tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42937083195795218642024-03-05T05:43:16.651-08:00Reading, Watching, Looking, and StuffLet me tell you about this thing.Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-44076584968531247212019-04-12T13:05:00.000-07:002019-04-17T15:45:25.968-07:00Dream Cast - The Maltese Falcon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0eXgsmYgyC8hYRGi6nG-maFeJhyphenhyphenj90KVhQBspgj4bIVqjz_eb8lsl1je2UFzU5wsL_1aV5v8NhHZetBaYcQT8Rkt6_10Cywl_5coLEyvBmQXyOrnS3MgEwQ3R1il7XmKufHu5Xq6_1oiY/s1600/maltesefalconposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="520" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0eXgsmYgyC8hYRGi6nG-maFeJhyphenhyphenj90KVhQBspgj4bIVqjz_eb8lsl1je2UFzU5wsL_1aV5v8NhHZetBaYcQT8Rkt6_10Cywl_5coLEyvBmQXyOrnS3MgEwQ3R1il7XmKufHu5Xq6_1oiY/s400/maltesefalconposter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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With the remake trend showing no signs of stopping, I wouldn't be surprised if this one actually happens.<br />
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Some might call remaking <i>The Maltese Falcon</i> a sacrilege, but the 1941 classic film was actually the <i>third</i> onscreen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's 1929/1930 novel. It was preceded by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1931_film)" target="_blank">1931 version</a>, which was apparently not great anyways, and - due to keeping the book's sexual and gay elements - censored after the Hays Code came into effect in 1934. Then in 1936, another version was released, but ended up differing so much from the source material that it was renamed <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan_Met_a_Lady" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Satan Met a Lady</a></i>.<br />
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My dream version might not top the 1941 film, but hopefully would be more successful than the 1931 and 1936 attempts!<br />
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Previously in Dream Cast:<br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/11/dream-cast-tempest.html" target="_blank">The Tempest</a><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/dream-cast-frankenstein.html" target="_blank">Frankenstein</a><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/02/dream-cast-wuthering-heights.html" target="_blank">Wuthering Heights</a><br />
<a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2018/07/dream-cast-hunchback-of-notre-dame.html" target="_blank">The Hunchback of Notre Dame</a> <br />
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<b>Sam Spade - Armie Hammer</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He'd have to lose the beard, though.</td></tr>
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In the opening paragraph of The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett writes of detective Sam Spade, "He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan." Somehow, I get Armie Hammer out of that. Sam Spade became a noir archetype: the always-cool, always-aloof detective who tells no one his plans or his emotions. Even though he's <i>The Maltese Falcon</i>'s POV character, we don't really know how he feels about anything. Is he always 100% confident in himself? How does he really feel about his various love interests? There's a lot for Hammer to work with here besides a Bogart impression.<br />
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<b>Brigid O'Shaughnessy - Amy Adams</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigid knows blue dresses bring out her eyes.</td></tr>
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I thought of several iconic redheads for this role (even though hair can obviously be dyed), including bubbly Emma Stone and elegant Jessica Chastain. Ultimately, though, it's Amy Adams's range and micro-expressions I'd love to see in the ultimate femme fatale. We're first introduced to her playing a damsel in distress named Wonderly, but even after she comes clean on that facade, we're never sure when she's playing a role or not. This part needs an actress who can play several layers of character, and we need to believe her every time. Adams it is!<br />
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<b>Joel Cairo - Riz Ahmed</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get this man some flashy jewelry and an ascot.</td></tr>
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Joel Cairo, a small, flamboyantly dressed "Levantine" man, doesn't come off as threatening. In fact, Hammett leans hard into mincing, effeminate gay stereotype. However, like Gutman, Cairo can be ice-cold when it comes to money. Played by Peter Lorre in the 1941 film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLGmqXu_P0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this scene</a> shows why he shouldn't be underestimated. Versatile Shakespeare-and-Star-Wars Ahmed could rock this.<br />
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<b><strike>Caspar</strike> Gutman - Olivia Colman</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't think she won't turn you into a <i>Lobster</i>.</td></tr>
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Some might see this gender-bending pick and complain about feminism, but the 1936 film made this same switch, and look, Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead. Oscar-winning Colman would slay this role as a scheming, wealthy, globe-trotting crime boss determined to get the Maltese Falcon by any means necessary.<br />
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<b>Wilmer Cook - Alex Wolff</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilmer goes up against Sam a few times. None of them go well. </td></tr>
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Amateurish gunman Wilmer Cook is admittedly not great at tailing people undercover, but he's apparently pretty skilled under the covers. We learn that there was previously a rivalry between Cairo and Brigid for his affections (Cairo won), and this battle is briefly rehashed with a slap fight. Unfortunately for both Cairo and Brigid, a later scene suggests Wilmer actually has a the hots for Rhea, Gutman's daughter. Gutman, meanwhile, is like a surrogate parent to Wilmer, but is willing to negotiate on that.<br />
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Fun fact: Originally, <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/76041/13-mysterious-facts-about-maltese-falcon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hammett had Spade refer to Wilmer as a "catamite,"</a> but his editor thought that was too explicit. So Hammett used "gunsel," a word that basically meant the same thing (a gay man's boy toy), but was more obscure. Since Wilmer is also a gunman, lots of readers took gunsel to mean that, and the meaning has morphed.<br />
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<b>Effie Perine - Riley Rose Critchlow</b><br />
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Effie Perine is Spade's optimistic, competent Girl Friday secretary. <i>The Maltese Falcon</i> presents an extremely rose-colored-glasses version of workplace sexual harassment, where Spade calls Effie lots of pet names and rests his head against her for comfort, and everything is portrayed as consensual and harmlessly platonic. (I'd tone down the pawing for sure.) As a longtime administrative professional, I've got a soft spot for Effie.<br />
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Critchlow is both adorable and kickass as a wide-eyed cop in <a href="https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-crimes-division" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Crunchyroll's </a><i><a href="https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-crimes-division" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Anime Crimes Division</a> </i>(it's a little embarrassing to admit I watch <i>Anime Crimes Division</i>, which is...kind of the point of the show, which is very good), and I'd love to see her break out in film.<br />
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<b>Iva Archer - Aubrey Plaza</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Would you want to cross Aubrey Plaza?</td></tr>
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Yeah, this is a small role for Aubrey Plaza, but she could have fun with it. Iva Archer is the wife (and quickly widow) of Miles Archer, Spade's doomed partner who is too boring and inconsequential to cast. Also, she and Spade have been having an affair. <i>The Maltese Falcon</i> is a roller coaster of a few days for Iva, who's kept in the dark regarding the central case. Her husband is murdered, and she thinks her lover, Spade, might have killed him in order to marry her. But then he freezes her out and she sees him with Brigid. Furious stalking on Iva's part commences. The novel ends with Spade finally about to meet her in his office to explain everything. (How that conversation goes is left up to the reader.)<br />
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<b>Rhea Gutman - Anya Taylor-Joy</b></div>
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Rhea's role in <i>The Maltese Falcon</i> is the most confounding. She comes out of nowhere, and her part seems to be a red herring. However, her short scene - drugged, keeping herself awake by scratching her stomach with a pin, ostensibly trying to help Spade - is lurid enough to stick in one's imagination. What's her story? Whose side is she on? Maltese Falcon expert and super-fan Don Herron summarizes a few fan theories <a href="https://donherron.com/hammett-rhea-wilmer-or-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>, including one that attests she and Wilmer are actually one and the same! I personally don't think that's the case, and as such would cast different people in the roles. Anya Taylor-Joy, of <i>The Witch</i> and <i>Thoroughbreds</i>, would be beguiling in a cameo as Rhea. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header image: 1941 movie poster</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Armie Hammer: from <i>Sorry to Bother You</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Amy Adams: from <i>American Hustle</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Riz Ahmed: from IMDb</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olivia Colman: from <i>The Lobster</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Alex Wolff: from <i>Hereditary </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Riley Rose Critchlow: from IMDb</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Aubrey Plaza: from <i>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Anya Taylor-Joy: from IMDb</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Maltese Falcon statue prop: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maltese_Falcon_film_prop_created_by_Fred_Sexton_for_John_Huston.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></div>
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Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-10082511985355460732019-03-28T22:19:00.000-07:002019-03-28T22:22:50.463-07:00The Dead Gay Man: Burn This and Tom at the Farm<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6yKHKC9bHvOQATazXw3RvfDe_VlTuHMMiy9Zq19IhidD8d4V47FEhtJIadRNeMfrLH-koxwnI7w4au18DYsSfA_PrlzRY8CGAM0YyEdhXUSQMtVhT6vYGfs_MWg0CpAjqq_A_b-koPpZ/s1600/IMG_9220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1135" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6yKHKC9bHvOQATazXw3RvfDe_VlTuHMMiy9Zq19IhidD8d4V47FEhtJIadRNeMfrLH-koxwnI7w4au18DYsSfA_PrlzRY8CGAM0YyEdhXUSQMtVhT6vYGfs_MWg0CpAjqq_A_b-koPpZ/s400/IMG_9220.JPG" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Choose your beefy, brooding blue-collar man<br />
grieving his dead gay brother carefully.</td></tr>
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When news broke that tickets were on sale for <i>Burn This</i>, a revival of a sexy, intense 1987 Lanford Wilson play starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell, I felt deeply envious of people who lived in or near New York. Those lucky people would be able to see film director favorite Adam Driver on the stage, where he started racking up <a href="http://www.playbill.com/article/playbillcoms-brief-encounter-with-adam-driver-com-163445" target="_blank">accolades the moment he graduated from Julliard in 2009</a>! They would get a preview of the chemistry between Kylo Ren and the new character played by Russell in <i>Star Wars: Episode IX</i>! Why couldn't I be like those fortunate ones? Then I remembered that planes were a thing.<br />
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So a month later I was in New York, in the Hudson Theatre, terrified that at the last minute they would announce that Driver had the flu or something. But that didn't happen, and the show began! Then a different thought came to mind. "Wait a second. Is this <i>Tom at the Farm</i>?"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjyB6NOTxb3W0Zipp0nOx73uE8ADxp8REITseQLIeIcai880IIIqYBXNaGoGPRfl6DAebH71r914iFe3U22mR7KjjrqRF5o21MjyQB4e0k8zFw0L7Nu4PIRxVwmxL8bYH-pAjNhCZgrLtZ/s1600/IMG_8987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjyB6NOTxb3W0Zipp0nOx73uE8ADxp8REITseQLIeIcai880IIIqYBXNaGoGPRfl6DAebH71r914iFe3U22mR7KjjrqRF5o21MjyQB4e0k8zFw0L7Nu4PIRxVwmxL8bYH-pAjNhCZgrLtZ/s400/IMG_8987.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dream come true. That carpet, though.</td></tr>
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<i>Tom at the Farm</i>, or <i>Tom à la ferme</i>, is a 2011 play by Quebecois playwright Michel Marc Bouchard. I was introduced to the play <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2015/08/run-tom-run-tom-at-farm.html" target="_blank">back in 2015 through Xavier Dolan's film adaptation</a>. I eventually read the English translation, but found that it's a work where staging is really integral. (For this post, I'll mostly be going off of the Dolan film.)<br />
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I'm not suggesting plagiarism or anything like that. But let me explain: </div>
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When <i>Burn This</i> starts, Robbie, the dance partner of Manhattan woman Anna, has died in an accident along with his boyfriend. Anna relates how she showed up at his funeral to discover her friend's conservative New Jersey family didn't know he was gay. They assumed/insisted that she was his girlfriend, and she found herself roped into spending the night at the family's house. Soon, she finds herself in a passionate yet ill-advised relationship with her deceased friend's volatile older brother, Pale, who knows his brother was gay and looks eerily like him.</div>
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When <i>Tom at the Farm</i> starts, Guy, the boyfriend of Montreal man Tom, has died in an accident. Tom shows up at the funeral to discover his boyfriend's conservative rural Quebec family didn't know he was gay. They assume/insist that a female co-worker, Sarah, was his girlfriend, and Tom finds himself roped into getting Sarah to come to the family's house. Tom finds himself in a passionate yet ill-advised relationship with his deceased boyfriend's volatile older brother, Francis, who knows his brother was gay and looks eerily like him.</div>
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Both stories also have creepy dying animals (butterflies, cows), gay men in advertising, dancing, a hit 1980s song ("<a href="https://youtu.be/lrpXArn3hII?t=69" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I'm on Fire</a>" for <i>Burn This</i>, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sunglasses at Night</a>" for the <i>Tom at the Farm</i> movie), and a very important handwritten note on a scrap of paper.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYzf5CquQm90DYk7KFGFAtT_vlCDr6ni3Tl1vTprakzK7d1WlLdGuhW5anP83U9titSC9gfmtT41qbNqFsOdYOUUVoND2zWQg6iFbAKnbkS-oYr3Hbf4rW42BYhc8fskEJ2NeS1Gd5EHYb/s1600/tomatthefarmdancing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="600" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYzf5CquQm90DYk7KFGFAtT_vlCDr6ni3Tl1vTprakzK7d1WlLdGuhW5anP83U9titSC9gfmtT41qbNqFsOdYOUUVoND2zWQg6iFbAKnbkS-oYr3Hbf4rW42BYhc8fskEJ2NeS1Gd5EHYb/s400/tomatthefarmdancing.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pierre-Ives Cardinal (Francis) and Xavier Dolan (Tom) in <i>Tom at the Farm</i></td></tr>
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What interests me about the parallels is that <i>Tom at the Farm</i> feels like it took the basic situation (cosmopolitan gay man dies, more "traditional" family is in denial about his sexuality, woman pressured into posing as his girlfriend) and re-centered on the gay characters, even bringing one back from the dead.<br />
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Gay characters in<i> Burn This </i>are important, but on the periphery from the main action. When the play starts, boyfriends Robbie and Dominic are already dead and buried. Larry, roommate to Anna and the late Robbie, is an important and scene-stealing character, but very much of the "sassy gay friend" trope. That he doesn't come off as too cartoonish in 2019 is due to Wilson's thoughtful writing and Brandon Uranowitz's performance. (In <a href="https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/03/19/burn-this-brandon-uranowitz-larry-tony-awards-interview/" target="_blank">an interview</a>, Uranowitz describes the part as "a dream role" and not in need of "modernizing.") Still, it's hard not to notice that Larry's function is mostly to provide humor and assist the heterosexual romance between Anna and Pale.<br />
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In <i>Tom at the Farm </i>(at least in the movie version), the analogous Pale/Anna tryst between Francis, the dead man's older brother, and Sarah, the co-worker who has to pretend to be the dead man's girlfriend, does occur, but as a quickie in a truck. The main focus is on the relationship between Tom and Francis. And whoo boy, what a relationship it is. The Anna and Pale relationship is a series of unstable, drunken, grief-fueled hookups, but is still miles healthier than what Tom and Francis get up to. While Pale, a sleep-deprived coke addict, is unpredictable and aggressive, Francis is downright sadistic and dangerous. No one is threatened with being thrown in a pit of dead cows in <i>Burn This</i>!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Hudson Theatre</td></tr>
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I don't know if Bouchard and/or Dolan were inspired by Wilson's play at all (I couldn't find any reference to this online), but the similarities in the stories at their bases are striking. Even if there is no connection, the contrasts between the two are so fascinating to me because they show how different storytellers can take one scenario and change it so much depending on whom they decide the protagonist is, which facet they choose to look through.<br />
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<i>Burn This</i> was 100% worth the weekend trip across the country. Seeing Driver act onstage was just as electrifying as I'd hoped. I was expecting his vulnerability and energy, but was surprised by his flawless comedic timing (maybe because I've never watched <i>Girls</i>?). The aforementioned Uranowitz was hilarious. David Furr, as Anna's wealthy screenwriter boyfriend Burton, brought an approachable humanity to the role. Russell didn't seem as natural onstage as her three Broadway-vet castmates, but she was still deeply affecting and has time to get more comfortable (the show is still in previews and officially opens April 16, running through July 14). </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header image: promo image for <i>Burn This</i>, screenshot of <i>Tom at the Farm</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pic of program: mine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Tom at the Farm</i> screenshot</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pic of Hudson Theatre: mine</span><br />
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Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-59727191461258261142018-12-29T14:30:00.000-08:002018-12-29T14:30:00.739-08:00Favorites of 2018 (and 2017)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcz9hp7TIQjMmh5G8W5vaOSmMzazGbEEXlg_hOmMIz53sxwwM5uOGD1H7B37YRW1zuMJYQvnVA_y3uRJ6diwSny8QaVIY3jlz8KUEIQtUWVXb_z_PaNqeoWIDI7v4MAE7Pmb356g2LbR-/s1600/IMG_7910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcz9hp7TIQjMmh5G8W5vaOSmMzazGbEEXlg_hOmMIz53sxwwM5uOGD1H7B37YRW1zuMJYQvnVA_y3uRJ6diwSny8QaVIY3jlz8KUEIQtUWVXb_z_PaNqeoWIDI7v4MAE7Pmb356g2LbR-/s400/IMG_7910.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L to R, top to bottom: <i>Annihilation</i>, <i>Antony & Cleopatra</i>, <br />
<i>Pelleas & Melisandre</i>, <i>Burning</i></td></tr>
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Putting together "best of" lists in these times can feel frivolous, and last year I never got beyond a perfunctory list of my favorites. 2018 was a blur of more awfulness and protests, plus getting out the vote and progress in the Mueller investigation. It was also a damn fine year for cinema, and I got the list together. Here are my favorites in various categories (and 2017's picks at the end).<br />
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<b>Movies</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtfgNdQ3TzMesFSRG702zo3I1fLDiDwUO2ZODrrco7fI3VL2Gyt7MayXDS-M6259HsWhelMEk_fBCWZohgwRN5GonAtPLq3FTnCPwO61P1-PBs57cu7Gd5WSL1Tz6Ve1KVsMA6rFWUox3/s1600/IMG_7888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1134" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtfgNdQ3TzMesFSRG702zo3I1fLDiDwUO2ZODrrco7fI3VL2Gyt7MayXDS-M6259HsWhelMEk_fBCWZohgwRN5GonAtPLq3FTnCPwO61P1-PBs57cu7Gd5WSL1Tz6Ve1KVsMA6rFWUox3/s400/IMG_7888.JPG" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L to R, top to bottom: <i>Blindspotting</i>, <i>Hereditary</i>,<br />
<i>Burning</i>, <i>The Favourite</i>, <i>Annihilation</i>,<br />
<i>The Death of Stalin</i></td></tr>
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<i><b>Annihilation</b></i>: This movie reminded me of <i>Under the Skin</i> in several ways, including the audience's love-it-or-hate-it reaction. I loved it, but there was a lot of weird laughter at dramatic moments in my screening. Great special effects, and I preferred this contemplative, ambiguous film to director Alex Garland's debut, <i>Ex Machina</i>.<br />
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<i><b>Blindspotting</b></i>: With <i>Black Panther</i>, <i>Sorry to Bother You</i>, and <i>Blindspotting</i>, 2018 was a big cinematic year for Oakland. Directed by Carlos López Estrada and written by and starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, tonal roller coaster <i>Blindspotting</i> looks at a contemporary, gentrifying Oakland and police violence.<br />
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<i><b>The Death of Stalin</b></i>: I watched this movie twice this year. Once in theaters, and then again after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Totalitarianism is a cancer, but the way its aggrandizement and increasingly ludicrous untruths inevitably paint its loyalists into corners is ripe for satire. How else to capture the whiplash of absurdities and atrocities?<br />
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<i><b>Hereditary</b></i>: As in other A24 horror movie <i>The Witch</i>, a teenager must deal with not only a malevolent supernatural entity, but with guilt, grief, and the weight of the family's blame in the aftermath of a tragedy. Toni Collette and Ann Dowd are powerhouses.<br />
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<i><b>The Favourite</b></i>: I went into this expecting to be wowed by Olivia Colman, and was even more wowed than anticipated. Yorgos Lanthimos takes a historic event (Britain's withdrawal from the War of the Spanish Succession) and gives us a tightly wound story of politics, power plays, chronic illness, abusive relationships, and <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i>'s Nux in elaborate 18th Century finery.<br />
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<i><b>Burning</b></i>: Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, this slow burn by Chang-dong Lee is a master class in cinematography and tension. It's also very much of the zeitgeist. In <i>Burning</i>, Seoul's underemployed millennials live in cramped, dark studios or their parents' houses and compete in the marginal gig economy while their 1-percenter peers lounge in the tony Gangnam neighborhood <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Psy made world-famous a few years back</a>. The three lead actors (Ah-in Yoo, Steven Yeun, and Jong-seo Jun) are excellent.<br />
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<b>Books (I read in 2018, not necessarily published in 2018)</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuh4BcUovezZmbpRK91ajeLaYyvVAmXDBbniHuCgS-UFjDm2DRf1_KzwgbVeXa8VI3SkVnxeOWi3nVfhpYIBykwO1X-bfqwZxhuEHHl7gHrqZQMYprMTKAw8c-C9-MsGmDraNj_nqz-sC/s1600/thecharmbuyerscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuh4BcUovezZmbpRK91ajeLaYyvVAmXDBbniHuCgS-UFjDm2DRf1_KzwgbVeXa8VI3SkVnxeOWi3nVfhpYIBykwO1X-bfqwZxhuEHHl7gHrqZQMYprMTKAw8c-C9-MsGmDraNj_nqz-sC/s320/thecharmbuyerscover.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Moriarty</i> by Anthony Horowitz</b>: This twisty post-Reichenbach Falls Sherlock Holmes novel deals with whether or not math professor/crime lord James Moriarty survived that incident. Includes my new favorite Moriarty origin story. (Fans of this sort of thing might also want to check out <i><a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2012/09/review-professor-moriarty-hound-of.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles</a></i> by Kim Newman.)<br />
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<b><i>Wonder Valley</i> by Ivy Pochoda</b>: Drifters, runaways, and cultists populate this contemporary Southern California noir.<br />
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<b><i>The Charm Buyers</i> by Lillian Howan</b>: One of the highlights of 2018 was reading at <a href="https://www.litquake.org/lit-crawl-sf.html" target="_blank">Lit Crawl</a>, an annual evening of literary readings across San Francisco's Mission District. After my group's reading, a few of us ended up at a reading where Lillian Howan read a short story so powerful that I had to look her up and order her novel. In <i>The Charm Buyers</i>, Marc Antoine Chen, a member of the Chinese Hakka community in Tahiti, has a loving extended family and is the heir to a fortune in black pearl cultivation. But Marc seems determined not to make life easy for himself, shunning his father's business in favor of his own illegal operations and falling for first his cousin and then an older French woman. When his cousin falls ill, Marc must decide whether or not to potentially sacrifice everything for her.<br />
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<b><i>The Yonahlosse Riding Camp for Girls</i> by Anton DiSclafani</b>: Just squeaking in under the wire (I devoured this book over the holidays) is this Depression-set page-turner about a Florida teenager sent away to a remote girls' boarding school after a mysterious, scandalizing incident. Horses + a narrator who's a prickly but engaging addition to the "coming of age" genre.<br />
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<b>TV</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbhLeXGxO-xCcvxOjIgcVY7J9keywxOd5IQBjrR12lH1Pqo8zVNADmY3EgbjBJbjZLUHymEza5qI3cjpW-G2PnhwI0iOvThhS5tR-obSC_11Z1i7ksHOwZudDxUc8fnbDLKDao9LM3naQ/s1600/IMG_7902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1134" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbhLeXGxO-xCcvxOjIgcVY7J9keywxOd5IQBjrR12lH1Pqo8zVNADmY3EgbjBJbjZLUHymEza5qI3cjpW-G2PnhwI0iOvThhS5tR-obSC_11Z1i7ksHOwZudDxUc8fnbDLKDao9LM3naQ/s400/IMG_7902.JPG" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Good Place</i> and <i>Kid Gorgeous at Radio City</i></td></tr>
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While the movies I loved this year often starkly confronted our current times, I looked for laughs and comfort in other media. This year I finally started watching (and quickly got caught up on) <i><b>The Good Place</b></i>, which, despite being about death and Hell, is a warm blanket and cup of tea of a show. Honestly, few things have helped me with my anxiety as much as William Jackson Harper's Chidi.<br />
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John Mulaney's special <i><b>Kid Gorgeous at Radio City</b></i> is his best so far and a welcome respite as we try to deal with the horse loose in this hospital. Plus, there's a solid intro of Art Deco porn if you're into that.<br />
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<b>Theater</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JwCkLAhYgT8mAmv34_AY2TH-6SobPtJSeUSRTBOvttQ_KHT_UOzu1ro-KWuaDXwJPSLpWRtbNpq5i5cVMoHbOsCMsSiRhVOc9ZAdkmo0MyYhWEAmIdVSwt4IHdMDeuYKFQT9GThEf49Y/s1600/IMG_6377.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1015" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JwCkLAhYgT8mAmv34_AY2TH-6SobPtJSeUSRTBOvttQ_KHT_UOzu1ro-KWuaDXwJPSLpWRtbNpq5i5cVMoHbOsCMsSiRhVOc9ZAdkmo0MyYhWEAmIdVSwt4IHdMDeuYKFQT9GThEf49Y/s400/IMG_6377.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dancers of<i> Fury</i></td></tr>
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<i><b>Pelleas & Melisandre</b></i>: I attended all three of West Edge Opera's summer productions, and this Debussy opera directed by Keturah Stickann was my favorite with its lush, sensuous sets and costumes. For 2019, I'm most looking forward to Elkhanah Pulitzer's take on <i>The Threepenny Opera</i>!<br />
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<i><b>Fury</b></i>: A ballet based on <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i>? <a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2018/09/mad-max-fury-road-ballet.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">It works!</a><br />
<br />
<i><b>Antony & Cleopatra</b></i>: A <a href="http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/69873-antony-cleopatra" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Theatre Live production</a> with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as Shakespeare's hot mess couple? Yes, please! I bought this ticket impulsively on a Bad News day (I don't even remember which one), but it was well worth the drive to the Lark Theater in Larkspur.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Other</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0H1Z0vYRFbeYNXHOLb-ZTAVnNizcx36RFP2sv6lXv9ewH5mE0Nu49zxKr11f82Ow-J-M_f6vdQpZiW8Y1CvMrKkKBEtHARHMtarOcjntQMFuKw-uX-Q0s9o3HddZcuHUhh1_xGPVv9dM/s1600/randyrainbowbebest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0H1Z0vYRFbeYNXHOLb-ZTAVnNizcx36RFP2sv6lXv9ewH5mE0Nu49zxKr11f82Ow-J-M_f6vdQpZiW8Y1CvMrKkKBEtHARHMtarOcjntQMFuKw-uX-Q0s9o3HddZcuHUhh1_xGPVv9dM/s400/randyrainbowbebest.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<br />
<b>Randy Rainbow</b>: Another year of the Trump Administration, another year of Randy Rainbow keeping us sane! Throughout the lows and lower lows of 2018, Randy was there with timely song parodies. My personal favorite this year was his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gilbert and Sullivan take</a> on "a very stable genius," but other topics included <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtEaZtz1E4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rudy Giuliani joining Trump's legal team</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv4207c9M74" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the ever-intensifying Mueller investigation</a>. Can't wait to see him live with my mom in 2019!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>And 2017:</b><br />
<br />
Theater:<br />
<a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2017/02/shelley-gets-her-due-in-dance.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SF Ballet <i>Frankenstein</i></a><br />
SF Ballet <i>Salome</i><br />
<i>Cyrano de Bergerac</i> - Livermore Shakespeare<br />
<i>La Traviata</i> - SF Opera<br />
<a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2017/12/de-whitewashing-past-illuminating.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Girls of the Golden West</i> - SF Opera</a><br />
<br />
Books:<br />
<a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2017/03/lincoln-in-bardo-by-george-saunders.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> by George Saunders</a><br />
<i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> by Marlon James<br />
<i>The Decameron </i>by Boccaccio<br />
<br />
Movies:<br />
<i>The Florida Project</i><br />
<i>Paterson</i><br />
<i>Call Me By Your Name</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-36952746887748331282018-09-15T15:10:00.002-07:002018-09-16T14:19:10.006-07:00Mad Max Fury Road: the Ballet<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSI8tMFU-QYBbteTw8hu0aBlgBLoKivs7qMzEDdnLjcLp-GTZ0MEGcbTdNcQQOxfOsSyW3cXt_psTRNCAF4WHFlXAdROnjPrvP4Ha0vgNKoNh-OaBpADh_CMbN1TElSlSHGq7RVuFlf2p8/s1600/IMG_6377.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1015" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSI8tMFU-QYBbteTw8hu0aBlgBLoKivs7qMzEDdnLjcLp-GTZ0MEGcbTdNcQQOxfOsSyW3cXt_psTRNCAF4WHFlXAdROnjPrvP4Ha0vgNKoNh-OaBpADh_CMbN1TElSlSHGq7RVuFlf2p8/s400/IMG_6377.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mad Max crew rushes back to the Citadel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
On Friday, 9/14/18, I woke up with a headache. Then my cat threw up under the bed. I managed to get to work on time. There was an exciting development, with Manafort flipping, but what really jump-started my day? A tweet from <a href="https://www.sfballet.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Ballet</a> about a performance some of its dancers were in: a ballet inspired by <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i>. I love ballet. I love <i><a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2015/06/favorite-mad-max-fury-road-moments.html" target="_blank">Mad Max: Fury Road</a></i>. There were only two performances: that night and Saturday night, which I wouldn't be able to make.<br />
<br />
I have never bought a ticket so fast. Somewhere in the digital dash for a <i><a href="https://www.furyshow.com/" target="_blank">Fury</a></i> ticket I absorbed that principal Frances Chung was one of the SF Ballet dancers, but it was only after I purchased my general admission ticket that I saw that two of my other favorites, Dores André and Jennifer Stahl-Weitz, were performing as well, along with Luke Ingham and three principals from <a href="https://linesballet.org/" target="_blank">Alonzo King LINES Ballet</a>: Adji Cissoko, Babatunji, and Michael Montgomery. How had I not known about this before Friday? I followed both Frances Chung and Dores André on Instagram, but somehow despite my social media addiction, was not paying it <i>enough</i> attention.<br />
<br />
My headache continued, impervious to meds or caffeine. But I was determined, and after work I hoped on the T, stopped for a quick pizza dinner in the Dogpatch neighborhood, and then continued to <a href="https://www.themidwaysf.com/" target="_blank">the Midway SF</a>, an arts space in an industrial area near Islais Creek.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FGFvXmT3HRGHu4ZuH651Zgc97BfIubYFl663x2490hyyzEp2dwuuSzvY2S92hudpyNG2H_Zs7mDQhx_n_f4iW58d35-1l3DEGrqY3v3567Z6Sl0kE6MmtzrjmwX2W05OQXaObnoP4gl4/s1600/IMG_6346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FGFvXmT3HRGHu4ZuH651Zgc97BfIubYFl663x2490hyyzEp2dwuuSzvY2S92hudpyNG2H_Zs7mDQhx_n_f4iW58d35-1l3DEGrqY3v3567Z6Sl0kE6MmtzrjmwX2W05OQXaObnoP4gl4/s400/IMG_6346.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An abandoned something or other nearby</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The crowd was definitely younger and hipper than most ballet crowds, but there were plenty of older folks willing to come out in the middle of nowhere to see such illustrious dancers. (Or maybe I'm prejudiced - the well dressed Boomers could have also been hardcore fans of George Miller's dieselpunk masterpiece with zero connections to ballet.)<br />
<br />
The doors opened at 7pm (there was no indication of when the performance would start, and a last-minute Facebook query went unanswered). Inside the dark, maze-like complex was a stage-in-the-round connected by a catwalk to a stage for the musicians. There were multiple bars. There was an attached cafe with more alcohol and food. There was a VIP room. I came alone and I'm not cool, so instead of socializing and drinking, I got a water from the bar, plopped myself on the concrete floor in front of the stage (chairs and stadium seating were strictly for those who had bought VIP tickets), and used my phone's flashlight to read a novel I had with me. My extreme uncoolness ended up being a huge boon.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWUu9ZTRezzBX_kdQy1Dn7xiZQztSFp2g8JUkcxSF9qO78G0JwWXrD-PvxG36vtLGQl3_mty68npre9zSeYRcEHrHbUtvi88YnQu327v_r5ST8youHyV585BiL19k0_1PnMmGVFIHg56t/s1600/IMG_6368.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWUu9ZTRezzBX_kdQy1Dn7xiZQztSFp2g8JUkcxSF9qO78G0JwWXrD-PvxG36vtLGQl3_mty68npre9zSeYRcEHrHbUtvi88YnQu327v_r5ST8youHyV585BiL19k0_1PnMmGVFIHg56t/s400/IMG_6368.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Babatunji (Max) and Montgomery (Nux) on the catwalk,<br />
with the VIP crowd behind them</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I sat there on the floor for over an hour (the show finally started around 8:45pm) as my headache continued and the room filled up. Based on a few social media posts I saw afterwards, a <i>lot</i> of people couldn't actually see the show. Apparently some tried standing on the bars, but were made to get down. Another person on twitter said many left. I was impervious to all this.<br />
<br />
Just how amazing my spot was didn't completely dawn on me until the dancing started. The music was by classical/pop fusion band YASSOU, and it was original, not Junkie XL's (a.k.a. Tom Holkenborg) soundtrack from the movie. YASSOU front woman Lilie Hoy (who played Capable) opened <i>Fury</i> with a song about memories of the world before the apocalypse while the projection screens showed lush green landscapes. The music was good, but I'll be totally honest: I was there for the dancing, and found the opening song a bit slow.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMb9jkrp7qkwqd69Kxi1_nVXxrD5nqw10m0bbBTRgG2EMcDwKkMZB89aeEXXf5vxmuhzCt6eUX8NYT4kdoqQzoebzioX6TPOX3FYI1u9JYcU2RiBekRDGOGH1qxo2QN-doAIFFwm_z4PT-/s1600/IMG_6369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMb9jkrp7qkwqd69Kxi1_nVXxrD5nqw10m0bbBTRgG2EMcDwKkMZB89aeEXXf5vxmuhzCt6eUX8NYT4kdoqQzoebzioX6TPOX3FYI1u9JYcU2RiBekRDGOGH1qxo2QN-doAIFFwm_z4PT-/s400/IMG_6369.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Babatunji, Montgomery, and Hoy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But then Luke Ingham charged out! Playing a much hotter version of Immortan Joe (sadly, I did not get any passable photos of him), Ingham moved around the tiny round stage with power and abandon. At one point he rushed nearly to the edge of the stage where I sat, and I realized that I was 1) sitting within arm's reach to a performance by some of the country's best dancers, and 2) that I had paid $35 for it. Yeah, I was on a hard floor and had to hunch down a little to see under the barrier, but it was still a better view than the box seats at the War Memorial Opera House (I assume).<br />
<br />
By the time Babatunji made the most interesting, graceful crawl across a pretend desert ever, the headache receded from my awareness.<br />
<br />
This elation only intensified as Stahl-Weitz (Splendid) and André (Toast) came out. I first fell in love with André when she danced the lead in Arthur Pita's <i>Salome</i> in March 2017, which I saw from a discounted dress circle seat. Her intensity can be felt from the balcony, but from a few feet away? Electric!<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFlBWFJVlrNZPqagd6CgPYPSSdUhozCRxHutPEa1MRYLHmsZWqG4akB6fpk15rPR754MBoVYFeElyWDZbDRYjv038PZ7Z1yKsmvKm1UlVHOu1u-FUPjIR_-XQSNlgz5D72Y6LsoLMpwgV/s1600/IMG_6362.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1247" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFlBWFJVlrNZPqagd6CgPYPSSdUhozCRxHutPEa1MRYLHmsZWqG4akB6fpk15rPR754MBoVYFeElyWDZbDRYjv038PZ7Z1yKsmvKm1UlVHOu1u-FUPjIR_-XQSNlgz5D72Y6LsoLMpwgV/s400/IMG_6362.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dores Andre and Jennifer Stahl-Weitz</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Also electric was Adji Cissoko as Furiosa. Her role as a principal at LINES is apt, considering her, well, lines. She is a live power line. And seeing Chung's (the Keeper of the Seeds) expressive face so close? Priceless (but again, $35!!!). A section en pointe with André, Chung, and Cissoko was a highlight for me.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZzruytVAR8b5CAvrTiL8vMGYgX-pY8QQ0zg7gWADfkYPjeOBb4qb1sGfIQuY8_3wlNZgjivTAXzRN_4qa754VI3gdlOUZJ0pHnpQ9l_XKHsCuOsdCd_e3Co_SbjD8DSnTXgkLCk1xW65/s1600/IMG_6374.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZzruytVAR8b5CAvrTiL8vMGYgX-pY8QQ0zg7gWADfkYPjeOBb4qb1sGfIQuY8_3wlNZgjivTAXzRN_4qa754VI3gdlOUZJ0pHnpQ9l_XKHsCuOsdCd_e3Co_SbjD8DSnTXgkLCk1xW65/s400/IMG_6374.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chung and Cissoko, VIP section in background</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Although the story of <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i> is obviously pared down for <i>Fury</i> the hour-long ballet, it gets the emotions right. You have the story of a harsh world, constant violence, and a group of various foes who come together in trust, love, and friendship to fight against evil. Hoy and Montgomery were sweet as young lovers Capable and Nux, but Babatunji and Cissoko were especially intriguing as Max and Furiosa. Their chemistry, explored in a fascinating pas de deux, was spot-on, and the audience went wild when they teamed up to kill Immortan Joe. (By jamming Cissoko's steel-like pointed leg in his face. Death by pointe shoe: it's ballet.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNnAztsT9qAn7a8iAI-VQGChMuzn6SKG1g0vCyCN4whkR58EW1_t6SiVxXMjXk26Mfdenbz9awK6_IbY6lsGgyTMrNfO0lj1RVH7JCwYyqbJplHYL26tm2TclWdgteTVqfAMVMu2STjHyt/s1600/IMG_6366+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1479" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNnAztsT9qAn7a8iAI-VQGChMuzn6SKG1g0vCyCN4whkR58EW1_t6SiVxXMjXk26Mfdenbz9awK6_IbY6lsGgyTMrNfO0lj1RVH7JCwYyqbJplHYL26tm2TclWdgteTVqfAMVMu2STjHyt/s400/IMG_6366+%25282%2529.jpg" width="368" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stahl-Weitz, Cissoko, and Andre</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Also exciting about the show was its creative team. While ballet is having a great moment with young choreographers, many of the most famous are men (Arthur Pita, Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, etc). <i>Fury</i>'s choreographer is Danielle Rowe, and the composer (Kristina Dutton) and producer (Kate Duhamel) are women as well.<br />
<br />
My takeaway from the crowd around me was that those who were able to see it loved it, but it was a disappointment for many of those who had bought general admission and were not either tall or early enough to snag a spot on the ground. However, there was a camera crew, and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival was being promoted, so maybe it will show up there someday?<br />
<br />
There is one more show tonight (9/15/18), and it looks like there are some <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fury-a-concert-experience-inspired-by-mad-max-fury-road-tickets-48180223345" target="_blank">general admission tickets left</a> as of this writing. Get there early!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7umnSCycMoT22ApIjAlrTdCCL6bs0q5TdtyhIXyiEAu2YqlRFPxW6tKiuXyj7r8Rb-hPcT6JzR1jvIk2QLkxPDvX3423uECihnBWgFfXOQYyj_1jR0tCyA8Suz8oFCQVh9bch4h5leq-m/s1600/IMG_6352.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7umnSCycMoT22ApIjAlrTdCCL6bs0q5TdtyhIXyiEAu2YqlRFPxW6tKiuXyj7r8Rb-hPcT6JzR1jvIk2QLkxPDvX3423uECihnBWgFfXOQYyj_1jR0tCyA8Suz8oFCQVh9bch4h5leq-m/s400/IMG_6352.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The stage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">All photos: terrible, mine (photos on social media tagged with #FuryShow were encouraged)</span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-41360810637749772932018-07-15T13:50:00.001-07:002018-07-15T13:59:18.130-07:00Dream Cast - The Hunchback of Notre Dame<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjo_DEaKTVhf6nq3WRMBkU1UxIZG-p0BeWWNvNPUroKevNfl2MpGCr6gnRsG3J1_9wWFAkghTdIVi146Nmi7tFP5JA77SHZru_FSgkCz4ArltxCsxt0h_m2ShyphenhyphenQg5nuy4SJq-B_uaTB5LW/s1600/IMG_5485.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1280" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjo_DEaKTVhf6nq3WRMBkU1UxIZG-p0BeWWNvNPUroKevNfl2MpGCr6gnRsG3J1_9wWFAkghTdIVi146Nmi7tFP5JA77SHZru_FSgkCz4ArltxCsxt0h_m2ShyphenhyphenQg5nuy4SJq-B_uaTB5LW/s400/IMG_5485.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
I'm still on <a href="https://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-hunchback-musicals-rambling-yet.html" target="_blank">my <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> kick</a>. I have been for years, but still am, too. How much time did I put into this Dream Cast? Way too much!<br />
<br />
Like I stated for <i>Wuthering Heights</i> and <i>Frankenstein</i>, this <i>Hunchback of Notre Dame/Notre-Dame de Paris </i>dream production is definitely a miniseries, not a movie. It would be an accurate reflection of Victor Hugo's novel, and would therefore have a LOT of stuff, so two hours isn't going to work.<br />
<br />
Most importantly: it has Jehan Frollo du Moulin!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_88fcecKOxYiCz-bDyUsyvEil5YmhVSFIJe31FJqza0jcU2LmFiGd8427JwAMiK0r2WcXWX9CDjvGv0rygiWteQzGY6AW6U2KOy_YK76KrqWYyGZIjDtm7t2f6AAwcOQVE5QQ9czKX6hm/s1600/notredamedeparisjehan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="466" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_88fcecKOxYiCz-bDyUsyvEil5YmhVSFIJe31FJqza0jcU2LmFiGd8427JwAMiK0r2WcXWX9CDjvGv0rygiWteQzGY6AW6U2KOy_YK76KrqWYyGZIjDtm7t2f6AAwcOQVE5QQ9czKX6hm/s320/notredamedeparisjehan.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oui, Jehan, this is your moment!</td></tr>
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Previously in Dream Cast:<br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/11/dream-cast-tempest.html" target="_blank">The Tempest</a><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/dream-cast-frankenstein.html" target="_blank">Frankenstein</a><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/02/dream-cast-wuthering-heights.html" target="_blank">Wuthering Heights</a><br />
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<b>Young Frollo - Timothee Chalamet & Young Chantefleurie - Olivia Cooke</b><br />
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Before Claude Frollo and Paquette "Chantefleurie" Guybertaut become hateful, preternaturally aged 36-year-olds, they're happy young single parents in wildly opposite social positions. Claude Frollo, an intensely focused and extraordinarily gifted student in Paris, ends up finding new meaning in life when he adopts his baby brother Jehan after their parents die of the plague. Meanwhile in nearby Reims, Chantefleurie, worn down by poverty and prostitution, is thrilled when she gives birth to a baby girl she names Agnes. Everything's great, cue "Dear Theodosia."<br />
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But the unthinkable strikes when baby Agnes is kidnapped and a deformed toddler left in her place. Chantefleurie's anguish is only compounded when she is erroneously told (due to 15th Century forensics) that the Gypsies responsible cooked and ate her baby. Chantefleurie's and Frollo's fates converge for the first time when he ends up adopting - on a Quasimodo Sunday - the toddler left in place of Agnes.<br />
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It helps that Chalamet is French and waifish, but what really sells him to me for young Claude is his excellence in subtly showing an active interior life. Frollo is quiet and reserved, but always thinking. Cooke, an expressive standout in <i>Thoroughbreds</i>, could bring Chantefleurie's elation and heartbreak to life.<br />
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<b>Frollo - Zachary Quinto</b><br />
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Sixteen years later, Frollo isn't doing so great. Having literally run out of human knowledge to acquire, he has turned his studies to the dark arts and alchemy, and those pursuits are driving him insane. The public thinks he and Quasimodo are demons. Jehan has turned out to be an asshole. He has a sexual awakening, but isn't allowed to have sex. Furthermore, the printing press is growing in popularity, and he worries what effect this will have on architectural trends.<br />
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Basically, Frollo is pissed off all the time, looks pissed off all the time, and do you know who also looks pissed off all the time? Zachary Quinto! That's not a diss; I love his work (and I'm also cursed with RBF). This role would let Quinto scowl to his heart's content and then dive back into early-<i>Heroes</i> villainy. Plus, he would look fantastic in a cassock.<br />
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<b>Quasimodo - Joshua Castille</b><br />
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Part of Quasimodo's identity that is often overlooked in adaptations is that he is deaf. His beloved bells of Notre-Dame have taken away his hearing (though he can still make out the largest bell). He and Frollo develop their own sign language, but Quasimodo remains mostly isolated from society. Broadway actor Joshua Castille, who has profound hearing loss, recently performed the part of Quasimodo in the Disney musical at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre using American Sign Language with a singer/interpreter. Videos of Castille performing are online (he's also been on <i>Switched at Birth</i>), and he's an expressive and engaging actor.<br />
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Of course, for physicality, Castille isn't quite there for what this role traditionally is. Quasimodo is supposed to be lumbering and unnaturally strong, able to toss people across the room when they annoy him. He could pose a serious threat, and even though the people mock him, they're afraid of him. Castille could maybe throw...a kitten? There's certainly no way we're going to believe he can pick up his foster brother Jehan by the feet and slam him so hard against the walls of Notre-Dame that his brain comes out (he can just push him, I guess). Also, Quasimodo is supposed to be ugly and Castille...is very much not. But that's what prosthetics and makeup are for!<br />
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<b>Esmeralda - Kiersey Clemons</b><br />
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Race and Esmeralda is complicated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/theater/hunchback-of-notre-dame-ithaca-high-school.html" target="_blank">and thorny</a>. Adaptations generally cut out the Chantefleurie story, where Esmeralda is identified as Agnes from Reims, which is about 45 minutes away from Paris by train. Although she doesn't seem to actually be what we today call Roma (her father is not identified other than that he's a criminal), she "passes" with her black hair and tan skin, which is compared to those of people from Andalusia and Egypt. For adaptations that have to pare down runtime and/or want to avoid a problematic "Gypsy kidnappers" plot, it's easier to just say she's Roma and leave out the origin story.<br />
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I don't want to do that, but I would stick with a woman of color in this role. My pick would be radiant Kiersey Clemons. I saw her recently in cute, family-friendly indie <i>Hearts Beat Loud</i>. The role allows Clemons to show off her acting and musical chops, both of which are stellar.<br />
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With her buoyancy and singing voice, I'd love to see her as Esmeralda. In Hugo's novel, Esmeralda is street-smart and will totes pull a knife on you, but is also, heartbreakingly, a typical teenager. She wants to sing, dance, obsess over her crush, and do magic tricks with her pet goat. The idea of her as "sexy Gypsy temptress" is something the men around her project on her. Clemons could definitely show Esmeralda's vitality, charm, and tragedy.<br />
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<b>Fleur-de-Lys - Bebe Cave</b><br />
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Fleur-de-Lys isn't an altogether sympathetic character. She's a noblewoman, Phoebus's fiancee, and jealous of Esmeralda. She makes fun of Esmeralda's clothes and does what she can to keep her and Phoebus apart. However, her feelings are understandable. Although born rich, as a woman, she's also born without any power of her own. She has no say in being given in marriage to a philandering douche, and she's trying to exercise as much damage control as she can.<br />
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I recently watched <i>Tale of Tales</i>, and was captivated by Bebe Cave, who plays Violet, a princess forced into marriage with a literal ogre. Cave's expressiveness and adaptability made her believable and endearing as naive princess, "final girl" victim, and rightful ruler. A lesser director and actor might have have portrayed Violet as a spoiled mean girl at the beginning of her story, but Matteo Garrone and Cave avoided that misogynistic cliche. Cave is the actress I'd want to explore and express Fleur-de-Lys's unenviable position.<br />
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<b>Clopin Trouillefou - Taika Waititi</b></div>
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In Hugo's novel, Clopin is not the leader of the Gypsies, but the King of Thunes (beggars, vagabonds, criminals, etc). He rules the underworld gathered at the Court of Miracles as part of a triumvirate with the Duke of Egypt and Bohemia (Gypsies) and the Emperor of Galilee (Jews). Clopin is charismatic and "fun," but also a bit of a psychopath. He's more than ready to hang Gringoire (after toying with him) for the crime of accidentally wandering into the Court of Miracles. During the showdown between the underworld, the cops, and Quasimodo (the underworld mistakenly thinks Quasimodo is holding Esmeralda captive in Notre-Dame, and storms the cathedral), Clopin dies, but not before hacking off a bunch of limbs with a scythe.<br />
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Magnetic Taika Waititi would be a scene-stealer in this mercurial role.<br />
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<b>Jehan Frollo - Owen Teague</b><br />
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Nineteen-year-old Owen Teague is best known for playing bully Patrick Hockstetter in 2017's <i>It</i>. In a departure from the novel and the 1990 miniseries, 2017 Patrick gets to be attractive and rock a killer 80s wardrobe. He dies quickly, but Teague's charisma makes an impact.<br />
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Sixteen-year-old Jehan is less sadistic than Patrick, but still a bully and major problem child. He mocks classmates, mooches money from brother/guardian Frollo, gets drunk, and visits prostitutes. Despite this, he's popular and hangs out with everyone from Phoebus to Clopin.<br />
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He can be a leader when he feels like it, organizing student raids on wine shops and fighting at the front of the underworld's attempt to free Esmeralda from Notre-Dame. His real aim there is revenge against both Claude, who has cut him off financially, and his hated foster brother Quasimodo. Unfortunately for Jehan, it doesn't go well, but he does go out in true Jehan fashion by singing defiantly in his final moments. I'd cast Teague and his sardonic grin as teen rebel Jehan.<br />
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<b>Pierre Gringoire - John Mulaney & Phoebus - Liam Hemsworth</b></div>
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To be honest, I was pretty "meh" about casting either of these characters until I thought of John Mulaney as Gringoire. Then I was all for it!<br />
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Gringoire (loosely based on an actual historic figure) is an impoverished, up-and-coming poet and playwright for whom almost nothing goes right. The novel starts with his play about to be performed, but it gets held up for reasons behold his control, resulting in a furious crowd. When the production finally starts, the crowd's interest is quickly diverted by Clopin and his Flemish diplomat/hosier friend. Afterwards, he accidentally ends up in the Court of Miracles and is almost executed by Clopin. Esmeralda saves him by marrying him, but they don't have sex because she's not DTF. From then on, Gringoire has to perform in the Gypsies' acrobatic shows, balancing chairs on his head and whatnot.<br />
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The one thing that goes right for him: through his "marriage" with Esmeralda, he meets and falls in love with her little white goat, Djali. In the chaos and bloodshed of the ending, the two of them manage to escape. If you say you don't want to see John Mulaney <strike>heroically</strike> fleeing a scene of violence with a goat clutched in his arms, you are lying.<br />
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As for Phoebus, meh. All you need for Phoebus is a good-looking, halfway decent actor who can savor being a hot dick. Liam Hemsworth would be fine.<br />
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<b>Chantefleurie/Sister Gudule - Charlotte Gainsbourg</b></div>
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After being told her baby was killed and cannibalized, Chantefleurie leaves Reims and becomes Sister Gudule: an anchoress living in a tiny, cold, barren cell in a public square in Paris. There she mourns her daughter and screams abuse at Gypsies (including, ironically, Esmeralda). When she and Esmeralda finally figure out they're mother and daughter thanks to matching baby shoes, their joy is short-lived. Esmeralda is arrested, and Gudule dies defending her.<br />
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It's a small role, but pretty much at 11 the whole time, and Gainsbourg would knock it out of the park.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">1) Quasimodo, 2) Jehan Frollo, 3) Phoebus, 4) Fleur-de-Lys, 5) Chantefleurie/Sister Gudule, 6) Esmeralda, 7) Djali, 8) Pierre Gringoire, 9) Claude Frollo</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header image: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Zachary Quinto as a priest (I knew someone had to have put him in a collar sometime, and google Images delivered): <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ccb4a04623/periods-presents-before-after-w-zachary-quinto" target="_blank">this 2010 Funny or Die sketch</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kiersey Clemons in Cannes: photo by George Pimentel</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Joshua Castille: from the 5th Avenue Theatre production</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">John Mulaney: from <i>John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Taika Waititi: <a href="https://twitter.com/TaikaWaititi/status/981651006495821825" target="_blank">his twitter</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jehan + character guide at bottom: illustration from <a href="https://www.edition-originale.com/en/literature/illustrated-books/hugo-notre-dame-de-paris-1844-46992" target="_blank">1844 edition</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Timothee Chalamet: from <i>Call Me By Your Name</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olivia Cooke: from <i>Thoroughbreds</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Zachary Quinto: from <i>American Horror Story</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Joshua Castille: promo pic for 5th Avenue Theatre by Mark Kitaoka</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kiersey Clemons: from <i>Hearts Beat Loud</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bebe Cave: from <i>Tale of Tales</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Taiki Waititi: his Facebook profile</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Owen Teague: from<i> It</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">John Mulaney with dog: <a href="https://twitter.com/mulaney/status/523874059637907457" target="_blank">his twitter</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Liam Hemsworth: IMDB headshot</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Charlotte Gainsbourg: from <i>Antichrist</i></span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-90896963436842111032018-06-11T00:01:00.001-07:002018-09-16T13:03:30.267-07:00The Hunchback Musicals: A Rambling Yet Incomplete Comparison <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdVOY_mj6uNocsywj74kWgHA3UNIxMOoH-RTIVM6961ru0Y2e-21phNZCOGLi6gXY5P27tGeLDq0eFPHMxR7En3qOlmjEK-JHoUXbqucbrHaR2P5GSQh8iSU3MN0MAuBdoVcXWFFBz_Ke/s1600/hondpapermillplayhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdVOY_mj6uNocsywj74kWgHA3UNIxMOoH-RTIVM6961ru0Y2e-21phNZCOGLi6gXY5P27tGeLDq0eFPHMxR7En3qOlmjEK-JHoUXbqucbrHaR2P5GSQh8iSU3MN0MAuBdoVcXWFFBz_Ke/s400/hondpapermillplayhouse.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the Paper Mill Playhouse production of<i> The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As a <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i>/<i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> superfan (there are dozens of us!), I was thrilled to finally get to see the updated Disney stage musical last week when it was put on by <a href="http://www.southbaymt.com/" target="_blank">South Bay Musical Theatre</a>. The community theater troupe pulled the show off with aplomb, mostly because of the cast's powerful voices - especially Jen Maggio as Esmeralda and Jay Steele as Frollo (Steele also had multiple roles behind the scenes, including graphic design and assistant master carpenter). The audience I sat in was dazzled, and shows sold out. Full disclosure: Christine Ormseth, who is a member of my childhood church, did the hair and makeup design and was in the ensemble. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you're not right on the pulse of the musical and/or Victor Hugo fan communities, you might ask what the updated Disney stage musical is. Remember the 1996 Disney movie <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame,</i> which had almost nothing to do with Hugo's novel? If you don't, it had Frollo as a judge (instead of a priest, to pacify the Catholic church) who ended up taking in baby Quasimodo after he straight-up murdered Quasimodo's mother (rather than adopting Quasimodo to save him from Parisians who wanted to burn the ugly child to death); talking gargoyles (including one with saggy boobs); and most shocking of all, a happy ending.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspPpmHMxdIzQKEUwz_1VQus9DYevJsrRGupkPDGPk8ehUkf6gCIRY_1UxnduU8NRO_yMos04Pp9xiqUkXd24XxVDKQz8jNVvCIAQgxmhdOVSwT50YlA2SjoehElEUN6WtN3hR2nlEiY_N/s1600/Esmeralda-Phoebus-%2528The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1276" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspPpmHMxdIzQKEUwz_1VQus9DYevJsrRGupkPDGPk8ehUkf6gCIRY_1UxnduU8NRO_yMos04Pp9xiqUkXd24XxVDKQz8jNVvCIAQgxmhdOVSwT50YlA2SjoehElEUN6WtN3hR2nlEiY_N/s400/Esmeralda-Phoebus-%2528The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you do remember it, it's probably due to two tour de force Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz songs: "God Help the Outcasts" (sung by Heidi Mollenhauer) and incel classic "Hellfire" (sung by Tony Jay). Indeed, these songs belted out by Maggio and Steele were highlights of the South Bay Musical Theatre production. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Disney first did a stage play of <i>Hunchback</i> in 1999 - in Berlin, in German. This version was similar to the movie, but had Esmeralda die. Then in 2014, a new version with a book by Peter Parnell premiered that was even closer to the novel. That doesn't mean, however, that there weren't some big changes...one of which was completely whackadoo. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZeQJBiRrAoKZfq2q3Q0SW9KIynvBnInZQpIJKcKTlVYyLrQDmqVST8lJxTpBd3DHxgHYZhlta8PwxOLu2RJjRTfTIBKEEPvJHPO_gcb1OcHmSdRjVJvtGgkyHZLE18Fe8rvVtVJ93HTA/s1600/Hunchback-program-coverSBMT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="426" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZeQJBiRrAoKZfq2q3Q0SW9KIynvBnInZQpIJKcKTlVYyLrQDmqVST8lJxTpBd3DHxgHYZhlta8PwxOLu2RJjRTfTIBKEEPvJHPO_gcb1OcHmSdRjVJvtGgkyHZLE18Fe8rvVtVJ93HTA/s320/Hunchback-program-coverSBMT.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The production I saw </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I opened my program, I was shocked (and delighted!) to see Jehan's name in the first song. Jehan Frollo, Claude Frollo's rebellious teen brother, probably gets chopped from adaptations more than Fleur-de-Lys (Phoebus's fiancee - more on that later), and at least she gets a starring role in the French <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> musical (more on that later as well). Jehan gets nothing! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I always think this is a shame, because I kind of love Jehan. Yes, he's an asshole that I'd hate in real life, and at sixteen he's already a drunk mooch who has instigated his fellow students to carry out raids on wine shops, but he's also sassy, charismatic, and a good source of comic relief in a dark book. He's the first character we meet by name, and we meet him when he's hanging out on a column and heckling people during the interminable wait for a play to begin. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3hxyqJD4X-EwvbH1u2ITbDlRVyCML8ZVUCqSGWMB7N2gUxSl1NLdvmOrqAM01dCvAkPUIsfjCPHIg2eFhIqoP89z2pgXqWNfSO7hXC0byVXYK6V0zgco9_O4yco92RYy0aB3eZmzdoDD/s1600/jehanfrolloengraving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="708" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3hxyqJD4X-EwvbH1u2ITbDlRVyCML8ZVUCqSGWMB7N2gUxSl1NLdvmOrqAM01dCvAkPUIsfjCPHIg2eFhIqoP89z2pgXqWNfSO7hXC0byVXYK6V0zgco9_O4yco92RYy0aB3eZmzdoDD/s400/jehanfrolloengraving.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's our boy!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I gathered from the fact that he was only in one song in the program that he was possibly going to be killed off before his time, but I never would have predicted that <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> musical would make him...Quasimodo's father!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is surprising and hilarious for two reasons:</span></div>
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<li>Jehan hates Quasimodo</li>
<li>Jehan is about three-four years younger than Quasimodo</li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm guessing most people watching the musical didn't care that they made a character they had never heard of Quasimodo's dad, but <i>I</i> care. However, I don't disapprove. Mostly because it's hilarious for the above reasons (Jehan would be <b>so mad</b> and then make a great joke about it), but also because I get what they were going for by having Jehan and a Gypsy be Quasimodo's parents: correcting the way-off-base explanation for Frollo adopting Quasimodo, linking Quasimodo and Jehan in Frollo's mind (in the novel, Frollo decides to raise Quasimodo in honor of fellow orphan Jehan), </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">keeping the movie's conceit that Frollo wants Quasimodo hidden, and explaining Frollo's bigotry towards Gypsies.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9A1WPx4RycPoXeIpPjDSBI5hS6DxaagmZIzURYg9ZGIlMl6cZFFk9FHrRadRqZms3_UaT67oaSLurZgko2QYfZquZ8EdakTZ0g0epp-VhWxPpygmv6pQYuRL54tom1Bkbi4LfmER1Rev/s1600/ND-de-Paris-L4-Ch1-LesBonnesAmes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1046" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9A1WPx4RycPoXeIpPjDSBI5hS6DxaagmZIzURYg9ZGIlMl6cZFFk9FHrRadRqZms3_UaT67oaSLurZgko2QYfZquZ8EdakTZ0g0epp-VhWxPpygmv6pQYuRL54tom1Bkbi4LfmER1Rev/s400/ND-de-Paris-L4-Ch1-LesBonnesAmes.png" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frollo: anti-baby-burning killjoy</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Jehan inclusion highlights how much <i>stuff</i> is in Hugo's novel, and how adaptations have to pick and choose what to keep or cut. Do you try to work in how Frollo's madness is linked to alchemy and the dark arts? What about the whole part with Esmeralda's mother, a prostitute who is erroneously told that Gypsies ate her baby? There's a plethora of characters, subplots, and themes to choose from, so not surprisingly, another musical based on the same source is much different from this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> is a 1998 French musical (available on DVD!) by composer Riccardo Cocciante and lyricist Luc Plamondon and is basically the Gallic <i>Phantom of the Opera</i>. Despite not bothering with Jehan, the show is hugely popular in French-speaking countries, and its original cast will never be fully freed from the expectation of reunion concerts. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-j2ck54v3SHWqeckaY79R93oOnO6bT1W3SCQHeU-MjICcR2wA088Mge8a3Tn8nwWWEQcSy0r1OUl-2_x0AaelOInEkOuS4Lspw8-RPGsaSAHVO1paI41WpR7msUE324GxmsH5wkCMS8Fo/s1600/notredamedeparisconcert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="717" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-j2ck54v3SHWqeckaY79R93oOnO6bT1W3SCQHeU-MjICcR2wA088Mge8a3Tn8nwWWEQcSy0r1OUl-2_x0AaelOInEkOuS4Lspw8-RPGsaSAHVO1paI41WpR7msUE324GxmsH5wkCMS8Fo/s400/notredamedeparisconcert.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hope you all get along, original <i>Hamilton</i> cast!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As an excuse for me rambling some more, here are some other big differences between the two musicals. From here on out, the Disney/Menken musical <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> will be abbreviated as HoND, and the French musical <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> will be NDdP. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgfoBO03yVqqyl-JyI3AIQ6MpYTk3jOaF4M0Cjyz8ATdcaUPZNkwVSxdgcxqSv32C2L6mGb6qA2oGA6wD4Faxa2-l7gkf481tXmA42zeOjdYFtNo6bv7VJ-DXQ63lP4weODApBl11k8yy/s1600/garounddp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgfoBO03yVqqyl-JyI3AIQ6MpYTk3jOaF4M0Cjyz8ATdcaUPZNkwVSxdgcxqSv32C2L6mGb6qA2oGA6wD4Faxa2-l7gkf481tXmA42zeOjdYFtNo6bv7VJ-DXQ63lP4weODApBl11k8yy/s400/garounddp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garou as Quasimodo in NDdP</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Quasimodo's Freedom</span></b></div>
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Something HoND carries over from the Disney movie is having Frollo keep Quasimodo hidden from public view and forbidding him to leave the cathedral. For the musical, this is a major plot point, encapsulated in the sweeping <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb5OGU8I04U" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Out There</a>. Will Quasimodo disobey Frollo and go out to the city on his own? How will he fare in the alien world outside the walls of Notre-Dame?<br />
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In the novel, this imprisonment simply isn't a thing. For one, novel Frollo lacks the social awareness to care what people think about him and his charge, and he actually has Quasimodo in the public eye way more than the public would like (when Frollo and Quasimodo go out on walks everyone talks behind their backs like they're Belle in <i>Beauty and the Beast</i>, except the Parisians think they're literally demonic instead of just weird).<br />
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Although disobeying an increasingly evil Frollo is still a major personal struggle for Quasimodo, he's otherwise no shrinking violet in the book; if someone makes fun of him, he picks them up and throws them. Problem solved! We don't get to see Quasimodo throw anyone in NDdP, but neither is he locked up like Rapunzel.<br />
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<b>Point: NDdP</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisst_FI9qSA7iHg0LFVa04TnogUrhdHgR1pmkhzblGtFc_b0gJPIKPO3Di6f7aRzMhLB1vkPBcPqLvfNLhwwMKzlAZix65yODSWwRvDKHy5bltgk2YlYKrqlnw28HLrAEnnW-c-ujV8wu5/s1600/joshcastille5thave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisst_FI9qSA7iHg0LFVa04TnogUrhdHgR1pmkhzblGtFc_b0gJPIKPO3Di6f7aRzMhLB1vkPBcPqLvfNLhwwMKzlAZix65yODSWwRvDKHy5bltgk2YlYKrqlnw28HLrAEnnW-c-ujV8wu5/s400/joshcastille5thave.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EJ Cardona and Josh Castille in the 5th Avenue production</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Quasimodo's Deafness</span></b></div>
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The fact that Quasimodo is mostly deaf due to his lifelong love of giant bells has sometimes been left out of adaptations, but this is starting to be rectified. Not only does HoND acknowledge this by making him hard of hearing, but a <a href="https://www.5thavenue.org/show/the-hunchback-of-notre-dame/#overview" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">current production at 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle</a> has cast Deaf actor Joshua Castille as Quasimodo. Castille uses American Sign Language in the play, which makes sense - in the novel, Quasimodo and Frollo converse with their own sign language. For Quasimodo's songs in the musical, one of his imaginary/statue friends (played by EJ Cardona) acts as his singing voice. (<b>Update 6/16</b>: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRax8BmaSto" target="_blank">here's a clip of Castille and Cardona at work</a>.)<br />
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<b>Point: HoND</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKHvRp5va6ygEsrDCF7qCL2URxOFWBQwO4aA9bGT4Jipq5_xEWs8hymtfsMkzdXSOuairEuUzPpHy9kopEhgEBdTvXcV40cm_qKRC-CQCWukDdPFBVwV9McIdAfRHKTS1BuSodUqno88d/s1600/nddpsegarafiori.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKHvRp5va6ygEsrDCF7qCL2URxOFWBQwO4aA9bGT4Jipq5_xEWs8hymtfsMkzdXSOuairEuUzPpHy9kopEhgEBdTvXcV40cm_qKRC-CQCWukDdPFBVwV9McIdAfRHKTS1BuSodUqno88d/s320/nddpsegarafiori.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helene Segara as Esmeralda and Patrick Fiori as Phoebus in NDdP</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Phoebus</span></b></div>
<br />
The biggest change Disney made in their movie was having Esmeralda live and have a happy ending with good guy Phoebus. In HoND, even though Esmeralda dies, Phoebus still gets a hero role. He's a soldier with PTSD who learns to buck the system to stand up for what's right. This is in stark contrast to the novel, where he is a total fuckboy.<br />
<br />
Novel Phoebus is engaged to aristocratic Fleur-de-Lys, but he screws around and parties a lot. (Jehan is one of his drinking buddies!) He has zero interest in anything more than sex with Esmeralda. When he gets stabbed by Frollo while trying to have that sex, he decides the affair isn't worth it and bails.<br />
<br />
Although NDdP humanizes him a bit, it still keeps him deep in fuckboy territory and even gives him <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIhzJ4ys2QI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a fuckboy anthem</a>, in which he explains at length to his fiancee why it is totally not his fault that he ended up in a hotel room with a different woman, who is now condemned to death.<br />
<br />
<b>Point: NDdP</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYYI8Y3D_PaIo5g_LvA-VT7E8eI0i6mCQYsv-d0bg2F2Ym99KuoRo_sxQYf6WzSUJ1GsB5t_DN-6hiYGCHVDfY77NIICmVC_X7wsbF0Gfg3bXiX0o8D_Wj9QGoaSuiP9YE69PTZGTPEjH/s1600/IMG_5055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYYI8Y3D_PaIo5g_LvA-VT7E8eI0i6mCQYsv-d0bg2F2Ym99KuoRo_sxQYf6WzSUJ1GsB5t_DN-6hiYGCHVDfY77NIICmVC_X7wsbF0Gfg3bXiX0o8D_Wj9QGoaSuiP9YE69PTZGTPEjH/s400/IMG_5055.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeremy Stolle as aged-up Jehan in HoND for Paper Mill Playhouse,<br />
Julie Zenatti as aged-down Fleur-de-Lys in NDdP</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Often-Cut Characters</span></b></div>
<br />
The only characters you <i>really </i>need for a <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> adaptation are Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Frollo. An adaptation with only those three main characters would be quite minimalist, while using all of Hugo's characters would be difficult to juggle: there's a goat, there's Esmeralda's mom who lives in a hole, there's a whole subplot with Louis XI, there's a very funny Flemish hose-maker, etc. Neither HoND or NDdP risk putting a live goat onstage, but they do both use other supporting characters who don't always make the cut.<br />
<br />
While I have to give HoND credit for the sheer ballsiness of their Jehan stunt from which I have still not recovered, and they include a quick Louis XI appearance, NDdP takes the gateau here. First of all, they put historical writer cameo Pierre Gringoire to work by having him narrate (they also make him way cooler than novel Gringoire, who is a hapless dork).<br />
<br />
More importantly, the NdDP writers give voice to Fleur-de-Lys. Instead of giving Phoebus's fiancee the "bitch" treatment, they let her be human. The NDdP Fleur-de-Lys is giddy with love for Phoebus, but she's also very young and nervous about sex. Even in what could be seen as a villain moment - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j6AcpwYf-U" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">her song demanding Esmeralda be hanged</a> - what really comes through in Julie Zenatti's masterful performance is her character's anguish and immaturity.<br />
<br />
<b>Point: NDdP</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAEo9X4g_TFkILaZPAy529l_Lr77sc97emsyR-2K2_Nc92GPUyyaTbNQGJgGe6A9gUQZY57VLlO9JGwXX6ebNoqtEi6LgYhkBbaN-UfWtULgVmCDBsWBMufAIOxvJjl5SOt2TkBA2vm4cB/s1600/Trio-kiss-NDdP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="484" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAEo9X4g_TFkILaZPAy529l_Lr77sc97emsyR-2K2_Nc92GPUyyaTbNQGJgGe6A9gUQZY57VLlO9JGwXX6ebNoqtEi6LgYhkBbaN-UfWtULgVmCDBsWBMufAIOxvJjl5SOt2TkBA2vm4cB/s400/Trio-kiss-NDdP.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nothing binds men together like singing "Belle" for the 1000th time.<br />
Garou (Quasimodo), Daniel Lavoie (Frollo), and Patrick Fiori (Phoebus)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Music</b></span></div>
<br />
Here's the big one! And...I'm not picking sides. Sort of. This one truly is a matter of taste. For HoND, you've got Menken's score made even more haunting and grand with a choir, repeatedly calling the epic cathedral itself to mind. Then you have the aforementioned "God Help the Outcasts" and "Hellfire," both unusually mature and complex for Disney songs. There are a slew of covers of these, including this badass metal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di1XUB0YIzw" target="_blank">Hellfire</a>.<br />
<br />
And in its corner, NDdP has "Belle," in which Quasimodo, Frollo, and Phoebus talk about how much they want to bone Esmeralda. It's hard to overstate this song's popularity in the francophone world. It came on the radio when my sister and I were in a restaurant in Bruges a year ago, which was awesome. It is to Garou, Daniel Lavoie, and Patrick Fiori what "Let it Go" is to Idina Menzel or "On My Own" is to Lea Salonga. There are endless videos of them singing it in concerts and fundraisers, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiYLvZwN160" target="_blank">this one</a> is typical: the audience loses its shit every time one of the guys come on, and the guys gaze adoringly/awkwardly at each other.<br />
<br />
This isn't to say "Belle" is NDdP's only great song. The whole soundtrack is worthwhile, and I will say that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUQrt2i3mbQ" target="_blank">its song about the place of ill repute</a> Phoebus and Esmeralda plan to hook up in is way better than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOOp4k1CaGA" target="_blank">HoND's version</a>. (Probably goes without saying, but unlike the French musical, the Disney staging does not include simulated sex.)<br />
<br />
<b>Point: whichever you prefer! </b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX0m0GWJ7Wa84ybw5PproHpA2_1sUexX7NqwmM2qVA_gnnLJJsgH4G801q0hyphenhyphenVBRHFXOnhEGDWYWM5J2ci4vXyAt5yFaufPsRjptbv2-wsgzXVq_gwiVWgULoV74oozAsoQ9l5Ex6LXSpB/s1600/nddporiginalcast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="252" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX0m0GWJ7Wa84ybw5PproHpA2_1sUexX7NqwmM2qVA_gnnLJJsgH4G801q0hyphenhyphenVBRHFXOnhEGDWYWM5J2ci4vXyAt5yFaufPsRjptbv2-wsgzXVq_gwiVWgULoV74oozAsoQ9l5Ex6LXSpB/s400/nddporiginalcast.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original NDdP cast in what appears to be a 90s sitcom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Anyway, to sum up: I am a crazy person and please watch a musical based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel.<br />
<br />
By the way, now might be an exciting time to join the Hunchback fandom. Idris Elba is producing, directing, and starring as Quasimodo (???) in <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/idris-elba-star-hunchback-notre-dame-netflix-1111638" target="_blank">a modern-day Netflix version</a>, which is possibly also a musical? But Elba's not alone. <a href="http://www.thehunchblog.com/2018/05/15/brolin-is-at-it-again/" target="_blank">Josh Brolin also wants to play Quasimodo</a>, as does <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/03/the-night-managers-tom-hollander-to-star-produce-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame-remake-for-itv-1202354105/" target="_blank">Tom Hollander</a>. Is Quasimodo the new "it" role, like Hamlet or the Joker? Will any of these productions include Jehan? If so, <a href="http://www.thehunchblog.com/" target="_blank">The Hunchblog</a> will probably have the news first.<br />
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In the meantime, here is a bonus character guide:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vj-bTm12CJLETWLUMPteSQiP81YMiDAaT-wCh99LHbBfuyV4s3n83jYuAfWKNeKU3pHFhaW2-2MxcHNutGavcQCrL5uO0_bfDJEiMOahRWBkobMCDb-wBquTalMahO2QaKKOm9C1SuKN/s1600/h-3000-hugo-victor-notre-dame-de-paris-1844-5-1421162057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1321" data-original-width="917" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vj-bTm12CJLETWLUMPteSQiP81YMiDAaT-wCh99LHbBfuyV4s3n83jYuAfWKNeKU3pHFhaW2-2MxcHNutGavcQCrL5uO0_bfDJEiMOahRWBkobMCDb-wBquTalMahO2QaKKOm9C1SuKN/s400/h-3000-hugo-victor-notre-dame-de-paris-1844-5-1421162057.JPG" width="276" /></a></div>
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1) Quasimodo, 2) Jehan Frollo!, 3) Phoebus, 4) Fleur-de-Lys, 5) Chantefleurie/Sister Gudule (Esmeralda's mother), 6) Esmeralda, 7) Djali, 8) Pierre Gringoire, 9) Claude Frollo. (The man in the hat above him is possibly Clopin?)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jehan etching: Gustave Brion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Frollo with baby Quasimodo: Luc-Olivier Merson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The guys kissing: <a href="http://www.thehunchblog.com/2011/12/28/a-look-at-the-notre-dame-de-paris-concerts/" target="_blank">The Hunchblog of Notre Dame</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Character guide: Aime de Lemud </span><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", "new york", times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
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Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-79722913414855125602017-12-07T23:15:00.000-08:002018-09-16T13:03:30.228-07:00De-Whitewashing the Past, Illuminating the Present: Girls of the Golden West <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxh6yT-10JR2PecRoBXk3wqF38-0AVzbVfRo4hZ-olGbun6x4mvrB_9J-zWcsRLUxSn0qDWGznzkkAUspPa3Cn48gZtQLLi6zWNlIt6LplvVBpge8e6iMf3_O6PDYgObrw4J-8FCYm7oNc/s1600/gotgwtinesbullock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="819" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxh6yT-10JR2PecRoBXk3wqF38-0AVzbVfRo4hZ-olGbun6x4mvrB_9J-zWcsRLUxSn0qDWGznzkkAUspPa3Cn48gZtQLLi6zWNlIt6LplvVBpge8e6iMf3_O6PDYgObrw4J-8FCYm7oNc/s400/gotgwtinesbullock.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Davóne Tines as Ned Peters and Julia Bullock as Dame Shirley</td></tr>
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<br />
I went on a big <i>Nixon in China</i> bender awhile back. Actually, I'm still kind of on it. For a long time, <i>Bluebeard's Castle</i> was the recording always in my car's CD player, but currently it's <i>Nixon in China</i>, the 1987 opera by John Adams and Alice Goodman. So I was eagerly awaiting the world premiere of Adams's latest opera, this time with Peter Sellars as the librettist and director, at San Francisco Opera.<br />
<br />
I originally had a ticket for last week (pro tip: if you're in the Bay Area, an opera fan, and under 40, <a href="https://sfopera.com/buy-tickets/bravo-club/" target="_blank">BRAVO! CLUB</a> is the way to go for cheaper tickets), but then my cat Eponine, the best cat in the world even though she is sometimes naughty, got sick with a flare-up of pancreatitis. With an intermission, the show's run time is over three hours. Since I'd be going directly after work, I knew there was no way I'd be able to give the opera my full attention while worrying about how my special girl was doing. Fortunately, I managed to change my ticket date, Eponine got better, and I was able to at last see <i>Girls of the Golden West</i> on Tuesday, 12/5.<br />
<br />
Reviews have been mixed, and I will admit there are some glaring weaknesses. However, when I left the War Memorial Opera House, I was dazed and shaking. Despite flaws, I felt I had seen something truly important and of the zeitgeist.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAZ1PNdpwEPZs3A7k6thTI2RLQS_NPasO-3e0ElaFd8molT_10PX0tR4MGVhPupqex4uRSCwBDbhhyl5cWnuJuT4xls2ThIrXifo23yi6cSW53o-6mbjgguI6CKvlMFbaJ2ygtIROIH1j/s1600/eponineplaying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAZ1PNdpwEPZs3A7k6thTI2RLQS_NPasO-3e0ElaFd8molT_10PX0tR4MGVhPupqex4uRSCwBDbhhyl5cWnuJuT4xls2ThIrXifo23yi6cSW53o-6mbjgguI6CKvlMFbaJ2ygtIROIH1j/s400/eponineplaying.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The special girl in question</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Those familiar with opera might be asking, "Wait. Isn't there an opera already with that same name?" Sort of, and that's part of the story. Some years ago, Peter Sellars was asked by La Scala to direct a production of Puccini's <i>La Fanciulla del West</i>, often translated as <i>The Girl of the Golden West</i>. But Sellars disliked the whitewashed, corny opera about the Gold Rush. Instead, he decided to produce, with longtime creative partner John Adams, a Gold Rush opera that told the reality: that the Northern California of the Gold Rush was beautiful and diverse, but rife with racism and sexism. <i>Girls of the Golden West</i>, particularly the second act, focuses on the spates of white supremacist violence that broke out and the lynching of Josefa Segovia on July 5, 1851.<br />
<br />
The cast of <i>Girls of the Golden West</i> is young, diverse, and mostly American. Julia Bullock stars as recent East Coast transplant Dame Shirley, and Davóne Tines is Ned Peters, a former slave she befriends and possibly has an affair with. Paul Appleby is Joe Cannon, a 49er in a violent downward spiral. Ryan McKinny is his friend, Clarence. Hye Jung Lee (who played Madame Mao in SF Opera's production of <i>Nixon in China</i>) is Ah Sing, an ambitious Chinese victim of human trafficking who latches onto Joe in an attempt to better her life. J'Nai Bridges is the doomed Josefa Segovia, and Elliot Madore is her lover, Ramon.<br />
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<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgl-dKavyXurrfpXFD-kLyCUSM9kZoo-A3MBXeWiaG7DcSIEUAIHzO2QPtXZkxxF6O6b3Q-dJ2btDss4PkHEgcKVADJeSs0E0Nx2aSC84dH1uU15L6k16XfG2d9xDVR7k5GRbJyqerfep/s1600/gotgwjoeandjosefa.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="788" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgl-dKavyXurrfpXFD-kLyCUSM9kZoo-A3MBXeWiaG7DcSIEUAIHzO2QPtXZkxxF6O6b3Q-dJ2btDss4PkHEgcKVADJeSs0E0Nx2aSC84dH1uU15L6k16XfG2d9xDVR7k5GRbJyqerfep/s400/gotgwjoeandjosefa.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Appleby as Joe Cannon and J'Nai Bridges as Josefa Segovia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Like other Sellars/Adams operas, <i>Girls of the Golden West</i> uses various texts to tell its based-on-a-true story. The main material is the collection of letters Louise Clappe, better known as Dame Shirley, wrote while living near the mines with her doctor husband. Passages from Mark Twain, Shakespeare, journals, contemporary reporting, and folk songs are also worked in. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFWh5iImNA" target="_blank">Tines's aria</a> based on a speech by Frederick Douglass is a high point, but this collage of sources is uneven (obviously a composition by Douglass, one of our nation's greatest speechwriters, is going to sound better than some random dude writing in his diary). Sellars isn't Goodman, who brought her own poetry to librettos.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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That Sellars is working from this patchwork means that characterizations and relationships are limited by what he happened to find, relying on the performers and audience to fill in the rest. Bullock and Tines probably do the best with this. Their charisma and chemistry make you believe they are kindred spirits. They even pull off a scene where their characters start to fall for each other while pantomiming a rocky stagecoach ride - no easy feat.<br />
<br />
The relationship between Ah Sing and Joe, on the other hand, is much harder to "get." Lee and Appleby also have chemistry, and the reason for their coupling is straightforward: Joe needs a rebound, and Ah Sing needs a meal ticket. Obviously that is going to turn into a hot mess. But when it does, something about the train wreck becomes inscrutable. Of the titular "Girls," Lee's Ah Sing is the least knowable, and we don't get a resolution for her. Joe's fixation on Josefa comes out of nowhere.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEnKEPlshGFQ2uoXVbywLFLqEDqlv4_wvSZgzcjkFUXJzC9gBTc0XV1HbXR5LwE8DebTO3jxNMtczY-3hEu_TKECFBLerzbu_hPK599FbV9w5oHdcFSOyzjwW1oTeWYJYTdwEDg5opHCk/s1600/gotgwahsingandjoe.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="900" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEnKEPlshGFQ2uoXVbywLFLqEDqlv4_wvSZgzcjkFUXJzC9gBTc0XV1HbXR5LwE8DebTO3jxNMtczY-3hEu_TKECFBLerzbu_hPK599FbV9w5oHdcFSOyzjwW1oTeWYJYTdwEDg5opHCk/s400/gotgwahsingandjoe.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hye Jung Lee as Ah Sing and Paul Appleby as Joe Cannon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
But the faults here could be overlooked, at least for me, due to the sheer power of the second act. With a set, tight time frame (July 4th and 5th); a built-in structure (the July 4th holiday pageant and then a hasty trial); and rapidly rising racial resentment, the hour-and-a-half second act had me on the edge of my dress circle seat. It felt like an encapsulation of 2017.<br />
<br />
Two scenes especially stand out in this regard. At one point, the angry mob of white miners come marching out with torches. At this point, I felt my stomach drop, and heard from the audience a noise mirroring that emotion - part gasp, part moan. The image, of course, immediately brought to mind the white supremacists bearing (tiki) torches as they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in August this year. And those marchers, of course, were purposefully bringing to mind the many marches of white men bearing torches that came before them.<br />
<br />
While media outlets have been criticized for focusing so intently on white supremacists rather than those they aim to terrify, <i>Girls of the Golden West</i> never lets the audience lose sight of the victims. As the white mob rants and riles each other up and commits off-stage atrocities, Josefa and Ramon remain onstage, huddled in their home, cycling through terror, anger, hope, and despair.<br />
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Another moment that feels especially relevant in 2017 happens after Josefa has fatally stabbed Joe, her attempted rapist. In the mock trial she is put through as a prelude to lynching, the men of the town rally around the idea that the sexual predator was actually a great guy and surround his victim, intimidating and threatening her, drowning out anything she might say with their chorus of platitudes.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIQXZ9tLdVwfnzBYgJVTRZkmd9JrhuIMrnc6iJGuR8j6cRl1g6ycG9jMa-A9HZWX8KUV3CeeWsP1Wf-cHn7r3vJbV0n2seE1pL3w0xrAknxBl1WZ_DCz3SIvda8yvs7mCXlzXqdvwoKWW/s1600/gotgwjosefatrial.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="932" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIQXZ9tLdVwfnzBYgJVTRZkmd9JrhuIMrnc6iJGuR8j6cRl1g6ycG9jMa-A9HZWX8KUV3CeeWsP1Wf-cHn7r3vJbV0n2seE1pL3w0xrAknxBl1WZ_DCz3SIvda8yvs7mCXlzXqdvwoKWW/s400/gotgwjosefatrial.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Josefa's "trial"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Adams was well aware of the growing real-life parallels, as revealed in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/arts/music/john-adams-opera-san-francisco-girls.html" target="_blank">this New York Times</a> profile with Michael Cooper:<br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>It was particularly jarring, he said, to write the opera’s climax — in which a Mexican woman is lynched — against the backdrop of the 2016 presidential race. “I kept hearing ‘Lock her up!’ at those horrible rallies,” Mr. Adams said, recalling news footage of Trump supporters chanting for Hillary Clinton’s imprisonment being shown as he wrote choruses for his opera’s angry mob.</i><br />
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<i>Girls of the Golden West</i> is not a perfect opera, but it is a powerful one, and a stark reminder that there is nothing new about a diverse America and strong women, nothing new about white supremacy as a reaction to "economic anxiety," nothing new about sexism, and nothing new about imagining an America that wasn't there.<br />
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Girls of the Golden West runs through 12/10 at San Francisco Opera, and then moves to the Dallas Opera and Dutch National Opera.<br />
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<center>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DvMowzX9vDk" width="560"></iframe></center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">All <i>Girls of the Golden West</i> photos: <a href="https://sfopera.com/1718season/201718-season/goldenwest/images/" target="_blank">San Francisco Opera & Cory Weaver</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Special Girl Eponine: my own photo</span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-44149380065374207262017-09-24T22:44:00.000-07:002017-09-25T09:01:55.133-07:00An Enigma in Chrome: Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_E488aQ4thvUe25t824fSbo6bQV6GcJP76SmXoxHjG8HJIAbSt3phM0u6_bCDfbLY087EMKoRpyjBJn22cIh429StrVN5hlUl1xDcrSpimfGH9D8k4Mm77spx98Bya5PeglgbK_eMAIN9/s1600/phasmajakku.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="481" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_E488aQ4thvUe25t824fSbo6bQV6GcJP76SmXoxHjG8HJIAbSt3phM0u6_bCDfbLY087EMKoRpyjBJn22cIh429StrVN5hlUl1xDcrSpimfGH9D8k4Mm77spx98Bya5PeglgbK_eMAIN9/s400/phasmajakku.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You'll do well in the First Order, Phasma."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
"Is that a whole book about that one character?" a guy in line behind me at the bookstore asked as I handed <i>Phasma</i> by Delilah S. Dawson to the cashier.<br />
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One could argue whether his surprise was warranted or not. Despite the fact that Phasma was a visual standout in <i>Star Wars: the Force Awakens</i> - decked out in a chrome version of the iconic stormtrooper armor, played by 6'3" Gwendoline Christie - the character was a bit player. On the other hand, the choice to have an entire novel written about such a character feels like a throwback to the stories of the <i>Star Wars</i> Expanded Universe (now called Legends), where no character's appearance was too fleeting to merit a detailed backstory.<br />
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Still, Phasma has become a somewhat controversial character. Many fans compared her popularity with that of Boba Fett's - another character with a badass design, but with few badass feats actually accomplished on screen. Furthermore, Phasma came off as a bit of a coward - when Finn and Han order her at gunpoint to lower Starkiller Base's shields, she acquiesces rather than risk her life, leading to Starkiller's destruction. Especially considering the lack of a villainess in the <i>Star Wars</i> films, the character seemed like a missed opportunity.<br />
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But having read Dawson's novel, Phasma acting differently on Starkiller now seems inconceivable. Instead of ignoring that future action (<i>Phasma</i> is a prequel), Dawson plunges into the heart of it. While lots of stories deal with the aftermath of a moment of cowardice (the 2014 Swedish film <i>Force Majeure</i>, the 2011 German film <i>The Loneliest Planet</i>, Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series of novels, etc), Dawson looks at what lead to it. By the time the novel is finished, Phasma lowering Starkiller's shields with a blaster pointed to her head is no longer evidence of weakness, but evidence of terrifying ruthlessness.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Yo8ryD8l-kfhaPrdJszfVZA2Zp9PIWOELqRqM_eYVDrBZeNPMsHu_l1iMMK3-uHQYKjb4DAG9gA8JvsC_wA-fnZVSzMNYWRr6STj3-4JSay-MpVgV6rG9L1QEENWdEz5IdxK_WO8O0Ai/s1600/phasmaandfinn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="838" data-original-width="1280" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Yo8ryD8l-kfhaPrdJszfVZA2Zp9PIWOELqRqM_eYVDrBZeNPMsHu_l1iMMK3-uHQYKjb4DAG9gA8JvsC_wA-fnZVSzMNYWRr6STj3-4JSay-MpVgV6rG9L1QEENWdEz5IdxK_WO8O0Ai/s400/phasmaandfinn.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Her life, or the glory of the First Order? No question for Phasma.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>Phasma </i>opens with peppy, adorkable-ish (if you like that sort of thing) Resistance spy Vi Moradi's capture by the First Order. Once on the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Absolution, she's taken to an off-the-record interrogation by Cardinal: a captain with solid red stormtrooper armor. Cardinal has one goal: to learn enough about Phasma to take her down. Vi has just left Phasma's home planet, Parnassos, on a mission to learn the same thing. Vi's narration of this information to Cardinal makes up most of the novel.<br />
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Before becoming Captain Phasma of the First Order, Phasma was part of a tribe called the Scyre in a blighted, toxic area of Parnassos, a planet that has suffered an apocalyptic event. The Scyre don't know the specifics of the disaster that happened generations earlier, but they doggedly eke out a living in their harsh coastal territory. Phasma and her brother Keldo rule the clan jointly, but there are cracks in their partnership: Phasma wants to expand their territory, while Keldo is satisfied with what they have.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBOkeOEwf8o7d5vG2nLqfXo5rafp2du7R5Z4szzHkK-yzxcc3pUM8hKRxGEyFSekOUSNklew2n4AdVeTU8hUY97Gxp7gpwJiEz2CzYSy0DmJhqPjN4f_EAHwFD1GtiVGDyWRdoCekG96lu/s1600/PhasmaKeldo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="680" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBOkeOEwf8o7d5vG2nLqfXo5rafp2du7R5Z4szzHkK-yzxcc3pUM8hKRxGEyFSekOUSNklew2n4AdVeTU8hUY97Gxp7gpwJiEz2CzYSy0DmJhqPjN4f_EAHwFD1GtiVGDyWRdoCekG96lu/s400/PhasmaKeldo.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phasma's brother Keldo</td></tr>
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That simmering conflict reaches a boiling point when First Order General Brendol Hux (father of future General Armitage Hux) and a few stormtroopers crash land on Parnassos. Imperious but diplomatic Brendol wows the clan with his stories of the First Order and how its medicine and technology can benefit them...if they help him back to his crashed ship. When Keldo refuses, Phasma rounds up some of her most trusted warriors and undertakes the task herself, abandoning the Scyre.<br />
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I've seen several readers compare <i>Phasma</i> to <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i>, and Phasma, Brendol, and co.'s mad dash across the Parnassos wasteland warrants that. That isn't to say Dawson copies - her barren dystopia is its own place with a well thought-out history. As the group contends with the unforgiving environment and unpredictable encounters, Brendol and Phasma become closer and more conspiratorial. Soon, Phasma's followers wonder if they ever knew her at all.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmuWhzwG7Bkdr-jtMQCxspf2yaaAN5S1Efc6AlUYRt1OkVqBeWgi_-G82srYjxTnDw867CaEcn1pLbNd9qG2a8Ebl-8axbAagSOULCvoL5K1DwXR03jbZy1bEFXKDfuKXux9VdXaDPJ-d/s1600/phasmacardinalposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1260" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmuWhzwG7Bkdr-jtMQCxspf2yaaAN5S1Efc6AlUYRt1OkVqBeWgi_-G82srYjxTnDw867CaEcn1pLbNd9qG2a8Ebl-8axbAagSOULCvoL5K1DwXR03jbZy1bEFXKDfuKXux9VdXaDPJ-d/s400/phasmacardinalposter.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cardinal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Back on the Absolution, Cardinal must decide what to do with the information Vi has given him. He is loyal to the First Order, and he has good reasons: he was an orphan starving on Jakku (yes, Jakku!) before being taken in by the late Brendol Hux. He trains the children the First Order, um, "finds," and truly loves his young charges. With Cardinal, Dawson has given us an empathetic, moving look at "the other side" that might not be so "other" (I thought of David Schwarz's recent great essay, <a href="http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2017/09/burden-of-empire-the-complex-relationship-between-star-wars-and-fascism/" target="_blank">Burden of Empire: The Complex Relationship Between Star Wars and Fascism</a> a lot while reading Cardinal's parts).<br />
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This novel is a must-read for those wanting to learn more about the mysterious First Order. The parts with Brendol and Armitage Hux build upon what we learned of them in <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2017/03/scavenging-for-scraps-star-wars.html" target="_blank">Chuck Wendig's <i>Aftermath: Empire's End</i></a> (we even get insight into their different interior decorating aesthetics!). I feel particularly vindicated in my long-held assumption that the First Order is a lot like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TnA9dSVv9Y" target="_blank">the school car in Bong Joon-ho's <i>Snowpiercer</i></a>, and Dawson throws in some <i>Brave New World</i> as well. There's still so much more to learn, however, that I hope will be revealed in <i>The Last Jedi</i>.<br />
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And thanks to Dawson, Phasma is now another reason I'm excited for <i>The Last Jedi</i>. I can't wait to see if Phasma's co-commanders, Armitage Hux and Kylo Ren, will learn the truth of what happened on Starkiller. If so, what will this cold-blooded killer do to continue her sole mission: keeping herself alive?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCjxJ5DgmvpaRwgxKuo3wt1jT9lUUtX95p760S-fzaVwnCqKXRuCpF-9yM-kqBtwC1hwXdwKb8fJ7oDgl7VxJ4-bnmZp5N-WPRL-KgWb9X-tiRzlc6NYHK6hQVTEqSd81-jymEcYf-7B8/s1600/phasmakylohuxvanityfair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCjxJ5DgmvpaRwgxKuo3wt1jT9lUUtX95p760S-fzaVwnCqKXRuCpF-9yM-kqBtwC1hwXdwKb8fJ7oDgl7VxJ4-bnmZp5N-WPRL-KgWb9X-tiRzlc6NYHK6hQVTEqSd81-jymEcYf-7B8/s400/phasmakylohuxvanityfair.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They've had better days. Sort of. A lot of their days have sucked.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header image and Finn & Phasma: <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/captain-phasma-biography-gallery" target="_blank">StarWars.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Keldo and Cardinal: <a href="http://nerdist.com/star-wars-captain-phasma-novel-new-characters/" target="_blank">promotional posters by James Zapata</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Beleaguered First Order leadership: <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/star-wars-the-last-jedi-four-covers" target="_blank">Annie Leibovitz for <i>Vanity Fair</i> </a></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-78518339126931996312017-06-18T16:52:00.002-07:002017-06-28T09:48:38.519-07:00Leaving San Francisco, Keeping the Poems<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYlJ7Rb-ktyp-aoV0qjgOxY0sS-iiduDZ0b7hV3CJow0eb9474exdVBNKBy4WYwa69qYCRNJvdv5Y5hOrnfhOHC_TUWQ53LU3UCILYkyDFgHv-ujhADh8rG8V4Q-HK5QTSznKDIrp1xZXb/s1600/IMG_1313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYlJ7Rb-ktyp-aoV0qjgOxY0sS-iiduDZ0b7hV3CJow0eb9474exdVBNKBy4WYwa69qYCRNJvdv5Y5hOrnfhOHC_TUWQ53LU3UCILYkyDFgHv-ujhADh8rG8V4Q-HK5QTSznKDIrp1xZXb/s400/IMG_1313.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">China Beach</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
I knew it was going to happen eventually: getting priced out of San Francisco. For the past few years, the SF housing crisis and its astronomical rents have been international news, and I don't live in a rent-controlled unit. Friends and co-workers, especially those starting families, have left the city in droves to find slightly more affordable housing. Others have been subject to suspect "owner move-in" evictions. In 2015, quintessential San Franciscan cartoonist <a href="https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/04/18/he-illustrated-san-francisco-for-12-years-and-then-got-evicted/" target="_blank">Paul Madonna was evicted from his Mission apartment and studio</a>. When my roommate and I got notice that our rent (which has gone up annually for years) would be increasing by $600 a month, it was time to leave.<br />
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I'm not a lifelong SF resident. I moved to the city in January 2009 with my copy of <i>Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco </i>(I can't imagine what the most current edition recommends). However, I am a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and I wonder if eventually I won't be able to afford to live within a three-hour radius of San Jose, the city where I was born.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOXOLomjOgDK68zboc2ADQvnDkbpDB7TiHwNzjYg07htZM8eXI-Fs9Wd8qsBucWZ7tS08kfSuaS25tLu-XOK5ho3ZAi55xATo8-IIAxuNhoTU-DwJPuiCzdyq_8DrHF3AMOd7eLoOgrNXG/s1600/38+geary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOXOLomjOgDK68zboc2ADQvnDkbpDB7TiHwNzjYg07htZM8eXI-Fs9Wd8qsBucWZ7tS08kfSuaS25tLu-XOK5ho3ZAi55xATo8-IIAxuNhoTU-DwJPuiCzdyq_8DrHF3AMOd7eLoOgrNXG/s400/38+geary.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I spent a lot of time on the 38 Geary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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In the meantime, however, I've signed the lease for a tiny but lovely Oakland studio (where I'll be able to have a cat!), and look forward to exploring a new city. And I'm not completely leaving San Francisco - like scores of other East Bay residents, I'll be crossing the bay every weekday morning to the Financial District, where I work as an administrative assistant. But I will miss the Richmond District, the "uncool" but formerly affordable neighborhood I've inhabited in three different apartments since first arriving in the city.<br />
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This weekend I hauled two large bags of books to sell to Green Apple Books, the Inner Richmond landmark and my favorite bookstore in the world. Afterwards, I stopped by 6th Ave. Aquarium, the crowded, sketchy store where a shark for sale inspired my poem "<a href="http://noblegas.org/issue-203-2/janna-layton/wobbygong-shark/" target="_blank">Wobbygong Shark $299.99</a>." While saying a mental goodbye to the area, I thought of how San Francisco, and especially the Richmond District, has shaped my writing. Perhaps because of "write what you know" and the city's own varieties of beauty and ugliness, San Francisco is the setting for two of my (unpublished) novels and various poems.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV99ZPcdIVWvOOQ7nAVG6uoy5nXFjlo5V5zsuSUNXQ-2zKcWWGMoNnXMwmyFiiFXWrve0ljWFkr6HQkq_FyM4VLYXg165Zrll3WXndckNa8j-QkP4oOCQWuoXS0vNfvk3QX6LsmdPhmzt/s1600/IMG_0208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV99ZPcdIVWvOOQ7nAVG6uoy5nXFjlo5V5zsuSUNXQ-2zKcWWGMoNnXMwmyFiiFXWrve0ljWFkr6HQkq_FyM4VLYXg165Zrll3WXndckNa8j-QkP4oOCQWuoXS0vNfvk3QX6LsmdPhmzt/s400/IMG_0208.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharks and stingrays for sale at 6th Ave. Aquarium</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
When I first moved to the city, the places I explored on the weekends were mostly tourist hotspots. One favorite place to go was North Beach. There, I would eat cannoli at Stella's and browse at City Lights Books. A disturbing incident there became my poem "<a href="http://www.literarybohemian.com/poetry/poem/city-lights-by-janna-layton/" target="_blank">City Lights, Dirty Window</a>." Looking back, I think of how differently I would have handled the situation as an early-thirty-something instead of an early-twenty-something (of course, the creep probably knew better than to target someone who would break his nose). I can now see <a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/corporate-goddess-sculptures" target="_blank">the statues mentioned</a> from my office building, where they stand as a reminder that art and darkness exist side-by-side in this city.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88IFebgY15cTTX2WvIC0UVYuIb78hdbVhfVWoqAtXYL4QFN3DTA56-q04_0_c6QxbcbQXAD2O2qACaGy8Y_bojyYJYooqLdFLR3zQbe1R1O_KUBwVef8hC_aTJ_EYVslWxabmZpbcda76/s1600/love+this+city.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="512" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88IFebgY15cTTX2WvIC0UVYuIb78hdbVhfVWoqAtXYL4QFN3DTA56-q04_0_c6QxbcbQXAD2O2qACaGy8Y_bojyYJYooqLdFLR3zQbe1R1O_KUBwVef8hC_aTJ_EYVslWxabmZpbcda76/s400/love+this+city.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corona Heights Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Long before I moved to the city, the Richmond District was important to me. It was a family tradition to meet my late maternal grandparents for lunch at Louis', the little clifftop diner overlooking Seal Rocks and the ruins of Sutro Baths. My mom shares memories of outings to the long-gone <a href="http://www.outsidelands.org/playland.php" target="_blank">Playland-at-the-Beach</a>, where now stands the Safeway I go to for seaside grocery shopping.<br />
<br />
One thing I love about the Richmond District is this proximity to the ocean. I live close to China and Baker Beaches, but sometimes I also visit Ocean Beach, which is the western border of the Richmond and Sunset Districts (and San Francisco itself). In February, I joined thousands at Ocean Beach for a <a href="http://sfist.com/2017/02/11/photo_du_jour_people_spell_out_resi.php" target="_blank">protest of the Trump administration</a>. I tried to capture the feeling of this popular - but still wild and dangerous - beach in my poem "<a href="http://www.whatwonderfulthings.net/main/ocean-beach-late-november-by-janna-layton/" target="_blank">Ocean Beach, Late November</a>."<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7dot8h4A6VpbVoz_aWQfxMsPN1Io43BPEzwcLzgU_m1bkXUR7WaSb8VxZP9F_GkbNBzT2Q58wG2jIwKXfcwwDaZu-7AAC_386QLL_WZsAQhS6-jG5lmLshGaphY_L_UxOLz1d69_dfg6/s1600/ocean+beach+julu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7dot8h4A6VpbVoz_aWQfxMsPN1Io43BPEzwcLzgU_m1bkXUR7WaSb8VxZP9F_GkbNBzT2Q58wG2jIwKXfcwwDaZu-7AAC_386QLL_WZsAQhS6-jG5lmLshGaphY_L_UxOLz1d69_dfg6/s400/ocean+beach+julu.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ocean Beach (in July)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The Richmond District is also known for its fog. While a bane to some, the fog, known as <a href="https://twitter.com/KarlTheFog" target="_blank">Karl</a> to many, is generally beloved. I love and will miss the way light halos through it. The often repeated experience of going to a movie at the 100+ years old <a href="http://www.outsidelands.org/fourstar.php" target="_blank">4 Star Theatre</a> and then walking home through the fog led me to write "<a href="http://www.jerseydevilpress.com/?page_id=6973" target="_blank">The 4 Star Theatre</a>." When the poem was published, I was touched to get an email from someone who had used to live in the neighborhood and had recognized the little theater.<br />
<br />
With the fog comes the foghorn. The plaintive, demanding sound can be difficult for new residents to sleep with, but you soon get used to it. My most distinct memory of the foghorn comes from September 2009. A few weeks earlier I had undergone a thyroidectomy at UCSF due to papillary thyroid carcinoma (a type of thyroid cancer). I was back at my then-apartment at Clement and 16th Avenue, and was looking in the mirror, getting ready to peel off the final bandage from my neck. The foghorn made for a spooky soundtrack as I slowly revealed my scar.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdJ572W0lNLhG-wNbztSXZdN05tq03uJUD7Jdw2xbKkbSG9kI_GG3H8mXMiccQOkbwDbF7EGd5ycA5L29Fmb6OC6i1hIMwsGq_v6AOb7Ftswm0PIWndwKq-I0QJEB5gQEn6wDBpS6bxTV/s1600/4+star+theatre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdJ572W0lNLhG-wNbztSXZdN05tq03uJUD7Jdw2xbKkbSG9kI_GG3H8mXMiccQOkbwDbF7EGd5ycA5L29Fmb6OC6i1hIMwsGq_v6AOb7Ftswm0PIWndwKq-I0QJEB5gQEn6wDBpS6bxTV/s400/4+star+theatre.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 4 Star Theatre</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
I'll miss my neighborhood. I'll miss the fog, the foghorn, the cold beaches, the views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Sutro Tower. I'll miss walking to the Legion of Honor, one of my favorite museums. I'll miss my apartment's bay windows. I'll wonder about the future of the city, which at the moment only seems interested in welcoming those making six figures. But I'll always have my San Francisco writings, and for that, I am thankful.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cZejJImL_OnTcz4haXPKjnbYTJSy4859jwzceue9nnwo0xfqHgzXg6aFixxDYXrbcHEbxz7Jt_hZu5INUGcfrhaNCd9U6vLYFnRXN2QLTHOkwkHccMXnvlbAtvastuEsa1UxN1dguBiS/s1600/sutro+tower+sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cZejJImL_OnTcz4haXPKjnbYTJSy4859jwzceue9nnwo0xfqHgzXg6aFixxDYXrbcHEbxz7Jt_hZu5INUGcfrhaNCd9U6vLYFnRXN2QLTHOkwkHccMXnvlbAtvastuEsa1UxN1dguBiS/s400/sutro+tower+sunset.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sutro Tower</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
All photos mine.Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-13567750831356932382017-04-21T21:32:00.000-07:002017-04-21T21:34:28.138-07:00Time Binge and Purge: A Gluttony of Fun<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKJFDC70jMeD66yD-MR0wYHL7BCn7vi3MLdUOp1DYy-JXvAmQ5mXNd2ceVQ4Q-FrBVQB1HTq89VYpV5NMtcoCwM_2pxX0BVJYKVhUkkRPvjYCstgdLTtY4Vl4gLKi8KHNMxG5ptakzlFt/s1600/TimePurgeAmsterdam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKJFDC70jMeD66yD-MR0wYHL7BCn7vi3MLdUOp1DYy-JXvAmQ5mXNd2ceVQ4Q-FrBVQB1HTq89VYpV5NMtcoCwM_2pxX0BVJYKVhUkkRPvjYCstgdLTtY4Vl4gLKi8KHNMxG5ptakzlFt/s400/TimePurgeAmsterdam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's hard to think up images to illustrate book review posts, so here's my hand<br />
holding the most recent book on the balcony of my hotel room in Amsterdam's<br />
beautiful Museum Quarter. Sorry, did this caption turn into a humblebrag? I<br />
really just took this as a fun pic to show the author. It wasn't mean to be a dick<br />
move. Sorry. (But I was totally just in Amsterdam.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Disclaimer first: I "know" Martina Fetzer, the author of the books I'm about to write about. I put "know" in quotation marks because our only contact has been through Twitter, and she could actually be a loosely organized group of serial killers pretending to be a single author. It happens.<br />
<br />
But assuming she is Martina, I "met" her when she wrote, via tweets, an extremely stomach-churning and yet hilarious pornographic story involving a mutual friend (<a href="http://www.starfallwebcomic.com/" target="_blank">Starfall webcomic</a> creator Adam Blackhat) and Donald Trump. I was in a long line at the post office while she was tweeting this opus, and it was the only time (thus far) I almost wet myself trying to hold back laughter while waiting for a certified mail postmark. So I bought her book <i>Time Binge</i>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPhMwY3RnTi7yP5aafNcq7MDpYKx6FKS1_-4rITvHV9L4VeUOZ_tNoUxiPZbHBHxq52rWlWkWiUDCQaBAWeYx7LaDa35OlYpYsdttRBXY9xnjSWyoPk8t5UYTmJo8dL7bJPdp4Qqzlzc9/s1600/TimeBingecover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPhMwY3RnTi7yP5aafNcq7MDpYKx6FKS1_-4rITvHV9L4VeUOZ_tNoUxiPZbHBHxq52rWlWkWiUDCQaBAWeYx7LaDa35OlYpYsdttRBXY9xnjSWyoPk8t5UYTmJo8dL7bJPdp4Qqzlzc9/s400/TimeBingecover.png" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The book in question</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<i>Time Binge</i> is a time-traveling comedy starring supernatural-investigating secret agents (and lovers) Eddie Smith and Arturo Brooks; Patience Cloyce, a Puritan teenage girl executed for witchcraft in the 17th Century; Lemon Jones, a teenage girl from a 23rd Century hipster colony on the moon; and Hudson Marrow, an eccentric and immortal renaissance man.<br />
<br />
Hudson invented the time machine, and, as tends to happen, things got out of control. Now Agents Smith and Brooks need to save the world - or at least Manhattan - while also dealing with the past and future traumas that complicate their relationship. Meanwhile, Patience dutifully tries to adjust to her new surroundings and early-21st-Century-history buff Lemon delights in vintage Brooklyn.<br />
<br />
Slight spoilers ahead as the sequel is discussed after the next "damn it, what am I going to use to illustrate this book review post?" image.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0VsoixiKPgTriIWnXLPLrc4bo0cBItBgVlyP4QJp40EPZsncn7m0-reIn0NdTh6eQkP4cTzMNrwNQZO6iCoBgzIrFNerdPDziRttM3b9UC4xd11-Sdsk8D5YiFF_7WNh6WZ_vw3DR5_D/s1600/IMG_9759.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0VsoixiKPgTriIWnXLPLrc4bo0cBItBgVlyP4QJp40EPZsncn7m0-reIn0NdTh6eQkP4cTzMNrwNQZO6iCoBgzIrFNerdPDziRttM3b9UC4xd11-Sdsk8D5YiFF_7WNh6WZ_vw3DR5_D/s400/IMG_9759.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I told Martina I kept picturing Agent Smith as Agent Smith from <i>The Matrix</i>,<br />
but she told me he looks more like Wash from <i>Firefly</i>. (My car is also named<br />
Agent Smith, but I don't picture Agent Smith as my car.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Fetzer's skill in balancing a Rube Goldberg machine of a plot, compelling characters, <i>Airplane!</i>-style zany humor, and sincere human drama returns in <i>Time Purge</i>. This sequel, released March 21, finds the make-shift family of Smith, Brooks, Lemon, and Patience alive in contemporary Manhattan. Smith, however, is not adjusting well to happily-ever-after. He and Brooks spent their entire relationship knowing Brooks would die, and now that they have a reprieve as a cyborg and an immortal with also-immortal teen daughters, he flounders.<br />
<br />
After Smith's emotional instability results in an international, televised incident, the couple finds a maybe-enemy, maybe-ally in Godwin Zane, an obnoxious actor/would-be Elon Musk-ish CEO/actionless superhero (his powers are lava and being gray). Also there's a vampire problem, the return of the universe-threatening rift, and (at last!) Fetzer's specialty: a scene of off-putting, disappointing sex.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9GYhO6lYjVgcPvG7GwGZLXmGSvBQlmnNREhMQ2-oG253gPbdKA2xnm503FdO4-3ciZmu-XhF4cA3r72K9pUwzKGw290ZePNVB7rHP6mtGdovqEjGI_7o1ACKpK8LqDrrDoBxC48nSojE/s1600/TimeBingeLemonandPatience.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9GYhO6lYjVgcPvG7GwGZLXmGSvBQlmnNREhMQ2-oG253gPbdKA2xnm503FdO4-3ciZmu-XhF4cA3r72K9pUwzKGw290ZePNVB7rHP6mtGdovqEjGI_7o1ACKpK8LqDrrDoBxC48nSojE/s400/TimeBingeLemonandPatience.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For Lemon and Patience I'm picturing something along the lines of Amandla<br />
Stenberg and, despite the too-modern 1872 clothing, Victorine Meurent in<br />
Manet's <i>The Railway</i>. (Obviously not Victorine Meurent in Manet's <i>Olympia</i>.<br />
Patience would be mortified.) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Fetzer's books are a fun, moving delight - and there are at least three more planned! I'm impressed by her bravery in self-publishing (and by her doing it so well), and I hope her cast of characters find the audience they deserve. You can buy the books (in various formats) <a href="https://books.pronoun.com/time-binge/" target="_blank">here</a>, and her author website is <a href="http://martina-fetzer.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Time Binge</i> and <i>Time Purge</i> covers: J. Caleb Design</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Amandla Stenberg: Ben Toms for <i>Teen Vogue</i></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-13279258513563838932017-03-13T10:07:00.002-07:002017-03-13T12:26:09.863-07:00Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-D-rLx1WT-ozmVpf3T3He4hFYUlwSue3H2B4KW-m6ef1tquU4iMmbz5zw5TRIiUr8N7LXNeqEpb99syB3O84VPmqric3HM_28tzFzLijzkVGvXRnMn9jmhs4kFqXbn2_QLoLJz-JO1qZU/s1600/lincolninthebardo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-D-rLx1WT-ozmVpf3T3He4hFYUlwSue3H2B4KW-m6ef1tquU4iMmbz5zw5TRIiUr8N7LXNeqEpb99syB3O84VPmqric3HM_28tzFzLijzkVGvXRnMn9jmhs4kFqXbn2_QLoLJz-JO1qZU/s400/lincolninthebardo.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Although I love George Saunders's short story collection <i>Tenth of December</i> and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/george-saunders-goes-to-trump-rallies" target="_blank">his pre-election essay on Trump's followers</a>, I wasn't sure I was going to read his first novel, <i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i>. The book is about the death of Abraham Lincoln's eleven-year-old son Willie, who died of typhoid in the early days of the Civil War, and reading historical fiction about actual people always feels weird to me. But when I saw the rave reviews (Caitlin PenzeyMoog of the A.V. Club called it "<a href="http://www.avclub.com/review/george-saunders-new-novel-will-blow-your-fucking-m-249730" target="_blank">a postmodern masterpiece</a>"), I knew I had to get it.<br />
<br />
<i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> is no ordinary piece of historical fiction, and its unusual format can take some getting used to. The story, which spans the night after Willie Lincoln's funeral, is mainly told through statements from the ghosts/spirits that are Willie's new neighbors. ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo" target="_blank">Bardo</a>" is a Tibetan word referring to the concept of a transitional state after death.) The spirits are numerous, but there are three main characters who immediately take stranded soul Willie under their wing: Hans Vollman, a middle-aged printer who died in a freak accident; Roger Bevins III, a young gay man who committed suicide; and Reverend Everly Thomas, who died of old age. They finish each other's sentences, cut each other off, and elaborate on each other's points, as if all three were sitting in front of you, telling you what happened. This example should give you a feel for the style:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
"Then it happened.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">roger bevins iii</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
An extraordinary occurrence.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">hans vollman</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Unprecedented, really.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">the reverend everly thomas</span>"</div>
<br />
As with the rest of the ghosts in the Oak Hill Cemetery, these three are staying behind on Earth voluntarily for their own reasons. Vollman's death happened just before he finally consummated his marriage to his beloved young wife, and he can't accept that he isn't simply sick and won't recover. As a manifestation of his sexual frustration, his ghost appears as naked and cartoonishly erect. Moments before dying, Bevins regretted leaving the world, with all its beauty, behind, and his ghost has many eyes and arms, trying to see and touch all nature has to offer. (The bond between kind Vollman and aesthete Bevins is now one of my favorite literary friendships.) Reverend Thomas's reasons are more elusive, but eventually revealed.<br />
<br />
Despite their own desire to not move on, they are united in their determination to get Willie to leave Earth. In the book's universe, children's souls who don't move on are sentenced to eternal torment near their graves. The ghosts have already witnessed this happening to one young teenager, Elise Traynor, who is welded to the cemetery fence and writhes, full of rage, from one horrible form to the next. But Willie is delayed by his father, the President himself, who returns to the dead boy's side multiple times throughout the night (which Lincoln, an involved and loving father who had already lost his three-year-old son Eddie over a decade earlier, apparently did in real life).<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbqmflBnmd69eNlIRe3nw-_q2mszHhbEvxVvQtWneVYyf0fk3tOrqcQ18qmz_jDZN1NgpLJoMuNHDsgUBUDVokaP5kGpwg5PQHNiRZ_MzGKI4SwbdkGVe5uY6_6ZLmEOFQvf2tySmfv3r/s1600/elizabethkeckley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbqmflBnmd69eNlIRe3nw-_q2mszHhbEvxVvQtWneVYyf0fk3tOrqcQ18qmz_jDZN1NgpLJoMuNHDsgUBUDVokaP5kGpwg5PQHNiRZ_MzGKI4SwbdkGVe5uY6_6ZLmEOFQvf2tySmfv3r/s400/elizabethkeckley.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saunders frequently cites Keckley's <i>Behind the Scenes<br />or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
There are also narratives told through quotations from various cited sources. "Are the nonfiction excerpts - from presidential historians, Lincoln biographers, Civil War chroniclers - real or fake? Who cares? Keep going, read the novel, Google later," wisely advises author Colson Whitehead in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/books/review/lincoln-in-the-bardo-george-saunders.html?_r=1" target="_blank">his New York Times review</a>. I mostly read on the bus anyway, which makes pausing to look up references cumbersome, so I indeed Googled later. <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/george-saunders-lincoln-in-the-bardo-debut-novel.html" target="_blank">As Saunders has confirmed</a>, the citations are for a mix of actual and invented sources. Those quoted include Elizabeth Keckley (a former slave who was later Mary Todd Lincoln's stylist), bereaved parents who lost their own sons to the ongoing Civil War, contemporary op-ed writers, and later historians. As with the ghosts, these various narrators' voices come together as in an oral history. Here the sources "talk" about Lincoln's face:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
"In repose, it was the saddest face I ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely look at it without crying.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">In 'Six Months in the White House: The Story of a Picture,' by F.B. Carpenter.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
But when he smiled or laughed...</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">In 'Lincoln's Photographs: A Complete Album,' by Lloyd Ostendorf, account of James Miner.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
It brightened, like a lit lantern, when animated.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In 'Lincoln the Man,' by Donn Piatt, account of a journalist.</span>"</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jQ2MBnzGEzrINsyS45RoEdh-uVi9UGClv9tU38vM7vX3T8AVkKw34nICL4pjf44QMi57reypJTZ6s_R-wIUy_M4H9rbYmgz5lMK2-Y-MTUGfPVK05XCTi6iez32OdsCkN-pdHKusXtdo/s1600/willielincoln.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jQ2MBnzGEzrINsyS45RoEdh-uVi9UGClv9tU38vM7vX3T8AVkKw34nICL4pjf44QMi57reypJTZ6s_R-wIUy_M4H9rbYmgz5lMK2-Y-MTUGfPVK05XCTi6iez32OdsCkN-pdHKusXtdo/s320/willielincoln.JPG" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Willie Lincoln, age 5</td></tr>
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I would be remiss in not pointing out what I felt was the book's weakness, which is its portrayal of black characters. While many of the white ghosts are quirky, different characters we haven't seen before, the black ghosts of the segregated cemetery are mostly archetypes, and we learn comparatively little about them besides their plights. I was also ambivalent about the ending, which I'm sure will be controversial among readers. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/08/lincoln-in-the-bardo-george-saunders-review" target="_blank">his review in the Guardian</a>, author Hari Kunzru describes this ending as, "a move that seems glib and reductive, a blemish on a book that otherwise largely manages to avoid sentiment and cliche." Like Kunzru I found it cloying, but I can see how others might see it as transcendent.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3czgnGrEsOkmFKhxNgqQyUwYhf7UnmFuSNFhCv2KU8dT9jcK-w0oDuCDdaaO2QvoxcUWNEBBq7BMmrd6RQKz7mTt65TG5EESdoi1TkewBO7mAquq85spHrRC2g5S7tquWek88deQ-8GE/s1600/licolnandtad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3czgnGrEsOkmFKhxNgqQyUwYhf7UnmFuSNFhCv2KU8dT9jcK-w0oDuCDdaaO2QvoxcUWNEBBq7BMmrd6RQKz7mTt65TG5EESdoi1TkewBO7mAquq85spHrRC2g5S7tquWek88deQ-8GE/s400/licolnandtad.jpg" width="361" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lincoln and his son Tad, who would die at 18</td></tr>
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Ultimately, through many voices both created and curated by Saunders we get a story about the griefs and joys of life and a man and a country in turmoil. We get a story about familial love, deep friendship, and second chances. This is a novel I'll treasure for years and one that has already been a comfort.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Elizabeth Keckley: <a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownhal/qbrown146c.jpg" target="_blank">Documenting the American South</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Willie Lincoln: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WILLIE.JPG" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lincoln and Tad: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A%26TLincoln.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a></span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-42392622810645277812017-03-03T20:50:00.000-08:002017-03-06T12:43:30.778-08:00Scavenging for Scraps: Star Wars Aftermath Empire's End<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHaRWf5XP6OlXTNOqaltUqBkktLpanpCL7XvcWBxm8AVRX9dv_ny9kbCQwDmiXJZrMuq8TtD4ULf9xt7UVTlrZunnOmkjsX-1nvRN0qmqHJvUrgrKczNTquvfyyloL39nqafHHMChP72L/s1600/raesloaneposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHaRWf5XP6OlXTNOqaltUqBkktLpanpCL7XvcWBxm8AVRX9dv_ny9kbCQwDmiXJZrMuq8TtD4ULf9xt7UVTlrZunnOmkjsX-1nvRN0qmqHJvUrgrKczNTquvfyyloL39nqafHHMChP72L/s400/raesloaneposter.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grand Admiral Rae Sloane on a poster for the book</td></tr>
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Chuck Wendig's Aftermath series is set immediately after <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, and comprises three novels, two with multiple colons: <i>Star Wars:</i> <i>Aftermath</i>, <i>Star Wars: Aftermath:</i> <i>Life Debt</i>, and <i>Star Wars: Aftermath:</i> <i>Empire's End</i>. I have to admit I did not read the first one, instead jumping in at <i>Life Debt</i> last year. <i>Empire's End</i>, the final book in this trilogy, came out on February 21, and I finished it recently.<br />
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<i>Empire's End</i> is not high art, and it's not supposed to be. I bought George Saunders's <i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> at the same time, knowing I was buying apples and oranges. Or maybe champagne and popcorn. And as popcorn, <i>Empire's End</i> is fine. It's good popcorn, but not the best popcorn. The point is, like <i>Life Debt</i> (and I assume <i>Aftermath</i> before it, which was not well reviewed), <i>Empire's End</i> is a bit chaotic and messy. The writing can be slapdash. It's overstuffed with original characters in a way that made me feel like I was constantly being presented with David S. Pumpkins - but David S. Pumpkins within the context of his skit's world, not in our world where he has become an ironic but beloved and newly vital part of Halloween.<br />
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Also, Wendig uses the word "tailbone" a weird amount of times. I didn't count how many, but it is a lot.<br />
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However, Wendig had an assignment that was as much nightmare as dream, and he used that opportunity to give us a fuller, more diverse Star Wars universe that peers into corners across the galaxy. We have new characters to root for and new perspectives on established characters*. And ultimately, the last two books gave those ravenous for the next Star Wars movie some hints at what might be coming. To be completely honest, that's why I read <i>Empire's End</i> and <i>Life Debt </i>(and also Claudia Gray's <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/05/bloodline-by-claudia-gray-star-wars.html" target="_blank">Bloodline</a>): a desire to mine the novels for any clues to to the mysteries that <i>The Force Awakens</i> left us with, and to stave off the hunger pains for <i>The Last Jedi</i>.<br />
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I'm not doing a full review for <i>Empire's End</i>, but I have some thoughts below, because what Star Wars fan doesn't have thoughts on something related to Star Wars? This post is fairly spoiler-lite, in my opinion, except for the fates of two characters (if you want a proper review with no spoilers, check out <a href="http://fangirlblog.com/2017/02/aftermath-empires-end-reviewed/" target="_blank">FANgirl</a>).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFuN8QbxIMGQ6jzO7oGiaYDZsEO2EhcfRRI23zACY4likSUUPCwu0q3R4hXOmxFui1ukTGvhiEq_gkcjA0J6Ehet8MJ12geymZgCulcCrD9gaYcsMfsZrF_nPpIoAJU-BHUmR51U3RYe7F/s1600/norrawexleyposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFuN8QbxIMGQ6jzO7oGiaYDZsEO2EhcfRRI23zACY4likSUUPCwu0q3R4hXOmxFui1ukTGvhiEq_gkcjA0J6Ehet8MJ12geymZgCulcCrD9gaYcsMfsZrF_nPpIoAJU-BHUmR51U3RYe7F/s400/norrawexleyposter.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norra Wexley on the reverse of the poster</td></tr>
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-<b>Rae Sloane</b>: The Empire's principled but ruthless Grand Admiral, first seen in <i>A New Dawn</i> by John Jackson Miller, has become a fan favorite through these books and the comics. This is the biggest spoiler I will give here, and it's that Sloane does not die. Yay! However, her fate is uncertain, since she is last seen going off to what we know will become the First Order, and it seems unlikely she would be on board with what the First Order does in <i>The Force Awakens</i>. I am really, really hoping that Thandie Newton's mystery role in the Han Solo film is a young Rae Sloane.<br />
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-<b>Sinjir Rath Velus</b>: Sinjir, a former Imperial loyalty officer (a.k.a. internal torturer) turned New Republic ally, is my favorite character from the Aftermath books. He's a cocky, erudite, humorous guy who loves alcohol and hot men and is trying to redeem himself (just not too much). He had better not have fucking been on Hosnian Prime when Armitage Hux blew it up, because I hope this character makes an appearance in Episodes VIII or IX. Sinjir would be a great role for some suave silver fox of a Middle Eastern or South Asian actor.<br />
<br />
-<b>Greg Grunberg</b>: In the Aftermath books, Temmin "Snap" Wexley, son of Norra Wexley, is in his late teens. "Wait a second," I thought while reading <i>Life Debt</i>. "That timeline doesn't work. Leia's pregnant with Ben. Adam Driver, who plays Ben in <i>The Force Awakens</i>, is 33, and his character is 29. Greg Grunberg, who plays Snap, is what? Late 30s, maybe 40?" HE IS FIFTY YEARS OLD. Congrats on your genetic luck, you youthful-looking middle-aged geek-specialty actor.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6mkVQqUUm0pfGNtc2FNF-6d3GHhcoGcUu1O6eacZMXkCT1iFcToXPTWl5s_ep8t2G2kkAm14omQk9R02peXlpzZNSAswVUpAtWQ-PulVv1ce4ZvAqQtP5VzWEqfMXbPJEJtsiuPYb8cd6/s1600/snapwexleygreggrunberg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6mkVQqUUm0pfGNtc2FNF-6d3GHhcoGcUu1O6eacZMXkCT1iFcToXPTWl5s_ep8t2G2kkAm14omQk9R02peXlpzZNSAswVUpAtWQ-PulVv1ce4ZvAqQtP5VzWEqfMXbPJEJtsiuPYb8cd6/s400/snapwexleygreggrunberg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snap, not looking like he could have babysat infant Kylo Ren</td></tr>
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-<b>Kylo Ren/Ben Solo</b>: Ben spends most of the books in Leia's uterus, where, it's hinted, he is already being tormented by the Dark Side and/or Snoke. Fun! When he's a newborn, he apparently likes his parents ok enough and smells like fresh towels. Seriously, there is a lot about how good "star baby" Ben smells.<br />
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-<b>Armitage Hux</b>: Kylo's future co-commander is four years old and also having a shit time. In <i>Life Debt</i>, we not only finally learned Hux's first name, but also that he's the illegitimate child his father (Brendol Hux, who ran the Empire's military academy) had with a household servant. Rax, the Empire's shadow leader, has Brendol and Armitage extracted from Arkanis because they need Brendol's troop-training abilities and, ominously, "children." Armitage is abused by Brendol, who is described as pretty much looking like Brendan Gleeson, because how the hell else would he look? (Armitage Hux is played by Domhnall Gleeson, Brendan's son.) Things start getting better, but also weirder, for Armitage when he's given, at <i>four</i>, a battalion of brainwashed feral children and then forms an alliance with Sloane. That's a lot to deal with pre-kindergarten, but you probably don't end up giving <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhHl2DpD4E" target="_blank">this speech</a> if you had a normal childhood.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8P9RPP_3GlxX6jwuljp-GR8-BFsRqKfDKtsx6NS9V4hXKAB2LJbp4RAp9rHvubXM74zRbvZNbfTIu0hgRkH6AK1qh2IAx9-6ZSeBmq9fuMgCX0gkmdgh_KhGhh9Q67VpMxPZqCwxXlpzV/s1600/Phasma_Hux_Ren.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8P9RPP_3GlxX6jwuljp-GR8-BFsRqKfDKtsx6NS9V4hXKAB2LJbp4RAp9rHvubXM74zRbvZNbfTIu0hgRkH6AK1qh2IAx9-6ZSeBmq9fuMgCX0gkmdgh_KhGhh9Q67VpMxPZqCwxXlpzV/s400/Phasma_Hux_Ren.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Does he know I'm thinking about that time I almost wet myself?"</td></tr>
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-<b>Luke</b>: Luke is not present. He's away doing Jedi things by himself. It's not even clear if he visits Han and Leia once Ben is born (it's reported as a "rumor" that he might have made a quick appearance). In <i>Bloodline</i>, he was away, for years, doing Jedi things with Ben. In <i>The Force Awakens</i>, he was away, for years, presumably doing Jedi things, again by himself. For all his time spent doing Jedi things, it sure doesn't seem like he's discovered anything useful, given the state of his family's lives, his own life, and the galaxy at large. What if he's just crazy and has been wandering around aimlessly for decades? What if when <i>The Last Jedi </i>starts, Luke is like, "Let me show you the ancient Jedi's most powerful artifact" to Rey and then hands her a fucking empty blue milk carton he found in the trash somewhere?<br />
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-<b>Rey</b>: As in <i>Bloodline</i>, we don't explicitly learn anything about Rey, but given what happens on Jakku and the hints of what's going on in the Unknown Regions, I think Rey's background is going to be bonkers. I think it is going to be batshit-bananas-bonkers, and I am waiting on tenterhooks.<br />
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<b>*Edited to add</b>: Wendig also does a great job handling two toxic properties of the Star Wars universe. One is a fitting coda to its most hated character. The other deals with a character originally from the dreaded Holiday Special. Can you guess who? If not not, you get a <i>lump</i> of coal in your stocking. Ho, ho, ho!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Rae Sloane and Norra Wexley posters: <a href="http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2017/02/double-sided-aftermath-empires-end.html" target="_blank">Star Wars Underworld</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Snap: <a href="http://www.starwars.com/news/in-a-snap-greg-grunberg-talks-the-force-awakens-on-vhs-working-with-star-wars-icons-and-much-more" target="_blank">Star Wars official site</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Hux and Kylo: <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kylo_Ren" target="_blank">Wookieepedia</a></span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-77787324012455637612017-02-19T14:39:00.000-08:002018-09-16T13:03:30.190-07:00Shelley Gets Her Due in Dance: Frankenstein the Ballet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELaiyLMcDT3F1tF51pumTlxeUwHn4CrTHaf17eiR0UghSs0UJukfkhifzVMgbGVdyhhBCat2ImIStrr0kqnxg-X1oBdEKiTZBDFewv59U3Q0XvjdxDOpZGVtgfBieLVv7XQQghywEnwn-/s1600/sfballetfrankensteinheadertomasson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELaiyLMcDT3F1tF51pumTlxeUwHn4CrTHaf17eiR0UghSs0UJukfkhifzVMgbGVdyhhBCat2ImIStrr0kqnxg-X1oBdEKiTZBDFewv59U3Q0XvjdxDOpZGVtgfBieLVv7XQQghywEnwn-/s400/sfballetfrankensteinheadertomasson.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A new version of Frankenstein's Creature</td></tr>
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As someone who's been a little obsessive about Mary Shelley's <i>Frankenstein</i>, I was ecstatic when San Francisco Ballet announced last year that they would be staging Liam Scarlett's new ballet <i>Frankenstein</i>, which promo pics indicated would be close to the novel, in 2017. On Halloween, I scored a $45 orchestra ticket in a special sale and guarded it as if it held the secret to life. But in the final weeks before the North American premiere, I wasn't the only one shivering with antici...pation. I've never seen this much excitement about a ballet. Co-workers, my roommate's classmates, acquaintances on twitter: everyone wanted to see <i>Frankenstein</i>. I finally got to see the ballet on 2/18/17, and it did not disappoint.<br />
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The biggest draw for me was that unlike the many movie versions, Scarlett's ballet is deeply rooted in its source novel. The lack of an adaptation loyal to Shelley's work is why I ended up planning <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/dream-cast-frankenstein.html" target="_blank">my dream cast</a>, and this ballet is probably the closest fulfillment I'll get. There are no Igors; castle laboratories; or green, bolt-necked behemoths here. Instead, even with the changes needed for three acts of dance, we get Shelley's novel. We get the stories of Victor Frankenstein, a university student who messes up big time; of his loving family and friends, whom he loses; and of the tortured life he recklessly brings into the world.<br />
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Although its world premiere was less than a year ago, <i>Frankenstein</i> feels like an established classic. It's worth noting that Liam Scarlett is only 30. With young choreographers like him and Justin Peck, ballet's future looks bright.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsN28Ast0LVB7tGyhMCCi5pmdE-EXXbDNOCm7TJgqIvxIiU8fWR6uhqSZfPDye74mWUEsYhYLVTvayHZ00a0i0vD5cZgh8cXbHGaQGlswDUiNXKcKnYFPmaNHbqaC2vCcYhQ6TliM5fRy/s1600/sfballetfrankentein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsN28Ast0LVB7tGyhMCCi5pmdE-EXXbDNOCm7TJgqIvxIiU8fWR6uhqSZfPDye74mWUEsYhYLVTvayHZ00a0i0vD5cZgh8cXbHGaQGlswDUiNXKcKnYFPmaNHbqaC2vCcYhQ6TliM5fRy/s400/sfballetfrankentein.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frances Chung as Elizabeth and Joseph Walsh as Victor</td></tr>
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I looked at casting as soon as it was available, but I accidentally looked at the matinee, the casting for which were principals Aaron Robison as Victor, Dores Andre as Elizabeth, and Luke Ingham as the Creature. When I checked again before leaving on Saturday night, I realized my mistake, and saw the cast would be Max Cauthorn, Lauren Strongin, and Taras Domitro. "Who is Max Cauthorn?" I wondered. He's a corps member - and a young one at that, being just a few years out of San Francisco Ballet School. He's also the only non-principal in the role. Likewise, Lauren Strongin, a soloist, is the only non-principal Elizabeth. (Both are also Bay Area natives. High-five!)<br />
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While disappointed that I wouldn't get to see Dores Andre again after she was such a standout in Program 1, I looked forward to seeing Strongin and Cauthorn, who are possibly under consideration for promotion [<b>update: Max Cauthorn was promoted to soloist on 3/13/17</b>]. It's great to see home-grown former SF Ballet School students, like soloist Wei Wang, who was an apprentice the year before Cauthorn was, rise in the ranks. And (this is where I clarify that while a ballet fan, I am not a ballet expert) I really enjoyed Cauthorn's and Strongin's performances. They were lovely and youthful together, and their early effortlessness together made the emotional impact of Victor's later distraction and avoidance all the stronger.<br />
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Meanwhile Taras Domitro, in a scarred, nude bodysuit as the Creature, brought maturity and depth to his coltish, heartbreaking, menacing character. His pas de deux with Strongin, as his terrified would-be stepmother, and then with Cauthorn, as the immature father who regrets him, are both standouts. (Domitro isn't tall, but he's like 80% muscle, and Cauthorn seemed to have zero problems tossing him around like he was a willowy ballerina.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc3Y-sUpTCitJqGMzIwrVoSi3kVS2hWfVL4rsChDQ6J62XEtYk9YGh3ZgR-5W2W9NCoPO85Ov9oNzM5Jz_MsuHr8Yoa1_PsDNSqm_XF-uXEtVI7tpVGArTQHEKnMGf3U3bGQhjYoss1SY9/s1600/royalballetfrankenstein.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc3Y-sUpTCitJqGMzIwrVoSi3kVS2hWfVL4rsChDQ6J62XEtYk9YGh3ZgR-5W2W9NCoPO85Ov9oNzM5Jz_MsuHr8Yoa1_PsDNSqm_XF-uXEtVI7tpVGArTQHEKnMGf3U3bGQhjYoss1SY9/s400/royalballetfrankenstein.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the original Royal Ballet production</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Other things I loved:</b><br />
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-<b>Henry Clerval!</b> Although there was one huge Henry-related problem (see below), I was thrilled that happy, doomed puppy-dog Henry made the cut in this adaptation. Soloist Angelo Greco played Henry Saturday night, and brought lots of sweetness to the role.<br />
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-<b>Justine Moritz!</b> One element of Shelley's novel that Scarlett kept but altered was that Frankenstein family maid Justine Moritz's mother hates her. In the novel, Justine's mother is just part of her backstory, but in the ballet she's present as the housekeeper. Even though Victor and Elizabeth see Justine (soloist Julia Rowe) as a friend, Madame Moritz (soloist Jennifer Stahl) coldly and relentlessly keeps her daughter in her place as a servant.<br />
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Scarlett's reason for this subplot becomes clear at the end of Act II, when Madame Moritz's desperation, regret, and seconds-too-late arrival to Justine's execution add an absolute gut-punch. Characters danced by Stahl, who was promoted to soloist after her starring role in 2013's <i>Rite of Spring</i>, just have bad luck with executions.<br />
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-<b>Music</b>: composer Lowell Liebermann's music is sumptuous and intense.<br />
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-<b>Anatomy Theatre scene</b>: the anatomy lab dance, with a dizzying array of students, medical assistants, beakers, and body parts, is a visual delight with lots of great little details (the lechery of soloist James Sofranko's professor, an assistant's curiosity, Henry's queasiness).<br />
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-<b>Talented kids</b>: there are a few SF Ballet School students in this production, but the child dancer with the most time on stage last night was Jonathan Yee as Victor's little brother William. It's a demanding role for a kid, with lots of acting, a duet with the Creature, and a fair amount of time playing dead, and little Jonathan did great. Good job, Jonathan!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_n4T-hipp8n8hJ1hEWygLBtYcXicU-lrQ7PN-5DPjDTn0LiKA6bBXkH-Ky00BA8zx78IwprGnHBx4iFr0oUmVASfgzHS4upM1T_CfJMYTWOGnrZVBMDyKmcPQLa4WbWxXRIRHQyu8YQQT/s1600/sfballetfrankensteinclervalcoat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_n4T-hipp8n8hJ1hEWygLBtYcXicU-lrQ7PN-5DPjDTn0LiKA6bBXkH-Ky00BA8zx78IwprGnHBx4iFr0oUmVASfgzHS4upM1T_CfJMYTWOGnrZVBMDyKmcPQLa4WbWxXRIRHQyu8YQQT/s400/sfballetfrankensteinclervalcoat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've got some things to say about this</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Things I didn't love:</b><br />
<br />
-<b>Here is the biggest problem the ballet had</b>: Henry Clerval's costuming. The opening scenes establish Victor as wearing a red coat. He wears a red coat in childhood. He wears a red coat as a teenager. So when Act I, scene 3 starts at the university, and we see a guy with Victor's same wig wearing a red coat, it's obviously Victor, right? Wrong! It's Henry. When Victor arrives with his red notebook, everything becomes clear, but I was confused at first, and from what I overheard at intermission, a lot of people were.<br />
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Then in Act II, Henry is wearing a green coat. I will admit to owning more than one color of coat, but I'm not in a ballet where people in the balcony need to quickly recognize me. Since other characters' clothes stay similar throughout, why not just have him wear a green coat in Act I so we can easily distinguish him from Victor <i>and</i> the other neutral-wearing students? But the worst is yet to come. In Act III, <i>he's wearing another, different red coat</i>. You're killing me, costume designer John Macfarlane!<br />
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-<b>Henry and Victor</b>: also, I wish Victor and Henry's friendship had been better established in Act I. I feel that would have been a better use of scene 4, rather than the "college students gonna college student" episode in the tavern. Scarlett has Victor and Henry meet as freshmen rather than as children, but they barely interact before Victor's breakdown lands him back at home, at which point Henry is living with them and practically part of the family.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6WCKJbWmr6wl2MCiuvQm1kZrk9_S-0DyQUb-cppwiGy4oSxfqNuec71QiPyRSzY0QaLsmQZWxhAi-tfC7etyAptRqX3RT6AuRrlTC6BwpgNsNgqqTPtlnwSyIJBR0IMqL009oS5VUa9Cm/s1600/sfballetfrankensteinprograms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6WCKJbWmr6wl2MCiuvQm1kZrk9_S-0DyQUb-cppwiGy4oSxfqNuec71QiPyRSzY0QaLsmQZWxhAi-tfC7etyAptRqX3RT6AuRrlTC6BwpgNsNgqqTPtlnwSyIJBR0IMqL009oS5VUa9Cm/s400/sfballetfrankensteinprograms.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DSZg86X0H0" target="_blank">Liam Scarlett featurette with the Royal Ballet</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrxM-jPOFQo" target="_blank">SF Ballet's Vitor Luiz on dancing the Creature</a><br />
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<i>Frankenstein</i> continues at <a href="https://www.sfballet.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Ballet</a> through 2/26/17.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header: Erik Tomasson and AKA</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Chung and Walsh: Erik Tomasson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Royal Ballet: Bill Cooper</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Corps member Esteban Hernandez in that damn Act III coat: Erik Tomasson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Programs and tickets: my own crappy photo</span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-24681223464613746562017-01-17T21:06:00.000-08:002017-01-17T21:06:24.718-08:00Manuscripts Don't Burn: Books for This<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQWWqT-4ALVw5R863Vul5bg1jr8gkJAkXnvdeUV4RDxZxU4_JoitXrNVY0caU0tQlt-CQMafcYpIBD6dv4MOu8p-MSCHSoCfn1UoEOmaVoqRA_DKmLW_zJtcHmVYjaLL0inp9BWyU7v9I/s1600/manuscriptsdontburnellenmanning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQWWqT-4ALVw5R863Vul5bg1jr8gkJAkXnvdeUV4RDxZxU4_JoitXrNVY0caU0tQlt-CQMafcYpIBD6dv4MOu8p-MSCHSoCfn1UoEOmaVoqRA_DKmLW_zJtcHmVYjaLL0inp9BWyU7v9I/s400/manuscriptsdontburnellenmanning.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ellen Manning's poster for <i>The Master and Margarita</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This is by no means what I consider a comprehensive list. I have no doubt there are a multitude of works from a multitude of people and places covering these issues, from tomes written by those who have lived in any of the world's dictatorships to the popular genre of dystopian science fiction novels. But these are the ones I know and suggest.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRVW7uA9_v_GDnP_px5kwwd4TRSoYZSHw_Bv9PiZPZ8xrFVZVlq-tOV_ZCxy_hqv1QPmwaU9cKMc0g5kfQx_JQ_CgIOcpkPlhjMJdFsVlVqjxVB-qWicF5zYynO0onpXEfPj4wIq-kqTW/s1600/themasterandmargarita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRVW7uA9_v_GDnP_px5kwwd4TRSoYZSHw_Bv9PiZPZ8xrFVZVlq-tOV_ZCxy_hqv1QPmwaU9cKMc0g5kfQx_JQ_CgIOcpkPlhjMJdFsVlVqjxVB-qWicF5zYynO0onpXEfPj4wIq-kqTW/s320/themasterandmargarita.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
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<b><i>The Master and Margarita</i> by Mikhail Bulgakov</b></div>
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Perhaps ironically, the book that's buoyed me the most since November is a Russian novel. 1930s Stalinist Moscow is already such a surreal place that demonic visitation is hardly the weirdest aspect. There are mysterious disappearances, labyrinthine but unassailable rules about everything, and overbearing but unspeakable truths, so what's a talking cat or a dance for hell's denizens? Muscovite Margarita has lost her lover, a writer who was whisked away by the authorities due to the subject of his novel. Will a mysterious stranger and his mischievous coterie be able to help her get him back?<br />
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Bulgakov wrote <i>The Master and Margarita</i> knowing that it could never be published in his lifetime. He even burned an early draft, wary and despairing, but later soldiered on with his secret writing. The book's very existence is a testament to the survival of art in impossible situations and support for one of its claims: manuscripts don't burn.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yX2vqKco661UlpLkxzMON9lxeFaoNvzalE0DtJEsqAAGBBz3ctboCjd7bK8dbVBlWJploBxcce_eEdDFTEvYpK2aQq9oBGz5TL5wcX098NjcbnkpePZAxMDcLNOTblUX5fV7Qw7vqBq2/s1600/bynightinchile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yX2vqKco661UlpLkxzMON9lxeFaoNvzalE0DtJEsqAAGBBz3ctboCjd7bK8dbVBlWJploBxcce_eEdDFTEvYpK2aQq9oBGz5TL5wcX098NjcbnkpePZAxMDcLNOTblUX5fV7Qw7vqBq2/s320/bynightinchile.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<b><i>By Night in Chile</i> by Roberto Bolaño</b></div>
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<i>By Night in Chile</i> is a feverish novella told in (mostly) one paragraph: the deathbed ramblings of fictional Father Urrutia, a priest and intellectual who was recruited to teach the "enemy tactics" of the left to the top brass of the new (and covertly USA-assisted) Pinochet regime. The defensive, opaque narrator is unsympathetic, but one wonders what he or she would have done differently, and what difference it would have made. While maddening in parts (it includes a Bolaño trademark: a lengthy, esoteric list - in this case a survey of churches using trained falcons to protect historic buildings from pigeon poop), the work reaches a heart-pounding climax when what lies beneath a literati dinner party is revealed.<br />
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<i>By Night in Chile</i> is a stark reminder that dictatorships come and go, but for their survivors, actions taken or not taken can last a lifetime in one's conscience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhho7nmCetF3USf9clZ2fVgTZ_zYt672pQMkdy5jMwAL_wY4DV4SQT__MUY3RjstkpGPo9JQK834ZHdkEiqyadIQ-xVcpvwtUYKjDYS1fHBjv2SHv00JFbz77dNfKIMQy_cQuofm0BFtEZF/s1600/thehandmaidstale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhho7nmCetF3USf9clZ2fVgTZ_zYt672pQMkdy5jMwAL_wY4DV4SQT__MUY3RjstkpGPo9JQK834ZHdkEiqyadIQ-xVcpvwtUYKjDYS1fHBjv2SHv00JFbz77dNfKIMQy_cQuofm0BFtEZF/s320/thehandmaidstale.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
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<b><i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> by Margaret Atwood</b></div>
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I admit I haven't been able to re-read this one recently; much like George Orwell's <i>1984</i>, it's too close to home now. However, I plan to steel myself and dive in, since it has an eerily well timed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dre0wQmLGe8" target="_blank">miniseries coming in the spring</a>. <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i>, a novel of women's oppression under a far-right group that has seized power in America, is an important reminder of how quickly the unthinkable can turn into something you're being told to get used to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yAoXJe4KWzwBLeJ64YPhJ-VgrY2JnyjmpVnzWDSMGuPTa2EKjnbw5wVzzPJbLc3J6bD1E-PcxUASVY_2AHDCPbEeyXzMIbIfOUhd7pGc2Xm1AyzS7_J5WG4b6RGkDDIr_7srEfuz5LXo/s1600/lassommoir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yAoXJe4KWzwBLeJ64YPhJ-VgrY2JnyjmpVnzWDSMGuPTa2EKjnbw5wVzzPJbLc3J6bD1E-PcxUASVY_2AHDCPbEeyXzMIbIfOUhd7pGc2Xm1AyzS7_J5WG4b6RGkDDIr_7srEfuz5LXo/s320/lassommoir.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<b>The Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola</b></div>
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During this election season, I've been thinking of the French disaster (or <i>La</i> <i>Debacle</i>, as Zola put it) that was the Franco-Prussian War, where seemingly every bad decision that could be made was made. Zola's series of novels covering the years leading up to this war and the fall of the Second Empire - a time Zola lived through - has some intriguing parallels to today's society, especially the extreme social stratification. As a conduit of mid-to-late-19th Century French history, with its many protests and rebellions, the novels are also a reminder that progress is a struggle, and it's not always clear where or when a decisive victory will arrive.<br />
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In <i>L'assommoir</i>, blacksmith Goujet decides not to join in the protests of Napoleon III's 1851 coup d'etat, feeling burned out and discouraged by the protests of 1848. However, he does hesitate and wonders if, "one day the people might regret having stood by with folded arms." </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimS9RuawgXdVOijSkZpZkIDkpBrD0h6mmRf2CYUaRdsWLPYG_zN0utiWD8BozUptyiWnnVruEL3ruBM9iS5pBrkVTj9TMPcsd11kARIgOk_FBdD9LLgW0IpM1l7__ne2SoRsle0ColhATF/s1600/suitefrancaise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimS9RuawgXdVOijSkZpZkIDkpBrD0h6mmRf2CYUaRdsWLPYG_zN0utiWD8BozUptyiWnnVruEL3ruBM9iS5pBrkVTj9TMPcsd11kARIgOk_FBdD9LLgW0IpM1l7__ne2SoRsle0ColhATF/s320/suitefrancaise.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Suite Française</i> by Irène </b><span style="text-align: start;"><b>Némirovksy</b></span></div>
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Successful writer Irène Némirovksy was living in France with her husband and children when Germany invaded. She immediately began work on a planned series of novels which were to chronicle the invasion, the resistance, and then whatever the outcome of the war would be. After finishing drafts of the first two novellas, however, Némirovksy, who was Jewish by birth (she and her husband were converts to Catholicism), was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where she died. Her husband's arrest and death at Auschwitz soon followed, but the nanny managed to get the children to safety. Némirovksy's eldest daughter, Denise Epstein, found the drafts and an outline for a third book many decades later, when she was going through her mother's papers before donating them.<br />
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The surviving writings were published as <span style="text-align: center;"><i>Suite Française</i>, a captivating and near-contemporaneous account of the chaos of the initial siege of Paris and then the strange new reality of life under German rule. Knowing <span style="text-align: start;">Némirovksy</span>'s fate, the glimmers of hope are all the more bittersweet. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXbGnY29XP2mvuem0KuOYdLm4vF1tJfhPb1QLIDueCphpfG7QZw2xtp_4HfxFDls_W1sEmXYO23-FEEsjzW7m7D2AGtZaUNkhfqYf-XGEZWHG5SK2OGP7Gr8G7WHxSRlLzpgjBbaUTfo7/s1600/Courbet+Pont+Ambroix+Languedoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXbGnY29XP2mvuem0KuOYdLm4vF1tJfhPb1QLIDueCphpfG7QZw2xtp_4HfxFDls_W1sEmXYO23-FEEsjzW7m7D2AGtZaUNkhfqYf-XGEZWHG5SK2OGP7Gr8G7WHxSRlLzpgjBbaUTfo7/s400/Courbet+Pont+Ambroix+Languedoc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courbet's <i>Le Pont Ambroix</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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And to finish, here is the poem "<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/89897" target="_blank">Good Bones</a>" by Maggie Smith. "Good Bones," both comforting and clear-eyed, went viral in the wake of the Orlando massacre - a rare feat for a poem. A broadside is available <a href="https://www.tupelopress.org/product/good-bones-broadside/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">"Manuscripts Don't Burn" poster by Ellen Manning: <a href="http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/10estore/postersellen.html" target="_blank">Master & Margarita website</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Le Point Ambroix</i>: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Courbet_pont_dambrussum.jpg" target="_blank">wikimedia</a></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-29371740680293167202016-12-23T10:55:00.000-08:002016-12-24T00:16:38.954-08:00Favorites of 2016<div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIspGQ9D7AMgJTieR2PjtR1bLrhD6ensPKf6LlmccM5bD2Xs87r9g7cNw5nQOASYip8YohQ3hXV4pcgFmw1Zekwg5VhN6n87t3o2LoVqi5MfdpIv-l6bBoHGQTXDCrFMxTpOZDXgTbqMw/s1600/IMG_8377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIspGQ9D7AMgJTieR2PjtR1bLrhD6ensPKf6LlmccM5bD2Xs87r9g7cNw5nQOASYip8YohQ3hXV4pcgFmw1Zekwg5VhN6n87t3o2LoVqi5MfdpIv-l6bBoHGQTXDCrFMxTpOZDXgTbqMw/s400/IMG_8377.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ed Ruscha at the de Young, Seonna Hong at Hashimoto Contemporary, <br />
<i>Yuri on Ice</i>, <i>All My Puny Sorrows</i>, <i>The Makropulos Case</i> </td></tr>
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It's no secret that 2016 wasn't great. But here are the pieces of art and entertainment, from an ice skating anime to paintings in Milan, that I loved in this crazy year. </div>
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<b>Books</b></div>
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<b><i>All My Puny Sorrows</i> by Miriam Toews</b>: One of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies this year are about suicide, but both in an oddly hopeful way. In <i>All My Puny Sorrows</i>, two middle-aged Mennonite sisters - struggling writer Yolandi and renowned pianist Elfreida - grapple with Elfreida's suicidal ideation and their family's long history of mental illness. This sounds like a dreary premise, but Toews's novel is full of warmth, humor, and fierce love. In a highlight, Yolandi furiously gives her sister the kind of defense most depressed people long for, but never get.<br />
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<b><i>Hag-Seed</i> by Margaret Atwood</b>: As a <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/11/dream-cast-tempest.html" target="_blank"><i>The Tempest</i> superfan</a>, I was excited for Margaret Atwood's novel take on the Shakespeare play. The resulting work, <i>Hag-Seed</i>, is inventive and entertaining (if not terribly deep). When a smarmy board member removes egotistical but dedicated Felix from his role as artistic director of a theatre festival, Felix goes into hiding. But when he finds a job teaching Shakespeare to inmates at a local prison, he realizes how he could have his revenge.<br />
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<b><i>Bloodline</i> by Claudia Gray</b>: Set seven-ish years before <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i>, <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/05/bloodline-by-claudia-gray-star-wars.html" target="_blank">this eerily topical <i>Star Wars</i> novel</a> captures, from Senator Leia Organa's point of view, the political tensions and escalating disasters that make way for the rise of the First Order.<br />
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<b>Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie</b>: A spaceship trapped in a human body teams up with a drug-addicted former colleague in a quest for revenge: this is the story Ann Leckie tells in three beautiful page-turners. The trilogy is a masterclass in world-building; a breath-taking tour of imaginary planets, space stations, and cultures. Characters like measured, compassionate, quietly determined Breq; the sometimes heroic, sometimes a hot mess Seivarden; and zany, endlessly curious Translator Zeiat become quick favorites.<br />
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After dutifully carrying out a devastating order she wishes she hadn't and then losing her omniscience in a betrayal, former spaceship artificial intelligence system Breq tirelessly plots a course that will take her to the evil leader of the empire she once served. Along the way she gains companions and rights various social justice wrongs. The vision Leckie presents of a compassionate, justice-focused way of governing is enticing and needed, but her didactic impulse can get distracting as the trilogy continues (even on the climactic brink of a potentially existence-ending war, a lot of time and energy is devoted to browbeating an emotionally unstable character over a microaggression, for example).<br />
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<b>Older Books I Read or Re-Read</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1N5faeP0w3dxkzyL_c36H-5mOn7wu4w1hokN7cYzBkaoVrMw6QqkhBFr9qiAZbkqnTkZb-HqF-x7nqHmuWM8I2vP_7nLBUtvA3_SFTa81P3jaJO0R95hvUMzCKGsOZhVqG67xVj3LlnVQ/s1600/gracemarks_jamesmcdermott.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1N5faeP0w3dxkzyL_c36H-5mOn7wu4w1hokN7cYzBkaoVrMw6QqkhBFr9qiAZbkqnTkZb-HqF-x7nqHmuWM8I2vP_7nLBUtvA3_SFTa81P3jaJO0R95hvUMzCKGsOZhVqG67xVj3LlnVQ/s400/gracemarks_jamesmcdermott.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grace Marks (L), the subject of Atwood's novel</td></tr>
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<b><i>Alias Grace</i> by Margaret Atwood</b>: One of Atwood's finest, <i>Alias Grace</i> is based on real murders that happened near Toronto in 1843. Told by various narrators, newspaper clippings, and even some poetry, Atwood imagines the build-up to the crimes; the lengthy aftermath; and most importantly, the precarious and complicated lives of female servants.<br />
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<b><i>Frankenstein</i> by Mary Shelley</b>: I revisited this classic on a whim, and <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/dream-cast-frankenstein.html" target="_blank">got a little obsessed</a>. (Bonus: on Halloween, I scored a reduced price ticket to San Francisco Ballet's forthcoming production of a ballet based on the novel!)<br />
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<b><i>The Debacle</i> (<i>Le Debacle</i>) by Emile Zola</b>: Something I'm writing has required me to do a lot of research on the Franco-Prussian War, which lead to Zola's <i>The Debacle</i>. Because of this research I already knew the novel's ending, but I got so invested in the characters involved that I hoped I had misread it. I hadn't. :( The translation I read, by Leonard Tancock, was distracting (he makes the French peasants talk like English cockneys for some reason, like with them saying "tuppence" and everything), but the story of two Frances represented by two men who form an unlikely friendship on the battlefield is still powerful.<br />
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<b><i>Zofloya</i> by Charlotte Dacre and <i>The Castle of Otranto</i> by Horace Walpole</b>: I read <i>Zofloya</i> for the Venetian setting when gearing up for a trip to Venice, and had no idea going in just how bonkers the 1806 Gothic novel would be. It is very bonkers, with murders, affairs, magic, kidnappings, and lovers clasping each other on top of a mountain while lightning flashes around them. But then I went back to what is considered the first Gothic novel, the 1764 <i>The Castle of Otranto</i>, which starts with a teenager getting killed on his wedding day by a giant flying helmet. That definitely takes the bonkers gold. Reading these made me better understand Jane Austen's <i>Northanger Abbey</i>, her 1817 novel in which a teenage heroine who devours these types of books sees Gothic drama in everything around her.<br />
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<b>Movies</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyN1AOc51-bJJ2Xh6w-HzRbUD04i7ejXgQe_LARcmJbljpFgbBUOV77jHHcW33U-YvW9DccGU2X4PcfvkDJdxP3p4gYqwuXOxZRqrVuRx0n1rPPC7laPE9W6NJDsn3hVGLak_1XOE2l-vD/s1600/arrival-trailer-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyN1AOc51-bJJ2Xh6w-HzRbUD04i7ejXgQe_LARcmJbljpFgbBUOV77jHHcW33U-YvW9DccGU2X4PcfvkDJdxP3p4gYqwuXOxZRqrVuRx0n1rPPC7laPE9W6NJDsn3hVGLak_1XOE2l-vD/s400/arrival-trailer-001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Arrival</i></td></tr>
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<b>Swiss Army Man</b>: This <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/07/swiss-army-man-its-always-ourselves-we.html" target="_blank">bizarre, gross-out indie</a> about a depressed man and a corpse is also deeply affecting.<br />
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<b>Moonlight</b>: "That shit was perfect," announced a man behind me when the end credits started to roll. It's hard to argue with that assessment of Barry Jenkins's reflective portrait in three acts of a gay boy growing to manhood in Miami's mix of drugs, danger, and beauty.<br />
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<b>Arrival</b>: I was a bigger mess during this movie than in <i>50/50</i>, <i>The Fault in Our Stars</i>, or <i>Liz in September</i>, and cancer wasn't even <i>mentioned</i>. I cried at the beginning of the movie. I cried in the middle of the movie. I cried at the end of the movie. This film about a linguist hired to communicate with recently landed, cephalopod-like aliens is based on the Ted Chiang short story, "The Story of Your Life," and I'd suggest avoiding spoilers.<br />
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<b>Hunt for the Wilderpeople</b>: New Zealand director Taika Waititi, unlike many people, presumably had a good 2016. Not only was he filming <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i>, a hopefully lighter addition to the increasingly bogged-down MCU, but his adventure-comedy <i>Hunt for the Wilderpeople</i> was released. When it looks like Ricky - a city-raised foster kid who has finally found home at a rural farm - will be returned to the system, he and his cantankerous foster parent go on the run in the New Zealand bush.<br />
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<b>Midnight Special</b>: I am going to be totally honest and admit that I 100% saw this because Adam Driver is in it. He plays an awkward, studious government agent who is tracking down a boy, Alton, rumored to have strange powers. Also looking for the boy are representatives from the cult in which Alton was raised. Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst are Alton's parents, and chameleonic Joel Edgerton is a friend helping them flee. Like other artsy sci-fi films <i>Arrival</i> and <i>Under the Skin</i>, <i>Midnight Special</i> spends long moments lingering on its Earthen landscapes, in this case the American South at night. The shots of headlight-filled highways and glowing gas stations reminded me a lot of the Ed Ruscha show held at the de Young this year (below).<br />
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<b>TV</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaZpUvRPhUPlH7_R3N71I8YUpl83_YVhTQ_VqLYG-IqfzSEfgkdCnUk_SJuR87hiFMbUzUSX8JJAGcZz85yvCDXxJzfDWoFfgkXb690UMmaOYcFZYGt_Me64N1VEPNr62TSXJhdrEcZGM/s1600/yurioniceimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaZpUvRPhUPlH7_R3N71I8YUpl83_YVhTQ_VqLYG-IqfzSEfgkdCnUk_SJuR87hiFMbUzUSX8JJAGcZz85yvCDXxJzfDWoFfgkXb690UMmaOYcFZYGt_Me64N1VEPNr62TSXJhdrEcZGM/s400/yurioniceimage.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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<b>Yuri on Ice: </b>I'm not a big TV watcher, but I watched my usual stuff this year:<i> South Park</i>, <i>Gotham</i>, <i>Drunk History</i>, hours of HGTV in the background, etc. But what completely captured my heart (and judging my twitter feed, the hearts of girls from Japan to Mexico)? Ice skating anime <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/12/yuri-on-ice.html" target="_blank">Yuri on Ice</a>.<br />
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<b>Theater</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QMh9dvt4sKFj-tbuLy_GVRU8WTyukGuhaiaXhGgRbexVpsL56hbbU0bLpM4dqfwJbfmUxBo76ZhowNA2daZZrPqfQG4xqDEuE5E3wIdMZAxj77LAVd5SHwJb-_LSwxFglppgac_U94bS/s1600/dangerousliaisonsdonmar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QMh9dvt4sKFj-tbuLy_GVRU8WTyukGuhaiaXhGgRbexVpsL56hbbU0bLpM4dqfwJbfmUxBo76ZhowNA2daZZrPqfQG4xqDEuE5E3wIdMZAxj77LAVd5SHwJb-_LSwxFglppgac_U94bS/s400/dangerousliaisonsdonmar.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morfydd Clark and Janet McTeer in Les Liaisons Dangereuses</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Les Liaisons Dangereuses - Donmar Warehouse</b>: Josie Rourke and the Donmar Warehouse are British national treasures we're sometimes allowed access to via National Theatre Live. I loved <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-young-dragon-tom-hiddleston-as.html" target="_blank">Rourke's take on Coriolanus</a> a few years back, and her production of <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i>, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel, was another stunner. (The show eventually made it to Broadway, but I saw it via telecast at the Lark Theater in Larkspur.) My favorite aspect of this production was how Rourke made use of what we know but the characters and Laclos did not: that in just a few years, the upper class's lives of luxurious boredom and bored excess would be upended by the French Revolution. As the play progresses, the sumptuous set is stripped bare, mirroring the protagonists' pretense and foretelling the storm to come. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Much Ado About Nothing - Cal Shakes</b>: <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-bard-and-batman-stories-we-tell.html" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">This gender-bending, cater-waiter take</a> on one of my favorite Shakespeare plays worked marvelously. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-style: normal;">King Lear - PacRep</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I had no idea what to expect when my family decided to see some local theater while on a trip to Monterey, and was blown away by the caliber of acting and set design in this <i>King Lear</i>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Makropulos Case - San Francisco Opera:</b> The image of Nadja Michael in a Pierrot costume was enough to get me through the door for this 1926 Czech opera about a 300-year-old superstar looking to further extend her life. Michael's charisma makes the piece work, but I also truly touched by the story of the jaded diva and the everyday people who have been embroiled in a generations-long legal conflict partly of her making. </span><br />
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<b>Art</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDI2mTOgvmMbcQ2gAQVbdpRL0604Ozry8E_hBcidaFn6jhI6397vPABW9SphJ4PoqAZmqpT5G2lV8odGJG9_8u2cP-ztT9BHB7UDJWRaS-JDwoj0cYa3PesN1jkozCUQlRI6zAv5jSGaTD/s1600/IMG_7645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDI2mTOgvmMbcQ2gAQVbdpRL0604Ozry8E_hBcidaFn6jhI6397vPABW9SphJ4PoqAZmqpT5G2lV8odGJG9_8u2cP-ztT9BHB7UDJWRaS-JDwoj0cYa3PesN1jkozCUQlRI6zAv5jSGaTD/s400/IMG_7645.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from Seonna Hong's "Brotherhood of Men"</td></tr>
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<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/05/charlotte-salomon-life-or-theater.html" target="_blank">Musee Massena - Charlotte Salomon: Vie? Ou theatre?</a>: The Musee Massena in Nice, France, celebrated the work of a young artist who once sought refuge nearby from Nazism.<br />
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<a href="http://www.palazzorealemilano.it/wps/portal/luogo/palazzorealeEN/exhibitions/futureexhibitions/detail/Simbolismo" target="_blank">Palazzo Reale - Simbolismo</a>: When my sister and I stopped in Milan for the night on our way from Nice to Venice, we didn't do much research beforehand and didn't know what to expect. Along with the Duomo and finding the perfect duck umbrella, this exhibition of the beauty, weirdness, and sometimes gaudiness of the Symbolism movement was a highlight.<br />
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<b>Fine Arts Museums San Francisco</b> - <a href="http://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/ed-ruscha-and-great-american-west" target="_blank">Ed Ruscha and the Great American West</a> & <a href="http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/exhibitions/wild-west" target="_blank">Wild West: Plains to the Pacific</a>: The de Young's Ruscha show focused on the artist's work capturing both the sprawl and emptiness of the American Southwest. Its sister exhibition at the Legion of Honor was a clear-eyed survey of the West through many artists.<br />
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<a href="http://www.hashimotocontemporary.com/seonna-hong-in-our-nature/" target="_blank">Hashimoto Contemporary - Seonna Hong, In Our Nature</a>: I was immediately taken by Hong's intriguing images of youths exploring minimalist landscapes in pinks, greens, and grays. I even ended up buying a 2.5 x 2.5" painting - an addition to my tiny collection of tiny original art.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_E4lAK_Vd8V6rynu01Zb7jOCtet2pzsh3N8SWgTFFCVtn7KxN5nVafV66eorWaRHX44wn7CzDfBpodqsJ-v4MWgHkvT_u99KpZZ3O8_lf3AWu418elIVi_tH0joHfV1ca6HuZAtIHFIw/s1600/IMG_8383.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_E4lAK_Vd8V6rynu01Zb7jOCtet2pzsh3N8SWgTFFCVtn7KxN5nVafV66eorWaRHX44wn7CzDfBpodqsJ-v4MWgHkvT_u99KpZZ3O8_lf3AWu418elIVi_tH0joHfV1ca6HuZAtIHFIw/s400/IMG_8383.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ancillary Mercy</i>, <i>Swiss Army Man</i>, <i>Bloodline</i>,<br />
<i>Moonlight</i>, <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i></td></tr>
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<b>Previous Favorites:</b><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2015/12/favorites-of-2015.html" target="_blank">Favorites of 2015</a><br />
<a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-favs-of-2014.html" target="_blank">Favorites of 2014</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header and footer collages made in LiveCollage</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Grace Marks: <a href="http://murderpedia.org/female.M/m/marks-grace.htm" target="_blank">Murderpedia</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i>: photo by Johann Persson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Seonna Hong: my photo of Hong's painting "Brotherhood of Men"</span></div>
Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-80454165502258070572016-12-15T21:57:00.000-08:002016-12-15T22:03:57.295-08:00Yuri on Ice<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9B2eV-BeUOttsZnC6g9R7b0d46uQEXl_b9p63p2L1q3-xMSEaeTNhq3rO2V_5iAwt-9czs7U2JjIc7uznyuK7PWdRvU4r5S2FwRnMdQMBN-mczgvlhjNlrwpQYxIcgalX38l-l4YV9p44/s1600/IMG_8337.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9B2eV-BeUOttsZnC6g9R7b0d46uQEXl_b9p63p2L1q3-xMSEaeTNhq3rO2V_5iAwt-9czs7U2JjIc7uznyuK7PWdRvU4r5S2FwRnMdQMBN-mczgvlhjNlrwpQYxIcgalX38l-l4YV9p44/s400/IMG_8337.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">INTIMIDATING FIGURE SKATERS!</td></tr>
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Much like <i>Welcome to Nightvale</i>, <i>Yuri on Ice</i> is something I first saw talked about on twitter by people (generally women and girls) much younger than I am, and I wasn't sure what it was. When I saw screenshots, I initially thought someone had made a fake Johnny Weir anime. But it was a real anime, and I from what I could gather, young ladies everywhere desperately wanted the male leads to get married, as is true for media with male characters everywhere.<br />
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I hadn't watched any anime for a long, long time, but I did grow up in household where figure skating was watched enthusiastically. I remember the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding craziness, the tears of Oksana Baiul. I can remember where I was (playing in our house's guest room) when I heard of Sergei Grinkov's sudden death. My mom has a picture of my sister and I as kids posing with Brian Boitano (her all-time favorite) at a signing. We were devastated when Michelle Kwan lost Olympic gold to Tara Lipinski. We went to <i>Stars on Ice</i>. I fell in love with Evgeni Plushenko instead of Alexei Yagudin. We reveled in the juiciness of the rivalry between witty, sneering, flamboyant Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek, a gorgeous youth with the brain of a labrador and the mindset of a workhorse.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw-zBFUCFgvl5j4MNY4TCz3wHqM5JRPueAbTB8zdFh8m8kXM7ZXf3mMNZZSHkP-DIIULSS9INI9moJhj-mQyc7cRMxNAO2Vpxv7d7H-BB2N2Rw-qi7EMzYSoCPZ2hVZsMsUIRao_GwGlx/s1600/Evan%252BLysacek%252BFrank%252BCarroll%252BOlympians%252BUSA%252BHouse%252BrWkQZSYtBy0l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw-zBFUCFgvl5j4MNY4TCz3wHqM5JRPueAbTB8zdFh8m8kXM7ZXf3mMNZZSHkP-DIIULSS9INI9moJhj-mQyc7cRMxNAO2Vpxv7d7H-BB2N2Rw-qi7EMzYSoCPZ2hVZsMsUIRao_GwGlx/s400/Evan%252BLysacek%252BFrank%252BCarroll%252BOlympians%252BUSA%252BHouse%252BrWkQZSYtBy0l.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'll always <3 him for getting Frank Carroll Olympic gold</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I have to admit I'm not as "up" on what's happening in figure skating currently. I love the Shibutanis and local girl Polina Edmunds, but if you asked me to name a promising young men's skater I'd probably be like, "um..Patrick Chan?" However, I'm pretty sure I'm about to dive full into skating fandom again, because of <i>Yuri on Ice</i>.<br />
<br />
I was expecting a silly, frothy yaoi soap when I watched episode one on 12/13 (Shout-out to the girl in Indonesia who responded to my inquiry into the twitter void on how to watch it. It's <a href="http://www.crunchyroll.com/yuri-on-ice" target="_blank">here</a>). But the show, directed by Sayo Yamamoto, won me over immediately. I was surprised by the depth of the characters and show's dedicated depiction of figure skating. I understood why it had taken over my twitter feed. By midnight on 12/15, I had watched all eleven half-hour episodes currently out (the finale is next Wednesday).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB97PmgORB-rDSL1kNEtBFHG826PpTxnTPSbypE_uD3DNCkk6SxTVX7UxWyqZ-nIWkOHFNJYfFKX1YeSO3jzQatO-J3grQDPghwLDnglHjJsEbgebYLOAzPKgy5TR3QAhYXfch39uGeL90/s1600/IMG_8340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB97PmgORB-rDSL1kNEtBFHG826PpTxnTPSbypE_uD3DNCkk6SxTVX7UxWyqZ-nIWkOHFNJYfFKX1YeSO3jzQatO-J3grQDPghwLDnglHjJsEbgebYLOAzPKgy5TR3QAhYXfch39uGeL90/s400/IMG_8340.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Social media is also important on the show</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The show's protagonist is Yuri Katsuki, a skater whose career is in a rut after a disastrous Grand Prix: he has no self-confidence, he's put on weight, and he's approaching "skating-old" at twenty-three. He moves back to his hometown: a small Japanese seaside city reliant on tourism, which is in steady decline. Unexpectedly, a video of him doing a favorite routine of his idol, Russian skating superstar Victor Nikiforov, goes viral. Even more unexpectedly, Victor himself shows up at Yuri's family's inn, announcing that he's retiring from skating to coach him. Soon bratty just-out-of-juniors star Yuri Plisetsky (nicknamed Yurio against his will to avoid confusion), also arrives to demand Victor choreograph him a routine.<br />
<br />
Anime has been known to get pretty outlandish with sports, but there are no zany super-powered antics here. Instead, there are discussions of the intricacies of the scoring system, angst over quads, and lots of over-rotations and hands on the ice. No wonder <a href="http://thegeekiary.com/johnny-weir-watched-yuri-ice/40241" target="_blank">so many actual skaters have embraced it</a>! And as in real life, the sport is a multi-national, all-hands-on-deck production. Of course you have a skater from Thailand training with an Italian coach at a rink in Michigan!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAol7XimnS3oSH7UNK8yDf7t2N_8i0wQmu1H94UaVgzn-yETIqZreIyJ1Krj90e48xnQRe1wXFdJP-uYprSCPkwkl2bi4HBhJHP1yLhVb0JLce3nzl_Ls3tqKl37uVi_DU65GdPuG2Jmw/s1600/IMG_8339.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAol7XimnS3oSH7UNK8yDf7t2N_8i0wQmu1H94UaVgzn-yETIqZreIyJ1Krj90e48xnQRe1wXFdJP-uYprSCPkwkl2bi4HBhJHP1yLhVb0JLce3nzl_Ls3tqKl37uVi_DU65GdPuG2Jmw/s400/IMG_8339.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And that skater is selfie champion and hamster daddy Phichit</td></tr>
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One of my favorite things about <i>Yuri on Ice</i> is its generous cast of characters, and how it avoids one-dimensional heroes and villains. Yuri is sweet and naturally lovable, but myopic when it comes to how he treats others. Victor has such charm and confidence that it's easy for others and himself to assume he knows what he's doing...even if he doesn't. Yurio is a pretty terrible enfant terrible, but he's also a fifteen-year-old who's suffocating in the wake of fame (Yurio makes me feel bad for hating Tara Lipinski in the 90s. I'm sorry I hated you, Tara!).<br />
<br />
A great strength of the show is how it goes into the skaters', coaches', and others' heads during performances, so we see, for example, the anxieties and joys of otherwise hate-able arrogant jerk JJ, the determination of standoffish Otabek, and the sincere passion for art harbored by Yurio's cold and exacting choreographer. That passion is what ultimately unites all the characters, despite their vast differences.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxNFUt4e4TwPJKcP7NfCIAwWsL7WQe_iakJtzSfYQCEVjSuZiIGJAXrTRx40qNL8LFinsNcnjgdu04innG2yz-Vn2o2_vMx3pKg9l7Q7Ld2gkwCRCXbqfKQMWMsGaCl3KKFbk-wVhb9aT/s1600/IMG_8345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxNFUt4e4TwPJKcP7NfCIAwWsL7WQe_iakJtzSfYQCEVjSuZiIGJAXrTRx40qNL8LFinsNcnjgdu04innG2yz-Vn2o2_vMx3pKg9l7Q7Ld2gkwCRCXbqfKQMWMsGaCl3KKFbk-wVhb9aT/s400/IMG_8345.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angry baby kitten Yurio thinks he's a lion</td></tr>
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Because despite the drama and fame and flowers and pageantry, that is what figure skating is about: the blending of sport and music and ice into art. Michelle Kwan might have lost two Olympic golds to her own Yurios, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM38CM6aaDY" target="_blank">the beauty of her spiral is iconic</a>. I joke about Evan Lysacek*, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36hAxJh4EQ" target="_blank">the straight line footwork in his Bolero routine</a> is one of my all-time favorite skating sequences.<br />
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<i>Yuri on Ice</i> is an ice skating love letter, a portrait of flawed people pursuing their dreams and supporting each other, and a reminder to see the love and beauty around us and keep trying.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTLAT9LPKIkMuqJgJsu6zgYV4oAMOq-fmeE7ohVsA8oaJqURfhfswjOwY5-mIbAQjVjs5REeR83SllgPlIwUxOnj3pXhx7KA8K9dR01_E16osrOuwSix1AWmLSBpnEVDJUaSJi3u75pZr/s1600/IMG_8338.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTLAT9LPKIkMuqJgJsu6zgYV4oAMOq-fmeE7ohVsA8oaJqURfhfswjOwY5-mIbAQjVjs5REeR83SllgPlIwUxOnj3pXhx7KA8K9dR01_E16osrOuwSix1AWmLSBpnEVDJUaSJi3u75pZr/s400/IMG_8338.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun fact: when Yuri and Victor wed, Japan and Russia will finally sign<br />
a WWII peace treaty! </td></tr>
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For me the show brings to mind this song sung by Priscilla Lopez in <i>A Chorus Line</i>, where the auditioning actors reflect on the inevitable end of their dancing careers:<br />
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<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dwk0Sh3id4w" width="560"></iframe></center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Another favorite Evan moment: So Johnny Weir's most famous costume is his white swan costume from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3frkW4f7ok" target="_blank">his <i>Swan Lake</i> program</a> (this costume, complete with bird beak glove, was parodied as a peacock in <i>Blades of Glory</i>). Well, a number of years ago I went with my family to <i>Stars on Ice</i> in San Jose when Evan was skating. When <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to-uvo3XMx0" target="_blank">he started skating to the <i>Black Swan</i> soundtrack</a>, I was thrilled. Was this white swan versus black swan dichotomy intentional? By ending the routine on the black swan's moment of glory, the fouettes, I'm pretty sure it was. So catty!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGYK5pVksjwX5p4YKjg6oPlyxp8byZpjrIeKPirgyIQOHgXb-jvdpSfMqg5jn9VNwjUlThwlVYbEdg-Ht1HzJAIHN3IVgYdZpeGPZd6VHIN-FnY28lFCgAUFQaSTjcLAkN6am4Lw1uNJt/s1600/bladesofgloryjonheder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGYK5pVksjwX5p4YKjg6oPlyxp8byZpjrIeKPirgyIQOHgXb-jvdpSfMqg5jn9VNwjUlThwlVYbEdg-Ht1HzJAIHN3IVgYdZpeGPZd6VHIN-FnY28lFCgAUFQaSTjcLAkN6am4Lw1uNJt/s320/bladesofgloryjonheder.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a look.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">All from<i> Yuri on Ice</i> except:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Frank Carroll and Evan Lysacek: <a href="http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Evan+Lysacek/Frank+Carroll" target="_blank">Zimbio</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jon Heder in <i>Blades of Glory</i></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-80868904760940152272016-11-27T21:48:00.000-08:002016-11-27T22:36:13.592-08:00Dream Cast - The Tempest<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJT3zh9Y3aE2nSIjvhn992kcMhFKQza5FhkThzJd5tR6sDzncBWRIHP2Pgs9AN81LRBcKvDYcs9DKyYwHK6XcwIdFQ3ZmdYd9bMh1bLBC37JM3LUVuAD4Ju2wEhQMapPrTeecXflhGb8y/s1600/tempestcollage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJT3zh9Y3aE2nSIjvhn992kcMhFKQza5FhkThzJd5tR6sDzncBWRIHP2Pgs9AN81LRBcKvDYcs9DKyYwHK6XcwIdFQ3ZmdYd9bMh1bLBC37JM3LUVuAD4Ju2wEhQMapPrTeecXflhGb8y/s400/tempestcollage.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prospero with his magic staff; Miranda riding around the island;<br />
where the bee sucks, there sucks Ariel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>The Tempest</i> is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I've seen multiple productions and re-read it over and over. I've written more than one poem about it, and <a href="http://noblegas.org/issue-203-2/janna-layton/the-duke-of-milan-and-his-brave-son-being-twain/" target="_blank">the one that's published</a> is about a character who is only mentioned once and probably due to a textual error. I've read W.H. Auden's goddamn <i>The Sea and the Mirror</i>. I also love Margaret Atwood. So I was elated to hear that Hogarth would be publishing her novelized take on the work under their new Hogarth Shakespeare imprint.<br />
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I bought the novel, <i>Hag-Seed</i>, the day it was released and devoured it quickly. Of course it's always a little worrying to see a new take on something old you love, but <i>Hag-Seed</i> is one of my favorites of the year. After Felix is ousted as the artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival (if you're a Shakespeare festival aficionado, you'll know Atwood did her homework), he takes a job teaching Shakespeare in a prison, and plots his revenge.<br />
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<i>Hag-Seed</i> is clever and touching, but Atwood's take on <i>The Tempest</i> is different than mine would be. That's one of the reasons Shakespeare's plays endure on the stage and other media - they are open to countless interpretations. A character can be done so many ways. Reading the novel made me think of whom I would cast, and thus another overlong <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/dream%20cast" target="_blank">Dream Cast</a> was born.<br />
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<b>Prospero - Forest Whitacker</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0hyphenhyphenV38Vz3mu44wrRGJ0e-xcZV6WVaqsuLGt-kXMLrzGsMwde3njfMx6ONaEKIQEdh0JHJVyWHfef4skDqNbqntKK6f_oz6ew8Fcdce2YJlC0fKdBJlA0RfbUIyOMdP0ZVdDaWQ8DWyiJ/s1600/tempestforestwhitaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0hyphenhyphenV38Vz3mu44wrRGJ0e-xcZV6WVaqsuLGt-kXMLrzGsMwde3njfMx6ONaEKIQEdh0JHJVyWHfef4skDqNbqntKK6f_oz6ew8Fcdce2YJlC0fKdBJlA0RfbUIyOMdP0ZVdDaWQ8DWyiJ/s1600/tempestforestwhitaker.jpg" /></a></div>
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I have a soft spot for Forest Whitaker because, like him, I also have a wonky eyelid. That doesn't have anything to do with his acting credentials, but his career speaks for itself. Anyways, Prospero, like Lear and Shylock, is one of those Shakespeare roles distinguished actors of a certain age spend years paying their dues to play. Prospero is a bombastic egotist, passionate artist, cruel tyrant, doting father, and melancholy old man.</div>
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Prospero is also the rightful Duke of Milan and a sorcerer. Unfortunately, he is so into studying magic stuff that he doesn't notice his brother Antonio, whom he had assigned to run the kingdom, is going to usurp him. Cast out to sea with his daughter, Miranda, he lands on an enchanted island and declares himself ruler of it. When his enemies sail within his reach years later, he uses his magic to enact a complicated revenge. </div>
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<b>Miranda - Gugu Mbatha-Raw</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit64SL5A-9Ebtl2wBnN1kvJj6q3UhcTWXoDkKZY7ORHo5NoPNp091zcfBXj1LXnDM3RAzseWxuDU3-w_q0fPu5CMvEpDKZ-Dbp80ej74pf9g4ZyA-tcJcf3LYcIO3PokJ3ls8leASB-Cyt/s1600/tempestgugu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit64SL5A-9Ebtl2wBnN1kvJj6q3UhcTWXoDkKZY7ORHo5NoPNp091zcfBXj1LXnDM3RAzseWxuDU3-w_q0fPu5CMvEpDKZ-Dbp80ej74pf9g4ZyA-tcJcf3LYcIO3PokJ3ls8leASB-Cyt/s1600/tempestgugu.jpg" /></a></div>
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We're getting flexible on the ages here, but whatever; it's Shakespeare. And anyways, if you landed on an island and saw Gugu Mbatha-Raw, you'd assume she was a goddess, right? Mbatha-Raw is in pretty much everything right now, because she's very talented. And that talent is needed to give Miranda her due. Miranda has some classic damsel moments (horror at a shipwreck, falling in love at first sight), but also shows pluck (standing up to Caliban, trying to help Ferdinand with his log-carrying).<br />
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Since toddlerhood, Miranda has been raised with no other women and with her father as the only other human. What might that mean for how Miranda acts, moves, and talks? There's a great but subtle moment in Mbatha-Raw's <i>Black Mirror</i> episode "San Junipero" where in anger, her character's idealized virtual reality avatar suddenly takes on her "real" mannerisms. That makes me think Mbatha-Raw could be a ground-breaking Miranda.<br />
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<b>Caliban - Andy Serkis</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wX_KXsMn1uHDlHAiG7TRLUHbGSYlO3dhcIarhbkFIuXSeXtxH9G4nSEpE4BscEDn6YGe4Omhrk0RU5jMuSufyaCE8sShMBqtuHuvI5ZgJhmVa0-0pAYf1sl9Le37Rw7A0tqnq3kgG4Oz/s1600/tempestandyserkis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wX_KXsMn1uHDlHAiG7TRLUHbGSYlO3dhcIarhbkFIuXSeXtxH9G4nSEpE4BscEDn6YGe4Omhrk0RU5jMuSufyaCE8sShMBqtuHuvI5ZgJhmVa0-0pAYf1sl9Le37Rw7A0tqnq3kgG4Oz/s1600/tempestandyserkis.jpg" /></a></div>
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Caliban has been a tricky role to cast in modern times. Caliban, born on an island in the Mediterranean and then subjugated by the first European who lands there, is read by many as a stand-in for aboriginal peoples. His is mother is an Algerian witch, but also described as blue-eyed, and critics have differing opinions on what that was meant to indicate. He's also an attempted rapist and gullible fool, so drawing too direct parallels is dicey.</div>
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For this Caliban, I'd go back to the text, which describes him as non-human and fish-like in appearance. For a fish monster, motion capture seems ideal, and for motion capture, you hire Andy Serkis. He's Hollywood's premier thespian working in this form, and he's got the chops for Caliban. Throughout the play we see Caliban as threatening, laughable, and rightfully enraged, and he also has one of the play's most moving speeches: an ode to the island's magic and beauty. </div>
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<b>Ariel - Kate McKinnon</b></div>
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Ariel is male in the text, but like fellow fairy Puck from <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, often played by a woman on stage. Whatever the gender, air sprite Ariel has both ethereal beauty and manic energy, so who better than <i>Saturday Night Live</i>'s Kate McKinnon? Imprisoned by Caliban's mother, he is then freed by Prospero in exchange for a set time of service. Ariel is the real magic behind Prospero, and although he serves Prospero dutifully, his longing for freedom is clear.<br />
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<b>Antonio - Anthony Mackie</b></div>
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Besties Antonio and Sebastian are two of my favorite villains in Shakespeare. Why do I like them so much? Imagine that Scar from <i>The Lion King</i> and Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe get stranded on an island with little chance of rescue and, instead of panicking, immediately launch into a Statler and Waldorf routine. That's Antonio and Sebastian. Later, when their treasonous plot against the king is foiled, they're upset for a few minutes, and then just go back to treating everything around them as their personal RiffTrax.<br />
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Antonio is the more conniving of the two. Put in charge of running Milan while his older brother Prospero doddered away in his library, slick and competent politician Antonio was able to organize a coup with the backing of the King of Naples. Mackie is charming, and you can see how he could pull off being a schemer, too.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Sebastian - Sebastian Stan</b></div>
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After their banter as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in <i>Captain America: Civil War</i>, who doesn't want to see these two together again? And Anthony's name is close to Antonio and Sebastian's name is exactly Sebastian, so it's practically written in the stars!<br />
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Sebastian is the younger brother of Alonzo, but unlike Antonio, the thought of betraying his older brother to take the crown doesn't seem to have ever crossed his mind. That doesn't mean he's completely at peace with his brother, though. Sebastian is furious that his niece Claribel was pressured by her father to marry against her will in far-off Tunis, and he also blames Alonzo for the supposed death of Ferdinand. With Ferdinand thought dead, Antonio is easily able to convince Sebastian that it's no biggie to kill Alonzo and his annoying ally Gonzalo. Especially Gonzalo.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Alonzo - Jeffrey Dean Morgan</b></div>
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Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been terrifying and enraging viewers of <i>The Walking Dead</i> as sociopathic Negan. As King Alonzo of Naples, he could show his softer side as a ruthless ruler who then feels the full emotional weight of his tactics. Already regretting marrying off his daughter Claribel on another continent, Alonzo is sent into a tailspin of grief when his son Ferdinand is thought lost in the shipwreck during their return from the wedding. By the time he's reunited with his happily alive son in the final scene, he's a changed man.<br />
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<b>Ferdinand - Alden Ehrenreich</b></div>
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In <i>The Tempest</i>, Ferdinand needs to be sad, and then be in love, and always be pretty. This prince has none of his father Alonzo's politicking (except in chess), and his marriage with Miranda will reunite the kingdoms of Naples and Milan in love instead of treachery. Alden Ehrenreich, a scene-stealer in <i>Hail, Caesar!</i> and our future past Han Solo, would fill the role nicely.<br />
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<b>Gonzalo - George Takei</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydCEzRzoCE5Ex1MiFPOGlrgRNpbEpPXJPjDlxLDRrVaShDBayPIMC60iCZPzJTIHZni-Yx-OZCDixe55KAMnEtS1kfJGZbuuolY5P_xo17WjrsoAPQhZXrdGG186Jqi0D76zW4cRrrqmT/s1600/tempestgeorgetakei.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydCEzRzoCE5Ex1MiFPOGlrgRNpbEpPXJPjDlxLDRrVaShDBayPIMC60iCZPzJTIHZni-Yx-OZCDixe55KAMnEtS1kfJGZbuuolY5P_xo17WjrsoAPQhZXrdGG186Jqi0D76zW4cRrrqmT/s1600/tempestgeorgetakei.jpg" /></a></div>
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Gonzalo, an elderly adviser in Alonzo's court, is kindly and means well, but also a bit oblivious and a windbag. His non-stop speechifying makes him the subject of Antonio and Sebastian's jokes, and I have to admit I've thought of Sebastian's "[and yet] he will be talking" complaint when stuck listening to a chatterer. However, he is also the one who saved Prospero and Miranda during the coup and looks out for Alonzo, Antonio, and Sebastian when they're made insane by Ariel's magic. With his cheeriness and comic timing, George Takei would be a hoot in this role. </div>
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<b>Trinculo and Stefano - Key and Peele</b></div>
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Providing the comic relief are Trinculo and Stefano, King Alonzo's jester and butler who have also been shipwrecked on the magic island. The two get drunk, meet Caliban, and get Caliban drunk. Caliban thinks alcohol-bearing Stefano is a god, and convinces the two to help him overthrow Prospero. It's a perfect plan! Or it would be, if they weren't so drunk and easily distracted. Good chemistry and comedy skills are essential for these roles, so I'm choosing duo Key & Peele. I'd pick Keegan-Michael Key as Stefano and Jordan Peele as Trinculo, but honestly, they'd be hilarious either way.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwI2QeI_-PeuAK-R0gyMSNWUctQ5DSDIgM5YuxPaON7IgKUb3fAwFP80d64w_KP7oGruGAZI0JEERX8eupNlDGpv4zXJ0OrYSqvSlfYDJd4x5N6bxj1-6dlG3hfTp9EcNqgEF84U87d90/s1600/tempestcollage2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwI2QeI_-PeuAK-R0gyMSNWUctQ5DSDIgM5YuxPaON7IgKUb3fAwFP80d64w_KP7oGruGAZI0JEERX8eupNlDGpv4zXJ0OrYSqvSlfYDJd4x5N6bxj1-6dlG3hfTp9EcNqgEF84U87d90/s400/tempestcollage2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alonzo, Sebastian, and Antonio fight imaginary monsters courtesy Ariel<br />
while Stephano and Trinculo enjoy island life</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">First collage:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Forest Whitaker in <i>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gugu Mbatha-Raw in <i>Black Mirror</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kate McKinnon from <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kate-mckinnon-playing-hillary-clinton-798180" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Headshots: all IMDB except Key & Peele official image</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Second collage:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeffrey Dean Morgan in <i>The Walking Dead</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in <i>Captain America: Civil War</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele in <i>Key & Peele</i></span><br />
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<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-5425712308469339412016-10-10T23:12:00.000-07:002016-10-10T23:19:44.647-07:00Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4xCLwQjKy7i40WNqNI2p3PIR_QedJQQaXfC15l3wIs22HiasZH7ooeVCeOzldjOqkcl0quiOI0B7ko53Q5K2GniDCPA_KilTL3l1qLtqmQMum_U6P24-fXyZeMv8A4H9hms0pRV0NS-Z/s1600/capedcrusadersposter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4xCLwQjKy7i40WNqNI2p3PIR_QedJQQaXfC15l3wIs22HiasZH7ooeVCeOzldjOqkcl0quiOI0B7ko53Q5K2GniDCPA_KilTL3l1qLtqmQMum_U6P24-fXyZeMv8A4H9hms0pRV0NS-Z/s400/capedcrusadersposter.JPG" width="266" /></a></div>
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Tonight I saw a Batman movie in theaters, which has not been a rare outing for me in 2016. The year started out with the messy, grimdark <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/03/mark-zuckerberg-force-feeds-someone.html" target="_blank">Batman v Superman</a>; progressed with the messier, grimdarker, but at least Hamill-ful <i>Batman:</i> <i>The Killing Joke</i>; and then sighed and continued with the messiest Hot Topic mess, <i>Suicide Squad</i>. But despite the third time not being a charm, DC went <i>forth</i> (get it?) with yet another theatrical release.<br />
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Turning away from the grimy and the lurid, <i>Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders</i> harkens back to the 1960s TV show. In <i>Batman: The Killing Joke</i>, the Joker paralyzes Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, strips her, photographs her, and then shows those photographs to her father, Commissioner Gordon, whom he has also stripped and imprisoned in an X-rated roller-coaster, all so that he can convince Batman to kill him. In the 60s <i>Batman</i> TV show, Joker rigs the high school milk machine to dispense money instead of milk, thus robbing Gotham's youth of their passion for hard and honest work, because why be a productive citizen when you can just get money from the milk machine? (Dick Grayson/Robin, of course, is not tempted by this corrupting teat.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSaLKnDGYm7tcSpFWwFFsHZ0Z__YXuz1N2s8nq4Z7WfTrP1-1xRrxCAeoLcPIctWr-xRe-wbdO_B3Atnc0BGUNjXVk14oTLd26EVXuku0AIvYq3zvlBvJytAlKKKMFRzw_IHRYS3QaW7FI/s1600/Batman_%252766_-_Burt_Ward_as_Robin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSaLKnDGYm7tcSpFWwFFsHZ0Z__YXuz1N2s8nq4Z7WfTrP1-1xRrxCAeoLcPIctWr-xRe-wbdO_B3Atnc0BGUNjXVk14oTLd26EVXuku0AIvYq3zvlBvJytAlKKKMFRzw_IHRYS3QaW7FI/s320/Batman_%252766_-_Burt_Ward_as_Robin.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice try, commies!</td></tr>
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The wholesome zaniness was a boon for great thespians wanting to have a scene-chewing blast in the Rogues Gallery. Eartha Kitt prowled as Catwoman, Burgess Meredith chortled as the Penguin, and barely-in-the-closet Cesar Romero and Frank Gorshin got to be as flamboyant as they pleased with the Joker and the Riddler. However, Adam West and Burt Ward, the painfully earnest Batman and Robin, had a much harder time with the show's legacy.<br />
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Fortunately, they both seem to have reconciled with their preppy, do-gooding characters, and reunited as Batman and Robin (along with one of three Catwomen, Julie Newmar) to lend their voices for this animated feature, directed by animation veteran Rick Morales.<br />
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Fans who have been disappointed by past 2016 Batman movies might ask, "Do I really want to invest my time into this again?" That's a fair question, so first ask yourself these questions:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Would I be in hysterics (of the good kind) if the movie opened with Dick doing ballet?</li>
<li>Do I think deep down that what the Joker really needs is a guitar-gun that shoots paper streamers?</li>
<li>If Batman were to travel to space, would his spacesuit's helmet having adorable bat ears be important to me? </li>
</ul>
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If you answered "yes" to all of the above, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy0bmNiJgr6M1Mq7yyjG-AjpS5xu8dhzqq7IlXzPNKhorgM4oVYQk-pqqxjbNIJ1CYAQkMtYskUpfL0SvzgsNmMSFrdtPn8wVWQzcnkM3FXBUDttS3Him57cz6RP13uihDKenq12OyLrkU/s1600/capedcrusadersjokermobile.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy0bmNiJgr6M1Mq7yyjG-AjpS5xu8dhzqq7IlXzPNKhorgM4oVYQk-pqqxjbNIJ1CYAQkMtYskUpfL0SvzgsNmMSFrdtPn8wVWQzcnkM3FXBUDttS3Him57cz6RP13uihDKenq12OyLrkU/s400/capedcrusadersjokermobile.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the seatbelts. They're villains, not uncouth monsters.</td></tr>
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And yes, space is involved, but surprisingly, it's not even the climax! The self-aware yet gleeful craziness just keeps coming long after our heroes and villains have fought in the International Space Station. The film's not completely perfect - it is <i>very</i> silly, Newmar clearly struggled with the voicework, and some won't like the adherence to retro gender stuff. But it's darn good fun, and definitely the best Batman movie I saw this year. It was also the only one I saw in a nearly empty theater, but this has been marketed mostly for home viewing. Hopefully the nostalgia factor and yearning for some <i>fun</i> Batman will win over burned-out Batfans.<br />
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<center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Serious Robin: <a href="http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Robin_(Burt_Ward)" target="_blank">Batman wikia</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Extremely safe driving in a Jokermobile: <a href="https://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/batman-return-of-the-caped-crusaders-trailer-and-art-stop-jaywalking/" target="_blank">SciFiNow</a></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-10387029456552474982016-08-31T12:07:00.000-07:002016-08-31T12:09:56.865-07:00Haunted by Childhoods: Three Ghost Stories <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgba3Lpa2svAbIw41SysV3LtuoDoxwwfLFLXjZDzMm2OlFIEFp2FEKNDFAfxsHhtCokChq5rD-98Q-j-q7kOhlr6nYJ-GOuQYHgYqGdVFZ-npZ8gJGPTbJBqolzKhwQ10NewGMM8dTbG0Y_/s1600/belovednewtonandelise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgba3Lpa2svAbIw41SysV3LtuoDoxwwfLFLXjZDzMm2OlFIEFp2FEKNDFAfxsHhtCokChq5rD-98Q-j-q7kOhlr6nYJ-GOuQYHgYqGdVFZ-npZ8gJGPTbJBqolzKhwQ10NewGMM8dTbG0Y_/s400/belovednewtonandelise.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise in the 1998 <i>Beloved</i> adaptation</td></tr>
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I started this blog post in August 2014. It's been in the drafts section of my blogger account since then - out of sight, but never quite out of mind. It began as a simple Halloween-themed rambling for my little-read blog: a selection of literary ghost stories. But as I wrote about each piece, I realized something connected them all, and not just that they were all ghost stories about children. I needed to stop and think about what it was I was trying to say.<br />
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Then I procrastinated for two years and just finally finished this post!<br />
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Anyways, when <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/06/dream-cast-frankenstein.html" target="_blank">I re-read Mary Shelley's <i>Frankenstein</i> earlier this year</a>, I was struck by Victor Frankenstein's anti-climatic, almost comical reaction to the "birth" of his creation. He sees that his creation is alive, panics, and...leaves the room. To sleep. He literally just shuts down, leaves the room, and goes to bed. When his creation seeks him out in his bedroom, he goes outside and sleeps in the courtyard. Then he stays away from his apartment for the day, hoping the thing will leave.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSRmCkC-f7t4GinT6c6XSSFDsmJYJ-Y8H6IjsNKFCzyic48TXACB6xpjcGWHyDzBCyWXMuNQcHGDjGJExsj1EQl2GAwFq4SFzZ9LDkoUetXjj4D0limOg07atSy8b9otKea6qryRMmUSm/s1600/frankenstein1831vonholst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSRmCkC-f7t4GinT6c6XSSFDsmJYJ-Y8H6IjsNKFCzyic48TXACB6xpjcGWHyDzBCyWXMuNQcHGDjGJExsj1EQl2GAwFq4SFzZ9LDkoUetXjj4D0limOg07atSy8b9otKea6qryRMmUSm/s400/frankenstein1831vonholst.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh. Never mind, don't want you after all.<br />
BTW, check out my dick windows.</td></tr>
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Victor's utter fecklessness in the face of crisis amused me, but also hit at one of my deepest fears. I don't have kids, and don't know if I will ever have one or even want one. But sometimes I picture motherhood, and I am terrified I would react just like Victor. What if I went through labor, held my new baby in my arms, and felt...nothing? Or felt revulsion? What if the crying, screaming, pooping thing got to be too much for me and I just closed the door walked away (just like with this blog post!)?<br />
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Victor's panic and denial are understandable (I mean, the reality that one has bestowed life upon a giant mutant corpse hits pretty hard), and he feels extremely justified in his actions, but his "child," just as understandably, doesn't feel the same way. The creation is never able to get over the pain of that early abandonment.<br />
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And there's the crux of the conflict between parent and offspring. The adult, with their adult mind, adult body, and adult words, exercises a lot of control over the life of the child. Their choices - whether made out of desperation, love, selfishness, or necessity - shape the child's very existence. Because children are, by nature, helpless, things are done <i>to</i> them; they have little to no agency.<br />
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It's unavoidable for parents and other adults to take actions that impact a child's life. And it's tempting to hush up, smooth over, or outright deny unpleasant things that happened (as Carol Ann Duffy captures in her poem <a href="https://www.lettres-et-arts.net/litteratures-francophones-etrangeres/carol-ann-duffy-remember-your-childhood-well+47" target="_blank">"We Remember Your Childhood Well"</a>). But the adult can't control how the child feels about those actions and what the child will eventually do with those feelings. The creation abandoned in Germany returns as a monster in Switzerland. Ben Solo becomes Kylo Ren. Christina Crawford pens a memoir. Kelly Clarkson sings a beautiful patricide of a song.<br />
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I think this uncertainty and tension shows up in our ghost stories. Children are easy to subdue, lie to, or abandon, but they remember.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<br /><span style="font-size: large;">Beloved by Toni Morrison</span><br />
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In 2006 the <i>New York Times</i> independently asked 100 writers, editors, and critics to name the best American piece of fiction of the past quarter century, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/fiction-25-years.html" target="_blank">Beloved was the top selection</a>. It's not hard to understand why once you've read Morrison's masterpiece, which explores the shame that haunts a nation and the skeletons hidden in individuals' closets. Inspired by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Garner" target="_blank">true story</a> of an enslaved woman who escaped the South and later killed her daughter rather than return the girl to slavery, <i>Beloved</i> deals with what lead to that choice and its repercussions. <br />
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It's impossible not to sympathize with Sethe. As a slave, Sethe is raped and tortured, and later separated from her husband. Despite all this, she still manages the Herculean effort to get her four children to freedom in the North. When men arrive to bring Sethe and her children back to slavery, back to the place where she and her loved ones were brutalized, she does the most merciful thing she can think of: she attempts to kill her children before they can be captured.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7CW7BT-odkqTpIKkyddOcM1PYjiVZ_rRuNu_6gB20Rba61iUlhJXhnJtiBsCYXGQEp4E6t6lB48vj_hQYbrE7fW5riU7O8lpF-uXcuNC9MVXHqEVLejmKJiAFInKse9K5009PMlPiQ-gH/s1600/beloved1998oprahnewton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7CW7BT-odkqTpIKkyddOcM1PYjiVZ_rRuNu_6gB20Rba61iUlhJXhnJtiBsCYXGQEp4E6t6lB48vj_hQYbrE7fW5riU7O8lpF-uXcuNC9MVXHqEVLejmKJiAFInKse9K5009PMlPiQ-gH/s400/beloved1998oprahnewton.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sethe with her returned daughter in the 1998 adaptation</td></tr>
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She only succeeds in killing one: a toddler girl posthumously called Beloved. The slavers abandon their pursuit, and a local lawyer takes pity on Sethe and gets her released from prison. But her life, of course, can never be the same. Her two oldest children now fear her, and soon flee from home. The house seems haunted.<br />
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And then years after the awful event, the ghost of the child returns with the body of the young woman she would be but the psyche of the toddler she was. Her feelings about Sethe are complex. She's desperate for love and affection from her mother, but she's also furious about her murder, and embarks on a series of escalating acts of revenge. There's no reasoning with her why what Sethe did what she did and that the real enemy is slavery itself - her mother killed her, and she's hurt and angry.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Turn of the Screw </i>by Henry James</span></b></div>
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This novella by Henry James is a classic. A group of vacationers are staying at a remote country estate, and tell ghost stories to each other. One captures the audience's attention more than the others.<br />
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The story starts with a governess assigned a strange job: look after two children in an isolated mansion, and no matter what, do not contact the children's uncle, who is their legal guardian. At first everything seems fine (as it always does). The little girl, Flora, is sweet, and her brother, Miles, who is away at school, is assured to be the same. Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, is kindly. The grounds are beautiful.<br />
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But then comes the news that Miles has been expelled from school for being "an injury" to the others. Mrs. Grose seems horrified and defensive, but not necessarily surprised. When the governess starts to see what she believes to be ghosts, she becomes convinced that they are the children's previous caretakers, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. Mrs. Grose reveals the two had unsavory dealings with Miles and Flora. While what exactly happened isn't spelled out, sexual abuse is heavily implied ("Quint was much too free." "Too free with my boy?" "Too free with everyone!" / "He did what he wished." "With her?" "With them all.").<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kMdfTsWS14Yno0MBoHdODTa5ozOaZvzsQSwIe8y4PlSdVlZGWdu4HVrgeIQvuAN9RMGHZ_biWMfrwgFk9INm-nMSqFNOPmeFQKztSBWpEgthAWNsglh_D3E3gIUvx3CIxeJBt0UwHuqe/s1600/the-innocents-martin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kMdfTsWS14Yno0MBoHdODTa5ozOaZvzsQSwIe8y4PlSdVlZGWdu4HVrgeIQvuAN9RMGHZ_biWMfrwgFk9INm-nMSqFNOPmeFQKztSBWpEgthAWNsglh_D3E3gIUvx3CIxeJBt0UwHuqe/s400/the-innocents-martin.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Innocents</i>, a 1961 adaptation</td></tr>
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None of the adults at the house spoke out during Quint and Jessel's tenure, and no one dared tell the uncle about it. The new governess now knows there were and are problems, but whether she's equipped to deal with those problems is another matter. As the children act out in increasingly alarming ways, she becomes convinced that the ghosts of Quint and Jessel are trying to possess them, and she focuses her energies on protecting the children from these evil spirits. Whether or not the ghosts are real, it's clear the children have been failed by the adults in their lives.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"The Bees" by Dan Chaon</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpEVMqX_4ooC5WWh6R9Hw2ztlf85JFI_C457t1QlHnfhfBsIu6xUZOQS4M3v4JL04eiO4nxIn8R2oirv62Z2GdvmAYg6wVX5Nu5OcRAg_mFCEIsdwe_yVfqhbG4ebkl1ZcQD94e7X625p/s1600/mcsweeneysthrillingtales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpEVMqX_4ooC5WWh6R9Hw2ztlf85JFI_C457t1QlHnfhfBsIu6xUZOQS4M3v4JL04eiO4nxIn8R2oirv62Z2GdvmAYg6wVX5Nu5OcRAg_mFCEIsdwe_yVfqhbG4ebkl1ZcQD94e7X625p/s320/mcsweeneysthrillingtales.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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In the Dan Chaon short story "The Bees," Gene has an ideal life. He lives with his wife, Karen, and their young son, Frankie, in the Cleveland suburbs. However, their household is suddenly plagued by a strange phenomenon: Frankie repeatedly screams in the middle of the night, waking his parents but not himself, and without an accompanying nightmare. Their pediatrician can find nothing wrong. The screaming episodes leave Gene feeling increasingly on edge, and he starts experiencing a buzzing sensation, like the sound of bees. He wonders if his secret past is playing a part in the disturbances.<br />
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Many years previously, an alcoholic Gene married his pregnant girlfriend, Mandy, when they were nineteen. He made a few attempts at being a father to their son, DJ, but could be cruel and short-tempered. He mostly saw DJ as an adversary, and abused both him and Mandy. After giving five-year-old DJ a black eye, he took off and moved far away - drunkenly crashing his car in process.<br />
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Gene eventually sobered up, but by then was unable to track down Mandy and DJ to apologize and provide financial support. So he moved on, and until the screaming incidents with Frankie, he has mostly managed to put his firstborn son out of his mind. As the screams and sound of bees continue, Gene begins to be haunted by visions of DJ dying in a fire. Is his eldest really dead...and even if he is, would that stop his desire for revenge?<br />
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"The Bees" was first published in <i>McSweeney's </i>#10, which was then republished as <i>McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales</i>. You can read the beginning <a href="https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-bees" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdRT0AUr55UO9D2aIsaiIyeTJuOwwyF4MR_xm-iDIGYHWv0Vwso0VYnMItz7KLrTyBuk__tkggd4fc0x6WVPSAW0q2W4wrY4x0PSLYR2H-rkuNWRsS6-uyU0eCEDGEZsodeHoF8lKK_RM/s1600/thebeeshowardchaykin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdRT0AUr55UO9D2aIsaiIyeTJuOwwyF4MR_xm-iDIGYHWv0Vwso0VYnMItz7KLrTyBuk__tkggd4fc0x6WVPSAW0q2W4wrY4x0PSLYR2H-rkuNWRsS6-uyU0eCEDGEZsodeHoF8lKK_RM/s320/thebeeshowardchaykin.jpg" width="274" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration for "The Bees" by Howard Chaykin</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Beloved</i> header image: <a href="http://www.moviestillsdb.com/movies/beloved-i120603/10c66436" target="_blank">Movie Stills DB</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Frankenstein </i>illustration with dick windows: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frontispiece_to_Frankenstein_1831.jpg" target="_blank">Theodore Von Holt engraving for 1831 edition</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sethe and Beloved: <a href="https://www.cineplex.com/Movie/beloved-1998/Photos" target="_blank">Cineplex</a> (Full disclosure: I have never been able to bring myself to watch the film due to certain scenes, but Matty Steinfeld has a passionate and informative defense of the film <a href="https://mattystanfield.com/2015/07/25/slavery-human-cruelty-survival-horror-maternity-and-rememory-translating-beloved-to-the-screen/" target="_blank">here</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Miles being creepy: <a href="http://theghostcentral.com/product/the-innocents/" target="_blank">The Ghost Central</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Howard Chaykin illustration: from <i>McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales</i></span><br />
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<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-81029341735932596322016-07-07T21:20:00.001-07:002016-07-07T21:43:34.598-07:00Swiss Army Man: It's Always Ourselves We Find in the Sea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My saddle's waiting, come and jump on it</td></tr>
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<i>Swiss Army Man</i>, the feature film debut of Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directors of music videos like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU" target="_blank">Turn Down For What</a>), sounds like a movie created on a dare: a man on a deserted island is saved by riding a fart-powered corpse. In that regard, it feels like it could have similar origins to Kevin Smith's <i>Tusk</i>, which came from a joke about a man demanding his roommate dress up and act as a walrus.<br />
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<i>Tusk</i> stayed in the throwback-horror genre, and <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2014/09/tusk-it-is-what-it-is.html" target="_blank">while interesting in its own way</a>, was not terribly deep or successful. <i>Swiss Army Man</i> could have played it safe (as safe as a farting corpse movie could be) by either staying in the gross-out comedy genre or going for a clinically detached symbolist interpretation. Instead, Daniels refuse to shy from either puerile humor or art, and they make something funny and beautiful in the process.<br />
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Response has certainly been mixed (walk-outs at Sundance were reported). I particularly enjoyed <a href="http://thetalkhouse.com/cartoon-breakdown-swiss-army-man-weve-waiting/" target="_blank">Onur Tukel's comic-format review</a> (<b>spoilers!</b>). I didn't come to quite the same conclusions as he did, but it's a thoughtful, thought-provoking piece. Interestingly, despite his deep reading and admiration of the film, Tukel decides he didn't like it. I felt the same way about Yorgos Lanthimos's <i>The Lobster</i> - appreciation of its daring and art, but little actual affection. On the contrary, like the conqueror worm, <i>Swiss Army Man</i> has chewed and nuzzled its way into my heart.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_JYDVQvzuzsEvBR2_9fM6dh3rnNPZoXRi2LqnDAtQfvo8M1v-kyiiOs8fv5bvecx_N8osSAhDl67wkcr7thD3jiUkBDriEjFjXSpVrM77rK4iKmUci6C9IMFyYc5W7J2SvPkQBiKngoBK/s1600/swiss-army-man+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_JYDVQvzuzsEvBR2_9fM6dh3rnNPZoXRi2LqnDAtQfvo8M1v-kyiiOs8fv5bvecx_N8osSAhDl67wkcr7thD3jiUkBDriEjFjXSpVrM77rK4iKmUci6C9IMFyYc5W7J2SvPkQBiKngoBK/s400/swiss-army-man+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cannes aftermath</td></tr>
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Daniels open the film with a shot of the ocean. Soon we see floating pieces of trash bearing desperate messages: someone has had a boating accident. On a very small, uninhabitable island we find Paul Dano's disheveled, sunburnt Hank preparing to hang himself from the mouth of a cave. He hums a song to steady himself, but is distracted by the sudden appearance a body (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on shore.<br />
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Startled, Hank falls from the cooler/gallows he's standing on, but manages to break the noose in his determination to reach the man, whom he hopes is still alive. He's not. A rumbling gives Hank hope, but it turns out to just be gas the bloated body is expelling. "That's funny," Hank sighs before taking the dead man's belt to use as a replacement noose. But before Hank can hang himself (again), the body, continuing to fart wildly, shows off a neat trick: it can propel itself in the water. Hank runs down the beach and - using the broken noose as a lasso - triumphantly rides the corpse out to sea.<br />
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Hank wakes up on a Pacific Northwest shore and goes off in search of civilization, carrying the body on his back (<a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/paul-dano-literally-carries-daniel-radcliffe-throu-239116" target="_blank">Dano apparently did actually carry Radcliffe through much of the film</a>) and sometimes talking to it. To his alarm, it starts talking back. Hank names his new friend Manny and tells him about life, sex, pop culture, his deceased mother, his distant father, and his crush (using hikers' garbage to make educational props) as they look for home. Along the way, it becomes clear how lonely and unsure of himself Hank has been. And Manny's abilities continue to develop and surprise (for example, his penis works as a compass). Will the duo be ready to rejoin civilization by the time they make it back, and will they want to?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPlXM2AZx4in0tHvJ7HbI8v7fQ_wwATKBqUlClX2myQqfBPuzf3GsY8BTN825hkjyTWmDBRaAe5CCsm8JFd89e_R2ct5VkSMgCQ8bmTlrB9kcZv1K9ohiImpHQvwiOvfmqoP9jv6-BuGb1/s1600/swiss+army+man+radcliffe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPlXM2AZx4in0tHvJ7HbI8v7fQ_wwATKBqUlClX2myQqfBPuzf3GsY8BTN825hkjyTWmDBRaAe5CCsm8JFd89e_R2ct5VkSMgCQ8bmTlrB9kcZv1K9ohiImpHQvwiOvfmqoP9jv6-BuGb1/s400/swiss+army+man+radcliffe.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bed of clover...and poop</td></tr>
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Dano's and Radcliffe's performances are masterful, funny, and affecting, and Daniels capture the Pacific Northwest's coastline and redwoods in all their glory. Andy Hull and Robert McDowell's powerful, infectious score is a critical part of the movie. If the Oscars refuse to consider Dano's work in the farting corpse movie, they should at least acknowledge that score.<br />
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<i>The Atlantic</i>'s David Sims is being fair when <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/swiss-army-man-is-a-fart-filled-wonder/489818/" target="_blank">he writes in his otherwise glowing review</a> that, "The downside of [the story] is that this is an indie film recycling an age-old indie trope - that of the introverted, lonely white dude, unlucky in love and pining for a silent woman who isn’t afforded similar agency by the plot." As Mary Elizabeth Winstead was pursued by an awkward Michael Cera in <i>Scott Pilgrim</i>, here she's pursued by an awkward Paul Dano. In that, it does feel annoyingly familiar and twee. I mean, <a href="http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/daniel-scheinert-and-dan-kwan-attend-shorts-program-2-during-the-2015-picture-id478119808" target="_blank">look at these fucking hipsters</a> who directed it. <br />
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That said, I saw a lot of myself in Dano's Hank. Like, a lot. Like...maybe despite being completely romance-adverse, I've seen someone on the bus and imagined our courtship, proposal, and wedding even though that might not be what I actually want out of life. I've never dressed up as a bus crush and made out with a corpse, though. I swear.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQhmWDf7_vyTATBWP7C2yAnoI9muGSNmiuIZj75ciU8-tCmdC5Wa9vBjD2hzt1e2FDChPHmAnYm4fkKjS484cKVPhGBic6S37qeuJVQzyGQXcGm2Lkd8CIa-NxDh-AiowUJGCbGoOpDDgq/s1600/swiss+army+bus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQhmWDf7_vyTATBWP7C2yAnoI9muGSNmiuIZj75ciU8-tCmdC5Wa9vBjD2hzt1e2FDChPHmAnYm4fkKjS484cKVPhGBic6S37qeuJVQzyGQXcGm2Lkd8CIa-NxDh-AiowUJGCbGoOpDDgq/s400/swiss+army+bus.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I swear</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>My Interpretation (Spoilers!)</b><br />
<br />
I read the movie as a twist on the "life before your eyes" concept. I think Hank's opening suicide attempt was successful. When he first finds Manny, he tells the body that he had hoped when he died he would see the life he wished he had - full of music, friends, parties, and a lover. With Manny filling multiple roles, Hank gets to see all of that.<br />
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The final part of the movie, when Hank and Manny stumble into the backyard of a freaked-out Sarah (Hank's bus and instagram crush) and are soon besieged by law enforcement, the media, and Hank's father, confused me on the first viewing. Having thought about the film and seen it a second time, I think this part is Hank finally accepting himself and his reality.<br />
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He's been fantasizing about getting a second chance to talk to Sarah on the bus and having that interaction blossom into romance. But he finally realizes that even if he did get a second chance with Sarah...she's perfectly happy with her husband and child and would understandably be majorly creeped out by some stranger obsessing over her instagram photos. He realizes he wasn't really in love with Sarah, but that he wanted her happy life. He realizes that and accepts it, just as he realizes that even though he'll never have the connection he wants with his father, his father still loves him. Hank's acceptance of himself (symbolized by him admitting, with relief and delight, to farting in front of the crowd) gives him a final moment of peace as he dies.<br />
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Maybe that's what the Daniels meant, or maybe not, but that's what I saw in the movie. To close on the closing lines from e.e. cummings' "<a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/maggie-and-milly-and-molly-and-may" target="_blank">maggie and milly and molly and may</a>,"<br />
<br />
<i>For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)</i><br />
<i>it's always ourselves we find in the sea</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FuefDGNu1vc" width="560"></iframe></center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image sources: </span><br />
<a href="http://www.foxforcefivenews.com/swiss-army-man-starring-daniel-radcliffes-corpse-paul-dano-gets-worldwide-release-this-summer/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Paul Dano riding Daniel Radcliffe like a water pony</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/01/daniel-radcliffe-swiss-army-man-sundance-film-festival" target="_blank">A day at the beach</a></span><br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/23/swiss-army-man-review-dead-daniel-radcliffe-farts-paul-dano-to-safety" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sleepy Daniel Radcliffe</span></a><br />
<a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/swissarmyman/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On the bus</span></a><br />
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<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-40955147756080446142016-06-24T17:01:00.000-07:002016-06-24T17:01:19.029-07:00Dream Cast - Frankenstein<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0XcGDvp7FqjSkCuVNcIqWdz8vuIyPv4iVCR_6LjDNZS5cKvJxEK_MleBiRD2tRMLW1S92nDkYfOv9h6J083qG8WPd9fZhtk-nMm3noW09HKf4S7AeFUJhyphenhyphenCHIFk2pv5r_xtUloI1gEhF5/s1600/IMG_7003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0XcGDvp7FqjSkCuVNcIqWdz8vuIyPv4iVCR_6LjDNZS5cKvJxEK_MleBiRD2tRMLW1S92nDkYfOv9h6J083qG8WPd9fZhtk-nMm3noW09HKf4S7AeFUJhyphenhyphenCHIFk2pv5r_xtUloI1gEhF5/s400/IMG_7003.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TFW your dad is the sullen youth in your relationship</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Just over a week ago, on a Thursday, I was getting ready to go to work. Having just finished Ann Leckie's <i>Ancillary Justice</i> trilogy, I needed a new read for my commute. I grabbed my high school paperback of Mary Shelley's <i>Frankenstein</i> off the shelf. I'd been thinking about re-reading it for years, and recent Byronic research for something I'm writing and the fact that my sister watched and related to me the awful James McAvoy <i>Victor Frankenstein</i> movie made the novel fresh in my mind.<br />
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By complete coincidence (or was it - ominous music) that day, June 16, <a href="http://www.tor.com/2016/06/20/mary-shelley-waking-dream-frankenstein-astronomy/" target="_blank">is the day some astronomers think Shelley first dreamed up the basis for her story</a>.<br />
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From my vague remembrances of the book, I knew it was different than our popular conception of the Frankenstein story, but I had forgotten just how different it was. There's no castle, no Igor. Victor Frankenstein makes his first monster in his apartment at university and his second, unfinished monster in a crude hut in the remote Orkney Islands.<br />
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I had also forgotten (or just couldn't appreciate at the time) just how great the novel is. It's groundbreaking, compelling, thoughtful, and ambitious. Boris Karloff's monster is rooted in our pop culture, and Mel Brooks's <i>Young Frankenstein</i> will always be a favorite of mine, but I found myself wishing for an adaptation more faithful to Shelley's vision. Not only in theme and message, but in the 18th century setting and the powerful landscapes she describes in Switzerland, Germany, and Scotland.<br />
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Like I did with <i><a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/02/dream-cast-wuthering-heights.html" target="_blank">Wuthering Heights</a></i>, I spent a lot of free time picking out my dream cast for my dream <i>Frankenstein</i> miniseries. Here are the fruits of my imagined labors:<br />
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<b>Robert Walton - Nicholas Hoult</b><br />
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Who is Robert Walton? Good question! Walton is our narrator narrating other characters' narrations, much like Lockwood (who?) in <i>Wuthering Heights</i>. I didn't cast Lockwood in <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2016/02/dream-cast-wuthering-heights.html?m=0" target="_blank">my Wuthering Heights dream cast</a> because nobody cares about Lockwood, but I'll shrug and go to bat for Walton.<br />
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<i>Frankenstein</i> is actually an epistolary novel, a series of letters Walton sends to his beloved sister. He's setting off on a dangerous quest to find a shipping route through the North Pole, and is so excited! But, he tells his sister, although surrounded by men, he's sad not to have a special guy friend whose eyes he can gaze into as he reveals his feelings. :( Fortunately, one almost immediately shows up on an ice flow! This Elsa-sent buddy is none other than Victor Frankenstein, who eventually tells Walton his story. Later, Frankenstein's monster will also get the chance to unload on Walton.<br />
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Why use an actor like Nicholas Hoult for this comparatively small role? Because I think it's important to see <i>how</i> Walton is hearing Victor's story and what lessons he takes away from his encounter with the Monster. Although he's been somewhat blinded by his affection for Victor, does his meeting with the Monster alter his opinions? Walton doesn't put any of those final thoughts on paper, so it would be up to the actor's face to communicate Walton's mind. Any wide-eyed young actor could be slotted in this spot, but someone like Hoult could add depth.<br />
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<b>Victor Frankenstein - Paul Dano</b></div>
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One thing that stood out to me about <i>Frankenstein</i>, when re-reading, is just how feckless Victor Frankenstein is. He's not exactly a man of action. Yes, when he discovers the secret to life, he passionately and manically works on his creature, but when it isn't what he wanted, he decides his best course of action is...avoidance. He literally just abandons his new, awake, conscious creation on the table and goes to bed. When the confused, lonely monster finds him in his bedroom, he sleeps outside and waits for the thing to leave his apartment.<br />
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This response isn't out of character for him. We've already seen him shrug off communication with the people he loves most in the world simply because it's not what he wants at the moment. Later, when a servant in his household is falsely accused of the murder of his little brother - a murder he knows his Monster has committed - he half-heartedly argues for her innocence without implicating himself in any way. When the Monster demands that Victor make him a companion, promising he'll take his new friend far from human civilization and live a vegan life in South America, Victor agrees...and then procrastinates for a year on the project while worrying about it the whole time.<br />
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Yet despite the fact that this entire disaster - which all of Victor's loved ones end up paying for with their lives - is literally of Victor's making, the depths of his despair do provoke pity. Dano could handle the range of this character - from fevered curiosity to sullen passivity to mental breakdowns - without campiness.<br />
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<b>Frankenstein's Monster - Richard Armitage</b></div>
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While a green-skinned, boxy-skulled Frankenstein's Monster has become the popular image, Mary Shelley describes a creature who was <i>supposed</i> to be handsome - ravishing black hair, good teeth - but comes off as horrifying due to his outlandish size, runny eyes, and yellowish skin that clearly belongs to a cadaver. With some special effects (makeup, Andy Serkising, or both), naturally handsome Armitage could pull off this unsettling mix of greatness and ugliness. Also, while the Monster is usually depicted as inarticulate and lumbering, Shelley's monster has superhuman speed and grace.<br />
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The differences between the original Monster and the pop culture Monster aren't just visual. Shelley's is intellectual and complex. Just two years after his "birth," he's not only able to speak, but is a clever, erudite man who can talk circles around the sniveling Victor. His capacity to do good seems greater than Victor's, yet he is the one who chooses to murder again and again - not Victor. Like his creator, he is excellent at rationalizing his actions to himself and identifies with fallen angel Lucifer from Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>. I'd love for an adaptation to show the tragedy and humanity of this iconic creature.<br />
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<b>Elizabeth Lavenza - Lea Seydoux</b></div>
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The orphaned daughter of Italian nobility, Elizabeth is adopted from an impoverished foster family by the Frankensteins as their "niece" and betrothed to Victor when they are both small children. It's an odd arrangement (like, don't do this today), but she loves her family and they love her. She keeps the family going after Mrs. Frankenstein's death and passionately advocates for the falsely accused Justine.<br />
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As with Justine (below), Elizabeth's virtue and strength make Victor's selfishness all the more visible. It would be all too easy in an adaptation to make this character a wilting violet doormat of a victim, which is why I'd want an actress of Leydoux's mettle to take the role (and be backed with a great writer and director, since this is my dream).<br />
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<b>Henry Clerval - Sebastian Armesto </b></div>
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Victor and Elizabeth grow up with their best friend, the less financially fortunate but romantically minded Henry Clerval. Happy, generous Henry loves stories about knights and heroes as a child. When he finally attains his dream of going to university to study Asian languages, he puts it off for a year without a thought to tend to Victor, who has suffered a nervous breakdown. Henry is sweet and oblivious, happily prancing across Europe on a road trip with Victor, who gloomily frets and collects body parts.<br />
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When thinking of whom I would cast as this character, I couldn't help but remember how - in a matter of moments - Armesto made hapless, puppy-eyed Lieutenant Mitaka memorable in <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i>. Sadly, Frankenstein's Monster will finish what Kylo Ren started. :( </div>
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<b>Justine Moritz - Morfydd Clark</b></div>
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Justine, a young woman scorned by her mother and brought into the Frankenstein family as a servant, becomes an early victim of the Monster when he frames her for murder and she is sentenced to death. Her grief and bewilderment is heartbreaking, and it would be easy to make this minor character a one-note victim. However, her ultimate courage in the face of death is in contrast to Victor's continued cowardliness. I'd trust Clark, from <i>Love & Friendship</i> and Josie Rourke's <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i>, to show both innocence and strength.<br />
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<b>De Lacey Family</b></div>
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After being abandoned by Victor and chased by terrified villagers, the Monster hides out near a cottage. The inhabitants are the De Lacey family, and Shelley gives them a rich backstory. They are an aristocratic French family living in exile in the German countryside, and they consist of the blind patriarch, daughter Agatha, son Felix, and Felix's Arab-Turkish fiancee Safie. Despite suffering hardships that have left them in poverty, they are a loving, kind, musically gifted group. By spying on them for a year, the Monster learns how to speak, how to read, and the basics of human history. He comes to love the family and desperately wants to be accepted by them. Alas, his introduction to them goes horribly wrong, and he is rejected out of fear again.<br />
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I'd cast grizzled, stately Hugo Weaving as De Lacey; Adele Exarchopoulous and Jamie Bell as his two dutiful children; and Mandahla Rose as joyful Safie.<br />
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<b>Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein - Ralph Fiennes and Sheryl Lee</b></div>
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<b><br /></b>Mr. Frankenstein is a loving father who is distraught as he watches his oldest child descend into depression and then more severe mental illness. He's at a loss to determine the cause (no one suspects their child has learned the secret of sparking life and used it to make an eight-foot-tall creature that keeps killing people), but he doesn't give up on his son. At one point he has to travel from Switzerland to Ireland to pick up a hysterical Victor from a small-town prison, and he's completely supportive the whole time.<br />
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Even though Sheryl Lee's scene in <i>Winter's Bone</i> was brief, I was drawn to her warmth. I can see the <i>Twin Peaks</i> star as the matriarch of this adventurous, welcoming family. Given all that happens, it's probably a blessing this character dies of scarlet fever before everything goes to hell.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Header image: Richard Armitage in <i>Robin Hood</i>, Paul Dano in <i>War & Peace</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">All actor headshots: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/" target="_blank">IMDB</a></span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-13151647514686462202016-06-20T09:01:00.000-07:002018-09-16T13:03:30.076-07:00The Bard and Batman: Stories We Tell Ourselves<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_0d73WMPmE7e405GHRfNML6njvuIqDvoEB4kAVoV8J3gKdjlYrSxcLvgD1I1Ux8FZGS7B5otPISzaCyyw0l2l0R1xlhy8bKKKQ1EyzboNTtbeiSaNljH3nkWtvuqA_mMCarCacOvVh_E/s1600/jokerfalstaff.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_0d73WMPmE7e405GHRfNML6njvuIqDvoEB4kAVoV8J3gKdjlYrSxcLvgD1I1Ux8FZGS7B5otPISzaCyyw0l2l0R1xlhy8bKKKQ1EyzboNTtbeiSaNljH3nkWtvuqA_mMCarCacOvVh_E/s400/jokerfalstaff.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That time the Joker went meta on some Shakespeare and then flew away.</td></tr>
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I love Shakespeare, and I love Batman. I got to enjoy both these things over the weekend. On Saturday, I saw <a href="http://www.calshakes.org/" target="_blank">Cal Shakes</a>'s production of beloved comedy <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, in which the play itself became a play within a play. Then on Sunday I read somber graphic memoir <i>Dark Night: A True Batman Story</i>, in which a writer on <i>Batman: The Animated Series</i> grapples with the characters he's given voice to in the wake of a personal trauma.<br />
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While very disparate in tone and format, I couldn't help but notice how both works raised the questions of why we tell stories, and what we're really doing by telling them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7JGS5wfa4xudnPOBfoXQEwDmsub5T4YiWOOZxsMgsTIDx5sDsEMKUUUfRkRGx0kuIuJlZAON4K1dFfoA2h2Z50G576S1yMPXVeodfz7s_AgU_Kx0xQIFk2mbM23hdYFJJvn7w9huAGsj/s1600/calshakesbeatricebenedickmello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7JGS5wfa4xudnPOBfoXQEwDmsub5T4YiWOOZxsMgsTIDx5sDsEMKUUUfRkRGx0kuIuJlZAON4K1dFfoA2h2Z50G576S1yMPXVeodfz7s_AgU_Kx0xQIFk2mbM23hdYFJJvn7w9huAGsj/s400/calshakesbeatricebenedickmello.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Carpenter and Stacy Ross in <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i></td></tr>
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I saw my first Cal Shakes performance last year when, pining for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I realized it was dumb of me to not take greater advantage of the Bay Area theater scene. With its beautiful outdoor theater in Orinda and crowds of Shakespeare-psyched people, I felt right at home. When I learned they were doing one of my favorites this season, I was excited.<br />
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Lots (most?) of Shakespeare productions put a spin on the text. I've seen a Harlem Renaissance <i>The Comedy of Errors</i> at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; a 90s pop music <i>Love's Labor's Lost</i> at Silicon Valley Shakespeare; and sat through the biker gang version of <i>Cymbeline</i> where our tragically lost Anton Yelchin did a good job despite the blahness happening around him. This version of <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, a collaboration between writer Kenneth Lin and director Jackson Gay, is a brand-new cater-waiter version.<br />
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It starts with the end of the play - and behind the scenes. While Hero and Claudio's wedding wraps up off-stage, the catering staff (and the wedding singer, who's been stiffed on his pay) clean up. In verse written by Lin (which feels a little clunky, but what wouldn't next to Will?), they gossip about the events leading up to the wedding and start playfully impersonating their employers. Aided by props from the event photobooth, the co-workers are soon acting out the entire story.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPO7aIZv_vn3z7tbdZ7VkZg-nZhmwhjcQdMly1Pydd4ZgLif5yl5jL4A8M5gSagqHKZpR-yxwJShRNO1EVYekciF00dS4v6qVu-CijF4w45dTZKVQp9WCQm15eY1CEfnl3FaxMwpHEiLm9/s1600/calshakesmuchadomello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPO7aIZv_vn3z7tbdZ7VkZg-nZhmwhjcQdMly1Pydd4ZgLif5yl5jL4A8M5gSagqHKZpR-yxwJShRNO1EVYekciF00dS4v6qVu-CijF4w45dTZKVQp9WCQm15eY1CEfnl3FaxMwpHEiLm9/s400/calshakesmuchadomello.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hero is slandered at the alter.</td></tr>
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Gender-bending has always been a part of Shakespeare's work, and having the characters here play-act within their play puts a new and sensible twist on it. Class clown Benedick (or rather, the cater-waiter imitating Benedick) is played by a gangly-but-cool Stacy Ross. James Carpenter's sharp facial features more readily suggest <i>Julius Caesar</i>'s Cassius, but he plays Beatrice with dignity and compassion.<br />
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The roles the catering staff play are a reflection on their personal relations. Ross and Carpenter's co-workers are clearly longtime adversaries, which is why they jump at the chance to insult each other under the guise of impersonating others. Safiya Fredericks and Denmo Ibrahim's characters are lovers who have hit a rough spot, which gets explored when they play Hero and Claudio. A crush develops between the wedding singer who gets roped into playing Don John (Patrick Alparone) and the catering employee who plays Borachio (Rami Margron), one of Don John's henchmen, and they flirt while scheming. This was my one disappointment: Don John's other henchman is Conrade, and we've now had <a href="http://readingwatchinglookingandstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-party-at-whedons-much-ado-about.html" target="_blank">two Much Ado movies where John and Conrade's "can you make no use of your discontent" scene has been sexy</a>. By having Margron's character play Conrade instead of Borachio, it would be an official trend!<br />
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Overlooking that grievous oversight , Gay and Lin's production was a delight - clever, accessible, and joyous.<br />
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Less joyous, but life-affirming, is Paul Dini's <i>Dark Night</i>, illustrated by Eduardo Risso. In the 1990s, Paul Dini was a writer for <i>Batman: The Animated Series</i>, the great cartoon that brought us an art deco Gotham, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker, and Arleen Sorkin as a new character to the Batman canon: Harley Quinn. Also in the 1990s, Dini was mugged in an attack so violent he required facial reconstruction surgery.<br />
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Dini talks to us via a cartoon avatar in the vein of Scott McCloud in <i>Understanding Comics</i>. We learn that although he was experiencing creative and professional success at the time of the attack, he was struggling personally. In his narrative, the mugging not only adds new traumas, but brings into nightmarish focus lifelong problems: loneliness, self-destructive tendencies, and a lack of self-confidence.<br />
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The attack also leaves him in an existential quandary regarding his work. What's the point of superheroes if no one's there to actually save you when you need it? Why bother with cartoons if they do nothing to help in reality? He feels betrayed by his main characters: Batman was no hero to him, and Joker's villainy now repulses him.<br />
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Dini imagines himself both taunted and cajoled by his characters as they guide him through his lowest of lows. And gradually, he heals. He starts looking at his problems head-on instead of turning to denial and drink. He realizes that maybe Batman hasn't let him down after all, and that his work does have value.<br />
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On an extremely personal note, seeing the depth of these "conversations" between Dini and his characters and Dini and himself was somewhat of a relief to me. I always have characters in my head (confession: imaginary cover bands "play" all my iPod music for me, I know all of the bandmates' names, etc), and when I talk to myself as myself, I'm horrible to myself. If a friend was being talked to by a significant other the way I talk to myself, I'd tell them to get out of that relationship. I'd have the car running outside for their escape. It's a relief to know I'm not too weird (maybe just writer-weird) for the characters, and that others struggle with the awful self-talk too.<br />
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The book is a must for mature fans of <i>Batman: The Animated Series</i>, but its artistry, and its insight into creativity, mental health, and trauma, should earn it a wider audience.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Flying Falstaff Joker: art by Dick Sprang (really), Charles Paris, and Greg Theakston, originally from <i>Batman</i> #63 in 1951 (reprinted in <i>The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told</i>)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Much Ado</i> photos: photos by Alessandra Mello for Cal Shakes's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/calshakes/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10154227628254313" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Dark Night</i> cover: art by Eduardo Risso</span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-57733444385048642202016-05-09T22:35:00.000-07:002016-05-10T09:10:32.236-07:00Bloodline by Claudia Gray: a Star Wars Novel <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEMyDFatGpd681GbZy8U-QWA0dK_uYRwCgh_7aXOxCdbyAXgpYuy1d0H2s7WdPmYU-MhF23RP-a9NDe6cHPvipcyhNp2b8kyz93ZXt7LsXK5IzwA0WHphImQgYOqNYQviODm35KlzIs3m/s1600/bloodlinenote.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEMyDFatGpd681GbZy8U-QWA0dK_uYRwCgh_7aXOxCdbyAXgpYuy1d0H2s7WdPmYU-MhF23RP-a9NDe6cHPvipcyhNp2b8kyz93ZXt7LsXK5IzwA0WHphImQgYOqNYQviODm35KlzIs3m/s400/bloodlinenote.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I needed this. </td></tr>
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Semi-official Star Wars holiday May 4th (May the Fourth be with you) was celebrated in its earliest hours by me by reading. I bought Claudia Gray's <i>Bloodline</i> on May 3rd, the day it came out, and read it in more or less one sitting. I started the book on the bus ride home, went straight from the bus stop to bed to read, and stayed in bed until finished. Clearly I was quite swept up!<br />
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Ok, I did pause to check the news; the big story was that Ted Cruz had dropped out of the race and the GOP was in chaos, which was a little surreal considering the book's material.<br />
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Now that I've had some time to reflect on this political thriller centered on Princess/Senator/General Leia Organa and its drastic reframing of the perceived pre-<i>The Force Awakens</i> timeline, I have some vaguely organized thoughts.<br />
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<b><i>Warning</i></b>: everything beyond "basic summary" is 100% spoilers.<br />
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<b>Basic Summary</b></h3>
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The government the Rebellion risked everything for has created a few decades of peace, but since the illness and retirement of leader Mon Motha, it has descended into indulgence, inaction, and partisan politics. It seems impossible to find a system of government that can continuously serve everyone well - just like real life!<br />
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Middle-aged Senator Leia Organa is disillusioned and plans to quit. But before she leaves government, she agrees to investigate a lead about a possible new crime boss. Soon she realizes that this new organization goes far beyond gambling and racketeering. Leia must assemble a team of her own staff and across-the-aisle allies to identify and stop this new threat - all while being haunted by memories of her villainous birth father, Darth Vader, and her noble adopted father, Bail Organa.<br />
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The novel by Claudia Gray takes ideas and guidelines from Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo and his team, senior editor Jennifer Heddle, and upcoming <i>Episode VIII</i> director Rian Johnson.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTe7XJ5wYOgk_wdYMTh01syCj-0sRwaE_KFwkvmeeeuMuF4GlabIEQSMKpPOXXNBIVyGaiF3x0i5j8kIEu5iaaIWdTnvtTugBPRyt6dJk1Rz4O1C5L0_O3ovQ1StbLT9RNLU663A2plfqb/s1600/admiralackbar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTe7XJ5wYOgk_wdYMTh01syCj-0sRwaE_KFwkvmeeeuMuF4GlabIEQSMKpPOXXNBIVyGaiF3x0i5j8kIEu5iaaIWdTnvtTugBPRyt6dJk1Rz4O1C5L0_O3ovQ1StbLT9RNLU663A2plfqb/s400/admiralackbar.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spoilers ahead!</td></tr>
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<b>Politics and Characters</b></h3>
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<b>Leia:</b> Gray has received lots of kudos for her characterization of Leia, and with good reason. Leia in <i>Bloodline</i> is a character we don't see often: a middle-aged, female action hero. She's tough, caring, but tired - she's been working for the good of the galaxy since her teen years, and has persevered in spite of multiple, devastating losses. Gray truly puts the destruction of Alderaan in its horrific context. She also makes clear how and why Leia and Luke share such different feelings regarding their late birth father, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker.<br />
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And Gray's take on the infamous "slave Leia" scene and Jabba the Hutt's death is amazing. It involves the nickname "Huttslayer" and the space version of "the weird part of YouTube."<br />
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<b>The Senate:</b> The politics in <i>Bloodline</i> are very on-point and believable. Reading about the partisan gridlock in the first few pages immediately brought John Boehner's teary face to mind, but the two "factions," the Centrists and Populists, aren't exactly carbon copies of America's Republicans and Democrats. The Centrists, while more Republican in nature (they love the military industrial complex and the death penalty), also want a strong central government. Meanwhile the Populists, although liberal, have more of a Republican "states' rights" stance.<br />
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<b>Ransolm Casterfo:</b> The snazzily dressed young Centrist and collector of Imperial artifacts strikes up a rivalry - and then friendship - with mature Populist Leia. While they never cross into "affair" territory, certain scenes had "Mrs. Robinson" playing in my head - especially their late-night video chat when Leia's in her housecoat and Ransolm's in his sweaty gym clothes. Hot damn. But seriously, although Ransolm <a href="https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/729373019408195584" target="_blank">was apparently cut from The Force Awakens</a>, Gray has made him a breakout character here.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlTu6J9RKi6iL2yrEeNtJ0BC2usptXmBx5sSDmSrbRxU-BInTSKcgZkImjxj0YvrJx_rKrphRWlzuBPzpz9-q4tVQprVHrb8UIE_F-GGR8BJbb7Pwe_7Mh604_KEnQwve7Qw7Idmq5Fidb/s1600/LeiaOrganaTFA.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlTu6J9RKi6iL2yrEeNtJ0BC2usptXmBx5sSDmSrbRxU-BInTSKcgZkImjxj0YvrJx_rKrphRWlzuBPzpz9-q4tVQprVHrb8UIE_F-GGR8BJbb7Pwe_7Mh604_KEnQwve7Qw7Idmq5Fidb/s400/LeiaOrganaTFA.png" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's to you, Senator Organa.</td></tr>
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<b>Lady Carise:</b> Royalty-obsessed senator Lady Carise Sindian is gradually revealed to be the book's true villain, but even Leia doesn't know how far her scheming goes. A Centrist, Carise goads Ransolm into publicly revealing that Leia's father is Darth Vader (a fact not even Leia's son Ben knew), then has Ransolm disposed of. We learn that she is the senate contact for the First Order, the shadowy organization rising from the ashes of the Empire.<br />
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Will we eventually see Carise in the movies? Ben/Kylo Ren working alongside her biggest political enemy would definitely be another twist of the knife for Leia.<br />
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<b>Korrie:</b> Did you care about Korr Sella, the politician we saw two seconds of in <i>The Force Awakens</i> right when General Hux of the First Order blows up Hosnian Prime? Well, now you've gotten to know her as an optimistic teen intern. And she's dead. :(<br />
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<b>Everyone is dead:</b> And guess who else is dead by <i>The Force Awakens</i>? Pretty much everyone new you met in this book! The only pilots we see in both <i>Bloodline</i> and <i>The Force Awakens</i> are old-timer Nien Nunb and newbie "Snap" Wexley, so it seems safe to say that terminally ill Greer and wet-behind-the-ears Joph are both dead following some sort of <i>The Fault in Our Star Wars</i> romance. </div>
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Unless scapegoated senator Ransolm escaped the death penalty he himself signed into law, he's dead too. Also gone with Hosnian Prime: all of Leia's politician friends and the statue of Bail Organa she was so proud of.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJIP0v7CI3dz9O9h56sOOSU98ocD2Ja4ZW8r4fc_W9ZoNJGsBgqI3_hMF1Oh0SY_6pQKTDmwCIl4e0y0IC0Qy8vYxuyiaqvPhR4hyphenhyphenowdgDswgMFWDnR4ILxDmmG0h4R_IKmTWbhtUSFNG/s1600/Korr_Sella_final_moments.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJIP0v7CI3dz9O9h56sOOSU98ocD2Ja4ZW8r4fc_W9ZoNJGsBgqI3_hMF1Oh0SY_6pQKTDmwCIl4e0y0IC0Qy8vYxuyiaqvPhR4hyphenhyphenowdgDswgMFWDnR4ILxDmmG0h4R_IKmTWbhtUSFNG/s400/Korr_Sella_final_moments.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dammit, Hux!</td></tr>
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<h3>
<b>Timeline</b></h3>
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<i>Bloodline</i>, which is set 6-7 years before <i>The Force Awakens</i>, really shook up the timeline fans had generally assumed from the small hints the movie gave us. Here are the biggest revelations.<br />
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<b>The marriage:</b> Han and Leia are living apart, but still married and in love in <i>Bloodline</i>. So when they reunite in <i>The Force Awakens</i>, they haven't actually been separated for too long. Leia stating in the film that she lost both Han and Ben when she sent Ben away had audiences thinking their relationship had gone south much earlier.<br />
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</ul>
<b>Nobody likes you when you're 23:</b> Most surprising to me was that at around age 23, Ben Solo is still Ben Solo - not Kylo Ren. We know Snoke has been "watching" Ben since birth, and most had assumed Ben had left his family for Snoke and led the second Jedi massacre in his teens. But no, in his early twenties, he's still safely with Uncle Luke - either because he actually came to like living with Luke, is waiting to betray Luke on Snoke's orders, or is under some sort of space conservatorship like a space Britney Spears.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXdpPcbnFdSntg51MSEzYaUEUt8Tww5Qm41SP_e_jOOR9L4QpIDqFxpiJhMmmwSQyeaYhTo8xgodrq9dylEb0NH1ka9q9KYoTJP4rYTvq-mjJbusRPNMVDxs3c1Hb50dmxwdipINeY2ia/s1600/luketfa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXdpPcbnFdSntg51MSEzYaUEUt8Tww5Qm41SP_e_jOOR9L4QpIDqFxpiJhMmmwSQyeaYhTo8xgodrq9dylEb0NH1ka9q9KYoTJP4rYTvq-mjJbusRPNMVDxs3c1Hb50dmxwdipINeY2ia/s400/luketfa.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Han and Leia asked me to babysit. Said they'd be back by 10.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>What's in a name:</b> That Ben has possibly been under Luke's guardianship from childhood (the script, novelization, and YA novelization of <i>The Force Awakens</i> all mention that the first time Han sees Ben grown up is on Starkiller) all the way to young adulthood got me thinking about his name. In the now-scrapped "Expanded Universe," Luke (and Mara Jade) had a son, Ben Skywalker, so it was surprising when that name was given in this new story to Han and Leia's son (who is basically Jacen Solo from the EU). Maybe the name Ben reflects that Luke has raised him?<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Sorry, Crylo:</b> Because really, Han and Leia have pretty much moved on from Ben by <i>Bloodline</i>. It's unclear when exactly things went wrong (we learn that Ben was once a happy, normal child with friends), but at some point Leia and Han decided that they "couldn't" parent Ben, sent him to Luke, and filled the hole by mentoring other kids (politics-minded youth for Leia, young pilots for Han). Communication with their son is sporadic, and they rarely discuss him even with each other. He's with Luke, and that's that.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA0GuY9_h4C__W5m6RAU6XsiW5DSVEN3YKW8cBpk8PDf1z47VD_HYNpenZY0LOGVYlIx3vE5Ya_ikbndqwV0CTv3-ZHp_Ht_UE3Z4Qeum40y45l0QFoykHC6g5UUW9s_qaPu2iDXK0Kfr/s1600/leiaandhantfa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA0GuY9_h4C__W5m6RAU6XsiW5DSVEN3YKW8cBpk8PDf1z47VD_HYNpenZY0LOGVYlIx3vE5Ya_ikbndqwV0CTv3-ZHp_Ht_UE3Z4Qeum40y45l0QFoykHC6g5UUW9s_qaPu2iDXK0Kfr/s320/leiaandhantfa.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you see our son...ask him what his name is again.</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>The Jedi:</b> There's zero mention of the Jedi Order we learned Luke created and Kylo Ren destroyed in <i>The Force Awakens</i>. We know Luke and Ben are traveling during <i>Bloodline</i>, but they seem to be on their own. Has Luke not started his new Jedi academy yet?</div>
<div>
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<div>
<ul>
</ul>
<b>New possible order of events:</b> Ben learns from the damn news that his grandpa was Darth Vader, freaks out because he links his parents' fear of his powers and sending him away with his heritage (he's not wrong), runs away from Luke to Snoke, becomes Kylo Ren, and returns briefly to destroy Luke's new Jedi school. And meanwhile, Rey...<br />
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<b>Rey:</b> We get nada on Rey, which actually tells us a lot about Rey. This book throws a huge wrench in the "Rey is Luke's daughter" idea. Pablo Hidalgo has confirmed on twitter that <a href="https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/728394879647264768" target="_blank">Rey has been on Jakku for awhile during <i>Bloodline</i></a>, so she wasn't brought there in the aftermath of the Jedi massacre and wasn't even ever at Luke's Jedi academy. Unless Rey is a daughter Luke doesn't know about, she's someone else's kid.<br />
<br />
Although we now know (I think?) nothing like <a href="https://goldseven.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/ben-and-little-rey/" target="_blank">this speculated scene</a> by Jenny Dolfen ever happened, it's still frickin' gorgeous.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSLv4NuRBDZCLpPif0DeT91YSaQg9Ho0Sjh9fdNXWRzwzoti415b5KO98FA8zfaroJGYkr1NpeTjWNSiIID29duYTTYvIjT5MmBCeTZ51lhnOhHxD76kwsJ3ltKUgxPZO-uU1XYbw4bsh/s1600/Star-Wars-Rey-Force-Vision-Knights-Ren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSLv4NuRBDZCLpPif0DeT91YSaQg9Ho0Sjh9fdNXWRzwzoti415b5KO98FA8zfaroJGYkr1NpeTjWNSiIID29duYTTYvIjT5MmBCeTZ51lhnOhHxD76kwsJ3ltKUgxPZO-uU1XYbw4bsh/s400/Star-Wars-Rey-Force-Vision-Knights-Ren.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TFW your parents don't want you and you learn your grandpa was evil from<br />
space twitter but then Andy Serkis gives you your dead grandpa's head and<br />
puts you in mangement. </td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
So, those are my thoughts and speculations. We only have to wait until December 2017 to maybe find out the answers to our questions! >:(<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIjgMDc0EqFFwcEm8GsP3eQZ9Stw7gp2ROC1snw8t15XwNfGk_oKasRzefzeXtGvNPd1jqEfApr_9wyBe2Ia6Hq38mUCkCRFy3yC-Nt79QoN_n4_ZRjdpoLCFkmcgDyvT8IgRLJ6P7Hk7/s1600/leiahanmusicbox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIjgMDc0EqFFwcEm8GsP3eQZ9Stw7gp2ROC1snw8t15XwNfGk_oKasRzefzeXtGvNPd1jqEfApr_9wyBe2Ia6Hq38mUCkCRFy3yC-Nt79QoN_n4_ZRjdpoLCFkmcgDyvT8IgRLJ6P7Hk7/s400/leiahanmusicbox.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My childhood music box with two childhood treasures it stores<br />
Not pictured: plastic horse with missing tail, Ben</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Note: promotional material</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ackbar: <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/admiral-ackbar" target="_blank">StarWars.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Leia: <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Leia_Organa" target="_blank">Wookieepedia</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Korrie: <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Korr_Sella" target="_blank">Wookieepedia</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Luke: <a href="http://www.geek.com/news/jj-abrams-talks-about-making-the-force-awakens-why-harrison-fords-injury-improved-the-movie-and-more-1652904/" target="_blank">Geek</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Leia and Han: <a href="http://disneyexaminer.com/2015/12/16/awakening-what-has-happened-before-star-wars-the-force-awakens-review/star-wars-the-force-awakens-review-disneyexaminer-han-solo-general-leia/" target="_blank">Disneyexaminer</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Knights of Ren: <a href="http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-knights-kylo-ren-explained-ewoks/" target="_blank">ScreenRant</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Leia and Han on lovely fairy music box: my own pic</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-43863328517655126802016-05-03T08:54:00.000-07:002016-05-03T08:56:10.953-07:00Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theater? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7ClsKGzSe-6h54aRxrXwM2TIoYBDTqvumVVJ5sS6eyd68TKCEUBXOPz5g_ZIjRDhjdHaN1_xH9TzcnXGj1d5hIEVaQ0_CmQ8IL9XqDy1IUQN-pFde-weGrmQaWL84cprCQQdqd6xP2-D/s1600/IMG_6381.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7ClsKGzSe-6h54aRxrXwM2TIoYBDTqvumVVJ5sS6eyd68TKCEUBXOPz5g_ZIjRDhjdHaN1_xH9TzcnXGj1d5hIEVaQ0_CmQ8IL9XqDy1IUQN-pFde-weGrmQaWL84cprCQQdqd6xP2-D/s400/IMG_6381.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exhibition banner outside Musee Massena</td></tr>
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I recently got back from a vacation, part of which was in Nice, France. One of my "must-do" items for the town was seeing the <a href="https://www.nice.fr/fr/culture/musees-et-galeries/musee-massena-le-musee" target="_blank">Musee Massena</a>, a historic villa which is now a museum of Nice history, centering on the belle epoque. Artifacts include a crown of Empress Josephine. It's all very decadent.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpgOJ0OrZ_DQVdFDWYZE3Yjh4lSxOia-V1YtFybhd9DTSOQtvGQa8p7k22dRriNUD5LJf3xEUJbQNhf6nxWrNFdtg4CRkqXgISmC1f95UKQkQbl_vk67kNzIzTpyb2v-_AuBpOSnsY1-s/s1600/massenainterior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpgOJ0OrZ_DQVdFDWYZE3Yjh4lSxOia-V1YtFybhd9DTSOQtvGQa8p7k22dRriNUD5LJf3xEUJbQNhf6nxWrNFdtg4CRkqXgISmC1f95UKQkQbl_vk67kNzIzTpyb2v-_AuBpOSnsY1-s/s400/massenainterior.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The portrait gallery.</td></tr>
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The museum also hosts rotating exhibits on the top floor. When my sister and I visited, the exhibit happened to be on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Salomon" target="_blank">Charlotte Salomon</a>, an artist I'd never heard of before. Born in Berlin in 1917, the young painter was sent in 1938 by her father and stepmother to live with grandparents in the South of France, where they hoped she would be safe from the Nazis. While there, Salomon struggled with depression and its legacy in her family: her mother, grandmother, and other relatives had committed suicide. To survive, she decided to throw herself into an epic project: <i>Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel </i>(<i>Life? or Theater?: A Song-Play</i>), a collection of hundreds of paintings that form a narrative about depression, her family, art, her first love, and the specter of the Third Reich.<br />
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Suddenly, the riches in the rooms below lost their luster.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlzMpvWSG03OlQOSHQOuKpy8fPjO7m7txR6lNZ6NRIqlGSqqu7Zl8r-5QOn3O1i5lFPGBCQJH4mHw58PFnlpkd6o1dDO4c22M8UqzfVzHkvMZUAuQxLFfat_NK7hLpNTQm5GhVVeLWCxo/s1600/salomonnazis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlzMpvWSG03OlQOSHQOuKpy8fPjO7m7txR6lNZ6NRIqlGSqqu7Zl8r-5QOn3O1i5lFPGBCQJH4mHw58PFnlpkd6o1dDO4c22M8UqzfVzHkvMZUAuQxLFfat_NK7hLpNTQm5GhVVeLWCxo/s400/salomonnazis.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On display at Musee Massena</td></tr>
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Salomon gave <i>Leber? oder Theater?</i> to a friend for safekeeping before being deported with her husband, Alexander Nagler, to Auschwitz, where she was killed. She was 26 years old and five months pregnant.<br />
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Her story is a gut-punch, especially when paired with her work. In her gouache paintings, one feels her joy for and dedication to art, her thrill of young love, her fear and resilience in the face of terrible odds.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS45K5HDMLSXe3ewUFdgS7vwBt-px1y7xCT0AP11It_QPcKDZtW_I7OuqL7R5wYXuIhuvayL2tM6jM-m0_yWAkJ4I2ScoBtOUC3dPpH56AbV0J4uVdbhz1cBK8hRi337MnMS0Ty8VHl3A-/s1600/Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS45K5HDMLSXe3ewUFdgS7vwBt-px1y7xCT0AP11It_QPcKDZtW_I7OuqL7R5wYXuIhuvayL2tM6jM-m0_yWAkJ4I2ScoBtOUC3dPpH56AbV0J4uVdbhz1cBK8hRi337MnMS0Ty8VHl3A-/s400/Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4351.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite from the show - Salomon practices her art</td></tr>
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Salomon uses an alter ego, "Charlotte Kann," to tell her life story. The pieces displayed at the Musee Massena chronicle her early childhood; her grandmother's depression and suicide; her opera singer stepmother (Paula Salomon-Lindberg, called Paulinka in <i>Leben? oder Theater?</i>); her love affair with and artistic mentoring by her stepmother's vocal coach, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wolfsohn" target="_blank">Alfred Wolfsohn</a> (called Amadeus Daberlohn); and her exile to France.<br />
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The show is full of striking images: a soul ascending to heaven and then descending to Earth for a visit, an open window after a suicide, Salomon diligently painting while surrounded by the bright objects of her study, lovers parting on a darkened street, and Nazis on parade - a vision sickeningly familiar to us by way of history books, but contemporary to her. Salomon's art has boldness and urgency.<br />
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What also struck me about the work was its format. With its mishmash of standalone paintings, pages with panels, and text, <i>Leben? oder Theater?</i> could certainly be called a graphic memoir, decades before Alison Bechdel's <i>Fun Home</i>, Marjane Satrapi's <i>Persepolis</i>, or even Harvey Pekar's <i>American Splendor</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ANUx5MH2lH2Vpr6ocCB579PBHzBL7sKryZNKKKjGSygl0IxnmDg-8thunQBfAn5O1PMPBVbvKhL2JvkCp33e4bXN5pMXBdi7q9w35TZHJ2pwUviDVLQ8zi66PRPiPq8F1e9fZP3OthuB/s1600/salomonimg4235.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ANUx5MH2lH2Vpr6ocCB579PBHzBL7sKryZNKKKjGSygl0IxnmDg-8thunQBfAn5O1PMPBVbvKhL2JvkCp33e4bXN5pMXBdi7q9w35TZHJ2pwUviDVLQ8zi66PRPiPq8F1e9fZP3OthuB/s400/salomonimg4235.JPG" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the pages on display at Musee Massena</td></tr>
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Part of travel is the unpredictability of what you'll learn, and I'm grateful to have learned about Salomon.<br />
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<i>Charlotte Salomon: Vie? ou Theatre?</i> is at the Musee Massena until May 24, and <i>Leben? oder Theater?</i>'s permanent home is the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, which has made the entire work <a href="http://www.jhm.nl/collectie/thema's/charlotte-salomon/leben-oder-theater" target="_blank">available online</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBsht07tyg92GrOGBSQq6cVYmngBqwJRLCb4BtYw8VHdirjmUsjNjvC1PASUryx46ijC4pkZwLDW3mhn2cHur8H-WW6hQe4IZoAp4AefdUhR29Jb3D4bGWyMnl5uqG9t0hPdX_ag27_0s/s1600/IMG_6324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBsht07tyg92GrOGBSQq6cVYmngBqwJRLCb4BtYw8VHdirjmUsjNjvC1PASUryx46ijC4pkZwLDW3mhn2cHur8H-WW6hQe4IZoAp4AefdUhR29Jb3D4bGWyMnl5uqG9t0hPdX_ag27_0s/s400/IMG_6324.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three pages at Musee Massena</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Exterior of Musee Massena: my photo</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Interior of Musee Massena: my photo</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting of Nazis: my photo of the Massena exhibit</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting of Salomon painting: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4351.jpg" target="_blank">WikiMedia Commons</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting with panels: <a href="http://www.jhm.nl/collectie/thema's/charlotte-salomon/leben-oder-theater" target="_blank">Jewish Historical Museum, image 4235</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Series of three paintings: my photo of the Massena exhibit</span><br />
<br />Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4293708319579521864.post-18581672417304182162016-03-31T01:03:00.000-07:002016-03-31T01:08:13.814-07:00Mark Zuckerberg Force Feeds Someone a Jolly Rancher: Batman v Superman<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZ1GFA_UPLh3bhDI2TTT7duFQ9vfv934N3a5PrdCCCcW10Brk4A7ABHpom6enW_CLAIIt-rWQ0i0EaFAwheToxzJetbT_PSMY8yRF7SatIRl6s6kp1mCVJw5WaWmpoIC54cZ4ZrBDUmEu/s1600/jokerpenguinriddler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZ1GFA_UPLh3bhDI2TTT7duFQ9vfv934N3a5PrdCCCcW10Brk4A7ABHpom6enW_CLAIIt-rWQ0i0EaFAwheToxzJetbT_PSMY8yRF7SatIRl6s6kp1mCVJw5WaWmpoIC54cZ4ZrBDUmEu/s400/jokerpenguinriddler.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No caption needed.</td></tr>
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Do we need more writing about <i>Batman v Superman</i>, the artistic/critical/fan disaster and financial success? No, but I'll type out my thoughts as a way of coping.<br />
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I just got back from a family vacation, during which I watched <i>Batman v Superman</i> with my mom and sister. My sister and I are longtime Batman fans. We knew the movie would likely be bad, but we were still going to see it for the reasons described in <a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/batman-v-superman-promotion-urges-filmgoers-just-g-52623" target="_blank">this <i>Onion </i>article</a>. My mom does not care about Batman, but does care about Jeremy Irons, this version's Alfred. My mom later told us she was confused during the entire movie and thought my sister and I would know what was going on. She was wrong.<br />
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Let me start off with the two moments of the film during which the audience actually indicated enjoyment. These were:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Wonder Woman enters the battle</li>
<li>Batman says "oh, shit" at a funny moment</li>
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During the interminable movie, the people wanted Wonder Woman and some fun. Who can blame them? </div>
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I will also add that the "murder pearl" scene (when Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered, his mom's necklace breaks, sending pearls bouncing dramatically in slo-mo) was very beautiful. The murder pearls always border on ridiculous, since they happen in <i>every single</i> telling, but I would honestly lose my shit if the Waynes were murdered with Martha wearing a diamond choker.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcyoI5AZzwALoK5G-PLGbL0cgyaDrT8iFdVQiZn2L2o7kkj2Q5aRbQ7oMLEQFb4LJ8nrXrW6ylKPuCE95QwS-vQpXsvsiH5OBPeSPmgRG31UiEByu-7C56IpP1dGv-1J0-I4vr4s5AWROe/s1600/gotham-pearls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcyoI5AZzwALoK5G-PLGbL0cgyaDrT8iFdVQiZn2L2o7kkj2Q5aRbQ7oMLEQFb4LJ8nrXrW6ylKPuCE95QwS-vQpXsvsiH5OBPeSPmgRG31UiEByu-7C56IpP1dGv-1J0-I4vr4s5AWROe/s400/gotham-pearls.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plink, plink, plink! Now you're a furry vigilante!</td></tr>
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Random Observations:</div>
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-One of the weirdest parts of the movie (saying a lot) is Zack Snyder's version of Lex Luthor. He has Jesse Eisenberg, the mumblecore version of Michael Cera, playing his Mark Zuckerberg role again. Ok, young Lex Luthor with a Silicon Valley vibe. J.J. Abrams made millennial Vader and Tarkin work so why can't...oh, right. Because J.J. Abrams is J.J. Abrams and Zack Snyder is Zack Snyder. Lutherberg gets increasingly off the rails as the film continues. What is his motivation in manipulating a fight to the death between Batman and Superman and making a monster out of Zod's corpse? WE HAVE NO IDEA.</div>
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-HOWEVER, I will admit I was kind of intrigued by the chemistry between Lutherberg and Holly Hunter's no-nonsense Kentucky senator. I can picture an off-putting but compelling erotic thriller featuring the juvenile, awkward enfant terrible and the older tough cookie Southerner who feels out of place in DC. Not directed by Snyder, though. </div>
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-Going back to Lutherberg's motivations, would it be giving Snyder too much credit to think this might be explained in the upcoming <i>Suicide Squad</i>? Lex's obsession with making Batman kill someone, knowledge of Batman's true identity, and penchant for sending taunting messages in scrawled red letters are all Joker trademarks. Could Joker have been controlling him all along? </div>
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-Did Snyder seriously kill Mercy? We're about to get the first live-action Harley and she can't have a kick-ass fight with Mercy as nature fucking intended? Crossing my fingers that she inexplicably survived. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUc6qYflpU9h1y-Ja0KHI1iNPIgga5YXMYq5uyKbiAwmmk2ZmUCEsCn_nNR49bY7B6bZeFKeLYA95MGDnPY0N1v8m-byjb0f7_GfW4ubKoeMNuprRPWBix28E7xWom5xsg-wd6Hh3ptu3Q/s1600/BTASharleyandmercy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUc6qYflpU9h1y-Ja0KHI1iNPIgga5YXMYq5uyKbiAwmmk2ZmUCEsCn_nNR49bY7B6bZeFKeLYA95MGDnPY0N1v8m-byjb0f7_GfW4ubKoeMNuprRPWBix28E7xWom5xsg-wd6Hh3ptu3Q/s400/BTASharleyandmercy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ladies, we all know who the real enemy is.</td></tr>
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-All of the Rogues Gallery apparently moved out of Gotham, leaving Batman to battle quotidian human traffickers and pedophiles. He also mutilates them, which I thought was going to be revealed to be the work of a Batman impersonator, but wasn't, I guess.<br />
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-Alan Moore's overrated (imho) but iconic <i>The Killing Joke</i>, as well as many other Batman stories, explore Batman's refusal to kill Joker or even passively let him die when he throws himself off buildings or gets sentenced to death for poisoned stamp murder. This would break Batman's "one rule," which is never to kill anyone, no matter what horrific atrocities they have committed. After seeing the carnage left by criminals and cops alike, Batman refuses to take a life. Anyways, in this movie, Batman pretty much immediately decides and then relentlessly attempts to kill Superman. </div>
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-Quick! You're dying! Your final words are to tell the guy killing you to save your mom! How do you phrase this? Do you say, "Save my mom"? Do you say, "Save [your mother's full name]"? Or do you just say, "Save [your mother's first name only]" and hope your murderer can figure out which Joan or Trisha or Leslie you meant? What if a plot point rests entirely on that third option? </div>
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-The director's cut of this film is three hours long. I cannot fathom what could possibly be in those additional thirty minutes, nor do I wish to endure them. </div>
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-Ben Affleck has written his own Batman film for him to direct and star in. You know what? Fine. </div>
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-David Ayer's <i>Suicide Squad</i> is out this August. We're counting on you, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Annalise Keating, DC Prom King & Queen, et al. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-viLJbc1qooV5t3LZegiub-NnOYUqflgw5UioJz0_g9jHh5cvySy1dGm8Q8mreeZTJcSRq2Q_Nj1v7rnt7iuLKMFBikf2EpvT_3qnW67b2JA2dTP07i8_pGsOCOpGVH6gN6Pmwztt9Ww/s1600/gonegirlamy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-viLJbc1qooV5t3LZegiub-NnOYUqflgw5UioJz0_g9jHh5cvySy1dGm8Q8mreeZTJcSRq2Q_Nj1v7rnt7iuLKMFBikf2EpvT_3qnW67b2JA2dTP07i8_pGsOCOpGVH6gN6Pmwztt9Ww/s400/gonegirlamy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lex was just an Amy lackey.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image info:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Horrified Joker, Penguin, and Riddler: the classic 1966 film</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bouncy murder pearls: from the <i>Gotham</i> TV series, this time</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Harley v Mercy: <i>Batman: the Animated Series</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Rosamund Pike contemplating murder: <i>Gone Girl</i></span>Jannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01208246231324210994noreply@blogger.com0