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Kurt Angle, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist (Who says professional wrestlers have no talent?), and his partner face the Dudley Boyz, Buh Buh Ray and D-von, next. The Boyz, using many complex moves that target their opponent's groin, beat Angle and partner, demonstrating (almost unnecessarily) the superiority of pro-wrestling over that other two-points-for-a-takedown crap. Gleeful, I tell Christina that Kurt Angle was an Olympic champion. She's doubtful, and certainly not impressed. Another invigorating fight matches The Godfather, wrestler and part-time pimp, against some no-name pretty boy. Smoothness personified, The Godfather...
...iron man of Italian opera is dipping a toe into the German repertoire, and he proves surprisingly comfortable with Gustav Mahler's song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Domingo isn't quite high-strung enough for Mahler's angst-ridden emotional world, but he makes an impassioned impression all the same, and though he no longer has the brilliance and heft needed to sail effortlessly above the gigantic orchestra, who does? Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic provide solid support. A+ for effort...
Alas, unlike Francis Crick, I can't claim to have discovered the secret I'm touting. It was discovered half a century ago by the founders of game theory, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. They made a distinction between zero-sum games and non-zero-sum games. In zero-sum games, the fortunes of the players are inversely related. In tennis, in chess, in boxing, one contestant's gain is the other's loss. In non-zero-sum games, one player's gain needn't be bad news for the other...
...where folks went to the movie dressed up as Brad and Janet? Starting its tour in Britain this week, and planning to hit American shores shortly after, is the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long-a, where moviegoers arrive in nun outfits, in lederhosen or as the whole family Von Trapp. Singing along (the songs are subtitled) is encouraged. Dancing, booing Nazis and whistling are optional. Foam nuns are available in the lobby...
...Cedars are left with remarkably little to say--particularly the two leads, who are left with the difficult task of posing silently for Hicks's long montages. Hawke and Kudoh are both admirably restrained for the most part, and they do a creditable job in their scenes together. Max Von Sydow does a marvelous turn as decrepit defense attorney Nels Gudmundsson, as do Shepard and Ako as the parents of the young lovers. Also, Max Wright (as a doddering coroner) and Celia Weston (as the righteously bigoted mother of the deceased) deserve special mention for their brief appearances...