A New One

A good quote to use when you've seen a play you couldn't stand but nevertheless somehow made it all the way through:

"I couldn't leave because I couldn't believe it wasn't going to get better."

So said an anonymous dissatisfied TDF ticketbuyer patron about Top Girls. Bafflement/disappointment at this revival does not seem to be a minority view.

"Glory Days" Done

That was quick.

Mental Health Break

Insuring the Aging American Population is priority ONE!

One More Thing

Oh, and the new Top Girls is freaking great, but who's suprised about that?

(Photo by Joan Marcus.)

Good Folk

I don't really have a spare minute to be blogging at the moment, but I would feel remiss if I didn't mention how pleased and flattered I am that The New Yorker's Burkhard Bilger, who wrote an excellent recent piece on the not-quite-lost art of folk-music field recording (not online, but this is), will join me after this coming Sunday's matinee of The Devil & Tom Walker to discuss the use (or abuse) of early American folk music in my score, and issues around the state of American folk-music in general--and that we'll also be joined by the estimable Amanda Petrusich, a frequent contributor for Pitchfork and The Onion and author of the upcoming It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. As something of a sheepishly lapsed folkie whose faith has been somewhat rekindled by this process, I look forward to conferring with two who've been to the mountain.

AOL AWOL?

Just tried to send a link to this blog to someone with an AOL account, got bounced back. Any of my fellow blogspot bloggers notice a similar problem? I did find this just now.

Guirgis and "Grace Dust"

The always engaging Stephen Adly Guirgis talks to America, the liberal Jesuit weekly where Jim Martin is Acting Publisher. One bit of news: He's rewriting his current Little Flower of East Orange with the intention of taking it out of town and bringing back to New York in a "larger venue." Unexpected early influence: Tennessee Williams, for his "marriage of coarseness and fragility." And news to me: Guirguis' ethnic heritage is Irish and Egyptian, which would explain his tendency to build monuments while drunk.