Engineer's Daughter

matokie mix 07.26.20

mix

the journeys of trees

 

I'm very happy to report that fave local mag Bay Nature has started their own series of online talks, and the first one earlier this week featured a wonderful conversation between editor-in-chief Victoria Schlesinger and science writer Zach St. George about his new book The Journeys of Trees. Watch the recording above, then follow the links below to buy the book and/or subscribe to Bay Nature. And next up: tidepools!

See also:

• The Journeys of Trees
• Bay Nature
• Bay Nature Talks: Tidepools

 

richard ii

 

 

Now streaming on the Public Theater website or wherever you get your podcasts, WNYC and the Public's co-production of Richard II transforms the summer tradition of Shakespeare in the park into a fantastic bit of radio theater. Not necessarily the most accessible of the history plays, Richard II is here buoyed by an electric performance by André Holland in the title role, as well as by brilliant direction by Saheem Ali and sound design so good that I could have sworn the entire cast stood on the same stage together. Each of the four episodes is book-ended with interviews conducted by the great Vinson Cunningham that further enrich the listening experience, as he discusses topics like Shakespeare's language and color-conscious casting with scholars and the creative team. And I could listen to the whole thing from the comfort of my couch, with nary a mosquito in sight.

See also:

• Free Shakespeare on the Radio: Richard II

matokie mix 07.19.20

mix

the science and soul of nature writing

 

The Bay Area Book Festival has gone online this year, and I was fully inspired by the above conversation with some of my fave local nature writers and illustrators. Watch the video, and then buy their beautiful books, all available from the amazing Heyday!

See more:

• Heyday Books
• How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
• The Curious World of Seaweed by Josie Iselin
• The State of Water by Obi Kaufmann

the line

Now playing through August 4 on the Public Theater YouTube channel, The Line (written by Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen, and directed by Blank) makes the near past of the height of NYC's coronavirus pandemic frighteningly immediate. Actors re-enact interviews with front-line healthcare workers word-for-word, speaking directly to Zoom camera, and each story had my heart twisted in knots. The speakers address the failures of our government and our healthcare system, and the only detail I found jarring is when they referred to the crisis in the past tense, thanks to my hyper-awareness of the current spike in cases. I also have to emphasize that if you watch this play and still think it's OK to walk around without a mask, then you are an asshole.

See also:

• The Line at the Public Theater
• The Pandemic Experts Are Not OK

matokie mix 07.12.20

mix

hamilton

I have very little to add to the very smart online discourse surrounding Thomas Kail's live capture of Hamilton currently streaming on Disney+, but will ramble for a moment anyway. I had seen it live in San Francisco last April (and I won the ticket lottery so was in the damn orchestra!) with a fantastic cast, and I definitely preferred our Hamilton Julius Thomas III's singing voice to Lin-Manuel Miranda's, as charming as Miranda is onscreen. But what pleasure to see that insanely talented Broadway cast up close and personal, with Daveed Diggs in particular absolutely running away with every scene he appears in. Like the rest of the country I am thinking way more critically than even a year ago about how the white enslavers are portrayed in the musical, and Miranda himself this week described criticisms of how he handled slavery as valid. The optismism palpable in the onscreen production (filmed in June 2016) is almost physically painful too, given all that has transpired since then. However, one of Hamilton's greatest achievements is its reclaiming and remixing of history, and now with it readily accessible to anyone who can afford Disney+, not just those who could pony up $$$ for a ticket, the narrative is further democratized. And I will forever love Miranda for giving Eliza the last gasp.

See also:

• Debating 'Hamilton' as It Shifts From Stage to Screen
• 'Hamilton' faces fresh criticism as film arrives at time of racial reckoning

temple

 

Thao Nguyen appreciation post! With digressions:

• Listen to the excellent new album Temple from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
• I also love the episode of Song Exploder where she breaks down the song "Astonished Man"...and she later became a host of the show!
• Thao in conversation with fellow Headlands resident Amanda Petrusich about creating art during the pandemic
• Amanda Petrusich also happens to be one of my favorite music writers
• And speaking of Headlands, their annual benefit auction kicks off online tonight!

les blancs

Of the pre-recorded theater options online, filmed back in that time when we could sit in an audience together, the plays that London's National Theatre have offered (for free, for a week at a time) on their YouTube channel have been seriously top-notch. This week's selection is particularly gripping: their 2016 staging of Lorraine Hansberry's Les Blancs, her last play and one that was never produced in her too-short lifetime. Hansberry makes the scourge of colonialism deeply personal by setting the action in an unspecified African country struggling to find its way to independence, at a mission run by white people who are not keen on examining their own racism and complicity. When Tshembe arrives home for a visit he finds himself in the middle of the maelstrom, and he is forced to confront the repercussions of centuries of imperialism as they resonate in his own family. The National Theatre's breathtaking production was directed by South African director and playwright Yaël Farber, and she makes powerful use of music and movement within the action of the play while simultaneously speaking to the very-present moment. I gave the cast a standing ovation in my living room.

See also:

• National Theatre at Home: Les Blancs