Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Weirdos TV episode 95 - Another End of TIme
In this episode, we find the other end of time. Numbers include "Amsterdam" and the Beatles "I Want U, She's SO Heavy".
Weirdos TV episode 94 - Yes
In this episode, we say Yes, and say a few words about Normality. I also perform Spinal Tap's "Big Bottom".
Weirdos TV episode 93 - Reginald's Revenge
In this episode, Reginald Head returns and sings our classic hit, "Evil".
Weirdos TV episode 92 - heddroom Goes Mental
At heddroom this week, we are joined by Howie Hedd himself, and our special guest is mentalist and sideshow performer R.J. Williams.
Weirdos TV episode 91 - heddroom is Heaven
At heddroom this week, we are joined by the Rev. Bill and Betty. In their honor, I perform "Heaven" by Talking Heads and "Rocky Raccoon" from The Beatles' White Album.
Weirdos TV episode 90 - Die, Die, My heddroom
At heddroom this week, we are joined by the dramatic duo, Die, Die, My Darling.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
WeirdosTV reviews Alice 3D
My review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D.
Tim Burton has tantalized me since "Beetlejuice", a film I have watched countless times. I also had only good things to say about his recent version of "Sweeney Todd", and that is a big deal, since I myself played the Demon Barber back in the 80s, in a production where we made many of the same changes to the score that they chose to do in Burton's current rendering.
Similar to my obsessive love of Sweeney Todd, which includes a collection of antique straight-razors, I have always been attached to Leiws Carroll's "Alice" books, and particularly the Mad Hatter, having been known to wear a top hat for most of my life. I have sifted carefully through the "Annotated Alice" and have seen every film production, inlcuding the porn musical one, and the brilliant stage version with Meryl Streep done by Elizabeth Swados at the Public in 1980.
I was glad to hear that other fans were dressing up to go see Burton's new 3D "Alice in Wonderland", so I wouldn't have to be too ashamed. I had been surprised to find a few other Sweeney's in attendance at the opening of that film. Yet there were no other Mad Hatters in the sold out crowd at the IMAX theatre when I went to see how Wonderland looked in 3D. I received many compliments and giggles in response to my new top hat, which had been designed based on the hat Johnny Depp wears in the film.
It had already become clear that the character of the Mad Hatter would be at least somewhat expanded in Burton's re-telling of the Alice fables. I mean, really...would *you* relegate Johnny Depp to a minor role in an epic fantasy picture? Me neither.
I was a bit surprised to find that the screenplay tinkered with the plot much more drastically. I was tempted to be a purist and get upset at Linda Wolverton's re-tooled storyline for Alice and her world of mad folk, which is in fact "Underland" (apparently Alice got the name wrong initially). In the end, however, I feel it was a valid decision, perhaps even the best choice, faced with material that is unquestionably obscure, dated, and of questionable sexual ethics.
It is hard to be sure of the exact nature of the relationship between Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Rev. Charles Dodgson) and the real Alice Pleaseance-Liddel. The 1985 film "Dreamchild", starring Ian Holm as Lewis Carroll, shows how odd and suspicious their association was. And the film does not mention that Dodgson photographed Alice as well as other young girls. It's not clear there was any real impropriety, but a case for it is pretty easy to make.
Add to that the lack of cohesion in the storyline of the books, especially "Through the Looking Glass", where the plot is formed based on moves in a game of chess, and it starts to make sense that the new 3D "Alice in Wonderland" takes such a radical approach to the storyline. This Alice is nearly grown-up, and is slated to be married off to a young but unpleasant Lord when she runs off and falls down the infamous rabbit hole. It eventually becomes clear that she is re-visiting a place she had been as a child, which, in fact, makes this film a sort of sequel to the original stories.
Our young adult heroine believes she is in a dream and learns to become herself by defeating the Jabberwocky dragon. It is a very clear plot compared to the meandering episodes of the original adventures. And while I wondered why the White Knight was absent, despite his line about believing impossible things before breakfast being an essential theme, I liked the idea that Alice got to be the hero rather than an impudent onlooker. It seemed odd at first to have Alice become the "beamish boy" of the orignial Jabberwocky's text, and there is a part of me that regrets the tinkering, but if I were making up a modern fairytale, I'd want to give young women a cool role model, too.
There is also a curioser and curioser veneer of the plotline of "The Wizard of Oz" (or perhaps "Wicked" to be more precise) in setting the Red and White Queens as feuding sisters. And Anne Hathaway's diaphanous White Queen is distinctly Glinda-like in her voice and mannerisms. To top it off, Alice is granted her return home after defeating the enemy (turns out the Red Queen owns the Jabberwocky - who knew?), and her farewell scene with Johnny Depp really evokes Dorothy and the Scarecrow (I nearly expected her to say "Mad Hatter, I think I'll miss you most of all").
It is also interesting to note, as my companion pointed out to me, that putting a film in IMAX 3D really taxes the art design department, even for an master like Tim Burton. NOt all the details of the make up and costumes stood up to the intense srutiny we all become capable of in this new ultra-high resolution medium. I must confess I found my eyes most gratified by the closing credit sequqnce, during which a magical garden slowly grows.
Tim Burton has tantalized me since "Beetlejuice", a film I have watched countless times. I also had only good things to say about his recent version of "Sweeney Todd", and that is a big deal, since I myself played the Demon Barber back in the 80s, in a production where we made many of the same changes to the score that they chose to do in Burton's current rendering.
Similar to my obsessive love of Sweeney Todd, which includes a collection of antique straight-razors, I have always been attached to Leiws Carroll's "Alice" books, and particularly the Mad Hatter, having been known to wear a top hat for most of my life. I have sifted carefully through the "Annotated Alice" and have seen every film production, inlcuding the porn musical one, and the brilliant stage version with Meryl Streep done by Elizabeth Swados at the Public in 1980.
I was glad to hear that other fans were dressing up to go see Burton's new 3D "Alice in Wonderland", so I wouldn't have to be too ashamed. I had been surprised to find a few other Sweeney's in attendance at the opening of that film. Yet there were no other Mad Hatters in the sold out crowd at the IMAX theatre when I went to see how Wonderland looked in 3D. I received many compliments and giggles in response to my new top hat, which had been designed based on the hat Johnny Depp wears in the film.
It had already become clear that the character of the Mad Hatter would be at least somewhat expanded in Burton's re-telling of the Alice fables. I mean, really...would *you* relegate Johnny Depp to a minor role in an epic fantasy picture? Me neither.
I was a bit surprised to find that the screenplay tinkered with the plot much more drastically. I was tempted to be a purist and get upset at Linda Wolverton's re-tooled storyline for Alice and her world of mad folk, which is in fact "Underland" (apparently Alice got the name wrong initially). In the end, however, I feel it was a valid decision, perhaps even the best choice, faced with material that is unquestionably obscure, dated, and of questionable sexual ethics.
It is hard to be sure of the exact nature of the relationship between Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Rev. Charles Dodgson) and the real Alice Pleaseance-Liddel. The 1985 film "Dreamchild", starring Ian Holm as Lewis Carroll, shows how odd and suspicious their association was. And the film does not mention that Dodgson photographed Alice as well as other young girls. It's not clear there was any real impropriety, but a case for it is pretty easy to make.
Add to that the lack of cohesion in the storyline of the books, especially "Through the Looking Glass", where the plot is formed based on moves in a game of chess, and it starts to make sense that the new 3D "Alice in Wonderland" takes such a radical approach to the storyline. This Alice is nearly grown-up, and is slated to be married off to a young but unpleasant Lord when she runs off and falls down the infamous rabbit hole. It eventually becomes clear that she is re-visiting a place she had been as a child, which, in fact, makes this film a sort of sequel to the original stories.
Our young adult heroine believes she is in a dream and learns to become herself by defeating the Jabberwocky dragon. It is a very clear plot compared to the meandering episodes of the original adventures. And while I wondered why the White Knight was absent, despite his line about believing impossible things before breakfast being an essential theme, I liked the idea that Alice got to be the hero rather than an impudent onlooker. It seemed odd at first to have Alice become the "beamish boy" of the orignial Jabberwocky's text, and there is a part of me that regrets the tinkering, but if I were making up a modern fairytale, I'd want to give young women a cool role model, too.
There is also a curioser and curioser veneer of the plotline of "The Wizard of Oz" (or perhaps "Wicked" to be more precise) in setting the Red and White Queens as feuding sisters. And Anne Hathaway's diaphanous White Queen is distinctly Glinda-like in her voice and mannerisms. To top it off, Alice is granted her return home after defeating the enemy (turns out the Red Queen owns the Jabberwocky - who knew?), and her farewell scene with Johnny Depp really evokes Dorothy and the Scarecrow (I nearly expected her to say "Mad Hatter, I think I'll miss you most of all").
It is also interesting to note, as my companion pointed out to me, that putting a film in IMAX 3D really taxes the art design department, even for an master like Tim Burton. NOt all the details of the make up and costumes stood up to the intense srutiny we all become capable of in this new ultra-high resolution medium. I must confess I found my eyes most gratified by the closing credit sequqnce, during which a magical garden slowly grows.
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