The Price Of Applause....Literally

There is a disturbing yet somewhat fascinating article in today's TIMES about Russia. No, not all the anti-gay violence and laws being passed. But it's about a sort of semi-secretive cabal that is paid to generate applause at certain moments in at the Bolshoi Ballet. Yes, you read that all correctly.

The story, from yesterday's Arts section, is about a practice that is apparently over a hundred years old where a group of 30 or so well-placed "claqueurs" can start a wave of applause when needed, to boost an actors energy (and give them a chance to catch their breath) or to just boost their ego. All for a price too. It's run by a mysterious and somewhat sinister sounding fellow named Roman Abramov, who officially the Bolshoi Ballet itself had a no comment about.

The practice was apparently common in many theaters until the late 1800s. I'm actually surprised that some savvy Broadway producer hasn't taken up the practice himself but, at $150 a pop, a group of 30 professional audience members would take a chunk out of the box office. Then again, Bway shows are famous for filling the seats with friendly audience members and friends of the production for nights when the critics show up. But something this organized and also somewhat sinister does not seem to be happening here. At least yet...

There's A New Feature Film This Fall All About CBGB

In 2006, the infamous rock club on the Bowery CBGB closed after a 30 year plus run, an eternity for a New York nightspot.  The space is famous not only for it's disgusting bathroom (now sorta on view at The Met) but also for the bands it broke; Blondie, Television, The Ramones, Talking Heads, and Patti Smith, who closed it down with a final set on the evening the music died.

This fall, there's a new feature film about CBGB and it's equally infamous owner Hilly Kristal. The trailer debuted online yesterday at the Hollywood Reporter's website and it features Hilly (played deliciously by Alan Rickman) and tons of celebrity band impersonators. The Rickman stuff looks great, the bands...could be iffy. The nutty Hilly and the "decor" of the joint were always the real interest of that place. I went to CBGB a few times in the '90s and I have to say the hype was a little much to live up to. As the tag line for the movie says "50,000 bands and 1 disgusting bathroom" and that kinda sums it up. So there were maybe 20 legendary bands that came out of the joint, another 200 or so really good bands if you're generous and maybe 300 bands that didn't suck. So that leaves the other 49,480 bands to deal with. Which meant that if you were invited to see someone's band at CBGB, well...you do the math.

Anyway, it looks like they've rebuilt the Bowery on a backlot for this movie as that current stretch of NYC street is unrecognizable from it's grungy "heyday". In fact, the CBGB is now a John Varvotos store. Times they have a changed....

YouTube Video Of Two Guys Kissing Gets Age-Restricted

A friend of mine who is a budding performance and video artist Idan Bitton recently posted a sweet video on YouTube called "First Kiss" in which he kisses another man....for a Warholian hour an a half. :) But that's it. They are just kissing. No nudity. No suggestion of nudity or anything else really. Sure, they are two obviously sexy guys but well, that's sorta the point too.

Anyway, the lack of truly offensive content in his video did not stop Google from flagging it a few days ago and now it is age-restricted on YouTube, only for those 18 and older. If you search for "kissing videos" on YouTube, you will find lots of much racier content of heterosexual couples kissing. Thye are not only more suggestive of actual sex but there is a whole series of instructional videos on "dirty kissing" for guys and girls. That series is not only not age restricted but it has millions of hits too. 

In fact, you will find heterosexual couples up to all sorts of non-age restricted nonsense all over YouTube (and the Internet at large for that matter). However, if it's two men kissing then that is too much for the youngsters to handle? I don't buy it. Despite this ridiculous restriction, Idan's video has racked up 50,000-plus hits in a little over a week and generated a very lively and overwhelmingly positive discussion in the comments section. The users of YouTube are apparently much more enlightened and un-shockable than the people flagging the videos. As the most recent comment today read, "what community standards is Google upholding? That of the Russian Parliament?" Well played, sir.

Summer Reading And Viewing For Your iPhone/iPad...Courtesy of Me

As the dog days of August begin, I know that a lot of you will be at the beach or up in the country--for some of you I will be staying at your beach/country houses! :)  So I thought it would be a good time to suggest some fun summer reading and viewing, specifically of my very own summery projects.

First off, a few years back I wrote my second novel TALE OF TWO SUMMERS (Simon and Schuster) and it's still going strong, as perennial summer love stories seem to have staying power!  Now it's even available to download for beach reading on your iPhone/iPad for  $11.99 in the iBook store or just $10 on Kindle. On top of that, you get two summer love stories for the price of one...what's not to like!

The other summer-themed projects are movies; first there is AUGUST, a sultry summer romance about a love triangle set during an LA heatwave, which is now available on iTunes as well as streaming now on Netflix and Hulu Plus. This is a film that I co-wrote/produced with Eldar Rappaport and stars Murray Bartlett, who is featured in the upcoming gay HBO show set in San Francisco. The other feature is THE WAY I SEE THINGS, which I executive produced, that was written and directed by Brian Pera and is about a summer road trip that goes awry with some unlikely/lovely detours in the South. It was just released on Amazon Prime (which is free if you try the service for a month).

So check one or all three of these out in your summer downtime, and I hope you have a lovely and relaxing August. And thank you for your continued support of all my creative works.

There Goes The Pizza Box, 1957-2013 RIP

So I leave the Village for less than two months and the place falls apart!  

One of my all-time favorite local spots and my personal best-slice-of-pizza joint Pizza Box closed up shop unceremoniously last Thursday. I saw this picture posted on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York and felt a Proustian-pang for yet another vestige of my NYC youth. It had been there 55 years and wondrously felt like it and the guys behind the counter were always friendly, especially to the locals like myself.

Though the pizza there was great and draft beer only 2$, what was truly special was the outdoor seating area which gave a glimpse into the priveleged backyards of the stately town homes on Macdougal and Sullivan which shared an impossibly lush garden space with suburban-sized trees more than 60 feet tall. This secret garden was one of the treasures of living in the neighborhood as you could retreat to the relative quiet of this leafy space and have a slice and a beer and maybe even a cigarette (if someone else had a pack!). 

In the six weeks since I moved from the Village to Astoria, this has been the second notable retail death in the neighborhood--the first being Joe's Dairy on Sullivan. What's next...Once Upon A Tart? It makes me sad to see things changing like this but it also reinforces part of why I left in the first place--the Village is just not the homey local place I used to know anymore.

It's Summer Kickstarter Season! 3 Projects I'm Supporting

Yes, it's summer again....when thoughts turn to Kickstarting your latest creative endeavor. It seems that June through September is the high season for the website Kickstarter, where creative types like myself can crowd-source their projects to the people via Kickstarter, which has lately become popular via famous folks such as Zach Braff and the VERONICA MARS team. Even original indie guru Spike Lee has taken to the site with a somewhat vague proposal for a million dollar movie.

But all those celebs aside, I wanted to focus some well-deserved attention on a few truly indie projects that I'm supporting that are raising funds for some very worthy and entertaining projects. My good friend and collaborator David Zellnik wrote a wonderful new musical with his brother Joe called YANK!, which centers on the story of a gay soldier in WWII writing for the Army's in-house paper.  I have seen this show 5 times in various workshops and professional productions and each time I'm absolutely charmed and moved by it's story and music. Now they are recording a cast album and are raising 35K to do so. You can check out details and some snippets of the songs on their Kickstarter page here.

The other two projects I'm supporting are more in my wheelhouse--a short film and a web series.  The web series is the second outing by writer/director Adam Goldman, who made the incredible show THE OUTS (which if you haven't seen you should watch!).  His new show, WHATEVER THIS IS, follows the misadventures of two roommates who work on various film/TV gigs...a different one apparently for each episode. I went to the premiere last night at the Knitting Factory and it looks great, with the same sharp writing and quirky, realistic characters.

The other short is by a first time filmmaker Mark Allen, who I've known from way back in the day (like early 90s!) when he was well-known downtown go-go boy. Since then, he's been writing, performing and a regular on NPR. Now he's putting together his first short film which sounds sorta experimental and very cool, with details on his Kickstarter page too (along with a funny video starring socks!).

So check out their pages and video and give a little if you can. These days, the entertainment you get is the entertainment you support.

A Double-Feature On The Deuce

Last night, I had a lovely evening at the movies on 42nd Street.  I went to the newish summer film THE HEAT, featuring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. Though I love both these actresses, I was truly drawn to the film because of its director, Paul Feig, who also helmed the summer smash BRIDESMAIDS. That film was one of my favorites of 2011 (though I actually didn't see it until 2012!) and one of the smartest comedies I had seen in a long while. Feig's work reminds me somewhat of Preston Sturges, one of my old time fave directors and a personal inspiration to me as well. He gets the screwy in screwball comedy while, at the same time, keeps the characters real and grounded in the world--something even Sturges (to high comic effect) often dispensed with. And THE HEAT is squarely in that tradition, though a more violent type of comedy with the slapstick elements taken to hilarious extremes.

THE HEAT was playing at the huge AMC 25 screen monster-plex on 42nd where tickets are now $14.50. Fortunately, the second half of our planned double feature was free, making it a deal almost as a 2-for-1 night. We took a slow stroll down 42nd (jammed with Euro-tourists even on a Monday) to Bryant Park where the free outdoor screenings have been going on now for almost 20 years to see Billy Wilder's A FOREIGN AFFAIR. This is one of my top Wilder flicks, and one that doesn't get as much play due to its grim setting and dark storyline. But leave it to Wilder to find the humor in devastated post-war Berlin, which he does to great effect while also making a steamy romantic comedy too (Marlene Dietrich helps on that front). Anyway, it was easy to get a seat shortly after showtime maybe because the film was not the usual Bryant Park blockbuster. And the film looked great on the supersized screen. All in all, a lovely night at the movies on ol' 42nd street!

A Summer of Big Budget Bombs--6 And Counting

A little over a month ago, Steven Spielberg aptly predicted the arc of the summer movies of 2013, saying that "maybe half a dozen mega budget movies are going to come crashing to the ground." Well, half way through the summer, six 100M-plus studio films (including the 250M LONE RANGER) have done exactly that as reported in today's NY TIMES.  You would have thought studios got the audience memo two years ago when INCEPTION, an original screenplay, was the big hit and must-see film of the summer. However, the sequels and quasi-sequels keep coming. 

The article makes an interesting point of how so-called original films like PACIFIC RIM feel a little too familiar (see TRANSFORMERS) and thus audiences are staying away. Of course, some of the summers biggest surprise hits were movies with modest budgets like NOW YOU SEE ME which broke out into true blockbuster-style grosses themselves and, nearly 2 months later, are still playing around the country. 

In Spielberg's widely reported remarks, he also predicted that the pileup of big-budget losses will change the paradigm of how studios make movies. Many have predicted this for some time but maybe with losses that could approach maybe a billion dollars by the end of the summer, the studios may actually change their game this time and look for new movies. One of my favorite memories growing up was the landmark summer of 1982, with so many amazing films (and yes, a couple sequels too). It was a fun filmgoing feast that has not been matched in recent years. Maybe 2014 (or more likely 2015) will be different.

Christmas In July At Joe's Pub With Three Lizas!

Last night, I got a break from the heat and checked out a new holiday-themed show called WE THREE LIZAS (pictured!) at Joe's Pub. I was there to write about it for Next Magazine's online blog THE NEXUS, which I contribute to sometimes.

The show, written by a former New Yorker Scott Bradley with music by Alan Schmuckler, was originally done by Chicago's About Face Theatre (where my good friend Andrew Volkoff is the Artistic Director) last Christmas and I hope that it will eventually make it here to NYC next Christmas. You can read my write-up for the show and my interview with Scott here. Happy Christmas in July! :)

Remembering 1990 In Under 12 Minutes

I saw this online last week--a mix/mashup/clipfest of all the pop cultural moments from 1990. Who knew there were so many?! First off, there were some serious jams that year that have proven to be enduring (see Dee-Lite!). And I have to say I was almost surprised about how many now classic films there were from that year which didn't seem that cinematically great at the time. Of course, compared to what's at the multiplex today....don't get me started. ;) Anyway, this is a fun little time machine video that will take you back. Way back. Enjoy!