Commedia Is Not Funny

Photo by Jay FraleyA 10-minute sketch stretched to an hour and a half, the success of Rude Guerilla's commedia dell'arte Halloween production, Things That Go Bump, depends on how well you know the company and how much you like those interminable Saturday Night Live bits that seem to just keep going. The “plot” centers on …

Un-American Activities

Photo by James BunoanThere are an awful lot of retreads out there that don't have dick to do with Postmodernists knowingly “appropriating” the past. Usually, it's a lot more prosaic than that: young women artists excitedly tapping the Power of the P don't know they're following in the footsteps of every female artist of the …

When Prison Guards Attack!

Photo by Kassi ShepardFour years ago, the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) quashed a state investigation into abuses at Corcoran State Prison. Among other things, guards allegedly staged gladiator fights between rival gangmembers and forced particularly bothersome inmates to spend the night with the infamous “Booty Bandit”—a prisoner who had a special penchant …

Perp Walks

Last week, President George W. Bush “got tough” with alleged corporate crooks—with some of them, anyway. The papers carried photos of John Rigas and his son Timothy being carted off on charges of looting their company, Adelphia. There were also pics of WorldCom bigs Scott Sullivan and David F. Myers in custody. Sullivan was released …

Warrens Pieces

Photo by Jack GouldAt a recent opening, someone asked me what I thought of the art. “It's fun,” I said and tried to end the conversation there because I really didn't like the questioner. “Fun,” he repeated, his lips curling at my philistine self. “But is it . . . important?“ Yes, he was a …

Trawling for Tinis

Martinis are here and now. They're also yesterday and the day before. They just won't seem to go away but keep getting new life beat into 'em like they're Madonna discovering cowboy hats. Some astute observers say that the only reason people drink martinis is for the packaging: that slender, sexy stemware magically turning whomever …

Alias Smith and Jones

A film in which a giant space worm named Jeff slithers through the bowels of the New York subway system while an extraterrestrial lingerie model named Serleena toilet-snakes her tongue through the dirtier bits of Rip Torn's brain, Men in Black II(MIIB) may not be the most sophisticated specimen of pop culture's propensity for absorbing …

El Mas Macho Macho

Stereotype Mexican men for a minute. Go ahead—I won't be offended. Here, I'll even help: a charro on horseback serenading a señorita. Or a valiente blazing away with a gun in each hand, oozing machismo like blood from a wounded fighting cock. And the mustache—can't forget the mustache! This is how Mexican men have been …