Liars and Saints

You might think of "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace." Both Whitney and Robert Peace were phenomenally talented young black people from modest New Jersey circumstances; both were spotted by wealthy white men and sent off into the world (without adequate guidance); both were crushed very, very early in life. (Of course, Peace never had any of the stratospheric success Houston briefly had.) -Houston came from Newark. She trained in gospel choirs. Drugs were OK; homosexuality was not. You can see the influence of Jesus in later songs: "If tomorrow is the Judgment Day...and I'm standing on the front lines..." "Heaven, hear me now. I look to you." I hadn't thought of this, but the "Kristina" in "Bobbi Kristina" seems possibly to be a reference to Christ. (Is the "Tina" a reference to "Tina Turner"--a figure Whitney liked to channel when she was alone with Mr. Brown? Who knows?) Video footage shows Whitn...

Here's to the ladies who lunch—/ Everybody laugh./ Lounging in their caftans/ And planning a brunch/ On their own behalf./ Off to the gym,/ Then to a fitting/, Claiming they're fat./ And looking grim,/ 'Cause they've been sitting/ Choosing a hat./ Does anyone still wear a hat?/ I'll drink to that. These lines make me think of my years on the Upper East Side: a particular artificial blonde coif, anxious eyes, flats with little gold buckles. These moms were my clients. What problems can Sondheim invent for these lunching ladies? Well, in his character's view, the "ladies who lunch" believe, or claim to believe, that they are fat. Also, they "look grim" because the hat selection on Madison is inadequate. (These are subtly brilliant lines: A problem is a problem for you if you decide that it is. Who's to say that the inability to find a great hat doesn't count as a problem? Of course, the underlying problem is ...

A customer! Wait!  What's your rush?  What's your hurry? You gave me such a... fright! I thought you was a ghost! Half a minute, can't ya sit? Sit ya down! Sit! All I meant is that I haven't seen a customer for weeks. Did ya come here for a pie, sir? A story begins when a stranger comes to town. Sondheim needs to craft the meeting of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney, his two iconic characters, so he decides to avail himself of an odd setting. He imagines Mrs. Lovett's decaying pie shop--and, all of a sudden, the wind is in his sails. Mrs. Lovett will be holding a rolling pin; she will use it to beat her dough into submission, and to murder tiny insects; the pin will become a kind of percussion instrument; the wielding of the pin will convey Mrs. Lovett's aggression, her excitability. (I'm told that this song is a beast to learn, because you have to memorize all the precise moments when you are to pound the table with your rolling pin. Each rolling-pin smas...

On "Beatriz" and the Mighty Mike White -Many years ago, I attended a dinner amidst great scads of money. This was Old Money; this was money so old, it felt comfortable without flaunting itself; this was seal-yourself-off-from-the-loud-and-trendy-world money. The host's father interrupted a story of mine, loudly misinterpreted the story, then corrected his misinterpreted version of my (valid, accurate) story as if that misinterpreted version were the story that had actually just been aired, or half-aired. When someone observed to him that he'd made a mistake, he didn't apologize, but did a half-shrug. At least, I think it was a half-shrug; I blinked, and almost missed it. At another point, my host complained that he'd donated heaps of cash to a powerful academic institution--an institution that he and his own father had attended--and, still, this institution had not admitted his unqualified son. "I know he wasn't academically qualified, but I'm j...

Some Great Moments in Louis CK's "2017"-- -Louie expresses frustration when recalling a transgender friend. "I read her journal, and I just found myself sobbing. And then I grew jealous. I grew jealous because this person woke up and noted, I'm aware of precisely the thing that is wrong with me , and then she corrected that thing. But I don't have a name for the thing wrong with me. It's just this shapeless cloud of depression. I will not wake up one day and think, Oh! I'm actually an owl! That's what I need to do to be happy! I need to blink slowly and eat some mice!" (I have often envied transgender artists for the drama of the story they get to tell--and I'm certain that that's an unfair and un-PC thing to admit. And nevertheless it is true. I sat in an audience in front of Jennifer Finney Boylan and heard her dramatic story of "throwing myself toward the edge of a windy cliff and just letting the wind decide what to do with...

Samuel Mullins is the guy to watch in "Annabelle: Creation." He's Anthony LaPaglia, Golden Globe winner and star of "Lantana." (Do you remember that little gem? With Barbara Hershey? The great gift of horror films is that they give you interesting actors in meaty roles: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Keri Russell, Ethan Hawke. These actors get to do fascinating stuff in horror films--stuff that they might not get to do in prestige pics, because they are not Jennifer Lawrence or Meryl Streep. I think this is the Best-Kept Secret of wide-release horror films. Go for the acting. Seriously? National Treasure Lili Taylor contending with a demon who wants to rip apart her family? Who wouldn't pay fifteen bucks to see that? And do you really think--say--Darren Aronofsky is going to give Lili Taylor the chance to show off her chops in this way? No. You have to go with James Wan, who--almost alone among filmmakers--understands what Lili Taylor has to offe...

Junot Diaz: "This is How You Lose Her" I almost shouted, What is your fucking problem! But I didn't. I ended up hugging and babying her and asking her what was wrong. She cried for a long time and then after a silence started talking. By then the lights had flickered back on. Turned out she didn't want to travel around like a hobo. I thought we'd be on a beach, she said. (This is a bad-faith relationship. Yunior has cheated. Magda has consented to take him back--partly so she can score for herself a free trip to the Dominican Republic. She half-understands that she is going to leave him, and that she is using him for a vacation. This hypocrisy is the source of much of the story's humor. People do not say what they wish to say. "WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM?" becomes "Here, Baby. Here. It's OK." The story has a killer ending--highlighting the emptiness, the foolishness, of certain words. Magda has gone off to a club, perhaps to meet an...