Yesterday here, I put up a link to a website called Perfectly Timed Photos. I have just deleted that item.
One person wrote and said it was possible to contract a virus by going to that site. Since it was only one person and since it wasn't flagged on my computer (which uses the same anti-virus program he has), it's probably nothing but I took the link down just to play it safe. If you went there and your computer is acting odd, you might want to run a scan. Or something.
By now, you've probably heard that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is indeed getting a makeover and that its director, Julie Taymor, is no longer running the show. Exactly what she will have to do with it in the future is probably still being worked out with lawyer talking to lawyer. The folks now calling the shots probably don't yet know how much the show will be modified and Ms. Taymor can't yet know if she'll even want her name associated with the final product.
Reports are vague on if and when the show may shut down for retooling and the producers may not even know yet. Closing for a while would be a pretty extreme step and a costly one. The big question is how will the grosses hold up, particularly in light of this new announcement. People might rush to see the current version while they can or they may decide to stay away in droves. It's kind of a Broadway tradition that when a spectacular, notable flop is about to close, audiences stampede to see it while they still can…but this show isn't exactly closing.
How has it been doing? Well, the week before last it took in $1,559,341, which was 100.1% of capacity. (Broadway shows sometimes do that. They figure capacity by multiplying the number of available tickets at their standard pricing…but because there are premimum seat deals with some tix going at even higher prices, the total gross can exceed 100%.) Last week, it took in $1,281,776, which was 84.5% of capacity. 84.5% is still a good take — and if you can't make money at that level, you might as well close down. But it's also cause for concern when you drop more than 15% in one week without an obvious reason like a change of leads. I'm curious as to whether they'll go up or down in the next report.
L.A. Times obit for Eddie Brandt. It mentions, as I forgot to, that Eddie was a writer on the Beany & Cecil cartoons of the sixties.
Number twenty-three in a series…
Fred Kaplan on what Obama's likely to do about Libya and when he's likely to do it.
My dermatologist told me his all-time favorite stand-up comedian was the late Myron Cohen. Okay, here's a clip of Myron Cohen…
I don't go to many fast food restaurants these days. Haven't even been in a Five Guys since last August. But I'm more than a little fascinated by the business and especially the history of the business — how chains are founded, how they expand, how they contract, etc. I've written before here about the territorial nature of the animal; how there are whole states into which In-N-Out or White Castle will not venture. Five Guys is just now creeping into California and after years of getting closer and closer, Chick-Fil-A is finally about to open in my area — at Sunset and Highland, displacing a Carl's Jr. Can Steak 'n' Shake be far behind?
As new places come in, old ones go away. The only two in the L.A. Weekly piece I miss are Kenny Rogers and Roy Rogers'. There's still a Roy Rogers' chain in the East but what it serves bears little resemblance to the menu they offered out here in the seventies. Why can't Arby's make a roast beef sandwich half that good?
Today on Stu's Show! Your enthusiastic host Stu Shostak will be welcoming two fine actors who'll discuss their work on the popular series, Not Necessarily the News, as well as their impressive careers elsewhere. In the photo below, Danny Breen is the guy with the mustache. He's one of most respected comic actors and writers around, especially in the area of improv comedy. Stuart Pankin is the fellow in the lower left. He's also a well-respected performer…one of my favorite actors, in fact. (One of the most impressive stage performances I've ever seen was Pankin's in a production of City of Angels I saw back in 2006.)
And Not Necessarily the News was a darn good series that among other things, introduced to American television a lot of comic devices and an attitude towards political satire that you now routinely see on programs like The Daily Show and all the late night talk programs. It was a smart series that among many gestures of respect to the viewers actually presumed that most of them had read a newspaper. I haven't seen any of those episodes for years but I'll bet they hold up better than a lot of other "topical" programs of the time because the cast was genuinely funny.
You can tune in today and hear Breen and Pankin on Stu's Show, the flagship offering on Shokus Internet Radio. It all happens live at 4 PM Pacific Time, which is 7 PM if you live on the East Coast, 9 AM if you live in Tokyo, 1 AM if you live in Copenhagen, 3 AM in Moscow, etc. The show repeats throughout the week but you'll enjoy it more if you go to Stu's website, click in the appropriate place and listen live.
Hotel reservations are now open for this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. If you don't get one before they sell out, remember that more rooms will be added as time goes on.
You'll probably get your best deal by going through the convention bookers but I'm hearing it's also possible to find lodging on your own. Some folks were very happy last year with hotels or motels that they found along the San Diego trolley route. Happy booking.
Michael McKean: I detest violence. Having said that, I would probably watch a show where the rejected girls slap The Bachelor to death.
A few years ago, some of us watched with puzzlement a war within the family of Frank Frazetta over the control and possible liquidation of his work. I lost my interest at some point. If you still have any, you'll want to read the exhaustive article by Bob Levin about the entire matter.
Two pandas were born last month at the Madrid Zoo. Here's a little footage of creatures who are far cuter than you or I could ever hope to be…
The New York Times says that the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark "…were negotiating on Monday with their director, Julie Taymor, for her to work with a newly expanded creative team to fix the critically derided $65 million musical or possibly leave the show." That basically means they're telling her, "Either you surrender control or you're outta here." And one suspects someone — probably those producers — arranged for this article to be in the New York Times this morning in order to put pressure on Ms. Taymor to yield without putting a curse on the enterprise and to perhaps make financial compromises. The Times also says that the opening will almost certainly be postponed again from the March 15 date, which would not be a surprise. You don't talk about changing directors and then open a week later.
I don't know anyone involved with this production and I have no inside information from those who are. Strictly as a spectator, I'm going to guess/predict what the producers have in mind. What they have in mind (I think) is Spider-Man 2.0 — a major reboot of this production.
Here's how it would work. They'd acknowledge that the show needs more revision than can be done in one week or even one month. While heralding the fine work of Julie Taymor and others who have constructed the current show, they will announce new creative participants being brought in — a new director or co-director (depending on whether Taymor hangs in there and agrees to a shared credit), a new book writer certainly, possibly new composers, etc. They will announce that the show will not open next week…maybe not even next month. They may or may not set a new, highly-tentative opening date but in any case, it will be after there is sufficient time to perform major surgery and to present a very different version of the show to the public. It might close for a while. It might even have a new title.
The current version will continue to play the Foxwoods Theater…and people will probably continue to flock to see it. The show has been selling out and the odds are good it will continue to do that once word gets out that you can only see it for a limited time. And once a revamped version displaces it, that will probably sell a lot of tickets, many of them to folks who saw Version 1 and want to see Version 2.
Will it work? Depends on how good the revamp is. But I think they're figuring they don't have much of a chance with what they have now; that to open 3/15 is to invite a replay of killer reviews and for the public to assume the show is what it is. Declaring that they're going to, in effect, tear much of it down and start over will leave open the possibility that a great musical can rise from the ashes. And I have a strange hunch that a large percentage of the potential theater-going public would love to see that happen. When this show first came to light, that wasn't the attitude. People saw arrogance and waste in its $65 million budget and were rooting for failure. Now, we're past that. The interesting scenario now would be for some creative super-hero to ride to its rescue and give the world a Spider-Man musical as inarguably grand as we'd all like a Spider-Man musical to be. Let's see if they give that storyline a chance to play out.
Michael Kinsley on Mitt Romney and the problems with his candidacy. I am skeptical that "flip-flops" will impair anyone's ability to get the Republican nomination. This is, after all, a party that didn't flinch over John McCain reversing darn near every position he'd recently held, up to and including opposition to legislation that had his name in its title.
Hey, how about two minutes of Ernie Kovacs?