Dawes II
Posted by Brennan on April 13, 2012
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Monkey blog? Sure, whatever. That’s fine.
Everybody, sometimes the Universe knows exactly what it’s doing, and it plays little tricks on you for its own amusement. Also, to impress the other, cute Universes….
So, at the end of my first blog entry about the Dawes show, I made this silly little quip about wearing “pants made of last week’s Chicago Reader.” Well, I’ll tell you what. At first I had written, “a dress made of last week’s Chicago Reader,” but then I thought, “Well, sheesh. I don’t wanna get anybody’s hopes up, only to have them come crashing back down when they realize there is no such dress. I mean, I know the folks in this Dawes cast are creative and talented and blah-dee blopitty schmackitty schmoo, but I shouldn’t have folks expecting some elaborate, Project Runway style paper gown, right?”
Silly me.
(Question for self, why did I think that pants made of paper would be any less impressive? Apparently I ride the train where all the businessmen wear some nice Tribune slacks. Yawn. Thanks for not impressing me, world of business. Geez. Get a job.)
Yes, silly me. For while I was typing, and then doubting and editing, that very sentence, one Miss Emjoy Gavino was making THIS.
For Pete and Pete’s sakes! The fabled Dress of Chicago Readers Past!
Needless to say, I am amazed. There are good things everywhere, I might add:
Something to remember. This is a picture of three people doing exACTLY what they are supposed to be doing at this moment. This is basically a picture of a business meeting.
My guess is this. I hesitated to write “a dress made of paper,” because, as happens often with the Monkeys, (and the Monkees), I couldn’t imagine in my own little brain how such a thing possibly be. For me, making that dress would be a 37-week project. With weeks 1-16 dedicated solely to whining, eating cheese slices, and watching clips from 1994 NBA playoff games. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twXgxuDBPE)
(Lest you think I exaggerate in my self-deprecationry, I will tell you that I worked for two whole rehearsals on drawing and cutting out one cardboard mustache. And lest you think still that I cast myself too much the buffoon, I will also tell you that I am very proud of said mustache. Look for it in “Blast to the Past,” by Jakob H.)
(Related: This week’s Time magazine cover, alongside a picture of Presidents Obama, Dub-ya, and Clinton all walking together, promises to tell us of “THE WORLD’S MOST EXCLUSIVE CLUB: The Secret Society of Presidents.” Well Time, I’m sorry to say that Jakob H. beat you to the story. AND, he added that 4th dimension after which your very own publication has been named. You’ve been bested, Time magazine. See “Blast to the Past,” and take notes!)
So Emjoy makes this dress in the same time that it takes me to DOUBT that such a dress could be made, and Brandon Cloyd brings in an entire wall-filling mural for Aiden G.‘s story about a tricky platypus, (along with some delicious banana bread and cookies), and I find myself, once again, ridiculously impressed with the work-ethic and creativity of the people around me.
I get that it doesn’t do me any good to repeat myself over and over. “This show is amazing! Everybody is so creative! The people in the Monkeys are, guess what, so amazing and creative!”
Well, is it a cliche if it’s true? And then true again, and then again, and all over again? What can one do but be impressed just as many times? Maybe my challenge for myself shouldn’t be to stop mentioning how impressive these people are, but instead to make sure that I keep noticing and appreciating it. A guy can really find himself surrounded by people, and cardboard top hats, to appreciate.
(Aaannnnnndddd, eaten by a shark. That’s also a robot? I never quite got that bit.)