Category: Music

October Potpourri: Films & Fun

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Walking

We have been blessed with continued good weather. This translates to lots of walking and plenty of time outside. Recently, we walked from the West Village to the World Trade Center and back—a serious walk. It was pleasantly breezy and we joined the throng strolling along the grand boulevard along the Hudson River looking toward Hoboken. We hadn’t planned ahead to tour the 9/11 Museum, but did gaze up at the gleaming new tower and spend some moments taking in the memorial park. On another gorgeous afternoon, we romped at Adrienne’s Garden and then the Washington Square playground. I say romped, but actually our granddaughter romped, and I got my exercise following her around and occasionally going up, under or around the play equipment.

 

IMG_7661

IMG_7640IMG_7636Somewhat to my surprise, pumpkins are widely in evidence in the city. Stoops are lined with pumpkins, doorways are festooned with cobwebs, and witches lurk while scarecrows watch. Halloween can’t be far off.

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_7651IMG_7650Even dogs get in the act!  Sunday was the annual Halloween Dog Parade—dogs in costume in Tompkins Park. Dogs in sweats, dogs in hats, dogs with frills and dogs masquerading as dinosaurs. This being the city, mostly little dogs. What fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music

Besides all this outdoor time, we did see two films and attended a superb performance by Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, one of the greats, at Carnegie Hall. He played three Beethoven sonatas including my longtime favorite, “Appassionata.” We were part of a most enthusiastic and appreciative audience, and he gave us three encores!

Film

A Ballerina’s Tale details Misty Copeland’s career from starting ballet at 13 to being named a principal at American Ballet Theatre this past summer. Interwoven with her story of determination midst setbacks is a brief history of ballet and some of the reasons behind its extreme whiteness. Interviews with Misty’s advocates and mentors add perspective along with comments from some pioneer black dancers. And, of course, there are wonderful sequences of Misty performing as well as rehearsing. Even my husband, somewhat doubtful about this film, was thoroughly engaged. A nice pairing with Astonish Me, a novel I blogged about several weeks ago.

Steve Jobs. Jobs looms larger than life in most people’s minds and certainly was a creative genius who dreamed big and ultimately achieved in a big way. Adopted as a child, he didn’t expect to be liked. As a parent, he was alternately estranged from and dismissive of his daughter Lisa. He was not a nice man and this film shows him bossing, bullying and often being downright nasty to friends and colleagues. Whether or not it is an accurate portrayal (and several critics have said it is not), it is a very entertaining film which focuses on the activity leading up to the launches of the Macintosh, NeXT, and iMac.   Michael Fassbender is compelling as Jobs, and Kate Winslet is tough, supportive, and strong as his right hand woman. She portrays Joanne Hoffman, the smart director of marketing who stands up to his temper and rigorously manages him.

 

(All photos by the author. Some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Guthrie, Wilson & Itani

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It is high summer in Florida and that means temperatures of 90 to 92 every day with overnight lows never below 75.  For some of us, like me, that means more time inside; for the lizards among us, it’s great for basking, or baking, in the sun.  So I strive to take advantage of the smaller crowds with movies and museum visits, trips to the theater, and sampling new restaurants.  This past week we did nearly all of these.

FOLKSY AMERICANA

 

On Tuesday, we saw the traveling musical, Woody Sez:  The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie.”  The play opened in Edinburgh in 2007 and actually has been performed more often in Europe than in the U.S.  It is more like a concert with lots of narrative of Woody’s life using Guthrie’s own words.  Four actors comprise the cast with a whole host of musical instruments from guitar to banjo to mandolin to harmonica and more.  I found it a bit slow initially, but then I was captured by the music and the story of Woody’s rambling and roving life, full of social protest and a desire to record the hardship and determination of the farmers and workers of the Dust Bowl era.  The key to its success is its sparkling, loose-limbed star, creator and director, David Lutken.  It is clear he is convinced of the importance of Guthrie’s legacy.  For an interview with Mr. Lutken, see:  http://onmilwaukee.com/ent/articles/woodysez.html

 

AT THE MOVIES

Woody Guthrie shone a spotlight on hard times and harsh conditions with his music.  Brian Wilson’s musical creativity set him apart, but personal demons, seeming madness, and unappreciative relatives and friends kept him from being fully recognized for that talent.  Love and Mercy, based on Wilson’s life, uses two actors to portray him, Paul Dano as the young musician and songwriter, and John Cusack as the middle-aged Brian under guard and coping with illness and bad choices.  Paul Giamatti plays a very convincing manipulative doctor and Elizabeth Banks is Melinda, a beautiful savior.  There are a few slow points, but overall it’s an absorbing, albeit not happy, film.  And for fans of the 60’s and the Beach Boys, packed with their songs.

INTERNMENT:  WHAT I’M READING

I was not aware that the Canadian government had also put individuals of Japanese descent into camps during WWII. But they did, some 21,000 of them.  Frances Itani has written a meditative novel Requiem, about an artist’s experience as a young boy in one of these camps.  It is 1997 and artist Bin is driving across Canada from Toronto to visit family on the west coast.  His wife died recently and he spends the drive reflecting on their life together, his boyhood and his son Greg’s upbringing.  It is a novel of relationships—fathers and sons and husbands and wives—looking back in time.  Itani has said that she enjoys researching her books and she spent six years reading source material and interviewing people before writing this. I also learned that her husband spent part of his childhood in a camp which answered my question about whether she had any personal connection with these events.

On the Road: Here & There

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NEW YORK

The streets of the Big  Apple were thick with tourists and the weather was sunny and warm. A pleasant change of pace from our quiet island life.  We walked briskly down 6th Avenue, joined the High Line at 23rd Street, and then decamped to Chelsea Market, an adventure in food and eating we had not previously explored.  Lunch at Cull and Pistol Oyster Bar was a savory salmon burger for me and a very large bowl of gumbo for my spouse—just perfect.  We continued our walk through the angled tangled streets of the West Village ending up in Washington Square Park.  On the way, we paused for some serious browsing, and of course a few purchases, at Three Lives, my current favorite NY bookstore.  Have to qualify that since I have favorite bookstores here at home, in Maine and elsewhere!

Most of the weekend was spent on the green lawn of suburban Connecticut enjoying the bright sun and the crisp air and celebrating our granddaughter’s birthday.  At three, she fully gets and embraces the concepts of birthday (“I’m not two, I’m not four, I’m three!”) and party.  She and her young friends romped and ran and had a very lively time.  It was an afternoon of balloons and bikes, of ice cream cake and candy, of bubbles and chalk.  What could be better?

On Tuesday evening,back in New York,  we had the extreme pleasure of seeing Helen Mirren in The Audience.  She was marvelous, effortlessly capturing the novice queen in black with Churchill, her first prime minister, and then moving forward and back in time over the years and the prime ministers, aging to how the queen looks today and then reverting.  I thought Churchill and Harold Wilson were particularly notable, although the scene with Tony Blair contains a wonderful moment of contemporary humor.  The accents can make it hard to get all the dialogue, but the theater does display a transcription which, if you are seated close enough, is most helpful.

SARASOTA THEATER

Last week we immersed ourselves in the music of Frank Loesser at Asolo Rep’s production of the new musical, Luck Be a Lady.  Loesser wrote words and music for more than 700 songs and a number of Broadway musicals including Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business...  Familiar favorite songs include:  “Standing on the Corner” and “Once in Love with Amy.”  This play does not have a standard plot, but rather follows two couples, one older and one young, as they re-visit an old ballroom.  It was a most pleasant afternoon.

RECENT READING

I quickly read poet Elizabeth Alexander’s new memoir, The Light of the World, about the life and sudden death of her 50 year old husband, artist and chef, Ficre Ghebreyesus.  Unlike some memoirs about the death of a spouse, the tone is not unrelieved sorrow, but rather the sadness is tempered by her account of his joy in living, his nurturing love for their two sons, and his experience as a child of war and an immigrant several times over.  I learned much about his homeland Eritrea, his African roots and her African American heritage.  As you might expect, her writing is lyrical, almost musical at times.

[Source of image:  www.gtkp.com]

Tidy Tidbits: Opera & Books

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The Oscars

While not surprised, I was disappointed that Boyhood did not win best picture, but very pleased that Patricia Arquette got an award for her marvelous role in this film.  As one article I read pointed out, the award winners are more and more divorced from what the American public goes to see.  Compared to American Sniper, which I haven’t seen, millions more people saw that than went to view Birdman.

Sarasota Scene

As part of the Sarasota arts smorgasbord, we sampled two Sarasota Opera productions last week.  The theater is small and there is an intimacy not found in San Francisco or New York.  Tosca was very good and The Golden Cockerel a beautifully staged production of an infrequently sung work by Rimsky-Korsakov.  The sets were lavish, colorful, and the equal of any opera we’ve seen anywhere.

Footnote

I finished Galgut’s Arctic Summer and enjoyed the rest of this novel.  It is based on Forster’s diaries, letters, and biographies and one appreciates his reluctance to consider himself a writer and Forster’s struggle bringing to birth Passage to India.  I remember being puzzled by that book when I read it many years ago and much preferred his Howards End.

 On the Road

I will soon be on my way to Asia so have loaded up my Kindle with novels and memoirs and a few other nonfiction books.  I always enjoy the Wall Street Journal’s weekly column, “Five Best,” and last week’s was books about spinsters.  I knew of Winifred Holtby and enjoyed the Masterpiece Theater presentation of her Testament of Youth some years ago and so I now have her novel, South Riding, downloaded and ready to go.  I also decided that it is time to re-read Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the third for fourth time as it is my favorite of all her works.  It too was cited in the column along with that Barbara Pym classic, Excellent Women.