A Tribute to Tom Lehrer

Before Steve Martin or Richard Pryor, before George Carlin, before Bob Newhart and yes even before Lenny Bruce, there was Tom Lehrer. Lehrer began releasing comedy albums all the way back in 1953, even before the concept of the comedy album had really been established. But Tom wasn't your ordinary stand up comic - he was something so unique that quite frankly no one like him has ever appeared on the stage since.

Tom Lehrer was a comedian, a musician, a mathematician and even possibly a spy (for us) - but beyond all of that he was a wit the likes of which only appears once in a generation. The closest analogue we can think of today might be Steve Colbert - although Steve's songs don't quite compare to Tom's.

Tom Lehrer, the inventor of the Comedy album

Tom Lehrer went to Harvard, studied mathematics, worked at Los Alamos and later taught math at several universities. He ended his singing / comedy career in the early 1970's - rumor has it due to Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel peace prize. Another rumor states that Ricardo Montalban attacked him at a performance in San Francisco due to his "Vatican Song." It is clear that his comedy influenced all generations of comedians since but none has ever managed to reproduce the intellectualism and savvy he demonstrated.

This song really benefits from the visual aid...

Tom is still with us and lives in his retirement in beautiful Santa Cruz, CA (one of our favorite places) - he even taught at the University of California Santa Cruz - a combination of Math and Musical Theater (not in the same class of course). His last lecture concerned the nature of infinity - that's a hell of a way to make an exist.

One of the more biting satires of the Cold War

We will leave you with several more of Tom's ballads...

The elements song

Oedipus Rex

In Old Mexico

A fierce dig at the South during Segregation

Send the Marines...

Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews 

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Homeland Insecurity

To say the United States has lived in a cocoon of paranoid over-reaction for the past decade or so is perhaps an understatement. What 9/11 really seemed to accomplish more than anything was to give credence and deference to media-fueled mass hysteria. There was no logic or reason to how this country reacted to that tragedy. On the one hand we launched several ill-considered wars which when combined now represent the longest conflict in American history. But that wasn't all; we also managed to gut the constitution in what now seems almost a whim (the very rushed Patriot Act). This is all the more remarkable given that throughout the entire Cold War when the world was a heartbeat away from total nuclear destruction, we somehow managed to preserve, protect and even cherish our freedoms.

Homeland Security came into existence two years after 9/11

The latest headlines can attest to the fact that we're doing more spying now than we ever have before - even more than during the Cold War. People don't seem to question the motives or rationale behind this unprecedented level of paranoia - but they should. Let's put this into perspective; every year more than 10x as many Americans die from gunshot wounds (self inflicted or otherwise) as did during 9/11. Put another way, in one year more Americans will die from guns here at home than died in both the entire Afghan and Iraq wars combined.

Like I said, there's no logic to what's been going on here - its more or less crazy...

Season 3 has taken Homeland in new directions

Crazy, like say, Claire Danes' character in Homeland. Homeland is a Showtime series which is in its 3rd season now. Up until this season it was something we only watched while traveling - where hotels only had Showtime and Showtime kept rerunning these episodes over and over again so you really couldn't miss it. We didn't like it during season one or two and part of the reason was the principle of the thing. It seemed like a combination of the most paranoid theme of the Cold War (The Manchurian Candidate) combined with all the worst aspects of the god-awful Fox series, 24. It was about as much fun to watch as getting the Rapiscan at airport security.

But then something changed this year. The show shifted from its terrorist paranoia to a deeper focus on the Intelligence Community in general and began highlighting many of the secondary characters. More than that, though - the plot began to focus more and more on Carrie Matheson's (Danes) inability to separate mental illness from intelligence practice. This has proven much more entertaining on many levels. It allows the show to poke criticism at itself and the larger sense of national paranoia while still shifting more towards a traditional spy thriller format. Another key aspect to this season's success was the decision to put Brody (Damien Lewis - you remember him, he played the straight-laced hero Captain Winters in HBO's Band of Brothers) on the back burner. Brody in this series, is the Manchurian Candidate and quite frankly he didn't play role so well anyway. We've had two movie versions of the Manchurian Candidate and in the first one Frank Sinatra (who wasn't the candidate) was the star and in the second Denzel Washington was (although Liev Shrieber playing the candidate did a good job).

Danes, Lewis, Baccarin and Patinkin

Lewis, while a competent actor, doesn't have great range and when he does try to break out of his normal character he comes across as though he is struggling a bit. Claire Danes on the other is perfectly convincing as both a desperate agent needing to be heard and as a stark raving looney - she's got range.

Rounding out the cast this year are Mandy Patinkin, Morena Baccarin and F. Murray Abraham (yes, that guy from the Mozart movie - Salieri). All of these folks are simply stellar; Mandy Patinkin is one of the best character actors in the business and Morena helped make Firefly the classic that it's become. All in all, Homeland seems to have done a very effective job of reinventing itself this season - becoming a much more reasonable drama.

The question is; will the U.S. do the same? (and someday emerge from this collective paranoia)



Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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Snow White & the Seven Bullfighters

Once every decade or so you find a movie that changes the way you view cinema and so utterly delights you that adjectives fail to adequately describe the experience. Not too long ago - this happened to us. We had literally stumbled upon the film - we had heard nothing about it. It showed up in one of the more obscured categories on our cable provider's pay per view section and we had no idea what it was about until we watched the preview (thankfully they had one) and we became quite intrigued.

The most original we've ever seen, period.

The film is Blancanieves - which is Spanish for "Snow White." It is both a work of art and a labor of love from Spanish director Pablo Berger. If you haven't heard of him, it's because this is one thing he's ever really done - but we have to say, it's enough to have established him as one of the unique visionaries in modern cinema. Which is all the more ironic, given that he essentially made a silent film.

The heart & soul of the movie is newcomer, Macarena García

While Macarena steals the show, the entire cast is outstanding; from the long-suffering Father, to the evil step-mother (Maribel Verdu), to the grandmother and of course let's not forget the seven bullfighting dwarves. Like the original tale, this story is pure fantasy - however it takes place in turn of the (19th) century Spain. After watching this, you'll have a hard time remembering the original brothers Grimm version of Snow White as Bergman's retelling is ultimately more human and touching than the old children's fable ever could be. And it accomplishes all of this without color and without audible dialog. Amazing...

There are some folks who will be put off by one or both of those factors. Although keep in mind that movie audiences fell in love with film as a storytelling medium in precisely these terms. There must have been something to it even then and as this movie demonstrates, there still is.

In this scene, young Blancanieves dances with her grandmother, but it proves fatal

This movie re-imagines who snow white is and all of the other characters as well and gives a unique glimpse into the culture of Spain and the practice of bullfighting. It is remarkable how much texture black and white film can bring out. Most color films are afraid to use shadow and do all they can to wash them out through excessive use of lighting - this film shows how much power shadows in cinema can bring.

The story is incredible, the images on the screen mesmerizing and the sounds of Spain captivating as a the background theme reflects the mood of each scene (just like in the old days of silent cinema) and the acting is simply superb. This movie rates a 10 out 10 in our opinion...



Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews


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Magic Happens Here, in Miami

What is the coolest city on the planet? It's not Las Vegas, it's not San Francisco or L.A. and it's not New York. The coolest city in movies and TV is and always will be Miami, Florida. From Miami Vice to Scarface to CSI to Dexter, Miami is and has been writing the book on edgy cool. Let's recount some of Miami's coolness:

With this much cool, Magic Happens here

• It's where Jim Morrison got arrested for the 60's / 70's most legendary on-stage bad behavior.
• It's where Art Deco came to life - it is the pastels capital of the world.
• It's where the CIA has their own university.
• It's one of the few places where an alligator can walk into your backyard and eat your poodle. 
• It's where (all of) Latin America meets the US.
• It's the only US city that has its own gran prix in the downtown.
• It's where Al Capone really got caught.
• It's built on a swamp and even that is cool.
• It's where cigar boats were born (for bootlegging).
• It's actually inside of the Bermuda triangle. 
• It's where style comes to get hot.
• It's where J-lo dumped Marc Antony
• It's where Madonna did something - we're not sure - but she does live there

So, it's no surprise that another great show has built its foundation atop Miami's shifting sands. Magic City is in its second season on Starz and has proven that it has both style and substance. The show is set in the late fifties / early sixties with the Cuban revolution and Kennedys as a backdrop. It's a little like Madmen on the beach but that would not be giving it enough credit. For movie fans, it's got some interesting little nuggets, such as two of the cast members who were in the original Godfather movie and Danny Huston - grandson of the legendary director John Huston. It's got more sex (or at least as much) as Masters of Sex. It's got Olga Kurylenko who is beyond hot and a great actress to boot. It's got father against son - and slew of subplots to keep us busy for several seasons at least.

Season 2 is building an arc - the cool versus the bad...

And it's got style...

The show revolves a mythical Miami Beach hotel - something on the scale of the Fontainebleau. These hotels hosted some of the nation's first television variety series - and Miami was the place to go (before Orlando became Florida's tourist mecca) - an elite vacation destination but also a long-time haunt for the mob. It makes the perfect setting for this troubled tale of family breaking apart as ambition runs headlong into corruption. It is the end of an era and the beginning of the modern age - all wrapped together. Mitch Glazer has realized a unique vision and it is almost totally due to the mystery that is Miami.



Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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Play That Foxy Music, Norway...

We don't want to appear culturally insensitive, even if we are - we just don't want to appear that way. But, we're quite concerned about what's happening in Norway these days. Once upon a time we had some friends from reindeerland and they explained to us what things were like there:

• cold
• dark 
• white
• really cold
• boring
• well, you get the picture

This pretty much sums it up - design provided by IKEA

They told us that for the folks who live in the Northern part of the country in particular - drinking was the number one national past-time. Out of this frozen wasteland has emerged a pop sensation - they call themselves Ylvis (no relation to the King), and have solved the riddle of what foxy music is all about among other things...

Over 200 million views on youtube...

We're not sure if these guys are trying to be a real band or the next Flight of The Conchords - jury is still out.  BTW - what ever happened to the Conchords and why do these bizarre comic / signing duos (or trios) emerge from remote snowy and mountain regions - is it the altitude?

They are somewhat politically incorrect as well

We're not sure it was exposure to extreme climatic conditions or simply that these guys are just silly, but they've managed to create an interesting mix of pop comedy songs across a wide variety of topics. But be careful, their comic signing is probably a bit edgier than the Conchords and is often MA rated.

They've come to America - and we think they're mocking us...

Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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The Zombification of American Culture

They're everywhere - you can't turn on the TV or go to the movies or play a video game these days without running headlong into a swarm of the undead. Zombies have conquered American popular culture... How did this happen; why did it happen and why now?

American Horror Story: Coven - Halloween Zombie Attack

These are all tough questions - but we will attempt to answer them for you. Now, Zombies aren't really that new and zombie movies have been around since at least 1932. There may have been some during the silent era as well, but we can't find any evidence of it (unless you count Nosferatu as a zombie which is probably fair). The 1932 flick, White Zombie seemed to have inspired rock musician Rob Zombie (we're guessing that's not his real name) as well. Now, this early Zombie flick is semi-racist because they're going out of their way to highlight that these aren't typical Jamaican rasta Voodoo zombies, but instead white chicks (being controlled using Voodoo magic). So, the genesis of Zombie lore does start down in the Caribbean and is tied to various drugs used to place people in trances and such. That traditional zombie theme was resurrected (excuse the pun) in this Season's American Horror Story - with witches doing battle with a New Orleans Voodoo Queen. But we digress.

Bela Lugosi was the undisputed creepiest guy in Hollywood for 2 decades

Zombies have been around for a long time - why are they so popular now? It seems as though the resurgence really picked up in the late 70's and early 80's. much of that was fueled by the many zombie films produced by George Romero. What was going on in American culture at that time? Well, we had Jimmy Carter and then Voodoo economics with Ronald Reagan. We had more of an awareness that we were just 5 minutes away from self annihilation on the nuclear clock. We had the introduction of the AIDs virus and the cultural drought of 1980's consumerism and yuppie madness and MTV. Yet, do all of these frightening elements really explain the zombie pandemic?

Maybe people just enjoy watching gore? (not Al Gore)

Perhaps there's a deeper root cause to this seeming never-ending flood of zombies? Could it perhaps be a reflection of an increasingly cynical and negative perspective that much of the population has to direction that our society seems to be heading to. Things for whatever reason, seem to be less hopeful, less promising and more menacing than before. Prior generations had looked forward to progress and personal growth for themselves and their children. Since the 1980's, we've had stagnation of personal income and upward mobility, the constant drumbeat of terrorism and budget cuts and things just seem a little depressing. It may in fact be more appealing for many of us to imagine an apocalyptic future where survival is the only job skill necessary and bills, college and Obamacare no longer factor in. In a world where no matter what you do there's no chance of progress, then killing zombies becomes both entertaining and cathartic.

Does Rick enjoy his new life more than his old one - hard to tell...

Or maybe, just maybe it's even deeper than that. What's one thing all zombies seem to have in common? Well, besides cannibalism - yes, that's right - Disease. Zombies become zombies through infection of some sort. Zombies in fact represent a collective fear that's been with humanity for thousands of years - zombies are the human manifestation of plague. In a plague, like the Black Death, the ones who were most frightening were the sick and the unknowing carriers of disease. Someone who had caught the plague was for all intents and purposes "walking dead" long before they actually died. So, maybe our zombie pandemic is an indictment on modern society - calling it plagued so to speak. The survivors of all these scenarios are in fact turning their back on what society was and helping to kill it off one zombie at a time.

Or maybe, people just like to see rotting corpses walking around and pulling out peoples intestines. Either way, perhaps it's time to really run these zombies back into the ground.

We're not unreasonable...

Got Brains?

Copyright 2013 Raving Reviews

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The Continuum Paradox

There's nothing we like more than a good paradox. Time travel happens to be the perfect medium for staging flashbacks and flash-forwards in a plot - but of course it can provide so much more than that. It's so non-linear!

Last year we began watching what has turned out to be the SyFy channels best product since the original Battlestar Galactica - Continuum. It's got a lot going for it including:

• Great acting and well chosen actors
• An interesting sci-fi plot (making it seem like less of a cliche than perhaps it is)
• Great special effects for a TV series
• The Smoking Man (yes, he's been hiding in Vancouver all these years).
• The hottest sci-fi actress since James Kirk's (pick any) girlfriend - wait she was Jim Kirk's girlfriend - yikes. 
• Clothes that change color based on what's happening.
• Vancouver of the future (looks pretty cool, of course we've still not really seen the Vancouver of the present).
• Wiki-leaks gone bad terrorists with an Internet name. 
• That bald guy who was in Madmen and about 20 other shows (he's good, we just can't remember who he is).

Rachel Nichols - star of Continuum in her mood suit.

The future in this Dystopian series looks pretty grim. Corporations, technology and the Patriot Act on steroids have all but eradicated personal freedoms. But the cops are cool and the Bill Gates of 2077 or 2079 or whenever it is has had a crisis of confidence about the world he helped to create. He is none other than the Smoking Man... Where's this guy been since 1990's ? And where are the cigs? We're guessing that they're totally illegal in 2079 even for Alec Sadler (a.k.a. Bill Gates or maybe he's Larry Ellison but definitely not Steve Jobs).

Season 2 was better than Season 1 - but they were both good which bodes well for Season 3

Now, there's another web series out there also called Continuum so don't get confused - it's experimental and not quite ready for prime time, see below...

The Continuum knock off - we really don't know what the hell it's about

And apparently Continuum just sounds like a cool title because John Mayer used it for his latest album too...

Before we depart; let's list a few of our favorite paradoxical plot twists from the SyFy Continuum series:

• Did Rachel going cause the terrorist attack?
• Did Alec's dad work for him in the future only to become his dad in the past?
• Did Liber8te invent their terrorist network on Twitter?
• Did Carlos (the sidekick) star in shampoo commercials in the alternative time stream?
• Does Alec send bimbo girlfriends to himself in the past?
• Does Mark Zuckerburg help corporations take over the world?

We'll have to wait for Season 3 to find out the answer to these and more...


Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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Mastering the Johnsons?

Well, there were a lot of lame puns to potentially apply for our title on the new Showtime series, "Masters of Sex." Given the title and topic of the show, one would expect there to be a great deal of whoopee being made. However, season one so far has not opened with a bang (sorry, couldn't help it). Yes, there's some sex going on but a lot less say than in Spartacus - although here at least we aren't treated to slow-mo blood splatters every 3 minutes.

The show concept is intriguing, the characters are interesting - some of them anyway and the backdrop of helping to spur the sexual revolution certainly has potential... Butt - oops, But, this show seems conflicted on several levels:

•  Dr. Masters comes across as supremely odd (and maybe he was?) but more to the point Michael Sheen seems to be having a hard time reigning him in. We could just imagine what Bryan Cranston might do with the role (he loves being conflicted). Sheen spends much of the show merely looking uncomfortable.
• Lizzy Caplan started strong as the free-wheeling Johnson, but it seems as though the show is trying to unliberate her as season one progresses - no idea what's going on there.
• The story arc is still murky as well. 
• The one part of the show that seems to be taking hold is the deteriorating marriage of Dr. Masters and his wife played by Caitlin FitzGerald. It is a powerful subplot but can't make up for what's missing in the main one (which isn't clear yet - is it the struggle to do the study or Masters and Johnson getting together or Masters ticking everyone off - its just not clear).

Good trailer for season 1, yet it seems to be teasing us a bit...

Sometimes as the show drops little hints at what the historic sex study is going to conclude the revelations seem overwhelmingly obvious - although that's from our perspective in the 2013 (we have flying cars now you know). Were people in the 1950's as backwards as the in Victorian era - were they backwards then? Who knows... There was a very funny movie about the invention of the vibrator (Hysteria) that came out two years ago. It was informative but more than that - Hysteria was funny. Master's of Sex has a deep rooted identity crisis - it doesn't know what it wants to be.

If you watch the opening intro, you'll note all sorts of cutesy innuendo image montages rolling by - reminiscent of Dexter (but less grisly). If you just watched the opening you'd think you had tuned into a comedy - and there has been some comedy injected in it. Yet, most of the show seems deadly serious - perhaps too serious for its own good. Showtime has an all-star cast and probably will be given the luxury of second season; it might be worthwhile rethinking the show to make it more one thing or the other (sex, funny or serious).

The real Masters and Johnson circa the 1960's - note the Star Trek original series sweater
(bow ties are always in fashion)

Verdict for season one - we don't have to see the whole season - we're simply not interested anymore; we've got a headache and are going to to bed early.


postscript - We have decided to continue watching the series for now and it has gotten better. There has been more humor, a little more sex and several new plotlines introduced which are together making the show more interesting and entertaining. Michael Sheen isn't growing much in the role, but Beau Bridges has made an unexpected impact and Allison Janney (you may remember her from the from West Wing) was thrown into the mix (the Dayton native is always excellent).


Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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Game Over, Ender

I was eating at an Indian Buffet the other day and overheard some folks who had gone to see Ender's Game - the main one talking was a true fan who was measuring the movie against the book. Now, I read Ender's Game some time back but I wouldn't want to be quizzed on it. Besides, the real question regarding any movie adapted from a book ought to be does it work on the screen - not "was it faithful to every detail of the book."  Ender's Game works, but not as good as a should have.

Harrison Ford starring in 'Grumpy Old Men Go to Space'

This weekend we went to go see it for ourselves (in IMAX, no 3D for this one although I think it would have worked well given all the zero G possibilities) and I'm fairly certain that most of the key elements of the novel were covered. There have been others that have already noted some striking similarities to other sci-fi classics including:

• Various aliens as bugs motifs (which is odd given there are far more insects on Earth than humans so maybe all the aliens ought to look like us)
• Jet flying into the mothership (and central control of drone ships from it)
• Harrison Ford (doing anything - he is becoming a cliche)

The film is visually striking and the pace is well metered throughout most of the film. The performances were fairly uneven though. We'll start with the standouts:

• Ben Kingsly - He doesn't always convince, but this time he does a good job although hes not given a lot of screen time. The tattoos probably deserve half of the credit.
• Hailee Steinfield - This girl has got Charisma. You may recall her standout performance in True Grit a few years ago (you know the one where Jeff Bridges sounded like he was chewing on biscuits the whole time). She practically steals the show in Ender's Game and deservedly so.

Jennifer Lawrence may be good with a bow and arrow but Hailee can act...

And that's about it. There's a lot of other folks running around doing things but by and large they're forgettable or ineffective. The two main stars; Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford fall into the ineffective category, the rest are just forgettable. 

Don't get us wrong; the film is hugely entertaining - much more so than recent sci-fi films like Star Trek (something about Darkness - BTW - why the heck is every film Dark now???) and After Earth (which was just silly), however Ender's Game could have been a lot more had the right talent been applied. Perhaps most disappointing was the rapid juxtaposition from the movie climax to the set up for the sequels. More time and care should have been applied to constructing that segue. 

Another bizarre aspect of this film was its use of video game like animation - they were trying to approximate Xbox 3000 I guess; anyway it didn't come off well at all. Assume the movie is taking place more than 50 years from now and then ask yourself why the graphics don't look any better than PS 4? 

Here is our Raving Ratings grid:

Category	Score
Acting	5.5
Story	8
FX	9
Cinematography	8
Animation	4
Script	6
Cliches* (low score=high cliche factor)	3
Total	6

 

Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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Captain Phillips is no Swashbuckler

Back when I was growing up, I had a very specific image of what a pirate was (or should be) - that image was patterned after a movie entitled "Captain Blood." It was one a slew of old 30's and 40's movies that used to be the mainstay of programming back before the onslaught of mega-cable. The star and hero of that movie was Errol Flynn - he was the hero and and he was a real pirate.

This is a real pirate...

Last night we went to see Captain Phillips - the real-life saga of a Somali pirate raid upon the Maersk Alabama in 2009. In this movie, the hero was the captain of the undefended ship under attack, played by Tom Hanks. The pirate lead (played by Barkhad Abdi) is an emaciated former fisherman (so the story tells us) driven to piracy by his demanding warlord bosses. Don't get us wrong, Barkhad does a remarkably good job providing depth to his character (as much as he can given the circumstances and relatively weak script which is written primarily from Captain Phillip's point of view).

Today's pirates sans rum (they chew some sort of plant instead)

Overall though the show, despite its ability to demonstrate building tension all the way through til the end seemed to fall flat. One serious issue we had was the docudrama style employed throughout the movie. A docu-drama takes real actors and makes it look as though they are real people doing often boring things as some type of historical event unfolds. In other words, it's like the reality TV version of cinema. This type of format is especially disappointing when you have talent like Hanks - an actor desperate to give a performance and being thwarting by the film's format at every turn. Just imagine if you will Castaway being redone in a more documentary fashion and you'll see how that could really change the film going experience.

You would think the pirates might invest in some Miami Vice style cigar boats

Even with the film style employed, the movie's pace would have gone much smoother if much of the footage connected with the US Navy had been cut out. Sure the Navy was there and put an end to the situation, but the story that mattered was centered around Hanks and his pirate captain nemesis and taking away from that took a lot of steam out of the production. If some of those scenes had been cut it's possible that Captain Phillips could have rivaled Gravity in the all out action thrill ride category sure to be present in next year's Oscars. (in Gravity they wisely cut off NASA's microphones and focused on the two main characters).

We've had goofy pirates (Johnny Depp), starving pirates (from this movie) - when do we get to see real pirates again? Maybe with the upcoming mini-series Black Sails?

copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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