Goals 2018 -- July Recap

Well, July was a bust mostly.  Invitations are in the works, but not here yet, so they certainly have not been addressed let alone mailed.  So, sorry if you're waiting for yours!

What I'm Reading Now -- Devil's Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery

I really didn't have plans to read this book at the time I "picked it up."  I was trying to find a different ebook in my library app, which they didn't have, but I ran across Devil's Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery.  I love NYC and its history, so it seemed like a good fit.  I downloaded it, and I'm off and running!

What I Watched -- Ex Machina

S indulged my paranoid and horrified-by-technology side and picked out Ex Machina to watch recently.  It's about a reclusive tech mogul named Nathan who has spent his time alone designing and perfecting AI machines -- not surprisingly designed to look like beautiful women.  Nathan brings Caleb, an unsuspecting employee, to his high-tech and extremely secluded home for reasons that aren't entirely clear to Caleb at the time he arrives.

Caleb comes to learn that he is there to play a part in a Turing Test.  Nathan has built extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence, which is in the form of a woman named Ava.  Nathan has tried to program Ava to think like a human. Things take a dark turn when Caleb and Nathan find themselves at odds, and Ava's role remains a bit unclear.

What was especially hilarious about our first attempt at viewing Ex Machina is that we watched the digital version, and at the height of the tension, there was an error in the file and the film froze.  Not kidding.

We waited for a while, hoping it would sort itself out.  When it didn't, I closed and reopened the file, skipping a bit past that point.  That didn't help either.  Then I started thinking that that was the ending -- just a weird, tripped out freeze frame that leaves you hanging, wondering what happened.

S did some research and it turned out that the freeze frame is not the ending, so we picked up a copy of the DVD from the library and finished it out that way.  The actual ending was frustrating in some ways, but also held extremely true to the whole theme of the film.

Bottom line: a highly disturbing film, both a great and horrifying experience.

What I Read -- Exit West

E's most recent postal book club selection was Exit West, by Moshin Hamid.  It is the story of Saeed and Nadia, a boyfriend and girlfriend drawn together by the hardship in their Middle Eastern homeland, including civil war and the death of Saeed's mother.  They secure passage to Mykonos as refugees, followed by the London suburbs, and then Marin County, California, adding to the young lovers the additional difficulty of leaving Saeed's widowed father behind, alone in the war zone.  Their relationship, predictably, suffers under the new stresses they face, and the different ways they respond to their changing environment.

I have not read any of Hamid's other books, but I might now; I very much enjoyed his writing style.  He gets to the point with well-drawn vignette, allowing them to tell the story rather than over-explaining.  His sharp "observations" (it is fiction, after all) convey the emotions of the characters to the reader without the need for further explanation, and that type of reservation in fiction writing is rare these days.

What I Watched -- Birthmarked and Too Late

Warning: neither of these movies were very good. Nevertheless, in the interest of hopefully saving each of you a couple of hours that you might not want to lose, but because they both have a tiny bit of value, I'll give you a blurb.

Too Late was an unusual movie, a collection of shorter stories that fit together like a puzzle, and it takes a little time to figure out how they fit together. So that's neat.  What's not so neat is that once they do all fit together, they make a really unsatisfying story.  Which is too bad, because I'm a big fan of John Hawkes.

Birthmarked's only saving grace was that it was sort of cute. It was a bit Wes Anderson-y in style, and in the quirkiness of the storyline.  But it was just not as good a as a WA movie. I didn't really like any of the characters that much, and I wasn't rooting for their weirdness to win over the skeptics. 

An American Soldier

K joined me for my final show of the year, which was the world premiere of the two-act version of An American Soldier.

The story was compelling and easy to follow, despite my initial concerns that it would be difficult to follow, in light of the multitude of time leaps.  It was also sad; a young soldier from New York joins the Army, and ends up committing suicide in Afghanistan after being hazed.

The music discordant, and I didn't care for it.  There were a few pieces that were okay, such as the Moon song.  I also enjoyed the addition of the Eastern "flutter" in a few spots.  On the whole, it was not my style, but it was ably performed.

For dinner before the show, K and I had spring rolls (rolled by K!; the Chinese component); borani kachalu (the Afghan component); and some local beer (the American component).  One of my more inspired menus, I thought, and all quite tasty.

Regina

The third opera of the season was Regina, one I knew very little about prior to the start of the show.  When there is a story I am unfamiliar with, I often deliberately avoid reading the synopsis in advance of the show.  I find that I am more engaged during the performance.

What a delight Regina was -- although in a depressing way.  It is based on the play Little Foxes, which I had never read, so I was able to maintain the surprise.  It's the story of three Southern siblings, each more greedy than the last.  In order to maintain the surprise for you, if you're not familiar with the play, I won't spoil the ending.

I will say, though, that there were some seriously powerful voices in the show, especially the women.  There were a few (I think intentionally) sharp notes which were a bit surprising, but not out of place.  All in all, it was a great show.

For our meal, which E and I had to eat at home because we were running a bit behind schedule, we had a mix of the plan (which included dill-pickled green beans and deviled eggs) and some regular breakfast foods.  We took our blueberry hand pies with us to eat during one of the intermissions.  (By the way, another thing I love are three-act operas!)

Goals 2018 -- July Edition

We've made it through the first half of the year.  And guess what happens in three months?  I'm getting married!  So my goal for July is to nail down some of the remaining details and get some invitations out the door -- or at least ready to go.  Look for yours in the mail!