More Odyssey

Click on the bust of Homer for much more Odyssey

The Laestrygonians - Wall painting from a house on the Esquiline Hill, Rome, Late 1st century BC

Wright Barker - Circe, 1900

William Blake - The House of Death, 1805

Elaine Kewin -- The Sirens, c. 2000

Curio Theatre's "The Odyssey" -- First Night

Perhaps the most striking aspect of tonight's performance of "The Odyssey" by Curio Theatre at the Calvary Center was the use of the enormous space under the dome where a thousand Methodists were wont to meet for worship in the good old days when parishioners habitually attended divine service and large chunks were not dropping from the stupendous arched and gilded ceilings of the extraordinary Sanctuary. The stage is now roughly the size of two football fields laid end to end, allowing for a cast of thousands -- well, three actually, not counting the Greek chorus-line of several dozen scantily clad maidens miming the narrative which is recited in an underwrought way by the players tapping on bongos, plucking guitars and hammering on chimes. The ambient hiss of Calvary's steam heat system, accompanied at unexpected times by the clanging counterpoint of the old cathedral's dying boilers, added a funky and probably unintentional auditory context for the performance, making it seem at times as though the whole show were being performed on the deck of the Titanic on one of its worst nights.

I should say right upfront that what this show needs is a rating of PG-17 for Graphic Violence, Drug References and Kinky Sex. As far as I could tell, only one child was actually in the audience tonight, but if Homer's epic didn't scar her for life, I don't know what will. The tale, as some of you will recall from freshman English, is punctuated by mayhem, booze, one-eyed giants, more mayhem, drugs slipped into the booze by wanton nymphs, mayhem and really kinky sex starring these larger than life goddesses murmuring "Come hither", turning grown men into pigs, and forcing the hero to spend eternity sharing her Bed of Supernatural Delights rather than going home to his dear wife, which of course for some strange reason is what the dude wants to do. Different strokes for different folks, I always say.

The whole bizarre tale is chanted in an eerie drone by Paul Kuhn, Jared Reed and Jennifer Summerfield. While the vocals were pointedly restrained, and lasted for a good 90 minutes plus without an intermission, I found the tone to be quite seductive and hypnotic -- the narration and instrumentals carry you along so effectively that when the whole thing comes to an understated end with the middle-aged hero and heroine chatting blissfully to each other in bed, somehow you're brought up abruptly by the surprise. It stops, the audience applauds, and the cast disappear into the wings.

The chanting is punctuated at points by choral moments when the whole cast shouts or exclaims together and shakes you from your reverie. Otherwise the smooth and seamless story carries you along like the waves of the wine-dark sea, and casts a sort of spell somewhat like that of Circe, although of course without the baneful bestial metamorphoses. As the play opens, the chanting is in Greek, and perhaps there might have been more of that throughout the show for the mystic effect. One fine moment is when Odysseus has himself lashed to the mast to hear the siren song -- the siren sings sweet and low accompanied by bells and whistles, and at first I thought she was doing it in the original language.

One factoid I discovered is that several members of the company hail from Canada, or have at least spent time in the Maritimes and Newfoundland, and connoisseurs of the lingual arts may detect a Newfie accent upon occasion from one of the cast members. To discover which you'll have to buy a frigging ticket and read the playbill for yourself.

Scary People Tour, Part 2

Is Your Odyssey Rusty? Play the Web Game

t h e c l a s s i c s p a g e s

Choose your character

In this web game you can choose to be either Odysseus himself or his young son Telemachus or his beautiful wife, Penelope.

If you choose Odysseus, you begin your adventure as you are about to leave Troy on your voyage home to Ithaca.(Unknown to you this will take you ten whole years, because of something you did to upset the god Poseidon.) Where will you head for first ...?

If you choose Telemachus, you are about to hear news of your father for the first time in nearly ten years. How can you help him...?

If you choose Penelope, you are about to be very surprised by your son's behaviour ...

Who do you want to be?

• Odysseus, favorite of Zeus, sacker of cities?
• The thoughtful Telemachus?
• Penelope, the gracious daughter of Icarius?

Get Your Face Off My Bayonet

"Calling partisans of all nations -- Shift linguals -- Cut word lines -- Vibrate tourists -- Free doorways -- Photo falling -- Word Falling -- Break through in Grey Room -- Towers open fire"

"Photo falling -- Word falling -- Use partisans of all nations -- Target Orgasm Ray Installations -- Gothenburg Sweden -- Coordinates 8 2 7 6 -- Take Studio -- Take Board Books -- Take Death Dwarfs -- Towers open fire"

"And next thing I know they have trapped a grey flannel suit on me and I am sent to this school in Washington to learn how this writing the news before it happens is done"

Heroic Peoples' Struggle Blocks Hood Hotel

architect's sketch of proposed Campus Inn

A Valentine for You

Poet Joshua Kryah asks of the divine,

"Is this warehouse on fire your love letter?"

Happy Darwin Day, Suckers!

the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life

Letters From My Glottopsychiatrist

Called Back, Called Back

Acquit me, make me
purblind, unbloomed, a thing that,

when aroused,
remains dormant, unused, none
among many. As the bulb that persists within its sullen,

despondent mood, alive, but no more, no better
than some kind of senseless meat.

I turn away but wherever I turn I encounter
the same soft refrain—

I did not call you, lie back down.
I did not call, lie back, lie down.

There is death and then
there is sleep, or I no longer know who’s calling or
what I’ve heard or what I’ll say. As, when roused once more

by your voice-light, its endless drag and weight,
I move

as a tuber on the verge of swelling, the called-forth,
fruited body, caught between monad and many,

between almost and already.

Joshua Kryah

Called Back, Called Back is reprinted from Glean (Nightboat Books, 2007).

Happy Rat/Mouse Year!

Mysterious East -- Sex Crimes in Japan

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

Vice principal held for stealing panties

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) An elementary school vice principal in Kanagawa Prefecture stole and kept about 300 pieces of women's underwear in his office locker, police said Monday.

The vice principal told police he stole and bought the underwear. Police are investigating whether he committed any further offenses.

Yasuo Nakajima, 54, vice principal of Hirota Elementary School in the city of Sagamihara, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of stealing a 23-year-old female graduate school student's underwear that was drying outside her apartment in the city, police said.

His locker was in the changing room for school personnel and was kept locked. The underwear were found inside shopping bags, the official said.

Man faces charges for dumping pornographic trove

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Males may hide secret little treasures from the females at home, but that of a 33-year-old corporate worker in Kosai, western Shizuoka Prefecture, became too bulky and too embarrassing.

Police have turned over to prosecutors their case against a man who allegedly violated waste disposal laws by illegally dumping his collection of about 1,000 pornographic video and DVD titles as well as an unknown number of magazines in an empty lot in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. The man, whose name is being withheld, took the items by car from Shizuoka to Aichi on Nov. 7. He chose the location because he was familiar with the area, having once gone fishing there.

"My wife told me to throw away (the collection). I brought them by car (to Toyohashi) because it would have been embarrassing if someone saw it," the man was quoted as saying by police.

The Japan Times: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008

(C) All rights reserved

Armed Americans -- Outtakes

A couple of photos that didn't make it into Kyle Cassidy's coffee table book:

Tie Me to the Bedposts! -- February at Abbraccio

Things have gone from sordid to dreadful under the ministrations of new "Manager" Milly D'Abbraccio.

The following advertisement is posted solely for the purpose of aiding decent UC Villagers in avoiding the Abbraccio even more during the month of February.