|
|
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
| |
5:56 am
|
|
| Thursday, November 26th, 2009
| |
6:14 pm - I don't want a pickle
|
|
| |
5:00 pm - tags: roxy, usher, pants, porter
|
Someday, I swear, I'll finish this piece I started long ago on the Roxy Theatre in New York City. Since putting the project aside for a bit I've made a lot of new friends, and wanted to make sure I shared the drafts I had so far with you. Hope you like it.
1. Sic Transit Gloria
2. Let There Be Light
The next part's to be The Boys and the Girls of the Roxy, but the last part would be the saddest, about its decline and stuff. Not so much fun to chronicle, but hey. Anyway.
Happy Thanksgiving, and I assure you the tradition 'round these parts is on its way soon.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
3:44 am - Last outbound train to Alewife
|
(The RED LINE TRAIN pulls into the DAVIS station.)
DRUNKEN YOUNGSTER: DAAAAAAAVIS! DAAAVISHQUAYAH IS NEXT!!
DRUNKEN YOUNGSTER'S FRIEND: He has a future in announcing.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
| |
7:12 pm - He yodels! He jumps around to music!
|
Not sure why I didn't see this one go round the first time out, but here's a (really really crummy watermarked version; sorry, couldn't find the clip anywhere else w/o resorting to Hulu) clip of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's recent appearance on Saturday Night Live where, for his monologue, he performs Make 'Em Laugh from Singin' in the Rain.
Did I mention he gives it the full-on Donald O'Connor treatment?
Yes, with that part.
Oh and yes, with that part too.
And you can tell he is about the happiest fella ever by the end of the number. As well as the most exhausted. Given the nature of live TV and the backstage hustling, I sure hope he had a few moments to catch his breath before his next sketch.
|
|
(23 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 20th, 2009
| |
2:44 pm - "He's posting a joke! I better take him seriously!"
|
Okay, guys, fun's fun, but the joke's done.
And I appreciate all the hard work that obviously went in to setting up the entire world so that when I woke up one day in November, I hear this new tech buzzword being bantered around like it's been here all along. That's hilarious! You know I like creating fake companies, towns and concepts, and "cloud computing" sure sounds like something I could've come up with. It's great. And it came out of the blue. Just like clouds! I get it! How long did it take you guys to come up with all this?
But let's be serious for a moment here. Jokes have a shelf life, and this one is definitely past its own. Let's get back to mocking, you know, real buzzwords.
Countdown to YHBT in 5... 4... 3...
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, November 19th, 2009
| |
11:51 am - Didn't Lude and Lucidious collaborate on a single in 03?
|
Ah, Wikipedia, I love it when you fail in such a wonderful fashion:She ran away again in 1969, this time ending up in Detroit, arrested by the FBI for crossing into the US, wearing no bra, and sporting a white beret, "in danger of leading a lude and lucidious life." The lovely thing is that the textbrick of bad writin' has apparently been there since 2008. Nobody wants to touch it with the exception of some fellow in the Talk page whose logic for editing the article isn't just because it needs a bit of red pen, but that it's longer than Bono's biography article.
Well we just can't have that, now, can we?
|
|
(20 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 13th, 2009
| |
8:21 pm - Ladies and gentlemen, let's have another hand for Lex Concord and his Minutemen
|
The Big Broadcast's curtain call music was performed by the Byfar Hour house band, Lex Concord and the Minutemen (as expertly played by Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band.) They played a real high-energy stompin' kind of number which was perfect to get us all out onstage, take quick bows, Recognize everybody involved in the show, and then dance up the aisles and out of the house. The band would continue the number as exit music, and then wrap for the night. They helped bring the energy right up for everybody and we loved 'em for it.
Our last Saturday show was loose and fun for many different reasons. Last show energy, sleep deprivation, second show of the day so we're all a little punchier, all that. And once we were finished, the Minutemen turned back into the ENSMB, finished the exit music, and then and decided to stay onstage to celebrate and have some more fun.
By jamming to SexyBack.
(I saw them do this at Honk! and it was fantastic; seeing it at BB1938 was even greater.)
That YouTube video marks the exact very very end of the BB1938 production on stage. It is bittersweet for me to watch, but at the same time it's absolutely wonderful. I can't say enough nice things about ENSMB and:- Their full-on enthusiasm for the show and love for the music of the period
- The way they got right into their Minutemen characters and, in doing so, getting one of the biggest laughs in the show
- Their accessibility, and their healthy sense of fun (they taught Michael Simon, who played Lex Concord, how to conduct and I'm told that at certain times, he really was leading the band)
- The way they can play it hot
- The playful energy they gave to that side of the stage during the Byfar Hour and the nervous moods they created for the WotW numbers -- who knew cobwebby dance standards could create such tension?
- Their copious amounts of Awesome, which they shared liberally with the entire show
They added an amazing dimension to the show and by sounding good, they made us all sound good. See? I mean it. I'd run out of adjectives and reasons before I felt it necessary to wrap things up.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
9:46 am
|
Was going over my electronic bank statement this morning and noticed one of the nicer things they finally did was show you what charges are currently on hold or otherwise pending clearance. Sure, all that's doing is eliminating the paper trail and a leetle detective work on my part, but it sure is nice.
Except I saw that one of the pending charges readSUBWAY DAVIS SQ. $15.00 And I got a little unnerved. I hadn't eaten at that Subway in ages! And when I do go, I never spend more than $10 anyway, I mean, you go for the $5 sandwich deal. Who the hell spent $15.00 in my name on sandwiches, or is the store pulling some nefarious deed? And when had I not gone and paid cash? The hell, people?
I bet the locals can guess where this is going.
Yeah, it was actually the charge from the MBTA for a 7-day linkpass, purchased at the Davis Square subway station. I'll laugh about this once my blood pressure goes back down.
Wodda wayta starta day.
Finances and me are not very good friends. We are tolerable acquaintances if anything.
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
| |
10:03 am - It's Information Time!
|
HOW ARE WE LIKING OUR GIRLS?
15% - In the morning
40% - In the evening
25% - Two at a time
10% - With new wave hairdos
5% - Smiling at White Castle
4% - Smiling at the Nile
<1% - Jocking Mike D to my dismay
Results based on a study conducted by the firm Horovitz, Diamond and Yauch with assistance from Dr. Lee, Ph.D.
|
|
(13 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, November 9th, 2009
| |
9:29 pm - (And by the way, you sulky brat, the answer is to be!)
|
To those of you recently (I think about two or three) who pointed me in the direction of Slings & Arrows:Man, thank you very much.
Two episodes in and I am very much taken by it. Am very interested to see how the storylines develop from here.
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
11:48 am - I done writ a lot this weekending
|
I find myself working on two concurrent pieces about the Byfar Hour -- one regarding the improvisational aspects of the pre-show (and that pizza!) and one in response to an interesting post by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) woodwardiocom regarding the levels of metafiction in the Byfar Hour and The Big Broadcast as a whole. There's a lot of questions to be answered, some of which I'm perfectly happy letting people answer for themselves, but there were other artistic goals which I think it necessary to explain.
Then there's the annotations I'm already making for the inevitable commentary track should our recordings turn out all right (no multi-track mixer on site meant either a single channel bootleg off the sound board or a omni recorder dangling on a boom off the balcony) and stuff. Beyond that I can't say anything more about release plans because there's a lot of things to iron out there and I don't wish to make any more presumptions about future merch. :P
There's also a surprise which I'm almost finished with for those on the PMRP current mailing list. It, uh, ties up a loose end or two (which we'd always meant to keep untied, mind you.) You'll see.
Now is the time when we also start planning for Red Shift's yearly Arisia show in January. Michael Simon is joining our writing team for reals yo, and I hope we'll start work on the story this week. Unfortunately the PMRP won't be part of First Night this year due to budgetary problems on their side. While that is a real shame considering we did so well for 'em last year, it gives us actual time this year to actually work on a Red Shift script rather than whip one up in a week and a half. The last time we had the luxury to really work out a script, it was for Havoc over Holowood and it turned out to be one of our best scripts yet. I'm looking forward to figuring out what we do this time around.
There's also the notion that Frank, Amelia, Lex, Jenny, Charley and the gang will return sometime next year, but those cards will be kept very close until I've finalized more details. No cryptic promises or teasing here, honest. I do think I've found a new character to write in, though.
I was supposed to catch up on Mad Men, Venture Bros, and hell even 30 Rock this weekend, but I kept typing and typing and typing and then dealing with the cat every 5 minutes which derailed my train of thought more than I'd care to admit, so I got very frustrated and not everything got done. But the Byfar yammering will come next, I'm sure.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009
| |
8:51 pm - Gypsies, Tramps and Revolutionaries
|
|
| |
11:34 am - all I wanted to hear was HONK, HONK, HONK
|
One of the Byfar Hour scenes I had the most fun writing was the scene in which the cast takes the host Frank Cyrano to task for overpromising and underdelivering. Frank always promises big name stars on the show but there's always some horribly contrived reason why the celebrity in question couldn't show up: Clark Gable's train, for instance, was apparently ambushed in New Haven by a girl gang of autograph bandits. There's also this exchange:LEX CONCORD: And what about the time you said we were going to have one of the Marx Brothers on the program?
FRANK CYRANO: (DEFENSIVELY) But we did! Harpo was a very funny guest. I enjoyed that bit, as well as the third excuse (Charlie McCarthy backed out at the last minute because he had termites) but what most people don't know is that we almost did have Harpo on the show Saturday night, but that opportunity petered out in a fashion appropriate to the program.
It's inevitable that people show up to a Halloween night show in costume (I ran the World's Most Ad Hoc Costume Contest during the first Saturday intermission because A. I noticed a whole lot of people out in costume, B. we typically ran costume contests during one Tomes show each run, and C. the show wasn't running long enough anyway.) We had people show up every night in costume, including some wonderful friends of the radio who came in full 30s garb and everything, but Halloween was the biggest night.
At about 10 minutes before we opened the house and began the on-stage atmospherics, someone ran backstage and told me that there was a Harpo Marx in the lobby in full-on trenchcoat and horn getup and everything. I was thrilled, mostly because a Harpo costume is an automatic winner no matter what (even without a mask, it gives you artistic license to do a lot of crazy things you may not do in your civvies) but also because it meant I could pull something really groovy and possibly get back at the unknown prankster who ordered a pizza to be delivered onstage at Friday night's show.
(Yes, the pizza stunt really happened and no, I still have no idea who was fully behind it. The recipient of the pizza was the band's drummer and all he had to say about it was "Well, I was hungry..." Meanwhile, I stood at the mic trying to come up with a useful adlib but was too busy wondering if pizza existed in '38. I'll save the rest of this story for the bit I'm writing about our improvisational goof-offery.)
"Oh my god," I said, hurrying out into the house. "Run out to the lobby. Go get Harpo. Bring him into the house. I want him in the show. We'll have him chase a cigarette girl across the stage and back." I was prepared to comp him -- out of my own pocket, even -- if he was willing to play along. Someone from the staff went out to the lobby to find him while I started thinking: Harpo had a fondness for blondes... which is the blondest cigarette girl we've got? Failing that, who can shriek the best? And where will we cue him? Off the Harpo line in the scene? Before that? After? Should I cop one of Groucho's cracks when it happens ("Looks like the 8:17 is right on time. You can always set your watch by the Lehigh Valley") or ad-lib something different?
Then the staffer came back in and said Harpo was gone. He hadn't come by to see the show; he apparently was on his way to other Halloween shenanigans and had stopped by the Somerville lobby to show off for a bit. Probably stopped at other places around Davis, too, and hopefully got a few free drinks for his troubles. Sounded like he had the best darn Harpo costume around, too.
Ah, well. The Saturday show went wonderfully without a Marx interruption, which is probably for the best. I know at least two people who would have gone apopleptic if I let Byfar run any longer, but I also know one person in the back who would have fallen out of his chair in laughter and that's the reaction I wanted.
But boy, that would've added to the numerous stories and legends that have come out of this production.
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 1st, 2009
| |
10:46 pm - More About Editing The Byfar Hour Than You Ever Wanted To Know
|
This was originally written in response to a post by prog about the length of The Big Broadcast. It was a very long show and there were definite spots which could have used, or outright demanded, editing for length and time. Not surprisingly, everybody has their own opinions on exactly where those spots were. prog thought that the Byfar Hour was perfectly paced, and others felt it dragged in parts. I feel exactly the same way. Both ways. The show could have been tightened, but given the time we had, what we presented on stage was the absolute best that it could be at that point.
Anyway, the full text of the comment is below. Ironically, I was unable to post it as a comment because it ran over the character limit. (That meant it was more than just a simple comment response anyway and demanded its own post.)
( I can only speak for the Byfar Hour, considering, but I'll tell you it was the most challenging thing I have ever had to write... )
Man, that was long. But I ain't editing it so there.
|
|
(19 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
5:47 pm
|
It's nearing 6:00 and I just woke up. I am still exhausted, I have no voice, there's a nice welt on one of my fingers I have absolutely no idea where it came from, and I am so tired that I just fed the cat a third of a can of tuna because his dry food is out and I have no energy to actually go out and get him more right now.
Honestly it's what I expected today to be like, so all in all it was a pretty successful weekend.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, October 29th, 2009
| |
11:15 pm - Our motto
|
And therein lies the magic.
Tens of thousands of people out there, listening,
Each envisioning their own motion picture of the mind.
And that is what we give our audience... we give them dreams.
We give them towers and landscapes, secrets and revelations.
We give them a warm hearth in the dark, or a cold shiver up their spine.
And we do it all here, live, on the sparest of threadbare budgets
With a troupe of actors who, underpaid and under-rehearsed and overwhelmed,
Have yet to learn that this
Simply
Cannot
Be done.Victor Comstock, Remember WENN
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, October 25th, 2009
| |
8:15 pm - (right over there)
|
|
| Friday, October 23rd, 2009
| |
3:18 pm - A quick Soupy joke
|
One of the best and corniest jokes they did on the late 70s version of
the Soupy Sales ahow involved Dick Van Patten. If memory serves, it
was a cold opening and the sketch involved variants on the old
"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!" gag.
Van Patten played the customer and Soupy played the waiter. They went
through the joke a few times, each time with Van Patten setting up the
joke in a different emotional state, as shown on a title card: #1 -
Scared. #2 - Enraged. #3 - Nervous, etc. Soupy would give a different
punchline every time. Finally, though, Van Patten got fed up with the
routine and refused to perform joke #9.
"Why don't you want to do the ninth joke?" Soupy asked.
And of course, Dick Van Patten replied "...because eight is enough!"
If that punchline had been used on any other comedy show (and it
probably was, to the point of overkill) it wouldn't have worked. But
on Soupy's show, and especially after a setup which was entertaining
in its own right, it was great.
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
10:08 am - 1926-2009
|
Soupy Sales is dead. In case you don't know who Soupy was, he was the dignified, sophisticated children's show host as seen below:
I don't have time for a proper writeup on the man right now, but I do know that when reached for comment, a disconsolate White Fang said "Reh reh. Reh reh reah. Reh reah reh-reh reaaaaah."
So instead of the story of the time Soupy got away with socking Frank Sinatra in the face with a pie, please feel free to do The Mouse all you want with Soupy Sales.Hey! Do the Mouse, yeah!
Hey! You can do it in your house, yeah!
On the rug or on the wall
If your folks get bugged, do it in the hall
Do the Mouse, yeah!
Let's do the Mouse, c'mon and do the Mouse with me!
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
