Crazytown

IF THERE COULD BE ONLY ONE...

Apparently I've missed having TV in my life, especially HBO and Showtime.
By Jen Littlefield (Librettist/Choreographer) 

A few weeks ago, I moved to the Upper East Side to live with my best friend, whom I've known since junior high school, and whom I lived with in Brooklyn for six years. One amazing and time-consuming part of our relationship was watching fantastic TV series together. He has a huge collection of DVDs, and we would systematically watch shows that had long been cancelled, in addition to the new ones we DVRed and became obsessed with together. Some of my favorites included Gilmore Girls, Felicity (Team Ben or Team Noel, screw Edward and Jacob), Six Feet Under, Arrested Development, and Weeds. I mean come on, awkward Alexis Bledel, confused and searching Kerri Russel, the tragic Fishers and the ridiculous Bluthes, and Nancy f*cking Botwin. 

What a better way to bond? These were our stories and we watched them together religiously.

Cut to last week in our new apartment for two, and an added subscription to Showtime complete with OnDemand. Let's talk about this for a second - are you guys as obsessed with the shows on this network as we are? I've been out of the TV loop for a while, but I circled right back in as my roomie caught up on the last seasons of SO MANY AMAZING SHOWS. Seriously - Nurse Jackie, Californication, Shameless, Homeland, and I haven't even started the Borgias, which I hear is pretty great too. 

And then I got to thinking, if you could only have one premium channel EVER, which one would you choose? We chose Showtime because we both have friends' subscriptions to HBO Go. BUT WHAT IF YOU COULD ONLY HAVE ONE? Which one is better? Showtime? HBO? (Sorry Skinemax, you don't factor into this discussion) And how do you compare current shows against past shows? Do you pick greatness now, or go for the promise of potential based on past brilliance? Let's break it down:
(for length, I'm only dealing in scripted shows on a weekly basis, no movies or mini-series)

THE KOREANS ARE INVADING!!!

We’ve all been so worried that North Korea would launch an attack against the U.S., that no one seems to notice that we’ve already been invaded… by South Korea.

By David Davila (playwright/songwriter)

 

This week I was almost trampled to death by a bunch of obsessed teenagers who were trying to get a peek at their favorite boy band. No, it wasn’t One Direction. No, it wasn’t The Wanted, or Justin Bieber, or any other rag-tag group of little white twinks. It was someone I had never heard of, and I’ve never felt so old… but I’m getting ahead of myself. This phenomenon starts with Psy.

You all heard the song, you saw the viral video, you did the silly little dance at that Pub the other night. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t, there was proof on Instagram! We all got caught up in Gangnam style. It’s a catchy song with a crazy little video to match. Psy seemed to pop out of nowhere with his unique image, and enthusiasm for sexy Korean women and wild dance moves. It’s infectious, and the infection has spread across the world as Psy’s video for his first U.S. single (18^th K-Pop single), became the most watched video on YouTube, toppling Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in a matter of weeks. It has 1.5 BILLION views! That’s a sixth of the entire world population!

Psy not only sold millions of albums in the U.S., he also did something much more important. He created a viral portal that has been connecting teenagers around the world to Korean pop music, also known as K-Pop, one YouTube click at a time. Now the portal is wide open and Billboard has even started counting down the top K-Pop songs of each week, which brings me back to the mob of screaming teens.

B.A.P. is not like any other boy band you’ve encountered in your life. Well, okay they’re a lot like every other boy band from what I can tell. They’re a group of six hot young twinkish boys who sing really well, and dance even better, but they have a distinct brand that will help them gain more male fans than your standard Backstreet Boys milieu. B.A.P. are all Korean gangsters!

 
(When you watch this video you'll understand why the teens were freaking out. It's pretty effing bad ass!!!! DAMMNNNNN!!!!! B.A.P. - One Shot)

WHY I LOVE VINE

How creative can you be in 6 seconds?
By Kimberly Lew (Playwright/Blogger)

Though I am a firm believer in the digital revolution and our need to adapt to these changing times, I will admit that sometimes it seems like social media is out of control. There are new platforms popping up everyday-- and the truth of the matter is, even as someone who loves the idea of marketing and being a part of a social (albeit digital) community, I'm a strong believer that not everyone needs to be on every big social media platform.

 

Maybe this is why I was so resistant to Vine, the video-driven social media platform that allows people to post 6-second videos to a personal feed (and Facebook and Twitter). Basically, it's a video version of Twitter.

Okay, but wait! Hold your Liz Lemon eyeroll for just one moment. Because while I once shared in your skepticism, I now have to admit that I am a true believer. I am a Vine convert.

Why do I love Vine? Let me count the ways:

HEY NYC, WHERE ARE WE DRINKING OUTSIDE THIS SUMMER?

Mother's Day happened, Arrested Development Season 4 is about to happen (!!!!!), and I'd just really like a cold beverage.
By Alisha Giampola (Actor) 

It's finally almost Memorial Day, and while I'm just as guilty as the next New Yorker of spending most of the summer defaulting to Blockheads, this city is full of absolutely fabulous places to get your drink on al fresco. Not the least of which, of course, is Central Park. Read this and learn how to not get caught while guzzling champagne out of a Whole Foods bag.

Or you could just go ahead and skip any unnecessary steps and have a sensible flight of beer IN a Whole Foods, like fellow Crazytowner and classy lady Erin Sjostrom and I are about to do in this picture. 

Out of this fantastic selection, which place am I most excited about? Gallow Green, obvi. My obsession with Sleep No More knows literally no bounds. They also recommend a few places I personally have been and loved, including Berry Park, which makes some of the best Dark and Stormys on the planet. This list is also pretty thorough and because they also repeat-recommend both Gallow Green and Berry Park, I feel like we can trust it.

Outdoor drinking is one of the good things New Yorkers have to compensate them for having to live in the sixth circle of hell that is New York City during the summer. And by that, I mean that temperatures on the subway platform actually rival the sixth circle of hell. 

Drinking inside in the summer is great too. That most sacred of New Yorker experiences, Brunch, is a great thing to enjoy in an air conditioned space, since you probably are going to have upwards of 5 beverages in front of you (coffee, juice, mimosa, water, bloody mary, tea, etc) and also possibly an omelette. 

 
I used to really like this song. And then I waited tables for a while.

THE GAYS HAVE GONE VIRAL: Part 2

It's been many months since I last reported on all the fantastical web series about gay life gracing the interweb, and I've had a blast watching them all.... here are my new faves.

by David Davila (playwright/songwriter)

Last year I complained about the lack of a television show like Queer As Folk filled with tons of hot gay love scenes and melodrama. This year I feel about the same. SMASH, HAPPY ENDINGS, and THE NEW NORMAL were all canceled and we're left back where we started thirteen years ago before QAF graced our televisions with beautiful bums. Luckily there are a ton of great new shows popping up every day on the internet to keep us satisfied.

If you're as upset as me about the cancelation of SMASH, then look no further than Wesley Taylor's new web series, IT COULD BE WORSE, featuring the entire cast of SMASH (give or take a Jennifer Hudson). This show about the misadventures of a hot young gay (Taylor) who has the worst/most-awesome life ever, is pretty addictive. I watched most of it in one sitting... but now I have to wait for the final few episodes to air to get my "happy ending...?"

  

My absolute favorite new webseries is THE OUTS. You've probably already heard about it, because it's amazingly wonderful and should be picked up by network TV. It's such a delight and every cast member is a natural star. This show is legit, and I obsessively watched every episode last night when I should have been editing this article.

 

FABULOUS HIGH is a new web series created by Derek Villanueva (LONG HORNS) about the life of high school kids and teachers... It's your regular 90210 stuff... but with all the gay stuff you wished would happen when Dylan and Brandon were fighting over Kelly. In my version Dylan and Brandon blew off Kelly and made out instead.

 

ONE LESS LONELY GIRL

Never Say Never? How about Never Say Anything?
By Alisha Giampola (Actor) 

You guys. Since the news broke that Justin Bieber was getting his WWII history on in Amsterdam and wrote a slightly awkward entry in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House, I'm sure you've all been wondering sleeplessly if Anne Frank would, in fact, have been a 'belieber' as Justin hoped. If you have somehow missed this amazing moment in American pop culture, and have not yet become alarmed that possibly no one under the age of 20 knows anything about Anne Frank, or you know, World War II, please take a moment to catch yourself up.

(And I really cannot even discuss right now that Justin Bieber was born in 1994, because that just makes me feel HORRIFYINGLY OLD. I need to procure a lawn, so I can start yelling at people to stay off of it.)  

To the credit of pretty much everyone on the planet, most people reacted on a spectrum between outrage and irritated disbelief at Bieber's comment, although 50 Cent had the Beib's back. In all fairness, if we ever hoped to discover what was on the mind of a teenage Jewish girl during the Holocaust, 50 Cent's guess is probably as good as anyone's. Also, it's pretty clear that Bieber's comments were made in fairly profound ignorance, as he doesn't even know who the Germans are, let alone the Nazis.

And then, Anne's own posthumous stepsister, Eva Schloss, steps forward and makes the ultimate defense for Bieber's comment. Eva constructs this very scientific logical syllogism for us: all 15 year old girls love Justin Bieber, Anne Frank was (and will eternally be) a 15 year old girl, therefore Anne Frank would have loved Justin Bieber. 

“Tell me what you like girl, tell me what you don’t.
I could be your Buzz Lightyear, fly across the globe.”

THE COST OF STEALING

If you're going to start stealing, might as well make good art with it
By Joanna Syiek (Director/Producer/Blogger)

The thing no one tells you about being creative? The rules are a lot more malleable than we think. Remember everyday-shakeup-and-creative-initiator Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist?

He argues that everything is stolen. And that every creative knows this fact. Art is remix. 

Last week NPR released a case-study in the remix via the First-Listen of the new Gatsby album. My favorites of the tracks are those that fuse the vintage and contemporary elements. In interviews with Luhrmann, the director of the film releaved that he was loate to have the album be entirely '20s throwback tunes, stating that the book is so entirely steeped in the music of its time, it near to drips the jazz age. To have the movie come out in 2013 without a nod to modern music would have rung false to Gatsby's nature. 

Thus he chose Jay-Z to score the film - ensuring that the film felt just as hip and "of-the-time" as dear Gatsby himself. The result is a fab mix of old and new that help usher the character into this modern era with ease. 

Take a listen to one of the tracks, Bang Bang (will.i.am) which borrows lovingly from old school motifs:

 

JOANNA SYIEK is a Los Angeles-based music junkie with a penchant for long road trips, original theatre work, clean graphic design, and really good Indian food. She directs around the City of Angels and writes about nourishing creativity, Broadway favorites, and talent obsessions over on her blogging home. www.thoughtsontheatre.wordpress.com
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I LOVE U, MISSED CONNECTIONS!!

DO YOU FEEL THE SAME I HOPE SO PLZ RESPOND
By Alisha Giampola (Actor) 

The Missed Connections feature of Craigslist provides one of the more fascinating studies of modern human social behavior. If somehow the entire Internet could be encased in a fossil record that future homo sapeins, or aliens, or cockroaches could dig up 3,000 years from now, Missed Connections would surely become the focus of future college sociology classes. (I do really love thinking about this scenario. Will these future universe-dwellers think we worshipped cheeseburger-eating cats? Will they think The Onion was actually America's Finest News Source?)

When archeologists found graffiti on the walls of Pompeii we were reminded that people have pretty much always been exactly the same and that we have always been obsessed with approximately one thing: sex. I like to think of Missed Connections as the Pompeii-graffiti of the new millenium. Hastily scrawled, misspelled, grammatically horrific and pretty much always hoping to get laid.

If you've ever been out in public, it's possible that you've been a part of a missed connection! That chick at the coffee shop you accidentally brushed elbows with? The dude you always see on the train coming home from work that you think is totally gorgeous? Perhaps they are fantasizing about you too. Want to find out? All you need is an internet connection! Basically, if you are reading this right now, you already have all the tools required to find the love of your life! Missed Connections contains all the thoughts on the minds of everyone we have ever accidentally bumped into on the street, be they M4W, W4M, M4M or W4W. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Some friends of mine from college had the inspired idea a couple years ago to mine this hilarious treasure trove of comedy and created a show that is pretty much exactly what you have always wanted to see: comedians reading Missed Connections on a stage in a venue that serves alcohol. 

The creator-performers of Missed Connections: The Show. From L to R: Jake McKenna, Jennifer Jean Anderson, Ricky Dunlop and Lauren Roth. I had the pleasure of going to school with these cool people. 

COMMERCIAL INTEREST: TIMOTHY RYAN COLE

By RSO

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I do watch a lot of the same TV.  Mostly CNN, Comedy Central, HGTV.  Shit Matt watches.

Because of this, I end up seeing the same commercials over and over again.  I become really fond of the commercials, and eventually fall in love with some of the guys in those commercials.  What!?  It happens. 

One of my commercial boyfriends is Timothy Ryan Cole.  This guy:

Don't recognize him?  How about now?

Not yet?  You know him, believe me.  How about now:

 

Okay, he looks familiar right?  This is why:

 

 

Yep, he's "JIMMY" in the "Happier than" Geico Commercial Series.  A little nerdy, kinda short, facial hair (usually), and oh he's a musician?  I'll buy car insurance from you anytime Mr. Cole.

RYAN SCOTT OLIVER wrote the music and lyrics for Darling, Mrs. Sharp, 35mm, Jasper in Deadland and more. www.ryanscottoliver.com
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GOATS!

This week's hottst internet trend comes from the farm.
By Jaye Hunt (goat enthusiast)

By now, you've probably seen at least one of these videos where someone takes a song and mixes in goats screaming. If you haven't, welcome to the deepest pit you will ever fall into on youtube. Objectively, these videos shouldn't be that funny; every one is basically the same and the goats are actually pretty annoying. But for some reason, I laugh my ass off at every single one. In fact, I've seen so many that I've come to consider myself an expert on the subject. Here are a few of my favorites: