Meeting Streisand: A Miniature Comic Tragedy in 3 Acts

Thank you once more to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), who has blessed us with funny, insightful guest blogs from the set, his childhood, and writing rooms all day! - Nathaniel

by Tom Mizer

I was raised on Barbra Streisand. My mother adored her. She owned The Way We Were and Yentl on VHS. She vacuumed to the “Guilty” album. Every birthday, she joyously opened Bab’s anual release like a Dickens’ orphan getting her yearly pair of shoes. And I was, step by step, initiated into the catechism of Our Lady of Funny Girl. (“Tom, THIS is 'Color Me Barbra'. Let us bow our heads in silence before we begin.”) 

So when I met her...Barbra, not my mother...it was brief but epic. And ridiculous. And wonderful. And bittersweet. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, “Meeting Streisand: A Miniature Comic Tragedy in 3 Acts.”

PROLOGUE: Tom is performing in a small Off-Broadway show. (His acting career will consist of playing 15 until he is 30 and appearing in musicals that end in “Live!”) In order to make more money, he is spending days off from the play as an extra in film and TV. The agency calls. They need students for a classroom scene in a film called The Mirror Has Two Faces. Directed by Barbara Streisand...

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'Wish We Had Written That' - A Best Original Song Game

Today we turn the blog over to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore...

Curtis Moore & Tom Mizer photographed by Xanthe Elbrick

by Tom Mizer

The Contestants: Tom and Curtis have been songwriting partners since meeting at Northwestern University. This may or may not have been before computers were required at college. 

The Oscar Winning Song Game: Without looking in advance, the contestants will receive a range of Oscar Winning Best Songs. They will each have 30 seconds to peruse the list. When time is up, they will text the other the song “they wish they had written.” After years of working together, will their choices match? If not, they will have a short period to discuss and convince the other of the wisdom of their selection, hopefully arriving at an agreement. This may end their partnership.

Ladies and gentlemen, the transcript begins:

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Sarah Jessica Parker Loves "Melancholia"

Who'da thunk it?

I love odd celebrity interviews -- the interview not the celebrity -- and this one qualifies. It's rapid fire, 73 questions in 5 minutes while you tour one floor of SJP's brownstone here in NYC. We knew Sarah Jessica Parker loved The Way We Were (1973) which is referenced so beautifully in one of Sex & the City's best episodes, but who knew that Lars von Trier's Melancholia was such a favorite?!

My favorite answer of all though is her response to "heels or flats?". Hee

Happy 75th Robert Redford

Just wanted to get this out there before the day is up. It's the 75th birthday of Robert Redford, actor/director/producer/film festival icon. Though his work as an actor and movie star isn't as obsessed over these days as his contemporaries from 60s and 70s cinema like past costars Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Natalie Wood or Dustin Hoffman, that doesn't mean his star has faded. Movie stars of yore fall in and out of fashion. Who knows which 60s and 70s giants will be beloved in 2036 for example when Redford turns 100!?

Fact: The movies wouldn't be the same without him.

 Without Robert Redford there's no Sundance Festival, no Sundance Institute and without those, so many young unproven talents would not have been boosted or introduced to us in the way they were... and some probably not at all. And without Robert Redford what would have become of The Way We Were, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,  All The President's Men, Out of Africa, A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, or Ordinary People?  The list goes on. Some of his best films wouldn't even exist without him given how difficult it is to get any film made; pull one string out and things unravel.

So this week in his honor, watch your favorite Redford film, or the one you've always been meaning to get to. At the very least, brush your hand across your significant other's forehead and hair and do your best wistful Barbra Streisand.

Your girl is lovely, Hubbell."