The Numbers For 2016

This was the 4th year in a row I didn't take a drink.

I went on two vacations. One to Richmond(to visit Matt), the other to Portland(with Nicole).

I did 50 shows with Deep Schwa and the team celebrated its 20th anniversary.

I did 42 shows with Sight Unseen.

I conceived and directed 1 play, Blockbuster, which had 8 shows.

I released 8 episodes of my podcast Hindsight Hour which constituted the second season.

I wrote 59 poems, 7 essays, and did 10 readings.

I self published 1 collection of essays.

I saw 73 movies in the the theater.

I read 56 books my favorite of which was Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

I went to 0 concerts.

I went to 1 dance performance.

I went to 1 musical(Hamilton).

I went to 1 play(The Flick).

I went to 3 weddings.

I went to 1 memorial.

I rode my motorcycle for 7 glorious months.

I met my new born niece Maris for the first time.

I celebrated 3 years with an incredible partner.

'Passengers' A Review

Passengers is a scifi romance about a generation ship on a hundred year voyage to colonize an Earth like planet. As a result of asteroid damage Jim Preston(Chris Pratt) is awoken. After spending a year in solitude he decides to wake up Aurora Lane(Jennifer Lawrence). They fall in love, she eventually discovers his deceit, and they come together in the end to save the ship. Some might think this brief synopsis is a spoiler but given how predictable and obvious the plot is the arc is relatively intuitive.

Pratt and Lawrence both have considerable charm but Pratt's relatively narrow range and Lawrence script restriction make both performances boring, incongruous, and at points disturbing. The main issue of the story is one of its three disparate plot points- essentially the Stockholm Syndrome of Lawrence's character. And this is handled with such flippant indifference it, essentially, hamstrings the entire movie. Pratt doesn't convey the darkness and duplicity that would make it believable and Lawerence's character is written as a two dimensional foil.

It's clear a lot of money was spent on the movie and all the space stuff looks really cool. But without a cogent narrative it doesn't really matter. There are three different movies contained within the bloated and unfortunate Passengers. An isolated-in-space tale(the first act with Pratt alone), a space thriller about a creep who manipulates a woman into falling in love with him(the second act), and a caught in space disaster(third act). Any one of which is a movie that could and probably would work with the two leads and production design but taken together it is a fatty, emotionally flat, and periodically offensive piece of collage.

Slick and shiny but utterly lacking nuance or even passable narrative logic.

Don't See It.

'Assassin's Creed' A Review

Assassin's Creed is a fantasy adventure movie based on the popular video game series. The movie opens on Aguilar de Nerha(Michael Fassbender) a 15th century assassin taking his oath. The movie then flashes forward to the 80's to a young Callum Lynch witnessing the death of his mother presumably by his father's hands then fleeing the authorities. The movie flashes forward again to Callum Lynch(Fassbender again) as an adult on death row about to receive a lethal injection. He is saved by Sophia Rikkin(Marion Cotillard) a doctor(?) who has developed psuedo time travel technology in order to "cure aggression"(or something?). Sophia puts Callum in a machine to relive his long ago ancestors life in order to track down the Apple Of Eden which holds the genetic code for free will and the ability to shut it off(gasp!).

Fassbender and Cotillard, wonderful actors, fail to give life to this incredibly convoluted and hokey story. The movie might have worked better if the actors allowed in a little more camp and humor but are bogged down by their self seriousness. Jeremy Irons fairs a bit better because of his innate wryness but for the most part the leads and the supporting cast commit so hard to the shaky ludicrous premise that it makes it even less believable not more. The efforts of the performers deserve respect but the context in which they give them is utterly laughable.

Clearly a lot of money was spent on the visuals but they come off more absurd than gripping. The "time travel" machine and the holograms present-day Callum interacts with are just plain silly, maybe the conceit works within the context of a video game but on the big screen it is awkward. The story itself its just to complicated and defiecent in logic to function. The past, the present, the machine all in and of themselves would work but together the narrative is a bloated mess.

A spectacular video game adaptation failure.

Don't See It.

Ethiopian Food

spongy soft
and slightly sour-
the bread is the base
for the dining hour

creamy curries
simmering stews
stuffed with spice
delight the chew

fingers are fine
to slurp and shovel
a satisfied stomach
brooks no rebuttal

Better To Give

The saying "it is better to give than to receive" is so old and oft repeated it has almost lost its meaning. But with most platitudes and cliches there is truth in it. Because the reality is that with giving(whether it be emotional, chronological, or material) there is a reciprocation involved. Doing something for someone else(be it buying something, preparing a meal, what-have-you) gives you satisfaction, gives you purpose. There is an interchange there of feeling that simply receiving an object doesn't provide. Because when we are giving to others, being of service, it is enriching for us. It makes us feel good. It reminds us we are not all important, all knowing, or particularly unique. We all have needs. We are one of many. We are not alone.

This holiday was a bit more unusual than years past for me and my family. My dad got in a car accident on Tuesday(not his fault, someone blew a red light), which resulted in a cracked rib. He's recovering but, quiet reasonably, wasn't up to doing much over the holiday. My 5 month old niece is teething and subsequently my sister and brother-in-law have been run a bit ragged. All this taken together my mother and I were the ones that did a fair amount of the cooking, cleaning, and decorating for the holiday. With five people, a baby, and a dog that's not nothing.

Not to say I was put upon just that it was proportionally more work for me than in years past, work I was happy even grateful to do, it got me thinking and put some things in perspective. It made me realize how much my parents do around the holiday(and did in general when we were growing up), the kind of energy all the minutia takes. Now, as an adult myself and with my parents not old but aging, I realize its time perhaps for me to contribute a bit more substantially when it comes to the more basic stuff. And I'm not talking anything grandiose I'm talking making sandwiches and scrubbing sinks, that kind of thing. And doing those various things over the holidays made me feel good, made me feel like all those years my folks and sister were taking care of things I now have an opportunity to pay it back a little. Take care of my family, in small ways, as they've taken care of me for so long.

This is all to say it was a good holiday, perhaps more challenging than usual but good. I had the opportunity to step up in a substantial way, maybe for the first time, and I did. It's always great to spend time with family, double so if you can contribute to the well being of it, however slight. Because when you are of service, when you share of your time and energy, it almost always comes back. Today I offer help, tomorrow I'll probably need it.

'The Fits' A Review

The Fits is a a coming-of-age drama about Toni, an eleven-year-old who trains with her brother at a boxing gym in the local community center. After watching the girls' dance team rehearse she reluctantly decides to join. Toni(Royalty Hightower) is quietly torn between boxing and the comfortable and companionable world of her brother and his friends and the more alluring, complicated, confusing dynamics of the girls and young women of the dance team. The situation becomes even more complicated when older members of the dance team begin to have inexplicable violent fits.

Hightower gives an incredible subtle performance, quiet but rich with emotion and subtext. The supporting cast full of mostly unknowns all give remarkably poised and engaging turns, conveying a solidity and authenticity that give the story striking, seemingly effortless, depth.

Visually the film has the potential to be mundane, its just a community center in a city, but the weather seems perpetually overcast, the interiors strangely shadowed. The cinematography evokes not only the uncertainty of youth but an eerie sense of precarious foreboding. The score helps to elevate the routine to the uncanny in a way that singularly captures adolescence.

A fresh and beguiling take on a familiar subject.

See It.

Paranoia

It can be infectious.

Our neighbor
in the wake
of our post-Thanksgiving
burglary
has become increasingly
fearful
of innocuous
pedestrians
and comes knocking
jittery and wary
to warn,
her panic
contagious.

And so
in preparation
for Xmas travel
I stash valuables
in nooks and crannies
at the back of drawers
draped in laundry
and in the toolbox
in hopes of foiling
wouldbe
holiday hooligans.

Best to be prepared, some say.
Better still to live fearless.
Burglars and robbers be damned.
For, terrified or tranquil, the winds of winter blow.