Voice Talkers

Maybe it's just because I work as a sound recordist and used to record audiobooks for a few years, but I find this hysterical. The group POYKPAK is hilarious and you should check out their youtube channel here.

good gay vs. bad gay 7-16

alright. some things are just too gay. i'm not sure how or why. i generally don't feel anything can be too ethnic or too artsy or too... whatever. if something is done well it can't be "too" anything.
but things CAN be TOO GAY. and when they are tooooo gay, they are BAD GAY. when they are queer enough to be recognizably gay and somehow are better for it, they are GOOD GAY.

let me give you a quick intro to the concept utilizing popular music:

GOOD GAY:

















BAD GAY:















got it?

today's official GOOD GAY/BAD GAY entry concerns two music videos and asks you to vote on a third.

GOOD GAY:
this new moby video is great. the music itself is total throwback to that sparse, fun house music of the 90's. moby uses a vocal that is (surprise!) NOT an old, sampled voice, but a newly recorded vocal by shayna steele, who's incredible at recapturing a very specific era with her voice (the jazzy stuff on her myspace page is also great- listen to "what R we giving"). not only is this video funny and totally DIY, it manages to be a very gay-ish dancefloor anthem while still making a statement about massive corporate food chains (KFC anyone?)



BAD GAY:
wtf is this crap? ultra nate has been around a long time and has always trafficked in making her circuit boys happy. but she's kind of like that "f*g hag" nearing her 30's that still hasn't established her own identity, boyfriend, social life etc. i know that girls and boys alike enjoy checking out hot people in various states of undress, but the guys in this video are just depressing. perfectly sculpted dudes alone in different spaces obsessed with getting off to their laptops and seemingly ignoring each other and the desperately voguing diva performing for them. the over-acted "climax" at the end makes me laugh my ass off but i think it's supposed to be sexy.
plus... the original by the pointer sisters is better (and somehow gayer- GOOD GAYer).



So... GOOD GAY/BAD GAY question of the day...
the new cyndi lauper video. her new album "bring ya to the brink" is really quite good- a combination of sentimental pop (with references to several of her 80's hits) and electro/dance (check out "echo" and "grab a hold"). the best track by far is also the newest single from the album- "into the nightlife." it's a great crunchy club track with a brooding, sexy verse that explodes into a stunning, bright, sing-a-long chorus that will be in your head for days.
all good, huh?
but WTF is this video all about? did they only have 2 hours in the basement of pyramid club to make this? and have you ever seen a more literal take on a video? "uh, the song's, like... uh, about dancing and, uh, stuff. why don't we just, like, uh... film people out... dancing... at night?" and why is her head sometimes hovering in a field of black life someone in a cirque de soliel show? is she a french mime? why is most of the song sung from what is apparently the tiny, dank bathroom of the club? and where's all that water coming from on the dancefloor? are they all on a cylon rebirthing ship? is there a leak in the upstairs toilet? ick! i don't wanna dance under that! (but apparently porn stars don't mind dancing under scary leaks.)
i must admit i like when she does that witchy "i'm casting a spell on you" shit with her hands towards the end. aww, cyndi... you're funny!

UPDATE: THE EMBED CODE KEEPS GETTING PULLED. SO HERE'S THE DIRECT LINK (trust me- it's worth it... the judging part, i mean.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivaXI7TIoL8


Into The Nightlife Video

So is it GOOD GAY or BAD GAY?

these are the children i am currently in line to adopt. (should i gain any regular, well-paying employment, a nanny, a new home and a doctor that hands out anxiety medication prescriptions without asking me a lot of questions.)

hospital 2008

so this episodic play i'm doing is getting some rave reviews, which is awesome. it's called HOSPITAL 2008 and it's playing at axis company on sheridan square in NYC.

http://axiscompany.org/index2.php

here are the nytheatre.com reviews.

Martin Denton · June 5, 2008
Episode 3 (July 3, 2008)

This series just keeps getting better and better: Episode 3 is more intense and more all-consumingly involving than its predecessors. The opening prologue on film—which I think provides enough information so that any newcomer to Hospital 2008 can follow the story, even if s/he missed the first two episodes—contains some footage we've already seen plus some new footage; what I was aware of, throughout, was a sense of mortality. I thought: what would it be like to realize that the day you're going through was the last day you'd spend on Earth fully conscious and alive?

The live action scenes that follow, in the tunnel and then in the hospital, are now all clearly the distorted memories of the play's protagonist, a man in a coma who is revisiting that last day I just alluded to—revisiting it in his mind while a team of doctors perform a surgery on him that does not go well at all.

Director Randy Sharp and her remarkable collaborators (on and off stage) balance an eerie dark humor with a mood that's at once supremely frightening and richly (and oddly) life-affirming, especially in the burlesque-of-a-hospital scene that occupies the center of Episode 3 (and the actors portraying the hospital staff give performances that are accordingly deeper and more resonant than in prior weeks; particularly Laurie Kilmartin's human, oh-so-fallible Nurse). This evocation leads us brilliantly into the final sequence of the evening, in which the recurring strangers in the tunnel (see below) appear once again, this time in the guises of Charon, Hades, and Persephone. Our hero is starting to understand what his fate is, following his catastrophic accident. I, for one, am ready to return for the final chapter of Hospital 2008, to experience it through his eyes. I sense transformation ahead...
Episode 2 (June 21, 2008)














Episode 2
Episode 2 of Axis Company's Hospital 2008 is even more riveting than Episode 1 was. It's spookier too; one of the most astonishing things about this serial show so far is how effectively it renders, in an intimate indie theater space, the complete netherworldly phantasmagoric environment that is inside the protagonist's sub/un-conscious memory.

We acquire some new information about what happened in the catalytic tunnel accident. And we learn more about the comatose traveler's state of mind at the time of the accident with the visitation of two new characters in a scene set in the tunnel—the legendary John Henry himself, with an assistant in tow, providing clues about the way out of danger. (Of course, this probably isn't actually John Henry.)

At the hospital (still rendered, ingeniously and eerily, on the same tunnel set) we meet someone who the doctors and nurse think is applying for a job. But she is obviously trying to find out what's happening to the man in the coma. And we understand, better than in Episode 1, that everything the doctors and nurse say is being filtered through the limited processing capability of said man in coma.

George Demas plays John Henry and is at once frightening, funny, and ineffably sad. Britt Genelin is the "applicant." Other cast members are as in Episode 1; all are spectacularly good.

Director Randy Sharp and the rest of the folks at Axis have created something that's entertaining, engaging, and—so it now seems—utterly addictive. I'm looking forward to Episode 3!

Episode 1

Axis Company's annual serial Hospital has been going on for nine years, and somehow I had never seen it until now. The first episode of this year's four-part play, which is set inside the mind of a comatose man seriously injured in the collapse of a tunnel (part of New York's underground water system), is arresting, thrilling, tantalizing, and—in terms of its physical production—spectacularly impressive. So far, I'm hooked.

The one-act drama plays out in three scenes plus a filmed prologue. This prologue is fascinating, interweaving scenes in what appears to be the apartment of the protagonist (where various details and seeming trivialities foreshadow what's to come) with scenes in the tunnel where the protagonist (called "Traveller" in the program) works. What follows is a quick and alarming representation of the accident: we don't know its exact nature, but we do know that afterward, the Traveller plus two of his colleagues are lost in the dark, underground. They radio for help but it's not clear that any is forthcoming.

The play then cuts to a hospital room, which is depicted on the same tunnel set simply by the arrival of a pair of doctors and a nurse; it's also shown to us on three video monitors above the stage that alternately provide the comatose patient's P.O.V and his heart monitor. This scene melds the eerie surreal qualities that permeate the edges of what we've already witnessed with a more blatant absurdity. When we return to the tunnel, characters from Alice in Wonderland turn up—the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and the White Rabbit—and the Traveller, though surprised to encounter new people down here, is nonchalant vis-a-vis their startling identities.

It's all very discombobulating and very magnetic. Nothing is entirely clear and yet the elusive nature of a subconscious dream state is thrillingly conveyed. There's a cliffhanger ending, inviting us to return for Episode 2.

Director Randy Sharp's expert story-telling is only the beginning of the roster of remarkable accomplishments on display in Hospital 2008. The cast does expert work, with Brian Barnhart, Ian Tooley, and Marc Palmieri entirely convincing as the possibly abandoned (and, in some cases, possibly deceased) tunnel workers; George Demas, Edgar Oliver, and Britt Genelin are wonderfully daffy and creepy as the Wonderland figures; and Laurie Kilmartin, Paul Marc Barnes, and David Crabb are comically off-kilter as the hospital personnel.

The film work—by cinematographer Ben Wolf and editor Laura Weinberg—is exceptional. And the design work for the live stage production are exemplary, among the best of its kind I've seen for theatre in any sector in NYC. Kyle Chepulis has transformed the stage into a believable tunnel, with craggy and convincingly damp stone walls and nooks and crannies leading off rather spookily. David Zeffren's lighting and Steve Fontaine's sound complete the ambience, combining realism with horror-film scariness in a manner that keeps us engaged and on the edge of our seats throughout. Matthew Simonelli's costumes—whimsical for the Wonderland characters, naturalistic for the Travellers, and somewhere in between for the hospital staff—are excellent.

The overall effect is to transport the audience to a world we've never been to for about 35 minutes...and to leave us hungry for more of the experience. Check back here for a report on Episode 2 in a couple of weeks.