THE WAR ON PLEASURE
The War on Pleasure tells the story, through Robin Goldstein’s original songs and spoken stories, of the 200-year fight against delicious food.
The fight was first started by 1800s Puritan radicals who originally created the health food industry as a cure for adolescent masturbation.
The War on Pleasure is presented in two acts of about 40 minutes each, with a 15-minute intermission between acts.
The show’s world premiere was on March 6, 2021, in Houston, Texas, produced by 5th Wave Productions.
Robin Goldstein
Robin Goldstein’s first musical project was “Nocturnal Emission,” a 2 Live Crew knock-off rap group whose album was banned by the school principal because of its profanity. On the strength of this controversy, Nocturnal Emission sold six cassette tape copies of the album on the underground market to Robin’s 7th-grade classmates.
His next project, “Students of Bakunin,” was an anarchist punk band that was also banned by school authorities but did not enjoy as much commercial success with 9th graders, selling only three copies, all to siblings of the band members.
For the following 23 years, Robin was sidelined from the music world as he worked in the fields of law, book publishing, food writing, and agricultural economics, and joined the research faculty of the University of California, where he studies the wine, beer, and cannabis industries.
His musical comeback began in 2016, when he moved to China, became a singer and backup musician for the Chinese pop band “Jing & Friends,” and appeared for one second playing a melodica on the Chinese reality TV show “iDream of China” (at 18:06). His classical composition “Serenade No. 1 for Five-String Viola and Piano” premiered at a summer festival in Bad Leonfelden, Austria.
After Robin returned to the United States, he began singing his presentations on craft beer bullshit at economics conferences.
The War on Pleasure is Robin’s first solo musical show.
“THE WAR ON PLEASURE” MUSICAL NUMBERS
1. HE WAS SURE
Meet Rev. Sylvester Graham, Puritan king of crackers.
2. THE BAKER OF BATTLE CREEK
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invents Corn Flakes as a medical treatment.
3. GARDEN OF GRACE
Dr. Kellogg contemplates nature and revolts against his church.
4. POPEYE
Vitamins blow up, with the help of a comic strip. But there’s a catch.
5. AMERICAN FOOD
Food scientists invent new technology to feed the whole world cheaply.
6. DIETARY RESTRICTIONS
Thousands of new diets emerge, united by the Anti-Pleasure Principle.
7. DO TACOS CAUSE TORNADOES?
In the age of safety, experts turn against all forms of pleasure.
8. IT WAS BEER
There is no more normal beer left in California—only craft beer.
9. YOUR BODY’S AN ARK
Doctors determine that all food & drink is either medicine or poison.