Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Cillaliz]

I'm hoping to finally get to King Kong this weekend and to see Munich.  I'd also like to see Memoirs of  Geisha, but not sure if I'll see it in the theatre or wait until it's on DVD. Has anyone seen it? I liked the book, but I read it right when it came out, so I don't remember details

[Cillaliz]

Page two !!!!!   Yeah - I'm not dancing, but I'm thinking about it

[Ben]

I'm still catching up and I noticed that George posted this on December 23rd.

"I'm a wimp, and I know it. (a Romanovsky and Phillips reference...does anyone know who they were??)"

Yes, George. We have several tapes and a couple of CDs by R&M. Very funny and very good and still meaningful after all these years.

[Ben]

I'm about to go home for lunch. See you all later.

[Charles Pogue]

Accompanying Rant to BK's Rant:

BK, he doesn't feel "emotionally connected" to the lines???!!!  It is horse pucky!  He's an actor.  He should have thought about his "emotional connection" to the lines a long time ago.  If he felt he couldn't get "emotionally connected" to the lines, he shouldn't have taken the part.  It's the actor's job to make the lines work whether he feels "emotionally connected" to them or whether he's out on stage thinking of Chinese food and "emotionally connected" to nothing.  As the old adage goes, "Acting is Truth...once you learn to fake that, you've got it made."  It's the actor's job to tailor himself to the role; not have the role tailored to him...or to his inadequacies!  

I HATE, HATE, HATE actors who make excuses for not doing the minimal requirements of their job.  Worse, I hate actors who make excuses couched in the mystical, artsy-fartsy, pooka-pooka ethers as if "Acting" is "Magic".  It is magic, but it's based on the very pragmatic principles of Laurence Olivier's break-down:  "Say your lines, pick up your pay, and piss off!"  It's always the actors who can't get the simple things done, who  alway speak of "the art of acting"  as being much more difficult than it is.  It's a cover for their own incompetence.

We just got our first TV in...they couldn't put the main one in because they have to run a new line and didn't have the time because they didn't bother to find out that we didn't want to place the TVs in exactly the same position as the previous owners. So they're coming back Monday to finish the job.  But it's nice to be partially connected.

Also is does anyone else have both Adelphia cable and internet services?  I want to know if something that happened to me yesterday is a national or local problem.  On the work order form for my cable connection was my private internet information...an identity theft waiting to happen with the first disgruntled employee.  Frankly, I was a little amazed that after I set my internet codes, they sent me an email with all the info on it.  I've been with MSN and SBC and have only ever seen my password as x's.  This concerns me no little bit.

The Lovely Wife & I will be attending the local gay theatre group's production of Corpus Christi tonight.  Tickets for two: $30.  We're not in LA anymore.  Of course, I doubt the quality of the production will be what I'm used to paying a $100 or so dollars for in LA or 60-70pds for in London.  But I'm very interested in seeing a production of this controversial play...probably made much more controversial than it actually is by a lot of narrow-minded religious bigots who disguise hatred and intolerance as faith and family values.

[bk]

Pogue, I would call Adelphia, tell them your passwords are YOURS and they are NOT to print such things on work orders or anywhere, and then change them all with them on the phone.

Re actors, I just want to throttle them sometimes and say, "Do you think Marlon Brando paraphrased the words of Tennessee Williams?  Do you think in the recent revival, Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin indented words in their big speeches just because they felt like it?  Do you think Al Pacino inverts words and fucks up the language when he does a David Mamet play?"  The answer, of course, is no.  And yet, I don't have a take of this monologue that we shot last night that is letter perfect, or with a performance that I would call stellar.  Having to put soft dissolves in it is a joke, but that's what I have to do.  And you know what?  I STILL don't have it letter perfect, not one take.  

At the first rehearsal for this show, I said to each actor, "You'll notice that there are times that the dialogue in the show is written in an "arch" or "old-fashioned" way.  I did that on purpose, so please understand that when you're working on it."  FIRST THING OUT OF MY MOUTH.  Last night the guy says, "Well, it's just so not the way I would say it."  And I said to him, "You?  It's certainly the way the character would say it."

[George]

Didn't someone here (maybe it wasn't here) post a link a while ago about finding the right code to make any DVD player multi-zone? Apparently the code is set by the manufacturer but if you know the correct code and how to plug it in, you can change your DVD player from one zone to multi-zone. The sellers and manufacturers don't tell you that but I've heard it's possible. Am I just repeating some urban legend/conspiracy theory or is there something to this post?

I was able to do a search on the Internet and found the code for one of my DVD players.  I think that it might be as simple as doing a Google search.

[Charles Pogue]

BK, exactly!  He's not the one saying it!  His character is saying it!  Here's a clue, Actor:  It's not about you!  It's about the characters and the play!

[Charles Pogue]

Further rant:  Gee, what does he do, when he does Shakespeare?...It's just so not the way that he'd say it!

[S. Woody White]

And the word of the day is:  BALDERDASH!

In a foot race between Telly Savalas and Yul Brynner, which of the two would have performed the balder dash?

[S. Woody White]

DVD player: Good Eats: Pantastic Eats, specifically the Coo-Coo for Coq au Vin episode.  The only show where Alton Brown has been upstaged and cracked up by a rooster - while the rooster was off camera!

This brings me to a question for our esteemed BK that I don't think he's been asked often enough: Have you ever performed with a bird?

[Ben]

Here is a reminder to anyone mailing a letter in the U.S. Postage rates go up on Sunday from 37 cents to 39 cents. Click below to go to a press release with further information.

Post Office

[S. Woody White]

Tomorrow is our trip with the grandlads (and their parents) to Philadelphia.  Wednesday, we made our test-run up to the City of Brotherly Love, and made sure we knew exactly where the Arden Theater is located (along with parking nearby).  Then we went over to the Reading Terminal Market, one of my favorite places in the world.  We definately want to make a stop there on Saturday, if just to see William's reaction to all the different kinds of food on sale there.  Alex, who "only likes" certain things, will doubtless be saying "yuck" to almost everthing.

We had originally thought of taking the family to the City Tavern, a reconstruction of the city's oldest restaurant, but I found a comment on-line about how the service is slow, and therefor not quite family friendly.  Heck, the place dates back to Franklin's day, when children understood about being seen and not heard.  We later had dinner at the joint: the food was excellent, but not what we'd serve to the grandlads, or even their Daddy, too fancy.

While at the Market, der B checked out his second choice: the Down Home Diner, Jack McDavid's salute to good food for everyone.  But in reviewing the menu, der B wasn't too sure that the Diner was a good choice, either.  Sure, they make a soup and grilled cheese sandwich combo, with the soup being a tomato soup, but the soup also has basil, which would no doubt cause Alex to go into a screaming fit.  Yes, he's that spoiled.

I led der B down a block to the next alternative, the Hard Rock Cafe.  Yep, they're everywhere.  But they do have a child's menu, which has a variety of foods that Alex might at least try.  The big thing will be to keep him from ordering the macaroni and cheese, as he "only likes" the stuff made by Kraft, and will spit out any other version he's offered.  Yes, he's that spoiled.

All and all, a successful day in the city.

[S. Woody White]

What amazes me, at the store, is they number of people who are buying books of the 37-cent stamps.  They come in books of twenty - just how many letters are they going to send out before the price goes up?  Or are they buying them as collector's items?

[Ben]

From your comment I assume they are not buying to 2 cent make up stamps so they will have to trundle back to the Post Office or store to purchase even more stamps.

Since I have no plans on mailing anything between today and Sunday (I just put a letter in the box with a 37 cent stamp), I bought a book of the new stamps when I went to the post office at lunch time.

[S. Woody White]

On the drive home from Philly, I put on the musical Cyrano, the version from 1973 with lyrics by Anthony Burgess and music by Michael J. Lewis.  It may not have worked on the Broadway stage, but it certainly works on disc.  Der B was unfamiliar with the original play, as it turned out, so I had some 'splaining to do.

SPOILER ALERT: If you aren't familiar with the play, skip to the next message.

There is one thing that puzzles me, upon reflection.  Just how old is Cyrano supposed to be?  He is Roxanna's cousin, they played together as children.  She is a young unmarried lady, lusted after by the Count de Guiche, her guardian.  This, as I understand it, would make her perhaps eightteen years of age for most of the play (the final scene takes place fourteen years later).  So, for Roxanna and Cyrano to play together as children, he would have been, at best, four or five years older than she.  This would make Cyrano something like twenty-three, at most, for the majority of the play.

So why is it the part is so often played by men much older than that?  Cyrano is still a young man!  He dies when he is certanly less than forty, and that's just for one scene!

[S. Woody White]

We aren't selling the two-centers.

[Rodzinski]

Gee I had no idea the stamp price was going up. Thanks for the tip, Ben.

[Rodzinski]

I agree with the rants I've heard so far. Some projects might lend themselves to a little line flexibility, but when the director and author of the piece tells you up front that he wants it as written, then learn your daggone lines.

That's just the basics of being an actor. Learning lines. It's like a plumber who wants to do his job without tools. Ain't gonna work.

The sad thing is, BK, to paraphrase Tim Gunn, you can't win if you want the guy to succeed more than he does. Vibes that he pulls his sh** together before opening night.

[elmore3003]

There is one thing that puzzles me, upon reflection.  Just how old is Cyrano supposed to be?  He is Roxanna's cousin, they played together as children.  She is a young unmarried lady, lusted after by the Count de Guiche, her guardian.  This, as I understand it, would make her perhaps eightteen years of age for most of the play (the final scene takes place fourteen years later).  So, for Roxanna and Cyrano to play together as children, he would have been, at best, four or five years older than she.  This would make Cyrano something like twenty-three, at most, for the majority of the play.

So why is it the part is so often played by men much older than that?  Cyrano is still a young man!  He dies when he is certanly less than forty, and that's just for one scene!

DRSWoodyWhite, you're exactly right.  Cyrano is not an older gentleman, but a young one, still older than Roxane or Christian.  I suspect because the role is such a great one and Walter Hampden wouldn't let go of it, that any classical actor between thirty and death wants to take it on.

Don't forget in a major bit of absurdity, Ms Close played young nurse Nellie Forbush, who can't be more than 24 or 25, in SOUTH PACIFIC.   And in closeup television, to boot!

[François de Paris]

 (I've been Europeanized)

Please, tell THEM that it does not hurt!!

(Welcome came back, famous Ben!)

[François de Paris]

I'm just in the way, as the French would say, le trop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top!

Take it away, TCB!

Sorry to correct you, Larry, but we (and Cole neither) would not say that!

We'd say "de trop!"

Matter of fact, nowadays we'd say "too much", in English!! Snobism i guess!

[elmore3003]

Sorry to correct you, Larry, but we (and Cole neither) would not say that!

We'd say "de trop!"

Matter of fact, nowadays we'd say "too much", in English!! Snobism i guess!

I know it's "de trop"!  I'm so embarassed.

[François de Paris]

I know it's "de trop"!  I'm so embarassed.

You look good when you're embarassed!

[François de Paris]

There is one thing that puzzles me, upon reflection.  Just how old is Cyrano supposed to be?  He is Roxanna's cousin, they played together as children.  She is a young unmarried lady, lusted after by the Count de Guiche, her guardian.  This, as I understand it, would make her perhaps eightteen years of age for most of the play (the final scene takes place fourteen years later).  So, for Roxanna and Cyrano to play together as children, he would have been, at best, four or five years older than she.  This would make Cyrano something like twenty-three, at most, for the majority of the play.

So why is it the part is so often played by men much older than that?  Cyrano is still a young man!  He dies when he is certanly less than forty, and that's just for one scene!

I "googled" and found this!

It takes place during the reign of Louis XIII, when Cardinal Richelieu was waging war against the Spanish in the north of France and Flanders during the Thirty Years' War. The siege of Arras, in which Christian de Neuvillette dies, is a historical event, which took place in 1640 and in which the real Cyrano took part at the age of 20. The final fourth act takes place 15 years later, in 1655.

[François de Paris]

In my CD player:  songs that I downloaded from iTunes:  the six songs written and performed by Nellie McKay for the soundtrack to "Rumor Has It," which is not available in CD form...only by download.  

I also downloaded from iTunes three Sondheim songs by Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley on their "Opposite You" CD, but they're part of a five-song medley!  I have to download the other two to get the whole thing because one song is the first song in the medley and doesn't end properly, the second song that I downloaded is the middle song of the medley and doesn't begin or end and the last song is the last song and doesn't begin!  It's Sondheim, so I don't mind too much, but it would've been nice if iTunes could've indicated that it's a medley.

I've just learnt that French actor/singer Lambert Wilson (Remember; DR Jose is President of his US fanclub! - He's gonna "hate" me for that!) has tried for years to produce a French version of SUNDAY IN THE PARK but finally gave up.... because Mr Sondheim asks for prohibitive amounts of money!

(Money, Money, Money... Monet? No! It is Seurat! )

[François de Paris]

And according to the top, Mr. Moore is back!

But what according to the... bottom? (Aren't we Porterish tonight?!)

[TPunk]

There is actually a lot on tv tonight (which rarely happens on a Friday).

We have a new Ghost Whisperer.  And Close to Home.  And the show that many of us seemed to like from Sunday, In Justice.

I will also tape/watch The Book of Daniel, although not sure it will be my cup of tea.

So did anyone else watch Dancing With the Stars?  I liked it.  I was most surprised by Jerry Rice and Tatum O'Neal. I was least impressed with Master P (although in fairness he only had one week).

I had to watch the first hour on tape (since i was watching my niece at the mall while her parents had a bank appointment).

Rodzinski and I watched Dancing with the Stars.  I agree with your comments. Especially Master P- what was with the sneakers??

[François de Paris]

I am very happy to know it was just a bad dream.

I'm sure Ron's also happy it was a bad dream!

[JMK]

TOD:

CD:  Yo Yo Ma "Obrigado Brasil" and some new Caipercaillie, or however the hell they spell their name.

DVD:  Cadfael and Groucho Marx (we are eclectic, aren't we?).