LONELYPOND PRESENTS

News:

Greetings, o most loyal and amazing blog visitors. Happy 2010. I’m going to give you a fairly thorough round up as I would really like to be taking a couple of weeks for some R + R while it’s cold and all my baser instincts are saying, “Stay under the covers, it’s warm.” I am not particularly good at the R + R things so I may be forced to resort to things like read all the Harry Potter books, read all the Sarah Caudwell books, read all the Terry Pratchett Watch themed books, read my MFK Fisher + Elizabeth David, dig out my Raymond Chandler and Peter Cheyney, read through the pile of newspapers, watch all the movies I’ve borrowed from friends (Tristram Shandy, Bubba Ho-Tep, Steam Boy), watch the movies I watch every year and skipped in ‘09 (the original 3 American Pies, Tomb Raider, Bring It On, The Bandwagon, Strictly Ballroom, etc.)

So to tide you over, there’s the new Blink Kitty Love, all the old Blink Kitty Love, the band website and this:

Lunch With Tristram Stuart who feeds people from discarded food to highlight wastage.

Article about really cool jazz pianists CD collections I can’t afford.

The FT’s this year in culture quiz…

Stefan Stern’s suggestions for movies to watch and pick up business tips from this season (for the rest of you who don’t do R + R).

Very cool story about a native Gypsy theatre experiment/troupe in Spain. I am always amazed by the effect theatre can have on both audience and performers.

Umberto Eco’s latest looks to land on a list of fun reads.

Hoping to catch Nine at the local cinema…doesn’t look like Orson Welles and Me or The Station will make an appearance here; bumped Moon to the top of the Netflix queue and may soon give in to the buy Star Trek and/or Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie DVD urge…also on that list, the Cary Grant double feature — The Bachelor and The Bobby Soxer and Walk, Don’t Run, which I just saw on TCM and laughed at the frequently priceless moments.

TV: Zeke and Luther’s I, Skatebot episode looks cool, a bit worried about Wizards vs. Werewolves (Wizards of Waverly Place) — perhaps too soon after Wizards vs. Vampires and what will be left for Max, Wizards vs. really grumpy mythological creatures left out of the Twilight series — not really watching much on Nick at the moment except for late night What I Like About You, Top Gear kicks off a new season soon (Gayle very excited), I still miss Warehouse 13 and I really need to spend more time reading.

Merchant of Venice (#merven) planning not kicking into gear — but it’s early yet. Trying to get an artist for the logo, Gayle’s scheduling shows, I’ve decided to have people audition with their cool electronic gear (cell phones, laptops, etc.) Need to read through the play again; concerned about the Bassiano/Antonio axis –and no, I don’t mean in the gay way, just in the everybody’s always so concerned about Portia and Shylock, but hey without these two, I’ve got two right side wheels on a vehicle that needs two on the left as well.

The Lonely Pond Productions, Inc. annual meeting went in unexpected directions. But Google Wave worked well when the snow prevented travel. I need to put together scripts for a short live action adaptation and a few animations. And mull over movie related issues some more.

And Sarah Hemming’s “Twelfth Night” review left me grumping about people who weight down comedies with misery so I have been considering exactly how tragic the characters of Malvolvio, Sir Andrew, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, et al are. And her Rope review makes the show sound like an excellent experience to have in a theatre.

Speaking of Hitchcock, there was a Vanity Fair photospread (thanks @njtam, a fellow Hitchcock fan) of modern stars in classic Hitchcock scenes…the women do better than the men, who seem to suffer from not being Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart.

My current favorite breakfast is oatmeal with hot apple cider for a drink, my current most likely to be worn shirt is this one (it amuses Gayle) and I heard this amazingly goofy song at one of our favorite restaurants that Google has been no help with finding the title of…the lyrics as we can remember go something like this: “you’re good cause you don’t do things like (or that) you should…you’re cool cause (cuz?) you don’t do things by the book.” Sounded like a guy singing, it was a Spanish-Peruvian restaurant where music usually has spanish lyrics, it was chanty, and if you drop the title/artist in the comments, there will be a reward.

And I think that gets you up to date — and should tide you over for awhile. Wishing you the best of 2010’s. Stay warm.

P.S. Cool toasters…I need one.

Well, let’s just say I’m grumpy…and be glad you don’t have to put up with me in the morning…or the afternoon or…

If by chance, you don’t want to read a rant theatrical, here is a cartoon about the perils of translation.

See, what I always say about theatre is that one of the things I like about it is that it happens in the evening, at the earliest a once a week afternoon matinee. But now, thanks to the homeschooling schedules (and the theatre sharing schedules) and massive cast conflicts with my original schedule, I have four hour Monday afternoon rehearsals of The Miser, starting at 1 p.m., which is usually when I’m having my green tea after sun and chi gung. But no, I have to go inside the theatre, away from the sun and fresh air; be personable, upbeat and entertaining; rehearse; do my own darn breathing exercises (Gayle leads them with the Theatre Under The Trees Cast in the summer where one of our goals is to rehearse outdoors whenever the weather permits; Gayle leads them because I speed through them and am occasionally — you may be surprised here — not a calm, soothing vibration); and figure out a way to use four hours effectively to rehearse half of a play that’s clocking five acts in ninety minutes. Tomorrow, at least we’re rehearsing the whole thing so if I throw in improv games, breathing exercises, a brief history of French theatre and a comedy matters pep talk, we should be done at 3. That leaves two hours. And I don’t want to run the entire play twice — I’m worried my Miser is going to blow out her voice…although there are performance dates where we do two shows: one at 9:30 AM and one at 12:30 p.m. So we need to build stamina for them. And yes, I knew about the morning shows when I took the job(they said I didn’t have to be on the premises, but as a director, you can’t let yourself off that easy). But it was a very funny script and I’m a sucker for comedy.

So I don’t plan on sleeping the week we have performances…make sure you check back then, if you find this sort of thing entertaining (or know a good joke that will cheer me up). And to start this whole Miser process off, I got one mother who didn’t want her daughter to play a guy and was willing to do costumes instead until some point at the readthrough when they both slunk off quietly and an 18 year old who lectured me for 15 minutes on the language and inappropriateness of the translation before quitting. There is a licking below the earlobe reference — I checked; it’s not in the French. As far as I can tell from my limited high school/college French, all the English translations put in racier things than the original French contains. Footnotes to French English bilingual edition say things like (and I’m paraphrasing because all my theatre paraphernalia is in the car) “spectacles and telescopes both contain lunette and that’s why he refers to her as the brightest thing in the firmament” and “in French, daughter and cashbox are both feminine nouns so they would be referred to as she so that this part would actually make sense to the audience” and “there was a tapestry series of Macom and ?????? popular at the time. The English translation of that last bit in this version? (and here, I am not paraphrasing nearly enough):” “Anthony and Cleopatra, he with spear, she naked, surrounded by various serpents; Napoleon and Josephine, he with hat, she naked, surrounded by various pastries; Venus and Adonis, he with tree, she naked, surrounded by clam and other molluscs”…and no, the lines I’m making up do not contain the words “surrounded by clams and other molluscs.” That one’s in the play. Trust me, it’s memorable.

Right so where was I? Cutting Monday rehearsals down to three hours, short a costumer and a lighting designer, going up in mid May and then auditioning for The Taming of The Shrew ten days after. I think that’s “Here there be Dragons” on the map.

And did I mention how much I miss Shakespeare? I always tell my TUTT casts everything they need is in the script and it’s one of the truer things I ever say. Shakespeare’s language leads you everywhere you need to be. It’s amazing. It’s even more amazing when you’re trying to direct a play by someone else and there are no rhetorical devices to help you and the translator/author decided to make every other word start with a p in the Miser’s last couple of speeches after she’s already talked through 85% of the play…that’s good planning.

Oh yes, and I’ve been so insanely overscheduled, I had to cancel a Gullible and Twitchy session, haven’t pulled out my Wacom tablet to FlipBoom and haven’t even been to the alternate office to just have some tea and look at magazines with shiny Apple technology. Maybe Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or…

And that leaves us with, “Mellow Greetings, Ukey Dukey”…have you ever watched The Bachelor and The Bobby Soxer? It’s fun. How about Tuesday around 8ish; I might actually be free. Good night, folks.

Recent comment about the Twilight sequel(see Lunch Break entry) had me searching to verify that the Catherine Hardwicke had been replaced and one of the articles I found lists Alice Wu as a wildcard contender. Alice Wu directed this wonderful film called “Saving Face” that I happened across at Blockbuster on one of my indie mood days and fell in love with and paid Blockbuster what they wanted to let me keep it. Time to rewatch. I needed a weekend plan. It’s about love, being gay and dealing with your mother who happens to be pregnant and in a mood — very funny, great performances. Strange place for Twilight to lead. I’m almost tempted to read it just to see what the fuss is about and because I am MAD for new reading material.

Queer Scrobblers Radio on last.fm is playing Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time; GREAT song which reminds me of a perfectly tuned, perfect and funny movie, Strictly Ballroom.

I have been thinking about Perfectly Tuned movies, movies where not a thing goes wrong, where everything just meshes. I can’t remember why — probably something Nigel Andrews said in a review and then I couldn’t sleep so I continued mulling. Oh, no, it was the Cary Grant North By Northwest grace of physical movement in acting Washington Post article previously mentioned– great writing, read it. I’m giving a copy to The Miser cast when one assembles.

Hitchcock of course tops the list with Rope, The Trouble With Harry and Vertigo, then there’s Noises Off — the funniest comedy ever written in Engish and still great as a movie adaptation, Strictly Ballroom, Memento, Scream 2, Bringing Up Baby, The Winter Guest, King of Masks (this is AMAZING), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, A Fish Called Wanda, Seven Year Itch, Clueless, Man On A Wire…hmmmm, well, that’s a list of movies that seem perfectly tuned and yet it’s very different from the list of movies I watch over and over again. Interesting.

Movies I/we watch over and over again: The Shadow, Noises Off (well, I did until I loaned my copy to the third actor last year), DEBS (DEBS is just great + silly + fun), Kissing Jessica Stein (also great + silly + fun), Tomb Raider, 10 Things I Hate About You, Wimbledon, Barkleys Of Broadway, Bond movies, yes Bond movies, Jackie Chan movies, yes, Jackie Chan movies (Rush Hour 1 + 2, Chris Tucker’s hysterical, plus others. I miss Eric’s Jackie Chan nights — you’re not a Jackie Chan fan unless you’ve seem Fierce Hyenas 2), So The Drama…

and I think that’s enough about movies I watch frequently for a segue that started with a movie I’ve never seen based on a book I’ve never read.

On a non movie note, Radio Free Roscoe does excellent music, integrating it perfectly with the mood and plot. I think that’s another quality that Smallville has lost, the music edge. And that’s a quality that really impacts my enjoyment of shows/movies/anything. The Middleman did an excellent job of music placement, as did Buffy and The Gilmore Girls (sidenote, Entertainment Weekly reports Lauren Graham will be starring as Adelaide in Guys And Dolls in NYC in March. That’ll be quite a show. Break a leg, Ms. Graham). Finding music that resonates with the emotional moment is that extra mark of excellence. I always take care with the music and Shakespeare — he puts so much in already.