The Third Decade

Michael Jackson

Rest in peace.

The Color Purple: Recommended

If you're in the Boston area and haven't bought tickets for The Color Purple yet, buy them soon. I had the good fortune of seeing the show last night for the opening and have the feeling that any remaining tickets will be snatched up soon.

Despite the heavy storyline, the musical is full of life, light, and humor; I didn't expect to laugh and be moved as much as I was. The entire cast was great and presented solid singing, dancing, and acting, although the woman who plays Sophie stole the show. A good deal of the crowd quoted her line "hell no" during intermission and on the way out of the theater. She also received some of the loudest applause at the curtain call. Celie, of course, was good, too. The actress convincingly played Celie from childhood to middle age, and through all phases of innocence, struggle, and rediscovery. Overall, though, the whole cast was fantastic.

So, go see The Color Purple. You won't be disappointed.

the opposite of guerrilla

The gay high holidays (a.k.a. Pride Week) are now upon us. Last Friday, some friends and I went out to the Guerrilla Queer Bar at Felt to check it out. None of us had been to one before, but based on the name and the event's reputation, we thought it would be an interesting experience. The basic premise is that the organizers choose a bar at the last minute (without telling the bar), tell a whole bunch of gay people and their friends to show up, and then the regular and new clientele mix and get to know each other. Or something like that.

So we went with a feeling of "adventure." When we arrived, however, it was anything but "guerrilla." The club prepared a special cover charge for that night and, after walking around for a while, I saw that the mens and womens bathrooms had been redesignated as "gender neutral." There was also little obvious sign that the usual non-gay crowd was there. Eventually a patron who had gone to a half dozen other similar events explained that the clubs are now given a heads-up before the events so that they can have enough staff on hand to serve the influx of a few hundred people. Suddenly it all made sense. Still, you'd think the organizers would make that clear to participants. I'm not saying that the night wasn't fun, but it was the opposite of guerrilla.