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Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024

william lee martin spotlight pageCourtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Those attending this year’s Chamber Bash event will be sure to get not only some great food and see some great corporate table decorations, they will also be getting some great entertainment. 

Comedian William Lee Martin will be headlining the entertainment for this year’s event, which is set for Saturday, March 19 in the Seward County Activity Center. 

As Martin tells it, his foray into standup comedy was rather interesting. 

“I began performing comedy in May 1996, so this is my 25th year of doing standup. I started when I was 30 after working in advertising for several years and not enjoying it at all. After I quit that job, there was one day when I was talking to my grandmother, who happened to be sick with lung cancer at that time, and she spurred me on to find something that would make me happy,” Martin said. “I've written a book called 'Life Under the Neon Moon Now That She is Gone and Took the Dog with Her,' which a lot of people told me read like a standup routine, so they suggested I turn it into that and I made the decision to get into standup comedy without any real backup plan, and that's what I've been doing ever since.”

Martin said his grandmother ultimately provided the final catalyst that pushed him to start performing. 

tragedy of macbeth spotlight pageDenzel Washington in a scene from Joel Coen’s Apple TV film adaptation of “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Many moons ago, when I was in high school, we had the required Shakespeare unit in my senior English class and we went through a handful of his plays including “Romeo & Juliet” and “Macbeth,” among others. “Macbeth” especially stood out to me purely because of how absolutely bonkers some aspects of the story are, and since then, I’ve always kind of wanted to see a production in some form or another. 

So when I heard recently of one of the Coen brothers producing a film based on the play, I was pretty intrigued. The overall story follows Scottish general Macbeth as he receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Ambitious and coerced by his wife, he murders King Duncan when he is an overnight guest and takes the Scottish throne for himself, after which he is wracked with guilt and paranoia, soon becoming a tyrant. The bloodbath and subsequent civil war ultimately lead Macbeth and his wife to a dark fate. 

Right off the bat, the movie has an extremely creepy tone, with the opening being a black screen and a voiceover by one of the witches who makes the story’s fateful prophecy. The fact that the movie is in black and white helps perpetuate that tone and throughout the movie, there was just a feeling of tension and discomfort about what would come next, and it absolutely does not let up for the entire runtime. 

The cinematography with the movie is also quite stunning, with each shot crisp and clear. I also noticed that to an extent, with the way the cinematography is done, it felt (to me) like I was watching a play. The only minor complaint I would have about the cinematography would be the amount of close-up shots of the actors’ faces, because there are A LOT. After the first handful, I couldn’t help but say to myself “They know the camera doesn’t HAVE to be right in that person’s face to get the point across, right?” The lighting used throughout the movie was also used very cleverly and artistically, particularly with the soliloquies, and there were a few times where I said to myself “THAT’S how you use the spotlight lighting!”

fifth dimension summer of soulFifth Dimension performs a song during the Harlem Cultural Festival in this scene from the recent documentary “Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” from director Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Many words can be used to describe the summer of 1969, and many historical events happened during that year. 

One of the biggest musical events of history, Woodstock, took place during that memorable summer, but many people might not know there was another big music festival that took place that year only 100 miles away, the Harlem Cultural Festival. The festival took place over the course of six weekends in what is now called Marcus Garvey Park in New York and featured a massively talented lineup including Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, and Gladys Knight and the Pips, among many others. 

Recently, a documentary about the festival, titled “Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” came on Disney+ and since I’ve been on a bit of an odd documentary kick (and since I’m such a music nerd), I decided to give it a whirl. And I was ultimately NOT disappointed by what I saw, because the movie isn’t just about a concert series, it’s also a story about the history of the U.S. at that time and a story about some of the history of Harlem. It’s all very well combined into one awesome movie package. 

The film begins with a couple title cards that give a little information about the festival footage itself, with the most mind-blowing factoid shared noting how the footage in the documentary was kept in a basement for 50. YEARS. After finishing the movie, the only thing I could think was “WHY would something this significant just be in a basement, and why is it only NOW when someone would show interest in doing anything major with it?!” The footage shown throughout the movie itself is absolutely stunning both artistically and technically – all of the shots are good and clear, with the sound also being in good shape (not always easy).