Michael's Musings

Need I Say More?
Michael Shinafelt

It's the second day of 2020, feel different? Transformed? Full of hope? New Year, New You? If you answered "Yes" to any of these, you are most likely placing too much importance on a day that merely marks the changing of a number defining time and place. 

All the New Year means is, well, a New Year. While something new isn't bad, there is not much more significance to it than a marking of time. Bubble, bubble, toil and...2020 is ours to define, like all the other preceding years. It's a fluid thing not a 365 day thing. 

Rumor has it January is: "It's OK To Be White Month." Hey, I read it on the WWW, I couldn't make something that idiotic up.

It's really cool to be alive in America at this point in History. It's like the fall of the Roman Empire, but with Wi-Fi

Be kind, be bold, be brave 

Every day is the best day of the year

The Golden Globes are Sunday. Let the cartoons begin!

Did you put the banana in Andrew's rear end?

I have three words for you: Ariel Beelsey, Echoplex, Tomorrow 

That time you realize your selfie has gone horribly wrong, discuss

Woman Crush of the Week: January Jones - Because it's January, duh!

Heck is where you go when you do little sins

The older I get, the happier I become

How about the movie "Cats?" Anyone? I thought not

When are they going to give the death penalty to individuals who comment on articles without reading them?

Tell me who you wore on your living room couch for NYE

My name is Michael, Daddy if you're nasty at:
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/MShinafelt  

Hump Day & Chill: NYD 2020

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Cheers To 2020!

Hey, It's 2020...
Michael Shinafelt

"I'm Barbara Walters, and this is 2020" - Barbara Walters

Whether Ms. Walters is officially using her timely quote on any New Year's Eve broadcast remains to be seen and heard (if she is I suspect it's going to be a surprise, or archival footage of her doing it.) I wanted to use the quote today here on Entertain Me to with you and yours a Happy New Year!

However you choose to spend your evening be safe and have fun! Personally New Year's isn't a thing for me. I like to spend it at home where it is nice and quite and doesn't cost me an outrageous fortune.

Refer to the Miranda Priestly meme below, this sums up my feelings on the whole to do...

Cheers!

Spend 2020 with me at:
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/MShinafelt   

Monday Motivation

Bend It Like Me
David Beckham

Cheers to another short Holiday Week peeps! As if that isn't Monday Motivation enough to top off the week, well here's another idea to keep you moving. "Yes" today's Motivation for the last Monday of 2019 is focus.

2020 promises to be a challenging year and the best thing one can do for ones self is to not lose sight of what you need and want heading into, and living all 365 days of it.

Thus I'm hitting the mat, as in yoga this ayem. Yoga not only keeps me focused it keeps me calm and open to the world around me. Your frozen when your heart and mind aren't open and yoga keeps the door wide for me. 

I'm going to join Entertain Me's yoga poster boy David Beckham's tribe this year. "Yes" David is a yoga practitioner and I'm going to bend it like him. OK, I'm gonna bend it like moi. 

So, find that thing that will keep you keep on keeping in 2020 and stick to it. Starting today, which is 2020 adjacent, not to mention a Monday, get motivated, do it, and do it now!

Mat Time!

Yoga on Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

Keeping Up With Ariel Beesley

She Is Busy!
Ariel Beesley

Ariel Beelsey is a favorite artist and human being of mine. You have seen my coverage of this unique powerhouse in the past. Well she has a new video out where she covers Here Comes The Rain Again by the Eurythmics and two upcoming shows. One is on her Birthday (that's the one I'm attending) -

So here's all the current 411 and the abovementioned video on Ariel, in her own words...scroll minions, scroll!

"Here it is!! I’m so excited to present the music video for my cover of “Here Comes The Rain Again.” The video was directed and edited by @dandyjoey and styled by myself. I truly feel like this video is a representation of many different parts of myself. Upon seeing the final cut, I truly felt so seen. Thank you Joey for being an absolute dream to work with. Makeup by sparkle queen/best gal @valentinaruby. And thank you @alice_magazine for the premiere ! Link in bio 🔥 happy holidaze xx"

"Wowow 2020 is lookin’ up ! First off New Year’s Eve, I’m singing some of my favorite songs at @taixfrench with a bunch of friends. Then first show of the decade is on my birthday, January 3rd at The Echoplex @theechola ! Couldn’t think of a better way to start the new decade off then doing what I love with the people I love. Hope to see you there" 🆒🆒🆒

Fall in line with Ariel at:

https://www.facebook.com/Arielbeesley/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

https://www.instagram.com/arielbees/

https://twitter.com/ArielBeesley    

National Card Playing Day

Four Of A Kind
Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean & Elvis Presley

Ever wonder what to do during that odd space between Christmas and New Year's where you lose track of time and more often than not forget what day it is?

Well wonder no more, while I was browsing Twitter Pee Wee Herman was so kind as to point out today is National Card Playing Day. "Yes" this is a good activity to while away the hours until the next big to do, the celebration of the 2020!

As illustrated by the popular icons above four of a kind is the hand to beat, in a Poker Match. Perhaps you care for a more basic game, like Go Fish?

Whatever your poison, play cards today, it will definitely keep you covered in the Nebulous Zone until NYE hits.

Royal Flush! 

National Card Playing Day on the WWW -
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-card-playing-day-december-28/  

"Infinitely Yours"

Infinitely Yours

REDCAT Presents

Miwa Matreyek’s

Infinitely Yours

A Dream-like Meditation on Climate Catastrophe

In Its Los Angeles Premiere for Three Nights

January 16–18, 2020

Next Stop: Sundance Film Festival & U.S. Tour

REDCAT presents the Los Angeles premiere of Infinitely Yours by animator, designer and performer Miwa Matreyek for the debut of her latest work. Running for three performances from Thursday, January 16 through Saturday, January 18, 2020, the award-winning interdisciplinary creator brings her nightmarish vision of climate grief to Los Angeles audiences before heading to Park City, Utah for the works’ world premiere during Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier program. Infinitely Yours will then embark on a North American tour throughout June. All music for Infinitely Yours was composed, recorded and performed by Morgan Sorne who will join Matreyek for the REDCAT show as live musical accompaniment. For more information, please visit http://www.semihemisphere.com/#/infinitelyyours.

With a run-time of 25 minutes, the L.A. presentation of Infinitely Yours will be paired with some of Matreyek’s older work, creating an 80-minute program, which will include a 15-minute intermission. Each performance will begin at 8:30 pm. Tickets for Infinitely Yours are $22 or $18 for REDCAT members, and all ages are welcome. The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) is located at 631 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. For tickets, please call the box office at 213 237-2800 or visit https://www.redcat.org/event/miwa-matreyek-infinitely-yours.  

Infinitely Yours

ABOUT INFINITELY YOURS:

Further pushing her signature technique of layered projections, Infinitely Yours is an emotional, dream-like meditation on climate catastrophe and the Anthropocene – the proposed current era where human influence has effected almost all realms of earth’s natural systems. Matreyek’s shadow traverses macro and micro scales, as her silhouette shape-shifts to experience the world from various perspectives. An earth overflowing with trash. A person drowning in a plastic-filled ocean. A school of fish caught in a trawling net. The work is a viscerally impactful, embodied illustration of news headlines we see every day about climate change and how we’re all inexplicably tied together, the complex harm humanity causes to the world, and what it might mean for all of us to be living in this changing world.

This project is supported by a 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Special Projects Grant.

ARTIST STATEMENT: 

“My work investigates how live performance, in the interdisciplinary space between cinema and theatre, can become a unique, powerful form of emotionally impactful storytelling. I make shows that integrate the shadow silhouette of a live performer (myself) with intricate layers of projected animations that unfold in a dreamlike narrative. My work (both solo and with my theater company, Cloud Eye Control) confronts the tension between humanity and nature, and the ideas of natural and unnatural; does human nature drive us to create an ‘unnatural’ world around us? Have humans become ‘unnatural’ to the planet? My work weaves scientific ideas and environmental themes. I want my projects to push myself and the audience to see and experience the world from different perspectives including ones that are not human, and imagine worlds outside of our daily scope of perceptions. My goal through form and content is to take the audience on an emotional journey that feels like a muscle memory from a dream.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Miwa Matreyek is an animator, designer, and performer based in Los Angeles, touring internationally since 2010. Coming from a background in animation, Matreyek creates live, staged performances where she interacts with her kaleidoscopic animations as a shadow silhouette, in dreamlike visions that make invisible worlds visible, often weaving surreal and poetic narratives of conflict between humanity and nature.

A few past presentations include TED, MOMA, White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, New Frontier Program at Sundance Film Festival, REDCAT, RADAR LA and many more.

Matreyek is also a co-founder and core-collaborator of the multi-media theater company, Cloud Eye Control.

Matreyek is a recipient of the Sherwood Award (2016), Creative Capital Award (2013), Princess Grace Award (2007), and Princess Grace Foundation’s Special Projects award (2009, 2012, 2019). 

LINKS:

• Miwa Matreyek - www.semihemisphere.com

• Infinitely Yours - http://www.semihemisphere.com/#/infinitelyyours

• REDCAT Tickets - https://www.redcat.org/event/miwa-matreyek-infinitely-yours

• Matreyek’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/miwamatreyekartist

• Matreyek’s Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/matreyek

• Matreyek’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/miwamatreyek

• Matreyek’s Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/matreyek