Sunday I am going to see Xanadu on Broadway. In preparation for this, last night, my Honey and I sat down to watch the movie. This movie was made in 1980 and starred Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly. It definitely lived up to expectations as one of the worst movies ever made. However, the music is fantastic, many of the songs became hits for Olivia Newton John and ELO. The music is the reason we are going to see the show.
The story line sounds fine on paper. Olivia Newton John plays a muse who comes alive and convinces a young artist to help a retired musician realize his dream of opening a night club. The same muse appeared to this musician as a young man. So who is the muse really there for? The elder or the younger? Doesn't really matter, she helps them both.
Gene Kelly plays the older musician, and he looks great. In the theatre production his role will be played by Tony Roberts, another favorite of mine.
The sets, the costumes, the dance numbers are all ridiculous even for 1980. Even though I was a teenager when this movie was made, I identify more with the Glenn Miller style music, costumes and dancing as envisioned by Gene Kelly in the movie, than with the jarring 1980 rock, silly costumes, and unimpressive dancing envisioned by the young artist.
My Honey heard that some critics blame this movie for the decline of the movie musical. Wouldn't surprise me. Actually, I am more excited to see the show on Broadway, now that I have the music fresh in my head. I think the story is supposedly refreshed, and as a theatre production, Xanadu will outshine the movie.
I will let you know! Tune in next week!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
“There are little pockets of old time in London, where things and places are the same, like bubbles in amber,” she explained
“There’s a lot of time in London, and it has to go somewhere – it doesn’t get used up at once.”
from Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
I loved this book. I read it at the urging of Carl V. on his blog, Stainless Steel Droppings. He is a big fan of Neil Gaiman, and now I understand why. I figured we must have an overlap in taste, since I was a huge fan of Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat books when I was a teen.
Neverwhere is the story of a young man living in London in modern times, who gets caught up in the mysterious world beneath London. He helps a young woman named Door, who has the magic ability to open portals (doors) where there are none. His act of kindness has unexpected ramifications. This story is very absorbing. It is a dark fantasy novel laced with subtle humor, with enough similarities to others in this genre to make it comfortable reading, but enough differences to make it interesting and new. I didn’t want it to end, and I wonder if there is a sequel?
The descriptions of the places and characters in London Below were great. The descriptions of the depraved acts of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar were truly horrifying, and not for the squeamish. I would have liked to learn more about the character, Door, who is the impellent force behind the story. I thought there was a lot of unexplored potential (I am sure it was deliberate) with this character. Of course the fact that many people call me Door (nickname), and I the fact that I would love to have a magical power, may bias me towards this woman.
I had read one of Neil Gaiman’s books Anasai Boys, a couple of years ago. I liked that book, but for some reason it didn’t make me want to run out and read every book Gaiman ever wrote. Neverwhere struck a more of a chord with me, reminding me of the fun reading I did when I was a teen, and nothing would distract me from the story at hand. I will definitely be reading more Gaiman in the near future.
I took this book out of the library, but I will definitely be buying a couple of copies, one to keep, and one to send to my family to read. Thanks, Carl!
from Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
I loved this book. I read it at the urging of Carl V. on his blog, Stainless Steel Droppings. He is a big fan of Neil Gaiman, and now I understand why. I figured we must have an overlap in taste, since I was a huge fan of Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat books when I was a teen.
Neverwhere is the story of a young man living in London in modern times, who gets caught up in the mysterious world beneath London. He helps a young woman named Door, who has the magic ability to open portals (doors) where there are none. His act of kindness has unexpected ramifications. This story is very absorbing. It is a dark fantasy novel laced with subtle humor, with enough similarities to others in this genre to make it comfortable reading, but enough differences to make it interesting and new. I didn’t want it to end, and I wonder if there is a sequel?
The descriptions of the places and characters in London Below were great. The descriptions of the depraved acts of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar were truly horrifying, and not for the squeamish. I would have liked to learn more about the character, Door, who is the impellent force behind the story. I thought there was a lot of unexplored potential (I am sure it was deliberate) with this character. Of course the fact that many people call me Door (nickname), and I the fact that I would love to have a magical power, may bias me towards this woman.
I had read one of Neil Gaiman’s books Anasai Boys, a couple of years ago. I liked that book, but for some reason it didn’t make me want to run out and read every book Gaiman ever wrote. Neverwhere struck a more of a chord with me, reminding me of the fun reading I did when I was a teen, and nothing would distract me from the story at hand. I will definitely be reading more Gaiman in the near future.
I took this book out of the library, but I will definitely be buying a couple of copies, one to keep, and one to send to my family to read. Thanks, Carl!
Friday, April 20, 2007
"The chicken thought process, it struck me, was not essentially different from the human one."
"I could imagine a life in which at any moment, I might drop everything and scurry towards some tall fuzzy object that I had reason to believe might toss me a cheese puff. And when the cheese puff did not appear, I could imagine forgetting it almost immediately, distracted by the ground with its tasty red worms and soft leaves of clover. That way of life was not inconceivable to me."
from Frankland by James Whorton Jr.
I just finished this book. I had it on my list to read from 2004 and finally got around to requesting it from the library. They have really improved my local library functionality by allowing you to request an inter-library loan online, and calling you when they get the book in your branch. I don’t remember where I heard about the book, but from now on I will try and note the referral source in my TBR list when I add something.
Anyway. I liked this book. It was light, amusing, absorbing, and a quick read. I liked it because the storyline was not the same old same old. I really liked the characters. The main character is a young man named John Tolley. John doesn’t totally have his act together, like a lot of us. He does know what he wants, unlike a lot of us. What he wants is to become a famous historian, by writing a book on President Andrew Johnson. Nobody is interested in Andrew Johnson. John travels to Tennessee to find some missing papers which will allow him to upset the academic world’s knowledge of Andrew Johnson. The story is about John’s journey and the interesting people he meets along the way. John is a bumbling sort of guy, but had a strong moral compass, and a stubbornness that carries him along. I would recommend reading it when you are in the mood for something amusing, pleasant but not earth shattering or difficult. I am glad I met John Tolley, and you probably will be as well.
from Frankland by James Whorton Jr.
I just finished this book. I had it on my list to read from 2004 and finally got around to requesting it from the library. They have really improved my local library functionality by allowing you to request an inter-library loan online, and calling you when they get the book in your branch. I don’t remember where I heard about the book, but from now on I will try and note the referral source in my TBR list when I add something.
Anyway. I liked this book. It was light, amusing, absorbing, and a quick read. I liked it because the storyline was not the same old same old. I really liked the characters. The main character is a young man named John Tolley. John doesn’t totally have his act together, like a lot of us. He does know what he wants, unlike a lot of us. What he wants is to become a famous historian, by writing a book on President Andrew Johnson. Nobody is interested in Andrew Johnson. John travels to Tennessee to find some missing papers which will allow him to upset the academic world’s knowledge of Andrew Johnson. The story is about John’s journey and the interesting people he meets along the way. John is a bumbling sort of guy, but had a strong moral compass, and a stubbornness that carries him along. I would recommend reading it when you are in the mood for something amusing, pleasant but not earth shattering or difficult. I am glad I met John Tolley, and you probably will be as well.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Mary Rose: a Ghost Story
A week ago Saturday My Honey and I went to see a preview performance of Mary Rose at the Vineyard Theatre in New York. The play was written by J.M. Barrie (well known for Peter Pan) in 1920. It is a haunting tale of a woman who disappears, and the impact it has on her family. The play is wonderfully staged with a Narrator embedded in the action, adding to the surreal quality of what happens. I read somewhere (maybe the playbill?) that J.M. Barrie’s plays have so much written into them you really need a Narrator to capture some of that color in the staging. I interpret that to mean it would be a fascinating read.
Spoiler
I am going to expand on the story a bit, which may spoil it for those who plan to read it or see it. If you want to avoid that - skip this section. The play shows the reaction of some ordinary people who have to deal with an extraordinary situation. Mary Rose’s parent dealt with her disappearance of 20 days by sharing it with her prospective husband years later when he asks for her hand. They then have to deal with her second disappearance. She leaves behind a young child and distraught husband. Her parents deal with it by living in the here and now, the everyday. Her husband throws himself into his work. The boy runs off when he is about 12. You never really know what happened, what undercurrents of unspoken angst cause the boy to run off. You learn he has joined the army.
When Mary Rose reappears again 25 years later, she hasn’t aged at all. Mary Rose doesn’t understand what happened or why everyone else has aged. She is looking for her child. Eventually they all pass on, and Mary Rose becomes a ghost still looking for he child, however she has long forgotten what she is looking for.
I think the ending is rather nice. The soldier, Mary Rose’s grown up son, has come to the house where his mother lives/haunts, and tries to find out what happened to her. He shows obvious compassion for the ghost/mother who has no idea who he is. There is a message here. There are many messages here. What I like about the writing is that, even someone like me, who can never read between the lines, is able to get some of it. It isn’t farcical or blatant, but still obvious enough at some level. It isn’t just a mystery, but a study in human nature.
End of Spoiler
My Honey and I went into NYC early to hit a few tea shops in preparation for our tea party (see previous post). We didn’t have as much luck finding cool stuff as we usually do, but the play certainly made up for that. The theatre is “off Broadway” and located downtown in the bottom of a building. The stairs are somewhat steep, and the theatre was drafty. One poor woman almost fell down the stairs when her foot got stuck in her coat hem. As I was on the stairs right in front of her, I got a shot of adrenaline with the fear. Can I catch her? Will she go over the railing? Luckily she was able to catch herself on the railing, and I just gave her a hand getting untangled. Whew!
Back to the show. We loved it. We were sitting in the front row, and felt very close to the action. A real theatre experience. The story has definitely been echoed in later works – I am thinking of Picnic at Hanging Rock (in my opinion one of the scariest movies ever made), and my Honey was thinking he saw echoes of several Hitchcock films. A bonus for my Honey – the Narrator was played by Keir Dullea, who played the main character “David Bowman” in 2001: A Space Odyssey. We hung around after the show, and Mr. Dullea was nice enough to autograph the copy of the DVD we brought along.
Spoiler
I am going to expand on the story a bit, which may spoil it for those who plan to read it or see it. If you want to avoid that - skip this section. The play shows the reaction of some ordinary people who have to deal with an extraordinary situation. Mary Rose’s parent dealt with her disappearance of 20 days by sharing it with her prospective husband years later when he asks for her hand. They then have to deal with her second disappearance. She leaves behind a young child and distraught husband. Her parents deal with it by living in the here and now, the everyday. Her husband throws himself into his work. The boy runs off when he is about 12. You never really know what happened, what undercurrents of unspoken angst cause the boy to run off. You learn he has joined the army.
When Mary Rose reappears again 25 years later, she hasn’t aged at all. Mary Rose doesn’t understand what happened or why everyone else has aged. She is looking for her child. Eventually they all pass on, and Mary Rose becomes a ghost still looking for he child, however she has long forgotten what she is looking for.
I think the ending is rather nice. The soldier, Mary Rose’s grown up son, has come to the house where his mother lives/haunts, and tries to find out what happened to her. He shows obvious compassion for the ghost/mother who has no idea who he is. There is a message here. There are many messages here. What I like about the writing is that, even someone like me, who can never read between the lines, is able to get some of it. It isn’t farcical or blatant, but still obvious enough at some level. It isn’t just a mystery, but a study in human nature.
End of Spoiler
My Honey and I went into NYC early to hit a few tea shops in preparation for our tea party (see previous post). We didn’t have as much luck finding cool stuff as we usually do, but the play certainly made up for that. The theatre is “off Broadway” and located downtown in the bottom of a building. The stairs are somewhat steep, and the theatre was drafty. One poor woman almost fell down the stairs when her foot got stuck in her coat hem. As I was on the stairs right in front of her, I got a shot of adrenaline with the fear. Can I catch her? Will she go over the railing? Luckily she was able to catch herself on the railing, and I just gave her a hand getting untangled. Whew!
Back to the show. We loved it. We were sitting in the front row, and felt very close to the action. A real theatre experience. The story has definitely been echoed in later works – I am thinking of Picnic at Hanging Rock (in my opinion one of the scariest movies ever made), and my Honey was thinking he saw echoes of several Hitchcock films. A bonus for my Honey – the Narrator was played by Keir Dullea, who played the main character “David Bowman” in 2001: A Space Odyssey. We hung around after the show, and Mr. Dullea was nice enough to autograph the copy of the DVD we brought along.
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