A Couple nice Blog entries about Geeks Without God!
By the time we were recording our fourth episode at CONvergence, I feel like the three of us were starting to figure out how to do our jobs. It has been over a month and we have finally posted that episode (which ended up being our sixth). I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out and so, it would seem, were our two guests.
Both Stephanie Zvan and Jason Thibeault have blogged about being on the podcast and while I really appreciate the signal boost, I am more appreciative that they enjoyed the experience and want to share it with others.
So hey – back at both of them! Stephanie’s blog is Almost Diamonds and Jason’s is Lousy Canuck. They are both over at FreethoughtBlogs and you should read what they have to say.
Alphabetical Movie – The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant was a movie that felt set up to fail. I watched the film on it’s release date – August 6th, 1999 and on opening day, I was forced to go to an afternoon showing because there was not a single showing scheduled after 5:00 PM. Exhibitors had no faith in the film, the studio had no faith in the film and audiences weren’t given any opportunity to watch it so they could decide for themselves.
On that same day, two other major films were released. One was Mystery Men, which I watched immediately following The Iron Giant. The movie is fun but not particularly memorable.
Yes, I do own a copy of Mystery Men. I said it was fun.
Stop Talking: The Video
Windy shot some amusing video from stage during last Thursday’s performance of Stop Talking: The Game of Talking. If you want to watch the videos, they are embedded below the fold.
Alphabetical Movie – Irma La Douce
I realize it isn’t universal but why are so many movies about prostitution a romanticized version of the profession? Is it that we can’t deal with the fact that the reality is pretty ugly? Being a prostitute is nothing like the world of Pretty Woman. Or The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Irma La Douce is interesting because in it, I can see Billy Wilder hinting at the ugliness that surrounds prostitution while staying carefully within the confines of the slowly disintegrating Hayes code. Yes, it is romanticized, but it also shows us an abusive boyfriend/pimp and the unhealthy mental programming most prostitutes accept without even realizing it.
2012 Fringe Wrap up
Well, I counted them up and I saw 28 shows at the Fringe this year (I watched one of them twice). The vast majority of them were very good shows. Some of them weren’t.
As a producer, I find myself much more forgiving of a failed work because let’s be fair – none of us are trying to produce bad work. Before we put it in front of an audience, we believe that what we have is something that will speak to them, make them laugh, make them think and, yes, make them like us.
What we discover by putting a show in front of an audience is whether or not we actually succeeded in reaching the audience in the way we envisioned. There is a sense of relief when things work out as we planned and, if we’re smart, a desire to learn what we will do differently if the show fails.
So I have a hard time talking about “bad” shows because I’ve done “bad” shows and it sucks. Plenty of talented people have produced failures. The really talented ones figure out how to turn those failures into future success.
All that is a lead up to my personal Fringe awards. I won’t dwell too much on the failures because I believe it is best to celebrate those who succeed and encourage those who fail.
So here we go:
A new Episode of Geeks Without God is up!
The final episode recorded at CONvergence 2012 is live! We talked to Stephanie Zvan and Jason Thibeault from FreethoughtBlogs about the Ancient Alien debate that took place at the convention. It was a lot of fun to record. Because Stephanie is local, we’ll have to get her back on the podcast soon. Jason is a Canadian so it might take a while to get him back.
Unless we figure out how to record a podcast using Skype. That’d take all sorts of work and stuff so we probably don’t want to do that right away…
Fringe Reviews – Day 9
Even with two shows yesterday, I managed to watch a couple of shows to close out the fringe. Reviews are not particularly helpful at this juncture but I shall write them just the same.
Fringe Reviews – Day 8
Big day of Fringing yesterday. I actually skipped a time slot so I could have a leisurely dinner and I went and watched my favorite fringe show again.
Here’s my thoughts on what I saw:
Fringe Reviews – Day 7
So last night, I think it is fair to say that “Ash Land” won at Fringe. They sold out the Rarig Thurst, a 460 seat theatre. By “sold out,” I mean that not a single person from the Artists’ rush line got into the theatre. Every seat in the theatre was a paying viewer. That has never happened before. It could happen again, though, because they have one more show today. Good for them.
And good for me because I’d already seen the show!
So here’s what I saw yesterday:
Fringe Reviews – Day 6
Three more shows last night plus one of my own. While the Rarig Experimental is a small theatre, I was super happy that Stop Talking managed to sell out our 7:00 show.
But who cares about my show? How about the other ones I saw?
Grail Diary 