Haines His Way
Archives => Archive 2 => Topic started by: bk on June 28, 2004, 12:01:26 AM
-
Well, you've read the notes, you've interpreted the notes, you've mulled the notes, and now you are ready to post your deepest thoughts about any and everything under the sun and moon and stars and sky. To it, I say.
-
Oops (spoo, spelled backwards) I did not check my handy-dandy calendar - so if you've read the notes, go back and read page two again why don't you because we've got us a birthday to celebrate.
-
I'm not a huge fan of disaster movies... ON THE BEACH comes to mind as one I really liked.
And THE TOWERING INFERNO and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE were sort of fun.
-
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR VERY OWN MR. MARK BAKALOR! (http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/party/party-smiley-023.gif)
-
Well, I must wuss out and sleep. I have to get up very early to report for jury duty. I don't have to be there until 8:00 a.m., but finding parking with be the big hassle. There is some parking on the streets, but more likely, I'll have to park somewhere around Capitol Lake, which is about a quarter of a mile DOWNHILL, which would mean walking UP the big hill to get to the courthouse! Please send me good-parking-location vibes!!
-
!!!BAPPY HIRTHDAY, BARK MAKALOR!!!
-
and:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (STILL FAIRLY NEW DADDY) MR. MARK BAKALOR!
-
Well, I must wuss out and sleep. I have to get up very early to report for jury duty. I don't have to be there until 8:00 a.m., but finding parking with be the big hassle. There is some parking on the streets, but more likely, I'll have to park somewhere around Capitol Lake, which is about a quarter of a mile DOWNHILL, which would mean walking UP the big hill to get to the courthouse! Please send me good-parking-location vibes!!
When I was in high school, my religion teacher told us she would pray to her guardian angel whenever she was looking for a parking space. -And, I have to say, sometimes that does the trick! ;)
-
Happy birthday Mark B.
-
The topic of the day is "disaster movies"? I thought it was going to be "condiments"?!? I was all set to praise the glories of ketchup (or catsup), mustards of all kinds, mayonnaise, Tabasco, Texas Pete, sriracha "Rooster" sauce, sambal oleck, chimi-churri, barbecue sauce, sweet n' sour sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, plum sauce, hoisin sauce, tsatsiki, gremolata, mignonette, horseradish...
Well, in the meantime... I guess the POSEIDON ADVENTURE...
Once I get some sleep, I'll probably have more to post... So...
Goodnight.
-
Stretching the definition of "disaster movies" a bit, I would include Hitchcock's The Birds to our list, as well as Gilliam's 12 Monkeys. (Yeah, I know, we don't see the disaster happen in either film, really, but we see the before in both, the after in the second, and can use our imaginations to fill in the rest.)
Post-disaster? 28 Days Later surprised me a great deal. I was expecting schlock, and instead got...intelligent schlock! That's not an easy combination to achieve!
And how about a movie that's a disaster movie, and a real disaster of a movie: 1976's The Cassandra Crossing. In a nutshell, the plot goes like this: Train fall down, go boom. But how can anyone not like a film that stars Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, and...O. J. Simpson!
(A word to Mr. Bakalor: Now that you're a daddy, don't plan on your birthday as being the important one. Sorry, but them's the rules.)
-
Condiments?
Was it here, or for some other site, that der Brucer and I ended up researching "Monkey Sauce?"
:-\
-
Morning all!
I'm running late and haven't had time to read notes or posts yet but wanted to let you all know I heard from Jane!
FROM JANE:
Had a great time in Budapest...on to Bratislava in a few hours. Say hi to all on HHW.
Gotta run. Have a GREAT day all!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK!
-
TOD:Condiments in a nutshell.
Out of the LAtimes (http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-kendt28jun28,2,1773898.story) nutshell, I plucked these extracts of an unaccustomary sugary review:
Sunny, chance of rain
Director David Lee gets Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones' openhearted 1963 musical version of 'The Rainmaker' just right at the Pasadena Playhouse.
By Rob Kendt
Special to The Times
Jun 28 2004
The tale is all in the telling with "110 in the Shade," Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones' unabashedly big-hearted and soft-headed 1963 musicalization of N. Richard Nash's play "The Rainmaker," now in a roof-raising revival at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Nash's 1954 play was quaint even in its day — a dime-store pastiche of William Inge and Edna Ferber. Musicalizing it with their trademark mix of guileless tenderness and seamless theatrical craft, Schmidt and Jones — best known for "The Fantasticks" — give the material a bounce and a kick, even in its soggier passages.
With a show whose central theme is the power of imagination to either spur us on or doom us to frustration, the sweeping storytelling virtuosity of director David Lee is a beautiful fit. From the starkly gorgeous sunrise tableau that opens the show to its final joyous downpour, this is musical theater gold spun from hardy, all-American straw.
When good-natured Sheriff File (Ben Davis) steps out from a crowd of townsfolk as they resignedly watch another blistering day begin and sings, in a sonorous bass over plaintive, Copland-esque chord clusters, "The sun is razzin'," we're firmly planted in that realm of folksy Americana that seems to be the exclusive domain of certain Broadway musicals, from "Oklahoma!" to "Shenandoah," "The Music Man" to "Big River." It takes a certain kind of unembarrassed conviction to pull that off, and Lee's cast has it in spades.
The comically super-sized Lyle Kanouse plays a kindly patriarch with lip-smacking relish, and as his sons, rock-solid Tom Wilson and dashingly dopey Adam Wylie hit the right notes of slow-burning scorn and blissful innocence, respectively.
With the arrival of their sister Lizzie (Marin Mazzie), the show acquires some finer emotional shadings without losing its endearing obviousness. After all, Lizzie's quandary couldn't be writ larger: She's a homebody without a husband and she's not getting any younger. This reliable musical theater type — the too-smart would-be spinster who will taste the fruits of love, and surely lose a few hairpins, by the final curtain — is given inviting contours by Mazzie's uniquely feminine gravity.
Lizzie is intrigued but not fooled by the strapping young con man Starbuck (Jason Danieley), who blows into town on a ratty pickup truck and immediately whips the townsfolk into an evangelical frenzy with the promise of rain. Casting a look at skeptical Lizzie, he says, shrewdly mixing a tease and a threat, "Where there's suspicion around, it's a dry season." Starbuck's real trade is in dreams and faith, not acts of God, but clear-eyed Lizzie doesn't admit this distinction. For her, miracles aren't worth much if you can't touch them, which may be why she's able to succumb to Starbuck's inevitable seduction with her eyes wide open. She welcomes his wooing but not his worldview.
Mazzie is among the musical theater's great actor-singers — she can wring more out of a song's text and texture than would seem possible, particularly in her bitter "Old Maid" number, which she turns into a mad monologue worthy of "Rose's Turn." She and Kanouse also manage to make "Raunchy," Lizzie's mock-burlesque for her own father, into a loving rather than lusty character bit.
Both Danieley's big-talking dreamer and Davis' diffident sheriff boast a disarming mix of vocal virility and emotional vulnerability, in varying proportions. As a twittering town flirt, Alli Mauzey steals her scenes with coquettish aplomb, sparking irresistible puppy-dog yearning from Wylie's young swain.
Lee's knockout design team matches his expansive, elemental vision. Scenic designer Roy Christopher frames the stage with battered wood slats that look like cutaway pieces of barn or fences turned on their side; a rusty windmill looms ominously still at stageside.
Lighting designer Michael Gilliam paints a sky in shades of ochre and lavender so rich it looks edible. And Randy Gardell's unflashy, lived-in costumes strike a palette of dusty oranges and muted blues.
There's not much of Kay Cole's choreography, but what's there is just right. Steve Orich's music direction has as much momentum and flavor as the rest of the show's elements — which, naturally, include a triumphant torrent of H20. Singin' in the rain — what a wonderful feeling.
-
Doris Dowling's obituary appears in today's NY Times. I was surprised it took so long for the Times to report her death.
After reading that she had appeared in Panama Hattie (when she would have been about 17 years old), I did a bit of googling and found this interesting piece of information:
"During her early career in the theatre she was part of a now legendary chorus line-up in Cole Porter's Panama Hattie (1940) that included such future stars as June Allyson, Vera-Ellen, Betsy Blair and Doris's sister Constance."
-
Also not much of a fan of disaster movies although I enjoyed the original Airport, mainly because Hollywood came to the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport and gave us a small bit of fame, similar to our Mary Tyler Moore brush w/immortality. The movie also gave a small role to a personality then unknown outside of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Miss Nancy Nelson, now an Infomercial Queen. She was the insurance agent who sold the policy to Van Heflin.
I also enjoyed The Poseidon Adventure but more for the camp value than anything else.
I have mentioned this before but I am something of a Jury King. I have served 6 times. 4 juries and 2 grand jury panels. One jury was for a criminal case (came to verdict as they say in the trade), two were for civil cases (both went through the trial but settled out of court during deliberations) and one was a federal case revolving around discrimination (also came to verdict). Matt H. not only do they say "don't discuss" on television law shows, they also repeat it often in the real courtroom.
-
Besty Blair is in the wonderful new documentary, Broadway: The Golden Age.
-
Oooh, I forgot.
Happy Birthday to new (kind-of) father, Mark Bakalor!!!
-
As I've been saying since the eighties:
In these nefarious times we live in, one should always use condiments.
Favorite scene from a disaster flick:
"You're going the wrong way!"
from The Poseidon Adventure.
merrily mark the day, dad mark
-
Towering inferno, Earthquake and Poseidon Adventure. did it for me. Also quite liked the original Airport movie. must have went about 7 times in a fortnight when it came out.
Happy birthday to the birthday boy.
-
BK - When can you tell us DRs what the play you are directing is?
Karen Ziemba was a delight as Miss Adelaide in GUYS AND DOLLS at Papermill. I can't think of another musical comedy performer today with her versatility. She won a Tony® for a show which she danced a lot and acted a little but didn't sing; she starred at City Opera in a show that was mainly singing; and she has played roles where she did everything to various degrees. She needs to do more television just so people know who she is. The big surprise in the G&D cast was Bob "American Movie Classics" Dorian as Arvide ("More I Cannot Wish You"). But it was a uniformly great cast.
Next season Papermill has a great schedule, but that's not the impression I got from people talking before the show and at intermission... a lot of subscribers are not renewing because they don't like what is being done: OF THEE I SING, SHE LOVES ME, THE BAKER'S WIFE, RAGTIME and two new shows: HAROLD AND MAUDE - THE MUSICAL and a play called THE DRAWER MAN with John Mahoney. I think it's a great schedule, but then I travel from NY to Papermill and am not a suburban New Jerseyite which is where they draw their main audience from.
-
[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BIG DADDY MARK BAKALOR!!![/move]
Stretching the definition of "disaster movies" a bit, I would include Hitchcock's The Birds to our list, as well as Gilliam's 12 Monkeys. (Yeah, I know, we don't see the disaster happen in either film, really, but we see the before in both, the after in the second, and can use our imaginations to fill in the rest.)
Brrrrrrrrr. SWW, you just made me imagine what if The Birds was remade today, with the action transferred to New York City. I see visions of a white-capped Statue of Liberty (though not covered with snow). I see the Empire State Building amassed with flocks of millions of woodpeckers that peck and poke at it's structure until it collapses into a pile of feathery rubble. And I see trendy SOHO restaurants being invaded by hundreds of thousands of pigeons upturning tiny, three-legged tables and furiously fighting over minimalist cuisines (audiences will cheer as a haughty, pretentious, obviously untalented but a critics' darling artist-type has his eyes pecked out.)
THE BIRDS! You'll find out why the caged bird SCREAMS!
-
Happy Birthday, Mr. Mark!!!
I do not think the money figures for FAHRENHEIT 9/11 will be purposely inflated. SInce figures are estimated before the final showings on Sunday, there is undoubtedly some flucuation in the actual amounts, but this film is being so scrupulously watched that they're covering their bases pretty well as far as I'm concerned.
Big budget studio pictures might falsify their income to keep stock prices and the money men from revolting at less than fantastic results. But as FAHRENHEIT 9/11 made back its production cost on the FIRST DAY of its release, the need to inflate figures just doesn't seem that necessary to me. The film is obviously going to be the highest grossing documentary of all time once its run is complete, and the sold out shows across the country attest to the fact that the film has generated as much buzz as any of the big studio tentpole releases this summer. What an accomplishment!
BTW, I can't wait to see it.
-
Shelley Winters was unforgettable as the Poseidon Adventure's zaftig swimming champion, but I'd have to pick Towering Inferno as my all-time favorite disaster movie.
It has it all - great special effects; a spectacular cast (Steve McQueen, William Holden, Paul Newman AND Fred Astaire); and a message that's as current today as it was 30 years ago.
-
Favorite disaster picture was and is THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. I think the drama is actually pretty affecting, and effects for the time were superb. I still enjoy taking it out and watching it once a year. Within two years of it, though, I was tired and bored by disaster pictures. EARTHQUAKE, despite decent effects and Sensurround which was wonderful in its day, was laughable, and they seemed to get worse with THE SWARM, THE HINDENBURG, WHEN TIME RAN OUT, and all those AIRPORT movies, each worse than the previous one.
-
Yes, I liked THE TOWERING INFERNO, but it was SO big with SO many stories, and I felt that it pushed SO hard (too hard) to be the greatest disaster picture of all time. It kind of wore me out watching it. However, it DID get a Best Picture Oscar nomination, so what do I know?
-
I go along with everyone who has mentioned The Poseidon Adventure as their fav disaster movie. It had everything--cool effects, major suspense, humor (the upsidedown toilet), a dandy theme song, Shelly Winters saving the day (if not herself) and Red Buttons getting the girl. I loved it when I saw it in the movie theatre (it played at my local $1.00 movie house, the Walt Whitman, when I was in eighth grade. I saw it about three times.)
(Dan-In-Toronto, I was still composing my post about TPA as you posted yours about The Towering Inferno. I guess both movies "had it all".)
-
(Dan-In-Toronto, I was still composing my post about TPA as you posted yours about The Towering Inferno. I guess both movies "had it all".)
Mine had O.J. Simpson.
-
Mine had O.J. Simpson.
Oh? And did he unmodestly swim underwater wearing almost-too-sheer panties covering his ample posterior? Did he? Hmmmm?
-
Oh, DTM, my eyes, my eyes!!!
-
Wow, I loved disaster movies when I was a kid, and of course the 1970s were the heyday of disaster flicks. From that era I loved The Posiden Adventure and Towering Inferno and all of the rest.
Disaster films from earlier eras that I LOVE are 1935s DANTE'S INFERNO with that great cruise ship fire and the destruction at the carnival. And then there is 1960s THE LAST VOYAGE which is quite suspenseful as Dotty Malone is trapped in a sinking cruise ship!
-
Not a huge fan of disaster movies. Two I might pick that could be considered disaster movies on a very intimate scale:
1) Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE (aka THE BIG CARNIVAL), loosely based on the Floyd Collins cave-in.
2) ABANDON SHIP, about the aftermath of an ocean liner sinking and an overcrowded lifeboat where an officer, Ty Power, must make the difficult decisions of who must go overboard, so the others may survive.
-
I was visiting San Francisco with my then-girlfriend in what was maybe 1974 (?) and we were walking down the street when we noticed huge blitzkrieg lights and cordoned off streets. We then noticed Mr. Steve McQueen next to one of the sawhorses used to block a block (so to speak) and realized they were filming "The Towering Inferno." Maybe the large cameras should have given us a clue, but, hey, we were kids, it was San Francisco and you can probably guess the rest.
-
Good Morning!
One thing I meant to mention last night...
During my post-practice walk - and after I got my music back! - I made a stop at Bev's for some ice cream. Last night I opted for a brownie sundae. There was only one "scooper" working again last night, but, thankfully, there were only about three or four people in front of me. However, a few minutes after I walked in about ten people followed. When I got to the counter, I ordered my brownie sundae - with Coffee Heath Bar ice cream and hot fudge and m&m's. -Yes, it may have been overkill... Well, she started putting together my sundae by taking a brownie - with nuts - from the case and nuking it for a few seconds in the microwave. Then she started scooping the ice cream. And I mean scooping the ice cream! Normally the sundaes have a "regular" scoop which is quite generous on it's own. However, last night, by the time she had started pouring the hot fudge over the whole thing, everyone in line was literally ooh-ing and aah-ing. I was actually in a slight state of shock. It was just so big. When she handed it to me - and I felt how heavy it weighed - I started laughing. "Oh, is it too big?" she asked. I just laughed again, "Well, not really, but thanks for your, um, generosity." :) Then I headed out for the rest of my walk.
Normally, I can finish off my off ice cream by the time I get half-way down Cary Street. Well, this time, I didn't finish it until I got to the end of the street for my turnaround. I was even "worried" that I might not be able to finish it. Besides the brownie, there had to be at least a good cup and a half of ice cream, and a generous pour of hot fudge. Needless to say, I did finish the whole thing off, but I most definitely did not need a pre-bedtime snack last night. -And I'll most likely be taking an extra long walk today.
And that was last night's ice cream report! ;D
And last night was most likely the end of my usual post-show lazy/splurge/endulge period. I really do need to start getting more active in all respects. This way, I can leave some "room" for my next post-show lazy/splurge/indulge period. ;)
-
BTW (internet lingo!), Jose, big congrats on getting your music back and on all the other good stuff that looks like it's coming your way!
-
I'm running very late this morning - still haven't taken my mind-clearing walk.
Thanks for the info about Doris Dowling's NY Times obit, Dan TM. I was wondering when it would appear. I've been trying to get in touch with her very sweet and caring husband ever since I found out about her death. Left several messages, sent a card, no answer. Totally unlike him. I hope he's okay.
-
DAN THE MAN: Dan-In-Toronto, I was still composing my post about TPA as you posted yours about The Towering Inferno. I guess both movies "had it all".
DAN-IN-TORONTO: Mine had O.J. Simpson.
DAN THE MAN: Oh? And did he unmodestly swim underwater wearing almost-too-sheer panties covering his ample posterior? Did he? Hmmmm?
AND I JUMP IN: But who can forget Simpson's famous "I'm saving this pussy" scene? The finest acting he ever did, I tell ya! He shooda got the Oscar for that one!
::)
-
I'm just here to say that today I have nothing to say. Have a nice day.
-
WEL and others: I have not mentioned the name of the play because we were awaiting approval of the rights. This has taken much longer than needed or was necessary and this morning we found out they were denied. We are appealing this afternoon. In a nutshell, Dramatist's Play Service says this play can be done anywhere but NY and LA. They say that NOW. If that's the deal, then they should say it in the script, on their website, and they should not take over two weeks to reach a "decision". I will have more to say depending on the outcome of the appeal - we are hopeful it will work out. The writer of this play doesn't want his play done poorly in one of those two major cities. If that's the case, it should just say that emphatically - no NY, no LA. This play, I'm quite certain, has had many poor productions everywhere else. Why THAT wouldn't bother the author, who knows. When you sell stock and amateur you sell stock and amateur - you can't and shouldn't have it both ways. But, we're sending him the information about who we all are and that it's going to be a first-class production in a well-respected theater, with actors and director with plenty of credits (more, in fact, than the author), and with a first-class set, maybe they'll see how silly they're being. If not, we have a backup play chosen.
-
And that "review" in the LA Times by some critic one has never heard of ('special to the Times') is so wrong on every single level that it's laughable. But you know something's wrong when the role of Starbuck barely gets a mention in a "review". Apparently he and many others in the audience saw a different production, if you get my meaning.
-
Next season Papermill has a great schedule, but that's not the impression I got from people talking before the show and at intermission... a lot of subscribers are not renewing because they don't like what is being done: OF THEE I SING, SHE LOVES ME, THE BAKER'S WIFE, RAGTIME and two new shows: HAROLD AND MAUDE - THE MUSICAL and a play called THE DRAWER MAN with John Mahoney. I think it's a great schedule, but then I travel from NY to Papermill and am not a suburban New Jerseyite which is where they draw their main audience from.
DR WEL raises an important point. From time to time I rage at the regionals, since they seem so cowardly in their show choices, so reticent to go beyond the tried and true. But, if that's what their audiences are demanding, well, I can't fault artistic directors for listening to their audiences.
I have this fantasy that audiences (subscribers and the like) will one day rise up and say "Enough. We're tired of seeing the same dozen musicals again and again. Give us something new to see or you'll never see our butts in your seats again!"
It's sobering to read the truth (in WEL's post) that audiences are doing just the opposite, saying "DON'T you dare give us anything new or interesting. More of the same please, and lots of it!"
-
On the topic o'the day:
I never will forget, Mmmm...Jeanette MacDonald
Just to think of her, it gives my heart a pang
I never will forget, how that brave Jeanette
Just stood there in the ruins and sang, and sang...
Here's a vote for San Francisco.
-
Such tsuris, Dear BK! Good luck with the appeal!
-
However, last night, by the time he had started pouring the hot fudge over the whole thing, everyone in line was literally ooh-ing and aah-ing. I was actually in a slight state of shock. It was just so big. When he handed it to me - and I felt how heavy it weighed - I started laughing. "Oh, is it too big?" he asked. I just laughed again, "Well, not really, but thanks for your, um, generosity." :)
TCB, we really miss you. Don't be Like Shane, COME BACK!
-
This just in...
ASSASSINS which had originaly extended it's run at Studio 54 until September 12 will now close July 18 instead. Even the Tony® didn't help.
My hope is that they use the extra time the theatre (and I use that term loosely) is dark to get rid of the cabaret tables and install real seats before PACIFIC OVERTURES opens late in the fall.
-
Oh.....DRJOSE got his books back!!!
Hmmmm....disaster movies.
Well I like the 1953 TITANIC with Barbara Stanwyck & Clifton Webb, especially the scene when he is putting her in the lifeboat and telling her how much he has always loved her....
AIRPORT 1975 with Karen Black bringing in the plane!
SMASH UP ON INTERSTATE 5 was a tv movie with Buddy Ebsen and Harriet Nelson and Vera Miles and a bunch of people....it started with the actual smash-up....then flashed back to earlier when we met all the people in the cars and took us back to the crash on the interstate...it is one of my favorite TV movies, and the crash was horrifying....you are driving along and suddenly - chaos and death! There was a "he died - she lived" type of finale....
And I liked THE HINDENBURG....the crash and the way they did it was very interesting: stop motion, black and white....using the actual familiar newsreel footage and newly filmed footage.
And of course it was a disaster when Nancy Archer grew to be 50 feet tall and stomped into town tearing the roof off Tony's bar and killing her husband and his mistress!
-
WEL - the envelope is on its way!
-
The late, great mad genius Del Close told me why he preferred to work in Chicago. "Every actor in any theatre, no matter how small, in New York or Los Angeles, KNOWS that there is some chance there's somebody in their audience who could make or break their career." As a result, he thought, actors in those towns were less likely to take the risks required to create truly innovative art.
As I said a week ago, what COULD be going on in the mind of the playwright is something like this:
"The real money to be made off this play is to sell the film rights, which my agent has been pedaling around Hollywood for many years. If those Hollywood powers-that-be catch a less-than-stellar production, they're not going to give me the big bucks."
Now, I'm not saying that anything in BK's planned production is less-than-stellar. As far as I'm concerned, it's MORE-than-stellar. But I truly think the issue of whether-it's-stellar-enough is what's going through the Dramatists' minds.
I agree it's an awful situation, frustrating in the extreme, but that's how I see it.
-
Yesterday DR Panni said that I had written that it was impossible that Fahrenheit 9/11 would be #1 at the box office this weekend (it was, and with $21.8 M).
Actually what I had written was:
"I don't think it can be #1 because I don't think the release is wide enough. I know here it's only playing in a few theatres."
Well, when DR Charles Pogue posted the Saturday numbers I knew it would finish #1. But it does surprise me. I think they got really lucky that no big new movies opened last weekend. But it still seems odd to me that they could get such high numbers while playing in so few theatres.
-
I'll date myself with favorite disaster movies:
Krakatoa - East of Java 1969
IMDB observes:
After the success of Earthquake (1974) and its Sensurround process, this film was re-released in Europe in the mid 1970's (under the new title "Volcano") with the addition of Sensurround. In some areas this process was advertised as "Feelarama."
I thought "Feelarama" was used in those theatres frequented by Pee Wee Herman.
der Brucer (still drooling over Sal Mineo)
-
The brand new Broadway Radio Show is up and running....this week, David Levy joins me for some interesting and fun showtune covers. I hope you enjoy it since it will be running for 2 weeks since I will be on vacation.
Bye for now
Donald
-
WEL and others: I have not mentioned the name of the play because we were awaiting approval of the rights. This has taken much longer than needed or was necessary and this morning we found out they were denied. We are appealing this afternoon. In a nutshell, Dramatist's Play Service says this play can be done anywhere but NY and LA. They say that NOW. If that's the deal, then they should say it in the script, on their website, and they should not take over two weeks to reach a "decision". I will have more to say depending on the outcome of the appeal - we are hopeful it will work out. The writer of this play doesn't want his play done poorly in one of those two major cities. If that's the case, it should just say that emphatically - no NY, no LA. This play, I'm quite certain, has had many poor productions everywhere else. Why THAT wouldn't bother the author, who knows. When you sell stock and amateur you sell stock and amateur - you can't and shouldn't have it both ways. But, we're sending him the information about who we all are and that it's going to be a first-class production in a well-respected theater, with actors and director with plenty of credits (more, in fact, than the author), and with a first-class set, maybe they'll see how silly they're being. If not, we have a backup play chosen.
BK, can we take up a pool and guess which play it is?
-
DR Jose, I'm so glad you got your music back!
BK, good play vibes to you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
Happy Birthday to Mark!
DR S. Woody, I loved reading about the birthday party! Too funny.
-
TCB, we really miss you. Don't be Like Shane, COME BACK!
However, last night, by the time he had started pouring the hot fudge over the whole thing, everyone in line was literally ooh-ing and aah-ing. I was actually in a slight state of shock. It was just so big. When he handed it to me - and I felt how heavy it weighed - I started laughing. "Oh, is it too big?" he asked. I just laughed again, "Well, not really, but thanks for your, um, generosity."
Ummm.... I can rightfully say that the above was/is not a direct quote!!! It's amazing what happens when you leave off an "s" or too.
;)
-
BK - There are actually quite a lot of plays and musicals that have a "New York and L.A." restriction. And, as we all know, it all stems from money. Since those are big markets, they might as well aim for the big venues with lots of exposure. Will you have to get the William-Morris guys involved or something like that?
I wish all of of you the best with your ongoing efforts to get your show produced and up and running.
In the meantime, I'm finally getting out of the apartment for a bit... Be back later.
-
Uh oh.....Lucy Ricardo is going to give Ricky a scare at the dress rehearsal for the Mr & Mrs TV Show for Phipps Department Store!
-
As for our sub-category of condiments - a light mixture of mayonnaise and lime pickle.
Finally I can say it:
Shakalaka baby!
-
Good vibes for MR BK at the Dramatist's appeal....
-
Now you've done it DIT. Shakalaka is stuck in my head again! I have to go back to Donald's radio show to find something to dislodge it.
-
Regarding the weekend gross total for "Fahrenheit 9/11" (from MSNBC):
<<“Fahrenheit 9/11” opened in 868 theaters, a wide release for a documentary but narrow compared to big Hollywood flicks. The film averaged $25,115 a theater, compared to $7,190 in 2,726 cinemas for “White Chicks.”
Distributors Lions Gate and IFC Films plan to put “Fahrenheit 9/11” into a couple of hundred more theaters this Wednesday, when competition heats up with the release of “Spider-Man 2,” summer’s most-anticipated movie.>>
-
I WON'T DANCE, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!
;D
-
SWW,
I absolutely did not believe you about the pretzel salad. Then I found umpteen recipes on the net, each variation more tempting than the next. And each more nutritious:
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 519
Total Fat: 28.2g
Cholesterol: 62mg
Sodium: 615mg
Total Carbohydrates: 64.1g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7g
Protein: 5.8g
-
Yes, by all means, you may try to guess the play.
What I find specious about this whole thing is that somehow the author and/or Dramatist's Play Service don't think Chicago or San Francisco are major theater towns - this play has had multiple productions in each of those cities.
Also, there is another play by a much more noted young playwright with many more credits than our author whose play we were offered immediately - the licensing organazation was willing to send a contract today.
-
Actually, BK, I have heard of Rob Kendt...He used to be the editor of Backstage West. And has lately become a regular reviewer for the LA TIMES. They doesn't mean necessarily that his review is right.
Speaking of the LA TIMES, I was at a Bar-B-Q yesterday when I met Al Martinez, regular Times columnist and occasional screenwriter (created the show, Jigsaw John). Delightful fellow.
The greatest disaster film I know was my own poor KULL THE CONQUERER, which was supposed to be a mature adventure film for adults embracing Robert E. Howard's dark, brooding visceral prose and got turned into a rolling juggernaut of illogic and cartoon campiness.
Farenheit 9/ll's weekend performance is astoundingly impressive whether the estimate turns out to be a million or so off or not...though I suspect it is fairly accurate.
-
I'm kind of partial to Hurricane (John Payne and Raymond Massey) Great special effects that still are pretty good by today's standards.
Also like the Poseidon Adventure
San Fransico (Clark Gable) some of the special effects in this film were better than Earthquake!!
Not a disaster film, but the Tornado in The Wizard of Oz is top notch.
The High and the Mighty although I haven't seen it since I was a child on tv.
When Worlds Collide. The flooding of NYC
-
Well, I don't know too many disaster movies, but I do like "The Poseidon Adventure," as do a lot of others.
As for the trial, it got postponed because the defendant's lawyer was "at death's door," according to the judge. We were free to leave after sitting in the courtroom for about an hour, doing nothing. We have to call back tomorrow night (a "Yentl" reference), so we're still in the running.
Now I'm off to lunch. :)
-
Re Assassins: Part of the "new" way of producing - go online and tell everyone you're closing early UNLESS there's overwhelming support and ticket sales - then you MIGHT just be able to extend. That way, if people fall for it, they do, and if people don't fall for it (more likely in the case of that show) they close.
-
Like MbARNUM, I also enjoy THE LAST VOYAGE with Robert Stack rescuing his daughter Tami Marihugh by make her crawl across a board over a whole in the floor.....several decks deep!
POSEIDON & INFERNO of course....but there is also THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (a decade after it STOOD STILL) and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and the similar THE SATAN BUG!
-
I have narrowed it down to three plays by two well playwrights and an actor turned playwight. Patient A by Lee Blessing, The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg and Boom Town by Jeff Daniels. I am leaning towards Patient A because I think it can give Tammy a chance to shine.
-
I was hoping Assassins would have stayed opend to September I had planned to see it.
-
DR WEL raises an important point. From time to time I rage at the regionals, since they seem so cowardly in their show choices, so reticent to go beyond the tried and true. But, if that's what their audiences are demanding, well, I can't fault artistic directors for listening to their audiences.
I have this fantasy that audiences (subscribers and the like) will one day rise up and say "Enough. We're tired of seeing the same dozen musicals again and again. Give us something new to see or you'll never see our butts in your seats again!"
It's sobering to read the truth (in WEL's post) that audiences are doing just the opposite, saying "DON'T you dare give us anything new or interesting. More of the same please, and lots of it!"
I share this frustration with you, DR Noel. I spent the last six seasons with a summer stock company that does nothing but those Golden Age shows year after year. If it was written after 1964, it's as if they've never heard of it (with the strange exception of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which they are doing for the second time this summer). Due to being based in a Bavarian theme town, they do Sound of Music every year (this is year #10), along with two other shows per summer. Year after year, we get busloads of blue-hairs who just LOVE to see SOM and the other standards time and time again. A couple years back, our artistic director decided to take a chance on Man of La Mancha, and even that did relatively poorly at the box office. Ah well, the tried and true have kept the company in business, and seeing as they started with a $10,000 budget in 1995 and now operate on a $750,000 budget, you can't really fault the choices.
-
I have narrowed it down to three plays by two well playwrights and an actor turned playwight. Patient A by Lee Blessing, The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg and Boom Town by Jeff Daniels. I am leaning towards Patient A because I think it can give Tammy a chance to shine.
I thought about The Dazzle and Boom Town, too. But I'm going with Key Exchange by Kevin Wade.
-
OH, I had forgotten about HURRICANE and SAN FRANCISCO...some serious demolition going on in those two films!
-
As far as disaster-type movies go, I'm very partial to "Airport" and "The Poseidon Adventure." "The Towering Inferno" has some extraordinarily good moments but is far more "soapish" in its story line. John William's score is a tremendous plus.
"Poseidon" is good storytelling with just a smidge of overwrought moments (I want to bitch-slap Carol Lynley's "Noni" every time she whimpers and whines).
"The Rains Came" is a whopping good movie, too, with Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power and a great flood. It's remake, "The Rains of Ranchipur," has a wonderful music score by Hugo Friedhofer, but you really appreciate the flood when it turns attention away from the very scheming Lana Turner who tries her best to seduce Richard Burton (whose character is meant for far greater things than she) and then pouts when he elects to save hundreds of villagers rather than visit her in a makeshift hospital. The original is definitely the better film.
"Twister" is a lot of fun, though.
"On the Beach" doesn't blip on my "disaster" radar...it's about the after-effects on humanity. It's implied, but there are no scenes of disaster. I think of it as adult drama with a what-if bent.
-
Wow, I think the PaperMill schedule for next year looks like great. And I don't understand why people would want to see the same shows year after year.
But I suppose the powers that be must consider these things when choosing their shows.
-
Nobody else picks ON THE BEACH? Or is it not considered a "disaster film." I think a nuclear holocaust might fit in the disaster category... but I may be wrong.
-
Hmmm speaking of condiments, not that they sell them here, but has anyone tried the new low carb ones?
I see commercials for them all the time on tv.
-
DRPANNI - I guess I was disappointed in ON THE BEACH because there was a LOT that was talked about re:destruction....but not much really shown.
I finally thought....being at a younger age then....that nuclear destruction would have been preferable to ALL that blathering in the submarine...all that talk talk talk.... :P
-
I don't normally watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, but there is nothing on in the summer and Showcase (I think this is a Canadian station) just started showing them last week.
Well I just went to the HBO site because I wanted to see how many episodes were left (they've shown 2). Cause I really want to see The Producers episodes.
Well guess what. You guys just finished season 4 and what I'm seeing now is season 3. So I guess it will be a very long while before I see what I wanted to see (unless by some miracle they go right into Season 4).
:(
-
The low-carb, no-carb "fad" is potentially very injurious to everyone's health.
Everyone needs complex carbohydrates as part of their diet. Avoidance of them to shed pounds will not help your body or your health. It's tradiing one bad for a different bad.
Exercise, eat smaller, more nutritious portions. Avoid saturated fats whenever/wherever possible (try to stay below the RDA -- a Mounds bar contains 50% the RDA of saturated fats). Eat "less" glucose (i.e. sugar) than you normally do, but don't deprive yourself of anything you like.
You are far more likely to lose the weight you want and maintain the weight loss because you've maintained proper nutritional levels and avoided deprivation of favorite foods.
-
Someone mentioned "The High and the Mighty" above. Now that's a movie song that should have been somewhere on the AFI list. My guess is that the John Wayne estate would not let them show a clip so they didn't include the song. I still whistle it whenever I walk onto an airplane.
And speaking of the AFI list, many of the songs on the list were featured in more than one movie, yet only two of them were acknowledged as such ("Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" and "Puttin' On the Ritz" which didn't acknowledge the film of the same name it was written for but two subsequent uses.) I found this a little strange.
-
I think they got really lucky that no big new movies opened last weekend. But it still seems odd to me that they could get such high numbers while playing in so few theatres.
It's not that odd when you know that all the showings in all the theatres were sold out all the time -- and more showings were added, which were also sold out. (I think RLP also pointed this out - so I'm being redundant, but there you go.)
-
Someone mentioned "The High and the Mighty" above. Now that's a movie song that should have been somewhere on the AFI list. My guess is that the John Wayne estate would not let them show a clip so they didn't include the song. I still whistle it whenever I walk onto an airplane.
I suppose, as Michael Shayne pointed out to me last week about "Lara's Theme" and "Colonel Bogey's March", that the AFI songs had to have actual lyrics in order to qualify.
And speaking of the AFI list, many of the songs on the list were featured in more than one movie, yet only two of them were acknowledged as such ("Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" and "Puttin' On the Ritz" which didn't acknowledge the film of the same name it was written for but two subsequent uses.) I found this a little strange.
A lot of strange things about some of the selections, as far as I'm concerned. I still think that "Do Re Mi" has had a much more longer lasting signifigance on audiences than "The Sound of Music". The same, I think, is true of "Whistle While You Work" over "Someday, My Prince Will Come" and "Chim Chim Cherie" over "Supercalifragilistickexpialidocious" (sp?).
-
Jrand53, DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE a good choice! Director Randall Kleiser and I discussed re-doing this eons ago. It never happened. Edward Judd, the star of that film, play Barrymore the Butler in my Hound of the Baskervilles.
-
I haven't checked out the reason ASSASSINS is closing early but it's not box-office. The show has been in the 80-95% capacity range during its entire run. Compared to CAROLINE and WONDERFUL TOWN, it's a smash hit. There must be other reasons at work.
-
For years, TV Guide has listed a TV movie called The Death of Ocean View Park as one of the best TV movies ever. I finally saw it myself a few years ago and thought, "Huh?" It made Rollercoaster look deep.
-
I haven't checked out the reason ASSASSINS is closing early but it's not box-office. The show has been in the 80-95% capacity range during its entire run. Compared to CAROLINE and WONDERFUL TOWN, it's a smash hit. There must be other reasons at work.
Maybe someone thought it best to close before the GOP came to town.
-
I meant to mention how happy I am DR Jose got back his piano books, but PLEASE don't ever leave anything you prize there again. As honest as you hope people might be, temptation is great, and I've learned painful lessons in the past that other people just don't prize your own possessions very much.
Until the DVD of the Lansbury SWEENEY TODD came out a few months ago, I had been without it for over two years because I dutifully loaned it to a director I had worked for before (hard to say no to someone who might use you in a future production), and he promptly misplaced it.
-
Let me add that the weekend grosses for "Fahrenheit 9/11" are in no way record-breaking in the grand scheme of things.
It's an off week and it was a new movie, but $20-plus million isn't a speck on the charts when most big new movies open to $75 million to $91 million weekends.
What makes the idea that the numbers were padded seem silly is that studios DO NOT PAD GROSSES. There are people who get cuts and the studios don't generally do much more than UNDER report. The exhibitors will get their cut, the distributor will get its cut and the production company will get its cut. One presumes Michael Moore gets a small slice. And Uncle SAM will surely get his cut, too. Therefore, NOBODY is going to overinflate the grosses 'cause it means folks'll have to be paid more than the movie earned otherwise.
-
Re: F 9/11 I wonder how well it could have done if so many people hadn't been turned away because of the shows being sold out.
-
Maybe someone thought it best to close before the GOP came to town.
I actually wondered about this, myself. ::)
-
The low-carb, no-carb "fad" is potentially very injurious to everyone's health.
Everyone needs complex carbohydrates as part of their diet. Avoidance of them to shed pounds will not help your body or your health. It's tradiing one bad for a different bad.
Exercise, eat smaller, more nutritious portions. Avoid saturated fats whenever/wherever possible (try to stay below the RDA -- a Mounds bar contains 50% the RDA of saturated fats). Eat "less" glucose (i.e. sugar) than you normally do, but don't deprive yourself of anything you like.
You are far more likely to lose the weight you want and maintain the weight loss because you've maintained proper nutritional levels and avoided deprivation of favorite foods.
I took a class where we learned that the brain can ONLY get nutrition from carbohydrates. If you are an extreme Atkins follower, you are depriving YOUR BRAIN of the only food it can get! That's not a good thing!
-
As for more disaster movies, my sister and I saw a movie from the 1970s called "Drive-In (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074433/)" and we saw it AT A DRIVE IN! It features a disaster movie within the movie.
-
I suppose, as Michael Shayne pointed out to me last week about "Lara's Theme" and "Colonel Bogey's March", that the AFI songs had to have actual lyrics in order to qualify.
There are lyrics and I think they are sung over the credits. Regarding "Lara's Theme" and "Colonel Bogey", I think RIVER KWAI and DR. ZHIVAGO may have been considered British films.
-
What makes the idea that the numbers were padded laughable (the kindest word I can use in regard to the spurious assertion) is that studios DO NOT PAD GROSSES. There are people who get cuts and the studios don't generally do much more than UNDER report. The exhibitors will get their cut, the distributor will get its cut and the production company will get its cut. One presumes Michael Moore gets a small slice. NOBODY is going to overinflate the grosses 'cause it means folks'll have to be paid more than the movie earned otherwise.
I consider the entire notion a rather poignant example of right-wing sour grapes.
Well, I do hate to burst your bubble, but studios have been misreporting grosses for years, AND, most importantly, have been caught doing it. Do the research and you'll find out how true this is. There have been several big stories in Variety about this and the films that were caught doing so. WHY they would do it is a mystery but do it they do, usually by several million dollars.
-
ASSASSINS was not one of the shows that the GOP were given free tickets to for their one free night. And if that were the reason, it could have run a month longer than the current closing date.
-
Well, I do hate to burst your bubble, but studios have been misreporting grosses for years, AND, most importantly, have been caught doing it. Do the research and you'll find out how true this is. There have been several big stories in Variety about this and the films that were caught doing so. WHY they would do it is a mystery but do it they do, usually by several million dollars.
Broadway shows have been known to do this too, most notably SUNSET BOULEVARD which way over-reported the gross while Ms. Close was on vacation to try and convince people it was the show itself and not Ms. Close that was drawing people.
-
Well, I do hate to burst your bubble, but studios have been misreporting grosses for years, AND, most importantly, have been caught doing it. Do the research and you'll find out how true this is. There have been several big stories in Variety about this and the films that were caught doing so. WHY they would do it is a mystery but do it they do, usually by several million dollars.
.
Never fear. My "bubble" is thick as elephant hide.
I'm wondering: Over-reporting to avoid being classified a bomb? To grab a weekend highest-gross-ever title? Projecting what they "hope" it will make?
From what I've read, it's usually the projection, rather than a deliberate intent to mislead.
However, to grab a record or to avoid the appearance of being a dud, I can also see overprojection happening....but I don't think this is "the rule."
I am aware of the thinking behind wanting to believe this documentary's grosses have been inflated. Anything is possible. It is possible it might have been done to encourage people to see the film, but I think the greater truth is that the film made what they said it made, if not more, and that too many people were unable to see it this past weekend due to limited screens.
The press and on-air Radio/TV discussion about this movie have made it an instant success.
Quite literally, it's the hottest ticket since "The Passion of the Christ," but as a documentary, it won't draw the crowds that film did. For one thing, the right wing will avoid it. The knee-jerk reactions to it, alone, make most folks want to see it.
-
Reading the article about the provisional closing notice of ASSASSINS, it seems clear the show has done very well at the box-office for its announced run. It's the advanced sales that aren't what they want and what they're trying to spur.
Funny, though, when I ordered my tickets for July 24 well over a month ago (when the August 1st extension was first announced), I had to take the first row of the mezzanine. The tickets for tables were all gone.
-
RLP is right about the low-carb craze. The most weight I lost and the fastest time I lost it in was in the mid-nineties, when I was having pasta almost everynight.
You want to lose weight. Burn more calories than you take in. That simple. Step up your exercise. Eat a little less.
I also don't think there's any inflation going on in the F9/11 numbers. There was a projection based on early weekend figures. We'll probably know exactly tomorrow. But as I said before, give or take a mil, it's still a remarkable achievement for a non-fiction film at the height of summer. But the naysayers of the film will try to diminish and negate its clear critical and box-office victory anyway they can.
-
DR CHARLES POGUE - Edward Judd was so good in ...FIRE!
I also liked him as a race car driver who had an affair with doomed Susan Hayward in STOLEN HOURS....and then came to a fiery end on the race track. :'(
Wish I could have seen him in your project! ;D
Here he is on the left. He also co-starred in one of MBARNUM's favorite movies FIRST MEN IN THE MOON!
-
Good afternoon all!
Well, I'm back from the Ren Faire. I must say it was a grand and glorious time, and I intend to make visiting these faires a regular thing for me. The costumes were great fun, the acts were entertaining, and all the things being sold made me very glad I'd left my wallet in the car and carried only a small amount of cash on me. I would have gone broke!
TOTD - never much for disaster films. Does Titanic count? I know I'm risking being attacked by saying this, but I actually did like Titanic. if you could get past all the hoopla about it.
-
I don't know so much from disaster movies. I don't think I've ever seen one, but I've heard a couple. Once in a high school Earth Science class the teacher showed us Jurassic Park for some reason. I didn't really see a lot of point in watching it, so I spent the whole time reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
And then the same thing happened in Geography class with Twister. I read Les Miserables.
-
Jrand53, you can see him in my project. My HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is out on DVD. Try DVD PLANET.
-
Here he is on the left. He also co-starred in one of MBARNUM's favorite movies FIRST MEN IN THE MOON!
LOL JRand! I think you are thinking of 12 TO THE MOON as one of my favorites! No Edward Judd, but it does have Ken Clark!
-
Oh thanks DRCP!
-
I caught Bill Clinton on "Larry King Live" this past weekend.
Very compelling speaker with some compelling thoughts.
-
DR Anne: With Ren Faire behind you, can Lilith Faire be too far in your future?
-
Re: the low carb thing
Pretty much everything you eat has carbs. So even if you're doing low carbs, you will still be eating a lot of vegetables. You might not eat white bread or pasta, but you'll still be eating other bread (maybe pumpernickel).
I get what you guys are saying. But unless you just want to eat meat/eggs only, you're always going to be
getting some carbs.
-
Just had a note from TCB. Not "legal" for him to post from work these days and of course he can not from home. At least they haven't blocked his emails yet.
-
I know that the Atkins or any low-carb diet is the only way to lose substantial poundage quickly - usually ten to fifteen pounds in two to three weeks. That's not the issue for me - the issue is that you are then stuck having to stay on that diet and even if you do it to the letter, which I did on my last go round, I never lost another pound in over three months. That's just stupid and irritating and so no more low-carb diets for me - ever.
-
What happened to TCB posting from home?
-
Ah! Someone does not read the posts!! TCB has a dead computer. His last post was from a public library.
I shall now play "the last post" in memory of his late computer.
François is on holidays for the next three weeks. He does not have a computer so he too shall be absent.
-
The fools let me back in the lie-berry once more. So, here is a quick note, since my fifteen minutes allowed by law are almost up.
Disaster Films:
SAN FRANCISCO
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER -- sorry Anne, almost TITANIC, but better!
Condiments:
TROJANS
MISS YOU ALL!
-
Good Evening!
Well, I thought I was leaving the apartment today... I just could not seem to drag myself off the couch this afternoon. I was either re-checking some stuff on the net that I kept forgetting to check in the first place. Or something interesting came on TV. Or I just didn't feel like moving. It was kind of puzzling - kind of an active laziness. Once I finally did make it off the couch, I pruned a house plant that needed pruning, started some laundry, had some yogurt (blueberry), and put away some stuff in my bedroom. -Very exciting, huh?
So now I'm just trying to figure out whether I want to head up to Fairfax tonight or tomorrow during the day. I guess I'll just see where the next few hours take me.
OH! But I did hear briefly from DR Jason. He had a great time in Chicago, and he's now home in Louisville... And about to have some fried chicken!!
-
I, on the other hand, am not about to have fried chicken. I am about to take Wonderdog for a walk.
-
...And as luck would have it, the episode of "Friends" that is currently on here is the one with Matt Battaglia and Robert Gant.
:)
-
The English language is truly bizarre. Try explaining "I am about to take my dog for a walk" to someone who doesn't speak English (or dog).
-
I had a friend who taught English as a Second Language. Something that totally perplexed her students was the traffic sign: "Squeeze Right."
-
Where in tarnation IS everyone?
-
And one for Tarnation!
-
There are lyrics and I think they are sung over the credits. Regarding "Lara's Theme" and "Colonel Bogey", I think RIVER KWAI and DR. ZHIVAGO may have been considered British films.
Lara's Theme (Somewhere My Love) is never sung in the film it was written after the movie came out and the theme was a hit. Like the themes from Love Story, The Godfather(2 songs actually), Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time, Around the World in 80 Days, The Summer of 42 are just some examples whose theme music became popular and someone added lyrics to them. Col. Bogey's March is just whistled and was an old war song not written for the film.
-
Rather than being "padded" the reported figures were too low!
Box Office Tally Climbs for 'Fahrenheit 9/11'
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Box-office fever for Michael Moore's searing anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" climbed a bit higher on Monday as distributors touted record-breaking ticket sales about $2 million more than first reported.
According to a final tally of weekend receipts, Moore's critique of President Bush and his policies since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America grossed $23.9 million during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada.
That made it No. 1 at the box office and surpassed the $21.5 million generated by Moore's previous film, the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," as the highest-grossing documentary ever.
All told, the movie's total stood at just over $24 million counting the head-start it received on Wednesday in two Manhattan theaters, generating extra media buzz before expanding to a relatively modest 868 theaters two days later.
Previous tallies reported Sunday had Moore's film grossing $21.8 million since Friday.
By contrast, most of the other movies in the top five were showing in more than 2,500 theaters each, giving "Fahrenheit 9/11" a much higher per-theater average -- above $27,000 -- than any of its competition and demonstrating that it was playing to packed houses.
Distributors Lions Gate Films and IFC Films have said release of the film, already unprecedented for a political documentary, would be expanded further in the weeks ahead.
Tom Ortenberg, Lions Gate distribution president, said the film played strongly in big cities and small towns, alike, and in Democratic as well as Republican states.
Next week, the film faces far stiffer competition from the highly anticipated opening of "Spider-Man 2."
-
I thought about The Dazzle and Boom Town, too. But I'm going with Key Exchange by Kevin Wade.
Key Exchange has already played NYC and has also been made into a movie. So I don;t think he was afraid of lack of film sales.
As for Patient A, the play is a personal one for Lee Lessing as he got to know the Bergalis family and he wrote himself into the play.
Now Jeff Daniels' play he still sort of has a film career and is perhaps hoping that the play will be made into a film so perhaps that is why he has vetoed NYC and LA
-
No I wonder what will happen over at Disney since they nixed distributing the movie. The last three or four films have been bombs. Around the World in 80 Days, the horse raising film across the desert, there last hand drawn animated film and one other. Time for Michael Eisner to step down?????
-
Well, over the weekend, the Significant Other and myself were thoroughly enmeshed in our local Gay Pride events, so I barely had time to drop in here at HHW...and now, I spent nearly an hour catching up on everyone's cherce posts!
-
The titles I was looking for above were Home On the Range. The Horse racing film Hilgado. I forgot about The Alamo. I think the Ladykillers and Raising Helen were not success either
-
No I wonder what will happen over at Disney since they nixed distributing the movie. The last three or four films have been bombs. Around the World in 80 Days, the horse raising film across the desert, there last hand drawn animated film and one other. Time for Michael Eisner to step down?????
Well, the rumor has it that Disney didn't wanna release the movie because:
a.) Disneyland is in Florida, and:
b.) Dubya's brudda, Jeb Bush, is the Governor of Florida, and therefore:
c.) If Disney got Jeb miffed, some perks the Governor has been giving the Disney Corporation just might evaporate (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).
I dunno how much truth (if any!) is behind this; frankly, it seems a bit dubious to moi...after all, the Disney people are a big draw down to Florida, and one would think that messing with The Mouse wouldn't be the wisest course of action.
-
Frankly, I'm just pleased as punch that White Chicks didn't open at number one. Instead, it opened at number two, which seems incredibly appropriate.
-
The greatest disaster film I know was my own poor KULL THE CONQUERER, which was supposed to be a mature adventure film for adults embracing Robert E. Howard's dark, brooding visceral prose and got turned into a rolling juggernaut of illogic and cartoon campiness.
I was actually one of the folks who saw this movie, during its' (brief) theatrical run. I love Robert E. Howard, who wrote basically Harboiled Fantasy, and really liked the first Conan movie...but the only dubious pleasure I got from the movie was the improbable presence of Harvey Fierstien in the cast.
Did you ever consider taking your name off of the picture, considering the butchery of it all?
-
Evening all,
We’re about to get another of those lovely evening storms. Weather bug is flashing and chirping his little heart out so I don’t have long.
Just wanted to remind you that as of this Friday (not that it bears a mention in Notes or anything–don’t want you to think I’m getting uppity or anything) I ...errr...make that WE will become not only a Goddess but a ROYAL Goddess. The ceremony takes place sometime between 2 and 5 when we will receive our crown. At least that’s what the dentist confirmed to me...errr...us today. We’ve been practicing our royal wave all afternoon.
Just so you know. No pressure to treat me...US any different than before. No need for a special party or anything. Ham chunks and dancing the horta will be optional. I plan on being a benevolent royal. I think royalty is in my blood. I know I’ve been called a “Royal pain in the..” Well, we won’t go there. ::)
Be that as it may, someone mentioned fire flys last night. Ohhh, how I wish I could see them! We used to have them all over the place. Then the stupid love bugs came and they sprayed to kill them. Guess what else it killed? That’s right. No more dancing fairy lights off in the distance. No more Will-of-the-Wisps to follow in the night. No more soft glow in the safety of my hands. No more laughing delight to see them in the early evening sky. Gone. All gone. But never forgotten or less loved.
I’m don’t know how someone couldn’t know you were going to walk the dog, Panni. Even my dogs know when I’m going to take them. Sometimes before I know I am going to take them.
I LOVE Ren Fests! I used to go with a group of people. Here isa picture of me in costume. The picture was taken very early in the morning. Note it was dark out side the van window. We were going to Sarasota and everyone wanted an early start so we could be among the first in line. I wanted to sleep on the way but everyone kept saying they wanted pictures and for me to SMILE, so I did.
Speaking of pictures. I enjoyed the ones from yesterday, Bruce. Nice shirt that gal sorta had on.
spoo, I see lightning–gotta shut this thing down!
-
I am my own frenzy...
-
No one has come close to guessing the play. I'm off to rehearsal shortly - and I'm happy to say I've approved our backup play, which I didn't know at all and which I just finished reading. Amusingly, I like it better - I find what it has to say very interesting, the writing is very strong, and frankly the role Tammy would play is much more showy, with many more levels. And it's funny, too, at times. So, even though I was going to start blocking tonight, we're going to read through this other play instead. My suggestion is going to be that we do this other show and tell the "Hollywood" playwright to go wait for his movie deal, which won't be coming. While I find his play amusing in certain ways, and I know certain types of actors and audiences find its realism appealing, I find its themes very basic and surface and not nearly as interesting as this other play I just finished.
-
BTW (By The Way) Ignore the date on that picture. I was experimenting with taking a digital photo of an old photo because I don’t have a scanner. It worked pretty good.
-
Well, the rumor has it that Disney didn't wanna release the movie because:
a.) Disneyland is in Florida, and:
b.) Dubya's brudda, Jeb Bush, is the Governor of Florida, and therefore:
c.) If Disney got Jeb miffed, some perks the Governor has been giving the Disney Corporation just might evaporate (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).
I dunno how much truth (if any!) is behind this; frankly, it seems a bit dubious to moi...after all, the Disney people are a big draw down to Florida, and one would think that messing with The Mouse wouldn't be the wisest course of action.
Hate to be picky, but................
Disneyland is in California.
Disney World is in Florida.
And since Disney World is the biggest employer in the state I don't think that would have been the reason
-
Nostalgia in the house. I have just been recording "It's In The Book" (John Standley). I remember it well from my childhood. It was on the radio in a scene in "The Last Picture Show" but did not make it to the soundtrack recording issued.
-
The play: Is it "110 in the Shade"?
TCB: Sorry your "pooter" is out of order. If I understand correctly, he had a senior moment and doused it in coffee (or coke?).
-
This Is Our Youth sounds like an interesting play. Could that be it?
-
Disneyland is in California.
Disney World is in Florida.
I always get those two mixed up. It's like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger...they may as well be twins or something.
-
As does The Value of Names which had a production in Chicago. Playwright is Jeffrey Sweet who wrote the musical book for Luv which was called Love.
-
As does The Value of Names which had a production in Chicago. Playwright is Jeffrey Sweet who wrote the musical book for Luv which was called Love.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. (Your previous guess.)
For our favorite piece of Jeffrey Sweet writing, click:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet-gang/message/1187 (http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet-gang/message/1187)
-
Well I can't figure out the name of the play or the replacement....but I hope the reading goes well!
-
This ends my so-called vacation. It's back to work tomorrow. Didn't get nearly enough writing done during this time, but I'm going to return to a self-help idea I employed in 2002: keeping a daily diary of what I've written every day. If all I've written is doggerel. it will appear in this diary. And, with a little bit done every day, an ant can move a rubber tree plant.
-
Well I am off to bed. I guess I will have to catch up with the rest of the posts tomorrow. Somehow I think I miss all the good stuff that goes on the west coast of the USA.
-
Well in Canada the Liberal party won a minority government. The first in 25 years. Better than the PC who drove the country into the ground. And that is all I will say about politics. One brief opinion.
-
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. (Your previous guess.)
For our favorite piece of Jeffrey Sweet writing, click:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet-gang/message/1187 (http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet-gang/message/1187)
Okay, Noel, try this coincidence on for size: This is Our Youth was written by Kenneth Lonergan, who imdb.com says is cousin to Chantal Lonergan, who is playing the part of Joy in an upcoming movie called Noel.
The universe is a mysterious place...
-
Had the misfortune to watch BRUCE ALMIGHTY tonight in high definition. Why was this movie so popular? I guess because he was doing nutty stuff with his absolute power, but most of the movie was very uninspired. What's worse, Jim Carrey can wear out his welcome for me in about five minutes, so an hour and 41 minutes of him is just too, too much. This is one I'll never want to see again.
-
My DVR is capturing TCM's PRIVATE SCREENINGS interview with Patricia Neal right now. I'll watch it tomorrow. After presenting at the Tonys several years ago and seeming totally disoriented, I'm wondering what kind of interview she's capable of giving. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Since it is taped, I'm sure they can start and stop as needed for her. Really do love her and want her to come off well.
-
My DVR is capturing TCM's PRIVATE SCREENINGS interview with Patricia Neal right now. I'll watch it tomorrow. After presenting at the Tonys several years ago and seeming totally disoriented, I'm wondering what kind of interview she's capable of giving. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Since it is taped, I'm sure they can start and stop as needed for her. Really do love her and want her to come off well.
DR Matt, I won't say any more than Ms. Neal is very lively, indeed, in this interview and very likable at that. I'm taping the rerun of the interview along with the preceding Hud.
-
I was hoping Assassins would have stayed opend to September I had planned to see it.
I'm sorry you're going to miss it. I was disappointed, der Brucer even more so than I, but I wish you could have made up your own mind about it rather than get the news secondhand. After all, my tastes aren't always in synch with everyone else's, and you might have pointed out things that were done onstage that I missed.
-
Well in Canada the Liberal party won a minority government. The first in 25 years. Better than the PC who drove the country into the ground. And that is all I will say about politics. One brief opinion.
Happy dance around my basement bedroom when the CBC announced that one.
*dance dance dance dance dance*
And that is all I will do about politics. One brief happy dance :)
(oooh... and the candidate I worked for won! yippers)
-
and that last dance can also incorporate a Page Six Dance as well :D
-
Someone mentioned "The High and the Mighty" above. Now that's a movie song that should have been somewhere on the AFI list. My guess is that the John Wayne estate would not let them show a clip so they didn't include the song. I still whistle it whenever I walk onto an airplane.
The High and the Mighty is included on the New York Times' "1000 best movies ever made" list.
-
I meant to mention how happy I am DR Jose got back his piano books, but PLEASE don't ever leave anything you prize there again. As honest as you hope people might be, temptation is great, and I've learned painful lessons in the past that other people just don't prize your own possessions very much.
Until the DVD of the Lansbury SWEENEY TODD came out a few months ago, I had been without it for over two years because I dutifully loaned it to a director I had worked for before (hard to say no to someone who might use you in a future production), and he promptly misplaced it.
Amen, sadly. Der Brucer loaned out our copies of a few OCRs to a theater director, and we never saw them again.
-
Amen, sadly. Der Brucer loaned out our copies of a few OCRs to a theater director, and we never saw them again.
I certainly learned a lesson from it. Now, if someone wants to borrow something, I make them a copy if it's copyable; if not, they have to watch it here.
-
What makes the idea that the numbers were padded seem silly is that studios DO NOT PAD GROSSES.... Therefore, NOBODY is going to overinflate the grosses 'cause it means folks'll have to be paid more than the movie earned otherwise.
Huh? Say WHAT?
How quickly people forget.
The courts ordered Eddie Murphy to pay Art Buchwald a percentage of his earnings (19%) for the film Coming to America (1988) because Murphy didn't credit Buchwald with the idea for the film. After that, there was a very public fiasco about the accounting on the film, where it was claimed that Murphy and the studio hadn't earned a dime on the film, dispite it's having earned millions at the box office. It was subsequently discovered that these accounting practices were common throughout the film industry.
And there is no evidence that the accounting practices have changed.
-
Re: the Assassins closing and the GOP convention.
They're not related.
Politicians are not theater goers, as a rule. Not even the gay ones. Der Brucer and I spent a week in NYC for a Log Cabin convention not too many years ago, and the only ones taking the opportunity to see any theater were der Brucer, myself, and one other couple. We left a reception early because we had tix for a play, and got nothing but strange looks.
And anyone in town to protest the GOP convention isn't going to have the time to spend going to the theater, either. They have other agendas to pursue.
Sports events are another story entirely. I think it has to do with the uniforms. :-\
-
There are lyrics and I think they are sung over the credits. Regarding "Lara's Theme" and "Colonel Bogey", I think RIVER KWAI and DR. ZHIVAGO may have been considered British films.
No, they were both considered American productions.
-
Still catching up on today's posts. We were off to see the grandlads again, since der Brucer forgot to deliver an important present yesterday (a GameBoy or something like that). Two days in a row with that family is too much.
But I've got dinner to finish making. Two days in a row with that family's cooking would have been hell, ideed!
Back shortly.
-
Robin, at the time, if a writer made over a certain amount of money (and I did on Kull), you weren't allowed to take your name off it or use a pseudonym, I believe. That may have changed recently.
You fight for sole credit even when you hate the movie because it means more money for you on the back-end and with residuals and ancillary markets. My theory is they deprived me of artistic satisfaction, they're not going to deprive me of financial satisfaction. So I keep my name on even the things that embarrass me. After all, whoever remembers the screenwriter. And every film you get made in Hollywood, whether good or bad, gives you a few more years of viability. Any film gives you three years; a good one or a successful one can give you about five to ten.
Finally saw it! F9/11. Let me say I think it is Moore's most even-handed film. Very few of those moments, wonderfully audacious as they are, where you cringe with discomfort when he confronts people and embarrasses them...or rather let's them embarrass themselves.
No doubt the Bush claque will try to discredit, discount, and dispute the movie's facts. But even if they could spin in such a way to throw two-thirds of this movie into doubt (and I don't believe for a moment that they can successfully do that), there is still one third that is indisputable and irrefutable and that no amount of spinning can spin away. And that third is enough for any reasonably intelligent person not to vote for him again.
Most damning are the very words and images with which the Troika plus One of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft hang themselves. And why do all of these men have sneering, self-satisfied, smug, arrogant smirks on their faces? I guess it's their contempt for the American public showing. "We know you know we're bastards (except for the dumbasses that voted for us) and we don't care."
Most disturbing: the sociopaths we're nurturing in our armed forces. Talking about the lewd and crude music they listen to as they gleefully charge to the slaughter, mocking a corpse with crass innuendo, and, long before the prison scandal, putting bags over prisoners' heads and posing with them as though they were trophies.
Most telling: gum-snapping Britney Spears with her puerile political analysis typifying a vast part of Bush's constitutency and showing why such a numbskull got elected in the first place.
Funniest: The end, where Bush can't remember the source of his quote or the quote. When he has a written speech, he's inarticulate; when he talks off the cuff, he's incompetent.
I find the whole thing a more damning indictment against the mainstream media than even Bush. Why have they been sleeping the last several years? Why have they allowed cheap patroitism and flag brandishing to stand in their way, making them too timid to investigate newsworthy stories, ask the tough questions, and demand answers from these people?
I left the film feeling very sad and depressed. And feeling violated. We don't have a government. We have a regime.
-
I'm back, and to prove it, I'm here. Reading of our backup play went well, although one of our actors is not so happy because he would have so much less to do in it. We're still hoping that our original choice (yes, This is Our Youth) will come through - we can wait another two or three days for a decision, but that's it.
-
Dinner is done. And I'll get back to the rest of the day's posts in a short while.
First, though, there was one development while at the grandlad's.
It seems that I have power! I am one to be obeyed!
Unlike yesterday, which was a birthday party, today was a swimming lesson, with a qualified and trained instructor (who was quite good, and undercharges). Again, we had a large group of youngsters to deal with, along with a group of mothers trying to control or at least watch over their broods.
Der Brucer's daughter is a disaster at controling the kids, if anyone hasn't figured that out yet. She is quick to anger, and the kids ignore her screaming.
Well, at one point, the older kids were having thier swimming lesson, the younger kids having gone first. William, her younger son (and our younger grandlad) was insistant that he wanted to get back in the pool. He had already been changed back out of his swimtrunks, but he wanted what he wanted, at a very high volume. Der B's daughter shouted back no, and that that was that, and stomped back into the house.
No sooner had she done that, and William started pulling his pants down, trunks or no trunks. I was seated about seven yards away, all the way across the deck, still listening and observing all of this. Suddenly, to William's surprise, my voice came booming across the deck.
"WILLIAM, PULL YOUR PANTS BACK UP."
The pants were back up in a split second, as William's eyes got big as saucers. He didn't know where that voice had come from, but he knew it was one to be obeyed.
(Der Brucer almost ruined the moment by chortling loudly from inside the house. Almost, but not quite.)
Later, one of the other swimming students, a troublemaker named Jake, had finished his part of the older kid's lesson, and had decided that he wanted to play in the pool with an inflatable boat. This was in spite of the fact that some of the students were still in class. Jake's mother told him no, to not put the boat in the pool. He didn't stop moving towards the water with the boat. Der Brucer told him sternly not to put the boat in the pool. Jake still kept carrying the boat to the water.
"JAKE, PUT THE BOAT BACK."
Jake froze. Then he put the boat back where he had found it, without even looking for where the voice had come from.
I am not G*d. But it's nice to know I can sound like him when I want to.
-
I'm back, and to prove it, I'm here. Reading of our backup play went well, although one of our actors is not so happy because he would have so much less to do in it. We're still hoping that our original choice (yes, This is Our Youth) will come through - we can wait another two or three days for a decision, but that's it.
This Is Our Youth? What kind of sucky title is that?
We need a new title. Parents Are From Venus, Youth Are From Mars.
Youth Fly Over the Cuckoo's Nest...Constantly.
The Days of Youth and Roses.
All's Quiet on the Youth Front ... no, totally unbelievable, have to try something else...
-
Well, the rumor has it that Disney didn't wanna release the movie because:
a.) Disneyland is in Florida, and:
b.) Dubya's brudda, Jeb Bush, is the Governor of Florida, and therefore:
c.) If Disney got Jeb miffed, some perks the Governor has been giving the Disney Corporation just might evaporate (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).
I dunno how much truth (if any!) is behind this; frankly, it seems a bit dubious to moi...after all, the Disney people are a big draw down to Florida, and one would think that messing with The Mouse wouldn't be the wisest course of action.
No, it's Walt Disney World that is in Florida. And Jeb would not be in a position to put the Disney corp down, given how many jobs Disney generates in the Orlando area. There would be too many votes at stake, and one film wouldn't be worth it.
(OK, so this is basically what someone else wrote earlier. Big deal. Great minds think alike, or something like that. Maybe grating ones. Whatever.)
-
Phoenix Theatre did a production of THIS IS OUR YOUTH almost 2 years ago, I think.
I suppose it might give the wrong impression if it were retitled: FLAMING YOUTH.
-
Frankly, I'm just pleased as punch that White Chicks didn't open at number one. Instead, it opened at number two, which seems incredibly appropriate.
This may surprise some people, but I readily agree!
-
Good Evening!
Greetings from Fairfax, VA! After getting some more cleaning done around the apartment, I ended up leaving Richmond right before 10:00. It was a beautiful night for a drive - upper 60s - and, thankfully, I checked the traffic reports on the radio just in time to take the detour around the road paving project on 95 tonight. I got off at the last possible exit before the road work began and the traffic was already backed up to the exit - which was still eight(!) miles from where the construction started.
So, now I'm back at my parents' house enjoying the high-speed and wireless cable modem! Unfortunately, my brother and his family headed down to Myrtle Beach this afternoon, so I won't be getting any quality time with the nieces and nephews this time round. But since I have a date tomorrow night, and the Wolf Trap Gala on Wednesday, it's OK. ;)
RE: This Is Our Youth - I like the play, but there are better plays out there. And as a bunch of theatre companies have found out, TIOY only works and plays to a specific audience. For myself, it almost seems too specific at times to have a "universal" appeal, identification. Lobby Hero is good too, but suffers from the same fault, imho.
OK - Since I have the high speed connection, I'm off to check out some film trailers and sound clips and download some software updates.
Laters...
-
On of those nights that got away from me -- hence no posting. I'm back -- not that I was away.
-
Tomorrow evening I'm dining with an old friend at a new establishment called Minibar... "Small plates, big vibe." Tasty tapas. Nothing over $14. "...on the border of Hollywood and Studio City, so it has that laid-back Valley vibe with a splash of LA cool."
It's either going to be totally vomit-on-the-floor-inducing or fun.
Will, of course, report.