dirac

Thanks for telling us about your summer reading, cubanmiamiboy. I meant to revive this thread or start another and never got round to it. I read Jann Parry's biography of Kenneth MacMillan, which is not perfect but well worth a read. I'm currently dipping into Jimmy Connors' autobiography. It's been years since I read Sophie's Choice and I remember it as a bit of a slog, although better than the movie version as you say. I do remember being annoyed that no one ever thinks to inform poor Sophie that she's living with a madman. I liked Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner much better. Haven't read any of his others.

These are dancers were willing to appear on a television show for the benefit of their company and to publicize the art form to which their lives are dedicated. Just saying.

Thanks for posting these, Jayne, and restarting this thread. Yes, it would be nice if PBS could pick up the slack in some way if BBC America can't or won't. Hmmm. I can only swipe a line from "When Harry Met Sally": Obviously, you've haven't driven a great car yet.

I too was surprised by Allison's revelation that Rex and she go that far back. We don't have enough information from Doc in Detroit to know all of his side of the story (and no, I'm not asking for any more) but if he didn't bother to at least inform DeBona that he wasn't coming to see her dance, that fact alone speaks pretty eloquently. Bennett's forthright remarks to DeBona on the subject at the end of last night's episode seem on the mark to this viewer. On the other hand, given that Allison and Rex are getting quite flirty again, maybe Jonathan was right to save on plane fare. I had hoped that he would show up, if only to give this storyline a rest. I wasn't surprised by Christiana's age (in fact, judging by looks alone I would not have been surprised if she was younger, not older).

I agree with Jayne, this was one of the better episodes. Season 1 also built up to the Big Performances, and I think we saw more dancing this time around, if memory serves. I echo balletgirl22sk's question above. I was surprised, given Emily's fall, that there was no follow-up later in the show.

My hunch is that one reason Chris and Christiana are avoiding talk at work is in order to avoid talk getting picked up on camera and turning into the Loud family. I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from their awkward exchanges. I sympathize with them, even if the show could use a good screaming match. I would think that securing your wig properly is the least you can do. Sure, things happen, but we're also shown Zach losing his wig in rehearsal as well, so it could only be carelessness (or nervousness). Sklute notes that normally he's death on this kind of thing, but that Zach recovered well - as he certainly did. I think Chris Ruud just said, "She's going to hate herself for that," and he was probably right, dancers being as dedicated as they are. I thought that was more a reflection of the dancers' feelings during a tense performance - both dancers with recent foot trouble, so things were dicey. Also fits in dramatically with the trouble other dancers are experiencing in the episode (poor Emily dropping on the stage like a sack of mule feed). Yes, Motor City Doc was a no-show. I fear this will mean that Allison 'n' Rex are back for good.

He'd had a stroke some years ago, evidently. I hope he didn't suffer much from it. The obit was on the top fold of the first page of the Times, with a good-sized picture.

Sad news, AlbanyGirl. Thank you for posting it here. A great loss for your community.

Thank you for posting this very sad news, Ray. Unexpected, too. I realize he was 74, but still. I wonder what happened exactly. RIP. The NYT obit, here, which quotes the famous first lines from "Digging," the first poem in his first collection: The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it. I remember him saying that in retrospect he thought there was a mite too much chest-thumping in that declaration. He lived up to it, though. There's much more to his body of work - his range was extraordinary. Offhand I think of Station Island, a lovely collection.The Government of the Tongue, a collection of essays, has some fine things in it. Another quote from the NYT obit:

It was nice to see Allen and Keaton together again in MMM but there wasn't much to the movie IMO. Marshall Brickman was back on board for that one, which possibly helped a bit. (Farrow dropped out of MMM for obvious reasons.) Yes, that's a funny bit, lmspear.

I completely agree. I think it's divisive (and potentially comic - maybe a good topic for a Woody Allen or Almodovar film). I think I might stop going to ballet at the point Domitro, Zahorian, Chung, Quenedit, etc are all sponsored - subservient to the whims of their owners rather than just devotees of their art and some part of them inaccessible, just as art is essentially independent and inaccessible. I find the idea more than a little unsavory, and I hope the dancers do not feel, or are made to feel, unduly obliged to their sponsors. It would be interesting to read a follow-up article to the NYT piece linked to by abatt earlier in the thread that describes how this has been working in practice.

Hello, Ray, thanks for chiming in. It sounds as if you have work ahead of you, but it's nice to hear your students do show a love of literature,.I remember students who were well-meaning but did not even have that to begin with. Good luck....

Well....I certainly would be going out on a limb, pherank, if I'd made the broad assertions in your gloss on my post. I was speaking of the challenge of adapting The Leopard or other great works of literature and suggested a reason for same (not a terribly original or limbworthy one, I think). Books that aren't of the very best, or works that are very obscure, have not only been adapted successfully but occasionally with improvement on the originals. And there are other reasons to bring the best of literature to the screen, if made with love and care; John Huston's The Dead doesn't begin to approach Joyce, but I'd not be without it. Quite so.

I do see your point, bart, but I take issue with your particular example. The Leopard is an adaptation of a great novel. By definition it's likely to be inferior, because the better the work the more closely content and form are bound together. Any adaptation to a different medium will be lacking in something. (For me the film version of The Leopard is particularly lacking, although it looks gorgeous.) (I don't want us to get too far away from the topic at hand - thanks to my own comment - but this is questionable, to say the least.....) I was a bit puzzled by this, from the essay: It may or may not be true that people aren't reading as much any more - I haven't seen any numbers - but books are at least as cheap and plentiful as they ever were in comparison to other forms of art and entertainment. It is true that people who are economically struggling have time for little else but economic struggle, but that's always been true. There are people all over the internet who are reading and obsessing over books and seem unlikely to be rich, unless Gopnik's definition of rich is exceptionally broad. Years ago Gore Vidal used to complain that modern English departments were the reverse of democratic, but of course that was years ago. (I'd also be interested to hear from any BAers who are teaching or studying English lit today - reporters on the ground, so to speak.)

Purple Rose is a good one.

Thank you for posting this, pherank. I commend to readers the comments section. I liked this one from "DRN26": I can't imagine wanting to be any number of the fictional characters I read about. I take Gopnik's point that reading can be a lot of fun, but I certainly don't want to be a used-car salesman, Holden Caulfield, Humbert Humbert, or even a charmer who gets a happy ending like Elizabeth Bennet. And for the vicarious pleasures of time travel, movies can provide them just as well and sometimes better. I don't read about Humbert because I want to be him; I read for the pleasures provided by his creator's prose (among other things). Thoughts, all?

Allen's conduct and bizarrely tone-deaf statements related to the affair did alienate much of his fan base, a considerable segment of which was female, and women in particular tend to take a poor view of men who mess around with the daughters of the family. There were men who thought he was pretty disgusting, too, of course. In pictures like Manhattan Allen presented his character as a searcher for enduring values (remember that lecture Michael Murphy got for cheating on his wife with Diane Keaton)? At the end of the movie Allen's search concluded by chasing down his 17-year old lover, a foreshadowing of things to come, perhaps. The marriage will last as long as Soon-Yi wants it to last, I expect. Allen has recovered to a considerable extent. Midnight in Paris was his biggest hit. Possibly he's pulling in newer viewers that remember little if anything about the Previn affair, and others have returned to the fold. Laudatory articles and documentaries that politely omit most of the details of the scandal appear regularly. But some fans have long memories. In my view they're not missing much by boycotting him, but reasonable people will disagree.

I might question the "heroine" part. Judging by Monday's episode Allison's been rather the tease with Rex, who admittedly seems not unwilling. The footage from The Rock School was indeed charming. Nice kids, and nice for Beckanne to be able to come back and enjoy some hero worship. She was good with the students, too.

I would be eager to see Blanchett onstage, period, but as I remember the reviews of performance and production were respectful but rather mixed. Blanchett isn't my idea of Blanche but then many actors who've recently essayed the role haven't been my idea - it seems every Dramatic Lady Star of a Certain Age has a go at Blanche, much as actors used to try Hamlet. Of course one can always be surprised. It's interesting that Streetcar isn't really a Lady Star vehicle - the original stage cast was very much a quartet, with Brando dominating for obvious reasons. Leigh and Brando were more equally matched in the film, but Kim Hunter and Karl Malden made a very strong impact as well. Thanks for posting, atm711. What did you like about it? (Cristian, I think the Academy has actually done quite well in the last few years. Argo was no masterpiece but quite a few of the Best Picture winners have been at the least worthwhile viewing and sometimes more than that.)

I'm sure you're right, cubanmiamiboy, and I see what you mean. But I'm talking about a different kind of mannered, something that belongs to the actor and not to the character. Hi, Quiggin. Thanks for the link, I did see that review. The fact that Prose says she was disappointed because the movie didn't live up to the alleged high standard of Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona does not bode well. I admit I find the San Francisco angle tempting.

Hi, cubanmiamiboy. Thanks for posting. I have not and have no plans to do so before it hits DVD unless I'm really at loose ends. I once went to Allen's movies automatically; even if they weren't that great they still tended to be better than many of the other offerings at the local multiplex. That ceased to be true roughly around the time of The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Blue Jasmine has been well reviewed but I no longer trust most critics on the subject of Allen so that cuts no ice with me. Cate Blanchett is supposed to be good in it. I hope that's so. Her most recent performances that I've seen have veered between hammy and mannered, not something it gives me any pleasure to say about an actor I admire. Of course, if I'm pleasantly surprised after seeing the movie I'll certainly say so in this space. Would be interested to hear from people who have seen it, yea or nay.

This is the sentence that follows the sentence 'It was one of those cutesy “modern ballet pieces” that lacked one thing…good synchronized dancing.' It seems clear that he's referring as much to the company and not necessarily the ballet itself, although I agree his sloppy phrasing doesn't help.... I also note that the Broadway World review by Roy Berko echoes some of the same points (orchestra fine, ballet not so much). Much better written, of course.

Just teasing, Barbara. The Links are nice, but the board needs our sharp-eyed BAers as well.

I had the impression that when Sklute referred to drama and alarmism, he wasn't talking about personal style, but the manner in which Rex was handling his injury. (He didn't actually say outright that he couldn't use any Moaning Minnies on board, but the gist was clear enough.) He didn't seem all that vague to me, but I'm not in Rex's position. Not all that typical by any means, depending on the show. With all this talk of contracts I'd have liked to hear a little something about what kind of benefits and/or pay the dancers receive and how and if those are affected by the company's financial ups and downs. (For example, Ronnie's injury and rehabilitation look costly; are out-of-pocket expenses a problem for him, or Rex? Do they have coverage from elsewhere?) I understand they might not be able to get too specific about this but a general idea would be useful, and an appropriate dose of reality for a reality show.

Valerie Madonia is hired to lead the school.