I often get lost on YouTube. The more information I can take in before writing about a topic or working on a score, the better. Today, by chance, I wound up in a cycle that kept leading me to a promo reel for the short-lived Broadway musical Everyday Rapture. The Sherie Rene Scott starring,...
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Sean Durkin, the man behind one of my favorite films from last year Martha Marcy May Marlene, has been hired by Morgan Creek to adapt William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist into a TV series. I’ve come out as not being a big fan of The Exorcist because of the pacing. I think the novel...
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When I heard the spoiler that Jessica Sanchez, the now runner-up on Season 11 of American Idol, would be performing a duet of “And I’m Telling You” from Dreamgirls on the finale, I assumed that they would be busing in AI alumna Jennifer Hudson to sing. I was wrong. They brought in Jennifer Holliday....
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Danny sees something on the wing. It’s not a gremlin and we haven’t entered The Twilight Zone. Just because no one else notices the strange lights outside the plane doesn’t mean they’re not really there. More accurately, Danny sees some unidentified object flying right at the late night plane he’s riding on. It disappears...
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There’s an odd twist in yesterday’s story about The Metropolitan Opera banning Opera News from reviewing its productions. Met creative director Peter Gelb has reversed his decision. Opera News is free to review productions at The Met because, “the public would miss Opera News not being able to review the Met, and we are...
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After five hours of content, I think we’re at a pretty good place to judge the newest judge to command a buzzer on America’s Got Talent. Howard Stern, the King of All Media, has joined Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel for season 7 of the summer variety/talent competition. The producers wisely eased the audience...
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The Metropolitan Opera Guild has officially requested the nation’s largest classical music magazine, Opera News, stop publishing criticism of their productions. Why? The writing is too negative for a publication connected to The Met. According to the New York Times, features editor Brian Kellow wrote an essay about the artistic direction of The Met for...
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Good news for theater fans in California. The Scottsboro Boys is currently engaged in its West Coast premiere. This is Kander & Ebb’s musical that subverts the conventions of the minstrel show to tell the story of nine black teenagers who were falsely accused and convicted of raping two white teenagers in 1930s Alabama....
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Women in peril stories have been on the rise in Hollywood. The problem is that the creators aren’t really doing anything new with the concept. I didn’t hate Sucker Punch, but that was cookie cutter beyond the fantasy visuals for this kind of story. Death Proof subverted the genre by slavishly sticking to its...
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How do you evaluate a book that fails to meet its structural conceit? This is a problem for anyone reviewing Ceridwen Dovey’s Blood Kin. Dovey wrote a book from three perspectives–the chef, the barber,...
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I love Nicki Minaj because of her silliness. Her lyrics are tight even if the ever-growing cavalcade of characters is hard to keep track of. If you think she’s being serious (beyond the aesthetic...
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On this edition of Play It, we look at a creepy and cute online puzzle game about making friends. Happy Dead Friends is a cool little linking puzzle game from rhinogames on Newgrounds. The...
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The Twisted Metal series has always served one purpose in the video game universe: fast-paced car combat. Sure, there is an ever growing cast of demented characters and ironic twist endings that wish they...
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I really liked the season 5 premiere of Mad Men. The drama between Joan and her mother was especially intriguing. There’s a strange dynamic there that brings out the worst in Joan, even when...
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A few years ago, I thought the success of Timbaland’s Shock Value album was a novelty. Producers can have success, but they’re just not meant to be household names if they can’t do something...
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On this edition of Play It, we look at a deeply personal biographical game. The experience is all about using the form of video games to create a sense of familiarity with a less...
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Corridor is a twisted science fiction novel for a YA audience. Troy wakes up in a blinding white room with the voice of a girl, Victoria, in his head. Victoria tells him he has...
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I’m not as put off by the existence of Justin Bieber as I think I should be. I think he’s a talented young man who is being pushed to pursue music that doesn’t suit...
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