Fresh Loaf

Deleted or unused scenes can be the primary selling points as value-adding extras on DVDs. Frequently, however, scenes were deleted for good reason: they’re inessential or not as good as the “keepers” that made the final cut. Sometimes they get restored for longer versions of movies on disc, but the “director’s cut” is seldom better than the original cut (with rare exceptions including James Cameron’s The Abyss).

Perhaps the gold standard for deleted material belongs to the “The Office,” NBC’s hit version of the British workplace sitcom. The newly released DVD set for “The Office’s” fourth season boasts two hours of deleted scenes, and they make even weak episodes worth revisiting. The “Arrested Development” discs also have good ones, but not in the quantity as “The Office.” Every episode seems to have around five minutes of unused comedy (up to twice that for the show’s hour-long or “supersized” installments), conveniently packaged alongside the installments in question. Here’s a little bit from the “Fun Run” episode that’s probably superfluous, but still amusing:

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On Aug. 26, a Grady Memorial Hospital surpervisor’s car busted through the front of Cabbagetown Clay & Glassworks. The nonprofit artists’ co-op’s front end and part of its roof were completely demolished.

A spaghetti dinner fundraiser takes place tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 6 to help get the studio off the ground — literally. The group doesn’t receive any outside funding, says resident artist Heather Cunningham. “We share the space equally, share the rent and utilities and we will do the best we can to keep the organization together,” Cunningham stated in an e-mail.

In the interim, the building’s landlady has made the vacant space next door available to the artists.

Event info: $15.50. 6-9 p.m. Stone Soup Kitchen, 584 Woodward Ave. 404-524-1222. ccgw.eventbrite.com/.

For more info about the event and donations, contact Cunningham at 404- 444-0534 or heather@artreverie.com.

(Photo by Heather Cunningham)

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chatting about this weekend’s upcoming shows including Aimee Man at the Variety Playhouse (Fri., Sept. 5), Dr. Dog at the Earl (Sat., Sept. 6), and the All Shot Up benefit concert for Christopher Stahle at the Drunken Unicorn featuring Rizzudo (Sat., Sept. 6).

Check out Sound Menu for a more comprehensive list of upcoming shows.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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This week I write about the High Museum’s latest program in its “Iranian Film Today” series, its 11th annual celebration of the vibrant cinema of Iran. Based on the screeners for the three films I watched, however, Iranian film might have an Achilles’ Heel: the subtitles. All three films had some kind of glitch with the English-language subtitles. Persian Carpet suffered from the least consequential problem: the subtitles were white letters with no borders, so if the characters happened to be wearing white clothes or standing in colorless landscapes, their words turned invisible. (Austin Powers in Goldmember made an elaborate gag about that kind of snafu.)

Unfinished Stories (pictured) included many of the kind of typos that resemble spellcheck errors. Among the actual lines I read in the film were:

1. A young woman orders “a stake sandwich” at a restaurant.
2. Two different characters “sewer to God” that they’re being honest.
3. “We were chocked up.”
4. “He thinks the boggy man is going to get him.” (Actually, that would probably be as bad as the bogey man.)
5. “But I don’t know anywhere!”
6. “Sir, clime in.”

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Curt Holman chatting about the annual Iranian Film Today series taking place at the High Museum. Films include Unfinished Stories (Sat., Sept. 13), A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral (Fri., Sept. 12) and Persian Carpet (Sat., Sept. 6).

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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This week, CL Charlotte film critic Matt Brunson reviews the special edition release of the Coen brothers’ 1998 The Big Lebowski, as well as the French film Brotherhood of the Wolf, the two-disc edition of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas and more.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998). Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski may be sloppy, repetitious and occasionally abrasive, but it’s also imaginative, sharp-witted and ofttimes very, very funny. Jeff Bridges plays Jeff Lebowski, an unkempt pothead who calls himself “The Dude.” An avid bowler – he spends his days knocking down pins with his buddies (John Goodman and Steve Buscemi) – The Dude finds his life turned upside down when a couple of thugs mistake him for L.A.’s other Jeff Lebowski: the incapacitated millionaire (David Huddleston) whose sexpot wife Bunny (Tara Reid) ends up getting kidnapped. Read the rest here.

(Photo courtesy Walt Disney Home Entertainment)

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Curt Holman giving a round up of the upcoming fall 2008 theater season, featuring Theatrical Outfit’s Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Sept. 10-Oct. 5), Horizon Theatre’s Altar Boyz (Sept. 12-Nov. 16), 7 Stages’ The Little Prince (Sept. 27-Oct. 26) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Oct. 18-Nov. 2), and Full Circle, the Alliance Theatre’s two-play/one-cast repertory of August Wilson’s The Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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Sometimes it’s hard to tell when the seasons change down South. If the thermometer were your only guide, it might not feel like autumn until Thanksgiving. Luckily, Atlanta’s cultural scene is rich enough to draw the line between summer and fall. From state fairs to Swan Lake, Oktoberfest to Halloween, David Byrne to James Bond, this season has something for the high-culture lover in you, as well as its beer-chugging doppelganger. Check out our top 30 picks here.

(Image courtesy North Georgia State Fair)

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Here are some selected titles that come out on DVD today. For more, keep an eye out for Matt Brunson’s “View from the Couch” column tomorrow.

Ballet Shoes

Before I Forget

“The Big Bang Theory” the Complete First Season

The Blue Elephant

Bratz Girlz Really Rock

“Cheers” Season 10

“Desperate Housewives” the Complete Fourth Season

“Eli Stone” the Complete First Season

Fist of Legend

Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea

“Ghost Whisperer” the Third Season

“Honey West” the Complete Series

How to Rob a Bank (more…)

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LoneWood Theatre Unit stages the caustic two-man drama Chinese Coffee through Sep. 3 at the back room of Eyedrum Art Gallery, which seems like the play’s ideal habitat. Playwright Ira Lewis presents the lives of two desperate, money-grubbing artists in Greenwich Village, so it it practically begs for a Bohemian locale. Eyedrum’s gravel driveway and folding chairs seem far more appropriate for the play’s seedy setting than, say, such plush venues as the Alliance Theatre or Theatrical Outfit’s Balzer Theatre.

For that matter, a steel cage would be appropriate, too, because Chinese Coffee presents a kind of mano-a-mano grudge match with rules along the lines of “Two men, enter, one man leaves.” The play unfolds as an after-midnight confrontation between Jake (Patrick Wood), a theatrical photographer and would-be writer, and Harry (Steven Westdahl), a published but struggling novelist. The equivalent of the opening bell rings when Harry pounds on Jake’s door, demanding to know if the older man has the money he owes Harry, and whether he’s read the manuscript for Harry’s latest novel.

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Hollis Gillespie, with special guest Grant Henry, continuing their discussion about the writing process, including Gillespie’s tips and suggestions.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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In this week’s story “Books vs. Blogs,” I talked with author/blogger John Scalzi about how his popular blog Whatever launched his career as a science fiction novelist. Scalzi serialized his “space opera”novel Old Man’s War as posts on his blog, believing at the time that “This is where it will live forever. Instead, a senior editor at Tor Books discovered it, liked it and was interested in purchasing it, despite the fact that Scalzi had given it away for free, as it were. Old Man’s War is no longer on-line, Scalzi says:

I took it down when it got sold. One can probably still find it online if one looks hard enough, but not legally. “Agent to the Stars,” however, is still on the site.

Scalzi has a “Sampler” page for his on-line fiction, including short stories, unused chapters and a complete novel. I admit that I haven’t read much of that, but I have read all the books in his Old Man’s War universe — in old-fashioned book form. Overall, they’re enormously appealing and accessible reads that can entertain non-sci-fi buffs and hardcore fans alike. Here are capsule reviews, in order, of the four books in the Old Man’s War trilogy. (Wait a minute, that can’t be right.)

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chatting about the upcoming concerts for the weekend, including Howlies (Friday, Aug. 29 at the Earl), the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra (Saturday, Aug. 30 at Eyedrum), and CC Ivory and Adventure (Sunday, Aug. 31 at Eyedrum).

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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The highlight of the new comedy Hamlet 2 also appears to be its biggest selling point: the climactic musical number “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”Rather than keep the movie’s big finish underwraps, Focus Features is letting its savior hang out, as it were, by making it a central part of the film’s ads and trailers, especially on-line. Perhaps Focus Features is deliberately courting religious controversy as a marketing tool, but the emphasis is a little misleading. You might actually think Hamlet 2 is an irreligious musical about Jesus, when it’s actually a spoof of “inspirational teacher” films like Dangerous Minds.  (But didn’t Jon Lovitz already do that with High School High?)

Hamlet 2’s promotional campaign even features a sing-along music video that’s part the number, part clips of the film. It’s fun, but you might not want to spoil it if you’re planning to see the movie:

I give Hamlet 2 its props for “Rock Me Sexy Jesus’s” laughs, but the filmmakers seem a little too proud of themselves for it. It’s like they’re congratulating themselves for being so “edgy” that they’ve come up with mildly blasphemous musical shtick. But musical numbers featuring Jesus aren’t really that innovative, or even surprising. In contemporary theatrical satires and hipster cable TV shows, the “Jesus song” has almost become a cliche in its own right, and here are just a few:

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Curt Holman chatting about blogging vs. authorship, with Dragon*Con and the Decatur Book Festival as a backdrop.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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