It's Time U Start

The Hate U Give is devastatingly relevant. Angie Thomas has written a story set in present day, but one that, sadly, could have been plucked from almost any century in United States history. Thank goodness for writers like Thomas, who can provide some of the education that is so desperately needed in this country.  I'll admit I am a little late to The Hate U Give, it was published in 2017, but I am hoping that this moment in American history will drive more people to read the book and compel more people to band together to end the injustice in this country.

The Hate U Give introduces us to Starr Carter, a 16-year old Black girl living in the predominantly poor, Black neighborhood of Garden Heights. Starr’s parents, recognizing the limitations of the local school district, send Starr and her brothers to the white, affluent Williamson Prep School. Starr keeps her worlds separate, assuming, perhaps correctly, that her white friends will not understand her Black heritage and her Black friends will not understand the prep school environment. When Starr is the only witness to the killing of her childhood friend Khalil by a white police officer, and in the ensuing media frenzy and the introspection that follows, Starr begins to question why she must keep her worlds separate.

To those around her, Starr is a typical teenager. Little do they know, particularly her white friends, the effort she puts forth to maintain the 'typical teen' vibe. Because it has been ingrained in Starr that she should act a certain way around whites (never let them think you are from the ghetto) while maintaining a sort of street cred in her neighborhood, there are actually two Starrs. One, born and raised in the projects, is decidedly not a "cool" kid. The other Starr, as one of only two Black kids at Williamson Prep, is cool simply because of the color of her skin. Starr code switches effortlessly between her two worlds and the inherent unfairness in not being able to simply be herself is essentially accepted without question. And, to me, that is the heart of the matter in The Hate U Give. It's the crux of what many may not understand about the Black experience. Black people do not have the privilege to simply exist and live as themselves. In order to be accepted by the dominant culture, certain expectations must be met and that almost always requires Black people to withhold part of their authentic self. And it simply is not fair, it is not right. 

 

Thomas has created a neighborhood and characters that, while fictional, are entirely realistic and their experiences are no doubt familiar for thousands of young Black kids. Writing in Starr’s voice and personifying the doubts, the fears and the triumphs, Thomas brilliantly builds tension right up to the end of the book – a sure sign of a well-written piece of fiction.  The Hate U Give gets its name from a Tupac Shakur lyric. The conversation between Starr and her dad about how Tupac’s lyrics describe systemic racism is crucial, not just for young readers to whom the book is targeted, but anyone looking to start or bolster their education in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement.  

Though the book opens with the tragedy of Khalil's death, I spent the rest of the book waiting for the other shoe to drop. When will the next Black man die or be killed and who will it be? The constant tension and the cloud of fear that darkens every sky seem illustrative of the Black experience, particularly the Black, male experience in the United States. I use the word “seem” because I can never claim to have anywhere near the same experiences as my Black counterparts, but I can try to understand and work to stop it. And you can, too. Start small. Start by learning about the Black experience. Start by reading The Hate U Give.

The Soundtrack of Childhood

I had a light bulb moment watching the documentary Howard, streaming on Disney+. The realization was this: Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote the music of my childhood, in the form of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. 

I possessed not one, but two, sets of The Little Mermaid sheets. Presumably so there was never a moment Ariel was not flipping her fins as I drifted off to sleep. I spent early elementary school on the swim team, so you can imagine the “Part of Your World” reenactments getting out of the pool at the end of practice. And Beauty and the Beast? Could not get enough. My Barbie collection was pretty small compared to my peers, but did I have to have Belle and Beast? You bet I did. Belle came with both her blue town dress and her gold gown and Beast had a sort of mask type thing to be removed after he learns to love and earns Belle’s love in return.

But back to Ashman and Menken, both musical geniuses to be sure. Each experienced individual successes but, in writing together, their strengths were magnified. Ashman’s experience with failure seemed to drive him even harder, giving him something to prove. Smile’s short run on Broadway (only 48 performances) would have rocked some to their core, but Ashman forged ahead. There is no doubt much more to Ashman than is revealed in this documentary, but what does shine through is Ashman’s passion. A man devoid of passion does not continue to create while staring death in the face. Ashman loved the arts and believed in their power to heal and uplift. The world was robbed of the chance to experience everything else Ashman would have produced throughout what would have no doubt been a long and productive career. But his legacy lives on. 30 years later, when Belle yearns for more than her provincial life and the melody feels instantly familiar and relatable and when “Be Our Guest” elicits a tongue twisting joy just as it did the first time we heard it, that’s Howard Ashman. 

One can hope that a future documentary, Alan, will be greenlit soon.

Defying Expectations

Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, better known as The Chicks, have defied expectations their entire careers. First, as an all-female band that took the male-dominated country music genre by storm. Then, after being rejected by the very institution they helped shape into the juggernaut it became, by refusing to stay silent in the face of intense political and cultural backlash. A band composed of less confident members may have thrown in the towel. Not The Chicks. A lengthy hiatus seems to be exactly what the band needed. Their new album is personal, pointed and has a sound all its’ own.

Gaslighter is The Chicks’ first album in fourteen years. Prior to Gaslighter was 2006’s Taking the Long Way, released after a much briefer period of downtime after the band experienced an intense backlash after Maines’ off-handed comment about then sitting President Bush. Remember the good old days, when it seemed bizarre that a doofus ended up as the most powerful person in the world? Where is Doc Brown and how do we get 1.21 gigawatts? 

Gaslighter has a tone similar to Taking the Long Way, mostly because the focus feels just as intensely personal. Speculation is rampant that the album’s motivation is lead singer Maines’ divorce. The Chicks, thus far, have declined to confirm their source material. There seems to be authenticity in some of the absolutely searing  and specific lyrics, but whether or not that gets confirmed really does not matter. While Gaslighter may get the ‘break up’ album moniker, it tackles so much more than just a break up. The universal themes in Gaslighter, finding strength in the face of pain and uncertainty and the difficulty inherent in personal growth and change will certainly resonate with many, especially given the insecurity brought on by a global pandemic and the upheaval of the socio-political climate in the United States. 

Gaslighter completely disregards any kind of genre rulebook. And that is because The Chicks defy any one genre. The Chicks clearly did not set out to make a country, pop or crossover album; they set out to make a Chicks album and they don’t care if you don’t like it. The undeniably catchy title track opens the album and sets a course for the rest of the tracks. “Gaslighter” and “March, March” practically require foot stomping, “Texas Man” has a power pop feel and “Everybody Loves You” is haunting and introspective. Another highlight, “Julianna Calm Down,” reminds us to find strength within ourselves, the refrain is: Just put on put on put on your best shoes/and strut the f**k around like you’ve got nothing to lose. The album closes with a simple, yet powerful request in “Set Me Free:" If you ever loved me/you will do this one last thing/set me free.

Maines, Maguire and Strayer sound better than ever, both vocally and as musicians. It seems that with age and experience - both encouraging and challenging - has come a self-assurance that reverberates from their vocal chords and lends their voices a rich, lived-in quality. No longer chasing what records companies may have told them in the past was important, rather, writing their own rules. The Chicks are here to stay, on their own terms. 

Oh, bollocks!

Taskmaster must be on record as the most unique concept for visual entertainment known to man. Even bizarre programs such as Joe Millionaire and Naked and Afraid play on the innate human desires for companionship and survival. Taskmaster, a British game show, plays on…What? I truly don’t know. The guest panel is made up of five comedians who are asked to complete a series of seemingly simple but surprisingly difficult tasks. Hilarity, paired with the innate and unique joy inherent in British humor, ensues. 

The prize task opens the show. All of the contestants are asked to bring an item most symbolic of the provided category. The prize prompts range from trendiest item of clothing to most attractive relative. The show then proceeds to pre-taped segments full of absolutely absurd and hilarious tasks. Some of the highlights: find out an old man’s occupation by asking him questions to which he can only reply falsely, fill an egg cup with sweat, make the most exotic sandwich. For the final task of the show, the comedians head onto the stage for a live task. The winner of the episode is awarded all of the contributions from the prize task. Each series includes several episodes, for which the panel remains the same, until an overall victor is declared.

The fun comes in the interpretation, the surprises and the judging. Some of the comedians approach tasks with logic, carefully reading the guidelines to their advantage. For instance, just because the comedian themselves cannot touch the ground does not prohibit them from requesting someone else carry them from point A to point B. Other comedians do not make that leap and take the task at face value. Surprise, immediate follow up tasks create some of the most fun moments. Take, as an example, the exotic sandwich task. Immediately following the creation of their exotic sandwich, the comedians are handed the next task, which is revealed to be…eat your exotic sandwich. Savory, sweet, large, small, technically edible but perhaps not very appealing, the comedians forge ahead to eat as much of their sandwich as they can. Then there’s the judging. At times based on typical measures such as time, weight or volume, the judging is just as frequently subjective. The comedians are at the mercy of the Taskmaster’s opinion. In the previously referenced exotic sandwich task, a comedian may have eaten their entire sandwich, but if the Taskmaster did not find the sandwich to be as exotic as another, fewer points will be rewarded.

Horne measures success.

To the people! The Taskmaster himself is Greg Davies, distributor of points and pointed barbs. Overseeing the tasks themselves and recording the judging is Alex Horne, also the creator of the show. The subjectivity in judging makes Horne the Pam Beasley on Beach Day - though to be fair, Davies rewards points in the same unit so a conversion chart for points, gold stars and thumbs-up is not necessary.  The comedians are not well known in the US, but presumably have some fame in the UK. They are all quite delightful. So far, Series 2, 3 and 4 feature the best mix of comedian contestants. Mel Giedroyc, of Great British Baking Show’s Mel and Sue, is quite plainly an absolute hoot and probably sits atop my list of best contestants. Some other favorites include Jon Richardson, Al Murray, Rob Beckett, Lolly Adefope and Nish Kumar.

On the surface, these comedians sign up for ridicule and Davies takes great pleasure in doling out criticism, but the insane amount of fun that every single one of the participants is having precludes any of the nastiness often found in insult comedy. And throughout it all, winning is very clearly not the point. For goodness sakes a gilded trophy of Davies’ head is the final series “prize.” I sense a larger purpose afoot: to recognize the ridiculousness of the task at hand and simply have fun. A better metaphor for life I’ve not yet found. In reality, I suspect the Taskmaster’s response to such a heady notion would be, “Bloody hell, we just want to make fun of these stupid people.” Whatever the purpose, or lack thereof, sign me up. 

In The Beginning

In times of stress, it is quite common to seek out comfort. For me, comfort comes in the repetition of favorite TV series. I have nearly worn out the tape on The Great British Baking Show and Gilmore Girls – ‘tape’ is old school lingo for Netflix button. Typically, the comfort “food” is balanced with a healthy portion of new content – for me, primarily on stage. Alas, seeing live productions is, temporarily, not likely.

In seeking out new content during the ‘Rona, there are hits and misses. Have you tried to watch Floor is Lava? No? Don’t bother. Not even Jesus could help that trio of ministers win or make that “game show” worth watching. Athlete A is worth a watch. It seems Netflix programmers run the gamut from completely awful to quite commendable. All that to say, if anything good has come out of the global pandemic and subsequent shutdowns it is that theater companies, performers and producers have made the leap to streaming content, both original and previously filmed. Some of the group sings are incredibly fun – please watch the Hairspray “You Can’t Stop the Beat” video – but there is also a push to release or make available for free filmed stage performances of plays and musicals.

As much as I want to love Andrew Lloyd Webber’s canon and applaud him for streaming his content for the masses, I was much more excited to learn that Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Act One would be made available for streaming a couple of weeks ago. James Lapine wrote and directed the stage adaptation of Moss Hart’s Broadway memoir. While the production did not blow me away, I recognize that it is simply impossible to replicate the immediacy of live performance with a filmed version. In fact, reviewing a live production based on only a filmed version is really not fair. I  will say, I did not fall asleep, or even doze off, while it was on; that’s high praise coming from a person who nodded off and awoke at intermission of the big, lavish tour of Hello, Dolly! last spring. Watching Act One on screen made me wish I had seen Tony Shalhoub and Santino Fontana (both portraying Hart at different stages of life) live on stage. Hart’s desperate longing for a life in theater, his restlessness while striving to get there and the reality once he did was written all over their faces. One can only imagine the energy of their live performances.

Watching Act One made me long for the days of  joining the masses to shuffle into the theater, contorting your body when someone is seated inside the row but arrived late and experiencing a show collectively, a show that because it’s live and anything can happen will never happen just like that, for you, ever again. Every trip to the theater is unique and special. Watching the production spurred me to finally pick up the book, purchased in January in New York City just before the scales began to tip. Not even halfway through I have discovered the passage that, to me, explains perfectly the fact that theater almost literally captures an audience, be it the audience sitting in their seats waiting for the curtain to go up or an audience of its own makers and creators, and then refuses to let go. Hart writes,

“It is noticeable, I think, that anyone who has tasted the heady wine of the theatre, even on its merest fringes or in the most menial of jobs, is cut off from the outside world forever after. The world of the theatre is as closed a tribe and as removed from other civilian worlds as a Gypsy encampment, and those who enter it are spoiled for anything else and are tainted with its insidious lure for the rest of their lives.”

Sounds of Summer

Most movies about teenagers on summer vacation focus on two things: drinking booze and hooking up. But The Way Way Back is not most movies. Released in 2013, The Way Way Back provided a breath of fresh air in a season typically overcrowded with superheroes. And even now, seven years later, it is the perfect movie to kick off the first official weekend of summer.

Liam James stars as Duncan, forced to spend the summer on the coast with his mom, her pompous boyfriend and his daughter. Innocence practically oozes out of Duncan’s pores. The first scene immediately puts the audience on his side. On the way to the house, Trent, the aforementioned boyfriend, asks Duncan (relegated to the back of the station wagon) to rate himself. Duncan, feeling forced to respond, answers with, ‘6.’ Trent disagrees, says he would rate Duncan a 3. That Trent is seemingly unaware of the cruelty in his conversation adds to the frustration and heartbreak. Unexpectedly, a job at Water Wizz Water Park gives Duncan the strength he had all along, the strength to discover and become his own person. Written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Way Way Back overflows with sharp wit and a quiet wisdom.

The lead cast features Toni Collette as Pam, Duncan’s mom, and Steve Carell as her boyfriend Trent. Both are pitch perfect. Pam is nursing wounds from a prior marriage and desperately wants to find stability with Trent, so much so that she may be ignoring what is right in front of her. Collette perfectly balances Pam's uncertainty with an inner strength that is yet to be discovered. Carell makes another argument that portraying the evolution of The Office's Michael Scott from bumbling, insensitive idiot to kind, loving human was only the tip of his acting iceberg. 

Rounding out the cast are national treasures Allison Janney, who steals every scene she is in, and Sam Rockwell as Owen, who sees something of himself in Duncan. Owen, whose exact role (besides director of sarcasm) at Water Wizz is unclear, is lazy and sarcastic on the outside, but on the inside beats a heart of gold. Owen's genuine care for Duncan’s well-being makes me want to have him as my friend who can drive. Rockwell's performance is a standout.

One of the reasons The Way Way Back is the perfect summer movie is that the music – spot on at every turn – infuses the movie with the warmth of the summer sun. From the mellow strumming of Edie Brickell to the raucous “Recess” from Eli “Paperboy” Reed, the music feels intentional, but not overbearingly so. It simply fits. In every case, even when the choice is silence – as in the tense first scene – the music, or lack thereof, underscores the tone of the scene and the personality of the characters.

The final scene takes us full circle.  It ends where it began, in the way back of the station wagon. But this time, to his surprise, Duncan is not alone. No words are exchanged between mother and son, but the expression on Collette’s face and the look in her eyes speaks volumes. Start your summer off right with The Way Way Back, one of the best examples of a summer movie with humor, heartache and hope. 

The Kitch Lit Series: Visual Edition

The current season of Top Chef is one of its’ best yet. The Los Angeles-based season is only the second true All-Stars edition. Former contestants have been brought back now and again but a true All-Stars season has not been filmed since season eight – almost ten years ago now – when Richard Blais earned his redemption. 

Top Chef has seen its’ fair share of ups and downs (I’m looking at you, Top Chef Texas) but deserves praise for changing and adapting the formula in an age when being good is not good enough. Introducing components such as Last Chance Kitchen completely changed the game; the chance for an eliminated chef to earn a spot back in the game adds a level of anxiety for the remaining chefs and the audience watching at home.

This All-Star season features contestants that were eliminated too soon, eliminated for a good dish among great ones or who made it to the finals but just missed out on the title. Gregory Gourdet, Melissa King, Bryan Voltaggio and Jennifer Carroll are just four of the returning chefs that left their mark on their own season but went home without the title. The mix of chefs this season is nearly perfect. Different styles, different cuisines but all share a genuine respect for their craft, the ingredients and each other. Catty, accusatory quarrels are nowhere to be found. 

The other highlight of this season is the incredible caliber of the challenges. An early episode featured a tour of Jonathan Gold’s favorite LA restaurants and the corresponding elimination challenge asked chefs to pay homage to those restaurants and Gold’s favorite dishes. The Kaiseki challenge with guest judges Niki and Carole Lidi-Nakayama of famed restaurant n/naka was a fascinating exercise in restraint and precision, with varying levels of success. The very next episode included a trip to Michael’s Santa Monica, a restaurant whose pedigree includes the likes of Jonathan Waxman, Roy Yamaguchi, Mark Peel and Top Chef winner Brooke Williamson. Oh, and you must recreate, update and put your own stamp on a signature dish originally created by those renowned chefs during their MSM tenure… and then serve it to that chef. No pressure. 

With just a few episodes left, the finalists are off to Italy for the finals. I can honestly say I would be happy to see any of the finalists take the title. The quality of the show, seventeen seasons in, gives me hope that Top Chef will live on for years to come. One thing is for sure, you know where to find me Thursdays at 9:00pm.