Brown Eyed Girl

My niece Tashena is eighteen today!  It has been so much fun watching her grow and develop into the amazing person that she is!  I love her so much and I can't wait to see what life has in store for her because she can do anything!

Tchaikovsky's 4th & The Red Violin

It seems like it has been quite a while since I've been at Abravanel Hall for a Utah Symphony concert!  It has been a very long week (it was the end of the term with lots of grading to do) so last night's concert was very much needed and I enjoyed it immensely!  The orchestra began with a suite of symphonic dances from Fancy Free by Leonard Bernstein.  I really enjoyed all three of them but I particularly loved the second one because it is so exuberant with a theme played by the timpani which is echoed by the brass.  Next, the orchestra was joined by Philippe Quint to perform John Corigliano's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra from The Red Violin.  The film tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners over the centuries.  The score, for which Corigliano won an Academy Award, is incredibly intense because the violin is almost like one of the characters.  Quint performed it magnificently with his bow flying across the violin in some of the more dramatic themes.  He received a well deserved thunderous standing ovation!  After the intermission, the orchestra played the piece I was most looking forward to:  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.  I love Tchaikovsky because I think his music is so emotional and I love everything about Symphony No. 4, from the dramatic opening fanfare played by the horns to the final tumultuous crash of the cymbals!  I especially loved the theme played by the woodwinds in the second movement (which I think is quite melancholy) and the theme played by the strings in the third movement (which, in my opinion, is filled with such longing).  It was an incredible performance!  The orchestra was under the baton of guest conductor Andrew Litton and I thought his interactions with the musicians were adorable, especially when he blew kisses to the concertmaster!  I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to tonight's performance of the same program.

The Sisters Brothers

The second film in my indie double feature was The Sisters Brothers.  John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play Eli and Charlie Sisters, two bickering brothers who are ruthless paid assassins for the enigmatic Commodore (Rutger Hauer).  They have a series of misadventures as they travel from Oregon City to San Francisco in pursuit of a mark (Riz Ahmed) who has teamed up with one of their former associates (Jake Gyllenhaal) but it ends up being a journey of redemption for the brothers.  I have to admit that this film is very different from what I was expecting.  It is a slow-burning character study, punctuated by incredibly brutal gun fights, with a somewhat anticlimactic resolution.  It felt much longer than it really is and I struggled to understand the point of what was going on much of the time.  Both Reilly and Phoenix give fantastic performances (although I feel like we've seen Phoenix play a charming psychopath many times before) that end up being very sympathetic and they have great on-screen chemistry, especially when they are bickering with each other.  There are some beautiful visuals (it was filmed in Spain and Romania) with wide shots of mountains, plains, and rivers as the brothers travel through the Pacific Northwest.  However, the performances and scenery do not really compensate for the ponderous pacing and meandering story.  I recommend giving it a miss.

The Old Man & The Gun

Yesterday I went to the Broadway, my favorite art house theater, for an indie double feature.  First up was The Old Man & The Gun which is reported to be Robert Redford's final film.  It tells the "mostly true" story of Forrest Tucker (Redford), a man who spent most of his life in and out of jail, who commits series of daring bank robberies at the age of 70.  These bank heists are non-violent and many of the tellers who are held up refer to him as a gentleman.  He commits the crimes simply because he wants adventure not because he wants or needs the money.  While on his crime spree he meets Jewel (Sissy Specek), a woman with whom he begins a relationship, and John Hunt (Casey Affleck), a detective who becomes obsessed with catching him.  It is a charming treatise on what drives people to live their lives the way they do anchored by an incredibly charismatic performance by Redford.  Tucker's eyes actually twinkle every time he flashes a smile at whomever he is with, especially when he smiles at Jewel.  The scenes between Redford and Spacek are absolutely magical, especially when they sit on Jewel's front porch and discuss the meaning of life.  Affleck is outstanding as a burned out detective who is reinvigorated by the investigation of Tucker while Danny Glover and Tom Waits are highly amusing as Tucker's Over-The-Hill Gang.  This film looks like a movie Redford could have starred in early in his career with its sepia toned cinematography and the period verisimilitude.  My favorite moment in the film is a montage of all of Tucker's escapes from jail which includes footage from some of Redford's early movies.  I loved this film and I highly recommend it!

Crazy Corn Maze

Sean and I have been planning to go to a corn maze for quite a while and we finally had a chance to go last night (we made a little detour to the pumpkin patch that is close by).  I have been going to this corn maze for many years now (once my friend Tony and I had to pay an attendant $5.00 to get us out of it) but this year it didn't seem as much fun.  The maze was really easy.  In fact, Sean and I made it through in about 20 minutes.  There were lots of little kids and strollers (the bane of my existence) and there seemed to be a lot of side activities geared more to small children.  Sean is such a good sport but we've decided that we want to find a different maze that is more complicated next year.  It was still really fun to spend time with him and I did get to cross off another item from my fall bucket list!

Pumpkin Patch

Sean has decided that we will be carving pumpkins next Sunday (we usually carve them on the Sunday before Halloween except for that one time).  He had his Mom buy a bunch of kits so we just needed the pumpkins.  Last night he and I went to Schmidt's Pumpkin Patch which is near my old house.  There were tons and tons of people there but we found a relatively empty area.  Sean meticulously picked pumpkins for himself, me, Tashena, and Marilyn (he picked a 20 pound pumpkin for Marilyn because she loves carving them).

I'm really glad that Sean still loves all of our holiday traditions!

Dutch Oven Cook Out

I really love cooking outdoors in Dutch ovens but I haven't done it for a long time.  I thought fall would be the perfect time to make a fruit cobbler.  I went to one of my favorite picnic sites in Millcreek Canyon Friday afternoon and made some.  The recipe is so easy!  In a 10-inch Dutch oven, pour a can of pie filling in the bottom (you can use any fruit that you like but I used cherry in this cobbler), then sprinkle a yellow cake mix over the fruit, and pour a 12 oz can of lemon lime soda over that.  Place the Dutch oven on some charcoal briquettes and then place 10-12 briquettes on top of the lid.  Let it cook for about 45 minutes or until it is bubbly.  I packed a lunch and read my book while it cooked and it was so nice to be in the canyon.  The temperature was brisk but not too cold (there were a lot of people hiking in the canyon) and I loved walking through all of the leaves on the ground.

It was such a nice afternoon.  The cobbler was absolutely delicious and I got to check off another item on my fall bucket list!

Fall Drive

Thursday morning I happened to be in American Fork getting my car serviced so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to drive the Alpine Loop between American Fork Canyon and Provo Canyon.  It is one of my very favorite fall drives and it was just beautiful.  The temperature was brisk but not too cold and the smell of decomposing leaves was intoxicating.  I had a lovely time driving the switchbacks with the window rolled down and I got to check another item off my fall bucket list!

The Hate U Give

A lot of my students are reading the best-selling Y/A novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas so I decided to see the movie adaptation last night.  Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives in the poverty-ridden and gang-controlled neighborhood of Garden Heights but she attends a prep-school in the wealthy Williamson area.  She suppresses who she really is in order to fit in at her white school but tries not to alienate her black friends.  One night she and her childhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith) are pulled over for a routine traffic stop and a white police officer fatally shoots Khalil.  Starr witnesses the entire incident and, when the police officer is not immediately charged with the shooting, she faces pressure to testify before a grand jury from an activist group.  She fears that testifying will draw unwanted attention which will affect how people view her at school and she is threatened by a gang leader because testifying could reveal that Khalil was selling drugs for the gang.  Ultimately, Starr realizes that she must use her voice to stop the cycle of hate.  This movie is intense and incredibly powerful with an amazing central performance by Stenberg and some strong supporting performances by Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Anthony Mackie, and Common.  It was sometimes difficult for me to watch but what I liked most about this movie is that it emphasizes so many different perspectives (the scene between Starr and her uncle, who is a cop, just about brought me to tears) and doesn't seek to vilify any one particular group.  The message that hate is what divides people really resonated with me and I think this is a movie that everyone needs to see, especially young people.  I highly recommend it.

Halloween

Last night I checked off another item on my fall bucket list by seeing the new Halloween movie.  It is a direct sequel to the original 1978 Halloween movie and disregards all of the other sequels that have been made over the years (which is a good thing because I haven't seen any of them).  It has been 40 years since Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) survived an attack from Michael Myers (Nick Castle) on Halloween.  She suffers from PTSD and lives in a fortified compound where she has relentlessly prepared herself in case of another attack.  She has a troubled relationship with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) who both think she should leave the past behind.  Myers, who has been incarcerated at Smith's Grove Sanitarium, escapes when he is being transferred to another institution and begins committing more grisly murders on Halloween, including Allyson's friend Vicky (Virginia Gardner) who is babysitting (in a nod to the original movie).  He is pursued by his psychiatrist Dr. Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), who has become obsessed with him, and Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), an officer on the original case forty years ago.  However, Myers ends up at Laurie's compound in an epic final showdown as she tries to protect her daughter and granddaughter.  What I liked most about this movie is the character of Laurie Strode.  I think it is entirely believable that she would be suffering from PTSD and that she can't leave the past behind until she faces Myers again. I also liked the added element of having Laurie fight for her family.  While the killing spree is scary, I think the final confrontation between Laurie and Myers is incredibly suspenseful and terrifying, especially as she stalks him throughout her house.  Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic in a role where the victim is as psychologically damaged as the killer.  Finally, for fans of the original movie, the same theme music (updated and remixed) is used throughout and the same instantly recognizable orange typography is used in the opening and final credits.  This is not necessarily the best horror movie I have ever seen (I think the original is a lot better) but it is pretty good and I definitely had a lot of fun seeing it at a late night screening with a rowdy crowd.

Thriller 2018

I have not been doing very well with my fall bucket list because I have only checked off two items!  Now that I am on fall break I'm sure that I can get a few more items checked off during the long weekend.  I started with ODT's production of Thriller last night.  This Halloween-themed dance extravaganza is one of my very favorite holiday traditions and I have been looking forward to it all month!  Even though I have seen most of the dances more times than I can count I really love the the old favorites including the undead cavorting in a graveyard to Michael Jackson’s iconic song “Thriller,” a breakdancing mummy and his maidens in “Curse of the Mummy,” a Pas de Deux gone horribly wrong in “Frankenstein & Frankenstein,” tap dancing skeletons in "Dem Bones," a trio of chainsaw wielding Jasons in "Jason Jam," scarecrows that are not what they seem in "Children of the Corn," a coven of witches seeking vengeance from beyond the grave in "Salem's Mass," demonic dolls in "Chucky-Rama," acrobatic vampires in "Lost Boys," and doomed Irish dancers in "River of Blood Dance."  I eagerly anticipate every dance, especially the opening number, "Salem's Mass," and "Lost Boys."  This year there were several new numbers performed by the dancers in Odyssey 2.  My favorite was a high-flying Harry Potter in "Dementor's Kiss."  Like last year, there were several numbers in between the dances performed by the artists from Aeris Aerial Arts.  They were all very cool but my favorite was "Full Moon" featuring seven aerialists performing on a giant spinning globe.  I didn't really like the comedy act of Giggle Girl because she was super annoying (where is Bubbles the Clown?) but I loved everything else and I had so much fun at this show!  It just wouldn't be Halloween without it!  This show runs at Kingsbury Hall and many other venues throughout Utah and Idaho until Oct. 30 (go here for tickets and information).

Note:  If you go to the show and see any of the undead roaming about, do not make eye contact!  Trust me on this!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

I can think of nothing better for a Sunday afternoon than a film directed by Frank Capra starring Jimmy Stewart.  It was absolutely delightful to see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on the big screen as part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series yesterday.  Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) is a young and idealistic man appointed to the U.S. Senate when the sitting Senator dies unexpectedly.  The senior Senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), and a corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), think that because he is naive and inexperienced he will be easily manipulated.  However, Smith sponsors a bill for a boys camp in an area earmarked for a dam in an appropriations bill that is supported by Paine because it will greatly benefit Taylor.  Paine tries to discredit him but Smith stages a dramatic filibuster on the Senate floor until the truth comes out.  I just loved this film because, like most of Frank Capra's films, it emphasizes standing up for what you believe even if it costs you fame, money, and power.  I have always really liked Stewart as an actor but he is incredibly appealing in this role which is thought to be his best performance.  I loved the chemistry he has with Jean Arthur, who plays his cynical assistant Saunders.  I also really liked Raines in this role because he has such a character arc, going from a corrupt Senator to wanting to be the man Smith thinks he is.  Even though this film was made almost 80 years ago it still so relevant in our troubled times and it gave me a little bit of hope that there might be young and idealistic men and women still willing to fight for what is right.  I highly recommend seeing this film when it is screened again on Wednesday (go here for information and tickets).

Utah Opera's Romeo and Juliet

I was really excited when Utah Opera announced their 2018-2019 season because it includes two operas that I haven't seen before as well as two classics, including Romeo and Juliet which I had the opportunity to see last night.  This opera tells the well-known Shakespearean tale of how Romeo and Juliet fall in love despite the centuries old feud that has divided their families and how they are ultimately destroyed by that hate but with the addition of Charles-Francois Gounod's glorious music.  I really loved the music!  It is wild and exuberant during the masked ball where Romeo and Juliet meet, it is incredibly romantic during the scenes outside Juliet's balcony (especially the harp), it is thrilling during the fight scene between Tybalt and Mercutio, and it is plaintive and heartbreaking during the scene in the tomb.  Anya Matanovic, as Juliet, and Joshua Dennis, as Romeo, sing their roles brilliantly, especially during their arias and duets at the balcony and in the tomb.  I was also very impressed with Adam Lau as Friar Lawrence and Christopher Oglesby as Tybalt and the chorus sings beautifully during the Prologue and the fight scene.  I loved the costumes which feature sumptuous fabrics in rich jewel tones and the sets are very effective at portraying fair Verona.  I enjoyed this production so much more than I expected to because Romeo and Juliet is one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays.  I highly recommend it for the amazing music and performances.  It runs at Capitol Theatre through October 21 (tickets may be purchased here).

Note:  Yesterday I also bought tickets to see the Colorado Avalanche.  When you think about it hockey and opera are not that different because they both appeal to a small group of crazed aficionados who mostly go in for the violence.  Ha ha!

First Man

Last night I had the chance to see a Thursday preview of First Man, one of my most anticipated films this fall.  This is the very human story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his journey from a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base to be the first man to walk on the moon with the Apollo 11 mission.  This journey includes the death of his daughter from a brain tumor, applying to the NASA Gemini program as a way to distract himself from the pain of that loss, dealing with a malfunction during the Gemini 8 mission, the death of colleagues and friends, the waning public support for space exploration, becoming emotionally distant from his children and wife Janet (Claire Foy), and, finally, the incredibly dangerous mission to the moon.  I don't know that I have ever fully appreciated what these astronauts went through to go to space and I think director Damien Chazelle does an excellent job of putting us right in the middle of the action with Armstrong.  We get to experience the claustrophobia of being in a tiny space capsule, the jarring vibrations of lifting off, and the disorientation of being in space.  It is intense and there were moments when I felt like I was on an amusement park ride.  Some of the scenes are incredibly suspenseful, especially when Armstrong has to manually land the lunar module before running out of fuel.  I also really liked the juxtaposition of life at NASA with Armstrong's home life and I think the helplessness and isolation faced by Janet is portrayed very well  There is a particularly poignant scene where she is trying to discipline her sons while Armstrong is trying to regain control of a spacecraft.  Both Gosling and Foy give understated yet powerful performances and the closeup shots of their faces show more of what they are feeling than the dialogue does.  I think this is a brilliant film and I am now in awe of what Armstrong and the other astronauts accomplished!  Go see it in IMAX!

Wait Until Dark at HCT

The movie Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman trapped in her apartment with a killer, is incredibly suspenseful so I've been very intrigued about HCT's production (the movie is originally based on a stage play) and I had the opportunity to see it last night. Sam Hendrix (Jacob Theo Squire) is unknowingly given a doll containing heroin and there are three criminals who are trying to get it back: Mike Talman (Lonzo Liggins), Sgt. Carlino (Zac Zumbrunnen), and Harry Roat (Benjamin J. Henderson). They arrange for Sam to go out of town and stage an elaborate plot in order to get his blind wife, Susy (Riley Branning), to trust them and allow them to search the apartment for the doll.  She, with the help of a neighbor girl named Gloria (Bridget Maxwell), eventually figures out that she is being conned and uses the dark to confront Roat in an epic showdown! The first act is full of a lot of complicated exposition and, I have to admit, that it did get a bit tedious trying to keep everything straight.  But the second act really gets going with a lot of edge-of-your-seat action, greatly enhanced by the lighting and sound design. I actually jumped about a foot during one particularly intense scene and I was not alone (the woman behind me screamed). The set design is quite innovative. I liked the use of the stairwell beyond the door to the apartment and the large windows in the kitchen area to convey the action taking place outside and I liked the fact that I could see everything in the apartment (which is not always the case in the Jewel Box Theatre). Branning is very convincing as a blind woman and the rest of the cast is solid but Maxwell absolutely steals the show as Gloria! She is a hoot and I loved watching all of her funny facial expressions! This is the perfect show to see during the month of Halloween (it runs through November 17).

The Children Act

Yesterday I went to see The Children Act which is based on a novel of the same name by Ian McEwan.  I have not read the novel but as McEwan is one of my favorite writers I knew that this fim would be thought-provoking.  It opens with Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson), a judge in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, ruling on a case involving conjoined twins.  The hospital is petitioning the court to separate the twins without the consent of the parents.  If they are not separated, both of them will most likely die but, if they are, one of the twins will definitely die.  Even though the case is an emotional one, she states that she must follow the letter of the law without prejudice or passion and rules in favor of the hospital.  Her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci) accuses her of becoming just as dispassionate in their marriage and contemplates having an affair.  She is clearly distraught at this news and, when she hears her next case involving a seventeen-year-old boy (Fionn Whitehead) with leukemia who is refusing treatment on religious grounds, she becomes emotionally involved.  Her decision impacts her life just as much as it impacts the boy's and Thompson gives an incredibly powerful performance.  There is an amazing scene where Fiona is playing a piano recital and all of the emotion that she has been trying to suppress is suddenly revealed on her face.  Whitehead also gives a sensitive portrayal of a young man caught between his parents' beliefs and the law.  It is a compelling character study but I felt that the resolution was a bit rushed and it fell a little flat.  I found it to be rather unfulfilling after all of the emotional investment.  However, I would recommend this film for Thompson's performance and for the provacative discussion of morality and law.

 Note:  This film reminds me a bit of The Wife in that a strong central performance overcomes any shortcomings it may have!

Venom

Last night I thought I was going to see a fun new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Not so much because Venom is merely "in association with" Marvel and, frankly, it is a disaster.  Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is an investigative reporter assigned to interview Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the CEO of a bioengineering company called the Life Foundation, but this interview goes badly and Brock is fired.  He also loses his fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams) because he uses confidential information from her email to confront Drake (her law firm represents Drake).  It turns out that Drake, fearing the inevitable destruction of the Earth, has sent a rocket into space to look for other inhabitable worlds and has found symbiotic lifeforms.  When the rocket crash lands in Malaysia, one of the symbiotes escapes and the rest are brought to the Life Foundation where Drake tries, unsuccessfully, to achieve symbiosis with various test subjects.  Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), a scientist working with Drake who has second thoughts about the ethics of testing subjects against their will, contacts the down-and-out Brock to offer him evidence of what has been going on.  With her help, Brock breaks into the Life Foundation and accidentally achieves symbiosis with one of the lifeforms named Venom.  Drake attempts to get Venom, now working in tandem with Brock, back until the other symbiote, named Riot, travels from Malaysia and achieves symbiosis with him.  This leads to an epic confrontation between Brock/Venom and Drake/Riot.  The script is a convoluted mess, jumping from scene to scene without much cohesion, and it is filled with dialogue that is meant to be witty banter between Brock and Venom but, for some reason, it just didn't work for me.  Maybe it is the tone because many of these quips and one-liners happen during scenes of intense mayhem and destruction (I think Upgrade does a better job in achieving a tonal balance because it doesn’t take itself seriously).  I also found the character of Brock to be very inconsistent because, initially, he is a hard-hitting and intelligent journalist so the slapstick between him and Venom comes out of nowhere.  I really like both Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams but, in my opinion, they give unusually bad performances.  Hardy is so weirdly frenetic that watching him was exhausting and Williams is clearly just phoning it in.  There are some really cool action sequences, especially a motorcycle chase through the streets of San Francisco and a fight between Venom and an entire SWAT team in the lobby of a building, but that is not enough to keep this from being a big disappointment.  I recommend giving it a miss.

Note:  I had thought of skipping this movie and seeing A Star Is Born again.  Clearly I made the wrong choice.