Mixed Media

The most underappreciated TV series ever just got, uh, less appreciated? New York reports that Fox has shut down a theatrical "sing-along" tour of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling." Tour creator Clinton McClung apparently had the legal clearances for the events, which had been taking place over the past year (including a recent San Francisco stint), and also had the tacit support of show creator Joss Whedon. However, apparently Fox had some issue with, you know, TV shows in movie theaters or something. McClung speculates that despite his securing permission for the shows, "someone who is supposed to get paid when these things get screened wasn't."

The episode, for the uninitiated, featured a demon of some sort whose arrival in Sunnydale causes the locals to burst into song-and-dance routines, and then burst into flame. Not only were the songs actually pretty catchy, but since the spell also caused people to sing out their innermost feelings, the plot got moved along quite a bit as well. Like: turns out Willow cast a spell to make Tara forget their argument! And Buffy was in heaven! If you don't know what I'm talking about, buy all the DVDs right now and take a week off from work to watch them.

About 10 minutes of "Once More, With Feeling" is on YouTube:

These audience-participation showings have become more and more popular lately, but usually with movies, making clearances a non-issue. Either way, your chance to raise your voice along with the second-greatest episode of one of the greatest TV shows ever is gone, although hopefully just temporarily: you can sign a petition online to support the tour.

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Back in the early heyday of American cinema, when desire for news and entertainment was often sated by regular visits to the theater, films aimed at social reform enjoyed distribution that would make Michael Moore's mouth water. The National Film Preservation Foundation has assembled a new anthology, Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film 1900-1934, that highlights the boldness of early 20th century cartoons, serial episodes, newsreel stories, advocacy films, and features designed to inform. These films addressed many of the same issues as our latter-day blockbusters, but often with a lucidity that modern movies lack:

• Fans of Gus Van Sant may now add yet another component to their ongoing dissection of My Own Private Idaho. From the Submerged (1912) is the first known drama about homelessness that featured "slumming parties," minus the Shakespearean overtones.
• Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, and the rest of Spike Lee's immortal oeuvre owe a debt to Ramona (1910), D.W. Griffith's sympathetic portrait of a romance between a Native American man and a Spanish woman played by Mary Pickford. (That's right, the same D.W. Griffith who later gave us the cinematic landmark of bigotry, The Birth of a Nation.)
• In the sternly reproachful Where Are My Children? (1916), District Attorney Richard Walton discovers that he never became a father because his wife had a slew of abortions behind his back. No doubt do-gooder Alison Scott, the lead character in last summer's hit comedy Knocked Up, represents the inverse of Mrs. Walton's ways.
• In Cecil B. DeMille's masterful silent feature, The Godless Girl (1928), the Christians take on the Atheists and get themselves booked into juvenile prison. There are hints of Grease, mingling with Saved! and Girl, Interrupted, but only in DeMille's version do the opposing camps go home with crucifixes burned into the palms of their hands.

—Cassie McGettigan

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Swedes and Aussies and, uh, Chicago-ites, oh my!

Kylie Minogue – "2 Hearts"
In which the Aussie star vamps it up over a swinging beat, and you watch nervously to make sure she doesn't fall off that piano

The Hives – "Tick Tick Boom"
In which the Swedish combo find themselves enlarged and installed in a museum as a high-concept art piece that takes its revenge on the museum for some reason

Lupe Fiasco – "Dumb It Down"
In which the Chicago rapper lets his complex lyrics take center stage, since there's not a whole heck of a lot else going on in this video

Robyn – "Handle Me"
In which the underappreciated Swedish songstress gets, uh, boxed in, wocka wocka

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This week, I already covered the Detour festival so none of that can go in here, and on most of my drive down to LA I passed the time with French lessons, so I didn't delve into a lot of new recorded music, I'm afraid. Thus, the presence in the Top Ten of a TV show, some new stuff by people I've already covered, and a lot of hyper beats, cause when you're driving up the Grapevine and heading for Hollywood traffic, you need tunes that keep you on your toes.

10. Justin Timberlake – "LoveStoned" (Justice remix)
(mp3 via Bridging the Atlantic)
One of the most underwhelming tracks from the Trousersnake's album is turned into an epic disco megajam by the reigning kings of electro, and the fact that this doesn't come out sounding like Jamiroquai is a tribute to everyone involved. Instead, it's somewhere between the French duo's own "D.A.N.C.E." and classic Boney M, with totally up-to-date production values. What's not to love?

9. Weeds (Monday nights on Showtime)
Maybe this is a new tactic for TV shows: jump the shark immediately and get it out of the way. This dark comedy has always walked a very thin line between ridiculous melodrama and finely-honed satire, and at the end of last season, with everyone in a zany predicament, you had to wonder if it was just turning into a soap opera with pot. But this season, the writers seemed to remember that the show isn't called "Weed," and it's not really about drugs, it's about the weed-y people: flawed, scarred, not like everybody else, and barely keeping up on the payments for their "little boxes made of ticky tacky." For instance, a recent moment where a cancer survivor revealed her scarred breasts had surprising pathos, even though it was in a sex scene with Matthew Modine.

8. Jay-Z – "Blue Magic" (from American Gangster, out Nov 8 on Island Def Jam)
(Stream at the Island Records site)
Hova's surprise return to the music biz turns out to be a concept album based on the Frank Lucas biopic of the same name, and the lead single has an urgent intensity that we've come to expect from one of our greatest rappers ever. He addresses the complicated topic—drugs and dealing—with complex lyrics: "Blame Reagan for making me into a monster/Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra/I ran contraband that they sponsored." So, everybody out there who doesn't like gangster rap: is it okay if it's about a gangster movie?

7. Arcade Fire – "Neon Bible"
(crazy interactive video thing that you can watch here)
Well, the secret Arcade Fire website turned out to be an interactive video for the title cut from the Montreal combo's critically-acclaimed album. What, you were hoping for an Arcade Fire remix album produced by James Murphy? Who gave you that idea? Anyway, this song wasn't my favorite from the album, but the video is a lot of oddly creepy fun: you can do stuff to it! Go click around!

6. Goose – "Bring It On" (from Bring It On on Skint)
(listen at their MySpace here)
While this track is over a year old, I just can't escape it these days; it keeps turning up in DJ mixes all over the place, and seeping into my brain. The multi-part harmony in the chorus elevates what could be typical hoover-y blog-techno into something that just plain rocks. Go, Belgium. Apparently they started out as an AC/DC cover band, so there's that.

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