Carrie Fisher, talented a writer a she is, knows that she will be haunted by a certain character that she first played onscreen when she was a mere 19. Who knew that the Star Wars franchise would be arguably the biggest pop-culture phenomenon film series of modern times, and that Princess Leia, a chick sporting a weird cinnamon-bun haircut would be her most instant recognizable association. Well, if you are Carrie Fisher, you may a well work this blessing/curse. After all, she says, George Lucas legally owns the rights to Fisher’s likeness (yikes!).
Wishful Drinking, Fisher’s one-woman autobiographical stage show, feels (for fans especially) like a chance to get to hang out with this fiercely funny and admittedly scarred woman one-on-one. The stage is set up in cozy living room style, with a couch, chair, and table, and Fisher pads around the stage barefoot. And if you are in the front rows, expect to get showered with glitter, picked on, and yes, occasionally addressed or mocked throughout the show. And one lucky person gets pulled on stage for a cute visual stunt (the guy at our show got on his knees to kiss “Princess Leia’s” hand, since he had the opportunity, while his wife heckled him from the audience).
The first half of the show (there is one intermission breaking up the two hours of performance) is the lightweight part. Well, even though she opens with a story of waking up next to her dead gay friend a few years ago, and it was just another example of the bizarre scandal-like things that have happened in her life literally since the day she was born. In hilarious detail, Fisher explains (with a sort of classroom chart) how truly messed up it is, growing up in a Hollywood family (mom is sweetheart Debbie Reynolds and dad is crooner Eddie Fisher). Throw in some Liz Taylor, a fetish for Asian women, gay husbands, and, yes, singer Paul Simon… and you get some idea of this complicated generational family tree.
As the show continues, there are many laughs at the expense of Star Wars and George Lucas (who claimed, “There are no bras in space!” leaving poor Carrie literally strapped down with tape under her costume) as well as the Hollywood scene in general. But as the show moves on, it takes a tone of seriousness, despite her self-effacing tone. It took a long while for Fisher to get diagnosed as manic depressive (also known as bi-polar). She has a wild history of highs and lows… and lots of lots of alcohol and substance abuse.
She goes into her stormy relationship with Paul Simon—fights, break-ups, getting together, breaking up—and jokingly adds, “If you can get Paul Simon to write a song for you… DO IT!” Then she plays (illegally, she adds), part of his song “Hearts & Bones” and explains that he and she were the “one and one half wandering Jews” (now the song makes me want to burst into tears even more than it already did).
Things are better for Fisher now since she has found a balance of therapies that work for her, including Electro Convulsive Therapy. She jokes that she’s made it into the medical textbook “Abnormal Psychology”. There she is… at the beginning of Chapter 3, "The Biology of Bipolar Disorder”, there’s a photo of her as Princess Leia. She is a sort of “poster child” for bipolar disorder, and curious honor. But by not hiding her mental problems, she does bring a face to a disorder that affect thousands of people. Wishful Drinking is a treat for fans of Star Wars and Hollywood gossip, but Carrie Fisher’s storytelling sneaks up on you, leaving you with the sobering tale of one woman’s lifelong battle to identify and control her demons.
Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking plays April 2 through May 9th at the Seattle Reperatory Theatre.
An Evening with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan
Monday April 20, 2009
Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
Ken Burns is a bonafide rock star with the PBS crowd. Known for epic documentaries about all types of American history, from Jazz, to Baseball, to The Civil War, he is one of the few documentarians who is actually recognizable (this side of Michael Moore, of course), with his eternally boyish mop-top and beard. His epic documentaries (the most recent being the 15-hour The War) have been so popular that the late historian Stephen Ambrose said, “More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source.”
So when Ken Burns and his writing/producing partner Dayton Duncan blew into town to promote their upcoming PBS documentary, over 2000 people showed up. This was the type of audience that cooed knowingly when it was mentioned that during PBS’s showing of Lewis & Clark, that Seattle’s total PBS viewing audience one night beat all the major networks, including the hugely popular show at the time Frasier.
The men of the hour were introduced by two men named Moss and Chip (I would NOT make that up)—Maurice “Moss” Bresnahan, the President and CEO of our local PBS affiliate KCTS 9, and Chip Jenkins representing the National Parks Service as Superintendent of North Cascades National Park. Let’s just say that Chip, and the handful of other park rangers in the audience, was bedecked in what I would guess is the park rangers’ dress uniform (green pants, cropped green jacket, and Smokey the Bear hat)—and the entire audience was sneaking envious peeks their way the entire evening. Later, when it was mentioned that Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan were made honorary park rangers at the end of their project, the documentarians giggled like little boys when they said they were thrilled to get the park ranger hats (jealous!).
This “Evening with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan” was really the equivalent of an author being on tour with a new book. They were here to peddle their new wares and get their target audience all riled up (which they easily did). Their new project, set to debut on September 29th, 2009 on PBS, is The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. The project apparently has been brewing for over a decade (with Duncan proposing the idea to his best pal over 10 years ago while hanging out in the small New Hampshire town where they both live). Of course such a project would appeal to Burns: apparently National Parks are an American idea. Unlike, say, Europe where preserved parks tend to be palaces and ruins of the aristocracy, the United States was the first to propose protecting land in its natural state for future generations, and have this protected land be co-owned by all citizens.
The six-part, 12-hour series will cover not only the history of the National Park system, but of course as is typical of Ken Burns, offer the human side of the story. In the hour-long sneak peek of the show, we got to see highlights about Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks, as well as portraits of a few Japanese-Americans (including painter Chiro Obata) who were not only early fans of the parks, but victims of World War II internment at the hand of their adopted country of the United States. Though we didn’t get to see any credits, it sounded like the series was narrated by stalwart Peter Coyote, who got props for trying some of our local native-tribe tongue-twister names... yet he still, unsurprisingly, stumbled on the name-to-end-all-names: Puyallup (the audience again chuckled knowingly).
There was some Q&A time (which showed that Burns is about as long-winded as his documentaries), and the evening ended with someone mentioning that the next day was John Muir’s birthday. How often do you get a chance to sing in Benaroya Hall? The audience and host gladly joined in for a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday, John Muir" to close the event. You’ve gotta love a PBS crowd!
How could you not be caught up in the frenzy of Harry Potter-mania in this last week? Now, I, for one, have only read the first book, but I have seen all the movies. Hey, now... don't think that I didn't hear you scoff! OK, so I did roll my eyes at movies #2 and #4, but I did quite enjoy The Prisoner of Azkaban (though, admittedly, it took me four sittings to get through... I would last 45 minutes, then fall into a deep slumber on the couch), and the latest, The Order of the Phoenix, wasn't half bad. I'd almost say that the presence of "Luscious" Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) might have even helped, um, "stir" my interest in finally picking up more of the books to get a better handle on what the heck was going on.
But as a fan of all things literary in general, I wasn't going to pass up joining the party for the biggest literary unveiling of ANY kind of modern times: The release of Book #7, aka The Final Harry Potter Book EVER, aka Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So, for the eve before that fateful official release date of July 21st, I hooked with a group of hardcore non-wizard-like Potter fans (who claimed that in my presence they were all only half-Muggle... because no one could be more Muggley than me). We caravaned to the Lake Forest Park Third Place Books, where one of many many citywide Harry Potter release parties was taking place. Third Place Books is an awesome new and used bookstore, situated openly next to a large community mall space with a stage, a big chess board, some food establishments, and the mouth-watering Honey Bear Bakery. We knew they'd have a great shindig.
The parking lot was unsurprisingly packed when we arrived at 9:30pm. As soon as we pulled open the decorated double-doors and were hit by a blast of noise, I knew I was out of my league. There were kids dressed up. There were adults dressed up. There were groups of teens sitting cross-legged on the floor drinking Full Throttle while reading Book #6 to pass the time. There was a Fortune Telling Room, there were quizzes, there was a magician, and even the SCA showed up to whack each other with swords for the entertainment of all. My group split up, as one went to stand in a massive line up adults queuing up for coffee, and a couple of the others went in search of the new Details magazine with Daniel Radcliffe on the cover, where he is looking decidedly hunky and un-Harry-like. (Alas, the magazine was sold out, apparently within the whole shopping complex. Not that we checked. Whatever.)
But the masses were clearly biding their time waiting for midnight. Even though everyone had a ticket showing that they had purchased the book in advance, people still began lining up around 10pm. The electric buzz in the air was undeniable, so much so that the temperature in the building built up to a balmy 80 or so degrees. This Muggle had to take a couple breaks and stand outside in the parking lot where there was a refreshing cool drizzle and a handful of covertly smoking adults. The magician tried to entertain people up until the stroke of midnight, to no avail. The crowd was swarming restlessly.
And here, my dear readers, is the sound of midnight. At 26 seconds into this clip, you can clearly hear when they released the hounds... or the books, rather. Kids, teens, and adults ran screaming through the aisles, yelling, "I GOT IT!!! I GOT IT!!!" Two teenage girls breathlessly flipped open the front of the book and squealed, "The first word is... the first word is... THE!!!!"
I have to say I was impressed at the efficiency of the bookstore employees. The line of over 1,500 people got their hands on the tome within 35 minutes. The bookstore folks kept their spirits up, despite the chaos, and only started to look frazzled as the evening was wrapping up. One redheaded employee in an academic robe sheepishly admitted, "No, my name is not George. It's not even Fred. My name is Steve." As my cohort S and I scooted forward in line, we fell into a chat with a woman and her kids in front of us. The mom asked us if we were each going to get a copy of the book so we wouldn't have to fight over it at home. I said nonchalantly, "Oh, no, we're just getting one for her. I have only read the first book, so I won't be reading it anytime soon..." An eavesdropping 50-something woman snapped her head around to stare at me in shock and disgust, so blatantly appalled at what I just said that I had to laugh and point at her. "THAT is the look I've been expecting all evening!" A Harry Potter poseur exposed!
Still, I'm glad I went. I'm current on all the movies so I have a rough idea of what is going on through Book #5. Plus over pre-PotterPalooza margaritas, I had a major Book #6 spoiler accidentally spilled to me (as a result of me saying that I liked Snape... he wasn't so bad, really, I had said). Ooops. But one of these days I'll buck up and tackle the series. This Potter Poseur is quietly tiring of being ostracized by her friends and co-workers. No, I'm not caving. Truly, such a successful, popular and acclaimed series is most likely actually GOOD, so I'll be looking forward to it. Cheers, and thanks for your understanding and tolerance. :)
The first half of the show (there is one intermission breaking up the two hours of performance) is the lightweight part. Well, even though she opens with a story of waking up next to her dead gay friend a few years ago, and it was just another example of the bizarre scandal-like things that have happened in her life literally since the day she was born. In hilarious detail, Fisher explains (with a sort of classroom chart) how truly messed up it is, growing up in a Hollywood family (mom is sweetheart Debbie Reynolds and dad is crooner Eddie Fisher). Throw in some Liz Taylor, a fetish for Asian women, gay husbands, and, yes, singer Paul Simon… and you get some idea of this complicated generational family tree.
The men of the hour were introduced by two men named Moss and Chip (I would NOT make that up)—Maurice “Moss” Bresnahan, the President and CEO of our local PBS affiliate KCTS 9, and Chip Jenkins representing the National Parks Service as Superintendent of North Cascades National Park. Let’s just say that Chip, and the handful of other park rangers in the audience, was bedecked in what I would guess is the park rangers’ dress uniform (green pants, cropped green jacket, and Smokey the Bear hat)—and the entire audience was sneaking envious peeks their way the entire evening. Later, when it was mentioned that Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan were made honorary park rangers at the end of their project, the documentarians giggled like little boys when they said they were thrilled to get the park ranger hats (jealous!).
The six-part, 12-hour series will cover not only the history of the National Park system, but of course as is typical of Ken Burns, offer the human side of the story. In the hour-long sneak peek of the show, we got to see highlights about Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks, as well as portraits of a few Japanese-Americans (including painter Chiro Obata) who were not only early fans of the parks, but victims of World War II internment at the hand of their adopted country of the United States. Though we didn’t get to see any credits, it sounded like the series was narrated by stalwart Peter Coyote, who got props for trying some of our local native-tribe tongue-twister names... yet he still, unsurprisingly, stumbled on the name-to-end-all-names: Puyallup (the audience again chuckled knowingly).
But as a fan of all things literary in general, I wasn't going to pass up joining the party for the biggest literary unveiling of ANY kind of modern times: The release of Book #7, aka The Final Harry Potter Book EVER, aka Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So, for the eve before that fateful official release date of July 21st, I hooked with a group of hardcore non-wizard-like Potter fans (who claimed that in my presence they were all only half-Muggle... because no one could be more Muggley than me). We caravaned to the Lake Forest Park 
The parking lot was unsurprisingly packed when we arrived at 9:30pm. As soon as we pulled open the decorated double-doors and were hit by a blast of noise, I knew I was out of my league. There were kids dressed up. There were adults dressed up. There were groups of teens sitting cross-legged on the floor drinking Full Throttle while reading Book #6 to pass the time. There was a Fortune Telling Room, there were quizzes, there was a magician, and even the SCA showed up to whack each other with swords for the entertainment of all. My group split up, as one went to stand in a massive line up adults queuing up for coffee, and a couple of the others went in search of the new Details magazine with Daniel Radcliffe on the cover, where he is looking decidedly hunky and un-Harry-like. (Alas, the magazine was sold out, apparently within the whole shopping complex. Not that we checked. Whatever.)
But the masses were clearly biding their time waiting for midnight. Even though everyone had a ticket showing that they had purchased the book in advance, people still began lining up around 10pm. The electric buzz in the air was undeniable, so much so that the temperature in the building built up to a balmy 80 or so degrees. This Muggle had to take a couple breaks and stand outside in the parking lot where there was a refreshing cool drizzle and a handful of covertly smoking adults. The magician tried to entertain people up until the stroke of midnight, to no avail. The crowd was swarming restlessly.
I have to say I was impressed at the efficiency of the bookstore employees. The line of over 1,500 people got their hands on the tome within 35 minutes. The bookstore folks kept their spirits up, despite the chaos, and only started to look frazzled as the evening was wrapping up. One redheaded employee in an academic robe sheepishly admitted, "No, my name is not George. It's not even Fred. My name is Steve." As my cohort S and I scooted forward in line, we fell into a chat with a woman and her kids in front of us. The mom asked us if we were each going to get a copy of the book so we wouldn't have to fight over it at home. I said nonchalantly, "Oh, no, we're just getting one for her. I have only read the first book, so I won't be reading it anytime soon..." An eavesdropping 50-something woman snapped her head around to stare at me in shock and disgust, so blatantly appalled at what I just said that I had to laugh and point at her. "THAT is the look I've been expecting all evening!" A Harry Potter poseur exposed!
Still, I'm glad I went. I'm current on all the movies so I have a rough idea of what is going on through Book #5. Plus over pre-PotterPalooza margaritas, I had a major Book #6 spoiler accidentally spilled to me (as a result of me saying that I liked Snape... he wasn't so bad, really, I had said). Ooops. But one of these days I'll buck up and tackle the series. This Potter Poseur is quietly tiring of being ostracized by her friends and co-workers. No, I'm not caving. Truly, such a successful, popular and acclaimed series is most likely actually GOOD, so I'll be looking forward to it. Cheers, and thanks for your understanding and tolerance. :)