Bill Shatner is looking for you!

William Shatner must be working on his next documentary because he just posted the following message on Facebook:

Friends,

I’m looking for true stories on how watching Star Trek (any series) affected your career decisions later in life. Did you go into a career in Science or Aviation or even become an Astronaut due to Star Trek and Science Fiction?

I want to hear your story. Please send me an email of your story on what about Star Trek made you choose your career path. Send a email with your story in the body of the email to: ShatnerScifi@gmail.com

My best, Bill

Criticwire question: Who’s the best director working today under the age of 40?

Who’s the best director working today under the age of 40?

Why 40? Of course, it’s not good form to answer a question with a question. The dogs commented, “What does it matter because you’d be dead in dog years.” I now also know that Matt Singer is all of 32.

Not being particularly age conscious except in dog years, I checked the age of some directors who I might consider only to find that they (e.g. Joss Whedon and Ben Affleck) won’t make the cut. Affleck at 40 is just barely out of the running, but he  impressed me greatly with “Argo” despite some minor historical quibbles. Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the TV series “Firefly,” but it’s the mad genius of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” that really has me smitten. (Joss, No chance of being a groupie background extra for future episodes?)

By what seems no more than sheer luck, I’ve hit upon two directors:  Rian Johnson and Jon M. Chu. If this question had been asked in late December, Johnson would have missed the mark. He is 39 now and best known for writing and directing that 2012 time travel movie “Looper” which starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young a regular Joe assassin and Bruce Willis as his older self in the future. The beauty of the intricate plot and its gruesome logic along with the seamless inclusion of a love story won me over. The gritty 1950s gone wrong in the future sensibility also charmed this fan of that dance era.

Jon M. Chu, 33 but still dead in dog years,  hasn’t impressed me with his writing, but he understands dance and has good sensibilities in how he uses dance and records, including in 3D. I didn’t watch “Step Up 2: The Streets”  for the plot or the acting. You knew how the story was going to play out pretty much after the first 15 minutes or so. The same can be said for “Step Up 3D.” A purer expression of Chu’s gift for recording dance and encouraging creativity is his online series: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.” I’m certain in the future, when dancers research aspects of today’s dance and they will be turning to footage caught by Chu.

In the interest of full disclosure, both Johnson and Chu attended the University of Southern California where they studied cinema. I also attended USC and will do so again.

Press release: Altadena Estate sale on Saturday

Saturday May 4th Hours: 9am to 3pm Address: 1455 New York Drive in Altadena   This is a going to be a great estate sale with numerous fine items such as original art work, all kinds of furniture and decorative pieces, vintage clothing and even some Nachtman bohemian glassware. We suggest you come early and get your pick as a quality estate sale such as this tends to move quickly.

Attending Ebertfest 101

This year’s Ebertfest (2013) was an eye-opener on just what could go wrong: airports under increased security, an airline’s computer system glitch causing nationwide delays, weather causing flight cancellations and flooding in the area.

Getting to Ebertfest by air: First stop Chicago.

Ebertfest is in Urbana, or Champaign-Urbana, Champaign or Urbana-Champaign. Take your pick. I’m sure there are local implications depending upon what phrase you decide to use, but let’s not worry about that. You’re going to Ebertfest to celebrate Roger Ebert and movies.

The closest airport is Willard University with the three-letter code of CMI. The only airline that currently services that airport is American Airlines. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign owns and operates that airport. Currently there is only one daily flight to Dallas/Fort Worth and six daily (down to five on weekends) flights to Chicago O’Hare (ORD). Each American Eagle flight has only 50 seats.  So you can fly direct from Dallas/Fort Worth or Chicago, but otherwise, you’ll have to take a connecting flight.

From Texas, you only have one chance per day. That’s enough reason to fly into O’Hare.

Flying into O’Hare gives you more options and better pricing. We flew in United this time. In 2012, we flew American to O’Hare (ORD) and then changed planes to continue on to Willard (CMI). This time the absolute cheapest fair was Spirit Airlines, however, read the fine print. Spirit charges for carry-on luggage and you won’t even get water free. Remember that LAX doesn’t have drinking fountains for you to fill up your water bottles after you pass security (at least we couldn’t find them and paid $3 for water). O’Hare does have convenient water fountains where you can fill your bottles up and the fountains are specially designed for that purpose.

From O’Hare, if you’re packing light, you can take your carry on and walk down to the CTA blue line. For about $5 (you can use a charge card), you can go to Clinton. At Clinton, there are no elevators or escalators–only a narrow stairway. Once you get up that, its a fairly easy talk to the Amtrak Union Station.

The Amtrak station has more options and prices begin at $14 one-way. You can get a discount of you’re a member of AAA and buy it three days ahead of time. Seats are easier to reserve at Chicago Union Station (CHI) going to Champaign (CHM) than from Champaign to Union Station (Saluki, Illini and City of New Orleans lines). Other discounts include seniors, military students (with a Student Advantage or International Student Identity cards) and group/convention travel.

If you’re a VIP or celebrity and concerned about privacy, you can also reserve private rooms (Hint, hint Jack Black with whom I was determined to get an autograph and a few steps of tango but travel difficulties dashed those hopes).

The station is a short 5-minute walk to the Virginia Theatre. It is also the main transit station for buses.

You could rent a car, but this year there was a lot of flooding due to rain and even residents found it challenging to get where they wanted to go. I spoke to the man at the Champaign Amtrak station who sold us return tickets to Chicago and he had to take a 30-minute detour to get to work because of the flooding. I’m listening to news reports saying this year is “the worst flood in recorded history.”

Also, I found my cellphone only got spotty service. I’m not sure if I’d want to be caught in a flood on my vacation.

Where to stay

Amtrak can also give you reservations for Value Place Champaign. There are also two Super 8s in the area. Both in walking distance (an hour to the Urbana location at 612 W Killarney St, Urbana, IL 61801 and a half an hour to the Champaign location at 202 W Marketview Dr  Champaign, IL 61820) The Urbana location is closer to the Illini Union where the panel discussions are. The Champaign location is closer to the Virginia Theatre.

You can also stay at the Illini Union hotel which offers packages and special pricing. The Ilini is a 30-minute walk to the Virginia Theatre.

Other options (that Ian and I haven’t tried) include Hilton ($126 for Hampton Inn), La Quinta ($69)  and Country Inns ($99).  The rates are subject to change.

We’ve stayed at the Illini Union hotel and it’s excellent and so convenient. We love that we can have a Jamba Juice although someone recently introduced us to Smoothie King.

Because we have dogs and often travel with dogs, we’re familiar with Super 8. The Champaign location is older than most we’e stayed in, but cozy and efficient. They have a microwave and breakfast includes waffles and bananas. We missed not having yogurt, but we packed dried figs and our own tea (rooms come with a coffee maker). The bus stop is unmarked. The bus (red line) runs about every 20 minutes. Walking is an option. This location is very close to a large shopping center. If we go next year, we might try the Urbana location. We’ll have to see what happens at RogerEbert.com.

What to wear

You can pack light–even lighter than I did because you’re probably not bringing dance dresses to change into for the evening shows.

On the plane I wore:

1. Long-sleeved t-shirt
2. Silk underwear tank top
3. Down vest
4. Thick wool sweater
5. Long rain coat
6. Yoga pants
7. Leg warmers
8. Socks
9. Slip on rain boots

Have slip on shoes really helps. If you’re wearing comfy pants, you can exercise while waiting for your plane. We also packed an empty water bottle, mineral mixes for soothing bathes, and tea. Often places will give you coffee, but not tea. We brought two bags of dried figs and one bag of dried blueberries. We also have travel pillows.

Dress is casual. At this point there are no fashion police ambushes like at Sundance. Roger Ebert usually wore suits. Chaz Ebert wears flowing dresses and pants suits. Tilda Swinton wore a man-style suit. Richard Linklater was very casual. What’s your style? No one was wearing anything that could be considered Cosplay and there were no starlets attempting to get attention by wearing the bare minimum.

You might consider getting an earnest stretch between movies. You can run up and down the stairs to the restroom for some step-aerobics. We like dancing in the aisles when possible.

What I packed:

1. Three dresses (black velvet, red velvet and lavender velvet). Each dress had spandex and a polyester skirt. The skirts dry quickly and the dresses don’t wrinkle.
2. Two long-sleeved turtlenecks (lavender and purple).
3. Long-sleeved t-shirt (red).
4. Wide-brimmed hat (for rain or sun). This hat is only water-resistant and comes with straps so I can tie a bow under my chin in case of wind.
5. Dressy blue jeans.
6. Dressy cords. It rained too much to wear either of these.
7. Three pieces of silk underwear shirts (two long-sleeved and one tank top).
8. Two wool content knit caps.
9. Gloves.
10. Scarf.
11. Shoes to dance on concrete.
12. Real dance shoes.
13. Water-resistant jogging pants (I can tuck the skirts into the pants if the downpour is extreme). I have two of these, but the other ones have a zippers on the legs and I got stopped coming back from Hawaii because of that. You know…it could have been a knife in my boots.
14. Three long stockings with wool content.
15. Three knee socks with wool content.
16. Appropriate underwear.
17. Folding umbrella.

My boots had thick soles and were waterproof so I could walk through puddles. My carry on is soft, but still fits overhead or under the seat in front of me. I also carry a medium-sized backpack. I carry both on a luggage rack.

While you’re at Ebertfest, you’ll want to check your return reservations. Our reserved seats became unreserved and we didn’t get seat assignments until late Friday night for our Saturday departure due to software problems at American. The flight was overbooked and they were asking people to volunteer to take a later flight.

Returning to Chicago

The buses didn’t run early enough for us to catch the 6 a.m. train to Chicago so we called a taxi. We might have gotten there earlier if we had walked. The first taxi didn’t show up after 30 minutes (Yellow Cab). See the Yelp reviews to confirm our experience. The hotel clerk called a second service.

Chicago

You’ll need $1 for a bus ride in Champaign-Urbana, so you might want to prepare by getting some change. Also Clinton CTA station requires exact change.

At Union Station if you visit the CVS (local drugstore), you can buy a day pass for $10. You can’t buy one at Clinton Station.

From Clinton Station, you can travel two stops over for Jackson Street, get off and head toward Michigan Street to visit the Institute of Art of Chicago. The museum opens at 10:30 a.m. and the line forms for non-members to the left-most door. Members line up at the door to the right, but you can also line up around the other side of the building. We wanted to see “American Gothic” because of that matter with H.S. Janson versus Regionalism.

After you buy your tickets, you can immediately get in line on the other side to check your carry-on bags. It was $1 for each of us. We spent 90-minutes there and even danced a short tango before we got back on the blue line and headed to O’Hare.

Other places to see if you’re staying overnight in Chicago:

1. Gene Siskel Film Center: I keep hoping I’ll have time to visit this institute, but we’ve never stayed long enough to enjoy any of the programs. 
2. Lorraine Hansberry House. Hansberry wrote the play “A Raisin in the Sun” which is a fictional account of racial segregation based on her family’s experience to obtain and live in this very house. This is another place I’d like to see because I admire what her family fought for and that Hansberry was able to share it with us with such eloquence.
3. The Field Museum. What dinosaur lover wouldn’t want to visit Sue? There’s also that incredible display of gems and minerals. We got there using the Red Line and taking bus #146 last year.
4. Baha’i House of Worship for North America. Even if you’re not a Baha’i, this is a beautiful structure with lovely gardens. The gardens open up at 6 a.m. You take the purple line North to Linden (final stop) and walk up Linden Ave. for about four blocks.

Staying in Chicago

Last year, we spent a night at Hotel Lincoln, on the advice of Roger Ebert who wrote that David Mamet stayed there and wrote about hearing the lions roar from Lincoln Park.  It is in a lovely neighborhood and a taxi ride away from Clinton Station (late night) or a walk in the morning. This isn’t a luxury hotel, but it’s funky and fun.

Another person tried a Youth Hostel.  We might try that next time, but we’ll have to see what happens to RogerEbert.com and the Far Flung Correspondents.

Interested in attending Ebertfest? Send me an email and let me know. I love Chicago because it’s so much easier to get around than Los Angeles and less expensive than London or Tokyo. However, I would love to go to Tokyo again.

‘Oslo, August 31st’ or when the fire within falters

This Norwegian film, “Oslo, August 31st,” isn’t a happy film. You’ll see parts of Oslo in the glow of the summer’s end with the threat of cold winter chilling the summer’s heat and hedonism, but at the center is a man, recovering from addiction but consumed with self-pity. The movie begins with him leaving the comfort of a bedroom with a woman whom is so unimportant, the movie doesn’t bother to introduce her and the man tries to drown himself by walking into the still cool water with stones in his pocket.

When he returns to his residence, no one questions why he is soaking wet. No one cares. They all have their own troubles. Anders is living in a residential program for recovering addicts.

The movie is based on the 1931 French novel, “Le Feu Follet.” The title has been translated as “The Fire Within” or “The Manic Fire.” The book is about an arrogant drug addict. Writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle based the novel on his friend Jacques Rigaut, to whom the novel is dedicated.

Rigaut was a poet who was part of the Dadaist movement and the art movement that followed, the surrealists. He wrote little but frequently talked about suicide. He had been a bit of a dandy and had affairs with rich foreign women. Finally, in 1929, at age 30, he committed suicide by shooting himself through the heart.

Drieu La Rochelle would also commit suicide. His would not be due to alcohol or fear of growing too old to be attractive. Drieu La Rochelle infamously collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation of France even though he had once briefly been married to a woman of Jewish heritage. After the liberation of Paris, Drieu La Rochelle went into hiding and finally, in March 1945, committed suicide.

Louis Malle adapted the novel for a 1963 movie by the same name, “Le Feu Follet.” Malle’s protagonist, Alain Leroy, was an alcoholic. In the novel, it was opium and heroin. Malle changes the time period. The story is only 24-hours, compressed from 48. Writers Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt name their recovering addict Anders and he used most everything, including heroin.

In “Oslo, August 31st,” we begin on August 30 and end on August 31st and we hear various people’s impressions of that date. Our protagonist is Anders, a 34-year-old man who had just come off of an addiction to alcohol and heroin. He had some of his writing published, but that was six years ago. His sister hesitates to meet with him when he finally gets leave of his recovery program.

Anders was a man of privilege and education, but wasted both time and talent. Oslo, on this particular day, is not a place of promise, but one of bitter memories of lost opportunities. He calls his ex-girlfriend who now lives in New York, but can only leave messages.

Anders meets with some old friends–a man who now has a wife and kids and a woman who, at her birthday party notes that their unmarried male friends all have girlfriends in their twenties. Her girlfriends have all “vanished into motherhood.” They both feel life passing them by, but for Anders the gap of lost years, when he was drugged out and dealing drugs, are not easily explained away. His parents were forced to sell their lovely house, something they claim they intended to do anyway.

In the pity party he’s holding in his mind, he blames his parents in a passive-aggressive way:

“She held a tolerant view on drugs. He wanted to ban barbequing in parks. …They respected my privacy. Maybe too much. They taught me religion is a weakness, I don’t know if I agree.

They never taught me to cook or build a relationship, but they seemed happy. They never told me how friendship dissolves until you’re strangers, friends in name only. “

Just as things did not end well for Drieu La Rochelle, things do not end well for Anders. His fall begins with alcohol, moves on to stealing money from friends and then escalates as he goes from a party with people he knows to a public dance place where he can party with strangers.

As a recovering addict, Roger Ebert  opined in his review that Anders could have gone to a new city, built a new life. His first post-recovery interview goes well enough until Anders becomes defensive, and ends it himself. Anders doesn’t seem hope or possibility. Perhaps he’s too proud to try and rebuild his image in the eyes of those who knew him before and stood by helplessly during his lost years as a drug addict.

Recovery is rough. Life is rough. Unlike Frank Sinatra’s song, don’t we all have regrets? Haven’t we all missed an opportunity or two?

Director Trier said in a post-screening Q&A at Ebertfest that he wanted to explore the life journeys that took some of his friends into a downward spiral and others toward better things. Trier had been a bit of an outlaw in his younger years because apparently Norway had banned skateboards. Think of it. Not biker dudes but renegade skateboarders?! That’s a pretty foreign concept to Southern California.

According to Trier, the date was chosen because August 31st signifies the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. Who would want to go skinny dipping anyway when it gets much colder?

“Oslo, August 31st” is an uncompromising look at a recovering addict who is filled with regrets instead of hope and hasn’t the courage to earn something worthwhile in life. Anders last words are: “I’m sorry.”

‘Apostasy’ touches on Japanese untouchables

The problem with subtitles is there are things that are culturally understood that do not always translate and such is the case with the 1948 movie “Apostasy” or “Hakai” (破壊).

The movie is based on a famous book of the same name by an infamous author. The author, Shimazaki Tōson, (島崎 藤村) was born in Magome, Nagano Prefecture in 1872. After graduating from Meiji Gakuin in 1891, he went to Sendai to teach. In 1906, he published his first novel “Hakai” which has been translated into English as “The Broken Commandment.”  ”Hakai” 破壊 can also be translated as “destruction.”  The novel was considered a milestone in Japanese realism.

Between the two English titles “The Broken Commandment” and “Apostasy,” you might be expecting something biblical. According to Miriam-Webster, the meaning of apostasy is “the renunciation of a religious faith” or the “abandonment of a previous loyalty.”  A synonym would be “defection.”

The movie and the novel aren’t particularly religious in nature and focus in on the burakumin (部落民). The HuluPlus blurb on the movie comments “Amidst rumors of his lower class origins that threaten his job, a school teacher pleads for freedom and equality.” That’s a bit misleading.

In Japan, the burakumin weren’t within the traditional Japanese feudal four-class system: samurai, farmer, artisan and merchant. There were people above the class system such as the emperor and his imperial household as well as the real power at the time, the shogunate. Buddhist and Shinto priests were also above the class system. The people below the class system were the Ainu and the burakumin. The burakumin were also known as the eta. Other lowly types included actors, prostitutes, courtesan, geisha and convicted criminals.

The Burakumin are a social minority who have been and are still discriminated against in Japan. These people are considered defiled because they are involved in work that carries a social stigma, usually related to death (such as executioners, undertakers, butchers and leather tanners). Consider that when watching the Japanese movie about the death penalty, the 2008 “Vacation,” or the 2008 movie about the funeral industry, “Departures” (Okuribito).

To a certain extent, Americans caused the increase in the burakumin and their rise to prominence. The first American Consul General to Japan, Townsend Harris was in residence at the Gyokusen-ji temple for almost  three years (beginning in 1856), during which time he demanded that the Japanese provide him with what he considered essentials to his diet: milk and beef.  Gyokusen-ji is a Buddhist temple in Shizuoka prefecture and today has a monument to mark where the first four-legged animal killed for human consumption. In 1931, the Tokyo butchers had the monument erected.

Cultural insensitivity in the guise of Manifest Destiny started both the beef and milk industries in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate had collapsed for a variety of reasons including the entry of Commodore Perry. The imperial house was revived as the head of the government with the Meiji restoration in 1869. The burakumin were given equal legal status in 1871. The ban on the consumption of beef was lifted in 1871.

“Apostasy”  begins with scenes of a sunrise and someone ringing a temple bell before cutting to the credits which are written in calligraphy on pieces of patterned paper that peel away to the right. This written introduction sets up the problems of the new Meiji era constitution that while freedom, equality and respect for human rights basically abolished the feudal system of social ranking, it could not extinguish the prejudices held for centuries. The subtitles extol that the feudal system “controlled by submission and oppression” but even at this time in 1901 (Iiyama-machi in Nagano prefecture) “oppression continued to exist among the people.”

Riding a palaquin, a man hides behind screens as the two men who carry him and a runner take him to the doctor. The subtitles proclaim that the doctor won’t accept “villagers,” but what exactly does that mean? Villagers is the literal translation for the official term burakumin. Burakumin also translates as hamlet people or village people. You might be hearing “YMCA” in the back of your head, but this movie came out in 1948. The 1962 remake (with a 1988 US release) under director Kon Ichikawa would translate “Hakai” as “The Outcast.” That makes everything clearer.

Young male toughs stand barring the unseen man’s way and as the palaquin departs, children follow and throw rocks. Not everyone approves of this prejudice. Witnessing the scene, a teacher Tsuchiya 土屋銀之助  (Jookichi Uno 宇野重吉) tells his friend and fellow teacher Segawa 瀬川丑松 (Ryo Ikeda 池部良), “We are now a modern society. What just took place is unacceptable.”

The principal (東野英治郎) is from the former farming class. He has fired a man who was formerly of the samurai class five months before he’d receive his pension. “My teaching career lasted 15 years,” the old man, Kazama 風間敬之進 (菅井一郎)、laments.  ”I started to wonder what I should be teaching my students. I’ve lost my way.” Segawa is staying at the home of this former samurai and he’s in love with the man’s daughter, Oshiho お志保(桂木洋子).

Segawa has ventured into the working world by keeping his oath to his father who told him to forget that he was born into the burakumin. That was the only way for Segawa to be able to live a normal life, but there are others who defiantly refuse to hide their identity and call for other hidden burakumin to come clean, demand real equality and believe in a “New Dawn of Social Awareness.”

As one of his father’s friends tells Segawa, “Your father’s last words were for you to hide your cast” because that’s the “only way to make it in the  world.” To that end, Segawa’s father “hid himself in the woods to prevent your caste from being known.” Segawa’s apostasy is not religious in nature, but puts him in conflict between his biological father and his spiritual father.

This movie draws a contrast between modern dress and traditional kimonos. The principal, his nephew and other officials all wear three-piece western suits. They seem to feel they are modern men and modern thinkers yet they have no honor and are shown to hold prejudices. Segawa, Tsuchiya and the old samurai all wear kimonos. They respect tradition up to an extent. Alliances are formed between a man of the once powerful class to one whose class was outside of the four-class system. A man from the supposedly most honored class (farmers) finally has real power, but doesn’t use it wisely.

The movie addresses the chaos caused by the Meiji Reformation, discrimination and attitudes toward modernization but remember this film was made while Japan was under the American Occupation Army. The movie’s main point of interest is in how the Japanese are addressing the problem of long held prejudices in what Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson called a youth cycle of films in their “The Japanese Film: Art and Industry.” The Occupation Army which was like the nation of origin (U.S.A.) had not quite dealt with the problem of caste systems, segregation (the Army was still segregated) and prejudice so the censorship or fear of the same might have muted this rather bland entry. It would be good to compare this 1948 movie with the 1962 movie of the same name in Japanese, but called “The Outcast” when if finally made it to the United States in 1988.

“Apostasy”  is available to stream on HuluPlus as part of the Criterion Collection.

Tōson Shimazaki (島崎 藤村 Shimazaki Tōson)

Characters:

瀬川丑松 Ushimatsu Segawa: Main character. An elementary school teacher who is hiding is burakumin heritage in order to avoid prejudice. He comes into conflict with the principal of the school over management.

猪子蓮太郎 Rentaro Inoko: He is of burakumin origin, but is a lawyer and known as the lion o of the new commoner. He is a figure loved and respected by Segawa.

お志保 Oshiho: She is the daughter of Noriyuki Kazama. She is an acquaintance of Segawa and has romantic feelings for him.

風間敬之進: Kazama is from a samurai family and has just be terminated, losing his pension.

土屋銀之助: He is a close friend and co-worker of Segawa. He is against injustice and prejudice toward people.

Principal: He is an ambitious man with little sympathy for Kazama and although he proclaims to be a modern man, he still harbors prejudice against burakumin.

A beautifully sumptuous Mozart opera ‘La Clemenza’

Wolfgang Mozart was, if you believe the movie “Amadeus,” a bit of a rebel, like today’s pop stars, but with real talent. And when you’re always petitioning for support from a patron, there’s much to rebel against. When Mozart wrote the music for “La Clemenza di Tito,” he was reined in by the   requirements of his employer. While he might have bent the rules of opera, he was not able to run wild and the musical restraints makes this piece good, but not great. This piece has other curiosities.

As the name indicates, this is an an Italian opera, even though the composer is Austrian-born.  The libretto is in Italian by Caterino Mazzola. Domenico Guardasoni commissioned the piece for the House of Bohemia to honor the up-coming coronation of Leopold II, King of Bohemia. “La Clemenza” was first performed on 6 September 1791 in Prague.

Mozart would die a few months later (5 December 1791).

The opera was popular after Mozart’s death, but there are things that are no longer popular: castrating male singers. The role of Sesto was written for a soprano castrato or mezzo-soprano. There is only one role for a male opera singer who has not been physically altered–the role of Tito, the Roman Emperor which is sung by a tenor. The Metropolitan Opera’s production is filled with sumptuous costumes and gorgeous voices. The opera might be a lesser work of Mozart, but it still has the touch of genius and the Met’s production gives the opera a full measure of respect. The Met, of course, couldn’t get a soprano castrato to play Sesto, but instead goes the way of Japan’s Takarazuka, having women play the roles of Annio and Sesto.

The year is 79 and Tito (Giuseppe Filianoti) has already usurped the throne from Vitellio. But Vitellio had a daughter who, to remind you of her role, is named Vitellia  (Barbara Frittoli). She plots revenge, but this is also a love story. Annio (Kate Lindsey) is in love with Servilia (Lucy Crowe), the sister of Sesto. Sesto (Elina Garanca), male friend of Tito, is in love with Vitellia. Tito  wants to marry Servilia but doesn’ t know that Annio, his male friend, and Servilia are in love.

Vitellia convinces Sesto to murder his best friend, the emperor, but don’t worry. By the title, you know this is all about clemency (la clemenza) and a good and fair ruler so you can guess there will be a happy ending.

“La Clemenza di Tito” will be on PBS Great Performances at the Met on Sunday, 14 April 2013 at noon on PBS. Check local listings.

Wonderful Wonder-Con weekend

What could make the wonderful world of Disney(land) better than having the wonderful Wonder-Con down the street? At the Anaheim Convention Center, it is a Wonder-Con weekend. If you don’t get there early enough, you might have to park a block down at the Garden Walk shopping center ($12) where Bubba Gump Shrimp Company is.

All the usual dress up precautions should be used: Don’t wear shoes that can’t take you a block and you can’t walk in for hours. Bring food and something to drink because the prices in the convention center will beat your wallet to a pulp. And wouldn’t you rather spend your money on toys?

Well-costumed attendee at Wonder-Con 2013.

Work-in-progress Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Not-for-sale Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Drabbits from Imaginarium Galleries.

UD Replicas.

Wanted to sit in the “Oblivion” craft…

Pendragon Costumes.

Pendragon Costumes.

Work-in-progress Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Not-for-sale Wool Buddy by Jackie Huang.

Wanted to sit in the “Oblivion” craft…

Drabbits from Imaginarium Galleries.

Well-costumed attendee at Wonder-Con 2013.

UD Replicas.

Like an comic convention, Wonder-Con is a good excuse for dressing up. You get everything from little kiddies dressed up as princes, princesses and superheroes to women dressed up in less than would be appropriate at most local beaches. You want to see women with low necklines and high cheek-exposing g-string costumes, this is the place. Of course, there was also the guy who used body paint on his upper torso to approximate a Spider-man costume.

There should actually be a special workshop for men, who, not having experience carrying around large bags or baby-on-board on their backs, threaten to clobber unsuspecting members of the crowded convention center with the handles of their swords or the guys with the contraptions on their back (boxes with tubes and such) will turn in a crowd and take out your eye. Those steampunk goggles might be more practical than you think.

My expert felt that this was better organized than ComiKaze and the lines were certainly shorter than anything at Comic-Con.

We bought two Godzilla shirts, a sturdy light sabor ($35 from Ultra Sabers) and checked out some clothes and lots of toys, toys, toys. We didn’t have the time to wait in line at Dark Horse Comics but hope to learn more about their “47 Ronin” novelization by Stan Sakai. Remember when lint and dust bunnies were a bad thing? Now bundles of fluff can become a T-rex or even R2Dw under the skilled hand of Jackie Huang and become a Wool Buddy. As you might know, we love puppets and especially dragons so we were enchanted by Imaginarium Galleries drabbits. We liked UD Replicas, Anovos and Pendragon Costumes.

Watch out for the stealth Scientologist who lurks around with a questionnaire. Apparently, Scientology is considering a graphic novel for “Battlefield Earth.” What do you think? A well-illustrated book would do better than a John Travolta-starring bomb?

Three-day and Saturday badges are sold out. Sunday badges are still available. Visit the official Wonder-Con webpage for more information.

MARCH 29-31, 2013

Anaheim
Convention Center

800 W. Katella Ave.,
Anaheim, CA 92802
click for map

Saturday: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sunday: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Funny, pathetic and utterly damaged Judy Garland in ‘End’

This is divas who doped themselves to death week in Los Angeles. Sunday 17 March 2013, the upbeat “One Night with Janis Joplin” opened with a block party with Mary Bridget Davies projecting the impish charm and belting out the blazing vocals of Joplin. Joplin’s will actually funded a party and so the Pasadena Playhouse’s block party seemed fitting. Wednesday night (20 March 2013), Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland in “End of the Rainbow” at the Ahmanson, was by turns playful, pathetic and funny despite a surprisingly foul mouth. Bennett’s Garland is broke, heavily addicted to everything and in love with the wrong guy and desperate to be the center of attention. Bennett’s seamless performance is well-worth seeing for many reasons.

Being the center of attention differs from being loved. The play begins by re-uniting Garland (Bennett) with one of her pianists, Anthony (Michael Cumpsty) at the London Ritz Hotel in December of 1968. Anthony is politely gay and in love with Garland as many gay men are. Garland is in love with the testy younger man, Mickey Deans (Miles Anderson).

When she enters the hotel, she is fashionably thin and complaining that somehow the hotel is smaller or her room is smaller. Garland at this stage has already been married and divorced four times. She and Deans have just become engaged. She is exuberant, but only until she needs her drugs and then Bennett’s Garland defines the word mercurial. She clever, imperious, simpering, playfully pouting and childishly needly and yet always manages to be charming, or charming enough at just the right time. She’s a practiced addict who knows how to wheedle and manipulate people, particularly people who need her to perform where once it was people who gave her the drugs to make her perform.

Deans had previously been a jazz piano player and a club owner. He was 12 years younger than Garland, tall and darkly handsome. The attraction is there and we understand what Judy Garland wants, and what Deans needs–he’s practical and he’s not used to owing money and believes he can manage a clever, well-practiced addict. Garland proves him wrong. Garland changes ploys and personality quicker than she changes her shoes.

The play shows the wild ramblings of Garland–a woman who can’t recall the questions she’s being asked and sometimes leaves the stage temperamentally to take a taxi to find more drugs. Unlike the Janis Joplin play, we see the effects of Garland’s addiction and her tragic road to an early death. Peter Quilter’s script is wildly demanding and Bennett is up to the challenge, transforming herself into a sly, manipulative woman, desperate to get what she wants. It’s as if Garland is channeling all her talent, all her intelligence and charm into being an almost functioning addict.

Director Terry Johnson adeptly keeps a whirlwind pace between Bennett’s quick personality changes. Bennett’s Garland seems young and old at the same time. Michael Cumpsty as someone who has watched Garland’s slow descent into a tormented always acting actor is touching and his Anthony has the best lines, providing comic relief. Erik Heger as the future last-husband has a thankless role, but Johnson doesn’t have him play it as a villainous gold digger. Heger’s Mickey Deans is a solid guy up against a genius of manipulation who wears him down into being her enabler.

What we don’t see in Quilter’s script is Garland as a mother. In 1968, Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli was 22. Minnelli would be filming the 1969 movie “The Sterile Cuckoo.” Lorna Luft, Garland’s daughter with Sid Luft, would have been 16. Lorna and her brother Joey were 14 and 12 respectively when they shared a month-long engagement with Garland at the Broadway Palace Theatre in 1967 for one month.

Garland would marry Mickey Deans 15 March 1969; her divorce from husband number 4 Mark Herron was finalized in January of that same year. Not much is said in this play, but Garland and Deans were reportedly caught by Herron together and Garland’s infidelity was the reason for the divorce. Garland would be dead by 22 June 1969.

Fans of Garland, warts and wallowing in alcohol and all, will want to rush and get tickets. If you prefer the fantasy of the Judy Garland as a star as preserved by the silver screen, then stay well away. For some incredible moments of theater or as a fan of Hollywood history, Bennett’s performance in “End of the Rainbow” is a must see.  ”End of the Rainbow” continues until 21 April 2013 at the Ahmanson.

Tickets for “End of the Rainbow” are available by calling (213) 972-4400, visiting online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, or in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Ahmanson Theatre. Tickets range from $20 – $110 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Ahmanson Theatre is located at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012.

Pasadena Playhouse parties hard with Janis Joplin

I don’t know where you were on St. Patrick’s Day, but if you were in Pasadena and didn’t make it to the Playhouse district, you missed one fine party and a little bit of rock history.  Even if you weren’t there, part of the party continues on inside the Pasadena Playhouse, Tuesdays through Sundays. You don’t have to be a fan of Janis Joplin to enjoy this concert disguised as a play, “One Night with Janis Joplin,” at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin. Photo by Janet Mascoska.

As part of the official opening, the Pasadena Playhouse sponsored a block party that began at noon and went on after the show ended with professional bands and food trucks.

The Pasadena Playhouse stage has been transformed into a concert stage with the band in the background and three Joplinaires to get the audience going before we see Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin. This is the time when Afros, baby doll tops, blue jeans, stringy and frizzy hair were fashionable. The cast makes the time warp back to there thanks to Jeff Cone’s costume design.

But this concert isn’t limited to Joplin’s music. This is a concert about musical influences, how the black female blues singers influenced Janis Joplin and how she translated them into her own style.

First, if you’re too young or too square to know who Janis Joplin was, the story starts in Texas. Joplin was born in Port Arthur, TX in 1943–World War II was still being fought in Europe and the Pacific. While her parents weren’t entertainers, they enjoyed musicals and music.

According to the playwright/director Randy Johnson, cleaning day at the Joplin home was put on the record player and sing with enthusiasm. And Johnson recreates that for us with a little George Gershwin. You probably didn’t expect that at a Janis Joplin concert.

Apparently, her time at Thomas Jefferson High School wasn’t a happy time for her. Identifying herself as a painter, she wasn’t one of the in-crowd. She dabbled in attending college in Texas. It was the sixties and Joplin embraced the rebellion of the times, styling herself after black female blues singer such as Bessie Smith (the Empress of the Blues), Grammy-award winner Etta James and civil rights activist Nina Simone. Two of these ladies, James and Simone, outlived Joplin. James died last year in 2012 and Simone died earlier in 2003.

Sabrina Elayne Carten as Blues singer. Photo by Janet Mascoska.

If they had pain, they somehow didn’t have the kind of self-destructive lifestyle that the queen of the Rock and Roll or the Queen of Psychedelic Soul did. Joplin was a speed freak and also used heroin. This isn’t something we see in this play although Davies’ Joplin takes a few swigs of alcohol from a bottle on stage. We never see her getting addiction tremors or manic. Instead, we’re channeling the sweet side and the gritty raw voice of the woman sometimes referred to as Pearl.

This isn’t Davies first outing as Janis Joplin. She won the title role in an off-Broadway musical, “Love, Janis,” in 2005 during an open casting call for a new lead actress. I never saw Joplin in concert, but her voice is certainly convincing with that painful rawness that contrasts the smooth mellow blues Sabrina Elayne Carten pours out as various blues singers.

Johnson spent time with the Joplin family–only Janis Joplin’s younger siblings are alive: Michael, Laura Sadly, both of Joplin’s parents would outlive her. Joplin died at 27  in Hollywood, California (4 October 1970). Her mother, Dorothy died in 1998. Her father, Set, an engineer at Texaco, died in 1987.

Unlike the Judy Garland piece at the Ahmanson, “End of the Rainbow,” “One Night with Janis Joplin” is about Joplin the performer, Joplin the white woman who sang the blues and Joplin who became a role model for other female singers when rock and roll was dominated by men and male chauvinism.

You’ll leave energized and with a bit of musical education. If you were there opening night, then you also got to be part of one really fun block party. Any other night, you’ll have to find somewhere else to go to put all that good energy to use after you see “One Night with Janis Joplin.”

Janis Joplin’s Porsche at the Pasadena Playhouse on 17 March 2013. Photo by Jana J. Monji.

“One Night with Janis Joplin” will play through April 21, 2013.  The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101.  The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Single show ticket prices for “One Night with Janis Joplin” range from $69.00 – $107.00, with Premium Seating available for $105.00 – $145.00.  Service and theatre restoration fees apply to all purchases.  Tickets are available by calling The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office at 626-356-7529.  On non-performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday – Sunday from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.  On performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday – Saturday from 12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.  Tickets are available 24 hours a day at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.  Group Sales (tickets for 8 or more people) are available by calling 626-921-1161. For additional information on The Pasadena Playhouse, please visit www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.