A House for Hermit Person

It’s been over a month since the official stay at home order from the governor. Since then, the only two indoor locations I’ve been to are my apartment and the grocery store. I’ve more or less been working on manuscript_v2.0 in the hopes that reviewer 2 likes it better than he/she did last time. Our research group has gotten more used to having virtual meetings, with only occasional internet interruptions, and we also have weekly individual meetings with our advisor. Other than that, I mostly hang around the apartment watching a lot of Netflix, complaining about my internet connection, complaining about the screaming children not social distancing outside my window, and wandering around my region of Ann Arbor when it’s either too nice to not go outside or too awful for anyone else to want to be outside.

At the end of March, Tau Beta Pi had to adjust and hold required meetings online on Zoom, which went okay. April Fools’ Day was mostly canceled, but I scraped together enough energy and inclination to bake a half batch of peanut butter cookies. On Thursday, April 2, we had group meeting, then I went to explore a natural area I hadn’t been to before, and finished my reread of The Lord of the Rings. The next day, Friday, April 3, I filed my taxes for 2019. Since I now spend the vast majority of my time in my apartment, as opposed to a lot of my time, I spent the afternoon of Saturday, April 4 tending to a yeasted dough so I could make cinnamon rolls.

Peanut butter cookie tower 

I listened to Facebook sermon #4 on Sunday, April 5, and watched the first ever MLS game on Monday, April 6 (MLS is re-airing classic matches since the season is suspended). On April 6, 1996, D.C. United travelled to visit the San Jose Clash and ended up losing 1-0 to a goal from Eric Wynalda. If no goals had been scored in regular time, they would have gone to a running start penalty shootout. Also, the clock counted down. Seriously. Thursday, April 9 of the same week, I decided what I really needed was to watch the Revolution lose their third (of five) MLS cup finals. In 2006, the Revolution headed to Texas to take on the Houston Dynamo. The game featured a ridiculous number of the best Revolution players in the team’s 25-year history, including Matt Reis, Jay Heaps, Shalrie Joseph, Steve Ralston, and Taylor Twellman. After the teams traded goals within two minutes of each other in extra time (Twellman and Houston’s Brian Ching), the game went to penalty kicks. Reis made a penalty and saved one, but Pat Noonan hit the crossbar, and on New England’s fifth penalty kick, with Houston up 4-3, Jay Heaps had his shot saved. And that’s how the Revolution lost MLS cup, not for the first time, and not for the last.

Sunday, April 12 was Easter. I did two loads of laundry (regular and sheets) and listened to the Easter sermon. Over the next week, research continued, and I worked my way through episodes of Community (now on Netflix) and Star Trek: The Next Generation [the one with Captain Picard, William Riker, Data, Worf, and the Reading Rainbow guy (LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge)]. I also watched the Revolution lose the 2004 Eastern Conference final to D.C. United. At least Taylor Twellman, providing commentary on the game and team, was entertaining. On Friday, April 17, I discovered another nature area while wandering around avoiding people, and on Saturday, April 18 I picked Game of Thrones back up. If I do finish this 700-page brick, I still have The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (all 5 books of the trilogy), Dune, 3 Foundation books, 5 of 7 Harry Potter books, and a couple dozen other miscellaneous books on my bookshelf.

Finger Lakes puzzle

Week 5 of Facebook sermons was Sunday, April 19. That week, I put together my puzzle of the Finger Lakes region, made a friendship bracelet, and read Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid about his childhood in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950s, as well as (finally) finishing a preliminary draft of my manuscript. On Saturday, April 25, I met (virtually) with friends from Cornell and was introduced to Quiplash and Drawful. The former needs to be played with people who have similar senses of humor and I can’t tell what anything is in the latter. We also defused some bombs.¹ All in a night’s work. I made French toast for lunch on Sunday, April 26 and did some more wandering when the afternoon was warm and sunny with no rain, snow, graupel, sleet, or hail. Now we’re in the last week of April with the stay at home order extended for another couple weeks. That’ll take us to the middle of May, and it’ll have been two months since I really went anywhere. I don’t think we’ll be at a place where we can (or should) go ahead and open everything right back up, but we’re starting to talk about letting experimental researchers back into labs. The computational/theoretical people will keep on keeping on.

¹Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

The Sound of Music, Volume 6

This will catch these posts up to all the musicals I’ve watched so far. I also forgot about two musicals that go together, so this post will have a bonus musical and bring us to 31 musicals in total.

Guys and Dolls (1955 movie) – This is probably one of my favorite musicals. I’ve seen it performed live twice, but have not played music from it. Guys and Dolls is based on stories by Damon Runyon and follows Nathan Detroit as he searches for a location for his illegal craps game. To pay for his chosen locale, he makes a bet with gambler Sky Masterson that Sky won’t be able to convince a woman of Nathan’s choice to accompany him (Sky) to Havana. Nathan picks Sarah Brown of the Save-A-Soul Mission, believing that there’s no way he can lose the bet. In the movie version, Marlon Brando plays Sky, which Frank Sinatra, who got the role of Nathan, was not happy about because he was a better singer. Vivian Blaine reprises her Broadway stage role as Adelaide, Nathan’s fiancée, and Jean Simmons is Sarah. Brando and Simmons sing all their parts (they’re not dubbed in the movie), but you can definitely tell Sinatra and Blaine are the better singers.
Notable songs: “Runyonland,” “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Luck be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”

The King and I (1956 movie) – My last major Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Like other works from this era, it’s both racist and sexist, but for the sake of this post we’ll ignore all of that. It’s a well-composed musical based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon, which was based on memoirs by Anna Leonowens, who actually did teach King Mongkut’s children in the 1860s in Siam (Thailand). King Mongkut and Anna are thus “the king and I,” and the musical describes the conflict between the two as they differ over their views of women and slavery while Anna teaches the king’s numerous children.
Notable songs: “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “Getting to Know You”

Annie (2014 movie) – Interesting adaptation that takes place in Harlem, New York City with music arranged in a pop/hip hop style. I was not a huge fan of it, and neither were the reviewers. The story loses its classic feel when Annie’s adopted by a cellphone mogul and there’s a helicopter chase. In Cameron Diaz’s last acting role, she manages to be nominated for, but doesn’t win, the Worst Supporting Actress Razzie as Miss Hannigan. Not to worry, though, she wins Worst Actress that same year for not one, but two other roles. Personally, I thought her as Miss Hannigan was one of those “so bad it’s good” things.
Notable songs: “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “Tomorrow”

Mamma Mia! (2008 movie) – This is the musical I forgot. I actually didn’t realize it was on Broadway first and the movie is the adaptation, not the other way around. Featuring the music of ABBA and set on a Greek island, Mamma Mia! is about hotel owner Donna’s daughter Sophie trying to find her father, who could be any one of three different men, so he can walk her down the aisle at her upcoming wedding. Naturally, she invites all three men so she can figure out which one is her father. Is ABBA – or the plot of this movie – the peak of sophistication? No, but it’s pretty darn entertaining.
Notable songs: “Mamma Mia,” “Dancing Queen,” “Super Trouper,” and more

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018 movie) – I rewatched Mamma Mia! flying back from Singapore a year and a half ago, then rewatched Frozen, then watched Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Did I have ABBA songs stuck in my head for weeks? Yes. Do I regret it? Not one bit. In the sequel/prequel, Sophie is preparing to reopen Donna’s hotel. Interspersed with her plot are scenes showing how Donna met Sophie’s three potential fathers and leading up to Sophie’s birth. It’s not quite as good as Mamma Mia!, and the back and forth in the timeline can be a little disruptive, but it’s pretty close.
Notable songs: “Thank You for the Music,” “One of Us,” “I Have a Dream,” reprises of songs above

Shrek the Musical (2013 Broadway recording) – Hear me out. This is not a terrible musical. When Shrek’s solitude is threatened by the arrival of fairy tale creatures kicked out of Duloc by Lord Farquaad, he embarks on a quest to rescue a princess in order to save his swamp. While searching for Princess Fiona, he meets Donkey. Will he be successful in rescuing the princess and getting the fairy tale creatures out of his swamp – and maybe find friendship and love along the way? The plot follows what I remember of the movie pretty well, with a couple additional bits for exposition purposes. It definitely feels like modern Broadway, with a pop/rock score and flashy (sometimes kind of weird) costumes, but it mostly works. The staging is coherent, with the song lyrics and dialog working together to advance the plot, as opposed to what I’ve heard can be true of some of the Disney musicals that follow more of a pattern of alternating song-with-no-plot/dialog-with-all-the-plot. And maybe I wouldn’t pay to see it on Broadway, but I’d voluntarily watch it again.
Notable songs: “Big Bright Beautiful World,” “Story Of My Life,” “I Know It’s Today,” “What’s Up, Duloc?,” “Travel Song,” “I Think I Got You Beat”

That’s everything I’ve got for now on the musical front. The library’s closed, so it might be time to consult Netflix since I’ve finished The Office.

The Sound of Music, Volume 5

It’s been awhile since I rounded up my musical watchings, which have slowed down, but not stopped entirely. In this edition, I review two movie musicals, one old and one new, two film versions of Broadway musicals, and a musical in which the movie score is almost completely different from the stage version. [Mild spoilers for Les Miserables ahead, if you’ve somehow never seen or heard anything about it and care about not knowing the ending.]

La La Land (2016 movie) – The movie was enjoyable enough, even if the plot is a little bland (two struggling artists, an actor and a musician, meet and fall in love). I wouldn’t have given it all the award nominations it received, but it was certainly more watchable than several other Oscar nominees I’ve sat through. The music’s not bad, and there are a couple good dance sequences, including the ending scene, borrowed from An American in Paris, which is TBD (to be discussed) below.
Notable songs: “Another Day of Sun,” “City of Stars”

Chicago (2002 movie) – Based on the stage version, which is based on a play, which is based on a real-life trial. I like this movie, and would classify it as one of the better movie adaptations. The plot centers on two women convicted of murder in jail and how they manipulate the criminal justice system and the press to not only win their freedom, but also fame. It’s meant to be satire/social commentary, so it’s not actually advocating for lying and bribing your way out of punishment. We played songs from Chicago a couple years ago at a band concert (it’s scored by Kander and Ebb, who also did Cabaret and New York, New York).
Notable songs: “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango,” “Roxie”

An American in Paris (1951 movie) – Not a bad movie, though I don’t remember a whole lot about it. So take that as you will. It’s about an artist who falls in love with a perfume saleswoman who’s dating a singer. There’s also an heiress who takes an interest in the artist and a struggling pianist friend and it ends with a seventeen-minute long ballet sequence. I watched this partly because La La Land took so much inspiration from it, and thinking about it more now, yeah, it really did.
Notable songs: An American in Paris (by George Gershwin; we played it at the same concert as Chicago)

Les Miserables (2012 movie) – This was the musical freshman year at my high school, so I’m pretty familiar with it, though I wasn’t involved with the musical beyond going to see it. I did, however, play songs from it at some point during high school. If you’ve never seen any version of it, it’s complicated, but here’s the gist of it. Les Miserables follows an ensemble cast up to and during the French Revolution. Former prisoner Jean Valjean turned factory owner ends up caring for worker Fantine’s daughter Cosette while being pursued by police chief Javert. Valjean finds Cosette living with the Thenardiers, thieving innkeepers, and their daughter Eponine, and pays for Cosette’s freedom. Years later, Marius, a student revolutionist, falls in love with Cosette, but then the June Rebellion happens. Lots of people die, Valjean saves Marius, Marius and Cosette marry, and Valjean gains peace at last. Anyway, the movie’s good.
Notable songs: This is another musical where I know a lot of the songs, and the whole 2 hour, 40 minute show is almost sung through. Some highlights: “At the End of the Day,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Master of the House,” “On My Own,” “One Day More,” “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” “Bring Him Home,” “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables”

On the Town (1949 movie) – Based on the stage version, based on the Jerome Robbins ballet Fancy Free. It’s about sailors on shore leave in New York and their adventures on the town in places including Symphonic Hall, the Empire State Building, and Coney Island. It’s from the 1950s, so it’s all about the men trying to get women, but it’s mostly a fun musical. This is the movie that doesn’t have the same score as the stage version. The original music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, but it was “too hard and complex” so new music was composed. Seriously.
Notable music: (Yes, I’ve played this – Bernstein’s version – too.) “New York, New York” (not the theme from New York, New York by Kander and Ebb, sung in the movie by Liza Minelli and now associated with Frank Sinatra)

As it turns out, I guess I could have called this edition “the one with all the music I’ve played in band.” I’ve got four more unreviewed musicals, but I don’t know yet if I’ll write a slightly shorter post or wait until I watch one more musical. Until next time.