Screws

"You turn the screws

You tear down the bridge

Flimsy as it is..."

-- Cake, "You Turn the Screws"

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Went to see Cincy Shakes's production of The Taming of the Shrew on Saturday night. A friend, who is in CSC's young company, got my girlfriend and me free tickets. Many of the shows I catch at CSC are frustrating to me as an audience member and a theatre person, mostly because their concepts (in my opinion) often distract from the plays, but this was not the case this weekend.

Their Shrew is set in 1940s screwball-comedy Hollywood, and it's wonderful. The Marx Brothers and the Stooges make several appearances, and beyond the gadzooks and boingos, the central message of the play comes across just fine, intact. If you're in Cincinnati, see it. It's worth the money I didn't spend.

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Continuing my trend of discovering convenient technology a few years behind the curve, I have just downloaded a bunch of podcasts, over 200 episodes total. I'm a little scattered in my selections, ranging from things I know I like ("A Prairie Home Companion" and "This American Life") to crapshoots that look good ("The Bear" and "Slate Poetry"). But in another way, I guess I've been actually very narrow, looking mostly to monologues recorded live, literary readings, and the occasional human-interest podcast.

If you have any suggestions, let me know.

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We've taken Holiday Follies on stage, to great response. It's been called "a gumdrop of holiday love," which is exactly what folks want right now, something devoid of real intellect and cloaked in a swell shell of glitter and sheen. Harmonies are tight. Costumes galore and props to the max, and I suppose that's what you do in children's theatre.