Engineer's Daughter

input march 2021

Books

Divorcing - Susan Taubes

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close - Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope - Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World - Lesley M.M. Blume

 

Movies

Dissolution - Nina Menkes

Sound of Metal - Darius Marder

High Flying Bird - Steven Soderbergh

A New Leaf - Elaine May

Boogie Nights - Paul Thomas Anderson

Tanna - Martin Butler and Bentley Dean

Boat People - Ann Hui

Middle of Nowhere - Ava DuVernay

A Very Curious Girl - Nelly Kaplan

Papa the Little Boats - Nelly Kaplan

Charles and Lucie - Nelly Kaplan

The Pleasure of Love - Nelly Kaplan

Afternoon Delight - Joey Soloway

The Emperor's New Groove - Mark Dindal

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami - Sophie Fiennes

Training Day - Antoine Fuqua

Melancholia - Lars von Trier

 

Streaming

History of Swear Words

Pixar Popcorn

City of Ghosts

M*A*S*H

Bridgerton

 

Virtual Theater

Science Fair: An Opera with Experiments at The Marsh

input january 2021

Books

The Gimmicks - Chris McCormick

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America - Marcia Chatelain

Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis - Ada Calhoun

Valentino and Sagittarius - Natalia Ginzburg

 

Movies

Time - Garrett Bradley

The Greatest Showman - Michael Gracey

Finding Christa - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Suzanne, Suzanne - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Older Women and Love - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Take Your Bags - Camille Billops and James Hatch

The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks - Camille Billops and James Hatch

A String of Pearls - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Boyz n the Hood - John Singleton

Soul - Pete Docter

A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick

Ernest & Celestine - Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner

Monsoon Wedding - Mira Nair

The Florida Project - Sean Baker

Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder

Always Shine - Sophia Takal

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - George C. Wolfe

A Powerful Thang - Zeinabu irene Davis

Compensation - Zeinabu irene Davis

The Trials of Muhammad Ali - Bill Siegel

Sky High - Mike Mitchell

Seven Songs About Thunder - Jennifer Reeder

Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep - Jennifer Reeder

And I Will Rise If Only to Hold You Down - Jennifer Reeder

A Million Miles Away - Jennifer Reeder

Blood Below the Skin - Jennifer Reeder

Crystal Lake - Jennifer Reeder

LOLA, 15 - Jennifer Reeder

Shuvit - Jennifer Reeder

All Small Bodies - Jennifer Reeder

 

Streaming

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Community

Jeopardy!

Pose

The Great British Baking Show

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

 

Virtual Theater

Apologies To Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson) at Magic Theatre

Lizzie at Ray Of Light Theatre

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey at Cinnabar Theater

The Snow Walk of the Empress Matilda at Exit Theatre

a grassy noël

The radio play as a form has had quite a resurgence this year (for obvious reasons), and this week I've been very much enjoying listening to a play a day by Noel Grassy Macken online at London's Resonance FM. A poet and a playwright, Macken has been creating radio plays for the last 15 years, and the ones I've heard so far are farcical, clever, and subtly surreal. They're also timely as hell.

See also:

• A Grassy Noël
• A Grassy Noël archive
• Resonance FM
• Noel Grassy Macken on Mixcloud

input december 2020

Books

Abigail - Magda Szabó

Disability Visibility - Alice Wong, editor

Homie - Danez Smith

Optic Nerve - María Gainza

The Heap - Sean Adams

 

Movies

Easy A - Will Gluck

Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese

Four Women - Julie Dash

Diary of an African Nun - Julie Dash

Illusions - Julie Dash

Praise House - Julie Dash

Standing at the Scratch Line - Julie Dash

The Lady from Shanghai - Orson Welles

Fruitvale Station - Ryan Coogler

Yentl - Barbra Streisand

The Prince of Tides - Barbra Streisand

The Mirror Has Two Faces - Barbra Streisand

Little Big Man - Arthur Penn

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions - Taylor Swift

Loving - Jeff Nichols

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye - Marie Losier

Cassandro, the Exotico! - Marie Losier

12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen

Howard - Don Hahn

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan - Martin Scorsese

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta

Marianne and Juliane - Margarethe von Trotta

Rosa Luxemburg - Margarethe von Trotta

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard of Bingen - Margarethe von Trotta

Hannah Arendt - Margarethe von Trotta

Chicken Run - Nick Park, Peter Lord

 

Streaming

Teenage Bounty Hunters

Outlander

The Good Place

 

Virtual Theater

The Light at Shotgun Players

Holiday Sauce...Pandemic! at the Curran

Whatever Happened To Bianca Del Rio?

input november 2020

Books

Uncanny Valley: A Memoir - Anna Wiener

A Bookshop in Berlin - Françoise Frenkel

Life with Picasso - Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake

Having and Being Had - Eula Biss

 

Movies

Romance - Catherine Breillat

Fat Girl - Catherine Breillat

Bluebeard - Catherine Breillat

The Sleeping Beauty - Catherine Breillat

Abuse of Desire - Catherine Breillat

Demon - Marcin Wrona

Diane - Kent Jones

Fargo - Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Clouds - Justin Baldoni

Old Boyfriends - Joan Tewkesbury

Dolemite Is My Name - Craig Brewer

Chocolat - Claire Denis

No Fear, No Die - Claire Denis

Nenette and Boni - Claire Denis

Beau travail - Claire Denis

Towards Mathilde - Claire Denis

35 Shots of Rum - Claire Denis

White Material - Claire Denis

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - Tim Burton

The Assassin - Hou Hsiao-hsien

Welcome II the Terrordome - Ngozi Onwurah

Dick Johnson Is Dead - Kirsten Johnson

Romeo + Juliet - Baz Luhrmann

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Forman

Werewolf - Ashley McKenzie

Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe

 

Streaming

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

The Queen's Gambit

The Mandalorian

Chapelle's Show

The Right Stuff

Greenleaf

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

 

Virtual Theater

American Dreams at Marin Theatre Company

Escaped Alone at Magic Theatre

the great work begins

Having had the great pleasure of having seen all of Angels in America in a day-long marathon sesh at Berkeley Rep not too far back, I had already thought about what Tony Kushner's masterpiece might have to say about our current crisis, and clearly amfAR had the same idea. I watched their online benefit last night featuring scenes from the play, masterfully acted by a killer cast and beautifully edited besides, and by the time they got to the last moments at the Bethesda Fountain (with Brian Tyree Henry as Prior!) I was a weepy mess. The great work begins indeed.

See also:

• thegreatworkbegins.org

input october 2020

Books

A Dream Come True: The Collected Stories of Juan Carlos Onetti

Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos - Peter Bergen

The Bishop's Bedroom - Piero Chiara

No Room at the Morgue - Jean-Patrick Manchette

Fiebre Tropical - Juliana Lopera Delgado

 

Movies

The Assistant - Kitty Green

The Loveless - Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Atlantics - Mati Diop

The Joy of Life - Jenni Olson

The Royal Road - Jenni Olson

Force Majeure - Ruben Östlund

Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids - Jonathan Demme

The Student Nurses - Stephanie Rothman

The Velvet Vampire - Stephanie Rothman

Humanoids from the Deep - Barbara Peeters & Jimmy T. Murakami

Slumber Party Massacre - Amy Holden Jones

Suburbia - Penelope Spheeris

Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Céline Sciamma

Night of the Living Dead - George A Romero

 

Streaming

New Girl

Schitt's Creek

Lucifer

Gravity Falls

Song Exploder

The Twilight Zone

Evil

 

Virtual Theater

The Present at Geffen Playhouse

The Breath Project

one found sound

 

I'm finding a lot of comfort in classical music these days, so it was a delight to "attend" One Found Sound's watch party last night as they kicked off their new virtual/distanced season with an online concert. Featuring gorgeous performances pre-recorded at the Midway interspersed with live Zoom chat, the evening was a great chance to feel a part of the local music community while remaining safely on my couch with my cat Pogo (who always wants to check out whatever I'm watching I'm my iPad). The program featured pieces by three Black composers: Valerie Coleman, William Grant Still, and Quinn Mason. Mason was on hand to introduce his work "Por Seis," a world premiere of three movements influenced by Latin American music that utterly transported me to another place and time.

See also:

• One Found Sound
• One Found Sound YouTube channel

input september 2020

Books

People of the City - Cyprian Ekwensi

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin

One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder - Brian Doyle

The Yellow House: A Memoir - Sarah M. Broom

 

Movies

Holes - Andrew Davis

20 Feet From Stardom - Morgan Neville

If Beale Street Could Talk - Barry Jenkins

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola

The Host - Bong Joon Ho

Inside Llewyn Davis - Joel and Ethan Coen

Gregory Go Boom - Janicza Bravo

Pauline Alone - Janicza Bravo

Woman in Deep - Janicza Bravo

Man Rots from the Head - Janicza Bravo

The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont

La Ciénaga - Lucrecia Martel

The Headless Woman - Lucrecia Martel

Zama - Lucrecia Martel

13TH - Ava DuVernay

Meek's Cutoff - Kelly Reichardt

The One and Only Ivan - Thea Sharrock

Thank You and Good Night - Jan Oxenberg

 

Streaming

Better Call Saul

Muppets Now

Cobra Kai

Kim Possible

Seven Seconds

Schoolhouse Rock

 

Virtual Theater

Caesar Maximus at We Players

Black Voices Past and Present podcast by Steven Anthony Jones

the keep going song

Bay Area audiences might already be familiar with the Bengsons after Z Space produced the world premiere of their musical memoir Hundred Days several years back, and Abigail and Shaun's talent for creating transcendence out of the little details of life is on full display in their current production The Keep Going Song. Streaming for pay-what-you-can until October 8th as part of the Actors Theatre of Louisville's current season, The Keep Going Song is a progression of linked tunes performed and recorded during quarantine at Shaun's parents' house in Ohio, incorporating issues of faith, grief, and resilience. The intimacy of the virtual concert is particularly effective for the subject matter here, and this atheist Buddhist was tremendously moved and ultimately quite uplifted by the viewing experience. We're all getting through this as best we can.

See also:

• The Keep Going Song
• Hundred Days