...depending on whether the one who is counting started at the beginning of year one or at the end.
A decade ago today I was in London, at the Millenium Dome, and apparently we left the dome at most an hour before the security incident that made the news that same day. By then I was walking along the Thames with my then-boyfriend, to a bench next to the Thames Barrier, my favorite architectural landmark in London, and possibly the world. Ten years later, I have been out of the country only once, as far north as Whistler, north of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. So, decadal resolution #1 has to be TRAVEL. This next ten years, while the world is still relatively at peace and fuel and security concerns have not yet prevented average citizens from travelling overseas, I must at least get back to Britain. I really want to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall, and go hiking in Scotland. If possible I still want to earn a PhD in Aberystwyth, though perhaps I am straying away from rural ecology too much already. Hmmm. No idea what use a degree in political science earned in Colorado could possibly be to a life in Britain, but at least theory should be useful, I hope.
Resolution #2 is a bit more complicated. I am turning 31 this year, and while I might not exactly prefer to live in a classic romantic novel, I know I am missing out on a rather significant part of human life in not experiencing much romance. Unfortunately, romance is complicated, stressful and sometimes downright miserable. I am, for now, in a community that tends to value romance less than the general public, in a world that seems to prefe bickering and complaining to romance anyway. Getting a graduate degree is important, and so long as I am in school, it is important to focus on school. However, school and degrees are tools for life, not life itself. Eventually, in this next decade, real people and my relationships with them need to take precedence entirely over academic life and books.
Resolution #3, a fairly frivalous one compared to the first two, made its way into the list because it won't go away. I want to meet Josh Groban, the singer, and not just for a few seconds. My short-list of favorite celebrities has mostly formed recently, within the past two years or so, since I really hadn't had one before then. Most of the men on that list are actors, and I know little about who they really are. Maybe I would like them, any maybe not. I'd love to meet them as well, but the more I know about Mr. Groban, the more he seems like the people I already know and like. Right now our careers are opposite in shape, so that he is at the height of his career now, while mine is still building, and by the time I am the intellectual giant I am constructing, he will be winding down. Somewhere in the middle, maybe, there's a chance we might be able to meet as equals, and if the Universe wills it, maybe we might even strike up a lasting friendship.
The sun is now setting on the last day of 2009, and as the Universe eases into the new year, may life continue to improve with the ages.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Chess and Personal Philosophy
As is true for most great art, the musical Chess, leaves a lot of the interpretation of its themes and story to the viewer. The characters are real enough, and through their songs and lines, fleshed out enough to provide a believable scenario, yet it is not definite what exactly the motivations are for these characters. Certainly, if I was writing a professional piece sufficiently important to bother the performers about it, it would be illuminating to ask Josh, Idina, Adam and Kerry what their characters' thoughts and motivations were when they were singing these parts, but short of that, I am nonetheless beginning to doubt strongly that Tim Rice in his synopsis for the insert adequately and accurately describes the story that was really playing itself out on the stage at the Royal Albert Hall.
I have listened to the entire track-list of Chess in Concert several times in the past 24 hours, and I really can't hear Anatoly as being dishonest in his assertion of his patriotism to 'Mother Russia,' and it is really not surprising when his relationship with Florence sours that he would choose to return to the USSR. Even within the rather cynical, pessimistic idea of the "Nobody's on Nobody's Side" theme, I would have to be either strongly biased against the USSR/ Russia or would have to be in a really bad mood to think Anatoly would reject his homeland so completely for a woman he just met. Florence, meanwhile, seems charmed by Anatoly, but I'm not convinced love has much to do with her running off with him. She is loyal, but not exactly in touch with her feelings, and no wonder when we consider her past. She has a lot she is avoiding, and I get the sense that she is attaching herself as a loyal supporter to great men rather than looking out for herself.
Freddie, bored with chess itself, has been dabbling in manipulation of real people as an outgrowth of his boardgame. Quite plausibly Anatoly, Freddie's match intellectually, recognizes some of this, though he does not catch on that Freddie is allowing Anatoly and Florence to become acquainted to gain a hold on Anatoly, just in case. This, to Freddie, is not a moral or ethical issue, because it is still all just a game. Really, until the Russians try to play Freddie as a piece of their own, Freddie remains emotionally detached from this whole story, a man apart from the events as they unfold, "watching the game" and "controlling it" and fully believing that he can have Florence back whenever he decides he wants to have her again. Just as Freddie is outside the story, Anatoly is not a full participant in the story; he is so content with his chess that he has allowed the Russian government, his wife, his mistress, and everyone else around him play him to their various ends, not all of them nefarious, but none of his actual choosing.
It is debatable even within this interpretation whether Freddie ever really reconnects with humanity. He does, it seems, decide that he would rather have Anatoly win, rather than complete his ruin, but despite his soul-searching, he may be so far gone that there is no hope for him. Perhaps this is why he pushes Anatoly to win, so that he can live vicariously through the newly awakened Russian, who can and does claim his freedom to enjoy his own life on his own terms. Is Freddie a free actor ever?
Interestingly, as far as I can recall, only Anatoly ever says the word 'love' in this production, once about the USSR and once to Florence shortly before their relationship falls apart.
I have listened to the entire track-list of Chess in Concert several times in the past 24 hours, and I really can't hear Anatoly as being dishonest in his assertion of his patriotism to 'Mother Russia,' and it is really not surprising when his relationship with Florence sours that he would choose to return to the USSR. Even within the rather cynical, pessimistic idea of the "Nobody's on Nobody's Side" theme, I would have to be either strongly biased against the USSR/ Russia or would have to be in a really bad mood to think Anatoly would reject his homeland so completely for a woman he just met. Florence, meanwhile, seems charmed by Anatoly, but I'm not convinced love has much to do with her running off with him. She is loyal, but not exactly in touch with her feelings, and no wonder when we consider her past. She has a lot she is avoiding, and I get the sense that she is attaching herself as a loyal supporter to great men rather than looking out for herself.
Freddie, bored with chess itself, has been dabbling in manipulation of real people as an outgrowth of his boardgame. Quite plausibly Anatoly, Freddie's match intellectually, recognizes some of this, though he does not catch on that Freddie is allowing Anatoly and Florence to become acquainted to gain a hold on Anatoly, just in case. This, to Freddie, is not a moral or ethical issue, because it is still all just a game. Really, until the Russians try to play Freddie as a piece of their own, Freddie remains emotionally detached from this whole story, a man apart from the events as they unfold, "watching the game" and "controlling it" and fully believing that he can have Florence back whenever he decides he wants to have her again. Just as Freddie is outside the story, Anatoly is not a full participant in the story; he is so content with his chess that he has allowed the Russian government, his wife, his mistress, and everyone else around him play him to their various ends, not all of them nefarious, but none of his actual choosing.
It is debatable even within this interpretation whether Freddie ever really reconnects with humanity. He does, it seems, decide that he would rather have Anatoly win, rather than complete his ruin, but despite his soul-searching, he may be so far gone that there is no hope for him. Perhaps this is why he pushes Anatoly to win, so that he can live vicariously through the newly awakened Russian, who can and does claim his freedom to enjoy his own life on his own terms. Is Freddie a free actor ever?
Interestingly, as far as I can recall, only Anatoly ever says the word 'love' in this production, once about the USSR and once to Florence shortly before their relationship falls apart.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Chess
I am sure I'll be mildly obsessed with the plot and implications of the musical Chess, as recorded in concert in London, in 2008. For once, this is a musical selection I would have bought even if Josh Groban had not been cast as one of the principal singers. While it sounds like a strong backing has not existed yet for a touring company to put this show on as a proper musical. [ who needs a dream? ... now I'm wher I want to be and who I want to be and doing what I said I would . . .] While Josh does not always sound as natural as full-time Broadway singers, he is very convincing as Anatoly, a nice, quiet chess player who falls in love with someone and begins on a path towards conscious self-definition. Actually his rendering of this character reminds me of a few people I have known who, if they were international chess players, would be a lot like this version of Anatoly.
I have been amusing myself this evening with the realization that the entirety of Act 2 is in fact a sort of chess game, the 6th game Anatoly never played the previous year against Freddie because Freddie didn't stay to play it out. This puts Anatoly Sergeyevich in the position of one of the king pieces, trying to keep from being placed in checkmate. Freddie, who Anatoly suggested in Act 1 was a clever player maneuvering and strategizing in real life as well as at the game table, has been playing still, ever since his girlfriend Florence ran off with Anatoly. It does beg th equestion of whether someone is playing Freddie, and certainly the CIA and the KGB try to use him, but this play against Anatoly's queen, Florence, fails, and perhaps Freddie knew it would. His final play is to talk to Anatoly about his opponent's game, and reinforcing to Anatoly that his greatest skill is as a chess player. This may well have tipped the balance, pushing Anatoly not to throw the game, and allowing Freddie to win his ultimate game. I am still debating parts of this concept, but Svetlana would almost obviously have to be the opposing queen, and Florence the queen on Anatoly's side.
I actually did google Chess in google Scholar, and found literally nothing, but no doubt there are blogs and reviews that pursue this interpretation of this lovely underperformed story.
On a minor note ( :)Yes, much of the musical utilizes minor keys, but no pun intended, really) I find the song Where I Want to Be quite powerful, and while with the ultra supportive and considerate Grobanites, Josh Groban may not feel much like this in his own personal celebrity career, I suspect the he has had days where this song would be deeply felt. This song captures very beautifully a part of the psychology of celebrity in general, and I can't help but recall while listening to Josh singing it, the whirlwind of attention that began his career on the music scene. And, for anyone for whom singing is their "primary talent" there is probably at least a small voice constantly in the background asking what happens if their voice should fail. Josh did try college, and as of the last time I checked, he still had not finished a degree yet in anything, so if he were to fail physically, by losing his hearing, or getting permanent damage to his throat, he has little outside the music industry to fall back on, not even a degree in music production. I'll bet, actually, that he has had quite a few days and nights when this song was exactly what he was feeling.
I have been amusing myself this evening with the realization that the entirety of Act 2 is in fact a sort of chess game, the 6th game Anatoly never played the previous year against Freddie because Freddie didn't stay to play it out. This puts Anatoly Sergeyevich in the position of one of the king pieces, trying to keep from being placed in checkmate. Freddie, who Anatoly suggested in Act 1 was a clever player maneuvering and strategizing in real life as well as at the game table, has been playing still, ever since his girlfriend Florence ran off with Anatoly. It does beg th equestion of whether someone is playing Freddie, and certainly the CIA and the KGB try to use him, but this play against Anatoly's queen, Florence, fails, and perhaps Freddie knew it would. His final play is to talk to Anatoly about his opponent's game, and reinforcing to Anatoly that his greatest skill is as a chess player. This may well have tipped the balance, pushing Anatoly not to throw the game, and allowing Freddie to win his ultimate game. I am still debating parts of this concept, but Svetlana would almost obviously have to be the opposing queen, and Florence the queen on Anatoly's side.
I actually did google Chess in google Scholar, and found literally nothing, but no doubt there are blogs and reviews that pursue this interpretation of this lovely underperformed story.
On a minor note ( :)Yes, much of the musical utilizes minor keys, but no pun intended, really) I find the song Where I Want to Be quite powerful, and while with the ultra supportive and considerate Grobanites, Josh Groban may not feel much like this in his own personal celebrity career, I suspect the he has had days where this song would be deeply felt. This song captures very beautifully a part of the psychology of celebrity in general, and I can't help but recall while listening to Josh singing it, the whirlwind of attention that began his career on the music scene. And, for anyone for whom singing is their "primary talent" there is probably at least a small voice constantly in the background asking what happens if their voice should fail. Josh did try college, and as of the last time I checked, he still had not finished a degree yet in anything, so if he were to fail physically, by losing his hearing, or getting permanent damage to his throat, he has little outside the music industry to fall back on, not even a degree in music production. I'll bet, actually, that he has had quite a few days and nights when this song was exactly what he was feeling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)