Conflicting Holiday Art

Because of the art I exposed myself to over the holidays, I now find myself feeling conflicted.  And yet I had a very enjoyable holiday, including two weeks off from work.

 

What were these conflicting influences I subjected myself to?

First, I was finishing up listening to “Bebop Spoken Here,” a four-CD collection.  From there, I went on to “Doo Wop Box 2,” another four-CD set.  Meanwhile, I listened to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet, and participated in a “you-sing-it” Handel’s Messiah.

Meanwhile, I was reading The Bell Jar and looking through two biographies of Sylvia Plath; and continuing my study of the “Beat” writers—specifically, I saw the new film “Kill Your Darlings,” about the killing of David Kammerer in 1943.

I suppose it was the Doo Wop and the biographies that made me realize how conflicted I was feeling.

After all, the Bach and the Handel and the Tchaikovsky— that music is such a standard background for the holidays.  It forms the standard background noise of the season—along with the Christmas carols we start hearing in November or even October now.  And I’ve been immersed in the Beat material for years—even “Kill Your Darlings” barely raised an alarm with me.  After all, I’ve played through the audio recording of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (same basic story) several times now.

And I’d read The Bell Jar before, long ago; I knew the basic story.

But I didn’t know very much about Sylvia Plath herself, other than how she ended her life.

To read about her, with the background noise of the Beats—contrasting drastically with the syrupy doo wop—now that was a set of conflicting emotions!

Film Review: Cole Porter’s Can-Can

I remember seeing this film when I was perhaps eleven years old; I saw it with my mother.  And since bought the soundtrack album, I soon memorized the songs.  That would be about fifty years ago!

I hadn’t seen the film since then.  I found a few clips on YouTube, but the reviewers were not kind and I figured it had never been put on DVD; then I found it on Netflix.

It was enjoyable and entertaining.  I did have quibbles with the characterizations; Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra both seem to fall into obvious traps in the course of the story; but the sets are beautiful, the dancing is great (Hermes Pan was the choreographer), and I love being immersed again in the Belle Époque 1890s of Paris/Montmartre.  Toulouse-Lautrec walks past in the opening sequence, and midway through the film Shirley MacLaine rips in half a sketch he has left on his café table when he doesn’t have the money to pay his bill.

Consider that the book for this musical was a plea against censorship, written during the McCarthy era.  The film appeared in 1960.  Nikita Khrushchev was allegedly offended after watching the can-can on set.

Many people complained that they couldn’t imagine Frank Sinatra playing a Frenchman; I wonder if they could imagine him as an Italian!  He’s paired with two definite Frenchmen:  Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan.  Curiously, no one seemed to complain that they couldn’t imagine Shirley MacLaine playing a French woman!

I did enjoy this film.  I notice that when people were sworn in the trial scenes, they did not say “So help me, God.”  I noticed the various ways that Sinatra pronounced his French.

It might surprise people to learn that censorship actually was an issue in 1890’s Paris.  Many groups worked for the “suppression of Vice.”  Maybe it wasn’t so different in the United States of the mid-twentieth century.

This being a Cole Porter musical, however, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the censors are won over by the art.

Review: “You Again”

A week or two back I watched “You Again,” a 2010 film my daughter liked but my wife didn’t much care for.  It had quite a cast:  Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Betty White…  My daughter is a fan of Kristen Bell and wanted me to see her in a movie (I’ve seen a few clips of her online)

 

I thought it was interesting, actually—a little long, but interesting; mostly, I suppose, for sociological reasons.

The premise is that Marni (Kristen Bell) was a total picked-upon in high school.  Now, eight years later, her brother Will (James Wolk) becomes engaged to Joanna (Odette Yustman)—the girl who tormented her.  When they get together for the wedding rehearsal, Joanna doesn’t recognize Marni.  Nevertheless, Marni decides to sabotage the engagement.

Turns out that Joanna’s aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) always felt one-upped by Marni’s mother Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Gail never realized that Ramona felt one-upped—so she never felt the need to apologize (indeed, should she?)

Joanna, on the other hand, fully understood what a total heel she had been in high school; after graduating, she became involved in various humanitarian causes.  Nevertheless, when Marni demands an apology for the way she treated her in high school, Joanna replies very superficially.

Which is the first problem for me.  Joanna realized years earlier what a jerk she was, and changed her life; but now, faced with one of the results of her earlier bad behavior—the sister of the man she supposedly loves—she is flippant.  I didn’t quite accept this in the character.

I realized also that, because of my own personal history, I was never badly bullied in school.  It’s a challenge for me to believe these characters, either the bullied or the ones bullying.

But I still found this an enjoyable and (as I said) interesting film.

The Film I Didn’t Watch: I Spit On Your Grave

My wife being a fan of (preferably bad) horror movies, she is working her way, this holiday season, though lists of scary movies; first the list from our local paper, then random movies (I guess) that she’s stumbled over on the web.

So she ended up streaming “I Spit On Your Grave.”  This was the original 1978 film, not the 2010 remake.

I don’t share her tastes so I’m not watching any of these films.

But I do stick my head into the room from time to time.  Every time I looked in on “I Spit On Your Grave,” the young blonde protagonist was being raped by a different man in the gang that had been following her.  Much later, the protagonist was finishing off one of the men by tying him to the outboard motor on her motor boat, and turning on the engine.

I now discover this film has a history.  Graphically violent, it has been attacked for being misogynist and praised for being a feminist revenge film.  I just thought it was (in the scenes I saw) disgusting.

Curiously, though, I once held the idea that art should be graphic.  If you are dealing with a disgusting topic, “show, don’t tell.”  Show them how disgusting it is!

I’ve grown more subtle (and compassionate?) over the years.  I no longer feel the need to nauseate.

NaNoWriMo Did Me In?

I attempted National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time this year.  Last year, I just did random writing every day I could manage, but this year I actually wrote the draft of a novel—50,000 words plus.  And I started from scratch (I had previously written about 400 words on the idea, but I didn’t use them) – I had an idea, that’s all.
 

Three weeks in, I had to stop to work on some financial reports I do as treasurer of our writing group—lost four or five days of writing; but I made that up.

Still, the month rather “did me in.”  I have not been here.  I missed you, blog!  And I missed the sense of sharing something with my friends.  But I’m back, with new ideas—just in time for the holidays!

Meanwhile, I have been reading:  Finished Felice Picano’s book Ambidextrous.  Now I’m rereading The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath; and a biography of Plath to learn more about her.

Both books quite interesting—and I’ll be saying more about them!  Also watched the film A Good Year, with Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, and Albert Finney.

Also saw Kill Your Darlings, in the theater.  This experience was reminiscent of a year ago when I saw (finally!) the film of On The Road.  But more of these later.

Listening to music, as always; mostly, the four-CD collection “Bebop Spoken Here.”  But then, for some reason, I decided it was time to catch up on Rock—so grabbed “Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits” at the Sunnyvale library.  Not to abandon Jazz, though—I picked up “Tommy Dorsey’s Greatest Hits” at the same time.  Now I’m back on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  It’s been an incredibly busy December—nine meetings/events in eighteen days! 

But now, some peace and quiet, hopefully:  I’m taking time off work.  Today is my last work day until Monday, January 6, 2014!