Parisiennes at the PEM

Last night I was a 19th century Parisienne.
A friend, Erik Rodenhiser, owner of the Griffen Theatre in Salem, asked me if I would be available to portray a woman who looked like she may have stepped out of a Renoir painting. Of course, I said yes. Or rather bien sur.

Myself, Erik, and one other lady, the raven-haired, beguiling Shari Caplan, were commissioned to engage and entertain at a special members preview for a new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, Impressionists on the Water. The exhibit opens to the public on November 9th and features 60 paintings by artists such as Renoir, Monet, Sisley and others, exploring their love and fascination with water and the activities surrounding it.

At the reception, the PEM's soaring Atrium was decorated to look like a Parisian garden party. The tables were dressed with black and white striped tablecloths, flowers arranged in bright, colorful bundles, and especially for us actors, a bit of grass lawn flanked by two boxwood shrubberies. We were to play petanque (the French version of bocce) with the guests.

Petanque is a fairly simple game. There are 7 balls or boules total. The first step to play is to toss the cochonnet (meaning little pig) onto the grass. The cochonnet is a small, plain wooden ball about an inch and a half in diameter. Next, the remaining 6 boules (2 red, 2 yellow, 2 blue) are tossed towards the cochonnet. The goal is to land as close to the cochonnet as possible. Several guests joined us for a round or two. The more competitive ones played to the best 2 out of 3 games.

Even pretending I was a 19^th century Parisienne was magical for more than a moment. Listening to the accordionist playing French waltzes and dancing on the grass, I imagined that I was on the riverbank of the Seine, enjoying an afternoon picnic in Renoir’s Paris.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see the exhibit itself last night. Our petanque playing duties kept us at the garden party in the Atrium, but I will be heading back to the museum very soon to see the art and imagine, once again, that I’m in the most beautiful city in the world.

Ah, Paris...

For more information about Impressionists on the Water, visit this link:

http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/159-impressionists_on_the_water

The Force of Gravity

Sandra Bullock is my new favorite actress.

Two of her recent films, The Heat and Gravity, moved me deeply. One to raucous laughter, the other to tears of self-recognition.

These films show the scope of her range. She can be the uptight, straight man, the perfect foil for Melissa McCarthy’s in-your-face, share-every-single-thing-that’s-on-your-mind bravado, as she was in The Heat. And she was hilarious. She can also be the earnest scientist, a fish out of water, who just wants to finish her job and get back home to earth when tragedy strikes, as in Gravity.

My expectations for Gravity were different than my actual experience of the film, and I mean that in the best possible way. I was expecting a colder, more detached film, (It’s in space, of course you’ll feel cold and detached) a film more like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I found epic and engrossing, but emotionally distant. Based on the trailer I also thought it would be a more straightforward drama/thriller/disaster film. We know right away that Sandra Bullock gets separated from the space station. We feel the claustrophobia and anxiety as she hurtles away from the only other humans nearby for thousands of miles.

What I didn’t expect from the film was the beauty, and the emotional journey of Sandra’s Ryan Stone.

There is beauty because of the newness and wonder of feeling like I too, was floating above the earth, gazing at its placid, blue and white swirled surface along with the astronauts. I’ve read that often when astronauts first journey into space, they are overcome with emotion, seeing the earth this way. This blue ball, so fragile and far away takes on new meaning. Seeing the world, our world, from the “God’s eye view” can be life-changing and overwhelming. Even seeing it on film in 3D was awesome and disorienting.

I have no intention of ever going to space. I wasn’t cut out for the physical challenges the training would require. I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t want to try, much to my husband’s disappointment, who would, I believe, go to space if he had the chance.

No, thank you. I like the earth; ground beneath my feet, trees above me, where they should be.

Sandra’s Stone has passed these tests, and made it to the space station, yet you don’t get the sense that she feels completely comfortable with this whole space thing. For George Clooney’s Matt Kowalski however, space-walking is old hat. Kowalski is calm, deadpan, and cracking jokes, as he blasts around with his jet-pack. He putters around the space station as if he’s in his den, in his robe and slippers, with a cocktail in hand.

When the dreaded space shrapnel arrives, flying faster than a bullet, upending the astronauts delicate balance of technology and luck, Kowalski is still calm and cool as a cucumber. He guides Stone through her first space disaster and then some, finally letting go of his own life to save hers. And that’s only the first 25 minutes.

The rest of the film tells Stone’s story of survival. Not only must she defy countless odds and physical dangers, she must face her own doubts and misgivings. We discover that Stone once had a daughter who died in a freak accident at a young age. Her sadness and regret from this tragedy threaten her will to live. Stone must find the strength to overcome her fears for the sake of the story she’ll tell if she makes it. Her choice is the choice to continue or not, to be or not to be, as Shakespeare put it over 400 years ago.

Bullock’s performance in these emotional moments is void of pretense, which is remarkable considering all the special effects and big budget techniques being employed to tell her story. It’s all a device, a sham, a show. We know this, but the truth of the moment wins out over the make believe, and we believe Sandra is Stone. We’re with her in the capsule making the choice with her.

I won't spoil the end of the film for those who haven't seen it yet, but I will say that it's quite the ride to the end.  

The Montague Bookmill & The Hungry Clothes

Three of the things I adore most in the world (apart from my husband and a good sandwich) are books, cats and nature. Books and nature have the ability to inspire you and take you on a journey. And cats, with their comforting sameness, (they're always waiting for you at home) make me feel safe and cozy.

The Montague Bookmill in Montague, Massachusetts may not have any cats, at least not any that I could see, but they do have an abundance of books, sunny nooks to read in, and several windows from which to view the rushing river and stately trees. There is also a café and restaurant on the premises in case you get hungry while sitting for hours looking at used books, as I did on a recent visit.

I plopped down in front of the picture book section and browsed for a couple hours. Since this a used bookstore, I didn’t find a lot of bestsellers and newest/hottest releases, but I did discover many unique and thoughtful children’s books, and a few of last year’s trendy titles. 

I’d like to highlight one of the children’s titles I picked up, The Hungry Clothes by Peninnah Schram. 

The Hungry Clothes is a collection of 22 traditional Jewish folktales. I enjoyed these stories for both their writing and their message. These tales are funny, insightful and profound. They speak to virtues like courage, cleverness, kindness, and loving family.

In college, I was introduced to Jewish literature through my Contemporary American Literature class, where we read Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow. (I liked Singer’s short story Gimpel the Fool, so much that I adapted it into a one-act play and directed it for an independent study in theatre my senior year.) What I love about these writers is their ability to bring the transcendent into the everyday, and to make you feel connected to a larger story. I also like that their worlds are moral worlds. They show that there is a certain way to behave in the world, and that the best way, is for us to treat each other as human beings, flawed though we are.

Reading the stories in The Hungry Clothes reminded me of these Jewish-American writers. Similar themes run through their work as these folktales told to children. Many of these stories are very old, passed down from generation to generation, and told to children to inspire them to be brave, shrewd, and loyal. I like to think that perhaps Singer, Bellow and Aleichem were told these same stories, or some variation thereof, when they were children. And that these stories inspired their work as adults.

I guess you can never know how your story may affect the heart and mind of a child. That's why we should keep telling them.

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Getting back to the bookmill---I hope I’m able to visit it again soon. The comfy chairs, plenteous books, fresh air, and dappled light are calling me. Even without cats, it feels like home.

My Favorite Mermaid Movies

There have been many films that feature mermaids over the past 100 years. Here are seven of my favorites and a video clip from each. 

The Little Mermaid (1989)

I have to start with Disney's The Little Mermaid. Even though it's an animated feature and Disney completely changed the ending of the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, it's a beautiful film and the songs are catchy as only Howard Ashman and Alan Menken songs can be. 

Miranda (1948)

The post- war world seemed to have a sudden love affair with mermaids. And Miranda starring Glynnis Johns, who later appeared in Mary Poppins, takes a charming turn as a mermaid all the men fall for in this twist on the classic drawing room comedy. In this clip Miranda is brought to visit the seals at the London Zoo by an admirer. 

Mr Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

Another post-war treatment of mermaids. This time Mr. Peabody, played by William Powell, works through his mid-life issues in his romantic and whimsical relationship with a mermaid, played by Ann Blyth. This clip shows her swimming in Mr. Peabody's pond. This clip is colorized, the original film is black and white. 

Splash (1984)

Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah's charm and chemistry make Splash a romantic comedy worth watching and elevate it to a classic that rises above its 1980's setting. 

The Secret of the Roan Inish (1994)

While not strictly about mermaids, half woman, half fish, The Secret of the Roan Inish by John Sayles addresses the Irish equivilent with a beautiful and haunting story about selkies, the Irish sea-spirits who can change from seals to humans. 

Ondine (2009)

A more recent Irish film that plays with the selkie legends. A mysterious and beautiful woman turns up in fisherman Colin Farrell's nets. Is she really a selkie or is something else going on?

La Sirene by George Melies (1904)

This last clip is from the the short silent film La Sirene by pioneer filmmaker George Melies and is probably the first film to be made about a mermaid. In the film, a magician performs his routine, fishing out of his top hat and finally transforming the normal world to the undersea world. My favorite shot is the first one of the mermaid, through the fish tank. 

Blue Jasmine and Blue Jeanette

Friday night we went to see Woody Allen’s new film Blue Jasmine at Cinema Salem. I wouldn’t say it was a film I enjoyed so much that I’d want to see it again, but I found Cate Blanchett’s performance powerful and intriguing.

Jasmine, as she's renamed herself from Jeanette, is a woman built from a life of leisure and financial ease. She dropped out of college before graduating to marry the dashing and wealthy Hal, played by Alec Baldwin. And for the last 25 years she’s hosted charity benefits, shopped the finest of Park Avenue's wares, and raised a son to attend Harvard.

However, all is not well with Jasmine and as the film continues we find that the false sense of security she has relied on has just come crashing down.  The money is gone, invested in phony properties and schemes by Hal. Not to mention the discovery of Hal's numerous affairs. Jasmine moves across country, from New York City to San Francisco, to live with her sister Ginger, until she gets back on her feet.

For most women this would be devastating, but for Jasmine, the thought of starting over and trying to make her own way in the world is nearly unbearable. She is beyond fragile. The daily stresses of living have been shielded from her for so long that she is overcome with panic attacks, sweats and is forced to imbibe a steady stream of vodka martinis with a twist of lemon to make it through normal social interactions.

I think one of the more interesting ways to watch Blue Jasmine would be from a perspective of hair and makeup. You can chart Jasmine’s journey by observing her physical appearance. In the beginning of the film and throughout flashbacks to her old life, her golden hair is coiffed, make up applied, and her face is a matte mask of porcelain beauty.

Blanchett is most striking in a flashback where she and a friend have just come back from a ride. Jasmine strides onto an airy veranda, brown jodhpurs fitting perfectly, her hair pulled back in a low ponytail with just the right amount of volume at the crown of her head, and a slight healthy flush on her cheeks to indicate physical exertion. She may as well have just shot a ten-point buck. She’s glorious, resplendent in her complete appearance of self-mastery and poise. 

Compare that to her present day realities in San Francisco. Jasmine frequently appears sweaty, her dark roots showing, black eyeliner and mascara running from her ice blue eyes. She pulls it together for a little while, as she takes a job as a receptionist and starts to date a promising potential foreign diplomat, Dwight.

But, history has a way of repeating itself for Jasmine, and the same denial that brought her marriage to a disastrous end brings her potential with Dwight to a close as well.

There are comic moments in Blue Jasmine, it’s not all tragedy. And the role in the hands of a lesser actress would have been irritating.

Yet, somehow Blanchett brings you to sympathy. It’s at her most vulnerable, hair tangled and ratty, face bare; no trace of make up to be seen, that we finally see her as she is. No masks. Naked.

The smile she gives us is her only genuine one in the whole film.  And although she’s at her lowest point, she’s never been more beautiful.

We're not sure what will happen to Jasmine at the end of the film. Will she finally start living as a whole, real person, admitting of her faults as well as her accomplishments? Or, will she descend deeper into mental illness, succumbing to her foreshadowed archetype Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire?

That choice is before her. She had started down the road of self-reliance earlier in the film, but meeting Dwight sucked her into her former securities of perfectionism and relying on a man to solve her problems. We hope that Jasmine finds the inner strength to move forward with honesty, just as we all do when life turns out different from what we planned. It's a step up, a step forward, and a step toward becoming fully human. 

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Batik

I recently acquired some batik. 

A friend from work was travelling to Indonesia on vacation to visit family and I had the nerve to ask him to purchase some fabric for me while he was there. He brought back three pieces in red, dark blue and green. 

They're gorgeous not just because of the vibrant colors and intricate designs, but because of the skill and time it took to make them. 

If you’re not aware, Batik is a handmade cloth native to southeast Asia. Indonesian Batik was recently designated as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The technique for creating it has been passed down for thousands of years. First the artisan draws the design on the fabric. Then, hot wax is applied to the design. After, follows layers of wax to fill in the negative space of the pattern so that multiple dye colors can be applied to the fabric. 

When it’s finished, the cloth is rinsed in hot water to melt the wax away, revealing a beautiful and delicate pattern. 

Here are a few pictures of one of the pieces that my friend brought back for me, and a video showing the process.

Seven Wonders of the World

Nature can be pretty awesome.

From the tiniest organism to galaxies millions of light years away, our world contains some amazing sights and creatures.

The terrifying and the adorable.

The inspiring and the familiar.

One of the beautiful things about the internet is that we can all experience them regardless of where we live.

Here are seven of my favorite recent nature and/or science videos. Enjoy!

1. Squeaky Frog on the Defense

2. Cephalopod’s Coat of Many Colors

3. Water in space: How do they shower??

4. Cat, Eagle and Fox Conferring

5. Baby Otter’s First Swim

6. 86 Year Old Who Puts Me to Shame

7. Hubble Space Telescope Images: Thus Spake Zarathustra

The Lost Little Mermaid

Somewhere in my belongings there is a picture of me as a mermaid.

The grade school I attended, Hallsville Elementary in Manchester, NH, produced a musical theatre extravaganza every year.  

One year, the play was based on American music through the decades.  I was in the third grade and after auditioning was selected to sing a solo of a song featured in the movie Flashdance, “What a Feeling.”  

Another girl who had auditioned, who was in fifth grade, was not happy that a baby third grader was given this solo and was looking for a fight the day the parts were announced. She called me a slut, which is inappropriate in more ways than one, since I was 8 or 9 years old at the time. Luckily, my best friend and bodyguard Jill, (she’s 3 years older than me) threatened her with swift retribution so she backed down.

For the performance, I wore black leggings, a large sweatshirt and leg warmers. With my curly permed hair pulled up into a high ponytail, I was the picture of 80’s cool.

While I sang "What a Feeling," a sixth grade girl performed a dance solo, mimicking choreography from the famous Flashdance scene, minus the chair and bucket of water splashing down on her. This was a grade school production after all, not a strip club.

My fifth grade year was the mermaid year.

The theme for the production was Disney movie music. The Little Mermaid had been released recently and every young girl wanted to be Ariel, myself included. I was surprised, but very excited when I was picked to sing my favorite, and now requisite Disney heroine ballad of yearning, “Part of Your World.”

For modesty’s sake or because it was the only option, my mermaid costume was one piece; flesh colored matte Lycra on top and sparkly green woven plastic material on the bottom, with a zipper down the back. The bottom was like a skirt, but had a very pronounced flipper at the end. The outfit was designed for a woman or girl with a longer torso, so the pearlized purple seashells sewn to the bodice portion ended up hanging over my rib cage, rather than my nonexistent bosom.

When it came time for the performance, I was wheeled onstage in a wagon by young sailors. I stood up, hobbled in front of the microphone (walking was difficult) and sang Ariel’s song.

I also remember standing on a boat constructed mostly of cardboard and chicken wire, where I was almost kissed on the cheek by a prepubescent Prince Erik during the “Kiss the Girl” scene. We were surrounded by children dressed as various sea creatures—starfish, oysters, lobsters, crabs, snails and fish.

There are two photos documenting this. One by myself, in all my goofy mermaid splendor, and the other of Prince Erik, all the sea creatures and I, standing on the cardboard boat.

But I can’t find them.

I’m pretty sure they're hidden somewhere very safe in my things. I’d like to rediscover them, and if I do, dear reader, you will be the first to see them.

Neil Gaiman at the MFA

Fairy tales, myths and heroes have captured our minds for thousands of years. From Gilgamesh to the Avengers, we've been drawn to epic stories of good versus evil, and thrilled at the fantastic journeys of Odysseus, Arthur and his knights and Huck Finn.

The content of stories and the collective experience they foster were part of the subject matter Neil Gaiman addressed in his lecture titled "Myth, Magic and Making Stuff Up" at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I attended yesterday.

Gaiman is the current poster child for storytelling today. Rightfully so. Over the past two decades his stories have crossed multiple genres and formats--graphic novel, picture book, television, radio play, and film. With the rise in popularity of fantasy and science fiction, Neil's stories have risen as well.

As he illustrated in the lecture, Gaiman showed that at heart people are captivated by stories. My favorite moment was when he shared a new story he's working on. It will be part of an anthology of retold ancient myths. Tentatively titled, "Freya's Unusual Wedding" it tells one of the famous tales surrounding Thor, the Norse god of thunder; where Thor must dress in women's garments in order to reclaim his stolen hammer and ultimate weapon, Mjollner from the ogre Thrym.

Neil is a great reader.

As he read, the inflection and multiple voices he used showed his love of the characters he created and the joy he had in sharing them with an eager audience. Coming from a background in theatre and oral performance, I could see a little bit of Neil the actor coming through. It was great fun to be part of.

But what is it that makes stories so intriguing? More clever minds than my own have explored this question. Joseph Campbell in The Hero's Journey is one series of note.

I think that a large part of why stories are so important is that we live through them. Gaiman shared a G.K. Chesterton quotation (which by the way is my new favorite), "Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

I would take it a step farther to say that all stories, not just fairy tales, are true (i.e. beautiful) in some way because of what we learn from them. We put ourselves in the hero's position and see our lives as a story. One that we hope will have a happy ending.

I also got to ask Neil a question about his newest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane during the Q & A session at the event. I wanted to know who the Hempstocks are. The mysterious trio of women in Ocean are powerful, enigmatic and at the core of his story.

His answer was clear but vague at the same time. He mentioned that he'd had the idea for the Hempstocks since he was 12 years old. He read a story as a child titled, A Pile of Trouble by 1950's sci-fi writer Henry Kuttner about mutant hilbillies that got him thinking about people who were much older and stranger than they appeared. What if Gram Hempstock really had been around when the Big Bang happened? He also mentioned more scientific possibilities and the almost too obvious female archetypes of maiden, matron and crone.

I found his answer satisfying, but I still felt like there was more than meets the eye. Were the Hempstocks angels? demi-gods? or perhaps the Trinity itself, disguised and living in a old farm house at the end of the road?

But the more I think about it, maybe he really didn't know. It's more likely they are probably a combination of all the above. And from what I've learned about his writing process it's an organic thing, rather than a tightly woven diagram of plot points. He doesn't always know how the story will end when it begins.

I guess I have to learn to be comfortable with the mystery.

After all, what's a good story without it?