Category Archives: Escapes and Pleasures

Four Films, Reviewed by Ellen Miller

08 Sunday Oct 2017

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Mini-Reviews by Ellen Miller:

I graduated from college in the late 1960’s and majored in sociology. Though my working career focused on political accountability, I’ve learned since my retirement that I never really gave up that early interest of addressing social problems and thinking about how society and institutions work (or don’t work). In fact, these interests drove much of my interest in “politics.” (But I digress)

I also find that the books and films I most enjoy most these days focus on these topics. To wit, the last two films presented by the DC Cinema Club  — Lucky and The Florida Project. Both of these are stunning – five star, must-sees, one-of-a kind, leave-you-stunned-in-your-seat-kind-of-movies. (And, unusually, Richard agrees with my 5 star ratings on both these films.)

The Florida Project***** is set in a budget motel (“The Magic Castle”) outside of Disney World in Florida. This narrative driven film focuses on the chaotic life of a six-year old girl and her rebellious 23-year old mother (played by Bria Vinaite). Although it is a fictionalized recounting of the lives of people living on the edge, it feels at times like a documentary. The acting is genius, particularly that of Willem Dafoe – the caretaker of the hotel –and the young girl Moonee (played by actor Brooklynn Kimberly Price). It is a life that would be hard to imagine any of the children escaping from unscathed, and so it’s also a very sad film. The story is gripping until the very end.

The Florida Project is an accomplished film from director Sean Baker who has produced two other films (Starlet 2012) and Tangerine (2015) which also focus on people most of us don’t know (or often don’t care about). After you see the well-reviewed The Florida Project, you won’t forget the children, the parents, nor the “community” that surrounds them.

Lucky *****is a different sort of film, this one character driven. It is the story of an old man, one who essentially plays himself at age 93, and the quirky characters who live in his desert town.  The performance of Harry Dean Stanton (a long time accomplished actor who died just a few months after the film was complete) is a masterpiece – a tour de force. I’m not sure that Richard and I have ever seen anything quite like it before. One reviewer called it … “at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on morality, loneliness, spirituality, and human connection.”  This is a poignant film that doesn’t overdue its theme.  It is also one that will stay with you.

Columbus***** is another 5-star, award-winning film we have seen in the last month  that is must see. The story sounds kind of wonky: the son of a Korean-American well-known architect (played by John Cho) comes to Columbus, Indiana (a small Midwestern town known for its modern architecture). While waiting for his ailing (and estranged) father to recover from a sudden illness, the son develops a friendship with a young woman (played by Haley Lou Richardson) who is biding her post high-school career working at the local library and still living with her mother who increasingly depends on daughter for emotional support. The story is underpinned by exquisite cinematography and perfect pace. There is much talk of life, independence, architecture, and families. It is a film about the power of intellect and friendship. This is the directorial film debut for Kogonada, and it’s stunning.

All three of the above films are now showing (or will be shortly) in the DC area. Put ’em on your list, and let others know what you think if you get to see them.

A fourth film we’ve seen in recent weeks is Dina*** (Richard ****) which has gotten better reviews than I give it. This is the story of the life of a woman on the autism spectrum, focusing mostly on her relationship with the man she marries. The cinematography is pale and wan which lends the film a sober feeling. As one might expect, Dina’s life is a difficult life – always a bit out of sync with the world, her friends, her community. She is a sympathetic character – at times both funny and sad – without the ability to read nonverbal clues of those in her life. The movie is well-acted, but leaves you feeling a bit dreary. I wouldn’t rush to see this one: Two of my three three stars are for effort. Richard rates it a bit higher, probably because he has worked with a similar population at some points in his career and says, “the depiction of the character is quite true to life.”

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Recent Best Reads

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Not wanting to wait until the end of the year to compile a list of what books MillersTime readers were enjoying this year, in July I posted a list of 205 books that were favorites of 50 different MillersTime readers. If you missed that post, check it out.

Now I just want to remind you that I will again seek your favorite reads at the end of the year and will ask for those at the beginning of December. It takes me quite some time to turn your emails into a readable format, and so I am hopeful that most of you will not wait until my final plea to send in your titles.

Meanwhile, some books I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (F). This historical novel has it all: an intense story, characters you will long remember, descriptions in language that is simply marvelous, American history with which you may be familiar but which will certainly expand your knowledge, and a good deal of wisdom. It’s the story of an Irish immigrant, aged 17, who fled the great famine, came to America, joined the army (1850) and along with a brother-in-arms first fought in the Indian wars and then in the Civil War. I listened to the novel, read by Aidan Kelly, and found his accent along with Sebastian Barry’s language simply mesmerizing. Though it was long listed for the Man Brooker Prize this year, it didn’t make the short list. It should have in my humble opinion. It will certainly will be in contention for one of my favorites of the year.

Lions by Bonnie Nadzam (F) is another audible book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s the story of a dying Colorado town and a young man’s and a young woman’s youth there. Though deeply in love, his need to remain and her need to leave create a dilemma that seems unresolvable. Again, wonderful descriptions of the two individuals, the other towns people, the collapsing town itself, and a bit of a mystery too.

The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan (NF). Probably my most favorite book of the year (so far). This is the untold story (at least for me) of those who stayed put and didn’t flee the Dust Bowl (like the Joads in Grapes of Wrath). Just as The Warmth of Other Suns was captivating and educating, so too is this story of individuals and families who chose to remain in the High Plains during the late 1920s & 1930s despite the devastation brought by drought and dust. Timothy Egan’s understanding of what happened, why it happened, and to whom it happened is an important part of our history. And he tells it well. Winner of the National Book Award 2006.

Killings by Calvin Trillin (NF). Trillin is a national treasure, and I never tire of reading what he writes. This just released book is a compilation of New Yorker articles he wrote (in the 60s/70s/80s) that all focused on killings in various parts of the U.S, mostly in small towns. Very few ever made the news, but in telling these events, Trillin tells us much about America, and his descriptions of the people involved and the settings is marvelous.

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse  by Tom Verducci (NF). Usually I leave reading about baseball to the winter months when I am deprived of the joy and pain of following my heroes. But at the suggestion of a son-in-law I read this in July. It tells the behind the scenes story of how Theo Epstein and Joe Madden systematically went about building a team that was able to break the longest drought in sports history, 108 years without a championship. While it is one of the best baseball books I’ve read in many years — and I’ve read many — it’s about vision, building, leading, inspiring and is applicable to other sports and team building as well.

Memories Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia by Garda Saunders (NF). At least one in nine of us will at some point be diagnosed with some form of dementia. In this memoir, Garda Saunders chronicles what it’s like to live with the knowledge that one’s brain is betraying her. In the process of losing her mind, she examines the science and literature of dementia as well as her own personal story. Not quite as outstanding as When Breath Become Air, but well worth the read if the topic of dementia is on, or one day will be on, your mind.

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson (NF). Another book I put in the crowd with The Warmth of Other Suns and The Worst Hard Times. It’s the story of the 1955 lynching of a 14 year old African American boy in Mississippi in 1955. I have some memory of this event, but Timothy Tyson’s narrative is both eye opening, including new evidence from this time in our history, and riveting. I couldn’t stop thinking about parallels to today.

Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon by Kelley French and Thomas French (NF). Juniper French was born at 23 weeks’ gestation, weighing one pound and four ounces. Here the father and mother in alternating chapters write openly and honestly about their struggles and the events that led to a successful outcome.

Also, thanks to a MillersTime reader’s insistence, I have now read two books by Frances Itani, Requiem (F) and Deafening (F). Once again I wonder, marvel, at how I could not have known about a writer and her work. These are very different stories, but both are worthy of your consideration. Requiem is the story of the experiences of a Japanese family that is put into a Canadian internment camp in the 1940s, and the story alternates between the experiences of young boy and his visit back to what remains of the camp many years later. Deafening is the story of a young girl made deaf by scarlet fever at the age of five, her coping, her living away from home, and then her living in the hearing world. It is also the story of Jim (a hearing person) whom she marries shortly before he has to leave Canada to be a stretcher bearer in Europe in WWII. It is a lovely and often wrenching story and tender accounting of two individuals that will remain with me. I look forward to reading more of Frances Itani’s writing and story telling.

**          **          **          **          **          **          **          **

On a different note, I want to let you know of a curated listing of best magazine reads every week. The site is Longreads, which you can join at no cost, tho a donation is appreciated. Each week you will get an email on Friday with links to five outstanding articles from a wide variety of publications. Generally the articles take anywhere from 15-30 minutes to read. There is almost one every week of interest to me that I haven’t seen in my own scanning of the Internet as well as one that I have already found on my own. Check it out at Longreads.com. (Scroll to where it says Get Longreads Weekly Email. The sign up is simple.)

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August Movie Reviews by Ellen Miller

04 Monday Sep 2017

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Summer seems like the worst season for new films, particularly the month of August. We probably saw fewer films this month than any other this year (in part because we were on grandparent watch for two plus weeks), and in part because what there was to see just didn’t appeal. (Big box office hits just aren’t our thing.) But we soldiered on and tried to pick the best out there. We didn’t like The Big Sick, The Trip to Spain, or Tulip Fever. All of these failed in some basic way: narrative, screen play, cinematography, or acting – some of them failed on all four of these criteria.

Enough said about those three somewhat popular films.

Four films did standout, and Richard and I recommend all of them to you. In order that we saw them:

Detroit  (Ellen ****    Richard ****1/2)

This is a stunning film about the Detroit riots of 1967 – a mixture of original news footage and reenactments of the police brutality that aided and abetted the violence. It is a horrific story, and it’s based on facts. It’s a story that didn’t end in Detroit.  It’s a complex film — and it’s not perfect — but we very much recommend it. You will walk  away from it shaken and with a better understanding of the forces at work in Detroit in 1967 and today. The director of this film directed two other dramatic films (The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty), and Detroit is engaging in the same manner.

Wind River  (Ellen ***** Richard ****1/2)

This film tells a gripping story centering around a murder on a Native American reservation in Wyoming. The lead actor (Elizabeth Olson) is a rookie FBI agent sent to investigate the crime. She enters a world of misogynist white men. and the story delves deep into a multitude of prejudices against women and Native Americans. The film keeps you glued to the edge your seat with great story telling, beautiful scenery, and throbbing pace. It’s gorgeously photographed and very well acted. All together it is a very compelling and moving thriller.

Step  (Ellen **** Richard ***1/2)

This film is a close-to-home documentary that focuses on the lives of young Black women in Baltimore who attend a Charter school. The goal for the first graduating class is to have 100% of the students be accepted to college, most of whom would be the first in their families to attend college. In addition to their rigorous classwork, supportive counseling, and many other services and opportunities available to these teens is the “Step Team” — a metaphor for their life. The film is filled with intimate interviews with three of the young women on that Step Team and their families; Step competitions; and the young women’s struggles to succeed. It is straightforward, hopeful reporting.

Columbus  (Ellen *****   Richard *****)

This is a brilliant film, perhaps the best we have seen all summer. It takes place in a small mid-western town (Columbus, Indiana) noted for its architectural diversity, modernity, and excellence. The story is about relationships: a son and his father (a well-known architectural scholar who has fallen ill in this city); a young woman and her mother (the daughter fears leaving this town because of the support she provides her mother); and the unlikely relationship of this son and this daughter.  An overarching theme is what one sees and understands about architecture and how “physical space can affect emotions,” according to one reviewer. The pace is purposely slow and steady, and it unfolds in one beautiful scene after another. The photography is magnificent. The acting is moving, particularly that of Hailey Lu Richardson as Casey, the daughter. From beginning to end Columbus is an entirely satisfying and beautiful film. (Note: this film is a directorial debut for the South Korean based Kogonda, who is also the screenwriter.)

Notes from the Editor:

1. With this post I am pleased to report that Ellen Miller has agreed to become the prime film reviewer for MillersTime. Because of the overwhelming positive reception to an earlier film review posting by Ellen and because I find film reviewing the least enjoyable part of this blog, I am delighted to be relieved of what has become a chore for me. Know that while Ellen and I generally agree about the films we see, there are some differences, though they are not significant (see the star ratings which we give without knowing each other’s rating). Plus, I will no doubt add some thoughts on occasion.

2. If you check out the Rotten Tomatoes‘ scoring of films as one way to judge if a film may have interest for you, I highly recommend the article, Rotten Tomatoes, Explained. I found it quite informative and believe it will change I look at their ratings, both the ones by Critics and by Audiences.

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National Book Festival Is This Weekend

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

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The one day National Book Festival is this Saturday, Sept. 2 at the Washington Convention Center. From 9 am until 7:30 PM you can see and hear more than 100 authors, attend events specifically designed for children and teens, get books signed by authors, and purchase books at the Politics & Prose Bookstore at the Festival.

And it’s all free.

From the Politics & Prose website:

For book lovers, the National Book Festival has become an annual literary extravaganza, a star-studded, multi-stage show with authors and events drawing people from near and far for a day of festivities in Washington. This year the festival returns to the Convention Center on Saturday, September 2, with Politics and Prose again serving as the official bookseller.

Organized by the Library of Congress, the NBF has grown from humble origins 17 years ago—when a few dozen authors appeared in tents on the U.S. Capitol’s East Lawn—into one of the largest events on the nation’s literary calendar.

This year’s gathering will offer talks by more than 110 authors, illustrators, and poets, spread among ten stages throughout the day. In addition to book signings, the festival features assorted programs for adults as well as kids, from story times and a hunt for Waldo to a poetry slam and a behind-the-scenes look at the Library of Congress, the nation’s largest library. Family-friendly presentations include trivia sessions, an interactive maze illustration by master maze-maker Joe Wos, and an engaging session with illustrator and veteran New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.

Before going to the signing lines, fans will be able to purchase books by their favorite authors in the sales area run by P&P. Dozens of our staff members will be on hand to answer questions and offer expert advice and book recommendations.

Here are some of the festival’s many highlights:

  • David McCullough opens the main stage at 10 a.m. with a talk about his latest work, The American Spirit, a collection of his speeches delivered over the past few decades reflecting this veteran historian’s knowledge, humor, and enduring optimism.
  • Other writers scheduled for the main stage include Diana Gabaldon, J.D. Vance, Thomas Friedman, Michael Lewis, Condoleezza Rice, and David Baldacci.
  • The Contemporary Life stage will feature prominent figures in such fields as medicine, space exploration, and culture, including oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee (The Gene) at 11 a.m., former astronaut Leland Melvin (Chasing Space) at 1 p.m., and author and essayist Roxane Gay (Hunger) at 4 p.m. On the Fiction stage will be Elizabeth Strout (Anything is Possible) at 10:20 a.m., Alice McDermott (The Ninth Hour) at 12:10 p.m., Jesmyn Ward (Sing Unburied Sing) at 3 p.m., Claire Messud (Burning Girl) at 4:55 p.m., and Amor Towles (Gentleman in Moscow) at 6:45 p.m.
  • The History & Biography stage will showcase Margot Lee Shetterly (Hidden Figures) at noon, Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie (The Road to Camelot) at 10 a.m., Sidney Blumenthal (Wrestling With His Angel) at 11 a.m., and Peter Cozzens (The Earth is Weeping) at 4 p.m. The Thrillers & Fantasy stage will present Don Winslow (The Force) at 10 a.m., Scott Turow (Testimony) at 1:40 p.m., and Megan Abbott (You Will Know Me) at 2:35 p.m.
  • On the Poetry and Prose stage at 10 a.m. will be an event dubbed “Poetry Out Loud” intended to encourage young people to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. And at 6 p.m. on the Teens stage, a youth poetry slam will host top groups from the nation’s capital and around the country.
  • At “A Book That Shaped Me Contest,” fifth- and sixth-grade winners of an essay-writing competition, sponsored by local public library systems in the Mid-Atlantic region, will read their submissions.

This is just a small sampling of what the NBF will be offering. The festival will run from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public and free to everyone. For more information, please go to the NBF’s website and start planning your visit now!.

NOTE: If you’re considering attending, know that this event has grown and has become so popular that there are literally throngs of people at the event. But if you plan ahead and see the list of authors and the schedule for the day by spending some time on the Festival’s Website, you can get to the events that most interest you.

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Seeing a Total Eclipse

15 Tuesday Aug 2017

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(Credit Reuters)

I suspect many of you have seen a partial eclipse (of the sun). But most of you probably haven’t seen a full eclipse. I haven’t.

And I hadn’t planned to stay in Kansas City where I am as I write this (‘helping’ my daughter and son-in-law celebrate the birth of their second child). Specifically, my wife and I had planned to return to home to DC on Sunday, having been here a full two weeks by then.

As it turns out, Sunday is the day before the August 21 full eclipse, and the view from the Kansas City area, which, according to NASA, is in “the path of totality.” Still, my own parents had always warned me about over staying one’s welcome.

Then I read Annie Dilliard’s Classic Essay: Total Eclipse, which has just been reprinted in The Atlantic. It was first published in 1986, and she quite convincingly writes that there is no comparison between a partial and a full eclipse. Beyond that, her essay is eyeopening and beautifully written.

I urge you to read it also, while I am in the process of changing my reservations back to DC, where the viewing is decent, but nothing close to what will be possible from here.

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Summer Film Reviews by Ellen Miller

03 Thursday Aug 2017

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While your ‘trusty’ blogger was away on ‘baby watch’ in Kansas City, Ellen saw a number of films and agreed to write mini-reviews. The bold stars are her ratings, and for the three we had previously seen together, my ratings follow hers:

Maudi *****+

This is a stunning 5*+ movie. Based on a true story of a Nova Scotia folk artist — Maude Lewis  — it’s a memoir about her debilitating physical handicaps, about rejection by her family, and about her art. It’s also about her husband –Everett Lewis’ life of isolation and hardship, and their love in rural Nova Scotia. When they find each other, both of them are lost and unloved (and unlovable) souls in a stark, depressing world. Yet, every element of this film makes you hopeful. It rings first class on all the film values I can think of: acting, production, photography, narrative, pacing, and film writing. Ethan Hawke plays Everett, and Sally Hawkins plays Maude. Both will certainly be nominated for best actor awards. It’s not surprising that this near perfect film is a co-production of Canada and Ireland.

It won’t be playing long or maybe not even where you are, but this is a must-see if you can.

[8/4 Update – Richard ***** – Just saw this and concur on all points above. Ellen did not overstate her praise for this film.]

A City of Ghosts *****

Put this documentary in the category of “what I didn’t know” (ashamedly). By filmmaker Matthew Heineman, it won great acclaim at Sundance, not only telling the story of the horrific violence of ISIS in the Syrian city of Raqqa (which I did know), but how the brave, mostly “citizen journalists” have gotten the word out to the world, in a time when no one was paying attention. The early footage is shot in July 2014 when the Islamic militants took control of Raqqa and contains brutal images of the aftermath. The real-life nightmare that citizens face there has been told with hidden cameras and video. Possibly, the impactful part of the film focuses on the journalists who fled to Turkey and Germany, and who – at great risk to their lives– have found clandestine ways to tell the story of Raqqa to the world.

In the end, this is a deeply sad movie.

Lady Macbeth *****

This is not a film for everyone. It’s tough (and beautiful) to watch. The “Lady Macbeth” in this movie is a young woman in Victorian England, who, in a trade along with some land parcels, is handed off to a much older man. He seems to reject her, and she rejects the conventions of the times. She takes a stable hand as a lover, and then goes to extreme ends to keep her independence. The cinematography is stunning – each scene is exquisitely posed to create the most tension possible. The acting is first rate, and the story line is gripping and stark.

The audience ultimately has the responsibility of how to view “Lady Macbeth’s” ethical choices.

Variety Magazine sums it up well “At one level an extreme, unflinching feminist cautionary tale about the ultimate perils of chauvinistically containing or instructing a woman’s desires and impulses, “Lady Macbeth” also works as a fascinatingly inverted character study — wherein continued abuse and silencing gradually makes an oppressor of a victim.”

The film is based on Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk.”

Midwife ***

I will admit right from the start that I saw this film because I wanted to see Catherine Deneuve again, and because I haven’t seen a French film in a very long time.

I was disappointed.

It’s very French in its story: two women attached to one man — the father of Claire (played by Catherine Frot) was the former lover of Beatrice (played by Catherine Deneuve). The two women meet after 30 years, make peace with their pasts and bond together (with some reluctance) over new, compelling circumstances. Both of the characters are sympathetic (Claire is a caring midwife), though not always or at the same time.

I expected a sparkling and crisp performance from Deneuve and was disappointed.

Dunkirk ***** (Richard ****1/2)

This is one of the most extraordinarily extravagant and grand films I’ve seen in years and perhaps one of the greatest stories of “war is hell” ever filmed (or at least the greatest one I have ever seen).

The story centers on the British evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, and the land, sea, and air efforts mounted in the execution of that task. The production of this film is over the top — you are there in every moment — flying the Allied bombers; in the hulls of the ships transporting the solders; on the beaches at the Germans run their bombing raids; in the flaming water as soldiers are being recused. The tension builds in this film (cued a bit too loudly by the music), and you find yourself gripping the edge of your seat for most of the film.

But as much as this film is about war, it is also about the extraordinary patriotism of British citizens who supported them with a touching story that you will long remember.

See it.

[Richard: I saw this also and was not quite as enthusiastic as Ellen. The extraordinarily loud music bothered me and seemed somewhat out of place, and I couldn’t hear/understand some of the dialogue. Plus the lack of a linear story line had me confused at a number of points. Guess I sound like an old man. But it did send me to learn more about Dunkirk, and the two articles below added to my understanding of the film: one gives you background about the war itself, and one is a thoughtful review of the film.]

What is Dunkirk? Everything You Need to Know about the World War II Battle by Meghan O’Keefe. (Well, not everything but some good info as an introduction if your knowledge of Dunkirk is as limited as mine was.)

Review of the film by the New Yorker‘s film critic Richard Brody.]

The Exception **** (Richard ****)

If you think of this movie as part spy thriller and part Holocaust fairy tale (yes, that’s an oxymoron), you’ll appreciate, and perhaps even enjoy it, which I did.

A German soldier has been assigned to spy on the Kaiser who living in exile in the Netherlands when he improbably falls in love with the Kaiser’s Jewish housemaid. When the SS shows up, the clashes ensue, and everyone is forced to make some difficult moral choices.

By far the star of this show is Christopher Plummer who is a pleasure to watch as the erasable and unpredictable calculating Kaiser. Honestly, it’s worth seeing the film just to watch him.

Sami Blood **** (Richard ****1/2)

This is an odd little film with beautiful photography, a meaningful story, and very little dialogue.

The time is the 1930s, and the chief protagonist is a 14-year old girl from a remote Swedish ethnic minority known as the Sami people. She leaves her family and their world and attempts to integrate into modern day Sweden. At every turn she is faced with discrimination and racism. It’s a story about Swedish society that I didn’t know. It’s shocking to observe Sami as she struggles to makes her way in the modern world (and through her adolescence), and it’s easy to sympathize with her plight. It’s a quietly profound film. The acting by new comer Lene Cecilia Sparrok is superb.

(Richard: The story is one you’ve seen or read before. What was new for me was the ethnic minority and the setting, Scandinavia and not the Americas.)

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Ai Weiwei Returns to DC

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

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Ai Weiwei — the prolific Chinese dissident artist — returns to Washington in the sense that his latest creations are once again on display at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in DC. (See my 2012 post: Ai Weiwei: Today’s Most Powerful Artist? about one of his earlier exhibits here.)

Since that previous show of his work, I’ve followed this contemporary artist (sculptor, architect, photographer, painter, performer, woodworker, potter, activist, protester…) and continue to be fascinated by his creativity and his ability to express his views about art and society in a way that is immediately understandable to the viewer.

The current exhibit — Ai Weiwi: Trace at Hirshhorn — consists of just two pieces of work, spread over four or so rooms at the museum. The first work is two sets of wallpaper composition titled The Plain Version of the Animal That Looks Like a Llama but is Really an Alpaca. It covers much of the circular wall space on the second floor of the museum. One is produced in a gold colored print, and the second is a black and white version of the same wallpaper. When you first see the wallpaper, especially from a distance, it appear simply to be a traditional wallpaper pattern that repeats itself. As you begin to examine it more closely, you discover that it is something quite different. You realize that it is about “surveillance cameras, handcuffs, and Twitter bird logos, which allude to Ai Weiwei’s tweets challenging authority. Together, the massive works span nearly 700 feet around the Hirshhorn’s Outer Ring galleries.”

The wallpaper is actually background for the major part of the exhibit, Trace, which “features 176 portraits of people around the world whom the artist considers activists, prisoners of conscience, or advocates of free speech. Each of the portraits is made of thousands of plastic LEGO bricks, assembled by hand and laid out on the floor. This piece was originally commissioned in 2014 as a site-specific installation at the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It was commissioned by FOR-SITE Foundation, and became a collaboration of the National Park Service and the Golden Gate Park Conservancy. It reportedly drew nearly 1 million visitors.”

The individuals portrayed on the floor of the various rooms at the Hirshhorn with the LEGO creations (using 1.2 million individual LEGOS) are generally grouped around regions of the world from where the individuals have lived, worked, and/or been imprisoned. Each room has an easily accessible video display where visitors can learn details about the activism of each individual. Some of the highly pixellated portraits are in black and white, and some in colors — often colors associated with the country from where the activist/dissident lives/lived. Each of the LEGO portraits is based on actual photographs of the dissidents, often their “mug shot.”

Ai Weiwei has said that he wants his “art to be fresh and understandable” by all, including children. This exhibit certainly accomplishes that goal. As you walk through the six or eight sections, you likely recognize a number of the names — Edward Snowden, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandala, Aung San Suu Kyi. But there are many more that I suspect you only vaguely know about or don’t know at all. The list of those he included was inspired by a Amnesty International list of individuals targeted by their governments for their activism.

The impact of these portraits is important: The portraits represent people from all over the world — every continent — and dissidents from countries with both authoritarian and democratic governments. It is clear what Ai Weiwei wants us to understand.

And finally, the scope of the project, in its creation, in its political audaciousness, and in its execution (number of people involved in putting it together and the length of time to do so) along with the process of transportation and installation is simply mind-boggling.

It will remain at the Hirshhorn until Jan. 1, 2018 where you can view it free of charge between 10 AM and 5:30 PM every day except Dec. 25.

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Books Favored by MillersTime Readers – Jan.-July 2017

22 Saturday Jul 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Here are all, in one place, the 2017 mid-year favorite books by MillersTime readers. There are 205 titles, 115 fiction and 90 nonfiction. Fifty readers contributed to this wonderful list.

The first eight below ‘arrived’ in the last week or so and were not in earlier posts. They are followed by all the ones I posted earlier.

Enjoy.

Final Additions to the List:

Kathleen Kroos:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (F).

Setting Free the Kites by Alex George (F).

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (NF), my summer project…

Charles Tilis:

Giant of the Senate by Al Franken (NF) is likely a “must read” for progressives and a “never read” for conservatives. Senator Franken exposes the seedier side of politics today with a unique combination of wit and self-reflection of which both are needed to remain sane in today’s polarized environment. He does bring to life the rigors of big-league politics with the need for fundraising and impact on families. One thing is clear though—Senator Franken has the chops to aspire to greater office.

Land Wayland:

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston (NF), about the 10 day visit in 2015 to the (non-Mayan) City of the Monkey God by a team of archaeologists, film makers, photographers and writers who traveled to a lonely, lonely, lonely area of Honduras called La Mosquitias, where no human has been seen for about 500 years…a city, indeed an entire civilization of 30,000–100,000, was abandoned due to the arrival of a parasite that causes the lips and nose to develop huge ulcers and eventually causes the person’s face to erode or waste away. The infection is exceedingly difficult to (1) detect and (2) treat and 8 out of 10 team members got it (they all survived) but it will never be out of their system, as it waits for a breakdown in their immune system to finish the job.

Before they walked away, the inhabitants carefully placed their entire civilization’s cache of sacred objects, including a number of sculptures of monkeys, in the main square.  And even though these these items would be worth millions of dollars to tomb-raiders, they were still in-situ 500 years later.  No one had been there.

What they found in 2015 is like all of the best jungle exploration stories of all time—even better. Beautiful quiet rivers surrounded by towering mountains and riotous jungle with bugs and butterflies and dragonflies and frogs never seen before.  Strange noises all night long including the sounds of big animals moving through the camp. They had multiple encounters with 7 foot jaguars and 6 foot deadly aggressive fer-de-lance snakes. It rarely stopped raining. And there were no paths of even the smallest kind and every step had to macheted into submission  There were deep quicksand pits, and thousands of serious big stinging ants waiting on trees to drop off onto your skin, and ticks, ticks, ticks and deadly spiders, spiders, spiders. And the ground was very literally covered with cockroaches at night. You could get lost 15 feet in the jungle from your group. The most important piece of equipment each person carried was their cell phone with a GPS  system that was accurate within one foot  Without it on and working (double checked) you did not dare step 3 inches outside the camp boundaries.

This is a book to read while seated in a chair with its legs in buckets of bug killer, covered with three layers of the finest grade bug netting, every part, every part, every part  of your entire body slathered in DEET, breathing through grade 7 nose filters and wearing swim goggles to keep the deadly no-see-ums out of your eyes, having blood samples drawn every hour to pick up the first signs of kidney or liver failure, and tuned by radio to the priest or rabbi back home who is sending constant prayers up in your behalf because the doctor;s are praying you don’t come back and bring stuff with you that will destroy their hospital’s  plan for dealing with exotic infectious diseases. And no I don’t exaggerate  nearly enough.

Elizabeth Tilis:

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (F). Your yearly mystery thriller a la Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, etc, but with a twist – the story is written backwards!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (F). A fun, light and quick read. I also enjoyed the HBO miniseries based on the book that came out this winter.

David P. Stang:

House of Names by Colm Toibin (F).

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (F).

(Please see the Guest Post: Thank You George Saunders & Colm Toibin, wherein David Stang delves into aspects of these two outstanding novels that were not evident to me when I read them.)

Brandt Tilis:

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse by Tom Verducci (NF). It’s almost like reading a Moneyball sequel 15 years later after most teams caught up to that line of thinking.  How do the smartest Front Offices stay on the cutting edge of building a winner? As a bonus, we get to see the stories behind the characters that broke the Cubs’ curse (not just Theo Epstein but also Joe Maddon, Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, etc). You don’t have to be a baseball fan to like this book, but you probably have to have enjoyed the Cubs’ run last year. There is some “Smartest Guys in the Room” BS that goes along with the book when reading it through the prism of some of the Cubs’ struggles this year, but that existed in Moneyball too.

Dixon Butler:

Ike and McCarthy by David A. Nichols (NF). The McCarthy era poisoned American life from 1950 – 1954. This book provides a thorough and quite readable history of Eisenhower’s role in bringing this reign of anticommunist demagoguery to an end. It transformed my view of Eisenhower.

Edan Orgad:

The North Water by Ian McGuire (F) is an incredible book to listen to. I hope they make a movie. Great recommendation (h/t EllnMllr).

 Previously Posted:

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Guest Post: “Thank You George Saunders & Colm Toibin”

18 Tuesday Jul 2017

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(Ed. Note: David Stang, one of my dear friends (with whom I disagree on many issues), has long been interested in the concepts of an afterlife, the spirit, the soul, and the disincarnate, all of which are foreign to me. Nevertheless, we continue to meet and talk and exchange views about many things. Today, this Guest Post is spurred by David’s reading of two recent novels which have received strong reviews, including ones by MillersTime readers.)

The Literary Resurrection of Spirits in George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo and Colm Toibin’s House of Names

by David Stang

 

Introduction:

One powerful dogma of Science for well over a century has been only what is material or measurable with scientific instruments may legitimately be considered real and therefore any notion of spirit, soul, afterlife consciousness or disincarnate beings – or even that is possible for humans to communicate with such entities – is necessarily a hallucination or a delusion most likely arising out of a mental disorder. In place of religion Science offered us Darwinism, followed by Neo-Darwinism, the present day majority view. There are no deities. There was no Creation. There is no afterlife. There is only evolution and adaptations. Our only purpose for being alive is to propagate and perpetuate our species.

In addition to the attacks on anyone who questions Neo-Darwinist theory, there have often been attacks from the Christian Church on those who seek to make connections with spirit realm entities. Mediums, also called necromancers, who communicated with dis-incarnate spirits and other world entities have for centuries been accused by the Church of doing the work of the Devil.

The effect of the Church coupled with attacks from science adversely affected those persons engaged in the Arts who had interest into delving into matters involving deity, soul, spirit and the afterlife. Artists were intimidated from writing plays, novels, film scripts, short stories almost any other kind of fiction which showed sympathy or acceptance of such other worldly phenomena. In time the artists caught on and stopped writing novels, short stories and film scripts about the spirit realm and all of its varied denizens. But in recent years there have been signs that the pendulum was about ready to start swinging in the other direction.

Within the first six months of calendar year 2017 two novels with a heavy duty emphasis on necromancy have been published with little apparent risk that their authors would be subjected to defamation, scorn and other such as punishments. This year George Saunders (author of Lincoln In The Bardo) and Colm Toibin (author of House Of Names) each jumped fearlessly into the spirit realm with both feet. The term Bardo, based upon Buddhist tradition, is best defined as a state or states of being or consciousness following death.

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Final Edition: MillersTime Readers Favorite Books Mid-Year 2017

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Here are all, in one place, the 2017 mid-year favorite books by MillersTime readers.

The first ten in this list were not in earlier posts. They are followed by the ones I posted earlier.

Enjoy.

New Additions to the List:

Jane Bradley:

I’ve enjoyed many of the same books already listed by others, including:

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston (NF).

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (NF).

Between Them: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford (NF). [audiobook]

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles (F). [audiobook]

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag (F). [audiobook]

Swing Time by Zadie Smith (F).

Moonglow by Michael Chabon (F). [audiobook]

Two biographies that have captivated me are Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (NF) [audiobook]; and Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands (NF), which I’m still reading.

A novelist new to me this year is Rachel Cusk, author of a trilogy about a British writer whom we get to know mostly through her encounters with others.  The first two novels in the trilogy are Outline by Rachel Cusk (F); and Transit by Rachel Cusk (F), and I’m looking forward to the third.

Chris Rothenberger:

This year I have read many of the books written by Lisa See, a Chinese-American author of historical fiction.  She has written numerous books highlighting stories about Chinese characters and culture, and illuminating the strong bonds between women.   Her stories are in depth and fascinating and shine the light on little known topics, and a culture that proves fascinating.  Her research is impeccable, and deep, including travel to China to remote areas to research her stories. She has won numerous awards and is a NY Times Bestselling author.  The books are both engaging and characters well developed; at times the stories are painful and sad, but culturally revealing.

Books I’ve read so far are: Sun Flower and the Secret Fan,   Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, China Dolls by Lisa See (All F).

Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard (NF). It’s a story every American should read.   Like his other books, it does not disappoint.  The background of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb to end WW2 is riveting, and the sequence of events carefully shared.  I learned volumes about our history, as I have in his other books.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (F). It’s the story of 3 women whose lives converge during WW2.  It highlights actual events in US and Germany during the wartime and provides a different perspective about war through the female viewpoint whose lives were impacted by war. Their destinies converged around Ravensbruk, Hilter’s Concentration Camp for women. The story is based on the lives of real people and highlights love, redemption and years of secrets.

Garland Standrod:

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (F). A novel about a man’s fascination with the garden of an eccentric Jewish family in Italy just prior to WWII. The novel’s tension results from the knowledge by the reader that the family will end up in a concentration camp. Published some time ago but an Italian classic.

Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison (NF). Thus study, although overlong, is a fascinating study of bipolar disease combined with poetic genius, by the author of An Unquiet Mind.

Linda Rothenberg:

I loved The Rent Collector by Camron Wright (F).

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (F) was good.

Let There Be Water by (NF) is a good read.

Dave Katten:

I just wrapped up 3 audiobooks I’d been working on all year:

Americanah by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie (F) was another read in my quest to understand/fathom race in America, esp. blackness in America. I actually prefer fiction as the vehicle for that, over non-fiction, since fundamentally I’m looking for stories over data (which is not typical for me). Anyone who reads this should get the audiobook version, just so they can hear the narrator’s delightful Nigerian-American English, as well as the correct pronunciation of Igbo.

I didn’t like Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (NF) at first and put it on pause for some time. Most people I talked to said the first part was the most interesting, but I was more taken by the middle/final parts. Again, the stories here are more interesting than the data, but Vance does a good job of weaving them together. As a side note, I thought it was interesting that his advisor at Yale law was Amy Chua, she of the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, who convinced him to write the book. I think I saw a joint interview with them in The Atlantic. However, while I expected to come away with more empathy for rural working class folks, I found the internal contradictions that Vance lays out to be really frustrating, rather than relatable. That is unusual for me.

I picked up The Idiot by Elif Batuman (F) because I heard it was about a college student studying linguistics at an elite private school in the mid-90s, which is *almost* me. It was surreal – I was interested, I was engaged, but the plot didn’t really develop. Nobody wanted anything, everything just happened, for no discernible reason. Then the protagonist’s freshman year was over. There were a few insights on the immigrant experience, but overall, things just “were” or “happened”, but I still wanted to finish. Not typical for me.

Lydia Hill Slaby:

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barret (NF). I’ve been reading and enjoying this one. Otherwise, it’s been a quiet year in Lake Wobegon.

Chris McCleary:

I strongly recommend folks check out Andrew Mayne (the most recent book of his that I read was Orbital (F), and I gave it 4 of 5 stars. It was a sequel to an earlier novel: Station Breaker (F). He has written a wide variety of books, across genres, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single one of his books that I’ve read (I think I’ve read his entire bibliography except two so far).  So I’d like to recommend folks check out anything by him.

Jim Kilby:

Bad Blood by John Sanford (F). Murder mystery.

Fatso. Story by and about Art Donovan (NF). Ex Baltimore Colt lineman. “When Men Were Men.”

Uh-Oh: Some Observations From Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door by Robert Fulghum (NF). The guy who learned everything he needed, in kindergarten.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (F). Life through the eyes of an African intellectual.

The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Byer (NF). The real strange true history, about how the world’s events unfolded.

Five Easy Decades by Dennis McDougal (NF). How Jack Nicholson became the world’s biggest movie star.

General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution: From Redcoat to Rebel by Hal T. Shelton (NF). A book that would only interest me about Gen. Montgomery, a friend of George Washington, killed in the Revolutionary War, and an  ancestor of my mother.

Gabi Beaumont:

Faithful Place (three stars) and The Secret Place (four stars) both by Tanya French and both (NF).

Currently reading Into the Water by Paula Hawkings (F) which I would recommend, but so far it is about 3 stars.

Bina Shah:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (F).
 

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison (F).

Tanya Chernov Smith:

I only have one recommendation that isn’t a “how-to-get-your-baby-to-sleep” guide:

The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert (NF). At a time when American politics have many of us considering life off the grid, this true story of a mountain man provides a special brand of comfort. Eustace Conway left his comfortable suburban home at 17 to move into the Appalachian Mountains, where he has since lived off the land. A charismatic and romantic figure, both brilliant and tormented, brave and contradictory, restless and ambitious, Conway has always seen himself as a “Man of Destiny” whose goal is to convince modern Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature.

Kathy Camicia:

Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruggle (NF).   This was a NYTimes rec for the previous year. The author is a poet and her observations are written in a beautiful style and language.

The Best American Essays 2016  Ed.  by Jonathan Franzen (NF). Not the best year but they are always good; not that many from the New Yorker

Landscapes by John Berger (NF).  My favorite art critic who recently died. A collection of his essays on art, travel and the world.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women by Siri Hustvedt (NF). Very interesting essays on art and feminism by this author who is also a novelist and scholar. The second half of the book focuses on neuroscience and perception.

Known and Strange Things by Tegu Cole (NF). This is my favorite book of essays, and one I recommend highly. If you aren’t familiar with the author, it will be worth your while. He writes for the NYTimes Sunday magazine on photography and art. The book includes other topics such as travel, literature, history and politics.

Novels:

Commonwealth by Anne Patchett (F). Good.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (F). Good.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (F). Very good and still creepy.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff  (F). Very good.

Any Human Heart by William Boyd (F).  Excellent.

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (F).  Excellent but not for everyone; post-modern

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O ‘Brien (F).

The Blue Guitar by John Banville (F). Good and always a pleasure to read.

The Secret Chord by Gerald Brooks (F). Very good.

The Making of Zombie Wars by Aleksandar Hemon (F). OK, but the author writes so well that I will read anything from him.

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Ten Movies to Keep in Mind

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

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More films to keep in mind.

Most of these we saw at an excellent Jewish Film Festival (our first) in Washington several weeks ago.

Since I didn’t keep notes or write mini-reviews shortly after the seeing these films, there are only ratings (one to five stars) and a sentence or two from both Ellen and myself on each one of the ten films in this post. f

The first two below are in theaters in DC now. The following eight are all from the 27th Jewish Film Festival. Hopefully, some will make it to theaters over the next year.

Definitely consider:

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Even More Mid-Year Favorite Books (#16-29)

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Not wanting to wait until December to report what books various MillersTime readers are enjoying so far this year, here is the third posting of mid-year favorites which adds 15 more to the two previous posts (1st: Ellen and My Favorites and 2nd: 15 from MillersTime Contributors)

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More Mid-Year Favorite Reads (#1-15)

28 Sunday May 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Not wanting to wait until December to report what books various MillersTime readers are enjoying so far this year, I asked all those who have contributed over the years to  ‘Favorite Reads’ to send me the titles and a few sentences about what they’ve been reading and enjoying in the first half of 2017.

Here are the 15 results so far. I say “so far” as I hope this post will encourage others of you to send in what’s brought you reading pleasure over the last five or six months. When I get another batch of responses, I’ll post those too.

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Favorite Reads So Far This Year (2017)

20 Saturday May 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Several years ago I decided waiting until December each year was too long a time between posts that share favorite reads among MillersTime readers. So I started asking in May/June for books you’ve read so far in the year that have particularly resonated with you. And since some of our memories are not quite as sharp as they once were, the idea of having a midyear call for your favorites and a midyear post, I hope, will be useful to all and will continue to be a regular feature here.

I ask that you send me a few that have stood out for you so far, along with a sentence or two of what was particularly appealing. Send them to my email (Samesty84@gmail.com), and when I get at least a dozen or so responses, I’ll post them for other readers to see. I’ll also do a second summer post for those of you who may be too busy to respond in the next couple of weeks (but know you can expect a couple of reminders if you don’t respond to this first appeal).

To start everyone off, both Ellen and I have listed books that we’ve particularly enjoyed since Jan.1, 2017, along with a few sentences about each. (We may have overdone our list here a bit, but remember we are retired, don’t watch TV, and our grand kinder go to bed early.)

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A Chance to See More Good Films

12 Friday May 2017

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    “The Women’s Balcony” Opening Night Film

One more film festival for those of you living in the Washington, DC metropolitan area – The 27th Annual Washington Jewish Film Festival, May 17-28th.

Lots of good films, including one we saw in our Sunday Cinema Club that we highly recommend – Past Life (see my review, Sneak Previews, from an earlier MillersTime post). Also scheduled is The History of Love, which friends saw at the Miami Film Festival and recommend.  I suspect that neither of these will make it to the major theaters; so here’s a chance to see one or both.

Ordering on the phone was very quick and efficient: 202-777-3250, or you can also do so on line. Most films are showing twice, which gives you some options of when and also where to see them.

Link to the Festival for descriptions of the films and where you can see them: https://www.wjff.org/

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