Posts from April 2016

It’ll be a LAUGH riot. A LAUGH riot.

This Saturday, April 30th, is the next episode of Fools Play Improv. In this episode all the Fools will collaborate to create an improvised city, and a laugh riot will ensue. A LAUGH riot.

If you don’t think that sounds impressive, well, (1) SHAME on you, and (2) it is an idea actually inspired by some important, not-at-all-made-up social work done in “the turbulent 1960s.” In fact, there was recently an actual, real-life TED talk about this topic that you should watch now because it is a completely legitimate TED Talk in every way and in no way a fake one or anything like that:

So you should definitely see Fools Play Improv this weekend.

I can’t emphasize this enough: It’ll be a LAUGH riot. LAUGH riot.

Details:
Fools Play Laugh Riot (Faced Book Event)
Saturday, April 30th 9:00 PM
@ 924 Broadway, Downtown Tacoma (map)
All-ages, $10

Who’s got the power?

You might not have noticed it, but included in the long, long list of TV shows and movies that are returning for another go at it (a list that also includes The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Gilmore Girls, Samurai Jack, Pee-Wee Herman, and probably several others I just don’t want to take time to remember right now) is the wondrous PowerPuff Girls!

That’s right, a new season of The PowerPuff Girls has just started airing, and with some minor tweaks here and there it looks to be doing a bang-up job of continuing in the spirit of the original. One of the tweaks is a brand-new theme song, recorded by none other than Seattle band TACOCAT! It’s called, “Who’s Got the Power?” Take a look and a listen:

There are a few really cool things going on here. First, Tacocat is the heir to the 1990s Riot Grrrl phenomenon; they’re an unabashedly feminist, girl-power-filled, and bright-punk group, and their brightly-colored aesthetic is an ungodly good match to the brightly-colored PowerPuff Girls.

Sadly, neither Tacos nor Cats in RL.

Continuing in that theme, the visuals in this new introduction include a lot of the low-fi, DIY, photocopied aesthetic of the 90s zine culture (see the screenshot at the top of this post) that was extraordinarily popular in the Puget Sound area in the 90s, and was a huge part of Riot Grrrl. As a Puget Sound native, these are all things that I greatly appreciate.

Plus, the song is just catchy and fun, much like The PowerPuff Girls.

So, yes, *Ring-Ring* goes the Congratumaphone. Well done, Tacocat.

Also in honor of the return of The PowerPuff Girls, I “Powerpuffed” myself (which you, too, can do here). What do you think?

I dunno, they look kinda creepy with a beard…

Album of the Month:

Open Mike Eagle & Paul White: Hella Personal Film Festival
This album is ungodly catchy. Paul white’s production is astonishingly eclectic, bouncing from full-on, straight-up jazz to darker, juicy electronic beats. Mike’s vocals are as on-point as ever, full of dark comedy and wry, biting humor, liberally sprinkled with nerdy references and self-deprecation. All at once familiar and comforting (it is Mike being Mike after all) and delightfully surprising. This is BY FAR the best album of 2016, and lemme tell you: it’s gonna be a jaw-dropping shocker if anything tops it.

Here, watch this video for “Check 2 Check”

Video Game of the Month:

Miitomo
Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming is almost a parody of social media. You play as your Mii (a self-designed cartoony avatar), and you answer questions it asks of you and then you get to listen to the answers your friends gave. You can comment on answers. But also by doing so you get virtual moneys that you can use to buy outfits for your Mii, and there are some minigames you can play (of the drop-your-Mii-in-a-pachinko-machine variety) for various prizes. It’s all rather charming and silly, though you can learn a surprising amount of insight into your friends based on how they answer questions!

And if you have the app, you can look at this QR code and be my frieeeeeeend!

It’s me Mii!

Movie of the Month:

Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday
A new Pee-Wee movie after (almost) 30 years? Don’t go into this movie expecting a rip-roaring, laugh-a-minute redefinition of comedy. That ain’t this movie’s bag. Big Holiday is a surprisingly gentle and pleasant ride, with gentle touches of comedy that make you smile more than laugh. Everything is restrained and, well, just so darned pleasant. It just breezes by. There are some great gags, like a balloon gag towards the back third that is funny not for what is happening but for just how long it keeps happening. The greatest bits, though, are about the incredibly intense bromance that Pee-Wee strikes up with actor Joe Manganiello (playing himself), and several slow-motion dream sequences that sometimes are inexplicably in Spanish. Big Holiday is a very childlike—but not childish—movie. I enjoyed it.

The festival starts tonight (Friday), but I won’t be innit until tomorrow (Saturday)

So this Saturday night (April 2nd), Fools Play Improv won’t be having a show in Tacoma as is their habit, they’ll be venturing back down to their old stomping grounds of Olympia to be a part of the 3rd Annual South Sound Improv Comedy Festival there!

We’re one of four troupes performing that evening, so we’ll only get a wee bit o’ stage time (plus we’ll be in a big all-troupes mash-up at the end of the show), but if’n you’re in the area you should stop by and see all the funny!

PLUS there’s a big ol’ photo of me (AGAIN) in The News Tribune in the article that talks about both Fools Play (and our now-over Improv & Dragons event) and the Festival!

HELLZ YEAH I’M IN THE NEWSPAPER AGAIN!

Details:
3rd Annual South Sound Improv Festival (Faced Book Event)
Saturday, April 2nd, 7:00 PM
@ The State Theatre
202 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501 (map)
All-Ages, $20 (or $30 if you want to go both nights)

I SHALL SEE YE THERE! And you’ll also see me when ye purchase a copy of The News Tribune to gaze upon handsome visages of the Fools.