Saturday, July 11, 2015

THERE'S AN INDIA EXPERT I WANT TO BRING IN ...  R.I.P. to Roger Rees, who died yesterday at age 71, who gave us Lord John Marbury and so much more.

Friday, July 10, 2015

OIL CHECK: As is often the case after a Season of Game of Thrones, I end up with HBO for a month or two before I get around to canceling it.  I never seem to get around to working my way through the shows that I should: the Wire and such, but end up poking through their documentaries and such.  Anyway, I clicked on to The Rock's "Ballers" last night and ended up watching all three episodes.

I can't help by find Dwayne Johnson as an ex-NFL player turned financial manager.  He's of course as charming as hell, mind you.  But I can't decide if this show is good or just sort of a hot mess.  It's certainly fun.  I like the drama on this side of the athlete's life - post-career depression, egos and inadequacy, and all that.  I like the characters, I like the actors.  But I'm not sure I like the show or not -- the story arcs are thin interludes to The Rock flashing a smile or being awesome, after all.  But I'll keep at it.


Thursday, July 9, 2015

UNHAPPY MEAL:  It sure sounds like one of the McDonald's Minions toys is saying what the fuck?
EVERYONE'S LAUGHING, AND RIDING, AND CORNHOLING EXCEPT BUSTER: The World Championships of Cornhole are taking place right now in Knoxville.
TELL ME MORE, TELL ME MORE:  Fox's Grease: Live has found its Danny Zuko--Broadway (Frank in Catch Me If You Can and Gabe in Next to Normal) and Graceland star Aaron Tveit, who'll appear opposite Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens.  Clearly, "plausibly high school aged" was not on the casting team's priority list.
THIS IS IT, THE APOCALYPSE, WHOA-OH:  Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive," already the longest-running song in Billboard chart history, has now become the sixth single ever to hit Diamond status (~10 million sales, but they also incorporate streaming somehow).  I'll hide the others below the fold; welcome to the new age:

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

BETTER THAN CHUCK E. CHEESE'S: Though September, the National Building Museum (my pick for most underrated museum in DC!) has a 10,000 square foot ball pit (for adults and kids alike!) set up in its Great Hall.
SHARP CUT TO BLACK:  R.I.P., The Dissolve.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

GOTTA HAVA WAWA:  A naked woman showed up at the Wawa in Delran, NJ on Monday morning.  In an impressive display of self-control, she bought nothing--no, not even a Sizzli.
SHAKIN' NOT STIRRED:  So there's a James Bond musical in the works with book by novelist Dave Clarke and music and lyrics by country composer Jay Henry Weisz (neither of which mean anything to me, but I'm not a musical guy).

So how do you approach this?  As a Roger Moore-style romp with puns and in-jokes and fourth-wall breaking?  As a dark and brooding serious Daniel Craig?  As reference to the whole body of work? I don't much like Roger Moore's James Bond (but see The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only), but that style seems suited to the stage.

Any suggested numbers?  If there's not a chorus line of Bond girls dancing to a number called "Shakin' Not Stirred", I'm going to very disappointed.





NO ONE TOLD ME LIFE WAS GOING TO BE THIS WAY:  So, Lucy's back from two weeks of sleepaway camp and insisting that lots of her peers -- both there and from school -- are marathoning Friends now.  Should I be worried, or is all the innuendo going to go over her head?  (And what about the retrograde homophobia?)

Of course, when I was that age, I was watching Three's Company and Cheers, and I survived, so ...

Monday, July 6, 2015

MOVE CLOSER TO YOUR WORLD, MY FRIEND:  Three musical highlights from the annual Philly 4th concert: The Roots sample the Action News theme; former club dj Mayor Michael Nutter joins The Roots to perform "Rappers Delight" (complete with mic drop), and I don't know what you call what Jeremy Ellis did, but wow.
IT MATTERS, MR. CRAWFORD. COPS LOOK TO YOU TO SEE HOW TO ACT. IT MATTERS: The 50 most daring film roles for women since Ripley.