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The Kims of Comedy
You gotta love that the tour is called the Kims of Comedy, even though none of the stand-ups are named Kim, and two of them have white last names. The tour name is also a jab at how Asians are always viewed as having no individuality, as if they all march through life in lockstep like Kim Jong Il disciples. Published in the Metro on August 2, 2006.
Jim Gaffigan
The moment you hear the words "airline" and "peanuts," you know you're trapped in a room with a bad observational stand-up (or an ancient Evening at the Improv rerun full of 10 of them). On the other hand, a really good observational stand-up is someone like Jim Gaffigan. Published in the Metro on May 31, 2006.
Titus:
Ringing in the new year at the Improv
After wrapping
up a three-season run as the star, co-creator and co-producer of the dark,
acclaimed Fox sitcom Titus, stand-up comic Christopher
Titus is touring the country and returning to his South Bay homebase,
where many of the strange but true family experiences that inspired episodes
of Titus took place. Titus grew up in Fremont and Newark and began
his stand-up career in South Bay comedy clubs like Rooster T. Feathers
in Sunnyvale. "I remember going there when there was a sign at the
door that said, 'Check your knives and guns at the door,' " Titus
recalls. "It was crazy. It was a hardcore redneck biker bar."
Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga News
and the Willow Glen Resident on December 25, 2002.
SJMA looks at emerging L.A. art scene
Since the
late 1950s, Los Angeles art has been characterized by a detached, "cool"
attitude. The San Jose Museum of Art's "L.A. Post-Cool"
exhibition presents the argument that in recent years, this notion of
"cool" has been viewed by L.A. artists to be "uncool"
itself. In other words, "cool" is going the way of those La
Brea Tar Pit dinosaurs. Guest curated by L.A. art critic Michael Duncan,
"L.A. Post-Cool" focuses on L.A. painters and sculptors who
are "fed up with the heavy-handed sarcasm of stand-up comedy, sitcoms
and nearly every aspect of mass media culture." Published in the
Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga News and the Willow
Glen Resident on December 4, 2002.
'Two Gentlemen of Verona' vie for a Hollywood starlet
In the San
Jose Repertory Theatre's production of Shakespeare's The
Two Gentlemen of Verona, the Bard's text remains the same, but the
play is now set in Hollywood during the silent film era. One cast member
who enjoyed researching the period is Jen Taylor, a Seattle
stage actress and video game voiceover artist who voiced Cortana the A.I. in the Halo series and
'60s spy heroine Cate Archer in No One Lives
Forever 2. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times,
the Saratoga News and the Willow Glen Resident on November
27, 2002.
Monks in search of miracle stumble into farce
Nothing is
sacred in the San Jose Stage Company's production of Michael Hollinger's
1996 play Incorruptible, a medieval farce about desperate French
monks who hatch an elaborate scheme to save their monastery from financial
ruin. Incorruptible pokes fun at all kinds of targets, from religion
to prostitution. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga
News and the Willow Glen Resident on November 20, 2002.
'Santaland Diaries' grew from experience as a holiday elf
Not everybody's
holiday experiences are merry and bright. One person who would testify
to that is humorist David Sedaris, who struck a chord with holiday grouches
everywhere when he first read The Santaland Diaries on NPR in 1992.
Bay Area actor John Michael Beck, who plays Sedaris in a San Jose theater
production of Santaland, once worked for an aromatherapy store
and says he can relate to Sedaris' holiday horror stories. Published in
the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga News and the Willow
Glen Resident on November 13, 2002.
Museum gets serious about its permanent collection
For the first
time in the San Jose Museum of Art's 30-year history, selections from
the museum's permanent collection have been put on long-term display instead
of being displayed on a temporary basis. Curated by museum curator Susan
Landauer, the "Collection Highlights" exhibition has been dedicated
to the late artist James Doolin (1932-2002), whose signature works were
photorealistic L.A. cityscapes, such as 1998's "Psychic" and
1977's "Shopping Mall." Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times,
the Saratoga News and the Willow Glen Resident on November
6, 2002.
Gotanda keeps his subjects edgy, characters complex
San Francisco-based
playwright/filmmaker Philip Kan Gotanda is known for daring to be different,
a quality that has won him a following in the Bay Area and made him an
influence for aspiring Asian American writers and filmmakers. The Wind
Cries Mary is another example of the Japanese American playwright's
preference for edgy, challenging material over safe, predictable plays.
Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga News
and the Willow Glen Resident on October 16, 2002.
Mixing it up: Local access to global culture
Now in its
10th year, downtown San Jose's Performing Arts Series (PAS) showcase has
given smaller or mid-size arts groups—such as San Jose Dance Theatre
and Dimension Performing Arts—a chance to perform for larger crowds
that they probably wouldn't have been able to reach without the PAS program's
guidance. But recent developments like the Packard Foundation's grant
cutbacks and a city plan to slash arts funds by almost 50 percent do not
bode well for the future of the PAS. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times,
the Saratoga News and the Willow Glen Resident on October
2, 2002.
City Lights play sees comic potential in android actors
British playwright
Alan Ayckbourn's 1999 romantic sci-fi farce Comic Potential envisions
a future in which actors have been replaced by androids called "actoids."
It's a concept that might not seem too far-fetched at a time when control-freak
filmmakers like George Lucas have discovered that they can go to their
computers and tweak an actor's subpar performance with just a click of
the mouse. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the Saratoga
News and the Willow Glen Resident on September 11, 2002. Note:
the headline on the Web page is incorrect.
Daisy Eagan gets aggressive for acting stint in Palo Alto
At the age
of 11, Daisy Eagan became the toast of Broadway—and the youngest
Tony winner ever—for her performance in 1991's The Secret Garden.
Years after her win, Eagan has been struggling to find work again. She
recently had a brush with pre-Osbournes reality TV fame when she
and 11 other actors allowed cameramen to follow them around on auditions,
acting classes and sometimes humiliating gigs as part of Bravo's The
It Factor. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and the
Saratoga News on August 14, 2002. A different version of the article
can be found here.
Will Huddleston does no-holds-Bard Shakespeare
If The
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is like a blender—comically
mixing up characters and moments from different Shakespeare plays—then
Will Huddleston, the director of the Sunnyvale production of this Bard
spoof, is the guy who keeps hitting "puree." Published in the
Los Gatos Weekly-Times and the Saratoga News on July 24,
2002.
Community theater groups experience decline in attendance
Members of
such South Bay community theater groups as Theatre in the Mountains and
the Sunnyvale Community Players are frustrated that they're playing to
emptier houses than they've expected. Published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times
and the Saratoga News on July 24, 2002.
Filipino dance company Kaisahan celebrates its 20th year
For two decades,
members of the Filipino folk dance company Kaisahan of San Jose have dedicated
themselves to preserving Filipino culture through song and dance. Published
in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and the Saratoga News on July
17, 2002.
In the Mood for Crossover
Filipino American
cinema gets a boost from the 19th San Francisco International Asian American
Film Festival. Published in the Metro on March 15, 2001.
Beastie Masters
The Criterion
Collection's Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD release is a keeper.
Published in the Metro on January 4, 2001.
Learning from Helping
Bay Area documentary
filmmaker Bob Gliner interviews Americans involved in global volunteer
work in Making a Difference, a two-part documentary series for
public television. Published in Metro Santa Cruz on August 23,
2000.
Singled Out
A list of
2004's best singles, both legal and illegal, many first encountered through
audio bloggery. Published in the Metro on December 29, 2004.
Nikka Costa, Everybody Got Their Something
Chris Rock
wisely avoided concluding the four-year run of his HBO talk show with
a sentimental Kathie Lee-style farewell speech and opted to close with
a slamming live performance by a feisty little white chick in bell-bottom
military fatigue pants named Nikka Costa. Published in the Metro on
June 14, 2001. Note: Scroll down to the second capsule on the page.
Samurai High
One of the
highlights of 1998's Six-String Samurai, that oddball mishmash
of Kurosawa, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Cold War paranoia satire and bad
Elvis flicks, was the infectious Russian rockabilly soundtrack by the
Red Elvises. Published in the Metro on May 10, 2001. Note:
Scroll down to the second capsule on the page.
How It Really Goes
De La Soul
and Wyclef Jean stick it to "shiny suit MCs." Published in the
Metro on November 2, 2000.
Los Amigos Invisibles, Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey Into
Space
On the late,
lamented Homicide: Life on the
Street, laid-back detective Meldrick Lewis once said he drank
iced tea all the time because "it keeps me in a summertime frame
of mind." The funked-out Esquivel-meets-The Brand New Heavies sound
of the Venezuelan sextet Los Amigos Invisibles does the same for me. Published
in the Metro on October 5, 2000. Note: Scroll down to the second
capsule on the page.
Rap en Español
A look at
the L.A. soulatino collective Ozomatli and the appropriately named Mexican
rap-metal band Molotov. Published in the Metro on August 10, 2000.
Shining Pearl!
Whenever R&B
and hip-hop artists from different groups collaborate, the results are
often overproduced and lackluster. That isn't the case with Lucy Pearl.
Published in the Metro on June 29, 2000 and in the Sonoma County
Independent on July 27, 2000.
Hans Zimmer, M:I-2: Music From the Original Motion Picture
Score
If you're
a fan of the old Mission: Impossible TV series and its pulsating
Lalo Schifrin jazz themes, you might consider Hans Zimmer's score from
John Woo's sumptuously shot but so-so sequel to be as sacrilegious as
the movie itself. Published in the Metro on July 6, 2000. Note:
Scroll down to the second capsule on the page.
Daisy
Eagan
This is a
longer version of an August 14, 2002 SVCN article about actress Daisy
Eagan, who won a Tony when she was 11 for her performance in the 1991
Broadway musical version of The Secret Garden. In more recent years,
Eagan has had a tough time finding consistent work, and her experiences
in the current dog-eat-dog New York acting scene were captured on Bravo's
The It Factor, a reality series that followed the career paths
of 12 struggling Big Apple actors. A few months after The It Factor's
run, Eagan starred in a Bay Area production of Be Aggressive, playwright
Annie Weisman's coming-of-age play about SoCal cheerleaders.
The
Snoop Sisters
An interview
with Laurie Agard, the director of the indie kids' movie Frog and Wombat,
starring Lindsay Wagner and Ronny Cox. Originally published in Primer
in September 1998.
The
Joker's Wild
Mark Hamill
discusses his guest appearance on The Simpsons, his role
as the Joker on the Batman cartoons and of course, Star Wars,
in an interview for A Fistful of Soundtracks.
The
Cowboy Way
An interview
with Hawaiian filmmaker/musician Eddie Kamae. Originally published in
City on a Hill Press on April 30, 1998.
Under
My Sum
In a November
1997 interview, music critic Crispin Sartwell, a columnist for the New
York Press, discusses his mathematical formula for rating rock
bands and their music, and with time on his side (as well as numbers),
he concludes that the Stones are the greatest band in rock history. Originally
published in City in a Hill Press on January 15, 1998.
Making
Batman and Superman Fly
Writer Paul
Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman:
The Animated Series) talks about scripting and producing the animated
adventures of America's two most-loved men in tights (and I don't mean
Siegfried and Roy). Originally published in City in a Hill Press on
February 27, 1997 and later posted in a longer version on the Animation
Nerd's Paradise Web site.
Muppet
Master
Jerry Juhl,
who co-wrote most of the Muppet feature films, recalls nearly four decades
of writing for those smart-ass sock puppets, in a February 1997 interview.
The
Best and Worst of '97-'98
The school
year in arts and entertainment. Originally published in City on a Hill
Press on June 11, 1998.
Viagra,
Viagra
A Man of No
Impotence: A song about Viagra, sung to the tune of "Volare."
Originally published in City on a Hill Press on May 7, 1998.
A
Spike Decker Joint
Spike World:
An interview with animation festival promoter Spike Decker, the Spike
in Spike and Mike. Originally published in City on a Hill Press
on April 30, 1998.
Pacific
Avenues
A look at
Santa Cruz's Pacific Rim Film Festival. Originally published in City
on a Hill Press on April 23, 1998.
Danger,
Bill Clinton!
"Never
fear. Starr is here." A Lost in Space parody with the Clintons
as the Robinsons and Kenneth Starr as Dr. Smith. Originally published
in City on a Hill Press on April 16, 1998.
Rerelease
Me
A list of
movies that could benefit from a "Special Edition" a la Star
Wars and Touch of Evil. Originally published in City on
a Hill Press on March 12, 1998.
Unz
Upon a Time
A column spoofing
both software developer Ron Unz's silly late '90s campaign against bilingual
classrooms in California and the state of network news journalism, which
I felt was regressing back to the biased, one-dimensional newswriting
styles of those old newsreels when I wrote this satirical piece. Originally
published in City on a Hill Press on February 5, 1998.
Sacred
Chow
A brief guide
to three classics starring Hong Kong film legend Chow Yun-Fat. Originally
published in City on a Hill Press on February 5, 1998.
Toshiro
the Hero
The late Toshiro
Mifune paved the way for darker action heroes like Clint Eastwood and
is an icon for aspiring Asian American actors and filmmakers everywhere.
Originally published in City on a Hill Press on January 8, 1998.
Unoriginal
Motion Picture Soundtracks
"Songs
Inspired by the Motion Picture" albums are taking the spotlight away
from film composers and their scores. And most of these albums suck too.
Originally published in City on a Hill Press on November 20, 1997.
Scooby-Doo,
We'll Miss You
A look back
at the late Don Messick, the voice of Scooby-Doo and countless other Hanna-Barbera
characters. Originally published in City on a Hill Press on November
13, 1997.
Sportscasters
Are Going...Going...Gone
What's up
with all these scandals involving sportscasters like Marv Albert and Frank
Gifford? I mean, you never saw Howard Cosell get arrested for mooning.
Jim McKay never went to the slammer for soliciting hoes. I'm not surprised
that these sportscasters have kinky sex lives. All those hours in the
booth can make a man feel repressed. Originally published in City on
a Hill Press on October 16, 1997.
Cape/Off
A review of
the 1997 animated TV-movie World's Finest, in which characters
from the cult hit Batman: The Animated Series and its sister toon
Superman face off in a not-so-Superfriendly crossover. Originally
published in City on a Hill Press on October 16, 1997.
The
Best of '96-'97
The best in
arts and entertainment during the '96-'97 school year. Originally published
in City on a Hill Press on June 5, 1997.
George
Lucas' Other Sci-Fi Masterpiece
It's the film
that influenced The Matrix and gave a theater stereo system its
name: THX 1138, made by George Lucas during his starving-filmmaker
days. Originally published in City on a Hill Press on May 8, 1997.
Introducing
Aquino-ese
In this column,
I invented my own new language, inspired by those Star Trek: The Next
Generation aliens who speak in literary metaphors. Originally published
in City on a Hill Press on April 24, 1997.
Charlie
Chan Is Dead
A column about
Miramax's absurd plan to do a '90s Charlie Chan movie, a project they
eventually scrapped after this column was published in City on a Hill
Press on February 27, 1997.
Aki's bakery store pleases customers with guava cake
A fixture
in San Jose's Japantown and Willow Glen, Aki's Bakery has specialized
in designing cakes for special occasions since 1963. Its signature item
is the guava chiffon cake. (My older brother got his graduation cake from
Aki's, and of course, it was the guava cake.) Published in the Willow
Glen Resident on March 13, 2002.
Sue's Indian Cuisine helps similar restaurants to grow
Though Sue
Sista, founder and owner of Sue's Indian Cuisine, passed away in January,
her family promises to maintain the high quality of the Indian recipes
that made her what her youngest brother Srinu Sista calls "a restaurateur
par excellence." Published in the Willow Glen Resident on
March 6, 2002.
"It's
time someone shook up a 'burb that makes Peoria look like the Castro District."
Coochie's
Cakes at 1725 Meridian Ave. bakes erotic cakes with designs copied from
Penthouse spreads and classic movie nude scenes. Too bad you can't order
one of their great cakes because the place exists only in my imagination.
This article is fake. It was an April Fools prank I played on co-workers
and friends.
Pizza My Heart delights WG with crusts, sauce
The Central
Coast's most popular New York-style pizzeria opens a new location in Palo
Alto and gets complimented by former New Yorkers who live in Willow Glen.
Published in the Willow Glen Resident on February 27, 2002.
Upscale wine products sold at WG Grapevine
Has all the
recent praise for wine as a health drink boosted sales at Willow Glen's
Grapevine wine shop? Published in the Willow Glen Resident on January
30, 2002.
Cooking Etc. offers even more choices to area chefs
Want to have
some fun while reading my articles for the SVCN-owned papers? Play my
SVCN Article Drinking Game. Drink every time the editor gave one of my
articles a headline using the verb "offers." Published in the
Willow Glen Resident on January 16, 2002.
Cafe Adriatic is Willow Glen's newest restaurant
One of the
most popular dishes at this Mediterranean eatery is the spinach salad,
which is covered in a pancetta vinaigrette that's so tasty Popeye ought
to consider slathering his pre-fisticuffs spinach with it sometime. Published
in the Willow Glen Resident on December 26, 2001.
Italian-Americans rave about La Villa's "ravs"
In Willow
Glen, the holidays aren't complete without raviolis from La Villa Deli.
Published in the Willow Glen Resident on December 12, 2001.
WG's Tea, Travel & Tiques combines three pleasures
"Tea
is kind of unexplored in this valley," says Joanne Rosso, co-owner
of Willow Glen's Tea, Travel & Tiques. "We thought that we'd
get Silicon Valley back on its feet again, one cup at a time." Published
in the Willow Glen Resident on November 28, 2001.
Jersey's brings a taste of Philly to Lincoln Avenue
Named "the
official West Coast home of the Philadelphia Eagles" by Eagles owner
Jeffrey Lurie, the Philly cheesesteak joint Jersey's opens a second location
in downtown Willow Glen. Niners and Raiders fans, don't worry. Unlike
other Philly sports fans, Jersey's owner Carl Miller won't bite. Published
in the Willow Glen Resident on November 21, 2001.
Aqui innovates by mixing different styles of cuisine
Willow Glen's
most popular Mexican joint is the "Cal-Mex" restaurant Aqui,
where the tamales are served with Thai peanut sauce. Published in the
Willow Glen Resident on November 7, 2001.
Frank Giacomelli, founder of La Villa Deli, died April 9
La Villa Deli,
originally owned by Frank and Ann Giacomelli, has been a Willow Glen fixture
for more than 50 years. Published in the Willow Glen Resident on
May 8, 2002.
James Thatcher
James Thatcher,
a beloved longtime resident of Willow Glen and the father of Thrasher publisher Kevin Thatcher, passes away. Published
in the Willow Glen Resident on May 1, 2002.
©
2006 Jimmy Aquino
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Murders and Acquisitions
The antiheroes of Profit
and American Gothic were the '90s precursors to The Sopranos
and The Shield
By Jimmy Aquino
(Note:
This 2005 article was written for Metro Newspapers, but was rejected.)
During the
DVD audio commentary for the pilot episode of Fox's acclaimed 1996 corporate
satire Profit, co-creator John McNamara (Eyes) amusingly
recalls the day he and his writing partner, David Greenwalt (Angel),
pitched the pilot's script to a CBS executive. Things appeared to be going
smoothly until McNamara and Greenwalt described the end of Act 1: the
show's lead—suave, hotshot junior executive Jim Profit—shares
a steamy kiss with an attractive, slightly older woman.
Then Profit
says to the woman, "Hi, Mom."
"That's the
main guy? Okay, you can stop the pitch," the repulsed executive said to
the writers. "Get out of my office now."
According
to McNamara, the CBS tool, whose name he refuses to divulge during the
commentrak, went on to produce popular but dreadful reality shows, "exactly
the kind of job he so richly deserves."
That's Profit
in a nutshell: too dark and twisted for network TV, which claims to celebrate
inventive shows like Profit but ultimately favors—and survives
off of—less costly, less challenging reality pap.
In 2005,
the network ratings charts are dominated by reality and interchangeable
police procedurals, but in 1996, tired Seinfeld and Friends
ripoffs ruled the top of the charts. Today, those lame sitcoms have been
all but forgotten by cult TV fans. (Remember The Single Guy? I
sure as hell don't.) Instead, the shows that I remember the most from
1996 are ones that the Nielsen families ignored: Profit and American
Gothic, both witty, multilayered dramas with sociopathic protagonists,
and both destined to earn a bigger following on DVD. They were ahead of
their time, airing years before audiences were willing to embrace The
Sopranos, The Shield and Deadwood, which also feature
not-so-virtuous characters as the leads. There's no doubt HBO or FX would
have given the time of day to an oddity like Profit.
Released
in August, Profit: The Complete Series collects all eight episodes
of the creepy series that McNamara has described as "like The Fugitive,
if the fugitive killed his wife." Brilliantly underplayed by a predatory-eyed,
breathy-voiced Adrian Pasdar, the title character—who sleeps with
his kinky Southern-belle stepmother (Lisa Blount) and lies and cheats
his way to the top of the corporate ladder at the Gracen & Gracen conglomerate—may
be the most polite and well-mannered psychopath in TV history. It's remarkable
how Pasdar never once raised his voice during the entire series, and he
did so without looking stiff and corny, unlike David Caruso on CSI:
Miami.
The real-life
case of a serial killer who was raised in a cardboard box served as the
inspiration for Profit's twisted upbringing. Even as an adult, Profit
continues to sleep inside the same Gracen & Gracen box his abusive father
used to imprison him in, as we see whenever each episode closes with a
naked Profit curling up into the box—still an unsettling visual after
all these years.
While Profit
aired for only four weeks, CBS's supernatural drama American Gothic,
created by former teen idol-turned-writer Shaun Cassidy and produced by
Sam Raimi, got to last a full season despite low ratings. Hitting the
stores on October 25 in a three-disc box set, American Gothic swam
in the same murky waters as Profit—murder, blackmail, rape,
child abuse and incest—and didn't take itself too seriously either.
Gary Cole
may forever be remembered as the unctuous Lumbergh in Office Space,
but his American Gothic role as Lucas Buck, the manipulative sheriff
of Trinity, South Carolina, was an even juicier turn. Like Alec Baldwin
and more recently, Vince Vaughn, Cole started out specializing in dead-serious
portrayals of jerks and psychos but has revealed a great comic side in
later roles, including Buck, who's seen ominously whistling the Andy
Griffith Show theme at one point during the pilot.
The sheriff,
who may or may not be Satan himself, lives by the credo of "never letting
your conscience be your guide." The pilot opens with Buck breaking the
neck of mentally ill teenager Merlyn Temple (Sarah Paulson), a murder
scene that got the show in trouble with CBS censors. Merlyn spends the
rest of the series as a ghost, trying to protect her 10-year-old brother,
Caleb (Lucas Black), from his illegitimate father—Buck. American
Gothic gets portentous at times—Merlyn and the sheriff battle
over Caleb's soul—but the dark humor redeems it.
The nasty
behavior of Jim Profit and Sheriff Buck might make you cringe, but they
look like saints compared to the scummy network execs who killed their
shows.
Profit:
The Complete Series, Anchor Bay Home Entertainment, 29.98. American Gothic:
The Complete Series, Universal Studios Home Video, 49.98.
(Click
here for a more printer-friendly
version.)
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