Tripping The Light

Another ATV accident. Another tragedy. This time it took the life of LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, who was seriously injured while riding an all terrain vehicle on his Virginia farm in June.

It’s bad enough that an average of more than 40,000 Americans die each year on roads and highways while simply trying to get from Point A to Point B. Transportation is necessary — vital. But ATVs are basically recreational vehicles designed for thrill rides or joy jaunts. And ATVs are extremely dangerous.

My heart goes out to Moore, his family and his friends. I just wish that more people would learn from his mistake. ATVs are involved in 700 deaths and 135,000 injuries — many of them serious, such as paralysis or lost limbs — each year. Racing up a muddy hill or bouncing over rocks is hardly worth the trade-off for any such risk.

Again, Moore’s death is a tragedy. But part of that tragedy is that it didn’t have to happen.

Tags: Dave Matthews Band

Posted under Dave Matthews Band

OK, we’ve covered the revolting “Cat wearing a spit-covered grill” yuckfest. And along with a two-hour (ouch) performance finale Wednesday, perhaps we all also saw Paris Hilton’s “like, totally ready to lead” rebuttal to “wrinkly white-haired guy.” But the big question is: Who’s totally ready to lead So You Think You Can Dance, now that the final votes are in for tonight’s two-hour (double ouch!) results show?

My personal pick would be Joshua — not because he’s a fellow Texan, but because he’s by far the best dancer in this entire competition. Built like a football player — which he once was — he’s mixed strength and power with grace, control and fast-learned skills to delight and dazzle for weeks, not just lately. And if I were a choreographer or head of a dance company, I’d hire him in a second. Houston Ballet, do you have an opening?

That said, I’ve got a not-so-funny feeling that Joshua won’t win.

For one thing, the judges and the show clearly showed favoritism to Twitch last night. He got the best dances, while Joshua was stuck with an awkward, flailing and (worst of all) dated jive at show’s end for his lasting last impression.

Twitch also got the night’s best reviews from the judges — pointedly. Heck, he even got to clown and charm in his lingering time before the panel. Looking dapper in his snappy tuxedo, Twitch played to a James Bond theme while encouraged by Nigel, in what seemed a rehearsed exchange. Apparently one of Twitch’s lines was added to make it all sound natural: when he asked Nigel to repeat how “Bond, James Bond” sounded. Uh, Twitch, I know you’re from the sticks in Alabammy, but I think they get movies and TV there, and I know damn well you know how that simple line is said with a faint British accent. Gimme a break.

Of course, America could still surprise me — and probably most of us — by splitting the men’s vote and giving the quarter mil and the title to — oh, say, Katee? She’s clearly the best female dancer of the season, though I do enjoy Courtney’s spirit (despite its sometimes cheerleader flavor). And no way Courtney is going to win, not after the backhanded “compliments” Wednesday, such as Nigel basically saying she’s not good enough to have a sustained pro dancing career, but at least she can teach. He might as well have added she has “a nice personality.” And BTW, amid Wednesday’s hype-heavy gushfest and its tone of delirious self-satisfaction, there were more between-the-lines dismissals — if not disses. To wit, the judges’ avowals that contestants were fine “entertainers” — as opposed to dancers — smacked of the same faint praise often heaped on lesser contestants on Dancing With the Stars. Trust me, as a dancer, you don’t want to be lumped with George Harrison or Jerry Springer.

So there — we know who’s not going to win. As for who’s going to win, as the Kinks would say, ya got me, ya really got me now, though I know who’s the best dancer.

As always with such shows, many of us keep saying it should not be a popularity thing, but a talent thing. Then others vote madly because a guy or gal is hot or has a relatable back-story. So it’s a mix. But maybe there’s hope for Joshua — hope in the votes of American Idol fans last spring, in giving AI’s title to talent first (though that talent certainly drove David Cook’s popularity).

If again, here, talent prevails, I have to believe that means Joshua. Or Twitch could win in a mix of pure-talent deciders and I-just-love-tha-guy voters. But whether Joshua or Twitch or Katee wins, they’re all  superb, on-their-way, worthy dancers, and you won’t hear me howl.

Besides, I’m just grateful — grateful to So You Think You Can Dance. Fox’s summer-only little talent show has shown me more vitality, enthusiasm, professionalism, hard work, heart, humor and togetherness by performers than on any reality-TV competition I’ve ever seen.

And — oh yeah — apart from Mary’s shriekschtick, it’s got a nice personality.

Tags: So You Think You Can Dance

Posted under Joshua, So You Think You Can Dance

OK, so I’m prejudiced. I was born and raised in Texas and still live in Houston, and whenever I watch Lonesome Dove, I get all misty-eyed.

It doesn’t take long — just the opening credits with that stirring Basil Poledouris music over a map of Texas. Seeing it and hearing it, I’m done. Game over. Pass the tissues!

And why? Not only because I love Texas with all its bigness and boldness, but because I love this landmark 1989 miniseries which did justice to Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Price-winning novel — by way of Austinite Bill Wittliff’s screenplay and Aussie Simon Wincer’s direction — with its eventful saga of aging former Texas Rangers, now ranchers, on a last-hurrah cattle drive. Graced by an unbelievably strong cast, Lonesome Dove marked the roles of a lifetime for both Robert Duvall as Gus McCrae and Texas-born Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call, especially Duvall, who’s often said that Gus is the best character he’s ever played. And these feisty old friends are involved in more action, drama, humor and heartbreak than in any Western I’ve ever seen.

Now Lonesome Dove returns to DVD, courtesy of Genius Entertainment, and finally with some proper extras, after the sparse set issued by Cabin Fever. Billed as all-new though it was shot two decades ago (well, it’s newly seen), the 50-minute The Making of an Epic includes revealing on-set footage and interviews with the cast and crew. Shot at the time of filming in Texas and New Mexico, they provide revealing anecdotes, including the fact that Duvall’s fine horsemanship not only saved his hide once when his horse bolted, but also a memorable shot, since it was used in the film.

Extras aside, the film itself is reward enough. As a quote from my former newspaper says on the DVD box cover, it may well be the best western ever made. I know it’s my favorite.

Everyone also has their favorite scenes, and mine include one set in San Antonio, where Gus and Woodrow arrive all tired and dirty and dusty as they step into a bar for some refreshment. Happily, an old friend of mine, Houston actor Brandon Smith, is in this scene, playing the surly barkeep who doesn’t realize Ranger royalty stand before him. When he gives Gus and Woodrow a hard time, Gus conks his head on the bar, points to a photo of himself and Woodrow when they were Rangers and demands not only a drink but some courtesy. He then quaffs his drink, tosses the glass in the air and shoots it in flight. The pride, audacity, resolve and reckless abandon of that single scene epitomize this entire miniseries.

So mosey up to the bar and order a shot of Lonesome Dove. I know I can’t speak for everyone, but for many of us Texans it just doesn’t get any better.

Tags: Lonesome Dove, Robert Duvall

Posted under DVD, Lonesome Dove, Robert Duvall, Western

Now that the next Star Trek movie is boldly going where no Trek film has gone before — to Kirk and Spock’s youth –  it’s a superb time to revisit “Classic Trek” via Paramount’s interrupted but now ongoing release of the original three seasons in remastered form, with updated visual effects.

Those who have watched such shows in syndication recently know how beautiful they are, even though you’ve probably seen them in truncated form, with five or six minutes trimmed to make room for more ads. No sweat. Due Tuesday, the new Star Trek Season Two Remastered DVD Edition has all 26 episodes in full, including such fan favorites as The Trouble With Tribbles, Amok Time, I, Mudd and The Deadly Years.

Having glommed much of them in advance, I can report that one episode you might not expect to stand out is truly the key — key to the remarkable job Paramount has done in sprucing up this show via enhanced effects. (Even staunch fans must admit, there was ample room for improvement.) And that episode –effects-drenched and driven by a sense of wonder for its spectacular interstellar images — is The Doomsday Machine.

Not only is it a great Star Trek episode, with William Windom playing, in effect, a tortured Captain Ahab seeking his Moby Dick — in this case an enormous trumpetlike machine with a giant maw that’s gulping entire planets — but it’s also a grand showcase for new special effects, with its many exterior shots of hardware, planetary bodies and the big fat bad thing grazing the galaxy.

Some even deemed The Doomsday Machine as a “litmus test” for the remastered and revamped efforts, especially after preview clips of the effects surfaced a year ago.

Indeed, if this doesn’t sell you on Trek’s retooling, nothing will. My only quibble (rhymes with Tribble) is that the huge thing in space now reminds me even more of a snack food called Bugles which, coincidentally, first hit the market just before Trek began airing in the ’60s.

Hmmmm . . . I wonder . . .

Anyway, whether the contraption makes you awed or awfully hungry, it’s the best example yet of how Trek’s once-bold but always cheap SPFX have been supplanted by work which makes Classic Trek look more like the movies which followed. In fact, slow down the footage in one scene and you’ll notice an asteroid field hanging in space outside a window past which Kirk (William Shatner) passes. Nice touch.

The box set itself has some nice extra touches, too, including bonus episodes of animated Trek and Deep Space Nine, each featuring an extension of the Tribbles saga.

For too many years — including the era of Star Trek’s original run — sci fi as a genre got negligible respect, along with horror and fantasy. No more. These classy improvements to a great show are downright reverential.

So beam us up again, Scotty. No matter that HD DVD bit the dust after Season One emerged. DVD is still DVD, and these episodes have never looked better — even including the dates on which they originally aired.

Tags: DVD, Paramount, Remastered, Star Trek, William Shatner

Posted under DVD, Star Trek, William Shatner, sci-fi

Sometimes I feel lonely. I feel I’m the only observor of show biz who really gets it and doesn’t buy the bull — who questions with eyes open, instead of slurping up each hype-heavy morsel with a goofy gulp. And such a time is now — now that bloggers have reacted to the stunt last night by So You Think You Can Dance hostess Cat Deeley.

Now, I love this show, and I love Cat as a hostess. She’s lively and fun and has a great British accent, by way of Birmingham (also home of Duran Duran). Like a den mother or doting big sister for the dancers in the cast, she’s always seemed a game gamine, ever ready to laugh and frolic while still keeping a smooth show-must-go-on professionalism, even with her fashion-victim frocks and absurdly overdone saloon-girl hair.

Well, on last night’s show, Cat was game, all right — more game than ever.

After Twitch performed his solo with a crunktastic fake gold “grill” popped into his mouth, Cat put her arm around him as he basked in applause and playfully donned his prop glasses. Then judge Nigel Lythgoe half-seriously nudged Cat to keep going by also wearing his “grill,” which was still in Twitch’s mouth.

Amazingly, Cat obliged, telling Twitch to fork it over and then, as the audience howled in disbelief, placing his spit-covered prop in her own mouth, where she wore it with the aplomb of a 17-year-old who’d been down with grills for most of his teen life. No biggie, just chillin’ and grillin’.

The crowd, of course, went wild — at least, they went wild over Cat’s pose with an absurd metal mouth. And now bloggers crow and go wild about what an audacious stunt it was, giving Cat major props for her zany (if icky) boldness.

But these bloggers fail to notice or mention a simple fact: Between the time Twitch took the grill from his mouth and Cat popped it in, the show’s editor cut to a different camera, and then back again. This is a misdirection trick as old as time when it comes to magic acts, and it clearly gave Cat a chance to don a different grill.

Keep in mind Dance’s Wednesday performance show is taped, not live, which allows all sorts of magic to occur of which you’re unaware. Like, how do the editors know to cue up the precise seconds of dance to which judges refer in their comments, only moments after the dance was performed? Because the show is on tape and they have time to do so, that’s how.

Similarly, a taped show would allow Cat to plan the stunt all along, have an alternate”grill” in her possession, and then, by the camera cutting, and perhaps by shaving off a few seconds, have a chance to slip that into her mouth while she or Twitch hid his grill, thus sparing herself the spit.

Now, I don’t know for a fact that this happened, but I know that’s how it easily could have happened, and I know that’s how I’d have handled it — no insult to Twitch, just basic sanitation concerns, ya know. Yet no one seems to have noticed the camera cut and the way out that it gave Cat. No one except me.

Hello? Is anyone watching with their brain switched on? Come on — it was just too fishy to swallow. I mean, why cut away from a “money” shot in progress? So show me a shot of Cat taking the grill straight from Twitch’s mouth and popping it in and I’ll believe you. Until then, this largely no-bull show may have fooled everyone else, but it hasn’t fooled me — lonely as that makes me feel.

Tags: Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance

Posted under Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance

Since The Last Waltz — and more recently No Direction Home: Bob Dylan – no one can question Martin Scorsese’s credentials and credibility as a cinematic chronicler of rock music. Which is why he was the perfect choice to document a Rolling Stones concert for Shine a Light, new on DVD from Paramount.

Though it opens with about 10 minutes of setup, it’s a beautifully shot concert film, not a documentary, and this concert is what Stones fans should want, expect and love. Many of the hits are there, along with some choice album tracks, and the DVD includes four extra songs, one of which is the neglected but potent Undercover of the Night.

That said, the Stones have rolled on and on for so long that seeing them yet again, and hearing Jumpin’ Jack Flash for the zillionth time, is a bit of a rerun. Sure, it’s great music, but there’s nothing revelatory or truly spontaneous about it. Seeing and hearing much the same band do much the same show, no matter how well they do it, is more about a revered band’s ability to live up to its reputation.

That includes a bad-boy irreverence that’s branded this band from the start, even though singer Mick Jagger is the most practical of businessmen at heart. And that unruliness prevails in the opening segment, as Scorsese valiantly tries to plan his shoot at New York’s intimate Beacon Theatre, though Mick and the boys won’t deign to give him a set list — until moments before the show starts. Those rock ‘n’ rollers! It may be a bit staged, but it’s fun. And the glad-handing intro by Bill Clinton is delightfully ironic. Yes, when I think of the Stones, I think of environmentalists. Riiight.

It’s also nice to see a mix of more fresh-faced stars (Jack White III, Christina Aguilera) alongside Keith Richards’ craggiest of rock faces. But Keith — the only Stone I’ve met in person — you know I love you. And you should sing more! (Now you really know I love him.)

In all, Shine a Light is a grand time with guys who are the grandfathers of trock. Lord knows they’ve been around long enough — yet still seem joyful about it, rather than going through the paces. Guess that’s why Bill Wyman quit — he lost the joy. Happily, Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ron have not. Thanks, guys. And thanks Marty.

Tags: Rolling Stones

Posted under DVD, Martin Scorsese, Rolling Stones

Plenty of TV and movie locations have been overused — take all of Manhattan, for instance. But at least you know what you’re seeing and what it represents, and it’s germane to the story since the plot is, in fact, set in Manhattan.

Other locations get overused in different ways — such as reprentations of scenery for a rugged setting. And perhaps none in that category has been used more often than the Vasquez Rocks.

If you’ve seen the Arena episode of classic ’60s Star Trek, you’ve seen the Vasquez Rocks. In fact, the slanted, jagged, alien-looking rocks supposedly appear in the upcoming 11th Star Trek movie, due next year, having already made a cameo in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Named after a bandit who once hid there, the Vasquez Rocks have popped up in dozens more movies and TV series, most recently in what should be an unlikely place: TNT’s Saving Grace. In promos for its new season, we see star Holly Hunter stand against the striking, jutting, craggy rock formations, which allegedly represent Oklahoma. (The series is set in Oklahoma City.)

Now, I’ve lived in Oklahoma — both OKC and Tulsa — and I’ve never seen or heard of such rock formations in a largely flat terrain of farm lands and open spaces. But somehow the show’s producers figured anything west of New York City is the untamed region of ”the Weeeeeest,” and Oklahoma got the Vasquez Rocks.

Actually, they’re located in So Cal — north of Los Angeles, on property owned by LA County. So they’re Californy rocks, not Okie rocks.

So there you have it: If you thought the jagged rock formation looked familiar when you last saw it, well, chances are you’ve already seen it many times. In fact, the Vasquez Rocks have become so widely used on screen that, in a way, they aren’t effective anymore. They simply remind us, “No, that’s not Oklahoma or another planet. That’s the Vasquez Rocks of California – again.”

Tags: Saving Grace, Vasquez Rocks

Posted under Saving Grace, Star Trek

The drama! The dream jobs! The fashion! The phoniness!

All those terms could apply to The Hills, MTV’s “reality drama” which returns to DVD Tuesday with its third and biggest season.

Guilty pleasure? You got it. Ogling babes and fashion is pleasurable, and I’m guilty, at least, for digging that. But many others take it more seriously — people who love the show and follow it faithfully and buy the DVDs. They may not be sure why they’re so devoted — they just know that they are.

Well, I can explain: The Hills feeds their need to fill their own otherwise routine lives with vicarious visions of others their own age, if not their own means or zip codes. It’s a secretive, voyeuristic, no-consequences cheap thrill, and that’s fine. Whatever floats your boat or gets you through the night. Different strokes for different strokes. Each to his or her own. Yada yada.

But once you get past that need and its feed, you must ask yourself, “What am I getting so worked up about?” Because the answer is NOT ”reality drama,” which is about as nonsensical as saying ”giant shrimp.” No, you’re getting worked up over a scripted show with barely-there actors shot in a mock-reality TV style yet without the winking self-awareness which Christopher Guest brings to his delightful big-screen mockumentaries. In short, you’re getting worked up over thinly plotted anecdotal stories played out by limited actors who hover more closely to the non-talents of too many real reality TV denizens than to the clear talents of actors who populate legitimate dramas and far more deserve their SAG card.

That said, I’m no party pooper, though there’s plenty of poop to scoop from them thar Hills. So if you thrive on the jive of Lauren (LC), Heidi (half of Spidey), Kelly and Whitney, don’t let me dissuade you. After all, we all need our fantasies, and the thought that these young, beautiful gals often can get whatever they want is a fantasy worth having for many femmes who don’t get enough attention, especially now that helicoptering parents have turned to younger siblings who still require TLC and slavish devotion in their college years. (Funny, I moved myself into my first college apartment and didn’t feel oppressed or unloved. Instead, I felt the opposite: Free at last! How times change.)

Yes, life’s a drag, and The Hills is a dream. Let’s choose: Drag? Or Dream? Duh. Take The Hills. Just don’t forget to take it with full awareness of what you’re being sold. A “reality drama”? No way. It’s more like just a, well, ahem, drama, to use the term loosely, and there’s nothing really real about it.

Not that this unreality condemns The Hills any more than the same claim would condemn, say, a Harry Potter film. Fantasies can take many forms, and there’s no harm in that. So sit back and enjoy The Hills: The Complete Third Season as your next must-buy DVD box set. At least it adds interviews, deleted scenes and commentaries for some episodes by cast and crew. And as for the show itself, well, different strokes for different folks, as they say, if all this gets you through the night. For others, a night with these Hills is alive only with the sound of — yawning.

Tags: DVD, The Hills

Posted under DVD, The Hills