Tag: Arts

A Day at the Theatre

whynotstayinLeave a comment

Recently I had the good fortune to see Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge. It was at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre. The play in its original form is straight from the kitchen of a struggling family in cold war era New York.

A home drama usually staged in an actual house was turned into a play on par with a Greek tragedy. Staged on a sterile white floor boxed in by clear siding with sharp black boards on top, there was a black step leading to a crisp doorway at the back of the set. There were no changes to this set up.

There was a large black box that was raised and lowered at the beginning and end of the show that completely covered the entire stage and rested on the black boundary.

It felt like I was a giant looking into a world like my own, but not.

This was the work of Ivo van Hove. His interpretation dialed into human nature and what desperation does to the mind. It put all the attention on the actors, emotion, and themes that run throughout the play.

Accompanied only by an occasional drumbeat and Gothic church music, the actors carried every part of the play.

Photo Credit: www.centertheatregroup.org

It was an amazing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. My head buzzed afterward.

The play was a microcosmic view of modern life, it remains applicable today. Immigration, prejudice, the weight of living.

Featured Movie: Red Eye

kirbyfullyloadedLeave a comment

Before you read this post, just watch this trailer.

Please?

Gotta say… I’m not a horror movie person.

I’m one of those people.  I freak out when I have to walk 15 feet by myself in the house at night after I watch a scary movie.

However, I do love psychological thrillers.  Those are just OUTSTANDING.

If you’ve visited infiniteblue before, you may know of my passionate love for Cillian Murphy.Read More »

Somebody That I Used to Know

kirbyfullyloadedLeave a comment

“But you didn’t have to cut me off

Make it like it never happened and that we were nothing

I don’t even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger

And that feels so rough

No, you didn’t have to stoop so low

Have your friends collect your records

And then change your numberGuess that

I don’t need that though

Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.”

-“Somebody That I Used to Know“, Gotye

This song stuck in anyone else’s head?

Yeah.  I thought so.  For the longest time I could NOT figure out what this song was or who it was by.  But finally I did and I love it.

The music video is surprisingly good.  Very artistic and mellow, but not enough to be considered hipster.

And I suppose Wally de Backer is alright cute.

Gotta admit though… the reason I wrote this post was to show you this picture:

That shared, I’m done.

Coachella

dmilesburtonLeave a comment

Of all the things I wish I could have done so far this year, Coachella tops the list. With headliners Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, and Kanye West on top of artists like The Black Keys, Wiz Khalifa, and The Strokes, it was no doubt nothing short of incredible.

In my slight depression since missing Coachella, I’ve been reading a lot of reviews, and all of them say that it was almost all great shows. One performance, however, stood out above all else.

Kanye West.

In all of the extravagant concert entrances I’ve seen, which is a slightly above average amount, Kanye’s was the best planned and would have been beyond awe-producing.

To sum it up, he had his dancers, twenty or so ballerinas, dance around for a good three minutes, then kneel down to a large monument to what seems to be gods. Then, from behind the crowd comes Kanye West, slowly being raised into the air on a raised platform, pointing to the sky all the while, as the phrase, “can we get much higher” is heard over and over again.

When I saw the video for this entrance, I was feeling two, very clear emotions: Jealousy, at the crowd for being there, and at Kanye, for being him, and then complete and utter awe. I knew right then and there that Kanye had done something that few people have ever done. He had made himself, in that one moment, the most important man in the world.

Not to say that he was the best, or the most needed, but I’d bet that more people wanted to see, hear, and be Kanye West in that one moment than anyone else on earth. He was truly the king, and even his ego was ridiculous no longer.

Of course, the moment passed, and he was just Kanye West again, entertainer, egomaniac, and generally only respected for his music. The image still remained, though, and in my mind and undoubtedly in the mind of countless others.