Sometimes, I have issues with balance. As in … how do you balance all the different elements of life to get everything done — work, play, non-work work, whatever. Yesterday, I called a friend lame. It was partially a joke, but like all jokes contained a grain of truth. Why was he lame? Because he was backing out on going to The Twilight Singers show with me last night at Warsaw. I was a huge Afghan Whigs fan and I love the stuff Whigs frontman Greg Dulli has done since with his new band The Twilight Singers. But when I came to work this morning, I had to IM him to say, “I’m lamer than you.” Because last night, I meant to stop at home, drop off my bag, make some dinner, and then go to the show. And yet, somehow between dinner and go to the show, I lost consciousness … until 11 PM. So I was so lame, I didn’t make it to a show I really wanted to get to.
But in reality, lame is the fact that I haven’t posted anything in weeks. I have many excuses, but none worthy of boring you at this moment. Instead, I’m just going to try to do what I can, and while I hope to write more on all these issues later, we’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I can’t let this weekend arrive without making a few comments about the death of Ed Bradley, the rebirth James Bond, the beginning of my theater binge and the job!
-
60 Minutes correspondent died a little over a week ago, and last Sunday’s broadcast was a wonderful tribute to the man who was many viewer’s favorite correspondent — certainly mine. Bradley had the enviable ability to interview anyone at any time in any situation. He could cover major world events and leaders as well as smaller human interest stories while also being right at home talking to celebrities of all-ilk. All the 60 Minutes correspondents are among the top tier of investigative reporters, but Bradley had something special, and maybe it was simply because everyone really did seem to generally like him. He was known as truly one of the good guys. And nowhere could that be seen better than in last Sunday’s edition, put together as a loving tribute, capped off (as always) by an Andy Rooney segment, but in this case, one that was heartfelt and anything but annoying. If you haven’t seen the episode, I’m sure it’s somewhere on the web.
-
Casino Royale opens today, and although I’ve specifically read little about the final product, early buzz seems to be quite positive. I’ve been getting super-excited about this film since I saw the first trailer. I’ve written several posts about James Bond over the last couple of years, especially the ones touting Clive Owen and bemoaning director Martin Campbell. At first when Daniel Craig was announced, I didn’t think he was a great choice (albeit, not because he’s a blond). I’ve since reconsidered, and while I never put faith in trailers depicting the quality of a film, I did receive much encouragement to see the tone presented through these advance marketing tools. A darker, more complex character can be seen in every one of Craig’s facial expression, and that indicates at least an attempt at a truly faithful adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel. I’ve always said that the right actor in a truly representative adaptation of Casino Royale (and that actor could have been Timothy Dalton, back in the day) would be the best of all Bond movies. Is that possible, especially with Campbell at the helm? We’ll see, this weekend, but I am surprisingly more encouraged than I had been previously, and I can’t wait.
-
Let’s just take a moment to make a brief distinction here: I have never laughed so hard and so consistently in my life as I did during Borat! the weekend before last. That does not mean that I am trying to claim that Borat! is a phenomenal movie or the greatest comedy I’ve ever seen. It just means it made me laugh. A lot! And it baffles me how anyone can not have some sort of visceral reaction to the film. The criticism of it essentially being a continuous series of comedic sketches is not invalid. Still, as an entertainment and as social commentary, I consider it a must-see.
-
About a month ago, I started going crazy buying theater tickets. I have no money, so I’m not sure what prompted this other than a confluence of shows I felt I had to see. The first was the new Broadway production of A Chorus Line. As I’ve expressed in this space before, I love this show — worship it, even — and consider it one of the landmarks of the history of musical theater. This is probably why I was so disappointed by this production which utterly fails to explode off the stage with a life of its own. I don’t buy that it’s dated or not topical; I think it’s even more topical in today’s culture even if the physical realities of theater and the world are different. But this production is a great example of how even the best shows can be brought down to earth if not presented in the best way. I really will try to get back to this topic soon.
-
Meanwhile, I had the opposite experience with Grey Gardens, The Musical, which I missed during its initial run at Playwrights’ Horizons but am thrilled to have seen in its recent Broadway engagement. Christine Ebersol should be handed the Tony right now. Rarely have I seen as accomplished a performance on the stage, and the transformation she goes through from Big Edie in Act I to Little Edie in Act II is miraculous. You almost forget it’s the same actress. If you’ve never seen the Maysles’ Bros. famous documentary about the Beales, I highly suggest you watch it before going to see the show. It makes the experience that much more enjoyable, especially to see how creatively the musical’s creators adapted this verite film with essentially no narrative into a full-blown musical play that makes perfect sense and runs possibly the quickest 2 1/2 hours I’ve experienced in some time. Go see it. Now.
-
Oh yeah … the job. So, I’ve been here permanently and full-time for about seven weeks now, and yet I feel like I’m still settling in. It has been a weird experience because this isn’t really a new job for me. It’s just a new situation at a job I’ve had for some time. With that said, I have had several other responsibilities placed on me, and one of them (albeit only temporarily) has been to help with the website and newsletter.
What?!? You didn’t know the Tribeca Film Festival had a website? More importantly, you didn’t know we had a newsletter?!? Well, the website is going through some changes, and we have an amazing team of people hard at work to help relaunch it at the beginning of 2007. Along with that comes the newsletter, currently called The FIP. The FIP becomes a weekly email newsletter next week, highlighting news, events and other info going on around the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Cinemas. In the coming weeks and months, it will alert people to special audio and video content exclusive to Tribeca. If you want to sign-up, just click here. This has been taking up a bit of my time during the last week or two because they needed me to cover for an employee who was leaving. I won’t be working on either the newsletter or website long-term, but for now, I am.
Whew. OK. Glad I got that out. Now I feel a bit less lame … but just a bit. Stay with me … I’m really not deserting this place, all evidence to the contrary.
For now, have a good weekend, and hopefully, when I come here next, I’ll be all hopped up on Bond.
Hmmm … that doesn’t sound right.
Out of Focus 