Category Archives: Music-Dance-Film

Best of 2018

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This is the twelfth year in a row that I’m writing a January post to review the books I read and the movies I watched in the previous year.  And it may be the last! (I may be running out of steam when it comes to blogging.)

In 2018, I read 51 books and saw 6 movies; I read a few more books than I did in 2017 but watched many fewer movies.  By my count, I read twice as many books of fiction as non-fiction: 34 to 17 (you could probably derive these numbers from algebra: 2x + x = 51). Fiction genres included contemporary, fantasy, mystery, classics, and historical fiction.  The non-fiction books included history, science and engineering, biology, biography/memoir, social science/current events, and travel.  Because they are rather idiosyncratic, I won’t submit my counts by category.

As happened last year, the number of movies I watched was way below a previously calculated average, but that was because I again spent a lot of time watching downloaded TV shows or streaming them.  The few movies I did watch included a biopic, comedy, fantasy, and family drama.

A favorite TV series I watched on Hoopla last year was the German television adaptation of American expatriate writer Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti mysteries; I simply fell in love with Venice, a city I’ve never visited.  And after I got used to the idea that everyone in Italy is a native speaker of German, I became quite taken with the Brunettis: Guido, his wife Paola, and their two children, Raffi and Chiara.

As in the past few years, I could not pick a top five or six titles as Best of, even though that’s what these posts are supposed to be about, so this year I’m again doing something a bit different for both books and movies.

For movies, because there were so few, I picked my all-around favorite, which was the New Zealand indie comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

For books, I decided I would simply highlight the books that I felt were well worth reading but that might not necessarily be that well-known (of course, some in my list do not fit this category).  So even if this post is supposed to be “Best of,” the books list, alphabetically by title below, is not that.

  • Weird but oddly compelling – 1Q84
  • Beloved classic but deservedly so – Anne of Green Gables
  • Evocative nature writing and memoir – Desert Country by the Sea
  • New York City stories – Let the Great World Spin
  • Swedish first novel – A Man Called Ove
  • Ferrante novels (enough said) – Neapolitan Tetralogy
  • South American best seller  – Return to the Dark Valley

Click here for the complete lists.  Enjoy, and feel free to submit non-snarky comments.

Nordic Celebration of the Winter Solstice

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I traveled to Cambridge this afternoon to attend the Christmas Revels, a celebration of the shortest day in song, dance, verse, and theater.  My niece introduced me to this spectacle, and although she is not singing in the chorus this year, I so enjoyed the productions I attended in previous years that I decided I couldn’t miss this year.  With me in the balcony of Harvard’s Sanders Theater, Row AA Seat 8, with a full house around me, the matinée performance this afternoon closed out the 48th season of Revels in rousing fashion.

Paddy Swanson, Artistic Director, introduced the story line in the program: haunted by the loss of his favorite uncle, the child Sven remains moody even as his household prepares to welcome Finland’s new ambassador at a Christmas party.  However, when Sven receives magical gifts, including a book and key, he is propelled into an alternate universe, populated by witches, snakes, and other fantastic creatures, where he experiences adventures beyond his imagining.

Music Director Megan Henderson chose a wide variety of music from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, most of which was unfamiliar to me, but of course haunting and beautiful.  In Part One, we watched folk dances and couples dances and listened to sacred songs and hymns, folk songs and ballads, prayers, and poems.  The last song before intermission was the audience favorite, Lord of the Dance, which we were invited to sing.

Part Two included a lullaby, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, popular tunes, a walking dance, Silent Night, the traditional round Dona Nobis Pacem, the Reinlender dance, a toasting song, the Sword Dance, a Christmas carol for St Lucia, hymns, and more.  The traditional Mummers’ Play was a send-up of Hamlet, but in which all ends well, as the dead are revived.  The performance ended with a recital of Susan Cooper’s The Shortest Day and with the audience singing the Sussex Mummers’ Carol.

I don’t think I can choose a favorite piece, but I have to say that the adaptation of scenes from the Finnish Kalevala epic were mesmerizing.  Props to set designer Jeremy Barnett, costumer designer Heidi Hermiller, lighting designer Jeff Adelberg, and the puppeteer Mark Ward.  As in past years, the Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble and choruses were excellent.  I’d also like to acknowledge the musicians and their fascinating instruments: Sunniva Brynnel who sang and played the accordion and harp, Corey DiMario who played double bass and guitar, lydia ievins who played the Swedish nyckelharpa and 5-string fiddle, Loretta Kelley who played the fiddle and Norwegian hardingfele, Andrea Larson who played the fiddle, and Merja Soria who sang and played the Finnish kantele and percussion.  Master of Ceremonies David Coffin was the star of the show — with his musical talents and irrepressible humor and good will, he embodied the true spirit of Revels.