YOU'RE LIKE THE ONLY GUY AT SCHOOL WHO HAS A MUSTACHE (SPOILER WARNING): The MTV Movie Awards were handed out Saturday night (the show will be broadcast on Thursday) and for some reason I'm happier this morning knowing I live in a world where Napoleon Dynamite is someone's best picture.
Rlated: Get your Vote for Pedro T-Shirts here.
Monday, June 6, 2005
Sunday, June 5, 2005
EXILED IN GUYVILLE: Even though I now live 764 miles away, I will be really disappointed if Chicago's Double Door club is shut down to make room for a Banana Republic.
First the Lounge Ax, now this? Where will Number One Cup play now?
First the Lounge Ax, now this? Where will Number One Cup play now?
WHERE WILL THEY FIND A 7 FOOT 350 POUNDER WHO CAN SING? Two-time Tony winner tonight, Adam Guettel, is beginning to whisper about his next musical. He refuses to give the title "for legal reasons," suggesting it's an adaptation, but says it's a "fairy tale" with "a lot of swordfighting." Now, I can't be the only one who immediately thoughout of this, which would be a guaranteed blockbuster.
MAYBE NEXT TIME, A WALLACE BEERY WRESTLING MOVIE? Anyone have a theory on why the exceptionally well-reviewed Cinderella Man, with Academy Award winners as co-stars, director and writer, finished fourth in the box office race this weekend?
I mean, Russell Crowe is probably my favorite movie star these days, in terms of his combination of on-screen talent and off-screen-interestingness-in-interviews. (Okay, I didn't like A Beautiful Mind, but I certainly admired his performance. Until the end, with the Nobel scene, where Jennifer Connelly just looks so ridiculous in the Now I'm Old makeup.)
So why did so many more people go see one of the two Chris Rock movies now playing?
I mean, Russell Crowe is probably my favorite movie star these days, in terms of his combination of on-screen talent and off-screen-interestingness-in-interviews. (Okay, I didn't like A Beautiful Mind, but I certainly admired his performance. Until the end, with the Nobel scene, where Jennifer Connelly just looks so ridiculous in the Now I'm Old makeup.)
So why did so many more people go see one of the two Chris Rock movies now playing?
CO-HOSTED BY BILLY CRYSTAL'S EGO: A few thoughts on tonight's Tony Awards:
1. The award for Outstanding Performance by a Garment in a Supporting Role goes to Bernadette Peters' brassiere.
2. I know the scenic design awards are presented in the pre-show, but could you maybe show us a quick shot of the design work? And I'm shocked that the brilliant design work in Act II of Glengarry was not recognized.
3. Anne Hathaway, you need to talk to a hairstylist. Bangs may work on Ian Somerhalder or Benjamin McKenzie, but not you. Also, green flower? Not a good idea.
4. I know it's hard to do snippets of the nominated plays that work on TV out of context (especially when one of those plays is a Mamet play in which every third word is not TV-safe), but is it too much to ask for something from the play?
5. Wow, this is David Mamet's first Tony award? Yep. Glengarry got beaten by Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing in 1984, and Speed-The-Plow got beaten by M. Butterfly in 1988. American Buffalo didn't even get nominated.
6. I don't know what was more shocking about the necrology--the general lack of applause or the lack of inclusion in the main necrology of Jerry Orbach? And could the post-necrology number have been any worse photographed?
7. The shocks of the night? Bill Irwin beating Brian F. O'Byrne and James Earl Jones in Lead Actor in a Play and the complete shut out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the tech categories.
8. I was not overly impressed by any of the musical performance numbers. While the Spelling Bee number was hysterical, it was not particularly strong on the singing. And Spamalot's supposed to be hysterical, but the number turned into a generally uninteresting AI sendup. "Great Big Stuff," from Scoundrels, was so heavily bleeped and edited as to be incomprehensible. This is in sharp contrast to last year, in which Avenue Q's "It Sucks to Be Me" had the audience in stiches, and Wicked's "Defying Gravity" tore the roof off the sucker.
9. Dan Fogler's acceptance speech for Featured Actor in a Musical is a solid contender for the coveted "acceptance speech of the year award."
10. It's a pleasure to watch an awards show that spreads out the love rather than letting one show sweep everything. While Doubt dominated the play side of the awards, the musical awards were spread out over a wide variety of shows.
11. What's unusual about the Tonys is that the obligatory "you're great!"s to the other nominees never feel forced, as we saw with John Patrick Shanley's and Cherry Jones' acceptances for Doubt, both of whom gave due dap to their chief competitors.
12. Aretha Franklin does not look well.
13. Man, David Yazbek has a really big head. Maybe even bigger than a fivehead, it could be a sixhead.
14. Show most likely to be announcing a quick closing? Sweet Charity, which got shut out, despite being in what may be the least competitive category in years--revival against La Cage and the long-closed Pacific Overtures.
15. Worst taste in jackets for the night goes to Python Eric Idle, who didn't get an acceptance speech at all.
All in all, an entertaining show, but certainly a step down from last year, which was oodles of fun and comedy.
1. The award for Outstanding Performance by a Garment in a Supporting Role goes to Bernadette Peters' brassiere.
2. I know the scenic design awards are presented in the pre-show, but could you maybe show us a quick shot of the design work? And I'm shocked that the brilliant design work in Act II of Glengarry was not recognized.
3. Anne Hathaway, you need to talk to a hairstylist. Bangs may work on Ian Somerhalder or Benjamin McKenzie, but not you. Also, green flower? Not a good idea.
4. I know it's hard to do snippets of the nominated plays that work on TV out of context (especially when one of those plays is a Mamet play in which every third word is not TV-safe), but is it too much to ask for something from the play?
5. Wow, this is David Mamet's first Tony award? Yep. Glengarry got beaten by Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing in 1984, and Speed-The-Plow got beaten by M. Butterfly in 1988. American Buffalo didn't even get nominated.
6. I don't know what was more shocking about the necrology--the general lack of applause or the lack of inclusion in the main necrology of Jerry Orbach? And could the post-necrology number have been any worse photographed?
7. The shocks of the night? Bill Irwin beating Brian F. O'Byrne and James Earl Jones in Lead Actor in a Play and the complete shut out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the tech categories.
8. I was not overly impressed by any of the musical performance numbers. While the Spelling Bee number was hysterical, it was not particularly strong on the singing. And Spamalot's supposed to be hysterical, but the number turned into a generally uninteresting AI sendup. "Great Big Stuff," from Scoundrels, was so heavily bleeped and edited as to be incomprehensible. This is in sharp contrast to last year, in which Avenue Q's "It Sucks to Be Me" had the audience in stiches, and Wicked's "Defying Gravity" tore the roof off the sucker.
9. Dan Fogler's acceptance speech for Featured Actor in a Musical is a solid contender for the coveted "acceptance speech of the year award."
10. It's a pleasure to watch an awards show that spreads out the love rather than letting one show sweep everything. While Doubt dominated the play side of the awards, the musical awards were spread out over a wide variety of shows.
11. What's unusual about the Tonys is that the obligatory "you're great!"s to the other nominees never feel forced, as we saw with John Patrick Shanley's and Cherry Jones' acceptances for Doubt, both of whom gave due dap to their chief competitors.
12. Aretha Franklin does not look well.
13. Man, David Yazbek has a really big head. Maybe even bigger than a fivehead, it could be a sixhead.
14. Show most likely to be announcing a quick closing? Sweet Charity, which got shut out, despite being in what may be the least competitive category in years--revival against La Cage and the long-closed Pacific Overtures.
15. Worst taste in jackets for the night goes to Python Eric Idle, who didn't get an acceptance speech at all.
All in all, an entertaining show, but certainly a step down from last year, which was oodles of fun and comedy.
THE NAME IS LYRICS BORN, BABY AND I TRULY MEAN IT: I've proselytized previously in these pages about Bay Area hip-hop phenom Lyrics Born, aka Tom Shimura. Perhaps you believed the hype and bought the record 18 months ago, but perhaps not. If not, providence now presents the opportunity to amend the error of your ways, so please try again!
I just picked up the most recent Lyrics Born disk, "Same !@#$ Different Day", and it could hardly be making me happier. It's brilliant, beautiful and not the same shit at all despite containing fistfulls of completely worthy remixes of the material on LB's 2003 effort, "Later That Day". If you just wanted a little taste, to make sure before jumping in for the price of a CD, you can get it here. (Up to the minute info, here.) Or for that matter, just download the original version of "Stop Complaining" from your favorite electronic media vendor. A dollar well spent, I promise.
But fortunately, you don't have to take the word of a recreationally caustic pseudonymous blogger for the quality of these recordings, since New York Magazine Film Critic and NPR Media Assassin Ken Tucker is all over 'em too.
I just picked up the most recent Lyrics Born disk, "Same !@#$ Different Day", and it could hardly be making me happier. It's brilliant, beautiful and not the same shit at all despite containing fistfulls of completely worthy remixes of the material on LB's 2003 effort, "Later That Day". If you just wanted a little taste, to make sure before jumping in for the price of a CD, you can get it here. (Up to the minute info, here.) Or for that matter, just download the original version of "Stop Complaining" from your favorite electronic media vendor. A dollar well spent, I promise.
But fortunately, you don't have to take the word of a recreationally caustic pseudonymous blogger for the quality of these recordings, since New York Magazine Film Critic and NPR Media Assassin Ken Tucker is all over 'em too.
STRAIGHT TO THE RUSSIAN FRONT: Leon Askin, who played General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes, died on Friday in Vienna, aged 97.
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