http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Fri, 4 Apr 2003 12:33:38 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/04/04/123338.php Dan RosenbaumEdwin Starr passed away the other day. He was a soul shouter with a killer band and only three hits, but my oh my what hits:Agent Double-O Soul Twenty Five Miles WarOne of my reference books describes "War", from 1970, as "cataclysmic," which is as good a description as any. Where Marvin Gaye talked about how "only love can conquer hate," and the Temptations sang their complex and wordy "Ball of Confusion," and Crosby Stills Nash & Young decried "Four dead in Ohio," Starr cut to the chase. The chorus was as simple as can be: "War! Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!" The chart underneath it swung from snare clicks to punching horns to snarling guitars. It was impossible to ignore the song as it came pouring out of the radio -- as impossible as it is to imagine such a song being programmed on any major station today.If that were all Edwin Starr did, he's be worth remembering. But there was also "Twenty Five Miles." It's the story of a guy counting down the 25 miles he's walking to see his baby again, but it inexplicably fades out as the singer's got 5 more miles to go. Why? Was the song too long for radio? What happened? Did he ever get there? Was she waiting for him?If I ever get to front a soul band, with the horns and the chick backup singers and the whole deal, I'm going to find me a chart for "Twenty Five Miles," and that's what I'll sing. I might even make up the last five. Music4357@blogcritics.org Fri, 4 Apr 2003 12:33:38 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/25/094210.php Dan RosenbaumMaking a bearnaise sauce is a mysterious thing. I once was putting one together -- all the ingredients were blended in perfect proportion, gentle heat was being applied, and the sauce was thickening just as it should -- when it suddenly just separated out. Fell apart. I applied some quickly learned emergency measures, and the sauce came back together. Mostly. But I've always wondered what went wrong at the stove that evening.Same thing applies to the current Broadway revival of Rogers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse. There's tons of yummy ingredients to the show -- including a pretty good retooled book by Nicky Silver (replacing the George Abbott original) -- but only sometimes do all the parts smooth out.The plot -- taken from Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" -- is set out in the opening number, "Hurrah! Hurroo!," a miracle of compact exposition. The action takes place in Ephesus. Two sets of identical twins -- one pair of aristocrats and one pair of slaves -- from Syracuse are lost at sea seven years ago. Residents from Syracuse are executed in Ephesus because of their origins unless they can come up with 1000 drachmas. One of the aristocrat twins is established as an Ephesian war hero; the other comes to town to find his twin. Each twin has his respective identical slave with him.Merriment ensues.No, really. After the opening number, the show sags for most of the first act as the focus turns on the four romantic leads. But whenever it's time for the comic leads and supporting players to shine, the pace picks up and the show becomes tons more fun. The second act curtain-raiser, "You Took Advantage of Me," has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the show, but features four of what I think were once known as chorines. I've gotta say, I like the chorines. The audience didn't quite know what to do with them. Applause would have been good. Whistling would not have been out of order, either. One of them, Dierdre Goodwin, will apparently be in the upcoming movie of Chicago. I'll be there.Another high point was the song "Come With Me," perhaps the merriest song about incarceration short of "Jailhouse Rock." Fred Inkley gets the credit here.The female comic lead, Luce, is played by Toni Dibuono in a turn that's more than slightly reminiscent of a much shorter Bette Midler. The two slaves, both named Dromio, were well played by Lee Wilkog and Chip Zien (who counts among his many distinguished credits the voice of Howard the Duck). Erin Dilly played the engenue, Luciana, well enough, though it appeared that she only remembered to bring her energy on stage after intermission.Jackee Harry (from TV's Sister Sister and 227) turns up in a small role as a madam and gets the 11 o'clock number, "Sing for Your Supper." She doesn't have great pipes, but carries the song off nicely anyway. And there's some surprise stunt casting in a very small part deep in the second act. I don't want to give it away -- and I don't know if it's the same casting every night -- but someone highly recognizable from a classic sitcom popped up on stage last night.Lighting and staging were first-rate, as always with the Roundabout. Sound design and singing were a little problematic. Unison singing was strong, but levels sometimes dropped out unpredictably when unisons broke into harmony parts. Might have been the miking, might have been the singers. Whatever, it wasn't quite right.The Boys from Syracuse runs about two hours plus intermission. This production is a second-acter dream. Show up at the break, and you'll catch most of what's great about the show. Culture825@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Sep 2002 09:42:10 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/08/15/151253.php Dan RosenbaumHow is possible to be Bruce Springsteen?Here's a guy whose last studio albums with a band came out 10 years ago - and were startlingly banal. The last studio work with his iconic E Street band was 15 years ago, in an utterly different world and musical environment. Yet in the wake of one of the greatest tragedies in American history, obits of victim after victim say how central his music was in their lives. And days after September 11, he's in his neighborhood minding his own business when a fan sees him and yells out, "Hey, Bruce, we need you."How can anyone deal with a blank sheet of paper when faced with that kind of creative pressure? It wouldn't be at all unreasonable for this guy to sit at his desk with an open notebook asking himself, "What in God's name do they all want out of me?" To begin with, the speed of Springsteen's output has always been more like J.D. Salinger's than Phil Ochs's; he writes and records about as fast as the Pieta sheds tears. No matter how great the external expectations might be, it would take an emotional stone for the internal expectations not to be larger still.Yet his new album not only makes the Today Show, it and the themes it presents occupy three hours of network television. He makes the cover of Time (27 years after the first one), three nights on Nightline, and two nights on Letterman.Yeah, The Rising is pretty fine. There's a new producer on board, Brendan O'Brien, who pulls off the very neat trick of allowing the band to sound very much like itself without getting stuck in the past. Listen closely, and you'll hear clear references to "Born to Run" and even earlier albums, but you have to pay attention to catch them. If you've been fortunate enough to catch this act live, the sound on "The Rising" won't surprise you; if your last time meeting the E Street Band was on "Tunnel of Love," you may be surprised by the sonic renovations.Rather than dominating The Rising, September 11 suffuses it. The songs aren't really about loss; they're about what comes next: the empty bed, the need to persevere, the drive to rebuild and to heal. It is, of all things, optimistic in the face of tragedy.The album gains force as it proceeds. "Worlds Apart" and "The Fuse" have clear Eastern harmonic underpinnings - explicit for the former, which features haunting vocals by Asif Ali Khan and Group. "Let's Be Friends" has a goofy charm of a 60's single. If you want to dance, check out "Waiting on a Sunny Day," "Further On" (a centerpiece of the 2000 tour), and "Mary's Place," which will remind the faithful of the much-missed "Rosalita." But before you grab a beer and boogie down, check the lyrics:Eleven angels of mercy Sighin' over that black hole in the sun My heart's dark but it's risin' I'm pullin' all the faith I can see From that black hole on the horizon I hear your voice callin' me.Yes, this is actually an upbeat song. But it's some distance from "the record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance," isn't it?The only clean miss on the album is "You're Missing." Wonderful lyric, but the arrangement is static and lugubrious. (Oh, go look it up.) There's a repeated horn figure - a rising tonic-fifth-octave, tonic-fifth-seventh - that's undercuts the track. Think "Mary Queen of Arkansas.""The Rising" doesn't have the sweep and energy of "Born to Run," or the romantic angst of "Tunnel of Love," or the desolate tragedy of "Nebraska" or "Ghost of Tom Joad." But it is heartfelt, skillfully written and performed, and perfectly in tune with its time and purpose. Bruce Springsteen has created an album that will resonate for a very long time - which is about all you can reasonably ask of a guy, isn't it? Music: Classic Rock and Oldies73@blogcritics.org Thu, 15 Aug 2002 15:12:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/08/12/231308.php Dan Rosenbaum I don't want to suffer for my art, but I'm awfully glad Elaine Stritch did. If you know much about the American Musical Theater (for some reason, that needs to be Capitalized), you won't need much an introduction to Stritch. Possibly best known for introducing the song "Ladies Who Lunch" in Steven Sondheim's Follies in 1970, Stritch has had a pioneering career in television, movies, and Broadway. It has not been a smooth ride. Elaine Stritch: At Liberty is some or all of: the world's most tuneful AA testimony, the world's shortest autobiography, or the most focused cabaret acts you'll ever hear. Recorded live over three nights at the end of her cabaret run (it later transferred uptown to Broadway), At Liberty is a harrowing 2-CD musical portrait of a steely talent overcoming a self-destructive streak nearly ˆ but not quite -- as strong. "Remarkable talent, Elaine," she says one of her producers told her one night. "Don't fuck it up." The show itself consisted of your basic nine-piece pit band and Stritch alone on stage ˆ except for a brilliantly wrought script by John Lahr (son of the actor Burt and a journalist of some repute). There are stories here of growing up impossibly sheltered in Michigan in what must have been the Œ30s, summer stock and a date with Marlon Brando, an engagement with Ben Gazarra, throwing over Gazarra for Rock Hudson, working with Noel Coward, Hal Prince and Steven Sondheim, and and and. Throughout it all was the fear and the booze. It's entertaining to hear her match the shows she was in with the particular tipple she needed to get through them. It's less entertaining when you realize that she's starting to lose work because of it. And it's not entertaining at all to hear about her nearly fatal diabetic collapse after one or three too many. But don't forget the songs, not all of which she's sung before, but all of which are brilliantly informed by a Technicolor life nearly thrown away. "I'm Still Here" is brilliant, as you might expect, and so is "Ladies Who Lunch." A medley of "But Not for Me" and "If Love Were All" is a heartbreaking first-act closer. And her interpretation of two Noel Coward songs is a revelation. I would not want Elaine Stritch's life, but I'm grateful for the chronicle of it that she's left. Music: Broadway25@blogcritics.org Mon, 12 Aug 2002 23:13:08 EDT