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The Nosuch terse review of “Fuerzabruta“:

Gritty, loud Cirque du Soleil-style performance art that eschews elaborate costumes and precision acrobatics, instead offering dancers cavorting overhead on ropes, treadmills and giant transparent plastic sheets, all watched from the comfort of a smoky, tightly packed mosh pit.

The show offers a number of striking set pieces, and there’s a lot of wind, flying bits of paper, water and strobe lights involved. For good and bad, the show is basically like watching highlights of dance performance special effects. There’s no attempt to put any of these amazing visuals into a narrative framework, which means the show is short, intense, visually powerful, but not very deep. This isn’t necessarily meant as a criticism, as there certainly is a place for art that doesn’t carry an explicit message and is open for interpretation. But it did leave me wondering if these performances would be even more powerful within some kind of context.

The greatest difficulty I had with the show was how tightly packed it was. There are no seats, so the audience stands while the performance takes place overhead and on a series of stages, platforms and large props that get wheeled out in the audience. The overhead pieces work fine, but when the crew has to move things into and through the packed house, the experience is less like theatre, and more like rush hour on the 6 train. While there’s nothing wrong with presenting a show in this fashion, especially when you are encouraging people to move with the music and interact with some of the performers, it seems at cross purposes to fill the house with so many people that movement is almost impossible. Only the most enthusiastic, intoxicated or inconsiderate people persisted with any effort to dance along, while the rest of us merely stood, often grimly, like livestock in a cattle car.

In fairness, the show was sold out last night. Also I’m in a demographic that cherishes having a small bubble of personal space so that I may actually turn around when I wish. If there had been 10% fewer people, I would have enjoyed the show twice as much. Don’t even think of going if you are remotely claustrophobic, especially since they often lower things down on to the audience, effectively simulating a sardine experience for a good portion of the show. But if you like heavy mosh pit action, are a pickpocket, or are into frottage, this is definitely the show for you. Otherwise be prepared to put up with some discomfort and indignities in order to enjoy this bit of alternative theater sensory overload, which might have been better titled “Muchedumbre“.

Photos of Fuerzabruta taken from Icemomo.

Conny and I went to the monthly munch for the recently launched New York chapter of Club Fem. Since we’ve been looking to get out for a little play, we thought this was a good chance to find a new scene.

Seeing this was only the second munch, I was impressed by the turnout and how well organized things were. All the people we spoke to were friendly and interesting. Several of them had attended a play party held by Club Fem a few days earlier, and spoke highly of it, describing a good crowd and the right type of energy. Ms. Reina did a great job as orgranizer and hostess, and we came away from the night feeling encouraged and looking forward to the party they will be having in March.

I’m not a “top” executive by any stretch of the imagination, so I’ve never been called upon to address an entire company at a meeting. But if I were, I might think saying something like “employees are our most valuable asset” to be somewhat inappropriate if the company had just spent several months letting go over 30% of the staff. Otherwise, it will be clear to all attending that what was meant by the word “valuable” is actually the word “expensive.”

One thing done fairly well in Burnout Paradise is the use of the Xbox Live Vision camera in multiplayer. Whenever one player does a “takedown” on another, snapshots are exchanged. When a race is won, the victor has a snapshot taken for the other players to see for the after-race summary.

It’s a clever gimmick, but unlike a lot of games that use the camera, there’s no way to set a preference to control the zoom. I sit about 10 feet back from the TV, so the Xbox Live Vision camera is about the same distance. That means I’m not very visible when I’m giving the finger the thumbs up to my racing buddies.

Since there’s no software zoom, I thought perhaps I could fix it with a hardware zoom. I picked up a cheap pair of binoculars (retail $9.99, on sale for $4.99) and popped out the lenses. Then sticking the rubber eyecup and the endcap with the lens together, I made this:

Flanges cut in the eye cup allow it to slide on and stay on, and turning it adjusts the focus. Amazingly, it works. Sadly, the lens isn’t strong, so it’s only about a 15% zoom, but it still helps. Sliding the whole thing forward improves the zoom, but due to the green light ring on the Xbox Live Vision camera causing reflections in the lens, this doesn’t work so well. But $5 later, I’m pretty happy with version 1.0. Now to find a stronger lens.

Before someone asks, no, this wasn’t me:

A leather-loving submissive was clinging to life yesterday after a freak accident at a Midtown bondage club cut off oxygen to his brain, law-enforcement sources said.

Sounds like an unfortunate accident made worse by some poor judgment on the part of the domme. I hope the gentleman has a speedy recovery and that the top learns that no matter what your bottom may want, you should make sure to always play safely. Instead of leaving him alone, perhaps a blindfold and earplugs to make him feel alone, but keep an eye on things. It may not have been the most strenuous suspension, but people can get suddenly ill while in bondage. What might be a mild suspension position can turn very dangerous during a seizure or heart attack.