Recent viewings:
*"Pleasantville" -- clever, poignant and thought-provoking. Not so much a diatribe against The Fifties, or even the fallacies of TV's warping of reality, as it is a meditation on the uses, and abuses, of nostalgia. The casting of Don Knotts was subversively, wickedly funny.
*"Little Man Tate" -- the head-vs-heart conflict motif would seem to put this on an all-too-familiar path, but Jodie Foster wisely steers just off to the side in depicting the shortfalls in Tate's relationship with his two mother figures. The tone of the climax also prevents it from being too much of a torturous "feel-good" movie.
*"Patch Adams" -- good story, horrendous script. Even Robin Williams doesn't seem quite comfortable mouthing the platitudes he's been given to say. Far more shades of gray needed here.
June 18-27
Vacation starts with annual volunteer stint for Color Day at kids' school, most of which I spend schlepping and assisting rather than braying and directing, as well as presiding over one more Banbury Cross gig. Father's Day includes a trip to the NE Aquarium with YD, and later on a visit to a session at Gaelic Roots, where step dancers of all ages and sizes flit about while us musicians pound out the tunes.
Most of the week is divided between basement and apartment-cleaning, and coordinating kids' heavy social calendar, which comprises end-of-school-year parties, sleep-overs and general hanging-out. On the Day After, OD and chums actually spend close to an hour in the school bidding farewell to teachers and staffers -- and acknowledging a certain wistfulness about the year's end. Not that they're ready to throw over summer vacation, of course...
In midst of intolerable heatwave, we head off to Albany for the weekend and our by-now familiar day at Old Songs. LW and I befriend a terrific Yorkshire-Irish trio, Sherburn, Sherburn and Bartley, with whom we spend time playing, talking, joking and laughing until near dawn on Sunday. On our way out, we discover the main front gates locked, briefly prompting the fear of being trapped on the festival grounds 'til opening time (and therefore no choice but to continue playing and singing) -- until we discover secondary gate is open.
Back home, tired and heat-oppressed, we discover OD's little anole has sadly fallen victim to this seemingly unending Bermuda High. Life, change, music, death, all within a 10-day period.
June 12-13
*Lovely, nondescript early summer weekend. Saturday is a day of card-playing (Crazy Eights and Hearts) and visiting yard sales with a close-to-the-apron-strings older daughter. (PS: yard sale nets a cheapo TV and two entries for The Dumb, Stupid Baseball Hat Page). Sunday is a very brief Banbury Cross gig, followed by early evening lobster dinner and humidity-induced vegetative viewing of:
*"If...," which judging from the Internet Movie Database is drawing inevitable revisionist analysis in the wake of Jonesboro and Littleton. Have to admit, the climax does make one tense up in a different way than it might've a few years ago, but the life/art comparison just doesn't work, at least not completely: different era and -- more important -- far different culture and background. On a more mundane note, the choral number repeated several times throughout is on my list of Things To Identify.
June 10
Viewing: "Phenomenon" -- follows the "Flowers for Algernon" path to a somewhat uncomfortable degree. It's the cast that makes this work, especially the supporting roles by Robert Duvall and Forrest Whitaker (easily one of the most underappreciated actors around).
June 7
Boston Globe article notes that the Bangor, Me. airport has promoted itself as an emergency landing site for passenger flights dealing with cases of "air rage." Three cases mentioned in the story all involved unruly customers from Manchester (UK). Perhaps a sister-city program might be in order here?
June 6
(Fairly) recent musical acquisition: Charming Hostess -- this one courtesy of office colleague. Delightfully bizarre and left-fieldish combinations of Balkan-style singing with rock and jazz-flavored accompaniment, but at turns indescribably beautiful -- especially the spiritual at the very end (unfortunately, I don't have a track listing so it's hard to point out specific favorites).
June 5
Very enjoyable picnic and music session in Arlington, unfortunately cut short somewhat by my apparent new-found sensitivity to pollen, mold spores, et al. But at least I may have made some progress on the latter parts of "Tune for a Found Harmonium," which of late has been my Holy Grail of session tunes.
June 4
We experience a bit of the Grave New World order in school vigilance, as a discovery of one of YD's nonsensical song parodies -- "We Wish the School Would Blow Up," to the tune of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" -- prompts perfunctory notification from principal. Generally, an innocuous event -- hey, I remember as a 4th grader drawing pictures of WWII tanks laying waste to Claverack Elementary School -- but one of those things which make you shake your head and say, "Too bad."
June 1
Viewing: "Georgy Girl" -- good companion piece to "The Knack, and How to Get It" (see April 2-3 entry), only this one has more conventional, home-spun values peeking through the depictions of those Halcyon Days. And, my, was Alan Bates young then...
MemDayWknd
Begins with giggle-laden excursion Friday afternoon to local mall with OD and three comrades in celebration of her half-birthday. Ah, pre-teen girls: from intense, sophisticated discussions on classroom politics to chaotic games of "Red Rover." Most of Saturday is spent fervently cleaning up around house, with unexpectedly satisfying bit of lawn-mowing tossed in. Sunday the girls and I hit the beach at Nahant, where YD and I anthropomorphosize a sea-snail's life and times. Monday is out-of-nowhere summery, and OD and I take advantage of free admission at the Museum of Fine Arts, where she impresses me -- and even herself ("I never thought all that stuff from social studies would come in handy") -- with her insights into ancient Egyptian burial customs and attempts at deciphering hieroglyphics.
Viewings this weekend include "Waterworld," which does nothing to confirm Kevin Costner as a premier action hero for our,or anyone else's time (Dennis Hopper and Tina Majorino fare much better), and "Star Trek: Insurrection," which feels alternately disjointed and mailed-in, for all F. Murray Abraham's scenery-chewing.
May 25
Astounding. We're about halfway through 1999, and as far as is known, there hasn't yet been a made-for-TV disaster movie about the Y2K bug: "The ATM! It won't work! I'll have to actually go in the bank and speak to a teller! Nooooooooooooo."
May 24
Recent musical acquisition: "Hourglass," by Kate Rusby -- having a good set of pipes to start with certainly doesn't hurt, but the choice of material, and spare yet interesting arrangements (her piano on "Annan Water," John McCusker's fiddle on "Radio Sweethearts") make this easily one of my recent favorites.
May 22
Middlesex Day of Dance v.1999 serves as reminder as to why one gets involved in this morris anyway. Superb weather, good cheer, rigorous dancing, and an all-too-brief singaround afterwards overlooking the ocean from a comfortably enclosed porch.
May 21
*Pot-luck family supper at elementary school offers a how-far-we've-come epiphany: still plenty of familiar faces, but not as many as before. Twelve months from now, we'll all be preparing to bid it adieu (unless something very unforeseen happens).
*A farewell far too early: "Homicide: Life on the Streets" hangs up the badge and closes down The Box. Few shows have depicted perception as a tool, a science and an art-form as effectively as this one did.
May 20
A day's leave to start putting house in order (physically, spiritually and emotionally) is well-spent. More to come, I hope.
May 17
Book completed: "A Shred of Evidence," by Jill McGown -- quite enjoyable English-provincial-cop type mystery, although the plot twists -- clever they may be -- render the solution a tad unlikely. Yet the underlying theme of adolescents as a nation unto themselves seems quite prescient.
May 15-16
Another full morris weekend. Saturday brings the Ginger Ale in Harvard Square, as Banbury Cross, Hopbrook and Velocirapper give a more-than-good account of themselves, while Lilac Sunday offers full day's worth of activity (which I am feeling as I write this 24 hours later) with Middlesex.
Saturday also includes family viewing of "Ever After," some of which I miss because of various domestic duties. Rather more nuanced and off-beat retelling, what with a sympathetic step-sister and a Renaissance artist-cum-godmother. Angelica Huston's evil stepmother, meanwhile, shows a compelling shade of gray here and there.
May 11
Another before-I-forget: Can't let the passing of Shel Silverstein go unmentioned. Stumbling upon a copy of his innocently subversive "ABZ Book" at age 9 was a pure delight, and his jokes got better as I got older.
May 10
Leftover from last week: Attended fascinating
press conference with Rev. Raymond Helmick, SJ, who accompanied Jesse Jackson to Yugoslavia to secure the freedom of the captured American soldiers. I've interviewed him several times for different stories, but his experiences and insights never cease to amaze.
May 8-9
Laughter continues as we have family viewing of "A Bug's Life," which is indeed -- as a film critic whose name I'm forgetting at the moment -- an insectized reworking of "Seven Samurai." Great animation and creativity abound, as do terrific voice characterizations; Kevin Spacey's "Do I look stupid to you?" should be the '90s "You talkin' to me?"
Midway through Mother's Day, we get the news that Allison and Renie have welcomed Katy (sp?) into the world at a very healthy 7 lbs.-15 oz. A special MD it is.
May 7
Where do these weeks go? Very quickly in the rear-view mirror, driven by Too Much Stuff. But tonight we four slow down a little, order Chinese take-out and share some well-needed laughter.
