Soul

After opening presents yesterday I watched the new Pixar movie Soul which is now streaming on Disney+.  It is an incredibly clever exploration of the true meaning of life that is funny, touching, and profound.  I really loved it!  Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a jazz pianist who has aspirations of being a professional musician but is stuck in a job as a middle school band teacher.  He gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he auditions for jazz legend Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) and is offered a position in her band.  On his way home to prepare for the gig he has an accident and his soul leaves his body.  Angry that he has died right before his big break, he runs away from the Great Beyond, which is the afterlife, and ends up in the Great Before, where souls get their personalities before coming to Earth.  Joe eventually poses as an instructor and is assigned to mentor 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who has been in the Great Before for many years because she doesn't see the point of living.  Joe decides to help 22 find her spark and is helped by Moonwind Stardancer (Graham Norton), an enlightened soul who sends them both to Earth, and is pursued by Terry (Rachel House), an accountant who is obsessed with finding the missing soul in her count.  As Joe helps 22 find her passion through a series of adventures with his mother Libba (Phylicia Rashad), his neighbor Paul (Daveed Diggs), his barber Dez (Donnell Rawlings), and his student Connie (Cathy Cavadini), he also learns the importance of living life to the fullest.  I loved the message that the journey itself is just as important as the destination and that you shouldn't get so caught up in achieving a big goal that you miss out on the little things that give life meaning.  I loved the character design, especially the shape-shifting line drawings (they reminded me of Cubist paintings) used for the mentor souls because they are the physical manifestations of a theoretical construct and the almost amorphous shapes of the new souls because they have not yet developed any characteristics.  Finally, I loved all of the humorous pop culture references (as with most Disney and Pixar animated movies I think this is actually much funnier for adults than for children), particularly the commentary on 22's former mentors Mother Teresa, Copernicus, Mohammad Ali, Marie Antoinette, Abraham Lincoln, and Carl Jung.  I also laughed out loud over a reference to Tetris!  This movie is even better than I thought it would be (there is an amusing twist about midway through that I wasn't expecting) and I highly recommend it.

Note:  I am not a huge fan of jazz music but I enjoyed the songs composed by Jon Batiste, especially the music performed by Joe when he is in the "zone."  I also loved the ethereal score, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, used in the Great Beyond and the Great Before.

Christmas 2020

I was given very strict instructions by Sean to be at my parents' house by 8:00 yesterday morning to start opening presents and I made with a few minutes to spare!  He was a bit excited!  We always take turns opening presents one at a time, starting with the youngest (Sean) to the oldest (my Mom), so it takes a couple of hours but it is so much fun.  It is also tradition to have cinnamon rolls and orange juice while we open.

Sean got a bunch of new games and, after we opened presents, we didn't see him again for the rest of the day because he was downloading and playing them.  Tashena's big present was an Apple watch and now I think I need one!  I got a new rolling duffel bag, a puffer jacket that folds into a small bag, a Hydro Flask, some winter boots, and some more DVDs for my Alfred Hitchcock collection.  If I am actually able to go to Iceland next year I am all set!  My Dad gave everyone $50 which is a tradition we have had since my sisters and I were really young (Sean already bought another game online).  In the afternoon we had a wonderful Christmas dinner with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pomegranate salad, rolls, and vegetables with dip.  We took a break and then had another game of Shanghai rummy.  I didn't come in last place this time but it still wasn't pretty!  It was a really nice Christmas!

Monster Hunter

I thought my nephew, an avid gamer, would want to see Monster Hunter with me since it is based on a popular video game but, apparently, he thinks the game is really stupid so he declined my offer.  He gave me a very detailed explanation of why he doesn't like it but, frankly, I didn't understand most of what he told me and I thought the movie sounded interesting so I saw it last night.  I should have listened to him.  A group of U.S. Army Rangers led by Captain Artemis (Milla Jovovich) go in search of a missing unit in the desert.  A sand and lightening storm transports them to another world where they find what is left of the missing unit and then what killed them.  After an intense battle with a giant monster, Artemis is the only member of her unit to survive.  Soon she encounters a mysterious Hunter (Tony Jaa) and, after they realize that they are allies rather then enemies, they join together to fight one of the biggest monsters.  Up to this point, I was willing to suspend my disbelief and just go with what was happening even though there was very little exposition, character development, or plot because I liked the goofy camaraderie between the Ranger and the Hunter (who do not speak the same language) and I liked the fact that it takes both her advanced weapons and his more primitive ones to defeat the monster.  I also liked the design of the monsters and the action sequences are a lot of fun even if the editing is a bit choppy.  However, in the third act everything goes off the rails when the two of them meet the Admiral (Ron Perlman) and his band of pirates (and a cat that acts like a human!) who were also transported to this alternate world in the prologue.  He provides a bit of an explanation and then they all embark on a mission to get Artemis back home which necessitates fighting another terrifying monster.  The tone is so wacky in this act that it seems like an entirely different movie (I rolled my eyes when the cat made an appearance because it seems so out of place).  The final action sequence (with the coolest monster in the movie) ends so abruptly that it is obvious the filmmakers are trying to set up a possible sequel but let's hope it doesn't come to that!  I can definitely enjoy an escapist action movie as much as the next person but this is just so bad (people in my screening were laughing out loud by the end of it).  I will never doubt my nephew again!

Gingerbread Houses 2020

On the Sunday before Christmas Marilyn and I have a tradition of making gingerbread houses with Sean and Tashena so that is what we did last night.  This is so much fun because we always have a few mishaps and we usually eat more candy than we put on our houses!

My house sort of turned into a Peppermint Palace.

Tashena meticulously piped all of the snowflakes on her house and I think it turned out so beautiful.

Sean just does his own thing and I love it!

I love the snow on Marilyn's house.

Our Gingerbread Village!

I love how they all turned out this year!

We Need a Lot of Christmas Concert at CPT

For the second weekend in a row I found myself at CenterPoint Theatre for a Christmas-themed program! Last night, twelve incredibly talented performers, including Sterling Allen, Darin J. Beardall, Daylen Bills, Paul Dixon, Emily Erdman, Annie Ferrin, Kyra Furman, Mailee Halpin, Michael Hernandez, Isaac Larsen, Kacee Neff, and Jana Plowman, presented an evening of Christmas songs from Broadway and the silver screen. As someone who absolutely loves hearing Christmas music performed live, I thoroughly enjoyed this concert! The program included "Spirit of the Season" from The Polar Express, "We Need A Little Christmas" from Mame, "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" from Miracle on 34th Street, "12 Days to Christmas" from She Loves Me, "Somewhere In My Memory" from Home Alone, "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from How The Grinch Stole Christmas, "Snow" from White Christmas, "Silver Bells" from The Lemon Drop Kid, "Christmas Is My Favorite Time Of Year" from Catch Me If You Can, "The Christmas Song" from Jingle All The Way, "One More Sleep 'Til Christmas" and "It Feels Like Christmas" from The Muppet Christmas Carol, "A Christmas Song" from Elf, "New Deal For Christmas" from Annie, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me In St. Louis, "Happy Holidays" and "Holiday Inn" from Holiday Inn, and "White Christmas" from White Christmas. The stage was decorated like a winter wonderland with pine trees and giant snow flakes, the costumes had a very retro feel with lots of plaid and cardigan sweaters, and every number was creatively staged to mimic its counterpart from the stage and screen with the addition of a few props and a bit of choreography. My favorite numbers were "12 Days to Christmas," which added three tables filled with perfume to represent Maraczek's Parfumerie and manic choreography featuring customers trying to do their last-minute Christmas shopping (I absolutely love this show), "One More Sleep 'Til Christmas" and "It Feels Like Christmas," because they featured puppets (the children sitting in front of me lost their minds when they started singing), and "White Christmas," because it concluded the concert with snow falling on the stage and an audience sing-along just like in the movie (one of my favorites). The entire show had the feel of a performing arts Christmas program at a local high school in a small town where everyone in the community attends and I really loved that. It provided a bit of nostalgic Christmas cheer at a time when we could all really use it! Unfortunately, last night was the final performance of this show.