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.
