May's uberlisting
A busy month, with six more things off the list, some of which I traveled to.
5. Read a book - May
A while back I was in a book discounters in the Westfield Mall downtown and bought a book mainly on principle (I was bitter about the dedicated bookstore being lost from there). I finally read that book - INTERNECINE, by David Schow - and dug it, a nice tale of an everyday asshole dropkicked into a world of black ops. There were some others too - I find I'm reading at least one book each month, which has been gratifying. Damn few plays, though, to my shame, though I'm hoping to do better on that front in the months ahead.
34. See a Shakespeare/classical theatre
Took a trip for my and my mother's birthdays and saw HENRY IV, parts 1 and 2 at Washington Shakespeare. Stacy Keach returned to that stage to play Falstaff, and gave the finest performance I or my parents had seen him give on that stage. A lovely production that let both plays breathe (they'd previously condensed both into a single evening), letting the politics, the conflicts, and the humanity of its characters shine.
44. Try another new theatre company
A whirlwind 21-hour trip to Los Angeles took me into the heart of Sacred Fools, a theatre company staging a fantastic new work called Taste. Based on the case of the Gotenburg cannibal, Taste ditched the sordid qualities of that case to craft a compelling, heartbreaking tale of the ends one might go to to escape loneliness. But flesh was eaten. A fine new play, directed by Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator fame, but the man's got serious theatre bona fides), and starring my good friend Yuri Lowenthal, understudying but doing the finest work I've ever seen him do.
50. House of Sparrows entry - May
At least I got back to the House of Sparrows last month, jotting down some thoughts on the new American GODZILLA, a movie I found flawed in ways that didn't matter, and thrilling and humane in ways that did. MY WORDS.
70. (see) Something at the Stanford
Finally made it to Palo Alto, just in time to catch the tail end of their lengthy Barbara Stanwyck series. The 1953 TITANIC was well-crafted and moving (though most prefer A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, which I find weirdly stuffy), and the office drama EXECUTIVE SUITE was mainly windup to a terrific final monologue.
75. Blind
Again, how to qualify this? I suppose my Film Fest screening of the lovely and earthy Mexican movie THE AMAZING CATFISH qualifies, since I just automatically got tickets for the Mexican movies. But I need to rethink this. Can you even see a movie completely blind? Do you even want to?
5. Read a book - May
A while back I was in a book discounters in the Westfield Mall downtown and bought a book mainly on principle (I was bitter about the dedicated bookstore being lost from there). I finally read that book - INTERNECINE, by David Schow - and dug it, a nice tale of an everyday asshole dropkicked into a world of black ops. There were some others too - I find I'm reading at least one book each month, which has been gratifying. Damn few plays, though, to my shame, though I'm hoping to do better on that front in the months ahead.
34. See a Shakespeare/classical theatre
Took a trip for my and my mother's birthdays and saw HENRY IV, parts 1 and 2 at Washington Shakespeare. Stacy Keach returned to that stage to play Falstaff, and gave the finest performance I or my parents had seen him give on that stage. A lovely production that let both plays breathe (they'd previously condensed both into a single evening), letting the politics, the conflicts, and the humanity of its characters shine.
44. Try another new theatre company
A whirlwind 21-hour trip to Los Angeles took me into the heart of Sacred Fools, a theatre company staging a fantastic new work called Taste. Based on the case of the Gotenburg cannibal, Taste ditched the sordid qualities of that case to craft a compelling, heartbreaking tale of the ends one might go to to escape loneliness. But flesh was eaten. A fine new play, directed by Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator fame, but the man's got serious theatre bona fides), and starring my good friend Yuri Lowenthal, understudying but doing the finest work I've ever seen him do.
50. House of Sparrows entry - May
At least I got back to the House of Sparrows last month, jotting down some thoughts on the new American GODZILLA, a movie I found flawed in ways that didn't matter, and thrilling and humane in ways that did. MY WORDS.
70. (see) Something at the Stanford
Finally made it to Palo Alto, just in time to catch the tail end of their lengthy Barbara Stanwyck series. The 1953 TITANIC was well-crafted and moving (though most prefer A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, which I find weirdly stuffy), and the office drama EXECUTIVE SUITE was mainly windup to a terrific final monologue.
75. Blind
Again, how to qualify this? I suppose my Film Fest screening of the lovely and earthy Mexican movie THE AMAZING CATFISH qualifies, since I just automatically got tickets for the Mexican movies. But I need to rethink this. Can you even see a movie completely blind? Do you even want to?