Another Tree!

I have really enjoyed having my Christmas tree in the living room the past few days.  At first I felt weird about putting it up so early but I think we can use all of the Christmas cheer we can get this year!  I always turn on the lights whenever I am watching TV (I have recently discovered Britbox and I am currently obsessed with British crime shows) and it makes me so happy.  However, I realized that I actually spend more of my time reading upstairs in the loft than I do watching TV and that it might be nice to have a Christmas tree up there, too.  I immediately dismissed the idea as ridiculous but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it!  I bought a little tree and put it up last night!  I love it!

I am looking forward to spending lots of time reading up here with my cute little Christmas tree!

Note:  How do you feel about Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving?  Do or don't?  Apparently people have very strong opinions about this!

Let Him Go

I have been looking forward to Let Him Go since I saw the trailer several weeks ago (I've not read the book by Larry Watson upon which it is based).  I had the chance to see it Saturday night and it was even better than I was expecting.  George Blackledge (Kevin Costner), a Montana rancher and retired lawman, lives with his wife Margaret (Diane Lane), his son James (Ryan Bruce), his daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter), and his grandson Jimmy (Bram and Otto Hornung).  The relationship between Margaret and Lorna is tense and it becomes more so when James dies in a horse riding accident.  It is implied that Lorna gets remarried to Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), in part, as a means to escape Margaret's constant criticism of her as a mother.  When Margaret witnesses Donnie physically abusing Lorna and Jimmy on the street, he suddenly takes them to live with his family in North Dakota and she convinces a reluctant George to go after them to rescue their grandson.  In their search, George and Margaret encounter a young Native American loner named Peter Dragswood (Booboo Stewart) who eventually leads them to Bill Weboy (Jeffrey Donovan) and his sister Blanche (Lesley Manville).  Blanche has no intention of letting her son Donnie and his family leave the Weboy compound ever again but Margaret is just as determined to take Jimmy back to Montana.  I was expecting a Western action thriller but, while there is the requisite shoot-out at the end, it is a powerful character study of two people consumed by grief and regret.  Their characters are developed slowly and deliberately with quiet moments and subtle gestures rather than obvious dialogue.  George buys a bottle of whiskey as Margaret looks on with disapproval to establish that he drinks to mask his sorrow.  Margaret silently packs up the car for the trip to North Dakota without George's knowledge to show that she will stop at nothing once she makes up her mind.  Costner and Lane have great chemistry together and give strong performances but Manville is completely over-the-top and steals every scene she is in.  The interactions between Blanche and Margaret are a lot of fun to watch, even when they become menacing and then violent.  Stewart also gives a powerful performance as a young man traumatized by his experiences at an Indian Residential School and as the personification of Margaret's fears for Jimmy.  I loved the cinematography featuring wide shots of the vast landscape to emphasize the isolation, especially in the scene where Bill drives the Blackledges to the Weboy compound.  This is an old-fashioned Western that is painstakingly crafted, gorgeously shot, and well acted.  I highly recommend it!

Ballet West's Nine Sinatra Songs

One of the last performances that I attended at Capitol Theatre before everything was canceled and everyone went on lockdown was Ballet West's beautiful production of Giselle so I was especially happy to be back there yesterday afternoon for another Ballet West production.  I found Nine Sinatra Songs to be incredibly moving and I absolutely loved all three pieces.  The program began with the world premiere of Tides, a ballet commissioned by Ballet West featuring choreography by Jennifer Archibald and traditional music that is almost primal.  Several different groupings of dancers, both soloists and couples, form intricate patterns pushing and pulling against each other which represent the complicated ebb and flow of human history.  The backdrop alternates between blinking stars in a night sky, the rising and setting sun, and then back to the stars again and the costumes mimic the ocean.  I really liked the athleticism of the choreography and the timeliness of the theme.  The second piece was another world premiere by Ballet West's Resident Choreographer, Nicolo Fonte, called Faraway Close.  This is another powerful commentary on our times with various groups of dancers downstage and other groups of dancers on an elevated platform behind a scrim upstage.  The dancers upstage sometimes mimic those downstage and sometimes they move in opposition to or in reaction to the movements of the dancers downstage.  I loved the imagery of finding a way to connect with people even when you are physically separated and I loved the evocative music by Harry Escott and Max Richter.  Katlyn Addison is one of my favorite dancers in the company so it was nice to see her featured in this piece.  I was particularly excited for the final piece, Nine Sinatra Songs, because I was a little bit obsessed with Frank Sinatra when I was in my late twenties.  His music is used by choreographer Twyla Tharp to showcase various types of relationships through the medium of ballroom dancing.  Emily Adams and Beau Pearson portray glamour and romance in "Softly As I Leave You," Victoria Vassos and Hadriel Diniz portray seduction in "Strangers in the Night," Beckanne Sisk and Chase O'Connell portray the bittersweet end of a relationship in "One For My Baby," Lillian Casscells and Beau Chesivoir portray the awkward nervousness of first love in "Somethin' Stupid," Jordan Richardson and Adrian Fry portray abiding love in "All the Way," Olivia Gusti and Tyler Gum portray a playful fling in "Forget Domani," Beckanne Sisk and Chase O'Connell portray love on the rocks in "That's Life" (my favorite), and all of the couples are featured in two different versions of "My Way" to showcase the ultimate power of love.  I loved the costumes by Oscar de la Renta and I was very impressed by the ability of the dancers to convey so many emotions with just movement (they were all wearing masks so they couldn't rely on facial expressions).  All of these pieces emphasize the importance of connection during difficult times and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I highly recommend this production which runs at Capitol Theatre through November 15.  Go here for ticket information (many performances are sold out but a matinee performance has been added recently). 

Revolution: The Music of the Beatles

It should be no surprise that I love the Beatles so, when I created my Utah Symphony season package last spring, a concert featuring new symphonic arrangements of classic Beatles songs was obviously the first on my list!  However, when I learned that the 2020-2021 season was being re-imagined because of Covid-19, I felt certain that this concert would be canceled in favor of something simpler.  I was thrilled when it was announced that it was still on the schedule and I was thrilled to be at Abravanel Hall last night listening to my favorite songs performed by the Utah Symphony under the baton of Conner Gray Covington.  The orchestra was joined by guest artists Colin Smith on vocals, Zach Jones on vocals and drums, Paul Loren on vocals, Greg Mayo on guitar and vocals, Josh Myers on bass, and Andy Roninson on keyboard.  They didn't particularly look like or dress like the Beatles (as most of the tribute bands that I have seen do) but they sounded great!  They performed fantastic renditions of "Get Back," "Ticket to Ride," "Yesterday," "Penny Lane," "Lady Madonna," "Blackbird," "Eleanor Rigby," "Here Comes the Sun," "Hey Jude," "Come Together," "Something," "I am the Walrus," "Golden Slumbers/ Carry that Weight/ The End," and "Twist and Shout."  The guest artists returned without the orchestra to play "Can't Buy Me Love," "A Hard Day's Night," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" as an encore.  I think that the music of the Beatles is particularly well suited to symphonic arrangements and I especially loved their versions of "Yesterday," "Blackbird," and "Something."  I also loved Travis Peterson's trumpet solo in "Penny Lane."  Listening to these songs was so much fun because it actually felt like a rock concert (I haven't been to one since February) complete with clapping, cheering, singing along, and holding up flashlights on phones!  We may have been a smaller audience than usual but I think we did justice to the chorus of "Hey Jude."  I really enjoyed all of the images of the Beatles (some of which I had never seen before) projected on the screen during each song. The guest artists, who hadn't performed with each other since March, told us how happy they were to be on stage in front of actual human beings and dedicated "Here Comes the Sun" to the crowd.  I loved every minute of this concert (I was actually a little bit sad when it came to an end because I had been anticipating it for so long) and I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here for more information as seating is limited).

Decking the Halls a Little Early

I usually do not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving (I like to celebrate Thanksgiving before I start celebrating Christmas).  However, I was self-quarantining over the weekend (someone in my family was waiting for the results of a Covid-19 test and I thought it best to stay home until I knew if I had been exposed) and, with zero trick-or-treaters at my door, I decided to bring a few Christmas decorations up from the basement.  My sister recently made me this new runner because she knows I like the color black.

After I put the runner out I spontaneously decided to put up my tree!  I didn't have a tree last year because I couldn’t get the lights on the new one I bought to work so I sent it back and didn't get another one.  It made me so sad not to have a tree (I had a few meltdowns) so I bought one for this year a few months ago.  It felt a little bit weird to put up my tree on Halloween but it made me so happy.  A lot of my ornaments have sentimental value to me because I collect them from my travels and I try to buy a new one to commemorate each year (some recent favorites are a Kylo Ren figure and one from Hamilton).

It makes me so happy to sit with just the lights from the tree illuminating the room.  I decided to order a few more decorations (I am a minimalist and don't have a lot) so I bought some pillows and a new tree skirt.

I am loving buffalo checks right now!

I really love the overall effect!  Some people may object to decorating for Christmas so early but it makes me happy and this is definitely a year for doing what makes you happy!

Note:  I’m almost finished with my Christmas shopping, too.