Tag: culture

Posted on

Redemption of a Dogg

When your friend calls and asks if she should get tickets to the Snoop Dogg musical, you say, “YES!” Then once she’s got the tickets all lined up, you ask, “so what exactly are we going to see?”

Turns out that producer/director/playwright Je’Caryous Johnson has created a musical about Snoop Dogg called, Redemption of a Dogg.  Snoop plays himself and Tamar Braxton plays the angel trying to get her wings by helping the D-O-double G set things right.

I would describe the plot as sort-of A Christmas Carol meets It’s a Wonderful Life. Except that it was set at Easter rather than Christmas.  I kind-of would have loved it if it had been set at Christmastime, it could become another holiday entertainment classic like The Nutcracker or Diehard.  But maybe, because we were seeing it just before Thanksgiving that was probably the holiday that I had on the brain.

The inciting action is that rather than going to church with his family, Snoop books a big show for Easter Sunday.  Which of course means that we got a mini concert.  It was so fun, everyone was on their feet.  Then, when Snoop is leaving the gig, he gets shot by some gang members who have had a beef with him for all these years.  As he lays there dying, an angel appears and offers him a chance of going back to change what brought him to that moment.  The best part of this scene to me was the way that Snoop, as he lay there dramatically suffering from a gunshot, was in a very Martha Graham-style posture.  I like the idea that Snoop may have studied Graham technique (he is very graceful).

So, Snoop thinks he knows what he needs to do, and they go back in time to set young Snoop straight.  From here the show gets funny for me in a Scooby Doo kind-of way.  First the designated moment in time will play out, then they (Snoop and the Angel) will arrive and LITERALLY rewind the scene so that Snoop can make the change.  I’m not kidding, the soundtrack plays that cassette tape rewind sound and all the actors move backwards through the scene to where it began.  It is fantastic.  But when they return to the present, it turns out that whatever the change was had unintended consequences.  Snoop’s reactions when this happens are just priceless.  So, they go back again and try something else!

In the end, the moral of the story (my interpretation) is that if you changed your past, you wouldn’t be the person you are today; all you can do is do your best from this moment forward to be the best you that you can be.  Also, to respect your loved ones and not take them for granted.

And then, everyone lives happily ever after!

Posted on

Neighborhood Art and Walking

There are always so many wonderful activities in our neighborhood. Generally, I neglect to take advantage of any of them. Fortunately, one of my neighbor friends is good at making the most of these opportunities and she invited me along for an open studio tour in our neighborhood the other weekend.

I had no idea how many working artists there are in our neighborhood.  We visited just a few of those closest to us.  Our adventure was also a great chance to get my steps in for the day – bonus!

It was so neat to get to meet these neighbors, be welcomed into their home studios, and learn about their work.

One of the artists we visited is a well-known architect (I recognized his name, but I can’t remember it now of course) who is retired and now makes whimsical found-object art.  Many of his pieces incorporated beer bottle caps.  I told him about the beer bottle caps that I have been collecting for a project that I haven’t started yet. He was genuinely interested and made me promise to come back next year with photos.  So now I have a deadline (which is SO helpful for me).  Don’t worry, I will be blogging about this project once I get around to it.

At another stop the woman told us about how she decided to create “love” themed artwork in order to bring more love into the world. She decided that she would create one piece of “love” themed art every day. I thought that was a very nice idea.  Most of her pieces are fun hand lettering doodles, some more elaborate than others.  It was interesting to see the volume of work she created around just this one idea.  She told us that she found it also served as a mindfulness exercise to remind her to be loving in all her actions daily.  It served as a touchstone for her.

I thought it was very loving when she asked us both what kind of art we make.  Before, I would have muttered some lame excuse that I used to be a dancer, and draw and paint a long time ago, blah, blah, blah.  I have to tell you guys that I had a shiny feeling in my heart when I told her that these days, I was focusing on my writing and that I had started a blog.  It was special for me to be able to have a definite answer about how I’m directing my creative energy.  I still have too many ideas about things that I would like to be creating, but at least now, I have one thing that I have committed to doing regularly.

This woman also had a whole series that she had created on one-inch squares of different kinds of paper.  She said that it was inspired by a time that she didn’t feel like she had time to create art daily.  She decided that she always had at least enough time to create 1” square of art and that some days that would be enough.  When we were leaving, she gave us both a handful of squares and told us that we could also find enough time, energy, and motivation to make 1” of art.  I’m looking forward to designating a week to try it out and will be sure to share the results with you when I do.

I don’t know what the favorite part of this adventure was for me.  The top things that come to mind are:

  • Meeting new neighbors.
  • Looking at different, interesting artwork.
  • Being inspired and encouraged to create my own work.
  • Spending time walking/talking with my neighbor friend.
Posted on

Frankenstein 200

Frankenstein is such a fixture of popular culture.  Growing up, I thought that I “got” Frankenstein because I had seen Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein and The Munsters.  It wasn’t something that I was interested in beyond that.

Then in 2017, San Francisco Ballet premiered a new, full-length story ballet, Frankenstein.  It was a wonderful production and offered a different take on Dr. Frankenstein’s creature than what I was used to seeing.  This creature was cunning and lonely – he was seeking out his creator who had abandoned him. We left the theater that evening with my carrying on and on about how that was “great art!”  The performance was nuanced and interesting and it did a great job of telling the story efficiently. Because every element of the production supported the story; and because it was evocative rather than pedantic (that is one of my pet peeves in story ballets).

When the 2018 season was announced, and Frankenstein was coming back, I was thrilled!  I decided that I wanted to read the actual book before I saw the ballet again and I loved it.  I really loved the depth of the actual source material.  The “daemon” (Mary Shelley’s word) was really kind of a super hero (my analogy) – he was unusually strong and all of that, but he was also exceptionally intelligent.  He didn’t want to be a scary monster, he wanted to be loved by his creator.  He didn’t know how to speak when he was “born” but learned how and educated himself. When the “creature” finally confronts his creator, he is eloquent and thoughtful in expressing his anguish and desires.  Mary Shelly’s daemon is not the Dr. Frankenstein’s monster of popular culture and it’s too bad that this distorted interpretation has become so ubiquitous because the original is so much more interesting.

But friends, it is no coincidence that San Francisco Ballet was producing a brand-new, full-length story ballet based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (the official title).  It just so happens that 2018 is the 200th Anniversary of the book’s publication!  That seemed google worthy and guess what, there are a lot of folks out there making a big deal about it.

Frankenreads is an international celebration organized by the Keats-Shelley Association of America.  They have 628 partner organizations (mostly universities) in 43 countries to hold a series of events and initiatives in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  The signature event of the initiative is an international series of readings of the full text of the novel on Halloween 2018 (today!) including one at the Library of Congress.

That’s fun, but I still have to go to the store to buy candy for the trick-or-treaters, so probably will have to skip it.

On Lit Hub, I found out where the Frankenstein of our popular culture originated: In 1823, Richard Brinsley Peake produced a theatrical adaptation called Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein.  Mary Shelley attended the premiere and let’s just say that she wasn’t impressed.  The theatrical adaptation took many liberties that are commonplace today: Peake reimagined the monster as mute and gave Victor the now legendary line, “it lives!” As these amendments were repeated in many subsequent adaptations, they became accepted as “authentic” elements of the Frankenstein story.  I’m really disappointed in you, Richard Brinsley Peake.

Posted on

Trying to Culture this thing up!

Fourteen years ago, I went up to the Bay Area to visit my mom.  We shopped and we lunched and one night we went into San Francisco to see the San Francisco Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet. Now, I was sure that I didn’t care for the romantic ballets (the full-length story ballets from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century) but that night changed my mind (it turns out that I really just don’t enjoy The Sleeping Beauty but that is a story for another day).

The production of Romeo and Juliet that we saw was enchanting. The performance was beautiful and moving. The music by Prokofiev is everything, it would have salvaged the evening if the rest of the production had fallen short but the sets and the costumes enhanced the plot and the dancing was very good. In particular, Tina LeBlanc was an exquisite Juliet – technically excellent and emotionally expressive, she was truly a great ballerina. After how many years, I still can feel what that performance did for me.

Now, mom is clever and generous and she came up with a brilliant scheme to get me to visit more regularly – season tickets to the San Francisco ballet! It has become a great tradition for my mom, my sister and me.  While I love dissecting the performances with them on the drive home, this is an area where I really have a lot to say. So Wednesdays will be dedicated to “Arts & Entertainment.”

Don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t fancy myself a dance critic. I generally find dance criticism (and most arts criticism) unhelpful to say the least. It makes me crazy to read a review of something by someone who feels entitled to impose their personal biases and expectations on a work rather than at least attempting to intelligently describe a work and evaluate it on its own merit.

I like to be open to different experiences and try appreciate things for what they are. That doesn’t mean that I like it all or always think that a work is well executed. I won’t hold back when I think that elements of a production aren’t up to par but hopefully I will be able to explain my opinion within the context of the form.  I mean, making time to enjoy these things is a luxury, we shouldn’t waste it on something that isn’t the best it can be.

If theatrical dance isn’t your thing, don’t tune out quite yet! Ballet season doesn’t even start until January! I will use Wednesdays to consider all sorts of things – country music, rock concerts, television, books, and probably the occasional motor-sports event. Have you been to Speedway? Don’t make that face, it’s a fun time too!