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[Dan-in-Toronto]

I could give a long, long list of Rodgers and Hart songs that I love because I think they were a brilliant team, but I'll mention only my absolute favorite of their tunes:

"I Didn't Know What Time It Was"

Frank Sinatra sings a fine version of it in the PAL JOEY film (interpolated into the movie, of course. It's from TOO MANY GIRLS), but my favorite rendition is by Julie Andrews on BROADWAY'S FAIR JULIE and later reissued on A LITTLE BIT OF BROADWAY. Her interpretation is so simple, direct, and filled with longing. Pure heaven.

DR Matt H,

I couldn't agree more. Julie Andrews' album introduced me to that song and others. Every cut on "Broadway's Fair Julie" - A Little Bit in Love, This Is New - If Love Were All - is a treasure.

[Matt H.]

Speaking of "A Little Bit in Love," that certainly is a pallid singer/actress playing Eileen on the new WONDERFUL TOWN cast album.

Those of you who have seen the show in NYC, is she as nondescript on stage as she is on that recording?

[Dan-in-Toronto]

BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED (Now where can you find a lyric like...
I'll sing to him
Each spring to him
And worship the trousers that cling to him)

... but in the Doris Day version: "And long for the day when I cling to him."

(and forget about, "Vexed again ... ")

[elmore3003]

Good morning. Sorry, I can't just pick one Rodgers & Hart song...

*BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED (Now where can you find a lyric like...
I'll sing to him
Each spring to him
And worship the trousers that cling to him)

DR Panni,  I love the frank humor of these lines from the same:
Vexed again, perplexed again
Thank God I can be oversexed again

Seen a lot, I mean a lot
And now I'm like sweet seventeen a lot

I suspect Hart identified with Vera Simpson and her young men and knew both the homor and hurt of it

[George]

Thanks, Kerry!

Favorite Rodgers & Hart songs:

Blue Moon (I always forget that this is a Rodgers & Hart song)
It Never Entered My Mind
Johnny One-Note (and Klea Blackhurst's "Ethel One-Note")
Little Girl Blue (especially the Nina Simone version)
My Funny Valentine (I LOVE Cleo Laine's version)
Sing For Your Supper
To Keep My Love Alive (Elaine Stritch's version on PBS!)
Zip

[Stuart]

I am all for "It Never Entered My Mind," "Where or When," "To Keep My Love Alive," "Johnny One Note," and let's not forget "Manhattan."

As for emotional high points written by today's birthday boy, "No More," turns on the waterworks here too.  And I concur on "With So Little to Be Sure Of.  But don't forget the heart-rending pathos of "Losing My Mind."  Those are emotions that are worn on the sleeve like no other.

[bk]

Well, as per usual, AOL is not working this morning.  Can't even launch it - I've sent the nice lady an e-mail and we'll see how it goes.  Otherwise, as soon as I figure out how to transfer over all the names in my address book and as soon as I figure out how to get my other e-mail addresses set up, I'll be cancelling if they don't fix this today.

[Jrand73]

Wise choice!

[Jrand73]

Not really C i n e m a S c o p e  more like N a t u r a m a

[Lulu]

I love that I'm not the only one here who loathes James Lipton and all he stands for.

I'll admit when I first saw Actor's Studio several years ago I found it somewhat interesting, though even then I remember thinking that this guy was just WAY too obsequious.  But hey, back in those days he was interviewing the likes of Robert DeNiro (pre-Analyze This and Meet the Parents, back when he still had some cache) and I thought "heck, if it were me opposite DeNiro, I'd probably come across as obsequious, too."

Now he's interviewing Melanie Griffith and (for all I know) Carrot Top about their legendary careers and the cognitive dissonance is VERY apparent.  WHO DOES HE THINK HE'S KIDDING? winds up being the comment du jour whenever he trots out the likes of Lara Flynn Boyle and begins pledging his undying obesiance.

As for Babs...the woman was gifted with an amazing voice, and a deft comic flair that's apparent in Funny Girl, What's Up, Doc, For Pete's Sake, etc.  But at some point (probably around the thousandth time someone told her how absolutely completely astoudingly FABULOUS she was), her ego attained the girth of a medium-sized independent republic (possibly Lichtenstein...?  I'm not a geography whiz, help me out here, folks).  The woman is Royalty at this point, and like all royalty, she has a completely skewed sense of herself, the world, and her place within said world.  

As for the way she currently styles herself (ie: lighting, face-tightening, et. al.), I think Michael J. Nelson perhaps said it best in his review of The Mirror Has Two Faces when he wrote "She was a fine-looking woman, 55-years-old, when the film was made.  She should act her age -- start getting used to the taste of Ensure and Feenamint; get a start at buying the first of many crisp blazers and neat slacks; begin asking for discounts on bruised produce.  This tarting about, playing roles that should go to Ally Sheedy, has got to stop."  (Mr. Nelson also noted the inherent absurdity of Mimi Rogers portraying Barbra's OLDER sister in this film.)

Now for 'fessing up time: did I actually watch last nights Very Special episode of Inside the Actor's Studio?  No, I did not.  And I wouldn't have if I'd known about it.  We were otherwise occupied - namely, with Baby Face (Barbara Stanwyck) and an episode of the live-action Sailor Moon that is currently airing in Japan.  I was also busy joining (finally) NetFlix, more on which later.

[PennyO]

I, too, avoided the Babs-fest last night.

As a singer, myself, I loved her astounding virtuosity, the unmistakable artistry, the unique sound (yes, even the homage to Barbara Cook in her phrasing) - loved her film comedies. But as Onassis once cruelly said to Callas: "Yeah? Who are you? You got a whistle in yer throat, an' it's broken."

BS currently is short for BS. The mindless, self-absorbed drivel that spews from that former faucet of sublime sound is just revolting. Sorry to offend any BS fans. Gimme Barbara Cook, any day.

And, by the way:

Wait 'Til You See Her is my favorite (having heard same B. Cook sing it as Wait 'Til You See Him).

[William F. Orr]

I just finished Friday's notes and will be working my way through the weekend, having been E&T and a Wussburger for lo these many days, for reasons you can well guess.

I drove out to the end of the Island of Long in a snow storm on Friday morning and managed to get Joe home by 10:00.  Amusing it was that another inmate who was being released shook my hand and said, "Your son [sic] is a great guy.  He helped a lot of people in there."  I smiled and took the compliment in the spirit in which it was meant.

Joe has been up and down, physically, all weekend.  He slept 4 hours Friday night, 16 hours Saturday night.  I'm getting him to the doctor this afternoon.  The weekend was mostly hugs, hugs, some hugs, a few more hugs, eggs and hugs, ham and hugs, eggs and ham and spam and hugs and hugs and hugs.

Thank you all for your splendid wishes and support.

[Lulu]

WFO:

HUG your Joe back to health and happiness.

It works!!



*hugs to both of you*

[Panni]

bk - I'm Internet-challenged, so this may be a ridiculous question - but can your AOL woes have something to do with your recent switch to a high speed cable modem?

[Ron Pulliam]

My guests from out of town went out for dinner and came home and watched last bit of the show and then watched it on tape. At one point I turne to them and asked if they thought she got the questions ahead of time. They thought so. I also thought that she must have work done on her face. too perfect and all you had to do was look at her hands to see they looked a lot older and she was wearing a high necked sweater which is also a give away. At first I thought she was well spoken and meaningful but it was all well rehearsed, As for the lighting I wondered she was sitting so far away from James Lipton. And his running joke about singing at the Bon Soir was funny. We also thought that after awhile that she forgot about this award or that award or that honor was a failed attempted to make her seem more humble. But when they showed her clips of singing in the 1960's and her most recent album it pointed up the difference between her sound then and now. I prefer the 60's streisand sounds more natural.

BUT in the end it really was a PR ploy on her part as the DVD release of her MGM concert is out in two weeks.

There was a telling comment by James Lipton that "dated" that session as having been done sometime last year.  He was at 1966, and then he said, "Here we are 37 years later and...."  Lipton is pretty well-prepared most all the time, and he would not have made that mistake had it been 2004.

I really enjoyed it.  I can't imagine The Actor's Studio having any sort of agenda regarding any video releases of Streisand's concerts.

It could have been a marketing thing between Bravo and Barwood...re-showing the episode with the concerts being advertisers...but that's done all the time.

[Panni]

WFO - Good to hear you have Joe safe at home!

[Jrand73]

Too bad Robert Sterling who played Mike in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE didn't play the role in PEYTON PLACE, too!

[Ron Pulliam]

Lulu posted:

As for the way she currently styles herself (ie: lighting, face-tightening, et. al.), I think Michael J. Nelson perhaps said it best in his review of The Mirror Has Two Faces when he wrote "She was a fine-looking woman, 55-years-old, when the film was made.  She should act her age -- start getting used to the taste of Ensure and Feenamint; get a start at buying the first of many crisp blazers and neat slacks; begin asking for discounts on bruised produce.  This tarting about, playing roles that should go to Ally Sheedy, has got to stop."  (Mr. Nelson also noted the inherent absurdity of Mimi Rogers portraying Barbra's OLDER sister in this film.)

Speaking as a 55-year-old male who has no need of Ensure, Feenamint or bruised produce, I'm totally offended by this review...and shocked that anyone would propose it as an appropriate idea to be applied, in its entirety, to anyone who is 55 years old.

For cryin' out loud!

[Jrand73]

But I KNOW you have a closet full of crisp blazers and neat slacks, DRRLP....don't we all?

Welcome home JOE!!!!!!!!

[Ron Pulliam]

For work clothes, yeah....but I still have jeans and chinos and T-shirts and NB sneakers/walking shoes for kicking around in.

Guess I'm too old for that now, huh!  

And since there's no point in getting "all tarted up", that only leaves leisure suits to wear in the assisted living home.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It's bad enough that there are ageists out there trying to put older citizens into tight little categories that they can feel comfortable with, but Streisand has been putting up with it all her life because she's a Jewish woman.

I fully understand her anger and her passion.  I'm just surprised that others who have faced other sorts of discrimination in their lifetimes find it so easy and convenient to put Streisand down for one reason or another.

Like life isn't/hasn't been hard enough???

[Panni]

I have to put in my two cents worth on the Streisand bashing today. Let me say off the top that I've never been a huge fan - but I respect her enormous talent. I also respect the fact that she made it on her own terms.
What I don't understand is the animosity - verging on contempt -  towards this woman. So she has an oversized ego. She's certainly not alone in our business in that. So she wants to look young. So do 9 out of 10 other stars -- men included. So she orchestrates her interview. The woman is a control freak -- we know many fantastic talents who share that trait.
I just get very uncomfortable with words like "revolting" when it comes to describing any aspect of a supremely talented woman who has done iconic work.
Many huge talents leave a great deal to be desired in the personality department. And most huge talents at 60 are not what they were at 23. Can we not cut them - her - some slack?
And let me add that I'm not criticizing any particular DRs here. It's just something I want to express.
We do have a tendency in this country to forget what people have done. You're as good as your last picture/album/book. Think of Billy Wilder, David Lean, Buster Keaton,... oh the list could go on for pages. Great artists who couldn't get a picture made or a good role or a writing gig because time moves on. Streisand doesn't exactly fit in here - but in a way she does. We can't dismiss what she did at the height of her talent because of who she is today. End of rant.

[Noel]

Well, sure, I'd have liked it better if Lipton delved more, and we got more revealed of the true Babs.  (And no mention of What's Up Doc seems a shocking omission.)  But I think we're avoiding giving some credit where it's due.  Barbra Streisand doesn't do interviews very often.  It's extraordinary for her to sit down and answer questions for more than five hours.  And this she did for James Lipton.

Now maybe she did it because she KNEW he wouldn't probe too hard, and knew he'd be obsequious.  There are a lot of interviewers out there, and we might like them all better than Lipton.  But they ain't got Streisand in their chairs.  Good for him for getting her.

[Lulu]

What I don't understand is the animosity - verging on contempt -  towards this woman. So she has an oversized ego. She's certainly not alone in our business in that. So she wants to look young. So do 9 out of 10 other stars -- men included.

I consider myself a feminist; but I still find it ridiculous when stars in their 50's and 60's insist on playing roles that are at least two or three decades too young for them.  That goes for men (Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, et. al.) as well as women (Joan Crawford was also justly infamous for this late in her career).  And frankly, when the star in question makes a film (like The Mirror Has Two Faces) that insists the audience believe her character is the gorgeous (without realizing it, of course) younger sister of an actress who is in fact 15 years younger than she, that star opens him or herself to criticism that emphasizes his or her age.

And the enormous ego thing...again, I find this an extraordinarily unattractive trait in both men and women.

[bk]

Well, I'm now an official AOL Beta tester - have the absolute latest version of 9.0 because we're hoping that will circumvent the problems we've been having.

The latest:  What's happening is that the "aol adaptor" is causing problems.  We uninstall, that's easy.  Then everything works fine.  When I log off at the end of the evening, the new AOL 9.0 that we installed on Friday is doing an automatic update - this has happened every night.  In so doing it reinstalls the AOL adaptor.  I then have to uninstall it, everything is fine, until I log off at the end of the evening.  In other words, I'm in an endless loop.  The tech thought that by downloading the beta test version of the latest latest 9.0 that might circumvent the problem.  We shall see.  If it doesn't, I have two more options other than just cancelling:  I can revert to 8.0 or I can just stay logged on to AOL all the time.  The computer goes to screensave mode anyway after twenty minutes of inactivity, so that should work fine, won't overload anything at all.

I'll know which route I'll take soon.

[Lulu]

Speaking as a 55-year-old male who has no need of Ensure, Feenamint or bruised produce, I'm totally offended by this review...and shocked that anyone would propose it as an appropriate idea to be applied, in its entirety, to anyone who is 55 years old.

For cryin' out loud!

Surely I'm correct in reading the Ensure, Feenamint, etc. remarks as hyperbole?  You know, exaggeration for comedic effect.  

Anyway, I think the writer's point is clear.   You may or may not agree that it taxes the audience's willing suspension of disbelief when stars insist upon playing roles that are meant for someone two or three decades younger - even resorting to having an actress 15 years their junior portraying a "younger" sibling.  But I hardly think it can be argued that those of us who do think such posturing is ridiculous are guilty of ageism.

I love it when films portray believable romantic relationships between characters who aren't the requisite 20 1/2 years of age (was anyone here NOT swept off their feet by the romance of Edgar Halcyon and Anna Madrigal in Tales of the City)?  But that's a totally different thing from people who are 50+ trying to shoehorn themselves into roles MEANT for 20-year-olds (as if 20-years-old is the only thing to be; the gold standard, if you will, of humanity).  When that happens, imo, the only suitable response is derisive laughter.

[Dan (the Man)]

Speaking of "A Little Bit in Love," that certainly is a pallid singer/actress playing Eileen on the new WONDERFUL TOWN cast album.

Those of you who have seen the show in NYC, is she as nondescript on stage as she is on that recording?

I saw WT back in November and I unabashedly fell in love with Jennifer Westfeldt as Eileen (but then, I fell in love with everyone in the cast.  But then, I'm easy.)  Yes, she doesn't do that singing thing that everyone says she doesn't do during "Conversation Piece", but I found her vocals to be otherwise very satisfying.  In fact, I found everything she did on stage very satisfying, indeed.

I've been listening to the cast recording this morning for the first time, and I'm having a few problems with it.  There were a couple of places where the CD seemed to distinctly "skip", which sounded more like a bad edit job than a defect on the CD itself.  Also, during "One Hundred Easy Way", Donna Murphy sounds rather statically, as if she had an upper septum full of phlegm.  Anyone else having troubles with this recording?

[Ron Pulliam]

My comments were directed at the "review" being held up as an accurate reflection of what a 55-year-old should be doing in life.

[Jrand73]

The natives are restless.

[Matt H.]

I was underwhelmed with WONDERFUL TOWN's new recording - period. Don't understand what all the shouting's about with Donna Murphy (but I have only the CD to go by; I say up front I haven't seen the show), and I found Jennifer Westfeldt at best innocuous but clearly unmemorable. I did like Gregg Edelmann a lot, the best thing about the recording, I think.

The quality of the recording itself seemed fine to me.

[Emily]

Good afternoon one and all!

I am at school and I am sick.  I blame Jed for spreading his cold via my internet connection.

Dang him... dang him to heck!

My lips and my nosal (yes that is a word) area are chapped
My head feels like it's filled with pudding

Colds suck.  Colds suck especially when it's cold outside (-11 today... I have orange blossom envy DR Kerry!!!)  

Anywho... I am supposed to meet up with DR Andrea for sushi tonight but I think I may have to change our sushi date to a soup-i date because soup is what you eat when you have a cold and not raw fish.  

I am going to have to think about my favourite R&H songs, although most of the ones you all have mentioned so far are delightful.

Ta for now!

(oooh... get well vibes to WFO's Joe who definitely deserves them ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)