August: Osage County–A Review Thursday, Dec 20 2007 

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While in NYC last week, PJ and I saw Tracy Letts‘ new play, August: Osage County at the Imperial Theatre. This production transferred from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago with most of the same cast. It’s a great play, the best one we saw while we were there.

August is ostensibly a family drama, the Weston family to be exact, set in Osage County, Oklahoma. The play begins with a scene in which the Weston patriarch, Beverly, played by Dennis Letts (the playwright’s father), hires a housekeeper, Johnna Monevata, played by Kimberly Guerrero. He and his wife, we learn, need a housekeeper because he drinks and she takes pills. It turns out that his wife, Violet, played by Deanna Dunagan, takes a lot of pills. A lot. Johnna, who is Native American, needs the work, so she accepts the job and the play gets underway.

The cast of August is rather large, and you need a flow chart to keep track of everyone. Conveniently, the playbill provides one (right click on the image and click on “view image” to see a larger version):

August Family Tree

The drama begins in the second scene, in which we soon learn that Beverley has disappeared. The rest of the play traces the effects of this disappearance on the Weston family as each of the now grown children returns home to help their mother cope with the situation. Each of these daughters has problems of her own.

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Juno: A Review Tuesday, Dec 18 2007 

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While we were in NYC last week and needed to get out of the pelting icy rain on Thursday, PJ and I saw Juno, the new film starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Allison Janney. Here’s the trailer:

Juno was written by Diablo Cody and was directed by Jason Reitman. It’s about a 16-year-old girl, Juno, played by Page, who gets pregnant after she sleeps with her adorably dorky boyfriend, played by Cera. After considering an abortion, she decides to go through with the pregnancy and give the child up for adoption. Before she even tells her parents that she’s pregnant, she finds the right couple to adopt the child: Garner’s uptight Vanessa and Bateman’s cool Mark. The film then follows Juno through her pregnancy as various comic complications ensue.

Juno has been getting a lot of great press and even some Oscar talk. I think it’s all well deserved, since this is a really good movie. Page is perfect as the 16-year-old who’s too smart for her own good. What I especially like about her performance is that she balances Juno’s innate intelligence with typical teenage stupidity. Juno doesn’t have all the answers, even if she does have a few of them.

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The Perfect Christmas Mix CD Monday, Dec 17 2007 

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I brought a slight cold back with me from New York. It’s left me with reduced energy. Since I didn’t feel like working on anything important yesterday, I decided to spend an inordinate amount of time compiling the perfect Christmas music mix CD. I think I’ve succeeded (at least to my own satisfaction). Here’s the playlist:

  1. O Holy Night by Josh Groban. “O Holy Night” has always been my favorite Christmas carol. Groban’s isn’t my favorite version of this song, but I really like his voice on this track. I think the key to singing this song — like most songs — is sounding like you really believe it. He does a great job doing that, and I think this song fits his voice well.
  2. Silent Night, Holy Night by John Denver. I love the purity of John Denver’s voice. His acoustic version of this classic is so simple and pure — it makes what used to be a rather boring song for me into a beautiful little ode.
  3. All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. It’s really tough to get a new Christmas song to succeed. Pop singers keep trying, but very few of them actually become classics. This song, co-written by Carey, is an exception. It’s a great pop song and a new classic. As I read somewhere, one of the things that makes this song so successful is its throw back to the older pop sound of the Beach Boys. It’s a great song.
  4. Go Tell It on the Mountain by Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia Jackson’s voice is one of the few voices that can truly be said to be incomparable. I have a CD of her Christmas music; every track on it is great. This song reminds me of my childhood for some reason — maybe we listened to it a lot when I was a kid.
  5. Frosty the Snowman by Gene Autry. This is the original version of the song. You can’t have Christmas without Frosty! When I was three, my mom and I were living temporarily with my great grandparents. It snowed that Christmas, so on Christmas Eve we built a snowman. The next day he was gone. My mom had torn him down over night, but she told me that Santa Claus had taken him to the North Pole so that he wouldn’t melt. It totally freaked me out. (more…)

 

Back from New York Saturday, Dec 15 2007 

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PJ and I got back from NYC yesterday afternoon. We had a great time — even better than last year. I’ll blog about the specifics over the next week, but I thought that I would briefly summarize the trip here first.

We arrived in the city on Monday around 2 pm. We saw our first semi-celebrity in the Columbus airport — John Kasich, the former Republican representative from Ohio. He was on our flight to New York. After we arrived in the city, we checked into our hotel, which was in Hell’s Kitchen in midtown Manhattan. The weather was a little cold and drizzly, but it was fun just to see some of the now familiar sites, like Times Square and Rockefeller Center. We ate dinner at Yum Yum 3, a Thai restaurant on 9th avenue. After dinner, we saw Things We Want, an Off-Broadway play by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by Ethan Hawke. (I’ll review each of the plays later.)

On Tuesday, we ate breakfast at Pigalle, the only restaurant we ate at last year and returned to this trip. We then visited the Frick Collection. We also walked over to the Lincoln Center to look at it. We briefly considered getting tickets for an opera but ultimately decided not to — we were not familiar enough with the opera that was showing. We later found out that we could have seen Placido Domingo if we had gone to the opera. Oh well. Next time we’ll check out the opera before we go and maybe even plan our trip around seeing one. We ate lunch at P. J. Clarke’s across the street from the Center. In the afternoon, we went to the TKTS booth to get tickets for Spring Awakening. It took a lot less time than we thought it would to get the tickets, so we had to find something else to do for a couple of hours. We decided to walk downtown. We walked down Fifth Avenue and walked by the Empire State Building (we went up it last year) and looked around Macy’s. We had dinner at the Blue Point Creperie. Spring Awakening was great. We saw B. D. Wong in the audience; he and a companion sat a couple of rows ahead of us. He was our third celebrity of that day: we also saw John Tartaglia (so cute) walking in midtown and Bob Saget (also cute) arriving at the theater for his performance in The Drowsy Chaperone.

Wednesday started with breakfast at the Cosmic Diner. We the took the subway to the Whitney Museum. We had misunderstood when it opened and got there an hour too early. So, we walked over to the American Museum of Natural History. We then went to Bloomingdale’s. I wanted to buy a new pair of underwear, and the weather that day was so bizarre — kind of cold and kind of warming up — so I also decided to buy another jacket (a fleece) to wear. After doing a bit of shopping, we ate lunch (at The Brasserie 360) and then went back to the Whitney. The Seafarer was our top choice for a play that night, and we were glad we got tickets. We had dinner at a restaurant called Meson Sevilla on 46th Street and the went to the play. (Again, more about that later.) We only saw one celebrity on Wednesday: Michael Feinstein, who was walking in the Upper West Side.

Thursday was our last day in New York. The weather was supposed to be dicey — snow, slush, and icy rain. As PJ keeps saying, it felt like someone was dousing us with buckets of ice cold water most of the day. We walked over to Bryant Park and watched people ice skate as the snow started to switch over to icy rain. We then went to the Morgan Library. The weather just seemed to get worse — colder but wetter. So we decided to have lunch someplace warm and easy — Red Lobster in Times Square. We also decided to get out of the cold by seeing a movie, Juno. I’ll review it too sometime this week. We went back to our hotel room to warm up afterwards, and then ate dinner at Kyma, a Greek restaurant, and then went to see August: Osage County, an excellent new play by Tracy Letts. The full review will come later, but I can’t help but say right now that it is brilliant! It’s a great, great play. Our only celebrity that day was Jack Wetherall, who played Uncle Vic on the American version of Queer as Folk. He’s surprisingly sexy (PJ’s words), considering he played such a frail and sickly character on the series.

Friday morning we got up at 5:30 and hailed a cab to the airport. Despite the previous day’s weather, our flight was on time and we got back to Columbus in time for lunch and a little Christmas shopping. It was a great trip. Unfortunately, we probably won’t be able to go next December. Whenever we do go again, my goal is for us to get out of Manhattan. In the meantime, I’ll spend my time fantasizing about another week in New York.

 

New York, New York Monday, Dec 10 2007 

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PJ and I are off to New York — we’re currently sitting in the Columbus airport waiting for our flight. We’re hoping to see a few good plays, visit some museums, and eat well while we’re there. I should have lots to blog about when we get back. Last year, we had a great time during our visit. This year should be even better!

 

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead: A Review Saturday, Dec 8 2007 

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Yesterday PJ and I saw Sidney Lumet’s new film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, and Marisa Tomei. Here’s the trailer:

BtDKYD is about two brothers who are both in dire financial straits. Hoffman’s Andy is a drug addict who’s been stealing from his corporate account in order to finance his lifestyle and habit. Hawke’s Hank is Andy’s younger, ne’er do well brother who owes three months of child support to his ex-wife. Andy figures out a way to solve all of their problems: they just need to knock off their parents’ suburban jewelry store, which he argues will be a victimless crime due to their parents’ insurance. Not surprisingly, the heist goes terribly wrong, sending the lives of all of the characters into a chaos.

Let’s start with what I like about this movie: Albert Finney, who plays the two men’s domineering father. He plays the most complex character in the movie. His role is really limited to two substantive scenes, but he’s brilliant in both. His character also has the widest emotional arc, despite the limited screen time. He’s really great in this role.

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The World of Normal Boys: A Review Tuesday, Dec 4 2007 

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After the Fall Quarter was finished, I looked around my study for something fun to read. I tried reading Wuthering Heights again, but, while it’s a great book, it wasn’t what I was in the mood for. I started reading A Passage to India, the only E. M. Forster I haven’t read, but that too didn’t work. I decided I wanted something gay (or maybe I should say gayer than Forster), so I rooted about in my bookshelves and piles of random books and picked up K. M. Soehnlein‘s The World of Normal Boys, a coming out story about a kid named Robin set in 1978.

I think I bought TWoNB a couple of years ago. I had been in a gay book club and had gotten tired of having to mail in the little cards telling them not to send me each month’s selection, so I decided to order a few books all at once, complete my obligatory number of purchases, and then cancel my membership. This was one of the novels that sounded interesting. Unfortunately, when I got the books in the mail, I started reading one of the other novels, which wasn’t very good. When I couldn’t get into that one, I figured all three of the books I ordered must not be any good, so I set them on a shelf and forgot about them.

So, after I picked it off the shelf again, I didn’t have very high expectations. Much to my surprise, however, I quickly fell in love with this book. Here’s how it begins:

Maybe this is the moment when his teenage years begin. An envelope arrives in the mail addressed to him from Greenlawn High School. Inside is a computer-printed schedule of classes. Robin MacKenzie. Freshman. Fall, 1978. He has been assigned to teachers, placed in a homeroom. His social security number sits in the upper right corner, emphasizing the specter of faceless authority. Someone, some system of decision making, has organized his next nine months into fifty-minute periods, and here is his notification. This is what you will learn. This is when you will eat. This is when you go home to your family at 135 Bergen Avenue. This is how you will live your life, Robin MacKenzie.

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No Country for Old Men: A Review Monday, Dec 3 2007 

books and movies thisgaudygildedstage 10:25 am

In keeping with the Texas theme of our trip, PJ and I saw the Coen Brothers’ new film, No Country for Old Men, on Thanksgiving day. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly Macdonald and is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Here’s the trailer:

No Country for Old Men is set in Texas in 1980. The movie starts with Brolin’s character, Llewelyn Moss, accidentally stumbling across what looks like a massacre, the results of a drug deal gone wrong in the desert . Investigating the scene more closely, Llewelyn eventually finds a leather case full of money, at least a couple million dollars. When he takes the money, it sets off a violent chain of events that, despite his best efforts, he cannot control or stop.

NCfOM is a great movie, certainly one of the year’s best. Jones plays the local sheriff, Ed Tom Bell. His character grounds the film in common sense and serves as the audience’s way into the film. He also serves as the film’s narrator of sorts. This character isn’t a stretch for Jones; in fact, he’s played this kind of role several times. But he is perfect in this part and watching him is like sitting in on a master-class for actors. This film wouldn’t work if Bell came across as hokey or cocky. Jones imbues him with a fundamental sense of morality that reflects a kind of everyman’s quest to make sense of the senseless world around him.

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Eighteenth-Century Texas Wednesday, Nov 28 2007 

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Last Wednesday, PJ and I were sitting in our favorite Mexican restaurant along the river walk in San Antonio, Casa Rio, looking at a publicity magazine while eating lunch. We were looking for something to do for an hour or two before having to go back to my sister’s house and hang out with our family and her in-laws.

My eye was caught by the brochure’s brief description of the Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna, which it simply described as the oldest of the eighteenth-century Spanish missions in the San Antonio area. The magazine wasn’t very clear on how far away the mission was, but we decided to drive over and see what it was. After all, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see something from the eighteenth century in Texas!

First, we decided to pay another visit to the Alamo. We knew it was within walking distance of the restaurant, so we figured we should see it again before going back to our car. This is the pic we took of the front of the Alamo.

The Alamo

I have to admit that I’ve forgotten my Texas history. We had a whole year of it in seventh grade; I wanted to take a semester of it in high school but couldn’t fit it into my schedule. As a history major at TAMU, I wasn’t required to take Texas History, but I did take my senior seminar on the social history of the Texas frontier. I really enjoyed the class; we studied things like diaries of early settlers and how people made coffee on the frontier. If I had thought that there was a real future in it, I might have been tempted to become a Texas historian. But even then I realized that there couldn’t be that many jobs in the field.

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Cat Tuesday Tuesday, Nov 27 2007 

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Before I start blogging about our trip to San Antonio and Little Rock, I thought that I would catch up on some old blogging. I’ve been meaning to include more cat-related items from time to time; today seems like a good day to start that. Paisley and Marlowe are both very happy to see us after a week away. Paisley sat in my lap most of the evening purring up a storm.

In October, I found two YouTube clips about cats that I thought were fun. The first was sent to me by my friend James. It had been forwarded to him from another friend.

As anyone with cats knows, this is practically an animated documentary! I suffer much less from this than PJ does — the cats have gotten used to him getting up and feeding them in the morning. I usually don’t wake up until a couple of hours later. In our house, it’s Paisley that plays alarm clock. Her special technique is to knock things off of our night stands and chest of drawers.

The other clip is a short film. I first saw it months ago and recently came across it again.

This is just a fun little clip, which I take to be an homage to the presence of cats in some gay men’s lives. I have other clips and stories to share in the future. I might even include more pics of Paisley and Marlowe! (Maybe I should make a Paisley movie?!)

 

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