Extra Criticum

It Happened Again: Jackman Goes off on Audience

Comedy is the Strongest Weapon

Check out this wonderful bit of agit-prop; Will Ferrell and co. weigh in on the healthcare debate...

Obama's NEA Calls on Artists to "Motivate Change." Say, what?!

So, under the Obama administration's lead, the National Endowment for the Arts recently hosted a conference call with 75 arts leaders from across the nation, during which artists were called upon to "make work that will support the efforts underway in this administration's agenda."

You heard me. Here's just one chilling excerpt:

Jury Duty: v.2

Shit.

I might be on a case.  ARGH.

Jury Duty: v.1

The civic duty of everyone...I suppose.  But, now that I'm sitting here, having to get up early, trudge to a not particularly pretty part of Queens, after listening to a court officer at the end of his rope, and a Judge, who recounted his resume from 1948 on, who talked about each court in Queens, and the movies that are based on real court cases from Queens--riveting--and now we get to watch Mrs. Doubtfire as we await our name being called...I really question whether or not civilization is worth it.

Put Words in Mister Softee's Cone Contest: Best Lyric Wins Big!

In the recent flurry of commentary over our four 2nd looks at the 1985 film, After Hours, it came to light that Andrew Altenburg had been trying to put lyrics to the Mister Softee ice cream truck tune for years. See following quote:

Well, I never did actually finish the Mr. Softee lyrics but maybe now that I have a little extra time on my hands (see my post from late yesterday) maybe it's something I can work on...

We at Extra Criticum decided to help him finish this vital cultural project by soliciting you, our readers, as our best resource. Come up with your lyric to the Mister Softee tune (provided in mp3 below) and you may win one of several as-yet-undetermined door prizes as well as the satisfaction of knowing that you have breathed new life into this classic tune, a fixture of the New York City landscape for at least 25 years. [Enter your lyrics in the Comments section below]

Download MrSoftee

Praise from a Stranger on the Street

Yesterday afternoon, as I was turning to walk home after having greeted some friends of one of my producer's under the Cinema Village marquee, I heard a sound every filmmaker longs to hear. A man had just approached the box office window to announce: "One ticket for 'We Pedal Uphill,' please."

I would probably not have turned to look except that as I passed the window, he turned and tapped me on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but: Are you Roland Tec?"

Street Theatre: Subway Hope: The Other Side of the Tracks

The other afternoon I left Tekserve, the Apple specialist, with two 1TB hard drives  and a rack to contain all these metal boxes full of zeros and ones piling up around my work area. I walked through the dusk and snow flurries and descended the steps into the subway station, just making the uptown 1 train. The train was crowded but not packed and I manage to find a seat. Across from me sat a woman with a Tekserve bag and a new laptop in a box. She was probably close to 60 and dressed like an elder stateswoman hipster: hat with ear flaps, puffy navy North Face jacket, maroon corduroy bell bottoms. She looked at my  bags and laughed. "Your wallet's a little lighter too, huh? What did you get?"

Street Theatre: The Great Subway Hope

So, last night I was having a pretty tough day at the ol’ survival temp job and have been contemplating my life as of late. Despite whatever is going on in my life, I need to remind myself that the big bad city is still big and bad. Good days are cherished here, but despite what you think, the attitude of the city is really never going to change. You can get your purse stolen really easy if you aren’t paying attention. Someone could slam into you while you are talking on the phone, make it fall out of your hand, break it and keep on walking like nothing happened. With so many people on an island, someone is bound to get pissed. However, there are a number of people here in the city that are kind. Who actually open the door for a complete stranger. Who actually let you go in front of them in the turnstile for the train.

Obama for the Arts

I wrote this right before the election and wasn't able to post it.....so here ya go:) -S

With just a few days left until the election and the widening lead that Barack Obama is exhibiting over John McCain, I have noticed some incredible things that are happening in my local community of New York City. Last Friday night, I had the pleasure of catching Creative Destruction’s marvelous production of Obama Drama at the Access Theater. With an all too brief three night run accompanied with political programming after each show, including artist slams and panel discussion involvement by other local grass roots based companies like The Civilians and Living Liberally, one couldn’t help but feel the crackle of electricity in the air. This was a packed town hall style performance event with seven world premiere short plays about the effect that Barack Obama is having on America. During the show, the audience was privy to a multitude of thoughts and opinions about the man that is Barack Obama…can he save America? Will he inspire a country to action? Will he cause liberals to kill McCain supporters with Obama signs? Just who is this man behind the flag pin?

Street Theatre: The Crush on Kushner

Overheard from two snarky playwrights at the Drama Book Shop on Friday:

“You read about Kushner?”

“Yeah. Unbelieveable. Two-hundred thousand dollars. Like he needs it. Like Angels in America isn’t floating him for the rest of his life. AND, his movie work for effin’ Speilberg. That musta got him several hundred thou right there. If they’re gonna give a prize for playwriting, how about giving it to people who really need it?!”

I wanted to smack you guys with the back of my hand, or at least thump your heads with the thick Lillian Hellman anthology I was holding. I just hope you guys are Loopers [ed. note: this was originally published in the Loop, an essential newsletter for playwrights founded by Gary Garrison] so I can set you straight on a couple of things. First, the back story for the rest of the readers:

Since ABC won't air this ad, why don't we?

Al Gore's environmental advocacy group, We Can Solve It created an ad to raise awareness about the effects of Big Oil's lobbying on our failure as a nation to effectively convert to cleaner renewable energy sources. When they tried to place the ad on ABC, the network refused to sell them the air time.

To send a rant to ABC, you can visit the We Can Solve It site. And to view the "controversial" ad, just see below.

Op Art: PALIN-PUTIN

Closer than you think: Governing with huge budget surpluses stemming from the high price of oil, unparalleled popularity, and open hostility toward democracy and freedom of the press.

click here to buy the sweatshirt or T-shirt

Every Producer's Wet Dream — An Audience Fighting to See a Show

This item caught my eye from Thomas Cott's daily email, "You've Cott Mail."

From The Stranger [Seattle weekly], issue dated 9/3/08

Last week, a piece of performance art almost literally drove a woman crazy.  Some performers were doing something secret in a gigantic, silvery box that filled the small stage of [Seattle’s] Rendezvous Theater. The woman wanted in.