A friend invited me to this one-man show at Theatre J largely because it is performed by her favorite writer/director, Josh Kornbluth who co-wrote and co-directed the film Haiku Tunnel. It's a great little film, so I agreed to go along, knowing pretty much nothing about the show except that it centers on Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century.It was a pretty good show, especially considering it was the premiere and clearly still in the works. After the show, four of the people behind the show (including Josh) sat down on stage to ask the audience questions about how the show worked and what might be done to improve or clarify sections. That was when we learned that the order of the sections of the show had only been settled on that morning, so it was understandable that Josh needed some prompting from the director at various points. I actually didn't mind at all, it lended a certain credibility to the whole thing.
As the show progresses we learn things about each of the ten subjects of the portraits. These vignettes ranged from very simple segments (about Albert Einstein) to much longer and involved stories that intertwined with Kornbluth's own life experiences. Those were the best parts, when a story about his own childhood bore a striking connection to one of the portrayed historical figures and their own life works. Personally, I really loved the story behind Martin Buber's "I and Thou" relationships and how this tied into one of Kornbluth's formative childhood experiences. Not only was it touching and telling, but it got me thinking about my own "I and thou" relationships.
There really isn't much talk in this show about what it is to be a Jew or what it means to be a Jew, but you do come away with a sense of the cultural significance of being a Jew and pride in being a part of the same religious and historical community as the ten Jews portrayed by Warhol. Also, the show is pretty funny.
It's always daunting going into a movie knowing there's really no happy ending, but even then it's nice to be surprised to discover there is, in fact, life after death. The story itself is fairly simple and is outlined clearly in all the trailers. Suzie Salmon is murdered at age 14 and most of the movie follows the people she loves and her murderer over the next two years or so, while Suzie herself watches from the in-between, the space between earth and heaven. There's more, but I am reluctant to give anything else away. I will say that Suzie's ending provided a pleasant surprise, in that it isn't what I would have expected from a typical Hollywood movie. There was no graphic violence and the viewer is left to guess about the details of young Suzie's final moments. I understand the book goes into a lot more detail, but I was happy to not have to experience that. Instead of loading up on the gruesomeness of the killing, we instead ride an emotional rollercoaster along with the Salmon family, narrated by Suzie as she watches what they are going through. I found it poignant and it kept me close to tears for a large part of the film. Assuming you know what you're getting into and you are in the mood for something shy of a thriller, more like a walk through the emotional journey a family facing tragedy deals with... then I think you'll enjoy The Lovely Bones just fine. 
Oh look, another vampire movie... Thankfully, this isn't your typical vampire flick and actually presents some interesting ideas to consider. In short, what would happen if most of the world's population were turned to vampires? As a tiny minority, there's food walking around everywhere, but as the dominant species, the possibility of consuming all the available food sources is very realistic. On one side you have the vampire corporate interests trying to control the food supply, and on the other you have the few remaining endangered humans struggling to keep the race alive. I felt echoes of both Equilibrium (a small underground fighting against a monolithic power to save humanity) and Gattaca (one man trying to hide his true self from an oppressive corporation/government). Daybreakers doesn't approach the philosophical topics that both of those movies confronted, but I felt like the conversation was there, dozing under the surface with an occasional snort or snore to make itself heard. Also noteworthy is the film's score which is a score. I was expecting a modern vampire movie to be filled with dark pop songs and pumping bass beats, but instead the entire movie, end-to-end, is scored. And I'm not talking about a horror movie score that's designed to build tension, I mean there was orchestral music playing all the way through. It was also filmed in a semi-noir fashion that I found appealing. My final notes are on content, there is some profanity and there are also moments of graphic (though not scary) gore.
I bought tickets for this show the day they went on sale over the summer. As I often do, I'll buy two tickets thinking, "hey, it's six months off, I'm sure I'll find someone to go with me at some point..." And as often happens, I did not find anyone to bring along. It's a shame, because the Sixers are always best when shared. So, while I felt like I was the only person there alone, the show itself was wonderful, as always. Lots of songs off the new album and several from earlier albums. There was a rendition of Winter Wonderland thrown in along with the traditional medley during one of the two encores. View the full set of 
Guy Ritchie rapes the very nature of Sherlock Holmes, turning him from an intellectual into a brawler to suit the tastes of an action-needy modern audience. Result: Fantastic Fun! I feel ashamed. There's no doubt that this movie was a great deal of fun. It actually deals a lot with Holmes' genius and how it prevents him from fitting in with the "normals" that inhabit his life. Still, it feels wrong watching him engaging in fight after fight with the calculating technique of a trained martial arts master (using a sort of brawling technique). I should also note that the relationship between Watson and Holmes very closely resembles the bro-mance JD and Turk in Scrubs. It is funny, but seems more than a little out of place in Victorian London.
Another fantastic live RiffTrax event, sadly now passed. This time, instead of a movie classic, we were treated to a series of shorts and commercials, all riffed by the trio including Weird Al Yankovic as a guest during one of the shorts. As you might have guessed, the shorts favored Christmas themes and generally followed fairly basic principles of getting the kids to sleep, treated them to some demented night time night terror featuring Santa, and then watching as they wake to a world twisted by their nightmares. Alright, probably a little more traditional than that, but I swear, these old-timey films are CREEPY! Seriously, I had no idea there was so much unintentional sexual innuendo in old films... And the treatment of women, it was like watching an episode of Madmen with less smoking and liquor and men with possibly red outfits and pillows under their jackets. Unfortunately, the weakest short of them all was the one in which Weird Al guest riffed. It wasn't holiday themed and basically just featured singing creepy guys making a pork dinner. *shrug*
The last time I saw Imogen was about three years ago at the 9:30 Club, and I was pleased to see that not much has changed. She put on an enchanting show three years ago and an even more magical show last night. There were two opening solo musicians. They were both loopers, like Imogen, but it's always exciting to see and listen to as a song is built up out of individual loops and effects. The first guy (and I am really sorry I don't remember their names) mostly built the loops off his guitar and keyboard and some pregenerated stuff on a computer. The second guy was much more into improvisation, vocalizing sounds and then manipulating them on the fly. At one point he grabbed a Saitek gaming joystick and walked out into the audience where he vocalized sounds and then manipulated them on the fly with the joystick. That was impressive. 
I really have no idea why, when we get to our teen-aged years, we believe we have all the wisdom and experience we need to make significant life decisions. An Education is a movie about basically that scenario. A very bright 16 year old meets an older man and makes some rather uneducated decisions. Unfortunately, the grown-ups weren't entirely on the right page either and the only way to find out is to make the mistake. That is an education.
It's been a really long time since I've seen the original movie or TV show, so I can't really compare this new movie to any of that. On it's own, though, this movie was pretty good. It's only real problem is that it's trying to cover too many characters and too many stories at once. Because of the very limited time for each character/story, all of the dialog seemed too important. Every line seemed to have some serious weight to it since every character only has a fraction of the total screentime. The result of that is far too much weight and not enough character development. Of course, we're there to see great acting, singing, dancing, and playing, right? All that was great, as you would expect, but it felt more like taking a sip of a really great drink, it just leaves you wanting to gulp down more, but there isn't time. I really feel this would make a great TV drama where every character and story could get its rightful time on screen and I realize it's been done... I'm just saying that would do this sort of story a lot more justice than the hyper-abbreviated presentation we get in this movie.