Actor Alec Baldwin in his ABC interview about the fatal gun incident on the film set Rust, paraphrased: ‘How many billions of ‘bullets’ have been fired in films and TV over the decades? ‘
Know what made me sick. And I do mean sick and repulsed. Is when I watch footage, on a news station you will know and recognize. And, I’m sure a perfectly reasonable, personable, rational commentator says, ‘why didn’t he check the gun. That’s what I would have done. Wouldn’t you?’ Well: what the ‘f’ would you know about guns? Firstly, Secondly. What the ‘f’ would you know/do you know about film set armory safety protocol? Comment like that simply bellows flames. Bellows hatred. Bellows blame. Offers no solutions nor argument. Nor, most importantly, compassion. Gentle folk are grieving! When !
Should I continue this thought? Maybe…..cause there’s a lot on my mind. Yours as well I’m sure. Is there a proportioning of blame? Well: you know. Looking forward to snowed in binging’ the last season of Succession. There’s another one commissioned!!! Lordy, Lordy. Two of its ‘stars’ J. Smith-Cameron and Kieran Culkin appeared in the 2011 film Margaret. Don’t know how many movies are in my top ‘whatever’. But Margaret is after watching again after all these years. So not like a lecture on humanity. So not a slice of processed humanity. So, though reaching backwards reaching forwards. Think about it. Very few films ever allow an audience time. Response. Dreaming something other. However juvenile. Wayward. Delinquent. Thought. Process. And then. Else does one become, whatever: an adult’. ?
Kristin Chenoweth: Christmas at the Met
[If vaccination is a problem then The Met are accepting Excelsior Pass. It can provide proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR Test Pass (valid until midnight on the third day after a test) or a negative COVID-19 Antigen Test Pass (valid for 6 hours from the time of a test).] Hope I got all that correct. Please inform me if not.
Something about Friday night’s Central Synagogue NYC tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Something very special.
Speaking of synagogues, another great movie that flew under the commercial radar, Joseph Cedar’s Norman (2016). All fairly close to the bone in my experience.
Cedar’s Our Boys, HBO Max (based on the true events which led to the outbreak of war in Gaza 2014.) Seeking that out when snowed in and ….ahhhhhhhh!
Thinking of Norman. Thinking of the Vienna State Opera now Covid-closed to live audiences but streaming every night a past production. Now why/how could I interest you, or feel sorry for, wealthy mostly white people who love a dead art form? ! Well. There are Normans then there are ‘Normans’ then there are wanna be ‘Normans’. Then there are the Normal. Perhaps never even thinking of Norman. One must never assume an audience. Audience members. European opera houses are well subsidized by their governments, unlike America where you sink or swim. England, always a half way house in that regard. I do feel for houses such as Frankfurt Opera that I know fairly well when they are seriously worried about their survival. And they have done everything in their imagination not to be boring. Not to be a thing of the past.
So when an empty Austrian December 2021 Covid Vienna State Opera streamed its Don Giovanni premiere on Sunday night, moist eyes were everyone’s. At least all this talent wasn’t going to waste! And if it weren’t for Covid, most of the world could never have seen this production. The heart did sink when black rocks appeared on screen like a cheap Wagner Ring (nicely molded rocks though;). Then all became clear as Mozart’s characters dressed in kinda retro 50’s garb sparked the landscape, their emotions throbbing. Director Barrie Kosky couldn’t do boring even if he tried! Ozzie he of the Komische Oper in Berlin gets his contract extended by the city’s Mayor then 2years of Covid. Oh crudel! That’s a long time in a theater’s life.
Exciting vital Philippe Jordan conducting from the get-go. A cast of fantastic mid-career singers (though mid-career is probably now the new IT opera singer). Kate Lindsey’s Donna Elvira (a ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ still in love the miscreant Don Giovanni) all in the original libretto, no makeover. Wrapping her pulsating thighs like a vice around Don Giovanni as she berates him. Und so weiter…;)! So if you want to go the the opera in Vienna, now’s your chance. It may never ever come again.
Sienna Miller says Sun illegally sought medical records of pregnancy
btw- does Jeff Goldblum not have a home to go to appearing on all these talk shows? Not that the grey hairy creatures in their zimmer-sticks don’t go wild but, I don’t have a home to go to and I don’t….
Wanna see a 24 year-old Jeff Goldblum? Between the Lines (1977). Pioneering independent female director Joan Micklin Silver’s work (who died last New Year’s Eve) is there for those wanting something different for holidays’ viewing.
When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I'll dry them all
I'm on your side
Oh, when times get rough
And friends just can't be found...
Happy 1,000th Birthday James Corden and The Late Late Show. Why did it take me so long to watch you! All those nights of me slaving over the hot stove of the artistic mind! People need fun and joy in their lives. More than ever. And you have never not delivered. Many happy purrs.
Red Carpet arrivals/interviews for the Broadway opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s Company (Dec 9).
Does Bo Berry do feline furry-guard work by any chance? You can never be too careful these days with some of those Broadway dogs. Talk about owning the color purple!
So: half-way through ‘binge watching’ Succession, Season 3. Question is, why aren’t I bored? My attention span, nowadays, that of a flea. Is that a double-negative? Will that comment result in a flea revolution? Cause fleas certainly seem to know wherefore they are at! (feel the T-shirt a-comin on).
What patently did strike home, how similar the use of theme and incidental music variations was to Michel Legrand’s for Losey’s The Go Between. Music cements the entire Succession series. As does casting. A character all needs do: a look and you the audience totally know where’s at. Frightening is the classical structure of the series (and there will be a fourth!) and how so slowly one feels the entire architecture imploding.
Thought provoking when the USofA will finally GET Julian Assange to stand trial on American soil. But tell me where is the justice in that? Except empirically? One still ponders the conundrum of Verizon flouting constitutional rights acquiescing, the United Sates government aiding and abetting hacking of customers’ accounts. Under the Obama administration. There is nothing to fear but fear itself! Problem being: if President Obama didn’t know then what does that say for democracy. And if he did, what do we say? Guantanamo never closed. And sure, surely there are folks in there still that maybe should be there. Maybe. Yet clearly, there is undisputed evidence that the US adopted a Wild West bounty payment for terrorists.
Succession’s last Season 3 episode is December 12. About a news organization for and by ‘the people’: ay, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
Does it worry anyone sitting outside mid December sipping a cocktail ‘binge watching’ on an outdoor plasma screen upstate New York with the warm wind on a recliner blowing’ in your hair is for real whilst others suffer torment and woe? Life is a dream as Calderón spake. Pedro who?
I get way too into people and then they disappointment me.
