Hi everyone!
I apologize for not keeping up-to-date with this over the past month. I've had a lot going on, what with my new job as Executive Editor at the Flagship imprint of ABA Publishing, the publishing arm of the American Bar Association, and rehearsals for the workshop of my new play "Children of Privilege" which my cast and I presented last week to some acclaim. I'm still hard at work on both fronts. The new job is going very well and I'm in the midst of some revisions and rewrites on the play. I'll keep you posted as things progress.
So this blog...it's been almost a year since I launched it last Thanksgiving. It's certainly evolved over the past eleven months: from current affairs to cultural musings and reviews. I guess you could say I'm still trying to find the right balance. Today I'm going to try something new--a top 5 list of my favorite things on any given day and 1 thing I'm not so crazy about. Here goes:
TOP 5 THINGS I'M CRAZY ABOUT ON 10/29/12 (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
1) Voting early -- I cast my ballot this afternoon: no wait, no hassle, and in and out of the polling booth in under fifteen minutes.
2) "Argo" -- if you haven't seen this film yet, go see it. Ben Affleck does a fantastic job both directing and starring in this historical political thriller that hearkens back in look and feel to the great political dramas of the 1970s. Great story, great acting, great documentary-like camerawork. I was eight years-old during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. This film sheds light on a little-known aspect of that crisis and brilliantly captures the tension, fear, and uncertainty of that time. The final half-hour had me on the edge of my seat.
3) My iPhone 5 -- I was a fan of the Droid but it's no comparison to the iPhone 5. Enough said.
4) "Monsieur Lazhar" -- another film. This French-language Canadian film was Oscar-nominated this year for Best Foreign Film. I streamed it on Netflix over the weekend. I'm a sucker for teacher/student dramas and this certainly fit that bill: the story of an Algerian asylum-seeker who takes over a teaching position at a middle school in Montreal after a teacher has committed suicide. It's subtle, quiet, heart-warming, and devastating at the same time. Check it out!
5) Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Chelsea at Stafford Bridge yesterday in the Barclay's Premiere League. I'm a fan of both teams but with Robin von Persie and Wayne Rooney on the pitch together, Man U is hard to beat. They could go all the way this year!
WHAT I'M NOT SO CRAZY ABOUT TODAY:
The Steve McQueen retrospective that just opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. No, not that Steve McQueen. This Steve McQueen is the slightly avant-garde British film director, best known for two feature films, the IRA biopic "Hunger" and last year's award-winning "Shame," which was one of my pics for best film of 2011. Suffice it to say this retrospective left me a little baffled. I wandered through the very dark gallery in a state of confusion, pausing every so often to watch glimpses of 12 short Super 8 videos about, well, nothing. The gallery is practically pitch-black. I almost walked into someone...twice. And the docents mostly stood around and laughed at the grainy film of two naked male wrestlers (one of whom was Mr. McQueen) projected on a very large screen. I dunno. I didn't get it. I respect Mr. McQueen very much as a feature film director but was this retrospective really necessary? It's taking up prime real estate at the Art Institute through January.
Ciao.
