EXTRA CRITICUM

Nitpicking At The Movies

There is a list, albeit a small one, of people who will no longer go to the movies with me.

I have this habit, and I don't think it's a bad one, where I tend to find fault even in movies I enjoy and love.

I'm Older Than The President

Having grown up with presidential images in my history books of very old white men with white wigs, the Inauguration of Barack Obama, of course, turns history on its ear, and then some.

Obama isn't white (okay, half white, but still...who would know?) and he isn't due a wig anytime soon...although given the crap pile he has to fix it won't probably be long before his hair falls out.

I Am Big. It's the Screens That Got Small!

Every time a smaller screen becomes commercially available, some news story comes out about how said smaller screen is affecting how people create for motion picture arts. The latest one I heard was on NPR's Morning Edition on 1/27/09.

In case you don't feel like listening or have something against NPR, it's a story about music video directors who are tailoring their work for the tiny screens on the devices we carry in our pockets. More close ups and fewer long shots, quicker edits to keep the viewers attention, center framing. After listening to it I started thinking about how the movie industry responded to the birth of television in the early 50s. They didn't make their films smaller, they made them BIGGER and w i d e r. The idea was to give people something they weren't going to see on their television sets. So we wound up with epics in Cinemascope, Superscope, Techniscope, VistaVision, etc. (Widescreen existed before television, but was rarely used between 1932 and 1953.)

I'm A Friend Of Dorothy's

The recent airing of The Wizard of Oz got me thinking about this movie's appeal to just about every gay man I know.

In fact, I don't know a gay man who doesn't absolutely adore this movie. Or one who hasn't seen it a million times. I even own the DVD. Let me amend that, I own the DVD with bonus footage, interviews with munchkins and fun facts. If I wasn't already gay, I'm pretty sure owning this would make me gay.

I Get "24" Half The Time

You can't spend three minutes on Facebook -- and I admit to being on there a lot more than three minutes lately -- without getting continual updates from fans of 24 talking in the most reverent terms about their show.

I love action. I love drama. But to be perfectly honest, and this might sound a bit silly, the show lost me in the first season when superhero Jack Bauer never went to the bathroom. Seriously. The show is supposed to be 24 hours in his life.

Critics

Since this a place for working artists to speak their mind, I don't suspect there will be much love for critics. After all, we have probably all had work that we were deeply proud of dismissed by people we thought didn't understand it or were just plain dumb. This has very real consequences - psychic, financial, and artistic. Bitching about critics is an artist's God given right.

And yet...

Spring Cleaning or "It's Time to Use the Shredder"

Yes folks, it's been way too long since I went through my 'files' and cleaned out the 'no longer necessary.'  This includes not only bills and receipts of the past seven years (isn't that what everyone's accountant recommends?), but looking at files titled "New Ideas", "contacts", "Flyers-mine and others" and the like.  So far I've catalogued all my bills, i.e. cable, cell, Con Ed, etc. in binders for the last seven years and a binder for 'Rent' that includes all my leases for the past 6 years (since moving to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn yo) and the letters I've sent back and forth to the landlord re: 'yes I accept the new rent increase and wish to sign a lease for another year' and the back and forth letters re: the noise complaints from my downstairs neighbor who happens to work for the landlord - now there's a story in itself for another day.

And the Losers Are...

I know this is going to surprise some of you, but I don't really pay attention to the Academy Awards. The nominations came out this morning and I heard the nominees for Best Picture on NPR, but I've forgotten them already.

But I do pay attention to what people think were the overlooked films, performances, technical achievement, etc. So people, what do you think? What did the Academy get right and what did they get wrong.

You may find that I will be lying low, because I'm guessing I haven't seen many of the nominated films, or many of the films that should have been nominated, at least not in 2008.  But that shouldn't stop you from ranting or raving. If you're going to foam at the mouth, though, please keep your distance. 

So let's go. 

Are You Ready for THIS?

I didn't have much of a life when I was thirteen. That year I lost all my friends when my parents moved from Union City, New Jersey to Leonia, New Jersey. As the crow flies, this is less than ten miles, but to a thirteen-year-old, they might just as well have transported me to Jupiter. 

Craig Ferguson How Could You Do This To Me?

Yes it's true Craig Ferguson or Craig-i-la as I use to lovingly refer to him has married.  I knew he was involved with someone for like the last 3 years but then he took it to the next level and married 'her'.  I'm sure I'm not the only one to have admired him in this way, but I knew once we met the sparks would fly. 

I did it.

I did it.  When I made the decision to do it, I was just fine with it.  But then, about an hour later, I started questioning whether or not it was the right choice. 

I walked out of a show.  A friend of mine was in it.  He was great, lovely...I had never had a chance to see him perform.

But.

Come to Provincetown in January! Really!

I will be driving my cast up there on Thursday (presumably with the driver's side window that won't go up and down fixed by then...) to take part in the second annual Universal Theatre Festival.

That's...

A Sundance Haiku

Nine-thousand entries
January fever pitch
Nine-thousand lost souls

Tetris Codes, Girl Nixon, and Cheese Steaks: A Q&A with Jonathan Goldberg

Howdy!  This week, please check out the reading of a brand spankin’ new play by my good friend Jonathan Goldberg, with whom I had a lively Q&A (below).  First, here’s the info on the play:

MY FATHER IS A TETRIS GAME
by Jonathan A. Goldberg
Directed by: Alexis Poledouris
January 20th @ 8PM
The New Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street (between Rivington & Delancey www.dixonplace.org for info and tickets.

"Make Them Sit Forward!"

Hi, all!  Busy here in Burbank, and with the madness of the holidays I've been out of the soup for a bit.  (Oh, and I should also say: Happy New Year! - if a little belatedly.)

I'm taking an online playwriting workshop via Gotham.  The week's discussion is about how to make theater viable in a TV, film, and internet age.  I've been thinking a LOT about the "what the heck are we doing this for?" question, so I thought I'd post some of my thinking on that topic.

One of my classmates told a story about how her daughter, on a Peace Corps assignment in West Africa, saw children use sticks, tires and scraps as dolls, since they had no actual toys.