Superhero LIVE!
If you're in Edmonton this week, you ought to go see Superhero LIVE at the Fringe Festival. It starts every night at 6 pm, and on Thursday the show will also be broadcast on CJSR FM 88.5.
The show is basically a live performance of a comic book, set to rock music. Honestly, the phrase "A Spoken-Word Comic Book Rock-Opera" pretty much says it all.
One or two reviewers have been less than kind to Superhero LIVE, mostly complaining about its unusual format. But far from being a burden, the play's unique presentation is actually quite engaging, and makes for some very effective storytelling.
It is ironic, however, that a festival which supposedly celebrates theatre "on the fringe" could ever criticize a show for being too unconventional. And it seems especially narrow-minded to level that accusation against a gem like Superhero LIVE.
As advertised, Superhero is a spoken-word performance, accompanied by some great live guitar and bass riffs. The music is always present, sort of hovering in the background during most of the show. But occasionally it springs to center stage, capturing your attention and adding emotional weight and style to the play's most dramatic scenes.
Superhero should work pretty well on the radio or as a podcast, since you don't actually NEED to see the actors and musicians to enjoy the story. But you'll miss something if you don't watch the performance in person. Much like a good comic book, the visual presentation in Superhero LIVE adds a dimension to the story that the words alone simply can't.
The actors are very good, too. I especially liked Aaron Talbot, who plays the Superhero. This guy actually looks a bit like a comic book character, and when he moves he does a great job of capturing the substance and feel of a comic book panel. It's a hard to trick describe, but when you see him freeze for a split second during the "BLAM! POW! BIFF!" moments of the fight scenes, or when he gets that woozy, dazed, Peter Parker look just after being kissed by the heroine, you'll know what I mean.
In addition to fine acting and musical performances, Superhero LIVE boasts a complex and well-written story. There's plenty of drama, excitement, and humour (both blatant and subtle), and there's lots of nagging questions that keep you hooked right up until the end.
The plot is pure comic book fiction, and tends to wander into territory that's rarely explored in live theatre. There's a battle between the hero and a giant robot, for example. It's the sort of thing that must be very hard to convincingly stage for a live audience. Yet by the time you see it, you're so engrossed in the story and the characters that this crazy new action is easy to accept. The whole scene ends up looking really good, though of course it would have been even better had they used actual giant battle robots. Real battle robots will improve almost any scene.
The bottom line? Superhero LIVE is one of the best Fringe performances I've seen in years. Check it out for yourself, and when it's over I bet you'll be looking for the same thing that I am:
A sequel.
Bush’s Mess
I just finished reading a great analysis of the situation in the Middle East. It's by Gwynne Dyer, whom I've previously complimented as the most accurate, realistic, and well-informed international journalist in the world.
Dyer's previous books offered plenty of very prescient predictions about what was going to happen in Iraq (and why), and his latest book, The Mess They Made, is equally thoughtful. In it, Dyer cuts through all the conspiracy theories to explain the real reasons why the United States invaded Iraq. He breaks the current situation down in careful detail, and then spends much of the rest of the book describing what's likely to happen in the Middle East over the next decade or so.
I found the section about America eventually attacking Iran (which Mr. Dyer thinks is quite possible) and the probable Iranian response (bad for everyone, but a disaster for America) to be especially interesting.
The Middle East is basically the axis around which global politics revolves, so if you're interested in knowing what's really going on on the international stage these days, I couldn't recommend this book enough.
Frankly, I kind of wish the CIA could find a way to trick the Bush administration into reading it.
Fiction Plane
Erin and I went to The Police concert this weekend, along with my brother and his fiance. I thought it was a great concert, but then there wasn't really much chance that I'd hate it, since The Police have always been one of my favourite bands.
One of the opening acts was an unknown band called Fiction Plane. Their lead singer, Joe Sumner, is Sting's son, so it's not really surprising that he's on tour with The Police. In fact, the obvious nepotism of it left me inclined to dismiss Fiction Plane outright.
But by the time they finished their set, I was impressed. Sumner has definitely inherited his father's singing voice--and at least some of his musical gifts, too. He's got good genes for the singer/songwriter career path, I guess. I picked up their album, Left Side of the Brain, and it's very good.
Right now Fiction Plane is just an indie band--but I'll go out on a limb and predict that they're about to go mainstream. The song you'll probably hear on the radio is called Two Sisters. If you want to listen it, you can can go to the Fiction Plane myspace page.
Sending More Troops to Iraq
There's this sportcaster-turned-reporter named Keith Olbermann. I like him. He often refers to Bill O'Reilly as the "Worst Person in the World."
Lately, he's been making a lot of waves on the Internet. He's become a favourite on sites like Youtube and Google Video, because he's taking an increasingly harsh stance against the American war in Iraq, and has become openly critical of the Bush administration itself.
While his opinions are not uncommon, his public influence and oratorical skills are. It is unusual for such a well-known American news anchor to speak out so bluntly and directly against the US government.
At the end of each episode of his show, Olbermann gives a personal opinion piece, which is what everyone really tunes in for. He's recently picked up the habit of addressing President Bush directly in these pieces, and I have to admit, the man has a gift for rhetoric.
This is a video of Olbermann's latest opinion piece, issued after President Bush announced his insane plan to send twenty thousand more troops to Iraq.
Don’t Download This
Ahh, Weird Al, you should get an award for this one (lyrics here):
That parody is done in the style of those "fundraiser songs" that were so popular in the mid-eighties. If you're old enough, you might even remember a few of them.
Fundraiser songs were created by supergroups of successful recording artists from rich nations, including the USA, Britain, and Canada. The songs were supposed to encourage sympathy and raise money for the world's poorest regions (especially Ethiopia, which was suffering from a very severe famine at the time.)
In 1984, the British supergroup Band Aid created Do They Know It's Christmas? In 1985, the American supergroup USA for Africa followed suit, making what is probably the most well-known fundraiser song ever: We Are The World. Also in 1985, the Canadian supergroup Northern Lights performed Tears Are Not Enough.
I think all three songs are pretty good. Do They Know It's Christmas has the best lyrics, We Are The World has the best star power, and Tears Are Not Enough is, overall, the best sounding one. You just have to get over how amazingly ugly Canada's top recording artists were in 1985. I mean that in the nicest possible way, but if you think I'm just being shallow, compare the videos and see for yourself.
If you're any good at spotting young versions of old rockers, you might try watching the videos and seeing how many you can name. Most people won't have much trouble spotting young Sting, young Bono, young Phil Colins, young Michael Jackson, young Bryan Adams, or the not-so-young Ray Charles. But you get extra points if you can find Paul Shaffer, Dan Akroyd, or Wayne Gretzky.
