Mommie Queerest

A play about Joan Crawford, not it’s the Judy Show envisioned by comedienne Judy Gold. Washington DC’s Jewish Community Center continues to use theater to push all kinds of boundaries.

Last year’s reading of Carol Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children drew protesters to the front doors. Others threatened to end their subscriptions to the theater. Here’s one opinion on the controversial issue.

This season features a Jewish Lesbian Mother. The riotous show includes some loud and inspired in not on key singing accompanied by Gold on piano. She launches into stories about her family, schooling, career, the media, television shows, and television executives.

Gold’s bio-performance art piece will not spark the same reaction. It’s challenges on the issue of gay marriage are everywhere as the battle wages in state referendums. The show’s conclusion about representation are also well versed. Go for the laughs. You don’t have to be Jewish or lesbian or both but it helps.

Best of Year, Best of Decade Lists

Why do we love lists? Is it some gene for categorization? Is it the thrill of controlling circumstances? Is it our belief ion the innate ability of reviewers and critics and experts?

What do you enjoy about best of lists?

While it is probably all of these factors, I know why I enjoyed looking at the lists for best of the decade in today’s Washington Post. I wanted to see how many of the movies or television shows I saw, how many of the music listed I owned and whether I have been to see the best theater, dance, concerts and art shows over the past decade. The feeling is confirmation in our choices.

I read the lists for theater, concerts and dance. I’d seen some of them. All took place within Washington, DC so I had the chance to see them. Then I looked at the art best of list. Damn, there were shows in New York City, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney. It’s only five hours away, so I thought maybe I could have  seen it.

Then I read further. Chicago, mmm, that’s stretching it. Wow, Kessel,  Germany, Parma, Italy, this is ridiculous.  Why are these on this list? It’s not like a person can go out and by a tape of the show and experience it.

Should best of lists include activities that are way out of the range of the ordinary person to experience?

Celebrity and Athletes

After weeks of running Tiger Woods stories on its front pages, the media has realized the gold mine of revealing the sex lives of athletes. Here comes TMZ.

As Tony Kornheiser said on ESPN Pardon The Interruption (PTI), athletes are physical people. It’s likely that there are many stories to be told that will rivet audiences. If people want to know about actors and actresses and they find out about politicians then of course they would want to hear about sports stars.

When Mets Manager Bobby Valentine said that Major League Baseball would be ready for a gay player, speculation ran rampant for days. Mike Piazza announced that he was not gay. Years later, the media ran the story of the accusation that Roberto Alomar had AIDS and the media recalled the Valentine statement and wondered if the Met he might have been talking about was Alomar.

Will this exposure hurt all athletes. As Sally Jenkins reminds us in her Tiger Woods piece, athletes are often spoiled and thought that they are invisible. A true recipie for exposure of their foibles.

There have been athletes that have relished exposure of their private lives. My top dog is Joe Namith, who enjoyed bachelorhood in New York City during his time with the New York Jets football team in the late 1960s. While it helped that Namith was a bachelor, the positive exposure might have also been because of the heyday of free love.

Titillation and scandal has always sold. There are more outlets for displaying this now. Gossip comes to sports on a regular basis—watch out everyone!

Preserving the Rain Forest

Went to Peru in September and saw some amazing wildlife in the Amazon River Basin. But will the Rio Madre De Dios survive humans. The Washington Post talks about the dangers of nearby strip mining to the environment.

Our guide told us about how these people are desperate for work and looking to earn money. The men leave their families and live in rough camps. They live in bunks and go out on the River for long periods of time to try and find gold.

They trade the gold in the town of Puerto Maldanado. Here’s the stores in the town.

With all this talk about the Copenhagen Climate control talks, this is why the most developed countries must give money to poorer nations with valuable areas to preserve in order to maintain the rain forests.

Movie Premiere

We saw the US premiere of Hachi: A Dog’s Tale at the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Sponsored by the Japan Information and Culture Center the event drew the Japanese ambassador told the crowd a nice story to set the movie.

Staring Richard Gere and Joan Allen, the movie is based on the true story of a college professor’s bond with the abandoned dog he takes into his home. The akida is beautiful and the simple story warms the heart.

I cried and you could hear sniffles and noses being blown throughout the theater. Director Lasse Hallstrom  answered questions and spoke after the event.

Glee ful Moments

A big hand for the last episode of Glee for the calendar year.

Laughed so hard almost fell off my chair when they showed the judges for the sectionals.  for my fellow government workers, the descriptor State paid cynic was a classic. Here’s some of her great lines: 

Can I just say something? I have no idea what the hell I’m doing here. I’m serious. I don’t understand what a glee club is, and I had never even heard the term ’show choir’ ’til about three hours ago when my boss told me he had tickets to Nascar and I had to fill in at this full event.

 ”I seriously don’t know what either one of you are talking about. I have never been so bored. I mean, if I had to pick a group that I hated the least…” 

Bring that character back!

Photographs and Photography to See

The Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum has its annual awards for wildlife photography exhibition up now.

Every winner and chosen selection shone with brilliance and many with humor. The landscapes are breathtaking and the animals, birds and plants bring joy to your eyes and heart.

Geographers and travelers will appreciate the areas shown. Wildlife and animal lovers have so much to see.

Holiday Gifts

Hollywood Bohemians: Transgressive
Sexuality and the Selling of the Movieland
Dream. Brett L. Abrams. 256pp.,
2008, $39.95 softcover, 20 photos,
notes, bibliography, index, 978-0-7864-
3929-4.
Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a
Society, ¡896–2004, 3d ed. Carl J.
Mora. 335pp., 2005, $49.95 hardcover
(7 × ¡0), ¡58 photos, bibliography,
appendices, notes, index, 978-0-7864-
2083-4.
Asian Gothic: Essays on Literature,
Film and Anime. Edited by Andrew
Hock Soon Ng. 252pp., 2008, $35 softcover,
notes, bibliography, index, 978-
0-7864-3335-3.
Tech-Noir: The Fusion of Science
Fiction and Film Noir. Paul Meehan.
272pp., 2008, $55 hardcover (7 × ¡0),
64 photos, filmography, notes, bibliography,
index, 978-0-7864-3325-4.
Sword Fighting in the Star Wars
Universe: Historical Origins, Style
and Philosophy. Nick Jamilla. 287pp.,
2008, $35 softcover, notes, bibliography,
index, 978-0-7864-346¡-9.
Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film. Karen
Burroughs Hannsberry. 643pp., 20¡0
[¡998], $75 softcover (in 2 vols.), 98
photos, references, filmographies, bibliography,
index, 978-0-7864-4682-7.
Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry. 797pp.,
2008 [2003], $75 softcover (7 × ¡0 in 2
vols.), ¡48 photos, appendices, bibliography,
index, 978-0-7864-3739-9.
Cornell Woolrich from Pulp Noir to
Film Noir. Thomas C. Renzi. 368pp.,
2006, $35 softcover, 32 photos, bibliography,
index, 978-0-7864-235¡-4.

Parade Magazine’s Cowboy Stadium

Woke up this weekend and saw the article in Parade magazine on the cost of sports. Thought the piece was either about the high risk of injury or focused on the economics of professional sports.

The writer focused on the cost of attending a football game. Fair enough. Who can afford to get a good ticket for a NBA game ($150 face value). Even a good ticket for a MLB Baseball game runs ($40-60) and there are 81 home games a year!

The prices are amazing for a NFL game. “The average cost of attending an NFL game for a family of four is $412.64, it’s a staggering $758.58 to watch the Cowboys.” While mentioning that the new Cowboy stadium carries $1.15 billion price tag, the writer doesn’t mention who paid for that.

Just like I describe in Capital Sporting Grounds for Washington, DC, it’s the taxpayers. The total cost of Arlington’s share of the stadium bond debt, including interest, is expected to be $502.9 million. That’s about $44 million more than the city initially expected. At least in this case the team paid about half of the cost!

In the current economic times, who has the disposable income to attend games? Presumably only the top salaried individuals while everyone has to pay for the actual stadium.

Depression, Love Life and Male Culture

Recently I received news that a person who I worked with died at 48 years old. It shocked me.

Then I discovered that they had ridden their bicycle into a local woods and took a boat load of pills. The suicide made me wonder if working for the federal government could be so stressful. Then I learned of the split in his marriage.

There are many more men that face dark moments in their lives and men in this culture does not provide an effective answer, except suck it up or deal with it.

I found this article on a major league baseball player from the Oakland A’s fascinating because it discusses some of these issues.