Turn Off the McCarter Theater!

Went to the last preview of "Turning Off the Morning News" at McCarter .

All I can say is "just, wow", and not in a good way. Some things just are not funny, and mass shootings just happen to be one of those things. Whether these atrocities occur at schools, churches, malls, movie theaters, or night clubs is not important. They are just not funny.

The characters were somewhat hackneyed: the would be killer was an unemployed, alcoholic bipolar, who just happened to be a bigot. His wife was a Christian woman who quite literally could not see what was in front of her face. The other characters were a pair of friends who moved in together due to recent adversities, the son of the would be killer and his addled Christian wife, and a bizarre neighbor who didn't quite fit with the story line.

I suppose at some time during the previews the antagonists were softened in some way and their "politics" were obscured, so as not to be way too obvious.

Anyway, it was an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. As I took the elevator to the street level, I remarked to the other quiet passengers, "that was different", and an elderly lady piped up, "it was catastrophically awful."

A Pox on Globalism

For years now I have been listening to globalists bang on about the free movement of labor and capital and how it will benefit "everyone". By everyone, they clearly mean everyone in their social circle who have plenty of money and want more, by moving manufacturing to China and by bringing cheap workers here to the US. They were happy to cripple the autoworkers, the steelworkers, the textile workers and anyone else they could shaft by moving these jobs to Asia. Here, they are delighted to screw over tech workers with foreign visa holders ready to replace them for less money and the promise of citizenship. They will be pleased to rid the citizens of the US of any other jobs too. Look around and see how many foreign doctors and nurses you see...cheaper than training  Americans (as if the Universities are hurting), look at the landscaping jobs being performed by uneducated (illegal) foreigners... when Max moved to NJ in the 1980s the landscaping and lawn cutting was done by high school kids (the foreigners are probably not only cheaper, but more willing to be exposed to a fabulous amount of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides).

We hear, ad nauseum, about how we can't deport illegals as it might "break up families". What about the families destroyed by job loss and outsourcing? What about the families that will not begin as young people are living at home until their 30 because nothing is available unless you are foreign born? They apparently count for nothing. Only families of cheap labor count?

I was thrilled when GM lost a facility to nationalization in Venezuela. I'd like to see more of these bastards lose their asses. They did it to the American worker.

Comedy on the Orient Express

The scenery and costumes were lush and era appropriate, some of the actors were truly wonderful in their roles, and the cast of the Agatha Christie novel was more or less successfully truncated to the tastes of modern audiences. The doctor and the Countess were combined in to one person (what a feminist), all the couples travelled alone, and the cook and baby nurse were smashed into a ridiculous Christian (how awful) missionary who wanted to help the sick and starving in Africa. And while it did nothing to pare down the cast, a great American tragedienne was transformed into a musical comedienne with a bad voice. All the elements of a modern American comedy were there in full force, and it was only the bones of the Christie novel that were on stage. Yes, Dame Agatha added elements of comic relief in her novels, but they were never comedies.

And why would Murder on the Orient Express not be a comedy? Well, first and foremost because it was developed around  horrible crimes: kidnapping and child murder. In this production, you even see the kidnapping and fear of the young girl as she is hauled away into the night (of course that should lead to hijinks, right?) Next up the grieving parents both die tragically, the father by his own hand and the mother in childbirth. The household's maid also kills herself, a miserable foreign woman, alone in America who is subject to suspicion that she might be involved. In the book, the survivors act out of anger, grief, and heart wrenching sorrow. In their despair, they seek justice.

The "canon" of English literature provides many opportunities for comedy. However brilliantly executed, this was not a good idea. Murder, kidnapping and suicide are never a laughing matter. But the production did prove one thing, a cleverly conceived lie can be believed. One who was unfamiliar with the Christie novel might actually believe that she made light of human agonies, when Christie and her detectives never did that.

If you want comedies, Princetonians, they abound. Hamlet and Murder on the Orient Express are not comedies, no matter how much you yourselves, want to break Western Society. You got a glitzy, well acted production, ridiculing the grieving families, successful businessmen (Bouc can be considered successful) and a Christian missionary (inspired to be one out of an enduring sense of guilt that she was unable to save the child in her care). It "worked", but should it have done so?

Was it meant to be funny at all? Under different direction, Bouc could have been tamped down, our musical comedienne could have been played as a sad woman who turned to alcohol (she drank like a fish) to comfort herself, and the guilt-ridden baby nurse could have been NOT played for cheap laughs. If you must have a comedy, please rid yourself of the kidnapping scene. It hurt.

A Farewell to being locked in at McCarter

Cancelled our automatic renewal at the McCarter today. The subscription office acted stunned and asserted that my opinion on the season was wrong, and that the shitty production of Hamlet was superb. I told her that people walked out, and that Mr. Maximalist and I were far from alone, and I reminded her that there were plenty of empty seats to start with. Eventually she conceded that I had a right to my opinion (how fucking noble and gracious of her.)

Anyway, I do not go to the theater to have my culture insulted, or to be bombarded with political viewpoints. The recent productions of Shakespeare have been dreadful (I do not think Marc Anthony's death was hilarious and Hamlet's soliloquys deserve more than a speed reading)and the other plays have largely been manipulative.

I long for the days when they did beautiful productions of French comedies or Greek tragedies, or even thoughtful Shakespeare.

If you go to the theater on a constant basis, perhaps these offerings would be like a burst of spice or an appealing palate cleanser. We don't. So we will be carefully picking and choosing on what we spend our precious free time. A subscription to McCarter is just frustrating and annoying at this time.

Hamlet for hams at McCarter

"Come on, Max", said my husband, "It's Hamlet, you can't ruin Hamlet."

Well, today, Mr. Maximalist was proven wrong, by McCarter's production of Hamlet. They played it as a comedy. No, not as a tragedy with Shakespearean comic relief, but as a full blown comedy.

In the first act, the comedy was based on the minimalist set, and the interaction with the audience sitting on stage, but by the second act, the Prince of Denmark, who I was halfway enjoying (the only performance I enjoyed), vacillated wildly, from a crafty young man (not so young, actually, but not as painful as the paunchy middle aged Laertes)to a Jim Carrey-esque clown portraying a mean full blown manic episode, to an insufferably shallow delivery of Hamlet's best known soliloquy. Listening to this version, you would never know that the young prince was considering suicide. It just wasn't funny.

If the point was Hamlet was a reckless manic, it could have been made without slap-stick. Mania can be destructive, and human destruction is never funny.

The anachronisms " tape recorder, flashlights, massive stage lights, and careless 21st century dress were merely annoying, because it was a silly farce anyway. I was too irritated by the disembowelment of Shakespeare to care.

Was "hating on" Shakespeare the point of this? Was there a point at all?

As Mr. Maximalist and I left the theater (after the second act), the other departing patrons expressed that they too had "given up". We also wondered if it was the performance and NOT Superbowl Sunday that kept people away.

For all those who stuck it out until the end, I thank you. It was much easier to drive home quickly.

Finis

Great news for dog care!

GREAT news for dogs!

About two years ago, I sunk a fortune into canine dentistry for my rescue dog, Rusty, whose teeth were badly covered with tartar. The anesthesia was rough and he was out of it for days.

Fast forward: vet said that he needed another cleaning. Try as I might, and try I did, Rusty resisted the brush.

I tried a sonicare.

He looked apprehensive, but let me do it. Maybe the crazy old pom likes the noise or the vibration. Anyway, Rusty does this growlessly.

And the tartar is GONE, not diminished, but gone. It is cracked away and he looks great. I was amazed what a week with sonicare can do, as this was a last ditch effort prior to plunking down another $1000.00.

So, for those beset by dental bills for your dog, those who never want to do it again, and those who have a new pet and don't want problem, get a cheap sonicare and go.

I make no guarantee that your dog will love this, but oddly mine does!

Bathing in Moonlight at the McCarter: spoilers ahead

 I enjoyed Anna in the Tropics and was hoping that Bathing in Moonlight would be a similarly well crafted and enjoyable play. I was pleased with the acting, but disappointed in the workmanship of the play itself.

As this is McCarter in an election year, I fully expected the  "no walls" diatribe masquerading as a sermon by a dedicated priest, the central character in the play. What would an Emily Mann production be without a call to socialist arms?

The play centers on the life of a priest in present day Miami. It is important to emphasize that this is a contemporary play, as the finale would be more appropriately set a century earlier. The grand  outrage of an entire city at the character who has an affair with a woman his own age, is certainly not representative of 2015. When I was in a Catholic school in 1970, a priest did exactly that (left the priesthood and married his girlfriend) with not a word from the media. The ending was embarrassingly anachronistic.

That aside, the play does little to develop the other characters. Our female lead is particularly vague and poorly focused. Marcella is a thirty something, unemployed single mother. We never learn why she never married the father of Trini, why she loses her job, or why she chooses to be alone until she is propositioned by a handsome priest...one who has been paying her mortgage. We do know that she is presented as a rather devout woman who did not get involved with the Reverend Father until it was crystal clear that her brother was going to be no use in paying the bills. While there was an attraction, her motivation is unclear.

The brother, who also plays the grandmother's memory of her late husband, is also murky. He fails out of medical school, disappears, then blames his mother for his actions and his subsequent depression. We never learn what his "real" life goals were, if he even had any, or if he plans on moving beyond self pity.

As for grandma, whose family lost all when Castro came to power, was she a conniving, driving bitch who wanted to keep up appearances, or was she a mother who wanted her family to succeed in the US? At no point did she present as a woman who "forced" her late husband to work three jobs, or who could make her son go to medical school. Her demise, well and quite movingly telegraphed by the playwright, went virtually unnoticed by her onstage family. Fine if the family was callous and relieved, sloppy if they were not.

Back to the priest. While he came across on some level as a tortured man in love, let's not forget that he kept her as "my secret" as he showed no intention of marrying his mistress until discovered by persons unknown and confronted by the Bishop. Secondly, he paid the mortgage, long a literary lure for an affair, and mentioned his "inheritance" which was also unclear to the audience.

The acting was superb, they made the most of a play in needs of plenty of work. I hope it gets some revisions. In a world where affairs and subterfuge are no longer shocking (and would certainly garner no attention from the local television news unless the participants were celebrities), the author needs to flesh out the motivations of his characters. As the play was under two hours without an intermission, Milo Cruz has the stage time, and certainly the talent, to do this. Also, he needs to lose the faux reporters and the suggestion that the community will destroy the lovers, it hasn't done that in a very long time

Donald Hall and his Alligator Bride.

When I was a young teenager, I loved poetry. Like most teenage girls of my vintage I adored Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Rod McKuen. Like minded girls were also enjoying Sara Teasdale and Elizabeth Bishop...back in the day, as they say. I can't imagine what we were playing at during our Teasdale phase.

Anyway, my interest in poetry was noted by the teachers at my new high school and I was invited to attend a program that had been previously reserved for juniors and seniors who were taking the Honors courses. Ann Arbor poet and future poet Laureate, Donald Hall, was coming to our school to do a brief reading and take some questions about poetry, academia and writing in general.

In all honesty, this 14 year old girl of 1971 had never heard of the man. I was flattered to be invited and more than a bit intimidated by the situation as juniors and seniors seemed so far above me. Imagine.

For his reading, Professor Hall chose the poem The Alligator Bride, which is even now a bit of a mystery to me, but was dark and undecipherable in 1971. Yet, I applauded with the rest of the group who seemed more sophisticated than ever. How did they understand this poem and what did they get out of it? Had the good sisters of the English department prepared and coached them or were they, like me, too afraid of being called out as a dummy not to applaud and act elated by the reading.

To his credit, the reading was dramatic and Hall's voice stayed with me as did his reptilian lady in white. As a 14 year old, I imagined a real alligator or a vicious, snappish female. Later I saw it as an almost psychotic image, a imagined companion and perhaps an ex-wife. When, my nephew went to University of Florida, gator brides took on an entirely new meaning as I imagined a sharp, chic sorority girl cutting her significant teeth on the heart of the poet. In this incarnation, I even imagined a wedding cake complete with gator bride in a dress, veil and pearls. Who knows.

Lately someone on etsy, explained the poem as a writing about a depressed individual who could see despair in a cat and a bag of spilled groceries and who was contemplating at least a spiritual death.

I still can't imagine 14 year olds with the capacity to figure this out. I still think about Professor Hall and this reading. Funny how some things stay with you always.

Super hilarious article in Politico!

So now Obama is their puppet master? Well I guess the press have been puppets, but it has been willful at every turn. Deliberate even, they crave covering up Benghazi and the bad economy. They love painting Romney a criminal as they let Obama lie about anything and everything. Now they have the temerity to cry "manipulation"?

Here's a flash for you Ann Compton, and Tapper and the rest of your ilk. You are choosing this and the nation has suffered for your hero worship and negligence.

Make better choices and try some honesty for a change.

Slooooooooooooooow Amazon

Can anyone tell me why it might take four days to "prepare" a book for shipment? This is super annoying. I can see stuck in the USPS system, but FOUR days to "prepare"? This is not a marinated main dish or a ceramic tile floor!

Albee again...A Delicate Balance at the McCarter

I just don't know.

On the surface Albee seems to know nothing about mental illness. It is terrifically unlikely that someone will become schizophrenic in their late 60s. If he doesn't know that he should read up a bit.

But I suspect he does and his character is just using it as either an affectation or a coping skill as she remains married to a man who desires all around him to be dependant...on him, and at odds with each other, while looking like a long suffering and tolerant saint.

Nope it's not Agnes who controls the family dynamics, it is Tobias. He is the fulcrum about whom all action pivots. And it's not pretty.

Agnes is a dependant wife a la 1960s. We have no idea what income she may have from her late parents, but we are led to believe that she and her odious sister Claire have nothing without Tobias.
Agnes characterizes herself as the implementation phase of Tobias' wishes, the nurse to his doctor role and this appears to be true. She is not even able to relieve herself of a sister who freely states she wishes her dead...DEAD. She must tolerate this vile but cutesy-wootsey alcoholic, because Tobias says so, he allows it.

He allows, and aids and abets Claire's alcoholism. No one in the play sees the drinking as benign, even Tobias who encourages it in a classic double bind way. "Why did you quit AA, here have another," which mirrors his interaction with his best friend "I don't want you here, but stay!"

Tobias encourages people to dislike each other, but love him. And if he pays the bills and encourages dependence, you have to behave. If the man was nice you could say, people take advantage of the agreeable gentleman, but this is a guy who killed his cat because he "didn't love me." Not because it was ill, cachetic or incapacitated, but because he perceived a lack of affection.  Love me or I'll destroy you.

Sociopaths can be charming. Never forget it.

Media keeps on lying

Benghazi cover up was quick and brutal, those calling for investigation were squashed like ants by those who should have been doing the investigating...the press. Those seekers of truth and justice pursued stealth and excuses and plain old whitewashing. Woodward and Bernstein are truly dead as role models? Or did their format only apply to GOP presidents and leaders? It's sad, but true that all press is partisan. GOPers have always been able to kick their garbage to the curb, a la Nixon, a la Mark Foley, but dems love them a lying cheating scoundrel. It's all about power and control, not about truth.

And don't let people tell you that the snivelly Jake Tapper is an exception. He's just as bad, worse even as he masquerades as a journalist, unlike Matthews, Maher, or that lunatic at CBS who says Bamster should squash the Republicans. Tapper hides behind a facade...he looks tough one day, but I suspect that its just hemorhoids, not courage.

I miss you, Theresa, The Wit

Theresa Duncan and I have nothing in common. I probably wouldn't have liked her. She would have found me beneath her notice, someone she might feel the need to respond to in a blog, but quickly forgotten. And that's ok. When you're insignificant, you're insignificant. I can deal with that. I suppose Theresa could not cope with being passed over. The life she expected to lead was looking out of reach. She never made those movies, the important projects were illusory. Then there was the plagiarism issue. Even the perfume blogging was tainted. So she made a decision, possibly while under the influence, to end it all. And yes, if you are under the influence of alcohol over a period of days, weeks or months, you can recreate that mindset again and again. I suspect that the AM sober Theresa felt a bit sickened by her thoughts. But suicide made sense to the inebriated one. Nevertheless, five years later, I still miss her. I liked reading about her upcoming projects whether they were real or not. I would have liked to see her and Jeremy have a baby. How would The Wit have adjusted to mommyhood? It changes us all and it owuld have changed her. Even when I didn't like her views I was inspired by her choice of subjects. After her last post dealt with TS Eliot, I binged on his work and investigated the work of his friends. Lately, I read the biography of his wife, Vivienne. Theresa would have liked Vivienne. Bye Wit.

The end of Stooooopid Dad

Max does a good turn.

After seeing this fool tweeting with "Amy Anal" Max had had enough. The man might be oblivious to his son's feelings but Max, despite never having met the boy, was not.
Max made up an account and tweeted "do your son and his friends follow your tweets? What do they think?"

Stoooooooooopid dad wised up and protected his porn-dawg tweets

Victory for Max............and the boy.

I think I did a nice thing. He will remain stupid, but at least the son does not have to read about it online.

Opinions?

Update on Narcissy

I suspect he has another "partner". God knows he accused me of having of this yesterday, so I assume this is pure projection.

I have been slimed by enough buckets of blame to fertilize the entire state of Iowa.
It feels like crap, but what can you do? I kept a civil tongue. "A soft answer turneth away wrath" may not always work, but you can't fight alone. Anyway, I suspect he was fishing for hot info for his "case".

I spent part of the day looking at properties closer to my job.

And yes, I already have a good lawyer.

Married to a controlling narcissist?

Maybe, baby, but I am in my mid-50s and well, that's my life.

Over the years, Narcissy has:

only valued his interests and scoffed at mine
belittled my work
critiqued everything...for example: he has insisted that I hold elaborate dinner parties for his friends and colleagues, then has teased apart all the effort and has proclaimed it either inadequate or "over-adequate" meaning that it was "too good" and "intimidated the other women" if a return invitation was not forthcoming.
you see it is always my fault.
If the kids acted out, "they are looking for something in you, Max, something you're not providing"
I went to all the parent activities
I'm the one who did the required parent work for BOTH of us, narcissy rarely showed up at all. If he did show up he sat there at his passive aggressive best reading the paper and not participating.
he took solo vacations leaving me to work and mind the teens alone (vacations were too expensive to take with four..and he usually announced his plan a couple days or hours in advance)
if I had an interest he devalued it as junk, as only his interests mattered, mine were invalid.
I am a nurse, he referred to it as a "paraprofessional"

Why did you do it,Max?
more on that later
I'm just pissed

Max loved McCarter's The Convert!

The only quibble was the length, it was longer than I'd have liked, but I cannot fathom what to cut. It's rare that a longer production is long out of necessity, but this story demanded it.

The characters were well developed, the sets were great, the dialogue believable and there is not one character with whom you cannot empathize on some level, even if you don't agree, you "get where they're coming from". Most playwrights make some characters caricatures. You won't find that here.

Make the time!

Ever read obits you disagree with?

The glowing comments about how very good the deceased was? And you know the deceased was a nasty piece of work?

I read such an obit today. The people sending their condolences talked about a loving man. I knew a barracuda, a man who called children names (except his own, I guess) and was just an all-round jerk. I was sorry to see him well-remembered, but I guess comments like mine (no I did not post them) would be censored out.

So this creep will be a posthumous saint despite the damage he did...and calling children cruel names does damage.

Glad you're dead, douchebag.

Good news on the slurping...

I casually informed the culprit that inhaling when eating and drinking soup can lead to dangerous bouts on inhalation pneumonia....Magical cure!

Max has begun the online degree.

Discussion boards substitute for class participation and Max can sign on at 4AM or 4PM and still be on time for class. The material seems pretty standard and the program is accredited, so all is well.