http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes The anbaric journal of Dan Slevin, gentleman, of Newtown Wed, 14 May 2008 23:05:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The incomparable Elaine Stritch is doing Beckett's Endgame in New York: I always remember the story of the woman who understudied Lena Horne in some Broadway musical. And she was told she was going to go on that night because Lena had lost her voice. And the understudy said, ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/09/elaine-stritch-on-beckett/ Many years ago English comedian Ben Elton cracked a joke about Bob Dylan: "For all you young people in the audience he was the one who couldn't sing on the end of the We Are The World video." Nowadays we have to explain to young people what We Are The ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/08/review-im-not-there-iron-man-and-three-more/ In New York there's a Brazilian restaurant called Churrascaria Plataforma that specialises meat in all shapes and seizes: At Churrascaria, diners signal their appetites with a dual-sided coaster resembling a poker chip: Green side up, more meat. Red side up, stop! [From the New York Times] http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/07/meat/ The lovely people at Panasonic have lent all the City Managers for the 'V' 48 Hour Furious Filmmaking Competition (of which I am one) a Hard Drive DVD Recorder so we can capture everyone's entries and then play them back at the highest possible resolution - without having to worry ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/05/hardware-firmware/ W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel The Painted Veil has been given a handsome new adaptation by Australian director John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore). Naomi Watts takes on the role of naïve young Kitty Fane (once portrayed by legendary Greta Garbo) who marries dour Scottish scientist Walter (Edward Norton) ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/02/review-the-painted-veil-superhero-movie-sydney-white-and-four-minutes/ Gene Sobczak, executive director of Denver's Arvada Centre on their 30% drop in attendance last year (follow-up quote from artistic director Rod Lansberry): "In our line of work, everything we do loses money," Sobczak said. "It's the nature of professional theater and nonprofits." Or, as Lansberry puts it: "If theaters made ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/01/more-truth-about-the-theatre-business/ Holy Hell! I just got back from taking my Ma and Niece to Horton Hears a Who! at Readings and got stung for $42.60 (including one small popcorn). For a Thursday morning matinee! It just goes to show how out of touch I am (my usual voracious movie-going is 100% subsidised ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/05/01/extortion/ Quoted in the Defamer summary of the "what's wrong with film criticism" shenanigans going on at the moment: How to write film criticism? Stop reading it. — Karina Longworth, Spout Blog Sad, but true. I used to read A. O. Scott et al for fun, I even subscribed to Sight ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/04/25/critic-v-critic/ Earlier this year I arbitrarily decided that the Hannah Montana 3D concert movie was not cinema and chose not to review it. Now, a few short weeks later, I exercise my right to indulge in rank hypocrisy by stating that the U2 3D concert movie is cinema and, thus, belongs ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/04/24/review-u2-3d/ If the CD market has dropped from $14.2b to $10b in less than10 years, what is the money being spent on instead? From the latest edition of Esquire, Chuck Klosterman reports: And while we'll never know exactly where all those bones disappeared, my specific theory is this: A lot of the ... http://miracle-pictures.com/funerals_and_snakes/2008/04/17/music-industry-%e2%80%93-the-missing-money/