evanevanevan

One of my favorite subgenres of teen pop/teen movies of the '50s and '60s are the feeble attempts to force kids into adopting new crazes. In trying to mimic the success of "The Twist" and "The Loco-Motion," most of the pop songs had accompanying dances. The songs are always kind of pushy, because instead of simply introducing the new dance, they instead declare that the dances are already the next big thing that all the kids are doing. It's interesting also how much the songs must have depended on television appearances to ensure their popularity (though I guess I don't actually know what the "Loco-Motion" dance is). The teen films tended to exploit familiar fads (surfing, dragracing etc.), while also branching out to new ones. The Frankie & Annette Beach Party series was really good at this: Beach Blanket Bingo was all about skydiving, Muscle Beach Party had bodybuilding, and Pajama Party was about, uhh, pajamas.

There are countless examples of these, but I've been recently introduced to a couple really bizarre ones that I like a lot. One is the 1957 film Bop Girl Goes Calypso, which is about how a scientist with some fancy machine is "proving" that rock 'n' roll is on the way out, predicting that calypso will be the big new craze! There were a few films that came out at this time all with the same hypothesis, including Calypso Heat Wave which features Maya Angelou(!)

And in the music realm, how about this great song performed by Eddie Hodges, the child star best known as Huck Finn in the 1960 adaptation directed by Michael Curtiz? "Mugmates" suggests that what "everyone does" now to indicate they are going steady, instead of giving someone their pin, is simply have... matching coffee mugs.

Eddie Hodges - Mugmates [mp3]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Oh man. My friends continue to be involved in plays that offer critics the opportunity to write the best reviews ever. Here's Chris Jones's review in the Trib of a production two of my friends are in, G.I.F.T. at Collaboraction (which, admittedly, does put on some fine work also):

Collaboraction and the G.I.F.T. that keeps on taking

There is much computer-aided mumbling about present-giving in "G.I.F.T.," Collaboraction's typically ambitious seasonal offering performed, both indoors and outdoors, in a 7,000-square-foot warehouse space at Firehouse Square on Chicago's West Side. But the greatest gift of all arrives when a big overhead door whirs and opens, revealing that this insufferable show is over.

Actually, not quite over. "G.I.F.T." ends around a big outdoor bonfire. But some communing around flames is, compared with what has gone before, positively cathartic.

Collaboraction, which long has favored experimental performances in a variety of urban spaces, always has had a high failure rate. So it goes when you try to do something different. But "G.I.F.T." is surely the worst thing the theater has produced in its 13 years of existence. This piece is so grim, you keep waiting for the actors (who are dressed as slightly funky Pilgrims) to step out of their stark, computer-aided environment (they work in front of projected text) and declare the whole enterprise an elaborate, "Waiting for Guffman"-style parody of bad performance art. Sadly, that moment never arrives.

In essence, this piece (designed and directed by Sam Porretta) is a study of the nature of gifts. It begins in a little interactive chamber, where patrons and performers exchange objects of unfathomable definition and viewers are asked to visit little grottoes, wherein meek performers (apparently) try to discern your emotions and reveal your stories. Yes, you pay them for this stuff. They don't pay you.

From there, you head to the main performance space, where these actors engage in a deadly dull series of exercises about what gifting means. It is as if one has happened upon freshmen at a theater school improvising on a teacher's truisms. We arrive at such staggering conclusions as gifting means more than materialism.

Yes, the holidays are more than a new blender. Now you don't have to waste an evening.

There is, I suppose, a certain trippy quality to the proceedings. And the building (an old firehouse) is a beautiful, atmospheric space. Thankfully, there is a bar. If you find yourself dragged to this show, I suggest plunking yourself there until you hear the lick of the flames of freedom.

Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets [mp3]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Beulah - Emma Blowgun's Last Stand [mp3] (at 2:25)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

More than a month ago, the city of Chicago tore up every street around my house so they could resurface them. On day one, they screwed up and broke the water main under my block. Though they've since repaved most of the other blocks around my house, the cryptic letter they left us said that ours won't be finished until "sometime in 2010."

In the meantime, we're left with this sign that fails to use either of the two acceptable spellings of "thru."