"Tricky Dick" or Frosty-Lost(y)...

Today's blog is a jumble of things...Last night's episode of Lost; and my attendance at the Boston premiere of "Frost/Nixon" (the play).

First of all, last night's Lost was truly a home run. It combined two of the more mysterious characters on (and off) the island: Richard Alpert, the seemingly never-aging, yet ever present man-about-the-Island, and Charles Widmore, Penny's dad and (apparently) one-time cohort of Richard himself back in the 1950s. Add in a little touch of island intrigue -- just where did that H-bomb come from? -- and you've got yourself a recipe for TV deliciousness.

My prediction: this H-bomb, which was ensconced in an A-frame tower very similar to the one used in the John Adams/Peter Sellars opera Doctor Atomic, needs to be protected, right? Well, Daniel Farraday said that it was corroding and claimed that the Others (pre-Dharma) needed to enclose it in lead and concrete. My guess is that the Others, since there's most likely a shortage of concrete and lead on the Island, will take it to the Temple -- that hitherto unseen location on the Island where the Others (post-Dharma) went to hide from the Boatpeople.

Other thoughts:
1) Who was that Other guarding Farraday and why did she look familiar to him? Was it, perhaps, the girl that he supposedly rendered comatose in Oxford with his time-space continuum experiments? It was hard to tell from the photo that we saw, but all things are possible on Lost, aren't they?

2) I love Miles' ability to speak to dead people...his reading of 4 dead soldiers early in the episode helped Farraday to pinpoint the era (1950s) so that he was able to convince Alpert about the H-bomb.

3) We had another illusion to the uber-mysterious Jakob. Who is this guy/spirit/deity/mapmaker?

4) I just love the time travel...will we be informed about the other, older mysteries on the Island? I'm talking about the Black Rock -- that whaling/slave ship from the 1890s -- and the Adam-and-Eve skeletons back in the Cave? What about Rousseau's expedition?

5) I'm a little tired of the "Oceanic Six." We had a whole session devoted to their exploits back on the mainland, and frankly, I'm sick of them. Give me all Island, all the time...

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"Frost/Nixon"

Two nights ago I went to see "Frost/Nixon" -- not the movie, but the play. It opened here in Boston, on Tuesday, and starred Stacy Keach as Frank Langhella as Richard Nixon. Although his performance was satisfying, I couldn't stop comparing his rather stocky body to the guy presiding over the marriage in that (fantastic) movie, Beetlejuice.

But, back to the play: as you know, it is about a series of interviews the British talk-show host turned journalist David Frost obtained from Richard Nixon -- Nixon's first interviews after Watergate. Apparently the play takes a few liberties from the exact interviews, but it nonetheless creates a narrative that is intriguing. By the end of the play, the audience sees a detente between the two men that were prior combatants, and you can easily begin to understand the actions on both sides.

The set is dressed to remind you that the initial format was TV: a giant screen hangs atop the stage and shows a closed-circuit video feed of the actual stage production. This produces an effect where the audience is torn between watching the stage and watching the screen; a not-so-subtle reminder that TV is all powerful...Nixon obsesses about his appearance; after his disastrous "sweaty debate" debacle with Kennedy, Nixon continuously wipes his brow and lip, and asks many times to fix his collar.

The climax of the play centers on Frosts ability to get Nixon to apologize; and it's in this moment that the huge TV comes to life. Instead of staying on the full body shot, which they've used throughout the entire play, the camera closes in tight on Nixon's face as it's clear that he's agonizing about his role in Watergate. This creates, at least for me, a very sympathetic portrait of the ex-President.

My two quarrels with the play are technical...First, every actor/director knows that the first rule of stage direction is that you -- as an actor -- need to open up your body to the audience. Now, I was sitting in the center section -- my normal seats! -- and, half of the time, characters were talking upstage!! Perhaps they were just lazy, or it was their first night in a new theatre, but for whatever reason I spent a majority of the show watching people's backsides. The second half of the play is set around the TV/interview stage setting, which emphasizes just two chairs -- center -- so perhaps the actors are used to standing aside and watching the action, but it's no excuse.

My other complaint concerns the actual structure of the play. To make it cohesive, the playwright uses voice-overs as narration and I just think it's lazy. Frost hires a coterie of assistants to prep for his interviews, and one of these assistants is charged with connecting the dots, so to speak.

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My dissertation year fellowship is due on Monday. I've spent the past few days rounding up the necessary items: transcript; ABD certification; and letters of recommendation, or at least letter of recommendation. I'll spend the weekend polishing up my first chapter and the prospectus that I've created...I think it'll be a pretty good looking proposal -- once it's all done!

"...this rebuke to the exemplary..."

"In a triumph of the middling, in a nod to mediocrity, and with gorge rising, it gives me great nausea to announce Robert Russell -- Bingo Bob, himself -- as your New Vice President.

This lapdog of mining interests is as dull as he is unremarkable, as lackluster as he is soporific, this reversion to the mean, this rebuke to the exemplary, gives hope to the millions unfavored by the exceptional. As the vice-presidency was once being famously described as not worth a bucket of spit, let's all hock a big loogie for Bob Russell.

Not the worst, not the best -- just what we're stuck with."

This scene, from The West Wing's fifth season -- and the episode, I believe, is either "Constituency of One" or "Han" -- is fantastic. I love how Sorkin portrays writers, and writing! In fact, his discussions of the writing process are one of my influences in my writing.

I really enjoy my morning doses of West Wing: my DVR is set to tape any West Wings that appear, and Bravo has been showing them two at time from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. So, I eat my oatmeal and watch a West Wing...I love it!

Anyway, I discovered that in the episode "Constituency of One" Sorkin uses a joke that he later recycles in an episode of Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip.* The joke goes something like this:

A jewish guy calls his mom.
He says, "How are you, mom?"
She replies, "I'm starving; I haven't eaten in 60 days."
The son asks, "Why haven't you eaten in 60 days?"
The mom replies, "I didn't want my mouth to be full in case you called!"

I like this joke...it seems more appropriate for the relationship between my mother and my brother; I, on the other, call my mother every Sunday like a good son -- right, mom?

* This is one my best friend's favorite straw-man arguments concerning Aaron Sorkin...hey Sarah, just cause he repeats himself doesn't mean that he's a bad writer! I said, just cause he repeats himself doesn't mean that he's a bad writer!

"The Soul of Philosophy, or Orpheus and Euridice"

First of all, ain't that the cutest little Taruskinian* title you've ever heard? Last night, TW and I went to hear the Handel and Haydn Society perform a concert version of the above-named opera. This little known opera is quite the little chestnut: it was written in 1791, right before Haydn went off to London, and despite getting paid to compose it, Haydn never saw the opera staged...seems like the cultural bureaucracy of London was a little disorganized and didn't grant the proper permits to stage the production.

I know that most of you know of Haydn (he's my dissertation topic, by the way), but I bet you didn't really think of him as an opera composer. That little shit -- Mozart -- stole a lot of the operatic thunder at the end of the 18th century. This opera, in particular, has a lot of precedents: the Orpheus myth is pretty much the oldest opera in existence.**

Last night's conductor, Sir Roger Norrington, is pretty much a rock star in the world of hip music. That's right, a Haydn opera written in 1791 is considered hip -- as in, Historically Informed Performance. He controlled an orchestra that featured historical instruments, such as Baroque flutes and clarinets, string instruments played with no vibrato, and my favorite: cellists with no endpins!

But last night's highlight was Sarah Coburn, as Euridice. She handled the coloratura passages with aplomb, and she's a looker to boot. Her partner, as Orpheus, Andrew Kennedy over-gesticulated a little too much for my taste. Maybe I'm a little biased, but I thought the music was on par with any Mozart opera out there...check out it and come back to me. I'm sure you haven't heard any Haydn operas, so it might take a little while. Good things come to those who wait...

In a slightly different cultural experience, TW and I went to see "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans." This prequel to the "Underworld" series was pretty entertaining; it was pretty violent, but when you're talking about vampires and lycans.*** We're both in the mood to re-watch the earlier movies now to see how they connect up to the prequel.

Haydn's Orpheus and a vampire flick in 12+ hours; not too shabby...

* Richard Taruskin is one of those people that knows juuuust how smart he is; he often titles his article with 2+ clauses, such as: "“Chernomor to Kaschei: Harmonic Sorcery; Or Stravinsky’s Angle,” JAMS 38/1 (1985).

** Something about the lyre, or something -- I'm not really sure why...

*** In case you don't know, lycans are man/werewolve mixes that originated as slaves to the vampires.

I can't go to Heaven or Hell or Asia...*

Ha...I love it. First there was this article about Yo-Yo Ma's carbon cello. "Why carbon, you ask?" Because he'll be playing in very cold temperatures, and a carbon cello will do just the trick. But today we come across this tasty little morsel:

"No one’s trying to fool anybody. This isn’t a matter of Milli Vanilli,” she [Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies] added, referring to the pop band, stripped of a 1989 Grammy because of its lip-synching, that became synonymous with the practice."

Really, no one's trying to fool anybody there Carole? I didn't watch this live, but I don't imagine they made some sort of announcement that the music was 'pre-recorded.' So it turns out that that fancy carbon cello was just for show. How many times do you think Milli Vanilli and Yo-Yo Ma get discussed in the same context? I LOVE IT!!!!

In other news, LOST premiered two nights ago. I was totally on fire (although not from a flaming arrow) in my predictions: 1) I called, almost down to the exact dialogue, that Daniel Farraday would that the camp wasn't gone, but that "it hadn't been built yet;" 2) I also called Ana-Lucia pulling Hugo over...totally called it! And I absolutely loved the woman in the cloak working on physics problems on a chalkboard with the pendulum swinging in the background.

I find that this show is completely engaging, and its more esoteric aspects really appeal to me. The fact that time travel is an integral aspect of the show now, which has been foreshadowed from the very first episode, is pretty good. Now that the flash forwards started to appear right at the mid-point of the show, I'm in awe of these writers -- they are fantastic.**

I'm going to see a Haydn opera tomorrow night (hand to God!), and then hopefully TW & I will be seeing the Underworld prequel on Saturday -- TW just loves a good vampire story...

*This was my favorite line from tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy. The whole broken penis story line, coupled with the whole Izzy sleeping the Denny thing, has pretty much illustrated that Grey's Anatomy has jumped-the-shark, so to speak, or in modern parlance, moved-the-island.

**I'm a sucker for palindromes (See the Act III interludes music from Lulu!).

43-44

It's no mystery around my corner of the internet that our current president wasn't my first choice in election '08. I supported his (just confirmed today!) choice for sec-of-state, but whatever...I'm totally on board. It will be fun watching (seemingly everybody and their brother) people soon realize that 44 is just another politician. I came to this realization once I read one of the New Yorker's bio pieces about Chicago's impact on 44's life. The extent of my inaugurational commentary is this: try to find Jon Stewart's joke about Cheney and the wheelchair -- hilarious!*

My own political impressions have been influenced lately by Jeffrey Toobin's book The Nine. In it, he tells the story of the Rehnquist court, which had the most stable tenure of any collection. Toobin writes of all the big cases: Roe v. Wade and its subsequent cases; Bush v. Gore; Hamdan v. Rumsfield; and many others...and he writes about them with a fluidity and ease that makes reading this book almost like reading a novel. Bush v. Gore is especially heartwrenching, for me, and it definitely takes a toll on the judges as well, or at least some of them.

Did you know that we had a Supreme Court justice named "Learned Hand?" Go figure...

I'm tearing through this book, so the big question is: what to read next? Do I go fiction or non-fiction? Do I read about food or the Middle East or John Adams? I'll open the floor for suggestions, but make sure you pick from my list.

* Other observations: wow, did you see 41 hobbling around the stage? Holy crap! Also, the oath of office was pretty hilarious: what, did neither of these guys look over all of three sentences they had to repeat? I did better at my wedding...

Another day, another snowstorm...

Sitting here at the computer, it's very pretty to look out and see 8+ inches of snow covering everything. Yesterday morning, as I was driving into work during the heart of the storm, it was not so pretty. It seems now that every Bostonian w/a plow believes that he owns the road -- relax there, Tiger, you do not get a license to continuously stop and start, back and forth, all the way down the street; just because it's snowing out doesn't mean that you own the frackin'* road.

In honor of the work I've already done this morning (2+ hours, and 1 car shoveled out), I'm including a little RBOC** action:

• On Saturday, TW and I spent some hard-earned cash at Crate&Barrel. Actually, it wasn't hard earned and it wasn't cash: it was a gift certificate leftover from our wedding...anywho, we ended up getting a whole range of stuff:

1. A Dutch Oven by Mario Batali. We lucked out because right next to the $89.95 red one, there was a green one that was identical in everything but color and price ($59.95). Green's great, in the cart...
2. A number of footed soup bowls perfect for Onion Soup (because they are broiler safe).
   
3. A bitchin' vase that was totally a splurge, but I like it and it just happens to match a Marc Rothko print that we have in the front room.
   

• MLK moment: in preparation for our dreaded downgrade into economy cable land, we've been watching a number of documentaries around the house lately. Of course you remember my blog imploring you all to find "HELVETICA" online, right? Well this one was just as good: "The Night James Brown Saved Boston," was about a concert, at the Boston Garden, that James Brown gave on the night after MLK was assasinated. The mayor, Kevin White, initially wanted to cancel the event but was convinced that a cancellation would do more harm than good. Many interviews are spliced into the actual footage of the concert, which by the way, pre-empted a production of Anton Checkov's Uncle Vanya starring Lawrence Olivier...
• We're currently watching another documentary, also by [i]ndependent lens, called "Wordplay," which is about crosswords and the editor of the NYTimes crosswords Will Shortz. If you enjoy doing even the easiest of puzzles, you'll love this documentary.
• I think we've had about 4 snowstorms this winter with at least 8+ inches each times. This means that on the plus side, we've had a white blanket of snow on the ground since about December 20th; on the negative side, WE'VE HAD A BLANKET OF SNOW ON THE GROUND SINCE DECEMBER 20TH!!!! I'm a little tired of it all...

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The last few weeks have seen me hard at work on my little fellowship application. It's coming along quite nicely, although I'm haunted by the terribly small faculty. We currently have 3 professors: 1 of whom is my advisor; 1 that I haven't had a class with, or TA'ed for, or even spoken to in 2+ years; and 1 brand-spanking new professor that I couldn't even pick out of a lineup. So, I'm hoping prof. #2 checks his e-mail and recognizes my name because I need a letter of rec ASAP...


* That's right, TW and I are now watching Battlestar Galatica -- albeit four seasons behind; we are loving, by the way!
** Random Bits of Crap, in case you missed the memo...

"Answers me these questions three..."

Bridgekeeper: "What is your favorite name?"

Gallahad: "Sir Gallahad of Camelot"
Bridgekeeper: "What is your quest?"
Gallahad: "To seek the Holy Grail"
Bridgekeeper: "What...is your favorite color?"
Gallahad: "Blue. NO yel...aaaagh!"

In response to my good friend Al's top ten list, I've included mine below:

1) Singin' in the Rain; I mean, come on: Debbie Reynolds is as cute as a button in this movie, and it's incredible to watch her try to keep her own with such greats as Gene Kelley, Donald O'Connor and Cyd Charisse -- wowsers, great legs on that one! The songs are great, the dancing is great: overall, it's a great piece of film history.

2) Star Wars; speaking of film history, Daa-Daa, da-da-da-DAAAA-da, da-da-da-DAAAA-da, da-da-da-daaaa (that's the opening credits music, by the way...I couldn't get the rights from John Williams ((greedy bastard)). Ironically, my top-two favorites movies of all time feature Reynolds women: Debbie Reynolds and, her daughter, Carrie Fischer.

3) Pulp Fiction; I learned alot from this movie: how to curse; what drugs you should and shouldn't mix together; that people had sex using more than one orifice...thanks Quentin! But beyond these factors, my favorite elements are the non-linear storytelling and mystery of what the hell's in the briefcase? Gotta love the dialogue, which I can't exactly quote here, so I won't bother...

4) CLUE; well this little chestnut is the movie that keeps on giving, literally. Tim Curry provides an absolute tour-de-force, and he's got quite the little cast of characters around him. This movie was my high-school get together go-to: we watched it all the time, including, I think, on multiple New Years Eves, right Sarah?

5) Hunt for Red October; Alec Baldwin in a big-budget movie? Yep, and held his own that's for sure. One of my favorite moments occurs when they push in on the Soviet officer speaking Russian, and as they reach a close-up on his mouth his dialogue switches from Russian to English.

6) Monty Python/Holy Grail; I can still quote whole sections of this movie -- and it's so outlandish a concept that it still seems fresh and original every time I watch; but I absolutely howl when I see the Killer Rabbit -- and my laugh is not your average exhortation, you know?

7) Psycho; Another Perkins, what more needs to be said? Oh, well of course there's the music by Bernard Hermann.

8) West Side Story; Two musicals in the top ten...it's pretty hard to disagree with this choice, though, isn't it?

9) Russian Ark; this 90-minute film was shot entirely in one take throughout the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Using a cast of thousands, including multiple string orchestras, and set over two different eras, this film grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go...rent it immediately! This film was so amazing that my father could sleep through it, almost entirely, and wake up clapping.

10) Jaws; da....dem, da....dem, da-dem, da-dem, da-dem, da-dem, da-da-DEM. Another great score, great story and great one liners ("I think you're gonna need a bigger boat"). To this day, I still get freaked out in the ocean.


Runner ups: Blade Runner; Rear Window; Batman -- the Tim Burton film w/Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and a soundtrack by Prince!; Amadeus; My Architect, a documentary about the architect Louis Kahn.