Ramble Through The Looking Glass

Jessie Willcox Smith, Collage from Boys and Girls of Bookland, 1923

I’ve watched Homage To The Rabbits at least 10 times now, and it continues to delight me with its weirdness and the Alice-In-Wonderland feeling of being transported to an absurd dreamscape where things all of a sudden stop making sense. The piece was choreographed by Wade Robson, with music composed by Eric Serra, and danced by Cirque du Soleil for the Criss Angel® Believe show. Yes, the “lie” is boldfaced (!) in the middle of “believe”, which is quite clever but insufferably contrived coming from someone who has registered his name as a trademark. (Despite that, click on the link and you will be taken to a very nice homepage with some awesome flash animation on it.)

I am predisposed to dislike magicians and magic, both of which are simply deceptive as opposed to deliberately surreal. I distrust anyone who creates a fantasy they want to dupe me in to believing is real, while smugly refusing to reveal the artifice behind their craft. It’s the height of arrogance, and the opposite of artful. Whereas, offer me a fantasy that bends the laws of logic, physics and reality as we know it–create an intentional falsehood to amuse and delight me, and acknowledge it as such–and I am putty in your hands.

In other words, I look for honesty in the attempt to deceive, bringing to mind the Dylan quote from Absolutely Sweet Marie, “to live outside the law you must be honest.”

More about fantasy versus reality, and why Alice trumps Dorothy every time, after the jump.

SYTYCD Finale Performance (08-06-08)

I missed it!! Boo hiss. Work got in the way. Just reviewed the vids up online at www.rickey.org. Kudos to him for getting those up that fast. Have seen just about all with the exception of Mia’s group performance–will come back to that and have more of a performance and artistic merit review by the weekend.

In the meantime, if you want a transcript of judges’ commentary intermingled with some savvy viewers’ responses, check out the SYTYCD Play-By-Play by my friends, the PBP Players, on the American Idol message boards HERE.

My stream-of-consciousness responses to tonight’s key performances, after the jump.