10.01.07
A Religious Experience
Last Saturday, Faith and I went to Berkeley for a performance of my favorite play, King Lear—good production, by the way. The next day we went to San Francisco to see Ty and his lovely girlfriend. Getting together with Ty on a Sunday these days means getting invited to Glide, and although I’m an atheist and Faith is an agnostic, Glide is a fairly enjoyable experience, so we went.
In this particular service, there were three separate sermons by three different ministers. From a dramatic perspective (it was, as Faith put it, a performanceful weekend for us), the order should have been reversed: as it stood, the first sermon was pretty good, the second was OK but unfocused, and the third was a bit of a mess. I won’t go into too much detail here, but the gist of the final sermon as far as I can remember was that it’s not enough for two people in a relationship to love one another: there needs to be a third party. “It doesn’t matter what you call it,” the minister explained. “You can call it the Spirit, or God, or Allah, or a mystery….”
Faith leaned over to me and asked, “Can we call it Spencer the Wiggle-Fishie?”
Praise Spencer, I do love that woman. Incidentally, those of you who know Ty should ask him to do the Wiggle Fish Dance next time you see him. You’ll thank me later.
Timm Said:
October 2, 2007 at 1:48 pm
hey … uhm…
http://www.hiphopnoxygen.com/comments.php?nc_acc=50
Nicholas Said:
October 2, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Yeah, I know about that … unfortunately, I don’t quite share your enthusiasm for Branagh’s Hamlet—it’s decent, and it is the only complete version, but I got tired of the stunt casting (especially Robin Williams—and I love Jack Lemmon, but he seemed lost in that performance) and the sheer melodrama of it all (even Michael Bay could have come up with a better rendition of Claudius’s death scene).
Mind you, I’ll still be buying it. There is no perfect filmed performance of Hamlet, and Branagh’s version certainly has its charms. But remind me to show you the Campbell Scott version sometime.
Timm Said:
October 3, 2007 at 8:57 am
im overwhelmed with disagreements.
Emperor Norton Said:
October 3, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Hey, I know Ty and I’ve never heard of this Wiggle Fish Dance. I think I’ve been missing something for a long time.
BTW: I agree about Branagh’s Hamlet. Jack Lemmon is a fantastic actor but was lost in the movie. Robin Williams does not belong in any Shakespeare movie. Period.
And thus the Emperor has spoken. Let it be done.