JeremyKotin @ January 5, 2009 # One Comment
Year Begins: Things to look forward to…
1. STAGE 9 to 5 (April 2009)
Based on the 1980 femme centric revenge film comes a new musical with new songs composed by Dolly Parton to accompany her iconic title track. It’s that last bit of information about the composer that keeps me from grousing at the idea of [...]
JeremyKotin @ December 29, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Year Ends: Not necessarily the best, but the best of what I remember…
1. STAGE August: Osage County
Beyond supporting my hometown players of the Steppenwolf Theater, this play sizzled with a fresh and new voice. Creating a complete family tree and watching them self-destruct on stage generates a fascinating and haunting night at the theater. But [...]
Jason Reynolds @ December 22, 2008 # One Comment
I was hype. Ecstatic. I mean, totally boosted to see the new Will Smith, Rosario Dawson movie, Seven Pounds. I watched Will on every talk show discussing how he couldn’t say ANYTHING about the movie, because one small slip, and the movie was spoiled. I watched Rosario discuss how when she read the script there [...]
JeremyKotin @ December 15, 2008 # 3 Comments
1. SHOW Liza’s at the Palace
Age may have withered her, but her innate star quality and talent shines through even when her voice and body fail her. The first act is a mash-up of standards and Liza favorites, slurring her way through “If” and spotlessly singing “Cabaret” among others. But it is the second act [...]
JeremyKotin @ December 8, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. ALBUM Funhouse P!NK
Clearly breakups bring about some of the best music and P!nk packs quite a punch in this album of love lost from the hit angry single “So What,” to the heart wrenching “I Don’t Believe You.” Seriously, just try to not have your heart break when you listen. But don’t get me [...]
JeremyKotin @ December 1, 2008 # 3 Comments
1. ALBUM Day & Age The Killers
This is another excellent entry in the evolution of The Killers’ canon. Of course nothing is as catchy or anthemic as “Mr. Brightside,” but this CD has deeper roots than the pure electronic rock that dominated the previous two albums. Just listen to the opening aboriginal chant of “This [...]
JeremyKotin @ November 24, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. THEATER Farragut North
The NY Times said this play was predictable but enjoyable. I agree with the latter, the former is a bunch of crap. While it didn’t exactly have me on the edge of my seat, thanks to a fantastic set of performances, this play about a presidential campaign went from good to fantastic. [...]
JeremyKotin @ November 17, 2008 # 2 Comments
1. WEB The 404
Maybe it’s because I work from home by myself that I just enjoy having the sound of other people’s chatter, but if I had to choose the chatter, I would definitely go with the guys at The 404. This live video stream of a radio show covers pretty much any topic you [...]
Andy Marino @ November 11, 2008 # 3 Comments
Last weekend I took a bus to Philadelphia and sat in a movie theater next to Popten’s Matt Lambert and Choice Grinds’ Mike Jada for 25 straight hours. The occasion? Exhumed Films’ annual 24-hour horrorfest (with added daylight-savings bonus hour). That’s 14 horror movies in a row, punctuated by trailers and a [...]
JeremyKotin @ November 10, 2008 # 2 Comments
1. EVENT Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion in Central Park
This exhibition transformed me over the course of a 45-minute guided tour. Equipped with an MP3 player telling me exactly how to move through Zaha Hadid’s fantastic sculpture of a structure, I experienced modern art in a way I wish more museums would adopt. Each piece, given [...]
JeremyKotin @ November 3, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. EVENT Halloween in NYC
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, mostly due to the gruesome nature of the proceedings in which I can freely enjoy my inner freak. But New York adds an extra layer of sumptuous crazy. I couldn’t help but smile riding the F Train to the LES with a couple Joe [...]
JeremyKotin @ October 20, 2008 # One Comment
1. ALBUM Gossip in the Grain Ray LaMontagne
Another stunner from LaMontagne, this time he returns to his folkier,‘60s horn-tinged sound that he explored back in 2004 on Trouble. It doesn’t reach the levels of lyricism of 2006’s Till the Sun Turns Black, but this is a worthy entry into what is shaping up to be [...]
JeremyKotin @ October 6, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. MOVIE The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)
This stunner of a film from director Max Ophuls has always been one of my absolute favorites ever since Andrew Sarris mumbled an incoherent introduction to the classic in a film course of mine. But once the screen went dark and Danielle Darrieux appeared, I was transfixed watching [...]
JeremyKotin @ September 22, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. ALBUM Johnny Flynn “A Larum”
The sound is something like The Decemberists if Josh Ritter were the lead vocalist, with a bit of a country bent. Here’s a sample lyric from “Tickle Me Pink,” one of my favorite tracks: “Pray for the people inside your head/for they won’t be there when you’re dead/muffled out and [...]
Jason Reynolds @ September 15, 2008 # 2 Comments
Saturday night I went to the movies to see the new Coen brothers flick, Burn After Reading. Though I’d love to tell you all about this movie, and how it’s basically like the 2008 version of Pulp Fiction, which in my opinion is AWESOME, I wont. That’s not what this is about. Instead, I’d [...]
JeremyKotin @ September 15, 2008 # 3 Comments
1. ALBUM Philip Glass “The Book of Longing”
I absolutely love Philip Glass. I also find his work can be redundant (rolling chords can only change so much over forty years). This recent collaboration with Leonard Cohen, however, captures some of the original fire. Cohen’s boom-y bass pops up for narration, four singers transform Glass’ music [...]
JeremyKotin @ September 8, 2008 # 3 Comments
1. MUSEUM “Polaroids: Mapplethorpe” at the Whitney, NYC
Nestled in the mezzanine of the Whitney, there is a single room filled with the most beautiful polaroids by Robert Mapplethorpe. Dating from the 70s, this work demonstrates the very early signs of what would soon become his shocking seminal works of the 80s. Never have I seen [...]
JeremyKotin @ September 2, 2008 # No Comment Yet
1. Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago”
Every now and then there’s a new sound in music, a sound that makes you sit up and ask what the hell is that, and then you ask do I like even like it. At the core this music is standard folk guitar, but the addition of such an odd [...]
JeremyKotin @ August 25, 2008 # One Comment
1. “Elegy”
This little gem of a film is far from perfect, and yet it totally captured and captivated me. Where the story failed time and again, the performances from Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson carried me through from beginning to end, as did the fantastic soundtrack with its mix of melancholy piano, jazz [...]
Jason Reynolds @ August 17, 2008 # 3 Comments
For those who don’t know, there’s this French guy, Philippe Petit, who is a hire wire artist. That’s right, a high wire artist. Before learning of Mr. Petit, I always referred to this type of “artist” as a tightrope walker, or a circus dude. But hey, tomato, tomato (the latter pronounced Tuh-MAH-Toe.)
Philippe Petit got his [...]
Juan Carlos @ July 11, 2008 # No Comment Yet
It was the last days of the Apprentice 3. I had met the Donald enough times that I had declined to ride in a limo with him. Which seems silly in retrospect. Either way I knew I didn’t want to do another year of reality shows (even though they are pretty bizarre sometimes).
In the end [...]
Andy Marino @ July 1, 2008 # No Comment Yet
The tagline for the 1944 film To Have and Have Not is “Humphrey Bogart… with his kind of woman in a powerful adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s most daring man-woman story!”
The tagline for the 1987 film The Running Man is “A game nobody survives… But Schwarzenegger has yet to play.”
They’re worth comparing because it takes a [...]
hawkesklein @ June 25, 2008 # One Comment
I am physically unable to stop singing this song in my head today, I’ve watched the video in silent like 4 times… you had my heart my soul my attention… but you walked out my life with my CD COLLECTION!
Boy bands, is this topical? Proooobably not! I used to have a t-shirt that said “I [...]
victor @ June 24, 2008 # One Comment
Snow White remains one of the most morally ambiguous of Disney’s films, and because it is the first animated feature-length movie, one wonders why the message seems so vague. Obviously the lines of good and evil are clearly demarcated within the first moments of the film, but arriving at a definite moral standpoint after watching [...]