A Good Tree

This year we decorated our two Christmas trees, one real and one fake, a little differently than we have traditionally. My family collects Christmas ornaments from every place we travel to, but we also have amassed others through various means over the years. Last year, we decided to sort all of our ornaments into categories— travel, traditional, mine, and my brother’s. So when it came time to decorate our trees this year, my mom had the idea for our real tree to be the travel tree, and for the fake tree to be the kids’ ornaments tree.

Now I’m thinking about what I feel like belongs on Christmas trees. Ultimately I think it comes down to this: the only time it’s okay to have a non-personal, aesthetic tree is when you have another tree that’s more personal. I just feel like there are many times of the year to be aesthetic, but Christmas is about family and traditions. I want to see that you put thought into it. Whether you make popcorn garland yourself, or amass ornaments over the years like my family, as long as you put some of your heart into the decor, in my opinion you’re doing it right.
Thanks for reading.
Holly

It Can't Be That Bad (Or Can It?)

 

We have friends who occasionally say that they go to the theater or a film that is so bad that they walk out.  “Life is too short,” they say.  “I already wasted one hour, why waste a second hour?”

On the one hand, I hear the argument and I am always a big believer that everyone has to do what is right for himself/herself without fear of being judged by others.  That being said, I, myself, generally don’t believe in walking out of theater or films in the middle.  With a single, vivid exception (which I’ll get to later), I typically do not walk out of theater or film that I am not enjoying.

My thinking goes like this:

            (1)    Live theater and film is not cheap to make.  Many people had to see something of merit in a given work to invest lots of time and money to bring it to the stage or screen.  There are certainly works that I like better than others; that resonate with me on a personal level more than others.  In fact, I feel like I am a particularly harsh critic.  But if all of these people found this work to be worth their time and money, maybe I should hang around to the end to find out if there is something in the latter half of the work to redeem any shortcomings of the beginning.

            (2)    There can be great performances in mediocre works.  I don’t know about you but I have certainly been surprised by an actor’s performance, choices, humor, physicality and/or singing in ways that cause them to stand out from a work that may not be up to their talent.  Even where I may not be enjoying the plot or music, I can often find something enjoyable in a given performance of one or more of the actors.

     (3)    Tickets are expensive.  I know there’s a theory that the more you pay for a given item or experience, the more you WANT to like it to justify the expense.  You want to find a reason to say it was worth spending all of that money on the ticket.  That may in fact be true, but I will be the first to tell you when something was a dud.  If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.  But how can you be sure there are no redeeming qualities unless you stay to the end?  Personally, I’m more likely than not to stick it out to get as much out of the work as possible.

     (4)    Not that it happens all that often, but I can always take a nap.  I’m one of those people who can sleep nearly anywhere.  So on occasion, if something is just not grabbing me, I might “rest my eyes” for a few minutes while I wait for intermission.  Nobody is the wiser and this way, I don’t disturb my lovely bride if she is enjoying the work more than I am.

Because walking out is such an anomaly for me, I vividly recall one instance in which my wife and I silently agreed that enough was enough.  We were at a screening of a French film called “Irreversible” at a film festival.  The film starts with a horrific, graphic, murder.  This murder is pretty quickly followed by a graphic, violent scene of sexual assault.  And to make matters even worse, during the first half of the film, it uses an extremely low-frequency sound to unsettle the audience while also creating a state of nausea and anxiety.  It is not immediately perceptible to the spectator, but enough to evoke a physical response.  On top of all of that, it was probably close to midnight when we went to see this film so we didn’t have the patience to see it through.  Was it bad enough to walk out of?  We thought so.

But don’t judge us. 😊

Thanks for reading!

Frosty

Christmas Movies For The Ages

 

Happy Holidays to all our faithful readers!

Upon reviewing our past Christmas-themed blog posts, I realized that we have pondered Christmas movies (as in what constitutes one and what does not), but there are other holiday films that I want to discuss with you as they are on my mind…

So my latest thing is I am watching really old Christmas movies.  A few years ago I came across an article called 38 Forgotten Christmas Movies You Should Watch Right Now. The list starts in 1934 and progresses to 2011.  While I am wrapping, baking, writing cards, or doing some other such holiday-related fare, I have been working my way through the list. I have been focusing on the older films since many of them I have never even heard of before.  One of the things that strikes me as interesting is they seem exclusively to be set during the holidays but not necessarily about the holidays.  Nowadays I feel like more and more of them are about somebody saving Christmas.

Anyway, this year so far I have watched The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942). The Shop is basically a better version of You’ve Got Mail. Yes, I said that. I prefer this original version because one of the pen pals finds out the other’s identity and doesn’t fess up for quite a while (longer than in the remake).  It really makes you wonder if the bottom of the whole thing is going to fall out at the end. But of course you know it won’t because, well, it’s 1940. The Man Who Came to Dinner was also pretty good, despite some misogyny which never ages well. But I was able to get over that because it felt like the women in the film took the men to task for their behaviors, albeit in a 1940s sort of way.

In addition to the super old stuff, I have also decided to give a few brand-new Christmas movies a try.  Last week, we watched Family Switch. This is basically Freaky Friday with a few extra twists.  It was cute and we got a few laughs, but I don’t think it will make my annual re-watch list.  Nonetheless, it made my daughter happy for us to watch it so extra candy canes for that!  Speaking of which, we also viewed Eddie Murphy’s latest – Candy Cane Lane. This also was pretty fun: some cool CGI and a few creative subplots. Again, though, I do not need to watch it on repeat.  I should mention that one thing we coincidentally *did* do which elevated the film was to watch Trading Places a few nights before.  Two Eddie Murphy vehicles 40 years apart is an interesting exercise!

All right, I would love to write more, but I must get back to my wrapping! 

Thanks for reading!

Eve

The Transformation

 

A prince and a princess hold each other in a tower.

Angeline: Reginald, the clocktower approaches midnight! Time is nearly up to rid me of my curse.

Reginald: I know, my dear. But we’ve tried everything to cure you! I fear we are out of options.

Angeline: Surely there must be something else we can do!

Reginald: I think it might be best to spend our final moments together cherishing each other’s company, before you become the beast.

Angeline: I hate to say it, but I think you’re right. Reginald, I love you more than the grass and the waves. 

Reginald: Angeline, my passion for you burns brighter than every star in the sky.

Angeline: I long only for your happiness. Which is why, I must request that upon my transformation into the beast, you remarry. 

Reginald: I couldn’t possibly! My heart is devoted to you and you alone.

Angeline: I can’t bear to think of you spending the rest of your days in longing. I wish for you to marry my handmaiden, Brianna.

Reginald: Brianna the Beautiful? The blonde with the big butt? 

Angeline: That’s the one.

Reginald: If that is what will make you happy… 

Angeline: Thank you, my sweet. Also, I wish for you to inherit my family’s estate. 

Reginald: But shouldn’t the Manor of Bounty fall to the husbands of your sisters?

Angline: They are not worthy-

Reginald: Okay great. 

Angeline: I was just going to say-

Reginald: No, all good. I’ll take the estate. Anything for you.

Angeline: Well, alright.

Reginald: Is it midnight yet? Does it feel like time is passing slowly or what?

Angeline: My love, perhaps we can try one more thing to save me?

Reginald: Oh? I thought we were over that. Okay. Yes, of course.

Angeline: Legends tell of the healing power of true love’s kiss.

She leans in.

Reginald: You know what, I actually had a crazy amount of garlic for dinner.

Angeline: But Reggie, the curse!

Reginald: Yeah and my lips are chapped like a motherfucker.

Angeline: I have chapstick!

She pulls it out. He takes it from her and throws it out the tower window.

Reginald: Oh shoot, I dropped it. 

Angeline: Please my love! My change overcomes me!!

She turns into a monster.

Reginald: You’re so hot, what the fuck?

They kiss.

END

-----------------------------

Thanks for reading!

--Rudolph

Life is Improv

Today I had my very first improv comedy performance. Now I’ve attended many improv shows in my day for my brother and also professional shows, and I’ve been in many plays, musicals, concerts and other performances as well. But this was a whole new ballgame for me because the only thing I had to work with was a format for the show: 1 monologue, three scenes based on the monologue, repeat that 3 more times. All of this starts with a one-word suggestion from the audience, and we had to let it inspire true stories from our lives to serve as the monologues. 

I think I learned a lot with improv even though I only just finished a Level 1 class. I feel like since everything just comes from my own brain and nothing is scripted beforehand, I have to just let my brain fly and roll with my thoughts as they come. Because of this, everything becomes far more based on my own life than I was expecting before I started this venture.

There’s a concept in improv called “A-to-C” thinking. When you’re given a suggestion, that is “A”. “B” is the first thing that A makes you think of off the top of your head, and “C” would be something that “B” makes you think of.  Then, you do a scene about whatever “C” is, even if to other people it doesn’t seem to make sense how you got there. For example, given the suggestion “Turkey”, I might think about the Turkey legs that they sell at Disney World, which could lead to me talking about my first time on an upside-down roller coaster at Disney World. To anyone who’s not familiar with Disney World, going from “Turkey” to “upside-down rollercoaster” may seem like a bizarre jump, but to me it makes perfect sense. I love this concept because I feel like a lot of times in real life I go “A-to-C” really quickly and then other people get very confused by my non sequitur. So I like that improv is made for that and it’s actually encouraged.

Something I realized was that my whole life is basically improv comedy— I spend all day trying to be clever and funny and make people laugh (and subsequently make them like me), and so I’m always at least a little bit “on” in that regard. Ultimately, I am happy that my improv journey has only just begun, and I look forward to using my real-world skills to make strides in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Holly

What is so “Artificial” about “Artificial Intelligence”?

There is a ton being written about AI these days.  Makes sense. It has already had a huge impact on how we search, how we work, how we create – and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. The recent advances are astounding and there can be no doubt that we are witnessing something big. But today, I want to take a moment to consider the name we have applied to this technology.

Generally speaking, “artificial” has negative connotations and is used to describe something that is not real or genuine.  Artificial sweetener, despite fewer calories than sugar, is viewed by many as bad.  Artificial flowers are derided by purists for failing to live up to the beauty of the real thing.  In the context of AI, I get that we are using “artificial” to signify “non-human”.  But is it really “not real”?

Programmers have written code to perform certain tasks.  They fed data into these systems to inform the output they produce. On top of that, they have created machine learning to give such systems the ability to write code for themselves to perform such tasks in a better or more efficient way in subsequent iterations.  Sounds like it is working exactly as designed.  Nothing artificial here.

We send our children to school to learn.  We determine which courses to teach them and the curricula for each individual course.  They ingest this data and, with any luck, synthesize it to find connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.  Often, they grow up and create output in the form of new ideas, materials, products, etc. as a result of our education system.

To me, there is nothing artificial or fake about what these new systems are doing.  If we are trying to distinguish between humans and computers, maybe “computer intelligence” would be a more appropriate name for these systems.  

What do you think?

Frosty

Book Club Book Review

I thought it might be a fun exercise to look back at the books the book club I belong to read this past year. We don’t plan the year out in advance; instead the process is more organic and subject to the whim of whomever is hosting next. Below is a summary of each book, but here are some stats to pique your curiosity.

Of the 11 books we read this year,

-          9 of them are already movies or TV series (or are in the works). That is a very strong majority!

-          3 took place today, one took place in the 17^th century, one 1905-24, one in the 1940s, one in the 1960s, three in the 1980s, and one was fantasy so no time period.

-          Locations included California, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Romania, Norway, Sweden, and England

 

Of the 11 books, I did not read three (The Mercies, The House in the Cerulean Sea, I Must Betray You). I normally pride myself on reading all of the books assigned, but this was a humdinger of a year.

 

The books that I particularly enjoyed and would recommend to just about anybody are:

-          The Rose Code. I love a good book with a great story that also actually really happened. This book had three very well-developed main characters that opened a window to what it was like in England during the war.

-          Lessons in Chemistry. A reminder of how different things were not that long ago, also with interesting and appealing characters.

-          The Personal Librarian. Another book based on a true story (who knew?) giving us a taste of racial relations a hundred years ago.

 

I would love anybody’s input on their favorite book club reads and why.  Enjoy mine!

Tiny Beautiful Things Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of essays compiled from Cheryl Strayed's "Dear Sugar" advice column, which she wrote anonymously, over a period of time.

Olive Again Olive Again is a novel by Elizabeth Strout and is a sequel to Olive Kitteridge. The author tells the story of Olive, her family, and little community of Crosby, Maine.

I Must Betray You Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania.

The Mercies A tale of a 17th century Norwegian fishing village devastated by a storm that swallows husbands, brothers and fathers, leaving the women to survive alone.

Anxious People A comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

In Five Years A love story about Dannie Kohan, a high-powered corporate lawyer who has everything planned out. The story opens on the day she interviews for her dream job, nails it, and gets engaged to her longtime boyfriend—all according to her five-year plan. But she gets a glimpse of what her life will be like in 5 years and cannot reconcile her plan vs reality.

The Rose Code A beautiful blue-blooded debutante, a tart-tongued London shop-girl, and a shy crossword-solving spinster join the war against Nazi Germany as codebreakers of Bletchley Park, only to find that the real puzzle lies inside the Park itself as a traitor sets them against each other in a betrayal reaching past the end of the war.

The Marriage Plot The Marriage Plot follows the life of Madeleine Hanna, a literature student at Brown University in the 1980s, as she faces the trials and tribulations of her relationship with her boyfriend Leonard Bankhead, who suffers from manic-depression, as well as her close “friendship” with another student, Mitchell Grammaticus.

Lessons in Chemistry Lessons in Chemistry follows a single mother Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in a man's world—1960s America—as she becomes an unlikely cooking-show host and the role model her daughter deserves.

The House in the Cerulean Sea A love story about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place―and realizing that family is yours.

The Personal Librarian A novel about J. P. Morgan's personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who hid her true identity and passed as a white woman.

Thanks for reading!

Eve