Too Frank?

Notes on Arts, Culture, Politics, and the Academy

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Entries from March 2008

Sex! Drugs! & Ukuleles!

March 29th, 2008 · No Comments

My review of Uke Jackson’s Sex! Drugs! & Ukuleles!.


photo by Jonathan Slaff

The intentionally cornball, slapstick energy works for a while and the performers bring admirable enthusiasm and comic timing to a show that is clearly a lot of fun to perform. Terry Waldo’s music, performed by the actors and by two onstage musicians (Waldo on piano and John Gill on percussion) is enjoyable in its way, though fourteen songs in an eighty-minute show that’s also chock-full of plot and dialogue make for a rushed and superficial experience that doesn’t embody feel-good nostalgia so much as declare it. The result is rather like being surrounded by shouting, grinning theme-park performers who keep asking “Isn’t this fun?!? Huh?! Huh?!? Isn’t it?!?” without giving you a chance to respond.

Full review here.

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Tags: reviews · self-promotion · theatre

Jon Stewart on Obama’s race speech

March 20th, 2008 · No Comments

“And so, at 11 o’clock AM on a Tuesday, a prominent politician spoke to Americans about race as though they were adults.”

And on the media response: “I guess what we’re all saying is, ‘Can we still play the tape of that crazy fucking pastor guy?’”

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Tags: identity · journalism · politics · television

BBC looks at the American credit/housing crisis

March 19th, 2008 · No Comments

With three 24-hour news channels in this country, you’d think our own reporters might take a minute or two to examine consequences of the current mess and the likely impact of the recession.

(Thanks to Jamie at Crooks and Liars)