Reading, Watching, Listening..... March in Review

What I Was Reading in March

Expletive Deleted a good look at bad language by Ruth Wajnryb
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
1421 The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies

Books completed in March

Letters to a Teacher by Sam Pickering
True Notebooks by Mark Salzman
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Two of the books are about teaching and one might think that I deliberately choose books on that topic because I just can't get enough on that subject! (last month it was Frank McCourt's Teacher Man). However, it had more to do with book club choices and the appearances of both Pickering and Salzman at the Writer's Conference this year. One evening during that week my book group got to MEET with Pickering and dicuss the book. Pickering is the man on whom Dead Poet's Society's fictitious Mr. Keating is based. It was interesting and all but I sort of felt that nothing new came out of the dinner talk or out of the presentation he gave the next night--he seemed to recycle his stories and though that brought them to life it was disappointing to not gain additional insight into the man or his work aside from what I read in the book. For more on Salzman, read here.

Ella Minnow Pea is a reread for me, but I enjoyed it just as much the second time. It's a clever satirical novel comprised of letters that involve progressively lipogrammatic word play (a "lipogram" being writing in which one or more letters are forbidden). Though it was written pre-9-11 it's as if Mark Dunn could see into the future of our nation and predict the sort of governmental rationale that might begin to dictate our future... (the manufacture of terror and mistrust.... seeking out the evil-doers) Perhaps it's because Dunn was familiar with our history and the work of Senator McCarthy or even the tribunal of Salem in the 1600's. Of course, Dunn is not the first or the greatest of the authors who have taken on something of this nature. Yet, Ella Minnow Pea could be considered lighter fare in the weighty world of literature that explores this notion.... the notion of diminishing freedom and the preposterousness with which we all roll over and play dead to a leadership that has lost sight of truth. Publisher's Weekly describes the book in this way:

The story takes place in the present day on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina, where over a century earlier, the great Nevin Nollop invented a 35-letter panagram (a phrase, sentence or verse containing every letter in the alphabet). As the creator of "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," Nollop was deified for his achievement. The island's inhabitants live an anachronistic existence, with letter-writing remaining the principal form of communication. Life seems almost utopian in its simplicity until letters of the alphabet start falling from the inscription on the statue erected in Nollop's honor, and the island's governing council decrees that as each letter falls, it must be extirpated from both spoken and written language. Forced to choose from a gradually shrinking pool of words, the novel's protagonists a family of islanders seek ways to communicate without employing the forbidden letters. A band of intrepid islanders forms an underground resistance movement; their goal is to create a shorter panagram than Nollop's original, thereby rescinding the council's draconian diktat. The entire novel consists of their letters to each other, and the messages grow progressively quirkier and more inventive as alternative spellings ("yesters" for "yesterday") and word clusters ("yellow sphere" for "sun") come to dominate the language. Dunn obviously relishes the challenge of telling a story with a contracting alphabet. Though frequently choppy and bizarre, the content of the letters can easily be deciphered, a neat trick that elicits smiles. Wordsmiths of every stripe will appreciate this whimsical fable, in which Dunn brilliantly demonstrates his ability to delight and captivate.


What I Was Watching in March

On TV
Grey's Anatomy
Related
Friends Seasons 7,8,9
The Office

Since most of the programs I'd been faithfully watching ended last month (including Related a few weeks ago) I've been watching much less TV. I still take in Grey's Anatomy on Sundays and sometimes Desperate Housewives before that. I've been watching The Office on Thursdays and I have to say, I can't decide if I like the show or hate it. It is always a little painful to watch because Michael is so awful and awkward. I realize that is the point but still I am undecided. Friends is pure therapy. I own the seasons on DVD and this month has proven to be a little stressful.


On DVD (owned and rented)
Born into Brothels
The Dreamers
2046
La Buche
Grizzly Man
Inside Deep Throat
Dreamer
Good News

After my Oscar's rush to watch films in February I somewhat slacked off in March. I did dabble in documentary and in foreign films some and most of these choices were ones I watched at the requst of others. My favorite among the films is one I ironically was resisting watching... for a year I've picked up Born into Brothels in the videostore only to return it to the shelf because I wasn't "in the mood".... Wow. I loved this film. Set in the red light district in Calcutta, India a group of children with little hope for their future are given an opportunity to learn photography and their photos and their stories were riveting. I highly recommend this film. To learn more about it check the website.

Two other documentaries I watched were also rather intriguing... One was Grizzly Man that told the tale of Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent 14 summers with the grizzly bears on Kodiak, Alaska and in 2003 he was killed by an unfamiliar bear late in the season. The film is comprised of interviews of Treadwells friends and family and of others who were involved in overseeing the wildlife preserve. Those who supported his effort and those who were convinced he was disturbing the way of nature. The majority of the film, however, is footage that Treadwell shot over the years among the grizzlies of the bears and of himself. I had mixed feelings on this film and felt that in some ways it portrayed Treadwell in a way that he might now have appreciated and it seemed somewhat sad that after dedicating his life to this effort, even dying for it, he is remembered more as an unbalanced man who did this crazy thing. Highlight of the film... the little foxes who lived near his campsite and would follow him around and play with him each summer.

Inside Deep Throat is a documentary film that explores the impact this 1973 film had on the porn industry and how the public reacted, the government reacted, and how from this the obscenity law was formed just as I was entering this world. The film was produced for roughly $25,000 and it made $6 million, though the actors and director/writer/producer didn't see any of that money. The documentary follows the actors and those involved in the making and distribution of this film and then later in the prosecution of those involved with it. Through endless interview from today, coupled with those from the actual era, we learn the way this film affected the lives of many. It was the first porn film to be shown in a "regular theatre" and for the first time all kinds of people-- young, old, men and women, married couples-- people from all backgrounds were heading to the theatres to see what he fuss was about. The government's reaction was actually what spurred on sales and drew media attention to what actually was a poorly made, silly film (according to others, --I-- have never seen it). The documentary was well done and informative, though it does receive an NC-17 rating because of some of the clips shown from the Deep Throat film.


The foreign films watched this month were two french films The Dreamers and La Buche and a Chinese film, 2046. Of these three my favorite was 2046 because it was a beautiful film with an all star cast. It was a loose sequel to a film I hadn't seen and I didn't feel that affected my viewing. The framing of the shots in 2046 and the color composition of the scenes were two aspects that gave the overall film a polish that was reminiscent of Amelie. The film is set in the 1960s and the main character, a writer, transports us into a future world through his stories, in which a man is on a train headed for 2046 in search of lost memories. Of course his stories draw from his pain and confusion and longings in his real life as a parade of women come in and out of his life each in their own way. The weakness of the film was that it was sometimes difficult to sort out the characters.

The Dreamers was also set in the 60s but in France during a period of revolution. The main characters are a set of incestuous twins(Isabelle and Theo) and their American friend (Matthew)who lock themselves up in their self-absorbed little world of cinematic appreciation and sexual obsession. They only emerge when they realize how far gone is the state of their nation. I didn't love this one. In fact, I felt as if I was missing much of the meaning because I wasn't as familiar with French history and even with much of the cinematic moments the young characters imitated or referred to. There were some beautiful moments and a favorite scene was an imitation of a moment in a different film (The 1964 Godard film, Band of Outsiders)... when Matthew, Isabella, and Theo run through the Louvre in an effort to beat the record. The actor who played Matthew looked eerily like Leonardo DiCaprio and made me dislike him though I tried not to. This film was a little creepy and if sexual explicit scenes offend, I'd steer clear. La Buche is a modern French tale about a family with secrets who are trying to make itthrough the Christmas holidays. Compared to the Jodie Foster film Home for the Holidays, it is about how families can dislike each other but still find a balance of love and support.

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story is a horse movie that was what I would call a good "family film." Perhaps this is why my mother wanted to watch it with me. It stars Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson, and Elizabeth Shue and is about a trainer (Russell) and his daughter (Fanning) who nurse an injured horse back to health, with an eye on racing her in the Breeders' Cup.

Finally I watched a a musical from the forties called Good News after watching a local high school production of the show. It was entertaining but it hasn't earned a top spot in my heart for best musical. There were slight differences between this version and the stage production I saw but both were decent and the song "Lucky in Love" has a tendency to stick in my head for days after.

What I Was Listening to in March

My Desert Island Blues CD on my new MP3-walkman... I cannot afford the new technology of an ipod, I'm afraid.