Ellen Datlow's Blog, page 25
May 16, 2011
First review of Supernatural Noir
I'm delighted to post this rave for Supernatural Noir from The Green Man Review
May 15, 2011
Peter and Wendy
So, for the third time its been staged at New York City's New Victory Theater, I went to the Mabou Mines production of Peter and Wendy,their play based on James Barrie's Peter Pan. I admit that I've never read the book. I saw the Mary Martin movie and the Disney cartoon version as a child and loved them.
I've seen several productions by Mabou Mines over the years-some work and some haven't (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Phil Dick was awful, primarily because the main male character was played campy, totally destroying any credibility or faithfulness to the source material). I've enjoyed The Shaggy Dog Animations and would happily watch it again. But Peter and Wendy is their masterpiece. It never fails to move me to tears.
It's large part puppetry (Peter is an adorable/monstrously selfish perpetual lost boy marionette with red hair), Nana the dog is a hand puppet later rejiggered into the crocodile stalking Captain Hook. Hook is a marionette. Wendy is the remarkable Karen Kandel, a stately, gorgeous woman who has played the part and voiced multiple characters each of the three times I've seen the play. John and Michael Darling are "created" by clothing flapping, birds made of --not sure what--fly through puppetry manipulation. For anyone who is a fan of excellent puppetry it's a must-see.
But for me, the magic of the stagecraft, while awe-inspiring, is only one part of the production's attraction. It's also the performance by Karen Kandel, the often melancholy Celtic music, and --the underlay. Rick Bowes says it's a sentimentality about and nostalgia for childhood--perhaps for him. For me, it's the push-pull of child-parent love/need the pain of the parents left behind when the children are spirited away by Peter. I've never been a parent but this production helps me empathize more than any other piece of art I've ever seen. It's the idea of loss--loss of innocence, of a specific type of imagination most children have and that artists of all kinds long for and sometimes recapture (I'm not an artist and have no creative imagination). So anyway, yes I cried at the end. For Wendy as a mother and all the other moms in the world whose children leave home (eventually for good).
I've no idea if this makes any sense whatsoever but there it is.
A great piece of theater for adults and children.
I've seen several productions by Mabou Mines over the years-some work and some haven't (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Phil Dick was awful, primarily because the main male character was played campy, totally destroying any credibility or faithfulness to the source material). I've enjoyed The Shaggy Dog Animations and would happily watch it again. But Peter and Wendy is their masterpiece. It never fails to move me to tears.
It's large part puppetry (Peter is an adorable/monstrously selfish perpetual lost boy marionette with red hair), Nana the dog is a hand puppet later rejiggered into the crocodile stalking Captain Hook. Hook is a marionette. Wendy is the remarkable Karen Kandel, a stately, gorgeous woman who has played the part and voiced multiple characters each of the three times I've seen the play. John and Michael Darling are "created" by clothing flapping, birds made of --not sure what--fly through puppetry manipulation. For anyone who is a fan of excellent puppetry it's a must-see.
But for me, the magic of the stagecraft, while awe-inspiring, is only one part of the production's attraction. It's also the performance by Karen Kandel, the often melancholy Celtic music, and --the underlay. Rick Bowes says it's a sentimentality about and nostalgia for childhood--perhaps for him. For me, it's the push-pull of child-parent love/need the pain of the parents left behind when the children are spirited away by Peter. I've never been a parent but this production helps me empathize more than any other piece of art I've ever seen. It's the idea of loss--loss of innocence, of a specific type of imagination most children have and that artists of all kinds long for and sometimes recapture (I'm not an artist and have no creative imagination). So anyway, yes I cried at the end. For Wendy as a mother and all the other moms in the world whose children leave home (eventually for good).
I've no idea if this makes any sense whatsoever but there it is.
A great piece of theater for adults and children.
May 14, 2011
Friday night at the movies
A triple feature last night. I tweeted to say they were all grim right after I finished watching them but having digested each overnight, although Red Riding is truly grim, but of the other two -although one is certainly downbeat, the other has an exuberance, an ultimate love of life and imagination that totally defeats any bits of grimness within the telling of the tale.
First up A Scanner Darkly, by Richard Linklater based on Phil Dick's novel (which I've never read). It's near future LA and an undercover cop (Keanu Reeves) is trying to get to the bottom of a drug ring--although somehow his job is related to New Path Recovery Center--an thinly disguised scientology-like cult. He lives in a house with asshole Robert Downey, Jr (perfect in the role) and clueless Woody Harrelson. The marvelously inventive skinsuit disguises the person wearing it by mutating into different visual and audio personalities-and one wonders if this splitting of personality is responsible for the problems Bob Arctor (the cop) has, rather than his ingesting Substance D.
First of all, I don't get this whole half animation used--it's neither live action nor honest to god animation.
Second, I don't know if the novel covers it but the movie never explains what Substance D does as a drug.
Third, Why does New Path work with him, given the ending?
For me, an enjoyable mess.
Second part of the Red Riding Trilogy about serial killers in Yorkshire. This one is about the Yorkshire Ripper and the corruption in the government and police force set up in section one continues, chomping everyone in its way. Grim and gritty.
The Fall, is an oddball film with Lee Pace and directed by Tarsem Singh taking place in 1915 LA in a hospital where a little girl (Alexandria) recovers from a broken arm from picking oranges, and a young stuntman named Roy recuperates from a bad fall. She has the run of the hospital and its grounds and comes across Roy. Depressed and suicidal over a failed love affair, ta her request, he begins a fantabulous story of derring do with 5 heroes -colorful and chaotic.
The opening sequence is excellent but it took awhile for me to get into it because Lee Pace's character has these HUGE eyebrows that really distracted me (honest). The visual look is very fine, which makes sense as Tarsem made The Cell, the movie with Jennifer Lopez that looked gorgeous but was totally empty. I admit to being confused by the supposed nationality of the child--I kept thinking she was east Indian not sure why (possibly because of the director's Bollywood influences)--yet her mother and sister are eastern European. Turns out she is Roumanian.
The bad guys in the fantasy sequences are powerfully effective, dressed in black like an anti-Zorro but growling like dogs.
Considering I'd never heard of it until someone online recced it to me, I suspect it didn't get a wide release. It takes its time but is well worth seeing--there's a lot to love about this film.
First up A Scanner Darkly, by Richard Linklater based on Phil Dick's novel (which I've never read). It's near future LA and an undercover cop (Keanu Reeves) is trying to get to the bottom of a drug ring--although somehow his job is related to New Path Recovery Center--an thinly disguised scientology-like cult. He lives in a house with asshole Robert Downey, Jr (perfect in the role) and clueless Woody Harrelson. The marvelously inventive skinsuit disguises the person wearing it by mutating into different visual and audio personalities-and one wonders if this splitting of personality is responsible for the problems Bob Arctor (the cop) has, rather than his ingesting Substance D.
First of all, I don't get this whole half animation used--it's neither live action nor honest to god animation.
Second, I don't know if the novel covers it but the movie never explains what Substance D does as a drug.
Third, Why does New Path work with him, given the ending?
For me, an enjoyable mess.
Second part of the Red Riding Trilogy about serial killers in Yorkshire. This one is about the Yorkshire Ripper and the corruption in the government and police force set up in section one continues, chomping everyone in its way. Grim and gritty.
The Fall, is an oddball film with Lee Pace and directed by Tarsem Singh taking place in 1915 LA in a hospital where a little girl (Alexandria) recovers from a broken arm from picking oranges, and a young stuntman named Roy recuperates from a bad fall. She has the run of the hospital and its grounds and comes across Roy. Depressed and suicidal over a failed love affair, ta her request, he begins a fantabulous story of derring do with 5 heroes -colorful and chaotic.
The opening sequence is excellent but it took awhile for me to get into it because Lee Pace's character has these HUGE eyebrows that really distracted me (honest). The visual look is very fine, which makes sense as Tarsem made The Cell, the movie with Jennifer Lopez that looked gorgeous but was totally empty. I admit to being confused by the supposed nationality of the child--I kept thinking she was east Indian not sure why (possibly because of the director's Bollywood influences)--yet her mother and sister are eastern European. Turns out she is Roumanian.
The bad guys in the fantasy sequences are powerfully effective, dressed in black like an anti-Zorro but growling like dogs.
Considering I'd never heard of it until someone online recced it to me, I suspect it didn't get a wide release. It takes its time but is well worth seeing--there's a lot to love about this film.
May 13, 2011
Born Yesterday
This evening I went with friends to see the new production of Garson Kanin's play Born Yesterday with James Belushi, Robert Sean Leonard, and Nina Arianda. Somehow we landed in the front row, which in many shows I'd hate but in this case was just dandy.
Firs thing to be aware of is that it's dated and no one under a certain age will "get" it unless they're familiar with the movie, with Judy Holiday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holdan. I think I saw it a looooong time ago. If I did see it I sure don't remember that it was very much about politics and corruption.
A self-made rich thug is trying to bribe his way into Washington politics just after WW II. His dizzy blonde girlfriend is the typical dumb blonde until he hires a reporter to whip her into shape so that she won't embarrass him among congressmen and their wives.
Leonard is no Holden--in looks or charm, unfortunately, but Arianda was fabulous and so was Belushi.
Firs thing to be aware of is that it's dated and no one under a certain age will "get" it unless they're familiar with the movie, with Judy Holiday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holdan. I think I saw it a looooong time ago. If I did see it I sure don't remember that it was very much about politics and corruption.
A self-made rich thug is trying to bribe his way into Washington politics just after WW II. His dizzy blonde girlfriend is the typical dumb blonde until he hires a reporter to whip her into shape so that she won't embarrass him among congressmen and their wives.
Leonard is no Holden--in looks or charm, unfortunately, but Arianda was fabulous and so was Belushi.
May 11, 2011
Locus Award final ballot
I am thrilled to have made the final ballot in the category Best Editor and for The Beastly Bride to have given a place in the anthology category.
But it's also wonderful to see my many friends and colleagues on the list with me. Thank you all who voted: Locus Award Finalists.
I don't know if I'll fly out to Seattle, as I've been doing a lot of traveling lately and was hoping to stay close to home until Renovation. But it would sure be a lot of fun, especially with Harlan and Gardner being inducted into the SF Hall of Fame.
But it's also wonderful to see my many friends and colleagues on the list with me. Thank you all who voted: Locus Award Finalists.
I don't know if I'll fly out to Seattle, as I've been doing a lot of traveling lately and was hoping to stay close to home until Renovation. But it would sure be a lot of fun, especially with Harlan and Gardner being inducted into the SF Hall of Fame.
May 10, 2011
Teeth Event June 11th in NYC
Saturday June 11th a reading/signing of Terri Windling and my young adult anthology, Teeth, will be taking place at the Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village, NYC. 3-5pm. Books probably won't be sold there but hopefully B&N down the block will have copies.
425 Avenue of the Americas (at 10th St.)
Participating are myself, plus contributors:
Steve Berman
Jeffrey Ford
Delia Sherman
Holly Black
Ellen Kushner
Genevieve Valentine
Hope to see you all there.
425 Avenue of the Americas (at 10th St.)
Participating are myself, plus contributors:
Steve Berman
Jeffrey Ford
Delia Sherman
Holly Black
Ellen Kushner
Genevieve Valentine
Hope to see you all there.
May 8, 2011
And....
Tonight the first of the Red Riding trilogy. Nice and gritty thriller with Andrew Garfield (just prior to The Social Network as a young reporter who becomes embroiled in a series of child abductions/murders in Yorkshire (based on the Yorkshire ripper) in 1974 amid police and political corruption. Looking forward to the second.
May 7, 2011
Movie watching
So last night I watched Dario Argento's first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. It's the third I've seen by him. I very much liked Suspiria-watched years after it was made, thought Four Flies on Grey Velvet silly and already dated when I saw it in 1972 and am afraid "Bird" is just as silly and dated. "Bird" and "Flies" are very much of their time: filled with "hip" jerky guys and "swinging" females who are either helpless or murderers. Throw in extra helpings of faux psychology and jangly sixties film music and voila! I don't get why Argento is considered a master of horror. Yes, there are some nice set pieces and the cinematography and use of colors are interesting but c'mon. I may same a few more --and re-watch Suspiria but I doubt he's going to become a favorite on the basis of what I've seen so far.
Hot Fuzz was great. No idea where it was going and I loved it.
On my very long flights to and from LAX and Australia I watched about 10 movies. I can't remember them all but they including Country Strong with a nice performance by Gwyneth Paltrow and her eye candy co-star Garrett Hedlund, Rabbit Hole, based on the play, with good performances by Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman as parents coping with grief when their young son dies. The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angeline Jolie--which although it bombed in theaters, I quite liked, The Apartment directed by Billy Wilder with Jack Lemmon and a fabulous Shirley Maclaine. I may remember more later.
Hot Fuzz was great. No idea where it was going and I loved it.
On my very long flights to and from LAX and Australia I watched about 10 movies. I can't remember them all but they including Country Strong with a nice performance by Gwyneth Paltrow and her eye candy co-star Garrett Hedlund, Rabbit Hole, based on the play, with good performances by Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman as parents coping with grief when their young son dies. The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angeline Jolie--which although it bombed in theaters, I quite liked, The Apartment directed by Billy Wilder with Jack Lemmon and a fabulous Shirley Maclaine. I may remember more later.
May 5, 2011
Home from Australia
I got in the door around 8pm last night after 35 grueling hours of travel. I'm sooo glad to be home and I think my cats are too. They were both affectionate and underfoot.
The last few days were a lot of fun, as I dined and drank with much of the Perth sf/f/h community while staying with Robin Pen and his wife Toula Demetriades. Nick Evans (aka Crankynick) took me and Keira McKenzie to the Melbourne Zoo where we spent four (!) hours wandering around. We didn't see everything. Nick also took me antiquing Sunday and to King's Park on Tuesday.
My jars of honey (3 glass ones of leatherwood honeyfrom Dirk Flinthart, 3 plastic of different types from the Melbourne airport, one cinnamon honey from a shop in the Margaret River area), the jar of pear jam from Foster, and the bottle of Swedish pear cider for Rose Fox all made it home in suitcase intact. Yayyy.
Opening my mail today I found advance copies of The Best Horror of the Year volume three and it looks scrumptious.
The last few days were a lot of fun, as I dined and drank with much of the Perth sf/f/h community while staying with Robin Pen and his wife Toula Demetriades. Nick Evans (aka Crankynick) took me and Keira McKenzie to the Melbourne Zoo where we spent four (!) hours wandering around. We didn't see everything. Nick also took me antiquing Sunday and to King's Park on Tuesday.
My jars of honey (3 glass ones of leatherwood honeyfrom Dirk Flinthart, 3 plastic of different types from the Melbourne airport, one cinnamon honey from a shop in the Margaret River area), the jar of pear jam from Foster, and the bottle of Swedish pear cider for Rose Fox all made it home in suitcase intact. Yayyy.
Opening my mail today I found advance copies of The Best Horror of the Year volume three and it looks scrumptious.
May 1, 2011
Nuts! I've gone and joined twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/EllenDatlow
I can't post on my phone so at least for now I can only tweet from computers. Don't expect much --I don't :-)
I can't post on my phone so at least for now I can only tweet from computers. Don't expect much --I don't :-)
