Paul Simon & Sting
Madison Square Garden
March 6th

I love me some Paul Simon.  Sting, not so much.  I love the Police, and a smattering of Gordon Sumner’s solo work (I used to be obsessed with the song and video for ‘All This Time’), but most of his stuff is too stuffy, and slow, and boring.  Saw Stingster reunite with the Policemen in 2007, and wasn’t exactly blown away.  Then briefly again, when he joined Stevie Wonder for two songs at the 25th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concert.  That performance fared better in my mind, cause it wasn’t all about him, and cause Stevie Wonder if the f$%king greatestestest.  And Sting fared even betterer when he teamed up with Paul Simon for this special tour, and tried his best to be Simon’s Garfunkel and sometime Garfunkel’s Simon, although I still don’t get why Simon won’t juss reteam with Garfunkel and blow everyone’s ears and minds.  Sting should stick to doing Police covers, and Simon covers.  His take on ‘America’ > ‘Fields of Gold’ or any of that other ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzsnooozefest stuff

Setlist - Brand New Day / Boy in the Bubble / Fields of Gold / Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic / Englishman in New York / I Hung My Head / Driven to Tears / Walking on the Moon / Mother and Child Reunion / Fragile / America / Message in a Bottle / The Hounds of Winter / They Dance Alone / Roxanne / Desert Rose / The Boxer 

Encore - Bridge Over Troubled Water / Every Breath You Take / Late in the Evening 

Encore 2 - When Will I Be Loved? (The Everly Brothers cover)

actor Paul Reubens poses for a portrait dressed as his character Pee-wee Herman – Los Angeles, California, May 1980

photos by Michael Ochs 

and then it juss clicked in my head…

Tony Revolori as lobby boy Zero Moustafa in The Grand Budapest Hotel & Pee-Wee Herman as a bellhop paging himself in his own Adventure are…

Bitched @ Swirth!!!!

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The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pretty Vacant 
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 99 min

I read somewhere recently that ‘at this point in time you either love Wes Anderson movies or you don’t’.  I don’t believe it’s that black & white.  Personally, I love Wes Anderson, but I don’t really love Wes Anderson movies anymore.  After his career apexed with The Royal Tenenbaums, ever since, it’s been nothing but the same sh!t, with slight differences in the ‘plot’ – oh no, it’s love issues, but now it’s with daddy on a boat!  then brothers on a train!  and then there were them two misunderstood kids on an island!  and now it’s longing for the lost love of a hotel’s glory years!  

Wes’ Grand Budapest Hotel feels like his most ambitious film/diorama to date, but the only thing that’s grand is the design.  Grand sets!  Grand costumes!  Grand mustaches!  Grand use of the font Futura!  Don’t get we wrong, Budapest is fun, and mildly funny, and Ralph Fiennes‘ concierge M. Gustave H character may be Anderson’s most fun character since Royal Tenenbaum himself, but as a movie???  It’s not much of a movie.  If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie, cept there’s like 11% more F Murray Abraham!!  Come to think of it, I kinda like the F Murray Abraham bits the most, where he, as our other main character, is collecting dust in the current run-down state of the hotel, and reflecting back on the way it used to be  

I, like Wes, long for the past.  I kinda wanted to go visit that Kutsher’s place, to see what had become of the Borscht-belted Catskill ‘grand’ resort, but I think I missed my chance, as it’s scheduled for demolition.  For Wes, he did get to go back, and invented his own grand hotel with his pink and purple paintbrushes, but to what end?  Longing for something not worth longing for.  It’s a hotel that feels pretty vacant.  Who cares if it looks amazing?

Wes, it’s time to hit the reset button.  Try adapting someone else’s work (again, like you brilliantly did with Fantastic Mr Fox).  You could be an even better Baz Luhrmann than Baz Luhrmann, instead of a Wes Anderson imitator

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

Budapest is pesty in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

on the set & behind the scenes with Vivian Kubrick

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1967 with one of the baby chimps that appeared in the movie

A Clockwork Orange, 1969 – Vivian helped cut out those Styrofoam letters on the wall!!!!!

editing the ‘Making The Shining‘ at EMI, 1981 – photo by her father

Full Metal Happiness, 1986.  she composed the film’s score!

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I love my parents and all, but sometimes I wish they were Stanley Kubrick and Deborah Kerr