"MY greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live," says Kanye West.
Why get all mad and upset about the furor this week regarding Anna Wintour putting Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue?
I think Anna Wintour knows what we don't. And everybody seems to be stooping to conquer these days. Ms. Wintour also has plenty of power left to slip down occasionally. She is using people who think they are hot stuff and one of them made a sex tape and they advertised their baby bump to hell and gone. Next thing we know, they'll have small animals doing cute things.
Anna Wintour knows that high-minded "class" is on vacation right now as the public grasps beautiful no talents to their hearts.
So, give 'em what they want! Controversy over behavior that is "nothing" really, is big these days. Anna Wintour is brilliant, just about the only effective superior woman still in the public eye who doesn't seem to be motivated to "do good." She's going with the flow.
•How many times do we get a chance to see one of the best actresses in the world get to "do" her thing live and in person? Tyne Daly is that star and she has performed both a tough female cop in TV's Cagney & Lacey, and opposite such as Clint Eastwood (The Enforcer) moving herself on to Broadway's upper echelon in a variety of roles for which she always seems not to be quite suited. She simply forges ahead and overcomes!
This is true again as she appears in Mothers and Sons. This is playwright Terrence McNally's continuing war against homosexuality non-acceptance and an accurate look back at the AIDS crisis, which has already joined "ancient" history and is receding into the past.
I loved Tyne Daly when she played Maria Callas in McNally's Master Class and as the opening night audience left the Golden Theater the other eve, they played Callas singing in a musical tribute. I also thought she was one of the most effective Mama Roses ever in one of many revivals of Gypsy. She wasn't type cast in either of these outings but she always triumphs over her material. She is quite an actress.
And she does it again in this new-and-old McNally sermon of heartbreak, which the critics seem to be consigning to the trash heap before it can even get its sea legs. Mr. McNally learnt his drama lessons early after leaving Corpus Christi and becoming a tutor to the great writer John Steinbeck's children. He segued on to be a leading American playwright, with much to say about AIDS, gays, and children leaving home to make their own lives. I revere him and a friendship that goes back in time. He is a real theater treasure!
I won't try to analyze what Tyne Daly does as the disgruntled unhappy Dallas, Texas mother of a man dead for 20 years when she decides to confront his last lover in New York. Just go and observe for yourself and don't wait for those big fake quotes to go up along Times Square, or let's say don't wait for the musical version. This play is about tragedy, acceptance, moving on and intense heartbreak. And this is a chance to see what the incredible Tyne Daly does with it!
I am old-fashioned I know, but Sardi's redeemed itself with the bustling after party which rang with enthusiasm and theater luminaries from Elaine May and Stanley Donen (he of MGM musical fame) to today's acting winner of modern times, Nathan Lane. It turned into quite a theater night and proved that there's a dance in the old dame (Sardi's) yet.
Go see Tyne for yourself! She is a dance in herself!
•A guy named Jacob Tomsky, who admits he has changed everybody's name in his book, including his own, has written something called "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and so-called Hospitality." It's now in soft cover from Anchor Books and the larcenous me found it quite diverting. (Although I'd never have the nerve to behave the way Tomsky tells us we can and get away with it in the bargain.)
It reports vividly and in detail about life as a hotel deskman and what innkeepers think of each other and of us and what we should think of them. And it is full of tips on living high on the hog with just a strip of bacon to your name.
Mr. Tomsky also includes, other than New York, his adventures in New Orleans and his description of that particular city is really telling. He says with certainty that you can eat anything from the mini bar and just complain when your bill comes that you didn't. He says hotels don't sweat the small stuff like this. They write it off. True or false, I'll never know. And he says the same thing about renting movies and porn and everything else they charge for - and he claims they charge for everything. So you must outwit them. But he stands up for the hired help. He says tipping generously is the name of the game for a great hotel stay!
Far be it from me to encourage petty crimes but the author manages to make them look small and unimportant. People magazine dubbed this book "A horrifyingly good time...you know you are learning more than is good for you but you just can't stop reading."
Why get all mad and upset about the furor this week regarding Anna Wintour putting Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue?
I think Anna Wintour knows what we don't. And everybody seems to be stooping to conquer these days. Ms. Wintour also has plenty of power left to slip down occasionally. She is using people who think they are hot stuff and one of them made a sex tape and they advertised their baby bump to hell and gone. Next thing we know, they'll have small animals doing cute things.
Anna Wintour knows that high-minded "class" is on vacation right now as the public grasps beautiful no talents to their hearts.
So, give 'em what they want! Controversy over behavior that is "nothing" really, is big these days. Anna Wintour is brilliant, just about the only effective superior woman still in the public eye who doesn't seem to be motivated to "do good." She's going with the flow.
•How many times do we get a chance to see one of the best actresses in the world get to "do" her thing live and in person? Tyne Daly is that star and she has performed both a tough female cop in TV's Cagney & Lacey, and opposite such as Clint Eastwood (The Enforcer) moving herself on to Broadway's upper echelon in a variety of roles for which she always seems not to be quite suited. She simply forges ahead and overcomes!
This is true again as she appears in Mothers and Sons. This is playwright Terrence McNally's continuing war against homosexuality non-acceptance and an accurate look back at the AIDS crisis, which has already joined "ancient" history and is receding into the past.
I loved Tyne Daly when she played Maria Callas in McNally's Master Class and as the opening night audience left the Golden Theater the other eve, they played Callas singing in a musical tribute. I also thought she was one of the most effective Mama Roses ever in one of many revivals of Gypsy. She wasn't type cast in either of these outings but she always triumphs over her material. She is quite an actress.
And she does it again in this new-and-old McNally sermon of heartbreak, which the critics seem to be consigning to the trash heap before it can even get its sea legs. Mr. McNally learnt his drama lessons early after leaving Corpus Christi and becoming a tutor to the great writer John Steinbeck's children. He segued on to be a leading American playwright, with much to say about AIDS, gays, and children leaving home to make their own lives. I revere him and a friendship that goes back in time. He is a real theater treasure!
I won't try to analyze what Tyne Daly does as the disgruntled unhappy Dallas, Texas mother of a man dead for 20 years when she decides to confront his last lover in New York. Just go and observe for yourself and don't wait for those big fake quotes to go up along Times Square, or let's say don't wait for the musical version. This play is about tragedy, acceptance, moving on and intense heartbreak. And this is a chance to see what the incredible Tyne Daly does with it!
I am old-fashioned I know, but Sardi's redeemed itself with the bustling after party which rang with enthusiasm and theater luminaries from Elaine May and Stanley Donen (he of MGM musical fame) to today's acting winner of modern times, Nathan Lane. It turned into quite a theater night and proved that there's a dance in the old dame (Sardi's) yet.
Go see Tyne for yourself! She is a dance in herself!
•A guy named Jacob Tomsky, who admits he has changed everybody's name in his book, including his own, has written something called "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and so-called Hospitality." It's now in soft cover from Anchor Books and the larcenous me found it quite diverting. (Although I'd never have the nerve to behave the way Tomsky tells us we can and get away with it in the bargain.)
It reports vividly and in detail about life as a hotel deskman and what innkeepers think of each other and of us and what we should think of them. And it is full of tips on living high on the hog with just a strip of bacon to your name.
Mr. Tomsky also includes, other than New York, his adventures in New Orleans and his description of that particular city is really telling. He says with certainty that you can eat anything from the mini bar and just complain when your bill comes that you didn't. He says hotels don't sweat the small stuff like this. They write it off. True or false, I'll never know. And he says the same thing about renting movies and porn and everything else they charge for - and he claims they charge for everything. So you must outwit them. But he stands up for the hired help. He says tipping generously is the name of the game for a great hotel stay!
Far be it from me to encourage petty crimes but the author manages to make them look small and unimportant. People magazine dubbed this book "A horrifyingly good time...you know you are learning more than is good for you but you just can't stop reading."