Announcing the debut of Wiener Sausage: The Podcast!

(These are show notes from my short-lived and perhaps ill-fated podcast with Dan Sullivan. May it always at least live on here. Sigh.)

Episode #1 Show Notes - "A Trip Down Wiener Lane" 5/19/2017 0 Comments To continue on from my co-host's admirable ramblings in his first blog post at our new site, I've promised to publish the "show notes" - or podcast outline - for each of our shows. What you will find in this show, as we experiment with various recording technologies and ramp up to get these all posted more officially in the iTunes App store, is as follows: Opening: Dan uncovered some old Sprogs music to dress the show (Thanks, even if they didn't know they were going to be revived, to my old bandmates Paula Luxenberg, Gordie Shaw, and Tim Getman). We hope you like the show and the completely unauthorized use of your music. 1:00: Dan notes that "perfect is the enemy of the good." He surmises that waiting until we can make the perfect podcast would mean we would never do it, so we're just going for it, scars and all. Please bear with us as we grow to hopefully get good and entertaining some day. 3:00: We describe how we, as interlopers into the Washington D.C. theater community, produced Wiener Sausage: The Musical! nearly a decade ago. With much help from a fellow named Kenny. 8:00: The news of the day discussed is the increasingly polarized language of Twitterers on both sides of the love Trump and hate Trump divide. Are we becoming a psychotic nation? Discuss. 11:30: Our first-ever guest is Kathleen Sullivan Nelson, star of Wiener Sausage: The Musical! The interview somehow includes a fascinating advertisement for an Audio Technica microphone. But more importantly, Kathleen talks about (in a sort of Where Are They Now?-type segment) the corporate circus-like events she is now helping produce. Not much different, we surmise, from her gig as Jo, the musical comedy's hermaphrodite protagonist. The three also discuss how Wiener Sausage influenced Hamilton. 18:30 Kathleen plows through a version of one of her Wiener spotlight songs, "Not Cash or Check, Baby," despite Dan and Paul talking throughout her impromtu performance. 24:00: In summary, are Dan and Paul crazy, and only interested in talking about themselves and their fancy new microphone? Well, to our credit, they did end up letting Kathleen have the last word. And boy are those words inspiring. Don't miss them! And see you next time.

Yes, We Could Get More Stupid, and Idiocracy Shows Us How

It's believed that Mike Judge's 2006 sci-fi comedy Idiocracy was released in far fewer theaters because of the way companies like Starbucks and Carl's Jr. were portrayed in it.

Fox, the distributor, allegedly didn't like that its advertisers were being treated unkindly. This is probably just one of many reasons to, even now, eight years later, watch the movie, which runs from time to time on cable TV.

I caught it on Comedy Central last night and thought it was hilarious. Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph play an average soldier and a prostitute respectively who get shipped 500 years into the future in a military experiment gone awry.

Once there, they encounter an America that has seen its gene pool deteriorate to the point where nobody is literate and people sit on their toilet loungers watching TV shows that make today's reality television look like Lawrence of Arabia.

Someone could easily say Idiocracy is, like what the Washington Post called the musical comedy I wrote with Dan Sullivan called Wiener Sausage: The Musical!, "tasteless and popular." But you can't even really say that. Sure, it's tasteless, but not many people saw it. Over the years, it has built a cult following and is becoming relatively more popular.

But if you're a fan of other Judge offerings, like Beavis and Butt-Head, Office Space, and Extract, go quickly to your DVR to schedule Idiocracy.

**** out of ***** stars

The Apes are Slowly Making Their Move Towards World Domination

Dawn of the Planet of Apes is the second episode in a new series of prequels to 1968's classic Planet of the Apes. 

Much like after 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes (I saw both of these new ones with Dan), it is still not apparent how these will connect with the original, in which humans annihilate themselves with a nuclear bomb.

In that respect, nothing much happens in the evolutionary course of events with this 3-D movie. It's a transitional piece. 

Caesar was raised a decade ago by a scientist (played by James Franco). He is now leader of the apes in Muir Woods. A plague has since wiped out 499 of every 500 humans, but a few hundred are living in a tower in downtown San Francisco.

When some of them venture into the woods as a last-ditch effort to fix a dam that would provide them with enough energy to survive, the humans and the apes rekindle a relationship that has a bunch of miscommunications that could have resulted in eternal peace but instead ends ominously for what lies ahead when the next prequel is released.

The apes are stunning and, if I had to cheer for a side, it wouldn't be the dumb humans. Barring Charleton Heston in the first couple of original films, humans have never really been the interesting ones in Ape movies. They are particularly unworthy of cheering for in this one. All unlikeable and clueless, even stars Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman (usually entirely reliable), and Keri Russell seem to sleepwalk in the shadow of Andy Serkis, who again plays Caesar with endless heart worthy of Oscar consideration.

I also really miss the music of the original series, which was so creepy in a late 1960s kind of way. (Although the song that comes on at the gas station when the power starts working again does work pretty well.)

The stage is set. The next in this series should be a doozie, and I would say the humans are in big trouble.

**** out of ***** stars

Wiener Sausage's Website Gets the Fat Trimmed

Thanks to my co-playwright, Dan Sullivan, the Wiener Sausage: The Musical! website has been revised. Although there was more there before, this nicely trims some of the excess fat.

We hope to add more original comedy bits through the introduction of a blog on the site, as well as more video, photos, and music, so check back often.

As the site says, The Wiener will, um, rise again!!!

Remington the Christmas Mouse Offers Promising Holiday Tale from D.C. Author

Nothing surprises me anymore with D.C.'s renaissance man Dan Sullivan. That may be because I spent 5 years writing Wiener Sausage: The Musical! with him.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be pleasantly surprised. His latest work takes a detour from his stop-and-start blog, his non-profit leadership, his masterful on-stage storytelling, and this past weekend's zany turn at Chief Ike's Mambo Room in Adams Morgan as the world's leading "vajazzler" (don't ask).

It's a children's holiday book called Remington the Christmas Mouse. This story, much like Wiener Sausage (some might say), is a little raw but has a lot of promise.

The premise is creative: The star has fallen off the top of the Green Family's Christmas tree and without it being set properly in place to rise up the chimney and into the sky to light the way to the Green's house for Santa, the family will have to make due without a Christmas.

Enter Remington, an ornament who lives near the bottom of the tree. He realizes the star needs to make it back to the top of the tree but he also knows that the tree's hierarchical cliques of ornaments (the best and prettiest ones get to have all the fun at the top) will make this a treacherous and near impossible journey. He recruits a couple of other bottom-of-the-tree outcasts, a bear and a clock, who help him navigate upwards.

The story is great and captivating. My recommendation, however, is that Remington would work better as a shorter children's book with lots more illustration from Kate Sullivan Nelson. Also, in the Amazon Kindle version I read, there were a dozen or so errors (where words were misspelled or misplaced), so that should be cleaned up. Finally, I'm not sure all the talk of Remington and his pals clearly being inferior because they are not as good-looking as the top-of-the-tree dwellers works for a children's book, where inclusivity and diversity are qualities worth reinforcing for young children. I would say there could be a better (and perhaps even funnier) way to highlight the social differences of the various ornaments.

A lot of promise from Mr. Sullivan is displayed in this book, and "children's storyteller" is clearly yet another side of of this artist that is well worth exploring further.

**** out of ***** stars

Dan Takes Lessons From Brother's Life ... And Mysterious Death

One of my best friends and the best man at my wedding, Dan Sullivan, is featured in an article by National Public Radio's DC affiliate, WAMU 88.5 FM. By reading the article, you will see that I know how to pick my friends ...

You can listen to the radio segment by correspondent/photographer Raphaella Bennin and view a slideshow of photos at WAMU.

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Tom Sullivan ran at life full force. His brother Dan approached decisions with deliberation and caution, so it wasn't uncommon for Tom to jab at Dan, telling him, "Stop being a wimp. Just go out and do things!"

In 2000, Tom had an impromptu conversation with a recruitment officer and joined the Marines. The career turned out to be a perfect fit for his personality.

"He just went at it full force," recalls Dan. "I mean, he went into boot camp; he got through boot camp. He loved the marines. He actually had the opportunity to quit before he was sent to Iraq, and he believed so strongly that the Marines was what he was destined and wanted to do, so he re-upped."

Tom went to Iraq in 2004, but while he was deployed, he started to feel sick. His blood pressure became elevated and he started to have gastro-intestinal problems.

"It was very debilitating," says Dan. "He would literally miss three or four hours a day having to be on the toilet." Tom returned to the U.S., but his health continued to deteriorate. He was in intense pain and he became so swollen that new friends didn't recognize pictures of him from a year or two earlier.

Tom's doctors couldn't identify the cause. They suspected Crohn's disease and then ulcerative colitis, but weren't sure. He saw more doctors, hoping someone could confidently diagnose him, and he began to carry around a backpack full of his medical records everywhere he went.

Even in the midst of his physical suffering, Tom maintained his enthusiasm for life. He got married and had a daughter.

Then, in February of 2009, Dan went to Tom's house to check on his brother, and found Tom's body.

To read the full story (and it's well worth it), go to WAMU.

My Wiener Sausage Co-Writer "Comes Out"

My Wiener Sausage: The Musical! co-creator Dan Sullivan made his Woolly Mammoth stage premiere last week in SpeakeasyDC's excellent production of Don't Ask, Do Tell (Stories About Coming Out, Coming Clean, and Just Plain Coming).

It was basically a stand-up, improv show, with 12 individuals telling their own stories of the process of becoming openly gay, lesbian, or trans-gendered.

Dan (in the center on the photo to the right) of course stole the show, with his dry wit and all-around loveable-ness and impossible-to-not-like-ness. He was 19 and working his job as a flagpole-raiser at the U.S. Capitol (a job that entails a complete fabrication by the U.S. government upon clueless patriotic flag-buyers everywhere). His straight, pink-haired buddy Charlie protected Dan's Private Idaho every step of the way from their redneck co-worker Larry, who fumed all summer that someone had left an issue of the Washington Blade in the Capitol break room.

Other standout storytellers in the show included Andrew Korfhage (telling perhaps the dirtiest tale of the night about his education on sex words in sign language and how he was busted using such language by his boss at the non-profit Co-op America), Regie Cabico (a manic poetry slammer who is big in Canada and had some wild times in his college dorm room) and MC and co-director John Kevin Boggs. All the other performers were either funny or at least had compelling stories to share, which was a pretty impressive feat for the production.

**** out of ***** stars