It all started two weeks ago with Ke$ha’s now infamous performance on SNL.  My boyfriend watched it live from his living room and was giving me a gchat play-by-play of the horror as it unfolded.  I had never heard of this Ke$ha person but I dismissively agreed that someone who spells her name with a dollar sign was indeed dreadful.  Soon after came the media PWNage, calling it the worst SNL performance since Ashlee Simpson’s (remember her?) lipsync ho-down SNAFU.

Days later a friend sent me a video of a Princeton poetry professor deconstructing Ke$ha’s lyrics, jokingly declaring her to be one of the great literary minds of our times.  This finally piqued my interest- how bad could she really be?  TO THE YOUTUBEZ!  I was a bit shocked to see the amount videos parodying her big hit, “Tik Tok” – I actually had to search to find the “official” video (though I did enjoy seeing the Star Wars take on it.)  For those who wish to be spared, “Tik Tok” is about a girl and her non-stop party lifestyle, with a liver so hearty she apparently “brushes [her] teeth with a bottle of jack.”

All of this made me wonder, “What exactly is it to ‘wake up feeling like P-Diddy’“?  And what other pop music sensations have I been missing out on lately?  I visited Billboard.com to investigate, and was unsurprised to find that I’d only heard of five out of the ten artists in this week’s top ten.  In case you’ve been living under a rock like I have, here’s the skinny (scroll down for a general overview):

1) “In My Head” by Jason Derulo: A talk-singing/four-chord-guitar-riff/R&B influenced earworm with lots of retro synth backing, harmonizing, and auto-tune.  Song about picking up a chick at a club.

2) “Rude Boy” by Rihanna: A slower-paced R&B dance tune about sex, with lots of retro synth and auto-tune.  The video looks like it was directed by Napoleon Dynamite using KidPix.

3) “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum:  A vaguely country ballad sang by a male/female pair about late-night loneliness/lost love, with melancholy piano backing.

4) “Telephone” by Lady Gaga, Feat. Beyonce: A catchy four-on-the-floor dance track with female vocals and almost entirely synth instrumentation; about the nagging problem of one’s phone “blowing up” while trying to dance.  EPIC music video.

5) “Hey Soul Sister” by Train: A light, upbeat song with crisp male vocals, simple guitar, drums, and a dollop of organ, worthy of an ipod commercial.  Seems to be about a crush.

6) “Nothin’ on You” by B.O.B. featuring Bruno Mars: A rap/R&B hybrid with a simple piano sample, harmonized chorus, solid groove, and tinge of synth.  About a beautiful girl.

7) “Break Your Heart” by Taio Cruise feat. Ludacris: A predominantly synth R&B dance track with male vocals and a rap solo, about potentially breaking someone’s heart.

8} “Breakeven” by The Script: A comparatively sparse rock ballad with male vocals, reminiscent of 90’s alt rock meets Coldplay.  Also about heartbreak (noticing a trend yet?)

9) “Carry Out” by Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake: A repetitive, monotone rap tune with male vocals, obnoxious samples (cowbell?) about sex.  A skipping Eminem CD would sound better.

10) “Ima Be” by Black Eyed Peas: An equally obnoxious rap song with male/female vocals about thinking you’re awesome.  Appears to be part of the “Transformers 2″ OST, a mark of true quality.

So what constitutes “popular music” in May of 2010?  Predominantly danceable R&B love songs

"Oh hai."

characterized by synth and auto-tune, peppered with the occasional feel-good “stuff-white-people-like” rock ballad.  There’s some junk, but I can’t say I’m TOTALLY disappointed- I’m a fan of Lady Gaga’s art-fart nouveau Madonna thing and I’ve got a serious weakness for synthesizer.  The synth thing in particular I can’t really explain- could it be a rebellion against the highfalutin jazz and hippie rock I was raised on?  Perhaps its pure nostalgia for the crappy dance music of my pre-teen days?  Sometimes I stop and ask myself, “What is love?“  Baby, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me… no more.

What’s particularly interesting about the synthiness of today’s pop is that it isn’t far from sounding like the goth dance music (EBM) and synthpop I’ve listened to with appropriate highbrow embarrassment for years.  Last weekend I saw Assemblage 23 (an EBM group) alone since nobody I know seems to like them… yet how different does this really sound from half of the titles I just reviewed?

More food for thought: Check out Billboard’s top ten from 2000, 1990, and 1980.  The top ten list from this week seems to feature more electronic-based music than those three years COMBINED.  Is today’s music really more synthy than 1980?!  What is going on here?

No.

Finally, where are we supposed to hear all of this supposedly popular music?  Mtv and VH1 are on a strictly reality TV programming schedule.  There’s the radio- What’s that?  Then there’s the club scene, which seems to be the most likely place.  But what if you have an aversion to being groped by greasy orange-skinned douchebags?  What then?  Are you just left out of the musical lexicon of our times?  I’d publicly cut a rug to “Telephone” but not at the risk of molestation.  The subway is close enough, thanks.

Its warm and dry living under my rock, but I’m (mostly) glad I took a momentary peak outside.  I’m encouraged to hear tunes more melodic than the monotone rap garbage that’s enjoyed at least twenty years of undeserved popularity.  And as for the synth resurgence, I’ll guiltily enjoy it while it lasts.  If anyone needs me, I’ll be having a dance party-of-one in my bedroom.

Bronzion/Burlesque

My weekend was pretty naked. Don’t get too excited- I was clothed for most of it. I’m referring to the the two shows I saw, a burlesque performance at “The Slipper Room” and the Bronzino Drawings exhibit at the Met. They’re on such opposite ends of the cultural spectrum it only occurred to me late on Sunday night what the two had in common: nudity.

The “Slipper Room” Saturday night burlesque show was a truly unforgettable experience and I highly recommend it for anyone seeking a whole lot of outrageous for five dollars (!) If you’re hoping for an all female review, however, I retract that statement- a solid 50% of the entertainment boasted Y chromosomes (and the proper matching equipment.) Of the authentically female were acts performed by Mary Sin (a leggy au natural type) and Ekatarina, a Russian contortionist who bent herself into impressive pretzels while keeping her garters and smile intact.

Ekatarina

Representing the cross-dressers was Tigger, who amusingly enacted a “coming of age” piece to the song, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” and the terrifying “Rose Wood.” Rose was especially dedicated to shock value, adding props like fish, lobster claws, and strategically placed bottles of Jack Daniels into his/her routine.  At the Slipper Room, everything on stage sparkled, from the sequins to the glittered orifices.

In contrast, Bronzino’s drawn nudes were encased behind glass, to be viewed at safe distances by Met Museum patrons awkwardly shifting around a crowded room.  Generally I find drawing exhibitions to be rather dull (I’m a sucker for color)  but anything done by the Renaissance masters has a sort of supernatural quality to it.   Most of the drawings were done with chalk yet its difficult to find any evidence of the artist’s hand thanks to the smokey sfumato shading contouring much of the flesh.  When I smudge charcoal with my fingers it looks more dirty than descriptive… not like the light, subtle hand of Bronzino.  Not all of his drawing could be called subtle, however.  He took a lot of stylistic inspiration from Michelangelo, who liked his men to look like Conan and his women to look like… men.  I bet Michelangelo would have liked the Slipper Room.

Venus of Willendorf

The scantily clad weekend got me thinking: Why is some nudity “classic” (as in Western art circa ancient Greece) and some nudity seen as distasteful (glittered trannies)?  Is it classic proportions of beauty and hip-to-waist-ratios?  I don’t see anyone calling the “Venus of Willendorf” a slut- and I DOUBT her milkshake friends are real.  Is it just viewing the nude person or image in a sexualized manner?  Titian’s “Venus of Urbino” doesn’t exactly look like she’s making grocery lists in her head (that Venus sure gets around!)  Is it the reality of a live nude person versus a flat image?  I wouldn’t call the very real models I draw at the Art Student’s League tacky or indecent.  Where is the line, then?  When is it OK, and not OK, to go buff?

OSCATAR

After the hysteria of the holidays and a six week blogging hiatus (a.k.a- gainful employment) I finally have a moment to explore the cultural significance of an entertainment genre on my mind lately: Science Fiction.  Where does Sci Fi fall on the cultural class spectrum?  Highbrow entertainment and Sci Fi do tend to have one thing in common: an educated and intelligent audience (nerds.)  But it seems to lack the same clout that say, drama has in film.  The closest we’ve come to a Sci Fi film winning an Oscar for “Best Picture is 2003’s “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” which is technically classified as fantasy.  In recent history, only two Sci Fi films have been nominated:  “Star Wars” and “ET.”  I’ll be focusing on film in this post since its where my expertise is, but if anyone wants to make a case about Sci Fi in literature or theater, please do!

This year the list of Best Picture contenders includes two Sci Fi films, “Avatar” and “District 9.”  Given “Avatar”’s nine Oscar nominations and it’s status as the top-grossing film of all time, its highly likely it will take home the top prize of Best Picture, in spite of the controversy over the strength of the writing.  This is big news for the genre, similar to how “Up”’s nomination is big news for Feature Animation.  Given that the film is most known for it’s dazzling special effects, however, it begs the question- did we need the technology to “catch up” to our imaginations before giving Sci Fi films the credit they deserve?

Cases in point: Ed Wood’s “Plan Nine from Outer Space” and other campy gems of 1950’s science fiction films.  Of course the writing in many of these was abysmal to hilarious, but who could possibly take a film with flying saucers on strings seriously?  These days, many films of similar subject matter are seen as more “legit” simply because of the visuals.

To me, one of the ultimate high brow Sci Fi films is “2001: A Space Odyssey.“  I remember my father (a huge Kubrick fan) showing this film to a friend and I during a sleepover when I was nine years old, and of course it totally went over my head- the clear markings of more “sophisticated entertainment.”  Of course now I understand a little bit more what those apes in the beginning were freaking out about- apparently it has a lot to do with Nietzsche.

This seems obvious, but perhaps its just that the best Sci Fi is combined with a little philosophy.  Last night I finally saw the Duncan Jones film, “Moon” which takes the 2001 Hal concept and then goes in a totally different direction with it.  I highly recommend this film- it was an engaging mind-trip from start to finish, with wonderful performances by Sam Rockwell, voice over by Kevin Spacey, an ominous Clint Mansell score, and visuals just slick enough to be believable.  The film was a total package and I’m surprised it seems to have escaped the Oscars entirely, though I suppose it has more to do with the film being British than anything else.

To a culture vulture like me, “Moon” trumps a Sci Fi epic like “Avatar” in terms of being much more cerebral- I like a film to make me think.  That said, Cameron really has achieved something by creating the biggest Sci Fi sensation in film since the Star Wars trilogy (lets all agree to not count the prequels.)  For the first time in almost thirty years, the Academy has recognized a film for Best Picture which stars aliens.  Now, lets hope this popularity helps Sci Fi to achieve the recognition it deserves… and doesn’t encourage more over-reliance on special effects.

A special thanks to Las Vegas hairstylist, culture vulture, and southern gentleman Jerry Lambert for a guest post about the Las Vegas art scene!

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Knife Ship, 1985

I have seen the inside of a lot of museums and galleries, but here is something very different for me. The largest privately funded building project in the world, City Center, is nearing completion in Sin City. The collection of massive hotels and casinos is being celebrated with an exhibition at The Bellagio’s Fine Art Gallery featuring an amazing number of architectural models and sketches depicting the phenomenal building project. The installation also features small scale replicas of some of the project’s huge art pieces including Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Knife Ship; a giant Swiss Army knife with oars. The forty foot long original will be on display when it arrives from the Guggenheim. Tony Craggs’ massive bronze “Constructor” is also on display.

Rafael Vinoly, "Vdara"

The diversity of the sketching is amazing. I had never seen this kind of exhibit before and I actually thought that it might be too dry and technical for me to appreciate. Instead, it was a great showcase for the talent of these technical artists and really brought the art of architecture to life for me. You don’t need to know anything about engineering to appreciate this exhibit, in fact I would gladly hang almost any of these architectural renderings including stylized chalk pastels by Daniel Libeskind and Rafael Vinoly in my home. Some of the computer generated schematics are a little too cold to be interesting, though. This huge project has been the talk of the city for years so it is fascinating to see just a little of what it has taken to pull it together.

Now put on your jacket, its time again for First Friday. We’re going from the five star hotel gallery to the Downtown Arts District experience. First Friday is an excellent entrée into the local Las Vegas art scene. Right in the middle of the city is a collection of various galleries encompassing twenty city blocks and representing several different aspects of modern art. It’s a district of old warehouses and print shops turned to galleries, lithography ateliers, and sculpture studios. My personal favorite is the S2 Gallery which is a lithography studio specializing in large format work of vintage movie posters, advertisements, and art prints. I have had my eye on a set of Erte lithos for a while, but I honestly don’t know where I would put them because I live in a loft and the walls are full! The atelier is open so that you can see how the work is done. It never fails to fascinate me.

The first Friday of every month is celebrated with an open house of all these galleries. The artists at most of these galleries are around to discuss their work and inspiration. There are lots of food and drink and people…lots of people. There is even a five block area which is cordoned off from traffic available for anyone who wants to exhibit their work (for a nominal fee, of course.) You also won’t want to miss the Sin City Sonetteer Spectacle as various galleries and bars are overtaken by wordsmiths who read their poetry out loud guerilla style.

There is some tacky crap, there is some very weird crap (one night I saw an artist who had choreographed a dance number to each of his ten original works…god help me) but the thing that you will take away from First Friday is that you could be witnessing the birth of some great artists while witnessing the death of a few misguided ones. While all expression of art could be considered highbrow, making it accessible to the masses on the streets in all its imperfect unsanitized patchouli scented insanity is a decidedly more lowbrow than a trip to the Guggenheim.

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Jerry Lambert is highbrow hairstylist from a lowbrow town in Arkansas who has traveled the world to study his craft and soak in the culture. Writing, traveling and painting are his highbrow passions. His filthy sense of humor is his lowbrow one.

Many of you may have heard of the Animazing Gallery, Soho’s one-stop-shop for animation art.  I dropped by there the other day with local painter Clinton Hobart (who also has an animation background) to check out two shows currently on view: “The Art of Stop Motion” and “Sendak in Soho.”  Fresh from the beautiful and expansive Tim Burton MoMA retrospective, I was excited to see more of his work in a fine art context.  Instead, I found a petite scandal… and it didn’t involve a singing, dancing skeleton stealing Christmas.

At first blush, the space appears to be filled with original artwork from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”  The pastels and sketches are beautifully framed, and if you had a couple thousand dollars to spare, would make pretty sweet wall candy for any Burton enthusiast.  That said, only three of the pieces in the entire show are actually by Tim Burton himself (one of them pictured above.)  In fact, none of the artists names appear on any of the labels… which prompted me to inwardly sing a la Jack Skellington, “Whats this?  What’s this?  There’s bullshit in the air…”

On top of the fact that no effort is made to credit the artists for their work, the labels make some obviously false claims about the art’s connections to the film.  Fully rendered pastels are labeled as storyboards, and sequential sketches mounted together LIKE storyboards are labeled as layouts.  I asked professional stop motion animator David Pagano his thoughts on this, to which he replied: “There’s no need for drawn layouts in stop motion… shots are blocked in the same way they would be for a live action shoot. And if you were going to layout your stop-motion on paper, it would probably look more like a diagram than a finished piece of art.”   For those unfamiliar with animation terminology, layout is a process used in traditional (hand-drawn) animation to serve the following purposes: establish lighting, camera angles, and camera paths, establish the size of the character in proper scale to the background, create key poses for that character, and block their movements through out the course of a scene. A layout is made to prepare all of the elements of a scene to be fully animated.  Knowing now that a layout is supposed to show a character’s relationship to the background, you can see how the piece “Oogie’s Song” (pictured right) is obviously NOT a layout – even though that’s what it claims to be on the label.  Oh, that and the fact that there is no drawn layout stage in the stop motion pipeline.  Curious indeed.

A number of the works actually appear to be work “inspired by” the film… as in done after the fact, like really well done fan art.  Granted, this is only my opinion, and I’d like to make clear that I didn’t ask anyone working at the gallery about the origins of the work.  But, I encourage anyone with interest to check out the show and draw their own conclusions.  The stop motion show also features maquettes from “The Corpse Bride” and a sketch from “Coraline”… and the Sendak show downstairs has some pretty cool “Wild Things” sketches.  I’ll say one thing about both shows – with the recent release of the “Where the Wild Things Are” film, and the Burton MoMA retrospective, they’re timed for prime consumer potential.

“The Art of Stop Motion” and “Sendak in Soho” are on view until December 31st, 2009.

Today I had the pleasure of checking out a members preview of the Tim Burton Retrospective at MoMA.  I’m not sure I can wrap my head around having a MoMA retrospective by the age of 51, and there’s been some chatter about the museum’s motives behind it, but let me walk you through it before getting into the politics.

To even get to the exhibit entrance we (David Pagano and I) pushed past throngs of Burton fans neatly queued to score a glimpse of Sir Spooky himself and a signed copy of the $40 exhibition book.  The entrance (pictured left) lead into a corridor of monitors displaying episodes of his flash series, “Stainboy.” As an animation nerd well acquainted with the flash look, I was thoroughly unimpressed… which made the rest of the exhibit that much more rewarding.

The next room, completely blacklit, features a moving neon installation entitled “Carousel” with acompanying music by Danny Elfman.  After sneaking an illicit picture of this, we entered the main exhibition space, which proved to be wall to wall paintings, napkin sketches, video clips, stop motion maquettes, film props, costumes, film notes on legal pads, poems, sculptures… spanning early school work to the present.  Holy shit has this guy been prolific!

stolen photo of "Carousel"

It got me thinking about the importance of keeping a sketchbook, and the whole cliché that you never know where life will take you.  Clearly he never expected half the stuff in this exhibit to be hung on a wall anywhere, much less the MoMA.  You have to be pretty comfortable with yourself to show your napkin drawings to the world (I have a hard time showing sketches to close friends) but I suppose multi-million dollar success is enough to make a guy self assured.

My favorite part was seeing that he got an 87 on his “Types of Humor in America” 8th grade English report (mounted on lavender construction paper.)  I also enjoyed the clip of his never-fully realized CalArts senior film, “The Stalk of the Celery Monster.” Proof that there’s hope for all you kids who never finished your thesis

The large scale models wearing famous Burton costumes were also good fun, which included: a wax model of Edward Scissorhands, several Batman masks, and the famous leather Catwoman suit, which Dave noted “isn’t nearly as exciting without Michelle Pfieffer inside it.”  More wax model creepiness was just around the corner in the Mars Attacks section, with the severed heads of Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker.  Staring at these for too long may induce nausea or brain hemmorage.

Onto the politics I mentioned, some art snobs have scoffed at the exhibit, calling it “publicity ploy unbecoming of a major cultural institution.“  This made me wonder, did they say same of the Pixar exhibit?  Probably.  Does that make any of the work in those exhibits less beautiful or impressive?  No.  Color me  populist, but I don’t think an artist’s pop culture relavence detracts from his/her serious cultural validity.  Sure, cartoons are crowd pleasers, but with that comes reaching a wider audience.  The notion that “real art” is only for the select few brandishing university degrees and a secret decoder pens is ridiculous.

I topped off the evening with a stolen bite of David’s fried cheesecake (!) at    nearby Asian restaurant, “Fusia.” It summed up the show perfectly: a little disturbing, dense, delicious, and satisfying.

The Tim Burton exhibit is on view at MoMA from now until April 26th, 2010.  For more info, check the MoMA website.

Inspired by my new favorite internet video (the “Shine On Me” music video by Chris Dane Owens, below) I thought I’d devote some time to cheese.

Here’s what “The Free Dictionary” has to say about it:

cheesy [ˈtʃiːzɪ]adj cheesier, cheesiest

I recently had the pleasure of checking out two great art exhibits currently on display: The Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Abstractions” at The Whitney and “The American Story” at the Met.  Both feature American artists, but with very different styles and narratives.

Those of you who know me know that I’m no fan of abstract painting.  That said, the O’Keeffe show was beautiful and very eye opening; I highly recommend it.  It begins with a selection of her early watercolors (done as an art teacher) and follows her development into abstract oils for Alfred Stieglitz of  the groundbreaking New York gallery.  The colors she used in these later pieces are just breath-taking, and it occurred to me that when an artist isn’t concentrating on replicating a likeness or a realistic form, color is given room to play as the dominant element.  Academic speak aside, the most surprising thing I learned was that her work was apparently NOT supposed to be about female sexuality (Newsflash: They’re not all vaginas!!)  While the forms do have a certain organic “look”, she apparently intended them to be abstractions on flowers (for real) and the sexual interpretation was thanks primarily to Steiglitz and his desire to market her paintings a certain way.  He photographed her nude next to several of the paintings causing newspapers and gossips everywhere to conclude the two were having an affair (I’m pretty sure they were.)  As soon as O’Keeffe realized the corner she’d been painted into as “the vagina artist”, she turned to distinctly southwestern subject matter like dead cow skulls… but the vagina thing seems to be what’s stuck with most people.

They do look awfully similar….

"Kiss Me and You'll Kiss the 'Lasses"- Lilly Martin Spencer

“The American Story” meanwhile is an entirely figurative show and a collection of many American artists.  The most interesting thing about this show is the way it tells American history through painting (this explains the title.)  You begin the exhibit in colonial times, experience art leading to, during, and post civil war, wave hello at the expatriates, and end with the Ashcan school in old New York.  I recently posted on The NY Geekcast Blog about the correlations between wartime and preferences for warm and fuzzy subject matter in art- post Civil War America exemplifies this  perfectly.  Leading up to the war, painters explored (though at a safe distance) social and political themes like immigration, westward expansion, and working women.  During and after the civil war, subjects shifted to scenes of happy families, children at play, and women romantically sending their husbands off to war.  It was all very Norman Rockwell, who was also an expert manufacturer of post-war idealism.

My favorite new artist from “The American Story” show is Lily Martin Spencer, one of very few 19th century women artists.  Her paintings featured droll looks at domestic life, like the one featured above- “Kiss Me and You’ll Kiss the ‘Lasses.”  A play on words, the woman is actually holding a spoonful of molasses, meaning- “Don’t come any closer or I’ll throw this at you.”  I love to see pre-femminist sass, so I’ll be on the hunt for more of her work in the future.

Catch the Georgia O’Keeffe show before Jan 17th at the Whitney and “The American Story” at the met before Jan 24th- you won’t regret it!

the swine song

Every year, a group of friends gathers together on the Chesapeake Bay to celebrate (and then feast upon) one of God’s greatest creations: Pig.  I only began attending “the pigroast” in the late 1990’s, but the founding members (who shall remain nameless) started this tradition long before I was born.  Now every summer I count on a four hour car ride with my folks, Chesapeake Bay mud squishing between my toes, campfire songs, tequila shots, and most importantly, gorging on my share of fine swine.  It’s Thanksgiving in Summer, also known as “Pigsgiving”… and I look forward to it all year long.

How does one seemingly isolated act of mass gluttony become a tradition?  For one, food is a uniter- particularly good food.  No matter what our differences are, people can typically agree on the sublime taste of charred beast (sorry vegetarians.)  Secondly, the hospitality of the pigroast hosts- all are welcome, no questions asked, provided the general carefree party chi is not disturbed.  Third, pigroast is sort of a “worry free zone”- upon arrival, one’s priorities immediately shift towards booze, idle snacking, and swimming.  Mix all of these factors with some BBQ sauce, end-of-summer rays, fresh air, home-baked goods, and slow roast it on a spit for a solid 3 days: That’s pigroast.  Who wouldn’t want to do it every year?

Pigroast represents the apex of life’s simple pleasures to me.  Case in point: Last year, I had deleted my entire hard drive at work the Friday before leaving for Maryland.  I spent the car ride there crying and moping about how I’d lost my job for sure.  By the return trip, I’d attained an overall sense of enlightenment and inner peace about the situation- What files?  Job who?  My belly was full, cheeks were freckled, and everything was going to be alright.

That is the power of pig.  Feeling stressed?  Have some bacon.

So recently I saw the latest Broadway rendition of Hamlet starring Jude Law.  You may be surprised by this, but I’d never actually read Hamlet… somehow I managed to pass AP Lit and Lang without ever digesting the Bard’s most oft-quoted work  (thanks, WHRHS!)  Needless to say, I was a little concerned about understanding the dialogue and plot with all that flowery Elizabethan English.

Upon realizing that the cast all apparently shopped at H&M, I felt immediately at home.  The performances (save Ophelia’s, methinks) were natural and engaging, the most impressive of course being the Prince himself, Jude Law.  Before the show, I debated a friend of mine about Jude’s acting abilities… I left wishing this friend had seen the sweating, weeping insanity conveyed by this hipster Hamlet come undone.  He acted with his entire body, pointing, posing, shrugging, and expressing each particular emotion with every fiber of his being.  By the end of the show he was coated in sweat, spit and tears… I felt tired just lookin’ at him!

Less than halfway through the performance I realized, “Wow, Hamlet sure does complain a lot.”  I suppose I would too if my uncle murdered my dad and married my mother, but man… I’d say he got a touch dramatic.  It made me wonder if modern Hamlet would shop at Hot Topic during his Twilight-inspired vampire phase, or if he’d just don some tastefully runny eyeliner and find a place to publicly sulk (like Starbucks.)

Catch Prince Emo at the Broadhurst Theater through December 6th.  Tickets are pricey but well worth it if you can swing it.  If not, grab a copy of the play, slap on some eyeliner, and hunker down in Starbucks; then try to impress girls with a solliloquy of your choice.