I had to explain it in the title so that no one would get upset.
Happy Wednesday, readers! Even though I'm bout ready to pass out, I've got to stick to my every-other-day rule.
Just got back from seeing the new Broadway show "The Motherf**ker with the Hat," starring Chris Rock, Annabella Sciora, and Bobby Canavale, and it was soooooo good!!! I have loved Bobby Cannavale since he was on "Will & Grace," and he was just beyond unbelievable. The emotions were at 10 from the beginning of the show, and they sustained it throughout.
Chris Rock was great (the character suited his style, and he was natural on stage), that Bobby Canavale is an out of this world actor, and the 100-minute show was relentless in its rapid-fire pacing.
Okay, enough Ebert-ing from me.
I went to see the show with my mom and my secretly-gay uncle, who's here for a week on vacation (he lives in The D--you know, where it's so cold). He's staying with me, and at first, I was nervous, as I've gotten quite accustomed to having my morning Saved-by-the-Bell-watching "me" time, and he is up with the sun and chatty-chatty. But the best part about secretly-gay uncle is that as a childless 60 year old, he's always happy to break a piece off to his young, gifted, and black(tress) niece. He also fancies himself an aesthete and mostly wants to spend his time in museums, but being from Detroit, he's very easily impressed (this became apparent when he raved about the service at the neighborhood Applebee's--bless).
He really enjoyed the show (not as good as Sister Act, which he loved), but our fun was dampened a few times during the show by some very ignorant audience members who acted as though they were watching a damn movie! During Chris Rock's first scene, an audience member yells out "Love you, Chris Rock!" and totally threw him off. Rock even turned out a little bit and said, "What did you just say? I just forgot my part" and he fumbled for a bit while Cannavale--ever the professional--fed him a trigger to get him back up to speed.
This isn't a fucking Bieber concert--you can't be yelling out like Chris is gonna bring you on stage and serenade you!
After sharing a three-way look, my mom, uncle, and I see an usher tap a young black guy on the shoulder--he was the yeller.
This is why black people can't have nice things, y'all.
Toward the end of the play, during a really emotional scene, another knucklehead yells out to Bobby Cannavale, "We love you, Jackie [the character's name in the show]!"
What the?! When did Broadway become a scene out of Dangerous Minds? As much as I love Chris Rock bringing all kinds of people to the theater, I think there needs to be a sobriety test or something before you're allowed to take your seat.
At the end of the show, the cast came out to their standing ovation and Cannavale talked about Broadway Cares. "You've been a really great audience--most of you," he began. He was instantly met with resounding applause. I could imagine being on that stage and being so pissed; I can't believe they were able to stay with it through that foolery. (the show was really intense, and although it was funny, it was very dark)
Secretly-gay uncle wants to see some more shows while he's here, so I may try to tag along. I want to see "Book of Mormon," but he's really itching to check out "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert."
See you Friday!
Showing posts with label Dangerous Minds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dangerous Minds. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Friday, April 4, 2008
NEVER FORGET!!!!
In addition to being a writer, comedian, and blacktress, I am also a grader for an undergraduate film course at my alma mater (yeah, I got my learn on when I was allowed to). I receive papers written by students of all grade levels taking an introductory course in cinema, and I wield my red pen like a sword, cutting into their hopes and dreams—and dropping a little knowledge. What I love about this job is threefold:
1. I get a little extra income coming in (I’m just a freed squirrel trying to get a nut, y’all!)
2. I get to reaffirm my own genius by judging others.
3. I get to guide young Caucasian minds, teaching them how to write thoughtful analysis and become freedom writers.
(sometimes I’m tempted to ask about their great-grandfathers’ slave-owning past, but I remember that that’s inappropriate in academia)
But sometimes when I’m reading these papers, the young people of Diversity University teach me a thing or two … and then I know why Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, and Dainty Deb find great joy in teaching. (Granted, it’s better when the kids are impoverished and brown--cause then you can really hold your head up high at dinner parties and art openings--but well-tended liberals are better than nothing.)
Take, for instance, the current topic of the papers I am grading. They are for a film course that combines philosophy and psychology (only at Diversity U!), and has students quoting Freud, Nietzsche, and other scholars as they discuss memory and identity in melodrama. Reading 4 pages that manage to analyze the acting chops of Bette Davis and Freud’s definition of melancholy is nothing short of brilliant. However, when I saw that one of the paper topics asked students to comment on the differences between males and females, my eyes perked up with excitement. Here’s the intro to one paper:
"It is not uncommon for men to be baffled by the amount that women seem to ‘obsess’ over details and events, analyzing every word of a conversation that was had a week ago. Beyond this everyday difference and constant source of fighting between the sexes, there is the fact that women are forced to remember, while men are allowed to forget. This is due to cultural expectations and physical realities that have always existed and will always exist, and can be seen clearly in __________ and __________."
Does this student read my blog? How do they have such a firm grasp on female “obsession” and analysis of conversations that were “had a week ago”? The idea of women being forced to remember and men being allowed to forget is the crux of the essay, for in melodramatic films, male characters get to be playboys—or suffer from amnesia—while women always have to remember the magical night, the failed romance, or….THE KID THAT THEY GAVE BIRTH TO.
Reading these essays, I wondered if this was the key to the differences between the sexes: why do I freak out over a random dude not calling me after a few dates? Why do I replay our conversations in my head on loop, wondering what I said that was “too much,” while he skips happily along, going on auditions and playing magic cards—wait, I mean, doing whatever else he does ‘cause I’m not still into Magic-card Guy anyway.
I digress.
Is the reason for my obsession biological? Is it because any physical union with a man could result in our love-, dislike-, or drunken-boredom-child? My DNA says that it’s in my best interest to remember a potential baby daddy, if not for the future health of my offspring, but for the sheer need to avoid appearing on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich.
The student then went on to explain how easy it is for men to forget, and how the display of emotion common in females is not seen as a male virtue:
"though there are some cultures that are more accepting of male emotion than American culture, it is a present factor in every culture to some extent, tracing back to the fact that the male cavemen hunted for food while the women picked berries and tended to the cave and children."
That is so true!!! I mean, have you seen the Geico commercials? Those cave dudes are always hunting for food and fun. Where are cavewomen on our television screens? They are off picking berries and tending to the cave and cavechildren!!!! From the beginning of time, women have had to remember everything that goes down cause men have been too busy hunting and flirting with cave-tramps. And now, in the 21st century, instead of hunting (which may be an actually legitimate excuse, since it was key to survival), all a dude has to say is that “shit’s been crazy” with them, leaving it up to you to remember when their mother’s birthday is, or when they get out of class so you can casually bump into them, or when you took your birth control pill so that you don’t end up at PPNYC.
Men are allowed to forget, and women are forced to remember.
In case you were wondering, I gave the above student an A+++ and told them to call me.
1. I get a little extra income coming in (I’m just a freed squirrel trying to get a nut, y’all!)
2. I get to reaffirm my own genius by judging others.
3. I get to guide young Caucasian minds, teaching them how to write thoughtful analysis and become freedom writers.
(sometimes I’m tempted to ask about their great-grandfathers’ slave-owning past, but I remember that that’s inappropriate in academia)
But sometimes when I’m reading these papers, the young people of Diversity University teach me a thing or two … and then I know why Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, and Dainty Deb find great joy in teaching. (Granted, it’s better when the kids are impoverished and brown--cause then you can really hold your head up high at dinner parties and art openings--but well-tended liberals are better than nothing.)
Take, for instance, the current topic of the papers I am grading. They are for a film course that combines philosophy and psychology (only at Diversity U!), and has students quoting Freud, Nietzsche, and other scholars as they discuss memory and identity in melodrama. Reading 4 pages that manage to analyze the acting chops of Bette Davis and Freud’s definition of melancholy is nothing short of brilliant. However, when I saw that one of the paper topics asked students to comment on the differences between males and females, my eyes perked up with excitement. Here’s the intro to one paper:
"It is not uncommon for men to be baffled by the amount that women seem to ‘obsess’ over details and events, analyzing every word of a conversation that was had a week ago. Beyond this everyday difference and constant source of fighting between the sexes, there is the fact that women are forced to remember, while men are allowed to forget. This is due to cultural expectations and physical realities that have always existed and will always exist, and can be seen clearly in __________ and __________."
Does this student read my blog? How do they have such a firm grasp on female “obsession” and analysis of conversations that were “had a week ago”? The idea of women being forced to remember and men being allowed to forget is the crux of the essay, for in melodramatic films, male characters get to be playboys—or suffer from amnesia—while women always have to remember the magical night, the failed romance, or….THE KID THAT THEY GAVE BIRTH TO.
Reading these essays, I wondered if this was the key to the differences between the sexes: why do I freak out over a random dude not calling me after a few dates? Why do I replay our conversations in my head on loop, wondering what I said that was “too much,” while he skips happily along, going on auditions and playing magic cards—wait, I mean, doing whatever else he does ‘cause I’m not still into Magic-card Guy anyway.
I digress.
Is the reason for my obsession biological? Is it because any physical union with a man could result in our love-, dislike-, or drunken-boredom-child? My DNA says that it’s in my best interest to remember a potential baby daddy, if not for the future health of my offspring, but for the sheer need to avoid appearing on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich.
The student then went on to explain how easy it is for men to forget, and how the display of emotion common in females is not seen as a male virtue:
"though there are some cultures that are more accepting of male emotion than American culture, it is a present factor in every culture to some extent, tracing back to the fact that the male cavemen hunted for food while the women picked berries and tended to the cave and children."
(I kid you not. This is a real excerpt from a college student’s paper. A student whose parents and/or the government pay $40,000 per year for him/her to learn and write such papers.)
That is so true!!! I mean, have you seen the Geico commercials? Those cave dudes are always hunting for food and fun. Where are cavewomen on our television screens? They are off picking berries and tending to the cave and cavechildren!!!! From the beginning of time, women have had to remember everything that goes down cause men have been too busy hunting and flirting with cave-tramps. And now, in the 21st century, instead of hunting (which may be an actually legitimate excuse, since it was key to survival), all a dude has to say is that “shit’s been crazy” with them, leaving it up to you to remember when their mother’s birthday is, or when they get out of class so you can casually bump into them, or when you took your birth control pill so that you don’t end up at PPNYC.
Men are allowed to forget, and women are forced to remember.
In case you were wondering, I gave the above student an A+++ and told them to call me.
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