We'll all be home for Christmas

Here at mom's in Ypsilanti, Michigan. On Christmas Eve, my extended family came over for a strange hybrid Christmas dinner (veggies vs. the carnivores). So Christmas day it was just me, mom, and the dog. My mom and the dog came down to the basement to rouse me from my slumbers at 8 AM EST. I swilled down some coffee, eggs, and English muffin before the opening of presents. My mom is a great knitter. I had ordered a hat and scarf in Chicago Bears colors. They were swell, I'm sure everyone will be asking me where I got them. (Not the NFL store!) My mom was thrilled with the Susan Boyle CD I got her. (If you don't know who Susan Boyle is, Google please.) Also, I gave her a DVD of a film about St. Damien the Leper (her favorite saint). Probably we'll watch it tomorrow.


We decided to go see Invictus at the local Showcase Cinema this afternoon. I really enjoy going to the movies on Christmas. Invictus is a movie starring Morgan Freeman (you're not going to waste your money if this guy is in the cast) as Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon as the Captain of the South African apartheid-allied rugby team, the Springboks. This was a very enjoyable film. Morgan Freeman was amazing as Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon also gave further proof of his serious acting chops. (More on this later.)

Just as an aside, a good friend of mine at Southern Illinois University (in the 70s) was a serious rugby player. He was recruited to play football for Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama, but didn't feel comfortable with the atmosphere (football or socio-political) at the school. So he ended up at SIU with the rest of us misfits. I used to attend rugby games to see my friend play, and they were crazy and violent. After the game, both sides got together and drank themselves silly. I could telling you a vomiting story involving spectators in first floor dorm room gazing out at emesis coming from a 2nd floor window, but I will restrain myself. The whole rugby thing was quite memorable. The games were wild, and I saw some drunken behavior that has not been equalled by anything since. My friend was an intelligent and gentle soul off the rugby pitch.

Back to 2009, I was determined to go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. In fact, I spent the early afternoon calling different Asian restaurants to see if they were open. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant that shall remain nameless. I warn you that I am a serious Asian food snob, but this place served some of the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten. Each dish that arrived at the table was more hideous than the one that preceded it. Also the manager and the wait staff bickered loudly in a dialect I could not identify (I could tell you if it was Mandarin or Cantonese and it wasn't). I don't know what they had to argue about, (maybe the quality of the food) but they spent plenty of time doing it. There wasn't a single Chinese paying customer in the place!

Feliz Navidad!

http://www.sarugby.net/
http://www.damientheleper.org/

Little Women

My mom was here over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I took her to the Sulzer Regional Library looking for some suitable entertainment for us. It was there that I fell upon the 1949 film version of Little Women, starring June Allyson as Jo.

For all of you who are not familiar with Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, (in other words, GUYS), this is the story of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, their friend the wealthy heir Theodore Lawrence (Laurie), and other friends and family during the period around the Civil War. When I was a kid, I read this book over and over and over again, and being an intelligent, literary type girl, my favorite character was Jo. Jo only wanted to write. I had an old white shirt that had belonged to my dad that I wore when I was painting or doing other messy stuff, and I wrote "Genius Burns" on the back, because that's what Jo had on the smock that she wore while writing. I also used the word "bilge" instead of cursing. I had totally forgotten this until I saw the movie. Of course, that's what Jo did. I may take this up again as an alternative to "goddamn mother-fucking shit" my current default expletive.

Seeing this film, I decided to check out the various cinematic treatments of Little Women. Do you like to do this? Study however many versions you can of the same text? My favorite vehicle for this kind of pursuit is Macbeth. Just to scratch the surface, among others I've seen biker Macbeth, kabuki Macbeth, two different versions by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and a Northwestern University production where each character was played simultaneously by several different earnest drama students. I will see any production of Macbeth I can. The first time I went to the Lyric Opera it was to see (!!!!) Verdi's Macbeth. (Supposedly Scottish people in kilts swaggering about singing in Italian: not a good idea in my opinion.) When I see Macbeth I like to check out the way the witches are portrayed. In the Lyric Opera version, the witches were arrayed in a chorus stretched out along the edge of the stage. They all had the exact same haircut I had at the time! It was all I could do to restrain myself from jumping up and shouting, "That is not a witch's haircut!"

But let's look at all these versions of Little Women. One thing I like to compare is the portrayal of various characters, like Laurie and Professor Bhaer, the man Jo eventually falls for.

Apparently there was a 1918 version (obviously silent) that I was not able to track down. The 1933 film was directed by George Cukor, starring Katherine Hepburn as Jo. Normally, I can't stand Katherine Hepburn and was prepared to hate this movie, but it was great! Ms. Hepburn was an excellent Jo. Of all the versions I saw, I think this was the most true to the book. And Laurie was a major dork. This film captured some of the Victorian moralizing that was essential to the original.

The 1949 film was also great. June Allyson was a good Jo, and Aunt March was hilarious! There was a BBC version circa 1970. Wow, they all had British accents! Due to the fact that the thing was six hours long, there was a lot of detail that didn't appear in the other versions. Again, Laurie was really good. There was also a TV version circa 1978 which I was unable to uncover. (William Shatner played Professor Bhaer. For this reason alone, I was just as happy not to see it.)

The most recent Little Women was the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder as Jo. This film was very romantic and also explicitly feminist. Louisa May Alcott's family were members of the Transcendentalist movement, so I know they were thoughtful moralists. However, I think that the author's Victorian values were probably portrayed more accurately in the Katherine Hepburn version than this one. In the 1994 film, Professor Bhaer was quite hot, (played by Gabriel Byrne). Again, looking at the novel, I think Jo was probably drawn to the Professor by less carnal urges than are portrayed by Ms. Ryder.

If I were living out my identification with Jo, I definitely would prefer the 1994 film. I sure would like to spend the rest of my life doing good with Gabriel Byrne than any of the grizzled fellows in the other versions described above. If had to watch the movie over and over, I'd also choose this film. For heaven's sake, we need a little happiness in life. I still think the Katherine Hepburn version was truest to the book.

In case you're not familiar with the story, Beth dies.

British Toilet Association

I just have to share this with you:

www.britloos.co.uk

Let's All Enjoy the Cold Weather

Hello Chicago! It's cold again...

When I first moved here, I had been living in Southern Illinois for a few years. I was scared to death of the cold. With the arrival of the first frost, I walked into Eddie Bauer's and plunked down money for the most expensive winter coat in the place, the Polar Parka, which boasted a survival range down to -45 degrees farenheit. (I still have it). For years I was miserable in the winter. In particular, my butt was always cold. Then I gained weight, and the situation improved marginally. (There's a reason there are no Eskimo super-models). In the late 90s and early 00s, I got really thin for a while. It wasn't just my butt that was cold during that period! At night I attired myself in a wool hat, flannel pyjamas, wool sweater, and sheepskin slippers. Then I got under a down comforter. However, after my 50th, I experienced a strange convergence of hormonal chaos and fat. Suddenly, I loved the cold! Tonight I was out in the snow wearing sneakers, jeans, a cotton shirt, my Washtenaw Country Club hoodie, a down vest (unzipped), and the kind of gloves skiers put under their for-real gloves. I felt great!

Can somebody please find me a job in a meat locker?

House of Blues - December 8, 2009

A couple months ago I got it into my head that I wanted to see Gwar. I kept asking people I know if they had ever seen the band. No one had. Oddly, I soon learned that Gwar was coming to town, and playing the House of Blues. Naturally I got myself a ticket post-haste.

I've always been kind of scared of bands that wear masks. However, a look at the Gwar website suggested that someone's tongue was definitely in their cheek, so I set off fearlessly to the show. The House of Blues, which I had never before visited, turned out to be a pretty venue with great sight lines, and a very sweet security staff. (At least sweet in response to my matronly charms).

The Red Chord: The opening act: a grindcore band from Boston. I quite enjoyed them. They thanked Job for a Cowboy for coming to Chicago all the way from Arizona, and they thanked Gwar for being from outer space. That's some class as far as I'm concerned.

Job for a Cowboy: Job for a Cowboy is from Arizona, as noted above. In that signature death metal style, without taking a breath, the singer went from yelping like a Pomeranian to doing the Linda Blair possessed by Satan growl. Is this a natural ability, or does it occur thanks to the miracle of modern technology?

Gwar: This turned out to Gwar's 25th anniversary tour. I couldn't help but notice that the gentlemen in the band seemed to be rather portly, a condition somewhat obscured by their post-apocalyptic attire. I had always read that Gwar sprayed the audience with faux blood, urine, and vomit. I was a little disappointed as there was plenty of spraying with red and green liquids none of them resembling body products, especially the vomit. Maybe it had something to do with Christmas. Being a middle aged wuss, I took up a position behind the lighting guy. When he covered his board with plastic, I knew it was time to take cover! Plenty of people in front of me got pretty wet though. I can't say that I've ever seen anything like Gwar. They were unique, tasteless, and loud!