Russian Roulette is Not the Same Without a Gun

You can’t fake mourning, even on Twitter

msisobel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:27:29 +0000

Late last week, when I was looking over the trending topics on Twitter, I happened to notice among them, “RIP Madonna.”

I didn’t even have to look, of course. These days if you see RIP Anyone on Twitter, the assumption is it’s fake. In fact, I’m quite sure it’s become some sort of stupid game to do it, though I haven’t done any actual research on the matter. But it made me laugh anyway, because it was just a new level of ridiculousness.

If you want proof of that, just look at what happened the weekend before, when Whitney Houston died for real. I’m not sure how often I saw her actual name trending. But most of her hits trended, multiple times. So did The Bodyguard. I think Kevin Costner showed up among the topics a couple of times, as did Bobby Brown & Bobbi Kristina. More strikingly, they all did at the same time until more often than not that weekend, every single top trending topic worldwide was to do with her. That’s a display of news the entire world reacts to. That’s a spread of true grief.

If Twitter is still around when Madonna does happen to die? You won’t see RIP Madonna trending. You’ll see Material Girl trending, and Like a Virgin trending, and Evita trending. Nothing else will be able to trend for a week. That’s not something anyone will ever be able to fake.

So really, the whole RIP thing needs to go away. Now that we’ve seen the real thing expose it for how fake it is, what’s the point?

Coriolanus(2011)

msisobel — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:02:32 +0000

This is the second version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus I’ve seen, the first being a shortened version done as part of the Capital Fringe Festival a few years back, which lay on the modern political references thick and used them to carry the production. That pretty much seems to be the best way to do it, to highlight how little has really changed in 2000 years, and the new Ralph Fiennes movie version goes further; it depicts Rome as a modern nation, complete with its own 24 hour news network which handles most of the exposition, one that could probably be located just about anywhere in our modern world. Ancient Roman politics isn’t quite a perfect fit with the modern world, but it’s shockingly close to one. Though between the movie version being obliged to show much more violence than the original play would have, and violence being on everyone’s minds after the events of this last year, this is a brutal movie to sit through; there were sequences which made me feel positively ill. Nonetheless, the power it generates and the reflection it provokes make it worthy of seeing, but unfortunately at the moment it’s getting no distribution; my parents and I had to go to the West End Cinema in DC to see it, one of apparently only 13 cinemas on the continent carrying it right now. West End was selling out the showings, though; it’s a good thing we got there way too early.

Heck, if nothing else, it would be worth going to for seeing Ralph Fiennes as a master at work, as well as Vanessa Redgrave & especially Brian Cox likewise in their roles, those as Mennius the last sees his role reduced from the play. Everyone speaks and whispers and screams the Shakespeare as if it’s normal speech; noone should have trouble understanding it. Fiennes directed the movie as well; I suspect it happened largely because he really wanted to do it, and his vision is worthy of the best of directors.

Met Opera Broadcast: Gotterdamrung

msisobel — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:30:14 +0000

The thing one realizes while sitting through Wagner’s six-hour finale extravaganza is that he really is a genius, because to some extent it doesn’t matter just what they do up on the stage, so long as all the performers are good. Not only is the music beautiful, but it also tells the story almost by itself, and not just with the words, but with the notes, the motifs, sometimes just the undertone. You don’t even mind the extensive interludes, no longer necessary because not even a modern set as mechanical as this one actually needs all that time to change, but just listening to them’s worth sitting through all those planks’ silly moving about.

The set actually does some of its fanciest maneuvering in Gotterdamrung, even to the point that occasionally you forget it’s there, which was quite polite of it, mostly during the sequences in the “human world,” which perhaps works as symbolism, sort of. Unfortunately, after also impressing during the scene of Siegfried’s death, the staging in general falls flat during the final sequence of Brunnhilde’s burning the world down, and while Deborah Voigt is quite happy to be too spectacular for the audience to care for the first twenty minutes of it, then she kills herself, and you’re left to enjoy the music, but you have to ask those undulating planks, “Is that all?” It’s supposed to come full circle, of course, because they undulated at the beginning of Das Rheingold, but that just made me think that they were unimpressive then too, though at least both occasions have music so good it’s all okay.

The other big highlight of this particular show, though certainly everyone sung well enough, was in the third act, when after two operas of expending all his energy keeping up with Voigt, Jay Hunter Morris actually gets a chance to exceed our expectations, by not only singing but doing a wrenching acting job during the death of Siegfried; it really is remarkable for how much of this one he really does keep you from disliking Siegfried, seeing as the character’s still an asshole. He’s not quite wide-eyed anymore during his interview, and of course they’re now throwing in calculated things like references to his wife and kid(there have been quite a few gay rumors going around, apparently), but despite the hostess this time being nothing special, for some reason the interviews were much more entertaining than usual, perhaps as they tried to get around the fact that the only character who even half makes sense psychologically is the villainous Hagan(that singer wasn’t interviewed). But hey, we’re used to ignoring that by now, right?

This Week in Figure Skating Suspended Indefinitely

msisobel — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:14:53 +0000

Spent every free moment I had the last three days working on this week’s video, and it was blocked worldwide. By the ISU. Which might make continuing as I am now impossible. Plus I’m tired of laboring the entire weekend when I’ve got a job too.

Maybe I’ll figure out how to use that iPad camera at some point. But I need some time off. Maybe I’ll start again when the Caps end their season, except I’m trying to pretend they don’t exist right now. This year’ll that would probably be between Worlds and the World Team Trophy. Don’t know how I feel about that.

Four Continents So Far

msisobel — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:21:01 +0000

Thoughts on the singles:

OMG Ashley! But for the two-foot monster she would’ve won the short! Suddenly a medal at Worlds doesn’t seem far-fetched at all. But then again, neither does a Japanese sweep, because OMG Kanako! Even if this wasn’t the best of ladies’ competitions outside the top three, it is making Worlds look exciting. And Caroline getting that 3loop-3loop ratified, though I think it was a generous panel; lots of level 4s too.

Quite frankly, was relieved when Patrick Chan stayed on his feet in the long(though you could see on that lutz he was simple refusing to go down again), because by then there was no way he wasn’t going to win anyway and at least noone can dispute he thoroughly deserved this one. Heck, you have to give him props just for skating that well in a night when everyone else was falling to pieces around him. Well, except for Ross Miner, who continues to win bronzes at competitions where everyone else fumbles, and have wide-eyed reactions that make you love him for it. And Misha Ge, who was the most fun to watch, even if his downgrades kept him down. Devastated for Jeremy Ten, though, and when he needed a good competition here just to get back into the Grand Prix properly.

This Week in Figure Skating, January 30-February 5, 2012

msisobel — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:49:17 +0000

Once again the Russians made this hell, first by beginning Nationals on a Sunday again, making it so I had to post this tonight, then providing only a stream that mostly wouldn’t work at first and was a really pain to find anything in when archived, and of course no scoring protocols, and once again the question was raised whether I’d get this done, largely thanks to those antics. Claimed by Universal Sports, which of course doesn’t block it anywhere.

Coming down from January Madness

msisobel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:04:57 +0000

So it’s been a few days and we’ve all had time to compress after last week’s skating overload, and there’s still the the U.S. Nationals Gala to watch Saturday, but all the competing itself is done. A few random thoughts:

I really like watching U.S. junior ice dance. There’s a lot of energy and spirit because the U.S. is still a relatively new force in ice dance, and not too much of the pressure one sees in the senior ranks. Also often more creative programs, because they don’t have huge titles hanging on whether a bunch of stodgy old judges like their music or not. Alexandra Aldridge & Daniel Eaton might have to fight just to get on the podium at Junior Worlds, but everyone will love watching their free dance there.

Okay, Patrick Chan scoring 300 was kind of absurd, but I really wonder what all his detractors are trying to pull, still insisting he’ll be unfairly scored and no one else will, when even if that might be true at this year’s Worlds, it certainly won’t if Plushenko’s knee lets him hang around much longer; his PCS score at Europeans made that clear(at least Chan’s PCS are based off what he actually does, however inflated). My one hope for men this year is that Jeremy medals at Worlds, because if he can just do two clean programs there he’ll absolutely deserve it. Preferably silver, since that might too become unavailable next year.(And I really hate everyone hoping Plushenko will supposedly put Chan in his place. Don’t they realize while they’re ranting about the scoring that it’s Plushenko’s Olympic tantrum that got us into this mess?)

We knew before Nationals that it was going to be completely heartbreaking for whichever of Alissa, Ashley, & Mirai didn’t make it to Worlds. But I think what ultimately happened was the best thing that could have, and I’m not just saying that because Ashley’s my favorite of the three. Mirai’s lacked her sparkle all season, and she probably needs to overhaul again if she wants to come back at all. Alissa and Ashley are really the best two ladies we have, and the best chance we have of getting that third spot back, especially when one is coming off a National title and the other’s now got enough favor from the judges not to need it.

In fact, I was pretty happy with most of the results of Nationals(would’ve rather Lynn & Logan got the third spot to Worlds, but it could’ve been worse…), the pairs being the exception. When one things of poor Caitlin Yankowskas sitting up in the stands like that, it’s hard to like Denney & Coughlin at all. When the NBC commentators noted Amanda Evora was too “nice” as her falls took her and Mark Ladwig off the World team, it seemed horribly true. Meanwhile, the penultimate group outskated the final group so much it isn’t funny; three breathtaking performances. Thankfully from pairs young enough to be around for a while. If they stay together…

Really wish Elene had won the silver at Europeans. If she’d only minded her spins…at least it was still another medal, which is definitely something to be happy about.

This Week in Figure Skating, January 23-29, 2012

msisobel — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:43:47 +0000

Something of a minor miracle I actually found time to work on this amid all the skating I actually watched!(Not to mention getting drawn back into the Australian Open Sunday morning). Though I’m starting to worry if maybe my microphone was going; the quality of the vocals is dropping even when the saving process doesn’t make it worse, though it actually could’ve been a lot more damaging this time around than it was.

Met Opera Broadcast: The Enchanted Island

msisobel — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:12:09 +0000

In one way, The Enchanted Island, the Met’s Tempest/Midsummer Night’s Dream mashup with mostly-Handel music set with new English words, is a very faithful throwback to the idea of the 18th-century patische, not only in the recycling of music, complete with a countertenor lead, but also in the adapting of Shakespeare. Patsiches often would essentially be fanfic, retelling/sequelling familiar plots, and they often would be more salacious than the original, which The Enchanted Island also is. Faithful to the original, too, is the gaudy no-expensive-spared costumes and scenery, from the old-style expense of a zillion costumes, some even very much based on over-the-top 18th-century designs(with Ariel especially), to the more modern dazzle of continual video projections in the background, and even the awareness when Placido Domingo shows up to sing Neptune that it’s Placido Domingo showing up to sing Neptune-those in the 18th century would usually go the opera more to see the stars than to see the show.

On the other hand, the concepts and ideas the opera expresses are very modern, from the emphasis on Ariel’s freedom to Neptune being an environmentalist, to the very modern feminist interpretation Joyce DiDonato described giving Sycorax in her interview, and of course the calling out of Prospero at the end as a tyrant, and as an invader taking land that isn’t rightfully his and pushing Sycorax away to the most undesirable part of it while enslaving her son and servant. Ariel and Syrcorax, in fact, end up become the true protagonists of the story; the former in the center of the first act and the latter the center of the second, and the highlight of the opera is Sycorax, now a loving mother, responding to Caliban’s heartbreak at the hands of Helena by singing an appropriately adapted version of an lament from one of Handel’s oratorio’s originally sung by the Virgin Mary. The Met actually drew the music from very obscure sources as much as they could, the only partial exception being the coronation anthem with which Neptune was introduced, which the British might recognize(and in fact cracked my dad up). Since Handel composed beautiful music for a number of operas where the librettos were so bad they remain unstagable today, there were plenty of pieces to fish out and give new life.

The movie theater was packed, and the audience really seemed to love it. I think this one’s going to be a success.

This Week in Figure Skating, January 16-22, 2012

msisobel — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:51:40 +0000

I really should’ve done this all last night. But I held out until this morning, hoping to get maybe a little footage of the Canadian free skates, or at least a full list of the 4CC/Junior Worlds team. Though waiting did mean reporting Savchenko & Szolkowy’s withdrawal from Euros, but the only thing that allowed me to finish the editing this morning was expected icy conditions(which didn’t seem to manifest) letting me leave for work and hour and half late, and even then it was still saving(though at least it did so without complications, which really surprised me; I was in such a hurry I almost didn’t try to save to an smaller size and quality sound first), so I could only upload it now. I was dreading it being blocked, but instead it wasn’t claimed at all.