Thursday, May 10, 2012

Kate-Miller Heidke's disastrous Q and A appearance

It's pretty clear that the producers of Q and A are determined to keep the panel leaning to the left. In fact, they are so desperate to achieve this outcome that they'll often invite guests who have little or no interest in politics, and are so stupid they even make other lefties look smart.

Kate-Miller Heidke is a case in point. She was on the panel last Monday. The producers must have known she was a rolled gold uber-twit. Singers are generally extremely self-centred, after all, and they'd had her on the show previously anyway. But they were confident she'd toe the leftist line -- which she did, of course. So that was all that mattered. (And she did sing a pretty song at the end. Bonus!)

They probably thought they'd made a good decision. But the viewers obviously didn't. Twitter erupted with derision on a scale usually associated with a Sophie Mirabella appearance. Even her fellow muso Anthony Callea laid the boot in, tweeting that she was a "total waste of space"

Realizing that she had to engage in some serious damage control, Miller-Heidke subsequently wrote a post on Facebook basically blaming the show's producers for misleading her about what subjects would be discussed in that episode.

It's petulant, infantile and unintentionally hilarious. There's comedy gold throughout, so I decided to select a section at random:

I suspect that nearly everyone who live-tweets Q and A harbours a secret desire to be on the show themselves.  They think they could do a better job than the people on the panel, and that adds spice to the whole thing.

Actually, she's got this kinda right. Yes, many of those tweeting up a storm out in TV-land do believe they could do a much better job -- and with very good reason. They're articulate people who are genuinely interested in the issues up for discussion.

That doesn't add spice to the whole thing. On the contrary, it adds a kind of mass tragic irony. Hell, they have to sit there watching vain quarterwits like Miller-Heidke make utter fools of themselves trying to look like they give a tinker's (which they clearly don't). Then they have to pay for the whole stupid, pointless exercize. Not just wasteful. It's cruel

Also, Tony Jones is one of the most brilliant and charismatic people alive in the world today.

If you believe that, well you really shouldn't be let out of the house. 

But I digress.  In the weeks leading up to the taping, I had an anxious tangle in my stomach.  I told Clementine Ford that my anus was quivering a little bit.  She agreed that that is the feeling you get before appearing on Q and A.

Well, yeah I suppose it would be if you're as vain, vacuous and bum-obsessed as these two bimbos.

It's amazing they even had her on the show in the first place, isn't it? What were they thinking? If she appears on it again it'll prove conclusively that the show's producers have no standards whatsoever.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Is Marisa Garreffa's show Cured Freudian or feminist?

Performance art almost always seems to contain two main ingredients: an anti-capitalist subtext, and an intention to confront or disturb the audience somehow. This is one of the main reasons I've just never been able to get into it.

Firstly, I don't think capitalism is all that bad. Sure, it's far from perfect, but it sure as hell beats the alternative. Also, I find the confrontational stuff a bit obnoxious, and often boring. Call me old fashioned, but I find entertainment a lot more enjoyable.

This one-woman show Cured by Marisa Garreffa, which is showing at the Blue Room, seems to tick both those boxes. The writer-performer butchers actual pig carcasses during her show satirizing the funeral industry. So it does sound like pretty traditional -- dare I say conservative -- performance art fare. Still, it does seem like quite an intriguing piece.

But what I find more intriguing is the fact that Ms Garreffa, daughter of a well known local butcher, has chosen to feature the cutting up of carcasses on stage. What's her motivation? Is she trying to get back at him or please him? Perhaps a bit of both? It all seems pretty Freudian to me ...

Or maybe that's the wrong way to look at it. It could be that she's a Marxist feminist and she's saying: "Daddy, this is nothing personal. I just despise your politics. You're such a sexist pig!"