CAPTAIN GREEDY’S CARNIVAL World Premiere Theater Review

Gordon Gekko may have articulated the Reagan era’s ethos when he proclaimed “Greed is good” in Oliver Stone’s 1987 Wall Street, but in terms of ethics Captain Greedy is not good - although when it comes to sheer showmanship and moral musings, The Actors’ Gang grabs the brass ring and hits a bull’s eye with Captain Greedy’s Carnival.

 

The first act of Captain Greedy’s Carnival, with its book and lyrics by Jack Pinter and music by Roger Eno, is an exceedingly clever concoction combining the free market philosophy of economists such as Smith, Hayek and Friedman with the format of a carnival. Capitalism is insightfully compared to a carnival’s games of chance. Through this circus-like atmosphere the co-creators, their cast of about 20 performers (The Gang’s all here!) plus a live band lampoon laissez faire economics with a humorous harpoon, its razor sharp tip dipped in acid.

 

The End Of Alzheimer’s (aka You We Are The Cure)

Black silhouette of a head facing right with white puzzle pieces flying out of his head against a blue background

In case you missed it on Dr. Oz, the cure for Alzheimer’s (and quite possibly other types of cognitive decline) has arrived, only it’s not so much a pill or even an immunotherapy as it is a wholesale lifestyle change. Think clean eating, loads of healthful oils, 12-hour fasting, physical activity and probably something along the lines of Emotional Freedom techniques--particularly if you’ve grown up in a culture that discourages emotional expression and personal authenticity. Goodbye, Aricept, chain restaurants and packaged foods; hello, bone broth, home cooking and evening strolls. Dr. Dale Bredesen, the lead author in this research at the Buck Institute (Novato, CA) boasts a growing cadre of nearly 1,000 middle aged and elderly adults who have turned the table on Alzheimer’s by faithfully adopting his ReCODE protocol. They meet regularly to share their progress and you can too (or merely join as a voyeur) at apoe4.info/forums, named after the gene associated with an increased risk for the disease. His MPI Cognition site is also kind of cool, at drbredesen.com.

Too Many Streams

White image of a round circle with an oval around it and blue in the background

For the first time in 12 years (or longer, if you’ve forgotten Enterprise existed), there’s a new Star Trek series. Set about a decade before the original series, Star Trek: Discovery follows a Black woman captain (angering people who have apparently never watched Star Trek and aren’t aware that it’s been about social justice since 1966) as she navigates the early days of the war between the Klingons and the Federation. It’s the first post-J.J. Abrams Trek show, and fans are excited to step away from the new movie universe and revisit the original series’ timeline.

But regardless of whether the show turns out to be the next The Next Generation or just another Enterprise, it’s already being hobbled by one huge problem: CBS is only making it available in the US through their “All Access” streaming service.

Ohio’s Flippers On The Death Penalty

Extreme close up of white man with gray hair talking out the side of his mouth

Politicians reversing themselves on key policy positions is often portrayed as weakness. Governor John Kasich has surprised both Republicans and Democrats by taking principled positions that directly contravene the positions of his party – most notably on health care and immigration reforms. Whatever else you might think of him, it’s a hard sell to call Governor Kasich weak.

Remember the Rainbow Farm: A Lesson from 9/11

Drawing of a ribbon that is purple and orange and words Remember Rainbow Farm

My dad slumbered quietly as the Twin Towers fell sixteen years ago. He stirred and murmured, “What’s that?” I replied, “Nothing Daddy,” even though my eyes glued to the TV in disbelief. In that moment, I was glad Alzheimer’s had stolen his memory.

As a kid, I wondered why my dad, a brilliant steel industry engineer, jetted each week to New York and back. When the World Trade Center complex opened in 1973, I knew. He bragged in 1993, “We build them to last!” when terrorists detonated a bomb in a garage below one of the Towers, injuring many, but leaving the structure intact. This time, I watched in horror and wondered how Saudi pilots could destroy America’s most iconic buildings. I needed to look back only one week for a possible answer.

Seven hundred miles away in rural southwest Michigan, the feds were cleaning up a bloody standoff that left marijuana advocates Tom Crosslin and his partner Rollie Rohm dead at the hands of FBI snipers.

Twitter Chief trumps again

Magazine cover with word TIME at the top and football player in red and gold jersey kneeling and facing the camera and words about him - Colin Kapernick

Well, our President in Twitter Chief, Donald Trump, has once again trumped his own self.  This time he’s taking on the rights of athletes to protest the injustices inflicted on people of color in America during NFL games. Our Twitter Chief, President Trump, feels that it’s more important for him, as President of the United States, to tweet about the right for people to protest peacefully, than it is for him to tweet about the horrific plight of the people of Puerto Rico, who are in desperate need of drastic help to rebuild and survive after hurricane Maria.

As of September 27, our Twitter Chief had tweeted twenty-three plus times about his anger at the NFL players for not “standing and being respectful during the national anthem” and only six times about how he was going to help Puerto Rico, which by the way is a part of the United States since 1898, which makes the people of Puerto Rico AMERICAN citizens.  But wait a minute, hold up, seems like we have been down this road before with the President of the United States being slow to help its “Brown” American citizens after a natural disaster.

Free Press Heroes

Man in white shirt talking into a mic at the far left side and a congregation of people sitting in pews and three stained glass windows in the back

Free Press Hero

The Free Press honors the anonymous man who bravely trained his cell phone camera on Timothy Davis during his horrendous beating at the hands of the Columbus Police. We thank you for having the courage to be the eyes and ears for the rest of us to witness the inexcusable and incomprehensible acts of our police department and how these racist officers, sworn to “serve and protect” us and uphold the U.S. Constitution, cavalierly and gleefully take out their immature macho aggressions on our citizens.

Twitter Chief trumps again

Football player wearing red white and blue football uniform kneeling on field

Well, our President in Twitter Chief, Donald Trump, has once again trumped his own self.  This time he’s taking on the rights of athletes to protest the injustices inflicted on people of color in America during NFL games. Our Twitter Chief, President Trump, feels that it’s more important for him, as President of the United States, to tweet about the right for people to protest peacefully, than it is for him to tweet about the horrific plight of the people of Puerto Rico, who are in desperate need of drastic help to rebuild and survive after hurricane Maria.

As of September 27, our Twitter Chief had tweeted twenty-three plus times about his anger at the NFL players for not “standing and being respectful during the national anthem” and only six times about how he was going to help Puerto Rico, which by the way is a part of the United States since 1898, which makes the people of Puerto Rico AMERICAN citizens.  But wait a minute, hold up, seems like we have been down this road before with the President of the United States being slow to help its “Brown” American citizens after a natural disaster.

Women’s libber battles male chauvinist pig in lighthearted history lesson

Young woman with short dark hair and glasses at a podium with microphones arm wrestling a middle aged man with brown hair and glasses.

The superiority of the male sex was on the line when Bobby Riggs took on Billie Jean King in the 1973 tennis match known as the “Battle of the Sexes.” At least, that’s what organizers of the overblown spectacle claimed, and a sizable portion of the population actually believed it.


I was traveling out West at the time, and I happened to drop by a local restaurant in time to hear some macho types at the next table grouse about Riggs’s ignominious loss. It meant nothing, they insisted, except that the 55-year-old, out-of-shape Riggs was no match for the 29-year-old, top-of-her-game King.


Well, of course it meant nothing. Then again, it meant quite a lot in an age when women athletes—and women in general—were struggling to claim their rightful place in a society that had long been defined by male privilege. What makes the new comedy Battle of the Sexes so enjoyable is that it simultaneously treats the match as a ridiculous publicity stunt and as a historic milestone in the fight for gender equality.
 

Festival Review: Columbus Oktoberfest 2017

White ma with gray hair and glasses smiling holding a huge mug of beer with a woman who is wearing a German-looking corset and frilly top

Your first experience at Columbus’ Oktoberfest is the sensation of being gouged on parking at the fairgrounds. Your irritation will be soothed in the coming minutes by the pleasant surprise of no admission fee, but you don’t know that yet so you say “seriously, ten dollars? What do they have in there, fucking golden pandas?” And your wife asks why they would have pandas at Oktoberfest, and you explain that it is figure of speech, and she gives you one of those looks.


So you walk in, and are greeted by runners staggering through the Oktoberfest Meiler Vier, a four mile run in which 20 percent of participants are wearing lederhosen or other Bavarian alpine gear. If you miss them, don’t worry – you’ll find them later at the biergarten tossing back mugs of Bitburger.  From the looks of it, most of them chugged a couple before the race even started.  

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