tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52270642024-03-08T06:46:42.556-05:00My Stupid DogMiscellaneous culture and politics (but mostly culture) from a Gay, conservative ex-grad student and former writing teacher living between careers in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia.<br>
<br>
E-mail me: timhulsey (at) embarqmail (dot) com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger629125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-15502204841311175172009-01-20T16:54:00.012-05:002009-01-22T07:31:27.797-05:00Inauguration Special: Je suis marxiste, comme Groucho ...The last guy nearly ruined this place, he didn't know what to do with it.If you think this country's bad off now, just wait till I get through with it. -- Groucho Marx, Duck SoupThe last film featuring all four Marx Brothers, Duck Soup, was exactly what most Americans didn't want to see in 1933. Reveling in the inauguration of a dynamic Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-1643182900030198952009-01-19T13:39:00.004-05:002009-01-19T16:30:16.116-05:00Mohandas and MeIn honor of this year's Martin Luther King Day, I'm posting a new link to an old essay, "Mohandas and Me," in which I confront the folly and shame of my left-wing past.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-34901297026957614112009-01-13T21:53:00.005-05:002009-01-14T07:04:18.230-05:00Been gone so longAfter effectively disappearing from cyberspace for more than a year, what should I say by way of re-introduction? Truth to tell, I haven't changed much. I'm still gay, still conservative and Republican, and still interested in the arts -- primarily film, theater and music. Between film and theater, I prefer theater. Although I have seldom written about music in the past, my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-51549079096357324972009-01-08T16:36:00.003-05:002009-01-10T00:31:55.113-05:00NoticeAfter an unannounced (and unplanned) hiatus of more than a year, I am pleased to announce that I'm resuming this blog. It's not so much that I miss the conversation (for most bloggers, the conversation is almost entirely one-sided), as that I miss having a personal forum to wrangle with concepts and ideas that may intrigue or inspire me. I realize, after such a long absence, that my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-54474786833218004672007-12-18T16:53:00.000-05:002007-12-19T12:46:20.982-05:00Give 'em the Dickens: A Christmas Carol at Synetic, Christmas Carol 1941 at Arena, Second Shepherds' Play at the Folger.'Tis the season for holiday cheer, whether we like it or not -- and God bless us everyone, Washington-area theaters are no exception to the rule. With at least three theatrical versions of A Christmas Carol playing simultaneously, theatergoers can give themselves the Dickens Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-20009765883805683622007-12-18T16:47:00.000-05:002007-12-18T23:39:49.716-05:00Merry Christmas, Mike HuckabeeWhich is more distressing about Mike Huckabee's now-infamous Christmas ad -- that the bookshelf behind him looks suspiciously like a glowing white cross, or that it apparently contains not a single actual book?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-15825955806817032662007-09-11T13:45:00.000-04:002007-09-14T03:30:13.301-04:00A Visit to the Flight 93 MemorialLast month, on an impossibly sunny Saturday afternoon, I made a pilgrimage to the rural Pennsylvania field where forty passengers and crew of United Flight 93 met their heroic, horrific end.The temporary Flight 93 memorial -- a chain-link fence, roughly forty feet long by eleven feet tall -- lies a few hundred yards from the actual crash site, now set aside as Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-7919947149619798752007-06-16T01:42:00.000-04:002007-12-18T17:49:00.656-05:00Smoke and Mirrors: Witches of Eastwick at Signature TheatreFor the first-act finale of Witches of Eastwick, a new musical receiving its American premiere at Signature Theatre near Washington, DC, the three title characters strap themselves into harnesses and soar over the heads of the audience. It's nifty but completely superfluous -- much like the show itself, I'm afraid.(Note: I never finishedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-42634185802287585652007-05-28T14:58:00.000-04:002007-05-28T17:45:26.339-04:00Words and Music: Funny Business in the CinemaTerry Teachout ponders the question of film music, and why the "great" film scores seem to belong to dramas or thrillers, rather than to the classic screen comedies. He notes that other dramatic forms seem to have no trouble blending great music and high comedy: His favorite operas, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Verdi's Falstaff, are both comic, Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-5841228123803092312007-05-04T18:43:00.000-04:002007-05-05T02:58:55.744-04:00Terror is the new Sexy: The Washington Blade meets PETAI suppose it had to happen eventually: The Washington Blade, the gay newspaper of record in the DC metropolitan area, is now promoting terrorism -- indirectly, of course.This week's "Out in DC" supplement (which is best described as a style section within a style section) features a fawning puff piece on Dan Mathews, vice president of People Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-16528356081556054412007-05-01T16:09:00.000-04:002007-05-05T02:29:16.279-04:00Overwhelming: The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center TheaterTom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia, now playing through May 12 at New York’s Lincoln Center, is quite simply the best thing I have ever seen on a stage.But before I praise this play to the high rafters, let me offer a friendly word of caution: Coast is a dramatic trilogy with a total running time of nearly eight hours, not counting Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-31436630709267375162007-04-23T15:12:00.000-04:002007-05-03T04:19:14.183-04:00God Awful: Saving Aimee at Signature TheatreNothing can save Saving Aimee, a musical about 1920s evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson currently receiving its world premiere at Washington D.C.'s Signature Theatre. To call it bad would be a gross understatement. This show is a howler from start to finish.McPherson's life certainly had the elements of great drama. After her conversion to Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-90220253495246803842007-04-18T21:24:00.000-04:002007-04-19T14:34:26.862-04:00Guns don't kill people, but Walter Shapiro's good intentions might ....At the leftist e-zine Salon.com, Washington bureau chief Walter Shapiro advocates the complete repeal of the Second Amendment, even though he notes that "there is no way to guarantee that another Cho Seung-Hui would be deprived of access to a Glock ...." Which begs the question: If there's no way to ensure that such an Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-38026544682545007542007-04-18T02:18:00.000-04:002007-04-18T05:04:09.267-04:00Tim Kaine just flew in from Tokyo, and boy are his arms tired ...Yesterday afternoon, Virginia Tech students gathered in mourning to commemorate the worst mass shooting in American history. President Bush offered a lovely, restrained token of remembrance and hope that moved his audience to tears. So how did Virginia's Democratic governor Tim Kaine, who preceded and introduced the President, Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-79091423982008315672007-04-17T04:02:00.000-04:002007-04-18T02:51:05.946-04:00A Parable for Tax DayI've stated before that if our Founding Fathers had an inkling of what the American tax system would become, they'd have laid down their quill pens and taken their chances with old King George. Although I'm not usually one to quote Scripture, this year I couldn't resist:Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:Who, when he had found oneUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-20030075241228552592007-04-06T14:53:00.000-04:002007-04-06T16:04:13.968-04:00Al GoreA hypocrite by definition is always doing something right. The trick is figuring out what that something is.Take Al Gore. (Please.) Once lauded for the global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth -- now available on DVD in super-flimsy "eco-friendly" packaging all but guaranteed to leave your disc scratched and bruised -- Gore has been drawing fire for the past month over an Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-84488415596703746222007-04-06T14:07:00.000-04:002007-04-06T14:32:15.215-04:00Take Back the Night 2007The annual "Take Back the Night" march against domestic violence occurs tonight. Here's something I wrote on the subject more than four years ago. I still agree with every word:Take Back the Night, Just Leave Me AloneUVA is having a "Take Back the Night" combination march-and-vigil tonight. The idea, such as it is, is to protest sexual assault. At some point, someone is Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-70205926650873077572007-03-21T23:59:00.000-04:002007-03-22T00:20:33.288-04:00Blessed Incarnation: John Patrick Shanley's Doubt at the National TheatreThe portions are small but the fare is choice at the National Theatre, where the national tour of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Doubt is playing through March 25. Shanley is best known for his Oscar-winning screenplay for the movie Moonstruck, still one of the most delightful American comedies Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-20278872128191668952007-03-15T11:26:00.000-04:002007-03-18T13:33:05.877-04:00Less Than August: King Hedley II (Signature Theatre Company, New York) and Gem of the Ocean (Arena Stage, DC)Why did August Wilson jump the shark?This question might be better suited to a biographer than a critic, but when Wilson, the most critically acclaimed African-American playwright in theatrical history, made his fateful leap and where he finally landed are somewhat easier to determine. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-87685227021284679432007-03-04T12:16:00.000-05:002007-03-16T15:10:27.015-04:00All This Useless Beauty: Carnival at Kennedy CenterWhen the musical Carnival opened on Broadway in 1961, it was an unapologetic throwback to old-fashioned operetta, with plenty of sentimental romance, an exotic European setting, and a glorious, glittering score by Bob Merrill that evoked the best of Rudolf Friml and Franz Lehar. The show marked the Broadway debut of the late Jerry Orbach (of LawUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-85896256364003361052007-02-28T23:31:00.000-05:002007-03-04T06:39:21.973-05:00Conceits: Vigils at Woolly Mammoth and The Violet Hour at LiveArtsNoah Haidle's Vigils is about a woman who keeps her dead husband's soul in a box. Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour is about an obscure publisher who receives a copy machine from the future. What do these plays have in common?Stay tuned, gentle reader.I was, until recently, something a fan of Noah Haidle: His play Mr. MarmaladeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-3779523236147507262007-02-22T02:17:00.000-05:002007-02-22T03:38:51.768-05:00Yes, We Have No Directors: Hamlet and Pericles at the American Shakespeare CenterThe ongoing “Shakespeare in Washington” festival may entice Washington insiders with dozens of elaborate and not-so-elaborate stagings of the Bard of Avon’s most celebrated works. But true connoisseurs have known for some time that one of the best places in America to see a Shakespeare play is at the American Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-53483483192237131822007-02-07T23:59:00.000-05:002007-02-23T07:30:04.972-05:00Looks Like Rain: The Tempest at Keegan TheatreWashington's Keegan Theatre specializes in Irish drama and well-known Americana, so Shakespeare's late-period romance The Tempest, now playing at the Church Street Theater, is a significant departure from its usual fare. D.C. audiences will have the chance to see four productions of The Tempest over the next five months, as part of the ongoing "Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-2588301373604674382007-02-03T11:40:00.000-05:002007-02-03T13:50:42.094-05:00"Marygate" againAfter more than two years, America's most political lesbian (whether she likes it or not) is once again in the papers: Now that Mary Cheney and her partner have announced their decision to raise a child by themselves, all the unresolved accusations from the 2004 "Marygate" fracas have reared their ugly little heads. For James Dobson's evangelical crowd, Mary's very existence is Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227064.post-15794689558885451112007-02-02T01:46:00.000-05:002007-02-02T04:46:18.312-05:00Amazing GracelessA few days ago on the Guardian's free website, David Boaz of the Cato Institute offered a preliminary review of Michael Apted's new film Amazing Grace. This story of William Wilberforce and the British antislavery movement is due to arrive in American cinemas by the end of the month, and I daresay you'll find it at your neighborhood video store sometime this May. Boaz is deeplyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com