Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK
by Dr. Verbos Metikulos



PASSING FAD:  Underbelly, Texas, home of the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, is lucky to have an academic town nearby.  Los Libidos is twenty miles east.

We enjoy watching fads on the campus of Bedspring Tech.  The trend (not current trend or present trend) is a hair style known as the armadillo.  It's a pattern of ridges and grooves cut to look like the animal's armor.  Yes, it works better if you have straight or very short hair.

A fad is, by definition, temporary or passing.  Regarding the armadillo cut, we hope so.

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SMART TALK
by Dr. U.R. Fulamalarchi



BAITED BREATH: Recently, a colleague here at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired felt our level of discourse was in dire straits because people were using straight-laced as if it were correct.

Baited breath is a similar mistake, also coming from limited vocabulary and low reading skills.  A cat might have baited breath if it chewed a mouthful of cheddar and then lay at a mouse hole, breathing heavily.  But bated breath denotes great anxiety or eagerness, when you'd actually hold your breath due to the tension.

You see, bated is short for abated, which means held back or stopped.  When you wait with bated breath, you're so tense you can hardly breathe.

Of course, we've all suffered someone's baited breath that would attract only buzzards.

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After several pitches, I have capitulated to the Lansing Star's request that I provide a regular music feature. I do not want to be a "critic," even though, like everyone else, there are styles of music and performers I simply prefer, whether due to style, power, melody, or the quality of the recording or musical performances of the recording artists. While I will focus on contemporary music in the rock and blues world, I am an avid classical music fan and enjoy everything from underground punk (mainly from the 60s through the 80s), to jazz fusion and yes, even industrial and so-called goth and mansion music. While many rail against the volume, stylistic features, and lyrical content of some modern heavy and gothic rock music, some performers are master craftsmen that write complex melodies and remarkable music. If put into a classical format many would be surprised at the musical complexity and melodic content from artists such as King Diamond, Marilyn Manson or Hansel & Gretyl.

The Kitchen Theatre’s 20th Anniversary Season continues with an exciting international collaboration. Actors, playwrights and artists from the U.S. and Turkey have come together to create the play S/HE, which will have its world premiere production at the Kitchen Theatre in May 2011. S/HE has previews on May 4, 5, and 6, Opening Night is May 7, and performances continue through May 15, 2011. In the fall of 2011, the production will travel to Turkey and New York City.

The Kitchen Theatre’s partners in this project are Cornell University, Yeditepe University in Istanbul, and International Culture Lab (ICL), a theatre company co-founded by Melanie Dreyer, Assistant Professor of Directing and Acting in Cornell University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, and Gabriele Schafer, a professional actress and translator based in New York City. Dreyer also serves as the director of the play.

With a gloriously melodramatic plot, a cast of 25, a dozen singers in the Handel chorus, and a four-person offstage orchestra, Coram Boy, at Ithaca College, cries out for the phrase "Dickensian epic." Developed by the National Theatre of England, adapted by Helen Edmunson from the novel by Jamila Gavin, Coram Boy went on to Broadway, and a film is in the works.

It all takes place in the early days of England's Industrial Revolution, when the rich amassed fortunes on the backs of the poor. Born to such riches, Alexander Ashbrook only wants to study music. Denied this by his autocratic father, he runs away, leaving the governess' daughter Melissa with child-who is placed in the Coram foundling hospital and grows up to love music. Baby killing, white slavery, an evil housekeeper, a gentle madman, a happy ending-Coram Boy has it all.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Tilde Cedilla



TRUSS COMPANY: I took some time to venture into town on a day off from work at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, and had the dubious fortune of the following exchange:

"Excuse me, sir; I'm new in Underbelly. Can you recommend a good place to have lunch?"

"Sure can.  The Chicken Skin Café.  It's just past the Truss Company."

"The what?  I'm sorry; I'm from Cuba, and I don't know about truss companies."

"Truss Company. It's like a bank.  I guess it is a bank.  Doncha see the sign?  Right there."

"Oh, Trust Company."

"Swat I said.  Truss Company. Anyway, Chicken Skin has great chili.  Samwiches aren't bad, either."

"The what?"

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The Tricky Part tells the true story of playwright Martin Moran. In the Kitchen Theatre production, Carl Danielsen plays Marty, growing up in a very Catholic section of Denver, attending Christ the King parochial school.  The tale eventually heads in the direction we expect from a Catholic boyhood, but with a twist that could only come from real life.

At first, the audience lights remain on, and Danielsen actually chats with people about the weather. He’s charming and friendly, with a twinkling eye and an easy manner.  Growing up Catholic is, after all, funny—the heavy nun who looks like a black box, the schoolyard bully who invokes the story of St. Martin, the priest who gives incoherent advice about sex to a group of confused sixth graders.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Tilde Cedilla



SWAT I SAID: On a lecture trip to Ivy University in snowy Upstate New York, I visited a soup-and-sandwich shop and fell into a chat with a local.

"How do you people deal with this weather?"

"Weather?  We get a lotta this inna winner.  We're sicka talkin' boud it.  Everybody on campus is talkin' bout Eejupt."

"About what?"

"Eejupt.  You know, inna Middle East.  I think it's near Africa."

"Oh, you mean Egypt."

"Swat I said.  Eejupt.  They kicked out that guy, Whatisname, and didn't fire a shot.  Lot bettern that Mission Accomplished crap, doncha think?"

"On that we can agree, my friend."

Returning to the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired in sunny Texas, I couldn't help enjoying the irony of winner weather.

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Aurora, New York— The Wells College Visual Arts Department welcomes Pittsburgh artist Michael Morrill with the exhibition “Pattern and Prayers.” Morrill’s work will be on display in the String Room Gallery (SRG) from March 30 through May 11. The exhibit is free and the public is cordially invited to view the show. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, March 30 from 6 – 8 pm.