Jet!

Jet's Daily Schedule:

(1) Nap.

(2) Eat.

(3) Raise hell.

Repeat.

Our Towns

I didn't know that Paul Newman had done Our Town until I ran across a dvd of it at the library. I had a vague memory of reading the play in high school and not liking it, but (1) I've found that many things I'd loved in high school didn't age well, and the converse has also been true, (2) I've read a few other Thornton Wilder plays since then and liked them very much, and (3) it was Paul Newman, after all. So I picked it up.

When I did, I noticed that there were two other recorded versions of the play there as well:  a Hal Holbrook, Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor version from 1977, and a  Spalding Gray, Frances Conroy, Penelope Ann Miller, and Eric Stolz version from 1989. I thought about watching all three of them, but didn't know if I would be up for that, so I just went for the PN.

Paul was 78 tears old when he did this, and only had five more years to live. And he looked and sounded very frail, but I wasn't sure how much of that was acting. As you'd guess, he was excellent. And the Stage Manager isn't a role that looks easy to perform. But the big surprise for me was Jane Curtain. She was so good. Great New Hampshire accent, too. 

So I have to say that I really enjoyed this play, and might even have to go back and look at the other two versions from the library just to get a fuller sense of it. And /or I may watch the Paul Newman version again.

In the course of poking around the internet for information on the play, I also found out that there was another Paul Newman version, and get this: (1) it's a musical version of the play, (2) Paul Newman is George Gibbs in this version, and (3) Frank Sinatra is the Stage Manager. Frank Sinatra, man! Unfortunately it doesn't look like this one is available anywhere, but you can find some of the songs for it on The You Tub: "Our Town," "The Impatient Years," "Love and Marriage," and "Look to Your Heart." All of which are worth listening to, I think.

I also found out--courtesy of a review on IMDb--that (1) Paul Newman sings this time around, (2) Thornton Wilder was not happy about this version, and (3) it shows--or, at least, was once shown--at the Museum of Broadcasting in Manhattan. Hmm, I'll be going back to New York City later this year . . . . 

Thomas Mann, Touching Femoral Arteries, & Strange Sexy Things

Speaking of Thomas Mann, I temporarily ran out of Chriss Offutt books, so I picked The Magic Mountain back up. And I found this rather bizarre proclamation of love on page 408 (of 854):

"Let me touch in devotion your pulsing femoral artery where it emerges at the top of your thigh and then divides farther down into the two arteries of the tibia!"

That is some weird ass shit, hey? I like that in a man. I am going to try not to be seduced away from this novel again before I finish it up . . . but that Chris Offutt is just so damn good . . . .

The Return of Shaun Cassidy

I noticed that Shaun Cassidy had an Executive Producer credit on the Emerald City tv show, but I figured that that just meant he threw down some money, so I didn't get too excited about it. But at the beginning of Episode 4, there was a "Teleplay by Shaun Cassidy" credit, too, and that made me happy.

Cuz I love Shaun Cassidy.

I guess most people who haven't forgotten him remember Shaun as the bubble gum rock singer of the 1977 remake of "Da Doo Ron Ron" or from his stint on the television series The Hardy Boys Mysteries (1977–79) . . . or as David Cassidy's younger brother . . . but to me he's the guy who (with Todd Rundgren) created one of my all-time favorite albums, Wasp (1980). I shit thee not. If you doubt (and if you have Prime), go listen to it for free on Amazon. If you only have time and / or patience for one song, try his version of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy." It is so superior to the original . . . and to the version that became a hit by Great White . . . that you won't know what to do with your feet. But all of the songs on this album are worth listening to. 

Yeah . . . Shaun Cassidy. I'm still not completely sure about Emerald City, but I'm surer now than I was an hour ago. And btw, the fourth show was quite good.

P.S. Less than 24 hours after posting the above I went to Half-Price Books and saw The Shaun Cassidy Scrapbook on the spinner rack. Coincidence . . . or something else?

A Cure for Plagiarism / Could it be Magic?

I saw a poster for A Cure for Wellness when Joe and I went to see xXx: Return of Xander Cage and immediately thought of The Road to Wellville, which was based on a book by  T. Coraghessan Boyle, whom I dearly love, so I guess it stuck in my mind. And this morning I was lured into some click bait and started looking at the list of 2017 movies that I must see provided by MSN, and faith and Begorrah if A Cure for Wellness didn't appear on slide 11 of 48 slides. So I read the synopsis, and here's a bit that caught my eye: "Mr. Lockhart, a young corporate executive sent to retrieve his CEO from a bizarre health spa in the Swiss Alps. As Lockhart slowly uncovers the mysteries of the "wellness center," he finds himself falling victim to the same strange illness plaguing its patients." (http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/gallery/2017-movie-preview-47-must-see-blockbusters-comedies-and-more/ss-AAlC4eV?li=BBnb2gh&ocid=mailsignout#image=11)  Hmmm. That sounds a bit familiar.  Here's a bit from the Wikipedia page on the plot of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain: "[Hans] Castorp undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alps. In the opening chapter, Hans is symbolically transported away from the familiar life and mundane obligations he has known, in what he later learns to call 'the flatlands', to the rarefied mountain air and introspective little world of the sanatorium. Castorp's departure from the sanatorium is repeatedly delayed by his failing health. What at first appears to be a minor bronchial infection with slight fever is diagnosed by the sanatorium's chief doctor and director, Hofrat Behrens, as symptoms of tuberculosis." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain)  The director of A Cure for Wellness, Gore Verbinski, said in an interview on ign.com, "There's this book by Thomas Mann called The Magic Mountain which has a wonderful premise, which we're kind of inspired by." (http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/12/20/a-cure-for-wellness-or-a-cure-for-franchise-filmmaking) Ya think? I suppose that in the 21st century "kind of inspired by" is the equivalent of "appropriated the idea completely." That really irritates me. Mostly because I've been reading The Magic Mountain for a couple of months now and enjoying it immensely, and I'd like to see Mann get a little more credit for his work. Besides, The Magic Mountain would have been a much better movie title.