The White House Correspondents' Dinner 2019
Realising this blog has become an infrequent visitor over the past years, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all those who supported the idea since its inception. Some, strangely, even embraced it! One journalist seemed to delight in belittling me and humiliating me at ever possible turn. Belittle the words by all means but not the wordsmith.
Not ever easy and ironically if it weren't for my woeful transport experiences the blog would never have been born. Then I thought maybe this could grow into something rather than be still-born.
I hope I was always fair-minded. And while any amount of gratis food and wine at film screenings might have made my mind merrier than arrival from the outside world, my judgment could never be clouded.
It became way way too long but then I rightly felt an obligation to reciprocate a PR's invitation and give coverage. I still believe that.
When author/historian Ron Chernow last night extolled the virtues of student and local and independent journalism, remember that the average New Yorker, let alone American, had no idea of underground trains derailing, trains stuck in tunnels and the severe mental stress all this caused many. Nor the powers of London's Metropolitan Police and their 'PACE' areas of stop and search. Nor the local reasons for Brexit. Nor the British Government and the D-Notice.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41849256
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stop-and-search-knife-crime-uk-police-government-a8846406.html
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/what-is-a-dnotice-debunking-claims-the-media-is-being-gagged-over-the-grenfell-fire-35834435.html
Equally, Londoners would have no idea of say corruption in Rockland County or the suicide of Nicole Katherine Orttung (21) a promising young Columbia University student journalist. Nor this story from student journalists.
I hasten to add, one must use Noam Chomsky due diligence when believing anything in the media.
Do these films have anything in common?
Arbitrage
Unsane
Oranges and Sunshine
A Place in the Sun
Beast
Dark Places
Venom
In and Out
Charade
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
I Feel Pretty
First Reformed
The Towering Inferno
Chronic
Sunday, 28 April 2019
Thursday, 18 October 2018
British voice coach gets recognised on American radio!
Cicely Frances Berry CBE (17 May 1926 – 15 October 2018)
My voice teacher (not singing teacher) in Sydney worshiped Cicely Berry. Thence so did I. That lovely man who shall remain nameless (well this is the internet for zounds!) was always a little harsh on actors who wanted a fast track to film stardom forsaking voice coaching. And for some it's totally fine. I don't think Jack Palance did a voice warm up in his entire career! :) Some debate 'muscle memory'- I totally believe in it and has saved me from hobbling around as a non-20 year old that I still sometimes sanely/delusional think I am. Sure Baryshnikov concurs with that sentiment;)
Voice is the same. When that coaching really comes into play is when you are dead-tired/screwed up/terrified/whatever and you have to speak dialogue. Even if it's just one line to Robert Redford in a movie THAT'S where Cicely Berry is your savior. You won't sound like sandpaper, unless that is your intention in which case you will not sound like a stick scraping along concrete.
I am so thankful I took voice coaching. It will stay with you forever. It's so easy to be lazy when you are young; easier when one is old, discuss:) ?
I happen to listen to a fair bit of student radio. Woah! Do they all need voice coaching! I once interviewed a very famous coloratura soprano and she was gobsmacked when she found a teacher who helped discover her upper vocal range. Hitherto she just never believed that voice in her could be there.
Then there was the young singer in a new world famous musical....but that's for the memoirs...
I refuse to go on a desert island with celebs who sqander'd all their money and are forced to eat creepy-crawlies!
SHOUT OUT LOUD (but with training….)
My voice teacher (not singing teacher) in Sydney worshiped Cicely Berry. Thence so did I. That lovely man who shall remain nameless (well this is the internet for zounds!) was always a little harsh on actors who wanted a fast track to film stardom forsaking voice coaching. And for some it's totally fine. I don't think Jack Palance did a voice warm up in his entire career! :) Some debate 'muscle memory'- I totally believe in it and has saved me from hobbling around as a non-20 year old that I still sometimes sanely/delusional think I am. Sure Baryshnikov concurs with that sentiment;)
Voice is the same. When that coaching really comes into play is when you are dead-tired/screwed up/terrified/whatever and you have to speak dialogue. Even if it's just one line to Robert Redford in a movie THAT'S where Cicely Berry is your savior. You won't sound like sandpaper, unless that is your intention in which case you will not sound like a stick scraping along concrete.
I am so thankful I took voice coaching. It will stay with you forever. It's so easy to be lazy when you are young; easier when one is old, discuss:) ?
I happen to listen to a fair bit of student radio. Woah! Do they all need voice coaching! I once interviewed a very famous coloratura soprano and she was gobsmacked when she found a teacher who helped discover her upper vocal range. Hitherto she just never believed that voice in her could be there.
Then there was the young singer in a new world famous musical....but that's for the memoirs...
I refuse to go on a desert island with celebs who sqander'd all their money and are forced to eat creepy-crawlies!
SHOUT OUT LOUD (but with training….)
Thursday, 27 September 2018
Bravo Judi Dench re Kevin Spacey!
Bravo Judi Dench re Kevin Spacey! I've been trying for years to say something about …
I'm (personally) not a huge fan of K.P. to be honest. Even less when he fucked up at an Oscars speech with the dinner plate hurling screenwriter of….! YOU FUCKED UP KEVIN. And maybe all the men at the Old Vic who made allegations against him are telling the truth. But the reason we have courts of law is so that maybes aren't immediately assumed to be fact even if it is a very, very flawed system
I am proud and yet … about the MeToo movement. As Dame Judi Dench spake…there would be NO history- if you air-brushed everyone- one that that been….there would be no photos left.
I still can't get out of my mind the New York Post's film critic when he argued that Gone With the Wind should be banned. Should we ban all films about the Nazis? Should we ban all films where people are shooting each other? Should we....?
What about the profits Hollywood studios make from films based on real life events? Dog Day Afternoon (1975)- the bank staff were clearly traumatized by the event. The real life robber John Wojtowicz was criticized for signing autographs etc outside the actual location after doing his time in prison. No one criticized the Hollywood studio profiting from the event.
I have no doubt that most of the women coming forward in the MeToo movement are telling the truth. 99.9% of the time, though, there is no corroborating evidence. What is to stop a jealous man or woman coming forward with false allegations? One may argue for a greater good. The world that until The Boston Globe's expose of the Catholic church and MeToo fashioned a complicity of silence about sexual harassment is the same world of the jealous and vindictive.
Dame Judi Dench herself enacted a character as such in Notes on a Scandal. Her genius being that she made us not sympathize but most certainly empathize with this sad human life.
Then there is Asia Argento. Sure you can argue that just because she paid off a male actor to keep quiet about sexually harassing him, doesn't mean she isn't telling the truth about her Harvey Weinstein allegations. Does that mean we should ban all Asia Argento movies, though on the first count? Of course not. Does that mean the movie industry should stop using Argento as an actress?
You can't apply one rule to Kevin Spacey, though, and another to Asia Argento.
……
Amazing how Hollywood billion money has enjoyed it's ……
The dollar is the dollar in America. It doesn't ever matter how soiled it was in the first place: as long as it was squeaky clean for La Oscars... Suck FUCKING HYPOCRITES !!!!
15th place: as long as it fits throughout the plastic-recyclying machine. Of course it won't, cause it is fake as well…as …
I'm (personally) not a huge fan of K.P. to be honest. Even less when he fucked up at an Oscars speech with the dinner plate hurling screenwriter of….! YOU FUCKED UP KEVIN. And maybe all the men at the Old Vic who made allegations against him are telling the truth. But the reason we have courts of law is so that maybes aren't immediately assumed to be fact even if it is a very, very flawed system
I am proud and yet … about the MeToo movement. As Dame Judi Dench spake…there would be NO history- if you air-brushed everyone- one that that been….there would be no photos left.
I still can't get out of my mind the New York Post's film critic when he argued that Gone With the Wind should be banned. Should we ban all films about the Nazis? Should we ban all films where people are shooting each other? Should we....?
What about the profits Hollywood studios make from films based on real life events? Dog Day Afternoon (1975)- the bank staff were clearly traumatized by the event. The real life robber John Wojtowicz was criticized for signing autographs etc outside the actual location after doing his time in prison. No one criticized the Hollywood studio profiting from the event.
I have no doubt that most of the women coming forward in the MeToo movement are telling the truth. 99.9% of the time, though, there is no corroborating evidence. What is to stop a jealous man or woman coming forward with false allegations? One may argue for a greater good. The world that until The Boston Globe's expose of the Catholic church and MeToo fashioned a complicity of silence about sexual harassment is the same world of the jealous and vindictive.
Dame Judi Dench herself enacted a character as such in Notes on a Scandal. Her genius being that she made us not sympathize but most certainly empathize with this sad human life.
Then there is Asia Argento. Sure you can argue that just because she paid off a male actor to keep quiet about sexually harassing him, doesn't mean she isn't telling the truth about her Harvey Weinstein allegations. Does that mean we should ban all Asia Argento movies, though on the first count? Of course not. Does that mean the movie industry should stop using Argento as an actress?
You can't apply one rule to Kevin Spacey, though, and another to Asia Argento.
……
Amazing how Hollywood billion money has enjoyed it's ……
The dollar is the dollar in America. It doesn't ever matter how soiled it was in the first place: as long as it was squeaky clean for La Oscars... Suck FUCKING HYPOCRITES !!!!
15th place: as long as it fits throughout the plastic-recyclying machine. Of course it won't, cause it is fake as well…as …
Friday, 10 August 2018
finally...
Monsanto ordered to pay $289m damages in Roundup cancer trial
i'm guilty of using it as well. once. fed up with poison ivy. but there are many other alternatives. what those chemicals do to the water table is undeniable.
Friday, 29 June 2018
Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany, Pale Mother)
Mutti....
Himmler's daughter worked for post-war German spy agency
Himmler's daughter worked for post-war German spy agency
This isn’t Fassbinder and yet it could so be…Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and as Glenda Jackson just so deservedly won a Broadway Tony after EVERYTHING….oh….Spamelot! :)
Peter Finch inspired me to be an actor. And then, when one of my colleagues told me the ‘tails’ of working with him. I was hooked.
....
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
The Band's Visit
I took a deep breathe as I googled mine own film review of The Band's Visit. All I remember is that is was beautiful. The Tony Award winning musical plays on Broadway.
"Israeli born Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Visit (Bikur ha-tizmoret), now on general release, has the cash-stripped Egyptian Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra stranded on the outskirts of a small Israeli town in the desert. They would almost look camp wheeling their trolleys in their immaculate powder-blue uniforms if it weren’t for the dignity they possess. They are befriended by cafe owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and invited to stay the night until the morning bus arrives. Tewfiq, the conductor (Sasson Gabai) loves Chet Baker, and if you find his rendition of My Funny Valentine sentimental, then I guess you’ll think the same of this film. If not, it’s a truly beautiful picture with warmth and “tons of loneliness” in Dina’s words. “It’s strange, half of Israel was fighting with Egypt, but we all sit and watch the Arab movie [on TV]”, remembers Kolirin. Tewfiq, never without his pride or his baton, opens himself to Dina that evening bitterly regretting his harshness on his son, who subsequently committed suicide.
The Band's Visit Turned Away by AMPAS, Middle East Fests
The film’s producer Sophie Dulac has also given us LFF’s Heartbeat Detector (La question humaine) directed by Nicholas Klotz (France) and screened again on the weekend as part of UK Jewish Film Festival. For 7 years, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) has been the company shrink for German chemical firm SC Farb. Deputy director, Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), asks Simon to covertly monitor the mental health of the firm's director, Mathias Just (Michael Lonsdale) who head office thinks has gone a bit doolally. His cover is to establish an orchestra in order to maintain worker productivity – Mathias Just played violin in the company’s Farb Quartet- and the film follows a Holocaust mystery trail. This is another 2.5 hour film but it’s quite engrossing: the music mix is superb (though I wish it wasn’t Schubert’s so oft heard Death and the Maiden quartet again), so too the camera and performances. And the viewer feels strangely involved yet distanced by Klotz’s director technique."
"Israeli born Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Visit (Bikur ha-tizmoret), now on general release, has the cash-stripped Egyptian Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra stranded on the outskirts of a small Israeli town in the desert. They would almost look camp wheeling their trolleys in their immaculate powder-blue uniforms if it weren’t for the dignity they possess. They are befriended by cafe owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and invited to stay the night until the morning bus arrives. Tewfiq, the conductor (Sasson Gabai) loves Chet Baker, and if you find his rendition of My Funny Valentine sentimental, then I guess you’ll think the same of this film. If not, it’s a truly beautiful picture with warmth and “tons of loneliness” in Dina’s words. “It’s strange, half of Israel was fighting with Egypt, but we all sit and watch the Arab movie [on TV]”, remembers Kolirin. Tewfiq, never without his pride or his baton, opens himself to Dina that evening bitterly regretting his harshness on his son, who subsequently committed suicide.
The Band's Visit Turned Away by AMPAS, Middle East Fests
The film’s producer Sophie Dulac has also given us LFF’s Heartbeat Detector (La question humaine) directed by Nicholas Klotz (France) and screened again on the weekend as part of UK Jewish Film Festival. For 7 years, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) has been the company shrink for German chemical firm SC Farb. Deputy director, Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), asks Simon to covertly monitor the mental health of the firm's director, Mathias Just (Michael Lonsdale) who head office thinks has gone a bit doolally. His cover is to establish an orchestra in order to maintain worker productivity – Mathias Just played violin in the company’s Farb Quartet- and the film follows a Holocaust mystery trail. This is another 2.5 hour film but it’s quite engrossing: the music mix is superb (though I wish it wasn’t Schubert’s so oft heard Death and the Maiden quartet again), so too the camera and performances. And the viewer feels strangely involved yet distanced by Klotz’s director technique."
Tuesday, 5 June 2018
Why did I choose you, what could you offer me...
I just heard a Start the Week podcast that made me realize why I even started this crazy endeavor of a blog! Churchill: it was not in vain (re-Arnhem-Antony Beevor) -and then Churchill painted another beautiful painting.
I don't post on this site much any more. Those in the know, know. But I am damned if I will ever let it die like many wanted it to. Still do.
Translations at the RNT. One of the most poignant plays ever written about the United Kingdom.
One lone amateur who become not so lonesome, John Ashdown-Hill discovering and debunking historical myth of Richard III.
Listening to BBC podcasts can actually save a life! (yes, u can quote me).
U r not alone feeling u r in a desert (even if in fact u r in a real desert!) The editor of Lawrence of Arabia, Anne Coates died. I have oft written about Lawrence and the Foreign Office. Its Palm Court in London a somewhat sad memory of what the best of British tried to achieve overseas. Respect. Understanding. Without judgment.
Humans are always jealous. Yet why when what one does is/could not ever be what the other does that conundrum always escapes me Stephen Fry….;(
I got to work with some of the most wondrous talent of the century. Listening to a BBC pod citing Paul Scofield's Lear, I remember seeing the great great man ACTOR with Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen at the National Theatre. I worked with Vanessa and said hello. It is a strange, strange world. And I met ever so briefly Sir John Gielgud. Not at the same time, of course. Time, though, is a strange leveler...
And I worked with, not exactly my idol (maybe Liza M. was an 'idol') sorry Joel Grey;) in a movie.
So when you walk the depressing streets of whatever city u r reading this remember the 'dream'. It has nothing to do with money or power (of course that is part of the equation). But the algorithm would not exist without that truth at its center. YOU. Your care. Your brilliance. Your doubt.
Your bravery.
and, of course: your fear
how could a black mermaid end up on Broadway as a white frog, with an all amber cast, and then be back in the ocean the next day playing a green/blue Hamlet! Only in New York, folks. Only in the ocean of New York. I feel a Kermit 'comin' on in the middle of the stairs....
The story of Hello, Dolly is truly fascinatin'! Thornton Wilder got there first. Of course.
Is this weird? But I actually sleep on Marge Champion's bed frame. (True-provenance and all...!) not that I for a moment think anything will rub off in the night without hard grind...but, it's a true story as I fall asleep to the questions of a late-night TV show...ha ha..he he...
where were we, oh yes: Deleuze and Musicals....
...
The heart has its own hieroglyphics.
Who can I turn to…..?
//..
I don't post on this site much any more. Those in the know, know. But I am damned if I will ever let it die like many wanted it to. Still do.
Translations at the RNT. One of the most poignant plays ever written about the United Kingdom.
One lone amateur who become not so lonesome, John Ashdown-Hill discovering and debunking historical myth of Richard III.
Listening to BBC podcasts can actually save a life! (yes, u can quote me).
U r not alone feeling u r in a desert (even if in fact u r in a real desert!) The editor of Lawrence of Arabia, Anne Coates died. I have oft written about Lawrence and the Foreign Office. Its Palm Court in London a somewhat sad memory of what the best of British tried to achieve overseas. Respect. Understanding. Without judgment.
Humans are always jealous. Yet why when what one does is/could not ever be what the other does that conundrum always escapes me Stephen Fry….;(
I got to work with some of the most wondrous talent of the century. Listening to a BBC pod citing Paul Scofield's Lear, I remember seeing the great great man ACTOR with Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen at the National Theatre. I worked with Vanessa and said hello. It is a strange, strange world. And I met ever so briefly Sir John Gielgud. Not at the same time, of course. Time, though, is a strange leveler...
And I worked with, not exactly my idol (maybe Liza M. was an 'idol') sorry Joel Grey;) in a movie.
So when you walk the depressing streets of whatever city u r reading this remember the 'dream'. It has nothing to do with money or power (of course that is part of the equation). But the algorithm would not exist without that truth at its center. YOU. Your care. Your brilliance. Your doubt.
Your bravery.
and, of course: your fear
how could a black mermaid end up on Broadway as a white frog, with an all amber cast, and then be back in the ocean the next day playing a green/blue Hamlet! Only in New York, folks. Only in the ocean of New York. I feel a Kermit 'comin' on in the middle of the stairs....
The story of Hello, Dolly is truly fascinatin'! Thornton Wilder got there first. Of course.
Is this weird? But I actually sleep on Marge Champion's bed frame. (True-provenance and all...!) not that I for a moment think anything will rub off in the night without hard grind...but, it's a true story as I fall asleep to the questions of a late-night TV show...ha ha..he he...
where were we, oh yes: Deleuze and Musicals....
...
The heart has its own hieroglyphics.
Who can I turn to…..?
//..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
