Nothing’s Gonna Change My World October 7, 2007

A couple of weeks late, as usual, I headed up to my neighborhood cineplex yesterday to catch ‘Across the Universe’, Julie Taymor’s new musical flick at the reduced matinee price. I really do know how to do movies on a budget, if I do say so myself. We won’t talk about what I ate and drank during the movie, but let’s just say the whole thing (film + lunch) came out to under $10. In New York City, that’s definitely a bargain.

So I can’t complain too much about the fact that this is a rather flawed movie. A friend of mine said it best yesterday before I even saw the movie – Julie Taymor makes beautiful images, but she’s not a storyteller. I mean, The Lion King was a pretty silly story to start with, and she didn’t ruin it by any means, but those lyrics to ‘Endless Night’ really didn’t do anything for the whole thing.

There’s just no story of any substance in this movie. The conflicts aren’t clear enough, the plot seems to meander in between the visually impressive musical numbers, and what’s up with the random lesbian? Can anyone explain that to me?

I’m not sure why Julie Tee didn’t just do a Beatles (and Henrix/Joplin?) tribute album and a remake of Hair, because that seemed to be what she was aiming for here. I might be in the minority here, but I laughed in the scene where the moving crowd on the street stops and begins to turn and move in sync around the singer – I guess it was an intentional nod to the Hair film, and I do love it as a device, but given the similarity in the stories, it was a bit much. The point of the whole film, if we can boil it down to that, seems to be “The Sixties”, and I just think that it’s a topic that’s been addressed better pretty much… everywhere else.

I didn’t realize until the credits just how many young New York actors were in the film, but I did have fun playing spot-the-former-Rent-stars (Hi Matt Caplan! Hi Luther Creek! And hold up, which hooker was Yassmin Alers?) My favorite cameo, and this probably goes without saying, had to be Logan Marshall-Green as Paco the Revolutionary. One person had told me he had a “small” part and someone else didn’t remember seeing him, so I was expecting it to be a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it part (*cough* Luther), but I was pleasantly surprised to see him throughout much of the middle of the flick, albeit hiding under a big old Communist beard.

I did dig the score in a big way, and Jim Sturgess is a true discovery. I admit that this one has a shot at ending up on my very short DVD shelf at some point, if only for the musical sequences.

I do wish that Julie Taymor would learn to step aside and learn to support other people’s stories instead of trying to tell her own, but ever since The Lion King, she can pretty much do whatever the hell she wants, for better or for worse.

Things I’m Currently Happy About October 1, 2007

1. I am currently holding in my hands a freshly printed copy of the second installment of my new favorite young adult series, “Drama! Everyone’s a Critic” by Paul Ruditis.

I read the first three chapters on the train on my way home and already got the giggles several times, most notably over the narrator’s stubborn insistence that his best friend and her boyfriend are arguing over something that sounds like “hex”, and how he can’t imagine what could possibly rhyme with that.

Poor Bryan Stark – I have a hunch he won’t be making it out of the closet just yet, but at least he has his fedora to keep him company.

I plan to savor the rest of the book if possible, because Paul Ruditis can’t write these fast enough for me.

2. BB8’s Eric and Jess? Totally a couple. They even simultaneously updated their Myspaces to ‘In a Relationship’. See? Big Brother can have a happy ending sometimes. God knows the Donatos going all bittercakes in the wake of their win is not it.

3. Things are still flying back and forth, but I’m becoming less and less worried about the potential Broadway stagehands lockout. Next week is still a crapshoot, but from what I’m hearing whispered around the industry, I don’t think it will happen.

Now as to whether or not the stagehands actually decide to strike further down the line remains to be seen, but as of now, that’s not really an issue.

4. I have yet to be sucked in to the fall TV season, which is a good thing. Kid Nation is intriguing for all their potential human rights violations (?), Chuck features the magical talents of Josh Schwartz, Adam Baldwin, and special guest star Matthew Bomer, Gossip Girl is actually better than the books (thank god), but so far, nothing has grabbed me. I have enough shows left over from last season, so I’m not complaining.

5. Speaking of Bomer, Traveler is officially dead now, so it’s time to find out what actually would have happened if the show had continued.

And… whoa. Like, whoa.

Tyler!! And poor Stephen Mailer.

It would have been a good ride, and it actually made a hell of a lot more sense than I would have guessed from the often confusing summer episodes. Oh well. RIP Traveler.

6. And speaking of Logan Marshall-Green, what’s this I hear about him having a small part in Across the Universe?

I smell a movie I need to see.

Anathema September 19, 2007

When I first heard that Susan Cooper’s ‘The Dark is Rising’ series was being translated to film, I was overjoyed.

I enjoyed the series in my childhood, and even though I’m not sure that the books stand up to time (I’ve reread a couple lately and wasn’t as impressed as I remembered), I still appreciated the attention they were getting.  After all, if I liked them at the age of ten, someone else was bound to as well.

Then I saw a preview.

I tried not to  judge, even though it seemed that the film had excised Will Stanton’s entire extensive family, the Arthurian mythology, the essential Britishness of the story, and pretty much everything I remembered fondly.  I tried to ignore the fact that it seemed to be aiming for comedy, something that was decidedly not a part of this series.  Sometimes adaptations can improve.  Sometimes.

I mean, there’s still something in me that always gets a little nostalgic for these books when I see a cross shape in a circle, and that image in the preview was definitely worth the long payoff.

And then I just saw another preview.

“Pretty ordinary, normal problems?” No.  I’m sorry.  Will Stanton did not have girl angst.  I’m positive I remember that much.

“Typical family?”  No.  What happened to the giant brood of loving, if claustrophobic, Stantons?  All those sweet, adoring older brothers and sisters you could hardly tell apart?

Party at a mansion – check.  Rider… check.   Seeker… check.

Snarky Will… wrong.  All, entirely, a hundred percent wrong.

Just when my hopes were hanging by a thread, up popped the title:

“THE SEEKER”

And for a moment, I had a fledgling hope that I was mistaken, that this trailer was for some other child fantasy film, with no connection to The Dark is Rising beyond your archetypical youthful fantasy elements.

And then it hit me.

They changed the name.

They changed the goddamn name of the book.

I don’t know what to say, except…

You know what?

I definitely think I’ll pass.

The Summer of America’s Playa – How Eric Stein Stole the Show on BB8 September 13, 2007

It happens every summer – I swear I’m not going to get hooked on Big Brother, and then before I know it, I’m watching the feeds, reading the boards, and stewing about how the wrong people always win this damn game. This summer has been no exception, but I did find myself actually genuinely cheering for Eric.

Eric’s brother described him on a message board once as a polarizing figure, and he definitely played the part to perfection in this summer’s version of the intensely drama-filled psychological mess that is the Big Brother house. Both in the house and on the internet, people found themselves loving him and repelled by him, sometimes at the same time.

I saw Eric as a character on an interesting journey. Having finally achieved his reality-TV-obsessed dream of landing a role in the Big Brother house, he arrived only to find out that he wasn’t playing Big Brother after all, but rather a side twist known as America’s Player in which America would vote three times a week to control his actions in the house.

After an early and awkward start in the house, Eric finally started to embrace the role just as America turned against him, apparently for his non-America’s-Player role in Nick’s eviction, and Daniele-and-Dick’s subsequent anger towards him. Eric was forced to give Jessica the silent treatment and boot his ally Dustin from the house before he finally won America’s vote back to his side.

In the process, he made it to the Final Five, and somehow managed to get the girl. He may have been evicted with Jessica in a back-to-back double eviction, but it was almost better that way – he had no time to suffer on the block, and he rode off into the sunset with forty grand in his pocket.

In tribute to Eric “America’s Player” Stein and a rocky, but entertaining summer in the household, I give you a look back at the trials and tribulations of BB8’s Eric.

Team Dustin August 10, 2007

CBS dodged a bullet last night when Big Brother’s censored anti-Semite Amber Siyavus Tomcavage (really? that’s her last name? really?) reluctantly cast the deciding vote to keep Eric Stein, the Jewish player from New York who is actually guilty of most of the crimes the house has accused him of (mustard vandalism and casting mysterious votes against Kail being the main ones), but only because he’s responding to text-message polls from viewers as America’s Player, and not because of Douchebag Daniele Donato’s idiotic conspiracy theories pinning him as a manipulative mastermind. I have no doubt that Eric is in fact a manipulative mastermind, but that’s not why he voted to keep her boyfriend Nick the other week. Also, Daniele? You voted Nick out, so STFU.

Wow. Where was I going with that? I can’t even begin to sum up Big Brother to people anymore if they aren’t watching. I don’t know how the Showtime Too feeds manage to do it in a single scroll on the TV.

So after saying with a completely serious face that a) all Jews are greedy and selfish, b) all people from New York are too, c) all people from New York are Jews, and d) you can tell from their last names and noses, Amber let herself be persuaded by her gay BFF Dustin to vote to keep Eric. Actually, that’s not true. Amber, who fancies herself a Good Person Who Never Lies (anyone who’s watched even the CBS show for a week could tell you she’s full of it) had already told Eric that she swore on her daughter to keep him, and had been whining about how much she wanted to change her mind after Douchebag Dick Donato (father of Douchebag Daniele – I know, what a coincidence!) told her that Eric told him that she had a big secret, without telling him what that was.

Um, I’m exhausted just typing that, and there is no way to make that long story short.

So Amber was always going to vote to keep Eric and bitch about it a lot, but she wanted Jameka and Dustin to vote him out for her. Nice one. Dustin, however, being another dirty (half) Jew and gay to boot, calmed her ass down and brought the group back together to stick it to Dick.

And stick it they did. Last night’s live show showed the group starting to explode as Dick turned on Jameka (really? really, Dick?) and then Jessica – Eric’s BFF, if you’re following – won the HOH, almost virtually guaranteeing an exit for Dick one week from now.

I’ve been annoyed with almost everyone in the house at one point or another, but just for rallying the troops and standing up to Dick, right now I’m doing the dance with Dustin and Eric right up there at the top here.

This doesn’t, of course, mean that Amber won’t turn around and try to evict the Jews next week, but for now? Team Dustin FTW.

You Can’t Stop to Breathe August 5, 2007

Words cannot express how amazing the new Hairspray film is.

I have to admit, my hopes weren’t high, and this is coming from someone who adores musical films. Dreamgirls was kinda boring, Chicago was never my favorite show, Rent was a massive badly directed letdown, and only Hedwig and the Angry Inch really stood up as a high-quality twenty-first century musical film adapation as far as I was concerned.

I was an instant fan of Hairspray the musical from the day they performed “You Can’t Stop the Beat” at Broadway in Bryant Park during their previews back in 2002 (around the same time as this clip). I was on my chair dancing before the song was over along with the rest of the crowd, and ran with a discount code to buy tickets at the box office for a preview (just about the only time I’ve paid for a Broadway show without using rush, standing room or lottery).

As such a fan, however, I felt the need to keep my expectations low. So much of the casting sounded odd – John Travolta? That kid from High School Musical? Cyclops as Corny Collins? I put it on my list as ‘movies to see’, mostly forgot about it, and just shrugged when theater friends started text-messaging me from early screenings to rave, reminding myself that I had to see the movie at some point.

After last night, I’m sold, hook, line, and sinker.

The casting is nearly impeccable. James Marsden is divine – who knew he had such teeth, and who knew he could sing? The kids are all adorable, particularly Zac Efron as Link, and getting stars like Queen Latifah and Michelle Pfeiffer was a complete coup. The direction is brilliant, with dance shots that really pull you into the action, swift transitions, and cuts that make sense (I hate to see ‘Mama I’m a Big Girl Now’ cut, but I can see the logic in it). It’s such a feel-good story to start with, and that feeling isn’t lost on this adaptation. Most of my favorite moments from the show are in there – like the un-PC moment as Seaweed whips out his switchblade while singing about the ghetto, and Penny Pingleton getting positively punished. I had a huge smile on my face for nearly the whole film. This was a movie that deserved to be made.

The only complaint I had with the whole movie was John Travolta. Now I grew up on Grease as much as the next person, and I’m trying to block out my personal distaste for the man (the stuff about his autistic son is really distressing to me, since I worked in the field of autism for many years), but the fact remains that he’s just not very good in this movie. He suffers from what I call “Mr. Rogers Syndrome”. My father forever ruined the Neighborhood of Make-Believe for me when he pointed out that Mr. Rogers was voicing all the puppets and, for some inexplicable reason, voiced almost every female puppet with a southern accent. As goes Mr. Rogers, so goes Travolta. Why on earth does Edna have a southern accent? She’s in bloody Baltimore. I can appreciate the casting just for the novelty of having the stars of Grease and Grease 2 in the movie together, but couldn’t they have gotten Olivia Newton-John instead? John Travolta is no Harvey Fierstein.

I came running home after the movie last night to jump on the internet and read more about it, and was shocked to hit IMDB and realize why cute little Zac Efron looks so familiar to me.

I’ve watched his first acting job dozens of times and never once made the connection, probably because he was a little stiff and forgettable, and because he’s had also some serious dental work since then.

Nevertheless, here it is, the very beginning of Zac Efron’s career, which has been sitting on my DVD shelf in a place of honor for the past four years:

Oh, what a night August 3, 2007

I’m starting to remember why I don’t pay for cable.

The internet is way too exciting.

In the first corner, we have Big Brother, and a few spoiler alerts if you’re not following the live feed.

Spoiler alert! Stop reading.

Still with me?

Okay.

Hope you’re not a skimmer like me, or else you might be getting spoi – oh, screw it, this isn’t Harry Potter.

So after the show was over last night, I broke down and figured out a way to get the feeds (shh! not telling) in order to watch the HOH comp and – god forbid – cheer on Jen, who is starting to look like the lesser of… oh, about ten evils. Unfortunately, the first forty-five minutes of HOH comp weren’t aired on the internet. Rumors were swirling in the chat rooms, but the reason seemed to be a banner circling the house, as spotted by some sharp-eyed LA neighbors:

This may seem a little nonsensical if you’re not following the dah-rama, but basically this is a plane flying over an isolated house of crazy people who are being broadcast on the internet 24/7, and the biggest significance is that it kind of outs Eric, a.k.a. “America’s Player”, who’s been secretly completing missions inside the house following “America’s votes” (though much like similar language on “American Idol”, I shudder every time they imply that the whole country is unified behind squirting mustard on Jen’s shirts. Not that I wouldn’t do it myself, mind you, but still, can’t we get behind, like, world peace?)

A frenzy of backstabbing, backpedaling, and backbending ensued last night, and poor Eric, a.k.a. “America’s Tool”, was left as the newest target of Evil Dick’s abusive behavior in the house. Can America please dump mustard on Dick? Why doesn’t CBS give us that option? And how did I miss Zach’s live-on-camera “I have ringworm” “Oops, uh, psyche?” this afternoon? Goddammit. Time to log on from home.

Still, something is distracting me from Eric and Jessica’s whispered plotting in the backyard, and that’s the other drama unfolding live on the internet tonight – the Lonelygirl15 “12 in 12″ twelve-hour marathon season finale. So far the TAAG (Teen Angst Adventure Gang) kids have argued amongst themselves, gotten into a car crash, locked themselves in a warehouse bathroom, been rescued by the previously borderline-canon internet reporter Nikki “Nikki B” Bower, been spotted by fans while running around downtown Los Angeles, found Bree, stabbed a guy in a cape (really? really now) and at last update my poor lovely Jonas seemed to be bleeding to death in a stairwell. And the next update isn’t for 30 minutes!

The Lonelygirl15 and Big Brother dramas share a few thing in common. Their Los Angeles settings are just a byproduct of the industry, though it would be pretty hilarious if the LG15 kids spotted a Big Brother banner or the BB houseguests saw a LG15 helicopter (er, wait, what was that noise on my BB feeds?)

The live nature and short turnaround time of both dramas opens the door for some interesting sneak peeks behind the process. On BB, the internet was able to infer the frantic head-scratching of the producers as a banner plane disrupted their big twist in the middle of an endurance competition. It wouldn’t be the first time this week they’ve had to think fast – just yesterday, an audio glitch revealed contestant Kail trying to execute a DOR (that’s a quick voluntary exit), and producers sweet-talking her into staying in the game.

On LG15, today’s videos have been disrupted first by a sitewide crash over at Lonelygirl15.com, and then by Myspace technical problems as the thrilling chapters were periodically replaced by weather.com videos about ski lifts or something. The characters chattered away all morning about the helpful posters on the forum, even while the posters in question bashed their heads into the wall waiting for the site to load. The Creators also made a bold decision to attempt some live interactions, like the afore-mentioned Daniel sighting, but have also had to use the Nikki Bower character to talk a few overzealous fans away from locations where no action was planned.

So what to do? Well, Big Brother is still on automatic flush (aka the feeds are off) and Nikki Bower has returned from Starbucks to talk people off the ledge, so I’m off to monitor the LG15 chat until the next update.

Save Jonas! Save Eric! Save Bree! More mustard!
Kill Dick.

Peace out.

*Edit, 10 PM EST:  Lonelygirl15 has a surprising season finale!   Last chapter here.

In which I wax Delightfully Obscure July 23, 2007

Oh, well, of course I’m done with the book, I was done with the book by lunchtime on Saturday and I’m almost done with my second read.  I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now, since I haven’t mastered the art of locking entries on WordPress just yet, but in the meantime, time to talk – casting!  And while I love the concept of casting magnificent British actors in the Harry Potter films, there’s one major thing missing to me.

I grew up on British character actors of the television sort thanks to an adolescence spent watching Red Dwarf, and it shocks – I repeat, shocks me that to this date I can only come up with one crossover actor, and he’s somewhat obscure to both genres.  That actor is the delightful Mark Williams, and the best I can do from Youtube is this Red Dwarf episode (look for him in the flashback starting 4:30 in), and this fanvid  showing both roles.

Where the hell are the other talented Red Dwarf character actors?   Okay, fine, so I get that Craig Charles is really only good at playing Craig Charles, but am I the only one who would love to see him as Mundungus?  And as for the other three main actors – Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn and Danny John-Jules are all masterful mimics who could pull off just about anything.  Let me just kick things off by pointing out that Robert Llewellyn might be the best person for this part (which is not in books 1-6, so be warned it’s a small spoiler), but if they can’t get him, I’m sure Chris Barrie is available.  I’m also brainstorming for other roles for Barrie and coming up blank, but if you’ve heard parts of the Red Dwarf audio books, you know he could pretty much play any damn thing they wanted him to.

Okay, I need to stop messing around and force myself to finish the last sequence for a second time, because I’m still rather confused on some of the events, which isn’t helping in discussing the book with friends.

Gone to Where Joe’s From July 15, 2007

For all the web hits I get from people looking for information on the Museum of Modern Arthur, since I actually visited the place today, I might as well talk about it, right? Right.

After taking advantage of this week’s N train diversion to dart out to Ditmars and check out the adorable newly opened Oleput (excellent iced coffee, and not hardly as overpriced as some of the Astorians.com chatter would lead one to believe), I headed all the way through the city and down into Brooklyn in search of DUMBO. For five years of living in this city, DUMBO is not a neighborhood I’ve spent much time in, with the exception of one Brooklyn Bridge wedding, and, um, I don’t think that counts. I dunno. I don’t really do Brooklyn all that much.

Finding the “museum” itself wasn’t difficult – it’s three blocks toward the river from the York St. station on the F – despite the fact that I hadn’t been able to determine if they were officially open, and if so, whether they would be open on a Sunday. I’d postponed a visit in the hopes that they would announce official hours or something, but finally had the day free and decided to just bite the bullet and go. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find a closed and locked gate, but was somewhat disappointed.

I did the window-peek thing for a few minutes, then decided to explore DUMBO a little on my own and see if, you know, maybe they’d be open at 2 or something, cause who knows.

Exploring DUMBO on my own turned out to be a good call, as it resulted in a few cute little cafes (if I’d been hungrier, the Mexican place on Jay St. looked delicious) and one perfect used bookshop, P.S. Bookshop. The Strand just doesn’t do it for me where used books are concerned – no, that’s not sacrilege, it’s just fucking expensive, while at P.S.B. I found two tempting paperbacks at $2.50 each. Prices varied, but selection was enticing and by the time I emerged, it was 2:15 and I decided to investigate MOMAR once more.

Thank god, because the place was now wide open for business, meaning that my trip across three boroughs wasn’t in vain. I wandered around for a few minutes checking out the paintings, and actually had a near-miss with the artist himself, as I saw Joe coming out of the bathroom on his way out the door. Sadly, my nerves got the better of me and rather than actually, you know, say something, I ducked back in to the back room.

Another time, maybe.

I’m a fan of Joe primarily for the music and his writing, and the art has never been the primary thing to draw me to him, but I have enough of a sense of his work to be able to guess what period certain paintings were from. Some of the paintings on display had the older, “alien”-cave-painting thing going on, many were from what seems to be a recent Jackson Pollock-esque phase (check out the main picture on the MOMAR site, which is also the album cover for Let’s Just Be, if you don’t get what I’m talking about). I was most intrigued by a few multi-canvas pieces in the back room. None of them were live show paintings, but rather some of his more intimately created stuff.

Most unique piece? A fridge from his last apartment, fully decked out in thick Joe-paint, and a decorated TV on top, completely converted so that only a little static shone through the eyes of the painting. Hey, look, there’s a reason why words don’t do this stuff justice (if they did, you know, he’d have just written them). Go check it out for yourself.

I chatted a little with Lauren out front, who admitted that the hours are not set in stone although the place is officially open. She was overseeing a table of CDs as well, and I wound up walking away with a copy of Joe’s somewhat rarer 2003 album Holding the Void, which I’m currently listening to and falling in absolute love with (good recommendation, Lauren!) I didn’t even dare to ask about the price of the art, given my budget, but checking it all out was worth the trip alone even before you factor in the new CD. Actually, the new CD made it worth the trip all the more.

What I’ve really come to love about Joseph Arthur in the last couple of years is not only his raw expressiveness, but his apparent lack of self-editing. There’s something very primal and pure about his seemingly manic album output and his multi-disciplinary voice. The idea behind the gallery may seem a little batty, but the place has a great vibe, it sums up the artist more than any single album or live show possibly could, and hopefully the word will get out. Anyone who appreciates his music should make the pilgrimage.

Hopefully, when they do, the damn place will be open. But if it’s not – just give it a few minutes, and if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even bump into Joe.

Joseph Arthur, “Invisible Hands”, Paris, 2005.

Sing Your Eternal Song July 13, 2007

Who said there’s nothing good on in the summer?

Next week, of course, is the Friday night midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I plan to be finished by Saturday night and analyzing by Sunday morning, but then, I do read fast.

So what to do once you’ve finished reading the book? Lonelygirl 15 has the answer: The 12-hour “marathon” of Lonelygirl15 uploading announced for Friday, August 3.

LG15 has revolutionized a new concept of long-term/short-form storytelling. Not all of the two-to-five minute episodes are successful, as I’ve mentioned before, but they’re consistent. No more than three days pass between episodes, and sometimes (this week being an example) I wake up each morning to an email notifying me of a new episode, setting my morning routine back by about five minutes (thanks, Lonelygirl).

The fans have complained about the pace, but turning out a fully produced short nearly every day is an experiment, and a daring one. I guess I’m just a little more patient and forgiving, or maybe it’s just because Jonas is hot, but I’m still intrigued by the concept. The Bree mystery messages of the past month have been slow but intriguing – who is inserting the clues into Bree’s spacey Hymn-of-One-produced videos, and why do they always end their messages with “TCC“? Whoever it is, they’re nervous, and they’re coming soon, according to this morning’s release.

No doubt the August 3rd marathon will bring the Hymn of One/ceremony drama to a head, and we can only hope that Bree will be returned to her friends, though the casting of star Jessica Rose on ABC Family’s Greek doesn’t bode well. If Jessica signed a one-year contract with LG15, this could be the end of Lonelygirl15 and the beginning of… well, I’d still watch the Skyisempty99 show (that’s Sarah, to those in the know), as long as Jonas was on it, of course.

My work schedule prevents me from participating in the live Lonelygirl15 marathon (really, guys? a Friday?), but that’s probably for the best, given how the site tends to drag immediately after new releases. I look forward to an exciting marathon session of Lonelygirl15 releases on Friday night or Saturday morning.

Bring on the second season!

Also? Stay tuned for Kate Modern.