Three Interesting Things

1. This piece on looking ethnically ambiguous and having the presence of your less ambiguous looking parent act as a credential of sorts spoke to me. 

2. This conversation between Celeste Ng and Amy Tan about Asian American literature being American literature, and why sometimes bad husbands make for the best stories is great.  

3. This Reductress piece (and for those unaware, Reductress is a humor site) on how to get ignored as a woman by running for president was thought provoking. 

"Jubilee" at Arena Stage

Content warnings: recountings of slavery, onstage racial microagressions, and a racist mob attack. 

While the program says nineteenth century and the present, the show focuses primarily on the original members of the Fisk Jubilee singers. In an attempt to raise money for the aging building they had been given to form Fisk, and possibly some ego in the part of their choir master, they ended up travelling the country and parts of Europe as well, performing. 

Technically, "Jubilee" is a jukebox musical, the over 35 (per the program insert) songs performed are all songs that anyone familiar with hymns and spirituals has heard before and possibly even sung in church or school. The glimpses intro the lives of the singers are small. The singers are all fabulous. Most of the songs are performed a cappella with simple choreography that allows you to revel in the harmonies being created. A few of the cast members listed operatic training, which becomes clear when they reach a song where they are featured, yet when necessary, they blended their voices into the whole. 

It was a delight that left me humming. 

It was wonderful to see two cast members from DC, as well as Greg Watkins (who was in "Aida") and Jaysen Wright (who was in "Smart People").

Rain and Sheep and Wool

It rained on Sunday. It rained so much that the front half of the top of my pants was soaked before we even left DC. Boots and raincoat did their jobs, but walking requires moving. 

It did mean there were less people there. It did mean, that, plus the retirement of of of my favorite dyers meant I had less booths on my must visit list. It did mean the main barn was popping, since covers plus more vendors. 

But we came, we ran into most of the people I knew were there. Some I didn't. And then came back home and got dry clothes and snacks. It's interesting how the combination of social media, the DC area now having more yarn stores owned by a wider range of people, and the Internet has made such festivals both fun but also less necessary. Can you touch more yarn in one place there still? Oh of course. Can you eat fair food and see actual sheep and other animals? Yep. Will you normally see more people in their hand knits than other places? Yep. (Rain gear often covers hand knits. So some impact there.)

So it may have been a speedier trip, but still fun. 

7 Things About "Longshot"

My book club got invited to see "Longshot" back in  March. I have enjoyed some Seth Rogan things, and was willing to try. Because Charlize Theron's character is Secretary of State for much of it, parts of it take place in DC. Before I get to my seven things, I will say overall I enjoyed it. The trailer makes it of course look both more actiony and more haha funny than I found it in execution. 

1. Rogan's character is a New Yorker for reasons that are not explained. He works for what looks like a small alt-weekly and has a friend who appears to be in finance (this is a half hearted guess. Friend could be in widgets for all the movie cares.) He grew up next door to Theron's character one assumes in New York but none of them have any other connections to anyone that isn't a co-worker.

2. Who cares where he lives? Well, because he lives in New York he keeps getting in cars that end up in DC. I know you can do this. I have done this. I know movies skip over travel time. It still just seemed like he hopped in a car and it was still like fifteen minutes later he was at this building or in her apartment or whatever. 

3. At one point there is a joke made while Theron's character is on a date in DC about going to Minibar, that took an extra line for some of us from DC to catch on to since there is a fancy place here actually called Minibar. (Dude in question meant let's go to my hotel which has a minibar, which is a pretty dated joke TBH.)

4. Because she is Secretary of State they go many places. I felt those other scene changes were better marked. YMMV. They avoid any haha's at the expense of locals, there is one time where Rogan's character is dressed in local historical stuff, but it is a joke on him and not the culture, I felt. 

5. If your primary concern is this is schlubby dude bags extra hot lady because he's funny, I think the movie uses their pre-existing relationship (even if they haven't talked since they were kids) to explain why she would select him for this job and then of course running for President is clearly a situation where there isn't a lot of dating. But yes, that is the arc they are going for here. I find Rogan's interview chit chat about realizing that he will be standing next to wonderfully styled Theron at these opening events and not to show up in sweats funny, because that "growth" is a character note in the movie. 

6. And now I will try to be vague, but am going to get at two plot points for these last two points. At one point Theron's characters' Chief of Staff shows poll results from secret polls about theoretical relationships. Every example they used was odd. If Kate Middleton or Princess Diana dated so-and-so it would not be the same because Kate Middleton is married and Princess Diana is dead. Yes, I got the point they were making. It would not have been that hard to come up with single alive people. And if they were trying to keep it time non-specific, Diana has been dead for years, this is already super outdated. 

7. I will try to be vague again. But well, there is a point where Theron's character is threatened and Rogan's character is like, it's fine, let them say it. And it takes a beat, but he does eventually understand that things aren't going to only be about him. They will fall harder on her, because she's female, and the risk to her is so much greater. 

Three Interesting Things

1. It turns out allergies are due in part to botanical sexism.  And climate change. Dislike.  And achoo. 

2. There is a ton of news about Caster Semenya and others affected by the recent and in case my thoughts aren't clear wrong decision.  It is not lost on me that gender testing appears to be performed only on athletes of color.  And while I agree that being an Olympic level athlete does mean consenting to an incredible loss of medical privacy, the decision to regulate the amount of testosterone that females are allowed to have, is based on crap science.  It just is.  This piece from one of her competitors is thoughtful and looks at how she has come to adjust her thinking as she learned more about intersex (sometimes called DSD for disorders of sex development, a term I personally am not a fan of.) 

3. And I finally caught up to this interview with Blair Braverman about her Iditarod experience.