Friday, January 18, 2008

The lovely Miss Eileen

Posted by John Stoehr on Fri, Jan 18, 2008 at 11:44 AM

I sat next to a charming and elegant woman last night at the performance of the Harvard Sailing Team. Her name was Eileen. She was elderly and finely dressed and evidently happy to see a critic sitting next to her scribbling in a notebook.

She told me about her time touring with Disney and acting in New York. She sang Cole Porter tunes and other music from the American songbook. She called it music that really meant something, unlike the music that was coming of the speakers prior to showtime, which she said authoritatively had no variation, no life in it.

We were being assaulted by Salt'n Pepper's "Push It."

"I grew up with this kind of music, so I'm used to it," I told her.

"Pity," she said.

After asking me what I did for a living, she told me that writing was a great calling in life. As a writer, I must surely agree that if everyone were too busy creating art, there would be no time for all this fighting in the world.

"They would too busy getting centerstage," Eileen said.

Then she introduced me to her granddaughter.

"She's a doctor," Eileen said, expectantly.

The granddaughter and I shared a knowing glance and laughed politely.

Throughout Harvard Sailing Team's performance, Eileen provided expert commentary.

We watched a joyful dance between a jubilant June Cleaver-type character and a husband-like character whom we could easily imagine wearing a gray flannel suit.

The emotion was warm and sunny. We expected the couple to eventually face each to embrace. Then she screams: "I don't know you, I don't know you! Get out, get out, get out!"

"Oh, this is very smartly done," she said. "Very smartly done."

Even when the humor turned macabre, Eileen was delighted.

In "Cat Talk," two shy and socially awkward women talk about their felines while the neighbors debate loudly in rough male voices over what to do with the dead bodies in their apartment.

Later, the kid, whom we think is dead, says, "I'm not dead yet. Help. Somebody help me." And later, "Are you talking about cats? I love cats. Help."

Eileen was on the edge of her seat — as if she'd love nothing better than to leap from her chair and join them on stage. This is what showbiz is all about, I imagined her thinking.

Later, as she explained what made the Harvard Sailing Team so good, I tried to understand her, but the music was too loud and the crowd was buzzing and she meandered in that confusing but good-hearted way that older people do.

I tried to offer my attention in as politely a way as I could, but I couldn't make out much of what she was telling me in earnest. The exception was a brief moment of quiet just prior to the next bit. The crowd had settled. The music was off. But Eileen was making her point.

"You can never have too much laughter," she said. "But no one listens to an old woman."

I'm glad I did. Thank you, Miss Eileen. And remember to break a leg.

Topics: Comedy, Celebrities

Friday, November 9, 2007

Wearing your creepiness on your sleeve

Posted by John Stoehr on Fri, Nov 9, 2007 at 5:39 PM

click to enlarge unknown.jpg

Crispin Glover. You gotta love a guy who's made a career out of playing creepy fellas. I loved him as Andy Warhol in The Doors. I loved him as McFly in Back to the Future. I even liked his flasher-in-a-drench-coat kind of bad-guy in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. But with all those characters, he had to reveal the abundant creepiness on the inside. He had to bring the inside out. Now with his new role as the monster Grendel in Robert Zemeckis' film adaptation of the Beowulf epic (to open wide next Friday), he gets to play a character who wears his creepiness-to-spare on his sleeve. He's found a role he can really put himself into, a role that allows him the freedom to be who he really is.

Topics: Film, Celebrities

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Furry News

Posted by Nick Smith on Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 1:38 PM

The John Ancrum SPCA's Furry Affair art auction won't be held until Friday night at 6 p.m. But the art's on display right now at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park, and the organization is taking bids.

Here's a chance to see the lots without having to worry about having to negotiate crowds of patrons, autograph hunters chasing the personalities who've contributed art, or a tense bidding atmosphere (all that can wait till Friday evening). 

Topics: Celebrities, Nightlife, Events, Visual Arts

Friday, July 6, 2007

Celebrity the way it used to be

Posted by Patrick Sharbaugh on Fri, Jul 6, 2007 at 12:00 PM

American opera legend Beverly Sills died last week at 78. Readers of a certain age don’t have the slightest clue who she is, of course — they’re fixated on the modern variety of celebrity, the Parises and Anna Nicoles who are famous for nothing more than being attractive, completely talentless, and very, very wealthy. But slightly older readers will remember Sills — not so much for her stage performances, which few of us saw (or, frankly, cared about) but for her infectious populist celebrity, which made her a regular fixture on television programs like The Muppet Show and The Tonight Show and a two-time covergirl on Time magazine. She even had her own View-style talk show, Lifestyles with Beverly Sills.

Is it remotely possible for a mere opera singer to become a household name today? It’s tempting to say the only sopranos we’re likely to see on television going forward will be limited to PBS and HBO. But last year the Metropolitan Opera started simulcasting its operas into movie cinemas across the U.S. and Canada as an experiment. The project was so successful that the Met plans to double the number of participating cinemas in the coming season. A coluratura may ever again achieve the prime-time prominence of an artist like Sills, but, then again, a principal appearance in Ariadne auf Naxos may someday be as widely viewed as a turn in House of Wax.

In the few days since Sills’ death, the encomiums have come like a flood. She’s no stranger to Charleston, either. Spoleto Festival USA founder Gian Carlo Menotti wrote the lead role in his opera La Loca especially for her, and Sills’ longtime accompaniest was none other than Spoleto Chamber Music series host Charles Wadsworth, who played with her at her final public performance at the New York Opera in 1980. Check it out below, and marvel at the hair.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/KoXHfNGtccc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Topics: Opera, Celebrities, Concert Music, Spoleto

Friday, June 29, 2007

Mika Brzezinski bitch-slaps Paris

Posted by Patrick Sharbaugh on Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 4:09 PM

Sick to death of the way the mainstream media is reporting on Paris as if there were no other earthshaking tragedies occurring in the world? So is MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski, apparently. This is priceless.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ul3zgUfSgqY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Topics: Celebrities
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