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King Kirby

Melanie and I saw a very enjoyable play last night at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg Brooklyn, one of the best Off Off Broadway shows I've seen, called "King Kirby" about the legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. The theater is small and not well air-conditioned, and with last night's rain, heat and humidity, it wasn't the most comfortable of evenings. But the play is surprisingly effective even if you're not a comic book fan. You see the Lower East Side life Kirby grew up in and his enterance into comic books where he soon became one of its stars. The show explores his personal life and also the business dealings of the comic book industry and how even a giant like Kirby was treated. At times the show is a bit unfocused, and some of the projected images of the comic books don't match the time period of the action of the play, but the show is a real accomplishment. It's part of "The Comic Book Theater Festival" and though I can't speak to the other shows in the program, this one's a real winner.

Here's the New York Times review from Monday:

The Amazing Adventures of Pencil Man
By ANDY WEBSTERJUNE 22, 2014

“King Kirby,” now at the Brick in Brooklyn as part of the Comic Book Theater Festival, opens with a scene that prompts knowing eye rolls to those familiar with the show’s subject: In 1994, a Sotheby’s auctioneer, hawking work by the comic book artist Jack Kirby, dismissively confuses Spider-Man with Iron Man. Of course she does; after all, this is comic book art, not “fine” art, and the cultural elite, like countless parents, have sneered at comics since time immemorial. Even comic publishers, as this show demonstrates, were once happy to shortchange their own creators.

Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente, the husband-and-wife playwrights behind “King Kirby,” know the score. She wrote the smart Off Off Broadway shows “Cut” and the fangirl-friendly “Geek”; he was a co-author of the graphic novel “Cowboys & Aliens,” later adapted for a Hollywood sci-fi western. With this supple, informative and poignant portrait, they offer penetrating insight into the tirelessly prolific Kirby (1917-94), whose brawny and dynamic yet nuanced style dominated comics for more than 40 years. Their play (Kirby was known as the king) documents a creator who attained immortality even as his life ended amid a morass of corporate exploitation.

With deft compression, the show outlines Kirby’s impoverished Lower East Side origins and his longtime collaboration with the writer-artist Joe Simon (played by Joseph Mathers), with whom he created Captain America at Timely Comics in 1941. (Their studio gofer was a young Stan Lee, later the editor of Marvel Comics.) It touches on Kirby’s courtship of his wife, Roz (Amy Lee Pearsall), and his service under Patton in World War II. And it depicts the comics industry’s postwar decline, exacerbated by the 1954 Senate subcommittee hearings into supposed links between comics and juvenile delinquency, embodied here in the toxic testimony of Dr. Fredric Wertham (Timothy McCown Reynolds).

In closest focus are Kirby’s knotty dealings at Marvel in the 1960s and ‘70s with Lee, who was then Kirby’s boss. (Nat Cassidy, in a sly impersonation, presents a tireless news media self-promoter.) With Lee, Kirby created a revolution in the field; Kirby visualized numerous characters now ubiquitous in movies, television and licensing. In the play, Lee — nephew of Marvel’s publisher, Martin Goodman (Mr. Reynolds again, embodying icy, ruthless capitalism) — parrots the company line, denying Kirby’s request for royalties, rights to characters, and even the vast majority of his penciled originals. Lee is a celebrity, while the humble Kirby, Marvel’s golden goose, is paid merely by the drawn page. “Why does everyone worship the bosses?” Kirby cries, defeated.

At a lean hour and a half, this production hits nary a speed bump, thanks to its fluid script and the director John Hurley’s assured pacing. Janie Bullard’s sound design and Olivia Harris’s set and lighting are unobtrusively effective, while Holly Rihn’s costumes nicely evoke changing times. The cast is uniformly on target, with Steven Rattazzi’s Kirby a sympathetic blend of street smarts, boyish creativity and a hard-working, over-trusting disposition.

The Kirby story isn’t over; his heirs still press for a share of the rights to Marvel properties. But the play ends as it should, with a montage on a screen presenting characters bearing his stamp. The X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, Thor, the Fantastic Four — perhaps you’ve heard of them.

“King Kirby” continues through Sunday at the Brick, 579 Metropolitan Avenue, near Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; 212-352-3101, bricktheater.com. The Comic Book Theater Festival also continues at the Brick through Sunday.

The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night"

http://www.criterion.com/films/28547-a-hard-day-s-night

JESUS what an exhilarating movie.

I just finished watching the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” I’d pre-ordered it from Amazon.com and it arrived today.

The transfer is immaculate, brand-new looking. Crisp and natural and balanced with very few artifacts. Every now and then a shot has a slight amount of dirt making me wonder if certain bits came from further-generation sources, but overwhelmingly the film looks fantastic. Brilliant detail and gorgeous romantic black-and-white. There are more recent black-and-white films which I think are cinematically without equal - Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” for one - but this transfer of “A Hard Day’s Night” is close, real close in vibrancy.

Criterion got this one right. They care about releasing films in the best possible quality. They were big in the laserdisc era, then seemed to fade in the VHS years (not surprising, what a shitty format), then came back with DVD and especially Blu-ray. They use the best sources and spend the time and money to restore things when needed.

There’s so much to love about “A Hard Day’s Night.” It’s a movie about The Beatles, shot as Beatlemania was reaching its peak, and it’s a fictionalized depiction of a day in their life. The four of them are extremely charismatic screen presences, even more impressive given their lack of acting experience. I understand criticisms I’ve read of McCartney’s trying maybe a little too hard; I noticed that this time. I was also surprised that one or two of the tunes repeat which I’d never noticed before. The other obvious problems with the film are… Uhm… Well… Er… Yeah, I can’t think of any. There’s a great use of soft focus in some scenes which at first look like mistakes, but they’re repeated so I guess they’re deliberate. Unless the repeats are meant to throw off the mistakes? Who knows, who cares; they work.

What a joy this movie is. Of course there’s the music. Jack White said recently any musician who doesn’t get The Beatles isn’t a musician, he’s a poseur (I’m paraphrasing a bit). This is the first real Rock ’n’ Roll movie, the first movie completely by and about Rock ’n’ Rollers. It’s got that wonderful British humor, so like the Marx Brothers’. It’s also great because it lets us see The Beatles so early in their career and gives us the feeling that that’s really them. It’s very documentary that way. Great use of swish-pans, hand-held cameras, great documentary feel to the film. Brilliant masterful mix of the real with the scripted artificial. It comes off as improvised but it (mostly) wasn’t. The end result is it feels AUTHENTIC.

One of the best things I ever heard said about this movie was by the comedic actor Mike Myers, he of Austin Powers fame. In an interview he talks about how much he loves the movie, and when he first saw it he cried at the end, because as The Beatles rise up in a helicopter to go onto their next adventure, he wanted to go with them. That’s the feeling you get watching this. These guys are having the best time anyone can have and you want to be a part of it. I feel that still when I watch this movie, especially with this fantastic release.

Dion

http://www.allmusic.com/album/bronx-in-blue-mw0000355092
http://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-skip-james-mw0000781400
http://www.allmusic.com/album/tank-full-of-blues-mw0002289381

The 50s musician Dion - Dion DiMucci, as in Dion and the Belmonts, known for “Run Around Sue” and “I Wonder Why” and “A Teenager in Love” and others - is still recording. Dion’s first hit records were released before I was born. I guess I was aware of his stuff as a kid because his tunes still got airplay and are so vibrant and musical.

In the past few years he’s been releasing blues albums. And they’re good, they’re really good.

A few years ago I was a member of an acting group in Long Island City Queens run by a music producer and former musician, and I copied one of these Dion CDs for him. Not sure if he ever listened to it (are you reading this Richard?). It was probably 2005’s “Bronx in Blue,” a fantastic stripped-down acoustic blues album. The producers behind this must have had no clue if it was going to work; a blues album by this old 50s ex-junkie doo-wop guy? (It does.)

In 2007 Dion followed that up with another fantastic blues album “Son of Skip James.” There’s a weird track on it where he proselytizes Catholicism in a spoken word thing, which is a bit of a surreal 180 for a blues album and not successful, but man what a great record. Or CD, since that’s how I bought it.

“Bronx in Blue” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category (right, try to tell me you knew that), but I never read anything about these albums. There didn’t seem to be any popular recognition of what I thought were great recordings. Also weird, they were on different labels. “Bronx in Blue” is on Razor & Tie, and “Son of Skip James” is on Verve Forecast. That means after a Grammy nomination, Dion got dropped and picked up by another label?

In 2012 Dion released “Tank Full of Blues.” I just got it. This album is rated higher than the first two on All Music Guide, but to my ears it’s not nearly as good as the first two, it’s way too slick. The first two are stripped-down, raw, bare, heartfelt, unfiltered. This latest one is full and almost lush. Granted I’ve only just heard it, but I’m a bit surprised. A bit disappointed. I’ll listen to it again, but so far it sounds like the worst of Eric Clapton, watered-down ball-less white-boy blues.

Code Black (Film)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/code_black_2013/

Melanie and I saw the new documentary “Code Black” Wednesday night as part of the New York Times Film Club, I think it opens this weekend. It’s a bit like the summer TV series “NY Med” which had its first season in 2012 and is coming back this summer. Both the series and the film follow physicians in hospital ERs (for the most part). (The TV show is interesting to me because the first season took place partly in a hospital I used to work for, NY Presbyterian.)

The movie “Code Black” is riveting and you’re in the middle of the action from the top. The term “Code Black” refers to an ER being so backed up, it’s at its most urgent level. It’s filmed at a county hospital in LA which, by design, doesn’t turn away any patients regardless of insurance or ability to pay, and as the film shows you, there are very few hospitals in the country that have that policy, less than a hundred I think.

It’s depressing to see how people without means in tragic situations are shuffled around, but this isn’t a political movie. It’s a film that focuses on several Residents near the end of their training who are wondering what the future holds for their profession, and how they’ll be able to offer the best care in an increasingly regulated environment. (Very heartwarming to see that kind of dedication and I hope they weren't just playing to the cameras.) You learn how their ability to treat patients has changed over the years, not always for the better. You also see a fair amount of expected ER trauma, patients in great distress, and urgent procedures graphically depicted; there were a few gasps from the audience.

Documentaries can lack a neat three-act structure. There isn’t always a linear storyline that takes you to a satisfying resolution. They take what they’re given and make the best whole they can. That’s the case here too. If the film doesn’t have a completely satisfying structure, it still shows you a reality you won’t forget. Melanie and I both loved it.

Ben Webster/Oscar Peterson Album

http://www.allmusic.com/album/ben-webster-meets-oscar-peterson-mw0000022556

I was about to crash, then put on a new Verve 45rpm LP I got maybe three weeks ago, part of a vinyl subscription series I’m enjoying. Ugly album cover, hadn’t played the record yet. But I put it on and Hey now baby, what a great album. Wow.

It’s recorded immaculately, you’re in the room. It swings. And it’s Ben Webster with that wonderfully melodic air in his tenor sax playing.

This album was recorded in 1959. Musically it’s milder than the more far-out jazz of the day, but it’s sensual, vibrant, real. I just played the album through, then put it back on and played the entire record again. Damn, nice stuff.

Chef

Melanie and I saw a very enjoyable movie last night, “Chef,” written, directed and starring Jon Favreau.  In case you aren’t familiar with him, Favreau’s big break came in the 1996 indy flick “Swngers” which he wrote and co-starred in with Vince Vaughn.  He’s had an interesting career and recently directed “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2.”  “Chef” is an accomplished return to his more personal indy roots.

“Chef” is a warm, enjoyable movie, slightly old-fashioned in its sentiment, but in a very good way.  The movie is heartfelt and fun, a celebration of food which you’ll come away from hungry.  It’s also a wonderful character movie filled with an impressive array of talent, many in small roles, including Dustin Hoffman as the restaurant owner where Favreau’s chef is employed, Robert Downey Jr. who plays Favreau’s ex-wife’s other ex-husband, John Leguizamo as Favreau’s best friend, Bobby Cannavale, Sofía Vergara, Oliver Platt, and Scarlett Johansson.  It’s rare to see so many big names in smaller parts, but each one adds something unique to the film.  Also very good is Emjay Anthony playing Favreau’s 10-year-old son.

There’s so much to like about this one.  The acting is fantastic all around, very loose and natural, and it’s hard to tell what’s scripted and what’s ad-libbed.  Favreau is a conversational actor, very unforced, and he gets great performances from everyone.  Leguizamo is as always captivating and charismatic, and Downey steals the one scene he’s in.  This is my kind of movie, not too fantastical, and filled with real people and real struggles.  Yes it’s a bit too easily resolved, and yes there are some moments you always wish would happen in real life that seldom do, but those elements work here.  This is a feel-good movie that succeeds.  We both loved it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_(film)