Author Archives: Christopher Arnott
Arnott Arts & Ideas Mea Culpa
At Engine28 there was a “confessional” room, a video set-up where we could rant and argue and otherwise unload. Here’s one I never pushed to put on that website since there was a backlog of video projects. It actually works better here.
Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Here
I’m still in L.A. The pop-up Engine 28, for which I and 20 fellow Fellows from USC Annenberg’s NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Theater been working all week, has popped back down and won’t be adding any new stories or posts. The site was a purposefully short-lived thing, which we loaded up with hundreds of … Continue reading
Chris Arnott is in L.A. riding Engine 28
If my output on this site dims this week, yet you still wonder what I think of the state of American theater these days, head to the just-launched Engine28.com. The site, which magically appeared last night at midnight and will last for just a week, represents the hopes and glories of dozens of journalists who’ve … Continue reading
A Strong Second: An Interview with Cecily Strong of the Second City Touring Company, at Long Wharf
The press materials for the Long Wharf’s six-performance visit from the seasoned Second City improv troupe ballyhoos that “Belushi, Colbert, Carell, Murray, Radner, Myers, Fey, Meadows, Farley, Aykroyd all came through Second City.” But the institution, which has formalized a distinctive brand of scripted sketch comedy with improv incursions, is grander than any one of … Continue reading
Bands Which Share Names with Sam Shepard Plays
1. Cowboy Mouth. This one could be genuinely confusing to clubgoers/theatergoers, since the play the band is named after is a rock-and-roll affair developed by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith that actually gets staged in rock clubs fairly often. That’s what inspired this list, actually. 2. Angel City: Australian rock band, aka The Angels. Known … Continue reading
Too Tony
I had some 12 straight hours of traveling yesterday: by car to the Hartford airport, by plane from there to Dallas/Fort Worth, by foot roaming around the Texas airport during a delay of the next plane, by plane again to L.A., where I’ve never been. The highway trip from the airport to the downtown hotel … Continue reading
Turn Off Your Cell Phones, ‘Cause Whoopi Says So
Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? By Whoopi Goldberg (Hyperion New York 2010) Whoopi Goldberg’s scattershot career has probably disappointed more people than it has impressed. She has the distinction of being one of the only African Americans to win an Oscar and one of the only African American characters on … Continue reading
What is this dagger I see before me?
Excerpt from Campus Tramp by Andrew Shaw (a pseudonym of famed mystery writer Lawrence Block), a 1959 softcore porn novel newly reissued as a trade paperback (Creeping Hemlock Press, 2010): She kept working, knowing that she would have to withdraw at the end of the term anyway, knowing that the work she was doing wouldn’t … Continue reading
NHTJ on WNPR
HOW I’LL SPEND MY SUMMER VACATION: ALICE COOPER, THE VERY PERSONIFICATION OF SCHOOL BEING OUT, IS COMING TO FOXWOODS CASINO. Hey, I just spent an hour yammering live on the Colin McEnroe show on WNPR. I guess they post podcasts of past episodes here. The topic was “Summer Arts Preview,” and the other guests were … Continue reading
Twenty Bands Named After Shakespeare Plays
Summer is the time for multi-stage, stylistically diverse rock festivals. It’s also the time for multi-stage, stylistically diverse Shakespeare festivals. Why not combine the two? All the world’s a stage, after all. Titus Andronicus. Rabble-rousing rock/punk outfit from New Jersey. Their album The Monitor has Civil War undertones, and a character in the video “A … Continue reading