Musical pleases with its genre-bending minimalism


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This is not the stuff of musicals. Gruesome murder, racism in the South, unseemly politicking, media sensationalism, official corruption, Messianism, public morality — rarely are such weighty issues even considered as themes for musicals, a genre serious theatergoers regularly denigrate for its bubbly superficiality and lack of profundity. Musicals are to theater what romance novels […]

Friendship pitted against honesty in low-budget film


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“Will you read my screenplay?” This question, sometimes edited slightly to involve reading a novel or viewing a piece of art, haunts friends of those in the creative industry. It is the ultimate test and requires an important decision: honesty or friendship? The new film The Blue Tooth Virgin — winner of the 2008 New […]

Rites of passage come in various disguises


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Amid gold confetti, topless figureheads and raging techno, I experienced my first encounter with San Francisco’s LovEvolution last weekend. In an extravagant parade down Market Street, I saw pink elephants and cage dancers, penis balloons and some Amazonian wilderness. I even witnessed at least eight nude men, each posing for pictures with girls young enough […]

Will people pay for what was free?


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Every Thursday afternoon, I return home from a mentally taxing hour-plus of political philosophy (Marx, anyone?), cozy up in my bed with my laptop, click on my bookmarked link to Hulu and watch the most recent episode of Glee. With this routine, I can get through even the darkest of weeks. Glee, no doubt the […]