I am often amazed at the singing skills demonstrated by youngsters on those talent reality shows. They seem to be genuinely nice kids, too, full of energy and drive. After all, think how much work it takes—and how much confidence—to … Continue reading →
The current New York production of “Julius Caesar” in which Caesar is portrayed as a Trump-like figure is no ordinary propaganda. Caesar is a particular figure with particular characteristics. Why was he assassinated? Because the assassins thought he had become … Continue reading →
Or certainly the hottest 80-year-old. Freaky. This is a holiday weekend, and you might want to leave politics for a while (I know I often do) and turn to the tale of Deshun Wang (or Wang Deshun), an 80-year-old Chinese … Continue reading →
I don’t get HBO and don’t think I’ve ever watched one of their documentaries. So the name “Sheila Nevins” meant very little to me, but the headline of this article caught my eye. It features an interview in which Nevins … Continue reading →
Being a blogger is a funny thing. Every day a blogger like me has to decide what to write about. Will it be some long-winded technical and/or reflective piece that attempts to tackle big and complex issues? Do I want … Continue reading →
I don’t like Bill O’Reilly. I don’t like his style and I don’t like his show, although I’ve watched it every now and then just to familiarize myself with it. I don’t watch most shows of that type (talk and … Continue reading →
First, the straight play “Pygmalion,” movie version with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller: Now, the musical “My Fair Lady” with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn: The scene continues in this next brief clip. The part where Howard as Higgins furiously … Continue reading →
Well, it wasn’t exactly clickbait, because it was on TV rather than online. But Maddow’s promise to reveal Trump’s tax returns was the sort of thing you see on the internet all the time, an ad that promises some amazing … Continue reading →
A group called UDI (a bunch of guys from Siberia, by the way) was recently on Britain’s Got Talent. They do a gimmicky thing, and you can probably figure out how they do it. But the effects are wonderful and … Continue reading →
You may already have seen this experiment in which parts of the Trump/Clinton debates were restaged—complete with gestures and expressions matching the originals—with an actress playing Trump and an actor playing Clinton. The idea behind it was this: Maria Guadalupe, … Continue reading →
This Oscar error wasn’t noticed by so many people. But to Jan Chapman, it was a bit of a shock: Janet Patterson, an Australian costume designer and four-time Oscar nominee (“The Piano,” “Portrait of a Lady,” “Oscar and Lucinda” and … Continue reading →
Mary Tyler Moore has died at 80. She had kept a very low profile in recent years. Diabetes (Moore was diagnosed at 33) can be a difficult taskmaster and exact a toll as time goes on. Anyone of a certain … Continue reading →