*NCAA Update: Welllll, not bad. Five of the Elite Eight, half of the Final Four. Underestimations, other than Gonzaga: Temple, Purdue. Overestimations: Utah, Stanford.
*Viewing: "Clerks" -- of a piece with "Suburbia" and "Slacker," I suppose, with the pseudo cinema-verite/real-time approach. Kevin Smith's writing is, perhaps, calculatingly outrageous, especially the combination of Extra Challenge Words with colloquialisms ("I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am"), but great to listen to.
March 20-21
*OD and I attend Banbury Cross comrade's bar mitzvah, at which I commit a faux pas when the ceremonial candy is distributed ("Ah, how nice: a little pick-me-up," thinks I, immediately eating it).
*Viewing: "Beyond Silence" -- a movie of hands and eyes, especially Howie Seago, whose silent glower is like few others in modern cinema. Whereas Seago's Martin challenges, and is challenged by, the speaking world, the heartbreakingly beautiful Kai is more accepting, more forgiving. Ending a little pat, but doesn't diminish the whole.
March 18-19
Happy Birthday to my best beloved, celebrated in appropriately low-key fashion, entreaties of children notwithstanding. A high point is long-awaited viewing of "There's Something About Mary," which inspired unprecedented gales of laughter on her part. Look, any film casting Jonathan Richman as a strolling minstrel (a la "Cat Ballou"'s Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole) has got something going for it.
March 15
Viewing: "Zardoz" -- thing is, this was probably taken with quite some degree of seriousness when it came out, perhaps viewed as a somewhat more intellectual "Planet of the Apes." In any case, whatever redeeming social value it could've had for me was hard to sustain after the scene in which a man is tried for "emanating a bad aura." Possible subtitle? "When New Agers Go Bad"
March 14
*Viewing: "Digging to China" -- Kevin Bacon and Evan Rachel Wood will get most of the attention for this one, and deservedly so, but there's no overlooking Cathy Moriarty and in particular Marian Seldes, who brings to her role a sort of resigned gentleness -- the affection she displays toward Ricky in one scene is subtly heartbreaking. And if I were Harriet, no way I'd let my kid go to a conventional school.
*My NCAA brackets are tinged with plenty of red, thanks to Southwest Missouri State, Oklahoma, Temple and Gonzaga. As a result half of my Sweet 16, and one-quarter of my Final Four, have been consigned to the slag heap.
March 13
Banbury's skit, meshing morris dance with "Hamlet," goes off well at the annual Non-Tour dinner pary -- although overall good vibes of evening offset by casualties of early-adolescent rambunctiousness. But los ninos come through again, bless 'em all.
March 12
(Big exhalation) A week which surely could inspire legislation for the 30-hour day: Banbury Cross matters, deadline craziness at the office, and our usual etceteras. Ah well, I sit back to enjoy Day 2 of the first round of the NCAAs, 10 and 6 on predictions thus far.
March 7
There are few parent-related activities better than escorting two kids whose friendship almost matches their life spans. This day's venture was to the Children's Museum, which I am able to enjoy even more now that I no longer have to sprint after my charges. We spent most of our time in the Japanese exhibit, where YD and chum practically exhausted the karoake booth, and I indulged in viewings of anime selections and videos of allegedly popular music acts (qualification included because of time passage since installation); struck most by Kome Kome Club's "Peeping Tom," which recalls Devo and Thomas Dolby with occasional David Byrne-like references.
March 5
*Viewing: "City of Angels" -- Premise was certainly good enough, although the suspension-of-disbelief became sorely tested after a while -- as LW noted, watching Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage going shopping, "so, does everyone else see him, too, or does she just look like a real weirdo talking to herself?" Cage was all right, but not as much seraphical as hang-dog. Actually, it's the supporting actors, specifically Andre Braugher and especially Dennis Franz, who make up for the film's shortcomings.
*Conflict raging in the Scottish National Party as to the appropriateness of whether it's appropriate for politicians and officials to wear kilts at government or party functions. An even more potentially divisive battle might be looming, though: What's to be worn underneath the kilt.
March 4
Viewing: "Farinelli" -- Best pair of dysfunctional, co-enabling brothers on screen since Beverly and Elliot Mantle ("Dead Ringers")? Time-shifts back and forth at beginning muddle things, but visually and, especially, auditorially sumptious. Also liked depiction of opera halls as boisterous, partisan nightclubs.
March 3
Revelations. Deal with them as you wish:
*Mom sends e-mail from Kurdistan, noting that they have a popular candy bar there named "Nan" -- which happens to be her preferred grandmotherly appellation.
*I've decided that "Law and Order"'s Steven Hill sounds uncannily like the Simon Bar-Sinister character from "Underdog."
Feb. 27-8
Sport and culture: Managed to get in a bit of moderately satisfying sledding before the big melt came, and after more Marxist indoctrination ("A Night at the Opera") for the kids, we headed over to watch Newton North High level BC High in basketball tournament preliminaries.
Sunday found us at an over-too-quickly jam session and dinner party, which among other things served to stoke our yearning for a proper good bouzouki.
Feb. 26
*Viewing: "Career Girls" -- Yes, more of the nervous tics and mannerisms which have become, like it or not, a Mike Leigh motif. But here they're used as a means of contrast, and measure of personal growth. The string of coincidental encounters with their "ghosts" is a bit much to believe, but undeniably add to the story. At the end, you can't help but share at least a little in Ann and Hannah's emotion.
*Leave it to Liverpool: In recent Newsweek, we learn that John Moores University's brochure apparently proclaims undergraduate drinking as a featured activity, noting that the city's compactness makes "staggering from bar to bar" quite easy.
Feb. 20
An audio-video kinda day. Tracked down another Eliza Carthy album at one library, and found Maddy Prior's latest, "Flesh and Bone," at another. (Details to follow at a later date) After treating OD to "Horsefeathers," I later had a viewing of "Party Girl" -- shoestring yet stylish, and vice-versa, a fun and unlikely bit of boosterism for the library profession. Parker Posey's Mary is a more-than-adept antecedent to Marion, and the Mary Bailey in George Bailey's alternative universe.
Feb. 18
Roger Clemens to the Yankees. A Stephen King TV miniseries climax. Must be a connection.
Feb. 17
Books completed:
*"Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie -- splendidly economical blend of dead-pan wit, despair, fantasy and all-too grim reality. As evidenced by "Smoke Signals" [see Jan. 29-31 entry], he can also translate his work effectively to film...and lets hope he does again.
*"The Famine Ships" by Edward Laxton -- not the Robert Hughes/"Fatal Shore" treatment, but these are stories that really do need to be told, since the Great Famine and, in particular, the subsequent diaspora have gradually become the stuff of legends. Focusing on the journey itself, and all the machinations thereof, makes the experience all the more vivid. The reproduced passenger manifests make for an interesting insight into the whims of clerical categorization: Designating a 16 or 18-yr-old as a "spinster," for example, or indicating a 10-yr-old as a "child" but a 12-yr-old might be considered a "laborer."
Feb. 16
Sorting out the reason why my office computer wouldn't play audio CDs (for an embarrassingly simple reason), plus Newton Free Library's astounding collection, has resulted in some very enjoyable lunchtime listening: Eliza Carthy, Richard Shindell, the new Tannahill Weavers album, and an interesting compilation of English "roots" music, ranging from Billy Pigg to Billy Bragg. Reports forthcoming later.
Feb. 15
A political cartoon waiting to happen: Kenneth Starr as "Storm of the Century"'s Linoge: "Give me what I want, and I'll go away."
Feb. 12-14
Pleasantly warm weather inspires a couple of well-needed trips to park, as well as excursion to local skating rink (where I impulsively applaud the Zamboni machine after it concludes its rounds). Mostly, just quiet.
Viewings:
*"Ridicule" -- or, perhaps, "Vince Foster in the Court of King Louis." Actually, it does serve as an astute parable of Enlightenment-era PACs, interest groups, lobbyists and consultants, and their lingua franca. Also, good attention to socioscientific period detail -- the advent of deep-sea diving, for example, and humane treatment for deaf-mutes.
*"Hope Floats" -- competent enough pick-up-the-pieces yarn. Sandra Bullock does a decent enough job tolerating the indignities and humiliations of coming home, and Gena Rowlands more than satisfies the kooky-but-nourishing mom role. The real star, though, is Mae Whitman -- almost frightenly down-to-earth, and her outburst towards the end is truly heartbreaking.
Feb. 10
Glad to see John Cleese has received appointment as visiting professor at Cornell. Now, if we could only get Les Barker here for a sinecure...
Feb. 9
Local political campaigner pledges a strong effort to end the "viscous cycle of hate." Think we're talking about a whole other kind of chemistry.
