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Porchlight Revisits Call Me Madam – Porchlight Music Theatre – November 20, 2019

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When Irving Berlin first played the counterpoint song You’re Just in Love for Ethel Merman, her reaction was “We’ll never get off the stage.” For those of us who are musically challenged, counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent (polyphony) yet independent in rhythm and contour. Whatever the hell that means, Merman was right. It’s a great song.

Donica Lynn, in the Merman role, is the headliner for this three-performance run, and doesn’t disappoint, but Laura Savage stands out for me, as she has done before, this time not only for her acting, singing, and dancing, but also for her gymnastic skills, demonstrated by her forward and backward flips across the stage that earned her a perfect ten from the audience.

The woman behind me, whom I wouldn’t call madam, coughed throughout the show, her emanations unfortunately not blending in like white noise, but rather more like the black plague. At intermission I was going to offer to pay for her ticket if she would leave, but thought better of it out of fear that she might let loose a torrent of invisible fury directly into my face should I confront her.

Michael Weber’s always entertaining Behind The Show Backstory included frequent mention of the show’s authors Russell Crouse and Howard Lindsey, but, surprisingly, didn’t mention, for us trivia buffs, that Crouse named his daughter, the actress we came to know as Lindsey Crouse, after his long-time writing partner. So I was compelled to grab him at intermission to show off my grasp of useless information.

Weber’s half-hour piece, which he flew through without taking a breath, also included mention of George Sanders as General Cosmo Constantine in the movie version, which leads me to remind people that Sanders is not to be confused with his actor-brother Tom Conway, or with actor John Williams, as can easily happen when half-comatose, watching old movies late at night.

Stay Tuned: Rock on TV – Museum of Broadcast Communications – November 14, 2019

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Straight from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rock on TV exhibit is a trip down memory lane, with video from shows like Shindig, Hullaballoo, Soul Train, and American Bandstand; and artifacts, like one of Eric Clapton’s guitars, a Paul Shaffer keyboard, and costumes worn by Cher and Michael Jackson (not the same ones by both).

I wrote a two-page paper on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and its politics for my college freshman rhetoric class (how do I remember that?), so I was happy to see that show well-represented in the exhibit, especially because of two famous incidents it references.

One was Pete Seeger singing Waist Deep in the Big Muddy for a second time, after his first rendition was deleted by the network from an earlier show because of the song’s anti-war message. The other was Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, going a little overboard when blowing up his drum set on stage, apparently causing some permanent hearing loss for Pete Townsend.

Darlene Love appears in several of the videos, commenting on various shows, including, of course, both Late Night and Late Show with David Letterman, which forever etched her name in TV music history for the 28 times she performed Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on them.

Letterman is lauded as someone who brought a lot of rock acts onto his show. Apparently, other hosts, like Johnny Carson, and Ed Sullivan, who famously had The Beatles and Elvis Presley, among other rock acts, on his show, only did so kicking and screaming.

It’s a stretch to call all the music highlighted in the exhibit “rock”, but my only real complaint is the varying, overlapping sound levels that sometimes make it hard to hear at a few of the stations, even if you’re not Pete Townsend.

Chicago Humanities Festival – November 3 – 10, 2019

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The nominal theme of this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival was Power. Recent years’ have been Graphic, Belief, Stuff, Speed, Style, Citizens, Journey, Animal, America, Tech-Knowledge, The Body, Laughter, etc. If they insist upon continuing the naming pretense, I would like to suggest, for next year, Apathy. It’s my hope that this would, by power of suggestion, reduce tickets sales, thus making seats more available.

I often select sessions based on their comedic potential, so, not surprisingly, my most hopeful year, despite the frequent disconnect, was 2009’s Laughter. I particularly remember seeing former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who, in addition to being very smart, is downright funny, much funnier than any of the comedians I’ve seen at the Underground Comedy Club.

This year, Ren Weschler talked about his new biography of Oliver Sacks, who himself was a speaker at the 2002 festival. If I’d seen that, I wouldn’t have bothered with Weschler.

John Hodgman pushed his new book Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms. He told some good stories, but the audience’s questions were about his podcast Judge John Hodgman, which I’ve never heard. So I was surprised that many of the questions seemed serious, with people looking for actual advice from a comedian, and not one named Larry David.

Mo Rocca’s new book is Mobituaries, Great Lives Worth Reliving, but it was more interesting to hear him talk about his own career, which has included a job as an editor at a soft porn magazine.

Sarah Vowell, when asked why she became an historian, said that she doesn’t like to pry, which she acknowledged was a problem for her as a journalist, so she finds it easier to write about dead people, as she doesn’t have to talk to them, or, I suppose, see them.

Spamalot – Mercury Theater – November 8, 2019

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I was awed by Sara Ramirez when I saw her in her Tony-award winning performance as The Lady of the Lake in the original production of Spamalot, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to see Meghan Murphy, aka Big Red, in the same role. It was my main reason for going to the Mercury Theater production.

Murphy makes the role her own, commanding the stage, not only with her talent, but also with her brash, over-the-top playfulness that the director obviously must have encouraged, to the delight of the audience. Murphy’s scatting during The Diva’s Lament had the audience roaring for more.

There is no clear-cut origin of scatting, though apparently Louis Armstrong’s recording studio misadventure, when he dropped the lyric sheet to Heebie Jeebies and started improvising, led to its popularity.

There’s also no information, at least that I could find, about the origin of the term scatting. It seems like it must relate to scat’s other definition, that is feces, but I couldn’t find anything to suggest that conclusion.

In searching for references, I did, however, find a webpage that cites 11 literary fart jokes, ranging from Dante to Twain to Salinger. And that’s without mention of Judd Apatow, or the Frenchmen’s fart jokes in Spamalot.

I don’t know whether the Frenchmen throwing a cow as a weapon from their castle is supposed to be a continuation of the scatological humor (I wouldn’t doubt it), but it is well-documented that cows have been accused of contributing to climate change, though not, as some think, through farting, but rather, as NASA tells us, through belching.

Not to worry, however, as scientists are hard at work on ways to reduce the methane produced by cows, which should keep the EPA from shutting down future productions of Spamalot, or Gypsy, with its moo cow.

The Peanuts Papers: Charlie Brown, Snoopy & The Gang, and the Meaning of Life – American Writers Museum – November 4, 2019

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Happiness is a warm puppy. It’s also listening to cartoonists Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti, in a panel moderated by editor and literary agent Andrew Blauner, sing the praises of Charles Schulz and credit him with being the inspiration for their careers, although Brunetti admitted that part of the reason he became a cartoonist was because he couldn’t see himself as a more traditional artist wearing a beret and smock.

Schulz hated the name Peanuts, it having been forced upon him by the United Feature Syndicate, which the speakers referred to only as the syndicate, making me think that Charlie Brown was controlled by the mob.

Schulz based the strip generally on his own childhood experiences, though he favored hockey over football, and thus didn’t have the recurring placekicking issues Charlie had. While the speakers stated that Schulz never allowed Charlie to kick the ball, I’ve found possible evidence to the contrary, a cel showing a successful attempt with the help of Spiderman!

The panelists also mentioned Schulz having won the Reuben. A corned beef sandwich seemed like an odd prize until I discovered that it wasn’t food, but rather an award named after Reuben “Rube” Goldberg, presented to the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

The same year he won the award, 1955, Schulz took the advice of a fan and cut the unpopular character Charlotte Braun from the strip. He then sent a letter, preserved in the Library of Congress, back to the fan with a drawing showing an ax in Braun’s head. Good Grief!

One final note. It has been announced that the upcoming 8th version of the Snoopy Thanksgiving parade balloon will be clad in astronaut gear to honor the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Not so coincidentally, episode one of the new Apple TV show, Snoopy in Space, launched on November 1.

Brewseum Exhibit – Field Museum – November 4, 2019

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Tucked away among fearsome-looking predators on the Field Museum’s first floor, there’s a small room housing the temporary Brewseum exhibit, which provides information about the history of Chicago breweries that they never taught us in school, and apparently still don’t, as evidenced by the lack of screaming children on field trips in my midst.

Having previously enjoyed hearing the Brewseum’s executive director, Liz Garibay, speak at the Art Institute, I was hoping for a larger, not just lager, exhibit. But at least they give you the opportunity to design your own beer label, and present you with some particulars for use in your next bar discussion after you run out of things to say about sports and politics.

William Lill and Michael Diversey owned the first Chicago brewery, which was destroyed in the Chicago Fire. What makes this interesting is knowing that the city eventually named a major street after Diversey, but only a minor one after Lill. The unstated reason, I presume, is that Diversey also was a Chicago alderman.

The Siebel Institute of Technology, located on Goose Island, founded in 1868 as the Siebel Zymotechnic Institute, and renamed in 1872, is a vocational school that focuses on brewing science. Perhaps my next career move.

As if they were children playing tee ball, the Pabst and Schlitz brewing companies both received participation medals at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. But Pabst later added Blue Ribbon to its name, even though there was no blue ribbon awarded at the fair.

On my way out, I made a quick stop at the museum’s Science Hub, where I was told that the Philippines contains two-thirds of the earth’s biodiversity and where I was given the opportunity to pet a dead chipmunk, which might have seemed more appealing had the Brewseum offered free samples.

New Faces Sing Broadway 1956 – Porchlight Music Theater, at Arts Club of Chicago – October 30, 2019

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When I saw Angela Ingersoll (who made me a most happy fella as the fair lady hosting New Faces Sing Broadway 1956) as Judy Garland in Porchlight’s production of End of the Rainbow a few years ago, I thought she was great (she won the Jefferson Award for her performance) but I had no idea she was the energizer bunny in disguise, given that the Garland we see in that show is drug addicted and near death.

She didn’t wear a rabbit costume and bang a drum for Porchlight’s New Faces Halloween-adjacent show, but, her monster singing talent aside, Ingersoll’s enthusiasm, energy, and electricity made me think of When Harry Met Sally, as I definitely would like to have what she’s having, and need to add her to my growing list of theater obsessions.

As for the new faces themselves, Porchlight once again pulled off the trick of treating the audience to a frighteningly excellent array of talented artists, none of whom, this time, I had ever seen before. Thus, my impressions were fittingly written on a blank slate, as a couple of the performers will be appearing in an upcoming production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, put on by the Blank Theater Company, which is only a couple years old, and previously unknown to me, though I was at the comfortable, though fairly bare-bones space they inhabit at The Edge Theater for the Hell in a Handbag production of Poseidon: An Upside Down Musical.

As amazing as the never-ending parade of wonderful singers who grace these Porchlight programs is, there also is new blood to be found behind the scenes. This show marked the directorial debut of Brianna Borger, whom I saw perform in Southern Gothic.  Next up in the series, New Faces Sing Broadway Now and New Faces Sing Broadway 1987.

Andy Warhol Exhibit – The Art Institute of Chicago – October 24, 2019

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In 1963, Andy Warhol silkscreened thirty black-and-white images of the Mona Lisa onto a canvas and called it Thirty Are Better Than One. Now part of the Warhol exhibit at The Art Institute, it reminded me of the scene between Ted and the hitchhiker from There’s Something About Mary.

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
Ted: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. . . . the exercise video.
Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7 Minute Abs. . . . Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sitting there, there’s 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
Ted: I would go for the 7.
Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
Ted: You guarantee it? That’s — how do you do that?
Hitchhiker: If you’re not happy with the first 7 minutes, we’re gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That’s it. . . .
Ted: . . . . That’s good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you’re in trouble, huh?

Irrefutable logic. If someone had dared to silkscreen 31 images of the Mona Lisa, we might be viewing their body of work instead of Warhol’s. James Dean instead of Marlin Brando. Progresso soup instead of Campbell’s.

Among the plethora of Warhol merchandise being sold in The Art Institute gift shop are jigsaw puzzles of his displayed work, including the famous portrait of Mao Tse Tung, which the museum label acknowledges, presented the ironic possibility of subverting a communist icon into a commercial one. I didn’t notice the price tag for the puzzle or whether its directions suggest that it be assembled communally.
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Fittingly, the exhibit is a very large one, evoking Warhol’s credo “Always leave them wanting less.”

Underground Comedy Club – September 16 and October 21, 2019

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The Underground Comedy Club literally is underground, in a restaurant/bar below street level. Figuratively, in its infancy, it unfortunately does not yet operate outside the current comedy club establishment, which based upon my recent experiences, too often relies upon vulgarity, sexual misadventures, and repetitive, I repeat, repetitive, storytelling that fails to overcome the contradiction of the underlying propositions that personal humor, as targeted by those whose imaginations don’t travel beyond their own daily routine, is found in situations that the audience can in some way relate to and, yet, that the audience has not heard in the same way before, so as to provide an element of surprise.

I won’t mention the names of the comedians I’ve seen at the club because stand-up comedy is hard and they deserve the opportunity to falter at a nascent venue like this. But I have no sympathy for the self-aggrandizing emcee, who hasn’t even made me smile, and who has committed the cardinal sin of suggesting that the audience doesn’t get his jokes, when that’s not, I would suggest, why they’re not laughing. Despite him, my excursions have been somewhat worthwhile thanks to the all-you-can-eat pizza.

Winning over audience members is tough under any circumstances, so, to the next group of performers I might see at the club, unless you’re Don Rickles, keep your attacks on the audience good-natured and gentle. And it’s okay to try to push the edge of the envelope if you’re George Carlin telling us what seven words you can’t say on tv, but swearing for swearing’s sake isn’t clever or funny, just boring, and jokes about Nazis don’t work unless you’re Mel Brooks.

Margot Shetterly – One Book Keynote Address – Northwestern University – October 17, 2019

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Hampton, Virginia is the home of NASA Langley Research Center. According to Margot Shetterly, the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, which is the second longest book title of which I’m aware, losing out to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Human Intelligence but Were Too Dumb to Ask: A Humorous Look at What Intelligence Is, How It Works & Who’s Got It, many of the people who worked in the space program at Langley retired in the area, thus providing her with easy access to them in her home town for research into her best-selling book.

Shetterly provided a rich picture of her background as the daughter of a NASA scientist who grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by mathematicians, aeronautical engineers, and physics professors. Just your typical childhood.

So it came as no surprise that she went into business after college and lived in Mexico for 11 years. Huh?

Fortunately for the rest of us, she found her way back to Virginia and realized that she had a great story to tell. So great that she sold the movie rights before she even finished writing the book, which, along with the usual dramatic license, resulted in diversions from the book in the movie, though Shetterly made it clear that she loved the movie and found it to be faithful to the crux of the book’s stories and themes.

As a follow-up to her work on the book, Shetterly founded The Human Computer Project, which is aimed at “recovering the names and accomplishments of all of the women who worked as computers, mathematicians, scientists and engineers at the NACA and NASA from the 1930s through the 1980s.”

More generally, she made the audience aware of the NASA Technical Reports Server, which contains decades of aerospace-related documents, including, hypothetically, numerous ones authored by one’s uncle.