Topic: THE LIVELY AND SPARKLING TEETH (Read 18203 times)

bk · « **on:** November 08, 2004, 12:03:40 AM »

Well, you've read the notes, you know the what, when, where, and why of the notes (the four Ws), and now it is time for you to post until the lively and sparkling cows come home.

S. Woody White · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:21:37 AM »

(using a fabulously fake French accent...)

What is zees? To hate somezeeng, and then to lauve it? Nevaire! My opinionz are alwayze correct, and I nevaire have to change them!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:22:49 AM »

I honestly can't think of any movies, plays, or musicals that ever turned me around from hate to love. I suspect there have been some that I was either too young or mature to fully appreciate at the time and have since come to admire (though none come to mind).

However, I know one movie where it worked the other way. In college, The Lovely Wife (then only The Lovely Girlfriend), Julieanne, and I went to see WHERE'S POPPA? one weekend when staying with the folks in Cincy (actually Northern Kentucky). We thought this movie was hysterical! The next night we dragged my reluctant parents to see it. I don't think they were as taken as we were with it, but we still thought the movie a laugh riot.

Anyway, a few years ago, The Lovely Wife and I caught the flick on the tube. Man, were we disappointed. It seemed so laboured and desperate and UNfunny. A real chore to get through. It just didn't work at all anymore.

S. Woody White · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:46:28 AM »

Whoops and oops.

Somehow, I let an anniversary go by without realizing it. I mean, I knew it was around this time, but I forgot to check my notes for when.

It was on November 5th last year that der Brucer and I arrived at our new home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware!

And what a year it has been. Just on the personal front, I've gone through a major depression, getting a job, losing said job, battling with der B's family about whether coleslaw has shredded carrot in it or not, the death of one dog, the adoption of another, and our involvement with Animal Rescue (which has added a sixth dog to the ~~pack~~ family).

Not to mention getting to meet, in person, Jenny, Penny O, and Jose.

I don't know about any of you, but I'm quite exhausted!

JoseSPiano · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:56:20 AM »

Good Morning!

Well...

I didn't sleep the night before I headed out to LA...

I didn't sleep the night before I headed back to Virginia...

I didn't sleep the night before I flew out to Houston...

And, now... Hmm... -And "Prick Up Your Ears" just started on Showtime... Hmm...

Of course, I have yet to finish packing up all the odds and ends, so...

Hmm....

JoseSPiano · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:02:05 AM »

As for today's topic, the only thing that comes to mind if Stephen Sondheim's Passion. The first time I saw it, I truly did not like it. I felt cheated. I felt angry, in fact. Well... A few weeks later, I went back to see it again, and I was totally overwhelmed by it. However...

The disclaimer here is that the first time I saw the show, it had just started previews. I believe I had seen the third public performance. However, when I went back to see it again, there had been some major revisions and improvements, so...

Yes, Passion, is certainly not to everyone's liking, but it eventually became one of mine.

JoseSPiano · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:07:40 AM »

Oh... And I guess I could apply today's topic to some of the books I read in high school. The books I had to read. The ones that were on the "required Summer reading" lists. Yes, I will admit it, Cliffs Notes were my friend. Years later - after college actually - I gave "Catcher in the Rye" another chance...

Jrand73 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:57:23 AM »

Hmmmmmmmmmm....well DRJOSE what my new job started out to be and what it is now are two different things. I was assistant to someone - but now I am assistant to someone else. And this someone else is a person I just cannot work with. There is also the fact that I am attempting to do something with NO training and well.....it is pretty boring....so....

Jrand73 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:59:57 AM »

The first time I saw INTO THE WOODS, I did not like it at all. I didn't understand it, and I didn't like some of the music. I thought, never again. Of course, then I bought the CD - listened to it...listened to it again. And then I worked on a production of it.

And now it is a favorite of mine - from beginning to end. It is the SAME show, but I had to think about it and not try to come to it from any expectations I had had the first time.

COMPANY is still my favorite Sondheim show but WOODS and FORUM are very close seconds.

JoseSPiano · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2004, 02:57:42 AM »

Good Morning!

Yes... I'm still up... And, yes, I still have to pack up my odds and ends...

Guess that means it's time to head out for breakfast!

Ben · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2004, 05:27:19 AM »

Hainsies (and Kimlets),

Word from one of our early morning denizens. Dan-in-Toronto has been hit with a virus of the computer kind and won't be around until it's fixed.

He wanted me to let you all know in case you wonder what happened to him.

I'll have to think about the TOD. Back later.

elmore3003 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2004, 05:40:46 AM »

Good morning, all! I definitely have a rotten cold, and I'm staying in today. I want to shake it before the get-together on Wednesday. No Typhoid Mary here, I hope!

I can only think of two things I've disliked at first and now admire/appreciate:

Joseph Heller's CATCH-22 took me three attempts over a period of 3-4 years to break into the book's attitude and fall in love with it.

Alban Berg's WOZZECK forever seemed to me a lot of instruments playing badly while people shrieked wrong notes over them. I'd follow it with a score and think,"how the hell do you know they're playing a wrong note?" I saw a production at the Met around 2 years ago, and everything meshed. What a glorious, intense work!

I'm sure there are others as wel, not to mention pieces I once liked and no longer care much for, but right now I can't think of any. It's something to ponder today between ginger tea and vitamin C.

William E. Lurie · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2004, 05:59:44 AM »

The first time I saw GTTW I thought it would have been better broken into fifteen minute segments surrounded by soap commercials. However when I saw it a few years later I loved it and I have since seen the film at least a dozen times and read the book twice. I am looking forward to the deluxe DVD release tomorrow with the new interview with Olivia.

Ben · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:03:18 AM »

I've noticed that some of the headlines for obituaries for Howard Keel shorthand it to "Dallas star dies at 85". IMHO (in my humble opinion) UGGGH. While Dallas certainly was a cultural phenomenon, I hope that he is remembered more for his wonderful body of film work than for Dallas. Just my opinion :-)

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:06:58 AM »

Hmmm...I also can't think of a book, movie or play with which I went from hate to love, but I can think of an actress--Kirstie Alley. I absolutely hated her when she first started on Cheers. I found her and her character to be insufferably unfunny and useless as a foil against Ted Danson, and I began to believe that her continued presence would drag the show down. But lo and behold, as the seasons went on, the writers made her character more and more vulnerable and Alley eventually won me over. Unfortunately, she hasn’t made the best choices in projects over the years, but I’ve come to appreciate her as an actress. (She was terrific in a TV movie years back in which she played the overprotective mother of an autistic young man.) Hopefully, her Fat Actress series on Showtime will put her back on the map.

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #15 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:44:34 AM »

Anybody else enjoy "HUFF" last night?

der Brucer (finally getting some value out of SHO)

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #16 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:47:37 AM »

Quote from: William E. Lurie on November 08, 2004, 05:59:44 AM

The first time I saw GTTW I thought it would have been better broken into fifteen minute segments surrounded by soap commercials.

Gidget Takes The World?

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #17 on:** November 08, 2004, 07:12:30 AM »

A Pearl of Wisom from a Belgian Blog:

Quote

In my opinion, free speech is something absolute. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" or "All infidels must die" both deserve equal protection. Mind you, as speech. Not as actions. I firmly believe that if everybody is free to shout out his opinions as loudly as possible, it becomes a whole lot easier to spot the dangerous people.

der Brucer

Noel · « **Reply #18 on:** November 08, 2004, 07:48:04 AM »

BK wrote:

Quote

I have no idea what Ron Liebman did with the part

and the answer is: scared you to death. The scene where Roy Cohn gets his dire diagnosis from an old man doctor (played on stage, of course, by a woman) and threatens to ruin him if he ever tells anyone was the single scariest scene I've seen in a theatre. Part of is has to do with, well, yelling. Liebman spoke very loudly at many times throughout the play. In anger, his voice would bounce off the walls of the Walter Kerr theatre and reverberate in your spine. It literally affected my breathing. I felt glued to my seat, and, at the end of the three hours I felt like I was getting off a roller coaster and wanted to get right back on again.

I totally agree with BK's assessments of the actors. Joe Mantello and Stephen Spinella had a goofy lovable charm about them - sometimes annoying, but not so constantly as Schenkman and Kirk. You were so taken with their humanity, it was easier to accept those annoying moments.

Noel · « **Reply #19 on:** November 08, 2004, 07:55:06 AM »

Two of my favorite musicals failed to enrapture me when I first heard their recordings - Threepenny Opera and Once On This Island. I recall thinking, during OOTI's finale, "Why We Tell the Story" that I didn't know why they were telling the story.

Then, working on a production, I came to believe Once On This Island to be the very best of musicals that debuted on Broadway in the 1990s.

But that's not exactly the question of the day, since it didn't involve SEEING OOTI and not appreciating it. I know that I've grown in fondness, upon repeated viewings, for two of Woody Allen's best, Annie Hall and Hannah & Her Sisters.

Given the price of theatre tickets, it's rare I give a stage work a second chance. (But note, I saw Follies three times and Last 5 Years twice!)

Matt H. · « **Reply #20 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:11:04 AM »

The topic of the day: I mentioned RGTIME last week as a book I couldn't finish and then went back to and appreciated after I saw the film.

However, the biggest turnaround for me was NASHVILLE. I didn't like it at all when I first saw it. Bored me to tears and though I liked Ronee Blakely's original songs in the picture (and Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" which went on to win the Oscar), the rest of the movie seemed rambling and without point. Years later, I rented the video and was bowled over by the experience. Of course, by then I had read Pauline Kael's rapturous review of the film and had also read others' opinions on it. Also, by this time, I had seen many other Robert Altman films and had gotten much more accustomed to his techniques.

I think it's a masterpiece and clearly his best film.

Matt H. · « **Reply #21 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:16:20 AM »

Fall has finally arrived in this part of the South. Not supposed to get out of the high 50s all week, but the clear, crisp, beautiful days are just a joy to experience. Hard to find words to describe how beautiful it is today.

Jennifer · « **Reply #22 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:49:11 AM »

I am obsessed with soup right now. All I want is Hot and Sour.

Does anyone know if they sell this at the grocery store?

Or can everyone tell me what their favorite soups are (and some I can get at the grocery store).

Soup is the only thing that makes me feel better right now.

And unfortunately the choices are: chicken noodle cup-a-soup, cream of mushroom, cream of celery, or minestrone.

Jennifer · « **Reply #23 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:50:50 AM »

DR MattH, you might have gotten Fall, but we've unfortunately gotten Winter. It's very cold here.

Jennifer · « **Reply #24 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:52:18 AM »

Has anyone seen the ShowTime series, Dead Like Me.

They are starting to air Season One on The Movie Network starting tonight. And I was just wondering if it's any good.

Stuart · « **Reply #25 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:52:32 AM »

My my, Saturday's postings were an interesting lot.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #26 on:** November 08, 2004, 09:32:49 AM »

The friends and fans of Annette Funicello are raising funds for neurological research by auctioning some things on EBAY.

If you are a fan here is the link to the items. They are reasonable and interesting.

I am not a member of the group - I may buy one of the calendars, but I thought a couple of HHW-ers might be interested.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopageZ1QQsassZfffacQ2dauctionsQQsoreco

Stuart · « **Reply #27 on:** November 08, 2004, 09:36:53 AM »

As far as the TOD, I don't know if I have ever made the 180 degree turn from "hated it!" to "loved it!" However, there are a couple of instances where I have gone about 90 degrees from "hated it!" to "I don't really hate it/sorta like it/not crazy about it, but can enjoy it."

Top of this list would be SOUTH PACIFIC which I found dull as dishwater as a child, and now....appreciate. I like much of the score, though those militaristic book scenes in Act II can still cause a snooze-fest at my house.

(Similarly, CAROUSEL falls into this category. I find this show to be R&H at their most treacly. The 90s RNT/Lincoln Center production did an awful lot to show me what this show is really about, though it will never be one of my favorites.)

Can't think of any others right off the bat right now.

bk · « **Reply #28 on:** November 08, 2004, 09:41:03 AM »

Today's topic can, of course, work in reverse - as Pogue posted earlier - things you loved and now can't stomach.

I will be leaving shortly for the dentist.

Ben · « **Reply #29 on:** November 08, 2004, 10:04:35 AM »

DR Stuart, both shows you mention are two I would mention. My feelings about South Pacific changed after I did a wonderful summer stock production too many years ago (about 25). And my feelings about Carousel changed, as did yours, with the Lincoln Center production. I loved it and now see how it can be quite wonderful

One of my reversals is with a book. I read Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner in college and thought it was one of the best books I ever read. I sobbed at the ending and couldn't wait for Paul Newman and Jan Michael Vincent to play the leads in the film (they were some of the names batted around at the time). I picked it up again many years later and couldn't get through it. I was in the right frame of mind, I guess, in college because I couldn't re-read this book for love or money. The other books she wrote after The Front Runner (I can't remember the titles) also leave me cold now and I remember loving them (not quite as much as Front Runner but still enjoying them).

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Author Topic: THE LIVELY AND SPARKLING TEETH (Read 18203 times)

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