Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A List of Concerts that i've seen Over the Years
as best I can put into some order...
The Jacksons (Victory Tour), around 1982, at Cleveland Coliseum
Frankie Goes to Hollywood -- May 18 1985, Cleveland Public Hall (with Mom)
Duran Duran with Erasure -- June 29, 1987, Blossom Music Center, Cleveland
Human League -- Feb. 14, 1987, Metroplex, Youngstown, Ohio
Motley Crue -- July 4, 1987, The Coliseum, Ohio
Information Society (2 shows) w/Exotic Birds (Trent Reznor's first band) -- 11/29/88 and 12/31/88 at Phantasy, Cleveland [TALKED WITH TRENT REZNOR AND I THOUGHT HE WAS AN ASSHOLE, BUT I LIKE HIS MUSIC]
Circle Jerks -- 12/22/88, Phantasy, Cleveland
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians -- Sat. June 24th, 1989, Phantasy, Cleveland
The Cure, the Prayer Tour -- Aug. 29, 1989, The Coliseum, Ohio
Red Hot Chili Peppers -- Tues. Nov. 21, 1989, Phantasy, Ohio
Psychedelic Furs -- Dec. 8, 1989, The Agora, Cleveland
Jesus & Mary Chain -- Mar 15, 1990, Phantasy, Ohio
Sinead O'Connor -- May 18, 1990, Cleveland Music Hall
Ramones & Debbie Harry -- Sat. July 14, 1990, Nautica, in Ohio
Danzig with Corrosion of Conformity -- Sat. 8/11/90, Agora, in Ohio and next day at the Newport in Columbus
NIN -- Jan. 29, 1991, Phantasy Theater, Ohio
Violent Femmes -- Wed., Oct. 23, 1991, Agora(?)
Nitzer Eb -- 2/14/92, Empire Concert Club, Cleveland
Siouxsie & Banshees -- 2/26/92, Palumbo Theater, Pittsburgh
Lush -- 3/19/92, Ohio
Mr. Bungle -- Mar. 29, 1992, the Phantasy, Ohio
Big Audio Dynamite -- Apr. 17, 1992
PIL with Big Audio Dynamite -- Apr. 18, 1992, Hammerjack's, Baltimore
The Cure and the Cranes -- July 20, 1992, Coliseum, Cleveland
The Cramps --- Stay Sick tour in Cleveland in 1989, 4/29/90, 91, 3/3/92 (at the Empire in Ohio), 11/16/94, Look Mom No Head tour in Nov. '97 with my friend John Carruthers, and so on...
Siouxsie and the Banshees -- at Lollapalooza 92, Pittsburgh same year
Lollapalooza II, 7/29/92
Jesus and Mary Chain -- Automatic Tour 91?
Janes Addiction 88/89 Phantasy in Cleveland
The Creatures -- Mar 22, 1990, Phantasy, Cleveland
Alien Sex Fiend -- 91 Agora Cleveland / 98 Coney Island High NYC
Pil -- 88 with INXS , 89 with New Order
Ramones and Social Distortion -- 11/2/92, Cleveland Music Hall (jumped out of balcony into front row during blackout!)
Danzig -- 12/3/92, Newport, Columbus
Lollapalooza -- 7/8/93, Cleveland, Blossom Music Center
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult -- 7/27/93, Pittsburgh Metropole
Bad Religion (opening act: the new band called Green Day) -- 10/7/93
Dead Milkmen -- Nov 2, 1993
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult -- 12/15/93, Phantasy
Iggy Pop -- 3/21/94, Phantasy
KMFDM -- 5/26/94
L7 -- Oct. 14, 1994
Beastie Boys -- May 17, 1995
The Lords of Acid -- July 26, 1995
8/28/95 -- stayed at Chelsea Hotel, New York
Rollins (spoken word) -- 9/24/95, the Civic Center, Ohio
David Bowie and NIN -- 9/30/95
Bjork -- Nov. 12, 1995
Pigface -- 12/30/95
Debbie Harry -- Apr. 6, 1996, Cleveland
Love & Rockets -- Apr. 7, 1996
The Cure -- July 16, 1996, the Coliseum, Ohio
Diamanda Galas -- Nov. 1996, Lexington, KY
Andy Warhol Museum -- Mar. 19, 1997, Pittsburgh
The Cranes -- Apr. 20, 1997
Lycia tour -- 4/97-end of 6/97
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult -- 6/21/97, the Metropole, Pittsburgh
Death in June -- Nov. 8, 1997, a church in Pittsburgh
Jayne County -- 2-21-2004 already acquainted with her! Amazing!
(this last entry was a transmania show that i met my new mates jon and shaolin)
Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black & Jayne County -- BB King, Jan. 18, 2004
David Bowie , NIN 1995
Sex Pistols 1996
Toilet Boys -- May 01 Goodbye to Squeezebox and others with County reunion etc..
Underground Garage Fest New York Dolls / Iggy Pop Aug 14, 2004
Jane's Addiction wed June 11, 03 rec executives only at Irving Plaza
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown -- Jan 28 ,1999 Ambassador Theatre
Stereolab & Yoko Ono & Thurston Moore -- Battery Park 6-3-00
Rock Hall of Fame --Cleveland Trip -- Nov.4,2000
The Creatures -- Irving Plaza, Nov. 3, 1999
Recognizing Van Eryk -- Jun 14, 98 -- Philadelphia trip
Morrissey -- Beacon NYC -- Feb.29,2000
REM -- Pnc Art Center, New Jersey Sept. 6, 1999
The Donnas -- Oct 2001 ticket faded
Underworld -- Hammerstien Ballroom, April 21, 1999
Hole -- O'Neill Center upstate new york for Celebrity Skin preview
PJ Harvey -- Hammerstien Ballroom, Oct. 7, 2004
Siouxsie and the Banshees 7-Year Itch -- Roseland, 2004
The Donnas with Bratmobile -- Sat. March 10, 2001
The Marriage of Figaro -- Metropolitan Opera Sat Feb 23 ,2002
Hockey with John Graham -- 11/20/02, Rangers vs Colorado
NIN -- Tues. May 8, 2000
The Full Monty (play) with step dad, July 7 , 2001
Everything but the Girl -- Nov. 24, 1999
Royals and Indians baseball Jacobs Field Ohio trip with Mom and Butchie
Depeche Mode -- Madison Square Garden, June 28,2001
NIN with Dresden Dolls -- May 15 05
Cabaret -- Studio 54 with Mom sep 17, 1999
Radiohead -- Liberty State Park, August 17, 2001 before 9-11
Blur -- Roseland, March 30,1999
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- Oct. 5th, 2001
The Damned and the Toilet Boys -- New Orleans Halloween 2001
Gimme Shelter -- Movie at the Film Forum 9/15/00
Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club -- Jun 02 at Warsaw
The Chemical Brothers -- H Ballroom Sept,15 1999
Bauhaus -- Resurrection Tour Sept 10, 1998
Marianne Faithfull -- Beacon Theater, Aug. 2005
The Creatures and John Cale-- Aug 8, 1998 at Life on Bleeker Jayne County DJis
Siouxsie -- at Roseland Aug. 19, 2002
Underworld -- Manhattan Center Aug. 21, 1999
Green Day at Roseland Oct 24, 2000
Oasis -- Radio City May 1 , 2000
Iggy Pop -- Jones Beach August 8 2003 with George
Pretenders -- ? theater 2003
The Filth and the Fury -- Sex Pistols Doc, Film Forum 4/7/00
Peter Murphy-- Irving Plaza 11-8-00
Pecker -- John Waters at beautiful Regency Theater now defunct 10.15.98
Fugazi -- Roxy Dec 3, 1999
Kiki and Herb at Carnegie Hall with Kirstine and Antony Sep 19,2004 (Justin Bond)
Mogwai -- Irving Plaza Sat, Jun 23 2001
The Damned -- Oct. 22 2001 Irving Plaza
Control (Joy Division movie) -- with Sandy Daley 10/27/07
*** these are all from a lost capsule of tickets that i found when moving! **
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Dr Tarr Review from Off Off
| ||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||
Dr Tarr Review's
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
OPENED
April 12, 2008
CLOSED
April 27, 2008
AUTHOR
Candice Burridge & David Zen Mansley
MUSIC
Jon Vomit
DIRECTOR
Candice Burridge
nytheatre.com review
Richard Hinojosa · April 12, 2008
I can get into something that is over the top for the sake of being over the top. Subtleties can be brushed aside and we can all agree to have fun. In the case of this adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's dark and ironic satire of 19th century life in an insane asylum there is a lot of fun to be had, though it is a very peculiar and maybe even aloof sort of fun.
The story is set in an asylum in the south of France. An unnamed traveler decides to visit the asylum in order to see the "soothing system" in operation. This revolutionary new system gives encouragement to the patient's fantasies and even allows them to wander freely around the grounds. Maillard, the director of the facility, invites him to dinner which turns out to be as extravagant as its guests are eccentric. They are dressed in bizarre clothes and seem to be having more fun than they should be. When the traveler inquires about the soothing system Maillard explains that they have done away with it and are now working with a new system engineered by a Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether. To the very end, the traveler is dismayed because he can find no reference to their work.
The most striking and certainly the most commendable part of this production is its design. The set (Mark Marcante) is very detailed and cleverly designed to spin around and open up. The costumes (Susan Lasanta Gittens) are beautiful and strange. They are instrumental in creating the world of the play. The puppet designs (Candice Burridge and Zen Mansley) are stunning. Burridge's shadow puppets look gothic and cartoonish while Mansley's larger hand puppets have faces like human monsters.
Burridge is also the production's director. I really enjoyed her bold choices and it seemed to me that everyone worked very well together and that gives the production a lot of character. Still, some choices, such as having the traveler character portrayed like a spaced-out five-year-old, left me without an anchor in all this insanity. There is no "straight man" from which to distinguish between the sane and insane. What I heard of Jon Vomit's original score is good but it is very underplayed.
The puppet animation is playful but in a carefree, childlike manner. The shadow puppets' limbs, for example, flail about and they knock into each other. I felt as if the atmosphere for this story would have been better set had the animation been taken a bit more seriously. The puppeteers, Burridge and Micha Lazare, are costumed characters on stage with their puppets and other actors sometimes help working the puppets, but the timing on all this movement is not very well coordinated.
Zen Mansley plays Maillard like a dictator who has lost his mind. He really drives this show forward. Mansley also does some great voiceover work for the puppet's dialogue. Dan Drogynous as the traveler portrays one of the oddest characters I've ever seen on stage and yet there was something about it that seemed familiar. I enjoyed all the performances. The cast appeared to be having fun. And so did I for the most part.
The production is packed with vision and creativity. I liked the way in which the story's irony is obscured by the campy treatment of it, but still I felt as if that fact also obscured the dark, gothic nature of it. However, if you're in the mood for a strange interlude, this show may be your bag.
System of Dr Tarr
| NEW YORK CITY THEATRE REVIEWS | |||
|
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Dr Tarr & Professor Fether from 4/10 to 4/27 2008
THE SYSTEM OF DR. TARR & PROFESSOR FETHER
adapted to the stage by Candice Burridge and David Zen Mansley, with music by Jon Vomit.
Poe's classic short story to be staged with puppet theater and Goth Rock music.
Actor/puppet maker David Zen Mansley fashions a hand puppet for the production. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether," Edgar Allan Poe's classic story of an insane asylum in southern France, has been adapted for the stage by Candice Burridge, David Zen Mansley and Jon Vomit and will be directed by Candice Burridge in Charles Adams-meets-Julie Taymor style, with dark, gothic imagery, a variety of shadow puppets, hand puppets and music by John Vomit of Strange Walls, a Goth Rock band.
Poe's reputation as a humorist stands secure with "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." A traveler to southern France is invited to a lavish dinner in an insane asylum where a quirky staff is famous for its "system of soothing," which avoids punishment and seldom applies confinement to the patients, allowing them to dress normally and wander the grounds at will. The attendants "humor" their patients by never contradicting their fantasies or hallucinations. Rather, if a man thought he was a chicken, doctors would treat him as a chicken, giving him corn to eat. The method, however, is about to be forsaken in favor of "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether."
During an uncomfortable dinner, the staff regale the traveler with stories about patients they have known, like a lady who thought herself a chicken, a man a teapot, another a pumpkin, another a snuff box, etc. Amid this, Monsieur Maillard, the head of the institution, shares a remembrance of a lunatic who had once excited his fellows to rebellion. Suddenly the dinner is suddenly broken up and the asylum taken over by intruders whose feather coverings make them seem like orangutans. The attendants begin to act out in lunatic behaviors like the inmates they have been describing. It becomes clear that the head of the institution, Maillard himself, had lost his reason but not his wits, leading his patients into mischief. The lunatics had taken over the asylum, with the staff tarred and feathered.
L-R: Dan Drogyny, David Zen Mansley, Ilana Landecker. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
Director Candice Burridge describes her approach as "everything cram packed with art," intending to provide "a more lush experience of where theater is" and citing as her influences the plays of Julie Taymor and the films of Tim Burton. She also cites a debt to German Expressionist films, upon which the play's shadow puppets will be inspired. She emphasizes that the story is a comedy. The principal characters will be "Adams Family"-ish and she will use puppets for the play's more whimsical characters. Hand puppets will be designed by David Zen Mansley and shadow puppets will be by Burridge. Experimental puppet lighting is by Jason Sturm. The dialogue of the play is as true to Poe's original as Burridge and David Zen Mansley could make it.
Ms. Burridge was born in Lafayette, Louisiana and received her BA in Puppetry from the University of Connecticut in 2003. She performs at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park as a puppeteer and is currently running "Pippi." At Theater for the New City, she is part of the regular production crew and is mask designer for Crystal Field in her annual Street Theater productions and "The Further Adventures of Uncle Wiggly: Windblown Visitors."
David Zen Mansley is both an actor and puppet designer. He has built miniatures for such films as Coppola's "Dracula," Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" and "X2 - X-Men United." In 1987, he built and designed the Pretorious "Resonator" for Stuart Gordon's film of H.P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond." He was part of Robert Skotak's Oscar winning FX team for the "Judgement Day" nightmare scene in Jame's Cameron's "Terminator 2." In 1988, he was named LA Weekly's Production Design of the Year for "Dracula Tyrannus" at the Globe Playhouse. As an actor, he has appeared in close to a hundred plays in roles from Claudius in "Hamlet" to Preacher Haggler in "Dark of the Moon." In 1990, he directed and played the lead in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" at the Celtic Arts Center in Hollywood for two and a half months and received a glowing review in the LA Times. He is the voice of the villain Agent Bishop on Saturday morning's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," where he also plays the demonic sorcerer Savanti Romero, Rat King and Kon, the Ninjitsu master of Spirit. In the upcoming animated series "Speed Racer," set to air this Spring, he plays the snide Professor Aniskov and the comedic henchman, Stan.
Jon Vomit grew up in Portland, Maine and moved to New York City eight years ago. He created Strange Walls, a band in the New York Post Punk scene. Since then he has composed scores for over a dozen underground films.
Shadow puppet design is by Candice Burridge; mask design is by Candice Burridge; hand puppet design is by Assistant Director David Zen Mansley; Production Manager is Adrian Gallard; set design is by Mark Marcante, lighting design is by Jason Sturm, costume design is by Susan Gittens; sound design is by Roy Chang; music is by John Vomit/Strange Walls. The actors are Performed by Dan Drogyny, David Zen Mansley, Ilana Landecker, Michael Sanders, Lissa Moira, Charles Battersby, Ellen Steier, T. Scott Lilly and William Abbott.
Some of the production's images are displayed on http://www.myspace.com/systemofdrtarr.

Click here to view the printer-friendly version of this review
Click here to e-mail this review


