Be Proud Punchinello

Who can say that they don’t like Punch and Judy shows? Nobody, that’s who. You may have never seen a Punch and Judy show, but that’s your fault… and loss. It’s Looney Tunes before we had the technology for narrative animation and Chuck Jones’ will to use it. The character Punch also known as Mr. Punch or Punchinello, is a beloved bad guy. He’s a trickster puppet who knocks people over the head with a bat. Now that’s what I call culture.

The origin of Mr. Punch is Pulcinella, the Commedia dell’Arte Character. Who is classified by the facial endowment of Cyrano de Bergerac, the affliction of a Quasimodo-grade scoliosis, and Harpo’s pickup lines. Pulcinella eventually stopped being a woman chasing bachelor and settled down with his Wife, Judy. I think he was smitten with the way she could take a hit and return in kind. It’s the funniest domestic violence ever. To be honest, Judy isn’t seen much. She’s usually on for a little while but the point of the act, like Commedia, is to take authority or stupidity down a peg. Beating the wife isn’t funny for too long. Mainly, she’s there to lampoon the bickering between partners and then she leaves to let Punch do his wac-a-mole routine.

Puppets are an interesting form of communication. The are useful as a method of detachment which is necessary in Comedy. It’s the reason we laugh more at cartoons, clowns, and exaggeration as a whole. but more importantly it’s a method to give a relationship message with a single person. This form of communication is important as seen on stage and screen constantly. Look how much we love drama between two people with conflicting motives. We are drawn to the misunderstandings and irony, displayed as one character’s lack of information because we saw the other character do it while the ignorant one was busy. Even though puppetry is not known as a very high form of performance in this country, One of the highest paid comedians in the country right now is Jeff Dunham, a ventriloquist. The timing – perfect, the group – in sync, the travel – less expensive. Because it’s just one person.

The Punch and Judy show is a one performer slapstick group. If you are interested in watching some of this act, Bryan Clarke is an excellent performer in this artform. Click Here for a link to one of my favorites of his routines.

Purcell is P.U.

I like random bits of information; they tickle my insides. However, occasionally I run into a thoroughly boring person. Henry Purcell is such a person.

He wrote music and died at Westminster Abbey. He’s known for writing choir and theater music. he barely has enough about him to get him in every area of reference (encyclopedias and such) but not enough to say he was the best or first of anything. He wrote an Opera called Diddo and something. Which just means it’s someone else’s opera that he wrote again about a girl named, Dido (which is just some girl that you’ve done again). The opera features the song “Dido’s Lament.” I can relate. To be fair, I haven’t actually heard his music but on paper he makes me fall asleep.

I tried diving in a little under the surface to find something to interest me. He officially wrote music for a boring king, King Charles the second (the first would have been something noteworthy, but again – fail *sigh*). King Charles II of England was so boring that that when his father King Charles I climaxed his life with an execution, the English Parliament ignored him for eleven years. He wasn’t king of them until the Puritans become a problem for being just Puritan, blah blah blah. This is in 1600′s before Puritans become interesting and started rising up demanding religious freedom and going over to the colony-thingies in the America-Whatcha-McCallits. King Charles II is known for restoring normality *yawn*. Charles II was King during the dawn of the Tory Party and sided with them during that time. I was grasping when I wished he had started the Tories. If you are familiar with this political group, they’re pretty dull too and to just say “yeah, I’m with them, why not.” is just a little depressing. There is one thing interesting about Charles II though…ready, you read all this way. I hope it was worth it. Charles II was first cousins with King Louis XIV of France. (Oh yeah, last note on Charlie 2, he was the deadbeat that borrowed a lot of money from his French relative because he was a lazy, hedonistic slob with twelve bastard children, I’m moving on.)

Now Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” is interesting. He lived in the swanky Palace of Versailles, fought in three major wars, his successor was 5-years-old, and he possessed a racy set of gams (go ahead look up any picture of him, I bet he’s wearing prominent tights).

So I am pleased to say I found one thing that I like about Henry Purcell. Henry Purcell was the guy commissioned by Charles II that borrowed money from a King with a bigger leg fetish than any guy I’ve met in West Hollywood. Good for you, Henry! Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming with me on this little jog through a dreary world book entry. Have pleasant dreams. I hope you are not feeling sleepy after reading this article but if your eyelids can’t take anymore, make sure to call a taxi; get home safe. It’s the way Henry would have wanted it.

Solomon

I am not a religious man. Even more than that, I don’t read much. So the very few times that I read something about religion, why does it have to be so antipious?

I was reading about King Solomon. Here’s what I got: Son of David (the kid who took down a walking pituitary problem with a pebble). Solomon had a lot of cash so people thought God favored him (Good) but they though he valued gold more than God (Bad), He humbled himself by asking God to give him the wisdom to lead his people to better worship God (good) then used that knowledge to gain power and used that power to build pagan idols (bad), Built the first Jewish temple (good) but collected a harem of a thousand women (too good). The man is a walking contridiction.

My favorite is the thousand women opposite one man lovefest much to my girlfriend’s chagrin. He did the honorable thing with the majority; he married about seven-hundred and only had about three-hundred mistresses. Good boy, Solomon, good boy.

I’m going to close with a little math lesson. 1000 women, that’s a lot of one-night stands for most but then he found time to marry most of them as well. If he met a new girl every 3 days (think of it as 2 a week) it would have taken him ten years to collect all these women. This is a daunting task and would have had to have some major planning and execution; far more than one man to take on by himself. I believe he had in addition to his Yeah God Co., which built the temples and such, a side company that focused on his love life. A group like this would be specifically dedicated to Human Resources. I want to know how well these people were taken care of, what were their company perks and where I can find a similar postion today.

Growth

I worked for three years in a soul draining job. Actually, let me back up a little. When I powered my way through the last semester of college I thought I would go out and find a place to work. Not a great job but something close to my major that I could build up to my “ideal” career. Instead I found a few odd jobs not in my field of interest for the first seven months and then settled on the first steady paycheck that came along. This was a source of comfort and stability, which I assumed was a necessary element to the “greater plan” of my ideal job. I would use this to keep food and shelter off my mind and spend all my extra time working on what I love.

I’m sorry I had to take a moment. I wrote “extra time” and it broke me a bit.

With laughter and tears ebbed I refer to my original statement, “three wasted years of my life.” Now keep with me it gets better. I finally realized that at the end of a fifty-hour week I don’t function; I go home watch TV and fall asleep.

On weekends I would take saturday to recoup. Sundays would be filled with me upset that I didn’t get anything done all week just to wake up Monday and go through the whole thing again.

Here’s where it gets good. I quit.
It didn’t make a lot of sense but it was necassary. I was too comfortable with just getting by with minimal effort because nothing irritated me. A little fear or aggitation can be inspiring. In conclusion, quit your job; it feels great.