A New Movie Premieres Tonight At The Seattle Intl Film Festival

Now that the excitement of putting WTC VIEW onstage at 59E59 Theaters has ended with our last performance on Sunday, it's back to my day job in the film/TV world. But in a case of good timing, the excitement continues this week with the world premiere of a feature film I worked on called AUGUST.  The premiere is happening tonight at the prestigious Seattle International Film Festival, with a gala screening at the Landmark Egyptian Theatre.

AUGUST is a sexy, romantic drama that tells the story of a love triangle that occurs when an ex-boyfriend shows up in Los Angeles during a heat wave.  I co-wrote the film and helped produce it with a very talented filmmaker at the helm;  Eldar Rappaport. I met Eldar in 2005 at a screening of his amazing short film POSTMORTEM at Outfest.  I was so impressed by his work on that project that I suggested we develop it into a feature.  And now, six years later, voila!  Two of the amazing actors from the short film return to continue their roles in AUGUST, Murray Bartlett and Daniel Dugan, along with the addition of sexy newcomer Adrian Gonzalez.

After the world premiere tonight, AUGUST will be on the festival circuit this summer and fall.  Other upcoming screenings include June 18th at the Frameline Festival in San Francisco and at Outfest in Los Angeles on July 10th, both of which I'll be attending.  There will also be dates in Philadelphia and New York City later in the July....for continued updates and info, please check out our Facebook page and LIKE the film too.  Anyway, I'm just thrilled to be able to finally share this new collaborative project with audiences around the country and hope to see you at one of the films' upcoming screenings.

World Naked Bike Ride in NYC This Weekend

This Saturday and Sunday, people around the world will be biking naked as part of a celebration called the World Naked Bike Ride.  This has been going on for a few years now as a way to celebrate both the human form in all its bare glory as well as promoting biking as a greener way to get around.

The ride in NYC takes place this Saturday starting at 5pm in East River Park, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge.  The actual route is something of a secret so that the police cannot harrass them too much.  The riders say that it's the one day you can ride naked through the streets. Technically this is not true but there is always safety in numbers, of course.  Nudity is not required as the policy is "bare as you dare".

Here's a YouTube video of last year's ride to give a sense of the whole thing.  Note that this is NSFW....as you might guess a video of World Naked Bike Ride Day would be  :)

It's National Donut Day....OH YEAH!

Today is National Donut Day and to celebrate, Dunkin' Donuts has been doing at trivia contest on Twitter this afternoon.  I just sent in my reply to the question: what is the top selling donut in the US?  Chocolate frosted, chocolate glazed, or glazed. My answer--Glazed.  I found this one easy because whatever the rest of America likes, I usually don't like so with my personal fave being chocolate frosted, I'm sure the big ol' USA prefers bland glazed.  Not that I would turn down a glazed if offered....

Anyway, not to be outdone in celebrating this national semi-holiday, sugary rival Krispy Kreme is just giving them away. Literally. If you stop by your local KK today, you can get one free donut.  I would do this but I think the only outlet in Manhattan is up at Penn Station and I'm feeling a bit downtown today (i.e. at home and not going anywhere).  But maybe that $50 gift card will come through with Dukin'...that would be sweet!  LOLz

Woody Allen's New Movie Started As A Stand-Up Sketch

On Sunday, I went to see Woody Allen's lastest film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, which is awesome.  It reminded me of BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, though not as insane but more mellow and romantic.  It's about a writer wandering in Paris after midnight who stumbles into the Lost Generation of the 1920s and starts to pal around with them.  To say more than this would be to ruin the fun of this simple but delightful bit of movie magic.

I went with my friend Vanessa, who also loved it but thought the conceit sounded familiar. She referred me to a website that has printed out a transcript of Allen's comedy records from the 1960's in which Woody does a routine called "The Lost Generation" that places himself squarely amidst the writers/poets/ partiers of that era to highly comic effect.  If you click through above, you can scroll to the very bottom and read it. It's probably best to see the movie first but either way the routine is funny and clearly was the seed nearly 40 years ago for this funny new film of his.

My Memorial Day In A Cemetery

I spent Memorial Day this year in a cemetery.  Actually, I used to do this a lot in my youth, when I worked as a tourguide at Arlington National Cemetery and on the holiday weekend showed tourists around sites like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Robert E. Lee's house and the Kennedy gravesites.  So it was peaceful and familiar and almost nostalgic to be hanging out in beautiful Green-Wood Cemetery way out in Brooklyn.

Green-Wood is a beautiful, expansive graveyard that I've posted about here before.  It has a lot of famous folks buried there, including Basquiat and Bernstein, and also has a lot of history too, as it was the site of the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major fight of the Revolutionary War which took place on the highest point of land in Kings County.  Today, the views from the top of Battle Hill are extraordinary as you can see the entire harbor as well as the entirety of Manhattan.  The picture here shows the view from a statue of "Freedom" waving out to Lady Liberty in the harbor.

The cemetery currently has an exhibit in the beautifully restored chapel honoring the more than 150,000 men from the NYC region who served in the Civil War.  Some of these brave Union soliders are buried in Green-Wood and their headstones have been found and restored in recent years. Anyway, it was a great way to spend Memorial Day...actually remembering the men who fought to keep this country together 150 years ago.

Makin' It: The Song and The TV Show

I was out at Mattachine last week when the DJ blew my mind.  Ange DiCarlo played a long lost 70's hit from an old K-Tel Hit Machine's vinyl disc (owned by co-DJ Amber Martin) called MAKIN' IT. This was a song by David Naughton that went all the way to number 5 on the Billboard charts in the summer 1979 and is one of those songs that was everywhere for 6 months then just disappeared.

Before it became a pop sensation, the song also served as the catchy theme to David Naughton's own sitcom also called MAKIN' IT, which was about a couple guys in Passaic, NJ who were goofballs by day and disco kings by night.  Sound familiar?  It was basically ABC's copycat version of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.  The show was not nearly as successful as the show (even casting Ellen Travolta didn't help!) and lasted just 8 mid-season episodes.  But I believe I watched every single one of them for two reasons; disco dancing and David Naughton.  I had a serious crush on the Dr. Pepper dude...and he could dance!

You can watch the crazy opening for the show in this compilation of 1979 TV theme songs....MAKIN' IT starts at 7:00 and plays almost like a spoof of a sitcom opener.  But that song is still so damn catchy. Turns out it was written by the same team who brought us the classic I WILL SURVIVE.

WTC VIEW featured in the NY TIMES Theater Section

There was a lovely feature article about WTC VIEW in the NY TIMES yesterday (accompanied by this lovely picture too!).  The piece was written by Erik Piepenberg, who interviewed me and the director Andrew Volkoff along with Nick Lewis (who plays ERIC) and Leah Curney (who plays JOSIE).  He wrote about how the show is a period piece now and, as such, is more able to be experienced as a play rather than "documentary theatre".  Actually, that has been the driving force in this production for me and Andrew; to go back to the material and really look at it as a play, since we're somewhat removed now from being so close to all the raw emotion of the 9/11 attacks.

Also today, we have our first official review in this morning, over at Backstage magazine.  It's a great notice for the show and especially our incredibly talented cast.  There will be more reviews coming this week and I will try to link to them in a larger post on Friday.  In the meantime, we had a sold out house for our official "press opening", after only 4 previews....take that SPIDERMAN! :)  Seating is limited but tix are still available online at www.59e59.org and the run is currently set to end on June 5th.  Hope to see you there!

Coming to NBC....GLEE For Adults

So yesterday, I posted about PAN AM, which looked to be one of the more exciting entries in the new fall TV season.  Well, now I have seen what is easily the most awesome looking trailer for a new show since Fox started airing those enticing GLEE promos two years ago.  Apparently I'm not alone my enthusiasm as, after reading through the reviews TV upfronts last week, this was the most buzzed about show.

SMASH is a behind the scenes look at the making of a Broadway show.  That alone got my interest when I first heard about this show when the pilot was announced back in January.  But what makes it this truly extraordinary is the talent involved in putting it all together;  Steven Spielberg is the executive producer, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (CHICAGO, HAIRSPRAY) are the lead producers, playwright Teresa Rebeck (THE UNDERSTUDY, MAURITIUS) is the writer,  Michael Mayer (AMERICAN IDIOT, SPRING AWAKENING) is the director, and the music is by Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman (HAIRSPRAY).  Whoa.

The cast has Megan Hilty (who I saw in WICKED) and American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee as two talented ladies battling for the role of Marilyn Monroe in a musical about the icon's life.  And from the looks of this 5 minute trailer, which I have watched more than 5 times(!), this is gonna be great. The show will be doing original songs each week and the two that are featured in this preview are just fantastic, especially the last number.

The only drawback is, like GLEE, there's going to be something of a wait involved before this makes it on air.  The show is slated for January 2012 so that it can premiere after NBC's new hit THE VOICE. This is, of course, the same strategy employed with GLEE, premiering after IDOL. Let's just hope that ratings lightning will strike twice for this remarkable looking show.

ABC's Trailer For New 60's Series PAN AM

So this one of the more exciting trailers I've seen for the new 2011 fall TV season, which was announced here in NYC last week. PAN AM is ABC's entry in the MAD MEN rip-off genre (NBC is doing THE PLAYBOY CLUB).  But the Playboy trailer does not look promising....something about one of the bunnies accidentally killing a mobster?!  Huh?!

PAN AM has it's own twist too but it sounds somewhat more plausible and a helluva lot more interesting than TV mobsters; one of the stewardesses is recruited to be an international spy! The show looks incredible, has some handsome Draper-esque dudes and it stars Christina Ricci too. And having a little Frank Sinatra setting the mood sure helps.  Coming this fall....

HAWK NEWS: The NYU Baby Red Tail Hawk Has A Name

So the big news this week with the baby red tail hawk nesting on a ledge above Washington Square Park is that he has a name now....Pip.   There was a naming contest online and Pip won, with York coming in a close second.  The reference is to Dickens' "Great Expectations" as everyone was surprised when Pip busted out of his shell a week after the experts said he was not going to hatch.  Now Pip is thriving and getting bigger by the day.

If you need a daily hit of adorable, forget those cat videos on YouTube.  You can check out the latest star of Internet cuteness live on his own streaming webcam page.  You can even chat with other hawk watchers about all the excitement goin on in the nest as this little neighborhood bird gets bigger every day.  I challenge you not to smile when he turns his big black eyes to the camera and stares like the cute eyeas he is.