Word: fluting
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...kiddie-cult Pokemon (Japlish for "Pocket Monsters") phenomenon has officially begun its year-long national tour at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Flying completely under critics' radar, and presented with zero irony, "Pokemon Live" reveals itself as the 21st century's version of "The Magic Flute...
...good as Mozart's final opera - not even close. But consider that "The Magic Flute" began as an 18th-century version of pop-culture entertainment just like "Pokemon Live." Furthermore, "The Magic Flute" gets its imagery from the Masons, a no less enigmatic cult than the Pokemon series of video games, television shows, movies and comic books. Both "Pokemon Live" and "Magic Flute" are deeply rooted in the iconography of their time...
...Much like "Flute," Pokemon reflects our own world in strange and magical ways. It has been oriented entirely around pet creatures, the Pokemon, that start out cute and cuddly but can be trained to become fierce fighting monsters. They are then pitted in battles, like dog- or cockfighting, where they sustain pain and injury until a clear "winner" remains. Ash is a 10-year-old trainer, though for the stage show he and his friends were played by twenty-somethings. (This becomes disconcerting when his mother, looking the same age as him, laments his turning into a man; and Misty...
...World.") Some see this as a sign of civilization's decline. Not so. Corpratization has become the predominant cultural force in America and much of the rest of the world. Naturally it appears in our entertainment, just as the cultural forces of Mozart's time appear in "The Magic Flute." What's interesting is how little this type of live show has changed. "Pokemon Live" is third- rate even by these standards, much less as a work of art, and Mozart would be appalled. But as a showman, he could relate...
Well, he's done it. With a gleam in his eye and a champagne flute in his hand, Lance Armstrong pedaled to his second consecutive victory in the Tour de France Sunday, coasting down the Champs- Elysées like he hadn't just completed the most grueling sporting event on earth. It was an utterly satisfying win for Armstrong's legion fans, many of whom have spent much of the last three weeks despondently riffling through newspapers trying to eke out news of their hero...