Prepare to Tolerate Seattle Vice, the Cheesecake Factory of Vaudeville

January 29, 2016 by admin
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This is Tanya Brno, one of two people worth watching in this show. The wobbliness of this pole heightened the tension in her insanely good pole routine.

During the pre-show chaos period that precedes many shows at Triple Door, I glanced upwards and saw a red-lit peep-show box installed above the audience’s heads. Inside the box, Mark Siano, in-character as a 1960s club crooner named Gil Conte, looking a lot like a low-rent Billy Joel, was fake-spanking lingerie-clad go-go dancers and receiving fake spanks in return. Faces all around me were plastered with cheesy, winking grins. I counted four or five newsboy hats. Dancers strutted from table to table, conducting visibly awkward or cartoonishly flirtatious conversations with audience members. Blameless musicians filled the air with surf rock and mambo. Before the show even began, I started to get a sinking feeling that this show wasn’t for me.

But this show has a billboard. This show sold out last weekend, and it’s on its way to selling out both its early and late performances this upcoming weekend. Seattle Vice is clearly what many people want to see. And what’s not to like? I was looking at many beautiful women who were walking around in very little clothing. There was even a token half-naked buff guy, just in case there happened to be any hetero women or gay men in the audience. I was eating a mushroom on a stick. I was drinking a $12 cocktail called “The Sultry Rose.” It tasted like a bunch of syrups. Was I not entertained?

I wasn’t. I was getting a little depressed. I felt as if I were living inside of a theatrical Glamburger™. Everything I was witnessing had been specially designed to Entertain me, to appeal to my desire for food, drink, and sex. At the same time, the show was operating under the pretense that appealing to those basic desires was somehow transgressive, was somehow “naughty”—as if that appeal wasn’t exactly the same one used by [insert any company here] to sell [insert any product here].

Seattle Vice is a fun cultural experience just like The Cheesecake Factory is a decadent dining experience. In reality it’s just an imitation of decadence. It’s a cliche of vaudeville, a burlesque of burlesque. The reproduction that transfers none of the form’s crucial satire.

But already I’m getting way ahead of myself.

Seattle Vice is set in 1965 Seattle at the Embassy. The aforementioned crooner, Gil Conte, is the right-hand man to Frank Colacurcio (Jeff Spaulding), “strip-club magnate” and patriarch of the Colacurcio crime family. Rose Marie Williams (a.k.a. Madame Washington), played by Opal Peachey, basically works as a kind of creative director for the club. She chooses the dancers, figures out programming, and runs the brothel. Over the course of the performance, Conte leads us from the days of the “tolerance policy,” a shadowy system that allowed clubs like Vice’s Embassy to operate brothels so long as cops et al were payed off, to the days we more or less live in now, where strip clubs exist as places to drink expensive Dr. Pepper and watch people get half naked and rub up on your jeans.

Opal Peachey as Rose Marie Williams (a.k.a. Madame Washington), the other person worth watching onstage. She conveyed the Madame as a cold but humorous businesswoman trying to make it in a mans world.

According to Triple Door’s website, the Embassy was a vaudeville club that became an adult cinema that was later replaced by the Triple Door. This venue choice makes a lot of sense for Seattle Vice, as it perfectly positions Siano and Peachey, who created the show based on Rick Anderson’s eponymous book, to use the supposedly transgressive and empowering forms of burlesque—and, I guess, lounge singing—to explore the complications of Seattle’s organized crime scene in the very space wherein many of those dramas may have played out.

But this did not happen.

Instead, Vice was content to romanticize the glory days of backroom prostitution, organized crime, and making fun of Tacoma. Though the play emphasizes and glamorizes the Madam’s power, and though the men in the show are depicted as bozos, Colacurcio is the person who holds the most power, who actually controls everything, and the show holds him up as a simple and smart businessman.

Often, a mediocre show will contain its own critique. In this case, the line comes from Gil Conte, who summed up my feelings in a single pun: “Prepare to be tolerated.” If you’ve already got tickets to Seattle Vice, prepare to tolerate it.

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Ashley Graham shows off her famous curves in workout gear for fitness campaign

January 29, 2016 by admin
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The 27-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska, stars in Canadian retailer Addition Elle’s new Nola plus-size activewear collection
Ashley also has an ongoing lingerie collaboration with the brand
The body activist, who wears a size 14/16, frequently posts Instagram photos and videos of herself working out

Bianca London for MailOnline

and
Erica Tempesta For Dailymail.com

Published:
14:05 EST, 27 January 2016

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Updated:
17:57 EST, 27 January 2016

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Ashley Graham is flaunting her sculpted curves as she works up a sweat in her colorful new fitness campaign.

The 27-year-old size 14/16 body activist from Lincoln, Nebraska, has once again teamed up with Canadian retailer Addition Elle to star in the brand’s new Nola plus-size activewear collection featuring brightly patterned tops, leggings, and sports bras.

Ashley, who has a lingerie collaboration with the brand, looks like she is ready to his the gym in the images that see her with her hair pulled back in a messy bun.

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Fitness fanatic: Plus-size model Ashley Graham stars in Canadian retailer Addition Elle’s new Nola activewear collection

Working up a sweat: The 27-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska, can be seen wearing the brands sports bra and patterned leggings, which retail for $40 and $55 respectively

Go graphic with your gym gear in Ashley’s leggings

Addition Elle Patterned Leggings

Click here for the current collection

Buy now

Nothing like a new gym outfit to get you going on those New Year’s resolutions- right?!

Ashley Graham looks fierce in the latest campaign for Addition- Elle’s line of active wear. Showing off her famously curvaceous figure in a sports bra and purple patterned leggings– we instantly felt regret over the bag of Cheetos consumed for breakfast.

But the past is the past and there’s no time like the present to change bad habits and hit the gym in style.

Sadly Ashley’s leggings are not available just yet (we’ll have to wait till Spring) but if you click right you can shop the current collection or browse our edit below for a roundup of our favorite looks from around the web!

* PRICES MAY NOT BE AS ADVERTISED

…NOW GET ONE LIKE IT FOR LESS

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All inclusive: The collection comes in sizes X to 4X, and prices range from $40 for a sports bra (L) to $170 for the brand’s grey hooded jacket (R)

Active beauty: In the fitness-inspired ad campaign, Ashley’s hair is pulled back in a messy bun, however, her pink lipstick ads a pop of color to her exercise ensemble

Same look, two ways: The size 14/16 beauty wore this patterned T-shirt tied in a knot around her waist (L) and down around her hips (R)

Ashley can also be seen wearing a purple, black, and pink T-shirt loose in one photo and tied in a knot to shot off a sliver of her stomach in another.

The Nola activewear line, which debuts debuts in February, will be available at Addition Elle and Lord Taylor’s websites, as well as in select Lord Taylor stores. The collection comes in sizes X to 4X, and prices range from $40 for a sports bra to $170 for the brand’s grey hooded jacket.

The collaboration appears to be a perfect match, as Ashley is often sharing Instagram photos and videos of herself working up a sweat.

Last week, she shared a clip of herself doing lunges with her back leg propped up behind her on a weight bench while holding dumbbells. Every time she squatted down, she did a bicep curl.

Role model: Ashley, who can be seen boxing with her trainer Christoper Kadima, is a body activist who encourages women to love their shape no matter what their size

Healthy living: The model often shares videos and photos of herself working out with her nearly one million Instagram followers

‘Get your sweat on this weekend! Healthy comes in all shapes and sizes.. #beautybeyondsize #curvyfitclub with @christopher.kadima,’ she wrote, tagging celebrity trainer Christoper Kadima.

The week before that she posted of them boxing together during one of her training sessions.

Ashley made history after becoming the first curvaceous model to feature in the esteemed pages of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, and she is now one of the most in-demand women in the industry.

Collaborative venture: Ashley also has a plus-size lingerie line with Addition Elle. She can be seen posing in one of the sets from her recent Black Orchid collection

Seductive stance: Ashley said she is proud of her lingerie line, which she described as ‘unapologetically sexy’

In May, Ashley received a standing ovation when she delivered an empowering TED talk titled ‘Plus Size? More Like My Size’ in Spain discussing how learning to love and accept herself has helped her lead a happier life.

With nearly a million Instagram followers, the brunette beauty is making sure her inspiring messages are being heard far and wide.

As well as walking around in the buff and chanting to herself in the mirror, Ashley uses age-old methods of improving her well-being – exercise.

She said it’s ‘important for every type of body’ and she feels ‘weird’ if she doesn’t work out.

Catwalk queen: Ashley Graham is pictured walking down the runway during the Addition Elle/Ashley Graham Lingerie Collection fashion show in September

Edgy gown: Ashley flaunted her legs at the 2015 Harper’s Bazaar Icons Event in New York City in September

In order to not get bored with her fitness regime, voluptuous poser Ashley does a mix of ‘running, high intensity, boot camps’.

In October, Ashley modeled her Black Orchid lingerie collection for Addition Elle in a bouidoir-inspired shoot.

‘I am so proud of my lingerie line, it’s unapologetically sexy which, I hope will inspire women to embrace their bodies regardless of shape or size,’ she said of her latest collection.

‘Everybody deserves to have access to fashion – your size shouldn’t rule what you wear so I am pleased that my collection will be available to buy at Simply Be which stocks a diverse range of sizes.’