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[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, you feel Irish, you feel green, and now it is time to post until the Irish cows come home.  Sure and begorrah.

[bk]

I forgot to do show and tell yesterday - here is a photo of the wardrobe lady (and also the director's wife), Christina.

[bk]

And here's our director, Paul, in front of the newsdesk (shot in front of a green screen so they can key in whatever background they like when they're ready).

[bk]

MattH: I had no trouble accessing the message board at The DVD Place - give it another try.  And POST.

[Panni]

The green screen fits right in with the Irish theme.  

                                                                                 

[Charles Pogue]

Bollocks!  

In the DVD:  Sex, Chips, & Rock 'n' Roll.  A very entertaining British mini-series that I bought on a whim in the $4.99 clearout bin at the local video rental place.  Though I checked the DVD's box to make sure it was complete....it was only three episodes, odd for a Brit limited series, usually at least six...there was nothing to indicate it wasn't, so I took a chance.  The Lovely Wife and I immediately got hooked into it, but when I was starting the second episode, The Lovely Wife noticed it said Disc One on the Menu.  We hoped against hope.  No such luck.  We got to the end of episode three and there was obviously more (I later found a small insignia on the spine of the DVD that said Disc One on the outside).

Anyway, I went out on a search mission for Disc Two today.  The original Video Hut down in my neighbourhood where I found Disc One was my first stop.  No Disc Two.  And the clerk was the usual open-mouthed, drooling cretin who knew nothing about his stock.  Next to Amoeba.  They didn't have it.  Next to Video Journeys in Silverlake which has everything to rent...and by this time, I'd have been satisfied just to rent it...But they didn't have it either, BUT...

...there was another Video Hut across the street.  I entered in trepidation (and then exited out of trepidation and went into Video Hut where I had been headed in the first place) and rooted through the clearout bin.  There it was...the title, the same cover. For $5.99, not $4.99 this time...but which Disc was it?  I flipped it over and looked on the back...Episodes 4,5,6!  Eureka!  Hallelujah!  The only one they had (Naturally, they didn't have Disc One...Why are they selling these as seperates?).  

Anyway, I snapped it up and Disc Two was as eminently satisfying as Disc One.  It is about Manchester and London in 1965 and young rock 'n' roll hopefuls and great performances by a lot of swell actors.

Tonight the DVD will be Satomi Hakken Den...an interesting sounding  Japanese fantasy that I'm watching because it is work-related, although The Lovely Wife thinks it sounds like Japanese Hagen Daas.

BK, I could see where STONES IN HIS POCKETS could fall flat if the actors aren't top-notch and in sync.

As of now, nothing in the CD player.

[Tomovoz]

Media check:
VCR: Tony Awards
Turntable: Nicholas Lampe "It Happened Long Ago" (reasonably rare album from 1970). Does anyone remember "Flower Garden"?
Cds: (1)the fascinating "Invade My Privacy" - A musical celebration of the Works of Fran Landesman.
         (2) Doors - absolute best.
         (3) Very best of Jackie DeShannon.

DVD: Last watched was "Blue Velvet". Next will probably be the recently arrived "Barnum" (Michael  DOTV Crawford)


Tonight's TV - part 1 of "Amnesia" with the wonderful John Hannah.
Book: Not making much progress but it is "The Life Of Pi".

[Panni]

CD - "Sonny & Brownie" - Sonnny Terry and Brownie McGhee
VCR - "Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird" (old CBC movie)
DVD - kaput
Book - The Candymen: The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel Candy

[Tomovoz]

And about time that "Kaput" was out on DVD. I hope they have the correct ratio and that the colour transfer is satisfactory.

[Dan-in-Toronto]

From an English-to-American dictionary.

bollocks n. How do I put this delicately... bollocks are testicles. The word is in pretty common use in the UK and works well as a general "surprise" expletive in a similar way to bugger. The phrase "the dog's bollocks" is used to describe something particularly good (yes, good) - something like "see that car - it's the dog's bollocks, so it is." We also describe a big telling-off as a bollocking, and additionally use the word to mean "rubbish" (as in "well, that's a load of bollocks").

[Dan-in-Toronto]

And from an Irish site:


me bollocks: my ass.

bollocks!:  bullshit!

I will in me bollocks (polite form: "in me eyeball"): I will not.  

Ask me bollocks (or "ask me left one"): Yeah, right.

made a bollocks of it: screwed that one up.

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Has anyone heard from DR Elmore? Is he at Goodspeed?

[Ben]

Yes, Dan, he is at Goodspeed. He left sometime this week and will return to NYC in mid-July.

Well, Anthony thanks you, his mother thanks you, his father thanks you and I thank you for all the birthday wishes from yesterday and Wednesday. We had a nice, relaxed and quiet day. We did, indeed, go to the Museum of Radio and Television. I had gotten some free passes a while ago and this was a perfect opportunity to use them. Since we're not members we were limited to two hours of viewing time. We chose Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, the marvelous 1962 show broadcast on CBS. It had all the vintage Lipton tea commercials done by George Feneman. The show was part of CBS Summerama so all the tea commercials were for Iced Tea. Did you know that even with sugar, Lipton Iced Tea is low-calorie. I guess they worried about calories even in 1962. The show, btw, was wonderful. I had heard it many times on vinyl and a cassette tape made years ago. I was suprised to find that the chorus was all men. In my mind I thought it was a mixed chorus of men and women but it was just Julie and Carol with an early version of the Ernie Flatt dancers. After that we watched a very odd Elaine Stritch piece from the early 1950s called Once Upon a Tune-The Three Little Pigs. It was from the Dumont Network. A musical updating of the Three Little Pigs story with Elaine and two other women (there were no performer credits, they must have been lopped off) and three men. It was fascinating to watch but it was also pretty bad. There were some original songs and some pop standards (of the day) interpolated. By the time we got around to the last piece we were running short on time so we didn't get to watch the entire Wonderful Town with Roz Russel. We scanned through and watched her big numbers and some of the other pieces. My, my, my (that's three mys) she was thrown around by those Brazilian sailors in the Conga number, wasn't she?

We also got to see part of a Muppets 30th Anniversary retrospective which was already playing by the time we got to the Museum. Sandra, I saw your namesake, the Swedish Chef. How exciting. The Muppets were funny then and they are still funny now!

Since people are posting Mind Sticking lyrics here every so often, I thought I would grace the site with these little pot stickers (after seeing the Muppets yesterday)

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Fraggle Rock.

Repeat 4 times and then try to get it out of your mind!

We had dinner at a nice little Mexican restaurant. I had a chicken tostada and a soft vegetable taco and Anthony had a chili burrito. Later in the evening, instead of cake, we had lovely chocolate cupcakes and Vanilla Fudge Swirl Ice Cream. A good time was had by all!

I have nothing in the CD player at work. I just took out some CDs from the Library so at home I have Scrambled Feet, the soundtrack from For the Boys (Midler's homage to Martha Raye), Sunday in the Park w/George, Jerry Herman's Miss Spectacular, the Disney soundtrack for Pinocchico (one of my favorite animated films), the Disney soundtrack for Lady and the Tramp, the London cast recording of My Fair Lady and Do I Hear a Waltz (OBC). I also found the 1982 London Cast Recording of Camelot with Richard Harris at another Library last week. Did I mention that last week? I forget.

Oh, well. Enough of this. I will go to work now and pop in later.

[Ben]

We need to hurry and get to page 2. Our own BKs pictures have put us into slight Cinerama.

[DearReaderLaura]

It is a glorious morning here in Arizona. The sun is shining.... well, it always shines in June. But we have had unusually cool weather for June the last couple days, which means the nights have cooled off very nicely, which makes the mornings perfect. So I am going to walk over to the zoo and see what's new.

[DearReaderLaura]

Oh, media check:
Car cd player: Bruce Ewing's "Give Me Jesus," a perfect compliment to the beautiful day;
House cd player: Lee Lessack singing Johnny Mercer songs.

[William E. Lurie]

CD - Barbara Cook's Broadway
DVD - "The History of Corn" and "Why You Should Be Vacinated" from one of the Disney Treasures
VHS - Taping A&E Liza Tonight (if they don't replace it with a bio of the "Bedtime for Bonzo" star)

***

BK - There was a name on your list of celebrity sightings that was not familiar.  Who is Kenny Kingston?

***

If the upcoming CD of FINIAN'S RAINBOW with Mellissa, Malcom and Max is not enough for you, Rhino Handmade is now taking orders for the Soundtrack with Petulia, Fred and Tommy.

***

Warning: If you buy the Decca Broadway reissue of SONG OF NORWAY, make sure you get the one without the sticker.  The original pressing had some errors and was supposed to have been withdrawn but some of them are still floating around.

[Jason]

I am in a mood most foul. Don't ask why...I might bite your head off. I don't know why I'm in a mood most foul, but I am. It might be because of Dragon Lady at work. She's been much more amiable in the last few weeks, but she still bothers me. When I came in this morning, she was already on the phone with her boyfriend. At 9:00 in the morning. This, from a girl who gets on average 15 personal calls a day. Why do we need so many personal calls? And why do we need to be on the phone at 9:00?  And why do most of the personal calls come from her mother? Shouldn't she know better and set a better example for her daughter?

The director of business affairs has called a messenger to pick something up. Thing is--the messenger's here and the D.B.A. is on the phone and doesn't have his package ready to go. Why would you call a messenger if you don't have your package ready to be messengered? It's stupid things like that that really stick in my craw. What the hell is a craw, anyway, and why do things stick in it?

I think part of the reason I'm so grumpy is because I went to the gym last night and pretty much killed myself. I haven't been working out like I should, and I did nearly forty-five minutes on the elliptical. I managed over four miles and 600 calories. Normally that wouldn't have been so bad, but last night was my first night in the gym in five days, I guess. I should have eased back into it, but I just went for it and I think maybe now I'm dehydrated, which always makes me bitchy. I'm filling up on water now, and I'm waiting for some orange juice to be delivered with my bagel (blueberry...toasted w/butter), so hopefully that will raise my blood sugar a bit and perk me up.

Media Check:
DVD: Oz, Season One Disc One
VHS: Still not working
CD: VIOLET, PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES and OIL CITY SYMPHONY. What a strange grouping, huh?

[Jennifer]

IT'S PUPPETGATE!

By MICHAEL RIEDEL

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06112004/entertainment/22752.htm

'Avenue Q': The Fallout
By JASON ZINOMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/theater/newsandfeatures/11BROA.html

I've been thinking about this whole Avenue Q idea of them skipping the tour and just doing Vegas.  I wonder why they couldn't do BOTH.

I do think that the road producers have a right to be mad, since it seems they were assured that the show would tour.  But is anybody else ANNOYED that these people don't simply vote for the best show.

It makes the Best Musical prize seem like a joke, when the road producers say they would have changed their vote if they had known Q had no chance to tour.  Why are these people even allowed to vote if getting the show at their venue is their only motivation?

[Jennifer]

Wow, we have much more to go to get to PAGE TWO!

[Jason]

Jennifer: They can't do both because they made an exclusive agreement with the presenter in Vegas. New York and Vegas only. That's the deal and now they have to stick to it.

Re. voting for the best show. Well, unfortunately, the Tonys (especially in the Best Musical and Best Revival categories) have become more of a marketing device than a reward for outstanding work. In this case, I suppose AVENUE Q did deserve the award--it's a wonderful production--but so is WICKED. I was very happy for AVE. Q when it won, but I won't lie--something seems fishy to me about their "campaign" promises, and it's left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. They knew they could garner more votes if they announced a tour, so they did. And now they're un-announcing it. I think that's incredibly shady, but I'm also not so naive that I can't see that this was a very smart campaign move.

I feel badly for the show's authors--it sounds like they had very little or no say in what is going on. Even if they did know, they did stellar work and they deserved their Tonys. The authors have done their jobs...now it's up to the producers to maintain some integrity. While technically doing their job (making the show a financial success), the producers have tainted the win for their show. I'm not sure that they expected so many people to be up in arms about this, but they've made their piddle. Now they have to clean it up.

[Matt H.]

Thanks, BK. I went to the site this morning and got right into the Message section. I can't understand why it wouldn't let me in last night.

[Matt H.]

I think  JULIE AND CAROL AT CARNEGIE HALL is my favorite one hour TV special, and I've watched it at the Museum many times. WONDERFUL TOWN is also a fantastic production, and I've watched it quite a bit there, too. Sadly, I don't happen to have a video of either production.

One thing that surprised me the most the first time I saw JULIE AND CAROL there was that the Columbia recording of the show is not a soundtrack but rather a studio recording of the music they did that night. I guess to get real stereo separation, they had to record the musical numbers in the studio. The stereo separation is VERY distinct on the JULIE AND CAROL LP/CD.

[Ben]

Jason, well said! I was very happy for Avenue Q on Sunday night but as the week goes on I just feel a bit let down. As you said, I don't think the creative team or the cast had any knowledge or say in the deal but they will feel the sting of the brouhaha also.

[DERBRUCER]

Wow, we have much more to go to get to PAGE TWO!

Maybe this will help.

From a Long Beach Press Telegram review of "The Stepford Wives":

Wit, but not profit

The actual show-up numbers are much more minuscule (and the interest in lucrative offshore markets is, for all practical purposes, nonexistent). Recent political satires such as Warren Beatty's "Bulworth," Tim Robbins' "Bob Roberts," Alexander Payne's "Citizen Ruth" and "Election," Mike Nichols' "Primary Colors" and documentarian Michael Moore's lone fictional feature, "Canadian Bacon," have met with a collective multiplex yawn despite mostly rapturous critical reactions. Only "Wag the Dog" really connected at the box office, and that might have been because it was as much a satire of Hollywood as it was of geo- and sexual politics.
Which also connected it, in however tertiary a manner, to the one satire subset that has proven a fairly sure commercial bet in the last quarter century. Moviegoers will laugh at just about anything that parodies movies, a subject that they are, by nature, familiar with.

These films, almost all of which follow a format established by "Airplane!" in 1980, are more technically spoofs ("a lighthearted imitation of someone or something" - Webster's College). But ever since Mad magazine, the guiding consciousness behind the entire genre, started calling its movie lampoons satires in the 1950s, the expanded interpretation has stuck.

Unlike satires of more serious subjects, movie spoofs don't have to be smart. "Austin Powers" and "`Scary Movie" entries, which often do little more than just reference pop-culture imagery, can do as well or better than the "Naked Guns" or "Screams" of the world, which actually strive to be clever.

Of course, satire is not just about popularity. It wasn't in Kaufman's day either, nor, likely, back when Aristophanes and Lucian or Voltaire and Swift were practicing the snarky art.
 
Their works will live forever, as most likely will such classic satirical films as "Being There," "Dr. Strangelove," "The Great Dictator," "Sullivan's Travels" and "Young Frankenstein." It would be a shame if the demand of the current corporatized media marketplace prevented future such entries in that hard-to-love but noble field.

Of course, successful satires would have to be funny, too. And that may be the biggest stumbling block of all on the new "Stepford" path.

der Brucer (Hmmm..."...the demand of the current corporatized media marketplace prevented future such entries in that hard-to-love but noble field... - is WEL ghost writing?)

[MBarnum]

Because it is Friday I thought we might like to start off the day with a little Jeff Richards (well, I know a few of us would).

[Matt H.]

Because of the Reagan funeral coverage, the home entertainment units become ever more important to me. I'm not much for funerals.

Friday Media Check:

CD - NUNCRACKERS (OCR)

VCR - last Sunday's LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and CROSSING JORDAN

DVD - REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER this afternoon and probably LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS extended edition tonight.

DVR - Wednesday night's RENO 911!

[Jennifer]

RE: Avenue Q

I don't know if the producers knew that they weren't going to tour when they made those promises.  It does seem possible that they were merely looking at Vegas as an option (and like one of the producers said, these things fall through all the time).

But I don't believe they should have made the promises if they weren't sure they could deliver.

Does anyone else find it interesting though that the Vegas deal was completed BEFORE the Tony win?  I mean why would the Vegas guy have been as anxious to build a $40M theatre if the show had not won Best Musical.  It seems MUCH more appealing now.

[Jennifer]

Sorry for the double post.  Will explain on Page Two.

[Jason]

According to sources here at MTI, the Vegas deal has been in the works for a very, very long time. They only informed Jeff and Robert last week, but they have been planning this from the get-go. Again, that's second-hand information, but it comes from a very, VERY reliable source. I have no problem with them opening a sit-down production in Vegas. I have no problem with them not touring. I DO have a problem with the producers saying at their pizza party for out-of-town voters, "AVENUE Q is coming to America." Their posters read, "America Needs Q." Now, last time I checked, America is much larger than Las Vegas. It's even bigger than New York! Now the producers are back-peddling, saying that AVENUE Q is coming to America because America comes to Vegas. Bollucks, I say.

The producers aren't stupid...they know a show like AVENUE Q won't play well in Peoria or Oklahoma City. They know that they'll all make a killing off their Vegas production. I just find it ironic that such a big deal was made about WICKED being the big, bad money making machine...and now Q is going to the money capitol of the U.S.--in a $40 million handbasket.