APOLOGIA - skip it

APOLOGIA (seen in London, Sept 2017)

Do we really need a play about upper middle-class (or upper class, they certainly seem well-to-do) 20/30-somethings who are upset with their mom because they (mis)perceive she did not pay enough attention to them while they were growing up, much less because she didn’t stand up to their “brutal” (the alleged brutality vague) dad or spent too much focus on her job?  Do we need another script with an old friend gay guy to punctuate with comic relief, the same old jokes gay guys have been punctuating with for at least the 40 years I’ve been going to the theater, probably longer?  And how much shorthand contemporary family angst should we have to tolerate instead of true character development?  Popular tropes are dished out, nothing new or specific.  One of the ironies of this play is that a character is criticized for her role in a soap opera (for financial expedience) instead of pursuing serious on stage drama; money over art.  This production is the star vehicle for money type, a weak script mini-soap opera with a concluding obvious twist, masquerading as a serious investigation of the world or offering epiphanies into The Family and Art.   A monologue about Giotto is supposed to explain the sublime and provide depth but is packed with contemporary anachronism while appearing to take African art seriously panders to an audience that wants to feel erudite and culturally inclusive.  Highbrow soap opera structured as a stage play. – No blame to the cast, all great except for the main lead, who will be headlining on Broadway for the NY production, who was miscast.  Well, maybe not; Stockard Channing is ideal for the role as the point is star value to sell tickets for a weak vehicle, the script, filler to populate the stage with stars.  

Maybe I was spoiled a few weeks earlier by seeing Kevin Kline and a brilliant cast in an excelsior production of Present Laughter on Broadway.  I mention it because is it an example of an outstanding crafted script marketed with a big star who delivered.   And even though the play claimed to be no more than a silly comedy, it packed far more insight too.

on driving in residential sidestreets

Ralph Nader wrote, "Erratic driving will always be characteristic of the traffic scene; ehxortation and stricter law enforcement have at best a limited effect." (The Nation, 11 Apr 1959.) He was writing about the safety of vehicles themselves, especially the safety for the drivers and passengers. Largely based on his crusading aided by leaps in technologies, vehicles are now safer for all. Accidents were made safer. (Traffic engineering too has improved road safety, but this was called for later.)

Technologies and regulations, while having huge impact in reducing the imact of impacts, has not been able to address the first point, that human error remains an issue. It may also be likely that while many technologies improve safety for all, vehicles that handle smoothly, are quieter, have tinted windows that mask the driver, and loaded with distracting technologies may increase danger to people outside them.

So what can be done to address speeding in the neighborhood? Behavior modification? Implementation of existing technologies or development of new ones? What are likely solutions? We need them, but can we identify them.

art and mitosis

It's 2018 and when I went to put a comment on a painting at the San Diego Museum of Art, discovered that this blog exists and the last entries were 2007.  Probably there were more entries but as I was beginning to apply for jobs, deleted them.  or maybe this blog was just a way to drive traffic to my other public web presences.

Here's what I posted today:
https://thegallerysd.blogspot.com/2010/12/collection-close-up-diego-riveras-hands.html?showComment=1520900310517#c3347169063394829563

 

 

A few days before seeing this painting I went to an exhibition of  Ramón y Cajal's original drawings on display at the Grey Gallery in NYC.   Cajal delineated cytokinesis with beautiful drawings based on observations through a microscope.  Certainly we cannot avoid comparing many of Cajal's neuron depictions as appearing to be trees.  Made me question, what was Rivera's source material for the cells in the tree canopy?  Is it possible he saw reproductions of Cajal's drawing in particular, or did he have alternate sources to draw from?