Tennis Week 2018 - surviving the drought (part two)

And now for the best part of Tennis Week - the tennis!!  Tuesday, Mom and I headed out to Flushing to check out the US Open qualifying tournament.  Due to the stupid water turn-off, we decided to leave early and go sit in Flushing Meadows park before going into the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.  We stopped at my favorite bagel place on the way to the subway, picked up breakfast to go with all our Trader Joe's snacks, and off we went.

When I looked at the US Open app before leaving, two names just jumped off the page for me and I told Mom we HAD to watch them play: Tommy Robredo (Spain) and Ernests Gulbis (Latvia).  They're both coming back from injury so their rankings are really low at the moment.  They had to go through qualifying to try to get back into the main draw.  I've just been a big fan of both of theirs over the years, even though they've both beaten my Roger at Grand Slams before.  My grudge-holding is very random.  

The lines were pretty long to get in, which surprised me for the first day of qualifying.  They moved the metal detectors pretty far up, which was interesting.  I guess they were trying to make more room between the searches and the actual gates.  Getting in went relatively smoothly for us all week, which was a relief.  I had a moment of terror when I realized I forgot to remove a glass perfume rollerball in my bag - I thought for sure they'd find it and take it away from me, but somehow the gal missed it and I got that contraband onto the grounds.  I made sure to remove it the instant we got home that night.  

On our way to watch matches, we stopped in the new Louis Armstrong stadium to see what it looked like.  We watched Grigor Dimitrov practice for a few minutes before heading out to see Tommy Robredo.  His was the first match we went to, on our old reliable standby Court 11.  He was playing Henri Laaksonen from Switzerland.  I've always liked Tommy and his game - they are both quite handsome.  He struggled a little bit in the first set, but did pull it out with a late break at the end of the set, then he won the second set comfortably.  Mom and I then wandered over to watch Andy Murray practice with Richard Gasquet in the new Grandstand - Murray has been injured for about a year, so it was nice to see him back on the court.  He wasn't too crankypants, which was nice, though he wasn't exactly playing all full out, either.  And Gasquet's hair was shockingly bleached blonde, with tickled my mom and me.

After watching the practice for a bit, we went over to the food court for a little lunch.  Fries were needed.  I was unhappy to again be iced tea-less at the Open.  I think I need to send a strongly worded letter.  I ran over to see Sabine Lisicki play for a few minutes - she was a Wimbledon finalist just a few years ago and is now in qualifying.  There wasn't a place to sit, though, so I only watched for a few.  I went back to get Mom because I wanted to get back over to Court 11 to see Ernests Gulbis play.  I don't know why I like him so much, he's a complete and utter wackadoodle and hasn't lived up to expectations.  But when his game is on, it's quite exciting.  Unfortunately, it's not on very often.  And I think the qualifying match he played against Christian Harrison of the US sort of sums up his career.  He was up, he was down, he was wackadoodle.  He kept getting frustrated by people talking in the crowd (he would turn to people and yell at them to shut up), he was confused about the shot clock and being able to talk to his coach during the match.  He called for an injury timeout and he, at times, played brilliantly.  He's just really a ton of fun to watch.  And, of course, he lost.  In the first round of qualifying.  Sigh.  Harrison really just needed to be steady and withstand the flashes of brilliance and just let Gulbis wackadoodle himself right out of the Open, which he did.  Again, sigh.  I hope he can get his head screwed back on and start over with a clean slate next year.  I do so enjoy watching him play.  The antics...not so much.

After Gulbis lost, and sitting for three sets, we needed some shade.  On our way over to the Grandstand to watch the new Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber practice, we wandered through the practice courts and I got a funny shot of Canadian Denis Shapovalov.  They really need to do something about the chain link fence.  How can I get good photos?!  I got this shot by putting my phone through a rip in the fence and tarp.  But I like it!  We didn't watch Kerber practice for long, though, because we wanted to get over to see Aussies Bernard Tomic and Thanassi Kokkinakis play.  Speaking of wackadoodles.  Just Google their names and enjoy the weirdness.  Mom and I only stayed for the first set because we were approaching end-of-all-day-sun tiredness.  Tomic easily won the first set and it struck me how easy he can make playing tennis look.  It's free and loose and natural, plus he can hit any shot in the book.  He easily won the first set but ended up losing the match.  It's sad that his brain gets in his own way.  After a happy look at Serena Williams' handsome coach (see photo below), Mom and I decided we needed to get back to my apartment and put our feet up, though we did stop into the new Louis Armstrong stadium on our way out to watch Alexander Zverev practice for a few minutes before leaving for ice cream.  It was a good first day - I'll try to cram the other days into the next post.  But thanks for reading!

Tennis Week 2018 - surviving the drought (part one)

Howdy!  Another Tennis Week with my mom has come and gone and we had a ton of fun, as usual.  I swear, sometimes we can just look at each other and start laughing about something without having to say what we're laughing at.  I just love her to pieces.  I will say that this year, Tennis Week DID have its challenges, but it was mostly a great time. As always, these posts will be a bit long because I just don't know how to self-edit...

A tiny bit of backstory: a few days before my mom was supposed to arrive, a notice was posted all over my building, saying that there would be construction and a new water main installed on my street, so the water would be turned off, every weekday, for two weeks.  Wait, WHAT?!?!  I wait for this vacation for an entire year and now there would be no water in my apartment?!?!  Ugh.  To say this put a crimp on some things is an understatement.  Sometimes I think the universe is trying to get me.  Though I am grateful that the weather was pleasant when my mom was here (if it had been as hot as it is this week, she and I would've been in a world of trouble, I think)...

Mom arrived on Sunday morning - we decided we'd go out to our favorite diner in Elmhurst and check out the mall.  I know, going to a mall during vacation is doofy, but that's what my family does now and then.  It's a midwest thing, I'm thinking.  We got off the subway and walked toward our diner and I started to feel dismay:  I could see that it was all boarded up and the sign seemed like it was missing something.  Like the sign.  We were really disappointed to see that the diner was closed up.  In my discombobulated state, I didn't read the sign on the front door.  I should have.  This will come into play later in the trip.  

We decided to go to the food court at the mall so Mom could get some Nathan's french fries.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that I won't be partaking of any of Nathan's products anymore, since the owner has come out as a big supporter of the awful man who lives in the White House.  I try not to impose my boycotts on anyone else, though, so off we went.  To my (concealed) delight, Nathan's is no longer in the food court!  Awkward situation resolved!  We got some Starbucks breakfast snacks instead.  While we were sitting, I was looking at my phone to see where the nearest Traders Joe's was.

Mom and I like several Trader Joe's snacks, so it's a tradition that we take them with us to the tennis.  Originally, I had in on my unofficial itinerary that we would go on Monday, when we would be in Manhattan, but I noticed on my phone that there was a Trader Joe's relatively nearby!  The map said it was about a 30-minute walk.  Mom thought that sounded reasonable (ha ha), so we decided to give it a try.  

We hadn't walked very far when we started to second-guess our decision.  After all, a 30-minute walk there meant a 30-minute walk back.  With bags.  It was a nice day, but it's a really congested area to try to walk in.  Luckily, my phone's GPS also had the bus route to get there and the bus was right across the street!  So Mom and I had a mini-adventure and took the express bus to Trader Joe's.

It's a nice store, but oh my gosh, it was crowded!  It was Sunday, after all.  We didn't do a lot of meandering in the store, we just sort of picked out the things we knew we wanted so we could get in the really long line.  I guess it wasn't very relaxing, but we did get some tasty snacks and I did discover a Trader Joe's in Queens.  When we came out of the store, though, it was raining.  So we stood under the awning and had fun watching the crazy people pulling in and out of that tiny, awkwardly-placed parking lot.  I told Mom we should do a podcast or something of our doing commentary, like a sporting event, of the people trying to park.  We got a giggle out of that.  The rain let up and we went back to the bus stop and made it home.

After sitting for a bit in my apartment, and watching a little bit of tennis in Cincinnati, we went back out to wander around my neighborhood.  We ended up at Ample Hills, a great ice cream place that has opened up a new shop near my apartment.  Yum.  I wish we could've gone there every day because I want to try all the flavors!  Mom got the peanut butter and I got the limoncello sorbet.  Delicious.  

Monday, we got up early so we could do all the things that girls need to do in the morning that require water.  I loathe getting up early when I'm on vacation, but so be it.  I had an appointment for us to go to the Downton Abbey exhibition at 11am, but since my water was being turned off at 8:30am, we left early and walked through Central Park beforehand.  It was nice and quiet in the park, though of course it started to rain again.  Sigh.  We wandered into the Plaza Hotel and their downstairs food court to escape the rain for a bit before walking over to Downton Abbey.

I've already told you about my birthday trip to the exhibition, so I won't go into details about it again.  I'll just say it was great to see it again - Mom loved it and I loved it again, especially since there were WAY fewer people than there were in March, so I could get much better photos and take my time reading the placards that are scattered around.  We were there for a couple of hours and it was grand.  I'm so glad we went.  After that, we were a little peckish (though not a lot; I was having stomach issues most of the week, which will come into play later in the week).  We stopped at a nearby grocery store and picked up some yogurt and fruit for Mom and a ginger tea for me, then walked back to the park to enjoy it.  Mom needed her Nathan's fries, though, since she didn't get them the day before, so I found a kiosk that sold them.  I just yelled at the owner in my head.

After we finished eating, we hopped onto the Fifth Avenue bus (Mom has discovered a love of a NY bus - you can see where you're going and you don't have to walk up and down subway stairs) and went to Chelsea.  I wanted to go to several shops around there, so we had a good time wandering around, popping into shops, buying a few fun things, then sitting in Madison Square Park for a bit.  We finally ended up in Union Square, wandered through the greenmarket, then went back to my apartment.  It was a day of lots of walking.  Our feet were tired!  Happily, by the time we got back to the apartment, the water had been turned back on for the night.  And it was Judy Garland day on Turner Classic Movies, which made us doubly glad to be back (and with water).  So ends part one of our trip report.  Tennis will be discussed in part two...

Random Movie Thoughts

I've recently seen a couple of the blockbuster summer movies - here are some thoughts (and there will be SPOILERS for both movies, so you have been warned):

Recently, my mom and I went to see Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.  I saw the first movie with some gal pals and we had a good time - Abba music is generally bouncy and fun and the scenery was gorgeous.  Meryl Streep was grand and Pierce Brosnan looked hot.  The fact that his singing was painful to watch and listen to became more of a joke as the movie went on.  But we had fun.  Oh, and I'm a huge fan of Stellan Skarsgard and Colin Firth, so they made the movie enjoyable, too.  I have no idea why the studio thought they needed to do a sequel (and ten years later, really?), but when my family was here last week, we had a rainy day and my mom and I decided to check out the sequel.  My family's trip had a bit of drama, actually; I'm trying to decide if I want to share.  But I'll at least chat about the movie we saw and maybe share a few photos at the bottom of the post...

So, it's not nearly as good as the first film (which I recently rewatched), but we had a fun time anyway.  I mean, there's a reason that some Abba songs aren't popular - they're not really very good.  And Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is filled with the not-very-good Abba songs.  It seemed a bit of a cheat that both Cher and Meryl Streep are relegated to just a few minutes of screen time.  I didn't realize the set-up of this movie was that Meryl Streep's character was dead and they're opening the hotel in her honor.  I guess that's on me, but I was taken aback.  Finally seeing her at the end was very welcome, and very moving, but gosh I missed her throughout.  The flashback scenes were kind of fun (all of the younger versions of the men were very cute), and I do enjoy Lily James, but none of the flashback performers have the star quality of the cast of the previous movie.  Playing young Christine Baranski is not as fun to watch as seeing actual Christine Baranski.  I'm just saying.  

Cher was...Cher, and she is always a treat, plus she matched up well with Andy Garcia, who apparently is becoming the heartthrob of the ladies-of-a-certain-age set.  To me, he has always been a heartthrob (I just rewatched Dead Again and he is just sublime), but I feel as if he disappeared for a while and now he's back romancing Diane Keaton and Cher.  I guess I should be grateful to see him at all.  And maybe it's aspirational?  It could give me hope to think of being single for all these years and an Andy Garcia is waiting for me on the other side.  Moving on.  Watching Andy Garcia 'dance' with Cher WAS a hoot.  I put 'dance' in quotation marks because it appears that Cher doesn't really move all that much anymore.  She's sort of put into place and wiggles around, then everyone else wiggles around her.  OK.  She's Cher.  She looks younger than me, which is...you know, disconcerting, but hearing her sing "Fernando" made me sigh with pleasure.  I'll probably download her new album of Abba covers, but I won't be buying this film's soundtrack.  None of the songs really worked as well as they did in the first film.  I'm glad I got to see it with my mom, but I don't think Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again calls for repeat viewings.

On to another movie.  Remember, SPOILERS.  A handsome friend is a member of SAG, and he occasionally invites me to be his plus-one at screenings.  I was so grateful to go with him to see Spike Lee's new movie BlacKkKlansman (I think that's how to spell out the title in print).  My friend was excited to have been an extra in the film; he told me about the scenes he was in, but I couldn't wrap my brain around it.  I'll fill in more about his scenes later.

Let me tell you some backstory about me and Spike Lee (that makes it sound as if I've met him, I haven't, I'm just referring to his films):  when I first moved to NYC, I worked at a local university.  We had a small film society and one night, we hosted a screening of a new film by a young director.  And so I saw Do The Right Thing in a tiny room, it didn't seat more than 50, and then we had a Q&A with Spike Lee.  It was incredible.  The way that movie burst off the screen - wow.  I hadn't seen anything quite like it.  The energy and drive and passion opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn't considered before, especially in my life as a white girl from the midwest.  I was simply blown away.  There are a few movies I've been reluctant to watch again because of the impact they made at first viewing, movies like Platoon, Schindler's List, and Do The Right Thing.  I've watched bits and pieces again over the years, but since nothing could ever equal that first time, I've avoided watching the whole thing.  Anyway, the Q&A was also interesting and fun, I especially remember Spike Lee getting into a friendly argument with an audience member who criticized Rosie Perez's dancing during the opening credits.  He just wasn't having it, in a playful way.

I've seen most of Spike Lee's films since then and, for me, some of them are better than others, but they all leap off the screen with his verve and commitment and intelligence and unwillingness to be anyone but himself.  I'm a huge fan.  So I would've seen his new film, regardless of a handsome friend being in it, but I'm grateful to have been his plus-one at a screening.  Backstory done.

BlacKkKlansman is based on a true-story: an African-American police officer (the first in his Colorado precinct) infiltrates and becomes a member of the Klan in 1972. It sounds too wild to be true, but it is.  The film is funny, biting, horrifying, and brilliant.  Its effect on me is a little bit hard to talk about, but I'll try. From its acting to its cinematography to its score to its spot-on direction by Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman is an amazing film.  And an amazing experience, too.  Again, there are moments I will never forget - the feelings that the scenes or the dialogue or the situations gave me just can't be duplicated.  Though, unlike those other films I've been wary of seeing again, I feel like I need to see BlacKkKlansman again so that I can parse out and enjoy the craft used to make the film.  Now that I've experienced the overwhelming emotion, I want to again appreciate the storytelling.

I didn't know that our lead actor, John David Washington, is Denzel Washington's son.  I don't know that it would've made a difference in my enjoyment of his performance, but knowing might've shaded things for me a bit.  I thought he was fantastic, with just the right air of grit, resignation, determination, compassion and a little bit of whimsy to make all of the machinations work.  He was also a pair of clear eyes to see all of the racist horribleness through.  I've not been a huge fan of Adam Driver in the past.  I'll admit that I saw him in a play a few years ago and found him extremely wanting.  I'm (almost) embarrassed to admit that it lowered my opinion of his acting for years.  I did enjoy him well enough in The Last Jedi, but I was unprepared for how fantastic I found him in BlacKkKlansman.  He found so many layers - he uses his rather slacker affect to a great response here.  He has a monologue in the film that's as fine a piece of writing and acting that I've seen in a long time.  And his rapport with Washington, and the rest of the actors playing the police force, was terrific.

I never watched That 70s Show, so I didn't really know Topher Grace at all.  He is absolutely chilling as David Duke.  Making all that hate and racism seem bland, pleasant and normal.  I get shivers just thinking about it.  All of the actors playing Klan members were just horrifyingly normal.  A couple lying in bed, having nighttime small talk about killing black people as if it were the most benign thing in the world; I could throw up remembering that scene.  And imagining members of my family having that same kind of conversation doesn't really help.  The Klan characters were occasionally stupid, and often naive, but never less than compellingly real.  And Ashlie Atkinson was off-the-charts brilliant as a Klan wife.  Amazing. 

And then there's my handsome friend.  He told me beforehand that he would be in the big 'initiation into the Klan' scene.  After seeing him in the background earlier and getting a kick out of seeing his handsome face on a big screen, the next time I saw him was when David Duke was pulling a Klan member hood off his face.  I can't describe the feelings of watching that - it's a testament to my friend's great talent that I believed what he was doing and it shook me.  Shook me profoundly.  It shook him, too, in that moment.  We sort of leaned in on one another until the scene was over, but my god.  I mean, it was a horrible enough scene to watch - all those mediocre white men trying to pretend they're superior, yet hiding themselves behind capes and hoods - but to see a face I know and love there...wow.  Maybe if times weren't as horrible as they are right now and if I weren't a little bit suspicious that members of my family may actually be in the Klan, it wouldn't have been such a sucker punch.  But it was.  I'm proud of my handsome friend for accepting the role, owning it, and being in such an important film.  But that doesn't mean I might not close my eyes during that scene the next time I see it.

But even all of that didn't prepare me for the end of the movie.  Again, I should've done more homework, I guess, but I didn't realize that actual footage of the Charlottesville riots last year would be in the movie.  Wow.  Another sucker punch.  Throughout the movie, there are little seeds that pop up every now and then, showing how this behavior in 1972 could've led to what's going on now (one example: David Duke says variations of "America First" and "Make America great again" at one point - the audience groaned and chuckled with rueful understanding), but then to actually see it, to see the actual, real-live, nonfiction hate that happened last year, including the moment the car plowed into the crowd and killed that poor woman, and then with the comments from that wretch who lives in the White House...it was devastating all over again.  As it should've been.  Spike Lee is a f*cking genius.  There were women around us who were overcome, loudly sobbing and wailing at the unexpectedness of it.  I couldn't breathe.  Only a confident, brilliant filmmaker would've had the audacity to give us a film with hints of comedy, hints of romance, underscores of horror and then smacks us in the face with what is ACTUALLY HAPPENING.  And that's Spike Lee.

There was a brief Q&A after the film with a few of the actors; Topher Grace was very eloquent in his repudiation of David Duke and all that he stands for and how he couldn't find anything of value in the man.  Corey Hawkins (who also has an amazing monologue at the top of the movie) was also very moving in describing what it meant to him, as a black actor and a black man, to be in this movie at this time.  A member of the audience asked the cast "Do you think there will need to be protection or police presence at screenings of this movie?  Do you think it will cause riots or anything?"  The cast sort of hemmed and hawed, but didn't really think so.  I just read a brief interview with Spike Lee where he said that movie execs told him those exact fears, that riots would happen, when Do The Right Thing came out.  I guess we can be grateful that nothing has happened yet, but I have a feeling that the people who NEED to see this movie and who would be most offended by it won't bother to go.  And it is their loss.  GO.

Review - Twelfth Night

Hey, did you miss me?  I hope so!  I'm also hoping to get blogging with a renewed vigor.  We'll see how that goes.  I guess I shouldn't promise anything since I'll be on vacation with Tennis Week next week...  :)

I'm very fortunate that I work with people who want to see shows with me for many different reasons - to support my imaginary boyfriends, or to support my favorite writers, or to have cocktails first, or to check out shows that should be on my awards night radar.  Last weekend, I went with one of my bosses to check out a musical that should be on everyone's radar, thank you very much: Twelfth Night, as presented by the Public Theater in Central Park.

I caught this photo pre-show!

This particular adaptation of Twelfth Night was done previously at the Public for a few performances in 2016 as part of their Public Works program.  Public Works uses professional performers and  community-based groups of performers alongside each other on stage.  There are over 100 performers used in Twelfth Night, divided into two groups, the Red ensemble and the Blue ensemble.  We saw the Blue ensemble cast and they were wonderful.  Seeing such a diverse group of people onstage was inspiring and, may I say, brought a tear to my eye more than once throughout the evening.  I was also thrilled to see that the show was signed and used members of the New York Deaf Theatre seamlessly.

photo credit: Joan Marcus (Shaina Taub is center, with accordion)

The highlight of this particular production of Twelfth Night was the fantastic original score by singer/songwriter Shaina Taub.  I've long been fan of Shaina Taub's - she performed at an event I attended several years ago and the song she performed just hit me in all the right places.  I bought the song on iTunes and have loved listening to it ever since.  When her name is attached to something, I immediately pay attention.  I went to see the return engagement of Old Hats at Signature because she was now on board (I bought those tunes, too); a TedX Broadway talk featuring Broadway people was made more interesting to me because she was there.  The two songs she sang that day were simply incredible and I was once again happy to buy them online.  I highly recommend your checking out some of her music:  that first song that drew me in was "The Visitors" and her TedX Broadway performances were "Huddled Masses" and "Where are the Grown-ups?".  You can also hear her demo recording of Twelfth Night online, if you're so inclined.  Which you should be.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Her music just made the experience of seeing Twelfth Night a joyful one.  I thought she chose just the right spots to musicalize and her lyrics smartly jumped off from Shakespeare's text and went to someplace contemporary and just slightly off-kilter.  It was a terrific marriage of text and music.  And her music brought everyone in the entire cast on stage in really clever ways.  I will confess that cutting the show to a 90-minute run time made me happy because we went on a Friday night, but also made me sad that a lot of that delicious, rueful, longing musical language of Shakespeare's had to be cut, but that's ok.  I found this delightful, heartfelt and tuneful incarnation to be just the thing to see on a summer night.

The performers were all terrific - Nikki M James was a wonderful Viola and her solo songs were beautiful interpretations of her dilemmas.  Ato Blankson-Wood was a romantic, yet no-nonsense Orsino and his self-centered pursuit of Olivia was realistic, as was his gradual realization of his love for Viola stemmed from his respect for his page (Viola in disguise).  And Andrew Kober was a magnificent Malvolio - pompous and haughty, but oh so clever and with a backstory that made his imprisonment at the end seem even more lonely.  His production numbers were first-rate and gosh, his voice was amazing!  But, really, every single person on that stage was committed and authentic and wonderfully realized.  This whole project just seems to be the celebration of life, of theater, and of the Public Theater's mission of 'theater for all' that we all need right now.  You have one more week to see this delightful confection - go!     

Back Soon, I Promise

Here's the dreaded ghostlight, sorry.  Between the ginormous work event that took up all of my brain space, and then a visit from my family, I haven't had the time or energy to keep you up-to-date on my comings and goings.  I promise to get back into the swing of things soon; I've seen a couple of movies that I will report on and I have a new play festival coming up as well.  There will be things to share and soon.  I hope everyone is keeping cool in this very hot, very brain-melting summer...