Apart from that, the play wasn't too bad.
1) I'm pleased by the results of last week's election. Four more years of Obama will be better than four years of Romney, and six years of Elizabeth Warren will, I think, be better than Scott Brown. More generally, I'm pleased that the hateful and blinkered clique that controls the GOP was so soundly rejected across the land. I hope the real Republicans retake their party from the zealots. We need them to call us lefties on our many failings.
2) Millari went back to see my family with me this weekend, and that was big help. She's been a rock for me, and I hope I don't lean on her too much.
3) Talking with friends has helped me to recognize that I'm someone who forms intense romantic bonds. In the case of Grounded, the ones I formed many years ago, once unearthed and confronted with the marvelous reality of who she is now, became very strong once again. Yet, I just don't see that she feels the same way, and I don't think the lives we have separately chosen mesh well. So, I'm going to break off contact with her for a while, until I can accept things as they are. I hope this won't take 5 to 10 years this time. :(
4) M and I saw Cloud Atlas the other day, and it's fantastic. I love the book, and the movie adapts it for the screen well, keeping enough of its nested narrative structure to evoke the parallels and contrasts it featured, while keeping the action moving and providing a gorgeous spectacle. Several actors played multiple parts in different times and places, and I think the complaints about 'yellow face' or other race fail problems miss the forest for the trees: all the actors who play multiple parts are made up in a different race or gender. This isn't done as mockery or appropriation (the main issues this sort of race fail raises), but as a commentary on the fluidity of gender and identity. I will not dispute with anyone who considers the experiment a failure, but I don't think it offends in the way that the Jazz Singer or White Girls do.
EDIT TO ADD:
5) I have a friend who works for FEMA, and who is deployed in Brooklyn. Apparently, even two weeks after Sandy, things are still pretty rough out there, and many people are desperate. Kudos to the relief workers who are struggling mightily to help people, and kudos to the activists of Occupy Wall Street, who have started organizing their own informal relief effort.
6) Louis CK did a great bit on Saturday Night Live last week in the style of his sitcom, except he was playing Abraham Lincoln as a sad sack comedian.
2) Millari went back to see my family with me this weekend, and that was big help. She's been a rock for me, and I hope I don't lean on her too much.
3) Talking with friends has helped me to recognize that I'm someone who forms intense romantic bonds. In the case of Grounded, the ones I formed many years ago, once unearthed and confronted with the marvelous reality of who she is now, became very strong once again. Yet, I just don't see that she feels the same way, and I don't think the lives we have separately chosen mesh well. So, I'm going to break off contact with her for a while, until I can accept things as they are. I hope this won't take 5 to 10 years this time. :(
4) M and I saw Cloud Atlas the other day, and it's fantastic. I love the book, and the movie adapts it for the screen well, keeping enough of its nested narrative structure to evoke the parallels and contrasts it featured, while keeping the action moving and providing a gorgeous spectacle. Several actors played multiple parts in different times and places, and I think the complaints about 'yellow face' or other race fail problems miss the forest for the trees: all the actors who play multiple parts are made up in a different race or gender. This isn't done as mockery or appropriation (the main issues this sort of race fail raises), but as a commentary on the fluidity of gender and identity. I will not dispute with anyone who considers the experiment a failure, but I don't think it offends in the way that the Jazz Singer or White Girls do.
EDIT TO ADD:
5) I have a friend who works for FEMA, and who is deployed in Brooklyn. Apparently, even two weeks after Sandy, things are still pretty rough out there, and many people are desperate. Kudos to the relief workers who are struggling mightily to help people, and kudos to the activists of Occupy Wall Street, who have started organizing their own informal relief effort.
6) Louis CK did a great bit on Saturday Night Live last week in the style of his sitcom, except he was playing Abraham Lincoln as a sad sack comedian.