Life offers few greater pleasures than live theater. Summer in the Bay Area brings the theatrical equivalent of s'mores and making out in a kayak with someone smeared in zinc oxide — but true outdoor theater performances have deep roots. The outdoor theater season descends from the grand tradition of the Globe Theater, where the full socioeconomic range watched Shakespeare's original productions in an open roofed wooden dome, and even earlier to fourth century Athenian amphitheater. The amphitheater shape is virtually unchanged, but the spirit of the shouting, belching groundlings of Shakespeare's day have given way to outdoor theaters that feature vineyards, picnicking, live music, and more — each venue luring you out of your sweaty Netflix hellscape and into theaters under the stars.
Happy Friday! Have a look at what we're reading, viewing, and gawking at on the internet. We'll see you back here on Monday.
Did you know that people used to refer to Yerba Buena Island as Goat Island? Check out these 10 facts about YB and TI. (Curbed)
Revenge of Nerds turns 30 on Sunday, that's right, 3-0. Their kids are likely pledging fraternities and sororities now. (Vanity Fair)
Possibly the cutest wave riders -- dogs donned their life jackets and took to the ocean for the national Surf Dog Competition. (Outside Magazine)
The obsession with naked-themed TV shows seems to be growing. (New York Times)
The follow-up to any major success is never easy. Just ask Zach Braff, whose 2004 breakthrough film Garden State, earnestly found its way into the canon of contemporary classics and remains a touchstone of post-millenial, twenty-something angst.
Does Gordon Ramsay lie in bed at night wondering how it all went so horribly wrong? Sure, he has a great career, Michelin stars, a lovely family, tons of money, but he obviously sold his soul to the devil to acquire these things. He has a burning rivalry with fellow Brit chef Jamie Oliver, but you don't see Oliver hosting cornball shows like Hell's Kitchen. This week they staged fake Secret Service agents, fake LAPD "CHiPs" units, and fake metal detectors to roll out the contestant's families as a surprise. Does Gordon stand there amid all that, so caught up in the glitz of fame that he no longer notices what is stupid and what is sophistimakated?
Gordon, you are disappointing me.
Indie stalwart Richard Linklater's new movie Boyhood is an insouciant epic -- a 12-year slice of life that actually took 12 years to shoot. It's such a simple idea, yet also unprecedented, perhaps because it needed Linklater to come along and finally pull it off.
