I loved the movie Once.
So much that I boycotted the musical when it opened off-Broadway . The original stars weren’t in it — how could the musical compare?
My heart was closed.
Then the show moved to Broadway, and the TV commercials began. Yes, ‘guy’ and ‘girl’ were different, but their voices, the harmonies were as beautiful as the movie that inspired them. So I decided to give the show a shot.
Last night I was in the audience for Once on Broadway. I loved the staging, a working Irish bar — they even served drinks during intermission — that was transformed throughout the evening by creative lighting. Every actor also played an instrument, so there was no orchestra pit.
Most importantly, every voice, every note was perfection. There were a lot of tears in the audience. (People were talking about it as they left the theatre, so it wasn’t just me.)
The only thud in the production — which occurred at the start of the play and made me sad — was the playwright’s need to ‘funny up’ the script, making the characters extreme stereotypes of themselves. This was especially true of ‘girl,’ who was a quirky, jokey one-liner, which was counter to her gentle spirit in the movie.
But once she and ‘guy’ began to sing, she softened and the music drove the show, as it did the movie.
And all was forgiven.
I have always been aware of this restriction. But there will come a night — like tonight, Sunday night — when I have three shows in one given time slot that I want to watch and/or record.
Play big!
Over the weekend, students at MIT hacked the Green Building on campus and made it play Tetris.
It’s not the first time a college building’s lights have been hijacked. Students at Brown University and Delft University in the Netherlands pulled off similar stunts years earlier.
But it’s still pretty darn fun.
And I think New York City should consider itself challenged — not the colleges per se, but all the wonderfully tall buildings that occupy downtown and bring in millions of tourists each year.
Sure, we have dancing snowflakes on the side of the Sax Fifth Avenue Building each Christmas, but I’m talking bigger. Taller. Faster.
We know you can vary the lights at the very tip-top to reflect the seasons. How about using the lights on the side of the building to create the biggest video game in the world?
If you don’t do it, I’ll bet there’s a hacker out there who will.
Game on.
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