Live Kate...

[ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T. Ganzer)]

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>From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
>
>The way IED now sees it, part of the success of that show was its
>nearly constant flirtation with the edge of bad taste -- its
>excruciating intimacy and uninhibited childishness. All of Kate's work
>from 1975 to 1979 was, in IED's opinion, an immense investigation
>into the mind of the child -- an epic and deliberate indulgence in
>pre-adolescent and early pubescent feeling and thought. As such,
>the Tour of Life represented the apex of that kind of
>OTT emotionalism in the history of civilization. The fact that
>it's frequently very hard for an adult to sit through it without
>wincing and squirming in his/her seat supports this theory.

I don't have any trouble sitting through this show without wincing and
squirming. Maybe I'm just a child at heart :-)
I will agree that it is the product of a uninhibited and precocious
young creative mind, but don't really think that it constantly flirts
with bad taste. It's really a big experiment in which some material
worked and some didn't.  As I mentioned yesterday, I think the real problem
is the way the show was filmed. This show was put together as a STAGE
show. The exagerated facial expressions and body movements that are
necessary for the stage were not meant to be seen close-up as in the video.
Unfortunately, Keith McMillan thought he was filming a rock concert and that
all anyone would want to see would be close-ups of the performer. 
This would work with a Roger Daltry, but does an injustice to Kate's show.
In the few clips where you can see the entire stage (and see it as the audience
sees it) you get an entirely different perspective of what's going on. When
I view it with this in mind, even scenes like the gunfight scene in "James
and the Cold Gun", which I once thought were incredibly stupid, looks entirely
different. Ah, to see the show live in it's entirety...
"Quick Watson, set the time machine for London, May 13th, 1979..."

"We're all alone on the stage tonight..."
MarK T. Ganzer
Internet: ganzer@trout.nosc.mil  
UUCP: {ucbvax,hplabs}!sdcsvax!nosc!ganzer
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