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shadowkatOkay, I know Lady Gaga is becoming incredibly mainstream pop right now - but I like this new song.
It's Born This Way, and it's incredibly comforting and reassuring - particularly in a media culture that is pushing the opposite.
Actually, I like Lady Gaga - she has a great voice and catchy songs. In the music dept - two shows this week had great musical numbers - one was Grey's Anatomy - which was a word song, but I can't remember the name of it or the artist, the other was The Good Wife with the song "and the bells ring no, no, no, no." Possibly the best use of music in a tv show for a long time. Grey's overdoes on the music montage, often making it impossible to understand what people are saying - because they have a habit of playing songs over dialogue. Once they played a song over voice-over and dialogue - causing me to turn on the close captioning in annoyance. Speaking of Grey's - did you know that Nicholas Brendan is playing the nasty rapist on The Private Practice (I don't watch Private Practice - but I see the previews often during my fastforward through commercials.). Found that ironic in a weird way. You'd have to be a Buffy fan, experienced fandom wars during season 6 of that series while it was airing (note fans can be bug-shagging crazy) and be inside my head, I guess, to understand why.
Been listening to music a lot the past few days. Work got so bad, that I decided to bring my i-pod to work with me to a)block out the venting conversations, and to concentrate, and b) lower my blood-pressure. As a result have discovered something - if you want to reduce stress and anxiety? Listen to music. It actually works better than the tv or the internet, both of which can be known to raise blood pressure and stress. Another stress reducer? Glee - combines music and snarky comedy (okay only if you like snarky comedy and musicals, if you don't - you might want to avoid).
Speaking of musicals? Spiderman : Turn off the Dark is getting slammed by the critics all of a sudden.
I guess they finally got tired of waiting for the thing to actually open, and went to previews.
See? Broadway is different than Movies and TV shows - critics politely wait for the show to actually open, before they review it. The preview stage is expected to be a bit on the wonky side - because it is live theater after-all, you have to give them time to work out the kinks. But in the case of Spiderman? The preview stage has been going on for almost a year now. Spiderman was supposed to open in February 2010. It's also the most expensive theater production in the history of Broadway (and most likely the world - considering the US likes to put on outrageously expensive theater productions). It cost over 200 million to put this baby on. Preview tickets in the mezzaine section were going for 75$ a pop - and previews tend to be discounted normally. It's not a cheap show to see. You are basically forking over the same amount you would to well, fly to NYC and back to see it (fly from somewhere in the US that is or a cheap London ticket), assuming you want orchestra seats. At any rate, I can see why the critics got sick of twiddling their thumbs and decided it was time to see the dang thing and tell everyone if it's worth the effort. NY1 gave their review some time ago, which was actually fairly nice in comparison to everyone else's but NY1 tends to be nicer than most critics normally. The New Yorker is the nastiest of the critical world - they hate practically everything - elitist and snobby, the New Yorker? Nah. NY1 also didn't tell me a damn thing about it - except that it was a spectacle and if you like spectacle's you will like this. Uh. Okay. Depends on the spectacle. Bore me? And I'm asleep. Give me a headache? I'm out of there.
My difficultly with the Spiderman hoopela - is I just can't see Spiderman as a musical, without laughing. I mean come on...it's Spiderman. I have to give them credit for being ambitious and creative, but why the heck did Bono, the Edge and Taymor decide to do Spiderman of all things?
And if they chose it, why not play with the whole superhero/pop icon bit - do a satire or something?
But, no, they are basically playing it straight according to the reviews. The music outside of maybe two songs - is repetitive and dull. I sort of figured that out from the preliminary reports. You know the music is lacklustre when no one mentions it. Instead they mention the stunts. That's all they've talked about for 12 months. It's not until now that someone actually mentioned the music. It's probably worth noting that I was a huge U2 fan in the 1980s and 1990s. Also a huge Julie Taymor fan - her work on The Lion King is astonding. I also loved Titus Adronicus. And I'm a comic book fan, or rather was up until recently (*cough*whedon*cough*). Plus a sucker for rock/pop musicals. Hello - I was weaned on the things. So...been following the Spiderman:Turn off the Dark Saga with a bit more interest than usual. And boy does it sound like a train-wreck.
To date? Two cast members have left. Four have been injured. Several sent to the hospital. The stunt actor who used to play Spiderman, is out, due to cracked vertebrae and broken collar bone - and sprained ankle (I think) - he fell 36 feet, over the audience. They have yet to make through a preview without "mechanical difficulties" which usually result in someone falling over the audience's heads. Julie Taymor when interviewed - rambles on about how all great works have a few kinks in them and she's confident this will work itself out. Bono has had one fiancier quit on him and is on his second. It's become a bit of a running joke in NY.
Now we have the national reviews. And they don't like anything about the show. It's not the first show by a pop songwriter/musician to bomb. Paul Simon bombed famously with Cape Man, although I actually think it had more to say than Spiderman does. And there were not one, but three musicals that bombed this fall - which also were a lot more interesting and had a lot more to say, not to mention better talent than Spiderman. (They were - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown based on Pedro Almovadar's film, directed and written by Pedro and by the choreagorapher of the Producers, with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Patti Lupone (big name Broadway Stars), Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson - a great political satire/musical, and The Scottsborough Boys - an all-black musical about racism that got rave reviews.) It's hard to do well on Broadway. But for a musical to hit home - it helps if it has at least one of two things going for it: good music/lyrics and story or great theater stars.
The Addams Family had Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth - no one cared about the music/lyrics or story.
Billy Elliot has great dance numbers and some hummable songs. Wicked had some good songs in there and a fun story. Next to Normal had a great book/lyrics and story - also good actors in the roles even if they weren't known at the time. But still? You never know - Women had stars (albeit not known by non-theater folks), Bloody, Bloody and Scottsborough had the story/music and lyrics but not the right one to pull in an audience. This baby? It has curiousity factor and the spectacle, but once it loses the curiousity factor - it's doomed.
I keep waiting for robwillreview or crossoverman to see it and review it - since they are comics fans, know Spiderman, know of Taymor, and U2. Really be curious to see what they think. Me? I'm waiting to see if it ever gets discounted. I'm not forking over 200 bucks for the thing, which is what it will cost if you don't get discounted.
Hmmm..since I have Monday off, maybe I'll stay up late Sunday and watch the Grammy's? Want to see Lady Gaga's performance and the Rolling Stones. I think they are performing.
It's Born This Way, and it's incredibly comforting and reassuring - particularly in a media culture that is pushing the opposite.
Actually, I like Lady Gaga - she has a great voice and catchy songs. In the music dept - two shows this week had great musical numbers - one was Grey's Anatomy - which was a word song, but I can't remember the name of it or the artist, the other was The Good Wife with the song "and the bells ring no, no, no, no." Possibly the best use of music in a tv show for a long time. Grey's overdoes on the music montage, often making it impossible to understand what people are saying - because they have a habit of playing songs over dialogue. Once they played a song over voice-over and dialogue - causing me to turn on the close captioning in annoyance. Speaking of Grey's - did you know that Nicholas Brendan is playing the nasty rapist on The Private Practice (I don't watch Private Practice - but I see the previews often during my fastforward through commercials.). Found that ironic in a weird way. You'd have to be a Buffy fan, experienced fandom wars during season 6 of that series while it was airing (note fans can be bug-shagging crazy) and be inside my head, I guess, to understand why.
Been listening to music a lot the past few days. Work got so bad, that I decided to bring my i-pod to work with me to a)block out the venting conversations, and to concentrate, and b) lower my blood-pressure. As a result have discovered something - if you want to reduce stress and anxiety? Listen to music. It actually works better than the tv or the internet, both of which can be known to raise blood pressure and stress. Another stress reducer? Glee - combines music and snarky comedy (okay only if you like snarky comedy and musicals, if you don't - you might want to avoid).
Speaking of musicals? Spiderman : Turn off the Dark is getting slammed by the critics all of a sudden.
I guess they finally got tired of waiting for the thing to actually open, and went to previews.
See? Broadway is different than Movies and TV shows - critics politely wait for the show to actually open, before they review it. The preview stage is expected to be a bit on the wonky side - because it is live theater after-all, you have to give them time to work out the kinks. But in the case of Spiderman? The preview stage has been going on for almost a year now. Spiderman was supposed to open in February 2010. It's also the most expensive theater production in the history of Broadway (and most likely the world - considering the US likes to put on outrageously expensive theater productions). It cost over 200 million to put this baby on. Preview tickets in the mezzaine section were going for 75$ a pop - and previews tend to be discounted normally. It's not a cheap show to see. You are basically forking over the same amount you would to well, fly to NYC and back to see it (fly from somewhere in the US that is or a cheap London ticket), assuming you want orchestra seats. At any rate, I can see why the critics got sick of twiddling their thumbs and decided it was time to see the dang thing and tell everyone if it's worth the effort. NY1 gave their review some time ago, which was actually fairly nice in comparison to everyone else's but NY1 tends to be nicer than most critics normally. The New Yorker is the nastiest of the critical world - they hate practically everything - elitist and snobby, the New Yorker? Nah. NY1 also didn't tell me a damn thing about it - except that it was a spectacle and if you like spectacle's you will like this. Uh. Okay. Depends on the spectacle. Bore me? And I'm asleep. Give me a headache? I'm out of there.
My difficultly with the Spiderman hoopela - is I just can't see Spiderman as a musical, without laughing. I mean come on...it's Spiderman. I have to give them credit for being ambitious and creative, but why the heck did Bono, the Edge and Taymor decide to do Spiderman of all things?
And if they chose it, why not play with the whole superhero/pop icon bit - do a satire or something?
But, no, they are basically playing it straight according to the reviews. The music outside of maybe two songs - is repetitive and dull. I sort of figured that out from the preliminary reports. You know the music is lacklustre when no one mentions it. Instead they mention the stunts. That's all they've talked about for 12 months. It's not until now that someone actually mentioned the music. It's probably worth noting that I was a huge U2 fan in the 1980s and 1990s. Also a huge Julie Taymor fan - her work on The Lion King is astonding. I also loved Titus Adronicus. And I'm a comic book fan, or rather was up until recently (*cough*whedon*cough*). Plus a sucker for rock/pop musicals. Hello - I was weaned on the things. So...been following the Spiderman:Turn off the Dark Saga with a bit more interest than usual. And boy does it sound like a train-wreck.
To date? Two cast members have left. Four have been injured. Several sent to the hospital. The stunt actor who used to play Spiderman, is out, due to cracked vertebrae and broken collar bone - and sprained ankle (I think) - he fell 36 feet, over the audience. They have yet to make through a preview without "mechanical difficulties" which usually result in someone falling over the audience's heads. Julie Taymor when interviewed - rambles on about how all great works have a few kinks in them and she's confident this will work itself out. Bono has had one fiancier quit on him and is on his second. It's become a bit of a running joke in NY.
Now we have the national reviews. And they don't like anything about the show. It's not the first show by a pop songwriter/musician to bomb. Paul Simon bombed famously with Cape Man, although I actually think it had more to say than Spiderman does. And there were not one, but three musicals that bombed this fall - which also were a lot more interesting and had a lot more to say, not to mention better talent than Spiderman. (They were - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown based on Pedro Almovadar's film, directed and written by Pedro and by the choreagorapher of the Producers, with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Patti Lupone (big name Broadway Stars), Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson - a great political satire/musical, and The Scottsborough Boys - an all-black musical about racism that got rave reviews.) It's hard to do well on Broadway. But for a musical to hit home - it helps if it has at least one of two things going for it: good music/lyrics and story or great theater stars.
The Addams Family had Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth - no one cared about the music/lyrics or story.
Billy Elliot has great dance numbers and some hummable songs. Wicked had some good songs in there and a fun story. Next to Normal had a great book/lyrics and story - also good actors in the roles even if they weren't known at the time. But still? You never know - Women had stars (albeit not known by non-theater folks), Bloody, Bloody and Scottsborough had the story/music and lyrics but not the right one to pull in an audience. This baby? It has curiousity factor and the spectacle, but once it loses the curiousity factor - it's doomed.
I keep waiting for robwillreview or crossoverman to see it and review it - since they are comics fans, know Spiderman, know of Taymor, and U2. Really be curious to see what they think. Me? I'm waiting to see if it ever gets discounted. I'm not forking over 200 bucks for the thing, which is what it will cost if you don't get discounted.
Hmmm..since I have Monday off, maybe I'll stay up late Sunday and watch the Grammy's? Want to see Lady Gaga's performance and the Rolling Stones. I think they are performing.