Nerdfighters Gazette

Today I got to preview a stage play called The Global Lovers, part of the 2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival.  Cincinnati Fringe Festival is a twelve day festival of Performance, Art, Film, and Music in down town Cincinnati. The Festival starts tomorrow, June 1, at 6PM with the CityBeat Fringe Kickoff. $5 is all it takes to get into the party tomorrow night. Tickets for performances cost $12 for any single performance, $60 for a six performance pass, and $200 for a full pass that will get you into any and every performance in the festival. For More information and tickets, visit www.cincyfringe.com

So now on to the one performance I got a chance to see. The Global Lovers was a poetic drama about sex-slavery. It was what I would consider intense and deep. However, it was neither vulgar nor obscene. Overall I enjoyed the performance. The Actresses in this play (the whole cast was female) seemed to really be in touch with their characters, from the little girl growing up in her Kentucky home to the girl who had been sold into the trade so that her parents could have the money to get the things that they needed. The local newspaper summed it up pretty well in saying that it is “weird, in a good way.” The message in the play is a deep one, along with much of the dialog. It is a show that will stay in your mind, sticking out as good, and should probably not be seen by small children, they wouldn’t understand most of it anyway… All-in-all it is an amazing show and I encourage anyone who can make it to Cincinnati to go see it for themselves. Show dates for The Global Lovers are June 4, 5, 9, 11, 12. for more information and to purchase tickets visit www.cincyfringe.com/the-global-lovers.

-David Liles

This is just a small piece I wrote during a literature meeting and I wanted any one who felt like it to do their own version of this prompt:  Write about Fear.

Have you ever had those nights when you’re walking up the stairs and you hear something creaking behind you? When you turn around to check what was there you find yourself staring at empty darkness.  You sigh, turn back around, and hurry back to your bed. But as you lie there, you notice things such as the closet door being open, when you remember closing it.  The small hand your mother gave you for placing your rings seems to be making a shadow on the wall – it looks like the devils head.
It starts to rain and you can hear the wind howling through the trees.  The broken gutters clanging on the side of house right below your windows…sounds like someone wants to come in.
Then the images slowly form in your mind.  A one armed mutilated zombie demon bent on your destruction; the girl from the ring walking towards you through the wall; Freddy Krueger hiding behind your closet.   You find yourself burying yourself under your blanket – breathing heavily, muttering words of insanity.  One small squeak causes your stomach to churn.  You hear voices and the next thing you know is that you’re screaming into your father’s face trying to punch him.

Thunder.
A sound from which a man,
Deaf and dumb,
Cowers in fear.
A roar which makes
Walls stumble.
Faces freeze.
Animals cry.

Powerful it comes,
Bringing with it
The fearsome sparks of
Lightning
And the sorrowful falling of
Rain.
Together they bond
To conceive a creature.

A creature so fearsome.
A creature hiding behind
Thunderous facades
And electric gestures.
Yet, all the while,
So gentle,
With tears of rain,
That no one may fathom
Its true nature.

A lonesome soul,
Yearning to know this creature.
Wishing to walk in the downfall.
Wishing to feel the truth.
A caring soul,
Wishing to end the storm;
End the terror.

This soul
Attempts to breathe happiness
Into a creature so lost.
Instead, there, in the darkest clouds,
Is found
That all hope,
All wishes,
All dreams,
Must be abandoned.

The creature
Cannot be transformed.
The soul cannot save
What will forever be lost.

Once again, I wake up at 7:00 a.m.

I’m not late to school, even though it starts at 7:30.

I work silently in first period, with only a few sentences exchanged with my two friends.

Second period Geometry is boring. I read most of the time.

Third period is a joke, and so are the people I’m forced to sit by.

Nothing new is learned in fourth period. I am seated in a group with the girls who talk about me behind my back.

Lunch is full of reminders that people hate me, as we play card games at the table.

Band is fifth period, and I sit quietly unnoticed.

Few people talk to me in gym sixth period, and most of those meanly. Even though I know a lot of the people in my class.

Seventh is a contest between my friend and I to get the best grade.

I stay after school for whichever sport or activity I am currently involved in. Who knows which one?

My mother picks me up sometime from 4:00 to 7:00, depending on the activity.

We get home and walk inside. I go to my room.

I cry, mostly out of loneliness. And it’s just another ordinary day for me.

Anna: “Hi. You’re early. I was just masturbating.“

Mark: “That makes me think of your vagina.“

You had me at “masturbating”. Those, by the way, are the first two lines of dialogue (after a quick prologue) in The Invention of Lying, a romantic comedy written and directed by Matthew Robinson and comic genius Ricky Gervais.

The story is set in an alternate reality where humans haven’t evolved the ability to tell a lie. Everyone tells the absolute truth and speaks very bluntly. Because of this, there is no such thing as fiction, deceit or even religion. That is, until screenwriter Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) has an epiphany and tells the world’s first lie…

Reader: “Hey! How about a spoiler warning first you jerk!“

Louis C.K., Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner

Oh calm down easily excited reader. You find all of that out within the first two minutes of the movie. Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…

This romantic comedy is one of those “high concept” romantic comedies, which basically means that they tried to think outside the box while writing a romantic comedy. And they did. So far out of the box, in fact, that they almost completely left the “romance” out of the romantic comedy. Mark is in love with Anna (Jennifer Garner), but she doesn’t find him attractive and this keeps them from being more than just friends. For the entire movie. Mark pines for her, and she reminds him that he’s fat and has a snub nose. It’s very robotic, as is Jennifer’s performance. Even her mannerisms are robotic. We’re supposed to fall in love with her, but she is such a shallow person that we tend not to care about her. Stay friends. I’m good with that.

The comedy aspect is what shines. With a ton of great cameos from some very funny people like Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, Martin Starr, Stephanie March, Jason Bateman, Stephen Merchant, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Edward Norton amongst others, it’s hard to go wrong. The front end of the movie is packed with hilarious takes on what familiar situations would be like if people didn’t lie. And then there are more funny situations like that. And then even more…

I wish I could explain this & do it justice.

Okay, so they kind of run that concept into the ground. But not long into it they switch gears when Mark tells that first lie. Same dog, new tricks. No matter what Mark says, people believe him without a second thought because there is no such thing as deceit. Bank tellers, hot women on the street, casino pit bosses. All easily hoodwinked. And then they run that concept into the ground until finally Mark has to deal with the consequences of some of his more elaborate lies.

Overall, the movie is enjoyable if you’re looking for a comedy that will take things  to ridiculous places. Although it can be repetitive at times, Ricky Gervais’ performance helps keep things from feeling completely stale. Louis C.K. is great as Mark’s alcoholic best friend Greg. And you’ll love to hate Rob Lowe as Brad Kessler, another screenwriter who works at Lecture Films with Mark.

THE VERDICT
This movie reminds me of the first time I had sex. Lots of laughs, very little romance, and a fairly stiff and unconvincing performance by the leading lady who kept reminding me that I was fat and had a snub nose. Oh, to be 17 again…