From the "really bad ideas" file comes a New York Times story about what's being called the world's first live commercial performed in a theater, which was sprung on an unsuspecting audience last night in the East Village at a performance of Stomp. The commercial was promoting London tourism. While we've (unfortunately) become used to seeing ads on television, and even in the movie theaters (what American Express has to do with Brokeback Mountain I'll never know), but--until now--live theater had been pleasantly immune to commercials before, after or during their performances. If this catches on, that will no longer be true.
The fact that Stomp--a show which involves lots of, well, stomping--has nothing to do with London (save for the fact that Stomp has a London production) is actually the only redeeming thing about the incident. Because if advertisers start tying products to shows in a way that is related to the show's content (like Ambien advertising during The Drowsy Chaperone, Bushmills promoting Long Day's Journey Into Night, or Petco promoting Cats) then that will truly be the beginning of the end; what happened last night was just a commercial for the beginning of the end. Let's hope no one buys...
You can read the whole article here.
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
Comments