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grinninfooleI just spent $10 to see a really bad event in the performance space at Thorne's Market. (Here's the story in the Hampshire Gazette that lured me in: http://www.gazettenet.com/03132003/entertai/4229.htm) I won't even call it a show, because it wasn't. The flyer has an attractive young woman on it and a slogan: "... not just another fashion statement" In fact, however, that is just exactly what it is. The man of the one man show, Lee Ross, came out and gave an informal lecture for an hour. He talked as if he was just chatting for a bit before actually doing the show that we had paid to see, all the while telling us about his performances with Cirque Du Soleil, trips to New Zealand and Australia, street performing in Boulder CO and writing screen plays which are apparently being optioned in Hollywood. He has seen and been very impressed by the Matrix (he gives a half-assed rendition of Morpheus explaining the Matrix to Neo) and believes that there can be a better form of media out there, something more interactive than whatever exists today. How it would work, what good it would be, who it would serve, what it would be like, and how it would really be better he doesn't actually say beyond a few vague notions literally sketched on a sheet of paper. He does offer some homespun jargon for contemporary media culture (none of which was memorable, interesting, or useful) and he makes really pathetic attempts to explain the golden mean and the pythagorean or regular solids. He didn't relate them to anything else and as far as I could tell he didn't really understand any of the concepts he referred to. After subjecting us to his pseudo-intellectualism for an hour, string us along before getting whatever his point was, he stopped. In the end, it was all a big load of empty nothing, a complete waste of time and money.
There was more to hate than this, actually. Mr. Ross also took time out to display his enormous cynicism and grubbiness of soul by mocking the pretentions and mannerisms of various entertainment executives whose only apparent fault has been to a willingness to hire Mr. Ross. Indeed, he made a point of contrasting himself to their superficiality, their naked willingness to exploit others. Having spent an hour observing Mr. Ross while fruitlessly waiting for him to perform the advertised performance, I am at a loss to perceive any difference. Certainly, he never actually entertained me. Sydneycat is going to ask for our money back tomorrow from the Northampton Box Office.
Hmmm. Syd opined that the 'show' felt like a pitch for a timeshare in the Berkshires. After checking out the website on the flyer (http://www.applywithin.com/index.html) I have discovered that, in fact, the show IS a marketing pitch. So, it's official: Lee Ross is a whore, a fraud and a swindler. May he rot in the Hollywood hell he claims to hate.
There was more to hate than this, actually. Mr. Ross also took time out to display his enormous cynicism and grubbiness of soul by mocking the pretentions and mannerisms of various entertainment executives whose only apparent fault has been to a willingness to hire Mr. Ross. Indeed, he made a point of contrasting himself to their superficiality, their naked willingness to exploit others. Having spent an hour observing Mr. Ross while fruitlessly waiting for him to perform the advertised performance, I am at a loss to perceive any difference. Certainly, he never actually entertained me. Sydneycat is going to ask for our money back tomorrow from the Northampton Box Office.
Hmmm. Syd opined that the 'show' felt like a pitch for a timeshare in the Berkshires. After checking out the website on the flyer (http://www.applywithin.com/index.html) I have discovered that, in fact, the show IS a marketing pitch. So, it's official: Lee Ross is a whore, a fraud and a swindler. May he rot in the Hollywood hell he claims to hate.
