Kevin Spacey dominates in a film that cannot decide if it is comedy or “ripped from the headlines” drama, or both. Either way, the story of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff is fascinating.
The film follows Abramoff (Kevin Spacey) through his successes as a Republican Washington lobbyist, the scandal involving the Indian casinos, his final venture and his arrest and eventual incarceration. [Read more →]
‘Tis a new year, kids, and I am excited about the work I have ahead of me. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a busy one for Meg Boyle, Patron Saint of Celebrity Advice. Thankfully, there is enough of me to go around (and if I keep eating the way I did over the holidays, there may soon be even more me to go around…).
But which wayward celebrity will end up needing my advice the most, I wonder? Let’s take a look at some of the nominees for Potential Hottest Mess of 2011… [Read more →]
I remember my academic hero, Dr. Robert Ryan, looking at me across his desk, with a smile threatening to peek out of his greying beard. It wasn’t an unkind look — he is incapable of being unkind to a student, as far as I know. But, I had just proposed to write my paper on Coleridge. I would attempt to define Coleridge’s concepts of reality and imagination as evidenced in his major works of fantasy — Christabel; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner — and in his journals. Dr. Ryan said to me: “I have always thought that to write a really good paper on Coleridge, one has to be as smart as Coleridge was. And who really is?” Hey, I was twenty-four, so I left the office taking that for the go-ahead.
That idea has stuck with me since that day in grad school, though. Does it really “take one to know one”? [Read more →]
My wife and I did things differently this Christmas. We had some friends over for a Vigilia supper on Christmas Eve. That means a meatless meal, in this case a large mixed salad with a mustard mayonnaise dressing, Sonny D’Angelo’s wondrous seven-fish sausages, mushroom caps stuffed with crabmeat, lots of shrimp, and some brie de meaux from DiBruno’s. That’s the advantage of living a few feet away from the Italian Market.
Anyway, that was Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, having no one visiting and visiting no one ourselves, Debbie and I went Jewish: We joined out friends Kass and Eric Mencher for Chinese food at Mustard Greens. [Read more →]
New Year’s Day is an underrated holiday without a solid identity. Christmas has presents, Thanksgiving has food and football, Easter has brunch and church, and 4th of July has fireworks and hot-dog eating contests. But what does New Year’s Day have? [Read more →]
Recently while trying to sign in to my yahoo mail account I was greeted by this image:
That is an advertisement for a television program called “Southland,” which is apparently about Los Angeles police officers, and the difficulties they face in their jobs (actually, its official website bills it as a raw and authentic look at a police unit in Los Angeles. From the beaches of Malibu to the streets of East Los Angeles, “Southland” is a fast-moving drama that will take viewers inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families). Just look at those statistics: 11.9 crimes per officer! That’s a lot of crimes. Los Angeles must be full of, well, criminals.
It is. But mainly because Los Angeles has so many laws to break. And they’re about to get a whole lot more. 725 of them. Or, more than 730 of them. Depends on the source. [Read more →]
Fun fact about Meg Boyle: I was a huge fan of E!’s reality show “The Girls Next Door,” which documented the high-larious hijinx of Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner and his three barely legal, barely natural girlfriends (note: I speak of the original, awesome “GND”, not the weird, twin-tastic reincarnation). Those who were also fans of the show know well the bitter pill that long-suffering “#1 Girlfriend” Holly Madison – who genuinely seemed to love The Hef, or so it seemed to this viewer – had to continuously swallow every time Hugh brushed off her long-held desire to marry him and have his children. Eventually, Holly followed the sound of her ticking biological clock right out of the Playboy Mansion as we fans shed a single tear for what might have been and then promptly forgot that the show ever existed.
But! Now! News from the InterWeb: Hef! Gets! Engaged! The man who said “marriage isn’t part of my puzzle” proposed to his 24-year old girlfriend on Christmas Eve, which also happens to be one day after Holly’s birthday. Fans, join me now in a rousing chorus of “Aw, hell nah!” Poor Holly. All those emotions she must be feeling right now! Who ever can she turn to for advice on how to cope with this heartbreak? Lucky for you, Holly dear, I have a lot of experience finding out that the dude you left because he wouldn’t commit has miraculously changed his tune for the very next chick he laid eyes on. Come crawl into Auntie Meg’s lap, Holly; I’m about to share with you my five-step plan for dealing with hypocritical ex-boyfriends, a five-step plan I like to call Dancing It Out with Meg Boyle. [Read more →]
A couple of months ago a musical theater holy grail became available on DVD. Evening Primrose was made for television and broadcast at the end of 1966. It is based on a short story by John Collier with a teleplay by James Goldman, but most lovers of Broadway will be interested in the music and lyrics of a post-Do I Hear a Waltz?/pre-Company Stephen Sondheim. All Sondheim fans will want to see this fascinating DVD.
Before the 2010 wrap party ends, Gail needs to reflect on the 50 plus movies she has seen this year. Think of this list as a party favor.
Movies That Lived Up To Their Hype
These films were actually worth that ever increasing ticket price.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. It is one of my favorite films in the series. The kids are growing up.
The Social Network. This film is nearly perfect. Excellent writing, directing, acting and a compelling true story.
Avatar. Ok, it was released in the waning days of 2009, but I didn’t see it until 2010. I watched it again on HBO recently and I am glad I saw it in 3D/Imax. I loved seeing this film in the theater. [Read more →]
My day gig is teaching, so I am off this week. All I really had to do yesterday was shovel snow. That is it. This was done by about eleven o’clock in the morning. Did I come in and compose a sonata? Did I practice an extra hour on my guitar? Did I work on the final two mixes on my current musical project? Did I get around to writing this article before 8:55 PM last night? Nope. [Read more →]
10. The Generic Holiday Special
9. Gift Wrapping With the Stars
8. A Charlie Brownstein Hanukkah
7. Egg Nog at the Jersey Shore
6. Justin Bieber Away in a Manger
5. Frosty the Puddle: The Global Warming Show
4. How the Grinch Stole Our Retirement Funds
3. When Reindeer Attack
2. I Saw Ricky Martin Kissing Santa Claus
1. Sarah Palin’s It’s A Marvelful Life
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
I recently added two engaging and informative show business memoirs to my collection. The first, having recently won the National Book Award, is all the rage. The second was all the rage in 2006. (Even though I am not on the cutting edge, I eventually catch up.)
I have an ambivalent relationship with the Coen brothers. I love some of their early films and last year’s A Serious Man was one of my favorite films of the year. But while there is much to admire about True Grit, it left me a little cold. [Read more →]
In anticipation of TRON: Legacy, I recently re-watched a bunch of simulation-world films including The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ, and the original TRON, which I hadn’t seen in over twenty-five years. While I remember being somewhat confused watching the futuristic Disney film as a kid, seeing it again with new eyes, I was amazed at how clearly it expressed the “life as illusion” theme I’ve been so fascinated by as an adult. In the original movie, Jeff Bridges is considered a “user.” While Bridges often plays users in his films, in this case, it refers to a computer user who manipulates the scenarios of a digital world that is very similar to our own. In the original film, users are considered mythical, messianic figures who can help free the programs from the game they find themselves in. This got me thinking. [Read more →]
Like most boys, at the age of twelve I was focused on not being focused. I loved everything from baseball to science fiction to TV to day-dreaming. But I did know I wanted to be a musician, mostly because my dad was. When I heard the “Sunrise” section of Daphis et Chloe, though, I knew this feeling ran deeper than a mere desire to imitate my hero. The conclusion had been reached: I needed to compose. Maybe just as much, I wanted to be a conductor. I wanted to play the great piano that was a symphony orchestra — to raise God’s voice out of virtuosic, human keys with my hands. [Read more →]
“It is not so hard to thaw. Or to be drawn.
Our intimacy seems like the memory of a strange dream to me. A dream that probably would not translate to the real world, but this was never my desire. There was something unusual about our interaction. It is almost as if I had scripted it and left my fingerprints in the ink. I’m not concerned with your messy reality. I don’t want to see it and I confess I could not place you in mine. But I still want to see you in isolation. I am unconcerned with the context since time and your silence has made me philosophical; but when I first wrote the heat of your breast pressed against me was still vivid in my mind.”
This week I am doing a little soul searching. Well, maybe it’s not soul searching, but the revelation that I know way too much about music and way too little about practically everything else. Lately, I have been realizing that while I have the vast music knowledge on the level of someone who lives in their parent’s basement and has never been laid, I know very little or at least the bare minimum about other things in life. [Read more →]
10. Sharp Objects Potpourri
9. Mr. Wizard’s Home Liposuction Kit
8. Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Pitbulls
7. Lady Gaga Meat Playdress
6. The Highway Trampoline
5. Mattel’s Choking Hazard
4. The Sarah Palin Wind-Up Mama Grizzly
3. Baby’s First Self-Inoculation Kit
2. Owie! – The Jump-Off-The-Roof Game
1. The Underwear Bomber Blow-Up Doll
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
The comedian Louis C.K. is, by his own account, a disgusting human being (which he sums up by noting he weighs 240 pounds and that there is no system where you determine your ideal weight by “taking your age and adding 200 pounds to it”). His sitcom Louie is incredibly funny, though in an episode I watched recently the laughter died when he had a doctor’s visit and subjected the audience to an extended shot of his bare ass. More disturbing, in his short-lived HBO show Lucky Louie — this is a man who likes the sound of his own name — he apparently went full-frontal. And I realize, Men and women take their clothes off for very different reasons. [Read more →]
Say you’ve just gotten your tickets at the TKTS booth in midtown and you have a couple of hours before curtain. Your first impulse might be to go to a deli, but delis in midtown have absurdly large portions and prices to match. I say go west towards Hell’s Kitchen. A nice street is 46th where you’ll pass Restaurant Row, a stimulating stretch that is a little like the back end of a carnival midway. Pretty hostesses and handsome hosts are on the curb to entice you into their establishments with pre-theater specials. This is prime tourist country, however, and while you can get a good meal there (and sing show tunes at “Don’t Tell Mama” when your show is over) the prices go down as soon as you turn the corner onto Ninth Avenue. So that’s what I do.
