Engineer's Daughter

sports content

Really this post is just an excuse to show off how Stella's cutout, currently seated in row 10 at the A's Coliseum, appeared on TV last week when my dad spotted her in the stands. That's my one-eared cat!

• But I'm also binging The Last Dance this week and it's all kinds of awesome.
• The always-correct Wesley Morris said of the series: “You could call these 10 hours a walk down memory lane. But that’d be like calling Mardi Gras a parade.”
• Check out the fascinating conversation between Eric Eddings and Ed O'Bannon aka The Man Who Beat the NCAA on podcast The Nod
• For more basketball through a nostalgic lens I also highly recommend the documentary After the Game
• And it's not too late to get your own pet a seat in the stands this short baseball season, with proceeds benefiting the East Bay SPCA and Animal Rescue Foundation.

matokie mix 08.09.20

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the 7th voyage of egon tichy

 

As theater continues to evolve quickly in quarantine, Joshua William Gelb is making innovative productions right in his closet. Last week he performed a mind-bending piece called The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy, based on a Stanislaw Lem story adapted by Josh Luxenberg and directed by Jonathan Levin, in which Gelb interacted live with many many pre-recorded versions of himself. I was mesmerized by the results, alternately laughing at the slapstick moments and then trying to figure out the technical aspects of the production. This is just the latest in a series of works Gelb is calling "Theater in Quarantine" using a donation-based model. Check out his YouTube channel for the archive, and future performances include short dance pieces and a Borges adaptation.

See also:

• Theater in Quarantine
• Building the quarantine theater
• The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem

biosphere 2 round-up

Biosphere 2 remains a fascinating experiment in sustainability, and there have been a number of worthy examinations of the project in the media recently:

• Matt Wolf's documentary Spaceship Earth details the history of how Biosphere 2 came to be.
• Michael Fox reviewed the doc for KQED Arts
• Avery Trufelman covered Biosphere 2 on her excellent podcast series about failed utopias, Nice Try! As with anything Trufelman produces the entire series is well worth your time too.
• Rebecca Reider was featured prominently on Trufelman's podcast; check out her book Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theater of All Possibilities
• And last but not least, the official Biosphere 2 website.

matokie mix 08.02.20

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input august 2020

Books

Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847 -1947 - Norman Lebrecht

Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language - David Shariatmadari

1919: Poems - Eve L. Ewing

Recollections of My Nonexistence - Rebecca Solnit

 

Movies

Da 5 Bloods - Spike Lee

Parasite - Bong Joon Ho

Fast Color - Julia Hart

My Twentieth Century - Ildikó Enyedi

Iron Man - Jon Favreau

The Witches - Nicolas Roeg

Palm Springs - Max Barbakow

The Farewell - Lulu Wang

Starstruck - Gillian Armstrong

Moana - Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, Chris Williams

Roma - Alfonso Cuarón

Father of My Children - Mia Hansen-Løve

Goodbye First Love - Mia Hansen-Løve

Things to Come - Mia Hansen-Løve

Booksmart - Olivia Wilde

First Reformed - Paul Schrader

Ratatouille - Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava

Nightcrawler - Dan Gilroy

The Salesman - Asghar Farhadi

Rifiki - Wanuri Kahiu

Black Is King - Beyoncé, Jenn Nkiru, Blitz the Ambassador, Jake Nava

Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo Del Toro

The Dead Zone - David Cronenberg

Sun Don't Shine - Amy Seimetz

 

Streaming

The Baby-Sitters Club

The Last Dance

Hannibal

One Day at a Time

Atlanta

Bob's Burgers

Fauda

 

Virtual Theater

One Room at Weston Playhouse

The Keep Going Song at Actors Theatre of Louisville

The Jacksonian at The New Group

matokie mix 07.26.20

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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

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