If you don't see A Hard Day's Night -- the black-and-white comedy portrayal of The Beatles ascending to the height of their fame -- in its 50th anniversary re-release this Wednesday at The Castro, you are what the stars of the movie would call "a drag, a well-known drag."
And in case you haven't seen this film in the last 50 years, the faux-documentary design of A Hard Day's Night pays homage to these contradictions in a scripted comedy based in part on verbatim quotes and intercut with real shots of the Fab Four. A Hard Days Night successfully lifts the curtain on The Beatles as personalities and lowers a shade dividing us from their true selves; the more witty and self-effacing they are the more we feel, artificially, that we can be a part of their stardom. Alun Owen's lackadaisical take on Liverpudlian humor renders John, Paul, George, and Ringo musical Marx Brothers. Their style of comedy, which seems to have died out of modern cinema along with black-and-white film, is a constant source of joy.
I watched the first episode of The Leftovers blind -- I didn't read any background, follow any news releases. I didn't even watch "the making of" the show, which generally runs the week prior. I don't like to be manipulated into have any preconceived ideas about a television show. This week, however, I looked closely at the credits and saw some familiar names and realized who was involved in the production, mainly names I'd seen on Six Feet Under. Then I realized that this show is based on the book by Tom Perrotta, an author with a knack for artistic screenplays based on his novels.The film Little Children was based on his work and also the satirical Election. This explains why The Leftovers is unfolding in front of us like a novel.
Say what you want about Gordon Ramsay and this show, but its one of the few cooking competitions that give women an even shake. Top Chef is the worst, seemingly breaking all ties between men and women by going with the XY chromosome every time. Hell's Kitchen's final six are four women (Kashia, Melanie, Joy, and Rochelle) and two men... two very annoying men named Scott and Jason who I can't see sticking around.
For a change of pace, and lordy does this show need one, the cooks all had a Masterchef style competition for USC tailgating party thingie. Everyone made a sandwich and the revelers voted for their favorite. Naturally the one with the most fat won, and by that I mean not only the pork belly sandwich but its progenitor, Jason. "The whole college thing! I was pumped up!" he explained, happy to finally be spending time at a university. Dream big, Jason. He tied with Scott and both of them got to relax with fine wine while everyone else literally had to pick through trash back at the restaurant.
What would you do is someone sat down next to you at Starbucks and started smoking crack?
One comedian wanted to see the public's reaction to watching someone light up a crack pipe, so he created a water-bottle "pipe" and started smoking "crack" along Market Street. As the video unfolds, he takes his pipe to Union Square and into a woman's clothing store -- he even lights up in front of some cops. To see the reactions (or lack there of) check out the video:
