We're back! Daisey Dukes It Out With Jobs - and Other Upcoming Events in the Week!

There seems no better time to get back to this blog than another Mike Daisey show at Woolly Mammoth. Got back last night from the second preview performance of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a near-two-hour monologue created and performed by Daisey. Go see it. I'm not a techie but I could easily identify with his takes on our digitalized, world-in-our-pockets, Steve-Jobs-ruled world. Just his take on PowerPoint alone - I don't want to spoil it - made me laugh enough to make an awful day seem better. (Or perhaps getting hacked in the morning made me appreciate this more.)
What makes Daisey so good at this is good writing and good acting. The character onstage may come out of himself, but it is still a character: he talks a bit like Kramer (the shouting), looks a bit like Newman (absolutely part of the persona), and has the wit of Seinfeld himself, the cynicism of George and the willingness to push back hard like Elaine. And he weaves quite a story, three parts a trip to China and three parts the rise, fall and rise of guess who. Reviews will soon come out and then the engagement through April 17 will quickly sell out. (They do sell nicely priced standing room when they sell out a show.) Enjoy.

COMING ATTRACTIONS
I will always give try to coming attractions in this space, and anyone who is part of The Art House meetup knows that we post some good events. But I can't post everything there.
- The wondrous Environmental Film Festival has a few days to go. Some highlights - tonight, my bike club friend and excellent writer/director Laura Seltzer's The Last Boat Out; Into the Cold has a free reception after (no reservations needed); and I saw Olmstead and America's Urban Park on PBS recently and it is very interesting and well done. On Thursday see the U.S. premiere of Planeat, preceded by Truck Farm. On Friday check out Sun Come Up, a 2011 Academy Award nominee in documentary short film, it follows the relocation of some of earth's first climate refugees, the Cartaret Islanders of the South Pacific, whose home is threatened by rising seas, with filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn.
- The Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival starts in full force at Georgetown University on Thursday with an onstage conversation with one of the world's great playwrights, Edward Albee. It's free but you need to reserve tickets. The catch is this events begins at 5. I will be there. (I believe a free reception follows.) Check out the whole Festival here; about half the events are free. I recommend Sunday's free talk with the very funny playwright Christopher Durang and Saturday afternoon's theater piece (it's part of their Glass Menagerie Project).
- On Monday, the Synagogue at 6th and I is hosting an Irish/Israeli music group called Evergreen. Also free (but requires reservations) and it sounds exciting.  See you there!