#i love kevin hass

[akisauthority]

they could never make me hate you observer

[soracities]

what are your suggestions for starter poetry for people who dont have strong reading/analysis backgrounds

I've answered this a few times so I'm going to compile and expand them all into one post here.

I think if you haven't read much poetry before or aren't sure of your own tastes yet, then poetry anthologies are a great place to start: many of them will have a unifying theme so you can hone in based on a subject that interests you, or pick your way through something more general. I haven't read all of the ones below, but I have read most of them; the rest I came across in my own readings and added to my list either because I like the concept or am familiar with the editor(s) / their work:

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (ed. Nick Astley) & Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive (there's two more books in this series, but I'm recommending these two just because it's where I started)

The Rattlebag (ed. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes)

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (ed. Ilya Kaminsky & Susan Harris)

The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (ed. Robert Hass)

A Book of Luminous Things (ed. Czesław Miłosz )

Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass (this may be a good place to start if you're also looking for commentary on the poems themselves)

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World(ed. Pádraig Ó'Tuama)

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (ed. Kevin Young)

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing (ed. Kevin Young)

Lifelines: Letters from Famous People about their Favourite Poems

The following lists are authors I love in one regard or another and is a small mix of different styles / time periods which I think are still fairly accessible regardless of what your reading background is! It's be no means exhaustice but hopefully it gives you even just a small glimpse of the range that's available so you can branch off and explore for yourself if any particular work speaks to you.

But in any case, for individual collections, I would try:

anything by Sara Teasdale

Devotions / Wild Geese / Felicity by Mary Oliver

Selected Poems and Prose by Christina Rossetti

Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein

Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

Revolutionary Letters, Diane di Prima

Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Rose: Poems by Li-Young Lee

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls by Maram al-Masri

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Tell Me: Poems / What is This Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins (Billy Collins is THE go-to for accessible / beginner poetry in my view so I think any of his collections would probably do)

Crush by Richard Siken

Rapture / The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail

Selected Poems by Walt Whitman

View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska

Collected Poems by Vasko Popa

Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas (this is a play, but Thomas is a poet and the language & structure is definitely poetic to me)

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire,

Nostalgia, My Enemy: Selected Poems by Saadi Youssef

As for individual poems:

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

[Dear The Vatican] erasure poem by Pádraig Ó'Tuama // "The Pedagogy of Conflict"

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"The Author Writes the First Draft of His Weddings Vows (An erasure of Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard)" by Hanif Abdurraqib

"I Can Tell You a Story" by Chuck Carlise

"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth

"One Last Poem for Richard" by Sandra Cisneros

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky

“I’m Explaining a Few Things”by Pablo Neruda

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" //"Nothing Gold Can Stay"//"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost

"Tablets: I // II // III"by Dunya Mikhail

"What Were They Like?" by Denise Levertov

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden,

"The Patience of Ordinary Things" by Pat Schneider

“I, too” // "The Negro Speaks of Rivers” // "Harlem” // “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes

“The Mower” // "The Trees" // "High Windows" by Philip Larkin

“The Leash” // “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance” // "Downhearted" by Ada Limón

“The Flea” by John Donne

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

"Beauty" // "Please don't" // "How it Adds Up" by Tony Hoagland

“My Friend Yeshi” by Alice Walker

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica"byJohn Burnside

“What Do Women Want?” // “For Desire” // "Stolen Moments" // "The Numbers" by Kim Addonizio

“Hummingbird” // "For Tess" by Raymond Carver

"The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin

“Bleecker Street, Summer” by Derek Walcott

“Dirge Without Music” // "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Digging” // “Mid-Term Break” // “The Rain Stick” // "Blackberry Picking" // "Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

“Dulce Et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen

“Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition”by Wislawa Szymborska

"Hour" //"Medusa" byCarol Ann Duffy

“The More Loving One” // “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden

“Small Kindnesses” // "Feeding the Worms" by Danusha Laméris

"Down by the Salley Gardens” // “The Stolen Child” by W.B. Yeats

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

"The Last Love Letter from an Entymologist" by Jared Singer

"[i like my body when it is with your]" by e.e. cummings

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski

"The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje

"Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" by Paige Lewis

"A Dream Within a Dream" // "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (highly recommend reading the last one out loud or listening to it recited)

"Ars Poetica?" // "Encounter" // "A Song on the End of the World"by Czeslaw Milosz

"Wandering Around an Albequerque Airport Terminal” // "Two Countries” // "Kindness” by Naoimi Shihab Nye

"Slow Dance” by Matthew Dickman

"The Archipelago of Kisses" // "The Quiet World" by Jeffrey McDaniel

"Mimesis" by Fady Joudah

"The Great Fires" // "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart" // "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

"The Mermaid" // "Virtuosi" by Lisel Mueller

"Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)" by Jamaal May

"Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

I would also recommend spending some times with essays, interviews, or other non-fiction, creative or otherwise (especially by other poets) if you want to broaden and improve how you read poetry; they can help give you a wider idea of the landscape behind and beyond the actual poems themselves, or even just let you acquaint yourself with how particular writers see and describe things in the world around them. The following are some of my favourites:

Upstream: Essays by Mary Oliver

"Theory and Play of the Duende" by Federico García Lorca

"The White Bird" and "Some Notes on Song" by John Berger

In That Great River: A Notebook by Anna Kamienska

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

"Of Strangeness That Wakes Us" and "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky" by Ilya Kaminsky

"The Sentence is a Lonely Place" by Garielle Lutz

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Paris, When It's Naked by Etel Adnan

[oscarp81astri]

I cannot stop thinking about what effects this Lewis move means. Who’s getting the merc seat? Are we getting George and Alex together, and get another brocades? Would toto bring mick back in? Where is Carlos going to go?? Would he take a year off then come back with Audi? I heard red bull might bring him back, would they pick him over Daniel (you know they love dannys publicity)? I’d bet my entire life savings on Kevin and Nico not staying on the grid after this season, would hass bring him in along with a rookie?? It’s 10pm and I’m spiraling

[rehcciardo]

Unpredictable Hungary never fails

It’s Saturday. It’s raceweekend. It’s Qualitime. A real wet one today.

I’m writing this review whilst watching the Qualifying this time. Let’s see how it works out :D

But one of the highlights of today happened during the FP3 session. Nicholas Latifi was the fastest guy on track. What the actual fuck? Charles didn’t belive it too. At least he asked his mechanic about Latifis time and if he was also on inters. And Alex got P3. Honestly it looked so wrong on the result screen xD 

But let’s see what they are dooing in the Qualifying now. Could be interesting with the mixed conditions in Hungary this afternoon. The track is dry enough to use slicks but there are some really dark clouds in the sky. So you never know if there might will be rain.

Q1:

I’m  glad that Aston Martin could fix Sebs car after his crash earlier today. Would be a shame if Seb had to skip Qualifying due of a broken car. I want him to have a good last season. As good as it can be in a Aston Martin.

The last minutes were thrilling! The track got better and better. I literally screamed at McLaren to let Daniel out again, when he was 15th and everyone became faster. There is no time to stay in the box guys!!!!! But in the same moment he went out of the box. Please Mclaren I can’t do this everytime! But he landed on P7 and Lando P5. Okay go on like this but please don’t make it more exiting than it has to be. 

Noo Seb is out. He sounded so sad and it broke my heart into pieces :(. Lance showed Q2 was absolutly possible.

Both Alpha Tauri didn’t make it into Q2 as well. Gaslys time was deleted because he exeedet track limits.Let’s hope he can gain a few positions tomorrow but I don’t see him in the points sadly.

To end Q1 with something nice: Hamilton and Russell finished the first Qualifying session on P1 and P2! Good job mercboys

Q2:

Lando started the second session with a fantastic lap. It’s always lovely to see a McLaren on P1 even when it’s just for a short time.But P6 isn’t that bad. And Daniel’s fastest lap was pretty close to Landos time! YES! That’s my boy!!!!!! Q3 BABY!

They deleted Checos lap time at first due of exeeding track limits but he got the timed lap back and I would say it was the right desicion I don’t think i was off the track at all.But it didn’t help. He ended on P11 because he had traffic (Magnussen) in the last lap. But this don’t explain Checos huge gap to Max. I hope he will figures out what’s wrong this weekend.

I’m sad that Mick and Kevin were both out after Q2 but in the moment Haas is struggeling very much and I wouldn’t expect them in Q3 anyways. I hope that Hass will find out how to get the best out of the updated car as soon as possible.

Q3:

The best thing of Q3 is, that Daniel will start in the top ten. And he ended P9. Okay he was benefited of max having engine issues and without that he would be p10 but I’m a happy little papaya girl right now <3

What an amazing lap by Carlos in the beginning!

Max messages at the team radio was shocking. But to be honest I wouldn’t mind if Ferrari could get some points back in the championchip. But it’s sad to see Max on P10. 

GEORGE GOT POLE!!!!!!! WOW! Who would thought? Merc pole on Ferrari soil. Not me to be honest. As much as I want to see Charles win.... I wouldn’t mind if George will win the race tomorrow either!

Lando is a beast. P4. This guy is amazing!

A really lovely top 10 for the race tomorrow. An Hungary is always good for a surprise. I’m more excited for tomorrow than I would have though I’d be. Lets hope for an exciting and surprising last race before we head into the summer break. Se you tomorrow!

[benvolio-writes]

2018 Poetry To-Read List (part one?)

Finally, I was able to sit down and write up a list of books I wanted to read in 2017 but didn’t get a chance too. I hope to get these read in the first half of the year. Since I work full time and am planning to go back to school soon, this will be a bit of a challenge. 

The list isn’t as extensive and I  just need the confidence and the discipline to reach my goal.  (My birthday is near the summer solstice so I’m going to make it my goal date.)

So here is what I’m looking at in no particular order: 

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kapur

Book of Hours by Kevin Young

Blue Laws by Kevin Young

Bone by Yrsa Daley

Poet in Spain by Frederico Garcia Lorca

How Lovely the Ruins by Spiegel and Grau

Work and Days by Tess Taylor

A Little Book on Form by Robert Hass

Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder

Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons 

What it Means When Men Fall From the Sky By Lesley Nneka Arimah

City of Bones by Kwane Dawes

There are More Beautiful Things than Beyonce by Morgan Parker 

[lindyhunt]

Stay on a Hollywood Movie Set at These Landmark Canadian Hotels

Breathtaking, historic, elegant, iconic—these aren’t just the hotel qualities that attract a luxury traveller, they’re what Hollywood filmmakers search for as a backdrop for their next blockbuster. And that’s exactly why you see Fairmont properties around the world show up on the big screen. Alfred Hitchcock chose the Fairmont San Francisco hotel as the setting for Vertigo (1958); Steven Spielberg‘s Empire of the Sun (1987) shot scenes at the art deco interiors of the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai; The Plaza, a Fairmont managed hotel, has been a film location for everything from Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) to Home Alone 2 (1992) to The Great Gatsby (2013).

In celebration of Fairmont’s storied history with cinema, the hotel brand created Fairmont Loves Film: a series of pop-up events and retrospective photo exhibits that launched during the 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival with Gia Coppola, the program’s Ambassador. Toronto proved itself as the perfect city to kick off the world-travelling exhibit—and not just because the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Lady Gaga and Penelope Cruz were spotted walking the halls of the Fairmont Royal York as part of the festival.

Here in Canada, we have a few hotel movie stars of our own. Keep scrolling to see a few of the famous films that have graced the Fairmont’s hallways here in Hollywood North.

Jessica Chastain in Molly’s Game (2017), Photography via IMDB

Fairmont Royal York, Toronto

Molly’s Game (2017), the Aaron Sorkin directed film starring Jessica Chastain, Kevin Costner and Idris Elba, shot at the Fairmont Royal York before returning to the city to premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The hotel provided numerous backdrops for the movie, including a room modelled in the style of The Plaza, where the real-life Molly Bloom held her infamous poker games. Here’s a short list of the other films the Fairmont Royal York has served as a backdrop for: The Killing Fields (1984); Serendipity (2000); The Tuxedo (2001); Where the Truth Lies (2005); Cinderella Man (2005), Hollywood Land (2006); Take the Lead (2006); Red (2010); Chloe (2009); RoboCop (2014); Miss Sloane (2016); and Spotlight (2015).

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Photography via IMDB, Chuck Zlotnick – © Universal Pictures

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

Vancouver is affectionately known to those in the industry as “Hollywood North”, which means the city’s landmark Fairmont Hotels is frequently buzzing with celebrities and film shoots. It’s where two of the steamiest movie franchises to hit the big screen — Twilight: Eclipse (2019), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and Fifty Shades Darker (2017) — filmed their sexiest scenes. The Good Wife (2009); V (2010) and The Age of Adaline (2015) starring Blake Lively and Harrison Ford have also used the hotel as a set location.

Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in Taking Lives (2004), Photography via IMDB

Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, Québec City

Quebec City’s cobblestone streets and historic French architecture provide a medieval-like setting that can’t be replicated anywhere else in North America —not even on a movie set. That’s why Alfred Hitchcock took his film crew to the Quebec capital for his 1953 psychological thriller, I Confess. The film opens with a shot of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, the world’s most photographed hotel, and stars Montgomery Clift, O.E. Hasse, and Anne Baxter. Hichcock’s film inspired the director of Taking Lives (2004), D. J. Caruso, to shoot his Ethan Hawke and Angelina Jolie led film in the same dramatic space.

Anthony Hopkins and Elle Macpherson in The Edge (1997), Photography via IMDB, © 1997 20th Century Fox

Fairmont Banff Springs

A picturesque castle in the Rockies surrounded by forest and fauna? It’s a filmmakers dream. Several films have been made here over the years, including River of No Return (1954) starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum.  Other movies filmed at Fairmont Banff Springs include The Edge (1997), a dramatic thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Elle Macpherson; and Goose on the Loose (2011) with Chevy Chase, James Purefoy and Max Morrow.

[larryland]

by Barbara Waldinger

The Mac-Haydn Theatre, celebrated for its spectacular musical revivals, opened its 50th season with the Tony-award winning Damn Yankees. The performance delivered on its promise of outstanding singer/dancers directed (by John Saunders) and choreographed (by Brian Knowlton) to a fare-thee-well.

Damn Yankees first opened in 1955, written by George Abbott and Douglas Wallop, based on Wallop’s novel:  The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.  Abbott directed, Bob Fosse choreographed, and Richard Adler and Jerry Ross wrote the music (as they had for Pajama Game).   The producers sought a female dancer for the leading lady and eventually settled on Gwen Verdon, a dancer who had only sung one song in her previous show:  Can-Can.  Bob Fosse took a chance with her, Verdon won a Tony for her performance and they married in 1960.  A 1994 Broadway revival with Bebe Neuwirth was also awarded a best musical Tony.

The show is set in the mid-1950s, during a stretch when the New York Yankees won the American League pennant virtually every year.  In a retelling of the Faust legend, the middle-aged Joe Boyd (Steven Hassmer), disgusted with his beloved Washington Senators’ terrible record, screams:  “I’d sell my soul for one long ball hitter.”  Presto!  The devil—Mr. Applegate (Mark Hardy) arrives amidst a red cloud of smoke, and proposes that he convert the Senators into champions by changing Boyd into young phenom Joe Hardy (Michael Brennan).  Boyd cannot resist this temptation, but he insists on an escape clause that will allow him to return to his normal life and loving wife (Julie Galorenzo) if chooses to do so by the end of the baseball season.  Fearing that Joe will slip through his fingers, Applegate employs his lovely seductress, Lola (Corrinne Turk) to seal the deal.  And will he abandon his wife for the siren Lola?

The production values are top notch, as we have come to expect from the Mac-Haydn Theatre.  The number and style of  period costumes (by Jimm Halliday) are amazing, especially considering that this is only the first show of the season.  The three-piece suits in white or black with touches of red designed by Halliday for Applegate are stunning as are Lola’s outfits.  The lighting (by Andrew Gmoser) creates magical moments from moonlight and stars, to blinking blubs ringing the ceiling, to the darkness of the denizens of hell.  Musical director David Maglione provides his own kind of magic, with the few instruments sounding like a full orchestra.  Music accompanies actors dressed as movers while they effortlessly relocate set pieces onto and off of the stage, as designed by Kevin Gleason, including an upstage platform representing the Boyds’ home. Saunders and Knowlton keep the action moving from beginning to end, with some thirty performers charging headlong, in and out and through the aisles.

Because the stage is so tiny, the aisles must stay clear, which means the performance cannot begin until everyone is seated in this theatre-in-the round.  Many audience members, some with walkers, canes, and wheelchairs, are transported by bus from senior residences so it takes a good deal of time to seat everyone both at the beginning and after intermission.  This can be a challenge in a show as long as Damn Yankees, running two and a half hours with an additional 25 minute intermission.

While some of the songs have become standards, such as: “You Gotta Have Heart,” and “Whatever Lola Wants,” others, perhaps less well-known, can be rollicking, like the hoedown in “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO,” wonderfully comic (“The Game”) when the players force themselves to think about the game instead of their girlfriends, or moving, as in the ballads “Goodbye, Old Girl,” sung by Hassmer, and “Near to You,” a duet with Brennan and Galorenzo.   All of the singers have strong voices in this production but these three are standouts.

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Having seen the original Broadway production of Damn Yankees as a child, I was anxious to return to it after all these years.  But the script doesn’t hold up as well as I remembered:  in this age of #metoo, it is difficult to watch the sexy Lola be foisted on the young Joe.  It is unclear why Applegate tries to undermine his protégé by creating a scandal that seemingly prevents the devil from adhering to his part of the bargain.  And that first act could definitely benefit from some cutting of songs and reprises that don’t further the plot.

But outstanding performances make up for deficiencies in the script:  Mark Hardy is a smart and smarmy devil, setting just the right tone for Applegate;  Galorenzo and Hassmer are a convincing middle-aged couple—the counterpoint in their song “Six Months Out of Every Year” is a joy to see and hear, as Hassmer rages about his team’s loss;  Brennan makes it easy for us to accept him as Joe’s younger self with his combination of enthusiasm and wistfulness;  Corrinne Turk is a fine singer/dancer as Lola;  Doris (Emma Flynn) and her sister (Maggie Eley)  playing neighborhood women as comic caricatures,  are welcome additions to the plot; Gabe Belyeu as Van Buren, the team’s manager and Monk Schane Lydon, as the owner, with his gravelly voice and cigar are a perfect duo; and Megan Hasse as Gloria Thorpe, the reporter, shines.

Look for Funny Girl in June, Mac-Haydn’s next musical extravaganza.  Count on this theatre to do it justice!

DAMN YANKEES runs from May 24-June 3 on Thursdays at 2 & 8; Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 4 & 8, Sundays at 2 & 7 and during the second week on Wednesday at 2 at The Mac-Haydn Theatre.  Tickets may be purchased online at www.machaydntheatre.org or call 518-392-9292.

The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents DAMN YANKEES by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop.  Directed by John Saunders.  Cast:  Steven Hassmer (Joe Boyd), Michael Brennan (Joe Hardy), Julie Galorenzo (Meg Boyd), Mark Hardy (Applegate), Maggie Eley (Sister), Emma Flynn (Doris), Gabe Belyeu (Van Buren), Megan Hasse (Gloria Thorpe), Monk Schane Lydon (Welch), Corrinne Turk (Lola) and others.  Choreographer:  Brian Knowlton; Musical Director:  David Maglione; Costume Design:  Jimm Halliday; Scenic Design:  Kevin Gleason; Lighting Design:  Andrew Gmoser; Sound Design/Audio Engineer:  Monica Gonzales-Burgos; Stage Manager: Sarah Kozma.

Running Time:  three hours including a 25 minute intermission; The Mac-Haydn Theatre, 1925 Route 203, Chatham, NY; Wednesdays (second week only) through Sundays from 5/24; closing 6/3.

REVIEW: “Damn Yankees” at the Mac-Haydn Theatre by Barbara Waldinger The Mac-Haydn Theatre, celebrated for its spectacular musical revivals, opened its 50th season with the Tony-award winning…

[njawaidofficial]

'Tour de Pharmacy' Review | Hollywood Reporter

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/07/tour-de-pharmacy-review-hollywood-reporter/

'Tour de Pharmacy' Review | Hollywood Reporter

Andy Samberg and Murray Miller’s HBO follow-up to ‘7 Days in Hell’ is a hit-or-miss, but mostly hit, mockumentary look at drug use in cycling.

Lance Armstrong plays a key role in the HBO mockumentary Tour de Pharmacy, winking and nudging at the multiple decades that he cheated, contributed to the undermining of the entirety of a sport and lied about it to anybody who would listen. It is only with the respect due to Armstrong for the millions in cancer research money he generated that I politely tell both him and Tour de Pharmacy that it’s still time for atonement and remorse and not yet time for mirth.

Fortunately, when it isn’t asking you to chuckle along with Armstrong’s coy self-awareness, Tour de Pharmacy is smart, silly and often hilarious, and a worthy follow-up to creators Andy Samberg and Murray Miller’s 2015 tennis lark 7 Days in Hell.

If we’re in the golden age of TV documentaries — a made-for-TV documentary even won the Oscar this year, as you may have heard — it’s fitting that we’re in the golden age for TV mockumentaries as well. The brand Samberg and Miller are building at HBO is probably the other side of the coin from what Samberg’s former Saturday Night Live colleagues developed in IFC’s often brilliant Documentary Now!

With Documentary Now!, the source documentary is the thing. Punchlines almost never violate the structure and style of the film being honored, as Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers and their directors introduce gags only to the degree they’re permitted by the precedent set by the Maysles brothers or Errol Morris or whomever. I love Documentary Now!, and I also know that its popularity will always be intentionally limited by what is essentially an intellectual experiment performed by a group of documentary nerds for an audience of documentary nerds.

With the Samberg and Miller mockumentaries, both helmed by Jake Szymanski, the joke is the thing. Szymanski knows the form and aesthetic of the HBO Sports documentaries they’re aping, but nothing in the brand is too sacred that it can’t be sacrificed for a penis joke, an extended animated sequence, a penis joke, an intentionally distracting star cameo, a penis joke, a tangentially related Finish commercial or even a penis joke.

After 7 Days in Hell, which looked at the legendary [fictional] finale of Wimbledon 1996, Tour de Pharmacy travels back even further in time and looks at the [fictional] 1982 Tour de France, in which “virtually every rider in the race was doping.”

There are many reasons for and results from that added historical distance. In terms of jokes, it lets Szymanski and Miller dig into a deep pool of Generation X cultural references, from video games to Schoolhouse Rock, taking the chuckles well beyond (if not necessarily deeper than) the hair-and-costuming nostalgia of 7 Days in Hell. In terms of disingenuousness, it puts us a decade before Armstrong’s arrival on the cycling scene, his years as a cheater and 30 years before his lifetime ban, which I guess makes it OK for a mockumentary to giggle with a man who lied to countless journalists and filmmakers. Seriously, Lance Armstrong. Have the decency to go away.

It’s in terms of casting that the 35 years pay the biggest dividends. Tour de Pharmacy focuses on just a handful of the 1982 cyclists, including African blood-diamond heir Marty Hass (Samberg), Jackie Robinson’s boundary-breaking nephew Slim Robinson (Daveed Diggs), aggressively juiced Gustav Ditters (John Cena), secret-hiding Adrian Baton (Freddie Highmore) and JuJu Peppi (Orlando Bloom), whose heart explodes in the special’s opening scene (and opening penis joke). Each of the characters is played by a different actor decades later, and the genius of the matched casting is so wonderful only the cruelest of TV critics would spoil it for you. The casting is so exceptional that each older actor’s first appearance was enough to make me laugh, context aside.

As with 7 Days in Hell, Tour de Pharmacy capitalizes on its brevity and its one-off status to get an impressive assortment of stars to make loopy drop-in appearances. Will Forte as a gendarme with a limited French vocabulary? Sure. Kevin Bacon as a sleazy racing official? Of course. Chris Webber, Mike Tyson (as problematic as Armstrong) and J.J. Abrams as themselves, in sometimes bizarre contexts? Why not? James Marsden, always a good sport, has a larger role as a reporter who takes on a bigger role as the Tour progresses.

As was also the case with 7 Days in Hell, Tour de Pharmacy doesn’t lack for jokes that fall a little flat, but unlike Documentary Now! — where the possibility exists that you could go through a full episode and simply not get the reference or extended, elaborate bit — the formula here is just to race from one thing to the next. A minor dud or two is sure to be followed by a big hit, and with a running time of 39 minutes, there’s zero risk that Tour de Pharmacy will overstay its welcome.

These are just odd and effective things Samberg and Miller apparently just get to do when they have the inspiration, and I hope that HBO doesn’t attempt to make this into a more regularly scheduled thing. Don’t kill the golden goose that lays the penis joke eggs! But also please leave the door open for a Samberg/Miller boxing mockumentary, perhaps loosely inspired by On Freddie Roach, in 2019. It practically writes itself, guys!

Premieres: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET/PT (HBO)

Source

[larryland]

by Macey Levin

Hello, Dolly!, an American classic, is receiving a terrific revival on Broadway with Bette Midler.  It is also receiving a terrific revival at Chatham, New York’s Mac-Haydn Theatre with a marvelous Dolly and a spirited and talented cast.

Based on Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, the original production, directed by Gower Champion, opened in 1964 and ran for 2844 performances, closing in 1970.  Dolly Gallagher Levi has become Carol Channing’s signature role; at one time or another she was followed by Ethel Merman, Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable and Pearl Bailey among others.  A movie starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Gene Kelly in 1969 didn’t match the charm or artistry of the original.

The story, taking place in the late 19th century, centers around widowed matchmaker Dolly’s pursuit of Horace Vandergelder, Yonkers, New York’s “half-a-millionaire.”  As she conspires to get him to propose, three younger couples find their own romance and, of course, everything ends happily.

With a book by Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s music and lyrics, Mac-Haydn’s production is a gem.  At the opening performance the first few minutes felt somewhat tentative, but after Monica M. Wemitt gives us a charmingly conniving Dolly with “I Put My Hand In,” the show flies with dazzling choreography by Sebastiani Romagnalo and sparkling staging by director John Saunders.

Herman’s score includes the show’s incomparable title song (and Louis Armstrong’s biggest popular hit) as well as other effective but not as highly reputed numbers.  In particular, there are the wistful “Ribbons Down My Back” sung beautifully by the milliner Irene Molloy (Rachel Rhodes-Devey) and “Before the Parade Passes By” opened by a reflective Dolly then expanding to a rousing, exciting showstopper that includes the entire cast.  “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” sung by Cornelius Hackl (Ryan Michael Owens,) Barnaby Tucker (Dan Hacke) and the entire company is one of Romagnalo’s most imaginative dance numbers.  The “Waiter’s Gallop” which leads into “Hello, Dolly” is almost beyond belief in its complexity and integration of movement.

Wemitt’s Dolly is delicious and shrewd as she invents little lie after little lie to ensnare Vandergelder or to assist his niece Ermengarde (Catherine Skojec) and the love of her life Ambrose Kemper (Dakota Dutcher) to get the uncle’s permission to marry.  Vandergelder is played by Brian D. Wagner.  As with the first scene of the show he began somewhat tentatively but allowed his cantankerous character come through as the “half-millionaire” loses control of the world around him. The major sub-plot is the budding romance between Irene and Cornelius which is beautifully delivered in their duet “It Only Takes a Moment.”  Barnaby is smitten with Irene’s assistant Minnie Fay (Steffany Pratt.)  These six performers shine, not only with their electric voices and dancing, but their characterizations are solid all the way through.  The entire cast, numbering over 30, are focused.  Many of them play several parts and their energy never seems to lapse.  This is a cast that loves what they are doing.

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Director Saunders keeps the rapid pace of the show under control.  Each moment means something and contributes to the writers’ intentions.  He has maintained both a sense of comedy and a recognition of the dramatic subtext of the play.  Enough cannot be said of choreographer Romagnola’s work.  To move this huge number of dancers across the relatively small playing space while interacting with the principal characters is a model of vision and theatricality.  The small band, led by David Maglione, is energetc and musically adept, though sometimes too brassy; but that’s part of the show.

There is a multitude of rich and historically correct costumes designed by Bethany Marks that bring color and vibrancy to the stage.  This is a gorgeous production to look at thanks to her.  Andrew Gmoser’s lighting design complements and subtly adds to the tone of each scene.  The sets by Kevin Gleason are minimal since the Mac-Haydn is a theatre-in-the-round, but they identify locations simply and effectively.  The set changes, of which there are many, are cleverly integrated with the musical numbers so that there aren’t minutes of dead air.

About the Mac-Haydn…  The phrase “summer stock” suggests amateurish productions or a nominally successful Broadway personality deigning to work with a young, often non-professional cast. The Mac-Haydn uses creative integrity to bring quality productions to its audience. The performers, designers and technicians are given the opportunity to test their talents in a space that presents logistical problems.  It is to the credit of the producers as well as the creative personnel that Mac-Haydn offers enjoyable and provocative entertainment.

If you want to smile and laugh and fully treasure the experience, don’t walk, don’t run… fly to see Hello, Dolly! at the Mac-Haydn in Chatham!

Hello, Dolly!; Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman; Book by Michael Stewart; Directed by John Saunders; Choreographer: Sebastiani Romagnalo; Musical direction by David Maglione and Jillian Zack; Cast: Monica M. Wemitt (Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi) Meg Dooley (Ernestina Money) Dakota Dutcher (Ambrose Kemper) Brian D. Wagner (Horace Vandergelder) Catherine Skojec (Ermengarde) Ryan Michael Owens (Cornelius Hackl) Dan Macke (Barnaby Tucker) Steffany Pratt (Minnie Fay) Rachel Rhodes-Devey (Irene Molloy) Victoria Benkoski (Mrs. Rose) Gabe Belyeu (Rudolph Reisenweber) Quinn Corcoran (Stanley) Stephen C. Kallas (Fritz) Alex Carr (Harry) Connor Hubbard (Louie) Atsushi Eda (Danny) Ross Flores (Manny) Bryce McAllister (Hank) Laura Michele Erle (First cook) Katie Skawski (Second cook) Ross Flores (Judge) Stephen C. Kallas & Alex Carr (Policemen) Connor Hubbard (Court Clerk) Alex Carr (Paperhanger) Ensemble: Michele Carter, Laura Michele Erle, Kelly Gabriel Murphy, Megan Hasse,  Katie Skawski, Victoria Benkoski, Meg Dooley, Lauren Wrigley, Gabe Belyeu, Alex Carr, Quinn Corcoran, Connor Hubbard, Stephen C. Kallas, Bryce Mcallister, Atsushhi Eda; Scene Design: Kevin Gleason;   Lighting design: Andrew Gmoser; Costume design: Bethany Marx; Sound design/Audio engineer: Ethan Carleton; Wig Designers: Michael Dunn, Timothy Williams; Stage Manager: Jen Motta; Running Time: 2 hours forty-five minutes, includes one intermission; Mac-Haydn Theatre, 1925 Route 203, Chatham, NY; From 8/24/17 to 9/3/17.

    REVIEW: “Hello, Dolly!” at the Mac-Haydn by Macey Levin Hello, Dolly!, an American classic, is receiving a terrific revival on Broadway with Bette Midler. 

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever was a smash hit. Based on a 1995 New York Magazine article, Nik Cohn’s “Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night” (which Cohn admitted years later to be fictional), the film propelled John Travolta into stardom, and became the best-selling dance-centered movie of all time until 2010’s Black Swan.

Directed by John Badham with a screenplay by Norman Wexler, and music by the Bee Gees (one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time), it’s not difficult to understand the well-deserved success of the movie. The Bee Gees were commissioned by producer Robert Stigwood to write songs for the film. Not terribly well known at the time, the group created some of the songs during a single weekend, and gathered some songs they’d already written to add to the mix. “Stayin’ Alive” had already been written, and was one of the first songs ready to be used in the film. “Stayin’ Alive” will undoubtedly be forever associated with the movie, in no small part thanks to the movie’s stunning opening sequence.

 The stage musical of Saturday Night Fever, with a book by Nan Knighton in collaboration with Arlene Phillips, Paul Nicholas, and Robert Stigwood, and music by the Bee Gees, opened in London in 1998, and on Broadway the following year. It is now playing at Chatham, NY’s Mac-Haydn Theatre, directed by John Saunders.

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The show opens with “Stayin’ Alive,” too, and in this production, the number falls flat. While James Kinney usually does a superb job choreographing the excellent dancers who grace the Mac-Haydn’s round stage, in this attempt to recreate the busy thoroughfare (86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn), the chorus walks across the stage and back in “X” formation, bumping into each other (intentionally or accidentally, I couldn’t tell), and the effect is merely one of too many people crammed in too small a space. (Happily, Kinney more than redeems himself later.)

 As Tony Manero, the role originated by Travolta on screen, Daniel Velasquez is very attractive and gifted with a lovely singing voice. Unfortunately, when he is speaking, he frequently sounded as if he were doing a John Travolta impression down to the cadence, and the effect is disruptive; we don’t know where Tony is. It pulls us out of the play. By the end, though, I was gratified that he had stopped impersonating and became his own Tony, Brooklyn accent intact.

 What is terrific about this production are the scenes in the disco club 2001 Odyssey. Lighting designer Andrew Gmoser, scenic designer Kevin Gleason, sound designer Ethan Carleton, choreographer Kinney, and director Saunders have collaborated to transform the entire theater into an authentic disco complete with mirrored disco ball. The lighting design was so successful that it felt as if the audience were right in the club, amid flashing lights and nimble, gyrating dancers.

 I’ve written before about my personal distaste for mic’ing actors, especially in a small theater, but the mics, at least in the particular way they were used in this show, created a serious problem that was impossible to overlook. Early in the show, Tony has an undressing sequence in which he faces a mirror, preening and dancing. The headset part of the mic is usually visible to the audience because of its placement on the actor’s head and face. The body pack transmitter that goes with it is hidden under the actor’s costume. When Mr. Velasquez stripped down to his tight black briefs, his body pack transmitter, roughly the size of two stacked decks of cards, was an abundantly visible protrusion beneath his briefs at the approximate area of his coccyx. At this point Mr. Velasquez was heartily bumping, grinding, and shimmying. To my mind, there was no justification for the placement of that body pack. I felt badly for the actor. The sequence had me cringing, and was at once embarrassing and silly.

 From that point on, I couldn’t help but notice the body packs bulging through most of the cast’s costumes. This was certainly no fault of costume designer Angela Carstensten, who did a fine job clothing the cast. Disco-era clothing is sleek and body-hugging, and I wish that someone either did away with the body packs or devised a better way to disguise them. Certainly, if one was to be placed in Mr. Velasquez’s briefs, he should not have had to strip down to them.

 The production boasts a fine group of actors, singers, and dancers, including Kate Zulauf (Stephanie Mangano), Gabe Belyeu (Monty), belter extraordinaire Aneesa Folds (Candy), and Sophia Tsougros (Annette). As Tony’s parents Frank and Flo, Pat Wemitt and Erin Spears Ledford were well cast, except that Miss Ledford looked far too young to be Tony’s mother, a problem that can easily be fixed with makeup.

My biggest complaint about the stage version of Saturday Night Fever is not about the Mac-Haydn production, but about the script itself. It completely lacks the pathos that was so abundant in the film. That the actors sing the songs from the film disrupts characterization. It is not a film that adapts well to the stage.

It is however, entertaining, and the audience members left the theater delighted. I heard many people exclaim that they had great fun watching the show. If you can go without any expectation that Saturday Night Fever meets the standards of the movie, you’ll find lots to enjoy.

Saturday Night Fever runs July 6-23, 2017, at the Mac-Haydn Theatre, 1925 NY Route 203 in Chatham, NY. Book by Nan Knighton in collaboration with Arlene Phillips, Paul Nicholas, and Robert Stigwood. Music by the Bee Gees (Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.) Directed by John Saunders; Lighting designer Andrew Gmoser; scenic designer Kevin Gleason; sound designer Ethan Carleton; choreographer James Kinney; costume designer Angela Carstensten. CAST: Daniel Velasquez (Tony Manero), Kate Zulauf (Stephanie Mangano), Gabe Belyeu (Monty), Aneesa Folds (Candy), Sophia Tsougros (Annette), Pat Wemitt (Frank Manero), Erin Spears Ledford (Flo Manero), Dan Macke (Bobby), Sam Pickart (Gus), Ross Flores (Double-J), Alex Carr (Joey), Quinn Corcoran (Frank Manero, Jr.), Laura Michele Erle (Pauline), Lauren Wrigley (Linda Manero), Dakota Dutcher (salesman/Jay/Joseph Cursa), Bryce McAllister (Stephanie’s Dance Partner/Cesar Rodriguez), Stephen C. Kallas (Gabriel), Connor Hubbard (Chester Brinson), Megan Hasse (Stayin’ Alive Girl/Shirley Charles), Catherine Skojec (Doreen/Elizabeth Cursa), Katie Skawski (Girl), Michelle Carter (Waitress), Kelly Gabrielle Murphy (Connie), and Steffany Pratt (Maria Huerta).

REVIEW: “Saturday Night Fever” at the Mac-Haydn by Roseann Cane The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever was a smash hit. Based on a 1995 New York Magazine article, Nik Cohn’s “Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night” (which Cohn admitted years later to be fictional), the film propelled John Travolta into stardom, and became the best-selling dance-centered movie of all time until 2010’s…