An evening, and some morning
May. 6th, 2003 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidBest spam of the morning: talking toilet paper. I can't imagine why *anyone* would ever want this, even after seeing the newest quiz questions.
From this Globe article: "In a vote of 85 to 71, (Massachusetts)House members yesterday opted to study the feasibility of selling naming rights to the state's 600 parks, forests, and recreation areas."
I'd never be able to find anything. Heck, I still think of the place I haven't been to a concert to yet as "Great Woods," not the Tweeter Center. I wonder if they will take into account all the costs of changing signs and maps and brochures and letterhead and... Why must it be naming rights, anyway? If a company/individual is so public-minded, wouldn't a "sponsored by" sort of thing work? I mean, these aren't sports arenas that get mentioned in the news all the time, but state parks, things like that.
Last night I went to "An Evening for Art," put on by Harvard STAGE (student theater advancing growth and empowerment; a new group that plans to have Harvard students volunteering to help in the arts, likely in the underfunded arts programs in local public schools).
The program was in Agassiz Theater, a space I hadn't been in before. It's a beautiful space, the seating in semicircles, both on the main floor and in the balcony. The architcture is lovely, lots of period details (Harvard campus bonus, I suppose). The seats themselves.... Well, no arms between them, somewhat understuffed, but otherwise ok.
I was glad I'd brought a book with me: they started almost 20 minutes late, which would've made me much more irritated without fiction distraction. First up, there was an introduction, by the students who arranged the evening.
Then the MC came on. He was a joke, throughout, over the top ridiculousness. He did it well, not flustered when things went wrong (no spotlight, no exit that way, etc).
First performance: a song from Kiss Me, Kate, "Another Opening, Another Show". I think that's the show that's in the space other nights this week and next. It was pleasant.
Next up, there was a panel discussion on the topic of "Artis in Crisis: Funding the Future." A reasonable topic, and considering the panel, not surprising that the focus was mostly on arts in the schools. However, a panel with *9* people on it is not going to move along quickly at all. In the end, it was over an hour, and that's just too long to ask people to sit and stay focused, in the understuffed chairs of the space, anyway. Reasonable points were made, about the necessity of arts education, etc.
The panel:
The rest of the evening was performances.
There was an excerpt from The Gospel According to..., a dance performance by Boston Arts Academy students. They did a wonderful job, dancing a visiting preacher and a congregation of women who hear him preach.
Next was an excerpt from Interview (a play by Jean-Claude Van Itallie), performed by students from the Jonas Clarke Middle School, in Lexington. The intro mentioned they'd won a gold medal in a theater competition for high schools (in MA). I was surprised, but not after seeing the bit that they did for us: they were amazing, definitely the best performance of the night (strangely, it seemed to be that the quality of performance was inversely correlated with age...).
All the actors wore black, though all sorts of clothes, and throughout, as one scene flowed into the next, they seamlessly changed roles, sometimes a questioner, sometimes part of a telephone circuit, or a train, or a pedestrian, or an interviewer. Everyone cracked up when a short baby-faced boy discussed having a beer, though, and I'd forgotten how differnt middle school kids can be: one of the boys was about twice the height of another of them. But it all worked. The politician, including his expressions, etc. I'd very much like to see the whole play.
The last performance was some songs from Chicago. It was all about sizzle, really, and the contrast between the kids and these women was extreme. I found myself less interested, precisely because of the contrast.
From this Globe article: "In a vote of 85 to 71, (Massachusetts)House members yesterday opted to study the feasibility of selling naming rights to the state's 600 parks, forests, and recreation areas."
I'd never be able to find anything. Heck, I still think of the place I haven't been to a concert to yet as "Great Woods," not the Tweeter Center. I wonder if they will take into account all the costs of changing signs and maps and brochures and letterhead and... Why must it be naming rights, anyway? If a company/individual is so public-minded, wouldn't a "sponsored by" sort of thing work? I mean, these aren't sports arenas that get mentioned in the news all the time, but state parks, things like that.
Last night I went to "An Evening for Art," put on by Harvard STAGE (student theater advancing growth and empowerment; a new group that plans to have Harvard students volunteering to help in the arts, likely in the underfunded arts programs in local public schools).
The program was in Agassiz Theater, a space I hadn't been in before. It's a beautiful space, the seating in semicircles, both on the main floor and in the balcony. The architcture is lovely, lots of period details (Harvard campus bonus, I suppose). The seats themselves.... Well, no arms between them, somewhat understuffed, but otherwise ok.
I was glad I'd brought a book with me: they started almost 20 minutes late, which would've made me much more irritated without fiction distraction. First up, there was an introduction, by the students who arranged the evening.
Then the MC came on. He was a joke, throughout, over the top ridiculousness. He did it well, not flustered when things went wrong (no spotlight, no exit that way, etc).
First performance: a song from Kiss Me, Kate, "Another Opening, Another Show". I think that's the show that's in the space other nights this week and next. It was pleasant.
Next up, there was a panel discussion on the topic of "Artis in Crisis: Funding the Future." A reasonable topic, and considering the panel, not surprising that the focus was mostly on arts in the schools. However, a panel with *9* people on it is not going to move along quickly at all. In the end, it was over an hour, and that's just too long to ask people to sit and stay focused, in the understuffed chairs of the space, anyway. Reasonable points were made, about the necessity of arts education, etc.
The panel:
- Sen. Jarrett Barrios (MA Senator)
- Judith Contrucci (Cambridge Drama/Dance dept chair)
- Jessica Hoffman Davis (Arts in Ed program, Harvard)
- David Edwards (Cloud Foundation)
- Howard Gardner (Harvard school of Ed)
- Esther Kaplan (Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, Boston)
- David Marshall (Mass Cultural Council)
- Linda Nathan (head of the Boston Arts Academy)
- Robert Orchard (director of the ART)
The rest of the evening was performances.
There was an excerpt from The Gospel According to..., a dance performance by Boston Arts Academy students. They did a wonderful job, dancing a visiting preacher and a congregation of women who hear him preach.
Next was an excerpt from Interview (a play by Jean-Claude Van Itallie), performed by students from the Jonas Clarke Middle School, in Lexington. The intro mentioned they'd won a gold medal in a theater competition for high schools (in MA). I was surprised, but not after seeing the bit that they did for us: they were amazing, definitely the best performance of the night (strangely, it seemed to be that the quality of performance was inversely correlated with age...).
All the actors wore black, though all sorts of clothes, and throughout, as one scene flowed into the next, they seamlessly changed roles, sometimes a questioner, sometimes part of a telephone circuit, or a train, or a pedestrian, or an interviewer. Everyone cracked up when a short baby-faced boy discussed having a beer, though, and I'd forgotten how differnt middle school kids can be: one of the boys was about twice the height of another of them. But it all worked. The politician, including his expressions, etc. I'd very much like to see the whole play.
The last performance was some songs from Chicago. It was all about sizzle, really, and the contrast between the kids and these women was extreme. I found myself less interested, precisely because of the contrast.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-06 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-06 08:21 am (UTC);-)
no subject
Date: 2003-05-06 08:11 am (UTC)blech! i mean, at least with 3com stadium, you know that some day it'll be torn down when a new stadium is needed, and renamed then.
you can't do that with nature, dammit.
Never-reverting names
Date: 2003-05-06 08:20 am (UTC)Minuteman National Park says something, is clear what you're going to find there. Minutemaid National Forest sounds like it escaped from Florida for the summer, or something.
One of the points Barrios made last night was that if the state taxes hadn't rolled back from 5.95% two years ago, we'd still be in a bit of a deficit, but not the major fiscal crisis we have now. Feh.
Re: Never-reverting names
Date: 2003-05-07 06:34 am (UTC)Yes, but Taxes Are Bad - the state motto!
*rolls eyes*
Re: Never-reverting names
Date: 2003-05-07 06:57 am (UTC)I just don't get it. I wouldn't mind paying my fair share of taxes to get the programs we need. It's all the rich-people-loopholes that drive me bananas.
One of Barrios' other themes was that to have a "civilized society" you have to pay for all those programs (prescription drug benefits for elders, arts education, and everything in between). He really likes the phrase "civilized society".
Re: Never-reverting names
Date: 2003-05-13 07:25 am (UTC)Yes! I agree wholeheartedly. It's why true libertarians bother me. I don't trust humanity to do these things on its own. We need society to reign us in, we need organized government to ensure we take care of ourselves. Sad, but true.
I wonder whether "civilized society" is the current euphemism for "communism."