EXTRA CRITICUM

The Unrepeatable Moment (or: loving John Yearley's play)

Shortly after my father died, I had lunch with my friend John Yearley and I asked him if he wouldn't mind emailing me a copy of his one-act, HATING BECKETT.

I thought re-reading the play might be comforting because of a vivid memory I'd attached to its premiere many years ago at Long Wharf. I'd brought my parents to the see the play and as the lights came down at the end of it, in that quiet space between END OF PLAY and applause, my father blurted out quite loudly and with a kind of gusto that was emblematic of him, just one word:

The lowered expectations in binge-watching TV shows

You might think that binge-watching a TV series, or going through an entire season in one day, is a sign that the series is really good. That is, each episode is so satisfying that you can't wait to get to the next one.

But TV critic Jaime Weinman, in contemplating Netflix's decision to put all 13 episodes of its original series House of Cards online on the same day, suggests that binge-watching might be a way of managing expectations:

Tis Not So Sweet Now As It Was Before

A million years ago I was in a community theater production of 12th Night.

Enter DUKE ORSINO, CURIO, and other Lords; Musicians attending.

I was one of the attending musicians--the only one, really. Duke Orsino delivered the famous passage that starts with --

If music be the food of love, play on...

--and I'd play this.

The benefits to society of watching made-up stuff

The Boston Globe's Brainiac blog gets at why I watch so much scripted television and avoid all news programming (though I read nonfiction constantly). Brainiac writer Kevin Hartnett summarizes the work of philosopher Richard Rorty, who argued that fiction can bridge political differences.

random thoughts while observing a tap dance lesson in Berlin

I'm in Berlin for this year's Berlinale. An ocean away from New York City, my home base, the city I love. My aunt, an attorney, invites me to watch her tap dance lesson.

She is an attorney. An excellent one, I'm told. An attorney with a passion. A passion for tap dancing. And a nose for talent. Somehow, she seems to have found one of Berlin's most gifted tap dancers. (I am not qualified to judge really, but so he seems to be as I sit and watch.)

No Respect for Acting

It never ceases to shock (and sadden) me how prevalent in the film world this is. Film directors who have zero regard for the craft of acting, so much so that they believe they have to trick their actors into delivering honest performances. The most famous example of this distorted view, of course, was Hitchcock. No one can dispute his cinematic genius but his methods were not only cruel, they were also entirely unnecessary.

This just crossed my desk and I couldn't resist sharing it. It's from an email advert promoting a class taught by a young auteur of some note who believes he has invented a more reliable "method" for wringing realism from flesh. I've removed any names to protect the innocent.