Out of Focus

I just got home from sitting through the absolutely brilliant, Tony Award winning production of Glengarry Glen Ross now playing on Broadway, but this post isn’t about the show. (That one will come … supposedly! Who knows anymore.) No, this post is a good example as to why Aaron can sometimes (often, even?) be a bit of an idiot.

Just yesterday I happened to mention the hysterically funny Paul Scheer, noted VH1’s Best Week Ever talking head and local NYC comedian. Well, tonight as I was exiting the Bernard B. Jacobs theater after the show, which I had attended on my own, I found myself exiting behind the very same Paul Scheer. I didn’t want to bug him. He seemed to be alone too and rushing to get out of the theater. Besides, whether or not one might consider him a “celebrity,” he’s certainly much more of one than I, and I’m not big on going up to strangers with any level of “celebrity” value and saying, “Hey, I think you’re great.”

Why not? I don’t know. Cause I’m a dork. But what made it worse was that I suddenly found myself walking behind him, in front of him, next to him — alternating simply due to pedestrian traffic and walking speed — for about four or five blocks. So first, I had managed to not say hi and introduce myself right outside the theater, but then I really couldn’t say anything because we’d been walking almost together for a good five minutes, and if I suddenly opened my mouth, it would seem like I was stalking him. And as funny as I think Scheer is, stalking takes some energy that I would probably need to reserve for someone else. Not that I would ever stalk anyone. Absolutely not. Nor would I say here who I might consider stalking. Cause there’s nobody. Really. No, there isn’t. (Shit, now I’m a stalker. I really need to pay attention to what comes out of these moving fingers of mine.)

And really at the end of the day, would it have been so wrong for me to say, “Hey, you’re Paul aren’t you? I’ve seen you and Rob (Huebel) a few times and think you’re hysterical. In fact, I just wrote about ‘MILFland’ on my own blog yesterday!” Uhm, yeah, seeing it in print … I probably did the right thing.

In Sunday’s Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times, semi-hidden away at the bottom of an internal page under the column heading “Channeling” was a piece written by Lia Miller about the cable channel AMC. The story focused on how the channel with the no-longer apt name “American Movie Classics” seemed to be showing movies these days that were often less than great, at least in most people’s opinions.

This morning’s Daily Variety ran a story indicating that a New York civil-court judge seems to agree that AMC’s programming no longer fits its name. (Sub. Req’d. Here’s a free Newsday report.) The case related to Time Warner Cable’s considering dropping AMC from its channel lineup because it had stopped playing “classic” movies, specifically films from the 1930s through 60s.

Ironically, AMC’s programming stopped focusing on this era as the much better Turner Classic Movies began appearing on more cable systems, and as noted film historian David Thomson says in the Times article: “[AMC] decided that TCM were doing hat they once thought they were doing, and doing it better, and they decided to make some money.” I call the situation ironic because, of course, Time Warner Cable is owned by Time Warner which also owns (gasp!) TCM!

However, I wish they would simply drop AMC from the lineup because in their attempt “to make some money,” AMC became one of the worst channels out there. Granted, TCM didn’t make things easy for them once the Turner library owned exclusive rights to an enormous library of classic Hollywood films, but I’m not sure what that has to do with AMC suddenly showing, as noted in the article, Death Warrant or Staying Alive.

In fact, the biggest problem with AMC isn’t even just that their movie programming is relatively terrible, and what’s fascinating to me is how the paper of record treats this shift as a relatively new development. I stopped watching AMC completely when they actually chose to (here’s that phrase again) make money! No, I don’t begrudge them (really their corporate parent Rainbow Media, and therefore, Cablevision) making money, but what happened to AMC some years back, at the same time as they really got out of the “classic” movie business was that they stopped showing movies uncut without commercials. (This is a fact which, to my mind, shockingly the Times story doesn’t even mention.)

I simply can’t watch movies with commercials. Television series and even broadcast network movies are specifically written with those breaks in mind – the commercial is inherent to the show’s structure. But that’s not true with a theatrical film, and aside from any other editing for language, nudity or violence that may occur, the introduction of ads (several years ago now) makes AMC anything but a serious channel for movie lovers.

Their motto is “TV for movie people.” Personally, I think that tag line combined with their programming is demeaning to both movie AND TV people. I don’t care if their library has recently become a bit better with the acquisition of 25 John Wayne movies or if they show The Great Escape every day all month. That isn’t stopping them from also broadcasting Look Who’s Talking Too. (Actually, there’s a movie that commercials might help.)

I used to watch AMC religiously. In fact, when I was at UCLA and moved into my first apartment with my own cable box in 1990, I would pour over the AMC schedule and set my VCR for all kinds of wonderful old movies I had never seen before. Even my first several years in New York, AMC was a favorite channel on my TV. TCM wasn’t available yet, and AMC’s programming was still uncut and commercial-free. Maybe they had a smaller library and films would get repeated a lot, but it still was a worthy selection. And I didn’t completely abandon AMC for TCM when Time Warner finally added it to the Manhattan lineup.

I’m actually quite sad that AMC didn’t have smarter programming from people who actually cared about movies more than money. (I know … what fantasy world am I living in.) I have a hard time believing that even with TCM’s enormous library there isn’t a great selection of films AMC could try to acquire to show in place of some of the dreck. IFC and Sundance Channel have both managed to thrive as cable channels focusing primarily on modern independent film, and they’ve even managed to each carve out individual identities for themselves. Some of what AMC is trying to do is maybe even on the right track. I personally can’t take Sunday Morning Shootout because both Peters are just way too annoying to listen to, and Movie Club with John Ridley completely grates on me since everyone but Ridley himself comes off like a moron (please, someone stop Zorianna Kit from talking about movies – stick to celebrity bullshit news!). But at least both of these shows have their concepts in the right place for a channel that wants to be about movies as much as show movies.

Still, TV still gets a bad name for plenty of reasons, and I find myself defending the medium all the time. But AMC lost my favor years ago, and it’s got a long way to go if it wants to win it back.

Today’s MUG entry reminded me that the Howard Johnson’s diner in Times Square (actually, Duffy Square if you want to be totally accurate, I believe) was closing. Or, rather, had already closed — last week in fact.

Mourning a Howard Johnson’s in the middle of tourist central might not seem like the most New York of things to do, and it’s not like I visited this HoJo’s very often, or ever really. However, this specific restaurant on that specific corner does, actually, hold a dear place in my heart.

Continue reading “CRAP, I FORGOT AND MISSED IT: FAREWELL HOJO”

A couple months ago at Gothamist’s Laughable Hype show at Tonic, the hysterical Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel did a bit where they’ve renamed all the NYC neighborhoods. I don’t remember most of the new nicknames for all the various ‘hoods, but I do remember that the Lower East Side became “Go Fuck Yourself!” and the Upper West Side (where I currently reside for at least another 6-7 weeks) earned the moniker “MILFland.”

Continue reading “TO A COUPLE OF THE MORE ANNOYING RESIDENTS OF MILFLAND”

Seeing a movie in Bryant Park can be one of the great NYC summer experiences. The screen is huge, the surrounding area of midtown is slightly shut out by the trees, and the chosen films are usually a pretty good selection. Of course, like anything in this city, having the best Bryant Park movie experience doesn’t come without sacrifice. If you’re not there at 5 PM when the ropes drop and everybody swarms the lawn, throwing out their blankets and claiming their territory, you’re going to have at best a pretty crappy seat. Still, if you have the time — or a friend who does (!) — it’s a lot of fun to go out there with a bunch of food and drink, kick back for a few hours until the film starts (at dusk — usually somewhere around 8:30ish), and that watch a good movie on a nice New York (hopefully not too humid) evening.

This summer’s calendar is especially strong, but for my money, there couldn’t be a better time to head to Whole Food’s/Zabar’s/Fairway, pick-up an assortment treats and get ready to battle for your spot on the lawn. Tonight is The Gay Divorcee, an utter delight featuring music by Cole Porter, brilliant straight comedy from two of the greatest of the era — Alice Brady and Edward Everett Horton — and of course the brilliantly graceful Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

I say this is the best movie for Bryant Park not because The Gay Divorcee is the actual best movie on this summer’s schedule. That would be a difficult claim to make with Touch of Evil playing next week and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? coming in August. But as great as a night watching movies in Bryant Park can be, watching (and listening!) to anything outside at night is not really a great way to see a movie, especially one that is dialogue heavy. Plus, no matter how dark it gets, you’re still not watching the image under perfect conditions, which can be very important for a film like Orson Welles’ noir masterpiece.

But The Gay Divorcee is fun and frothy. It’s a great movie in its own right, with wonderful music and magnificent dancing, but it’s also a simple romantic comedy that isn’t going to be completely ruined by the distraction of the police helicopter flying overhead. And in its own way, it’s so light and fun and magical and romantic that with the right company and wine, it could be, just maybe the perfect evening.

Or at the very least, an antithesis to the final Bryant Park film of the summer — Jaws.

A couple weeks ago, Matty did something that seriously impressed the hell out of me. Well, I’ve been meaning to write about this since I did it on Saturday, but I came damn close to matching Matty’s majestic feat when this past Saturday I decided at relatively the last minute to do a 12-1/2 hour, six-movie marathon at that beloved home of theater-hopping, the AMC 25. With the movies I saw, it was literally impossible for me to see seven. I was there for one of their first showing of the day, and by the time the last film got out, everything else had started. (I blame Cinderella Man for being long.) Still, considering that the day before I had seen Me and You and Everyone We Know and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and then went home that night and watched the great Kirby Dick doc Twist of Faith, that kind of counts as 10 movies in less than a 48 hour period. Not bad, eh? (Or maybe bad. Unhealthy. Obsessive. Nuts. Come on people, don’t make me do all the work myself!)

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to write all about the day, but I intended to do a little bit of reviewing of each of the films too, and I just haven’t had the time to do that write-up. So that will still have to come later. Plus, I saw a ton of trailers, some good, some not so good, some too many times.

My day started with a 12:05 PM showing of Bewitched (which I have to admit did not suck as much as I had heard), followed by the 2:20 French romantic trifle Apres Vous …. I then headed to the 4:20 screening of Grand Canyon Magnolia Crash. (I kid. It’s its own film, of course. And I even liked much of it.) Crash ended and I went straight into the 6:15 showing of Rize which ended just in time for me to head to the time-hogging behemoth otherwise known as Cinderella Man at 8:05. (Even though I didn’t pay for my ticket, I wouldn’t have asked for my money back; but I could have used that unnecessary 20 minutes or so for something else.) I wrapped-up my day with the only film that I wasn’t actually all that interested in seeing — the 10:45 Monster-in-Law — but it was between that and Rebound (yeah, toss-up at best), and I went with JLo and JFo because it started sooner, and I just don’t like the down time.

I brought just enough provisions with me — a couple sandwiches, a small thing of greek salad, some flat bread an apple, along with an iced tea and a large water — in a collapsable cooler in my bag. I basically had one food item for each movie, and, to be fair to the theater, I bought a couple sodas and a chocolate covered raisins during the day as well. Basically, most people might spend about $20 (ticket, popcorn, soda) for one movie — I spent $30 for six. That’s the way I like it.

The day was actually fun, and although Saturday was gorgeous here in NYC, the weather said Sunday and Monday were going to be as well … and they were, so I didn’t feel like I missed out on too much nature what with a bike ride, some brunch, a concert in battery park and fireworks. All-in-all a good, movie-filled fourth.

And now, as usual, I’m out of time and rushing, so more specific word on all these movies later, but in the mean time … Matty, I will get to seven and match you one of these days! I just can’t go to a 2-1/2 hour one in the middle of it all.

They really don’t need hype from me, what with other sites giving them a big push, but in case you’ve been under a slightly small rock or don’t read any of the true music blogs out there, you really should know about World Leader Pretend, a band from New Orleans playing a free show tonight at Pier 54. A friend of mine went to college with the guitarist, so he suggested I see them when they were at Mercury Lounge in May. They literally blew me away with their live performance. In fact, while the just released album “Punches” is great, this is one band you really need to see live. They play with a passion and energy that can’t be topped, and the band’s drummer, with his amazing bayou based ability to somehow pound against the beat while always keeping the tempo, is a sight to behold. I swear one of these days he’s going to chew off his tongue.

There’s no better show to see than one that’s free, and you’re not going to see a better band tonight than World Leader Pretend. While they may be sandwiched between Dan Dyer and The Von Bondies tonight, they’re definitely the band headlining the show for me. See you there.

Wow. I had a pretty great weekend, and I meant to write about it today (since it was full of movies among other things …) but I didn’t get around to it. Instead, I find myself tonight saddened by the news from Hollywood that one of the greatest writers/screenwriters in history passed away on Saturday. The films credited (at least in part) to Ernest Lehman can hardly be faulted for their scripts (whether original or adaptations, the latter often being harder), and many rank among the greatest of all time: Sabrina, The King and I, Somebody Up There Likes Me, North By Northwest, West Side Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Sound of Music, and his triumphal masterpiece Sweet Smell of Success (one of the greatest screenplays in history, co-written with Clifford Odets but based on Lehman’s own novel), are just a few.

Lehmann was 89 when he died of an apparent heart attack this weekend. His contribution to the history of film and screenwriting can’t be overestimated. He only attempted directing one film: an adaptation of Philip Roth’s seminal work Portnoy’s Complaint. Unfortunately, his talents with the language of cinema on screen were not as good as his brilliance with words written on the page, and Portnoy’s Complaint is anything but a masterpiece. Still the majority of his resume is brilliant, and my wish-list for TCM’s inevitable evening honoring Lehman (probably in the next week or so), it would include the cream of Lehman’s crop: the biting dialogue of Sweet Smell and the taut suspense of North by Northwest along with a study in contrasts between the romantic comedy of Sabrina and the dysfunctional marriage of Virginia Woolf and two of the biggest movie musicals of all time in Sound of Music and West Side Story. Now that would be worth staying up all night for. Lehman was nominated for the Best Screenplay Oscar five times without winning, but was presented with an Honorary Award in 2001.

Lehman hasn’t had a screenwriting credit in over a quarter of a century, but his greatest works will thankfully always be with us, and his presence will be missed.

UPDATED: Coincidentally, since TCM is celebrating the great Audrey Hepburn as its “Star of the Month” every Wednesday in July, they happen to be showing Sabrina tomorrow night at 10:15 PM. Please don’t mix this up with the underwhelming remake made in 1995 with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear directed by Sydney Pollack. All you have to do is compare that lineup to one including Humphrey Bogart, Hepburn and William Holden with Billy Wilder at the helm, and it should be completely understandable why the original is a classic and one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. Make sure to catch-it!

What? Who says it’s now July? Oh, the calendar. Big deal. As far as I’m concerned, this is still my June series of Gothamist Interviews, and today’s is a great one. Tony winner Bill Irwin, currently appearing in the great production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? now running at the Longacre Theater. I had the pleasure of seeing a performance a couple weeks ago, and Irwin’s performance is utterly magnificent. He brings a nuance and sensitivity to the role which adds a whole new dimension. It’s not that his performance is better than the famous (and itself brilliant) one given by Richard Burton in the great 1966 film version.

I spoke to Bill on the phone about a week ago while he was driving into the city from his home in Nyack. Unfortunately, he only had so much time to talk, and while we had a very interesting conversation, and I enjoyed it immensely, it was unfortunate that I didn’t get a chance to ask him everything I had planned. Like what, you ask?

Well, for those of you who wonder why I didn’t ask him more about his career as a clown, I meant to. Here’s one question I had written: “You actually graduated from Clown College and were an original member of San Francisco’s famous Pickle Family Circus. Did you always want to be a clown? Why do you think so many kids are scared of clowns? Do you feel clowns don’t get enough respect? Where’s the line between mime and clown?” That would have been good, no?

And of course, I meant to ask about his season at the Signature Theatre Company last year when he was their annual selection as Playwright-in-residence, and he “provided them with three brand new world premiere shows which you not only wrote but also starred in and directed. What was that experience like?”

And then the generic stuff about being a multi-hyphenate, and how does he choose the projects he writes and/or directs himself, etc., etc. Hmm, maybe it’s not such a big deal I didn’t get to them, but I guess that’s also why I was willing to let them go when I was running out of time.

Regardless, Bill is a phenomenal actor, and he was very generous on the phone. If you’ve never seen him onstage before, I encourage you to check him out now, and hopefully he will also again do some sort of show in which he can exhibit his clowning and/or physical comedy talents. He’s really genius, and if you have seen him before, you likely already know that and are already a huge fan.

— Photo by Carol Resegg

When I moved to New York in Oct. 1996, I knew basically nobody. I had one friend with whom I had worked in LA a few years earlier. We weren’t that close at the time, but I could legitimately call her friend. Then I knew this couple who were friends of another friend: the woman I had met twice, the guy once. They were very generous to me, though, offering me their couch until I found a place to stay, etc. But I lucked into a teeny-tiny studio sublet on 3rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. It didn’t matter so much how small it was: I was working my ass off in my first job at HBO, often not getting home until 10 or 11 PM.

So I didn’t know many people, and I didn’t have so much time to socialize anyway, but I did have my hole of solitude on E. 3rd Street. Back then, the big online dating sites like match.com or nerve or whatever, weren’t really around now, and people were still winging it in chat rooms. I never really got into the chat room thing, but sometimes late at night I would troll the profiles on AOL of people who were online and occasionally I would IM someone.

One night I came across a woman about six months younger than me who had written something or another that really struck me. She and I started chatting and discovered we had a lot in common, particularly our backgrounds in and love for theater. We decided to meet. I don’t think it took either of us very long to decide we weren’t going to be dating anytime soon — besides, I’m pretty sure she was already also sort of seeing her eventual husband! — but we became fast friends. And although we often go months without talking to or even around a year without seeing each other, our own particular friendship has always been really strong and wonderful.

Now in case you’re really slow (which is OK; I often am), you’re probably putting two-and-two together and realizing that this friend of mine is today’s Gothamist Interview. And you’d be right, because not only is Robin Shane a good friend of mine, but she’s also a very talented costume designer and one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. Most recently, and again in the coming months, she’s been working with Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner on a couple of operas that premiered in Chicago and are about to play Berkeley, New York and Boston over the course of the next year. Meanwhile, she’s also planning to start her own business designing, manufacturing and selling practical and useful baby items that don’t currently exist in the marketplace. Robin is one of the best people you could ever meet, and if you go read her interview, you’ll only get the smallest glimpse of why. But do it anyway.