I hrt the Larry Mullen Band! You Too?- Page 39

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 6:28pm

Mark your calendars; Bono's going to be on Oprah on Friday to introduce (Product) RED.

[mabel]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 7:18pm

Oooh, I have until Friday to figure out how to work the VCR timer!

Ugh! I just got home from work, after being detoured trying to leave (with them not bothering to tell you where to go after the initial "Do Not Enter: Detour" sign...gotta love that...very Boston of them) and picking up some McDonald's (which I haven't eaten in ages, but dammit, it's after 7pm and I'm not about to eat the same thing for a 4th night in a row (and not going to cook something at this hour).

Plus, I get to go in at 7am tomorrow morning to try to finish this hellish spreadsheet that we got at 2:30 to work on, rather than 10:30, like we were supposed to. Oh well...the days do go by a lot faster when there's lots of work to do (I'd just rather not get there at 7 to do it, or leave at 7, for that matter).

OK, enough venting! How's everything with you, Elph? You have midterms this week, right? How are they going (especially the Children's Lit)??

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:30pm

Bump!

How's everyone doing? School has been keeping me busy as usual. Nic, seen any interesting apartments lately?

Have y'all read about U2's new Hunt the Lyric competition? It's a sort of internet search that starts on Monday, and the winner gets flown to Hawaii to see the final Vertigo tour show. Knowing how many insane U2 fans are out there, I'm thinking the chance of winning is pretty much nonexistent, but I'll still try anyway.

I coughed up some of my recent babysitting money last weekend and bought a (Project) Red t-shirt from the Gap, which I'm wearing now; Bono is so smooth that he convinced me.

Okay, that's enough of my random musings for now. Have a good weekend, everyone!
Hunt the Lyric

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 9:05pm

Nic, I can't believe I forgot to ask! How was The Times They Are A'Changin?!?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 9:24pm

school is awful. boring. not even seeing my friends can bring me out a funk.

i want to run away to London and wear sweaters

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 10:05pm

Aw, I'm sorry.

Can you not wear sweaters here, though, or are they only legal in London now?

[mabel]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 10:50am

Since you were with me at GG (and it doesn't look like Tiff/Pat are floating around and I sent CQ a quick PM about it already) I'll skip that. ETA: Ah, Pat's back...GG was very good. I like Act II better than Act I, but defintiely well-worth checking out. Ebersol is remarkable!

OK, so this is (once again) freakishly long. There are four "reviews," so just pop in a couple times and pick at one here, one there, if you want. Sorry!

Times was HORRIBLE! My mom and I had a blast. It's a shame, because it really does appear to be a squandered opportunity. When I first heard about the show, I thought the idea of moving the action to a circus could really work. I mean a lot of Dylan's mid-60s albums got really surreal, and I think they really would have expected the music to lend itself to that treatment. Plus, the three leads are fantastic vocally. Michael Arden was wonderful, and Lisa Brescia did very well (especially considering the fact that she was just tossed in there) and the other guy, who's name is escaping me, had a great, gritty voice that was really well-suited for Dylan.

BUT, that's about it for the positive things I can scrape up to say about the show. Rather than go too far in depth, here are a few moments that will give you an idea of just how silly the show is:

-The rolling excersize balls for "Like a Rolling Stone" (Twyla must have a thing for these excersize balls, because they showed up at least two other times...I think it was in Masters of War, where someone, Lisa(?), grabbed them when rolled to her and tossed them at "the bad guys" to knock them over! So ridiculous!

-Doing the "Subterranian Homesick Blues" card dropping in LaRS, leaving them littered across the stage. Then, rather than quickly picking/sweeping them up between songs, they had the one woman in the ensemble do this slow, incredibly distracting, crawl across the stage collecting the cards (seriously, it took the entire next song for her to get them all). SO DISTRACTING (yet, very funny, even though I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be).

-Having the same woman randomly spin around with a broom during the line "Cinderella's sweeping up on Desolation Row." Cue: jaw drop. There were so many moments like this, where Twyla would take a lyric and literally act it out. For an abstract dance piece, you'd think that would be a huge no-no. I've never seen any of Twyala's work in person before, but I saw none of the "choreographic genius" that I'd anticipated!

-Having Masters of War be about the tyranical circus ringmaster, who killed Brecia's character's dog (played by one of the ensemble men, and he irritated the hell out of me, so I was glad to see him go...though less than thrilled when he randomly showed up a again a few songs later. Was it the dog's ghost? A replacement dog? Did he really not die, even though crazy Ahab appeared to have snapped his neck??) All that aside, way to trivialize the song. I generally loved Michael's vocals, but he didn't have the grit for this particular song, imho (oh, and "Lay Lady Lay" was kind of awkward, sung by him too!)

Eh, guess that's enough. What a silly mess. I'm still kind of glad I saw it though!

Now:

COAST OF UTOPIA: VOYAGE

Elph, have you gotten studentix for this yet? GET THEM! It's wonderful! Billy is the best I've seen him in Voyage. It's the 4th production I've seen with Billy (and I counded on the train, I think the 13th time I've seen him on stage). Definitely one of the best (maybe challenged by a peak Pillowman performance...though The Elephan Man was great too..Ugh! He really is one of my favorite actors!)

The rest of the cast is great, and the physical production is breathtaking. I'd highly recommend reading the play first and possibly a bit of the back-reading suggested on some of the threads on the main board as well.

My main "complaint" about this epic production is that it's the type of show I would return to in a heartbeat (since there are three parts, I'd definitely want to see each part twice) but I don't think that's going to happen. If I were smart, I would have gotten my StudenTix for later in the run (when they're all running in rep) and tried to get day of rush to see each part in previews (when there might still be general rush). I definitely don't see tix being available for rush later in the run. Though if/when I get a job, I think I'm going to spring for rear loge seats for myself towards the end of the run, if I can still get them. While I definitely think the one day marathons would be WAY too much to take in in one day, I'd be curious to see them on consecutive days, which I know they're doing later in the run as well.

What an ensemble they've assembled for this show. Honestly, I think the only person they could have added to make me giddier would be Robert Sean Leonard (to replace maybe Jason Butler Harner...but really, that's only because I've never seen him in anything. From the bit I saw in Voyage, I expect even he'll be great). I mean really: Billy, Brian (my 4th show with him, always a favorite), Ethan Hawke (I thought he was wonderful in Henry IV and Hurlyburly), Josh Hamilton (fabulous in Hurlyburly), James Barbour (LOVED him in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, though I'd actually say he was the weakest in Voyage...oh well, at least he had a smallish part and he's pretty), Martha Plimpton (who'd-a thunk that "the girl from Goonies" would end up being such an impressive stage actress?? LOVED her in Sixteen Wounded and Shining City. Equally FABULOUS here), Jennifer Ehle (several near misses seeing her, but she was really heartbreaking in Voyage; glad to finally see her on stage), Amy Irving, and Richard Easton (when he hopefully returns for parts II and III). WOW! All I can say.

Really, if you can get tix, I'd highly recommend it. Even if you don't love it, it's a theatrical event that shouldn't be missed. It's such a massive undertaking, that it's impressive just in creative team having the balls to take it all on. The fact that it's execution is shaping up so swimingly is nothing short of thrilling!

Oh, and my main regret of the evening...Saw Tom Stoppard at intermissing, out back, smoking a cig. NO PEN! And I brought Voyage with me (to leaf through again on the train). BLAST!

Moving right along...Went movie hopping yesterday.

Marie Antoinette. Not impressed. I was really looking forward to this, but I was not impressed. I saw The Virgin Suicides, but I honestly don't remember anything about it (even whether I generally liked it or not...guess that's probably not a good sign!). I loved Lost in Translation, and while I don't really love Kirsten Dunst, I don't particularly dislike her either. Actually, I thought she was fine here.

And I didn't have a problem with the idea of using 80s music. I know a lot of people were bitching about that before it came out. I thought it would bring a fun campiness to it. Fine. What I did have a problem with was the fact that said music disappeared between the opening credits and a scene about an hour into the movie. Then it was present pretty regularly after that. WTF?!?! If you're going to commit to a stylistic filming style, commit to it! It was the same idea as a couple of supporting characters (Molly Shannon and that squeaky-voiced actress from Bridget Jones and HP) who were there quite a bit in the beginning and just disappeared, without any real explanation.

I thought using American accents was kind of odd, but I suppose it's not any stranger than automatically going to an English accent. And I suppose that's better than having half the cast butching a French accent (or a Brit accent for that matter). BUT, what I didn't understand was why her young daughter was French?? OK, so mom speak's English, but the 2 year old is all "Oh, regardez le fleur! C'est bleu!" To which Marie responds "Yes, it's blue. Isn't it pretty?" WHAT?!?!?

I don't know...It was definitely a disappointment. Very slow in parts and not at all consistant.

And finally:

The Departed. I was actually plesantly surprised with The Departed. I wasn't a fan of Scorcese's recent efforts. I really didn't like Gangs of New York, and while I liked The Aviator a bit more, I still thought it was long, and thought DiCaprio was sort of miscast in both.

This movie is defintiely not my type of movie. WAY more violent than I care for, but I'd heard such great things about it, and chances are it'll get some serious Oscar nominations, so I figured I'd give it a go. While I had more "stare at my feet" moments than I'd like, it was exciting, well-written, and VERY well-cast/acted.

DiCaprio was very, very good. I'm generally not a huge fan, though I do recognize that he's a good actor and that he got a raw deal with the Titanic juggernaut. Plus, he kind of won me over at that Aviator talkback/Q&A a couple years ago. He was total class-act, staying and talking to people, posing for pictures, etc.

Everyone else was great too. Nicholson was the best I've seen him in years. Damon, I think is generally very strong and was excellent. Mark Wahlberg is quickly becoming a...not favorite by any means, but I definitely have been impressed with him a lot lately. He and Alec Baldwin provided a some much needed laughs. Very good. My only complaint was Vera Farmiga. And I don't even think that was so much her general performance as her accent. Was it supposed to be a Boston accent? If it was, it was a mess. She was playing a shrink, and they should have had her just keep her regular accent (she totally could have moved to Boston from somewhere else...better than that half-assed thing she was trying to pass off).

Ugh! Sorry...way too long. You get the gist. I'm ending this abruptly, but it gets to a point where enough is enough!

Thanks for the link for the lyric hunt. I'll have to check that out!

Updated On: 10/22/06 at 10:50 AM

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 10:52am

Wow. I just popped in to say good morning.

I'm way behind on the thread, but I'll get caught up at some point today or tomorrow!

[mabel]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 11:04am

Hey Pat!!! Long time, no see! I missed you at Sweeney's last.

Hope all is well with you. Are you still coming in November? What's on the show-going agenda if you are??

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 11:32am

I actually didn't make the Sweeney trip. Something came up.

Anji and I will be out there the week of Thanksgiving though.

Not sure exactly what I am going to see. The only definite is Spring Awakening, but all of these are on the potential agenda:

Rent (assuming Hanke is still around)
The Fantasticks
A Chorus Line
Evil Dead: The Musical
Grey Gardens
High Fidelity
Company

[mabel]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 1:25pm

Oh no! Sorry to hear the Sweeney trip didn't pan out (god, we really haven't talked for a while!). It was definitely a special night.

Sounds like you have some good choices to pick from for your Thanksgiving trip (especially since Times isn't on it!). I've heard iffy things about High Fidelity, but I'm still curious about seeing it. And Company, Spring Awakening, and A Chorus Line are definitely on my To See list as well. It's shaping up to be a pretty busy season!!

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 1:53pm

Hi Pat! I recommend Grey Gardens as well. Ebersole is fantastic.
I'm seeing Company in December and I can't wait for that. I also want to see Spring Awakening and A Chorus Line.

Nic, I loved reading your review of "The Times..."; it sounds awful!

Unfortunately I don't know if I'll manage to catch any of The Coast of Utopia, even though I would like to. I usually prefer musicals and want to make sure I see the ones that I'm looking forward to. If I can squeeze it in sometime while I'm home, though, I will. I'm glad Billy gives a great performance.

Marie Antoinette and The Departed are at the top of my "movies to see" list. I've really been looking forward to Marie Antoinette for a long time; I loved both The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. Your complaints about it sound like things that would bug me as well, and it's gotten mixed reviews, but I really like Kirsten Dunst and I've heard lots of good things about her performance, which makes me happy. I'll probably try to see it next weekend. As for The Departed, I have to confess that it's mainly the hot guys that draw me to it. Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Walhberg...the opportunity to watch them for 2 hours is hard to pass up! I am actually a Scorsese fan and am excited to see his newest venture. So I'll probably try to see that soon as well. There's just not enough time for everything! I wish I were rich and didn't have to work; I would live in NYC and spend my time going to see Broadway shows and movies and reading fun books...that would be the life.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 3:47pm

I want to see Spring Awakening BAD

[mabel]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 3:58pm

I was kind of on the fence about Marie Antoinette. About 30-40 minutes in, I was really disliking it, but it picked up again for a while...then kind of trailed off again towards the very end. I don't know. I'd recommend seeing at some point (since you are a Dunst/Coppala fan) but I'd try to catch The Departed first (then again, it'll probably be kicking around in theatres longer than MA, so...).

The hot guy factor in The Departed is definitely not to be overlooked. While DiCaprio has been slowly winning me back over the past few years, he's never really done much for me in the looks department, but he was looking pretty damn good here. Matt Damon's always a go for me, and the more I see of Wahlberg, the more I enjoy him (though he does have a rather unfortunate 'do in this). Even though it was a big, bloody mess, I'd probably go back to see it again, knowing how everything pans out. There were a couple things that left me wondering, but not huge "that makes no sense" question marks, so it's all good.

I forget when I'm seeing Shipwreck (part II of Coast). Billy's supposed to have some pretty great stuff in that as well, so maybe I'll let you know which one's better and you could try to catch one part (or if I knew that all the Box Office people woul be as lacidasical with looking at IDs, I'd have you order studentix for me and send you a check...seriously, there's always that crazy anal guy at the Beaumont, and the guy there Friday barely looked at any of my stuff)...I've read that they all stand on their own pretty well, so maybe you could catch one of the two (Billy's not in the third part, and why see it totally sans Crudup?! No fun in that!). If nothing else, I wore some old footwear, and I can pass the old shoes along. Better than nothing, eh?

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 4:17pm

I'm home! I'm home! How is everyone? Disneyland was a truly fun and memorable trip. Went to Seattle yesterday to see Hugh Panaro in "Company". Loved it! What a great ensemble performance, he's gorgeous. Lordy, does he do it for me (and I was sitting third row centre for $20!)! Bigger review later.

Time to get caught up on my movies! Marie, Departed and Man Of The Year are on my list.

Went on a movie renting binge last week and saw "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (my first time seeing it all in full!), Pirates of the Caribbean (never saw it before) and "Requiem For A Dream", which now makes me understand why people think Ellen was robbed of an Oscar.

How was Marie visually, Mabs?

[DG]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 4:22pm

Just want to say 'hi' to Tiff - glad you're back - but I can't believe you were down here and I didn't get to see you!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 4:31pm

I know! I felt badly too because I would've loved to have met up with you and a couple of other BWW folk I keep in touch with here, but I had 2.5 days, two parks and a birthday, and my high-strung friends didn't give me any downtime. I'm hoping to go back to LA over Easter though, if possible.

The question is when will you be coming up HERE??

[DG]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 4:34pm

I completely understand about over-flowing activities! And I'll get up there when we stop flitting around to every other part of the west! I already had to cancel one trip to Seattle - and I thought DD was going to come south simply to smack me upside the head

[mabel]

Posted: 10/22/06 at 7:32pm

Hey Tiff!!! Glad to hear you had a fun trip!

On the visuals for MA...funny thing, I think I had a horrible print at the theatre I went to (not my usual AMC in the city...it was this little local rat-trap up where I'm staying for the time being). It was awfully dark and almost blotchy in places. It seemed to get better as it went along, but it was definitely distracting. If I wasn't planning on hopping to The Departed after it, I would have complained. Overall though (and certainly with a good print) I'd say the aesthetics of it was one of the film's stronger points. The costumes were lavish and gorgeous, and how could a movie filmed at Versailles not be stunning (to a certain extent, at least)?

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 12:46pm

Anyone interested in working together on U2's lyric hunt? The contest is up! I'm thinking 'Honolulu' is too easy of an answer, right??
The hunt is on!

[mabel]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 1:17pm

I'll have to check this out tonight. What's the deal? Are they randomly drawing a winner from all the people who get the right answer?

Wanna bring each other, should by some miracle either of us wins?!?!

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 1:33pm

Sure!

And yep, they're drawing the winner out of everyone who gets the correct answer. Which I think is better than choosing whoever gets it first, because I know I wouldn't win that (there are some pretty crazy fans who would do nothing but search for the lyrics all day).

[mabel]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 2:02pm

Before I/we go crazy with this...do you have to be a U2.com member to go for this (are you a member, I don't remember)?? I never joined, because I didn't feel like shelling out the $40 (or whatever it is) membership.

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 6:19pm

Nope, you don't have to be a member (and I'm not).

I've only gotten one letter so far (besides the L that's given on U2.com); I think they might pop up on the sites over the course of the next 2 weeks. Updated On: 10/23/06 at 06:19 PM

[mabel]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 6:54pm

Cool. I'm off to start my search now. I hope once they get posted they stay for the rest of the contest. It'd suck if it's like "we'll have a one day window that the clue's up there, hope you catch it." I don't want to be trolling through all those sites on a daily basis (especially since I can't really do it at work, and I'm on dail-up tempoararily at home)...who am I kidding, I'm going to spend an obscene amount of time trolling through those sites!