The Offical Passing Strange Love Thread (Scaryotypes Unite)- Page 60

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:29pm

Frogs fan, have you noticed that in your photo with Stew my head is convienantly growing out his the side of his head?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:47pm

Indeed I did, I've been toying with the idea of tagging you in that photo on Facebook. And your expression is priceless.
Updated On: 7/25/08 at 04:47 PM

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 1:49am

I know, I'm incredibly amused by it...I look so thoughtful. It looks like I'm growing out of Stew's head.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 9:21pm

I got the Stew album "The Naked Dutch Painter" off of e-bay yesterday. Does anyone else have it and care to comment? Just curious for what I'm in for.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 10:04pm

it's a really great album! you'll hear earlier versions of "Must Have Been High" and "Arlington Hill" - on the same track! (The Drug Suite) I must admit that it took me a couple listens to really get into this album but once i did, i haven't stopped. the lyrics are... mygosh... genius

it's a great album, i've gone through phases where i'm obsessed with each and every song at this point. If you're new to Stew albums- get Guest Host and Welcome Black (that's The Negro Problem)

[gregj63]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 10:35pm

I just bought Christian Gibbs 2007 album of his group Lucinda Black Bear on Amazon. Great music, different style than Passing Strange. He demonstrated his great guitar playing every night at the Belasco, this is a whole different side, and really good.

We haven't discussed the musicians of PS much, other than Stew and Heidi. Spurney's great talent was clear when he was out on vacation, lots of fillers that he added to the show. And he played for Hedwig!

Christian Cassan did a great job on drums every night, anyone know where else he's played?
Updated On: 7/26/08 at 10:35 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 10:45pm

CQT- Thanks for the info, I'm going to look into getting those two albums as well. Guest Host doesn't look like it'll be cheap, but I found Welcome Black for about 13 bucks. I'm looking forward to receiving Naked Dutch Painter this week.

Greg you're definitely right about Spurney. The shows I saw on Wednesday (when Spurney was out) and Sunday of the final week sounded very different. And I just added 'capo my heart' to my wish list on Amazon.

Cassan's playbill bio doesn't really reveal much other than a few noted musicians who he has performed and recorded with. No mention of specific albums. His website is currently being worked on, but I was able to find this site:

http://www.negroproblem.com/passing/pages/christian2.html

[gregj63]

Posted: 7/26/08 at 10:55pm

You can buy Guest Host on Amazon mp3 download for $8.99. That's what I did. Had Naked Dutch Painter and Something Deeper already. But I can't find any Negro Problem music for download...I don't buy CD's anymore, since they just get burned to mp3 and discarded anyway. Who has room to store those things? I used to have hundreds of CD's.

Thanks for the site.

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 1:41am

Here is a link The Drug Suite in its entirety. You can listen to it on the site, but you can't download it (unless you know how to).

http://www.imeem.com/people/7YFtWX/music/Yd-biQEe/stew_the_drug_suite/

This is actually the first time I've listened to this. It's interesting, but it's so different to the show.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 1:51pm

I've spent my afternoon listening to the cast recording (after a self-imposed one week ban from listening to it), while reading the liner notes and I noticed a few things. We the "Scaryotypes" are mentioned. Also, my favorite part of the show, during "Arlington Hill", that didn't make the recording, is used as the final paragraph of the liner notes. It's the part that starts out with, "You know like when the music goes right over you head and straight into that part of you which is most beautiful?". I'm glad I at least have those words to hold me over until Spike Lee's filmed version is released. One final thing, in the acknowledgments section, there is a mention of a the play being turned into a book in the future. So that is a good sign that the full libretto will be published one day.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 10:11pm

I finally got a chance to listen to "The Naked Dutch Painter" today and I've really enjoyed it. It was cool to hear what would become Must've Been High and Arlington Hill in the Drug Suite. I love Stew's intermittent riffs on garnish and Che Guevara. My favorite song is "Cold Parade".

[clever name]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 10:44pm

Cool!you guys were mentioned in the liner notes? What does it say?
Updated On: 7/29/08 at 10:44 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 10:47pm

"Groupies who returned multiple times to experience a catharsis more common to a rock show than a Broadway show, dubbed themselves 'Strangers', 'Scaryotypes', or 'Strange Freaks.'"

I don't think I ever came across any Strangers or Strange Freaks, just as Scaryotypes.

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 1:48am

One of the cast would refer to me as a 'Strangehead'. It had an odd ring to it lol

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:17am

I think we were considering Stew's Crew at one point, and also, Passing Strangers, which I wasn't opposed to.

I miss the show a lot. I know it's only been less than two weeks, but there was a rerun of Theatre Talk last night, the pre-Tony discussion/predictions, and they had clips of the show and I got all verklempt.

[Heybeenfood]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 9:35pm

Glad to see that Rebecca is getting steady work:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/120046.html

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 9:41pm

Hey, "Hey"! Thanks for the info.
Some of us will have to go see her, of course.

http://www.jewcy.com/tags/rebecca_jones
One of the more interesting press pieces about Rebecca, which I've never read before. I think this is why a lot of us love the show. Maybe subconsciously, on some level, the multi culti realness of the actors themselves impart a special level of meaning to the material. I'm sure there are tons of stories out there in America just like Rebeca's or Stew's or Daniel's or Lenny's, etc., that are NEVER in the media, because they're POSITIVE stories of cultural diversity. How sad we are as a nation if we do not embrace "the other".
Updated On: 8/3/08 at 09:41 PM

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 1:27am

I ran into Heidi about 2 nights ago. Nearly curled up into a fetal position when I saw her. I told her I really miss the show and she said she did too, and got a slight nostalgic look in her eyes. Luckily I was able to contain myself and not cry lol. Totally wasn't expecting that.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 4:41pm

So I just bought this: http://tiny.cc/MkBwL

I have no idea how legit it is, but for that price I figured it was worth getting.

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 5:25pm

Let us know how it is once you get it.

[gregj63]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 11:52pm

Forgive me if this seems slightly off topic, but I just saw Hair tonight, and while I definitely enjoyed the show, it made me appreciate Passing Strange even more.

It seems to me that a rock musical (and all musicals really) should be most focused on the music. Hair doesn't have much of a plot, not nearly as powerful and gripping as Passing Strange. But Hair does have great music, a rocking score that I've been listening to for 40 years now. They do a good job with it overall, but I kept thinking during the show "where's the rock and roll?". The band can play, but the lead guitar is no louder than the clarinet most of the time. This is rock?

Stew & Heidi showed us that a rock musical can also be a real rock show, with loud drums and screaming guitars, and the ringing in the ears to prove it afterwards. The variation in Keys, constantly changing in interesting ways. The "exuberant" drumming of Christian Casan, pushing the great songs along. Committed performances from the entire cast. Hair needed that. Instead they keep the music nice and polite, much more of a traditional Broadway pit orchestra sound than it should have, in my opinion. Only at the curtain call, when they invited the crowd to dance on stage and sing "Let the Sunshine In" did the energy level get anywhere near the range of Passing Strange, and the crowd ate it up. I love the score of Hair, and I wanted to hear it screaming at me like a good angry rock song, and instead got polite, safe versions. Still enjoyed the show, but it could have been so much more.

A couple of last points. Passing Strange would have been great in the Delacorte with an interested crowd. Didn't I read that they did some shows there while developing the show? Anyone see that and have comments on it?

Finally, tonight's show made me realize how much I miss Passing Strange. I wish I could go again, to see what they're doing with Keys, hear what jokes Stew's telling now, and feel the real once again.

Thanks for reading.
Updated On: 8/6/08 at 11:52 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 7:47pm

From the liner notes:

"Stew returned to The Delacorte as part of Joe's Pub in the Park in September 2007. The cast of Passing Strange was paired with Stew and Heidi's alter ego band, The Negro Problem, introducing their new theater fans to the tuneful and elliptical rockers that had originally made them underground music's critical darlings. The second half of the show featured the entire cast along with the band- (insert band names)- performing a dialogue-free concert of songs from the show, creating the model for this album. When the audience burst into call-and-response during Stew's adlibs at the end of "Amsterdam/Keys," erupted into anticipatory laughter as Mr. Venus began his incantation, "What's inside is just a lie," and kicked into rhythmic clapping to Heidi's galvanizing bassline at the opening of "Passing Phase," it was clear that these songs needed to be preserved in the form of a rock show."

Seeing the show in that theater must have been an exhilarating experience.

On a side note, I got my hands of Stew's solo album, Guest Host and it is even better than Naked Dutch Painter. I especially like the track "Bijou."

[gregj63]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 9:04pm

Seeing Passing Strange in it's final form at the Delacorte would doubtless be a fantastic experience. Something about being outside that removes the inhibitions of being in a theater, there would likely be more involvement and dancing from the crowd, and the layout seems more intimate, with no separate mezzanine and balcony crowds.

Ahh, fantasy...

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 8/7/08 at 12:54am

^
I was thinking just that. I got Hair tickets tonight, and it was my first time at the Delacorte. What a fantastic space. While I did enjoy the production, I thought the best things about Hair in the park was the theatre and the orchestrations.

Perhaps in a couple of years, since PS just left. Within 5 years, they should do a production of Passing Strange in the park. That would be like an orgasm in reverse. Now that I'd be more than willing to get in line for at 6am.

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 3:17am

Stew came to opening night of HAIR. He was talking to me and saying he couldn't find his ticket (he obviously didn't remember me from the tour) and I just wanted to say 'Stew, you take your time, man...' God I miss PS