phyncke

I have been meaning to do a post about last weekend's trip to Los Angeles. I went from last Friday to Sunday to visit my brother and his wife and I got to see aglarien1! It was a total blast and whirwind theatre happening. I saw lots of shows there. Lots - like 4 shows in 24 hours. That is an all time record for me. We had a great time and I feel all cultured up. It was great.

I got in on Friday night and my SIL and I went right from the airport to In and Out Burgers - kind of a family tradition. We like the burgers there and we got milkshakes too. Delish. We just hung out that night and watched some TV about tiny houses. That was pretty cool.

Saturday - my SIL and I went out and got manicures and pedicures after having a nice brunch at Pann's in LA. It was nice and relaxing and I pretty much took a nap in the pedicure chair. Total fun. I got a French gel manicure and got purple on my toes. Then we met up with my brother and the theatre extravaganza began.

We saw the following shows - at the Fringe - in this order.

The Toxic Avenger Musical
Uterine Affairs or Inconceivable Conception
Amy Snowden - Casting Confessions from La to LA

all were humorous and really good. It was a very good line up. In between the first and second one we had a break and went to a really good mexican restaurant. We got done at about 12:30 am and then went right to bed. All those shows are a little exhausting.

I saw aglarien1 for breakfast on Sunday and we went to our favorite place, Dinah's, in Los Angeles. They serve a great breakfast and we had a great time talking and laughing and eating really good food. It was great to see her and the time flew by too fast, of course.

Then we had our last show which was the opera. It was a multi-media thing called The News - JacobTV. They had a large screen with snippets of media and news reports playing interspersed with operatic commentary. It was really cool and really interesting. Kind of a commentary on the media and how ridiculous it all is. That was at the Long Beach Opera.

So that was my whirlwind cultural weekend. Really good time! Tada!


by laurahonest on livejournal.com

So last night I went to a one-man show at the Marsh Theater in Berkeley, CA. The show was called, Not a Genuine Black Man by Brian Copeland and is a reflection on his life growing up in San Leandro CA and how it is being a black man in the USA. Just amazing -- funny, touching, sad and brings up all sorts of conflicting emotions. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination but a very important work.

It is also published as a book which is now required reading at many high schools across the nation.

Here is a link to his web site:
http://www.briancopeland.com/

Really interesting work and the show was originally shown for a six week run but has been showing for 7 years at the Marsh. That is something. This is the last week it will be playing and Saturday is his last open performance.


by gad21

Years ago I saw STOMP in Boston and they are coming again this Fall to SF (Orpheum Theater). I just bought tickets today and am going with some work friends. So excited, cannot tell you. This is a kind of urban primitive meets percussion from found materials (brooms, zippos, barrels, metal lids). Very fresh, very fun and very rhythmic. I was just floored by this when I saw it the first time and am really looking forward to seeing this again. Woot! So STOMP everybody!



View with the sound up!



by gad21