Reality Based Community

Life in the Empire

Views: 502

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Reminded of this Tom Waits song:

Misery's the River of the World
Misery's the River of the World

The higher that the monkey can climb
The more he shows his tail
Call no man happy 'til he dies
There's no milk at the bottom of the pail

God builds a church
The devil builds a chapel
Like the thistles that are growing
'round the thrunk of a tree
All the good in the world
You can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me

If there's one thing you can say
About Mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork
But it always comes roaring back again

Misery's the River of the World
Misery's the River of the World
Misery's the River of the World

For want of a bird
The sky was last
For want of a nail
A shoe was last
For want of a life
The knife was last
For want of a toy
A child was last

Misery's the River of the World
Misery's the River of the World
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!
Misery's the River of the World
Misery's the River of the World
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!

Tom Waits is amazing.

Tom Waits' 2002 recording BLOOD MONEY is a collection of the songs from the award winning stage production of Woyzeck by avant director Robert Wilson, Waits and Brennan.

Woyzeck:Tragedy. By Georg Büchner. Adapted by Robert Wilson et al. Music and lyrics by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Directed by Mark Jackson. Through Jan. 27. Shotgun Players, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. 85 minutes. $23-$35. (510) 841-6500, www.shotgunplayers.org.

Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's sensuous melodies and sardonic lyrics envelop the fractured shards of Georg Büchner's unfinished script to create riveting theater in the "Woyzeck" that opened Friday at Shotgun Players' Ashby Stage. Director Mark Jackson blends their talents with those of his company to deliver one of the most exciting productions of the year.

This is a "Woyzeck" that's as emotionally compelling as it is intellectually stimulating and mordantly comic, which is a major achievement. Büchner's prescient drama, which the 24-year-old German radical was still writing when he died in 1837, has had a huge influence on modern drama in the many scripts (and Alban Berg's opera) later cobbled from his jumbled manuscripts. But few stagings of the tale of the common soldier who murdered his lover (based on a true story) attain the immediacy of this one.

Is anybody as sick as I am of running into the "soccer story" (whatever it is)?  I'll admit... haven't read anything about it... because sportsball "news" always gets thrown into my who-gives-a-shit bucket right away.  Next is all the "People Magazine" crap... Zoozoo says hoodle about Booboo on the Doodoo Show.  I have no fucking idea who Zoozoo is... or Booboo is... and I don't watch the Doodoo Show.  It's getting harder to wade through all the "entertainment" crap... even in the "alternative" media.  It's all about clicks and eyeballs.  

However, I find this interesting.  So is this.  <oh wait- that's not "news."  That's "olds."  Guess you gotta wait at least a century to read about what actually happened.  Oh... and this is interesting too.  

RSS

© 2024   Created by waldopaper.   Powered by

Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service