An Extraordinary SUNDAY...In Paris

This weekend, I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon listening online to the broadcast of Stephen Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE that was performed last Thursday evening at the Theatre Du Chatelet in Paris. The broadcast is available on Radio France's website until May 25th and is well worth checking out. It helps to have a knowledge of the show, as this is only radio, but it's a remarkable recording of Sondheim's now classic show about the making of art.

This is a particularly extraordinary production  as it has a super-sized orchestra of more than 40 instruments. That's nearly quadruple the pit of 11 that the show was written for as a chamber musical. But, this being Sondheim, it certainly holds up to the upsizing, especially when it gets to the sumptuous and triumphant arrangement of the first act closing number. The show, which had an equally extravagant visual production, was taped live though there is no word on when it might be seen stateside. Hopefully, it will make it to PBS where it would make a wonderful bookend to the original production which made such an impression on me years ago when I first saw it on AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE, starring Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin.

SESAME STREET Tries To Get Out Of Presidential Politics

The biggest surprise of the general election has been the emergence of Big Bird and public television as a major issue.  Who would have guessed that, after Romney's winning the debate, the biggest take away would be his comments about the bird?! Though it all sounds silly on the surface, it really isn't and I think it's great that people are finally being enlightened to the ridiculous notion (one Republicans have harbored for years) that cutting things like federal support for PBS (and the arts in general) will somehow take a dent out of the deficit.  Of course, the percentage of these programs as part of the budget is less than 1/10th of 1 percent and now, with Romney's infamous line, hopefully the voting public has been educated about this issue.

However, on the flip side, the folks at SESAME STREET are somewhat queasy about being drawn into the battle between Romney and Obama.  They reluctantly OK'd a Big Bird appearance on SNL with some revisions to the script that made the spot more funny than political.  But, after the Obama campaign released an ad with Big Bird, the folks at the Children Television's Workshop said enough is enough and today asked that the ad be removed from circulation. The ad itself is sort of a riot but it's also understandable that CTW does not want to be in the fray of the election. But they are in it now.... whether they like it or not.

SATURDAY SPECIAL: Mr. Rogers Has A Groovy Viral Jam

PBS Digital Studios has done something very trippy; they auto-tuned Mr. Rogers and turned him into a groovy singer!  With 5 million hits and counting, it has become a viral sensation.  I loved Mr. Rogers as a kid...I love him even more as unsuspecting pop star.

Bill Moyers Returns To TV With A Startling Show

Last night, I caught the compelling first episode of Bill Moyers new program, Moyers and Company.  He featured two journalists (Paul Pierson and Jacob S. Hacker) whose book, WINNER TAKES ALL POLITICS, is about how the richer have gotten so much richer in the last 30 years due to Washington's rewriting of tax regulations and the growing power of corporations to dominate our political process.  Forget issues of left and right: the real problem is the how the rich are getting so much richer than the rest of us and how it is corrupting the tenets of our democracy.

Forget the 1% that we hear so much about...these authors also talk about the even more shocking gains that the smaller percentages of the 1% have made that are literally off the charts and are a direct result of a lopsided redistribution of wealth that only keeps growing. The show is an hour of detailed discussion on a crucial topic which, to many people, has become mired in political slogans (see Occupy Wall Street). However, when the simple mathematical facts are presented, there is no denying that not only the middle class but our very democracy are at risk. It is essential TV viewing in this election year.


Moyers & Company 101: On Winner Take All Politics from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

DOWNTON ABBEY Spoof Video Stars Jennifer Saunders

DOWNTON ABBEY is one of my new fave TV shows, having caught it all on Netflix streaming back in the Spring.  As I eagerly await "Series 2" (as they say across the pond), I found a brilliantly produced spoof-video of the show that was done earlier this year.  It stars none other than Jennifer Saunders as the literal old maid of the servants and also features Kim Cattrall doing a great imitation of Elizabeth McGovern.  Good stuff, I say! At least, that is, until the new episodes reach the states via PBS this January.

Radioactive Wolves on PBS's NATURE

Whenever there's nothing to watch on TV, you can always count on something interesting on PBS.  Last night, I randomly clicked over to WNET-13 and found a fascinating show about how packs of wolves have not only survived but thrived in the radioactive no-man's land surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.  The explosion at the Soviet-run reactor in 1986 remains the worst nuclear accident, bypassing even the near meltdown in Japan earlier this year.  The disaster created a zone of intense radiation around the plant that also emptied nearby company-town Pripyat, turning it into a creepy industrial ghost town.

Though humans cannot live in this disaster areas, wild animals strangely enough do and have actually thrived there.  The documentary, presented as part of the NATURE series, is not only about the wolves but also about how herds of bison and wild horses (extinct in this part of Europe since the 1880s) now roam this desolate landscape.  The area has become something of a sanctuary for endangered species.  One of the oddest facts is the super-size catfish living in a former reactor cooling pond that are now more than 8 feet long.  They aren't that size though due to radioactivity.  It's because they just kept growing after 1986 when their immediate natural predators were killed off the by initial accident.  Catfish can live up to 100 years old, if not eaten by other animals.  So these fish as enjoying an unusually fat, chill, relaxed life in the shadow of a nuclear disaster.

The doc was filled with all sorts of bizarre facts like this, told in the typically dry and slow-pace that PBS still favors. In fact, I'd go so far to say PBS is a sanctuary of sorts compared to the insane pacing and utter lack of information on most commercial television.  So if you're looking for something unusual and informative, it will surely repeat again or you can watch some cool clips on the PBS website.

50 Years Ago, The Freedom Riders Headed South

It was 50 years ago this month that a mixed group of activists, 7 black men and 6 white men, boarded a few Greyhound and Trailways buses in Washington, DC and headed on a journey into the segregated south.  Their trip into history ended in violence when the riders were attacked in Alabama and jailed, the tires of their buses slashed and one bus was even set on fire.

Their courageous exercise of civil disobedience is now the subject of a documentary that will be airing on PBS May 26th called FREEDOM RIDERS. A friend of mine, Alton Christensen, worked on this show and it looks like it's going to be good....you can watch some footage on PBS's website.  And you can read more about the Freedom Riders on the CORE website.

Tale of Two Species

Last night, there was a fascinating documentary on PBS's "NATURE" about horseshoe crabs. I know that doesn't sound like it would be fascinating but I was riveted. I never thought much about horseshoe crabs when I saw them on their backs, washed up on the shore of Jones Beach. But here's some basic facts that grabbed me when I was flipping channels; horsehoe crab blood is worth $15,000 a quart to the biomedical industry, horsehoe crabs are 350 million years old, and the average female horsehoe crabs lays 80,000 eggs out of which 10 crabs grow to maturity.

The distressing part of their story, though, is that the horseshoe crabs are disappearing from the Delaware Bay at an alarming rate, threatening the lives of a rare species of bird that flies in from Chile to feast on the eggs. And that bird has a whole other story intertwined with the horseshoe crab which is just wild.

Anyway, bottom line here is that I'm not the world's biggest nature nut but this doc told a truly extraordinary story. Here's the link to watch it online directly at PBS's website. An educational hour of TV well spent.