A conversation with Seattle
Where in American Utopias he seemed egged on by that self-same utopian urge, an impatient, footsore migrant of the ideal, on opening night he often spoke directly to the audience, sprinkled with reviewers, about the role of cultural arbiters, and how Ayn Rand initially slipped past those latter-day gatekeepers. Continue reading Mike Daisey: Are You Trying to Seduce Me, Ayn Rand?
“It has to do with class in America, her appeal to boot-strappers,” concluded Daisey, who sounded excited by the topic and yet restrained, keeping himself from launching into the monologue then and there. Continue reading Mike Daisey Takes on Ayn Rand, Utopias, and the Moon
Minute-for-minute, the show contains a greater torrent of convulsive laughter and insight than anything I think I’ve seen from Daisey before. The utopias encountered are Burning Man (one thing we all know with certainty, deep in our souls, says Daisey, is whether we need to go to Burning Man, or not), Disney World and his sister’s New Jersey annexation of its aesthetic, and the occupation of Zuccotti Park. Continue reading Mike Daisey Unmasks Our “American Utopias” at Seattle Rep
Earlier this year, The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, himself creator of an epic Tesla v. Edison comic, heard about the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, the rather aspirational (at the time) name of a 15-year-old non-profit that hoped to reclaim Wardenclyffe, where Tesla tried for 17 years to build a massive wireless communications tower. Continue reading Internet Makes Progress Building U.S. Tesla Museum
It certainly was exciting to watch “David” Mike take on “Goliath” Apple from the stage of my local regional theatre; and certainly my local regional theatre enjoys, along with regional theatres across the country, the imprimatur of international relevance when such a story as Agony/Ecstasy gets told. However, we lose a huge opportunity when our big houses keep mounting the very same one-man show, instead of staging local news that actually has as much, if not more, to do with the lives of local audiences as does Applegate. Continue reading Lessons From the Daisey Debacle, From Seattle Playwright Paul Mullin
Monologuist and Seattleite emeritus Mike Daisey gets an op-ed in the New York Times today to explain why, in essence, Steve Jobs’ death is no hindrance to the opening of his one-man-show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, at the Public Theatre on October 11.
Calling Jobs an “enemy” of nostalgia, Daisey argues that casting a cold eye on Jobs’ legacy is exactly what Jobs would have done, were he around to take on the task. Continue reading Steve Jobs Wouldn’t Care for Your Nostalgia, Says Mike Daisey
When the news broke that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO of Apple, there was shock at first, followed swiftly by a barrage of encomiums. There’s a lot to praise about Jobs, but the internet was, I think, up to the task.
More than once, though, I saw people on Twitter wondering what Mike Daisey would say. Continue reading Steve Jobs, Mike Daisey, and the Perils of Lionizing