SBD: this and that

This:

I bought two books at The Strand this weekend, both non-fiction.

London Under by Peter Ackroyd.  I’ve never managed to finish Ackroyd’s history of London, but am creeping through his modernization of The Canterbury Tales.  Frankly, I blame Ben Aaronovitch’s Whispers Under Ground for my inability to put this back on the sale table.

A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich.

None of the fiction intrigued me.  My ennui remains.

Also, why did I buy paper books?  I’m going to be packing to move soon, and need to cull more books from my collection.

That:

Saw the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia’s Metafora on Saturday.  It was amazing (third party review here).  The music, the costumes, the choreography.  I especially appreciated the costumes of the women:  the shawls used almost matador-style; the hugely ruffled dresses and skirts of an early dance; the streamlined yet still fluttery crimson gowns of a later act; the peasant-style costumes of the second half.

Also saw “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.  It was my second choice — “Kinky Boots” was sold out.  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Scarlet Johanssen in anything and been able to see the character rather than the actress.  The NYT theater critic wasn’t impressed by the rest of the cast, but I thought the actor playing Brick and Ciaran Hinds (Big Daddy) were pretty good.  Hinds’ southern accent has certainly improved since his stint as the Bill Clinton-ish president in Political Animals.

On my theater wishlist this spring:  Kinky Boots; MacBeth; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; and Ann.  I’m tempted by the idea of “The Testament of Mary” because I admire Fiona Shaw but I’m not sure about the content.  Must check reviews.

The other:

The DABWAHA tournament is gearing up.  I’ve read nine of the nominees and killed several others after reading a sample; those that I have read were mostly NOT books I would rate highly.  The books I liked best were Tigerland, Irregulars, Whispers Under Ground, and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance — gay fiction and fantasy, which makes them less than likely to advance far in the tournament.

*shrug*

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? –  Steppenwolf’s production is excellent:  the acting and the staging.  And yet I spent a fair amount of the play thinking about getting up and leaving.  George and Martha are so miserable toward one another and to Nick and Honey that it felt almost like watching reality television.  You know, where “contestants” constantly try to one-up each other and make each other uncomfortable in order to win points and remain on the show.  Line by line, there was a lot of black humor, and yet…  Not sorry to have seen the new production but also still no one of my favorite plays.

Dead Accounts — Theresa Rebeck’s new play.  Some of the stuff the lead actor was doing seemed playful and experimental, like he’s still figuring out the role, which makes sense since the show is still in previews.  The lead, Norbert Leo Butz, is incredible; the rest of the cast is good.  Katie Holmes, playing Lorna, the sister, is a little wooden and one-note, but I couldn’t tell if that was her acting or the way the character was written.  The play is a morality tale about the literal and metaphysical distance between New York City and so-called middle America, and the steps away from basic lessons of morality and humanity that we learn as children but eventually seem to forget as adults.  More Rebeck on Broadway, please?

Please let me direct your attention

+  It’s the Fiesta de San Fermín.  (How do I get the accent to work when I’m typing directly in WordPress?)  Check out this gorgeous photo by Mike Randolph.  No bulls or crazy running men, but a lot of San Fermines gathering.  Time has a slideshow, but none of the photos are as good IMO.

~  Is it appropriate for tattoos to be considered in a visa or LPR application when those tattoos are traditionally affiliated with criminal gangs?  The WSJ writes about it today.

-  The last few episodes of NYC-22 that were filmed are being aired by CBS and then made available for viewing online (not sure how long that’ll last).  I feel somewhat ambivalent about the show (unoriginal) as a whole but am entertained by Stark Sands in the Crossing the Rubicon episode:  shout out to Tunny?  He and Adam Goldberg have great chemistry, and I love how they break out a Sharpie to draw tattoos on McLaren when he reveals that he’s an ink-virgin.

I put you in that box, you’d better stay there

A few things have me pondering the boxes into which we fans and media consumers put (force?) artists with our expectations.

The BioChemist sent me this link last night, and reading it made me sad.  I wanted to hug PStump and tell him to ignore miserable people…but that is probably hard to do when people are actively searching you out to tell you they don’t like your new projects.  As someone who was extremely late to Fall Out Boy’s music, I like Folie a Deux better than a lot of listeners in part because it’s what I heard first.  His solo EP and album are both good, too, if very different from FOB. “Run Dry (x Hearts x Fingers)” and “Spotlight” are my particular favorites.

Going through my Google Reader backlog (1,000+ without a specific count? I don’t like that, Google, I want the count to remain specific), I found a bit on Stark Sands being cast as a young soldier in the new Coen brothers’ film.  Does he ever get tired of being cast as a soldier?  It’s work, and I’m sure actors always appreciate being employed and an opportunity to work with the Coens but that’s the third or fourth time, I think, between film and Broadway.

I saw “Wit“ on Broadway over the weekend; Cynthia Nixon stars as Dr. Vivian Bearing, a terminal cancer patient narrating the end of her life.  How are we today is how the play opens and closes.  I was only familiar with Nixon as a member of the cast of Sex and the City; the few episodes I’ve seen left me less than impressed and made me feel ambivalent about seeing Wit on stage.  But I loved the HBO movie version with Emma Thompson and really wanted to see the revival, so…  Nixon was outstanding, and it would have been a shame to miss that performance based on my own prejudices about another role she’d played, and the box I’d put her acting career in.  The Q&A after the show was interesting, too.

Also saw “Venus in Fur”, which left me feeling a little ambivalent.  Nina Arianda (good physical comedy and voice/accent) and Hugh Dancy (English & American accents, great chemistry w/ Arianda) were excellent, but 1) the theater was freezing, which was distracting, and 2) I’m not sure what the play was about other than the obvious gender and dominant/submissive explorations. Who is Vanda really?  And now I’m going to want to read Venus in Furs, the book upon which the fictional play within the play is based.

December’s reading and 2011 wrap up

December’s reading was up a bit, especially compared to November, since I was at home for a week with time on my hands.

Fate’s Edge by Ilona Andrews.  Urban fantasy, book 3 of a series.  Enjoyed the adventure, not sold on the romance which felt like an after-thought.  Realized that I like this series less than the Kate Daniels series because 1) I prefer the focus on a single character through the series, and 2) I feel bored by the political machinations, which I also think haven’t been particularly well explained.  B-.

Bad Boyfriend by K.A. Mitchell.  M/m romance, re-read.  I reread this one in order to review it.  Loved it.

Lone Star by Josh Lanyon.  M/m romance, holiday novella.  Short but enjoyable, could’ve done without the reindeer hallucinations, which were a paranormal bit that was out of place with the rest of the no nonsense novella.

The Christmas Proposition by K.A. Mitchell.  M/m romance, holiday novella.  Enjoyed it, although I kind of wondered when the narrator would stand up for himself, glad he did in the end.

Here Comes the Groom by Karina Bliss.  Harlequin SuperRomance.  Meh.

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris.  Mystery.  Reviewed here.

The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey.  Historical fiction, mystery.  Mentioned here.

Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein.  Mystery.  Mentioned here.

Coming Home for Christmas by Carla Kelly.  Anthology of historical holiday novellas.  Standard Kelly fare.  B/B+

Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Isabel Sharpe.  Chick lit or women’s fiction.  Predictable, mostly forgotten at this point (2-3 weeks after reading).

The Evolution of Ethan Poe by Robin Reardon.  YA, GLBT.  Loved this book.  Downloaded a copy after seeing it listed as one of the best reads of the year by a YA blogger in my Google Reader (apologies, I’m not sure which one now, otherwise I would link).  Ethan is a middle of the road kind of guy, trying to get enough hours of driving in to get his license and to stay balanced between his parents’ separation and his brother’s recent ride on the crazy train.  And then he starts driving and helping one of the candidates for the school board, who’s running because the other candidate wants to remove evolution from biology class and replace it with intelligent design.  And then there’s the guy he’s had a crush on for ages who appears to be noticing him…  A

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.  YA, set in Australia.  Enjoyed it.

Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews.  Urban fantasy, novella, part of the Kate Daniels series.  Enjoyed it, but it’s pretty clearly not professionally edited  (they self-published and it was a free holiday gift to readers).  Is it fair to criticize a free gift to readers?  Eh, I’ll keep my mouth shut.

The Babes in the Wood by Ruth Rendell.  Mystery.  So slow…ended up abandoning it half way through out of boredom.

Blood Ties & Hallowed Ground by Lori G. Armstrong.  Mysteries, re-reads.  Originally mentioned here.

~~~

2011 saw the continued decline of reading; there are various reasons for the decrease, including the fact that I’m reading more journal/work-related things, and also more fandom-driven fiction.

Books read:  117
This includes books that I read significant parts of but ultimately did not finish.

Film:  ?
I used to keep better track of the films I saw in the cinema, but this year can only recall HP 7.2, Contagion, 50/50, Weekend, Drive, and We Bought a Zoo.  I’m sure there were more than that but I didn’t write anything about them down.

Theater:  11 shows (some more than once)
My favorites?  Driving Miss Daisy, Seminar, and American Idiot

~~~

More books to discard after they failed the 50 page test:

• Endangered by Kathleen Dante
• Persuasion by Maya Banks
• Fragile by Shiloh Walker
• A Question of Guilt by Julianne Lee
• Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta
• The Master’s Mistress by Carole Mortimer

Bit by bit, my spare room will become more hospitable to humans and less overrun by books.

Links of interest…or not

I keep meaning to do a wrap up post for 2011 but it hasn’t made it from my notes to WP or LJ.  Instead, here are some links that were of interest to me but may be of little or no interest to any of you.

Religion and popular culture:  a short piece comparing Tim Tebow’s ostentatious religiosity with Rafa Nadal’s seeming agnosticism.

Education and economics:  a longer piece published by the ABA Journal on the law school bubble and the way that federally subsidized loans have distorted the economic reality of the profession for potential lawyers.

Shiny pretty:  hand porn from Doha, Qatar.

Political:  my favorite new tumblr, in which the frothy mix’s misogyny and condescension is screen capped. (ReadReactReview)

Other random bits of information:

We Bought a Zoo is not a bad movie, as long as you ignore Scarlett Johanssen’s inability to do anything other than pout and leer.

Crazy Stupid Love…the best parts of it were shown in the trailer, although I did really appreciate Ryan Gosling as a sort of fairy godmother.  The glimpse of the Borders logo on the outside of a building made me feel a little nostalgic, and then the mention of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher as a successful older woman-younger man made the movie feel dated.

The message at the beginning (“this is a rental edition, if you want extra features then buy the BluRay”) fails for me as a movie consumer — I don’t generally care about the extra features, so that sort of marketing/messaging just alienates me.  Note to self: start checking for WB movies, rent only, don’t buy.

Publishing and writing as viewed by the theater

While in New York, I also saw Close Up Space, which has not been universally loved by critics.  CUS is about Paul Barrow, a senior editor at a midtown publisher.  He’s devoted himself to his work to the exclusion of his daughter, Harper, who is grieving the death of her mother, and uses his red pen to edit away any uncomfortable emotion or possible human interaction.  David Hyde Pierce is excellent although many would say that this character is not a huge departure for him when compared to Niles Crane from his “Frasier” days;  the opening monologue, in which he eviscerates emails and letters, is pedantic, vicious, and threatening.  (Also, he hates the Oxford comma, which is just wrong.)  A fair amount of the rest of the play is awkward and clunky though:  overacted, overwrought, and peopled by secondary characters who don’t quite mesh with what’s going on between father and daughter.  Oddly, there are some great lines of dialogue, very funny stuff, mixed in with a fair amount of predictable, pedestrian dialogue.  Russia as metaphor for grief is painfully overused or overdone.  Probably I was supposed to feel more sympathy for Harper as abandoned child, but instead I wondered if her outlandish behavior from birth is just acting out or if her mental stability is questionable (her mother was mentally ill), which her father is unable to cope with, either while his wife was alive or after her death.

The publishing industry in CUS is a backdrop, really, mostly just an opportunity to demonstrate Barrow’s OCD-ish behavior.   One of the secondary characters, played by Rosie Perez, is the company’s biggest author, a writer of women’s fiction or chick lit, and her threat to Barrow’s ruthless slashing of her page count is to take the manuscript to a competing publishing house.  Another secondary character, the intern, is a Vassar undergrad who is mostly interested in getting her train fare reimbursed and her one last credit to graduate.  Another is Steve, the office manager, who is a goofy slacker who is camping in the office after hours.  Is this what publishing is made of?

On the other hand, Seminar (NYT review here) is less about publishing as an industry (although getting published is a goal of all the characters) and more about the writing and how talent is both used and squandered.  The cast has the preppy writer who has entry into writers’ colonies based on his playwright uncle; the exotic woman whose sexuality is another tool for advancement; the frustrated idealist who might be talented but is afraid to show his work to anyone; the privileged, WASPy Jane Austen fangirl; and the jaded, literary lion instructor and author-turned-editor.  The criticism of each student’s work is by turns brutal and generous; the NYT reviewer calls Rickman’s Leonard “an intellectual sadist”, which is a fair description.  But even when he’s absent, the four aspiring authors are acerbic, competitive, and utterly aware that the members of their support group or class are also their biggest competition in a market that it unforgiving.  Ultimately, Leonard does each student a good turn in terms of their career development, although it is not necessarily a boost into the vaunted lit fic circles any of them aspire to, although the subtext of art vs. commerce isn’t really addressed.

Other thoughts:

Jerry O’Connell’s opening monologue about interiority and exteriority is both funny and disturbing, as are his colleagues’ reaction to it, but it also says something (to me, at least) about the way that people who want to write “serious fiction” approach reality and interact with others:  he comes across as pretentious and alienates the people who probably should be sympathetic to him.

The flashes of nudity (female, of course) in the play are a little problematic for me.  Izzy pulling up her top and flashing her classmates demonstrates that she’s willing to use her sexuality to get ahead, I suppose, so it contributes to her characterization…but other actions later do that just as well, and it just feels excessive.  Kate’s full moon of Martin serves no purpose at all; she’s already strolled out of the bedroom wearing only her lover’s shirt — what’s the point of showing him and everyone else her bum?  I have no problem with nudity in general, but when it comes to theater, film, and television, I tend to look skeptically at female nudity (which seems overused and exponentially more frequent than male nudity) as a vehicle for plot advancement rather than prurience.

Yesterday’s theater

Seminar was as darkly funny and ironic as I expected. Great cast and acting. I think anyone who aspires to be a writer (or who is a reader and thus on the fringe of that crowd, like me when it comes to genre fiction) will appreciate the show. Plus, well, Alan Rickman. Playing a jaded blowhard.

Bonnie & Clyde had great music, but the screenplay lacked something for me. Was supposed to sympathize with Clyde (I think?) but never did. His brother, Buck, was the more developed and sympathetic character.

You sell what?

Since today is Release Day and we had some time on my hands, we stopped by Barnes & Noble to look for new releases, the two mentioned in my earlier post (Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook and the new Nora Roberts contemporary).  And I left with…neither book.

Entering the store, the nook display has been displaced, as have the usual “new releases” shelves.  The tables of trade paperbacks had been reduced to a single table.  Going upstairs, the mystery and romance sections have been moved (to the back of the building) and reduced by more than half.  Teen paranormal is now a a large section of its own.  The biography and history section is much smaller, and there’s a huge games/puzzles/toy section right next to the YA shelves.

I was not impressed.

The Roberts’ book was out, but after reviewing the cover copy I felt ambivalent about the book and coming series.  Renovating an inn in Boonsboro, Maryland?  Like Roberts’ just did?  Eh, that seems a little too close to reality and also potentially “see my cool town! sell my cool town!”.  The Brook steampunk was, in theory, on the shelves or an end cap.  But I couldn’t find it and neither could the salesperson handling the helpdesk:  not in romance, SFF, not on the new release table or shelf, nowhere to be found.  #lostbooksale

Here’s the thing:  I went into the store looking to spend at least $30 on books.  And I left with a single book, Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason, a mystery, instead of the books I was looking for.  I want to support my local bricks and mortar store…but it doesn’t seem interested in what I’m looking for as a customer.

 

After B&N, we saw Anonymous, which was very interesting to someone without a great deal of knowledge of the period.  I know enough to recognize the names and the political tensions, which fed the plot very well.  And Rhys Ifans was excellent as Edward de Vere.  I always associate him with flakier roles (the roommate in that Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts romcom, Xenophilius Lovegood, etc.) but he was terribly good at this dramatic role.  Vanessa Redgrave was brilliant as usual.

 

Jumping in mid-series

I wondered a while back if I would feel different about Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series if I’d read the books in order. Rosario commented that she thought I might since I could see the character development better/more gradually.

And this evening I’ve been thinking about that same sort of thing in television series. There’s a drama that’s a couple of seasons old but I only watched the end of the second season. I had definite Opinions about how the season ended and the propriety (or lack thereof) of a lot of the character interactions. And now that I’ve gone back to watch from the pilot through Season 1 and into Season 2, I’ve got a completely different perspective about one of the main characters and several different relationships as they develop.

I can’t really remember the last time I started watching a drama with on-going story arcs without watching all the earlier episodes. ER way back in the day, maybe? Or The West Wing, which I started to watch after a colleague raved about the show, beginning with the episode when the prez got shot. (Usually I watch the first season or so then lose interest or miss episodes and can’t be bothered to catch up.)