trillion Dollar Coin
Here are the main points of this magical coin worth a trillion dollars:
-People are looking for a magic bullet to make the whole re-occurring debt crisis go away, and they think they found it in a platinum coin worth a trillion dollars.
-Much like a dollar bill, is just a piece of paper, this coin is what the government and society say it is worth. So if the government & society say it's = to a trillion dollars, then it is.
But if government and society cease to exist, then it's only worth the platinum this trillion dollar coin is made from.
-It's not dumping a trillion dollars into the marker, it's not a trillion one dollar bills which go out to everyone. It's just going to sit in a bank, so that the government doesn't have to raise the debt ceiling but they can go on spending the way they would.
Click Here to Listen to MarketPlace Podcast on the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin
-People are looking for a magic bullet to make the whole re-occurring debt crisis go away, and they think they found it in a platinum coin worth a trillion dollars.
-Much like a dollar bill, is just a piece of paper, this coin is what the government and society say it is worth. So if the government & society say it's = to a trillion dollars, then it is.
But if government and society cease to exist, then it's only worth the platinum this trillion dollar coin is made from.
-It's not dumping a trillion dollars into the marker, it's not a trillion one dollar bills which go out to everyone. It's just going to sit in a bank, so that the government doesn't have to raise the debt ceiling but they can go on spending the way they would.
Click Here to Listen to MarketPlace Podcast on the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin
Watch Bare Knuckle Boxing Clip #2
From the motion picture Sherlock Holmes, albiet Robert Downey Jr is using an Asian Boxing style but his opponent is stays true to late 19th century American Bare Knuckle Boxing Match technique. Click Here to Watch Bare Knuckle Boxing Clip #2, Sherlock Holmes
Bare Knuckle Boxing Clip #1
19th Century Boxing Clip from the Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman movie 'Far and Away' The fighting sequence is from the top of the clip until 2:05 min,
Click here: Bare Knuckle Boxing Clip from Far and Away
Click here: Bare Knuckle Boxing Clip from Far and Away
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The Ascent of Money: Swift Economics Economic Documentary of the Year
The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson has written plenty of great books and made some great documentaries, but nothing beats his six part series on the history of finance. He goes over the history of banking, the bond market, corporations and insurance and then moves into how those institutions work today (and how everything went wrong). A must see for anyone interested in economics and history.
click here to watch!
What is a Bubble? The dot.com bubble.
Click on this link to watch a 3 min explanation of economic bubbles: What is a Bubble? dot.com Bubble
An Excerpt from Goodbye to All That (The End for Now) Amphetamine Logic by Cat Marnell an expose on snorting up in NYC
I snorted dope in DUMBO and I smoked dust on the beach. I preyed on editors during the day and slept with monsters at night. Life's never dowdy in an Audi scoring pudé up in Washington Heights, is it babes? I drank Diet Coke and had coke sex and sat in Yorkville townhouse basements playing Mario Kart on a grimy old Super Nintendo. We smoked crack until our fingers turned black and watched Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. I chilled with famous downtown stupor freaks tweaking and listening to Diplo.
"WHY IS EVERYBODY DRESSED LIKE MR. PEANUT?!" I screamed once at Le Baron. I had about 40 pounds of fake hair on.
The Boom Boom Room was always full of doom. Our PCP smelled like burnt balloons. I was dressed Boricua heroin chic. Shaun was asking me if I saw Wu Tang at Milk Studios that one weird Fashion Week.
read more here, http://www.vice.com/read/goodbye-to-all-that-the-end-for-now
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