Zachary Pincus-Roth.com

"Das Rheingold" at LA Opera

Here is my first ever opera review, of L.A. Opera’s “Das Rheingold” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the first segment in Wagner's Ring Cycle, which opened on Saturday night.

Note: the times listed below are wild approximations.

6:32 PM – My date and I start out from Westwood to Downtown Los Angeles. On Google maps, the 10 has red traffic lines all over it, so we take Olympic instead.

6:36 – Using my Treo, I find a synopsis of the opera on the Met’s website and my date begins to read it.

6:47 – My date reads, “Loge, who originated the contract with the giants…” I butt in: “And Loge is now re-negotiating the deal with the giants?” My date: “Yeah.” Me: “So Loge is the Jew?”

7:02 – I tell my date that the show is 2 hours and 45 minutes with no intermission.

7:10 – We stop at a Koreatown gas station convenience store and buy Powerbars and Gummi Savers.

7:24 – We see a sign in the lobby that says the opera is 2 hours and 45 minutes with no intermission, so “please plan accordingly.”

7:26 – Almost all the urinals in the men’s room are filled.

Favorite Movies of 2008

For Oscar weekend, I’ve made a list of my favorite movies of 2008:

1. “Slumdog Millionaire”
What most impressed me is that this is a drama, with the emotional depth of the greatest of dramas, but that it also gave me the ecstatic, roller coaster feeling I get while watching the greatest of action movies. “Slumdog” just went places that were completely risky and surprising, starting with the little kid diving into the outhouse — the most glorious feces scene I’ve ever seen. It’s gross-out humor that tops the best of the Farrelly brothers and their ilk.

2. “Wall-E”
A very, very close second. I am continually impressed by Pixar’s batting average, and each hit isn’t just a single, it’s a home run. How is that possible? No screenwriter or director is that consistent. How can a studio be more consistent than the most consistent filmmaker? Every joke is perfectly timed, from Eve completing the Rubix Cube to Wall-E finding the engagement ring and throwing it away the ring in favor of the box. And that whole business with the holding hands always threatens to spill over into sentimentality, but it never does, because the emotion has been earned along the way. My theory is that “Wall-E” is the best Judd Apatow movie ever. It’s a scruffy, immature guy meets a confident, beautiful woman and she helps him grow up.

Sorry, girlfriend, he's just not that into you

From the Los Angeles Times

Comedian Greg Behrendt calls it "that dumb thing I said."

He's referring to the phrase "He's just not that into you." Behrendt's dismissivesness also reflects his ongoing astonishment that this simple, straightforward statement that he first made years ago, this offhanded comment about the male mind and modern relationships has become part of our cultural lexicon, spawning a bestselling book as well as a film featuring an all-star ensemble cast, including Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ginnifer Goodwin and Scarlett Johansson, which hits theaters Friday.

Those six words have become the single person's satori, a clear-eyed, catch-all explanation for anyone wondering why the guy who just took you out on a date never calls.

Here's how it all started. Once upon a time, Behrendt, who started his career in comedy doing improv and stand-up in San Francisco, was the token straight male in the writers room for HBO's hit show "Sex and the City." One day during lunch, a woman started asking everyone why she hadn't heard from a guy after a date. Then Behrendt said it. "We all gasped and started screaming," recalls Liz Tuccillo, one of the writers in the room. "It was an explosive moment because no one had dared say something like that to any of us, ever."