We actually have a new one this week. The contestant is Rivkah Meder from Richmond, Virginia. You know it’s going to be a tough one when host Fred Child says, “That was beautiful. Whatever it is.” One of the contestant’s guesses for the composer style was the same as mine – and wrong. And both the contest and Child had no idea of the hidden song – nor did I. We all thought we heard a tune in there, but while the remnants of song were the same, it was wrong, as well. But there’s a good reason for that: it's known, but not well-known at all. So – good luck! But, yes, it is beautiful.
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On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild sit down for lunch with TV writer, TV host and film screenwriter Spike Feresten. But even though it’s Spike who wrote the classic ‘The Soup Nazi’ episode of Seinfeld," they note that “there was No Soup For Spike here, but rather a delicious cheesesteak from South Philly Experience. Spike, Phil & David discuss Spike's fascinating career including great stories about writing for David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, and his time hosting Talkshow with Spike Feresten on Fox. Jerry Seinfeld fans, DON'T miss Spike serving up a few tasty morsels about Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story" an upcoming collaboration.” (Yes, really. The movie, made for Netflix, stars Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Grant, James Marsden, Amy Schumer, Christian Slater and Seinfeld, among others.)
On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is Patti LuPone. She has a very rambunctious, fun conversation with host Peter Sagal. By the way, befitting her Broadway legend status, I have the sense that they made the quiz itself incredibly easy for her to win. (In fact, on one of the questions, I guessed the ‘twist’ before they even gave the three possible answers…)
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:15 mark. The other day I wrote a piece about how a new poll showed that Ron DeSantis was now in fifth place among GOP contenders for the presidency, behind even Chris Christie in fourth, just two points behind second place. That's true -- but what I subsequently learned is that the poll was for the important New Hampshire primary only, not a general poll on the state of the race.
That said, the analysis of the race in the article stays generally the same for the most part, notably that Trump is going to get the nomination, and it doesn't matter which is in second place. And that DeSantis has been dropping so much he's risked his political future. And finally, that all the other candidates together show there is a large section of the Republican Party that does not want Trump as the nominee. The guest on this week’s Al Franken podcast is Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum who discusses the war in Ukraine. She and Al talk about “where the war stands and where it’s going.”
In the current Season 3 of the series, Only Murders in the Building, they decide to turn a stage play into a musical. The play is awful, making it a musical is a loony idea, and the snippets of songs we hear are bombastic -- but there’s one song, “Look to the Light” that’s done all the way through, and it’s…well, absolutely wonderful. And terrific as it is, it’s taken up a notch because of how it’s performed by Meryl Streep. (Which is spectacular.) I figured that, compared to the goofy snippets (meant to be silly), this particular song was too good, too impeccable crafted that it was likely written by serious songwriters, so I checked the end credits to see. And it turned out that, yes, it was, indeed. The song was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the score to the movies La La Land and The Greatest Showman, and the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen. I like their work, some songs I enjoy very much, and it’s all highly professional, though I can’t say I find their scores especially memorable overall. But I was surprised and pleased how really wonderful this song was, a bit different from their other work, I thought. And then underneath the credit, it said – “and Sara Bareilles.” Ahhhh, okay, got it. I’m sure this was a joint collaboration, but when you hear it, there’s clearly a lot of her influence in there. For the scene, the only thing that helps knowing is that (in the musical) she plays a nanny of triplets, and this is during a sort of tryout to convince the producers to accept adapting the play into a musical. And instead of auditioning the big, bombastic, silly showstopper, as was the intent, at the last minute director Martin Short decides to go with this lullaby. Streep is the least-professional of the cast, and awkwardly shy and a bit offbeat. And then she gets up to sing the number – |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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