Archive: Arts & Entertainment

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SMART TALK
by Dr. Shirley Glibb

AT THE PRESENT TIME:  The Institute for the Linguistically Impaired is about halfway to its goal in raising funds to add to the Edwin Newman Center for Temporal Retentives.  Sufferers  - sorry; survivors; must be politically correct - seem to have multiplied, especially during the past eight years.

Temporal retentives also say as it was in the past, at the present moment, at some time to come, and at a later date.

After treatment, they simply use past, present and future tense or say then, now, and later.

What they say sounds smarter, and what they write looks more literate.

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Aurora, New York - The Performing Arts Department at Wells College will offer a tribute to gospel great Mahalia Jackson. On Sunday, February 15, tenor Cory Walker of Ithaca will perform songs by the legendary singer, accompanied on piano by Wells music lecturer Russell Posegate, also of Ithaca. The free concert will take place at 7:30 pm in Barler Recital Hall.

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was an African-American gospel singer, widely regarded as the best in the genre. Known as “the Queen of Gospel,” she was raised in New Orleans. The performance will feature Jackson’s transcriptions of spirituals and gospel classics such as “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and “Elijah Rock.”

Everybody has friends who send them (allegedly) hysterical links to funny Web sites.  We decided to share our picks from time to time.  Here is our submission for this week:

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(Ithaca, NY) The return of the Hot Pepper-Eating Competition, VIP Passes, the Mechanical Bull-Riding Contest, and the Iron Chef Competition are among the events and activities that people can discover at the 11th Annual Great Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off and Winterfest, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, February 21, 2009 on the Ithaca Commons. The event is sponsored by Collegetown Bagels and Maines Paper and Food Service.

Activities begin at 11:30 a.m., while chili tasting begins at 12:00 noon and continues until it’s gone! 30 local and regional restaurants and food service vendors will be offering chili samples and chicken wings. The Chili Cook-Off is Ithaca’s largest winter event, so chili fans are encouraged to arrive early and buy their tasting tickets in advance.

Running to Places, the non-profit theatre company for youth across Tompkins County, continues its second season with The Man Who Came to Dinner. Featuring young talent from across Tompkins County, this classic Kaufman & Hart comedy comes to the gorgeous theatre at Trumansburg Elementary School, February 20-22, Fridays and Saturdays at 7, Sundays at 2.

"Our season of six shows always includes a non-musical play," says Gail Belokur, Running to Places Executive Director (and Producer for this show). "We were looking for a rip-roaring comedy. This is probably Kaufman and Hart's funniest, most outrageous script."

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Alice Eve Cohen, the playwright, actor, and puppeteer whose plays for young audiences THE PARROT, THE BALINESE FROG PRINCESS, and adult piece, THIN WALLS, have been enjoyed by many at the Kitchen Theatre, has written a new show for young audiences to be performed at the Kitchen Theatre in February.

The Kitchen Theatre Company’s KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE series begins in February with Marc Bamuthi Joseph in THE SPOKEN WORLD. Marc Bamuthi Joseph creates works that fuse hip-hop, West African, tap and modern dance with theater and spoken word poetry, and the results are thought-provoking, complex, and stunningly beautiful.

THE SPOKEN WORLD will run at the Kitchen for three performances only:   February 13, 14, and 15. All performances are followed by a talkback with the artist. The production is recommended for ages 12 and up.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Winton "Windy" Prolix

SNOW SHOWER:  When did we stop having flurries?  The Institute for the Linguistically Impaired being in Underbelly, Texas, we don't see snow all that often, but when we do, the prognosticators foretell snow showers.  What are those?

An informal poll of institute staff by our psychologist, Dr. Viva Palaver, reveals that we always thought shower connoted water unless otherwise specified, and that flurry was the word for a brief, relatively light snowfall.  Yes, snow shower specifies otherwise, but why did this clumsy term replace the perfectly descriptive and graceful flurry?

And flurry always connotes snow, unless otherwise specified, as in a flurry of confetti, which makes snow flurry redundant.

Speaking of redundant, the weather yobs are even saying rain showers now.  Simply using showers and flurries would not only make their jobs easier but also make their messages clearer, which in turn would make our lives easier.

Is computer modeling eliminating intelligence from the criteria for a career in meteorology?  Perhaps forecasters have resorted to arcane sounding terms for showers and flurries in a pathetic attempt at self importance.

At the institute, we have showers and flurries, and our weather seems the equal of our neighbors'.

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