Lovely way to spend Xmas, or How Cheno loves the Gays

[Via The Piemaker]

Cheno + Xmas Carols = A more bearable experience than, say, Josh Groban singing Christmas Carols. Yes, I'm sure for some people this won't reach the heights of Holiday-themed songstress CDs that'll make a good November/December iTunes fave (think Ms McLachlan's Wintersong) but Ms Chenoweth is already on loop on my iPhone playlist (what with Wicked and all) so I'm kind of excited for this...

BUT

Cheno + Gay Tunes = My head is exploding. I mean, no disrespect to Barbra, but Little Miss Blond Tony Winner singing 'Papa can you hear me?' sounds like something out of a drag queen's wet dream mixed in with a Judy Garland + True Religion jeans cocktail... so gay it is a bit painful, if altogether exciting.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, or How Penelope will fuck you up!

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Directed and Written by Woody Allen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson

Okay so the title is a bit of a mouthful. But then, this is a Woody Allen comedy, n'est-ce pas?

VCB begins with - what else? - Vicky and Cristina moving into Barcelona for the summer. Christopher Evan Welch, acting as Allen's narrator/voice-over lets us into Vicky and Cristina's minds and attitudes towards art, life and love. Now, while at first I found the voice-over a bit too much, I stopped noticing it after a while, and realised that it was organically tied to the way the plot and the characters moved forward rather than a cop out for giving us information we wouldn't have gotten any other way.

The plot is deceptively simple: boy meets girls, invites girls for a trip and a threesome, girls follow through with the former but not the latter, both girls 'fall' for the boy. (The film really stresses the differences between Hall's Vicky and Johansson's Cristina: one is sensible, the other is erratic; one is romantic, the other is a romantic... and the moment the film splits in two we see what the choices they make do for their personal relationships with men: Vicky with her cookie-cutter (and utterly BORING) fiancee and Cristina with Juan Antonio - the boy in question.

But the story doesn't really pick up until boy's ex-wife comes into the picture. The moment Penelope Cruz walks on screen, the picture gains a level of energy and vibrancy that only Ms Cruz could have brought with her. Her Maria Elena is unstable, frantic, psychotic, sensual, dangerous and sexy all at once. You can say all you want about Woody Allen (that his films are pretentious, that he's not that funny or that sexy, that he's a mysogynist) but I dare anyone to watch the scenes Cruz has on this film and deny me the fact that Allen is a master at eliciting such natural and electric performances from gifted actresses as he does with Cruz (and I would add Hall and Johansson here too, but Cruz is the woman to watch). Just like her character adds a sense of balance and artistic flair to Juan Antonio's painting and Cristina's photography, Maria Elena's imbalance offers Allen the perfect touch to give this 'romantic comedy' an edge without which it would have just been a sexy (albeit quite sexually neutered) romantic fling film with pretty stars in an even prettier setting. A

SomeEcards, or How It's what I think... only Funnier!

How had I not come across someecards.com before? It's pretty much amazing how much time I wasted just today on it. Enjoy my fave three - and yes, it's because they hit close to home... and make it funny!

Amy Amelia Swank, or How I'm Seeing Double

Just remember:

Amy Adams >> Hilary Swank

That said, the baity role of Amelia Earhart will probably score Ms Swank a third Oscar for all we know, while more deserving actresses continue to dust their Oscar-less shelves **coughAnetteBeningcough**

Hair, or How yes, let the sunshine in!

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Book and Lyrics by Gerome Ragni & James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
Directed by Diane Paulus
With Ato Blankson-Wood, Steel Burkhardt, Jackie Burns, Allison Case, Lauren Elder, Jonathan Groff, Allison Guinn, Anthony Hollock, Kaitlin Kiyan, Andrew Kober, Megan Lawrence, Nicole Lewis, Caren Lyn Manuel, Patina Renea Miller, John Moauro, Darius Nichols, Brandon Pearson, Megan Reinking, Paris Remillard, Bryce Ryness, Saycon Sengbloh, Maya Sharpe, Kacie Sheik, Theo Stockman, Will Swenson, and Tommar Wilson.

Maybe it's because I'm not into hippies. Or because I'm not American. Or because I have been living in a bubble for my entire lives (said bubble responds to Canada! or Colombia! depending on the year) but Hair had always eluded me as a musical I'd be interested in. Funny how Jonathan Groff and a free ticket can change that.

Paulus' production - set at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, with its open space and grassy stage - begins with all the members of the cast dancing their way from all sides of the theater towards the stage, to the tune of Aquarius. Not to sound like a squinty Oscar winner but they had me at "When the moon..." -

After that, the vignettes that make up the show had me enraptured (despite the middle aged audience around me which seemed a bit too intent on reminiscing - and singing-along! - through the entire performance). And of course this was just reinforced, what with the witty script, the on-stage nudity, the amazing singing and the vibrant choreography. It even made me forget I was watching hippies... which, really, have never been my thang.There was so much energy on stage that I wasn't surprised when at the end they invited the audience to join them in a dance-fest to 'Let the Sunshine...'

There's more to be said, I'm sure. But as with any other wonderful theatrical experience, nothing beats the real thing. So catch it soon, before they run out of excuses for more extensions (after its third extension, Hair is running til Sept 14). A

"Come back to me!" or How it's a Brit-summer for me

Maybe it's because I studied at a British private school at home, but I do believe that the British do it differently... and by differently of course I mean better. Now to isolate what I mean by "it"... well, that would take up too much precious time. So let's leave it in ambiguity.

Back to my point: it seems as though (inadvertently of course!) I have been ensnared by stories set in or about Britain and I have to say, there is something alluring about that culture with its love affair with, well... impossible and restrained love affairs. That and a love for language and its power that I seldom encounter in American writers who go more for laconic, economic fiction/films. But enough of my wild generalizations, reviews of sort follow:

Atonement (film + book)
Yes. I had to go read McEwan's novel just to finally see for myself how McEwan's fiction created Briony Tallis (a character I fell in love with via Ms. Ronan, Ms. Garai and Ms. Redgrave - see here for my initial reaction to Wright's film). Needless to say it surpasses Wright's film (which I looove - I'm a sucker for ill-fated romantic affairs) and at times I just wanted to linger on McEwan's passages - even if I could have used less Dunkirk and more steamy library sequences.


The Remains of the Day (book + there's a film?! I had no idea... Netflixin' it now)
Ishiguro's prose; so straightforward yet so charged with insight and a level of subversive social commentary that is brought home (in all its irony!) by the unassuming narrating voice that delivers it. Oddly how as I'm writing this I realize that it makes a nice pairing with Altman's film - what with both dealing with English 'serving-class' and the (dis)advantage that that position comes with when it clashes with the personal and the social.


Gosford Park
Now, I know Altman is no Brit but Fellowes seems to have brought his Brit-cred to the screenplay (based on Altman's idea). All I need to say is: Maggie Smith! Actually, I'll just add Helen Mirren, Ryan Phillippe, Clive Owen... and oh, who am I kidding? Is this not the best assembled cast ever?! Good thing the material matches and surpasses it, if that is at all possible.



Match Point
I am very excited about Vicky Christina Barcelona even if I'm not a big fan of the title, but have found it very annoying how everyone keeps saying that it's Allen back in his A-game and see how journos everywhere have just taken Match Point as a hitch. If I ever find myself having random hitches in my career that match this steamy (and killer!) thriller, I'll count myself blessed.

The Line of Beauty (book + awaiting the Miniseries from Netflix while I finish the book...)
Now, I'm still working on Hollinghurst's novel but so far it's been a wonderful read: where else does one read steamy sex scenes involving English curly-haired boys as well as passages that linger on architectural beauty and Henry James? Exactly. Also, just like Altman and Ishiguro, Hollinghurst could easily be paired with Allen's film - social escalation, Upper English class setting... though let's hope there's no shooting Scarlett in this one.

Now, what English set or inspired novel/film should I tackle next...?

Mad Angel, or How I'm Seeing Double

Only something like this would get by me for (count 'em!) 16 episodes before I took notice:

Manuel's Apt.
Early Monday morning.

Manuel turns on his computer. Starts browsing blogs as per usual. Lingers on Whedonesque. Specifically this post: Vincent Kartheiser and the boys of Mad Men do a Style layout for Playboy. Of course, Manuel clicks on the link, enjoys the spread (trying to forget he is currently surfing the Playboy site!) and begins to wonder: why have the Whedonites linked to this? What Whedon-show was Pete Campbell in?

You'd think at this point it would just be a matter of putting 1 and 1 together. But no... Manuel has to go to IMDB. [Ed Note: seriously... he should be ashamed of himself, how did this get by him?!]

And then, it hits him...

Pete Campbell is Connor!

Needless to say this explains a lot:
- Why Manuel has always felt that Pete is kind of annoying in a 'I know you from before' kind of way.
- Why Manuel always thought that Pete's Daddy-issues were kind of familiar in a not-involving-Oedipus kind of way.
- Why Manuel always seems to forget about Angel S4. (Joss might have unwittingly made him a part of Angel's Wolfram & Hart memory-blanking thing...)

And now, I will try to forget this information as soon as this post is done (since I have started feeling for Pete after Season 2's second episode, and no bastard and annoying son of Angel is going to ruin that for me!)

mB's Theater! or How it's the 12 Movies Meme

Got linked for this Meme a while ago over at Valley Dreamin', but have been a bit too busy what with moving and stuff. Now, here goes.

The Rules:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

And now, I give you mB's Theater!

Day One:
Angels in America (Millenium Approaches & Perestroika)

Because I can't help but think seeing this in a big screen would be even better!



Day Two:
Intimacy (Closer & Heights)

I have always seen these two as complimentary films: Also - pretty people!



Day Three:
Whimsy Musicals! (8 Femmes & Once More With Feeling)

Just because I love the lengths both these musicals go to at once give homage and refresh the Musical Genre



Day Four:
Weddings! (My Big Fat Greek Wedding & My Best Friend's Wedding)

Because seeing it proves that this heteronormative tradition belongs in a Comedy.



Day Five:
Animation (Monsters Inc. & Spirited Away)

A girl. Monsters. Now watch how the style and narration and message differ.



Day Six:
Sleep & Memory (Sleeping Beauty & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

A gem from my childhood and a gem from my twenties. I'd be interested to see how they play together.

And now, to link people:

Vance from Tapeworthy
POP COLONY
... and everyone else I would have tagged has already done this. I need new blogging friends: any takers?

BtVS Animated Series, or How that was a missed opportunity if I ever heard one!

How cool is this?

Jeph Loeb (W), Eric Wight (P), Georges Jeanty (P/Cover), Andy Owens (I), Michelle Madsen (C), and Jo Chen (Cover)

On sale Nov 26
FC, 40 pages
$2.99
Ongoing

Acclaimed comic-book writer Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween) was set to executive produce, alongside Joss Whedon and animator Eric Wight, the proposed Buffy animated TV series. While Buffy fans won't be viewing that show anytime soon, Loeb, Wight,and Whedon offer the next best thing a comic inspired by the animated series!

Jeph Loeband Eric Wight takethe reins on Buffy Season Eight with this very special one-shot joiningseries artist Georges Jeanty, in a twisted tale picking up from the time-traveling Buffy/Fray crossover.

2008 Eisner Award winner Best New Series.

Executive produced by series creator Joss Whedon.

Jeph Loeb writes Buffy!

I wake pies and make the dead, or How I can't wait!

Cannot.Wait.

Things I love from the "trailer":

- Jim Dale's narration!

- The nun outfits!

- "I have something to say to you! to you! to you! and your hump!"

- The bees!

- "I'm sorry for your loss... and I do take credit card"

- Ned's wardrobe!

- A pig?

- The cross-like table at the nunnery!

- "I wake pies and make the dead"

- The silhouette that ends the snippet of Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles!

- "Conspiracies... how dramatic"

- Clowns?

Ah Grad Students, or How it's funny/sad cause it's true

Check out more of 'em here: xkcd.com (A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language)

Flash of Genius, or How look! It's Lorelei Gilmore!

There's nothing that makes me more allergic to a movie than the "based on a true story" label. I don't know what it is about it but it usually makes me just dismiss it as Award-bait (and I am an Awards junkie so I'm aware this makes no sense). But then, once in a while movies will come with that label that excite me. This happens mostly when I find an actor/actress in them that interest me (Jake and Robert D. in Zodiac; Russel and Paul in A Beautiful Mind): enter the Flash of Genius trailer.



Sure, the movie itself doesn't look too exciting (windshield wipers! domestic troubles! children!) but Greg Kinnear (of As Good as it Gets and Friends guestage fame) and a certain Ms Lauren 'Lorelei Gilmore' Graham will probably be enough to get me to buy a seat come October to see it.

Damn Yankees, or How Jenna and Jack rock my world!

Damn Yankees

Dir. John Rando

Choreography by: Bob Fosse

Starring: Sean Hayes, Jane Krakowski, Cheyenne Jackson, and Randy Graff.

I  have soft spot for Adler and Ross' Damn Yankees - I helped produce it at college a couple of years ago - and if watching friends slave over a musical over long and hard-working months doesn't make you appreciate a show, I don't know what will! - and so it was with some wistful nostalgia and anticipation that I bought myself a ticket and headed over to the New York City Center to see Jane 'Jenna from 30 Rock' Krakowski and Sean 'Jack from Will and Grace' Hayes bring Lola and Applegate to life.

Two hours + later, I found myself delighted at the production. Random thoughts ahead:

- Mr Jackson has a pretty voice and a pretty face, but little else going for him either showing he has no grasp of Joe, or playing so plainly he doesn't do justice the material.

- Sean Hayes is wonderful as Mr Applegate (even if Jack-isms lurk at every line-reading, but seriously: is that such a bad thing?) - he bats the hell out of Those Were The Good Old Days including some on-stage piano playing! That and seeing him mock Lola's "routine" were highlights of the show for me.

- Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO - At last I understand what baseball players do when they "practice," I knew all those bats couldn't be just for sporting purposes; they are dancing props people!

- Ms Krakowski is amazing. I fell in love with her back in her Ally McBeal time, love her now in 30 Rock and had only heard good things about her stints in Broadway. But nothing prepared me for her performance as Lola: she's such a natural (who else can slip from Marylin-like voices to Fosse moves as nonchalantly as she does in Whatever Lola Wants?) on stage that she made me just want to join her as she asked Who's Got the Pain [when they do the Mambo]? 

Yes, the show is a bit of a throwback and a traditional musical in every sense of the word, but jolly gosh! It's got heart and that won me over - plus, Fosse choreography people! (Two Lost Souls is a number elevated over the already fun material by the dancing) A

Shia LeBUSTED! or How what show should he "Rehab" in?

After her non-comeback year, depression, an awful hairdo, clinics, pills and umbrella attacks, Britney opted for the hah-larious How I Met Your Mother as the place where she would (and sorta did) show the world she's okay now (and funny if she wants to be).

Lindsay, after partying too much with the Hilton and the Ritchie and whoever else would enable her (including her mom?) decided to start cleaning up her act and going back to her Mean Girls roots and did a small cameo (that set up her arc in the upcoming 3rd Season) in Ugly Betty.

And now, joining the ranks of these two (even if men in Hollywood seem to always get it easier with the press: "He's living life!" "He's having fun" to the "She's out of control!" "It's so unseemly!") Shia LeIHateHisLastName is already in trouble again. Yes, Steven and George's (and Bay's! and Caruso's!) little It-Boy was busted... again. And so many franchises hinge on his nicely cut good-boy image that it led me to wonder: Where oh where will Shia go once he needs to "clean up" his act (even if secretly I'm hoping he doesn't - not because I hate him, but because I do wanna see someone else *coughTopherGracecough* in the role of Yorick Brown). Here are some suggestions:

He could go the K-Fed route and be in an episode of CSI. I can see it now: young hooligan gets in with the wrong crowd. A murder ensues. Investigation (with cool special FX and minimal acting) follows. This would be the "I'm being META" Guest gig (that, or if he wants even more Meta-guesting he could do so in 30 Rock, but as much as I would like everyone to see how Shia cannot meet the Tina/Jane/Alec standards of acting, I really don't want him getting an Emmy nom next year)

Or, he could go the way the girls did and choose a comedy. Let's see, he could do a CBS comedy:

Two and a Half Men (I would only wish this on never-really-been-it boys - Sorry Sheen!) - Shia plays a younger version of Charlie that reminds him how he started, though he's grown enough to give the guy some pointers. Somehow, even in its non-hilarity, the ratings go through the roof and I'm still left wondering how anyone watches this still...

The Big Bang Theory - here he would play himself and suffer from endless "What do you say sir, about the blatant inconsistencies in Indy IV?"/ "But do you really want us to believe anyone could survive a sword fight with Cate Blanchett... I mean, a nuclear explosion?" conversations courtesy of everyone's favourite fanboys. (See, I'd pay to watch that) - and no, he would not get any screen-time with Penny.

Or, y'know - if it gets that bad, he can always go to reality TV shows:

Dancing with the Shia. A one episode spin off where fangirls fight over the 'hunky' Disturbia actor through dancing competition only to win a date with the Last Hope for the Indy franchise. He would play all three guests, showcasing his acting chops (and one can only imagine that he has his faux-Brit-arrogant accent to a dime, except y'know... for the British part) - while all the while hearing confessions from the girls involved saying how they quit their job to be here, or how this would just make their 1 year old so proud... 

How about a guest-judging gig in Project Runway? Well, if SJP could pull it off why not make it an Indy-themed challenge? All you get are khakis and you need to come up with something new (yes - think the Levi's challenge only with Banana Republic sponsoring!) and that classic Indy outfit as your inspiration.

Ah, the possibilities are really endless. I mean, Disney could welcome him back and have him share hosting gigs with Nick Lachey, or Pushing Daisies could use him as a corpse at some point, or he could play an arrogant version of himself in Entourage or well... you get the idea, no?

Pushing Daisies Comic Con Panel, or How I'm jealous!

With Thor as my witness, I swear will make it to Comic Con next year, even if it breaks my budget. I went last year and it was a blast, and from having been there to reading and seeing pictures from third parties... it just don't feel right.

This is the case with the Pushing Daisies Panel. Thanks to The Pie Maker blog for posting pics and uploading the entire panel as a podcast. 

Things I learnt from hearing the podcast and looking at the pics:

- Chi is pronounced "Shay"

- Raul Esparza: we love that you got a gig on Broadway this fall, but why do you have to inconvenience your return to Pushing Daisies?

- There are possibilities for Wonderfalls/Dead Like Me crossovers - am I the only in the world who isn't as interested in that?

- September 16th = DVD/Blu Ray Release!

- Emerson's momma is gonna be coming on the show

- Anna Friel has a beautiful British accent (yes... I too sometimes forget she's British!) - and don't she and Lee look purdy in the pretty?

- Barry Sonnenfeld sounds like Karen Walker's nemesis Beverley Leslie.

- There'll be more singing! Yay! Singing! Yay Musical Episode!

- Kristin is probably one of my favourite showbiz people (and yes, I am also saying that cause I have seen her in person!) Also, doesn't she look purdy in the pic?

- Chi McBride is really funny, and in Sonnenfeld's words he's just 'tall and handsome' as Lee, only black. (Oh, Barry!)

- There's a nunnery involved in the premiere episode! (Yay, Sound of Music moment coming up for Cheno!)

- Fans are really crazy and go ape-shit over anything at Comic Con Panels.

- David Arquette will be joining the cast as a recurring character with the most amazing name in the Pushing Daisies universe: Randy Mann.

- Some of Cheno's "famous friends" (from Broadway we assume?) will be joining the show (for guestage, we assume?) - yay more singing!

- Uh... step away from fangirls who want to know how to knit a gun-coaster.

October 1st - you cannot come soon enough!