Your writing puts me inside your head; unfortunately, your head is up your ass.
What I really want out of a review is “I saw this, I felt this, and THIS IS WHY.” Criticism needs to be more than reporting, more than a PR opportunity for the theater group, more than pap for the incurious masses.
I’m a comics aficionado. My personal library includes the bound complete works of The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, a significant number of Doonesbury volumes, as well as Bloom County… Yesterday, NPR’s Fresh Air broadcast a new interview with Breathed. I was pleasantly surprised: Breathed spoke well and frankly, elevating my opinion of him in the process.
If there’s a given in stage work, it’s that performers and directors get most of the attention (and the credit). Many of my theatergoing friends say, “I don’t really think about lighting.” Well, I’ve been thinking about lighting, a LOT.
Hana Meyers gave the best performance I’ve yet seen from her… Sweet, self-effacing; powerful vocals. I’d recommend seeing this production just for her, but I wish she had a better showcase.
I attended a theater performance last night, seated immediately behind a woman with a screen bigger than the color TV in the livingroom of my childhood home. As the story played out on stage, she browsed the Internet, checked her bank account (twice), watched a video, shared vacation photos with her seatmate, and (you guessed it) texted incessantly. Then her phone rang, and she answered it.
My window looks upon an empty house; empty except for the furry creatures underneath. There are over 1,500 species of rodents on earth, and I think most of those live next door.
This recording is a beautiful document, with a higher-than-usual quota of “you haven’t heard this before.” At the start, Springsteen asks for “as much quiet as I can get,” and that’s a good way to listen. This is music for grown-ups – pour a Scotch, sit back, and save your red Solo cup for the Magic tour.
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced his team would be adding a “dislike” button to Facebook, in response to repeated requests. For me, that would be the beginning of the end – I don’t know how much posting I’ll be doing if that change is enacted.
Bottom line: Yes, it’s an expensive watch. Yes, there’s a learning curve… But it does everything you want it to, with more on the way. Above all else, it’s a genuine pleasure to wear. The Apple Watch is everything I dreamed of as a young boy, and more; how many things in life live up to that?
mossislandsounds.com 