cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
“If storyteller is Laurie Anderson’s primary identity, right behind that is the questioner. Out of the oceanic wash of sights and sounds that add up to Delusion, every few minutes a potent question emerges: What is a man if he outlives the lifetime of his god? What are days for? Why is it always raining in my dreams? Dear old God, who are these people? And finally, most poignantly, Did you ever really love me?”
Read the entire review for CultureVulture.net here.
VITALITY
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
— Martha Graham, in a letter to Agnes deMille
I’ve just started a new gig covering New York theater for a website called CultureVulture.net. I made my debut on the site with a review of Edward Albee‘s Me, Myself & I at Playwrights Horizons.
“It revolves around a pair of 28-year-old identical twins and their mother, who’s so monstrously self-involved that she can’t tell them apart. “Which one are you?” says Mother, played by Elizabeth Ashley as a fabulous frazzle, propped up in bed next to her elderly doctor boyfriend (Brian Murray), who’s fully dressed in three-piece suit. “Are you the one who loves me?” Clearly, everything about the twins’ lives has been arranged for her convenience, including their names: OTTO and otto….
“At its best, “Me, Myself & I” is an extended theatrical prank that pays homage to Albee’s roots in what critic Martin Esslin labeled Theater of the Absurd, a somewhat dodgy catch-all to describe the playwrights who emerged from the existential funk of post-World War II Europe. The minimalist set and language of “Me, Myself & I” refer explicitly to Samuel Beckett, one of Albee’s heroes, just as the replication of names pays homage to Eugène Ionesco (who once wrote a children’s story about a family whose members were all named Jacqueline). And the play’s self-referential theatricality has its roots in Luigi Pirandello (“Six Characters in Search of an Author”).”
See the whole review here.
Rediscovering the sense of touch returns you to the hearth of your own spirit, enabling you to experience warmth, tenderness, and belonging. At the highest moments of human intensity, words become silent. Then the language of touch truly speaks.
–John O’Donohue, Anam Cara
“4 Minutes,” Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake
“Trying Not to Disappear,” Dudley Saunders
“Two Weeks,” Grizzly Bear
“Sooner or Later,” Patty Griffin
“Death of a Shade of Hue,” Of Montreal
“Hey Ya,” Will Young
“The Bells,” the Originals
“Feels Like Home,” Bonnie Raitt
“These Lips of Mine,” Mark Weigle
“Iris,” Hercules and Love Affair
“The Lonely Spider,” Lhasa De Sela
“Kalakuta Show,” Mix Master Mike (Red Hot + Riot)
“The Mad Hatter’s Song,” Incredible String Band
“Angel Eyes,” k.d. lang
“The Leaden Echo,” Stephen Emmer
“Monster,” Lady GaGa
“Love on the Rocks,” Sara Bareilles
“Gaan,” Stephen Emmer
“Ready, Able,” Grizzly Bear
“You Know I’m No Good,” Amy Winehouse with Ghostface Killah
“Aurora,” Bjork
“Night of the Iguana,” Joni Mitchell
“Tahquamenon Falls,” Sufjan Stevens
“Some Kind of Bliss,” Kylie Minogue
“What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” Joan Osborne
“Forgiveness,” Jonathan Mendelsohn and Wamdue Project
“Party Lights,” Janis Ian
“Young Hearts Run Free,” Candi Staton
“Rude boy Resort (Rihanna Vs. Papa Roach), DJ Bootie SF 7-Year Anniversary Mix
“We’ll Meet Along the Way,” Hem
“Love Is a Question Mark,” Taboo original cast album
“Cologne,” Ben Folds
“Hey Ya,” Outkast
another eye opens 