Skip to main content

Posts

My Family

  My children don't "do" amusement parks; the parks have not been a top priority. But we have one "ride" nearby. It's the Turtle Back Train experience. The train does several things--it does its tasks very well. You get "themed" topiary. (The black bear is dressed in a patriotic hat around the Fourth of July.) You get African vistas; real giraffes seem to wander close to your train. (You can also spot sanga cattle. To me, these descendants of aurochs are the unsung heroes of almost any zoo.) ....After speeding through "Africa," the train makes a sharp turn and soars above a manmade lake (so you may feel you are chugging along the perimeter of Lake Victoria). There are inevitably pedestrians wandering by the lake, and my son, in Princess Di mode, likes to shout, "Enjoy your day!" The final part of the "set" is a model of a ghost town, and here I do think the engineers could have slowed down a bit. They have hastily labe...
Recent posts

Caravaggio

  Francine Prose describes Caravaggio and his interest in miracles. Caravaggio made us aware: that these miracles had transpired neither in primary colors, nor in brilliantly hued paintings of sanitized saints and celestial fireworks, but in dusty streets and dark rooms much like the streets and rooms in which he himself lived. With Caravaggio, we see the Biblical scene, but we also see Renaissance-era Europeans in the act of posing. Caravaggio wants us to know that he is painting "actors" or performers. Many Renaissance images of Mary Magdalene are at least partly erotic; Caravaggio goes another way. His penitent Magdalene is not a Hollywood pinup. She wears contemporary clothing, and her image "avoids pathos and languid sensuality."  Caravaggio's earthiness makes me think of Sondheim: You can pull all the stops out Till they call the cops out-- Grind your behind till you're banned... But you gotta get a GIMMICK... If you want to get a hand... There are cur...

Daveed Diggs, Margaret Cho

  Gregg Araki's "I Want Your Sex" is not history's most original movie, but it's nice to see writers and actors having fun. Olivia Wilde works as a conceptual artist in a noisy, cavernous studio. The noise is a recording of Wilde in the act of masturbating. She believes that the sound is inspirational.  Wilde hires young people to chew gum and stick the sugary detritus on a sketch of Wilde's private parts--this is a work-to-be-auctioned. When interviewed about her art, Wilde says, "I think this entire world is ridiculous, and my reason for working is just that I like money." Wilde hires Philip Seymour Hoffman's son. Hoffman has a vague desire to start a podcast about art--but he feels blocked. (His girlfriend, neurologist Charli XCX, sees art as frivolous--but Hoffman chooses *not* to worry that this is a major problem.) Hoffman occasionally wonders if his world might expand after anal sex; specifically, he might find some philosophical/cosmic ...

Who Should Replace Ariana Grande?

  The heavy-hitters who have played Dot: Audra McDonald, Bernadette Peters, Annaleigh Ashford, Melissa Errico, Ashley Park, Maryann Plunkett, Carmen Cusack, Andrea Burns, Maria Friedman, Talia Suskauer, Jenna Russell. Heather Headley and Michaela Diamond have done portions of the show in concert.  These are big names! One thing that people tend to miss about "Move On." Sondheim was always talking about the marriage of content and form. HOW it's said matters more than WHAT it is. Sondheim's duets were unlike other duets; SS did things beyond the "you sing a verse, I'll sing a verse" format. In Sondheim, voices overlap and become dissonant and then harmonious and then dissonant again. "Move On" begins with an argument. We're used to this. Dot and George cannot see eye to eye. "I've nothing to say." "You have MANY things." But something shifts. D and G begin to articulate thoughts that *complement* one another. From Dot...

On Being a Mom

  Very early in life, my daughter began calling me Mom. Or Mama. Or Mommy. Her brother picked up the habit. The behaviorist who comes to our house finds this troubling. She always issues corrections. Papa. That's Papa. And I'm reminded of a colleague from an elementary school. This colleague would always demand that children use realistic colors in coloring assignments. Flesh could never be green or hot pink. Hair could never be tangerine-colored. I found this tyrannical--and I think I did not make much of an effort to disguise the rolling of my eyes. My daughter seems (at times) to want a world in which everyone is slightly more flexible about gender--and I'm on board. I believe I have persuaded her to wear a dress that advertises prime numbers. A break from the unicorns and princesses. The dress is called "Prime Twins," and it "celebrates" certain pairs. 11 and 13. 41 and 43. Pairs of primes that are separated by exactly one composite number. When my d...

The Simpsons

 Season Nine of "The Simpsons" is special because of "Kicking It: The Betty Ford Musical." This is a spoof that appears in "The City of New York Versus Homer Simpson." Marge wants to travel to 42nd Street. "I've always dreamed of being in an audience in a Broadway show." The musical she selects features a young Justin Bieberesque ne'er-do-well: No more pills or alcohol-- No more pot or Demerol-- No more stinkin' fun at all! I'm CHECKING IN. One might think this is broad satire--but what is brilliant is that "Checking In" features the *exact* "tier" of writing quality that you could expect in a contemporary Broadway musical not authored by Stephen Sondheim. This is the opening of "Wild," a song that is considered a standout in "The Lost Boys": I remember how it used to be... Times were innocent, and love was free. We'd play guitar and dance... Singing...GIVE PEACE A CHANCE! (Frankly, I pr...

On Picture Books

  "The Big Orange Splot" is the story of Mr. Plumbean, who dreams of owning a pet alligator. One day, a seagull visits and spills orange paint on Plumbean's house. ("No one knew why the gull was carrying paint.") Suddenly freed from the demands of conformity, Plumbean begins to realize his dream. He acquires his alligator. (The details of the acquisition are omitted.) At times, the alligator sits like a cat under Plumbean's hammock. At other times, the alligator "basks"; he gets on his back and stretches his webbed toes toward the sky. As in "Grey Gardens," the central pair in "The Big Orange Splot" becomes more and more fond of eccentricity. Mr. Plumbean plants "baobabs, onions, and frangipani." He constructs a clock tower and paints it with rainbow colors. This book seems to be a spiritual godparent to "Extra Yarn," by Jon Klassen. For me, the highlight is the basking alligator.