Review of MacBeth (AppleTV+)

 It's been awhile. 

I haven't been inspired. 

Till today's home matinee of Joel Coen's The Tragedy of MacBeth. 

To begin, I can remember seeing two big-time stage productions of the Scottish play, one in Stratford (ON) and one at Shakespeare's Globe in London.  Neither made me want to see another.

But Coen's vision of the play, obviously on film, is a whole different thing: it is fast-paced, inspired, and absolutely visually stunning (the black-and-white seems a great choice). 

I think I can assume we all know the play: it is famous (rightly) as a study in ambition and madness, with a dash of the supernatural and a big splash of the bloody.   Yes, something wicked this way comes. 

Coen's version has the great performances of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand (who is well-known to be Coen's spouse) as the principle couple, with a host of other people giving quality performances.  Coen did an admirable job of getting the best out of everybody.

But, despite the quality of Washington and McDormand, it is the visual aspect of the movie that makes it so...okay, "dramatic."  From the opening scene, appearing through a fog, finishing with ravens (a recurring part of the original play) flying into your face, to the near-ending of the MacDuff-MacBeth duel, you keep saying "wow" as the scenes flick past. 

MacBeth's castle is no ancient medieval thing, but instead a more neo-Romanesque structure, with curved arches and open ceilings (that allow in rain in the important central murder scene), to floors that turn into pools, and windows that emit, or admit, those squawky ravens, the place reverberates with eeriness that sharpens that undertone of the script. 

Another wonderful feature of the film is how Coen and the actors have found something new in the famous lines.  We all know MacBeth's "Tomorrow" soliloquy but Washington (surely given the movements and setting prodded by Coen) turns the iambic pentameter into something less smooth, more halting, more gritty and full of thought and pain on his part.  Bravo!

The black-and-white is great, though one wonders if maybe doing the rather trite thing of making the (vast) blood red wouldn't have made it just that much gorier.  

One wonders about geography.  It is famously "the Scottish play," but anyone who has spent much time in Scotland will not recognize the scenery as such.  The opening scene, set on sand, looks like nowhere in Scotland, and the castle doesn't, and even as they say "we cross the heather," well, it's not heather.  

This is nitpicking when it all works so well.  In Coen's version, this isn't about Scotland, it is about people -- ambitious, bloody people.  And, boy is it good stuff.

Half-masked, aka half-a***d

Yes, it's Thursday.  That dreaded day.  It feels a bit different since it's a short, holiday week, but it's still a long drudge till that exciting TGIF!  Rah!

It's been a few days, both because I've been busy and because I've had nothing I thought worthy to say.

But today, I've got one.

What the eff is it with people and wearing a mask, but wearing it under their nose?!?!?

This morning I went to the local bagel shop (which is a good place, quite a local boon), where they went to the whole "wear a mask, no eating inside, stand six feet apart" rules weeks ago.

But this morning at least 3 of the workers had their masks on BENEATH THEIR NOSES!!!

Just in case, I checked, because I thought "maybe they know something I don't."  But here -- wearing it under your nose is "don't #1" !!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/well/live/coronavirus-face-mask-mistakes.html

So, WTF are you doing, people??!!?!?

This morning wasn't the only phenomenon of this.  I saw it yesterday at Lowe's (I said I'd been busy, right?) -- you have to wear a mask to get in (I suppose that person near the entry door is there to stop you if you don't have a mask), but I guess covering your nose with it isn't really what people think. 

I also saw this at the grocery store earlier this week, and earlier.  Mask, but under your nose.

I know wearing it over your mouth and nose isn't all that comfortable, but what's the point of wearing one at all if you are doing it in a way that makes it less efficacious?

Do they think that covid doesn't come out or in your nose? Really?!?!!?

Or are you just stupid? 

Remember, you're not wearing it for you.  You're wearing it for everyone around you!  You don't know you don't have it -- you can be asymptomatic (did we know this word 10 weeks ago?) many days before feeling sick -- if you ever feel sick.  But you can still pass it on. 

If you've missed this, they wore masks for the Spanish Flu pandemic a hundred years ago.  A hundred years ago.  And millions of them died.

A hundred years later, we should be able to get THIS right!

Wear the damned mask right!!!

That's today's harangue.  Look forward to tomorrow's.

When a Holiday isn't so Memorable

It's Saturday.  ICYMI.

Yes, Saturday. 

Of a holiday weekend.

True story:  my students had an essay due yesterday.  One didn't turn theirs in.  I emailed and asked and she responded "I thought it Thursday..." 

Yeah, really.

Is that better than "my dog ate my homework?"

I think we all can understand, up to a point.

Here we are.   Memorial Day weekend.

We often have gone to a baseball game this weekend.  Nope. Ain't happening.

We almost always go see the big ticket movie coming out for the summer (was it going to be Wonder Woman II?).  Nope. Ain't happening.

So, what do we do?

We have the stuff to cook out.  Just us.  Because many years there's been a cookout with friends over...or we have gone over to their place.  Nope.  Ain't happening.

A lot ain't happening.

The morning news shows showed (repetition intended) all these venues opening up.  Like the beach in Indiana.  With no bathrooms.  Which says "don't say stay long."  OC, they had a woman on saying "why aren't they open, I've got kids...they might have to...you know."  Answer: because you aren't supposed to be there long enough to "you know."  Go home!

It's going to be interesting to see, having flattened the upward curve, if all we're doing sustains the flat, or it bounces up more.  Or maybe a dip, then another spike? 

It's going to be interesting to see.

In the meantime, we all wonder what to do, how to make the time go by (did you see the article interviewing the philosopher of time?  turns out time passing is a mental thing.  Huh).

Good luck with the weekend.  And the holiday.  And making it feel special.

And don't forget why we have the holiday: a lot of soldiers have died for our freedom.  And I don't mean the freedom to not wear a mask.  Let's remember them.

Food wilderness; or how to keep my yeast a beast

It's Thursday.  Got that?

I took a couple days off.   Or, rather, I didn't feel the impulse to write.  It happens.

But I've been thinking A LOT about eating.  From my Twitter timeline, lots of people are thinking about food.

Where to start?  Let's start with dumb ideas.

I saw someone who wanted to make pancakes with 3 ingredients.  Cottage cheese, oatmeal, and egg. 

That is NOT a pancake!

Which leads to this observation: because of worries about food, there's a lot of people whipping up concoctions from what is "in the pantry."  Right.

Did you see the picture from the person who predicted what we'd be eating in Week 30 of Stay At Home?   A tortilla with peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, a pickle, and a raw hot dog.  Aka red neck sushi. 

I guess there's an app where you put in these items in your pantry and they give you a recipe.  (is this what you get when you put in hot dog, pickle, marshmallow fluff, etc?  or cottage cheese, egg, oatmeal?)

None of it seems all that edible.

Then there's this big question: why is everyone baking bread?

Seriously.

You know, you can walk down the aisle in the grocery store and get good bread, cheap?  Right?

Yet here are all these people uploading pictures of loaves of (not particularly appealing) bread.  In odd shapes and colors.

And tweet after tweet about how to find, keep, retain, etc, yeast starter.   This is why we buy it in the store.  😵

Here in town, there's even a taco truck that has opened.  Ironically (or maybe not), it has a hand printed sign that says "carryout only."  On a taco truck.

I have to end there.  We are all lost in a food wilderness. 

Till next time.

Monday...re-opening

It is Monday.  Get over it.

I survived the morning -- it's always a struggle.  You know, motivating yourself to get out of bed, generate momentum to get through the day, then the week. 

It's tougher during this quarantine thing.

Then there's the eternal confusion about what people are thinking.

For instance, New Jersey is opening up their beaches, with all sorts of supposed codicils, next weekend (it's Memorial Day, a traditional go-to-the-beach in the mid-Atlantic weekend). 

So, you think: okay, beach.  Lots of space, lots of room for social distancing.  You don't have to touch anyone.  Fine. 

Then I see a picture from a boardwalk in some small town I've never heard of and it is of a line of people waiting to get their beach passes.  It must be 100 people deep.  No space between them in line.  I don't see a lot of what look like masks.  What the fuck are you people thinking?!?!!?!?  You want to go to the beach so bad you're willing to risk getting this shit1?!?!!?!?!?!?

It's depressing.

Look, 85,000 people in this country of died (and that number is probably low, acc to all kinds of people who think we haven't counted everyone who's died of it) and over a million have had it, or still do.

It ain't nothing.  It ain't a hoax. 

It kills people.  Lots of them.

And if it doesn't kill you, it may ruin your lungs forever. 

But, what the heck, let's line up with a bunch of unmasked strangers for our beach passes.  La-di-da.

I wonder if our ancestors did this with the plague.  You know, "Everyone around has this thing that gives you a fever and kills you, but let's go down and hang out at the pub because I couldn't stand to go a night without me pint."  I wonder.

The thing is, even 100 years ago with the Spanish flu, virology was not as sophisticated as it is today -- they didn't know what they were fighting. 

You think if you told them "you stay home, wear a mask if you have to go out and meet someone, wash your hands a lot, stay six feet away" they would have said "but I need my beach pass" or "I need to party" or "my hair looks bad?"

One wonders.  If they had, I suspect we wouldn't all be here.

And that's today's Monday depression.  Good luck with yours. 

Oh, no!!! It's...it's...

Okay.  It's finally happened.  I awoke this morning, looked at my fitbit (845 on the clock hand version I have chosen) and wondered "why is K on her staff meeting?"  I was sure it was Monday.  I even laid in bed and thought about checking online on my new students -- because it was Monday.

It's Sunday!!! 

It is really Sunday.

It's stunning that 9+ weeks ago we all thought Sundays were good things. 

But that's a lot less so when everyday seems like a Sunday.  When the line between work day and every day is so blurred you can't tell the difference, Sundays lose their charm and potency.

It's Sunday.

They ran at Churchill Downs yesterday.  The star of the show, Monomoy Girl, did what stars do to become stars -- made everyone else look pedestrian.  Bottled up along the back stretch, her jockey (Florent Geroux) swung her out to three wide an she acceclerated like she had a gear the others don't (which she clearly did) and zipped pat them all to a 6-length win.  After months of little stardom in racing (okay, the Arkansas Derbies two weeks ago), it was good to see what looked like sports stardom perform.

Our big news here yesterday was this:

It's been since March since we've seen this in the stores.  Yesterday my daughter snared a package. Woo woo.

I just heard, and saw the graphic, that 48 states were doing some kind of reopening in the coming days.  It's not clear what "reopening" means -- here it means no hair salons, tattoo parlors, restricted restaurants, and quite a few businesses not really open.  Reopened is stretching the defintion.

We are all trying to find a way to get through this.  Not just the zoom world we now live in, but the strange mixture of masks, distancing, half available tables, and lines, six feet apart, in stores, restaurants, and places of entertainment.

But it's Sunday!  We don't have to worry so much about that today.  It's a(nother) day of rest!

Enjoy.

TGIF -- and THIS Friday

Yes, it's Friday.  This is the end of my 9th week in quarantine.

But this is going to qualify as a good Friday (no religious connotations) -- there is actually a small menu of juicy live sports coming on this weekend.

There's been horse racing all 9 weeks, although the big races, the Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes have all been postponed, with the Derby rescheduled for Labor Day Saturday.  The other two aren't.

Anyway, they have run on in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska (did you know they raced those places), and Florida, through it all.  You can ponder why those places, but I think you know why.

As of today, Santa Anita in California is open and running.  Tomorrow Churchill Downs is open and its races will be running on FS1 all afternoon.

It's something.

Let me just say this: it will be better next weekend, as Churchill Downs hosts the Matt Winn on Saturday, a race for three=year-olds that will now be a Derby prep, giving points toward Derby qualification.  That counts as juice.

On Sunday, we have golf.  Four golfers, who may or may not be household names, Dustin Johnson (former US Open champ) pairs with multiple major championship winner Rory McElroy against Ricky Fowler and Matt Wolff with two F's.  From one of the best courses in Florida, Seminole.  It's big news (ar ar) they aren't using caddies, but carrying their own bags.  Twitter wonders if it'll be the 50-pound burdens they make their caddies lug every day as pros, or something smaller.

No matter what, it's live sports.  On NBC, a major network.  Something to watch and not be too bored. Though it is golf.

It's a light at the end of the tunnel.  It's 9 weeks.  Finally, something is happening. 

Have a good day.  And hopefully a good weekend.