"Spring Awakening" addresses teenage sexuality in a buttoned up era

What young men do with all that pent up sexual energy: JUMP!

Teenage sex, masturbation, abortion, child abuse, suicide... sounds like another night of bad television right? Wrong. Spring Awakening is a musical based on a play by the same title by Frank Wedekind that was banned in 1891 for portraying all of these situations, many of them graphically.

Western society has come a long way since the Victorian era of zipped lips (and flies) when it came to sexuality. I figure, it was hard enough being a teenager in the 1990s when we had sex ed and 90210 to teach us, what must it have been like in the1890s when kids had nothing?

Right now, Spring Awakening is playing in Sacramento at the Community Center Theater just until November 15th. In 2007, Spring Awakening received eleven Tony Award nominations, winning eight, including best musical, direction, book, score and featured actor.

READ MORE OF MY REVIEW HERE

Taylor Trensch as Moritz

Christy Altomare as Wendla and Jake Epstein as Melchior

T.R. Knight stars in "Parade": a sobering reminder of Red/Blue State politics, racism and anti-semtism. Jamie's Dad reports

T.R. Knight stars as Leo Frank in "Parade"

This blog entry was written my my Dad, Jeff. Every so often I ask him to write a review of a show he's seen in Los Angeles. Check out his review of "Howling Blues & Dity Dogs."

Who was Leo Frank? No, he was not Ann Frank’s father. And, while he was also a Jew, he was an American and not a German. And no, he did not die at the hands of the Nazis. He was lynched by Georgia whites in 1917 for a murder he may not have committed and after the Georgia Governor had reduced his sentence from death by hanging to life imprisonment.

Why are we talking about Leo Frank? It’s because the play with music Parade is currently being performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles . Fresh from runs in New York and London, where, respectively, it won a Tony award and was nominated for an Olivier award, an ensemble of about two dozen talented men and women deliver a powerful performance of this “musical” about a subject which, although almost 100 years old, still has relevance today in our “red state vs. blue state” reality.

Here’s a quick summary of the story...

READ MORE OF JEFF'S REVIEW HERE

Brad in Namibia and his field recordings

My good friend Brad is a couple months into his two year Peace Corps Adventure. He is living in a small isolated city called Luderitz on the Namibian coast (the country directly north of South Africa on the Atlantic Ocean) located pretty close to the South African boarder. He's described the terrain there as being like the moon.

Brad has been assigned to teach at a Diaz Primary School grades 5-7 and, being a musician, he's going to start an afterschool music program!

Even though mail takes a whole month to get there, I'm going to send him some classroom materials and makeshift instruments. It has to be something relatively small, good for kids and inexpensive. What can I send? A good idea I've heard are kazoos. What else?

Also, Brad brought recording equipment to capture the sounds of this adventure. The hope was that he could make recordings of musicians who might not have access to recording equipment. So far he's recorded Peace Corps songs that he learned during his language and cross cultural training. The sounds quality is *amazing*, this is commercial quality. They are choral songs that remind me very much of South African choral songs.

Brad will be posting his recordings on his blog and you can listen to these Namibian Peace Corp song recordings here.

Please follow Brad's adventures in the Peace Corps. There is a link to his blog in my blog roll over there on the right. He's also posting video as well.

on top of Diamentberg (Diamond Mountain)

The Yip Yips come to earth for a gansta rap: "Ante Up" by M.O.P. feat. Busta Rhymes

A perfectly spooky Halloween playlist for your party this weekend

Looking for the perfect playlist for your Halloween Party or just music to get you in the mood while you're getting dressed up? This is a list me and a bunch of my friends have been working on via facebook.

These songs should all be available on iTunes!

Happy Spooking and have a safe weekend!

1. “Everyday Is Halloween” - Ministry
2. “Werewolves of London” - Warren Zevon
3. “Somebody’s Watching Me – “Rockwell”
4. “Dead Man's Party” - Oingo Boingo
5. “Bela Lugosi's Dead” - Bauhaus
6. “Everyone's Dead” - The Homophones
7. “Pet Semetary” The Ramones
8. “The Creature Stole My Surfboard” – Dead Elvis
9. “Thriller” - Michael Jackson
10. “This House is Hanuted” – Alice Cooper
11. “Spooky” – The Atlanta Rhythm Section
12. “This Is Halloween” - Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack
13. “Don't Fear the Reaper” - Blue Oyster Cult
14. “Walking Through a Cemetery” – Claudine Clark
15. “Living Dead Girl” - Rob Zombie
16. “Haunted House”- Jumpin’ Gene Simmons
17. “Zombie Eaters” – Faith No More
18. “Ghostbusters” - Ray Parker Jr.
19. “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” - David Bowie
20. “I Put a Spell on You” - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
21. “Monster Mash” - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
22. “Goo Goo Muck” - The Cramps
23. “Murder in the Graveyard” – Screaming Lords Sutch
24. “I'm Your Boogie Man” - KC & the Sunshine Band
25. “Welcome to My Nightmare” - Alice Cooper
26. “Dead Souls” - Nine Inch Nails
27. “Little Red Riding Hood” – Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
28. “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” - Concrete Blonde
29. “Red Right Hand” - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
30. “Down in the Park” – both Gary Numan and Marilyn Manson
31. “Season of the Witch” - Donovan
32. “Swamp Thing” - The Chameleons
33. “Ghost Town - The Specials
34. “Psycho Killer” - Talking Heads
35. “Grimly Fiendish - The Damned”
36. “Creature of the Night” - The Creepshow


Big thanks to Jennifer & G.R.!

Pomplamoose says hello to all of you at Always More to Hear

I had the pleasure of meeting Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte of Pomplamoose last night in San Rafael and yes, they are as adorable in person as they are in their videos. I brought a camera to prove to you all that I had indeed met them, but totally forgot about it until I got in the car. So they made me this little video for us (like a radio station does where famous people say who they are and thanks for listening) and sent it over.

The interview will go up next week to help promote the second EVER Pomplamoose live show: (San Francisco at the Brainwash Cafe on November 13th!) But I couldn't wait to share this video with you all. Wanted to do it now.

Happy Birthday Nataly!!!

Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls blogs "why i am not afraid to take your money"

Thanks to Jessica for sending this onto me. I felt the need to repost.

Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls recently blogged:

artists need to make money to eat and to continue to make art.

artists used to rely on middlemen to collect their money on their behalf, thereby rendering themselves innocent of cash-handling in the public eye.

artists will now be coming straight to you (yes YOU, you who want their music, their films, their books) for their paychecks. please welcome them. please help them. please do not make them feel badly about asking you directly for money.

dead serious: this is the way shit is going to work from now on and it will work best if we all embrace it and don’t fight it.

Read more of her blog entry here.

This is why I've been waiting to buy CDs from artists until I see them live. There is no middle man, and often you can get the CD cheaper than if you bought it at the store. The money goes straight to the artist. And call me old-fashioned, but I like having an actual CD to listen to instead of purchasing from itunes.

Palmer also goes onto say (and I love this):

feel ok about giving your money directly to paul mccartney. he may be rich, but he still rocks. show you care.

feel ok about giving it to fucking lady gaga if you’ve been guiltily downloading her dance tracks for free. rejoice in the fact that you are directly responsible for several threads in her new spandex spacesuit.

I do love the spacesuit. Is there any way to get around the $20 of fees ticketmaster will add to a $48 ticket? I think not. I'm glad people are buying them, I guess. Just not me.

Oakland Zombies participate in "Thrill the World" to break the world record

This little guy was milking the cameras with his MJ moves!

On Saturday at 5:30 pm, 169 Zombies gathered at Studio One Art Center in Oakland, California to dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." They were joined at the exact same time by 300 other locations around the world in an attempt to break last year's record set in Guinness Book of World Records 4,179 dancers from 10 nations. This year, it is already reported that there were 6,000 fans in Los Angeles alone and that 37 countries participated.

See the slideshow of the Oakland event

Zombies, young and old, had a blast learning the dance and participating in the event in Oakland yesterday. From 3-5pm there was dance instruction out on the Studio One plaza. At 5:30 sharp, the "Thriller" dance commenced in front of many on-lookers. It ended with the crowd chanting "Michael! Michael! Michael!" and doing it all over again just for fun. Zombies then invaded the Kona Club on Piedmont, many of them ordered the drink "the Zombie." (I did, it was tasty!)

READ MORE OF THE ARTICLE HERE

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE