carr took me to a friends’s’ss house to see a bunch of old vaudeville shorts wot have not seen the light of day since they were made. apparantly, hemophilia his friend, bob something or other is a bit of a buff and a restoration genius who people call upon for old footage, etc., and he collects it and shows it to friends.
we saw crazy old shit; the four somethings… fuck, i forgot their names; they were acrobat/contortionists whose act consisted of them kicking each other in the but.
a tall guy dancing with a dwarf lady and making jokes like “it’s better than nothin’. ” yow!
a guy who was sorta carrot top who had this prop box that changed and morphed and an outfit that did the same thing. he went from a tux into womans clothing and back into a tux in one outfit. then he grabbed his box and left.
another guy whose act was beating up the orchestra conducter, making asides about it, then going to a piano that fell apart and turned into a keg.
the really amazing one was a guy who drank a bunch of water. then spit it on people. then he drank water. then kerosene. then…. okay… then… he regurgitated the kerosene and made a huge fire. then regurgitated the water and put the fire out. the other cool part of THAT clip was it was made for spain/mexico and it had Oliver Hardy speaking spanish. they’d do the shorts for different countries. really cool.
there were a bunch of old timers; folks who do renfairs, variety acts, etc. what a world. amazing world.
one of the magicians in the vaudeville clips from the early 30’s was doing tricks that are still being done. horrible.
after that, jeff siegel had arranged tickets for me to see starsailor at the varsity theater. they’re quite good. i just downloaded their stuff a couple of days ago.
they’re coldplay without the pretense and the willingess to rock out a bit more. the lead singer seemed affable and kept saying “cheers” between songs to make sure we knew he’s from the u.k.
here’s a clip of him mangling some dylan. very cool. very ballsy.
jeff called and said the show got a good review in the tribune and a fair writeup in citypages; the l.a. weakly of mini-apolis.
i dont’ care. i want butts in seats. it’s much more fun doing the show with people in the audience. even if they are bitter critics who failed at actors in minnesota.