EXTRA CRITICUM

NARRATIVE Films that Have Influenced My Documentary

[cross-posted at alifesworkmovie.com/blog/]

Rolando Teco, fearless leader of this blog, threw down a challenge. Here is his comment to my post "Five Films that Influenced My Film."

This just in! Irene Soderberg to join Brevity Fest lineup

Irene Soderberg, chanteuse extraordinaire, will be sharing her gifts with us all on Feb. 4th at the first ever Extra Criticum Brevity Fest. We couldn't be more thrilled! Stay tuned for more tidbits on the evening, to be held at El Cid in Silverlake.

Irene is doing her life’s work; singing acting, helping many communities. Irene has  just released her 5th CD.  Irene Soderberg has been based out of Los Angeles for the past 15 years, singing in hundreds of clubs across the country, from NY to Chicago, Provincetown to Key West, Palm Springs to San Francisco, Phoenix to Denver.Irene’s opened for and worked with artists like Willie Nelson, Chaka Chan, Pat Benetar, Thelma Houston, Hootie and the Blowfish, The Weather Girls, Judy Tenuta, The Drifters, Grace Slick, and many more.  She’s done many diverse projects, including stints on “Days of our lives”, “The Grinch” and “Torch Song Trilogy” Irene has performed in almost 1000 benefits for AIDS, equality, women’s and children’s assistance, etc. This is among her most important work.
 
More information is available on her website www.irenesoderberg.com

Five Films that Influenced My Film

[cross-posted at alifesworkmovie.com/blog/]

Because I have lists on the brain, here's another:  films that have had a huge impact on me in general, and on my documentary, A Life's Work, in particular.

"Daily Ed": My 'Play a Day' Project!

Happy 2010! This year, please join me online for my latest adventure: I’m writing a short play every day - and posting each and every one of them on this here blog thingie: www.edvalentine.blogspot.com

Playwrights, stop hurting theater

There’s a trend lately.  Well, maybe it’s just the shows that I’ve seen, so maybe it’s a trend that’s unique to my theater going experience.  But, it’s beginning to make me mad.  Playwrights aren’t writing plays anymore.

Los Angelinos, Save the Date! Feb 4th - 1st Ever Extra Criticum Brevity Fest at El Cid

Save the date! Thursday, February 4th, Rolando Teco will be in Los Angeles and will host some of this blogs favorite L.A. writers and performers for

From Bach to Gaga. One more cerebral music nerd falls head over heels for the Lady Gaga

Who'da thunk it? After 20 years of writing serious "art" music, nearly a decade teaching music composition in the halls of such venerable institutions as Harvard and Brandeis, this over-educated music nerd-cum-opera-impresario has a new life soundtrack: Lady Gaga.

I am officially confessing to you all here and now. I can't get enough. And I'm in serious need of an intervention. What do you find so intoxicating, you ask? Musically-speaking, this stuff represents some curious marriage of the essence of Bach and Mozart. Huh? I know. Sounds crazy, but it's true!

Bruce Faulk's short film to play NYC Downtown Short Film Festival

Readers of this blog who were fortunate enough to see Bruce Faulk's performance in We Pedal Uphill last year know he has serious comedic chops as an actor. Now, New Yorkers will soon have a chance to experience his comic genius as a writer/director. His very funny short film will be playing at the upcoming NYC Downtown Short Film Festival, February 5th at 8pm. For more info, see below:

Die Fledermaus - a New Year's Eve tradition all 'round the world

Our opera company celebrated the New Year with a tradition that has lasted at our company for more than two decades and, if operaworld legend is to be believed, has been around almost since the late 1800s when Johann Strauss wrote the charming operetta in which Act II ends with a company-wide champagne toast.

Opera companies all over the world regularly offer a performance of this old standard on New Year's Eve as a special perk for special subscribers and, at least in our case, the result is a great fundraiser and a really fun party at which supporters of our company get to reconnect with each other and with their loyalty to us and our mission. Naturally, this got this gal thinkin...

Best of the Naughts?

Right, we just closed out a decade and you know what that means. It's time for a list of the best films (that I’ve seen) of this decade that just mercifully left us.

We all know the drill. I throw down a bunch of films, you read it, you leave a comment like, “WTF!?!” or “How could you forget about___?” And then I respond with either “Urgh, I hated that film!” or “Doh! You’re right, how did I leave that off the list” or maybe “...eh…”

Here they are, in no particular order:

Beautiful personal essay on one critic's relationship with one of the most important playwrights of the 20th Century, Harold Pinter

The Economist's blog, More Intelligent Life features a gorgeous essay by theatre critic Irving Wardle on his decades-long (and sometimes strained) friendship with Harold Pinter. Here's just one juicy excerpt:

Nobody Sets Out to Make Crap (or: "Shit Happens")

The following quote from a recent comment on this blog caught my attention for an undercurrent of anger that I think it belies and what I think may be a fundamental misunderstanding of creative people and their efforts that might be worth examining.

Actress, director, teacher, activist and E.C. Author Mari Gorman posed the following question in response to David Licata's post on Manohla Dargis' interview on women filmmakers. [see: Manohla Dargis Tells It!]. In a comment on David’s post, the name Nancy Meyers had come up as an example of a female movie director whose films often display the sensitivity and psychological insight of an 11-year-old boy. Here’s the part of Mari’s comment that caught my eye:

Why "Mr. Fox" Really is Fantastic

If you know that I love puppetry, Roald Dahl’s writing, and stop motion animation, you might think that I’d be an easy mark for “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”  But in truth, after I saw a preview and a few commercials I wasn’t sold.  The stop-motion looked herky-jerky - disturbing.  The characters, animals all, looked scary and feral, with beady little eyes and sharp little teeth. 

Why "Nine" is a 10.

L to R: The three Guidos: Daniel Day Lewis, Raul Julia, Marcello Mastroianni

Finally saw “Nine” yesterday.  I almost didn’t bother, after all the critical sniping.  (Seriously: what IS it with you critics?  Do you hate the musical form?  Or are you just trying to take down Rob Marshall on his sophomore movie musical?  You slammed Marshall for repeating himself - but there’s a difference between repeating yourself and developing a style.)

Manohla Dargis Tells It!

Have you read this interview with New York Times' film critic Manohla Dargis on Jezebel.com?

In it, Dargis has some strong words for and about the Hollywood men’s club.

The entire interview is worth reading and forwarding, but here’s an excerpt that struck me: