Simon Cowell's "Footprints In The Sand"

If you watched "American Idol" last night, you might have caught the aspiring superstar Jessica Furney auditioning with a song called "Footprints In The Sand".  Unbelievably enough, it is a musical version of that poem about God walking with you on the beach and there's two sets of footprints which become one when you're having a bad day and then you get all like, where the hell were you God, and he goes....I was carrying you.  It's the greatest and cheesiest spiritual punchline of all time.


Anyway, Jessica sang this song pretty well and got her ticket to Hollywood.  But she was crafty: as it turned out, this "Footprints" song was actually co-written by Simon Cowell!  He came up with the idea himself and then worked with two other writers to make it happen.  The song was featured on last season's "X-Factor" where a UK contestant pulled the same trick, courting Simon's favor by singing his number (posted below).  The song went on to become a minor UK hit sung be Leona Lewis. Not sure what the song's fate will be in America...

Brooklyn Movie Palace To Get A Makeover

The Loews Kings Theatre, empty since 1977, is getting a 70M$ makeover.  ACE, a live theatrical entertainment company, announced plans to renovate the theatre on Flatbush and Beverly into a performance space. Today's TIMES has the full story....as well as a beautiful slideshow of the theatre's grand/faded interior.  


There is something about an abandoned old theatre that I find fascinating, probably because modern movie houses, even the nicer ones, are so generic and unornamented.  Back in it's heyday in the 30's and 40's you can imagine that this place truly was a movie palace.  

Oscar Noms Get Supersized

The number of Best Picture Oscar nominations has doubled this year, from 5 to 10 films.  There were some industry pundits predicting that this decision was a disaster and, after some unworthy films made the cut, it would be reversed in a couple years.  However, after the Academy's first year of supersized nominations was released this morning, the list isn't too shabby afterall.

• "Avatar" (Fox)
• "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.) 
• "District 9" (Sony)
• "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "Inglourious Basterds" (the Weinstein Co.-Universal)
• "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" (Lionsgate)
• "A Serious Man" (Focus Features)
• "Up" (Disney-Pixar) 
• "Up in the Air" (Paramount-DreamWorks)

Out of all of these, the only film that seems to be out of place is UP, Pixar's animated movie about an old man who flies to South America on a bunch of balloons.  (The movie also received a Best Animated Feature nod.)  Visually, the movie was pretty but the story was thin and semi-bizzaro (talking dogs and evil blimp-maniacs).  I haven't seen THE BLIND SIDE but from what I've heard, it's a pretty solid film if maybe a little schmaltzy.  

There was talk of movies like THE HANGOVER, STAR TREK or even HARRY POTTER making it into this newly expanded category, all of which are fine, entertaining films but not exactly worthy of a Best Picture nod.  The ostensible reason for the expansion was to include more commercial films, since lately most Oscar nominees were indie films people outside of NY/LA had barely seen or even heard about.  But it appears the Academy voters have not gone too Hollywood in their pursuit of bigger ratings for this years' telecast, set for March 7. My prediction is for "Inglorious Basterds" to take home the big award but, as we know with Oscar, anything is possible.

100 Feet Down, A New Grand Central For LIRR

You wouldn't know it from street level, but one of the largest public works projects is taking place 100 feet under midtown.  The MTA's long planned "East Side Access Project" to bring the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal has been under construction for the last couple years and they are really making some progress.  There are some amazing pics recently posted to the MTA's new and improved website showing the newly excavated station cavern (pictured above) as well as the station concourse which, which is being built on an old lower level of the Grand Central known as the Madison Yards. 


In addition to this new station, there are two tunnel boring machines working to dig out tracks from the 63rd street river tunnel to the station. So far more than 22,000 feet of tunnel have been carved out of bedrock and they still have a couple more years of tunneling to go. This is the first expansion of the LIRR in over 100 years.  It's all expected to be open and operating in 2016.

My eBook And The iPad

With Wednesday's announcement of Apple's iPad, eBook publishing seems to be taking a leap to the next level.  One of the most impressive features of Apple's new device is it's iBook interface and connectivity to an online store where you'll be able to purchase books with just a couple clicks.  It's seems like they are really throwing down the gauntlet and directly challenging the Kindle for the future of the eBook.


On a personal note, my second novel, TALE OF TWO SUMMERS, just became available as a download for the Kindle late last year.  So if you haven't read it and just got a Kindle for Christmas, it's only $9.99 to purchase a digital copy of the book.  As for the iPad, Simon & Schuster was one of five major publishers mentioned at the product launch who will be supporting the new iBook.  Now they just have to figure our some way for authors to digitally sign/personalize their books. That would be awesome!

Craigs List Missed Connections As Muse

Craigs List is great for many things; finding a job, a roommate, someone to buy your couch, or even sex/romance in their "personals" section.  But the most entertaining section of their infamous personals is by far Missed Connections, especially here in NYC where there are more than a thousand posts a day.  Lately, though, this section has been more than entertaining people...it's been downright inspiring.  


Tonight, a new show called "Missed Connections NYC" premieres at the Ars Nova performance space in midtown.  It's a compilation of short plays and songs inspired by the bulletin board of the same name.  The title of some of the mini-plays sound cute too: Missing Jonathan, Doritos Boy and It Was Wong Of Me That I Touched Your Butt On The L Train.  Unfortunately, the show's short run of five performances is already sold out.  But Ars Nova often extends shows that are popular--just check their website for updates.


Another case of CL inspiration can be found in the The New York TIMES. They have been running a semi-weekly feature by Alan Feuer where the postings are turned into romantic poetry.  The ads are broken up into quattrains and stanzas, sometimes hilariously and other times quite beautifully.  The last one was holiday themed and my favorites were "SantaCon Love" and "A Christmas Miracle on the LIRR" which has the best opening line--"If this actually works, I will eat part of my shoe." Ahhhh.....love.

Joan Jett, Allen Ginsberg and The Sundance Buzz

The Sundance Film Festival got underway in Park City last weekend.  This is the first year that programmer John Cooper is taking the reins of the festival and, if you believe the hype, it's actually proving to be a pretty good year at that.  The big buzz films so far are: 

• THE RUNAWAYS, a Joan Jett biopic starring Kristen Stewart as the 16 year old lead singer of the early 80's LA-punk sensations
• CATFISH, a shocking doc about a Facebook connection that goes so terribly wrong  that reviewers aren't providing spoilers
• HOWL, a star studded movie about Allen Ginsberg and his beautifully profane poem that landed him in an obscenity trial
• THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, a Julianne Moore and Annette Benning as lesbian moms who meet their sperm donor in a movie already getting '11 Oscar buzz

To me, all of these sound great...especially the Runaways movie.  Also, I think it's amazing that actors like James Franco and John Hamm got together to make a movie about an epic poem.  You don't see that in Hollywood everyday (discounting that animated & somewhat bastardized BEOWULF from a few years back). And, of course, James Franco looks great in glasses!  

Here Comes The Restaurant Week Truck

File this under inevitable: Restaurant Week, NYC's annual  feast of bargain eating at the city's top restaurants, has jumped on board the current foodie truck-trend.  This year, there will be actually be a Restaurant Week Truck serving various soups from the city's fanciest eateries.  


The truck will be in three locations over the next two weeks, starting at Broadway and 51st through 1/29, Fifth Ave and 19th from 2/1-2/3 and Greenwich and Warren from 2/4-2/5.  Today's featured soup: City Crab's famous New England clam chowder.  The Restaurant Week Truck website has the full menu. Also, a dollar from each soup will go towards relief efforts in Haiti. 


As for regular old-fashioned Restaurant Week which takes place in an actual restaurant, it started yesterday and goes til Feb 7.  Lunch is $24.10 and dinner is $35.00 at more than 100 restaurants throughout the city.  I'm kicking my Restaurant Week adventures off today with lunch at 10 Downing, the new Jason Neroni joint (he created the famed 71 Clinton Street).  You can look at menus for a number of restaurants this year on the Restaurant Week website and make online reservations for most of them as well. 

Madonna Turns It Out For Haiti

Friday's Hope for Haiti telethon raised nearly $60 million dollars for the earthquake relief in that devastated country. The multi-network marathon featured many remarkable performances but, I gotta say, Madonna truly turned it out with a simple, nearly acapella version of "Like A Prayer" backed by a church-like choir of singers.  


The song will be available on iTunes soon, both as a single track and a whole album including other performances by Alicia Keys, Sting and Jay-Z. So, if you missed the show, buying the songs are a great way to continue to help the people of Haiti in their time of need.

The Art of Meeting Men, '80s Style

Today's bizarre video comes from the good folks at EverythingIsTerrible.  It's a self-help dating VHS from the '80s which provides some really helpful hints for finding the right guy...like speaking in a whisper so he'll lean in closer.  Or maybe carrying around a "small stuffed animal" as, you know, a conversation starter. Oooookaaay--maybe if you're 12.  


My favorite bit here, though, is the staged meeting on a park bench. It reminded me of those terrible but intensely watchable acting competition scenes from the old "Star Search" which, 4 out of 5 times, took place on a park bench and always ended up with the two actors kissing.  Now I know Rosie O'Donnell got her big break on "Star Search" but did any of those actors ever break out?  Or maybe they just got cast in dating videos like this one.