An “i” device is apparently becoming imperative

Big weekend for me: saw “On Golden Pond” and “Antony and Cleopatra” but unfortunately had to forgo “Standup vs. Improv” due to familial obligations. More on that in a second.

Richmond Shakespeare was doing ‘tweet from your seat’ night, which essentially encouraged people to have their cell phones or other digital devices out and to send their thoughts on the show to Twitter and Facebook during the action. Unfortunately, I’m a luddite without a smart phone type device (though I’ve made it known wherever I can that I covet an iPad…) and so could not take full advantage of the event. I did text some thoughts to my wife and such but it wasn’t the same. Which was OK because I enjoyed the tweet-free performance just fine, though I would have been curious, for instance, to know what the particularly lovely young lady in the front row tweeted when she got splashed during the Pompey party scene.

In other iNews, a REAL theater blogger acquaintance of mine (New York variety) dropped me a note about his new iPhone app that provides info on what’s available at the TKTS booth. Here’s a link to the application itself plus a link to a laudatory article in Entertainment Weekly. Just hearing about it made me want to run out and take the iPlunge. Maybe someday soon…

I’ll write more about “A&C” and “OGP” soon but in the meantime, did you catch the Thomas Silvestri editorial on the power of arts in the community? Good stuff. Also out there on the Internets are new reviews of “On Golden Pond” from John Porter and “Rent” by Joan Tupponce (link forthcoming...).

So one daughter saw “Inception” last weekend and loved it, immediately meaning that my second daughter was itching to check it out. Saturday night was the only window for such a thing so I had to kick my pal and colleague Mr. Porter to the curb and submit to the teenager. She didn’t exactly have to twist my arm to get me to go since “Inception” has turned into one of those curious phenomena that transcends just the narrow confines of cinema. Much the same as the popularity of “Avatar” turned into a discussion of how endemic 3D technology is going to become, the cycle of response to “Inception” has led to some conversation about our “everyone’s a critic” culture. Read this piece from an EW movie critic that ends up talking about what distinguishes a critic from a “fanboy” for more, if you are interested.

I would think that this is the kind of back-n-forth that only interests a critic like me, but apparently, given the number of comments, this is something that more than just a few people think about. It might also be assisted by the fact that the ending of “Inception” has so many people talking about the movie in general (here’s a piece on that, as well. Don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie!”

Personally, I thought “Inception” was very entertaining, the visuals were stunning, the story was pretty preposterous (I found myself just shaking my head at different times) and that the last scene makes the whole movie seem better than it is. Regardless of my reaction to the specifics of the movie, I have a wider-ranging reaction that the movie’s popularity shows that people are still open to art that makes them think. As dumbed-down as our culture sometimes seems (“Jersey Shore” anyone?), it’s heartening to think there are still brains out there that want to be nourished and exercised.