I like Menken well enough, but I feel that Ashman was the genius of their collaboration. I liked Tangled a lot, but a lot of the other non-Ashman things Menken has done have fallen flat for me (I haven't seen/heard Sister Act, though).

This is the first Fassbinder film I saw and liked the whole way through (though actually I haven't seen another one since…should get on that). I love your description of the way the film is an examination of cinematic space; the main reason I've been trying to puzzle out Fassbinder since I started watching Berlin…

I watched the first two episodes, and thought the trailer they cut for the up-fronts was a significantly better time.

I watched a bunch of stuff over the Christmas week, nearly a movie a day.

This was great. Keep doing them. I wouldn't say oboists are crazy, though, just (very) tightly wound.

Jessie Mueller would be great. I've re-watched her Mr. Snow a bunch of times. Related to that Carousel thing, I think Jason Danieley would be a huge star if people were still making original film musicals.

On the one hand, he's a great singer and actually likes and cares about classic musical theatre. On the other hand, I feel like he'd end up making his performance too much of a homage to Robert Preston and that could be a problem.

Now that you mention it, Timberlake doesn't seem like a bad choice to play Harold Hill. I don't think they need a star necessarily though, just someone with a lot of charisma and some name recognition.

Worked is a matter of opinion. He's not too bad, but I don't see why they didn't just have him play Detroit while Sinatra played Sky Masterson (and not cut I've Never Been In Love Before for the movie).

If they can somehow persuade him, Hugh Jackman would be great casting for Harold Hill. I don't think Laura Osnes has the voice to pull off Marian (she's close, but has too much modern musical theatre training). Rebecca Luker would probably still be good in the part, though she might be too old.

I hope watching Double Indemnity for the first time is as good for you as it was for me. Pretty much a perfect movie in my opinion.

Key may be slimy, but he's not on the Muldoon scale. When the PM actually looks (and behaves) like Lex Luthor, there's not much further to go.

This week I watched Portrait of Jennie, an odd but quite charming film about a painter and his relationship with a girl who he seems to meet at different points in her timeline. Joseph Cotten is terrific as the artist, and a lot of the script is quite good, though the episodic nature of the film gets a little…

That's the office?

If I remember correctly, the big climax of the first book was them destroying an oil supply line (or something similar)? I can't see anyone getting too big with that.

I missed the game (9:00am is too early for me on a Sunday), but I was surprised at the lack of coverage they got. Having a rugby game broadcast on a major network in its entirety feels like quite a coup, but the US media seemed pretty disinterested.

I've been listening to a bit of Rautavaara on and off recently, too. I quite liked his Harp Concerto, and Symphony No. 7. Along with Arvo Paart, and some of Sciarrino and John Adams, he's a "new music" composer I actually connect with.

I was a big fan of the Tomorrow when the war began books when I was 12-13, but the trailer for the movie looked like it was made by people who didn't quite get the book (and it looked kind of shitty to boot). Interesting to see the trailer wasn't too far off.

You're making Flawless seem like a hell of a good time. Does it features Schumacher's trade-mark overly expressionistic photography (and sculptures cupping balls)?

Yeah, I was willing to buy that the drum music folder went missing and that he turned that into something (plus it only worked because he was better prepared), but when he's trying to get to the competition and the series of events leading up to and directly following the car crash were just too much for me.