LONELYPOND PRESENTS

Well, the Olympics are over, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has closed, we’re caught up on Chuck, Blink Kitty Love did not get a Streamy nomination(thanks to everyone and anyone who voted!) and the snow might be melting. So what now? Well, do you want the To-Do list or the quick reviews. Let’s do reviews.

Chuck — loved Season 2. And considering how well they did with guest stars in Season 2, why oh why did they INFLICT Brandon Routh on us (it can’t be only me)? Oy. Yvonne Strahovski continues excellently expressing quiet discomfort over Chuck’s evolution but the whole two people moving in separate directions with two other people plot angle is VERY forced and seems like just an excuse to shoehorn in “GUEST STARS” and rushed choices. Always nice to see Kristin Kreuk, if only they’d put her in the guest part that lasted more than four episodes.

Smallville is back and I’m remembering it’s on Fridays. Watched the morning show episode and enjoyed it, although I really wish they’d stop dressing Tom Welling all in the smooth, stylish black. I don’t like the dark color palette but the characters seem to having a little more fun.

Wizards of Waverly Place — slumping. Alex as go go over the top cheerleader? no no. Good luck Charlie is looking like fun. The actor playing the Dad (

Work on a new Blink Kitty Love — a great title hit me yesterday
Keep writing “The Lady Lost” or “Maybe Turning That Corner Wasn’t The Brightest Idea I Ever Had”
And have some fun, darn it.

Good night.

Have been meaning to write a post about Merchant of Venice (#merven) and costuming thoughts for awhile, definitely since Vanessa Friedman’s excellent coverage of this year’s Paris + Milan Fashion Weeks. Gayle and I have been talking clothes. We’re thinking very modern so we may have to add an iron to our usual touring gear and hit up consignment shops in Baltimore and Philadelphia for some suitable ties, if not entire suits. I can imagine the thrill that will be felt by the actors wearing business suits outdoors in the end of July heat.

Merchant of Venice is striking me more and more as a sleek, ruthless play of marble chess pieces in sharp edged modern suits, always on the go, accumulating, communicating, sifting, betting, collecting, judging. I ordered the Oxford edition . The Pelican, my choice in the past, is only available as a Kindle download. And there is always the Riverside as a constant, but it’s not portable. So the Oxford is my carrying around copy. I don’t remember liking the Arden or the Folger and I won’t have anything to do with an edition that has anything to do with Harold Bloom. I do not like his commentaries. I’m a Northrop Frye kind of director.

The Oxford’s simple cover graphic — a balance/scales — also appealed. From a quick perusal of the commentary, that item is an excellent choice because Merchant seems to be more about capital letter CONCEPTS: Justice, Mercy and their cousins, than it is about any of the individual characters. Perhaps that’s another reason for Portia’s disguise: not only can she save the day, she can represent a quality.

I am directing/exploring Merchant because I have had so many reactions to it. As a child, Portia was my favorite Shakespearean heroine. I loved how she manipulated logic and legal concepts while riding in to save the day (I also loved the Lone Ranger). So I had good memories of Portia. Then, several years ago, I reread Merchant as a possible choice for the next summer’s Theatre Under The Trees (”yes, sir, that’s my baby”) and was repulsed by Portia’s cruelty. I had this sudden vision of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde but without any warmth or heart or humor — shearing sharpened pink sabers.

Plus, there’s the Jew thing. You can’t get around the “gentle Jew” problem. Once I had a vision of doing an indoor adaptation titled Merchant of Hong Kong, with dark woods, harbor motifs, Chinese Mandarin robes and a British Shylock. Jew switched for Brit. There’s high concept for you.

York has a troubled history with racial and other forms of discrimination so the inciting a race/religious war concern will remain present. I know I’ll have to be prepared for cast questions/discussions. And honestly, I don’t know what to say. That’s why I want to direct Merchant. Shylock has this incredible speech that not only humanizes him but explains his behavior is as the Christians taught him. Gayle’s theory is that the play is anti-banker, although she hasn’t read it recently. Bankers are right now, here in 2009, the villians of nearly every piece. The only way I know to figure out if my first or second impression of Portia is the more accurate one is to direct the play, with no idea how it will turn out. Shakespeare’s truths show in performance.

I think Merchant might turn on Bassiano, the character I’d forgotten. There’s always a character who matters more than you think, the way in for the audience, the point everything pivots around, the weather for the play. In Twelfth Night, it’s Olivia; in Midsummer, it’s Oberon. They’re the characters who bring all the pieces together. And I had forgotten Bassiano. You remember Shylock, Portia, even Antonio. But I think Bassiano might be the one who makes it all work. But that’s just my first THIRD impression, after a quick read. I’m sure there’s a few more to come.

Peter Aspden on Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing + how maybe not making a choice (as an artist) can impact + amplify your effect.

Paul Levitz is back on the Legion — YES. Levitz is stepping down as president + publisher and DC is revamping under the Warner Brothers aegis to take on the mega muscle that will be Disney/Marvel.

Great article on Winston Churchill + the fighting spirit.

Saw Ellen MacArthur on Top Gear; superfast sailor; fastest lap in their old Stars in Ordinary Cars derby. Here’s her blog; want to track down her book.

What the heck, @nicolaz + her partner @kelleyeskridge have started an editing business, @sterlingediting. (Yes, I love Twitter; it’s where I, @lonelypond, win friends + influence people; you have been previously warned; and if you influence or amuse me or annoy me in that grit making a pearl happen fashion, hey, you may very well get a mention right here.) I wish them well in their new endeavour. It is the best of feelings to collaborate on something you love with someone you love (oh, no, verging on sentiment — gak* — definition 4 my favorite. Must sleep more — refer previous entry)

Back to FT and other links (but what about the Legion you say? That’s not British. That’s a glitch not a tangent or even a segue. Caught me, but true love supersedes all.)

I actually find myself in sympathetic agreement with the usually too fluffy, but in a pleasant way, for me Susie Boyt as she struggles with going on holiday and running into a “novelist’s self help manual”.

Profile of Gustav Metzger, artist determined to push the world to survive.

Need to read this book judged by it’s cover.

And a review of Twitterville the book. (I prefer Twitterverse myself, but I’ve yet to write that book.)

And that should tide you over while I get some sun, listen to Radio Blink Kitty Love, lunch, work on that other book, and have a Thursday. Enjoy yours.

Ok, I’m taking on faith you have those movie stubs to something original — Bandslam, (500) Days of Summer…I’ll let you off the hook if it’s Julie and Julia or District 9, but G.I. Joe, well G.I. Joe is part of the problem — Hollywood’s ADDICTION to remakes.

Tonight I was having a fairly long + involved Twitter conversation w/ @IDOL_HANDS about remakes starting with the news that Todd McFarlane (Mr. I created Spawn and own the world’s most expensive baseball) is planning a remake of The Wizard of Oz with some Ripley/Alien DNA mixed in. And then for a couple of days, the universe has been buzzing (mostly anti — there’s a Twitition against it) about Robert Zemeckis + Disney’s plan to remake The Yellow Submarine. TYS is not my favorite Beatles movie but it is so one of a kind you have to respect it…my favorite Beatles movie is Hard Day’s Night (must buy), one of the best, cleanest + simplest band movies (I’ve mentioned this before).

I think my friends @TheWebFiles sum it up best: “Telegraph of London says “Twitter killing Hollywood movies?” http://bit.ly/5uF1L Solution? Stop making crappy movies.”

I promised FT links…well, Peter Aspden had a column about Twitter but unlike Vanessa Friedman who paid enough attention to know it didn’t suit her, Aspden tweeted 3 times, follows 3 people + thinks that’s education enough to toss off a column about it…oh, and FT editor folks, if someone’s talking about Twitter in an article (this is happening more frequently + I first noticed it w/ The Pet Shop Boys profile), could you include a link to their @ tag. Thank you. @ me at @lonelypond

And another few links — in a non rant fashion — the aforementioned Ms. Friedman on Mad Men and their trousers.

And the aforementioned Mr. Aspden on Brigitte Bardot (he is considerably more informed + interested about Ms. Bardot than Twitter)…this bit made me perk up: ““Bardot is as important an export as Renault automobiles,” observed Simone de Beauvoir in her perceptive 1959 essay “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome”, a welcome reminder of a time when intellectuals were genuinely fascinated by popular culture.”

Simon Schama’s review of Nicholson Baker’s The Anthologist, which indulges/experiments in verse. I will have to get the library to track me down a copy of the book.

And Harry Eyres finally gets Man on Wire.

Have been transferring CDs to iTunes with plans to make a travel playlist for adventure so I must be getting to doing that. Disappointed to not find the Buffy CD where I expected but the pile included Red, Hot and Blue, Aly and AJ’s Into The Rush, all Depeche Mode The Singles Cds, Pet Shop Boys Very, Carmen McRae, Adam Ant’s Antics in The Forbidden Zone + E.C. Scott’s Come Get Your Love. Mix songs from that with what’s already in my library + it should be interesting. I’ll hit you with a mixtape when I’m done.

Good night!

Note: Warehouse 13 fun; good Eureka so far; no, don’t take the Wizards of Waverly place characters’ powers away in the movie (Gayle claims it’s a tease — Dad will keep his + they’ll continue as wizards in training); enjoying The Middleman DVDs + looking forward to a new season of The Big Bang Theory. Now, read a book and go see Bandslam, darn it.

I did mention rant ; )

Just picked up a stack of comics (and it was a stack, thanks largely to the weekly Wednesday Comics — which at $3.99 per week also ups my summer comic expenses.) So since there’s a stack of them, chock full o’ comic variety but only partly full o’ comic goodness, I think a page by page review is in order.

Batman: Story disjointed; colors too dark.

Kamadi: art style matches the story, but giving me a Phantom/Prince Valiant/Tarzan craving.

Superman: more of a downer every week so sad.

Deadman: I love this character; I have no idea what’s going on + I’m interested.

Green Lantern: rocks…this + The Flash/Iris Allen page (see below) are the reasons I keep buying these. Good crisp story, excellent + sharp art, outstanding performance from Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones.

Metamorpho: hasn’t made sense yet.

Teen Titans: not clicking for me; don’t know if it’s the art or the storytelling, but I’m skimming right through.

Strange Adventures: Strange…but intriguing and the art style works for the alien planet.

Supergirl: pointless, cartoony, maybe fun?

Metal Men: I think it would be more engaging if I were a Metal Men fan + familiar with the personalities.

Wonder Woman: art makes the story barely decipherable. Fail.

Sgt. Rock: solid but SLOW.

The Flash/Iris West: I’m intrigued, worried, involved, surprised and glad it’s a weekly. Excellent job Team Allen.

Demon/Catwoman: twisty, getting more involved with each installment…I like both characters so I’m looking forward to the next turn.

Hawkman: brutal…art + story well done but dark.

And that’s your page by page.

I’m putting this on a t-shirt + adding a cape.

Found on a site listing Jeeves + Wooster quotes. P.G. Wodehouse to comfort me in this hectic time of approaching tech and dress rehearsals:

As sayeth the Jeeves: “I’m sure that your cool head and undoubted thespian powers will see you through the day, Sir.”

Good night.

Well, the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays so let’s talk about comics I’ve picked up recently + some of my favorite characters, both of which categories include Captain America.

Picked up Captain America #600, my interest piqued by rumors that they were going to bring him back. Killing Cap upset me — although, it’s comic books; it’s what happens. If you want a character with a storyline that never aggravates or annoys you, write your own comic/novel/cartoon. But that might not be a guarantee either.

Cap is all about triumph of human spirit and #600, which he doesn’t appear in is chock full of it in the good tear up a little and feel better about humanity sort of way. It’s a journey through how people feel about Cap’s legacy and Steve Rogers while Sharon Carter tracks down a rumor he might not be totally gone.

I’ve signed on for the Captain America trip, adding the book and the Reborn miniseries to my pull list. The comic book guy spent five minutes raving about Ed Brubaker’s writing and totally blanked when I mentioned my favorite Cap story arc, “Man Without A Country” drawn by Ron Garney. Garney’s Cap was iconic, a little cartoony (which I like) but solid and real — exactly like Cap should be. And Mark Waid’s strong stories gave Garney and Cap a springboard for excellent comics.

What else did I pick up? Jersey Gods, which is up to Issue #5 and fizzled somewhere in the middle of #3. Keeping your two main characters worlds and galaxies apart is not a ticket to keeping me interested. It turned from a potentially sharp love story to a plodding New Gods riff…Boo. New Jersey deserves better.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is leaving my pull list soon. It’s become a dusty visit to some little known corner of the DC heroverse each issue without any wit or humor.

Batwoman, aka Detective Comics #854 with the Question II back of the book story rocked. Rucka’s a good writer (see Whiteout comments) — speaking of Whiteout artist Steve Lieber was robbed and doesn’t have the resources to promote his latest book, Underground. But back to Detective, whose artist is J.H. Williams III, whose fight scenes are kick ass wonders — he makes the Kate Kane in the Batwoman costume pages have a different, more stylized feel than the out of costume pages. Don’t like the tan background motif to the non action pages, but it’s a small quibble. Looking forward to the next issue. The Renee Montoya/Question II story is just the kick off without enough time to develop anything. I am trying to track down (actually I’ve sicced my brother on it — he’s the comic shopping expert in the family) the Gotham Central issues (6-10) where Montoya was outed and kidnapped by Two Face.

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers — yes, Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers…I always liked Lockjaw’s appearances with the Inhumans and there’s a frog in a Thor costume (let’s see Branagh work that into the movie). Pet Avengers was fun, is only four issues and I’ll keep reading it. I seem to be on a Marvel kick.

But then there’s Phonogram, which is beautiful. Jamie McKelvie amazes me. Characters and colors make up for lack of background in the mostly nightclub interiors. The Singles Club is an interesting collection of characters — the first one pulled me in, the second one I couldn’t find (Joe’s on it, I hope) and the third was still beautiful and cryptic…I need to put all the music the creators list in a last.fm station.

Almost forgot Kansas, which is a Smallville reference. Now, Superman and Captain America are two heroes I think of as counterparts of each other — even though Superman adds yellow to the red and blue motif. Read MTV Splashpage interview excerpt with Justin Hartley and was somewhat disheartened at the news that he thinks the series could continue onto infinity when I think it lost it long ago.

What would get me back; humor, Lois, The Legion, Maggie Sawyer, moving Clark off stall, not having killed James Olsen, the Justice League rocking out, MUSIC — I hear songs from episodes of Smallville on last.fm and lament the loss of so many music style and wit points.

My favorite episodes;

The Season 4 openers, Crusade and Gone, where Lois shows up…excellent introduction of a great character. Actually, you can easily include the third and fourth episode — Facade and Devoted; the Lois and Clark interaction promises a sparking relationship to follow. Season 4, Episode 13, with Lois at Metropolis U is one of our favorites, with Clark demonstrating how essential Lois is becoming to him. Tom Welling does an excellent job of looking at Lois differently than any other woman — it’s a fascinating mix of exasperation, interest and concern.

Season 5, Episode 6, Exposed, is my favorite episode and not just because of the Lois pole dance (but oh, the lovely irony of Lois twirling to “Don’t Cha (Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot like Me).” Maggie Sawyer makes an appearance and I had hopes that this would be the first step on the path of Lois and Clark saving the universe together.

The Season 6 Lois/Green Arrow story line held my interest, but the show doesn’t want to commit to Lois and Clark and they seem to have lost their grip on her character and any hope that she and Clark would actually make a compelling couple, whether romantic or colleagues.

Now, I think Tom Welling does an excellent job, as does Erica Durance, Alison Mack, et al…but their talents are WASTED on the emotional, ill plotted morass Smallville has turned itself into — VOLUNTARILY!

And yet, no second season of The Middleman. Bah.

Happy Fourth of July. Exercise your first amendments rights and actually comment, darn it. And don’t blow yourselves up.

Ok, Shakespeare (#tamingshakespeare) takes up a lot of time + mental energy. Traffic control with 7, 8 and 9 year olds takes up even more, so blog posting may be a bit erratic for awhile. But tonight at rehearsal, I was so IN THE ZONE…it was a great feeling, solving problems, dodging poetry + meter jams, hearing things right for the first time, moving actors and words and motion like everything was a painting, a symphony, a play, a whole entity that was clicking into its moment.

Personal notes: instrumental jazz drives me crazy after a bit, I prefer lyrics mixed in with my melodies; the little brother acquired a Hewlett Packard tower of some sort so we’re back to low level World of Warcrafting again while we work off the rust, and I really want to go on vacation. But first, I want to turn a kick ass Taming of The Shrew out into the world. We’ll see if the buzz/zone/focus survives Thursday and the return of the 12 and under crowd.

Twitter’s been fun(and yes, there is some irony underlying there); there’s all the #iranelection stuff and that somehow led to the gay activism #lgbt stuff and sparks occasionally fly off my twitterfeed these days, but they are directed at the political workings of the universe and not causing glitches in my internal mental circuits (NOTE: I need to subscribe to last.fm so I don’t get the have you been eaten by a bear graphic so often as I listen to Radio FlashCatFlash in the background. Flash is an ardent consumer of media — listener of last.fm, chewer of Entertainment Weekly.) Although, I did try follow an agent for awhile — I occasionally try to find new + interesting Twitter peeps, but it seems like the people on the inside of the “I’ve been published/I know the system/I’m not a Visigoth” wall shrink away from and patronize the strivers/hopers/schemers who think writing leads to JK Rowlings levels of success and billions and who believe that there’s an easy solution and that someone would actually tell them if there was. And that’s just tiring — the patronization: there is no easy solution; there’s only your own tolerance level for continuing to try. I suppose, to sympathize with the gatekeepers, smug or otherwise, that it’s also tiring getting harassed by people who want to be published. But I just don’t like the industries built up to take money/hope/energy from people with writing/moviemaking/painting/crafting/creating dreams. And who make little hoops for people to jump through rather than respecting honest effort. And the people who control access to the gates with assured superiority really tick me off - and no, I’m not sure that this agent was one of that breed, but it did trigger some memories. And yes, somewhere back in the day, my ancestors painted themselves blue and did things like tear down the towers of Rome. But then we learned to read the books and saved the civilization we once helped burn. And now we’re writing the blogs and drawing the webcomics and digitizing the viral videos.

Oh well, apparently, Twitter related mental glitches/rants still occur. But on a personal note, two of my WORST auditionees ever, who had the most trouble with the language, had turned into two of the MOST amazing and dedicated Shakespeareans by the time they stopped having time to spend their summers touring Shakespeare. Because they worked their asses off, they learned, they tried and I gave them opportunities and challenges. I am so thankful I took them up on their enthusiasm and bravery instead of dismissing their stumbling over the language. And I am so grateful it is a lesson I learned the FIRST time I directed Shakespeare. I remind myself of it before every audition.

Have been having a tweetversation about Henry James — someone’s reading “Turn of The Screw” and I suggested “Beast in The Jungle.” So I went looking for it to make sure that was the story I was talking about and found excerpts and suddenly thought, OMG, that’s what influenced Jane and Sally’s relationship in In The Bleak December. Wow. Amazing how what you’ve read and only remember the experience of gets threaded into what you write. And here I thought it was mainly Persuasion and Bellwether and Topsy Turvy mixed. Maybe the sequel could stand to be influenced by Taming of The Shrew. I can just see Jane grumbling “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.” Now, there’s a place to start.

Speaking of married, we went to see The Proposal and were not impressed. No one seems to do dialogue anymore — or even put the stars in the same shot. you have faces, you have names, why worry about chemistry, communication, plot, script, the fast pace of banter…why not just linger on movie star faces. Oy. I watched Kissing Jessica Stein to recover my love of movies — now there’s a movie with some great conversations.

Now, so as not to be responsible for a total rant fest, I have hopes of (500) Days of Summer, which is apparently non linear. And I am still enjoying piecing together the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movies from Edgar Wright’s daily photos. And there’s the hope that Bandslam will actually rock. Must see Hot Fuzz sometime; NetFlix is becoming a must fit into the budget.

Anyway, thanks for listening; keep cool, get some sleep and some sun. And brush up your Shakespeare; it’s fun, darn it.

Not only is the Royal Shakespeare Company on Twitter, but they are running a tweet a love poem into “As You Like It” Contest(deadline 6/22/09). And the RSC search started with a Peter Aspden Culture column about tweeting, culture and the relevancy of the classics.

Good lunch with the FT with E-bay Billionaire and current philanthropist/movie mogul Jeff Skoll.

Vanessa Friedman, always informed and provoking of thought, this past weekend discusses Isabel Toledo.

Good Peter Aspden review of The World and Its Double: The Life and Work Of Otto Preminger.

And on a #tamingshakespeare note, have been working on Taming Of The Shrew both in rehearsals and out (currently trying to decide on image or word focus for t-shirt –actually, better to say, I am negotiating that point with Gayle. I have been informed that although it is not wide, the boardwalk problem has been solved) and I am enthralled by how much Taming is about clothes. Lines keep popping into my head: “I confess the cape” has always been one of my favorites. More recently, I have been mulling Petruchio’s succinct description of what his bride is getting into: “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.” And then there is the lovely scene with the tailor where Shakespeare lets a character rant, and this one is right up there with the lovers’ ranting from Midsummer*. Out tailor is about 1/3 the size of our Petruchio so the contrast should be interesting:

“O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,
thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr’d her gown.”

I think if I were inclined to check myself back into an academic’s garb, I might be inclined to write a thesis on the clothes of Kate Hall. Could be scintillating.

And on a quick Disney note, the Wizards with Hannah On Deck event looks like a blast. I don’t think we have a show that night (7/17) — Flash is not liking the rehearsal schedule, seems to still be growing and now we have What I Like About You time after rehearsal. The N has, of course, incurred our wrath with DeGrassi again — bumping What I Like on the weekends….and yes, I still miss Radio Free Roscoe being on a time I’m actually awake.

That’s a wrap, I believe. Looking forward to seeing The Proposal on Friday, then Metamorphoses on Saturday (friend in the cast, plus, yes, fan of Ovid — are you really surprised?), Sunday, back to Shakespeare –we do Act IV and V until they sparkle which means I could not be home ’til Monday — Shrew has SO many characters on stage at most times. I had blanked out the horrible traffic jams.

*Hermia’s rant:
“Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.”

Followed later by Lysander’s dismissal:
“Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.”

Oh, just read the whole scene here (thank you, MIT)

Read the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson books, darn it…I’ve zipped through four of them in two and a half days, they’re chock full o’ adventure and Greek mythology and lots of cool girls, as well as the hero, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. Want to read the fifth one, but first, must see if I can get a copy through the library(it’s hardcover and I don’t have that much of a book budget) and second, well it’s Shakespeare season.

And with Shakespeare season, comes vacations and frantically trying to fit in a Saturday rehearsal with blocking before one of the actresses leaves town for two weeks, which means I really need a set inspiration. I find myself tired of boxes and benches, but anything we’ve ever had more complicated than that has been subject to the vagaries of the wind — I could tell you stories and it would start with a play called The Tempest (yes, yes, that might have been a clue), a 15 foot ship’s mast with sails and a swimming pool.

So, the story of the Last Olympian must wait while I angle for inspiration. Theatre is an art they appreciated, after all.