I'm Loving Every Minute of It...

     I didn't realize until this weekend that I was in desperate need of some new music. In the midst of Christmas songs and country radio, I was yearning for a new sound. I found it yesterday. John Mayer world premiered his new song on Facebook live this weekend and as the lyrics say, "...I'm loving every minute of it..." The simplicity of Love on the Weekend is just that, it's about squeezing more time in with your main squeeze... on the weekend. That's it, just a sample love song. The song is the perfect mix of the ethereal beauty of  Heartbreak Warfare (2009- Battle Studies) and the breezy nonchalance of Wildfire (2013- Paradise Valley), I'm excited to see where Mayer's new sound will take us in 2017. 

Swept Away - TV's Missing It's Primetime

     November has long been known as one of the truly glorious months in television. Once upon a time, this month, along with February and season-ending May were the big months to watch. This tradition dates as far back as the 1950's where Nielsen numbers measured how many viewers watched a program. Data these days breaks it down even more by age, gender and other factors.  These months measured viewership and would eventually determined advertising rates for shows. The more popular a program, the more money they could get. This was long before the "big game" was raking in millions per commercial.

     In today's day and age, we could lose a favorite character at any turn, and long-absent guests are just as likely to pop up in September as they are midway into the season. While I'm still hopelessly behind on all of my shows, there have been a fair amount of times this month when nothing much is going on. Take Election day, Thanksgiving day and Black Friday, all three guaranteed weeknights this month to show repeats. What happens when we head to December?

Image from Giphy

   
     First, The "Winter Finales" will come. Much like the ghost of Christmas past, the WF will leave us on either a satisfying resolution for the year, or utter shock. The idea comes from British shows such as The Office or Downton Abbey, which often end the season with a Christmas themed episode. It's time for Christmas specials (not the special Yuletide-themed episodes like our favorite 90's shows, but events like "Michael Buble's Christmas" and "CMA Country Christmas."  Much to my surprise, Shonda Thursdays  are ending their first part of the season this week with what promises to be a grand,earth-shattering, Winter conclusion. This is a nice way of saying we won't see Grey's Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder or the not-looking-promising for renewal Notorious until Scandal comes a calling, which is about two months from now. There will be a full two months with nothing new from most of our favorite shows. What kind of present is that?

Stay tuned for a post on the best 90's themed Christmas episodes.

Rocky Horror-ish

Image from WiffleGif

     Six years ago, FOX took a chance on the Rocky Horror Picture Show (Subtitled Let's do The Time Warp Again) via an episode of GLEE. I gave it a fairly favorable review at the time (in my defense, the episode had John Stamos), but I could see where the story lacked definition and guts. After viewing the TV movie reboot from a few weeks ago, I still have same of the same qualms. In 2016, "RH" is not much of a shocker. I think that may be the overall problem with the musical. There's something so hokey about the 1975 version that is lost on today's audiences. We're  much more jaded, unlike innocent Brad and Janet. We're not at all shocked when Dr. Frank-N-Furter  (Laverne Cox) stabs beloved rocker Eddie (Adam Lambert) and pushed him out an open window. When Janet (Victoria Justice) begs perfect man specimen Rocky to "Touch-a touch-a touch me" in her skirt slip and bra, she's covered more than Britney Spears on stage in Las Vegas.

Image from Nerdist

     For good measure, the "Time warp" dance was good, but it looked tame compared to 90 percent of the stage performances at the 2016 MTV VMAs. We don't even bat an eye over songs like "Sweet Transvestite." In short, it was a decent production, but nothing really special  because the first "RH" broke the mold. It's too campy to be taken seriously as a  new movie. The beauty of a live performance of Rocky is the audience interaction, which took on a life of it's own. The team attempted to represent this by showing extras in a movie theater watching the scenes from time to time and reacting as an audience at a live show would. For someone not familiar with the musical, it would come off as confusing and odd that they were cutting to people throwing popcorn at a marriage proposal between the Doc and Rocky. I also think they strangely left out a lot of the parts in songs where the audience yells out things to the cast. They could have put these notes on the screen, like the "Hand Jive" instructions for Grease Live. My summation on January's production is coming soon, and looking more favorable every day I think about "RH."

BOTTOM LINE:
     The costumes were as expected, the singing was good, and the casting was adequate. There was one notable exception of Rocky, who seemed to clomp like an elephant one moment, and deftly maneuver around a bed the next. I liked the rendition of the "pool" scene in this version more than in the older movie. Quite honestly, most of that scene should be cut. It comes at a part of the movie when everyone is sensing it's filler. My recommendation is to stick with a live action version being acted out along with the movie. I'll give this version a solid 2.75 out of 5 stars. I bumped it up from 2.5 because of how sad and uncomfortable stroke survivor Tim Rice (the original Dr. Frank) looked as the narrator.

Pushing the Season

This morning I recieved an e-mail that said "Christmas Starts Now" in the title. Note that today is November 1st. Christmas is now 54 days away. Could we wait a week or two before we get taken over by the spirit?