Happy June 7th 2014! Here's what's on my mind today. (In no particular order)...
1) Roland Garros Women's Final -- Maria Sharapova vs. Simona Halep
Spoiler alert if you haven't seen the game: Sharapova pulled off a win in 3 roller coaster sets (and one nail-biting 2nd set tie-breaker) to achieve her 2nd French Open championship. I'm not usually a fan of women's tennis but this match was riveting from start to finish. Both Sharapova and the Romanian Halep are forces to be reckoned with, and Halep more than gave Sharapova a run for her money, but the six-foot Czarina pulled through impressively at the end, despite a troubling penchant for double-faults. Sharapova is a brilliant tennis player without question, but I'd like her a lot more if she didn't sound like she was undergoing an exorcism with every shot. Tomorrow's Djokovic vs. Nadal Men's Final should be another classic!
2) Tom Perrotta's "The Leftovers"
From the author of Election, Little Children, and The Abstinence Teacher, the television series adaptation of Perotta's 2010 novel about the after effects of The Rapture on a New Jersey suburban community is about to debut on HBO later this month. I'm curious to compare. There's definitely an edgy, seamy, scary undercurrent to the series trailer which made me expect a bit more of the same from the book. The novel certainly has its eerie moments -- the premise alone is enough to give goose bumps: 2% of the world's population just disappears one day without warning, literally vanishing into thin air. It deals with the guilt-ridden lives of those who were left behind -- the leftovers -- as they try to deal with the sudden loss of loves ones and an all-too-uncertain future. It's a quick and engaging read -- as Perrotta's novels tend to be -- but despite a powerful premise, I was left a bit indifferent. Perrotta draws his characters with compassion but I never really felt for them the way I think he intended. Here's hoping the HBO adaptation brings it all a bit more to life.
3) "Here Lies Love" at the Public Theatre in New York
I was fortunate enough to snag a ticket last weekend to the award-winning off-Broadway pop opera by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the rise and fall (and rise) of Imelda Marcos. It's unlike anything you have ever seen before: an utterly original score comprised of disco, hip-hop, and techno performed by the sensational Ruthie Ann Miles as Imelda and an exuberantly talented cast in a black box setting designed to make you feel you're in a karaoke nightclub in Manila in the 1980s. This is a joyous and exuberant 95 minutes of musical and technical wizardry and I can't wait to see it again. Be warned: this show is completely immersive. There are no seats (unless you opt for the balcony) and you are expected to move along with the show -- literally, move. After a couple shots served (for $5) at the impromptu bar inside the performance space, you should be ready to party like it's 1979. Utter theatrical brilliance!
4) "Halt and Catch Fire" on AMC
Watched the first episode last night. As a child of the '80s nostalgic for that decade's pop culture, I found much to admire. It was a bit like watching a cross of "War Games", "Wall Street" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" if the latter were about computer geeks giving it to the Man (or in this case, IBM). Lee Pace gives a somewhat creepy -- yet strangely seductive -- performance in a role that, if given time to develop, could be AMC's successor to Don Draper. The show is dark, just a little bit edgy, and off-the-wall enough that it could be a sleeper hit -- it gets the 80s right without being cute. Who knows how long it'll last, but it's certainly better than AMC's other current new drama "Turn", an historical drama about a spy ring during the Revolutionary War that is hobbled by earnest acting and really fake-looking sets and has about as much life to it as the dioramas we all remember building in elementary school. "Halt and Catch Fire" though is definitely worth checking out.
5) "The Fault in Our Stars"
I'm going to see the three-hankie young adult tearjerker tomorrow night with my sister. We're going to drink wine and sit in the "fancy" VIP seats at our local ICON multiplex. I'll probably shed a tear or two (or more) and hate myself for liking it as much as I probably will. I'm a sucker for movies about terminal illness and teenage angst. But I'll never admit this to any of you...
Ciao.
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