Goals 2017 -- June Recap

I had some goals for June related to work-life balance.  Here's how I did:

1. Have a talk with my boss about it (not for the first time).
Result: Done.  I think he finally took me seriously this time.  So far signs are good.  Remains to be seen whether they stick over time.

2. Plan my next vacation (S will probably do most of this, to be fair).
Result: S has made excellent progress planning our trip.  We have plane tickets and a plan of sorts.  Also a packing list.

3. Cook at least two dinners a week at home (real food -- not mac 'n cheese or pizza rolls).
Result: Cannot say that I did this.  I did cook more than last month, but not up to my goal yet.

4. Finish at least one book (though two would be great).
Result: One book completed!  I made little progress on any of my other books, but did get through a fair number of magazines that had been hanging around for a while.

Batting .750 will get me to the All-Star game.

Titus

My second opera of the season was Titus, one I had hardly heard of before this opera season.  S and I preceded the show with dinner at one of our favorite vegetarian spots, Frida's.  We got to the show early enough to have time for a cup of coffee!

Titus was great. In contrast to Butterfly, which was supposedly women-centric but reeked of desperation, Titus starred women almost all the lead roles, playing both women and men.  What a treat!

My favorite show of the season.

It's a convoluted tale of mixed-up love and loyalty, as so often happens in classic operas.  If you can put aside the slight ridiculousness of the story, it is easy to enjoy the beautiful Mozart music (and who doesn't love that?).  It was greatly helped by a serious of stellar performances by all those leading (wo)men.

The Winter's Tale

This year's Shakespeare Festival show was The Winter's Tale -- not one of his more popular plays.  I normally go see the show with G&G, but they opted out this year.  Failing my normal plans, I took advantage of the fact that my college alumni group and several of the local charitable organizations in which I participate were going on the same night.  Food and drink abounded!

The show itself was interesting, and a bit confusing.  It is a bit of a dramedy, as so many movies these days get categorized.  (Maybe this is just one more example of how Shakespeare was way ahead of his time.)

In a nutshell it goes like this:

Act I: King thinks Queen is cheating on him with King's Friend.  (She is not.)  Instead of poisoning King's Friend, King's Helper warns King's Friend of King's suspicions, and King's Friend escapes.  King's supposedly illegitimate infant daughter is banished, Queen dies, and Prince dies.  King realizes the error of his ways. 

Act II: Everyone is happy.  Dead Queen is still alive.  A bunch of people get married.

So...odd, right?  A plethora of accusations and death in Act I.  Raucous joyousness in Act II.  Despite the strange contradictions, it was an enjoyable show, in part because I had never seen it before.  And it was a beautiful night, so that's hard to beat!

The Cellist of Sarajevo -- Take 2

I finished up The Cellist of Sarajevo a couple of days ago.  I was five or six pages from the end when I put the book down on Saturday, but I was having a real bummer of a day on Sunday and didn't feel like it was a good time to finish what was shaping up to be a downer of a book.

And boy was I right.

The book is structured around four characters -- the Cellist, Dragan, Kenan, and Arrow.  The Cellist has the first chapter, in which you learn of his plan to play the same piece of music in the open air for twenty-two days to commemorate the deaths of that many people who were waiting in line for bread when they were killed.  The other three characters share the remaining chapters, and over the course of the book, you learn how the Cellist's decision to play his music affects or intersects with their lives.

The book is fiction, but based at least in part on real events, though compressed in time to make for better story-telling.

As with many books (or movies) which are told from different perspectives, as the reader (or viewer) you tend to identify with or care more for some characters than others.  So too here.

Bottom line: a bittersweet tale of a war-torn country, that somehow brings out the best in some people.

What I Watched -- Captain Fantastic

E recommended Captain Fantastic to me, because it stars Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen, but he will always be Aragorn to me).

Except in this movie.

But I loved it anyway!  It's the very odd story of a father and his six children, struggling with life and lifestyle and relationships with each other and the outside world.  It's clever and charming and sweet, sort of in the vein of Little Miss Sunshine, except without the kind of creepy grandfather figure (although there is a grandfather in this movie, but not a creepy one).  Royal Tenenbaums is another similarly strange family story.

Bottom line: if you're into quirky tales of family and people's wacky but wonderful lifestyle choices, you'll love it.

Madame Butterfly

I rearranged my operas this season to accommodate E's trip to town.  As a consequence, the first one in my season was the Puccini classic, Madame Butterfly.

S accompanied me to the show.  I'm sorry to say that it was probably my least favorite of the three Madame Butterflys that I've seen; however, it's still a wonderful opera, so that isn't saying much.

Partially my frustration was related to a comment S pointed out in the program.  The director discussed how she wanted to make it a performance about women: "...Three very different women from varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, each striving for agency and a sense of self...."  But this was absolutely the most desperate, most helpless Cio-Cio-San that I have ever seen!  I guess if "being unable to survive without a man" = "agency", she succeeded.

It was also amusing in the commentary that she went into depth about Cio-Cio-San's family's fall from wealth and power and Suzuki's struggles as the voiceless witness.  Paraphrased: "Oh, and by the way, Kate Pinkerton can't vote."  Not exactly on par.

Nevertheless, it was still enjoyable for the music if nothing else.  Puccini is wonderful!  And I enjoyed the paper house set, which had movable walls that played well in the overhead lights.  At the end of the day, a mixed bag.

Bikes!

As you know, I have been completely unable to get my act together as regards my sewing/crafting space in the basement. The same is not true for S, who created this awesome bike storage over the weekend!

Happy Birthday, K!

What I Watched -- The Graduate

The Graduate is one of those films that lots of people reference, and often.  And so, even without having seen it, I knew the references.  I finally got around to seeing the actual movie.

It's interesting.  A little less risque than I anticipated (but it did come out in 1967, so for its time, it was probably quite something).

The cinematography was fascinating though.  It reminded me a lot of Garden State, a 2004 film starring Zach Braff (of Scrubs fame).  Both films had several scenes that were closeups of the lead actor's face, often with little or nothing at all happening thereon.  I'd have to watch them both back to back to solidify my theory, but when I was watching The Graduate, I just kept thinking of Garden State.

All in all, I found the movie a bit depressing.  I don't want to give away all the details of the ending, but I would have expected a bit more celebration.

Bottom line: as with many classics, it's worth seeing once, but probably not something I'm going to re-watch (except to revisit my theory).

Goals 2017 -- June Edition

I like having measurable goals.

What I really need, though, is something completely intangible: get some "life" back in my work-life balance.

How do I make that into something measurable?

1. Have a talk with my boss about it (not for the first time).
2. Plan my next vacation (S will probably do most of this, to be fair).
3. Cook at least two dinners a week at home (real food -- not mac 'n cheese or pizza rolls).
4. Finish at least one book (though two would be great).

Goals 2017 - May Recap

I'm a little late with these next two posts.  Blame work (as usual).

My goal last month was to unpack, and I had to get it done because mom was coming over.  I almost did it. Whatever I didn't unpack is now in boxes in the basement, so I have to figure out the schedule to deal with them or just throw them away.

I guess if I don't miss them at all, that's good evidence that I don't need any of it!