2nd Quadrant 9/24 '07

The Approval Matrix: Week of September 24, 2007

Sonya Walger as Carolyn in
“Tell Me You Love Me”

A provocative and honest exploration of intimacy, “Tell Me You Love Me,” offers an unfiltered look at three couples as they navigate critical periods in their lives. With a candidness that breaks conventional boundaries, creator Cynthia Mort examines the moments – both significant and everyday – that form the basis and language of each relationship.

Meanwhile, mid-thirties couple Carolyn and Palek (Sonya Walger and Adam Scott), comes to learn how much their efforts to become parents and their inability to conceive has strained the intangible connections between them. (HBO)

April MacIntyre of Monsters and Critics says, "Tell Me You Love Me" (8 p.m. Sunday, HBO) is frighteningly depressing for a show with loads of sex, in fact, it makes Showtime’s “Californication” look like an after school special with regards to the bits and bobs we get to see.”

Kelli O'Hara in “South Pacific”

The Lincoln Center Theater revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's “South Pacific” will welcome “The Light in the Piazza's” Kelli O'Hara back to the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater. O'Hara will portray Nellie Forbush, the role created by the late Mary Martin.

Two-time Tony nominee O'Hara will be reunited with “Light in the Piazza” director Bartlett Sher, who will helm the Lincoln Center revival, the first since the musical's Broadway debut in 1949.

Kelli O'Hara was most recently on Broadway in the Tony-winning revival of “The Pajama Game,” earning a Tony nomination for her performance as Babe. She was also Tony-nominated for her work as Clara in “The Light in the Piazza.” O'Hara's other Broadway credits include “Jekyll & Hyde,” “Follies,” “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Dracula, the Musical.” She was also recently seen in the Reprise! staging of “Sunday in the Park with George.” (Playbill)

“South Pacific” will run from March 1, 2008 to June 15, 2008.

Tropfest@Tribeca

Tropfest@Tribeca, created by Tribeca Enterprises and John Polson, founder of Tropfest – the world’s largest short film festival – announced today that 16 finalists will be chosen to compete for the Target Filmmaker Award of an unrestricted cash prize of $10,000 and two round trip tickets on to Australia, home of the original Tropfest, from Qantas Airways and Tourism Australia. Target will present Tropfest@Tribeca on Sunday, September 23, 2007 where the selected films will premiere at a free public outdoor festival, held at the World Financial Center Plaza, alongside the Hudson River. The films will be judged onsite by a jury of well-known actors and filmmakers to be announced at a later date. (Independent Film)

ENTERTAINMENT BEGINS AT 5:00 pm
FILMS COMMENCE AT 8:00 pm.

George Saunders'
The Braindead Megaphone

Jason Kottke relates that, "The title essay of George Saunders' The Braindead Megaphone invites the reader to imagine a person at a party with a megaphone. Megaphone Guy might not have much to say, but he's got a megaphone and so he is heard, his utterances setting the agenda for the entire party, the party's collective intelligence (its crowd-like wisdom if you want to put it that way) determined by the intelligence of Megaphone Guy. Before long, it ruins the party because the other guests will stop being guests and become passive "reactors-to-the-Guy."

Joseph Sullivan at BDR goes on to say that, "George Saunders' first collection of essays is out, and before you say "What the HELL is that?", read something that Saunders wrote on his Amazon.com blog:

"The central premise of the title essay in my new book, The Braindead Megaphone, is this: Our cultural discourse is being dumbed-down by mass-media prose that is written too quickly, and therefore fails to due justice to the complexity of the world."

And now think about the latest newscast you watched and tell me that this design doesn't hit all the right notes: ugly graphics, interchangeable talking heads, and most importantly, a real schizoid aesthetic that speaks directly to the way news is created and reported."

David Foster Wallace's intro to
The Best American Essays 2007

Crazymonk says, "In typical Wallacean fashion, he [David Foster Wallace] spends most of the time unpacking the meaning of the collection's title, and expounding on his selection methodology as "the Decider."

Excerpt: Part of our emergency is that it's so tempting to do this sort of thing now, to retreat to narrow arrogance, pre-formed positions, rigid filters, the "moral clarity" of the immature. The alternative is dealing with massive, high-entropy amounts of info and ambiguity and conflict and flux; it's continually discovering new areas of personal ignorance and delusion. In sum, to really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time, and to need help.

The full intro to The Best American Essays 2007 can be read here.

2007 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition

This annual show features new works by the Park's current resident artists: Tim Clifford, Linda Ganjian, Vandana Jain, Ken Landauer, Caroline Mak, Greg Martin, Ohad Meromi, Rachel Owens, Ricky Sears, Shane Aslan Selzer, Changamire Semakokiro and Brian Wondergem. Representing a broad range of materials, working methods and subject matter, the diverse sculptural works in this exhibition are presented against the Park's spectacular waterfront view of the Manhattan skyline. (NYC.gov)

Sep 24, 2007 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: At the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City.
By subway, take the N or W train to Broadway (Queens), walk 8 blocks west on Broadway to the intersection of Vernon Boulevard.