Ashlandia

Spent August 24-26 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, seeing 6 plays in 3 days.

Ghostlight
The Imaginary Invalid
The African Company Presents Richard III
Measure for Measure
Love's Labours Lost
The Pirates of Penzance

Also had a fine backstage tour and stayed in a lovely Victorian mere blocks from the theatres!

August (early)

Plays seen:
One exhausting reading.
Something else, can't remember.
Giants games:
Two. One losing, one winning. Winning is better.
Plays read:
A bunch for work. Boys in the Band--SO different upon rereading now. Cloud 9. Iphigenia in Aulis.
Movies:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Well done, but I would have loved it even if it weren't. Cried, but only for about the last hour. Special credit to Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith. Special "he's going to be really handsome when he's 35" points to Daniel Radcliffe. Love to J.K. Rowling.
One Day. Fine. Not disappointing to this lover of the book. Different but lovely.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. I've noticed that when movies have little lapses in logic or credibility (Cal surrendering his shoes to Jacob at the mall (how'd he even get them off that fast?), "Amy" hearing a man crying in the bathroom--why not a woman?, a 13-year-old having a babysitter, etc., etc.) they usually fall into big lapses as well (the entire PTA standing around watching an intimate marital confrontation, the absurd speeches at the end). Still, the acting is fun, and there is one great scene involving a phone call. Marissa Tomei deserves better roles than this, but it is wonderful to see her and Moore not only doing terrific work but doing it with their real, beautiful, middle-aged faces. The supposed twist toward the end was so not surprising that I was surprised I was supposed to be surprised by it, but there's not a lot resting on whether you see it coming or not. Finally, Emma Stone is a thrilling talent and star, but if you've seen her in anything, you've seen that coming, too.
Toy Story 3. Excellent to see with the boys, and just excellent.
TV:
Scrubs, Glee Project, Giants Games, a little Sports Night with J!, Leverage. That's a lot of TV.

July 23

Honestly, am all about listening to Giants games, watching J play basketball, playing tennis, and driving kids to their camps, classes, and sports. Not much along the lines of Cultcha. But that's summer for you. I'll lock myself into dark theatres soon enough, I promise.

Seeing:
Cherry Orchard--NT Live. I have yet to see a production of Cherry Orchard that actual moves me. I'm sure it's in my future, somehow. Lopahin in this one was fantastic. But overall, I mainly admired the gorgeous design (especially lighting) and pretty much forgot the show by the time I got to my car.
I managed to skip JAW entirely. Felt like a good year to take off.

Reading:
Just started Random Harvest by James Hilton. Love it.
Read two pages of Hip Hop Matters. Slow going.
Re-reading How I Paid for College on the treadmill. Love it.
Read Interred With Their Bones, as per recommendation of young Hamlet!

Movies:
Horrible Bosses. Hilarious.
Watched the Moneyball trailer 10 or 20 times.

Books on CD:
Re-listened to Bossypants and Steering by Starlight. Starting The Nanny Diaries.

TV:
The Franchise, Episode 1!

June 22

Back from a splendid NY Theatre binge! Blisters from standing in line (for a total of five hours, people!) for Book of Mormon (without success) are starting to fade. Before the rest of my memories blur:

First night in town, I saw Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph. Gorgeous, lyrical, elliptical play. Not typical Broadway fare at all--more like something that would play once at South Coast Rep or the Intiman, then the script would show up in American Theatre, then it would get an occasional production at high end colleges. My theatre friends all say Robin Williams is what allows it to play on Broadway, and if so more power to him. (To be fair, it was also a Pulitzer finalist.) I really loved this show and admired it. The content is being almost unbearably sad and brutal at times. And it is dazzlingly beautiful, funny, and brainy. Magnificent cast, especially Arian Mouayed and Hrach Titizian.

Saturday afternoon, after 2 hours trying to crash Book of Mormon, I saw The Motherfucker with the Hat. Very funny, and Bobby Cannavale acts the hell out of the lead role. Otherwise, the play was a little thin, and three of the other actors, all very good, strike me as miscast. (I'd kind of like to see Robin Williams in Chris Rock's role and Rock as the tiger in the other play, actually.) Anyway, worth it to see Cannavale!

Saturday night, another two hours doing Book of Mormon groveling, then to Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth. One of the best shows I've ever seen. In my life! It is sprawling, Shakespearean, disturbing, and hugely uplifting. Mark Rylance's performance deserves every superlative that's been written about it and more. After the show, I found myself at the stage door without even knowing how I'd got there. I just needed to be with the people who'd made this world. (And one by one, they all came out and were darling and charming. Mr. Rylance appeared a good 20 minutes after the others had come and gone, and he was so gentle and generous with every young admirer. Extraordinary.

Sunday afternoon, saw some friends' show in the East Village. Really wanted to like it, but the mix of tones and acting styles was really jarring, and there were some odd writing choices I couldn't get past. That said, my guys did a fantastic job producting it--smashingly directed and acted.

Sunday night, watched the Tonys with a couple of lovely young NY actors and their partners. Very fun to see the show with people in the city and in the community who had plenty of opinions and gossip to share. And I'd already seen enough since getting to town that I could have opinions, too. Plus we all knew a couple of the chorus boys. And it was great to see Mark Rylance give one of his weird speeches the night after I shook his hand!

Tuesday night, The Normal Heart. I had been planning to get a day ticket, but after they won so many awards I decided not to take any chances, which turned out to be a good thing. I had a great seat, and the theatre was packed. It is an odd production, actually, directorially heavy-handed, beautifully acted, weird design. Doesn't matter. Weak script. Doesn't matter. It's an important play in so many ways. And it works because it works. There was a talk-back after, and the producer said her main objective for mounting this show now was to introduce it to a new generation. Brava. And indeed, the crowd was half 60ish Jews and homosexuals and half 30ish dancers and actors. God bless us every one. Then Kushner talked! He has mellowed so much, but when he gets going you start to see that the rational and irrational anger are both still there, and that the lion heart beats on. It was a good night.

Wednesday night, I went down to Hoboken and of all things sat through a tech rehearsal. But it was for the 7th Inning Stretch, a show dear to my heart, and so . . . I was in heaven. Only saw my friend Chris for the odd minute here and there, but it was great to watch him in his world.

Thursday night, saw the play I hadn't liked that much again (because it was my friends' show and kind of the point of the trip). Liked it less, admired the production more, and had a great time at the gala afterwards. Although it was 200 degrees in the theatre.

Friday, home. All good. No regrets, not even Mormon ones.

June 8

Theatre:
Importance of Being Earnest (NT Live)

Books:After All (Mary Tyler Moore)
A Band of MiSFits (in progress)

Books on CD:
Martha Beck interviews

Movies, TV: none

May 31

Theatre, Portland:
Trailing Colors (Icenogle at Headwaters)
Songs of Sondheim (Cerimon House and Stumptown Stages at Alberta)
Hamlet (PSU)
I know I am missing a play here; what was it?

Books:
After All (Mary Tyler Moore) (started)
10-10-10
1984 (in progress)
A Nearly Normal Life (in progress)
Thinking Points (in progress)
A Band of MiSFits (in progress)

Books on CD:
Bossypants
The Big Short (started) (QUIT)
Unlimited (Jillian Michaels) (started)
Martha Beck interviews; Radio Lab

Movies:
Bridesmaids (sucked)

TV:
Oprah, lots of season-enders
Minute to Win It with the Norman Brothers!

May 8

Theatre, Portland:
The Adding Machine

Books:
1984 (in progress)
A Nearly Normal Life (in progress)
Throw Out Fifty Things (in progress)
Thinking Points (in progress)

Books on CD:
The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts
The Big Short (started)
A Band of MiSFits (started)
Bossypants (started)

May 1 (oh good lord)

Long time between posts! And have spent a ton of that time reading and seeing. Well, this will not be complete, but:

Theatre, London:
Billy Elliott
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Frankenstein

Theatre, Portland:
bugged
PU Dance concert
PU Private Eyes (dress rehearsal)

Plays read:
Clybourne Park

Movies:
Blade Runner

Books:
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1984 (in progress)
Your Money or Your Life (in progress)
Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things (in progress)
A Nearly Normal Life (in progress)
Believe It, Be It

Books on CD:
[something about Starbucks]: Finding Hope in Unexpected Places by Michael Gates Gill
The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts

TV:
Jamie Oliver
Tina Fey on the Oprah Winfrey Show
Blazers in the playoffs! :-{

Next up, reading:
Include Me Out (Farley Granger)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
The War on Moms
Kasey to the Rescue

Friday, March 4

Reading--mostly research for play; rereading A Wife's Tale.

Seeing--Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party; rewatched Holes with the boys.

CD--Moneyball

I find I am revisiting favorites in a way that I haven't done for years. For that matter, I could also have listed:
TV--the old Dick Van Dyke Show
I wonder if this is a function of the kids' growing up and giving me both free time (so that it doesn't feel like every second is so urgent) and a small but real sense of emptines (sending me seeking comfort in old pleasures). Virtually everything on this page is a re-watch, re-read, etc. And they have all yielded a lot of new pleasure and satisfaction on revisiting.

Anyway, I am getting through Moneyball with more momentum this time; it was very broken up last time. I think I will keep some of the arguments/lessons it presents, especially if I jot a few of them down. Overarching question is how can a relatively poor baseball team (Oakland) play competitively and even vanquish one (NYY) with three times as much to spend on players? Findings: there has traditionally been a lot of prejudice in scouting and drafting (against fat players, short players, players who don't LOOK good); there are inefficiencies in the market (closers are over-valued, for exampled); poor teams can do well if they buy tools piecemeal instead of looking for stars with 5, 4, 3 tools in one package; fans turn out in droves when their teams win, and nobodies become stars, so it's more important to build winning teams than to invest in stars; and most importantly, traditional baseball analysis has been looking at the wrong things. Bill James blazed the way for the most important skills to be assessed more accurately (and for statistical noise to be identified as such) and then, in his wake, a number of really brainy stats geeks articulated things even more finely. But Baseball ignored the new, good information in favor of what "everybody knows" except for Billy Beane (later followed by others).

Oh, I also stayed up last night watching all of Julianne Moore's Inside the Actors Studio interview. I think half of it belongs on the "re" list and half was new to me.

Sunday, February 20

BOOKS Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses

CDS Speak in a Week

MOVIES started Burn After Reading, quit after half an hour

THEATRE none, but saw Anne Bogart speak at Reed College

WROTE a lot

Also got rid of a ton of paper and clutter this week, so good.

Sunday, February 13

Reading:
Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses
The War on Moms (more on this to come)

Re-read:
Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, not sure why except it is one of the RR books that stuck with me most.

CD Started:
The Five Love Languages of Children (potentially interesting), but bailed in favor of
Speak in a Week (French) for obvious reasons

Movies:

Theatre:
My show
Fela! through NT Live, not my favorite

TV:
I don't know, the usual--30 Rock, Modern Family
Oh, and the Super Bowl and some Blazers games with the guys

Wednesday, February 2

What?

Finished The Blind Side
Reading Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses
Reading: The 39 Clues (book 1)
Finished listening to Sense and Sensibility and haven't found anything good since
Watched: lots of episodes of Lie to Me

Can't remember anything else. To be fair, was in rehearsal most of January.

Sunday, January 2

Read: Patti LuPone's memoir. Very dishy and oddly fascinating. I complain a lot about the narcissists in my life, but from a distance they are often very entertaining.

Started Finishing the Hat. It is terrific. I'm maybe 25% of the way through.

Took a book called Mystery Muses on vacation, but was disappointed to find not much substance there--very short blurbs--but the idea was great! Also started and set aside a couple of others that just didn't grab me.

Started: The Blind Side. It is going much, much faster than Moneyball for some reason.

CD: finished A Family Affair (***, great ending, overall a little rushed). Started Sense and Sensibility. Aaaaah!

Movies: watched Despicable Me and The Blind Side with the guys. Both very good!

TV: Leverage, Lie to Me--a couple episodes of each.