Nightcap 1/12/14- Under the weather and under a church

This week was a mixed bag in a lot of ways and so this first nightcap of 2014 is as well.

Tuesday I went with Hubert to see Ethan Hawke do Macbeth on Broadway. It was hailed in many corners as a disaster, but while the show was messy and a weird collection of styles in look and performing, the show actually cam together in the end to be something special. What I liked in particular was the witches played by Byron Jennings, Malcolm Gets and John Glover who took a much active role in the proceedings by drifting in and out through the action and even taking over some roles as if they were actually pushing Macbeth off the cliff. For my money it was a good night at the theater and one that gave me clues as to how I would stage/film the show if I ever got the chance.

I have been pretty much sick since Wednesday night. Stomach problems became more and I spent much of Thursday and Friday asleep. While I had been joking with friends that what I needed was a couple of days with the flu to catch up on some DVDs,  what I got was general unconsciousness and listlessness. The most taxing thing I could handle was DVDs of Celebrity Bowling. I did try to watch several things but most things ended up putting me to sleep. I did make it through CINERAMA HOLIDAY which was quite good and a review is coming,  I also saw some more films from the Jewish Film Festival- those pieces will run this week.

Managed to drag myself out of bed to go to Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York and I managed to see one of the creepiest things I've ever seen in the catacombs under the church. I posted pictures on our Tumblr page

I also watched some episodes of a 1966 TV series called Hippodrome which ran for 11 weeks. The show was a collection of circus acts with celebrity ringmasters. Tony Randal did a few, Merv Griffin, and Woody Allen. Yea Woody Allen shows up to introduce acts and box a kangaroo (you can find the Kangaroo sequence on You Tube). Timeless Home Video put out 9 of the 11 shows out on DVD and if you can get them cheaply enough (I've seen the set as cheap as 6 bucks) it worth a look-  however be warned they are trimmed of some musical sequences because of rights issues (or so I've read)

Hopefully I'll be feeling better and in the swing of things this week with the free movies at Tribeca Cinemas starting up again Tuesday, an 80's movie marathon next Saturday and a few other things.

As always we get Randi's link collection....
Wong Kar Wai and Martin Scorsese
Life of Brian Debate
Movie script downloads
Film Noir on line
Lowest gross of 2013
Wedgies kill
If you haven't seen it the Simpson's Miyazaki tribute
Joseph Plateau’s Amazing Phenakistoscope
Last Days of Cinerama
Star Wars Crawl Creator

This weeks films are  titles I discovered through All Clues No Solutions