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Watch: Bebe Buell’s “By a Woman” Is the “I Am Woman” of 2018, the Witty, Catchy Rallying Cry of #MeToo and #TimesUp

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What the world needs now is a strong, fun anthem for 2018 that echoes Helen Reddy’s 70s hit “I Am Woman.”

That would be “By a Woman,” hilarious, witty, and catchy, by Bebe Buell, one of the great female rockers of all time. It’s out today as part of her rocking new album, “Baring it All: Greetings from Nashbury Park.” Bebe recorded the album in Nashville and Asbury Park, New Jersey with some of the best musicians in the country.

After three decades of making and inspiring music (a lot of classic rock songs by people like Elvis Costello are either about her or influenced by her) Bebe sat down with husband Jim Wallerstein to make her equivalent of Marianne Faithfull’s “Broken English.” The result is a breakthrough that mixes politics and personal history, much like the shows she’s been doing in Nashville and at New York’s Joe’s Pub.

“Baring it All” is one of the best produced rock albums I’ve heard in a long time. Wallerstein’s band is guitar driven and very melodic. They find all the rhythm and catch the waves of Buell’s vocal nuances. Several of the songs– “Invisible” is a stand out, so is “Coming to a Head” — and the lyrics will send fans back to Buell’s memoir, “Rebel Heart,” to figure out who’s who while your head is bopping to the music.

But “By a Woman” is right on for right now, and radio stations should get a kick out of it. My favorite lyrics:

Joan of Arc, made her mark, now that’s a woman/Golda Meir, walked without fear, what a woman/

When they tell you you can’t win/Don’t take it on the chin/You gotta dive right in/Cause you’re a woman

“Baring it All” is out today on all formats including Spotify.

WSMV News 4

 

 

Broadway: “Hello, Dolly!” Will Close August 25th After Bette Midler Makes a 6 Week Return at Top Dollar

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Well, what else can you do?

“Hello, Dolly!” has been playing to respectable houses since January when Bernadette Peters took over. Peters, many feel, is made a better Dolly Levi and a better show after Bette Midler played for months at hundreds and thousands of dollars a ticket for a show that was more like “Hello, Bette!”

But now, obviously, the returns are good enough. So producer Scott Rudin will close “Hello, Dolly!” on August 25th– but not before Midler returns for six weeks beginning July 17th. That should double the box office and give everyone involved one last big cash grab before they sing “So Long, Dearie.”

Peters and her cast deserve a standing ovation. After seeing Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, and Pearl Bailey at different times in my young life, Peters was just sensational. Bette Midler was, well, a superstar in the role. Interesting that Rudin is giving up before the fall season starts and “King Kong” and other fascinations come to town. Plus, he’s got “Carousel” running, “My Fair Lady” is up at Lincoln Center, and attention must be stretched for “classic” musicals. In the dead of summer, Midler will certainly draw business away from those shows.

 

Sting Sends Support to DACA Dreamers with “Dreaming in the USA” on New Album with Reggae Star Shaggy

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You get a lot when you’re a Sting fan– great rock and reggae, and then a potential private show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Today Sting and reggae star Shaggy release their joint venture, “44/876,” a collection of songs that stick like the best earwigs in your head. I’m in love with one, “Dreaming in the USA,” that could be the DACA theme song. I hope news of it spreads quickly to immigrants everywhere as a clarion call of support. Sting, who has always reached out with a “One World” philosophy gets it — this is the anthem for a movement.

Two of the songs on “44/876have already appeared as singles– the bouncy “Don’t Make Me Wait” and “Morning is Coming” bring out Sting’s best singing with Shaggy’s rhythmic grooves seem effortless but listen to them–the” y’re clever collaborations.

One of the songs on “44/876” is listed as a bonus track. But “If You Can’t Find Love” sounds like such a hit I hope it finds a chart life fast. It’s what we used to call a “perfect single” and as good as anything from Sting’s solo greatest hits. I defy anyone not to fall in love with this song. I’m also in love with a number called “Gotta Get Back My Baby,” a delicious duet that, again, should lodge itself in your head for a long time.

At this point in his career Sting has nothing to prove. At a shocking 66 years old (he looks at least 20 years younger), he just keeps looking for ways to engage his talent. Hooking up with Shaggy is an intriguing idea because Sting’s original music with the Police was so reggae infused. On “44/876” he’s gone to the source– Shaggy is huge in the reggae world, we just knew him once for his pop hit, “It Wasn’t Me.” They make for a cool combo.

And they aren’t fooling around, that’s clear from the title track that opens this set. Shaggy sets the tone, making it abundantly clear that Sting is deferring to the expert. It’s the way Sting has always integrated international music, with a respectful bow. The listener wins because we learn a little while we’re dancing.

Following this DACA idea and being global, Sting is also doing something unusual next week– he’s performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in honor of the great Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole (1801-48). The Hudson River School painters were “dreamers” too– just look at their dreams in their stunning operas of nature on canvas.

Details for “Sting: Atlantic Crossing” are here. One of the perks, besides hearing Sting perform in an intimate setting and seeing the Cole paintings (they are magnificent) is seeing a mini-show of a stunning forthcoming art book pairing by Sting and modern Hudson River-type landscape artist Stephen Hannock called “The Last Ship from the River of the Northern City.”

 

Spineless Ted Cruz Writes Tribute to Donald Trump Who Attacked His Wife During Presidential Campaign, Implied His Father Involved in JFK Assassination

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Ted Cruz– it’s hard to believe to he’s still functioning as an independent adult and not tied up in a strait jacket somewhere.

For the new Time 100 — yes, they still have it — Cruz has written a tribute to Donald Trump. Let’s not forget that Trump threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, and implied that Cruz’s father had something to do with the assassination of JFK.

Cruz writes, really, I am not kidding:

President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature.

The same cultural safe spaces that blinkered coastal elites to candidate Trump’s popularity have rendered them blind to President Trump’s achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans. While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families. While wealthy celebrities announced that they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. While talking heads predicted Armageddon, President Trump’s strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong Un back on his heels.

President Trump is doing what he was elected to do: disrupt the status quo. That scares the heck out of those who have controlled Washington for decades, but for millions of Americans, their confusion is great fun to watch.

So sad to watch Ted Cruz, who was just plain crazy before Trump now completely crazy with the fruit mixed in. It’s just as sad to watch Marco Rubio, whom Trump belittled into the ground, showing up for event after event like a mistreated dog at the pound.

Amy Schumer Heading for a Real Trainwreck with Poorly Reviewed, Unfocused “I Feel Pretty”

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Remember the really fun comedy “Trainwreck”? Judd Apatow directed Amy Schumer to a blockbuster three years ago. The hit film made over $100 million and put Schumer on the map so brilliantly that she just canceled her own TV show and took for stardom.

Well, times have changed. Schumer’s new movie, “I Feel Pretty,” opens on Friday and it looks like it’s going to be an actual train wreck (or a figurative one, really). Rotten Tomatoes has it at 35% — very rotten — and only 72% of those asked want to see it.

I can’t even figure out what “I Feel Pretty” is supposed to be from the commercials, and there’s no buzz whatsoever. This follows up Amy’s really terrible movie with Goldie Hawn from last year, “Snatched,” which had a 36% on RT and made $45 million — mostly for the novelty of having Hawn back in a movie.

“Trainwreck” was a lot of fun but it was also shaped and guided by Apatow. “I Feel Pretty” comes from what we’d call B or C level directors Abby Kohn and Mark Silverstein. It’s also a bad sign that Universal, the studio that gave us “Trainwreck,” didn’t want this one.

Back to the drawing board!

Cannes Adds Lars von Trier Film Out of Competition, Closing Night Goes to Terry Gilliam’s Long Awaited “Don Quixote”

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The Cannes Film Festival just added a couple of films to the line up.

Lars von Trier has been invited back, but out of competition, for his “The House That Jack Built” starring Riley Keough, Uma Thurman and Matt Dillon. von Trier was expelled from Cannes several years after making anti-Semitic, pro Nazi comments, and observing that he’d like “to make a porno” with his female stars of the movie “Melancholia.”

I’m told there was quite a brouhaha in allowing him back, and that there was no way he’d be allowed to return in competition. “Jack” is all about a serial killer. Sounds like fun!

Cannes also announced the closing night film would be Terry Gilliam’s long awaited “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” starring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce. The film was begun in 1998, started shooting and then collapsed. By 2000, it was thought to be a dead project. But Gilliam persisted, and picked it up again last year. Now finally we see the movie that inspired the documentary “Lost in La Mancha.”

 

Kanye West, off Twitter for Almost A Year, Returns Spewing “Philosophy” Like “Controversy is my gym”: Is he having another breakdown?

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“oh by the way this is my book that I’m writing in real time. No publisher or publicist will tell me what to put where or how many pages to write. This is not a financial opportunity this is an innate need to be expressive.”

I told you the other day that Kanye West was back on Twitter after nearly a year away. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey even welcomed him back. But things have gone south since then with Kanye spewing “philosophy” and posting at the manic rate right before his 2017 departure. Is he brilliant? (Yes, in a way.) But is he having a manic episode? So far he’s running at 10 Tweets a day, mostly aphoristic one liners.

You do learn a little of how his mind works. Take sampling, a rapper’s main shtick. Kanye writes: too much emphasis is put on originality. Feel free to take ideas and update them at your will all great artist take and update…

find myself getting stuck in the idea of originality and letting my ego push me to say things like “this person stole this from me” and the funny thing is it’ll be a reference I took from somewhere…Cars have four wheels. Hoodies have hoods. It’s amusing to me when some one says this is an original hoodie. Bro… it’s a hoodie

A lot of it is euphoric, which I can’t say I don’t admire.

Be here now. Be in the moment. The now is the greatest moment of our lives and it just keeps getting better. The bad parts the boring parts the parts with high anxiety. Embrace every moment for its greatness. This is life. This is the greatest movie we will ever see.

And there are several references about being lied to, and the value of truth. truth is my goal. Controversy is my gym. I’ll do a hundred reps of controversy for a 6 pack of truth

When Kanye left Twitter last year, it was just as he’d finished several barrages of narrative, attacks, and observations. Since then we haven’t heard much from him. At one point earlier this year he was rumored to have gone to a retreat in the mountains to work on a new album.

It’s not like there’s no reaction at home. Kim Kardashian, his wife and mother of his children, had this exchange with John Legend’s wife, Chrissie Teigen, also on Twitter:

to be continued…

Tina Fey Tears Up Introducing Opening Night Film for Tribeca Fest, Loving Tribute to “SNL” Original Star Gilda Radner

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Lorne Michaels sent Tina Fey to introduce “Love Gilda,” the opening night of the 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival, and she was the right choice. Following opening remarks by Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal, Tina choked up a couple of times as she spoke about Gilda who came before her at “Saturday Night Live” a long, long time ago.

Among the many recognizable faces in the audience at the Beacon Theater: Alan Zweibel, Radner’s close friend and famed “SNL” writer who helped her hatch so many great characters including Roseanne Rosannadanna.

But then unspooled “Love, Gilda” a lovely film by Lisa Dapolito and starring Radner, her late great husband Gene Wilder, and numerous of their friends who were in the audience including Paul Shaffer and Laraine Newman.

Dapolito has done what someone should have long ago– made a lasting tribute to Radner, a memher of the original “SNL” cast who became a superstar literally overnight in 1975 along with Chevy Chase (also in the audience), John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris. (Bill Murray came the second year when Chase left.) It’s kind of amazing to look back now and see the original outtakes, promo interviews, etc and realize how they all became huge that fall and lasted and lasted.

Gilda’s talented is what made her, but she was also in the right place at the right time. She was the funny Jewish girl riding a wave that then had begun with “Rhoda” (a TV character played by Valerie Harper), Bette Midler, and Joan Rivers. When Radner hit the air she was the perfect complement to WASPy Jane Curtin and ethereal Newman. Lorne Michaels had arranged the perfect mix.

Dapolito has a sad story to tell if you already know the ending. Radner would die in 1989 just shy of her 44th birthday ovarian cancer. She was married to Wilder, the love of her life. She’d overcome all kinds of obstacles to achieve her fame and met her illness with real grace and courage. Along the way Dapolito shows, most importantly, her incredible comic genius, the development of her many characters, and still gives a little juice about boyfriends, affairs etc. Who knew, for example, that she dated both Bill Murray and his brother Brian Doyle Murray? Well, it was the 70s.

Fey is not in the movie, but making appearances are Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Cecily Strong, Paul Shaffer, and Martin Short. Of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, only Newman has a new interview, Curtin is MIA. But several of the original writers are there including Zweibel, Ann Beatts, and Rosie Shuster.  The only quibble I had, which Zweibel echoed– I wish the film had ended with Gilda and Steve Martin’s famous dance number in full. Otherwise, “Love, Gilda” is a must-see. CNN has the rights for TV. It’s hoped a smart distributor will pick it up for theatrical distribution and Oscar consideration.

Spotted at the screening and after party at Tavern on the Green: Billy Crystal, Richard Kind, Ray Liotta, Justin Bartha, Carol Alt, Jennifer Westfeldt, Alysia Reiner, Genevieve Angelson, and director Neil Burger, whose really terrific comedy “The Upside” may see the light of day rather sooner than later.

PS Kudos to Dapolito on a slick production–music, animation, etc all top notch. And her access through Gilda’s family to home movies, photos, seals the deal.

 

Music: Forget Cardi B, Imani Scott, Houston’s Next Beyonce, Shouldn’t Be Missed: She’s Got the Voice and the Hits On Her Own

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If you don’t know about Imani Scott, you should. She can saing. She’s also very funny, and her videos are showcase her humor. Scott is Houston born and bred. Her first album, “The Introduction,” is from hot producer-engineer Isaac “Chill” Yowman. Why songs like these aren’t on the radio yet in New York is beyond me:

Yowman knows what he’s doing: he’s got a gold record for working on Beyonce’s “surprise” 2013 self titled album. He also works with Chris Brown. In Imani he’s got a hot singer who can also act and has quite a personality. One listen to “The Introduction” and you’ll be hooked.

“Roseanne” Pulls a “Big Bang” Night: 13 Mil Viewers Watch CBS Star Johnny Galecki’s Return, Killing “NCIS”

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On so many levels CBS cannot be happy with ABC’s “Roseanne.”

The ABC show scored 13 million viewers last night with special guest star Johnny Galecki, returning to “Roseanne.” Galecki is the star of CBS’s “Big Bang Theory,” a ratings colossus.

Second, “Roseanne” beat CBS’s other ratings star “NCIS” by almost two million viewers. For four weeks now, “NCIS” has had to experience defeat at the hands of “Roseanne,” which is not something they’re used to.

Galecki’s episode was actually down in total viewers from last week by 765,000 pairs of eyes. But the overall number is still impressive. And ABC is getting women– they rated a 17 in the key demo. Women are watching and buying.

“Roseanne,” meantime, has left its political bent from the premiere, retreating into more standard fare. Galecki’s episode explained where his character, David, has been — failing at life, having a girlfriend, etc. He won’t be back again this season. If “Big Bang” ever finishes up he could come back for good.