Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 8:03 AM by Gene

"'The Four-Hour Bore'": Had we known it took at least three people to write the music for Tuneless Wagner for Adolescents in Toronto we might have called it a bomb -- and even then we'd heave been reluctant knowing as we do the forces of NEWSHACKDOM and MARKETING. WELL, the ad-blurbists WALLOPED this masterwork, not that it needed help; Mike Riedel tells us word of mouth aided the advance. The problem was these clowns thought they could turn their work into a hit because the movies were a hit. To be sure, it's easier now to part fools from their money with spectacle, so one can see their point of view; what's depressing is, as a hundred years ago, there's nothing but spectacle; they had The Wonderful Wizard of Oz then, and we have The Wonderful Wizard of Oz now, and the music stinks in both -- and worse, the music is doomed to stink forever, unless the same muse who charmed the first half of the last century swoops down from the heavens and invests some people with inspiration, which seems as likely as the theater price-gougers abandoning spectacle.