In a weird bit of synchronicity, I finished Heaven's Coast by Mark Doty the same day I saw The Hours. The synchronicity comes into play because both feature men dying of AIDS. The Hours character is a poet, played by Ed Harris. Heaven's Coast is written by the poet Mark Doty about his lover, Wally.
It's a book about grief. It's beautiful, really, Doty has a wonderful way with words (his poetry collection Atlantis is one of my favorites) and manages to bring gorgeousness to sadness and bewilderment. That said, it's a difficult book to get through, because it's relentless in its subject matter. I haven't decided what book I'll read next, but I'm committed to picking something a bit more lighthearted. I don't tend to keep a lot of lighthearted books in my queue, though, so it may be a challenge.
I finally managed to get to the theater to see The Hours, something I'd been trying to do for what's felt like months. What a splendid movie. I truly enjoyed it. It's an impressive film that manages to turn a novel into poetry, and that's what I think this film did. I haven't read Michael Cunningham's book, so I can't comment on how well the book translated to the screen, but there were beautiful moments of cinematography which I can only assume stood in for words of description left behind. The performances were all splendid, with Meryl Streep standing out in my mind. There's an effortless there that's remarkable. I love Julianne Moore, but having recently seen Safe, I felt that she was doing what she always does. I also loved the fact that all of the tertiary characters in this movie were played by well-known folk. I thought Claire Danes had fallen off the face of the earth and then she shows up in two movies in a month.
It's time to take a moment to mention a couple recent albums I've acquired and listened to.
The Beauty of the Rain, Dar Williams
It's hard to believe that I've been listening to Dar's music for about 7 or 8 years now. This is her fifth studio album, and it's quite good. It's very resonant. It's lush, and nicely produced. The standout tracks for me are "Mercy of the Fallen" and "Closer to Me." The first is just a very well-done song from the lyrics to the execution, one of her best. The second is not necessarily as wonderful, but it's a song that I just really like a lot. The refrain is kind of silly, but I love the line, "am I a habit that you're too tired to break?"
Since her masterpiece album Mortal City, Dar's moved away a bit from the sparser acoustic albums and more into an orchestral band-oriented mode. This album features a lot of guests, and I think it's stronger because of that. The only disappointing moment on this album for me is the title track, which I find somewhat plodding.
Evolve, Ani Difranco
I love Ani. I do. It's not obsessive, that is to say, my bedroom isn't plastered with posters and there have been concerts in my cities of residence that I have not attended, but I try to see her in concert once a year or so, and I own all of her cds. I don't think that there is an album that I love more or listen to more than her Out of Range. We've had some rough times (Up^6, To the Teeth), but in general, it's been a good relationship.
Evolve is a little bit challenging. It's not especially catchy, it's taken me a few listens to really feel engaged, but there are two standout tracks, in my opinion, the excellently jaunty "Slide" and the Latin-y "Here for Now." In the liner notes, DiFranco says that Evolve is the end of an era with her current band, and I look forward to seeing what she puts out next.
This is my world
And I am the world leader pretend
This is my life
And this is my time
I have been given the freedom
To do as I see fit
It’s high time I’ve razed the walls
That I’ve constructed.
--r.e.m.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing Catie Curtis in concert here in Central Ohio. I had seen her once before, in 2000, opening for Dar Williams and enjoyed her set, but this was my first time seeing her solo and headlining. She played a small club here in Columbus, but didn't seem at all phased to be playing to small numbers. She was charming and funny, and her perfomance was spot on, with a highlight being a cover of Ani DiFranco's "Joyful Girl," that I dare say was better than Ani's original and the Dave Matthews/Soullive cover that was out this year. If you get a chance to see Catie, I recommend her highly and without reservation. My only disclaimer would be that this is truly earnest folk-pop, a style which tends to polarize people. The only downside of the show last night was a subpar opening act, who music was average and performing personality irritating.
"You know what I say to people when I hear they're writing anti-war books?"
"No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?"
"I say, 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?' "
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that too.
---Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
Had the pleasure of seeing Igby Goes Down last weekend. It stars Kieran Culkin, who, after the first fifteen minutes, one can ignore is a Culkin. He was actually very good. His face is less rubbery than his brother Macauley, and that keeps him from being caricature-esque.
The beauty of the movie (which I enjoyed, but I am notorious for enjoying relentlessly depressing movies, which this is) is the ensemble cast. Susan Sarandon is excellent, Claire Danes was really, really great, I thought. It was good to see her being someone other than Angela Chase effectively. Ryan Phillippe is always fun to watch (and so handsome), and Jeff Goldblum, who I usually find absolutely nerve-crawling, was perfect in his role. Even freaking Amanda Peet was pretty good.
It's sort of a 21st Century Catcher in the Rye thing going on, but for that genre, it's far less indulgent than one might expect. It's somewhat wrenching, but definitely worth a look.
Microsoft Word has spent the week torturing me and defacing my soul. Thus, I have defaced its soul:
