I HAVE RETURNED AGAIN

posted by James Reel

A long, long time ago I announced that I’d soon be resuming blogging. Obviously, I was being too optimistic. Since then, I’ve been doing my own job (announcing live from 6 a.m. to noon every weekday), plus half the work of each of two other employees who got laid off at the beginning of summer. I’ll tell you more about what I’m up to behind the scenes later, but for now you’ll just have to take my word that I’ve been too busy to blog.

But I did streamline my life at the beginning of September by giving up my arts-editor position at the Tucson Weekly, whereupon I promptly absconded to Greece and Rome for two and a half weeks. Now I’m back, and settling into a routine, and it looks like I’ll finally be returning to the blogosphere on a regular basis.

I may not post again until next week—I’m trying to catch up on a backlog of CD cataloguing—but for now, I’d like to point you in the direction of Jack Shafer’s denunciation of the Federal Trade Commission’s new disclosure rules for bloggers.

In short, the guidelines require bloggers who review or promote products or services to disclose any connections they may have to the manufacturers or service providers. There have clearly been abuses of celebrity bloggers promoting stuff in return for payment, but really, the FTC is over-reacting. Look: Every classical music magazine—those few that still exist, anyway—review CDs provided free of charge by the record labels or their publicists. Everybody knows this. Nobody worries about it. Negative reviews flow as freely as the positive. And even holier-than-thou newspapers thrive on freebies. They’d quickly go bankrupt if they had to pay for their sportswriters’ and arts critics’ admission to the events they cover.

Just for the record, every CD I’m likely to review in this space (most of the reviews are reprints of items I provide to magazines) came to me gratis directly from a manufacturer or a publicist, or from them via a magazine editor. That’s the only time I’m going to say it. If you want to know how I feel about the FTC’s power grab, read Shafer’s article, and see the graphic representation of my attitude to the FTC below.

MEN (AND WOMEN) IN TIGHTS

posted by James Reel

In the latest Tucson Weekly, I review the current Gaslight Theatre production:

Writer-director Peter Van Slyke assembled his latest Gaslight Theatre show as a prefabricated unit from his Spoofs 'R' Us factory. "The Adventures of the Freedom League of America, or Tights Make Right," follows Gaslight's 30-year format of taking the template of some pop-culture genre, twisting it to the point of ridiculousness, pockmarking it with terrible puns, and propelling it—or, sometimes, halting it—with adaptations of rock and R&B standards from the '50s through the '70s. There's nothing wrong with "Freedom League of America." The pacing moves nicely; there are no dead patches in the script; the performances are as carefree as ever. It's just that the material lacks those mad flashes of inspiration that sometimes spark from the Gaslight stage.

You’ll find the full review here.

NO TORTURE AT NPR

posted by James Reel

Alicia Shepard, National Public Radio’s apologist—er, ombudsman—wrote a column defending the news operation’s cowardly refusal to apply the word “torture” to the much-reviled interrogation practices authorized by the Bush administration. Salon.com contributor Glenn Greenwald wrote a column denouncing the NPR practice and Shepard’s defense of it, then invited her for an interview in which she could explain her position and NPR’s. Shepard cowers behind her desk, and refuses to participate in an interview—which is what usually happens when someone knows her position is indefensible. NPR continues to look like just another neocon mouthpiece, like most of the rest of the mainstream media, including the Washington Post and New York Times, let alone the usual suspects like the Wall Street Journal. The notion that NPR has a liberal bias is simply false, and this is further evidence. Start reading here, and follow the links.

SLABS OF COMEDY AND BEEF

posted by James Reel

Well, I’m sorry to get back into the blog with the sort of self-promoting post I hate to see from other bloggers, but at least this is really about things out in the community, not just me. I am referring to my contributions to the Tucson Weekly. This week, I review two new theater productions, beginning thus:

Summer is comedy season on Tucson stages, but comedy isn't necessarily frivolous. Well, sometimes it is, as in the entertaining Jewtopia, a send-up of all things Jewish, courtesy of Arizona Onstage Productions. (More information later.) But there are other kinds of comedy as well, including the fairy romance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, reviewed in this space last week, and an unavoidably serious comedy called Rum and Coke, presented by the UA's Arizona Repertory Theatre. I say unavoidably serious, because Keith Reddin's Rum and Coke is about the U.S.-masterminded invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the first in a series of American military failures over the past 50 years.

You can find the full review here. While you’re at the site, you might also check out a couple of earlier reviews of shows that are still playing: the Studio Connections production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Live Theatre Workshop’s mounting of The Mystery of Irma Vep.

Then, for something completely different, I review a steakhouse:

Outposts usually move farther and farther away from civilization, but The Steak Out Restaurant and Saloon has established a satellite location that's actually closer to Tucson than the original. A little. The Steak Out has been a fixture in Sonoita for about a half-century. Its second location is more convenient for Tucsonans, but it's not exactly embedded in the metropolis. It's out by Dove Mountain, smartly located for the denizens of Marana and Oro Valley, as well as Dove Mountain golfers. The décor is as rustic as you'd expect from a Western steakhouse, but the prices are certainly not primitive; the steaks aren't as expensive as what you find at, for example, McMahon's, but you're not going to get a decent cut for less than $20. So the question is: Is it worth it? According to a group of discerning friends who accompanied me to the Steak Out last week, it mostly is.

Full explanation follows here.

WATCH THIS SPACE

posted by James Reel

First I was waiting for the Web guys to contrive a way for me to re-establish the blogroll, which fell by the wayside when we switched to this "improved" system. Then I was busy with various projects related to KUAT and otherwise. Now I'm about ready to resume blogging, but not quite yet. I expect that tomorrow the stream of brilliant apercus will resume, complete with standing links to the outside world. Stand by.

MAD GENIUSES

posted by James Reel

Yes, I know I’ve been an inconstant blogger recently. I’ve been busy cranking out articles, mainly for Strings magazine, but also for the Tucson Weekly. Here’s the beginning of my latest contribution to the local alternative rag:

Genius is the subject of two plays that opened downtown last weekend. It's musical genius at work in Arizona Theatre Company's _Beethoven, as I Knew Him_, whereas mathematical virtuosity lies behind Beowulf Alley Theatre Company's _Proof_. But in each case, human failings and aspirations are what really drive the stories.

You’ll find the full review here.