During the 80s golden era of Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliott was one of the people most responsible for the show's distinctively bizarre style. Playing characters like "The Guy Under the Seats" and "The Regulator Guy," Elliott's contributions were sometimes hilarious and sometimes baffling, but always memorable for their absolutely unadulterated weirdness. He went on to cultivate his peculiar "Chris Elliott" persona in cult classics like the TV show Get a Life and...
FUNDRAISER: It's the 3rd Annual Summer, Sex and Spirits cocktail and shopping extravaganza. Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC), in conjunction with Brooklyn Indie Market join forces for the fundraiser, "an evening of mixing and mingling with retail therapy!" There will be $4 drink specials, 1/2 price sangria pitchers, a deejay and a giveaway...we're also guessing everyone will walk away with at least one free condom.
(directed by Brad Bird)
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MOVIE: Michael Moore is in town with his latest film that's pissing off the government while informing the nation, Sicko (trailer here). Get ready to be filled with rage as the carpet is pulled back on the American healthcare system and much, much more.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and his distributor, Harvey Weinstein, appeared at a press conference yesterday to question why the government is investigating Moore's trip to Cuba for his upcoming film, Sicko. The film, which premiered at Cannes and is scheduled to open in a few weeks, questions the American health care system and, at one point, Moore takes three September 11 rescue workers to Cuba to get health care treatment for them there.
Wallace Shawn has long enjoyed a fruitful career as a character actor in mainstream movies (Clueless, Princess Bride, Chicken Little). He also happens to be one of the world’s most significant dissident writers. His plays The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Fever – to name just a few – have garnered much praise (and controversy) for their unflinching examinations of brutality. Shawn’s plays are political but not polemical; through his writing he questions everyone’s complicity – liberal intellectuals especially – in the horrors unleashed out of sight and out of mind.
Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place.
Dan Gregor, Comedian, Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz
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We are back from planet Sundance and slowly recovering from our intergalactic journey. When you are at the festival it feels like everyone is complaining about how tired they are or how they cannot get into the films and parties they want, about feeling overwhelmed by all the options, how they feel the festival isn't truly about "independent film" anymore, the declining swag, the celebrities, etc. In retrospect, it all seems so silly. So yes, the festival has become bigger than the britches it originally set out to inhabit and it has become an industry driven event, but if you can weed through all the stars, schmoozing and marketing, the festival is a unique and incredible happening built upon a foundation of community, experimentation and love of the craft. People often lose sight of this.
"When it comes to diet advice, New Yorkers listen to who looks really good in a bikini in the Hamptons, not the government saying 'Eat more grain because we say it's better for you,'" said Ken Friedman, co-owner of the Spotted Pig in Greenwich Village, where a top-seller is gnudi, a carb-free "pasta" favored by his model clientele.Funny that - Joe DeSalazar's Eating In recipe was Spotted Pig's Ricotta Gnudi!
Eugene Hernandez, Editor-in-Chief, indieWIRE
Randy Cohen, The Ethicist
The Republican National Convention opened yesterday with two of its more liberal politicians, Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, taking the stage. Senator McCain, whose dalliances with the other side have confused the more right-leaning conservatives, won the affection of delegates by "mauling" Michael Moore, who was at the convention under the auspices of writing for USA Today. On the Today Show Tim Russert called Moore the GOP's favorite pinata; Moore, for his part, seemed to revel in the attention. Related: Analysis of Day 1 from NY Times and Washington Post says it's all about terror and September 11. And then there's the Republican Party platform (PDF) that's driven by the social conservatives in the party.
Other interesting events: Tomorrow's round-the-clock-till-it's-done reading of the Odyssey and the Iliad; Wednesday's reading of the Constitution with Alec Baldwin, Chuck Close, Khaliah Ali, and Joanne Woodward. And let us know what events you're checking out!
The NY Times reports that there were small protests yesterday, including one the Central Park, where people stood on top of garbage bags - to protect the lawn. Now, that's humor.
For our money, we're enjoying the pictures of Ron Reagan, who interviewed Michael Moore, taking the future of America on a pub crawl, via MSNBC's Hardblogger. Gothamist is sure someone is live-blogging the convention. Also, since Gothamist thinks it's going to be a little slow in NY, news-wise, for the next month, as everyone gears up for the Republican National Convention, so expect more posts on animals!
- Penn Station's exits will get congested during the convention
Another documentary that features Michael Moore, The Corporation, opens today at the Film Forum for a two week run. Gothamist hasn't had a chance to check it out yet, but the reviews have been positive and it walked away with an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Did you see Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend? What did you think? Was Michael Moore at your screening? Lux tells us she was handed this flyer when leaving Fahrenheit 9/11; any other goodies handed out?
Others prizes: Grand prize (like a runner-up prize) to Korean film Old Boy, director Park Chan-Wook; actress Maggie Cheung in Olivier Assayas' Clean; actor Yuuya Yagira in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows (Yagira wasn't able to accept because he had to go back to Japan for exams!); director Tony Gatlif for Exils; screenplay Agnes Jaoui and Jean Pierre Bacri for Comme une Image, which Jaoui directed; and special prizes to (1) Irma P. Hall in The Ladykillers and (2) the Thai film Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. See full list of prize winners here. And Gothamist on Cannes 2004.
This year's competition jury has three Americans: Novelist Edwidge Danticat, Kathleen Turner, and Quentin Tarantino, who is the chair and has already been on a Cannes panel about piracy: "I would be a liar if I was to say, across the board, no piracy."
The show opens with Sean Connery introducing a montage of films, "Blah blah blah film blah humanity blah blah." Luckily, he is not wearing a puffy shirt, the way he did last year. Gothamist happens to like the Chuck Workman film montages. Unfortunately, it's not a Chuck Workman film montage but a film with Billy Crystal inserted into various Oscar nominated films from 2003. There's too much naked Billy, from the T3 spoof to Something There's Gotta Give. Lesson to anyone: Naked Billy Crystal can maybe be funny once. But more than that, people will demand their money back. He does mention A-Rod going to the Yankees and Michael Moore makes an appearance in the film, but still, it's going to be a long goddamn night.
–Is reachable by email (public@nytimes.com) and voicemail (212 556 7652)
The Washington Post's Peter Carlson digs into Radar, the super-hyped post-Talk, supposedly better than Us-Weekly and funny-like-Spy celebrity news hybrid. Carlson is disappointed:
Michael Moore, everybody's favorite liberal punching bag these days, is featured in a pretty negative Film Threat article. It wonders if his style of documentary (as in, the kind where he inserts himself into the story) is really good truthful storytelling. Well, truth and storytelling are different. A story can be edited in a number of different ways to say different things. The fact that Michael Moore won the Writers' Guild Award for his screenplay for Bowling for Columbine says a lot about how much of a mark he leaves.
Oscar Commentary
Oscar is celebrating its 75th anniversary, I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary of watching Oscar.
Kudos to Jen for her recap of Oscar night. My winners:
UES Eateries Accused Of Racism For Not Delivering To Harlem
Teen Pulls BB Gun On Cops, Gets Shot In The Face
NY Post Finds One Man Who Sides With Fort Hood Shooter
Brooklyn Drummer Dies After Fall Down Elevator Shaft in Williamsburg
Adding In "Discouraged Workers," Jobless Rate Is 17.5%
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