Welcome to Thebes

Welcome to Thebes!
@United Players has offered another little crown jewel with their production of Welcome to Thebes - by Moira Buffini, directed by Brian Parkinson.

Inspired by the Greek tragedy set in Thebes of mythical 7th century BC, it is also set in the very real truth and reconciliation period of post civil war Liberia after 2003.
The play follows the plot of Antigone, the third in the trilogy of the tragedy of Oedipus by Sophocles, and flavoured with a few other elements of Classical Greek theatre, most notably Lysistrata of Aristophanes where the women stop the Pelopenesian war .. but I digress just like the play does. You see this play is not an exact retelling of Antigone;  for one thing it has a happy ending. The Greek play is used as one of parallels tracks combined withmodern failed state narratives. Greek Tragedies can be very tedious to watch, even more so than Shakespearean ( yes I said it) because culturally we have moved to a different type of story telling in the last century, so much so that seeing remounts of these old plays with huge casts that come in and out seemingly randomly to do long soliloquies or tell important plot points in flashbacks and in prose, is very hard to sit through when you know there is a more linear way that film ( our modern equivalent of the public medium) can tell the story in a more pleasant way; I was delighted to see how the writer used the old play as a base to build a contemporary theatre experience on.  I have to admit, this type of revisionist theatre - without being pastiche - is my favourite theatre going experience, so I was hooked!

Welcome to Thebes Indeed!

The characters are all drawn from the tragedy of Oedipus with all the death and destruction and gore of that pre-censure play but the plot unfolds in a uniquely modern state. In fact the story tells the establishment of democratic government in Liberia and the first female African president: Janet Johnson Bryant. She and a group of women forced their government into peace talks by literally preventing them from exiting the peace conference by blocking the doors. It was a peace forced onto a failed state by women, hence the strong female roles which ere not present in the Greek tragedy. The play starts after the women have taken power of "Thebes" and are in the process of rebuilding a modern democratic state. This was an important part of the history of Africa, one that may sound a little too familiar to us now, but it is worth retelling.

Welcome Back to Thebes!

The second act of this 2:30 play is absolutely riveting how the plots unfold and the characters evolve to something so far from Antigone which explains why the title couldn't mention Sophocles justly. The second half is where the play really hits you with it's OneTwo punch: The performances!
I can't rave enough about the consistently high level of acting this incredibly diverse cast put out there. I was at the edge of my seats (not just because of those uncomfortable seats) the whole hour as the actors turned on the heat and the play took on a narrative of guilt and redemption. 

Thebes is Stellar!

The performances were phenomenal!!! it seems everyone was at their "A" game and out to impress, which they did. It helps that the female characters were written with such strength - despite being archetypes.  There were over 20 actors in this play and each of them played a crucial role it seemed. It is too hard to pick favourites here - truly they all shined that night. I will mention how well MariaLuisa Alvarez carried the whole play by being in almost every scene as did  Jordon Navratil as Theseus in the second act,  Rema Kibayi who plays a blind seer, Marion Landers who transforms into a fire breather and Kurtis Maguire plays the crazed prince to manic perfection.  the convoluted nature of the amalgamated play relies so much on the actors to pull it off, and these performers pulled it off: they all deserved a standing ovation. 

Welcome to Thebes runs till April 19 

http://www.unitedplayers.com/Pages/spotlight.html#company

My Olympics

Olympics being a distant memory now, I wanted to record in some way what the most memorable moments for me her in Vancouver 2010.

Going into the Olympics, the excitement and conversations that Vancouverites were having was boundless... everyone was impacted by the event in one way or another. All businesses had been putting together contingency plans for the eventual traffic nightmare that it was going to be, some places, like my office, were not even going to have access to their parking lots because of the closure - not to mention the new constructions - the Olympics was on everyone's mind. It was even more significant for me as I had quite a few friends who were going to be working during with VANOC as organizers. I myself was was a candidate for a two jobs with major overseas sponsors.
Every conversation leading up to Feb 12th was about what they plan to do with during the Olympics, what sporting event to see, which ceremonies they got tickets for, which houses they wanted to visit, what their beef with the Olympics were...or which city they were escaping to.
By December, I was sure not going to get any of the two major jobs with the visiting sponsors, so I was starting to think what I wanted to do to make this experience memorable. I hate being a spectator to large events, being in a stadium of 30K+ plus people fills me with a feeling of void. Not sure if it's the sense that I am better than everyone else, or my myopsy which makes watching a show an anything farther than 100 meters makes me opt for a seat infront of the TV in my living room. Plus, given the large number of connections I have in this city, I should be able to score a sweet deal - which is why I rarely pay for movies anymore nor stand in lineups for cultural events.

But the Olympics were on a slightly larger scale especially given the high security that was everywhere. Getting a guest/staff pass into venues to watch the show from the green room or sneaking into the tech booth was out of the question this time. I had not planned to buy any tickets from way earlier on to the events or the ceremonies, and it was too late at this point to get anything decent. I did not want to completely miss out this once-in-a-lifetime-event because of my "agoraphobia". I still wanted to have "One Olympic Moment" that would be so powerful and meaningful that it would be emblazoned in my memory for ever - like what I was doing during 9/11 (visiting a 13th century church in the middle of Armenia with a few cool paysans and my dad).
...well I ended up having about 4-5

The following set of essays will be the recounting of "My Olympic Moments"

Avatar

My friend Tara, who had just seen and loved Avatar, was upset that the Avatars were so dumb!
She could not beleive that these brilliant beings had no action plan during the final battle scene -the Avatars just went straight into the battle facing the enemy head. Even the Ewoks, she said, had better strategy when fighting against insurmountable odds. The simple and cute, fuzzy little creatures really prepared for their battle, they organized, they made flanking moves to trip the machines, built traps. As much as I hated the Ewoks in the Star Wars ROTJ, because they got in the way of what I was really interested in - the development of Luke's Jedi powers, Lucas still had orchestrated a battle scene that showed how resilient nature can be when fighting against machines. The comparison between Lucas and Cameron will go on for ages I think, it will be a rivalry for the sci-fi geeks, who are the next generation of filmmakers. Essentially they are both great storytellers, who changed storytelling irreversibly. Comparing them is a bit of Apples and Oranges though. One thing is clear that Cameron's interests are - rather two dimensional, even in 3D. The avatars were a pretty backdrop to a good-ole smash'em and bash'em movie - only bigger... the biggest!
I myself hoped and waited for our hero to check out what was under his loin cloth - that's what I'd do! what with all the jumping and leaping we should have gotten a glimpse of what's under the hood or a boob or something. all the bodies looked the same even those of the elderly matrons - where are the sagging tits that we see among indigenous populations?
Again, Cameron did not want to venture into that territory ...he wanted pretty blue creatures.
It goes without saying that the film far surpasses expectations of prettiness - it was spectacular - while setting up a low standard for story...somehow the beauty numbs the receptors for intelligenc - just like the buddhist say!
Even for me who has such an allergy for bad plots and predictability - I only looked at my watch once during the 3 hours! Unlike the Transformers movies which had me resenting every minute I was in that theater.
With enough distractions thrown at me, I was able to hold down my usual urge to purge at what was essentially a very, very, very mediocre story. There was nothing new to this movie, except the visuals.

All films require a certain level of suspension of disbelief - you can't really be asking how did that mustang become a robot all of a sudden - you have to supress your brain's natural inkling to object to what it is seeing and buy into the story. I think that many films' failure is caused by the way certain quotes, or plots or imagery, shake the spectator out of that state of acceptance and start questioning.

The more solid the suture the less likely you'll hate the movie: this is the foundation of Brechtian Cricital Aesthetics: Art, which is a product of its culture and economics and politics, is an opportunity to improve Life, by being a torch bearer...enlightening us about society, economics, politics...as opposed to being pleasant waste of time.
Avatar, wether Cameron meant to or not, is smack dab in the middle of this ongoing dialogue between those who believe that art's purpose is to propose new ways of seeing the world and help society, and those who believe art is about creating a distraction from the troubles of the world...This discussion will go on for ever, and many may refer to Cameron and Lucas as polar opposites, but one thing for sure, Cameron will influence the next generation of filmmakers, though few people will talk of the relevance of Avatar in 5 years!
and now, I'm going to stop talking about it.

The Scale of the Universe

This is a part II of a previous bit I wrote about the Scale of the Planets: Astronomical size and distance in the Universe and light speed

Attached is a lovely video about time as we know it...Carl Sagan
s Cosmos series, dated but worth it, it should be in every household.

The best thing about this video is that it's so short.
enjoy the "aaaaaah"

Viken's Verdict of V

V is not what I call "Good TV" Part 1
...and I don't think it's gonna get any better.



Even though I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Mitchell,
the re-imaging of the old show reeks of mediocrity: the story lines they are following are predictable and weak, while the characters are straight out of a soap opera, this verdict is similar to what I said about Heroes, it's not badly done ... it's just cheap!

I was a huge fan of the original five part mini-series V which was aired in 1983.
It had the best marketing build-up ever, they started advertising it months ahead - just like this time around. V had everyone deep in anticipation, especially for Sci Fi fans, who are always desperate for good Science Fiction on prime time television. Luckily for everyone, the mini-series was a breath of fresh air, it was very edgy, slick and long enough to carry a full story through over 10 hours...V was a hit!
Who can forget the first words of the half-ling
"Pretenama,...it means peace" -it still gives me chills to this day when I hear it. That was the closing line of the series.

I think fondly of V the original series. It was a good story, with a good build-up that did not disappoint. It also had some great gadgets and it ended on a positive note for humanity.

Unfortunately for humanity, NBC producers quickly pulled together a TV series called "The Final Battle" that was a sad, sad thing. It was not a very successful show, and ran for only a little while...

I don't have much of a prediction to make about the fate of V, just a reminder of historical fact.
V has already burned out all its fuel.

I really wish they would stop trying to revive this old show. I ask the TV gods:

Please Let V Rest In Peace!

Peace Out ;-)

Writing in the movies

Since I got my PDA, I've been writing my thoughts and immediate reactions to movies I've watched on my PDA, at the theater or soon after. The intention was to rework them on to this document and post them; however, my PDA and my computer don't get along too well, so a lot of these reviews I've been carrying around in my pocket for almost a year now.

I should apologize for the selection of titles I'm writing about. One of the reasons these reviews will seem like a mix bag of movies with varying degrees of importance is because of this gig I have where I do exit polling for movies on opening weekend. I don't get to choose the movies we survey, but I've seen some great movies with this work. This is one of the greatest things about the company I work for - sometimes I can't believe I'm getting paid for doing this job but I can't divulge any more information here because of client confidentiality and all...so, enough said!

Transformers Return of the Fallen
In one sentence: lots of moving parts, but no intelligent design is behind this movie. These fancy machines definitely impress with how seamlessly they maneuver, but they lack a real purpose or as we human call it - a soul.

It is even more lame than the first one in terms of story and narrative. Oh and it's SO loud!
I'm not even sure if it's safe to expose people to these kind of decibels.

The CGI is also excessive, which is really sad; because Transformers the movie franchise is all about the graphics baby.

The "transformation" from cars/planes/boom-boxes into bipeds is masterfully executed, but the problem is that once they are transformed into these human figure machines, but the fascination ends there, because once transformed, they're quite hard to watch.

The transformed figures are a mash of mechanical parts that all move and react like a robot - nothing like their cheesy cartoon predecessors of 20 years ago. Today's CGI counterparts are marvels of animation. The latest versions of the transformers are a mass of machine parts in grays and black - like the contents of your "junk" drawer stuffed into a Ziploc bag. Unfortunately, these over-mechanised figures can end up looking the same which makes the scenes very hard to follow..especially when these machines insist on working out their million year old feuds with hand-to-hand combat a la Crouching Tigers.

What Transformer ROTF is really missing is a good use of color and sound. Don't get me wrong this movie is bad in MANY other ways too - it was not a very successful blockbuster, but I'm thinking here of how well color can be integrated into the cinematography in blockbusters a feast for the senses like Luc Bresson did so well in the Fifth Element...sigh

All The Single Ladies

Recently, and completely by random, I came across Beyonce's All The Single Ladies video on Much Music.

I was mesmerized from the first second I saw it and did not blink till it was over.

Couldn't believe what an AMAZING video this was: this was dancing at an Olympian level. It is shot in black and white in a studio with no props or sets. The video features Beyonce and two backup dancers doing some of the most athletic and energetic steps for 3 and half minutes. Dressed in beautiful black one pieces with a distinct retro cut, great big 70's hair and the loveliest 7 inch Mary Jane (ish) platform heels. But, the true star of this video was the choreography -which was ingenious...and got me thinking of how much we have reinvigorated dance culture in the last few years with shows like So you think you Can Dance and yes, even, Dancing with the Stars...I was shocked to realize how far the art of dancing must have advanced to even consider making this kind of video - which is pure dancing.
Instantly I fell in love with this video.

this BTW is part of my compulsiveness. when I'm taken by something I'm all in - I should note that I have very hight standards for arts and am rarely wrong.I remember how the one time I heard James Blunt, whom I'd never heard of previously, playing on late night TV and said "this guy is going to be a hit, he's amazing." and he did...

anywhooo...

So I found it on YouTube and watched it over and over and over, told all my friends about it, and THEY told me that this was the number 2 video on the charts. But I did not stop talking about it for a few days longer to a few more friends.

When I showed it to David, he told me, yeah I know, it was based on a choreography by Bob Fosse who was one of the foremost American musical theater and movies directors Chorus Line, Cabaret and All That Jazz fame . He had produced this piece for his wife Gwen Verdon who was a dance Icon who had performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show!

Well that explained everything!

This video is amazing NOT because we are in a renaissance of the art of dance, but BECAUSE it is a reincarnation of a classic piece of modern American dance. When you look at this one video put up by a fan of Fosse, who juxtaposed the original choreography with Beynce's moves you see the inspiration and the imitation. If you look closely enough, you will even notice how the dancer on the left is slightly off beat, just like in the original... It's uncanny!

This video is an homage to one of the greatest choreographer of our times - wether it's imitation or inspiration or just a product of the times, I say KUDOS for Beyonce keeping the art o dancing alive!

The Wire

I think I found the best show on TV - it's called The Wire by HBO.

It's about crime and corruption in Baltimore: it's rough and gritty and pulls no punches. The show revolves around the daily goings on of violent gangs, corrupt politicians, effective police depart and apathetic reporters. If you haven't noticed, it's the four pillars of urban living. The focus is on the little guy at the bottom of the heap trying to carve out a living doing his job and the big bosses on top, backstabbing - in some case shooting each other - to climb higher while dealing with budgetary setbacks and upstarts. This applies to the folk on both side of the law, except that the gang's major issue with money is how to launder it.

The Wire refers to the first season which was all about a wire tap that the police had put on a major high profile corruption deal. One of the seasons is about the Newspaper in Baltimore... it's West Wing on the East side: exceptionally well written and shot.
The cast is also stellar and diverse. It's almost exclusively African Amercian actors and almost exclusively male. But what acting! They're also all speaking in the urban dialects that takes a while to understand, can't imagine what it's like to act.