Miss election debates? Have I got a rec for you!

With great timing, I read this review of The Rivalry at Ford's Theater this evening, having seen the play last night. Because apparently Chris Klimek and I are the same person ("Especially if you read Assassination Vacation twice and then listened to the audio version." Check and check, though I've read it more than twice.), I agree with his review pretty much all the way through, particularly about the ending. Because I was ushering, I got up at what I figured was the end (when the debates themselves ended)...and then found myself standing for another, oh, 10 minutes or so. Not cool. And not particularly necessary.

One thing that I particularly enjoyed about this was how real it made Abraham Lincoln. I've read accounts about how awkward he seemed to people early in his career, and it seems kind of crazy to us, because dude, Gettysburg Address, hello? But in the first minutes of the first debate...you could see it. And then, just like the accounts I've read, his passion for the subject came through and he (or, in this case, Robert Parsons) was just fascinating to watch.

Also, I found him incredibly endearing. It was the way he'd tell a funny story (and seriously, for a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, it sure did have its funny moments), and then laugh and laugh. Aww! So cute.

I do remain vaguely uncomfortable with the way directors of plays about Lincoln that are staged at Ford's have a tendency to light up The Box when Lincoln is being quoted. It's...weird. I mean, dude did see some plays there other than Our American Cousin (including The Marble Heart, which starred John Wilkes Booth, who apparently kept send nasty looks to the President) (that's, like, one of my favorite stories related to the Lincoln assassination), but it's not like he made speeches from there. He went there to get away from weighty matters. I think most people who see shows at Ford's, particularly ones about Lincoln, are all too aware of The Box's presence; I know I get weirded out, seeing this guy portraying Lincoln standing below the place where Lincoln was shot. To go that extra step...it's just unnecessary to me.

Anyway, the combination of this and The Heavens Are Hung in Black and seeing Conan O'Brien talk about Lincoln's humor (um...last spring, I think) are pushing me closer and closer to actually reading a biography of Lincoln. It probably is wrong that I know more about Lincoln's death and assassin than I do about him.

(In a side note, I realized that I'll be volunteering at Ford's the day after Lincoln's birthday. Neat!)

Edit. Another great review can be found here.

Not Bitter

I follow Jen Lancaster (author of Bitter Is the New Black, amongst others) on Twitter (she's @altgeldshrugged). Something she posted a month ago (...and I am only writing about now, yes) caught my eye:

To clarify, I can appreciate the acting, writing, and staging - just hate the characters, the moral turpitude, and the feeling of nihilism. 1:59 AM
Dec 27th, 2009 from web

got Fletch the first season of Mad Men for Christmas. After everyone's rave reviews, am a bit surprised at how much I dislike this show. 1:42 AM
Dec 27th, 2009 from web

I found it interesting because it kind of reflects how I feel about her writing. Kind of. Reading her books--particularly Bitter Is the New Black--I kept thinking how I didn't really like her, but man, she was funny. Her writing is really well-done and amusing. I couldn't relate to, like, anything she was talking about (high-powered job; stable relationship; loads of confidence; losing a job; scraping the bottom of the barrel, financially) and I couldn't imagine having a conversation with her and enjoying it...but I couldn't put the book down. And I've since bought her other books. (Don't have Pretty in Plaid yet; waiting for paperback.)

It helps that I do read her blog and Twitter; she's easier for me to get a grasp on now, I think. But those tweets reflect how I felt after reading Bitter.

Reuniting with the Frasers

I finally finished An Echo in the Bone, the latest (seventh!!!) Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon. I say "finally" not only because the book is 814 pages, but also because it was interrupted by me reading Anna Karenina for my book club--not exactly a small book, either.

I frequently recommend Outlander to friends; it's a great read, fabulous characters, well-written. "But," I say, "stop after the third book. It's all downhill from there." And Echo did nothing to make me change my mind. I had high hopes going into it; I had liked A Breath of Snow and Ashes (book six) more than The Fiery Cross (book five, whose first 200 pages dealt with one day). In my mind, really, Gabaldon should've just stopped as soon as Claire and Jamie, the two main characters, arrived in the American colonies from Scotland.

(If you haven't read any of the books, they're about Claire, a woman from 1946 England, who winds up traveling through time to 1740s Scotland and marrying Jamie. They wander around Scotland, try to stop the Rising of 1745, Claire returns to the future, has their daughter, becomes a doctor [she was a nurse during WWII]. Jamie winds up in prison, fathers a son, gets released from prison. They're reunited when Claire realizes Jamie didn't die at Culloden, and then they go the the American colonies. Their daughter follows them, with her husband [he maybe came after her? I can't remember]. Stuff happens. The daughter, her husband, and their kids return to the 20th century. Consequently, this book was split between Claire and Jamie [and miscellaneous other characters] in America during the Revolution and Brianna and Roger in the 1980s.)

As you can tell from that most broadest of outlines, there's a lot to keep track of. Which is a huge problem. Gabaldon regularly goes 4 years between publishing her books, so when I read this one, it had been about 3 years since I read the previous one, and probably a good 2 or 3 before that that I read Fiery Cross. Though my mind can retain a LOT of random crap, I can't remember every single flipping character from this series, so when a character who was important two books ago showed up, I had no recollection of him, much less an idea of the specifics of his relevance in the story. I managed to piece most of it together, though I'm still hazy on details.

She really just needs a good editor who will actually tell her to cut things. She gets really, really into the details. I guess for some people it's interesting to read about numerous surgeries, but I don't need it. And the pacing of this book is all wrong. It's pretty slow to go through, and then everything happens in the last 150 pages or so. And nothing gets wrapped up. It's all cliffhangers at the end, which hasn't been the case with the previous books. Earlier books wrapped up the main plots, but left the door open for the story to continue. This leaves the reader hanging, which is one thing when you're watching a tv show and know that you have a few months to wait. But if I have to wait another 4 years, I'm going to be incredibly frustrated.

I think what's frustrating me, really, is that I do still care about Claire and Jamie, and even Bree and Roger, but as soon as we get into the countless side characters...I can't care that much. I can't maintain that much depth of feeling for that many characters over that many books over this many years. The earlier books were told entirely from Claire's perspective; I think the series started going astray when we got narration from more and more characters.

Gabaldon needs to bring it back to Claire and Jamie; unfortunately, at this point, she can't. I'll keep reading until the series ends (theoretically in another book or two, but it was originally supposed to only be a three-book series, so who knows?), but I'll continue to urge others to stop after Voyager, the third book. After that, it's not worth it.

2009 in review

I'm combining my 2009 lists into one ginormous post. Sorry! Following are the books I read, movies I saw, and shows I went to in 2009. The ones I particularly enjoyed are in bold.

Books
* indicates a reread.
Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR (Brands)
The Wordy Shipmates (Vowell)
East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Outliers: The Story of Success (Gladwell)
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Schwartz)
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Horror (Moore)
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street (Davis)
Love the One You're With (Giffin)
Into the Wild (Krakauer)
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain (Adams)
A Dirty Job (Moore)
Remind Me Again Why I Need a Man (Carroll)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Rowling)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home (Whedon & Jeanty)
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (Jacobs)
One Hit Wonderland (Hawks)
Everyone Worth Knowing (Weisberger)
Chasing Harry Winston (Weisberger)
Mine Till Midnight (Kleypas)
My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith (Cohen)
As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires (Weber)
The Good Terrorist (Lessing)
Heyday (Andersen)
Night Train (Amis)
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (Austen & Grahame-Smith)
Double Play (Parker)
Freakin' Fabulous (Kelly)
Basket Case (Hiassen)
"They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theatre, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance (Pitch)
How to Be Popular (Cabot)
Pants on Fire (Cabot)
A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
Beyond Band of Brothers (Winters)
*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Rowling)
The Poe Shadow (Pearl)
Notes From the Underwire: Adventures From My Awkward & Lovely Life (Cummings)
Cold Comfort Farm (Gibbons)
Atonement (McEwan)
Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound With a Minor League Misfit (McCarthy)
The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin)
Best Friends Forever (Weiner)
*Good in Bed (Weiner)
*In Her Shoes (Weiner)
*Every Boy's Got One (Cabot)
Epileptic (David B)
*The Ghost in the Third Row (Coville)
*The Ghost Wore Gray (Coville)
People of the Book (Brooks)
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America (Gould)
The Dud Avocado (Dundy)
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History (Ortved)
*Bridget Jones's Diary (Fielding)
Assassins (Sondheim & Weidman)
Beatles: The Biography (Spitz)
American on Purpose: The Improbably Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (Ferguson)

Movies
Milk
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Last Chance Harvey
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Watchmen
Sunshine Cleaning
Star Trek
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Up
(500) Days of Summer
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I Love You, Beth Cooper
The Hangover
Julie & Julia
Inglourious Basterds

Theater
The Heavens Are Hung in Black - Ford's Theatre
The Civil War - Ford's Theatre
Ragtime - Kennedy Center
Arcadia - Folger
Jersey Boys - National Tour
Show Boat - Signature
A Christmas Carol - Ford's Theatre

For one brief shining moment...

The other night, I saw Camelot at Olney Theatre, and wow, I was blown away. SO good. I knew the basic story, of course, and knew some of the songs. Watching it, I realized that I was actually familiar with the entire first scene, since it was done for a Spotlight spring session once (if I recall, it was John Casiello and Kira Huberfeld as Arthur and Guenevere), but anyway. Even knowing the general story, I was still surprised by a few things.

Like, dude, Guenevere is quite the flirt! The humor of "The Simple Joys of Maidenhood" strikes me quite a bit more now than it did when I was 15, but she really lays it on pretty thick for some of those knights.

That being said, Guenevere and Lancelot falling in love seemed to happen awfully quickly. As in, one look after spending a good amount of time being at odds. I realize that that's fairly cliche, but most of the time, that sort of pairing has at least an intermediate phase between "I hate you and want you dead!" and "I love you!" Not that the actors didn't perform it fabulously, but...man. Fast.

Also interesting was the fact that Guenevere and Arthur didn't have children. It's never addressed, but it sort of underpins a lot of the action. The two are clearly pretty in love--and physically attracted to each other. (One of my thoughts had always been that Arthur is quite a bit older than Guenevere, and one of the things that leads her to Lancelot is that he's young and virile. At least, that's the impression I got from what I remember of First Knight. [I know, OK? Shut up.] But the age differential didn't seem to be that great, and it certainly didn't seem to affect how Guenevere felt about Arthur before Lancelot showed up.) But they've been married for 8 years when Lancelot shows up, which is a long time, particularly back then. And no kids. And that fact does set the stage (literally! /rim shot/) for the rest of the play, but it's never directly mentioned.

The show is quite a bit funnier than I thought it would be. I don't know why this surprises me; after all, Camelot is a silly place, but Arthur was pretty darn funny. To the point where I was all, "Dude, Guenevere, what are you doing? Arthur is AWESOME!" And not just funny. The play really does reflect today's society, with its refrain of "Might for right." Arthur had this one speech that made me want to elect him President.

My only real problem was that at times, it was hard to understand the singing. I didn't get a word of "The Lusty Month of May." I'm not sure whether it was that the orchestra was too loud. I was in the front row, and the house was far from full (sadly--seriously, folks, it's a great production!), which may have affected sound calibrations. But really, could not make it out.

Also, why does Lancelot have a sense of humor when we first meet him ("C'est Moi"), but no other time?

Overall, just a fabulous production. I adored the costumes. I might have a crush on Mordred, played by Evan Casey. I was particularly impressed by how much the cast put into the show. The house was small, which can completely suck the energy out of a show, but that wasn't the case at all. (I did try to clap loudly and laugh a lot when appropriately.) But everyone was so fantastic. I was frequently struck by how much Todd Alan Johnson actually looked like a king--particularly in profile. I can't explain why. But yeah, all great.

And the end just gets me. I remember at some point in my past reading the script and being moved by the end. So much more so actually seeing it. Sniff.

Now I have to go pull out The Sword in the Stone.

The portrayal of a grown-up

There are certain movies that I always try to watch around Christmas, like The Muppet Christmas Carol and The Holiday. And Love Actually, which I have adored since Carrie and I saw it in the theater. There's so much to love about that movie--the cast, the reality of some of the storylines, the complete lack of reality of others, and so on. But as I watched it recently, I realized something else that I like about it.

As I get older, one of the things I struggle with is the concept of being a grown-up. I don't feel like a grown-up. I look at my friends and don't feel like they're grown-ups either, despite our discussions of things like taxes and mortgages and getting the best car insurance rates and the fact that an increasing number of them have children.

So I was watching Love Actually and I realized that one of the things that I find really endearing about it is how it illustrates that, as they said on Buffy, love makes you do the wacky. There are moments when so many of the characters make these expressions, like, "What did I just do?" It's one thing for Baby in Dirty Dancing to have her "I carried a watermelon?" moment, but it's another to see Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, and Laura Linney make basically that same face. It's reassuring to see that in some ways, we just never grow up.

(Related: I was watched a documentary about Monty Python this weekend, and one of the members--John Cleese?--made a comment about how he basically never had to grow up. It's just weird to see this older man talk about how he's essentially still a kid. The older I get, the more I think everyone really feels that way. No matter what's on the outside, we all still feel like we're 15 a lot of the time.)