Just returned from an epic sea voyage with Triad Stage's production of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment: the Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont as told by himself. It may well be the best thing I've seen there.

If you know Jake the Dog and Finn the Human from Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, you know the vibe of this play -- silly, gross, and occasionally brilliantly, nakedly honest in it's plumbing of the weird depths of the human heart.  My son and I were watching the other night, when the Ice King shows up at Marceline the vampire's house and begs her to help him write a song -- you know, to get chicks (more specifically, princesses).  This situation leads to a confusing Alzheimer's jam session / flashback of a much younger Ice King (Simon) befriending a young girl in a post-apocalyptic cityscape.  She can't make him remember any of it, and so she just has to play along with his nutty drumming and word salad lyrics, while Finn & Jake spy on them from outside in total confusion.

Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen might be a better comparison on a superficial level, as it relies more on the classics for its imagery and less on hip-hop and gamer geek lore, and because it shares a focus on the fuzzy line between fantasy and reality, but I'm sticking with Adventure Time at the emotional level, because the land of Oo is an irony-free zone.  Finn & Jake play it straight, no matter how stupid what they're saying is to us.  That is the vibe of Shipwrecked! as well.

What does any of this have to do with science?  Ah, dear readers, I fear that must be the subject of our next installment.  The hour grows late, and I have an 8am class on the morrow.