Arts & Entertainment, Literature, Music, Theatre

Chris’ View of Bumbershoot 2015, Day Three

Monday opened, for me, with the Lady Parts Justice event at the Bagley Wright Theatre. It was hosted by Lizz Winstead, comedian/writer/”Daily Show” creator. The event was to kick off the new app from Lady Parts Justice, Hinder. It looks like more of a website that is mobile-friendly, but it does provide a valuable service in showing you the steps anti-choice politicians are going through to restrict access to family planning services. Winstead made a quite funny (and likely true) joke about how she thought 2pm would be the best time for their show because everyone would probably be too fucked up by 5.

The show itself, at 90 minutes was the longest thing I saw at Bumbershoot all weekend, was enjoyable. It had a diverse group of comedians. I particularly enjoyed Joyelle Johnson and Leah Bonnema. Hari Kondabolu was a surprise guest, and he was great (as expected) but he did the same set, more or less, that I saw yesterday in the Super Secret Comedy Show (but it was very funny). One thing I did realize was that his story about being told to go back to America took place in Denmark, not Amsterdam, as I noted in Sunday’s recap). Helen Hong and D’Lo Kid. D’Lo had a funny joke about being trans, so he’d be having a same-junk marriage instead of a same-sex marriage.

Overall, I’m glad I went to it because I think LPJ provides a valuable service and I believe in organizations like Planned Parenthood (who I give money to when I can afford to). Some of the show felt like it existed in an echo chamber because the crowd was full of people who agree with them (myself included, obviously) and the comedy veered toward “clapter” at times. And, hey, I’m a liberal who is down with their mission statement, so I wasn’t mad or anything.

Next on my agenda was H.P. Lovecraft: Stand-Up Comedian! It was in the Center House Theater, and was a presentation of a performance I missed earlier in the year at Annex Theatre. The premise is that it’s modern day and “Howie Lovecraft” is a rising comedian who begins telling “jokes” about his, well, Lovecraftian vision. Scotto Moore wrote and stars as Lovecraft. His girlfriend/manager Sonia (Erin Ison) doesn’t understand what it all means, but believers and/or “cultists” think he’s a prophet and he becomes a huge sensation. But Howie enters into a deal he didn’t know he made, but was explicitly spelled out in footnotes of the Necronomicon. I’d say it was Faustian, but it’s probably best not to comingle Faust and Cthulhu.

It was a good and enjoyable play with some great acting. The show was packed solid (though the crowd thinned out exactly at 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, and 4:45. I also was unexpectedly called on during the climactic scene and answered, “Umm, exactly.” I don’t want to give away the context but I think it felt funnier because I didn’t understand most of what was being discussed during the play (I don’t think I’ve ever read a word of Lovecraft, for better or worse).

I headed to the Words and Ideas stage for Girl Friday Productions’ third panel, this was on “Writing the Northwest.” It was moderated by KUOW’s Marcie Sillman and had NY Times writer Timothy Egan, and novelists Laurie Frankel and Brian Doyle. I’m sure there was a good reason for it, but I found it odd that Doyle wasn’t seated and instead stood up and paced around part of the stage during the hour.

The three panelists talked about how the weather plays into what they write, with Egan saying, “I couldn’t write in a city where the weather doesn’t suck.” It was noted that he is the only New York Times opinion writer who doesn’t live in Washington or New York. The panel also agreed that Seattle is lucky to have so many bookstores. Egan said he wanted to do a book tour only going to independent bookstores, but that proved to be impossible and that some cities didn’t even have one chain bookstore. On Powell’s, Portland’s amazing bookstore, Doyle said, “Babies have been born at Powell’s, people have been married in the aisles of Powell’s, and people have died at Powell’s.”

Laurie Frankel said that Seattle can feel isolated from publishers in New York, “Like India far away” because she’s not on e-mail at what would be 6am on west coast time. She also said that her agent is probably the fourth most important person in her life but she has only met her twice.

I liked the quote that Timothy Egan said that he attributed to Jonathan Raban (and I found the quote in the Seattle Times, though it is not as complimentary as I assumed) that Seattle is “the first big city to which people have flocked in order to be closer to nature.”

I wrapped up the Bumbershoot day catching Peaches’ set at Key Arena. The floor was completely packed for her, though there was plenty of room if you wanted to sit down. I was pleased to see how sizable her audience was.

Her set lasted about 35 minutes. The audio was mostly pre-programmed (there was no DJ or anything) but she sounded great and had plenty of interaction with the audience. During “I Feel Cream,” she walked out into the crowd while they held her up. It wasn’t gracious but she didn’t fall (she said if she was dropped, the show would be over). Several times during the show, she used the phallic nature of champagne bottles to simulate, well, you know. I’m also pretty sure that 90% of the crowd (again, myself included) was singing along to “Fuck the Pain Away.”

She put on a great set, and her songs were very catchy. In my perfect world, Peaches would be a big pop star and it would be way more fun because Katy Perry would take her on tour. Peaches has a new album out later this month, her first since 2010. This show was a reminder that she’s the transgressor pop desperately needs.

Peaches’ setlist:

  1. Rub
  2. Operate
  3. Vaginoplasty
  4. Mommy Complex
  5. Lovertits
  6. I Feel Cream
  7. Trick or Treat
  8. Burst
  9. Boys Wanna Be Her
  10. Fuck the Pain Away

 

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Chris Burlingame

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