The Plumber: The Review

Posted At : February 4, 2008 11:49 AM | Posted By : Tom
Related Categories: Stranger Than

Well, it's only been up for a few days, but my LIVE BLOG of the recent plumber's visit has its first review!

Plumbing LIVE Blog Part II: RECKONING DAY! is the sequel to Special LIVE Blog -- THE PLUMBER!. Although it features some of the same characters, writer/director Tom Lommel appears to become lost in his own material, alternately describing the most mundane events in excruciating detail and by turns engaging in wild flights of fantasy featuring evil dwarves and steam-powered robots.

The entry in fact seems to be two works, grafted together in an ungainly way that is only tenuously linked by the shared subject matter of plumbing maintenance.

The "robot/water heater replacement" section has the feel of a Hollywood action movie while the "visit from Oscar the plumber" has a cinema verite' quality that is grounded in the real world and yet accesses wider human issues of love, commitment, and the artist's urge to create.

Frankly, the abrupt stylistic changes don't quite work, and while the piece itself has moments both touching and entertaining, the overall length is ill-suited to the genre and invariably the reader's attention strays. This 'sequel' would in fact have been better as two shorter, more concise pieces.

Perhaps a Canadian audience would find this overstuffed bit of tomfoolery intriguing but the American market (indie or otherwise) just won't stand for it. Watchable only by the most dedicated of Tom Lommel fans.

-Mel Tolmom
Blog Review Daily

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I'd be more than happy to give positive reviews to the entire Plumber Live Blog box set if it would help me book a decent room at Gen Con for 2008.

Maybe you could include advance housing codes for 2009 Gen Con with the DVD release?

If VIG's are willing to spend $500 to get hotel codes, just think how many DVD's you could sell!!
# Posted By Larry | 2/4/08 12:33 PM
I'm a bit gunshy at the thought of any more productions including Tom and a "plumber".

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...
# Posted By Glog | 2/4/08 1:07 PM
i guess i'm on the other hand. i can't wait for the next one. what strange things will happen to tom after using the water from this new heater? will he start to glow? will he stay young forever? is this the path out of pre-celebrity-dom?
# Posted By chrisw | 2/4/08 1:53 PM
Hold it RIGHT THERE! This isn't the FIRST review.

Although technically superior and grading far higher on the syllabic-count index, this review comes second, chronologically, to the late January '08 thumbnail review posted here:

http://strangewindx.blogspot.com/2008/01/live-blog...

And no, I didn't screw with the date! This review posted eons before the above puffery.
# Posted By Krunk's Next Victim | 2/4/08 2:02 PM
Wow. People are not going to believe me when I tell them that was not a set-up.
# Posted By Tom | 2/4/08 3:01 PM
Don't tell them. Let all your producer and executive producer and mogul friends believe that you are, at heart, the puppet master of the Internet. How else could you explain some random person blogging about you blogging about your apartment's plumbing?

To paraphrase Forest Gump: "Art happens."

Uh, so does whatever the word for "not art" is.
# Posted By Krunk's Next Victim | 2/5/08 7:53 AM
Please don't interpret my lack of comments recently as a lack of interest in the happenings at Rancho de Lommel. I simply haven't the words to describe my slack-jawed wonder at your ability to turn the minutest of minutae into riveting entertainment. Bravo. Four stars! Two thumbs up! Three chickens and a rooster!
# Posted By Dave M. | 2/5/08 8:26 AM
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