Skewering Spiderman

In the New York Times Ben Brantley writes:

Directed by Julie Taymor, who wrote the show’s book with Glen Berger, and featuring songs by U2’s Bono and the Edge, “Spider-Man” is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.

Ouch! But what a satisfying ouch. And especially because the rest of the review leads methodically up to this. A feast of Schadenfreude.

Oy

In a New York Times review of David Denby's book, Snark, we find this humdinger of a paragraph by Walter Kirn:

The humor that stirs this wrongful laughter is “snark,” named for a fictional creature from the poem “The Hunting of the Snark,” by Lewis Carroll. As a species of vicious contemporary humor, it is defined by Denby in many ways — so many, in fact, that the creature never materializes as anything more than a shadow on a wall that Denby keeps shooting at yet never hits. In his opening pages he defines snark negatively — as a practice that certain famed comics are often charged with, but undeservedly and inaccurately because they actually trade in “irony” and also, one can’t help but gather from Denby’s remarks, because they’re politically virtuous in their japery, even when their words seem cruel and harsh. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are two of these unfairly maligned non-snarkers. Sarah Silverman escapes unscathed, while Penn Jillette, an avowed libertarian who entertains mostly in Las Vegas nowadays, and Sarah Palin, an avowed big-game hunter who’s safely tucked away up north somewhere, are portrayed as snarkers par excellence. So is John McCain, coincidentally, and pretty much everyone who ever tweaked Barack Obama for any reason — especially if they did so on the Internet and indulged in prejudice. But “hate speech” isn’t snark either, Denby writes, because it aims to “incite,” not get chuckles, and because it’s “directed at groups,” not individuals. Denby finds such discourse loathsome, presumably, but he states early on that it’s no concern of his, first because it’s a constitutional right, and second, because he feels sorry for nuts who use it: “the legions of anguished, lost people on Web sites and the social networking site Facebook” who are “looking for a way to release fear.” In other words, vengeful morons can’t be snarky, only parties to bigoted violence now and then, which may be horrific and tragic but isn’t annoying. No, what really bugs Denby’s mandarin side is a much subtler species of expression: humor that celebrates “the power to ridicule” and is indulged in by semi-sophisticates who seek to sound clued-in and hip so as to soothe their feelings of “dispossession” and elevate their wounded self-esteem by sneering at folks like — get ready to be outraged! — the convicted insider trader Ivan Boesky, whose notorious taste in gaudy baubles was once satirized in the late Spy magazine.

Kirn deserves some kind of an award, maybe a Golden Skewer, for this paragraph. Bravo.

Run For Your Life

Fred Lebow

The NY Times today has a review of "Run For Your Life", a history of the beginning of the New York Marathon. Playing a major part in the tale is Fred Lebow:

Until his death from brain cancer in 1994, Fred Lebow was more than just the director of the race and the president of New York Road Runners. He was a fixture of city life, instantly recognizable for his skinny frame, neat beard and ever-present cycling cap. An immigrant from Romania (where he was born Fischl Lebowitz) with a background in the garment business, Lebow helped turn running from a solitary and eccentric pursuit into a major sport and a staple of American culture.

He did this with a mixture of showmanship, quasi-evangelical zeal and entrepreneurial hustle. Using on-camera interviews with friends and colleagues, and archival film and video clips, “Run for Your Life,” directed by Judd Ehrlich, is mainly an affectionate portrait of the man, whose every foible and virtue is noted with fond tolerance.

I met Fred a couple of times at NYRRC. And I passed him-- I remember this well-- in the Westchester Half Marathon of 1982 or 1983. I couldn't understand why this guy in front of me was generating so much support and yelling from the crowd. It turned out to be Fred, who by then was famous in New York running circles. Anyway, I don't remember what we said to each other as I went past him. I do remember that I ran the half marathon in 1:24 that day, and was thrilled by setting a new PR. I was also thankful that Fred had managed to make the sport so accessible and so much fun. He was the best, most famous 8 minute per mile pace runner in the history of the sport.

A Wonderful Review of The Dream Antilles

Wow. A special thanks goes out to cfk for this excellent review of The Dream Antilles, that appeared on daily Kos on September 26, 2007.

It is a special treat for me when people read my book and enjoy it. I'm delighted when my book pleases, and I'm especially happy when readers and reviewers say nice things about it.

Did I mention that you should buy The Dream Antilles?