New Pinback album

Autumn of the Seraphs

Rob Crow and Zach Smith, the duo behind Pinback, were in the KPBS studios this week to be interviewed by These Days Host Tom Fudge. The interview will air next Tuesday, September 11th, at 10 am. Pinback's new album, Autumn of the Seraphs, drops the same day.

The interview was lots of fun. As prep, I chatted with Rob Crow by phone to get a sense of what we should talk about. He mentioned various interests throughout our conversation, and since he's turned me on to some things, I thought I'd share them with you.

Rob has seen the documentary Vernon, Florida a gazillion times. It's an early Errol Morris doc about a city in Florida full of eccentrics. I have yet to see it, but what I've read brings to mind the communities bordering the Salton Sea, such as Bombay Beach. One interesting note on the film is Morris was originally going to call it Nub City, because he wanted to focus on the town's residents who cut off their own limbs to collect insurance money. When none of them would talk to him for obvious legal reasons, he broadened the focus.

I've always thought of Florida as a fascinating, practically lawless state, an odd mix of con artists, swamp dwellers, and retirees. My impression of the lawlessness stems from long before the 2000 presidential election and goes back to The Orchid Thief and stories of fraudulent moving companies and the like. I lived in Florida growing up and am not immune to some of its charms. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised to hear about Nub City!

The other recommendation Rob made was an avant-garde band called The Residents. You have to check them out. Here's the description from their website:

The Residents have remained a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions; cloaking their lives and music in a haze of wilful obscurity, the band's members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise -- usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks -- and refusing to grant media interviews.

They've released over 60 albums and last year they launched a project called The River of Crime. It's basically a series of podcasts using the formula of old radio dramas. This one falls into the true crime genre. I listened to "The Kid Who Collected Crimes" and am anxious to hear more.

I'm overwhelmed with the amount of stuff - music, films, Internet projects, visual arts - The Residents produce so it will take me a while to have a feel for their work. But I thought I'd pass on Rob's recommendation since they've definitely peaked my interest.

There you have it. Two good recommendations from Pinback's Rob Crow. Zach made sure to say how much he doesn't like the band Rush -- another wise recommendation. And don't forget to listen to the interview on These Days next Tuesday at 10 am.

Also, Pinback will play at Lou's Records in Encinitas on the same day, September 11th, at 5 pm.

KPBS film critic Beth Accomando was willing to indulge me for a minute. She's a huge Matrix fan, but seem truly unfazed. She didn't think it would be a big deal with the fans. Really? They won't care? I mean all the guns and girls in leather? They don't identify with the films from a very male perspective? A perspective that likely doesn't include empathy with gender re-assignment? She just smiled, as if to say, you would be surprised. Either that, or she was pitying me as a sad, naive creature sheltered from the progressive thinking that permeates fanboy culture. Probably, a little of both.

Well, I woke up this morning to this news. It's not true. Larry remains Larry. Although, the blogosphere is still speculating that it could be true, since there have been no direct quotes from the Wachowski's themselves.

Jessica John in Communicating Doors

Last Sunday night, in an effort to beat the heat, I went to Cygnet Theater to see Communicating Doors. I so appreciate the presence of theaters like Cygnet in San Diego. They provide a smaller, more intimate setting and they take risks in their seasons, mounting challenging productions like last year's Bug and, early in 2007, Yellowman. The latter was directed by Esther Emery, who also directed Communicating Doors --and the two plays couldn't be more different.

First off, Communicating Doors is quite funny. I don't always laugh a lot at the theater, drawn as I am to dark, complicated, disturbing fare. Last month, I wrote about Hay Fever at the Old Globe, and while it was a comedy, it was all Noel Coward wit and style, with barbs pointed squarely at bohemian artists and high society. Communicating Doors delivers the belly laughs and is more about celebrating the absurd than satirizing. Its comedy is fast paced and the actors, under Emery's direction, have the timing nailed down. They rarely missed a beat in the show that I saw.

What's the play about? Well, Poopay, a dominatrix/prostitute who calls herself a sex therapist meets with a client who thinks he's on the verge of death and asks her to deliver a signed confession. This starts into motion a murder plot, some time travelling, and lots of cinematic send-ups. The playwright, the knighted author of over 70 plays, Alan Ayckbourn, has described Communicating Doors as a cross between Psycho and Back To the Future. Why didn't anybody think of this earlier? McFly as Norman Bates? Hello???

How the characters can time travel in this play is never really explained, though this shouldn't bother anyone. It's enough to know that when the characters walk through a certain door, they can travel back twenty years in history to the same hotel room where the story begins. Apparently, when the play first opened in the UK in 1994, critics were obsessed with the logistics of time travel and its lack of explanation. Oh, cranky critics! Can you really get all worked up over how time travel works when it hasn't been done in reality? It's a rather silly preoccupation.

Apparently, Aychbourn was also criticized for being too entertaining, said by critics to have gone soft in this play. At the end of the day, the people spoke. Stagings of the show have been very successful and it has become one of Aychbourn's most performed plays.

A couple of other observations: veteran San Diego actresses Jessica John and Sandy Campbell were very good as Poopay and Ruella, respectively. Brenda Dodge, in the role of Jessica, was not as strong, struggling with the accent and lacking fluidity in her comic timing.

Overall, this is an entertaining night at the theater. It's not going to change your life or offer any grand insight into human behavior. It just is what it is -- smart entertainment.

At Sunday's performance, the air conditioning struggled to combat the outrageous evening temperatures and a full house. It was hot in the theater and I expected the crowd to empty out after intermission. There was a lot of huffing and fanning of programs, but they all returned for the second act and laughed the whole way through.