Shakespeare and Spark Notes

I just finished reading The Merchant of Venice yesterday and besides the seeming anti-Semitism it's a good show. While reading Shakespeare's history plays I got in the habit of reading a synopsis of the play after finishing it to see if I had it all straight in my head, a few plays back I discovered Spark Notes (SN) and I wish I had found it when I first started reading my way through Shakespeare, it's really a great resource. The SN page address the antisemitism in this play and shows that in the context of the plays of Shakespeare's time he actually presents a human side to what would be considered a stock character (the evil Jew). It's this Jew (Shylock) that utters the now famous line, "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?" So while Shylock is the heavy in this show and is stereotypical he also elicits some sympathy. Another point that SN highlights that I completely missed is the possibility that Antonio (the title merchant) has a repressed homosexual attachment to the lead male, Bassanio. The female lead, Portia, is a great character and according to SN one of Shakespeare's first strong female roles. It's neat to note that the three main women of the show go in drag at one point or another, a regular Shakespearean device, which would have been very funny in his time since, of course, all the female roles were played by men. So you had men playing women dressed as men. In the end all is well and everyone is happy and in love, except for poor Shylock and Antonio.

Book, book, play: kind of like duck, duck, goose but without the running.

It's been awhile since (I saw your face) I've blogged and almost as long since I've read others blogs. So I've just read about ten blogs and now I'm posting one of my own. In the past couple weeks I've finished reading two books and a play - Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar, and Shakespeare's Love's Labor Lost. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu or as the translator of the copy I read believed the title is actually Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching and it is a collection of old Chinese proverbs (that one about the man with a hole in his pocket wasn't in there) that fall into the Taoist tradition. I read this after reading, and really liking, the Tao of Pooh and while there are some really great pearls of wisdom within it's pages there's also a lot of double talk, the kind you might find in self-help books written by would be sage's. In the introduction the translator says to understand the Tao Te Ching you have to know something of the time when it was written and goes on to explain that it was a time of political upheavals in China and that to find yourself on the wrong 'side' could mean literally losing your head, this is why the Tao Te Ching says to be like water always taking the lower but wearing away the harder and higher. Taoism has three gems (tenants) that are expressed in the Tao Te Ching - compassion, moderation and humility. Sounds like some pretty good gems to me.
   Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein is an overview introduction to some of the great names of philosophy and there main thoughts. According the the authors jokes and philosophy have much in common they both have a set-up and a pay off and they both try to shock us into seeing the world a little differently. The two writers use jokes to illustrate and explain some of the main thoughts and branches of philosophy. It was a really enjoyable book I wish I could remember have of what I read in it, my only complaint is that it wasn't longer. I would loved for them to have spent a little more time on each person and thought. I thought I'd share a couple of the jokes that I can remember- A man wants to get married but can't decide which of three women he's been seeing to propose to so he gives each woman a thousand dollars to see what she'll do with it. The first women goes and gets a new do, makeup, manni-petti, and new clothes and tells him it's all so she can look good for him. The second women goes out and buys lots of presents for the man and says making him happy is what makes her happy. The third women invests the money and makes big on it and tells him she's investing for their future. So which one did he marry? The one with the biggest tits of course. (I can't remember what point that was illustrating but I thought it was funny.)
      (This one isn't politically correct, sorry) Two Jewish men are walking down the street when they see a sign in front of a Catholic church that say's they'll give a thousand dollars to anyone who'll convert. One of the guys decides to go in and see what it's all about. The other guy waits on the sidewalk for a very long time, finally the guy that went in comes out. The guys on the sidewalk says, "Well? What happened?", the other guys says, "I converted." so the guys on the sidewalk says, "Did you get the money?" and the other guy says, "Is that all you people think about?" (This one was illustrating an Reductio ad absurdum.)
    One more and I promise I'm done with this book - An 85 year old man goes to his doctor and tells him his younger wife is pregnant and he's not sure how it could happen at his age. The doctor says let me tell you a little story, a man decides to go bear hunting but on the way out of the house he grabs an umbrella instead of his gun, he finds a bear, raises the umbrella and shoots, and the bear is shot and killed. What would say to that? The old man says, "I say someone else must have shot the bear." "My point exactly." says the doctor.

   And now the play Love's Labors Lost by ole Bill Shakespeare, the first of the comedies I actually enjoyed. The humor is mostly made of wit and biting sarcasm, Shakespeare would have been great at a Friar's Roast. The play center's on three men and their king vowing to study for three years forsaking all other things, including love. So of course they are visited by a princess and her ladies in waiting and all fall madly in love. At first I thought the women were being royal (pardon me here) bitches but then you learn they thought the men wooed them in jest and both parties verbally dismantle the folks who try to put on a show for them. Eventually all is resolved and the women promise to wait for the men if they make there vows true (but only for a year, not three.)

It's Kind of a Funny Story - movie review.

 I don't often do movie reviews but most movies don't touch me the way this one did, so I thought I'd share. It's Kind of a Funny Story is a coming of age story about a young man, Craig, under pressure (there's a cool scene in which that song is sung) who is contemplating committing suicide and ends up checking himself into, somewhat accidentally, a mental ward. In broad strokes you know where this film is going, have probably seen others like it but it's in the finer strokes that this film really shines. So yes Craig makes friends in the Ward, one of which is a romantic interest, Noelle, and one is a fellow inmate mentor/guru, played wonderfully by Zack Galifianakis and there's the cast of unusual characters who become part of Craig's life as he faces triumphs and setbacks and eventually break throughs. The finer strokes lends this movie credibility and makes the viewer feel connected to the characters and their trials. I think all of us, at least I know I do, sometimes feel we can't handle the pressures of life, that we are overwhelmed and under prepared for the many and diverse challenges that simple being born brings. There have been times when I wished I could lock myself away from life, either in a mental ward, or a hermitage. I'd hate to admit the number of times I've fantasized of dropping off the grid and buying a small one room cabin and subsistence farm or when I'm not so ambitious in my escapism daydreams I ponder a life of agoraphobia. I don't believe I'm alone in sometimes feeling the squeeze and Craig comes to find this out as well, yes there are problems in every life we just all have to try and find our way to deal with them. Another thing I enjoyed about this film is that it uses some neat visual effects to externalize Craig's internal feelings. Some films need to be 'real' but it's great that a film like this will use different visual styles, film is a visual media, you can do things in a film you could never do in a play or in a book, so I like it when a film shows you something unexpected visually. Just so long as it fits the story and doesn't get overplayed that is and this film did it right. In fact it did most every thing right, striking a good balance of comedy and drama, realism and pie-in-the-sky optimism. It was never over the top, even Galifianakis, and it left you feeling good, feeling that while there will always be pressure there will also always be ways to cope.

We Were the Mulvaneys; a book review.

"We were the Mulvaneys, remember us?... For a long time you envied us, then you pitied us." These lines from the opening of Joyce Carol Oates magnificent story of family, family lost and family found, sum up the novel wonderfully. I feel like this novel deserves more than the meager review I can give, it needs a paper or thesis, there's so many subtexts and issues dealt with and it packs such an emotional wallop, bordering on  maudlin at times but thankfully never crossing over into Sparks territory. Corinne the matriarch of the Mulvaney clan is an antique lover, supposed dealer but she can seldom part with her finds, she especially loves clocks. Every room of High Point Farm, where the Mulvaneys lived was filled with clocks, no two keeping the same time much like the members of the family themselves, each marching along to his/her on tick-tick-tick. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but the fact that the only clock that was know to have the 'right' time was the one Michael Sr.'s, the father of the tribe, friends had giving him. Michel Sr.'s self-made life depended so much on how he felt society saw him and that turned out to be one of his biggest faults and one of the biggest drivers of the conflict in this story. I don't want to give too much away because I really hope others will read this book so let me gingerly out line it for you. This great, picturesque all-American family (Michael Sr., Corinne, Micheal Jr., Patrick, Marianne, Judd and a host of dogs, cats and horses) live on a great, picturesque all-American farm (High Point Farm) in upstate New York. The family seems blessed and lucky hence the narrator (Judd, the youngest Mulvaney) saying you may have envied us, until something terrible happens to one of the family members and the family begins to fall apart (and then you pitied us). One of the underlying messages of the book is that our lives are not entirely our own, our decisions, our actions affect everyone that loves us. In fact you could say that the burden of love is caring about what happens to others. When something terrible happens to a member of this close-knit family it has a jarring effect on all members of the family. The terrible thing that happens though isn't even really the time and life redefining moment, merely the event that starts it, the real tragedy is a decision to try and save the family that just rips it apart. You just feel like screaming at the characters- "No! No! No! Don't do it, how can you?" I think one of Oates' greatest achievements in this book is making you care so much for the characters, early on you fall in love with Corinne and the farm (the farm is as much a character in the book as the people) and when things start falling apart Oates pulls away from Corinne and the farm, their always in the back ground but others now take center stage. That pulling back has an emotional impact on the story, you love Corinne yet your mad at her and that relegating her to the back ground for awhile emphasizes and compounds those feeling. Like I said this book is masterfully written. Each of the characters lives take different twists and turns as none are willing or able to really cope with what happened, not for a while any way. A lesson you can take away from this book is that life changing events, even terrible, horrendous, unfair events, events that leave families filled with impotent rage can lead to good things. It reminds me of the bible verse- All things work together for good for those that love the lord- but in a less celestial way - all things work together for good for those that will continue to live.

Feeling fine

  Driving down the highway with the sun bathing me through the sun roof, listening to one of my all time favorite albums, Chris Issac's San Fransisco Days. Steering wheel fitting snugly into my hand as if they were molded one for the other, cruising down the fast lane of life while Issac plays his west coast rockabilly/jazz and hits those falsettos. Zened out, living completely in the moment, I was most definitely feeling fine.

Broccoli Dreams

I had a very strange dream this morning, I must have been nearly conscious because I remembered it very vividly upon waking. It started with me having walked away from work, angry or frustrated by something and wandering through some sort of concourse, a type of amalgamation of a Turkish bazaar, a large mall and Times Square. I ended up in an almost empty theater sitting near the top snacking on something, I don't remember what, as the theater slowly began to fill. There were a group of service men in naval uniforms but by and large the auditorium was filling up with heavy set middle aged or older women. I found myself sitting amongst a sea of estrogen. As we waited for the show, I didn't know what or who was performing/being performed, we could hear loud music coming from outside the theater, it was something by the Beastie Boys. Some of the women started to complain and I began to defend the Beastie's saying how much their music had meant to me when low and behold the show begins. It's Margaret Cho doing stand-up only Margaret looked like Christina Applegate in a svelte, sparkly blue dress and she was doing a big song and dance production all about... broccoli. Yeah, I know. So some time after the performance she's (Margaret/Christina) talking to the audience about getting our 5 servings of fruit/vegetables a day and I told her I ate lots of veggies, especially broccoli as it's a superfood. She asked what I'd had that day and I was doing good until I remembered I'd had bacon and eggs for lunch and so had the kids and then the crowd turned kinda holier than thou feminist/left wing/vegetarians on me. Somewhere around here I lost the thread of the dream and awoke and remembered the dream and then just shook my head.
        As an afterward while at the grocery store today they had broccoli spears (is it spears, or bunches, or heads, or branches, or a murder? no that's crows) two for three dollars so don't think I didn't drop two bunches of branches in my buggie. After all, broccoli is a super food.

Reviews and well more reviews (Fluke, some Shakespeare, Sucker Punch...)

Okay a bit of random reviewing, first off -- Fluke, Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by the talented and hilarious Christopher Moore. Not only is Moore a very funny writer but he has a gift for creating memorable characters, ask any of his fans and they'll recount some of their favorites (Kendra Warrior Babe of the Outland and Theo, Tucker Case and Roberto, Biff and Josh just to name a few) and this book is no exception. There's Nate and Amy and Kona and Clay and Clair and a few others, each one coming to life on the page. This isn't one of Moore's funniest books, it had laughs but not as many lol moments as some of his others but I really liked the kinda sci/fi element of the book. It starts off as a save the whales, eco-adventure with lots of 'action nerds' as Nate likes to say and then descends (like 600 and something feet below sea level) into a semi-Apocalypse Now thiller/sci-fi/comedy. I don't want to give too much away but I can't help but bastardizing one of my favorite Hemingway quotes-- Sometimes a story about a fish is just a story about a fish but other times a story about a fish is really a story about bio-mechanical submarines. lol (I'm probably the only person that finds this amusing but damn it it's my blog so suck it.)
Next review Henry the VI the trilogy by Bill Shakespeare. Henry the VI was sort of a mamby-pamby (at least Shakespeare's rendition of him) his pops, Henry V, was a warrior that conquered France and rallied the troops -Once more into the breach- but died of dysentery (I believe it was) and left his young son to be king. The three parts of Henry VI are really more about the war of the roses than about Henry and about how the Lancasters lost out to the Yorks and Edward the IV declared himself king only to eventually be replaced by that humpbacked abomination and royal pain in the ass Richard III but that's the next play. These plays can be a little tricky to follow, sometimes you just have to go with it, so many of the characters are know by different names and sometimes even change names as titles are being bandied about. It makes you wonder how England didn't collapse on itself the way the different houses warred over the crown.
Now for a quick couple of movie reviews- Sucker Punch, my 15 year old and I went and saw this and while he really liked it I thought it was just okay. It wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I wanted to be blown away like I was with the first Matrix movie or with 300 and this looked to be a visual wonder but so much of the surreal action scenes looked just like a video game. There were some grand visual moments even so, one shot of Baby Doll barley clearing the fire of a fire breathing dragon and then a shot down her samurai sword as she turns it in the air and brings it to bear on the dragon was really cool. The story had potential and the twist or sucker punch near the end, while not real surprising, was pretty cool. I liked the narration at the end, I don't believe it gives anything away to repeat it, I don't remember it word for word but the gist of it was that it was up to us to fight our fights and that we had all the strength we would need.
Burlesque- with Cher and Christina Aguilera as a burlesque club owner and a waitress /dancer want-to-be. Parts of the movie were predictable Christina gets her big break, things look rough for awhile and then it all wraps up with a big hollywood happy ending. But predictable isn't always bad and there were even a few times when it didn't go the way you would think and that was nice, but really the best part of the movie were the dance scenes. The most incongruous moments were when Cher and Christina sang big power-ballad solo's that, while sounding really nice, didn't really fit within the story but ego is ego and ego must be fed.
Finally in the review category- The Switch - with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Talk about predictable, just another romantic comedy that while enjoyable will run together with others in your head till you can't remember what happened in which one. Aniston seems to like these kinds of movies. Over all it was pretty good, although it did get on my nerves for awhile when Bateman's character can't tell Aniston how he really feels until the most inappropriate moment to do so, big surprise.
Enough with the reviews, I've got  one more thing to share if any one is still reading. The whole time I was reading Fluke and even before really We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates had been giving me the siren call. I would walk by and look at my bookshelf and it always pulled my eyes to it, beckoning me to read. I don't know what it is about this book that's captivated me but I know as soon as I finished Fluke I picked it up and cracked it's spine and dove right in with a bit of an electrifying thrill. I've not heard much about the book nor do I know much about the author but I'm hooked so far, I'm just a chapter or so in but I'm enjoying it to this point. I just hope it isn't too melodramatic, that's my fear. I'll let you know.