Another black eye for The Garden State

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Exile on Pain Street

A short walk from my house is the not-so-mighty Navesink River. It’s a shallow, quiet river that empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Along its banks, you can rent boats and kayaks and go out rowing or crabbing, neither of which I’ve done because I’m not a big outdoorsman. I like rowing on Central Park Lake but that’s about the extent of it. Is there any part of this blog that might lead you to believe I’m an outdoors kind of guy? Quite the opposite. Drinking a cup of coffee that’s gone cold is about as close as I ever get to roughing it. I understand its appeal but it ain’t for me. I work like a dog. I don’t sleep in tents on my time off.

While Sister #2 was visiting, we took a little stroll down to the dock to watch jellyfish float by. There’s a gracefulness as they flow by on the tide. But they also look like great gobs of mucus. Near the boat rental dock is this advertisement:

I’ve been living down there for seven years and never saw the typo! My sister asked, “kray-bing? What the hell is kray-bing” Ha. Upon closer examination, you can see that they tried to fix their error. Let’s hear it for the New Jersey Public School System!

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Wichita Lineman! Glen Campbell! Earworm! Gaaaaaaaa! Help me! How in God’s name did THIS get into my head? And why am I admitting it in a public forum? Do I really have nothing to lose at this point? Take a look at that searing guitar solo. If you can make it that far.

If Messieurs Wolverine and Bond were Chicago inner-city beat cops

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Exile on Pain Street

I was lucky enough to score a ticket to A Steady Rain, the two-hander starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on Broadway. It’s an impossible ticket to get (unless you want to pony up $376.50 for a “premium” seat. Rotten greedy bastards.)Cynical old me was ready for an evening of eye rolling and tut-tutting. The reviews were okay, but not glowing. I thought it was going to be an evening of movie star crap-ola. Well, guess what? It was great. Fuck the critics (as usual). I had a fine time. The attempted Chicago accents were a bit grating at first but I was pulled in on the strength of the story and flashes of raw emotion.

Jackman had the better, more showy role but Craig was fine, as well. They both have legitimate stage credentials so it was far from being a vanity project. I remember Kelsey Grammer playing, believe it or not, Macbeth on Broadway several years ago. Now, THAT was a vanity project. It closed after just 10 days.

When I mentioned that I was going to see A Steady Rain, several people told me to make sure to turn my cell phone off. They were referring to an incident whereby Hugh Jackman stopped the show to chastise someone in the audience whose cell phone went off. The clip is below. Hugh Jackman is a polite Aussie. Click on the second clip and listen to New York native Patty Lupone school Hugh on how it’s done.

Pick a century, for cryin’ out loud

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Exile on Pain Street

Sister #2 teaches at a college in Upstate New York in the heart of the Mennonite community. She was in the local coffee shop doing some work when this grand old dame walked in, opened her laptop bag, plugged in, booted up and started surfing the internet.

Isn’t that contrary to their belief system? I know they’re big advocates of modest dress and quiet lifestyles, so what’s up with the laptop?

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I just stumbled across this quote from Andy Warhol about Coca-Cola:

A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the president knows it, the bum knows it and you know it.

Isn’t that beautiful? I swear, if I worked in the marketing department for Coke I’d create an entire ad campaign around that.

Random NYC photos: while you were still asleep

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Exile on Pain Street

Early morning in New York. This is 42nd Street looking east from Broadway at 6:30, a short time after the sun came up. While the rest of you were dreaming of sugar plums, I was on my way into the grind. Look at the way the colors of the sky are reflected in the Bank of America building on the left.

This is about a half block further east. Note the ornamental neon lights in the spire of the Chrysler Building are still on. Click on it for a better look.

As a homage to The Daily Smoke, I’m including this black and white pic of Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building.

Dat ‘ole black theater magic

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Exile on Pain Street

Here’s some opening dialog that I lifted from a New York Times fluff piece about the excellent new production of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones that’s about to open at the Irish Rep.

“Who dare whistle dat way in my palace? Who dare wake up de emperor? I’ll git the hide frayled off some o’ you niggers sho’!”

Imagine 1:15 minutes of that! It’s a ballsy show that’s presented exactly as O’Neill wrote it and I think these guys are going to take some heat for the manner in which the main character is portrayed. They throw every racial stereotype that blacks have been fighting against for decades onto the stage. But if you can hang with it, you’re in for a hell of a ride.

The show is a hallucinatory nightmare. The sequences of the Emperor, Brutas Jones, escaping through the jungle are eerily realized. Kudos to the stage, sound and lighting guys. They even employ creepy puppets to depict a dead man, a slave auction and various jungle horrors. John Douglas Thompson is excellent as the Emperor. Lotsa luck to him.

I’m no O’Neill scholar but this seems a very unlikely play for him to write. I think it was his first success.