
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
'Rain' on Their Parade
The buzz on "A Steady Rain," Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig's much-hyped Broadway play, doesn't sound too good. Sure, we'd all jump at the chance to see Wolverine and James Bond together on stage, but this bit from the Times review probably says it all:
John Crowley directs with restraint, elegance and limited imagination. Working with the accomplished team of Scott Pask (scenery and costumes), Hugh Vanstone (lighting) and Mark Bennett (music and sound), he occasionally has Joey and Denny’s memories assume three-dimensional form, with mean streets and forbidding woods materializing from the darkness behind them. He needn’t have bothered. Nobody goes to “A Steady Rain,” which ends its hot-ticket limited run on Dec. 6, to look at scenery. The woman with whom I saw the show made her priorities clear afterward, and they are doubtless shared by many. If only, she said, the play had been set in a police station locker room, where the characters might frequently change clothes. As it was, she was thankful for the small mercy that, toward the play’s end, Craig finally removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. (Via NYT)
Dead On

Music Box: Prefab Sprout





After something so moving and so epic, it seemed to make sense that it would take seven years for a follow-up. (Who wouldn't be exhausted after that epic of an album???) But what a disappointing one 1997's "Andromeda Heights" was. The songs are a little less sophisticated and a lot more more syrupy, but it's the Kenny G-style saxophone that ruins nearly half of them, giving them an easy listening sheen they desperately do not need.

A few years ago, my friend Greg Jelinek and I set out to produce the ultimate Prefab Sprout rarities CD. The 43-song "Mine All Mine" was the end result, an epic collection of b-sides, outtakes and live tracks that still makes me wonder how this many good songs could have been left off the band's proper albums. That I never got to see them live is high on my list of musical regrets. (FYI: There's a great fan site is HERE.)



Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Say Cheese!



'If You Say 9/11 ONE More Time ...'
A federal judge has ruled that the Sept. 11 terror attacks CANNOT be brought up by the defense team of Bernard Kerik at his corruption trial,
"This is not about 9/11," Judge Stephen Robinson said at a pretrial conference. He said the attack was irrelevant to allegations that former police commissioner accepted apartment renovations from a construction company in exchange for recommending the company for city contracts. (Are there fan clubs for judges? LOVE him!)
Now if only this judge could do something about W., Cheney, Giuliani (insert GOP candidate here) ...
'Chinatown' Justice
There are bunch of articles going around on social-networking sites reminding us that "all sex crimes need to be punished." I agree, and I'm certainly not here to defend a 44-year-old man raping a 13-year-old girl. But -- and this is a HUGE "but" -- I think everyone needs to remember that Roman Polanski AGREED to be punished: he was ordered to and completed a psychiatric evaluation in a Chino, Calif., prison (isn't being in Chino punishment enough?) and the judge then agreed to sentence him to probation. (Was this a just punishment? Maybe not. But that's the deal that was hammered out at the time.) The judge then decided AFTER THE FACT that it wasn't enough (he's dead now, but by all accounts his motives were not in the name of justice) and wanted to break the agreement and increase the penalty, so Polanski ran. It may be true that plea deals fall through all the time, but would you want to be on the receiving end of the sentence of a publicity-hungry judge with a sudden ax to grind?
The real moral of this sad story is that the second judges begin to renege on plea bargains is the second the justice system crumbles.
A Love Story for 'Capitalism'

One Order of Identity Theft, Coming Up

A Fake in Bradys Clothing

Blame the Victim-izer
The big question on everyone's mind regarding Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland, of course, is: why now? Early rumors had it that the Swiss authorities were trying to make nice with the United States after getting on our bad side when we started demanding names of bank-account holders, something the Swiss are very private about. But now comes word that two law enforcement sources familiar with the case have told The Los Angels Times that Polanski's attorneys -- operating in post-"Wanted and Desired" mode -- helped provoke his arrest by complaining to an appellate court this summer that L.A. County prosecutors had made no real effort to capture the filmmaker in his three decades as a fugitive. Read the full story HERE.
Read my update HERE.
With Friends LIke This ...

Monday, September 28, 2009
Pants on Fire
Was wondering why my blog was getting all these hits for Michael Biserta, the studly New York firefighter (Brooklyn’s Ladder Co. 131) with the infamously large hose that he proudly showed off in a "Guys Gone Wild" video. Well, it seems he is the "other man" in the messy divorce between former Miss Teen New Jersey Jamie Czerniawski, and her estranged husband, Charles, whom she allegedly stabbed when he became enraged after finding racy text messages between Jamie and Michael. (The couple are no strangers to sharing each other: they have appeared on the reality show "Wife Swap.") Not to be outclassed, in February the fire hunk got engaged to his Staten Island girlfriend, Danielle Cipriano, and their wedding Web site stating they are to be married on Oct. 10, 2010.
“I want to let you know just how fucking bad I wanna fuck you right now!!!! Can you get out??” Czerniawski, 30, asks Biserta, 25, in a May 18 text.
Earlier that day, she wrote Biserta: “I miss your lips!”
“Want you,” the smoke eater replied.
“Mmm, can’t wait!!!!!!!!!”" she texted.
Biserta, clearly indicated they had had a firehouse hookup in the past, then wrote: "If your [sic] in Brooklyn you can stop by. [It] won’t be like last time so I wouldn’t even bother ... it’s usually not that quiet around the fh [firehouse] but we’ll work something out ..."
I don't know about you, but this white-trash love triangle has me on fire ...
Hire Education

Incest Is Best (for Ratings, Anyhow)

Like I did, Stanley notes Mack's "surprisingly matter-of-fact" recounting of the whole thing ("as a public service she wanted to tell the world that she willingly had sex with her rock-singer father, John Phillips"), how Mack "could hardly have offered viewers anything less" if she wants to sell her memoir, and Oprah's "polite but wary distance" from her guest, "as if bracing herself for the possibility that the story could be discredited." (Having finally heard that several people who aren't Mackenzie or people Mackenzie told -- like Denny Doherty's daughter and Owen Cass -- knew about the affair in the '80s has finally convinced me that she's being truthful, for whatever that's worth.)
Stanley ends with this wonderful thought:
Winfrey, who looked dismayed and quizzical throughout the narrative, couldn’t help asking when it was that Phillips realized, “how wrong and vulgar and shaming this all was." Wrong, vulgar and shaming. That’s the least of it, but these days, in Hollywood and Washington, it’s the price of re-entry.
Speaking of which, it seems Mack has landed herself a job on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab" (way to go, Dr. Drew!), which might explain why sis Chynna jumped on the Jesus bandwagon. (Can I come, too?)
On the Rag, Vol. 57


RIP: William Safire
Call us a bunch of wordnerds, but it was a real thrill for my family when The William Safire wrote kindly in his On Language column about my brother Bill's second book, "The Elephants of Style" ("His 'gray areas' are stimulating." ) Like him or not, Safire led an interesting life. Here's my favorite part of his Times obit:
Years later, Safire called Hillary Rodham Clinton a “congenital liar” in print. Clinton said she was offended only for her mother’s sake. But a White House aide said that Bill Clinton, “if he were not the president, would have delivered a more forceful response on the bridge of Mr. Safire’s nose.” Safire was delighted, especially with the proper use of the conditional.
Morning Wood: Latin Lovers Edition



The inside is nearly as good, with some new and familiar faces to start you morning off right:



It's Kenny With a K, Not Denny With a D ...

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Better Off Red?

