“When You’re Strange”-people make documentaries about you.

I went with a group of friends to see “When You’re Strange” narrated by Johnny Depp at the Angelika. It’s a documentary about The Doors (obviously). And who doesn’t want to watch Jim Morrison slide slowly downhill while wearing leather pants?

I actually really enjoyed the movie. Lots of archival footage and, of course, the awesome music of The Doors.  I’m not that well versed in the Doors, myself, but I like enough of their music to enjoy listening to it for an hour and a half. As a musician I also really liked getting to see into their process a little bit.

The only part I didn’t understand was the footage of the Jim Morrison look-alike driving down the highway listening to news of Jim Morrison’s death. Is he supposed to be Jim Morrison? What happened to the guy who picked him up when he was hitchhiking whose car he is now driving? Did he kill him? Is he supposed to be Manson? Is he supposed to be Morrison? Are they saying that Morrison didn’t really die? All a little confusing to me. I eventually just tried to focus on the archival footage and ignore these inserts.

All in all if you want to know more about the Doors or are already a Doors fan-check it out.

Dark of the Moon- Level Ground Arts

So, this last weekend my friend took me to see Dark of the Moon at the Hub theater in Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum=scary, but it was worth the trip to the ghetto to see this show. It isn’t a perfect show, but most of my gripes were with the costuming and sets. It’s obvious that the theater company- Level Ground Arts- are working with a very tiny budget.  The acting and direction were spot on, though. Dark and creepy and strange- as any good show with witches and magic should be. It’s a Romeo and Juliet style love story- except I actually cared about them and wanted them to end up together. (Romeo and Juliet always just seemed really whiney to me. Everyone feels like that when they are fifteen and in love for the first time-then next week you break up and move on to someone else)  Definitely worth checking out if you get the chance. They have two more weekends left, I believe. www.levelgroundarts.com has all the information on tickets and things. I’ll be back for their next production: Poseidon-An Upside Down Musical, based on The Poseidon Adventure. Can’t wait to see how they pull that one off.