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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
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9.14.03 memo menos The circus is in town, circus of the sun, that is, right here in the city of angels. Cirque du Soleil presented it’s latest touring production, VAREKAI, a derivative of the myth Icarus. And, as the SPARKS were winning game one of the WNBA Finals in Staples Center, the amazing French-Canadian acrobats of the coolest circus on the planet were entertaining the celebrities under the tent in the parking lot of Staples. It’s actually called the Grand Chapiteau, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house, so even though I wasn’t sitting within fragrance of such stars as SYLVESTER STALLONE, JIM CARREY, ALEC BALDWIN, SAMUEL JACKSON, ROBERT WAGNER, JILL ST. JOHN, ERIC McCORMACK, CARRIE FISHER, QUINCY JONES, JAMES LIPTON, LAUREN GRAHAM, DARYL HANNAH, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, TORI SPELLING, RACHEL LEIGH COOK or NATASSJA KINSKI, I did enjoy a fascinating vantage of VAREKAI even from the second to last row. I think the viewing is more complete the further back you sit.
Icarus does plummet to the ground in this version, but he is entertained once he lands there by a multi-talented and multi-cultural band of whoseits and whatnots, as well as a couple of very funny, apparently humanoid clowns. In the end, Icarus, with little need for his wings, is married to a dazzling and quite flexible beauty, in a mesmerizing skin suit sparkling with diamond-like jewels.
While I was watching this, another great version of the Cirque du Soleil, I couldn’t help compare it to the others I have seen. The acrobats have finally taken over the asylum in this version, with some awe inspiring aerial displays. And the costumes have become more elaborate, in most cases camouflaging the hard-bodied athletes that make up this show, with appendages and bulges that leave them indefinable as human beings. This could be a Doctor Suess operetta.
And though it is a bit like ranking good sex or choosing your favorite ice cream, this wasn’t my favorite Cirque du Soleil performance. I’d much rather be reminded front and center of the amazing musicians that make up the show. The voices, the harmonies and the crying violins are as much of the experience as the flybys, but you had to really search out those contributors. It would be simple to bring them to the front of the stage, and shine a spot on them, even if for only a moment, to really remind, this is all happening live.  NEIL PATRICK HARRIS put it best on the arrival line, “They combine all the arts so seamlessly. Everything is so strong, the costumes, the sound!” And he was right. Several performances stand apart from the usual amazing Cirque stuff. OLGA PIKHIENKO is breath taking as a hand balancer in the sparkling leotard. She’s not your ordinary contortionist. Three red clad Russian dancers blow your socks off with some amazingly fast spins and calf jumps. OCTAVIO ALEGRIA does some of the most unbelievable juggling you'll ever witness. Then there are the clowns, CLAUDIO CARNEIRO and MOOKY CORNISH. They have memorable bits in both acts of the show, CLAUDIO playing a greasy topped magician/lounge lizard and MOOKY, the ditzy, fumbling assistant/devious spot operator. She is hilarious throughout, including the closing bows, where she continues her cartoonish antics.
The highlight for me was the wedding scene with a host of acrobats doing unbelievable things on two matching swings that launch the players high into the air and then back onto the swings in what appear to be impossible stunts. Flying gymnasts in gripping red orange costumes alternate in bouncing off giant tarps used as nets to catch them as they seemingly soar out of the tent. It is classic Cirque du Soleil.
One of the creators and current CEO of Cirque, GUY LALIBERTE was at the opening and summed the Cirque experience up this way, “It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun. It’s about having fun, having pleasure and having passion, and bringing in our childhood into our adult life and sharing that with the audience.”
Woe is UNIVERSAL. They are “losing” money on CD sales and woe is the fate of the world. Prices are being slashed, from msp $16.98 to $13.98, with stores expected to sell them for as little as $9.98 once all the dust settles. CD prices have not been altered since their debut in the early 80’s, yet we are to believe that UNIVERSAL and the other 4 big music suppliers are hurting. Woe the bullshit. At about the same time the industry unleashed 261 lawsuits against key individuals who offered their large music libraries for sharing on the internet. For the most part the defendants in these suits are teenagers, or their unsuspecting parents, who, despite what the record companies would have us believe, are not criminals, and probably not even copyright infringers. Most of the artists who get downloaded wouldn’t get a listen otherwise. Radio today is so limited. File sharing may actually be helping sales, at least of those artists who are peddling anything worth buying. The impetus for both the price reductions and the litigation is supposedly file sharing, that is “illegal” downloading on the web. But that warrants more careful analysis. I’ve downloaded songs on the internet, and those files are no JACK KENNEDY. I mean, first of all you’ve got to find the song you’re looking for. There are many versions out there, and it’s not always easy to find the tune you crave. Then, there are varying degrees of quality. Downloaded files are not the same as the product you purchase at retail. More times than not, the file is cut-off, at the beginning or the end, has annoying pops and cracks, or other deficiencies which are fatal flaws to a CD collector. And then there is the label problem. I’ve got hundreds of songs on homemade CD’S with God knows what’s on them. It takes time to gather songs in some kind of logical arrangement, burn them, label them, package them and keep them in some way that you’ll be able to find them and use them when you want. Not to mention, the file sharer gets none of the other goodies, which the record companies have not understood is part of the transaction in buying a CD-the lyrics, the pictures of the artist, the notes and other thoughts from the artist that you just don’t get on KaZaA, GROKSTER, LIMEWIRE, NAPSTER or even APPLE MUSIC. I buy the CD just to have these things, and to have a disc I can file in some logical way so it may be retieved upon demand, even if I have the downloaded file! The download is almost like a test drive. Now, I don’t see the record companies getting their wallets all out of whack since record stores decided to install play stations. Have you been into a VIRGIN lately? Some of those folks spend hours in the store listening to what they purchase in advance. Now there’s a concept. Knowing what you are buying, and buying what you want. That’s kind of the American way, you’d think. But it hasn’t been that way in the music business. They sell music by the dozen, with the consumer lucky if they know and like 1 or 2 of the bunch. Nearly all of the time, if the buyer heard the dozen in advance, he or she wouldn’t complete the sale. Record companies have been ripping the public off for years. The internet, and listening stations are just starting to rectify things. And if revenues are going down, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise to record companies. They’ve been peddling shit to blind consumers, and we’ve just started seeing the light. Lower prices are a nice addition too. I mean, why should I pay $18 for a CD I might like for a mere 3 minutes of music. 2-hour DVD’S are nearly as cheap, and I know I want every minute of that 2 hours before I buy it. Besides, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased a CD, knowing full well that I only am after 1 song on that disc, and then find out the 4 minutes I wanted isn’t even there. It’s a remix that isn’t even offered by the record company. It’s criminal. They’re lucky to get $10 for most of the crap they put out. How many CD’S do you own that you played only once? The price increase is long overdue, and won’t go far enough to bail out an industry that has mediocre product, and nonexistent customer service. Could you or I run a business that way, much less a business that earns billions annually, with the continued power and influence to winnow the competition down to a few major players, hold prices to inflated levels for decades, and sue customers for taking advantage of technological advances that compel their obsolete marketing practices to be rethought? I wish. I say, let’s all boycott record companies. Listen to the radio, get satellite or cable television-theirs plenty of “free” music there. Go out to a club; give your music money to businesses that want your patronage. Resist the impulse to buy CD’S. More likely than not given a month or so to “cool off”, you’ll find you really didn’t like/want/need that song anyway. You’ll have a lot fewer lame CD’S to trade in to the record stores. And the record companies will get the picture that they’re not entitled to sell billions of dollars in discs, copyright or no copyright, especially if they sue their customers to do so! Long live the internet, and long live the digital revolution. 8.19.03 memo menos  ROSEANNE BARR has come full circle, from trailer trash goddess to sitcom star and pop icon, back to who the hell cares, anyway. Did we ever care?She has tried to get back into mainstream television, after the demise, mostly of her own doing, of her hit sitcom ROSEANNE in 1996. The show ran for 8 seasons, and was funny as well as critically acclaimed. But the problems on the set, at the behest of star ROSEANNE were legend. The show faded from the top of the ratings in its’ heyday. In 1998 she tried hosting a talk show, which failed miserably. So comes 2003 and ROSEANNE hooks up with THE FAMILY CHANNEL and ABC to put together not 1, but 2 reality shows. Not exactly great timing as we have had just about enough of the tired genre. The first was an unscripted look at the star’s attempts to get a cooking/variety show off the ground and on the air. THE ROSEANNE SHOW. It has been running on ABC for 2 weeks with little or no audience, so the network quickly pulled the plug. The second, the cooking show, DOMESTIC GODDESS, took several twists and turns. It was originally touted as being primarily about cooking. But things gradually shifted to being more about variety, with the former stand-up comedienne doing schtick with big name celebrity guests. ROSEANNE announced that she was going into the hospital for a hysterectomy this week, and THE FAMILY CHANNEL followed with its’ own announcement that the second show was now off the table as well. Apparently no one cares anymore, about the plastic surgery; or the personal drama swirling about her marriages and divorces to blue collar, non-Hollywood type; or even about her biting commentary about the business. It’s too bad, because ROSEANNE is one of the funniest women in show business, even with all the drama.
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MANMADE MULTIMEDIA, INC.
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