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arbeaone · 5 years ago

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The Skinny Magazine Published on May 01, 2017

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The Mighty Barratt

Beloved curmudgeonly comic Julian Barratt makes a jump to the big screen with the endearingly silly Mindhorn, in which he plays a washed-up actor caught up in a murder plot. He talks about the pomposity of actors and a possible return of The Mighty Boosh

Interview: Jamie Dunn

Movie actors are a funny old lot. Essentially they're big kids who've been paid handsomely to raid the dressing up box, but to hear them talk you'd think they were curing cancer. Comedian, musician, writer and actor Julian Barratt finds his fellow thespians' self-importance endlessly hilarious. "It’s so hard to not sound like an arse when you talk about acting,” he says down the phone from London. “So it's a very rich territory for comedy.” You can see this self-seriousness at work on shows like Inside the Actors Studio and those round table discussions The Hollywood Reporter do around the time of the Oscars. “Oh, those round tables are just great,” Barratt chuckles. “They're full of people trying to make out they don't care about acting and it’s just a job. ‘We're just like plumbers, but working with different materials; the plumber works with pipes, I work with human emotions.' Or when you talk about how privileged you are to work with whoever - even that comes across as annoying."

Barratt channels some of this pomposity into Richard Thorncroft, the protagonist of Mindhorn, his inspired new comedy, which he co-wrote with Simon Farnaby. At the start of the film we discover Thorncroft enjoyed some low-level fame in the 80s as the title star of Mindhorn, a cheesy detective show in which the titular sleuth uses his bionic eye to literally see the truth; his ocular gift helped him interrogate bad guys, but it also came in handy while seducing women. We see snippets of the show - which comes across like a mashup of Bergerac and The Six Million Dollar Man - throughout this feature-length comedy, but the majority of the action takes place in the modern day, where Thorncroft has become a grotesque has-been; overweight and toupeed, he reaches a career nadir when he loses his latest gig, a TV ad for orthopaedic socks, to John Nettles (of Bergerac fame).

Thorncroft is a joke, but Barratt can certainly empathise. “He is very much a version of me after a couple of bad decisions,” laughs Barratt. He reckons at actors are a few poor choices away from Thorncroft’s predicament. "I don't think it takes much: make the wrong career move here and there, and a couple of bad relationships, and suddenly you're on your own and you're grasping at straws.”

Barratt is being modest, surely. The 48-year-old has been a key player in some of the 21st century's most feverishly adored British comedies. With Noel Fielding he created the wildly surreal The Mighty Boosh, in which he played “jazz maverick” Howard Moon, a character even more pompous than Richard Thorncroft. Then there’s Dan Ashcroft, the self-loathing journalist who finds himself inside a maelstrom of idiocy in East London's hipster scene as depicted in Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker’s prescient sitcom Nathan Barley. He also had a recurring role in spoof supernatural medical drama Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. And that’s not to mention Will Sharpe's brilliant Channel 4 show Flowers, from last year, in which Barratt gave his darkest- and finest- performance yet as a suicidal children’s book author.

Despite this success, Barratt insists a Richard Thorncroft-style fall from grace is a real worry. “Sure, I've made shows that have connected and that I'm very proud of, but you're always trying to think of the next thing you're going to do. You have to keep asking, 'Do I still have it in me to do another thing that people want?' I have friends who never got into show business at all, and they have proper jobs - they do their job and they're not constantly thinking, 'What can I do next?' 'How can I make it valid?’ ‘Is this going to work?’ 'Are people going to be interested?’ They just do a job and then at the end of the week they turn off and go out. I sometimes envy them that sort of life.”

We're glad he's stuck with comedy, as Mindhorn contains some of Barratt's most gut-bustingly funny material. With his career in the toilet, Richard Thorncroft is given a reprieve. When a deranged serial killer on the Isle of Man tells the police he’ll negotiate, but only with Mindhorn, whom he believes to be a real detective, Thorncroft is given a cushy gig resurrecting his old character to try and solve the murders. Files the film with ¡Three Amigos!, Galaxy Quest and Tropic Thunder, the other great comedies about actors being mistaken for their characters and pulled into real-life peril. The initial idea came from Barratt’s friend and co-star Simon Farnaby. “Really nerdy fans of The Mighty Boosh will know that Mindhorn is the name of a half-man, half-fish creature that appears in one of the Boosh's songs,” Farnaby explains when we meet him in Glasgow ahead of the film’s Scottish premiere at Glasgow Film Festival. “He's very obscure, he appears in one of the songs from the radio show, I think. Julian had given me the CD and I heard the name Mindhorn and I just wrote it down because it sounded like an 80s detective show, you know, these one word shows like Wycliffe or Spender.”

The pair clearly love this very particular genre; you have to love something to satirise it as well as Barratt and Farnaby do in Mindhorn. But the film isn't simply a nostalgic piss-take in the mould of, say, MacGruber, Will Forte’s hilariously crude parody of MacGyver, the action-adventure American equivalent of the shows Mindhorn send up. Barratt came up with the twist that the films should be about the actor who used to be in Mindhorn, and Richard Thorncroft was born. This was over a decade ago. "Originally Julian thought he was too young to play Thorncroft,” says Farnaby. “Whoever played the character had to be old enough to be believable as an aging has-been. We thought: let's get someone like Ben Kingsley to do it!” But so slow was the writing process that Barratt soon found he was approaching the perfect vintage to take on the role. “He likes to tell people he put on weight for the part,” chuckles Farnaby, “but he didn't, he just carried on doing what he normally does.”

Barratt is far more complimentary about his writing partner: "Simon is great because he's very pragmatic. He's great at just getting to the end of things. I'll get really caught up with the problems and the details, agonise over them a lot, so we were a good team." How does he feel about writing on his own?” "I can’t stand it to be honest. I'll do it. I mean, I like to write with someone and then go off and write a bit on my own and bring it back. But writing on your own is lonely, it’s bloody awful."

Talking of writing partnerships, Barratt is still best known for his wildly inventive stage show and BBC sitcom The Mighty Boosh, which he co-wrote and co-starred in with Noel Fielding. It was a classic chalk and cheese double act: Fielding's Vince Noir was a glam rock dadaist with a child-like spirit of adventure while Barratt’s Howard Moon was a curmudgeonly jazz-enthusiast and the butt of almost every joke. Rumours of a revival, or even a feature-length project, have been floating around since the pair's last official Boosh performance in 2009.

Barratt sounds open to the idea. "I don’t want to start any rumours, but we never finished with the Boosh," he says. "We parked it essentially. So it's like a crazy old car that we drove around in, and it’s still there. We could get it out, we could look at it, try and get the engine going again, give it a new coat of paint. Sometimes you think it’s best just to leave something where it was and not try and recreate that magic, but who knows?" He gives a long pause and chuckles. 'We'll probably run out of money at some point and you'll see us doing it.”

#Julian Barratt #Simon Farnaby #Mindhorn #The Skinny #The Skinny Magazine #`❦

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mask131 · 6 years ago

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Eurythmics - The King and Queen of America

Now, this song has a tendency to spark some debates. People are split between those who like this song for being a funny one while at the same time describing real aspects of the American culture and still being relevant today ; and the one who think that is a cruel parody, an anti-American mockery done by “ungrateful British”.

I don’t want to take part in this argument. I’m only talking about this song (that I love to listen to by the way) as a song that I think would fit well with the context of American Gods.

Now, here are what the two authors of the song have to say about it. And remember, we are not talking about taking positions here, but just about having food for thought.

Annie Lennox, in 1989:

“It’s an angry song that stems from one of my pet hates, which is the cult of personality. In America in particular, people want to invite the media into their living rooms and show off their love lives. The couple in the song are completely sold on all the glittering icons that are supposed to mean success and the attainment of the American dream. I’m very curious about what success is and wonder why people won’t look at it more critically.”

And Dave Stewart, 2011:

“The video was really funny. We had a lot of fun that day. We did it with my friend Willy Smack, who I’ve been friends with since I was 10, and Annie and I were just, like, trying to get all the archetypal costumes and hairdos by which American gets perceived in Europe on TV. These are the characters: cheerleaders, limousines pulling up outside of premières, Elvis-like characters, couples wearing nylon jogging suits in shopping malls.

We tried to cover as many people as we could, and in the video, it’s in a shopping mall, and the cheerleaders are cheerleading, Mickey and Minnie Mouse are boxing each other, a TV preacher is preaching, and all the while I’m having a heart attack in a supermarket. It’s pretty weird. And we’re basically singing about the pomp and circumstance that comes across from America, like a huge chocolate cake with nothing inside it. There’s no sort of history or culture that’s behind it. It’s like, even though in Europe we’ve got a terrible history of people going around killing people or sailing off to other territories and raiding them and blah blah blah, there’s some kind of history.

So when you see pomp and circumstance looking at a cathedral in Rome or this or that, you’ve got this feeling of ancient civilizations. But in America, you have… Well, you’ve just witnessed it, where the media tried desperately to make the Kardashian wedding an important event to compare to the Prince and Princess in England. Not that I think that the Prince and Princess of England getting married was anything, but it’s just funny how American media tried to create some kind of false royalty.”

And the lyrics of the song itself :

Well c’mon darlin’, the stars are burning bright

C’mon now darlin’, our luck is good tonight

‘Cause we’re the all time winners in the all time loser’s game

Yeah, we’re the all time winners, and here we go again

The King and Queen of America (X4)

Yeah it’s the King of nothing and the Queen of rage

With a pile of confusion upon a glittering stage

You know we never did anything to make ourselves feel proud

You know we never did anything, so let’s play it loud

Let’s hear it for the King and Queen of America.

Hear it for the King and Queen of America.

The King and Queen of America (X2)

So c’mon darlin’, there’s a big moon in the sky

We’re gonna build a little satellite, we’re gonna make it fly

We’re gonna send it up to heaven, all the way up to the stars

And all of them aliens are gonna find out who we are

We’re talkin’ ‘bout the King and Queen of America,

Talkin’ ‘bout the King and Queen of America (X2)

The King and Queen of America

We’re talkin’ ‘bout the King and Queen

The King and Queen (X8)

Next post, I’ll talk a bit more about the music video itself.

#american gods #new gods #new mythology #eurythmics #the king and queen of america #song #lyrics #analysis

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shannon-jeanna · 7 years ago

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1. The “I’m So Sex-Positive, I’m Also Assault-Positive” White Girl

Yes, her name is Lena Dunham, and of course, everyone hates her now that she caped for a sexual abuser because they are friends. (She’s so anxious about her public relations disaster that she’s now telling anyone who will listen that she “warned” Hillary Clinton about Harvey Weinstein. So she knew about it? OK.)

Our generation’s “voice” makes plenty of “art” about her own life—it is, after all, shocking to see privileged kids have sex in pipes (see Tiny Furniture)—and is often portrayed as a sex-positive, third-wave feminist. But when it comes to her personal life, Dunham not only feels entitled to sexual attention (remember how she reacted when Odell Beckham Jr. “ignored” her?) but also supports white male abusers over women of color like Aurora Perrineau. I mean, she refers to herself jokingly as a predator in her own book, in which she detailed touching her younger sister inappropriately, and wants to win the oppression Olympics so badly that she “wishes” she had had an abortion. Talk about sex-positive cred!

Here’s to hoping you have enough wine and mindfulness to take you through the fifth holiday party of the season, where a white girl, who’s friends with the host but not close to anyone else, will drone on about her shocking sex life so loudly, nobody else can talk over her.

2. The “I’m Not Like Other Girls; I’m Funny” White Girl

Amy Schumer is such a joker. She’s almost too funny, you know? She’s so good at comedy that she can get away with just about anything, like stealing jokes, being openly racist and parodying Beyoncé—BEYONCÉ! In response to all those #Haters, Schumer was quick to remind them that feminism is #StrongerTogether and that her use of black art for a cash grab was totally fine because she’s a woman and therefore it’s a tribute.

So many fond memories, our body-positive queen. Remember her pithy observation about her Asian friend Kim, who met someone who looks like her dad ... and her mom ... because all Asians look alike? Oh, and wow, remember her adroit observation that black women had “wild” names?! Super clever, and not at all disgusting. Oooh, Amy is just so funny, she thinks Latina women are all “crazy” and Latino men just don’t do consensual sex! Looks like she agrees with our president. Just love her.

3. The “I’m So ‘Tweeatre’” White Girl

The proliferation of the manic pixie dream girl in cinema is so complete that I’m having a hard time parsing trope and genuine quirkiness now. Rooney Mara, spawn of privilege, leads the pack with her wide-eyed look of confusion in movies like Song to Song, Lion and Carol. She’s so random, she even plays dress-up on-screen as Native American Tiger Lily. Mara is just one of many “tweeatre” white girls—cute, theatrical, weirdly sexy. Like Zooey Deschanel’s bangs or Anne Hathaway’s mouthy, fake surprise.

4. The “I’m So Relatable” *fart noise* White Girl

You spend your entire life looking for media to be the mirror into your own world. You need representation. You want to be seen. And then Jennifer Lawrence comes along, giving you all the relatability one could want in one person: She can be so normal, not super skinny (and therefore “obese”), and can also be bigoted! Man, she totally fell down on national television by accident and definitely not on purpose—just like any of us would! She also thinks all cats are female and all dogs are male because of their “energy,” which is also super normal.

Don’t you just love that crazy character she played in—what was it?—Silver Linings Playbook? Or was it American Hustle? No, it was Mother!—which half the audiences totally didn’t get, it was so brilliant. Love how she makes being “crazy” so relatable! It’s almost no big deal! Everygirl J.Law experiences such everygirl problems, like having a butt itch so bad that she dislodged a sacred Hawaiian rock with her white ass scratching, almost killing a crew member on a film shoot. She’s so proud of it that she told the BBC about it.

Other notable everygirl Emma Stone is so relatable, she can be any race and whitesplain jazz to you!

5. The “I’m Not a Regular Feminist, I’m a Cool Feminist” White Girl

A subcategory of the ubiquitous “I’m Not a Bigot, I’m a Woman!” white girl (hello, Scarlett Johansson), we now turn to the less common outspoken feminist who is kind of doing good in the world and who broadcasts her virtue with a resounding pat on her own shoulder. Emma Watson was everyone’s darling Hermione, the clever white girl cast in a role that should have been played by a black woman.

In similar fashion, Watson continues to usurp the platform of feminism from black women and other women of color with her massive fame, co-opting it for white feminism. She even had time to police Beyoncé’s body by utilizing feminist rhetoric like “male gaze.” In response to the critique of the lack of intersectionality in her #HeForShe campaign, Watson literally said that she was in the clear because her bosses were two black women. Sure, Hermione didn’t need those two boys at all, but maybe we didn’t need a white Hermione.

6. The “I Just Love White Girls” White Girl

Sofia Coppola, also the spawn of privilege, made waves with her second feature, a wistful look at two white people feeling lost in Japan—so, basically, any day in any foreign country. I dare you to count the number of Lost in Translation posters in the frosh-year dorms of white millennial sad bois. And like those sad bois, Coppola loves white women. Her movies, whether they’re about white girls killing themselves, or white girls stealing because they can, or white girls being queens, Coppola is notoriously weak at understanding intersectionality.

Coppola, who thinks it’s possible to look at gender dynamics while ignoring racial ones, is the same Coppola in 2017. The Beguiled, the second adaptation of a 1966 novel, is set against the backdrop of the Confederacy while omitting women of color, giving color only three words in a movie idealizing Southern white femininity: “The slaves left.”

The reason Coppola made the movie? “I felt like I had to give these women a voice.” We know which women she deems most worthy of being listened to.

#yikes #the root #white women #white feminism #white mediocrity #lena dunham #Scarlett Johansson #jennifer lawrence #rooney mara #anne hathaway #zooey deschanel #Amy Schumer #sofia coppola #Emma Watson #he for she #truth #important

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ducksbellorum · 5 years ago

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Rock Force (listen/download)

a basic training mix in five parts - bct 2012 - arranged by ducksbellorum

Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV; Part V;

Pound of Flesh Regina Spektor if you’re never sorry then you can’t be forgiven if you’re not forgiven then you can’t be forgotten Our third road march was supposed to be 10k, but our first sergeant got lost so we ended up with 12k by mistake! Ugh. I tried to keep songs in my head to keep my mind off of things (like blisters and wet socks!), but mostly I got stuck on repeat a lot! Pound of Flesh was another one of my favorites while marching because it’s very rhythmic. IF you’re NEver SORry then YOU can’t BE forGIVEN, etc. I’m Gonna Be The Proclaimers But I would walk 500 miles And I would walk 500 more Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles To fall down at your door Our final road march! 12k, back from Victory Forge. The first like mile of that was hell. Our platoon sergeant was a hella fast walker and I had shin splints like the devil. We left the entire battalion behind, ha. It was the dark of night and storming and it sure felt like 500 miles!! All I could think the entire time was the lyrics above, that and ‘we must be close now!’ American Soldier Toby Keith I’m an American Soldier, an American, Beside my Brothers and my Sisters I will proudly take a stand. When liberty’s in jeopardy I’ll always do what’s right. I’m out here on the front lines, sleep in peace tonight After the road march of hell back from Victory Forge, we formed up in front of the barracks and marched out onto the parade field. Hell, we couldn’t even do that right. Oh, first platoon, you idiots… When we finally got out there, our company commander spoke to us, the drill sergeants shook our hands, and we got to don our black berets. After that Rite of Passage ceremony, we were American Soldiers. And I’ve never been more proud. O Death Jen Titus O Death, O Death O Death My name is death And the end is here Of course, when you’re wearing that shiny little beret, days from graduation, you think you’re hot shit. Or at least some people do. We got into some crazy trouble that last week, just because people started to get stir crazy. I’d see stuff starting up and that humming would start in my head. O Death (or pushups or whatever)! Won’t you spare me over till graduation day!! Proud Mary Tina Turner Big wheel keep on turnin’ Proud Mary keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river I only had one drill sergeant I really hated. This woman had no redeeming qualities. EXCEPT her magnificent cadence calling. She taught us to march to Proud Mary. We loved it so much we called it all the time and the other drill sergeants banned it. We didn’t march it again until AIT, when our platoon sergeant there parodied it. The only thing better was when another drill sergeant tried to call cadence to Sexy and I Know It. And the Spongebob theme. DS: WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA?! Us: Uhm…?! DS: It’s Spongebob, privates, come on. How Far We’ve Come Matchbox 20 Well I believe it all is coming to an end Oh well, I guess we’re gonna pretend Let’s see how far we’ve come Let’s see how far we’ve come Just look at us! 10 weeks ago we piled off of the bus, falling over our own feet, terrified of everything and now look! We’re piling onto a bus, marching in step, and still terrified of everything! But we look good. :) We came a very long way in ten weeks. We were a team of soldiers, no longer an island of misfit toys. It was, in a way, the end of a small piece of our world. And the beginning of another. For Good Wicked Who can say if I’ve been Changed for the better? I do believe I have been Changed for the better I love all of my battles. Mo stretched the bounds of credibility and it’ll take a while before I ever miss Ernesto. But for better or worse, I have changed for knowing them and living among them. And for the most part, I take it as a change for good. A lot these days I think that I wish I hadn’t done this, but then I think of them and know I could never wish for a better experience with a better crew. The Fighter Gym Class Heroes If you fall pick yourself up off the floor And when your bones can’t take no more Just remember what you’re here for Cause I know I’mma damn sure give ‘em hell I actually took this song as an anthem even before I left. I’m a little fat person from out in the country, a nerd and a thinker. I’d never been in a fight, never shot a weapon, and preferred to be inside rather than out. I was the last person you’d expect to join the Army. But I wanted this, and I fought for it, and I got it. I am a fighter and now, because of it, I’m a soldier. Timebomb Beck We got a red alert We cut the power and we Na na na na It’s a timebomb ticking After Basic, we packed up and moved to Advance Individual Training (AIT). At AIT you get your devices back. Which meant my iPod!!! I was so unbelievably happy to have my music back. I don’t have a mix for AIT because I was listening to everything after that and didn’t really get an accurate playlist. Oh well. And because my AIT roommate’s alarm reminded me of this song, it was the first song of my music I’d heard in ten weeks. Never has Beck sounded more heavenly! Bonus: Army Song We’re the Army and proudly proclaim First to fight for the right, And to build the Nation’s might And the Army goes rolling along One of my only good memories of our platoon sergeant (who was a crazy bitch) is of her teaching us the Army song outside the survey building. She played it on her phone and directed us as we sang along. For some reason we all had to memorize the Army song, but we never ever sang it. Oh well!

#bct #basic training #us army #boot camp #rock force #this army life is crazy

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conagher1880 · 8 years ago

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A Few Thoughts on Westerns, the Cowboy and Life

I've loved westerns ever since I was a small boy. My grandfather--a cowman from Nebraska--and my father--an Airman from Texas--both introduced me to this most American of all genres at an early age. My dad got me my first cowboy hats and boots...my grandpa put me on a horse at a very early age. Between these two influences, it was certain I'd end up either punching cattle or wearing a blue uniform.

I've done both.

For several years I've taught History in high schools in New Mexico. I have raised cattle and have worked as a cowboy for ranchers in parts of New Mexico and elsewhere in the west. A friend once said that I'm not so much a teacher who cowboys, I'm a cowboy who teaches. There's a lot of truth in that statement, and it's a good thumbnail description of who I am. It's also why I love westerns to this day.

A good western needs certain elements. It needs action, because the frontier was dynamic, and action reflects that truth. It needs simple truths, because the Old West was a place where reality ruled. It needs to teach a small lesson about life...for example, one of the lines from the theme song to The War Wagon states very truthfully that "Most men are fightin' for a wagon full of gold, scratchin' and fightin' for a wagon full of gold...My piece of land, my cattle brand, a place to rest my head, the feelin' of a woman's love are all you really need for livin'...but wrong or right, I have to fight, 'cause when the truth is told, all men are fightin' for a wagon full of gold!" The lesson is universal...a friend can be as close as a brother (Tombstone)...you will be wronged, but that wrong can be righted (The War Wagon)...right WILL prevail, but it has to be tougher than wrong...these are simple life lessons, but also true ones.

A good western also should have some sadness in it, especially these days. Our society is so warped, so twisted, so toxic that we need to be reminded of how it was in the late 19th Century...and we should be saddened that those times have gone. Monte Walsh is set during the late 1880's (not the 2004 remake, the 1971 original), and we see one man's world come falling down around him..men who fought the Civil War heroically are reduced to stringing barbed wire...good, hard-working men are turned into outlaws...and men who can do the toughest jobs have futures either roaming from place to place, or as bad parodies of themselves. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid shows how as the west closed, freedom was replaced by having to conform to the eastern norms of life...and the modern western, The Cowboy Way, shows how western values and customs are viewed quaintly by our modern, "sophisticated" urban society.

"Pajama Boy." "The 'Man Bun.'" Skinny jeans. Metrosexuals. George Clooney. Jim Parsons. David Schwimmer. The Big Bang Theory. Obama. "LGBTQWTF." The cowboy has been shoved aside for the "sensitive, feminine male." Go away, Sam Elliott! Get out of here, John Wayne! We don't want you around anymore, Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Steve McQueen, James Arness or William S. Hart! Your times are gone! Who needs Tom Doniphan or Cable Hogue? Chet Rollins or Monte Walsh? Wil Andersen and Blaze Tracey are anachronisms...the male ideal in the modern age is Sheldon Cooper...snarky, wimpy, ambisexual. The modern male is even more of a weakling than Alan Alda, as if that's even possible! What place is there in this world for Conn Conagher, Augustus McCrae, Woodrow Call, "Dish" Boggett or "Shorty" Austin?

We need the cowboy. In a world where freedom is disappearing at an appalling pace, in a world where ISIS is advancing at a horrifying rate, and where the thug leader of Russia is openly mocking the United States...where he cultivates the traditional image of Russian masculinity, and the outgoing president of the United States acts like a fey, cringing coward...whose mannerisms are those of homosexuals in pre-Code Hollywood comedies...and where we no longer even know which bathroom to use, we need the toughness, the self-reliance, the CLARITY of the cowboy. We need the traditional western.

It seems to me that whenever Quentin Tarantino touches a genre, he turns it into dross. Tarantino did that with his two bastardizations of the western, Django Unchained (not even set in the West) and The Hateful Eight. Not even Kurt Russell, an actor with a STRONG western background could save one of Tarantino's pictures. Westerns now are moving in directions not needed...cheap, simple, straight to DVD pieces which serve only to keep the genre alive..."new age" movies which have elements of pseudo-Native American mysticism (and little box office appeal)...over-the-top Tarantino abominations which show no love for the western, and instead, only serve to humiliate the genre which has been called "America's Shakespeare."

Our society needs the western. We need to be reminded...we need to be TAUGHT...that we are a free people! Our ancestors tamed a continent...and actually RESPECTED, for the most part, that continent's first inhabitants! We need to re-learn how to defend our freedoms from the tyrants in the East…become men and women again, and be proud of who we are! We need to reject the wimps and the "Pajama Boys," and equally, reject the Rosie O'Donnells, the Lena Dunhams and the Amy Schumers…they need to be replaced with a new generation of real men and real women, men who are strong and capable…women who have backbone, but also femininity…and who show respect, manners, and understand certain concepts of decency and decorum. People who can be down-to-Earth, but also know when it's not right to use language normally used around livestock.

I'm not perfect. I'm not a city man with city manners…I do open doors for ladies, I sadly DO cuss more than I should, but I AM a man, and I'm not ashamed of it. I try to demonstrate to my students what a man SHOULD be. I know how to shoot, I can fix fence, castrate calves, rope (not well, but I can), I can break a horse, cook and do what a man needs to do. I won't wear skinny jeans, footie pajamas or a "man bun." I'm a cowboy and an historian…a former serviceman…a rough kind of gentleman…and a man who misses the lessons taught by the western.

We need the cowboy…the marshal…the gunman…the pioneer to come back. We need the strong Natives, fighting for their way of life…the drovers moving the cattle, the soldiers crossing the Plains…the stories of the heroes of the past, because they WERE heroes. They would be ashamed and horrified at what has happened to our society…as I am.

We need the cowboy to ride back from out of the past…and drag this society back onto the trail it's strayed from.

We need the western.

(written in late 2016)

#essay #random thoughts

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oltnews · 5 years ago

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TThe 2020 BRIT Awards nominations were, as you would expect, dominated by guys in almost every category. This is why the appearance of Ashnikko on the red carpet, his striking blue hair worn by two male submarines, caused such agitation. "Tonight I'm playing Ashnikko: Femdom," she told NME. "It's a game of power ... Down with patriarchy." It is not the first time that Ashnikko (real name Ashton Casey) has been rowdy just to be herself. Following the release of his EP ‘Hi, It’s Me’ at the end of last year, his abrasive pop-rap single, ‘Stupid’, went viral on TikTok, getting noticed Saturday Night Live and a Miley Cyrus dance routine in the process. Since then, she has announced a tour with American rap sensation Doja Cat, her song "Working Bitch" had a similar moment online, Bring Me leader The Horizon Oli Sykes called it "The coolest person in the world", She spent her forties doing yoga with Charli XCX on her Instagram and appeared on Yungblud's online show last week. Phew. We met Ash in Los Angeles to find out when she escaped, her songs inspired by Harley Quinn and why she doesn't plan on taking herself anytime soon. Your music takes on its full influence. Sometimes it seems like Brockhampton meets Riot Grrl, other times it's a Charli XCX party with a Nu-metal growl. What do you call it “I wrote it the other day, it's angry, punk, hip-hop, sad-feminist, bubblegum, poo-poo. It’s a lot. I find it really difficult to stick to one thing because I am so fickle and I really like to change my mind. " You've been out music since you were 18, do you feel like you've finally found your sound with "Hi, it's me"? "100%. There’s a lot of really bad music I’ve done but you have to do crappy music to do what you’re supposed to do. I have the impression that this project is entirely me, fully my voice and fully what I want to say and sound. I'm really proud of it. " There is a proud feminine energy in your music, has it always been so? "No, that's not the case. I became a woman and I formed my own opinions about the world around me. I feel like a teenager who makes music, I had a lot of "internalized misogyny, a need to be one of the boys and a lot of self-hatred. By discovering what feminism is and what it meant to me, it definitely took my life in hand." [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o_IQavlMDA[/embed] What was the turning point? “I was really a kid from Tumblr. I did a lot of my personal education on what intersectional feminism is on Tumblr. The Internet is a great tool for children who are raised in very small cities. You can access all this information and make your own opinion. " So what inspired "Hi, it's me"? "It's a break EP. I still have a lot of break songs that are being recorded for later because I was writing them." Hi, it's me ", I'm the one who draws really in my own femininity and my own feeling of confidence that I feel like I only felt that last year when I wrote it. It was a very tumultuous and crazy journey. I was so upset and moved , everything just overflowed. I used a crazy energy when I was writing this project, I felt like a supernatural goddess, then it came out and I felt human again. This EP was a speech of encouragement for me. It was written to get me out of a bad place. " To what extent has "Stupid" going viral on Tiktok had an impact? “It gave him an astronomical boost. I like the way ‘Stupid’ is doing well, it’s not just this song that benefited. "Working Bitch" had a moment recently and it was really exciting. People discovered the rest of PE with ‘Stupid’, which is cool. I'm glad everything went like this. Even Miley got involved, how was it? "It was great. To me it felt like a cool little moment on TikTok and when Miley did a dance it looked like A Thing. I'm glad my ass song angry about my ex-boyfriend has become the reading list for so many people. " And has it changed your life? "100%, it's been quite the lifestyle change. I'm still getting used to it. It's sometimes a little uncomfortable, my relationship with social media has completely changed and I'm still working. Being more visible by as long as a human being is a strange state of life. But sometimes it's the best. It's something I've wanted for so long and now it happens, it's something I'm still struggling with. J just try to match my expectations with reality now. " [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbQrhOWkonk[/embed] Do you feel compelled to prove yourself now? "This way of thinking will only intensify my mental illness, so I'm not trying to think like that. For the first time, I have no trouble following. I have a lot of music to broadcast, I am very confident in my ability to create art and do the job. I'm just excited to put everything aside and not put myself under pressure because it's crazy. " You just released "Tantrum". Where does this song come from? "I had the Birds of prey soundtrack in mind, I wanted to run for this movie and I wanted to write a bad bitch, the song by Harley Quinn, so I wrote ‘Tantrum’. But it became 100% my song. I love this song and I love that it is my song. I write music for myself first and then for my beautiful fans. I have to do it myself first, otherwise it doesn't sound like my music. When you enter a session and say, “Okay, let's do a TikTok smash,” the song will sound like a balloon. " Is it a standalone single? Is there an EP en route? An album? "I don't know if I have the right to say but yes, my longtime collaborator Slinger and I are doing a project. No matter how it is called or finished, I continue to accept it, but I will just give birth to baby songs and see who loves them. " CREDIT: Lucrecia Taormina Who are your peers? "The people I really respect are Doja Cat, Grimes, Tierra Whack, Rico Nasty, Hayley Williams, Princess Nokia, Kim Petras and Charli XCX. Other women make me feel very inspired, but my really unconfident 14 year old self also inspires me to make confident music now, as a 24 year old woman. " Oli Sykes said you were the coolest person in the world. Are you? "He said it, didn't he. Sometimes when I dance with Cher in the mirror, I think 100% that I'm the coolest person in the world. But my brain is a real crazy race. Trust is a real roller coaster, right? I think I am sometimes and sometimes not at all. " Do you take yourself seriously? "You know what, I'm just kidding because of a trauma. It's very serious but also, I don't take myself too seriously because I like jokes on the fart, you know. For a while, I thought I must be this really serious artist, this enigma, but you know what, I like making stupid TikToks. I like to make these stupid sketches on my Youtube channel. I wrote a musical on my clitoris and I wore a vagina costume. I am not trying to be a really serious artist but I am not trying to be a parody or a comic act. But I can't take myself too seriously or I will cringe so hard. " Ashnikko's new single ‘Tantrum is now available !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '2300206660218433'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); https://oltnews.com/ashnikko-is-miley-cyrus-approved-bubblepunk-pop-star-who-refuses-to-take-herself-seriously-nme-live?_unique_id=5ea0237ef27e2

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newyorktheater · 5 years ago

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Now is the time when interest in Broadway is at its peak, piqued by the three-hour TV commercial for Broadway known as the 2019 Tony Awards.

Get tickets to attend the Tony Awards in person!

I regularly get asked for recommendations, especially from out-of-towners planning a trip to New York. When I try to explore the person’s tastes, they typically say to me “I just want you to pick the shows for me.” So here are ten (plus several “bonus” selections.)

THREE NEW PLAYS

The Ferryman Bernard B. Jacobs Theater (242 W 45th Street New York, NY 10036) Opened: October 21, 2018 Twitter: @TheFerrymanBway

Theatergoers have only until July 7, 2019 to see this feast of Irish storytelling in a breathtaking mix of genres – from suspenseful thriller to family saga to ghost story to history lesson to morality tale. Now with an American cast, this play by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes tells the story of Quinn Carney (Brian d’Arcy James) who was once a member of the Irish Republican Army but is now a farmer with a sprawling brood — but on this day of the annual Harvest, his past comes back to threaten him.

Tickets to The Ferryman

To Kill A Mockingbird Shubert Theater (225 W 44th Street, New York, NY 10036) Opened: December 13, 2018 Twitter: @mockingbirdbway

Aaron Sorkin has adapted Harper Lee’s beloved novel to focus more on the murder trial of an unjustly accused black man who is defended by Atticus Finch (Jeff Daniels.) But Scout (Celia Keenan-Bolger), her brother Jem (Will Pulled) and her friend Dill (Gideon Glick) still feature in the show, all played by adults.

Tickets to To Kill A Mockingbird

What The Constitution Means To Me Helen Hayes Theater Opened: March 31, 2019 Twitter: @constitutionbwy

Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned enough money for her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. Now she re-creates one such competition, portraying herself, as a way to explore the relationship between the document and four generations of women in her own family — and by extension all women. This smart, informative, funny and moving play has engendered an almost cult-like devotion, serving as a kind of communal salve for the politically shell-shocked and disaffected. It ends on Broadway on August 24, 2019.

Tickets to What The Constitution Means To Me

Bonus Play

Opened last season:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Lyric Theater (213 W. 42nd St., New York, NY 10036) Opened: April 22, 2018 Twitter: @HPPlayNYC

This continuation of the saga of the boy wizard is really for (the legions of) Potter fans, but the special effects are awe-inspiring:

Tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

THREE NEW MUSICALS

Hadestown Walter Kerr (219 W 48th Street, New York, NY 10036) Opened: April 17, 2019 Twitter: @hadestown

This sung-through musical taking place in Hell adapts the Greek myth of retrieving his wife Eurydice from the Underworld. Anaïs Mitchell’s score features sweet and sexy folk music, rocking jazz, and down-home blues.

Tickets to Hadestown

Oklahoma!, Broadway 2019

Oklahoma! Circle in the Square Theater (235 W 50th Street NYC) Opened: April 07, 2019 Twitter: @OklahomaBway

This is of course not a “new” musical, but this fifth Broadway revival of the landmark musical, directed by Daniel Fish, offers such a different interpretation that it feels like new. It’s a darker take, and the music is countrified, with a small on-stage band (and some of the performers) playing fiddle, accordion, banjo guitar.

Tickets to Oklahoma!

Ain’t Too Proud The Life and Times of The Temptations Imperial Theater (249 West 45th St. NYC) Opened: Mar 21, 2019 Twitter: @AintTooProud

Fans of 1960’s Motown are in for a treat in this musical whose performers can sing and dance as well as the Temptations — and act too.

Tickets to Ain’t Too Proud

Bonus Musicals

Opened in previous seasons:

My Fair Lady Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont (150 W. 65th St) Opened April 19, 2018 Twitter: @MyFairLadyBway

If you haven’t seen Laura Benanti in this fourth Broadway revival of the Lerner and Lowe musical, you have only until July 7th to do so.

Tickets to My Fair Lady

Dear Evan Hansen Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th St.) Opened: December 04, 2016 Twitter: @DearEvanHansen

Evan Hansen is an anxious high school student with no real friends who becomes the center of attention when a classmate he barely knew commits suicide and, through a misunderstanding, people think that Evan was his best friend. Evan turns that misunderstanding into a lie, and the lie gets out of hand. The musical offers insights into an array of issues, from adolescent insecurity to the downside of social media, while keeping us emotionally engaged with the characters. The songs by Pasek and Paul are tuneful and deeply felt.

More on Dear Evan Hansen

Tickets to Dear Evan Hansen

James Monroe Iglehart as Thomas Jefferson

HAMILTON Richard Rodgers (226 W. 46th St., New York, NY) Opened: August 6, 2015 @HamiltonMusical

I loved this hip hop musical about American founding father Alexander Hamilton, Off-Broadway , on Broadway and now with the new cast , finding it ground-breaking and breathtaking.

There IS a daily lottery online where you can try your luck at snagging one of the tickets for only $10 (because Hamilton’s face is on the ten-dollar bill.)

Tickets to Hamilton

FOUR LONG-TIME HIT MUSICALS

These musicals have proven to be audience favorites, but a caveat: The original casts have long since moved on.

THE BOOK OF MORMON The Eugene O’Neill Theater Opened: March 24, 2011 Director: Jason Moore and Trey Parker Twitter feed: @BookofMormonBWY This musical by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (book), the creators of South Park, and Robert Lopez, one of the composer-lyricists for “Avenue Q” and “Frozen” (music and lyrics) is about the founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and his modern disciples. It is outrageous, irreverent in one way, but also deeply reverent to (even while parodying) the best traditions of the Broadway musical.

My review of The Book of Mormon: Ridiculing Religion, Worshiping The Great White Way

Tickets to Book of Mormon

THE LION KING

Minskoff Theater (200 West 45th Street) Opened: November 13, 1997 Twitter: @TheLionKing Based on the 1994 Disney animated film about the coming-of-age of a young lion in the African jungle, this musical offers African-inflected music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice and the visual magic of Julie Taymor. Taymor is the director, a composer and lyricist for some of the songs. But above all, she is the designer of the costumes, masks, and puppets — and it is these visuals that make this show a good first theatrical experience.

Tickets to Lion King

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Majestic Theater (247 West 44th Street) Opened: January 26, 1988 Twitter: @PhantomBway The Phantom of the Opera, based on a 1911 French novel by Gaston Leroux, is about a disfigured genius named Erik who lives in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House and falls in love with Christine, an aspiring singer whom he helps…until an old flame of Christine’s named Raoul steps back into the picture. However, the story in the musical, written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber — with more than its share of 1980′s heavy power ballads — is starting to take second place to the story of the musical, which is the longest-running Broadway musical of all time, and the most profitable. I find this show too loud and overwrought for my taste, but it is the one exception I’m making to the list of recommendations based on my personal taste, because it’s a tourist favorite, and admittedly visually stunning – people still ooh at the falling chandelier.

Tickets to Phantom of the Opera

Wicked NY

WICKED Gershwin Theater (222 West 51st Street) Opened: October 30, 2003 Twitter: @WICKED_Musical The musical tells the story of “The Wizard of Oz” from the witches’ perspective, more specifically from the Wicked Witch of the West, who was not, as a child, wicked at all, but just green-tinted, taunted, and misunderstood. There is so much to like about this musical, the clever twists on the familiar tale, the spectacular set, and music that is a lot more appealing in context (such as the song “Defying Gravity”) that I will forgive the contortions necessary to tack on a happy ending.

Tickets to Wicked

ON A LIMITED BUDGET?

There ARE ways to get affordable tickets to Broadway shows, especially if you are willing to 1. Wait until the day of the performance, and 2. Live with uncertainty. Getting tickets to a hit Broadway show for as little as $10 (and no more than $80) takes time, luck, knowledge and/or ingenuity. Most shows now have digital lotteries and “rush” tickets. For a show-by-show breakdown on the discounts available, check out Broadway for Broke People

DON’T FORGET OFF-BROADWAY

Some of the best shows on Broadway began Off-Broadway. Off-Broadway shows tend to be more adventurous and less expensive. But they also tend to have more limited runs, and be less publicized. Off-Broadway shows don’t get the attention they deserve. A willingness to hunt a little will pay off in a satisfying discovery, and bragging rights possibly for years to come.

LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT HIT

Check out my latest monthly calendar of openings to what’s newly available on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway.

What Broadway Shows Should I See? Top 10 Suggestions Now is the time when interest in Broadway is at its peak, piqued by the three-hour TV commercial for Broadway known as the 2019 Tony Awards.

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/it-had-to-be-funny-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores-comedian-eric-idle-launches-his-sortabiography/

'It had to be funny - I've no interest in settling scores' - comedian Eric Idle launches his 'sortabiography'

Comedian Eric Idle launches his ‘sortabiography’ We’re all individuals. Eric Idle is proud of the success of his fellow Pythons. Photo: Robyn Von Swank Technicolour: Eric Idle during the early days of Monty Python

‘It had to be funny – I’ve no interest in settling scores’ – comedian Eric Idle launches his ‘sortabiography’

Independent.ie

It is a comparison that has been made time and time again. Monty Python, it’s said, is to comedy, what The Beatles are to music. If the Fab Four forever changed the pop and rock landscape, it is surely fair to suggest that television comedy would look very different if a bunch of whip-smart and super-funny young men hadn’t appeared on the BBC in 1969 with a show that still generates belly laughs.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/it-had-to-be-funny-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores-comedian-eric-idle-launches-his-sortabiography-37459206.html

https://www.independent.ie/incoming/article37467365.ece/80537/AUTOCROP/h342/idle.PNG

Eric Idle – along with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and the late Graham Chapman – will forever be associated with his years in Python and he is as well placed as any to appraise The Beatles comparison.

“They weren’t The Beatles until Ringo came,” he tells Review over a sparkling water in a Dublin hotel bar. “When he came, he was the missing jigsaw piece that made it all work. And it’s the same with Python – if you took anyone out, the magic went, too.

“It’s like a good Liverpool football team,” he adds, in reference to the all-conquering Reds of the 1980s. “It’s a team that clicks and works, you can’t entirely explain it. You need these different kinds of talents to gel and it was the same with us.”

Technicolour: Eric Idle during the early days of Monty Python

The 75-year-old comedic giant is in Ireland to talk about his memoir, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Billed as a “sortabiography”, it’s a very funny look-back on a quirky and largely happy life. It shares its name with the song Idle wrote for the gloriously irreverent Life of Brian movie in 1979, and is now one of the most popular songs played at funerals.

He loves the idea that the tune soundtracks events and says writing that song is one of the things he’s most proud of. “Harry Nilsson recorded it,” he says. “but our version didn’t become a hit until 1991 – 13-odd years after it first came out. Simon Mayo [the BBC radio presenter] said it became popular on the terraces first – Manchester United fans had started to sing it [in the unsuccessful, pre-Alex Ferguson days] and then he started to play it at the beginning of his show to cheer people up.”

The song became a number one in Ireland – a fact that tickles Idle, especially as the Life of Brian was banned on release here over concerns it was blasphemous. It would finally get an Irish release in 1987 – and became one of the most popular films of the year.

Idle was busy making the film this month 40 years ago and says it was enormous fun to work with Cleese, Palin et al following the demise of the TV show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, to give it its full name.

Unsurprisingly, a great chunk of Idle’s memoir is taken up with those Python years. Although he says he doesn’t watch it any more – with the exception of clips that might be shown on TV chat shows he appears on – he believes the brand of humour has stood up well. “There were so many different talents, and we sort of spurred each other on to do better work. John had the most superb timing as a comedic talent. Gilliam couldn’t write a sketch to save his life, but his cartoons” – a key part of the Python experience – “were superb.”

The show coincided with the start of colour TV in Britain and Idle believes its importance should not be underestimated. “It really was very important, because if it had been in black and white, it would probably look very dated now, irrespective of how funny it was. People forget what a big deal the colour thing was… but you’ve got to remember that back then, Spike Milligan had a TV series that was called Oh in Colour.”

Idle bristles at the suggestion that Python was an overnight success. He subscribes to the 10,000 hours theory espoused by the Canadian pop cultural writer Malcolm Gladwell about greatness being earned rather than inherited. “We had worked very hard before Monty Python came along,” he says. “We’d done the Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. We were already very experienced when it came to writing professionally and performing.

“I really believe in the 10,000 hours thing. Look at The Beatles – and Gladwell uses them as an example: they honed their craft by playing all-nighters in Hamburg time and time again.”

Do Not Adjust Your Set – popular on ITV – had demonstrated their collective worth, but Monty Python’s Flying Circus allowed the sextet to push the comedic boat out. “By a serendipitous process, we were given a chance to do whatever we wanted – we literally had carte blanche, but we never got complacent. We were definitely challenging each other to come up with the best possible work.”

Idle is proud of the fact that each member went on to enjoy remarkable careers post-Python. Cleese created one of the greatest sitcoms in Fawlty Towers, Gilliam went on to become an arthouse filmmaker of distinction and Palin is now arguably better known for his outstanding travel broadcasting as he is for comedy.

Idle has been no slouch either. After Python, he created the cult Rutland Weekend Television, which led to the parody Beatles group, The Rutles. He starred in several movies – not least Python favourites like The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian – and was also responsible for one of the biggest Broadway hits of the past 20 years, Spamalot – which was adapted from The Holy Grail film. He is especially proud of the latter’s success. “Only 18pc [of Broadway musicals] make their money back,” he says. “We were into profit pretty early – it has to make its money back before you get any.” It was seen by more than two million people and grossed over $175m.

“People would say, ‘You were lucky to get all that money’, and I thought, ‘You know what, when I got that big cheque, I had worked on it for four or five years for nothing’. It’s only in success that you benefit from a musical.”

Idle decided to pen his memoir before reaching out to a publisher. “It had to be funny, and I like funny books – something like the one that [UK jazz musician] George Melly wrote, Rum, Bum and Concertina,” he says. “I read Steve Martin’s book, Born Standing Up. He’s a friend and I said to him, ‘What did you do?’ and he said, ‘I decided I wouldn’t talk badly of people’ and I thought that was a very good tip going in. I’ve no interest in settling old scores. People tend to do that when they write books at an earlier age – at 50, they try to nail people. But at my age, I don’t see the point. Most of my friends are dead. A lot of it is remembering really good times with really good people – and not taking the chance of being nasty. And I don’t think people like to read that either.”

Despite that vow, he cheerfully admits to sticking the boot into the new-age guru Deepak Chopra, whom he met at a party, and to Denis O’Brien, the controversial American business manager of George Harrison (who was one of Idle’s closest friends) and producer of The Life of Brian. “Even with him I was relatively mild,” he says. “I didn’t go as far as I could – he robbed George blind.” After Harrison took a lawsuit against him, O’Brien was instructed to pay him £6.7m in damages.

Today, Idle lives in Los Angeles. “I went over there when I was 50,” he says. He’s glad to be away from a Britain wrestling with Brexit, and he’s angry at the “idiotic posturing” of politicians like Boris Johnson. “It’s so depressing,” he says. “These fools have set the country back so much. It’s such a mess.”

And while he may have penned an anthem about looking at the bright side, Idle struggles to see a happy ending for a Britain led by Brexiteers. “I’m not very optimistic,” he says. “We have to put up with that Trump arsehole, but at least he’ll be gone eventually. Brexit won’t be reversed any time soon.”

‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ is out now, published by W&N

Indo Review

Source: https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/it-had-to-be-funny-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores-comedian-eric-idle-launches-his-sortabiography-37459206.html

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investmart007 · 6 years ago

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NEW YORK | The Latest: John Tiffany wins Tony for best play director

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/mF8AcI

NEW YORK | The Latest: John Tiffany wins Tony for best play director

NEW YORK — The Latest on the Tony Awards (all times local):

9:50 p.m.

John Tiffany has won his second directing Tony Award for his work on the two-part play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Tiffany previously won a Tony for directing the musical “Once.” He also was nominated for the 2014 revival of “The Glass Menagerie.” Tiffany won the directing Olivier Award for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Tiffany was Associate Director of the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012. Some of his other credits include “Black Watch” and “The Ambassador.”

He beat out Marianne Elliott, Joe Mantello, Patrick Marber and George C. Wolfe.

___

9:45 p.m.

David Cromer has won his first Tony Award for directing “The Band’s Visit.”

The musical is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name, has songs by David Yazbek and a sardonic story by Itamar Moses. It centers on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town.

Cromer directed the short-lived Neil Simon revival of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 2009 and the 2011 revival of John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves.” He drew acclaim for two productions at the off-Broadway Barrow Street Theatre — “Tribes” and “Our Town,” for which played the Stage Manager in addition to directing.

He grew up outside Chicago in Skokie, Illinois, and won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2010. He taught acting and directing at Columbia College Chicago for 15 years and has often returned to the works of Tennessee Williams.

He beat out Michael Arden, Casey Nicholaw, Tina Landau and Bartlett Sher.

___

9:30 p.m.

Glenda Jackson has added to her impressive resume with a Tony Award for best actress in a play.

The 82-year-old British actress won her first Tony for playing a flinty woman facing the end of her life in the new revival of Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women.”

Jackson has two Academy Awards, for 1970’s “Women in Love” and 1973’s “A Touch of Class, and credits in such films as “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” ”Mary, Queen of Scots” and “Hedda.” She won two Emmys for starring in the television miniseries “Elizabeth R.”

She stepped back from acting in the early 1990s to enter politics and is famous for a 2013 speech she gave after the death of Margaret Thatcher, bitterly decrying the late prime minister.

She beat Condola Rashad, Lauren Ridloff and Amy Schumer.

___

9:15 p.m.

A heroic drama teacher who nurtured many of the young people demanding change following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been honored from the Tony Award stage.

Melody Herzfeld, the one-woman drama department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was cheered by the crowd at Radio City Music Hall.

Herzfeld saved 65 lives by barricading students into a small classroom closet on Valentine’s Day when police say a former student went on a school rampage, killing 17 people.

She then later encouraged many of her pupils to lead the nationwide movement for gun reform, including organizing the March For Our Lives demonstration and the charity single “Shine.”

Members of Herzfeld’s drama department then took the stage to sing “Seasons of Love” from “Rent.”

___

9 p.m.

Nathan Lane has won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his role in “Angels in America.”

Laurie Metcalf won best featured actress in a play earlier Sunday for her role in Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women.” It is Metcalf’s second Tony win — she won best actress last year for “A Doll’s House, Part 2.”

Lane’s win is the second of the evening for an “Angels in America” actor. Andrew Garfield won for best leading actor earlier in the evening.

___

8:10 p.m.

Andrew Garfield has won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a play for his work in “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s monumental drama about life and love during the 1980s.

Garfield plays a young gay man living with AIDS in the sprawling, seven-hour revival opposite Nathan Lane.

He previously was nominated for a featured role in “Death of a Salesman” opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Garfield has been nominated for an Oscar for his work in “Hacksaw Ridge.” His other film work includes “The Social Network” in 2010 and the 2012 superhero film “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its 2014 sequel.

He beat out Tom Hollander, Jamie Parker, Mark Rylance and Denzel Washington.

___

8:05 p.m.

Tony Award co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles have gotten the show started with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there — including them.

Neither Bareilles nor Groban have won a Grammy or a Tony despite selling millions of albums and appearing on Broadway in hit shows. They turned that into a playful song.

“Let’s not forget that 90 percent of us leave empty-handed tonight. So this is for the people who lose/Most of us have been in your shoes,” they sang in the upbeat opening number. “This one’s for the loser inside of you.”

The co-hosts then noted that such noted shows like “Hair” and “Into the Woods” didn’t win the best musical prize. Nor did “Waitress,” the show Bareilles wrote music for.

At the end of the song, the pair were joined by over a dozen members of the ensemble from each this year’s nominated musicals.

___

7:55 p.m.

Condola Rashad has a special reason to celebrate on the Tony Award red carpet Sunday. She also just closed her show, “Saint Joan.”

The actress says she has “a lot of emotions today.” She likened it to the last day of school mixed with prom and graduation at the same time. She says: “It’s a celebration.”

The daughter of Phylicia Rashad and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad earned a best actress in a play nomination for playing Joan of Arc in the play by George Bernard Shaw, which ended its run with Sunday’s matinee. Her dad and sisters were her dates to the Tonys.

She says “it’s been a really great opportunity for us to come together.”

Rashad also earned a 2012 Tony nomination for “Stick Fly” and plays a district attorney on the Showtime series “Billions.”

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7:45 p.m.

Broadway’s SpongeBob, Ethan Slater, has walked the red carpet with a ribbon supporting the American Civil Liberties Union pinned to one lapel.

He says the organization is “incredibly important to our country” when it comes to guarding civil liberties. He called his show “aligned with the values of the ACLU.”

How exactly? Well, in terms of diversity, for one.

The “SpongeBob SquarePants” musical includes Sandy the squirrel, a scapegoat for Bikini Bottom’s problems who is targeted for banishment.

Slater calls the story line “really relevant to the Muslim ban” in the United States and the way he says that “Muslim-Americans have been treated.”

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7:25 p.m.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has no problem with nerves as he heads into the Tony Awards. His accolade to come once inside is all sewn up as an honorary tribute.

The musical theater legend says the feeling is wonderful: “I don’t have to worry about it.” He says all he has to do is “just go and get it.”

Webber says this season on Broadway is exciting, in particular amid musicals with many fine new writers. He also praised the night’s co-host, Sara Bareilles, for her work in the recently televised rock opera he co-created back in 1970, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Webber describes Bareilles as an “extraordinary actress,” especially through music.

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6:50 p.m.

Andrew Garfield says the social message of “Angels in America” is a huge part of why he agreed to star as Pryor Walter.

The nominee says on the Tony red carpet that he doesn’t want to “tell a story unless it has the potential to change people.”

The British actor says the eight-hour play is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago, when Tony Kushner first staged it and won a Pulitzer Prize for his trouble.

Garfield says theater must be political and mirror the times we’re in. Otherwise, he says, “we’re wasting everyone’s time.”

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6:20 p.m.

Josh Groban is promising “a really fun” Tony Awards.

Says the first-time co-host: “I feel really excited about the show we have ready for everybody tonight.” He says it’s been a fun season and he called co-host Sara Bareilles “brilliant.”

He says the chance to collaborate and bounce ideas off her has been “nothing less than a dream come true.”

He adds “We’re just going to go out and be ourselves.” Groban promises the show will be a combination of slick and two musical theater geeks being “total weirdos.”

For her part, Bareilles says she “just wants to stay present.” She added that her job is to make sure everyone else is having a good time, saying “that’s the goal — people pleasing.”

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6:10 p.m.

Cynthia Erivo and Brian Tyree Henry say the theater is a perfect place to deal with social issues.

Says Henry, who is nominated for his work in “Lobby Hero”: “It’s happening right in front of your face.” He adds that something about the stage encourages tough issues to be worked on by strangers.

He says the cast and audience of a show go on a ride together and hopefully it creates a platform for discussion.

Erivo, winner of the best actress in a musical award for her work in “The Color Purple” in 2016, agreed: “People can see themselves live.” She says theater gives people a chance to express themselves freely.

John Leguizamo adds there are no “gatekeepers” in theater, which allows many points of view to emerge.

___

5:45 p.m.

“Frozen” songwriters Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, walked the red carpet at the Tony Awards on Sunday for the first time as equal nominees.

Robert Lopez co-conceived and co-wrote the smash-hit musicals “Avenue Q” and “The Book of Mormon,” both earning him Tony Awards. “Frozen” marks Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s first nomination.

“I’m so proud of her,” her husband said. “She’s been here before as my plus-one.” His advice to her was “enjoy this thing.” It might be scary, but he calls it like a “prom.”

Anderson-Lopez acknowledged she was going to be nervous for the cast of “Frozen” and suspected that she would share their butterflies. Joked her husband: “She’ll be mouthing every word along with them.”

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2:45 p.m.

The Tony Awards dress rehearsal — normally with few actual stars in attendance — got a shock of A-listers this year, including Tina Fey, Kelli O’Hara, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Leguizamo, Tituss Burgess — and Bruce Springsteen.

The four-hour rehearsal at Radio City Music Hall allows producers to go through the show from start to finish before the Sunday telecast. Usually, stand-ins are used for Hollywood presenters, who prefer to hit the snooze button.

But the audience this time cheered loudly when Patti Lupone, Uzo Aduba, Ming-Na Wen, Melissa Benoist, Tatiana Maslany, Christopher Jackson, James Monroe Iglehart and Rachel Brosnahan showed up in the flesh.

The highlight was Springsteen, who walked onstage in a T-shirt and jeans, performed one song on the piano from his sold-out one-man show and departed to a standing ovation.

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12:15 a.m.

The Tony Awards kick off on Sunday night with a pair of first-time hosts, no clear juggernaut like “Hamilton” to cheer for, but a likely assist by Bruce Springsteen.

Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles face their biggest audience yet and a careful political balancing act when they co-host the CBS telecast from the massive 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall.

Getting buzz from appearing on the telecast can dictate a show’s future, both on Broadway and on tour. Broadway producers will be thankful this year that the telecast won’t compete with any NBA Finals or Stanley Cup playoff games.

By Associated Press

___

#A New York Republican #Harry Potter and the Cursed Child #John Tiffany wins #New York #TodayNews #Tony for best play director

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rahullikesthings · 7 years ago

Text

I’ve done these year-end reflections for the last four years, and most of them have been how things went badly and how I hope they get better. I’m happy to say 2017 was a really solid year for me. There’s a whole list of accomplishments I’m proud of, some I had worked towards, some that happened by coincidence. I moved into my own apartment. I got a promotion and two different raises at work. I’ve been booked more than ever since I’ve been doing standup. I started my own show. I’ve made friends, at work and through comedy. And as someone that hasn’t had much of that in a few years, I think it’s helped me be less cynical and paranoid about new acquaintances and relationships whenever they do happen. I met Terrell Owens (kind of a weird dude) and Eric Dickerson (cool guy!) and got that close to Steve Kerr at the Warriors championship parade.

There’s still plenty more I hope to accomplish, but it’s fair to say this year is the start of an upward trajectory. I’m in a good space mentally and physically. I see people around me progressing and moving forward and I’m super happy for them. I’m thinking of going vegan. There’s people I hope to meet, places I hope to travel to, more achievements to realize.

As I started to put together these lists, I realized how strange my media intake felt this year. Stuff that happened earlier in the year feels like sooo long ago. There are songs I loved that I forgot were released this year at all. The albums list was tough because there was no clear number one for me but definitely a handful that I really liked. There were more beyond that I thoroughly enjoyed, put in a playlist, and then completely forgot about because I guess that’s what streaming is. “Crew” was easily my favorite song this year. I spend just enough time in car to actually listen to the radio and it was such a cool feeling to hear Shy Glizzy on there. I get psyched and sing along to his verse every. single time.

I watched a ton of TV this year but, really, no show comes close to American Vandal. The humor, the characters, the depth of the parody, the bingeability. It’s maybe the best representation of high school I’ve ever seen on screen. Quality all around. I don’t know that would tell someone who has never seen Twin Peaks to watch it, but there were three of four moments in this season that were some of the most visceral experiences I’ve ever had watching any TV or movie. Godless was fire. Mindhunter was also great. I thought this final season of The Carmichael Show was nearly perfect. Curb might not have had its best season but I laughed uncontrollably at every scene between Larry and Richard Lewis. The Get Down deserved more. The Deuce was as good as people said, but I think I needed a little something more. Shout out to Shark Tank for always coming through.

I may have watched more movies this year than in any other year in recent memory (shouts to my Movie Pass). I don’t know that I had an obvious number one, but Lady Bird, Florida Project and Get Out are in that discussion for me. But also Star Wars: The Last Jedi was maybe the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve spent so much of my life with this franchise, I didn’t think I could be surprised anymore. The throne room scene is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and the audience reaction to Laura Dern’s lightspeed was priceless (every single time). Highlight: Watching Get Out at the Jack London theater in Oakland on opening weekend / Lowlight: not being able to discuss it at work the next day because San Francisco is the whitest, most clueless, most tone-deaf city on Earth. American Made won’t get mentioned a lot but it was one of the more fun experiences I’ve had at the movies. Girls Trip was awesome and hilarious. The Game of Thrones prison scene in Logan Lucky and the Kumail/Ray Romano 9/11 joke in The Big Sick are literally two of the funniest moments in any movie ever. I thought I was over comic book movies, but three ended up on this list. I still can’t tell if I liked Dunkirk.

Here’s to 2018.

Best Songs:

Goldlink “Crew (feat. Brent Faiyaz & Shy Glizzy)” SZA “Supermodel” Tove Love “Disco Tits” Migos “T-Shirt” Playboi Carti “Magnolia” Future “Solo” Sevyn Streeter “Before I Do” Kendrick “Fear” Kelela “LMK” Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like” Ty Dolla $ign “Famous” Adrian Marcel “UKNOWUDO” Miguel “Told You So” 2 Chainz “It’s A Vibe (feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz & Jhene Aiko)” A$AP Ferg “Plain Jane” Buddy “Type of Shit (feat. Wiz Khalifa)” Devin the Dude “Are You Goin' My Way?” Frank Ocean “Chanel” Che Ecru “2 Am” Majid Jordan “One I Want (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)” Rick Ross “Trap, Trap, Trap (feat. Young Thug & Wale)” Young Thug “Daddy’s Birthday” Vince Stapes “Big Fish” PRETTYMUCH “Open Arms” Wizkid “Come Closer (feat. Drake)”

Best Albums:

Future HNDRXX Future FUTURE Kelela Take Me Apart Kendrick Lamar DAMN. IDK Iwasverybad Miguel War & Leisure SZA Ctrl Ty Dolla $ign Beach House 3 Jonwayne Rap Album Two Aminé Good For You Mary J. Blige Strength Of A Woman Drake More Life Meek Mill Wins & Losses Jay-Z 4:44 Playboi Carti Playboi Carti Che Ecru buries SiR Her Too Goldlink At What Cost Lou The Human Humaniac Roc Marciano Rosebudd’s Revenge Mozzy & Gunplay Dreadlocks & Headshots Wiki No Mountains In Manhattan milo who told you to think??!!?!?!?! Migos Culture Anna Wise The Feminine: Act II

Best Beats:

Oh No x Tristate “Wind Chime Wizardry” (Oh No) Juelz Santana & Dave East “Time Ticking” (Jahlil Beats) Offset & Metro Boomin “Ric Flair Drip” (Bijan Amir, Metro Boomin) Future “Solo” (Dre Moon) Iamsu “Shake” (Iamsu) Aminé “Slide” (Jahaan Sweet, Aminé) Kap G “Motivation” (???) Mila J “Fuckboy” (Immanuel Jordan Rich) Jonwayne “Afraid Of Us” (Jonwayne) SZA “Go Gina” (Scum, Lang, Frank Dukes) Milo “Sorcerer” (Kenny Segal) Action Bronson “Bonzai” (Harry Fraud) RJMrLA & DJ Mustard “Hard Way” (DJ Mustard)

Best TV Shows:

American Vandal Mindhunter Godless Twin Peaks: The Return Bojack Horseman The Carmichael Show The Deuce Rick and Morty The Leftovers Master of None Veep Halt and Catch Fire Mr. Robot The Good Place The Get Down Shark Tank Glow Insecure Marvel’s Runaways Lady Dynamite The Defiant Ones All or Nothing Every scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm between Larry and Richard Lewis

Best Movies:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Lady Bird The Florida Project Get Out Logan Lucky American Made Logan Girls Trip Hidden Figures The Meyerowitz Stories Molly’s Game The Big Sick Thor: Ragnarok Coco Wonder Woman It The Disaster Artist Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond Spider-Man: Homecoming Dunkirk The Lost City of Z

Best Comedy Specials:

Louis C.K.: 2017 (I know, I know...) Roy Wood Jr: Father Figure Norm Macdonald: Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery Chris Gethard: Career Suicide Al Madrigal: Shrimpin' Ain't Easy Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King Brent Weinbach: Appealing to the Mainstream Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up For The First Time Maria Bamford: Old Baby Erik Griffin: The Ugly Truth Neal Brennan: Three Mics The Standups: Fortune Feimster The Standups: Beth Stelling Marc Maron: Too Real Comedy Central Stand Up Presents: Anthony Devito Comedy Central Stand Up Presents: Sam Jay Joe Mande's Award-Winning Comedy Special Todd Barry: Spicy Honey Ryan Hamilton: Happy Face The Standups: Nate Bargatze

Previously: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years ago

Photo

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/it-had-to-be-funny-and-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores/

'It had to be funny - and I've no interest in settling scores'

We’re all individuals. Eric Idle is proud of the success of his fellow Pythons. Photo: Robyn Von Swank Technicolour: Eric Idle during the early days of Monty Python

‘It had to be funny – and I’ve no interest in settling scores’

Independent.ie

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/it-had-to-be-funny-and-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores-37459206.html

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/article37459205.ece/1caec/AUTOCROP/h342/2018-10-27_ent_45028013_I2.JPG

Technicolour: Eric Idle during the early days of Monty Python

“I really believe in the 10,000 hours thing. Look at The Beatles – and Gladwell uses them as an example: they honed their craft by playing all-nighters in Hamburg time and time again.”

‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ is out now, published by W&N

Indo Review

Source: https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/it-had-to-be-funny-and-ive-no-interest-in-settling-scores-37459206.html

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