Month: October 2008

Via Kaleidotrope contributor Edd Vick comes this terrific 64-track cover of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It pays to watch it in full-screen.

Fran̤ois Macr̩ РThriller (reprise A'cappella 64 pistes)

• I’m sorry, Roger Ebert, but “little nuggets of armadillo surrounded by microscopic carrots and curlicues of raspberry-avocado-mint juice”?
• I don’t know what I find more unsettling, that a Sarah Palin impersonator could get on stage with John McCain so easily, or that her community theater mounted a production of High School Musical.
• If there’s any silver lining in Sarah Palin’s nomination — other than the voters who ran as fast as they could from McCain when the nomination was made, of course — is that it might make people appreciate Tina Fey more. Seriously, people, 30 Rock is damn funny.
• A bookstore with a liquor license? You know, if that’s what it takes to get people to buy more books…
• But do we really need another social networking site, this one tied to Barnes & Noble?
• Michael Palin for President suggests replacing all future Presidential debates “with bouts of Fish Slapping.” I can get behind that!
• In the Wicked Playbill, there’s an interview with Frank Langella, in which he says of his Frost/Nixon director, “Ron Howard doesn’t think in less than 20 takes…”
• Just how much of Frankenstein did Mary Shelley write? I’m fascinated by this sort of thing, and I’m reminded of the relationship between Raymond Carver and his first editor Gordon Lish There, too, questions over authorship and the role of an editor have arisen — so much so that it’s not always to say what’s the definitive authorial voice. [via]
• Were the 2nd century Roman emperors Dungeon & Dragons gaming nerds? Could be… could be… [via]
• Keith Phipps on The Omen III: “At one point, I started to feel sorry for the Foley artist who had to imagine what the sound of a baby being suffocated during a baptism would sound like.”
• One of the bad things about the Joker makeup — especially the rudimentary, naturalistic version of it that Heath Ledger wore — is that it lends itself to really lame, halfhearted costumes.
• And it occurred to me, listening to the drunken boors on the train tonight, that one of the biggest problems with the lies the McCain campaign has spread about Obama is that some people will actually start to believe them. (Or just pretend to. It’s hard to tell with drunken boors.)

Last week. This week:

1. “Green Grass” by Cibelle (orig. Tom Waits), guessed by Eric B.
   Can’t tell the birds from the blossoms
2. “Strange Currencies” by R.E.M., guessed by Eric B.
   The fool might be my middle name
3. “He Doesn’t Know Why” by Fleet Foxes
   You don’t say a single word of your last two years
4. “Little Bird” by Scott Matthew
   Happy songs, they’ve worked for some
5. “Every Time” by Glen Hansard & Colm Mac Con Iomaire (orig. Britney Spears)
   I fall without my wings
6. “Hey Bulldog” by Toad the Wet Sprocket (orig. the Beatles), guessed by Eric B.
   Big man walking in the park
7. “Tenderly” by Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem (orig. others)
   And lost in a sigh were we
8. “Instant Karma” by John Lennon, guessed by Eric B.
   Gonna knock you right on the head
9. “Overs” by Simon & Garfunkel, just about guessed by Eric B.
   We’re just a habit, like saccharine
10. “Cheap and Evil Girl” by Bree Shrap
    And you fantasize about the ample milky thighs you’d like to sample

As always, good luck!

Straw poll: Candy corn — for or against?

Last night, I went to see Wicked on Broadway. It was okay.

This was a company-sponsored event. We had a few rows of seats, free hats, and deeply discounted tickets. (Actually, I think they were deeply discounted. My ticket was $28 for a pretty decent orchestra seat, but I bought it back in March, and I have no clue what the going price for a Wednesday night show in October actually is.) I knew several of the people who attended, at least enough to nod good morning to them in the hallway, but a handful — like my boss, who’s at a conference in Chicago this week — didn’t show up, and a few others were complete strangers. The two older ladies sitting next to me, for instance, who left shortly after the start of the second act, were, I think, from another office entirely.

As for the musical itself…well, it’s fun, if a little loud and unremarkable. It’s basically a revisionist history of The Wizard of Oz, painting the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) as a misunderstood hero. It’s an intriguing idea, and treated with a lot of genuine humor. But, like Gregory Maguire’s original novel — which I read years before adapting it to Broadway was even suggested — I found a lot to like but too little to love. As a whole, I found it vaguely unsatisfying. (Maguire’s gone on to write two sequels — post-musical, it should be noted — and I haven’t had any inclination to read them.)

The musical absolutely belongs to the set design and its two leads, Elphaba and Glinda (“Gah-linda.”). Both actresses (whose names I’m afraid I don’t recall) do a terrific job with the material, but after awhile that thing the New York Times called “the ‘American Idol’ sensibility” — “larynxes stretch[ing] and vibrat[ing] with the pain of being an underdog and the joy of being really loud” — just gets old. I tuned out for a couple of numbers in the second act altogether, and I don’t think I understood much of anything the background players sang. With only one or two possible exceptions, there’s nothing I’d find myself humming afterward. (As a fan of Kristin Chenoweth’s work on Pushing Daises, I’m interested to check out the original cast album, on which she plays Glinda.)

Still, for that price, it was fun. I wish I’d bought a second ticket, since I think my mother would have enjoyed the show. And then I could have had dinner with her instead of wandering around Manhattan for three hours after work. I didn’t get home until after midnight, and I’m still pretty tired this morning, but overall I’m glad I went.