‘Talent’ validates Stern’s claim to be ‘King of All Media’
It used to be a joke that Howard Stern was “King of All Media.”
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The Buzz
OffBroadway There was a time when Lottie Pikuzinski, the “L” in the R&L Lounge, was shy. On a YouTube video of her in her tavern—located on Mill Street by the Broadway Market—she looks meek as a butter lamb. Flanked by “Airborne” Eddy Dobosiewicz and a picture of the Sacred Heart, she demonstrates making pierogi. However... that was 2010. Now, repeated exposure in The News, on TV and video have made Pikuzinski into, well, Lottie Gaga. It’s the truth! People are calling her that! Recently, Lotti told a Forgotten Buffalo tour: “Do you know the difference between me and Lady Gaga? Lady Gaga wears dresses made out of meat. I wear jewelry made out of pierogi!” She pointed to her tiny pierogi earrings. Meanwhile, her newest video is: “I Told You Not to Give Me That Wine.” Stand back, Lady Gaga. Lottie’ll show you how it’s done.
‘Shadows’ never finds its tone
“Dark Shadows” (PG-13): While there’s not much here that’s inappropriate for them, highschoolers may lose interest in this slow-moving vampire comedy well before it’s over. The film’s sexual content may be a little too much for middle-schoolers. Johnny Depp is very funny in his pal Tim Burton’s riff on the 1960s daytime horror soap opera, “Dark Shadows.” Alas, the movie around him never finds its tone, which fluctuates between outright spoofery and the TV show’s more somber style. When Depp is on camera as gentleman vampire Barnabas Collins, awakened in the year 1972 after 200 years in a coffin, the film is fun —at least at first. When the focus leaves him, it becomes campy and tedious. After a while, Depp can’t even save it. He is droll, though, in his long nails and cutaway coat, shocked at all things modern and apologizing before drinking people’s blood and killing them. Barnabas returns to his family’s mansion near fictional Collinsport, Maine. He’s determined to help his descendants restore the family business, a fish cannery, and stop their arch rival, Angelique (Eva Green), who is in fact the sorceress who turned him into a vampire. The lady of the house (Michelle Pfeiffer), her friend the sozzled psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), her sullen daughter (Chloe Grace Moretz), and her quiet nephew (Gully McGrath) are invigorated by their gallant undead relative.
Collaborations benefit everyone
Earlier this year, the Acting Up Stage Company, a small and ambitious outfit based in Toronto, paired up with the city’s Obsidian Theatre Company to create a stunning production of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s musical “Caroline, Or Change.”
Time for networks to trot out new shows, kill the duds
My daughter and I were browsing toy stores when I was last in Los Angeles. It’s one of the more delightful things that life encourages grandfathers to do.
Success of smartly written ‘Avengers’ is a good thing
$207.4 million is a lot of money. We can all agree on that.
‘Avengers’ full of mayhem
“Marvel’s The Avengers” (PG-13): Most teens and lots of tweens will enjoy this witty, raucous ride, which doesn’t push PG-13 boundaries much at all. And they can thank their lucky (movie) stars that director (and co-screenwriter) Joss Whedon was the one to get this gig. His long (nearly 2z hours), eardrum-blowing, property-destroying mash-up based on the Marvel Comic series keeps humor and characterization simmering nicely, amid the 3-D, special effects and mayhem. The dialogue occasionally sounds robotic, but for the most part it sparkles. The intergalactic villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) invades the secret Earth-protection agency S.H.I.E.L. D. and grabs a renewable energy Cosmic Cube called the Tesseract. He aims to use it to subjugate humankind. Soooooo, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), leader of S.H.I.E.L. D., puts out the call to his superheroes, asking them to set aside their egos and use their brains, muscles and superpowers as a team to defeat Loki and the invading army of aliens he aims to unleash. There’s cynical Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.); patriotic Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans); brainy Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who’d rather keep his violent alter ego in check; interplanetary god of thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who feels responsible for unleashing his brother, Loki; superspy/assassin Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); and high-tech archer extraordinaire Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Needless to say, the good guys win in the end.
Networks grab viewers’ attention with cliffhangers for May sweeps
I ’m probably not the one you should be reading on this subject. That’s because I’m still royally peeved—17 years after the fact—by how network TV chose to end “Under Suspicion,” a wonderful cop show years ahead of its time.
The whole truth about Buffalo’s avant-garde arts scene
It was, no doubt, the preceding Buffalo Sabres 40th-anniversary exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery that poisoned the waters. Its incontrovertible “civic boosterism” may have looked playful to some eyes, but to many others, it was the nadir of exhibitions at one of the greatest cultural institutions we’ve had in the last century.
The Buzz
Buffalo, forreal Buzz has never heard of Bundle, which just goes to show that the ratings site knew what it was talking about when it voted Buffalo, ahem, the Most Unfashionable City in the United States. The wording is a riot: “Buffalo ranked as the least fashionable city in America with an index of 0.10. This makes Buffalo 10 times less fashionable than the average big city in America, and 32 times less fashionable than its downstate neighbor, New York.” Ha, ha! We love it. Let’s take this statistic and run with it. In our Zubaz pants!
Entertainment Calendar
Best bets:
- Thu 5/17: Tyler Perry's Madea Gets a Job
- Fri 5/18: An Evening with Yanni
- Fri 5/18: Michael Feinstein presenting the Sinatra Project
- Fri 5/18: Lee "Scratch" Perry
- Sat 5/19: Collective Soul
- Sat 5/19: Louis Prima Jr.
- Sat 5/19: Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
- Wed 5/23: Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit
- Thu 5/24: North Sea Gas
- Fri 5/25: An Evening of Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake and Serenade
- Sat 5/26: Rich Little
- more events »
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