Hiking & Sunset

Today we spent all day in the park hiking around. There's only a handful of marked trails that you can do over the course of a day, the rest are longer stretches that would necessitate camping.

It was warm and for the most part sunny, a nice change from the overcast/partly cloudy we've been dealing with over the past couple days.

Tomorrow we start our ride back to Chicago. It seemed a fitting end. Sitting on the wind swept buttes watching the sunset. Pictures can't do the beauty justice, neither can words.

Badlands & Wall Drug

After a good day of riding yesterday we encountered some rain about 40 minutes outside The Badlands. We waited for almost an hour under an overpass but the rain showed no signs of letting up so we took the last chunk in two very wet and trying legs. It may have been some of the most difficult riding I have ever done and I couldn't have done it without Nicole's support and encouragement. We arrived in the evening, checked into our cabin, dried off, and luxuriated under the powerful heater. Today was our first full day in the park.

We rode through the park on our way to Wall Drug and stopped a couple times to take pictures and soak it all in.

I've been to The Badlands twice before and it is my favorite place in the US.

I was eager to share it with Nicole and slowly cruising through the park was great.

Wall Drug is one of the kitch capitols of the country. Animatronic cowboy bands, weird statues, historical western tableaus, lots and lots of shops, nickle coffee, and free ice water. Advertised for hundreds of miles around.

We headed back to the park after we had lunch and did some shopping. Nicole had a buffalo dog.

In the evening I took Nicole to my favorite trials in the park which takes you up the Badlands wall, from the lower plains to the upper.

We got to the top while the sun was setting. The silence, the stillness, was profound. The light and the grass were the only things moving. The size and the majesty of it all was daunting but comforting too. As if we had been welcomed into some joyful and sacred secret.

Storm Trial

Lo
Mother Nature
discards prayers
and rains torrents
on we hapless
motorcyclists
voyaging west.

She generates
a real adventure
for her unprepared
pilgrims,
something to
endure.

With gritted teeth
pleas go out
to all the gods-
of motorcycles,
interstates,
and weary wanderers.

Each drop
like a bullet
made of ice
pounds
into exposed limbs
and will is tempered.

On The Road

We left Madison after Marta and Nick made brunch and got to visit with my cousin Adam and Marta's friend Anne. Marta and Nick's new home is beautiful and spacious with a great big yard, I was very happy we got to break in the guest room.

We made a brief stop in La Crosse which is on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border to take in the plateau overlook of the Mississippi.

It was a beautiful day to ride, warm and sunny, our schedule didn't call for a super demanding ride so for the most part our pace was pretty leisurely.

The last hour of the ride we were riding west through Minnesota as the sun was setting. The sinking sun shone on the fields of corn and the looming yet elegant wind turbines which surrounded us. It was a gorgeous end to a great day. Tomorrow, Badlands or bust.

Roadtrip

Today Nicole and I set off on the motorcycle for The Badlands in South Dakota. We stopped briefly in Rockford to check in with my mom then headed up to Madison where we spent a wonderful evening with my sister and her husband Nick.

 We went out of the city for dinner to a lovely farm for an intimate farm-to-table meal.

Great company, good conversation, and nice food.

Lots of talk of the super moon and the impending eclipse. Tomorrow is our first big day of riding.

My Two Sons: Closing

Tonight My Two Sons closed our twelve week run at The Annoyance, start to finish the process was four months. One of my main goals for this year was to get a show reviewed and The Reader did a write up for MTS, regardless of the quality a administrative accomplishment.

It's been really gratifying to work on a show with family and growing-up as the theme, that has a message about love and acceptance while still being a bit raunchy, R-rated, and funny. It's also been wonderful to work with Cowdery again and loop in some of my other friends who I really love collaborating with. Back in January I did a bit with Danny and Max for Holy Fuck where they played my sons and from that I got the idea for the show. They were the leads and the stars and I'm really proud of the work they did above and beyond my pride for the show overall.

I set out to do a show about parents and children which addressed "taboo" subjects like sex and substance use. It changed considerably from my relatively simple outline and became much more textured and truthful. Ultimately it was a success, we all worked hard on it, the play said something, and people came to see it(for which I am very thankful) and were effected(for the most part).

I don't know what my next project will be but I do know I want to continue creating original plays through improvisation. It's been the most satisfying work I've ever done.

'Pawn Sacrifice' A Review

Pawn Sacrifice is a biographical thriller about chess master Bobby Fischer(Tobey Maguire) and his journey to the World Chess Championship to face the Soviet Union's reigning champ Boris Spassky(Liev Schreiber). He battles mental illness which manifests itself in paranoia, obsessive behavior, narcissism, and antisemitism. The film is framed in the context of the cold war. The Soviet's using their stable of chess masters to prove their dominance and the US using Fischer as the only native chess master who can put up a fight.

The narrative is relatively conventional beginning with Bobby as a child through adolescence to his competitive years. We travel relatively quickly however once we arrive at the actual interesting portion of Fischer's life the film is half over. What is interesting about Bobby Fischer is his chess prowess, his games against Spassky, and his volatile nature. These elements are all touched upon however the film tries too hard to create a cold war sense of menace which is distracting from the real meat of the story.

Maguire as Fischer is passable, finding moments of real truth and emotion alternated with scenes of unbelievable caricature. Schreiber, as always, is imminently watchable however he doesn't actually speak until well into the third act. Peter Sarsgaard puts in his best performance in years as a priest who is Fischer's chess coach. The film tries to build out Fischer's life with a supporting cast of great character actors but ultimately he has no real connections. Fischer is a mad solitary genius so the burden rests on Maguire which he can't quite shoulder.

Succeeds in making chess interesting, Maguire falls short in the Oscar bait lead.

Rent It.

Chicago Sunrise

All is quiet.
Almost still.
The city gently
awakens.

Gold dances
on the waves.
The sun crests-
crescendos.

Talk It Out

Everyone is prey, at times, to stresses, anxieties, and obsessive thinking. Whether it manifests itself interpersonally(worrying about some interaction), professionally(job security, job dissatisfaction, unemployment), familially(expectations, disappointments) or romantically(insecurity, doubt, irritation, frustration).

Often times these worries are passing things, sporadic manifestations of illogical or negative thinking, with little basis in reality or truthful perception but which can stick with us. Even in the event these strains are based in fact they are unhelpful, unproductive, serve no purpose save for depleting our emotional and physical endurance.

How then do we combat these inevitable and accumulating tensions on our day-to-day lives? How do we release the pressure of compounding agitation trapped inside our heads? By giving them shape and substance, by talking with a friend or loved one and putting form to the formless and through this connection with another person discovering the validity of our concerns. When you put words to your anxieties they lose power, when you confide in another individual you gain their perspective. That's where relief is found, in the sharing, because none of us is alone, because there is no situation so unique that someone else can't relate to it in some way and therefore empathize and offer support.

It is certainly not a cure-all and there is a distinction between seeking solace in others and complaining. But if you are truly struggling giving voice to your disquiet, however small or irrational, can offer relief.

'Black Mass' A Review

Black Mass is a biographical crime drama about the life of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger(Johnny Depp). The movie starts in 1975 and goes through 1985 using interrogations from Bulger's associates from when the organization was eventually prosecuted as a substitute for narration. At the beginning of the movie FBI agent John Connolly(Joel Edgerton) strikes up an association with Bulger and in exchange for information about the Italian mafia the Irish mob Bulger head's is given immunity and grows.

The pacing of the movie is glacial and much time is spent attempting to elicit understanding if not out right sympathy for Bulger and Connolly. Given they are two categorically bad men, Bulger an out right monster, driven by simple greed and power this focus is unsuccessful, uninteresting, and somewhat mystifying. Although the cast is star studded the script gives the actors nothing much to do. Time passes and crimes take place but ultimately nothing much happens, the action involves characters we do not care about. The movie is also miserable in its portrayal of women offering only wives and whores with little screen time. This discrepancy is highlighted by the best scenes in the movie involving Connolly's wife played by Julianne Nicholson and the prostitute played by Juno Temple.

Plodding, uninspired, and lazy. Better to revisit the fictionalized version in The Departed.

Don't See It.

Graffiti 177

In reference to the Chicago band who presumably took their name from the 1973 movie. It evokes, to me, the Western genre and a certain sense of isolation.

"Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy." -Roger Ebert

"All the traditional westerns are about choice and the individual. When progress comes it's much more difficult to define the individual in that world." -Gore Verbinski

"The great art of films does not consist of descriptive movement of face and body but in the movements of thought and soul transmitted in a kind of intense isolation." -Louise Brooks

'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials' A Review

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a dysptopian science fiction moive the second in the Maze Runner trilogy. Thomas and the remaining survivors of the maze are taken to a military facility where they meet other maze survivors. The facility is run by Janson and heavily guarded. Thomas discovers that the survivors are being experimented on and eventually harvested for the bio-chemical immunities they produce in response to the Flare virus. Thomas and a handful of others escape into the blasted wasteland dubbed The Scorch in search of resistance group The Right Arm.

More sprawling and sloppy than its 2014 predecessor The Scorch Trials offers less focus but more adventure. With a thrilling- although somewhat problematic- plot, large CGI set pieces and battles this installment has the feeling of an epic. There is less focus on character and more on adventure and theme. We see this large and desolate world which has been ravaged by the Flare virus only hinted at in the initial installment. The main quandary at the center of the movie is the age-old 'does the ends justify the means' as well as the enduring conflict of the individual vs. the establishment. Classic ideas but even so engaging.

An entertaining, somewhat unrefined, YA adaptation with an admirably diverse cast. The last hooray of the 2015 summer blockbuster season.

Rent It.

Penultimate M2S

For a long time I misunderstood the term penultimate. I think this is a relatively common misconception. It means second to last, not last(which is what I thought for a long while). Tonight was the penultimate My Two Sons. We're close to the finish line, all told it will have been a four month process. A third of the year. Next week we close the book on it.

Final My Two Sons Friday 9/25 8pm The Annoyance.

Garfield Park Conservatory

Yesterday I got a job so my expansive free time will quickly come to a close. I'm trying to pack in as much as I can in the next week, one of the things I've been wanting to do but have gotten around to is going to the Garfield Park Conservatory. 

It's much more expansive than the LP Conservatory with a lot more space, different art installations, and various biomes. Lots of beautiful flowers and cool places to explore.

'Mistress America' A Review

Mistress America is a comedy about a college freshman Tracy(Lola Kirke) in New York City and her burgeoning friendship with her older worldly soon-to-be stepsister Brooke(Greta Gerwig). Tracy begins college and has trouble finding her place, at the advise of her mother she calls her mother's fiance's 30 year old daughter who is funny, adventurous, and somewhat self-involved. Tracy begins writing fiction about Brooke and the friendship becomes more complicated as she mines their shared experiences for inspiration.

There are two major issues with the film. First a total inconsistency in tone, it is at points a coming of age story, a road trip movie, a college comedy, and an over-the-top farce. Each fine enough in and of themselves but taken together it is a discordant mess. The second issue is the characters and as the film is character driven it is a difficult problem to surmount. Although more palatable than 2013's Frances Ha Gerwig again plays a relatively shallow unlikable character, in Mistress America we are at least encouraged to laugh at her a bit more but still the film in a way makes her some sort of 21st century heroine. Which as a self-absorbed, affluent, immature thirty something is a difficult pill to swallow. All the characters in the film save for Kirke are either unredeemable or uncompelling either because of their wealth or their narcissism. And Kirke's character is only just worthy of exploration, only salvaged by the actor's excellent portrayal, despite the pitfalls of the script.

Another installment in the Gerwig-Baumbach exploration of millennial white privilege and the existential problems of growing up.

Don't See It.

Keisha

I was sitting by the lake reading
you sat down next to me
as if we were old friends.

I helped you lower yourself
and you complained
of the growing twins inside you.

You asked if I had a second plum
I did not but I willingly gave
the one I had.

It was clear you wanted to converse
but the strangeness of your familiarity
drove me deeper into my book.

I would have gladly sat in silence
sharing the warm quiet afternoon
but talk is what you pushed for.

Eventually, realizing my resistance, you left
I hope you find whatever it is you seek
and wish you well.

How odd, to look for companionship
from a lone man, deliberate in his solitude.
As if the ripe red plum I held was some bright beckoning beacon.

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' A Review

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is an action spy movie set in 1963 about an American thief turned CIA agent Napoleon Solo(Henry Cavill) partnering up with a KGB operative Illya Kuryakin(Armie Hammer) in order to stop a pair of Nazi sympathizers from building their own nuclear weapon in Rome.

Although entertaining enough there is nothing new about The Man From U.N.C.L.E. it is a reboot of a 60's TV show co-created by Ian Fleming. It is unapologetically a Bond substitute. There is also the plot similarity of the thief-turned-agent with USA's White Collar which would not amount to much if White Collar's lead Matt Bomer did not so closely resemble Cavill. Director Guy Ritchie continues to recycle the Snatch score to ever diminishing returns.

The performances are decent, the intrigue passable, but ultimately the movie has no real heart, no real purpose, no edge. It is a copy of a copy of a copy and feels accordingly bland.

Rent It.

Character

In improv there is a lot of talk about playing characters. A very popular, and in my mind ineffective, theater and improv exercise is the old walk-around-the-space lead-with-a-different-part-of your-body in hopes that a physical change will then inspire some unique characterization. The reality is that creating an effective character is much more difficult and complicated then simply walking differently. I've heard, gotten, and given the note to "play more characters" in improv but it rarely goes beyond that and you almost never hear how one is actually suppose to accomplish it. The reason is, like almost all creative disciplines, everyone is different. My process works for me but it won't necessarily work or even make sense to someone else.

One of the first scenes in tonight's Deep Schwa show I came out as a character. The scene was between three siblings, myself and Sarah were visiting our older sibling Jeannie in her fancy downtown loft apartment. As I entered the scene, apropos of nothing, I thrust my hands deep into my pockets. In that moment I figured that was my character hands-in-pockets-person. I slouched my shoulders a bit and it seemed to me the posture I was taking was representative of someone petulant, rebellious, defensively sarcastic, and most likely young. All this took place over the course of two or three seconds as I was walking on stage before anyone spoke.

Jeannie initiated the scene by saying something to the effect of 'welcome to my beautiful loft apartment, things are so much different here in The City, there's so much going on'. Her posture was very straight, she made a couple sweeping graceful gestures. Confident, high status. Going into the scene my idea is that it would have a school setting, I dropped that, and put my character in context with the information Jeannie provided. It seemed to me my character was resentful of being there and of the big city mentality Jeannie was projecting so it seemed logical that the only reason I would be there given that information was that if we were siblings. I called her sis and the scene progressed accordingly. Older, sophisticated, sibling shares new found invigorating lifestyle with younger siblings one who is naively in thrall(Sarah) and another who is resistant even out right hostile(me).

The character choices were made within the first couple seconds of the scene, by the second line all of us knew the situation and the relationship dynamic. In order to create a character you have to be inspired and make choices, this is most effective when it is done incredibly quickly, in improv you don't have the luxury of a lot of time to decide who you are. If you take an inordinate amount of time to decide who your character is the scene will most likely have progressed significantly while you were making up your mind past a point where you can get directly involved. Or a lot of time elapses where nothing happens.

Quickly make physical and/or emotional choices that inform your character, this should be done while your entering a scene or in the first couple seconds. If you don't initiate the scene, adjust your preconceptions to put your character within the context of what has been established. At least that's what works for me.

'Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine' A Review

Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine is a documentary about the life of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs. The film opens on youtube clips of young people eulogizing Jobs cut with the numerous world wide gatherings mourning his passing. The film then begins to explore his life in rough chronological order through a relatively traditional use of archive footage and talking-head interviews. We see his interest in computers as a child, his job at Atari, the start of Apple, his attempted disowning of his illegitimate daughter, his interest in Buddhism, his firing, his rehiring, his "none" involvement with illegal stock options, the release of the iMac, his aversion to philanthropy, the release of the iPhone, and concludes with his death.

What becomes abundantly clear early on in the film is that Steve Jobs was not a good guy. That Jobs had almost nothing to do with the invention of any of the Apple products, that his main function and purpose was sales and marketing. Throughout the film we are bombarded with Jobs's heightened and hollow rhetoric. His "brilliance" is not in technological innovation but in advertising. He successfully, and falsely, associated Apple with the underdog, the outsider, the artist. Sold this idea not that your computer or phone is a part of you but that it IS you. That buying an Apple product will make you more complete. His "ideals" scan like a dystopian nightmare. Of course, come to find out, all this stuff doesn't make people happier, in fact people are more isolated, more alone. Thanks Steve.

On top of the essential lie of his entire company there is the matter of its practices. No philanthropy, restrictive vindictive working conditions in the US, dangerous factories in China with grossly underpaid workers prone to suicide, illegal activities in order to get executives more money, off shore holding companies to avoid US taxes, harassment of dissenting journalists, on and on. All decisions and practices OK'd if not mandated by Jobs.

The filmmaker is relatively neutral even describing himself as an Apple guy at one point during narration however the information is so stark and damning you wish he would put a bit of a finer point on the conclusions that can be drawn.

Essential viewing for any Apple loyalist, an unpleasant unnecessary experience for those who aren't.

Don't See It.