EXTRA CRITICUM

Page One. Again.

Here we are again, again. Facing the blank page. This time, I know what NEEDS to go onto, as, well, I’ve been here before. I’m talking about the page one rewrite. That thing where you have an idea, you’ve written a bunch of pages, maybe even a first draft, then you realize: it sucks. IT sucks. Not the idea. What to do? The page one rewrite.

I’m working on a new spec pilot. Another cop show. Because… well… Just because, ok? (Don’t judge me, I’m in a terrible mood.) It focuses on the detective characters and how his unique personality informs how he solves the crime. (Let’s be honest–that’s all a cop show is. The crimes don’t REALLY matter, it’s how the main character behaves, that’s what we care about.

I have a first draft. It sorta worked, but not really. The main character came off more like an asshole than anything. And who wants to watch an asshole? (Not to say he’s got to be nice or even likable. But an asshole is a person of a singular dimension.) I had a mystery. One I liked just fine. Which… I’ll come back to.

Two hours is a long time to wait for one show-stopper

Saw Nabucco last night at the Met, thanks to a generous dear friend visiting from out of town. Now, it's not one of Verdi's best. But the chorus in Act III is a showstopper. It made me wonder though: isn't 2+ hours a long time to sit through just to hear one of the all-time great choral numbers? I'm not sure. Verdi was famous for being able to accurately take the measure of his own music's popularity. And the chorus sung by the Israelites in Act III is no different.

Here's some video from the current Met production. Notice that no one moves on stage during the entire number. And yet, with this particular number, it doesn't seem to matter. Not so with the rest of the opera, I'm afraid.

Isn't Clapping Enough?

I drove to Vegas for my birthday weekend, mostly to go see Justin Timberlake perform during his annual "Justin Timberlake and Friends" benefit concert at Planet Hollywood. I've seen Justin nearly a half dozen times in concert, but since he's so focused on his acting career as of late, I wasn't sure when I'd ever be able to see him perform music again. So the promise of even just a couple of songs was enough to make the weekend trip, and to convince my two girlfriends to fly out and meet me.

Achtung, Babies!

"I don't want a full house at the Winter Garden Theatre. I want 90 people who just came out of the worst rain storm in the city's history. These are people who are alive, on the planet. Until they dry off. I wish I had a theater that was only open when it rained." Bill Murray as the playwright Jeff Slater in Tootsie.

Documentary filmmaker Doug Block had an interesting post on his blog, Around the Block about how we're watching movies these days. Block conducted an informal test. As part of an assignment, he asked students in a film class (average age 25) to watch his documentary, 51 Birch Street, saying only that it was available on multiple formats. The next time the class met he surveyed them on format and viewing habit.