Synchronic

I was really intrigued by the premise of the movie Synchronic so I decided to see it last night and it is so much more than I thought it would be.  Dennis (Jamie Dornan) and Steve (Anthony Mackie) are long time friends and paramedics in New Orleans who are called to a series of unusual cases where victims have unexplained injuries, including a man who has been stabbed by an ancient sword and a woman who has been bitten by an exotic snake that is nowhere to be found.  As they investigate these strange occurrences, we learn that Dennis has a troubled teenage daughter named Brianna (Ally Ioannides) and a marriage that is deteriorating while Steve is a hard-drinking womanizer who can't commit to anyone because of a tragedy during Hurricane Katrina.  They eventually learn that the victims have been taking a designer drug called Synchronic which transports them to another time period in the same geographic location.  When they are called to another case involving the drug, they learn that Brianna has taken it and disappeared.  Steve is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given a short time to live so he makes the decision to take Synchronic so he can find Brianna.  The story is interesting and there are some really trippy images but I particularly enjoyed the philosophical exploration of time, relativity, perception, and fate.  There is an absolutely brilliant discussion between the two characters about their perceptions of time based on their experiences and why it is more interesting to live in the present, which is filled with variables, and not fear the end of your life, which is not.  I loved the description of time as a record album.  The needle is dropped in one groove which represents one point in time while all the other points in time still exist simultaneously in the other grooves.  I found this fascinating.  I also found the subtle commentary on race to be interesting because Steve runs afoul of the Ku Klux Klan when he is transported to a Depression-era homestead and is mistaken for a slave during a Civil War battle, which is to be expected, but he is also mistaken for a criminal by the police at a crime scene in the present.  Both Dornan and Mackie give riveting performances but I was especially impressed with Steve's character arc as a bitter man obsessed with death who learns the value of life.  This is an incredibly thought-provoking movie that is more than just a sci-fi thriller and I highly recommend it.

The Empty Man

I really like seeing horror movies during the month of October (I guess it is my way of getting in the mood for Halloween).  Last night I went to see The Empty Man because, despite having a similar plot to Slender Man which was absolutely awful, it sounded very intriguing to me.  It opens with a long (over twenty minutes!) prologue involving a group of hikers in the mountains of Bhutan who inadvertently discover a supernatural creature called the Empty Man which possesses one of them and then kills the rest.  Twenty-three years later, a group of Midwestern teens discover the urban legend of the Empty Man.  They perform the ritual to summon the mysterious creature and then they disappear.  James Lasondra (James Badge Dale), a former cop who is haunted by a recent tragedy, begins looking for Amanda Quail (Sasha Frolova), one of the missing girls, because she is the daughter of Nora (Marin Ireland), a woman who is somehow connected to his tragedy.  His investigation eventually leads to a cult-like organization, led by the charismatic Arthur Parsons (Stephen Root), which practices physical manifestation through the manipulation of thoughts.  Then there is an almost incomprehensible plot twist that focuses on the manifestation of a physical host for the Empty Man to possess.  The premise of this movie is extremely ambitious but it goes completely off the rails in the third act and I still don't entirely understand what happened because it is so convoluted and there are a number of plot holes and inconsistencies.  I did, however, find it to be very compelling and it kept my attention throughout the 2 hour and 17 minute runtime.  Even though The Empty Man feels more like a psychological thriller than a true horror movie, it incredibly scary because there is a feeling of dread that permeates every single shot and the atmospheric score adds greatly to this sense of unease.  Dale gives a strong central performance as a troubled man who is slowly drawn into something that he can't explain but begins to feel very personal and Root is fantastic as the cult leader.  This is definitely much better than Slender Man (the bar was pretty low) and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but there are some problems that keep it from being a great movie.

Leave the World Behind

The October Barnes & Noble Book Club selection was Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam and, even though it was unbelievably unsettling, I couldn't put it down! Amanda and Clay, a middle class white couple, leave New York City for a family vacation in a secluded area of Long Island with their teenage son Archie and daughter Rose. They begin their stay in a luxurious Airbnb with barbecues by the pool and trips to the beach but their idyllic getaway changes when the owners of the house, a wealthy black couple named G.H. and Ruth Washington, knock on their door in the middle of the night. The older couple is seeking refuge from a mysterious power outage in the city. Amanda and Clay are initially wary of the strangers but invite them in and soon the six of them are stranded together without any form of communication with the outside world. A series of unnerving events, such as the unusual appearance of animals, a deafening noise, and worrisome physical symptoms, leave them terrified and desperate for information. This novel is incredibly compelling because it begins as a thought-provoking commentary on race, social class, and privilege but then it taps into the zeitgeist of our times with discussions of disease, death, fear of the unknown, mass destruction, and the apocalypse. What I found so fascinating is the juxtaposition between the abject terror that they are experiencing and the need to carry on with the mundane tasks associated with daily life. I thought it was a very accurate response to the end of the world. It was also very illuminating to me that the characters are practically incapacitated when they can no longer rely on their cellphones (one of the characters becomes horribly lost driving to the nearest town without GPS even though he has instructions). The fact that there are so few details about the cataclysmic event (but endless descriptions of the minutiae of their activities) adds tremendously to the sense of menace. I found the ambiguous ending to be infuriating at first but I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished and now I feel that there was really no other way the novel could have ended. Our discussion with the author on Facebook last night cemented my thoughts when he said that the fear of the unknown is sometimes worse than the fear of something specific.  I also loved his comment about the power of art to heal which is something that did not immediately jump out at me when I was reading.  One of the main characters longs to listen to the music from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky one more time before the world ends because it is the most beautiful thing she has ever heard. Alum indicated that he included that because when humanity seems to be at its worst we tend to seek out the best of what man has created and I loved that! It is quite brilliant but I do have a few complaints. The third person stream of consciousness jumps around from person to person very abruptly so it is sometimes difficult to keep track of whose head we are inside. I also found the prose to be a bit flowery at times (it reminded me of when my sophomores would use a thesaurus to make me think they were better writers).  This will not be for everyone (especially those struggling with the fear and isolation of our current situation) but it is definitely a book that will stay with you for a long time and I highly recommend it.

Note:  The November Barnes & Noble Book Club selection is The Cold Millions by Jess Walter. Once again, there will be a live discussion with the author via Facebook on December 1.  Go here for more information.

Pumpkin Carving 2020

Last night Marilyn, Tashena, Sean, and I had our annual pumpkin carving party and it was a lot of fun!

Tashena and I picked out pumpkins from the Cross E Ranch pumpkin patch and we have accumulated a lot of carving tools and kits over the years.

Carving our pumpkins!

Our finished pumpkins!

Marilyn's Old School Jack-O-Lantern

My Witch Feet

Tashena's Sugar Skull

Sean's Miss Me (He designed this and I think it is cool).

Tashena is 20

Yesterday our family celebrated Tashena's birthday (her actual birthday is Wednesday) with dinner, birthday cake, and presents.  It is really hard for me to believe that she is 20 years old because it seems like yesterday we were celebrating her fifth birthday (her first birthday with our family).  My sister makes a copy-cat version of Cafe Rio salads and that was what Tashena picked for dinner.  It tastes just like the real thing!  After dinner she opened her presents.  She got some new shoes, a gift card, some money, and a train case for all of her makeup.

Happy Birthday Tashena!

Ghost

I really loved the movie Ghost when it was first released in theaters thirty years ago.  I thought Patrick Swayze was incredibly appealing as Sam Wheat but I especially enjoyed Whoopi Goldberg in a hilarious performance as Oda Mae Brown.  It is now back in theaters as part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series and I had the chance to see it yesterday.  I loved it just as much as I did then (for the same reasons).  Sam is an investment banker on Wall Street who discovers that there are unusually high balances in the accounts he manages and confides this information to his friend Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn).  Later that night he is killed when a robbery goes wrong and soon realizes that he is now a ghost.  He stays close to his girlfriend Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) and is horrified when his murderer, Willie Lopez (Rick Aviles), uses the key he stole from him to break into the apartment he shared with her.  He finds the medium Oda Mae, a con artist who turns out to have a real psychic gift, and convinces her to warn Molly that she is in danger.  Sam eventually learns that he was killed because of a money laundering scheme and uses both Oda Mae and Molly to thwart the killer.  It was so much fun to watch this again and most of my favorite scenes involved Oda Mae, especially the scenes where she impersonates Rita Miller in order to access the stolen money and when Sam forces her to turn the money over to a group of nuns.  Even though it is a bit simplistic, I've always liked the symbolism of having a beam of light take the good people to Heaven and having shadows take the evil people to Hell (I remember cheering when the murderers were dragged to Hell the first time I saw it), although I did find the final scene where Sam goes to Heaven to be a little bit cheesy this time around (the rainbow beams are a bit much).  I remember thinking that the, now iconic, pottery scene with "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers was so steamy when I first saw it and now I was surprised by how tame it seems by today's standards.  I love Swayze's performance as Sam because, not only is he incredibly handsome (I love his burgundy shirt and black jeans), he is so earnest in his protectiveness of Molly.  I would definitely like to have him watching over me!  Moore, and her uncanny ability to cry on cue, is also really good as a grief-stricken woman who is torn between wanting to believe that Sam is still with her and her better judgment.  Finally, Goldwyn is so creepy as Carl, especially in the scene where he contrives to take off his shirt.  I'm not usually a fan of romances but I love this movie (there is a reason why it was the number one box office draw in 1990).  I highly recommend it, especially on the big screen (go here).

Dvorak's Serenade for Strings

Last night I attended an absolutely brilliant Utah Symphony concert which included a varied selection of music spanning over 400 years.  The first half of the concert featured the strings and they began with Lyric for Strings by George Walker.  I had never heard of this contemporary composer before but I really liked this piece because, while it was short, it was incredibly stirring and emotional.  Next came Serenade for Strings by Antonin Dvorak which was as wonderful as I knew it would be.  I love this entire piece because it is so exuberant but I especially love the lilting second movement.  I always imagine couples twirling around a grand ballroom in the 19th century whenever I hear it.  After a brief intermission, the second half of the concert featured the brass and percussion beginning with Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, Part 1 by Joan Tower.  This piece was written especially for women who have taken risks throughout history and I particularly liked the timpani.  The next piece was Sonata pian' e forte by Giovanni Gabrieli.  This sounded very religious to me and I imagined that it was being played in a large Renaissance cathedral.  Next came "Evangile" and "Apocalypse" from Fanfares liturgiques by Henri Tomasi.  This piece was very dramatic and featured themes played by the trombones.  My favorite piece of the evening, Funeral March by Edvard Grieg, came next and it was stately and somewhat militaristic because of the inclusion of the snare drum and it reminded me so much of Norway.  It was written in memory of Grieg's friend Rikard Nordraak, who died while he was away, and Grieg loved it so much he requested that it be performed at his own funeral.  I loved it, too, and I imagined a solemn funeral procession with a caisson carrying a coffin draped in black crepe through the rainy streets of Oslo as I listened.  Night Signal - Signals from Heaven II by Toru Takemitsu, which is about a herald angel, was another short but emotional piece.  The concert concluded with Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.  I have heard it many times but last night's performance of it nearly reduced me to tears.  Copland wrote it during World War II as a tribute to the spark of light found in each of us and it just seemed so appropriate for right now.  I also really enjoyed guest conductor David Robertson.  He reminded me a lot of Maestro Fischer (who recently extended his contract to remain with the Utah Symphony through 2023) because he had a light touch with the orchestra and a soft-spoken charisma in his interactions with the audience.  This was one of the best Utah Symphony concerts I've attended and, even though tickets for tonight's performance are extremely limited, I would highly recommend making the effort to get one (go here).

Note:  I can't remember what the original concert was going to be before Covid-19 necessitated a change but bravo to whoever created this new program!  It was an outstanding selection of music!

Tracy Aviary

Yesterday Sean and I visited the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park and, even though it was a little bit cold, we had a lot of fun!  I hadn't been there for at least twenty years and I was really impressed with the new Visitor's Center.  Both of us enjoyed walking through the gardens to get to the bird cages.  Because it was a bit colder the birds were quite active and they seemed to really like Sean because they would follow him as he walked around.

Pelicans

Golden Eagle

The Macaws were really playful and followed Sean around.

I really liked the Toucans in the South American Pavilion.

Scarlet Ibises

Sean gave me a lesson about the Peacock!  He said that the males are the ones with the dramatic plumage so that they can attract the females (which are quite drab).  He was quite comprehensive in his explanation!

Sandhill Cranes

This was Sean's favorite bird (I can't remember what it was).

My favorite birds were the Chilean Flamingos.  Their wings are a beautiful pink color with black underneath.

This flamingo was asleep with his head in his wings while standing on one leg!

Tracy Aviary is open every day, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.  Because of Covid-19, tickets should be purchased online (go here) and entries are limited to 60 people at any given time (you could be asked to wait before being allowed to enter).  Masks are required and social distancing is encouraged.  There are one-way directional arrows to encourage distancing (Sean yelled at me because I accidentally went the wrong way when I saw the flamingos).  Tickets are $9.95 for adults and $7.95 for children under 12 with various discounts available.  I definitely encourage a visit!