9/11 Memorial

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was in New York was visit the 9/11 Memorial.  It is located at the site of the former World Trade Center towers and includes two giant waterfalls and reflecting pools set in the exact footprints of the towers.

The names of every person who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as the six people who died in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, are inscribed into bronze panels edging the pools.  If you look directly through the letters you can see the water.

It is an incredibly somber place and it was unusually quiet.  In a city as cacophonous as New York City, it was noticeable that the only sound I could hear was the falling water.  It was so peaceful.  Many of the people around me were silently crying but I managed to keep my emotions in check until I asked one of the many docents the significance of the white roses place in some of the names.  

A white rose is placed in each name on that person's birthday.  For some reason that touched me so much and the tears just started falling (I am crying now as I type this).

It was an incredible experience to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in New York City.  Go here for more information.

Money Monster

Thursday night I went with my Mom and Marilyn to see the movie Money Monster.  George Clooney plays Lee Gates, the flamboyant host of a slick investment advice television show (also called Money Monster), and Julia Roberts plays Patty Fenn, his exasperated producer.  Walt Camby (Dominic West), the CEO of Ibis, is scheduled to be a guest on the program to explain why the company's stock inexplicably crashed losing investors over $800 million.  Just as the show is about to go live, Gates learns that Camby is believed to be in Geneva and that Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe), CCO of Ibis, will be taking his place via a live feed from their corporate office.  As the show gets under way, a man named Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) storms on set with a gun and places a vest, with enough Semtex to blow up the entire building, on Gates holding him hostage on live TV.  Budwell invested his entire nest egg in Ibis stock, on a recommendation from Gates, and wants answers about why it crashed.  As Gates tries to keep Budwell calm, Fenn, trapped in the control room, and Lester, from the IBIS corporate office, work to uncover a conspiracy that stretches from Johannesburg to Seoul to Reykjavik.  It is a taut and entertaining thriller with highly nuanced performances by both Clooney and Roberts, as well as a riveting performance by O'Connell.  It is incredibly suspenseful because the characters are trying to find answers in real-time in the claustrophobia of the set and the control room while the cameras are rolling.  Director Jodie Foster uses the perspectives of the various cameras on the floor quite effectively.  The script is very intelligent, making complicated stock manipulation understandable for a lay audience, and it is often quite funny, especially when a low-level producer is sent running from place to place multiple times.  It seems that indictments of Wall Street have become de rigeur in Hollywood lately and, while this installment isn't quite as scathing as The Big Short, it does, however, show the human cost of corporate greed.  I really enjoyed this movie but both my Mom and sister found all of the profanity to be a bit off-putting.

Three Medals

This week Tashena competed for the final time at the District Track & Field Championships.  She entered three events (discus, long jump, and shot put) and won medals in all three of them!

In the discus she broke a district record that has stood for thirty years!

Discus Champion (Look at those guns!).  She has won the discus championship for three years in a row!

Long jump champion.

Third place in shot put.  I am so proud of this girl!  I can't wait to see what she does next year in high school!

Harbor Lights Cruise

On my first night in New York City I decided to take a Circle Line Harbor Lights Cruise (most theatres are dark on Monday night) and it was absolutely spectacular!

Some views of the iconic New York City skyline.

Some beautiful views of the Statue of Liberty at dusk.

Some views of the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk.

Views of the Manhattan Bridge.

The beautiful city lights reflecting in the water.  New York City is magical and it was a lovely way to spend my first night in the city that never sleeps!

The Count of Monte Cristo at PTC

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is one of my all-time favorite books and, when PTC announced that they were going to stage a new adaptation during the 2015-2016 season, I was thrilled and decided to reread the classic in anticipation.  That may have been a bad thing!  The thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge begins when Edmund Dantes is promoted to captain of the Phaeron, much to the dismay of the purser, Danglars, and becomes engaged to the beautiful Mercedes, much to the dismay of his jealous rival, Mondego.  They accuse Dantes of treason when they discover that Dantes has been asked to deliver a letter to Noirtier, a notorious Bonapartist.  Dantes is arrested and brought before the magistrate, Villefort, who is the son of Noirtier.  Fearful of being exposed as the son of a Bonapartist, Villefort imprisons Dantes in the Chateau d'If where he languishes for years.  Dantes eventually meets the Abbe Faria, another prisoner, who teaches him languages, history, culture, and science.  Faria also reveals the location of an immense treasure on the island of Monte Cristo just before he dies.  Dantes takes the place of Faria and is thrown into the sea where he eventually locates the treasure and uses it to intricately and painstakingly plot and execute his revenge against Danglars, Mondego, and Villefort.  My favorite part of the book is how elaborate and clever Dantes' plans are and the lengths to which he is willing to go to exact revenge against those who have betrayed him.  I was quite disappointed that this adaptation chose to spend less than ten minutes on revenge (during the song "Too Much is not Enough") and, instead, focus on the resumption of the love story between Dantes and Mercedes (which does not happen in the book).  I realize that source material is often altered to enhance the storytelling but I feel that playwright Jack Murphy changed the entire focus of the story from an exciting tale about the dangers of letting revenge consume you into a tepid romance.  The songs are incredibly beautiful, especially "Forever," "I Will Be There," "I Know Those Eyes/ This Man Is Dead," "All This Time," and "The Man I Used to Be."  The lead actors give powerful performances, particularly Matt Farcher as Dantes and Briana Carlson-Goodman as Mercedes, and Dathan B. Williams just about steals the show as Abbe Faria (although, because of the altered story, crowd favorite Max Robinson is completely underutilized as Monsieur Morrell).  The set, with a giant revolving staircase, is impressive, the period costumes are very well done (other than the strange black leather pants worn by the count), and the choreography is exciting, especially the fight scenes.  PTC does everything right but I just couldn't get past the changes to the story and ultimately left the theatre disappointed.  Perhaps knowing nothing about the book is an advantage because everyone around me seemed to love it!  The show runs through May 21 and tickets may be purchased here.