In a deliberate nod to the Malaysian New Wave, this week’s episode features Ken Layne seated at a rather portentous angle, demonstrating from the start the serious nature of “the conversation” between himself and Choire Sicha. Again, the traditional narrative is broken apart with the free-wheeling nature of the dialogue – Sicha rolls on the floor like a child overdosing on hormone replacement therapy, while Layne revels in multiple layers of absurdism by conducting his “half” of “the conversation” from a stable. Is there an underlying point to be garnered by the use of a “stable” in these rather unstable times? Layne’s “location” is referred to in several instances, but, like Rene Clair’s “Ballet Mecanique” (1924), we are left to make the connection ourselves.

How could anyone possibly resist a Glengarry Glen Ross reference when discussing Governor Rod Blagojevic? We sure didn’t!

Choire Sicha takes a delicious run at it, in Salon today. Because this is NOT a “family program”!

“If David Mamet didn’t write the profane, wiretapped dialogue for the Illinois governor’s attempt to sell Obama’s Senate seat, he should have. A play in one act. “

[Salon]