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IIssue
11 ~ March
2003..............................
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2Co’s
Got the Blues Damn
right 2Co’s got the blues! And since the U.S. Congress proclaimed
2003 “The Year of the Blues” last fall to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the genre, Shadowbox Cabaret’s
sister company rightfully…and effectively … pays tribute.
2Co uses much the same format as Shadowbox, juxtaposing musical
numbers between diverse vignettes ranging in scope from tragedy
to celebration. Any blues aficionado knows the blues is the same,
not merely reflecting suffering and poverty as critics might have
you believe, but presenting the human condition and all it’s
experiences. But 2Co is a more intimate environment, at times
resembling the coffee houses of the early 1960’s.
As
for the one-act plays…of course some were better than others.
Standouts for me were...once again...Joe Lorenzo in "Red"
(who I admired last fall in their holiday show) as well as David
Gigliotti's performance of "Across the Mississippi".
"People Who Need People" with Tom Cardinal was both
edgy and poignant. I'll add that "Bucket of Moon" was
both heart rendering and moving without being preachy or overtly
sentimental. Quite a feat considering the subject matter…once
again 9/11. Both Tom Cardinal and Julie Klein gave moving, honest
performances of an expecting couple still grieving from the loss
of the father’s brother and firefighter co-worker lost in
the attack on New York. I can't say enough about Ms. Klein. Not
only is she an outstanding actor but also excels at directing
and fronting the band. Oh yeah…she was our server that night
too. |
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In
This Issue
Enise by John M. Bennett The
Rant of Yroc
by Cory Tressler So
everybody’s got something, and I’ve got music.
You know everyone needs that one thing in their lives that
is outside of their “normal” everyday functions
of reality. Now I could wax philosophy about what is reality
and if there is indeed a reality, but I won’t. It bores
me, because my thing is music and not philosophy. Some people
love horses, or gambling, or even gambling on horses. I love
music. Be it live, on vinyl, CD, cassette tape, or on the
radio. Be it coming from Nebraska, Akron, New York City, Nashville,
New Orleans, or Los Angeles. Be it coming from a man, woman,
light, dark, black, white, Asian, American, Australian, Mexican,
or Alien. As long as the artist or group is making their pure,
honest vision of music, being that it is not overproduced
from some artificial source, than music is where I’m
at. Review:
Drive-By Truckers, “Southern Rock Opera.” Lost Highway. by Ted Kane
53
Horsepower
by Rick Brown For
some reason us Baby Boomers had a love affair with the Volkswagen
Beetle. I’m unclear as to why when I look back honestly.
I’ve owned several of these cult cars, know as “Hitler’s
Revenge” to my father and anyone who fought in World War
II. My wife Yvonne learned to drive in a Beetle. And up until
a couple years ago never drove an automobile with an automatic
transmission. VW has marketed a “new” Beetle and
had great success selling it…although everyone I’ve
known who has owned one doesn’t have much good to say
about the vehicle. I drove one for a few days while my Miata
was having some body work done and believe me…I was quite
elated to have my faux British sports cars back. It’s
The Economy Stupid
by roberto lynch Well, the Bush
budget proposal is on the streets, and it contains nothing
but bad news. It calls for the expenditure of 2.2 trillion
dollars, and forecasts a deficit of 304 billion dollars for
the next fiscal year. Over the next 5 years, the Bush budget
forecasts deficits of over 1 trillion dollars. Mitch Danielson,
the Bush budget advisor, say that the deficits are of no consequence,
and blames them on outside events…keep in mind, as Candidate
Bush, deficits were totally unacceptable…right. |
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Kingdom
of Fear: One of the great perks of working in a major research library is the book talk. Books from Latin America, Eastern Europe, North Africa, the USA…earnest discussions with colleagues, library patrons, faculty members…just about everyone you met had a hot tip about a book. It was totally unnecessary to read book reviews…except as a way to pass a rainy Sunday morning. It was paradise for a book eater such as myself. I miss that. Since I retired, I am more dependent on the agenda-driven prose of the reviewers…and after a steady diet of the New Republic, New York Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review for the past 2 years…one begins to smell the stench of frustrated novelists and other vermin who don’t have a title on the best-seller lists. Having said that, I can report that Dr. Thompson’s latest offering, Kingdom of Fear…has been pilloried by the mainstream reviewers. His memoir or pastiche or journalistic picaresque has been called ‘slipshod’, ‘cobbled together’, ‘irrelevant in these times of terror’…and they are mostly right. But you know what?? I read this book in one Sunday afternoon and laughed until I cried…literally. It is not the masterpieces of his past…like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas of Songs of the Doomed… but make no mistake about… Dr. Gonzo still has that edge…in spite of this book’s shortcomings. Some of the work in this book is extremely dated. Like the pieces on the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, and Thompson’s 1990 trial in Aspen, Colorado on charges of sex, drugs, guns, and explosives. These essays are not always presented in a linear fashion, but they do put the good doctor’s current mindset (mindset…who am I kidding) in an historical perspective. The thread that ties this book together, however, is not dated. Thompson observed that not only was 9/11/01 the start of World War III, is was also the death of fun…the end of the American century…the party was over and he was the last one there. Another war obsessed Bush is in the White House. Ashcroft is a Nazi in the fine tradition of other Attorney General Nazis…like J. Mitchell under Nixon and Ed Meese under Reagan. HST quite accurately cautioned that woe be unto you if you get thrown into the justice system without the services of a first-rate attorney. The best justice money can buy is true now more than ever, and the 4th amendment has become an in-house joke at the Justice Department. Then there is the chapter on’speedism’…Mary, Joseph and Sonny Boy Jesus it is a scream. Dr. Gonzo’s adventures on a demonic 900 cc Ducati racing bike are the stuff of legend…and it was given to him free of charge. If you are a victim obsessed with ‘speedism’, the good doc even offers a menu (complete with oysters, scotch whiskey and oily hashish) to prepare you for the mind-numbing rush of speeds in excess of 150 mph. continued below... |
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Kingdom of Fear also included some biographical information. Hunter S. Thompson is from Kentucky…I should have known that this drug-crazed, gun-obsessed, whiskey-besotted writer of the first order in not a Colorado cowboy but a good old boy. My grandfather was fond of saying ‘you can take the boy out of Kentucky, but you can’t take Kentucky out of the boy’…amen. It’s probably not a bad idea to read this book…it may well be his last. How much longer can this stone-crazy fuck last?? Read it and weep…or laugh your ass off. “We may never defeat these swine…but we don’t have to give into them.” Bob Dylan to Hunter Thompson in Kingdom of Fear. |