liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
My extremely awesome girlfriend managed to get us tickets for the stage production of Ballet Shoes, a book we both imprinted on. Which meant we actually managed to do the thing I'm always hoping for of a proper date-date Friday night on a weekend when I'm doing community work Saturday.

review and weekend notes )

Anyway, we managed to catch the last show of the run, but apparently there is going to be a reprise later in the year, so if this review makes you want to see it you still have a chance!

The reason it made sense to go to the theatre was that Saturday I was working at Mosaic Liberal in North London. student rabbi dealing with responses to Gaza )

Media

Jan. 21st, 2023 05:03 pm
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
So [personal profile] jack and I actually managed to watch two whole TV series all the way through. Couldn't be more different from each other; one is the fairly obscure Korean legal drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and the second is the mega-hit horror show Wednesday.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo )

Wednesday, sigh, Wednesday. It's a great show, well acted and well written. But it isn't at all what I wanted it to be, which is a continuation of the tradition of the Addams Family. Also, it's actual horror whereas what I wanted was shlock. I was so excited when I saw they'd cast Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and Luis Guzman as Gomez, but it turns out they're pretty much in one episode only, because as I should have guessed from the title, it's not a show about the family, it's a show about Wednesday. Specifically Wednesday-goes-to-monster-school, and I'm just not that interested in yet another high school drama.

Wednesday (no spoilers in main post, can't promise for the comments) )
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
I've been enjoying the new Netflix Sandman. It's very well cast, and it's done a good job of extracting a linear story from the extremely non-linear comic. The problem for me is that a lot of that linear narrative leans heavily on the Corinthian and I find the the Corinthian unwatchably terrifying! But of course horror is one of the things that Sandman is.

I'm not alone in absolutely loving episode 6, The sound of her wings; it has an absurdly high IMDB rating. But I really did love it, it's just a perfect piece of television. Also, I have thinky-thoughts about it.

Sandman meta, indirect Holocaust mention )

PS I'm only caught up to episode 8 so no spoilers for the last two episodes, please!
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
I'm starting to formulate an idea of what I look for in media (TV, films, shows) is, essentially the opposite of superhero franchises. Basically I want media that's unambiguously targeted at adults, with well-realized characters, that covers complex themes including dark and serious stuff, but that isn't primarily about showing lots of sex, violence and especially sexy violence as the main visual theme.

noodling )

So far I have found two shows that actually fit these not-superhero desiderata. They are both on annoying streaming services where we had to subscribe for just the one thing, but at least they exist. One is Ted Lasso S2; I was not at all interested in the premise, and I was worried it might be cringey, but it's actually a really good, definitely adult, definitely complex and interesting character piece. Like a lot of viewers I thought it went downhill from 2.9, because suddenly it's about various kinds of trauma rather than about characters repairing their lives after background trauma. In my opinion the show is just not on a solid enough foundation to deal directly with parental abuse, suicide, adultery and various kinds of violence. And it just doesn't pull off the sudden swerve from comedy with a dark edge to full-on drama.

And right now we're watching Station Eleven. It's an unlikely sort of show altogether, a mini-series about a book set in the aftermath of a devastating pandemic, that was itself made during the real-world pandemic. We have watched up to episode 6 'Survival is insufficient'; we're not exactly bingeing it because it's really dark and also requires a lot of concentration because it's all told non-linearly and full of unreliable viewpoints. What has really impressed me about it is that most of the cast look like real people. Nobody looks like a film star, most people even if they're young and fit are not particularly pretty, and there's a whole range of body types, and it actually feels credible that these people have lived through 20 years since the collapse of civilization. Definitely a show for adults, it has more than earned its 18 rating, but while it contains violence, it's not about lingering shots of people brutally attacking each other, it's about the people who live in a world which, like this one, sometimes contains extreme violence, but contains other elements of human experience too.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
Still trying to find TV series that have a reasonable number of short episodes that I can share with [personal profile] jack. So far our best success has been [personal profile] rysmiel's recommendation of Over the garden wall. It's one season of 10 episodes that form a complete story arc, and it's really not like anything much else.

Over the garden wall )

We did end up watching all the way through She-ra and the princesses of power, 5 x 10 episodes. I probably don't have anything new to say about it as it's hugely popular with just about everybody, but basically I really enjoyed the first and final seasons, the ones in the middle felt a bit too childish, which is not really a fair complaint given that it is in fact a children's show. Also, I do love that everybody gets some kind of redemption, and that lots of Queer characters get their happy-ever-after, but it was a bit much when every villain was redeemed by the power of friendship and every character ended up romantically paired.

This kind of underlines the big problem that we've been having, that we're struggling to find anything actually aimed at adults, which isn't full of more graphic violence than I can cope with. I probably am more than usually squeamish, but even so, I wish more stuff was PG without assuming the level of narrative sophistication of under 12s.

Apart from the utterly amazing We are Lady Parts, the closest we've come has been Ted Lasso. Thank you [personal profile] ceb for finally convincing me to try it, because yes, everybody recommended it but it really didn't seem the kind of thing I'm interested in. We jumped straight in with Season 2 as [personal profile] jack had already seen Season 1. We're most of the way through and I'll talk about it properly once we've watched the whole season. Basically it's like a sitcom, but actually good, because although the characters are somewhat one-dimensional and there are endless jokes about people finding themselves in situations where they don't fit in, the show just really really cares about them. There are lots of gags that, if I described them, would seem to rely on cringe humour, but really I never once had to suffer second-hand embarrassment for more than a second.
liv: bacterial conjugation (attached)
When I got together with OSOs 7 years ago, I didn't really anticipate that it would be a long-term relationship with seventh anniversaries. And I particularly didn't anticipate that there would be a pandemic and having our anniversary in November would be so inconvenient, since most indoor activities are high-risk. Anyway, we managed to scrape together some kind of celebration.

coupley )
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
I assume everybody has heard that the film of the original Broadway show has been released. I was extremely fortunate that I got to see it in the West End [CN: old post misgenders one of the people mentioned, who uses different pronouns now from the ones I knew about 2 years ago. Sorry about that.] But I was definitely excited to see the Broadway version too, so I subscribed to Disney+ just for that, and watched it for my date night with [personal profile] jack. We even set our big TV (which had been gathering dust for a year) back up for the occasion.

impressions )

Anyway, despite those caveats, I'm super excited that I can watch the recording of the show, and I've set up a date to watch it again remotely with another partner at the weekend, and I'm really enjoying everybody's squee posts and reactions and analysis.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
Good things: [personal profile] jack and I went to see the Troy exhibition at the British Museum. With a bit of time and energy left after that, we also visited the Aztec room. And then we went out for pancakes at my favourite spot. And it was generally lovely.

Then we had a go at some tabletop roleplaying, with OSOs and their younger two. [personal profile] jack had put together a cut-down system, roughly D&D based but a lot lot lot less complex and fiddly. And a delightful little one-shot story about saving a baby giant turtle from a suspicious sea captain, set in an archipelago of islands on the back of giant turtles. [personal profile] jack really encouraged us to develop fun characters, and we're all excited to play more in this setting.

I have plans for an exciting date with [personal profile] ghoti_mhic_uait next week, and I think after that no more travel for fun. Honestly I'm not sure about this week either. Maybe it isn't morally or safety-wise sensible to visit a huge tourist spot in the capital. I'm expecting several months of somewhere between boring and terrifying, and I'm not really impatient for that to start.

more notes on the museum visit )
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
So when I was a teenager I was considerably obsessed with Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. When I heard rumours of an updated version with rap and nudity I wasn't that enthused, but several of my friends posted rave reviews, so I arranged to go with [personal profile] cjwatson

detailed review )

So, thank you lovely people whose reviews convinced me to go and see this. I'm only sorry I can't pay that forward since it's right at the end of the show's run and the last few performances are sold out.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
Thanks to my parents for two cultural experiences for me and [personal profile] jack: first they pointed out that the triennial Cambridge Greek play was happening this year, and we managed to catch it. Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, which doesn't get performed that often. And then they booked tickets for a cinecast of the RSC Timon of Athens on a date they actually couldn't make, so they passed the tix on to us.

Sophocles )

Timon of Athens )

I could probably say something clever about comparing the two plays, with great but cursed men dying in miserable obscurity and cursing Athens. But mostly it's just coincidence that I happened to see both in the same month.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
It's been a bit of a month, but I've managed to see two of my favourite artists and I want to record those happy experiences.

concert and sculpture )
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
So people are talking about which Shakespeare plays they've seen. I am nostalgic for the 2000s when someone would've put up a quiz on Quizilla so you could just tick the boxes and generate a graphic to post in your journal. But since we can't have nice things, I have gone through the list manually. I got the list of titles from [personal profile] hilarita but it's pretty much all over.

list of plays with some comments )

Unlike some of the people commenting at [personal profile] rachelmanija's, I've never seen a wacky outrageous production. I've mostly watched conventional things, CSF and Stratford and respectable films. I think the weirdest was the child-friendly version of Taming of the Shrew mentioned under the cut. I've also never seen a really traditional production at the Globe – it's on my bucket list.

Compared to lots of my friends I feel a bit uncultured, tbh! If anyone has plans to see any interesting Shakespeare within commuting distance of Cambridge, or would like to make some, I'd be up for that. I'm not hugely excited to see any more Merchant of Venice or Taming of the Shrew, but even with those I could be persuaded.

Eurovision

May. 30th, 2019 08:38 pm
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
[personal profile] cjwatson and I got home from France just in time for Eurovision. So, with [personal profile] jack, we spent a pleasant evening drinking cocktails and watching the show.

thoughts on both music and politics )

Hamilton!

Jul. 3rd, 2018 09:51 pm
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
If you have a negative reaction to Hamilton hype, you might want to skip this one.

squeeeeeeeee! )

So happy I got to see that, and in such perfect circumstances too! A million million thanks to [personal profile] rmc28.

Culture

Jun. 23rd, 2018 10:15 pm
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
I didn't post anything for 3 weeks and now there's too much, which is a silly pattern to get into. But let me talk about a few cultural experiences from recently and hopefully that'll get me unblocked.

art, opera, TV )

Recently

May. 4th, 2017 12:28 pm
liv: A woman with a long plait drinks a cup of tea (teapot)
So most excellent Hamilfan [personal profile] rmc28 drew our attention to a local production, by a theatre school, of a Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, Bring it on. review )

Then last weekend I ran a Saturday morning service. Several of our regulars were ill, so we had just nine people, meaning we had to leave out big chunks of the service, including the formal public Torah reading. But it went really well anyway; I read the Torah portion from the Chumash, the printed book, and a really great, involved, thoughtful discussion just spontaneously happened. Which is all the more impressive considering the parshe in question was Tazria-Metzorah, the long section from Leviticus about purification from various forms of contamination / contagion. And when I said we didn't need a sermon since we'd already had such a great spontaneous shiur, people insisted I preach anyway, which is certainly flattering! I talked a bit about what happens when you have to do something which is awful for an individual for the greater good, whether it's a public health thing as implied in Leviticus or something like a child protection issue. The safeguards and transparency that need to be in place to prevent corruption, and the way that Leviticus sets out a moral system through what may seem like endless ritual detail.

Because it was a bank holiday, I managed to get home as well, and had a really lovely relaxing weekend playing the second half of our D&D game. I'm really enjoying playing Bela, a character I based off Bel from a proposed but not yet actually implemented Vorkosigan game. They (I decided I couldn't be dealing with it pronouns as in Bujold's original) are ridiculously charming (statted on charisma and strength, and really playing that up), flirt with everybody in sight, and also seem to have picked up the role of curtailing some of the endless discussions that can arise with an inexperienced D&D group. Plus the ship's cat, Sabre, turned out to be a PC played by 8yo Judith, and having a PC familiar is just glorious.

And then on Monday I had a little time with [personal profile] ghoti_mhic_uait, which consisted of a not entirely successful shopping trip when our attempts to find out where was open on BH Monday fell flat, but we acquired shiny purple wool for my next knitting project, and had exciting burgers in Ed's Diner, and got a chance to talk.

I came back from the Bank Holiday weekend and straight into the last three weeks of term, when I'm in charge of the first year teaching. So work is intense, but good. And I'm still struggling to keep up with DW whenever I'm busy, which I'm really enjoying, and I hope the fast flowing conversation keeps up.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
Apart from Arrival, I managed to find a bit more time over Christmas than usual to watch shows.

brief reviews, including very broad general spoilers for _Rogue One_ )

Also, Ghoti suggested that if she'd dragged me into watching Christmas movies, she should reciprocate by watching a chanukah movie with me. Which is a really sweet thought, but I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a chanukah movie! Does anyone have any suggestions? I mean, that whole New York Jewish custom of eating Chinese food and watching a movie on Christmas Day, is there any particular film that's traditional? Or failing that, perhaps a Jewish themed film (I thought of Yentl or maybe the film of Potok's The Chosen, which I haven't seen), or one that's about identity and resistance to assimilation and rebelling against an oppressive régime. Preferably not Holocaust-related, that really doesn't seem a suitable topic for a date movie. It did occur to me that Rogue One could be considered a pretty suitable thing to watch during chanukah, since it's about a miraculous victory for a no-hope strike against an oppressive empire...
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
[personal profile] rmc28's review inspired [personal profile] jack to ask me if I wanted to see In The Heights, the "other" Lin Manuel Miranda piece that's playing in the King's Cross Theatre currently. I said, in principle, sure, but when are we ever going to find time to go to the theatre? And then I remembered that we actually had a free evening this Saturday, so we were able to be much more spontaneous than we usually ever are, and booked tickets and turned up.

show )

We had a pretty quiet day most of yesterday, until OSOs joined us for tea and then a lovely group of our friends came over for a Halloween party. Andreas had lots of fun putting up Halloween decorations but ducked out of the actual socializing with lots of not very familiar adults part. And Judith persuaded several of us into a long game of Zendo, which she is getting very good at. It wasn't a huge party but it was a great mix of poly friends and geek friends, very congenial and with some really great Halloween costumes. I dressed up as Candela, the Pokémon Go Team Valor leader, to match the children's Pikachu and Dawn-from-the-animé costumes. And Jack was Aang from Avatar: the last Airbender, and Ghoti was, aaargh, Nanowrimo is about to start! Really good to be able to have a fairly low-key party on a Sunday evening.
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
So my brother was in town at the weekend and Dad suggested we could go to the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival performance of The Tempest. fun weekend )
liv: alternating calligraphed and modern letters (letters)
[livejournal.com profile] ghoti found a production of a stage play of Tipping the velvet, so of course we had to go to that. I was somewhat expecting a play-of-the-book (which I haven't read), but in fact what really impressed me about the production was that it was very much its own thing, it was musical theatre, full of elements specific to that medium. The story is partly set in the the theatre, and the show made references to period popular theatre including the music hall tradition, but didn't try to slavishly recreate historical stuff, it was very much a modern production.

detailed review )

So yes, basically that was awesome, many thanks to [livejournal.com profile] ghoti for suggesting the show and for being excellent company for watching it!

Soundbite

Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.

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