FuzzyCo

This morning I wandered around downtown Chicago taking pictures of the cast of WNEP's Soiree DADA as they... DADAed.

Alton Brown's new Food Network show, Feasting on Asphalt 2, has him traveling up the Mississippi River, sampling road food along the way. The show stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi in episode 2 but only showed their visit to the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum (where Coke was first bottled). But in episode 5 this Highway 61 Coffeehouse coffee mug showed up as Alton taste-tested Civil War reenactment coffees, outside of Monroe City, Missouri.

I'm kinda old school, in that I like having a landline phone in the house, especially because I've had bad luck with cell phone reception in my last two places. But since we're moving in a couple weeks I thought it might be a good time to move the landline number off of AT&T (née SBC) and lump it in with our RCN service to get bundle pricing and save a little money. So I wanted to see if any of our Chicago peeps had any good or bad experiences with the quality of RCN phone service?

Tonight... we dance.

During last week's show we all randomly pulled CDs out of a bucket. The CDs paired you up with another contestant -- I got paired with Jarrad -- and they contained a song we'd have to perform a dance to -- we got Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima. The dances have to be in the style of the song and tell a story -- which is interesting, since Jump, Jive an' Wail doesn't really make any sense.

Also, Jarrad moved this last weekend, so we didn't get together until Sunday night. But then we choreographed the whole song in a marathon 3 hours -- which is pretty good, since I know that Erica and Jeff will often get together two or three times to work through a 3 minute song. And we've rehearsed a whole two times since then! We're on fire! (Help, help, I'm on fire!) So come to the show tonight and watch us dance our awesome dance.

So, Jarrad and I danced our little hearts out and I'm now in a very tight fourth place (three points behind first). Next week, circus side show acts. And the finale challenge is, as I expected, simply "Impress These Apes" (that is, whatever we want). Eek! Such freedom is frightening.

Amanda and Brady: Boot Scootin' Boogie by Brooks and Dunn
Erin and Kristen: Money, Money (from Cabaret)
Fuzzy and Jarrad: Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima
Jenny and Margaret: Stronger by Kanye West

Tonight... we DADA.

Erica's DADA show opens tonight and I can't wait to see it -- I've heard so many bits and pieces that sound, by turn, hilarious and touching and terrifying and nonsensical, that I'm curious how they all fit together. Some bits and pieces: Nina Metz wrote a preview for the Tribiune, Michael Brownlee took photos during a rehearsal, I took photos when the DADAs went out in public, and Don has written a ton of stuff about the show.

I linked to that Soiree DADA preview by Nina Metz yesterday, but I had been reading it online and didn't realize that the article was a) on the front page of the Friday entertainment section and b) accompanied by a huuuge photo of the DADAs, including DADA Flutter (that is, Erica).

The show was quite incredible. Each of the DADAs has a seating area that they control and I sat in a sort of a box with DADA Rusty Cluster -- there was room for exactly me and him. I'll have to go back to actually see all of the show, but just being in the box for 90 minutes was quite an experience.

As an experiment, I shot the opening night of Soiree DADA from my seat with a disposable camera. With Don's permission, I sometimes used flash (I probably could have used it more, but I'm shy). I'm not really sure it's what I'd call a successful experiment, but I got a few interesting shots.

So, if you're obsessive (and I know some of you are, because I got one comment by phone) you might have noticed that the mileage total on my little running meter on the sidebar hasn't been going up in the last few weeks, nor have I posted about any of my long weekend runs. That's because I haven't been running very far, or often, for the last three weeks. After my 16-mile run my ITBs were really hurting, and everyone says that to run once they're irritated will just prolong the problem. I took a few days off and then ran two days in a row, to pretty noticable pain.

So I ended up taking off nearly two weeks, wherein I saw a doctor and started some physical therapy. I probably should have done some none-running exercise in there (other than dance) but between not knowing if biking would hurt my ITBs just as much, and not having access to a pool, and just being plain busy, it was really easy to just let it all slide.

So now I'm back on the horse, but I've missed three weeks of running. My ITBs are feeling fine, but everything else is a bit creaky -- I had a backache this morning that I hadn't felt since months ago. I've also missed what should have been two 16-milers and an 18-miler. This upcoming weekend the schedule would have me running 18 miles and then beginning my 'taper'. So I'm rather uncertain how far I should be pushing it in this last three weeks. As always, comments from the peanut gallery are welcomed.

Our challenge for the seventh (and penultimate!) week of Impress These Apes is to perform a circus sideshow act. Will you be thrilled? Will you be amazed? Will you wonder if I've taken leave of my senses? The answer, of course, is of course.

Time Out Chicago recommends Soiree DADA as one of five shows to see at a matinee (there's a whole thing going on about 'getting high' because that was the theme of the issue. Yeah, I don't get it either.)

#4 Soiree DADA

As long as you’re not the paranoid type, check out this WNEP play. Just be careful—those white-faced DADA dudes can stare right into your soul.

Hugo Ball, whose Cabaret Voltaire birthed Dada during World War I, described it as "both buffoonery and a requiem mass." The latest in WNEP Theater's "Soiree Dada" series, whose subtitle means "Blind Donkey Hopscotch," gets that. Performed by nine clowns in whiteface and tramp costumes, the piece's anarchic games and strangely mesmerizing nonsense poems are ingeniously buffoonish while its half-giddy, half-terrified insistence on the cruel emptiness at the center of things becomes a kind of merry dirge. The original dadaists, with their oft-professed distain for the artistic past, might have scorned the idea of attempting to re-create the spirit of a 90-year-old experiment, but WNEP's well-crafted chaos proves that Dada retains its power to tickle and prod.

P.S. That Reader review (Critic's Choice!) is accompanied by another great big picture of DADA Flutter (and others) by Jim Newberry:

(You can't see it so good on the video, but there's fake blood coming out of my head and mouth after each knife trick.)

The challenge for week 7 of Impress These Apes was to create a circus sideshow act. My first thought was "finally, a reason to buy juggling torches!" But I was told we couldn't use fire at iO. My second thought was "finally, a reason to buy juggling knives!" But it was going to cost over $100 and it was unclear whether I could get some in time. So then I went through ideas three through fifteen. Somewhere in there I decided to do a sword swallowing act. Ta da!

My poster was a photoshopping of a sideshow banner by Johnny Meah, found on the website of the Carl Hammer Gallery, here in Chicago.

The scores were really high in general this week, especially from guest judge Robert Buscemi, and so I've fallen to seventh place -- 10 points behind the leader, Kristen Studard. So if everyone else breaks their legs between now and next week...

And next week is the finale. The end. The big show. We've got the open ended challenge to "impress these apes" and so knows what everyone will come up with? I know what I'll come up with, because I've already got the costume. Come to the show and find out! And stay for the party. And buy me a beer. And tell me you thought I was great.

Everyone's side show acts:

Amanda - "The Horned Woman"
Brady - "The Fattest Man in the World"
Erin - "Addicted to Pain"
Fuzzy - "King of Swords"
Jarrad - "Morbon"
Jenny - "Baby Maker 3001"
Kristen - "Creepy Lady"
Margaret - "The Big Show"

From this week's Time Out (with with another large photo by Jim Newberry (the print edition miscredited Michael Brownlee, who has certainly taken many nice DADA pictures, but not these)):

Soiree DADA: Blinde Esel Hopse WNEP Theater at Chicago Cultural Center (see Fringe & storefront). Dir. Don Hall. With ensemble cast.

DADA DAY CAMP The white-faced cast of Soiree creates a little Duchamp of horrors.

FOUR STARS

One of WNEP's clownlike Dada creatures is in the middle of an emotional monologue when suddenly his fellows surround him, making noise, shouting, singing and generally drowning him out. The storyteller soldiers on through the distraction until he can't take it anymore, shouting, "I am having a poignant moment here!"

Good luck with that, we think. There's poignancy in the latest Soiree DADA; it's just not in Hallmark-card form. These Dadaists will move you, but they're not going to be mushy about it.

The latest edition of WNEP's nonsense cabaret, sprung from the confines of its shoeboxlike former spaces, ups the ante for its stay at the Cultural Center with a cast of 11 white-faced, questionably accented Dadaists, combining the purposely irrational, logic-rejecting anti-aesthetics of Dada practitioners Tristan Tzara and George Grosz with elements of vaudeville (unlike the Dadaists of old, this group isn't averse to actually entertaining us).

Hall and his cast take us on one daft roller-coaster ride, careening from the sublimely silly (the petulant Dadaists fight over their belongings like toddlers) to that aforementioned prickly poignancy—witness Jen Ellison's aggressive, desperately powerful, climactic counting piece. Those allergic to audience participation should find other plans, but a little harmless "in your face" is a small price to pay for some darn good "in your brain."

—Kris Vire

And from last week's Newcity:

Soiree DADA: Blinde Esel Hopse (Stage » Comedy » Improv/Revues)

Chaos is the language of choice in WNEP’s Dada revue, and while the Dadaists may talk a good game about the anti-aesthetics of their cause, there is an aesthetic nonetheless. Even a fuck-the-rules attitude can achieve beauty. But how deep does it go? In white face and black lips, the Dada performers here engage in feverous activity--the show plays out like a poetry slam in a blender--and if the goal is simply to entertain, it succeeds on most fronts. The seating options are deliberately kooky--floor pillows, bistro tables or a communal highchair that looked less than comfy. Where this reanimation of Dada fails, for me at least, is intellectually. The show is performed at you and bounces back to the performers--you walk out not rattled so much as mildly amused. I’m all for non-stop nonsense. "Are you afraid of the ding dong and the ping ping?" Who knows, but I like the way it sounds. But too often gibberish becomes white noise. The strongest elements of the show involve Jen Ellison as the ring leader, Dada Dabo. With her short blonde hair slicked back, she looks a little like Julie Andrews in "Victor Victoria," but her manner is officious and sadistic, as she twirls her pinky ring and surveys the crowd with a satisfied stare. She is an evil mastermind with a brusque German accent. And yet she is a reassuring presence, an ogre with a spring in her step. "If I were to fondle your ass, would you be offended?" she asks an audience member, who is then instructed: "Stand up, turn around and bend over." No joke. "Are you offended now?" she taunts as her hand inches closer to said ass. "Howaboutnow, howaboutnow, howaboutnow?" Ellison finds the weird in her comedy to great effect. "I must say, I am impressed with the frivolous way your treat your body," she concludes. Of all the Dadaists, Ellison’s is the most defined of the lot, and she alone rattles a few cages with her carefully modulated performance.

- Nina Metz

And so, we're at week 8 of this ridiculous show -- the finale! Is there any way I can claw my way out of 7th place and take the $250 prize? Well, even if not, I've had a great (if exhausting) 7 weeks so far -- I've written a song, re-enacted a movie scene, made a music video, made puppets, told a story, danced, and swallowed swords. And tonight I'll be... oh man. I just shake my head every time I think about my act tonight, it's so silly.

There's a wrap party in the space tonight, after the show. The bar at iO has sent along the drink specials they've put together for the show -- $4 Grape Apes (vodka, black raspberry liquor, sweet and sour mix, and Sprite), and $3.50 Berghoff Octoberfest. And, of course, if you're Greg, Ben, Noah, Bilal, Andrea, Michael, Phil, Erica, or anyone who helped me with any of the challenges, I owe you a beer or three, and this would be an excellent night to collect.

Update: Everyone can relax, I bought the limes and so I have all the pieces and parts for tonight's show.

Well, the party went pretty late at the theater after the Apes finale, so I understand that the videos aren't going to be up until this weekend. In the mean time you can look at the photos Erica took of me juggling bananas whilst wearing a banana suit and watch the video below that was playing in the background while I did my act. The amazing Banana Mix is by Dogrocket (i.e. Phil Schuldt of R. Buzzy).

And my most hearty congratulations to the winner of the second season (cycle?) of Impress These Apes -- Kristen Studard. Everyone really pulled out all the stops for the show, but Kristen pulled them out even farther.

I've been addicted to the the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games since Tony Hawk Underground (I think it was the Story Mode that really made the game click for me) (and I've since gone back and played all the earlier ones). I usually play the games exclusively on the PS2 -- the games are dependent on fairly careful control fiddling and I just don't want to deal with a different controller. But I found a copy of Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for the DS at Toys R' Us for $10 and decided to give it a whirl.

I'm glad I did -- it was a thoroughly enjoyable version of the TH games. The DS seems to be providing PS1 level graphics and performance, which is fine for the skateboarding. It does make the skater and board customization kind of a waste - you can't really see your skater in enough detail for it to really matter. (And I don't think I'd like any lower level of graphics, though, so I'm glad I skipped all the GBA versions of the games.) I went through the whole story mode of the game and then actually went back and unlocked all the levels in classic mode, which is unusual for me.

The biggest place I noticed the cut-down nature of the game was the soundtrack -- there are only about 8 songs in the whole game and so they start to wear thin after a while. I Like Dirt by the Thunderlords is funny the first 20 times you hear it, but then...

So, I'm shooting a music video for R. Buzzy (remember them from our wedding?) this weekend and we need a small crowd to be "the people in the bar" and I'd love for you, FuzzyCo reader and friend, to be one of those people.

The shoot is Sunday, September 30 at the Town Hall Pub (3340 N Halsted, Chicago). I'll be shooting crowd scenes from 3-6, so that's when I could really use you.

I'm going for something of a "timeless" feel for the crowd, so please wear clothes that aren't very modern or period-specific.

There are spots for a couple of "featured players" who will interact with the main character of the video. In usual FuzzyCo practice, I won't be casting those parts ahead of time, but simply grabbing people as needed.

If you can come, please shoot me an email so I have an idea of about how many people we're going to have.

Don't squint your eyes trying to read this -- I posted the text of the review last week. I just finally got a copy into the scanner and wanted to show off another picture of my wife.

Look what I found when I was out shopping for my banana costume! Every kid wants to be a real, live penguin, just like Dan. And speaking of Jumbles, you can see him other Don't Spit the Water comedians this Saturday, but not at the Playground -- Don't Spit the Water has moved to the Metropolis in Arlington Heights for the next two months. Erica (that is, Cutie Bumblesnatch) will be doing the last three shows, after Soiree DADA has closed.

Chicago Tribune today:

Before 'Dada,' check your logic with the donkey
By Kerry Reid

Mark Twain's author's note for "Huckleberry Finn" famously noted warned: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."

A similar advisory is in order for viewers of WNEP's "Soiree Dada: Blinde Esel Hopse (Blind Donkey Hopscotch)," which has turned the usually austere Chicago Cultural Center studio theater into a funhouse of dystopia. A cross between the Mad Hatter's tea party and a performance art festival performed by feral children, the ensemble of white-faced tricksters slips the occasional shiv of social commentary in between the ribs of the audience. But don't expect any easily digested bromides. If even low-level audience participation gives you hives, don't go.

At the same time, director Don Hall has orchestrated the piece so that the most invasive moments stay on the side of good-natured buffoonery. It's hard to find anything truly offensive in the accusation "You do not know the first eleven digits of pi." Most of the sharpest aphorisms come courtesy of DADA Dabo (Jen Ellison), who is the ringmaster of this anti-art circus. Audience members are seated throughout the playing area, which is divided between the "French" and "German" dadaists. A series of interactions, sketches, songs, and confrontations among the Dadas suggests that the primal urge for instant gratification is the bedrock of most human endeavor, and that most people will do as they're told by an authority figure. (Here, audience members took aim at the Dadas in a game called "Shoot the Freaks.")

To ding a show like this for self-indulgence would be silly, but the interactivity and the large cast add up to a thematically looser experience than the last WNEP Dada show I saw (2005's "Soiree Dada: Neue Weltaffen"), which seemed to cut a little deeper along sociopolitical lines. But then again, as we are reminded by the end, "Dada is a telephone that keeps going off at the worst possible time." Adventurous patrons should take the call.

Through Oct. 14 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.; $15-$20 at 312-742-8497.

I dress up like a banana and lose a comedy competition. Foresman gets a Vanilla Ice haircut and wins a karaoke contest. I'm not sure life is fair.

If you were planning on coming to the Town Hall Pub today to help us shoot a music video, please don't*. We're having to reschedule the shoot. Stay tuned. Thanks.

* I mean, unless you just want to visit the bar for a tasty beverage.