Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Do you remember your first day of a brand new job? There were likely millions of thoughts that ran through your head just in the first minute of not knowing where to be or what to do. If you have ever started a new job, then this theatrical event created by Ted LoRusso and Sturgis Warner, will ring true and delight. FIRST DAY: Suite for Four Actors and Percussionist will be the second Main Stage production in the Kitchen Theatre Company’s 2009-10 season.   

A sign said, 'Get Your Picture Taken With Adam Lambert' next to a life sized photo of the singer you could pose with across the street from the War Memorial auditorium.  A car drove by with 'I love Adam' written on all the windows.  An inexplicable line of fans outside the War Memorial (we just walked in, no waiting), and all the T-shirts proclaiming undying love, mostly to Adam, helped set the stage for the American Idols Live Tour in Syracuse last Monday.

There must have been technical difficulties, because after an introductory video played and the crowd screamed -- then nothing happened.  About 20 minutes later the video was played again and the crowd screamed again.  From that point the concert was fast paced, exciting, and familiar as the ten young singers America got to know on American Idol strutted their stuff.

On Saturday, September 19th, the Peachtown Festival will return to the Wells College campus. The Festival, which celebrates Cayuga and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) culture, features Native vendors, food, musicians, artists, dancers and a storyteller. This year, the Festival will be followed by a community picnic and social dance at the Cayuga/SHARE farm.

(Ithaca, NY) The 27th Annual Downtown Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival will feature music, rides, arts and crafts, a twist on the Iron Chef Competition, Dunk the Police Officer, a concert at the State Theater, Hilby the Skinny German Juggle Boy, and the Apple Pie Eating Contest.  

SMART TALK
by Dr. Manda Rynne


CONNIPTION FIT:  Underbelly, Texas, is one of those places where people still have conniption fits. 

Where folks are fluent yet of a certain age, they have conniptions. 

Here at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we watch the gradual demise of conniption with mixed feelings.  Like the whale oil lamp, it's Nineteenth Century Americana we're better off without, but it's part or our heritage.  Today, our taxes buy sperm whale oil to lubricate rocket and missile guidance systems.  Nothing else works as well.

Now maybe there's a good excuse to have a conniption.

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PARK PLAY is the first production of the Kitchen’s 2009-10 Family Fare season. It runs for two weekends, six performances only: September 19, 20, 26 & 27, with performances on Saturdays at 1pm & 3pm and Sundays at 1pm.

Hayley is a 9-year-old girl who loves her neighborhood park. Not only does it have a great playground with a swing that’s perfect for flying high and dreaming, but it also gives her the opportunity to observe people; Hayley is a budding anthropologist, and the children, parents, and grandparents at the park make fascinating research subjects. Funny and sweet, with rousing musical numbers, this show is sure to appeal to park lovers of all ages.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Weiss N. Heimer


DISAPPEAR FROM SIGHT:  I'm afraid I'm not always gentle with my patients at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired.  When one of them presents with Deep Seated Redundancy Syndrome, I often opt for shock therapy.

"What do you think disappear means?" I shout at them.  "Disappear from smell?  Hello?"

If the patient is a public official or media figure, I get even rougher.  "Do you think using three or four words when one will do makes you look intelligent?  It makes you look pathetically ignorant!  Do you think you help yourself by using extra words to gain a tiny bit more air time?  Here's a news flash, Sport:  It makes your audience get sick of you a tiny bit sooner!"

I'm just trying to help.

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The Kitchen Theatre Company’s KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE series, featuring extraordinary solo performances by guest artists from around the country, begins this month with the return of comedian Vijai Nathan. Vijai performed her solo show Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do to sold-out crowds at the Kitchen in 2007. Now she returns for an extended run of her latest piece, McGoddess: Big Macs, Karma, & the American Dream. Performances are Wednesday, September 23 through Sunday, September 27.

This fall more people than ever will be able to enjoy Tompkins County's only corn maze and sound garden.

"Last year was our first year, and we were only in operation during October," explains Christianne White, who created the musical maze with with her husband, trumpeter and composer Walter White. "But the response was so strong that we are going to open up this year in September."

SMART TALK
by Dr. Molto Breve


CONJOINED:  Saying or writing just one word yet repeating oneself seems like quite a trick, yet patients at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired do it with ease.

These patients are often educationists or writers for scholarly quarterlies.  For them, two items cannot be joined.  They must be conjoined (and in the passive voice, please note).

Two or more items are never equal.  No, they're coequal, if you please.  Patients may even commingle them with each other.

Thus they add to their word count, verbosity being a virtue and an ego enhancer to them, but as a therapist, I'm overexhausted.

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