Under Review
We review a NYT blog, the fruit of Diddy’s labor, and more.
By Campus Progress
April 24, 2009
Oh, another blo…zzz…
BLOG
100 Days
The New York Times
Bloggers: Lou Cannon, Robert Dallek, Roger Morris, Richard Reeves, and Jean Edward Smith
Comparing Barack Obama to previous presidents has become something of a hobby for politics enthusiasts lately. Depending on whom you ask, the president is similar to Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, or even Reagan. Remember that endless Team of Rivals talk? Enter The New York Times’ 100 Days blog. Authored by a number of 20th century historians, the blog aims to compare Obama’s first 100 days to those of his predecessors.
The comparison topics are usually good ones (one post by Jean Edward Smith on how Eisenhower decided that the Korean War had to end and what Obama might take away from that is a particularly interesting topic) but the blog itself is a snooze. They tend to be similar to the sorts of long-winded, unsolicited tales related by grandparents. They’ll start by discussing whatever is going on in the Obama administration at the moment, but quickly forget about it by the second paragraph.
Don’t get me wrong: I love history. I’m a history major, after all—American history, no less. And the 100 Days bloggers deserve some slack; writing regularly in a way that ties current American events to historic ones can be hard to do well. This blog is good at something else, though: putting you to sleep. Goodbye Ambien, hello 100 Days.
3 out of 10 rambling septuagenarian tales
-Daniel Strauss
Hair: Don’t cut it, see it.
THEATER
Hair
Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni & James Rado; music by Galt MacDermot;
directed by Diane Paulus
Opened: April 2009
Hair is the “American Tribal Love Rock Musical” (or so its producers billed it when it first opened on Broadway back in 1968), and a revival production opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theater on 45th Street in New York last month. To put it simply, it is incredible. The show, which is a snapshot of counterculture, anti-war protest, and intergenerational conflict in 1960s New York, is powerful and emotionally charged, filled with huge questions about the Vietnam War draft, loss of innocence, and youth’s relationship to authority.
The revival production was well-staged, smashing the fourth wall to smithereens in an attempt to bring the audience into the experience. Actors balanced on railings in the audience, handed out daisies and invitations to be-ins, and sat down in the aisles to hold conversations with audience members. I was sitting in the last row of the theater, and that didn’t dull the emotional impact of the show at all, so great was the connection between audience and actors through songs that have now entered the culture such as “Aquarius,” “Let the Sunshine In,” and, of course the title anthem, “Hair.”
However, while the show is all about a youth culture, when it is reproduced in 2009 it doesn’t speak very well to today’s youth. Most of the people in the audience when I saw the show last week were middle-aged, and revisiting Hair out of nostalgia for the original Broadway cast recording or the 1979 film version, both of which became something of a cultural sensation in the sixties and 1970s. Some of these people brought their teenage children along, but those children didn’t seem to “get” it, lacking the historical context to appreciate the idea of a generation so deeply at odds with its parents, its government, and its society. Despite the power of the musical and this particular production, one has to wonder whether there is a point to reproducing a piece of theater that captures revolutionary social change if it’s only to fuel middle-aged nostalgia.
8 out of 10 dirty hippies
-Emily Rutherford
Wear protection while listening to this album. (Courtesy Bad Boy Entertainment)
MUSIC
Day 26
Forever in a Day
Bad Boy Entertainment
Released: April 14, 2009
Confession: I’m addicted to MTV’s Making the Band. I’ve loved the albums that the show has produced—including last year’s debut from Day 26, Diddy’s protege R&B boy band. This season, however, I was convinced that Diddy’s notoriously heavy artistic hand would ultimately produce a cliched and unfocused sophomore album.
Forever in a Day proved me right. But I sorely underestimated the ability of the group’s vocal talent to compensate for the mediocrity of the songs themselves. All in all, it wasn’t too bad.
The formulaic mess of a first single “Imma Put It On Her” follows down the overly traveled club-banger road with laughable sexual metaphors (“I’m gonna ride you like an elevator”) and unnecessary bars from rappers including a maddening cameo from Diddy.
But despite that, and the periodic urge to scream, “I actually don’t want to make a baby right now, and I’d like to put in my headphones without needing a contraceptive,” (see, in addition to “Imma Put it on Her,” “Babymaker” and “So Good”), every single song is vocally impressive. In a genre currently plagued by the likes of T-Pain, Akon, The Dream, and their friend Vocoder, quality singing is a hot commodity.
The vocal arrangements don’t do the best job of hiding the singers’ shortcomings (their sopranos are consistently nasal and heady). But when they shine, they shine with pitch-perfect falsetto, impeccable runs, and a richness (thanks to Robert) that makes you pause and rewind. When they calm down their urges to be the bad boys of R&B, the subtlety of tracks like “Perfectly Blind” and “Reminds Me of You” reminds me why these five vocalists were hand-picked.
Have they reached Jodeci, Boys II Men, or Dru Hill status yet? Hardly. But Forever in a Day makes you believe that with a little more time and a little less Diddy, anything is possible.
6 out of 10 illegal downloads
-Erica Williams
It’s Ira Glass all up in yo face.
RADIO
This American Life Live
Public Radio International
Released: April 23 (encore presentation May 7 and online)
The concept of a live variety show on the big screen is pretty odd. I mean, who would go to a movie theater to see performers stand on NYU’s Skirball Center stage and read into a microphone? Well, you should.
The $20 show (plus fees), which was broadcast to 400 theaters around the country, combined storytelling, humor, and a little bit of music and art. This American Life host Ira Glass was at his best, holding together the somewhat disjointed performances with charming quirkiness and wry wit. It was worth the time and money if only to see sex columnist and The Stranger Editor Dan Savage’s monologue, which combined his typical hilarity with a touching story about spirituality and his mother’s recent death. It brought the audience to tears.
Other performances came from Starlee Kine, who has presented better essays for This American Life in the past, as well as hysterical performances from comedian and hit-and-run survivor Mike Birbiglia and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. The show also included a rather strange animated cartoon produced by New Yorker illustrator Chris Ware that involved a mouse falling in love with a cat’s head.
If you’re a fan of This American Life, seeing a live production will be enjoyable, even if the showcase we caught wasn’t the best collection of stories. Glass probably captured the experience of non-listeners best when he talked about how his friends once dragged him to the X-Files movie. The experience of the non-X-Files fans who attended, he said, was probably a lot like seeing This American Life Live if you don’t listen to the show.
8 out of 10 tote-bag-toting yuppie parents eating arugula salads
-David Spett and Kay Steiger
Good, but not as good as the original. Duh. (Courtesy Universal Pictures)
FILM
State of Play
Universal Pictures
Released: April 17, 2009
When State of Play opened last weekend, an immense plaintive whine could be heard throughout the land as a thousand scorned fans moaned, “It isn’t as good as the TV show.”
And of course they were right. The original British series had a luxurious six hours (standard length for a season of a British TV show) to familiarize the audience with the ensemble cast, set up the plot, and flesh out the world. Kevin MacDonald’s film inevitably looks pale and wan in comparison.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth seeing.
The story revolves around slovenly Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) an old-school newspaper hack covering the shooting death of a young black man. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill his old college buddy Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) has just learned of the mysterious death of his lead researcher and mistress, which couldn’t have come at a worse time considering his impending investigation into the nefarious private security firm Blackwat—er—Pointguard.
Crowe carries the film as his character doggedly investigates the intersections between the two deaths and periodically drops by his paper’s fantastically lively newsroom. Unfortunately, Affleck’s embattled congressman is too remote and passionless to register. The Collins of the series trembled with volcanic rage; when his anger finally erupts in the film, the effect is unconvincing. But even a brilliant performance on Affleck’s part couldn’t bring life to the bland love triangle between Collins, McAffrey, and the former’s wife, which is wrenching in the original but contributes nothing here.
In fact, for maximum enjoyment pretend the British State of Play doesn’t exist. Just sit back and enjoy Crowe, Helen Mirren’s performance as his acidic editor, and the movie’s proud nostalgia for the big city newspaper, now in its death throes.
7 out of 10 archaic, ink-stained, whiskey-soaked newspaper reporters
-Jake Blumgart
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Comments
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“Hair” is the only show that I’ve ever seen that felt like an experience. The cast aka The Tribe is excellent, the production is fantastic and the songs sound better then ever. The shows themes (Sex, War, Drugs, Race) are as relevant today as they were forty years ago. The best part is the bond that the Tribe forms with the audience. It resonates with everyone long after they’ve left the theater. I urge all theatergoers to order tickets, participate in the show and dance in the finale. You will never forget the “Hair” experience.
— BobsViews - Aug 9, 09:08 PM - #