Play It Again, Sam

In my life thus far – and let’s be clear, I am still quite, quite young – the amount of time I have spent watching TV shows is equal to the amount of time spent watching those same shows over and over again. Thanks to modern technology, bingeing on television shows has become a favorite pastime. But I can remember the old days when catching a television show again meant watching a rerun or waiting until it hit syndication and started airing on TBS or the local Fox affiliate. Then there were the DVD box sets. The money spent on DVD sets for shows now readily available on streaming services would make me multi-hundredaire. Suffice it to say I have watched a lot of the same shows over and over and over again, but there are a select handful of shows that rise to the top of my viewing list with near ridiculous regularity. 

I have watched all episodes of Gilmore Girls too many times to count. Literally. Dozens of times. I’m due for another run, it’s been at least 3 months. The writing is so smart and the characters so engaging that even though I know most of the dialogue by heart and could repeat the plot of an episode with just the title, it is well worth watching again. 

If any show comes close to Gilmore Girls as far as repeated viewings is concerned, it’s Top Chef. It does not matter that I know who wins. No matter how many times I watch it, season one Tiffany will straight up lie to Miguel about her comments at Judges Table, Otto will knowingly drive away with lychees that have not been paid for and Carla Hall will be delightful. 

In the same vein, The Great British Baking Show is literally playing on my TV right now for the fourth or fifth go round. That British sense of civility, the charming music, the delicious bakes? Delightful. While the bakers are technically competing against each other, their behavior would never lead you to believe it’s a competition. Genuinely happy for others who do well and genuinely saddened when bakers must leave the tent, the bakers and The Great British Baking Show is restorative. 

Two other shows are repeatedly binge worthy: The Office and Parks and Rec. The evolution of Michael Scott will never get old. He transformed and matured but his core desire remained the same: to be a part of a family, whatever kind of family that might be. And you can never get enough Leslie Knope. She pours her heart and soul into everything she does, especially her relationships. It’s impossible to choose the best pairing: Leslie and Ann, Leslie and Ron, Leslie and Ben, Leslie and Joe Biden.

Of course, the OG repeat watch was Seinfeld. Watching Seinfeld in syndication was a big part of my formative years. Probably too big. I laughed at the jokes I understood just as hard as those that went right over my head. I knew Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer as well as a I knew my family members. Not sure what that says about me or my family, but there you have it.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

It isn’t a Sunday morning without CBS News Sunday Morning. Focusing on art and culture, Sunday Morning is the finer things club of the television landscape, and I have been watching my entire life. Reading the headlines may lead to the conclusion that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. The cure? Sunday Morning. Wynton Marsalis’ opening trumpet is a call for humanity, reminding us of what we all have in common.

Sunday Morning feels different than any other television show. Today alone the stories ranged from a profile of Julianne Moore to the technology of hearing aids to the Alvin Ailey dance company to the lure of mermaid lore. Truly something for everyone. And the stories are given room to breathe, lasting more than just a couple of minutes. With its’ eye often turned to the arts, it is probably no wonder that I am attached to the show.  Authors, musicians, dancers, actors, visual artists and architects all get their due on Sunday Morning. The best in their field share their motivation, their process, their struggles and their triumphs.

And then, of course, there is the humor. In my formative years, Bill Geist’s forays into the lesser known, slightly eccentric, hobbies and events around the country were the highlight of the show. I vividly recall a story about individuals who collect toasters. Toasters. Who knew antique toasters were so fascinating? Now it is often a story from Mo Rocca or commentary from Jim Gaffigan or Nancy Giles that strikes the funny bone. Recognizing the importance of humor in everyday life is not to be underestimated. 

Each episode of Sunday Morning ends with a Moment in Nature. No voiceover, no music, just the natural sounds of the environment. It may be mountain goats, fish in a stream, a coral reef or cacti in the desert. The simplicity of the segment and the beauty of the natural world being highlighted combine to provide a brief respite from reality.

Certain pieces of pop culture frame your childhood memories. For me, this includes starting my Sundays with Sunday Morning and finishing them with Wishbone after swim practice. With Entertainment Weekly announcing a transition to a monthly publication I am crossing my fingers that Sunday Morning remains sacred. "Friday Night" just doesn’t have the same ring to it. 

Shine On

Some books beg to be read. The Sun Is Also A Star is one of those books. My intent for this week was to focus on The Steel Wheels. With their new album Over The Trees dropping a couple of weeks ago and my trek to Kansas City to see them at Knuckleheads, my post was in the bag. However, at the same time I was digesting their new music, I also happened to be reading The Sun Is Also A Star.

Calling to me from my bookcase with its’ bright colors and purple-edged pages, Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also A Star begs to be judged by its’ cover. Tricky business indeed, isn’t there a popular idiom based around the opposite of that notion? The book’s jacket design is great, can its’ content live up to that? I breathed a sigh of relief after the first couple of passages because it became immediately clear: this is the kind of book I love to read. And, believe it or not, my love for it has very little to do with the story itself – which is wonderful – but the writing style, the narrative structure and the characters pull you in and refuse to let you go.

The Sun Is Also A Star takes place over the course of one day in present day New York City. Natasha and Daniel meet cute. But Natasha is not a believer in love, fate and definitely not the meet cute. Can aspiring poet Daniel convince Natasha to throw off the bowlines? He only has one day to do it. Natasha and her family face deportation that very evening. That is all I will say here. To reveal more would be to rob you of the pure enjoyment of taking in the story as it unfolds. 

Strunk & White’s Elements of Style informs my writing and my reading. Their sixth principle, omit needless words, in particular. Yoon is a disciple, perhaps unwittingly, of Strunk & White. Yoon’s writing is precise. Her sentence structure is exquisite. Every word has a purpose and, therefore, every sentence develops and enhances the characters and the story. Yoon can accomplish in a few sentences what other authors need a paragraph to do. One of the expositional chapters ends with this passage, “Later this afternoon my life will hop on a train headed for Doctor Daniel Jae ho Bae station, but until then the day is mine. I’m going to do whatever the world tells me to. I’m going to act like I’m in a goddamn Bob Dylan song and blow in the direction of the wind. I’m going to pretend my future’s wide open, and that anything can happen.” That passage illustrates the essence of Daniel. We will get to know him even better throughout the rest of the book but those few sentences perfectly describe Daniel’s recognition of the outside forces attempting to restrain his natural romanticism.

Along with the strength of her composition Yoon shows skill with a very interesting and effective narrative structure. The book primarily alternates between Natasha and Daniel’s perspectives. We learn about them through their reaction and adaptation to the world around them. But sprinkled amongst Natasha and Daniel’s narratives are third person narratives focusing on a variety of subjects: the security guard and the USCIS, Natasha’s father, eyes and fate to name a few. In hands less adept than Yoon’s, these shifting perspectives could become jarring, chopping the book up and endangering the flow. That does not happen here. No matter the narrative perspective, each chapter completely belongs. Natasha and Daniel’s narratives remain separate until the conclusion of the story when Yoon brings them together in a shared narrative. You will have to find out on your own the reason for their coming together.

The Sun Is Also A Star features a cast of fantastic characters. At the heart of the book’s universe are Natasha and Daniel, who are different and yet similar at the same time. Both are wise beyond their years, but not in a cloying, overly precocious, 'mini-adult' way. Life, fate and chance forced them to grow up quickly. Your heart breaks for them and moments of childhood missed. On the surface, I share little in common with Natasha and Daniel (age, race, socio-economic status, geography) but Yoon fleshes out both characters simply as members of the human race, navigating the difficulties inherent in that membership in the best way they can, and they are utterly relatable because of it. I see elements of myself in both of them. 

So, intentions be damned. I sensed almost immediately that The Sun Is Also A Star needed to be shared. That said, please do not take this as permission to skip Over The Trees, it’s a fantastic album from a group that continues to grow while remaining true to their roots. While Natasha’s playlist may veer towards rock, there is no reason your soundtrack to The Sun Is Also A Star can’t be Blue Ridge Mountain folk.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Definitively In Charge

Attending a Lyle Lovett and His Large Band concert is akin to living out the cliché "variety is the spice of life." Before the concert at Hoyt Sherman Place last week, my exposure to Lyle Lovett’s music was limited to “If I Had a Boat,” which I discovered through the gone-too-soon series Parenthood. For me, the variety was entirely unexpected: a country hoedown, a smoky jazz club, a Texas church service. Luckily, I was ready for anything and everything. And everything is exactly what I got.

The variety in Lovett’s music mirrors his varied career. Active in the music industry since the 1980’s, first as a songwriter then performing both solo and with the band, Lovett also dabbles in acting. I remember his brief marriage to Julia Roberts in the 90’s since, as a ten year-old Iowan, I always had my finger on the pulse of Hollywood. 

The concert kicked off with a rousing number from the band and then Lovett hit the stage and dove into "Pants is Overrated." I instantly agreed with the notion of the song in the most literal sense. Why wear pants when you could just leave those bottoms off? That was it for me. I was sold. The rollicking continued with "San Antonio Girl," the lyrics of which paint a picture of new love, a young man head over heels. "San Antonio Girl" is a prime example of one of Lovett’s greatest strengths: telling stories through song. Each song a novella, each verse a chapter.   

While I was right at home during the hoedown, I was a bit more leery to take a side trip to the jazz club. Riffs abound and all the members of the band get a chance to shine. There is no denying their musicianship, so while jazz is not my genre of choice I cannot help but appreciate the talent. Longtime Lovett performer Francine Reed can scat with the best of them. 

Lovett continued the set with what I now know to be his biggest hits, “If I Had a Boat” among them. I love the lyric at the end of the song, ‘kiss my ass I bought a boat/I’m going out to sea.’ What a great illustration of growing up and finding your place. “Here I Am,” “North Dakota” and his cover of “I’ll Fly Away” were also highlights. The rambling “Here I Am” is an interesting deconstruction of song, breaking the music with spoken word, and with a comedic lilt at that.

Eventually, the evening morphed into a life affirming church service. The hauntingly beautiful “Ain’t No More Cane” closed out the evening, the harmonies filling the hall and our souls. Of course, the audience would not let that be the end and Lovett and the band complied by coming back out for “Church.” 

Lovett’s stage presence is authentic. His rambling seems to acknowledge that he knows he must address the audience but that, in reality, he would be more comfortable simply performing. The audience on this evening – possibly typical for a Lovett and Large Band show – was much different than I anticipated. Hollering at Lovett on the stage, constantly leaving  - either to get more booze or, more likely given their age, to go to the bathroom. Not ideal, I favor an attentive audience who is there for the music rather than the chance to drink (or pee) somewhere other than their own home. 

Audience behavior aside, I am now a Lovett devotee. It's true that I am a sucker for a live concert experience, but they aren't all good. Not all concerts convince you to listen to the music after the show, go on a YouTube spiral, talk to others about the show, imploring them to listen to your favorites so you can talk about them together. Lyle Lovett and His Large Band sold me in the first two songs. 

So Wrong It's Right

The show must go on, even when the whole universe is against it. The actors in the play within The Play That Goes Wrong know no other way. The Olivier Award-winning play breathes fresh air into the notion of the Broadway play. There is a place for high drama, but if the key to a happy life is balance then thank goodness for Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields who have given us this comic gem. Few and far between are the shows that have the audience laughing from curtain up to curtain down. The plot is ridiculous, the set literally falls apart and the actors get just as many lines wrong as they do right, but that is all part of the plan. A flawlessly executed and acted plan. And how refreshing it is.

The Play That Goes Wrong is the story of a troupe of actors putting on the play "The Murder at Haversham Manor." The struggling troupe is thrilled to finally have discovered a show for which the number of characters matches the number of performers and their expectations are higher because of it – much higher than for their production of “Cat.” Unfortunately, there are a few things standing in their way and their skills may not match their ambition. 

Hilarity breaks out before the show within the show even begins. Before the show, stage manager Annie calls upon an unsuspecting audience member to physically hold up the mantel that will not adhere to the set wall. And it continues from there. One of the most enjoyable running jokes is that the actor playing the dead Charles Haversham cannot play dead. When, after the other actors step on his “dead” hand lying on the ground, he tries to sneakily move it under the chaise to avoid any further pain, the uproar from the audience was one of the most genuine moments of enjoyment I’ve heard in a theater in many years. The hijinks continue. A personal favorite: a sword breaks (of course) but the actor continues as if it is intact, shouting, “ching, ching” and “swish, swipe” in place of the actual sound of swords clinking together. Throughout the entire evening, the laughter rarely diminished. 

The cast is small but mighty. Anything less than complete commitment to the insanity would come across as disingenuous, but the tour cast is all in. Bear with me as I navigate the tricky waters of writing about actors who are portraying actors. Ned Noyes plays Max Bennett who portrays Cecil/gardener. Noyes hams it up as Max/Cecil, but in the best possible way. He grins, he bows during scenes and he eats up every reaction from the audience and uses it as fuel for his antics. Max is in love with himself on stage and Noyes plays it to perfection. Dennis (Scott Cote) plays the role of Perkins the Haversham Manor butler. Dennis does not have the best handle on pronunciation, or, really, his lines in general. His mispronunciation of ‘cyanide’ (ky-a-need-e) is so incorrect that, on the night of my performance, the audience reaction was delayed until another character corrected him. Once understood, the audience burst into laughter.  

Perhaps the most extraordinary element of “wrongness” in the show is the set.  Nigel Hook, the set original set designer, had quite a task to complete: design a set that will convincingly and precisely fall apart. The pre-show mantel shenanigans were only the beginning. Throughout the show, the set continues to fall apart, leading up to the moment at the end of the show when the walls fall down and the elevated platform that serves as a study loses its’ support beam and crashes to the stage floor. The gradual destruction is incredibly impressive. The planning and engineering required to create a set that falls apart and can be restored to its’ original form immediately after curtain call is hidden by the collapsing, crashing, falling and banging, but appreciation should be heaped upon the creative team and the backstage crew.

I could continue to gush for as long as Cecil could prance and bounce around the stage. That is to say, endlessly. Suffice it to say that The Play That Goes Wrong gets pretty much everything right. I know, I know, too easy. But Cecil would love that line. 

The Kitch Lit Series: From Wizards to Ducks

After a Hogwarts-length break from the Kitch Lit genre, I was more than ready to get back in the kitchen. Harry Potter and his hijinks are to be applauded. JK Rowling tapped into something that is in many ways a classic tale, felt like something we had never read before. But there is no witchcraft in the kitchen, just good, old fashioned hard work. So while I readily jumped back into the kitchen, I wasn’t ready for was the emotional roller coaster that is Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant. Li's novel centers around the Han family’s Beijing Duck House restaurant. In this tale, the restaurant is the sun around which the Duck House owners, employees and investors find themselves orbiting, some willingly, others, not as much. And that orbit is maintained by a gravitational pull so strong that it is nearly impossible to break the bond.

And this is where it gets tricky. To reveal too much about the plot is to take away the enjoyment of letting the story unfold before you. Life in and around a restaurant is all consuming. While life is different for front of house employees such as Nan and Ah-Jack, whose years at the Duck House have given them an uncommon bond, and manager Jimmy, who dreams of walking out from under the shadow of his father, they share one commonality: the consuming nature of the industry affects them whether they realize it or not.

Li shifts perspective seamlessly, writing in one chapter in the voice of a teenager and in another as the matriarch of the Han family who, since her husband’s death, is a shell of her former self. What we learn about each character expands in surprising ways when we step into their psyche. 

Number One Chinese Restaurant surprised me in all the best ways. Li’s prose is unbelievably smart and the story is as consuming as the restaurant industry itself. Who is really in charge of the Duck House? What motivates each character? Why do they act as they do? All will be revealed by the end, but Li leaves us wondering if there are even more sides to the story and, if it were to continue, what would happen with the characters we've come to know. A desire to read more is indicative of a well-crafted story. Li has accomplished just that. 

Safety in Sandwich

Stupid Judy.

It’s not often that I find occasion to quote Bruce Willis. Let alone Bruce in his non-action turn as the emotionally stunted image consultant who comes face to face with his childhood self in Disney’s The Kid. That was a lie. It is much more likely that I would quote non-action Bruce before action Bruce. Don’t tell Jake Peralta but I have never seen Die Hard. That said, I’ve ingested so much pop culture that movie, TV and even theme park quotes tumble from my mouth with regularity. My favorites:

“Stupid Judy” – Used to denote a person, place or thing that causes annoyance, from the pre-attraction film at EPCOT’s now defunct Universe of Energy attraction. Ellen DeGeneres, as a version of herself, is disgusted with her college roommate, Judy, played by Jamie Lee Curtis because Judy is wiping the floor with her on dream Jeopardy. Trust me, it all makes sense in context. Context that is now unattainable given the closure of the attraction. I’m sure there is something out there on the YouTube machine.

“Festivus Miracle” – To be exclaimed when joyfulness fills the air! It is rather remarkable the number of Seinfeld phrases that made their way into the pop culture lexicon. It is unlikely that any one show will ever again capture the zeitgeist so perfectly. Seinfeld is referenced in my daily life but Festivus Miracle gets used most often. Hit all the North/South lights green on the way through downtown? Festivus Miracle.

“Have a good trip, bring me back something French” – Can mean everything from goodbye, see you later or talk to you later to, actually, have a good time in France. What’s not to love about Home Alone? A classic good v. evil story: child takes on Wetbandits. Give it a whirl.

“Well, but she can’t work” – Usually meant to denote a situation in which I/you/we are not interested. Must be spoken with the pale, English sensibility of Matt Lucas. Bridesmaids stands out as one of the few movie experiences in which I truly laughed out loud, repeatedly, uncontrollably. An honorable mention to all of the lines from the airplane scene - because it’s civil rights.

"You’re covered in nuts" – Fits any and all situations. In The Heat, Paul Feig paired Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock to immense comedic success. Some of the scenes go on a little long or are completely unnecessary (did Sandra really need to perform a tracheotomy in a diner? Probably not), but there are plethora of amazing lines in this one. Just watch: