Blue Jasmine: Watered down Woody

Woody Allen's return to Manhattan is  not the city it was thirty five years ago. Gone are the thick skinned native New Yorkers who openly complain bitterly and with sarcastic irony their love/ hate relationship with the city that never sleeps. Also gone are the neurotic self absorbed intellectuals trying to make sense, any sense of it all.

New York was the city that once promised the keys to a new life as Sinatra once proclaimed "" If I can make it there..I'll make it anywhere" Fast forward to today to bear witness to a gentler and safer city, one where even Brooklyn has fallen into the fold. A gentrified play land for the uber wealthy, who's latest cultural achievement is the cronut and who openly wheel and deal on Wall Street in the generic office towers manning the machines that make  hundreds of micro trades per seconds. All in the name of profit.

With a  story  line that pulls right off the heels of the Bernie Madoff Ponzie scheme, one that pilfered $18 billion off thousands of duped investors, who sadly at times fought over one another to get into Madoff's elite action.
The film begins with what I do believe is Woody's first foray into CGI, as a artificial looking jet liner streams west above dreamy white puffy sun soaked clouds with  our protagonist Jasmine Blue aboard.

What is the greatest short coming of this film begins right off as Jasmine, the compelling Cate Blanchette, painfully demonstrates that she is the worst airline  passenger that never stops talking and to boot she is a drinker too. This scene is  funny but also reveals the greatest weakness of the film, we do not talk to each other anymore...we only talk at each other. For Woody Allen fans this is a fate worse than death.

Photo courtesy of Indiewire

Jasmine is heading to the other wickedest city in the world... San Francisco, another city that is not what it once was; to crash with here estranged sister Ginger, played affectionately by Sally Hawkins. Jasmine's life has been turned inside out and upside down after her husband Hal, the miscast Alex Baldwin, illegal business dealings finally catch up with him, which result in the lifestyle of this excessively rich couple coming to an abrupt and crashing halt as the government takes everything and sends Hal up the river.

 Once at Ginger's cramped apartment Jasmine has her first "social" outing. One that is part blind date and  rude awakening of  how the other 99% live. As Jasmine continues to pound down one Stolie martinis after another she is berated with question by Ginger's  fiance Chili, played old school by Bobby Cannavale, who presses her on how  she will now "make it" without her millions.  It is here the delusions that mirror the archetypal Blanch DuBois begin to show them self. Jasmine barely emotionally survives this prodding from Chili, but once again the dialogue which could have occurred never occurs. Chili basically talks at Jasmine and there is nothing clever or revealing that comes out of this exchange. Jasmine was more than capable to go toe to toe with Chili but instead she just surrenders in her martini glass.Should we pity Jasmine or hate her? The one good thing that comes of this is Jasmine get a  job tip from her would be blind date. 

In a series of flash backs Allen  sets the story in motion as we  see Jasmine and Hall blossom in their life together as theirs becomes a magical and disconnected one from  most people's reality. Allen does not make serious commentary about this it is only part of Jasmine story until Ginger and her former husband Augie, played convincingly by Andrew Dice Clay, come to New York to visit. It is in this scene that you see the disdain and blatant self absorption that both Jasmine and Hal display as they are the world's most selfish hosts.

Just by chance in the limo provided by the "generous" Hal to secretly give Jasmine the day off to playing  host for Ginger and Augie's Manhattan tourist adventure, Ginger witness' infidelities by Hal outside a restaurant with another woman. She sadly does not tell Jasmine this fact but does confide in a drunk Augie who agrees she should do the right thing.

Tragically that does not occur and the next day while in the Hamptons Augie commits his recent lottery winning to Hal's winning investment strategy.

For all who are  touched and seduced by Hal and Jasmine's life only bitter heartbreak will follow.

Cate Blanchette carries this movie but  sadly she carries it alone. It is an Oscar worthy performance by her  a portrayal that will have you gradually becoming more emphatic to her delusions, whether real or constructed, and hoping that some semblance of normalcy will await her. Tragically that is not to be. 

Unfilled dreams are often the a hallmark of a Woody film and there is plenty of misery to go around in this one. The only justice in the film is a cruel twist of fate as Augie delivers the crushing and appropriate blow to a broad sided Jasmine.

Watching this film you are left feeling incomplete. Not by the fall of the once  vibrant and sophisticated Jasmine or even by the heartbroken and lost Jasmine but by the complete lack of any compelling, quick witted and biting Woody dialogue between characters. That is what is sorely missing in this film. The dialogue that opens,expands, and challenges emotions as well as the story arch of the characters involved who need to intellectually fence with each other, regardless of what level they may be on, to claim there own ground. Too many of the players performance's are squander to the point of being cliche. Sadly Ginger role is most evident of this as she never comes into her own or holds Jasmine accountable for her role in her fate and unhappiness.

Is it a sign of the times? A painful fact that we just don't have the  time, or the patients, anymore to expect movie makers to write characters beyond the obvious? When it comes to Woody Allen movies we do expect  that and more.

Woody's love affair with the New York skyline is sadly over too as their are no panoramic full screen views of this changed city. Is that deliberate? Is this city no longer a place of bewilderment? Maybe. Well at least we got a couple good shots of the Golden Gate.

                                         Photos courtesy of World's Best Places

A great read on a cool crisp Saturday morning.

Regardless if you are a Progressive, Conservative, Socialist, Libertarian, or Tea Party person. This recent speech from Noam Chomsky, which he presented in Bonn, Germany, is exceptional.
For many of us  folks who are concerned about a wide variety of political, economic, social and environmental issues. This piece will help to stimulate a  deeper understanding of the world we live in, the role of historical events presented in a different light, and the urgent need to deal with our problems in ways that contradict our accepted known beliefs .
If you prefer for a deeper intellectual, but also quite honest, escape from the 24/7 rhetoric of the moment...
dive in.
If you would like to hear Professor Chomsky speak sometime like his  Facebook page or visits his web site.
Here is the link to the speech.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/chomsky_the_u_s_behaves_nothing_like_a_democracy/

"In the attics of my life, full of cloudy dreams unreal."

It has been eighteen years today since Jerry Garcia passed on. His thirty year legacy of music is still as relevant now as it was back in 1995. For the hundreds of thousands who lives crossed with Jerry's musical life it became a life changing experience. Whether it was through the many Grateful Dead and solo project records or the different projects he collaborated on and contributed to with the many like minded artists ranging from the Jefferson Airplane, he played on Today, to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with Jerry's classic pedal steel guitar on Teach Your Children.

What clearly was the greatest force of grass root exposure for his music was the cassette tape. More specifically the cassette tapes of live Grateful Dead concerts. All through the  1970's, 1980's and 1990's the Grateful Dead performed hundreds of concerts and many of these were recorded by their  fans, as well as the band. A practice that as time moved on was "allowed" and by 1984, eventually endorsed by the band  as they created a  section behind the sound board for tapers.

You could say the Dead were "Occupying" the record industry as their libertarian take on the music  business led them to even " leak" sound board recordings of many shows. Some of these  boards  had legendary status with Dead Heads, such as ones that their early sound man Bear recorded or the "Betty" Cantor- Jackson  boards from 1977 to the Wall of Sound shows from 1974.  These were coveted and what was the most important detail was what generation it was?

You might be wondering what that meant but back in the days of analog recordings the  more you copied a cassette tape the more the  sound quality could, or more likely would, deteriorate. This could be a result of the equipment used, the type of tape and if it was normal or high bias, or whether  noise reduction;most notably Dolby, was  used or not used on multiple generations of copies of the tape. Tapers wanted " crispy" boards and 1st or 2nd generation audience recordings.Many of us  had "hissy" boards from 1972 or 1973 but it was still acceptable to listen to. Actually it was required listening.

Generally if you wanted high quality cassette tapes of Dead shows you had to  know a taper or start trading.
The majority of us were traders. We would slowly build our collections trying to find the best sounding copies that were out in circulation first in our home towns trading with our  friends or the older heads in town. Next it was the neighboring towns and then entire state. We would network with other traders at shows and and more than likely some older taper with hundreds of tapes would throw you a bone and ask for your list and give you his mailing address. This would  create much excitement in the hearts of young Dead Heads. Eventually we would type up our tape list and rate the sound quality, you had to be  very honest in this regard as if you tried to misrepresent what you actually had you were violating taper edict. Finally you had to list  all the tapes in chronological order in your collection.

If you had an address from a head from the last show you saw you would drop your list in the mail and wait. The day that this older heads  tape list arrived in your mail box was like Christmas day. Words from this taper's list would jump out at you like golden beams of light. Shows from 1969, 1972, 1974, or 1977. Legendary locations  such as Veneta, the Filmore West, the Warfield, or the Greek held mystical status. Or simply descriptions such as sound quality excellent or a 2nd generation sound board. You would be quickly over whelmed and overjoyed. Which ones should I choose? Back in the days before Dead Base. It was the lore spoken  by fellow heads of the must have shows from the past. Places like Winterland , to run down coliseums in the northeast or Red Rocks these where the pantheons of our culture. Plus the Dead made sacred ground where ever they played so choosing was not always easy. The other condition was if the other person only wanted 3 or 4 tapes from your list, then that is all  you could ask for in exchange. This was the perfect barter system. Another condition was the tape of choice preferred by the majority of all tapers the Maxell XLII-S.

The other aspect of  being a taper is  you needed two tape  decks to make copies so you would reel off the copies of what your new buddy asked for as quickly as you could, this might mean running your  tape decks for hours on end and into the wee hours of the morning. Then you would drop in a short note of thanks and package them and drop them in the mail.

Within in a couple weeks you would get your  new tapes and begin making  copies for all your friends who were not traders. That was also the other rule of tapers, they always made copies for their friends.
Granted it was a pain in the ass sometimes but you did it none the less. You  had a responsibility to share the magic.

Another fun and rewarding way of connecting with other traders was to go through the classifieds of fan mags like Dupree's Diamond Blues or Relix's and mail your tape list to some other head hundreds or thousand miles from you in the hope that he or she, the majority of tapers were male, would be interested in your list. This was also a  way you could meet these people at shows if you or they traveled. You might be juggling two or three other trader's requests at one  time and running  your decks 15 hours a day. You would start doing five, six, or ten tapes at a time for these new  friends and very quickly  your collection would blossom to 100 or 200 tapes or more.

You also had to start buying your Maxell tapes in bulk as the  traditional retail store was too expensive.  It was very common to buy them by the case, or "brick", through the mail from Terrapin Tapes.  As your collection went beyond 200 tapes you would  become much more selective in what you wanted and particularity the sound quality. You would  go through folks list with a fine tooth comb cherry picking their best and they would do the same with you. A tape a that six months  ago was rated very good, but was actually a  good, was no longer acceptable. Tapers always want to up grade the quality of a killer show, and since cassette tapes  could be taped over it was easy to do.

Then there were the tape covers you could make or buy on tour to personalize your collection. Next you needed storage racks, if you had a  girl friend this was always a problem, and you wanted them on full display in the living room. So that you  could easily access them any time your wanted. This of coarse included organizing them in chronological order and constantly rearranging sections of your collection to accommodate the newest tapes you collected.

By this point you could  have major issues with your relationship because  all of your free time was taken up making copies and then after a tour? It only  got worse...or better. It was a never ending cycle . Bay area shows at Chinese New Years. Spring tour in late March. Summer tour. Fall tour in September  I eventually joined a taping Co-Op out of California and  would real  off dozens of copies of FOB, front of the board, audience tapes as I would get first generation masters for my service.

To say it was a labor of love and that is an under statement. As Bob Weir sang " Too much of everything is just enough"

Then on August 9, 1995 it all  came to a crashing halt..well sort of.

Enter the 21st  century... everything changed the community of tapers/traders changed. We have the Archive now so you can stream almost any show you want, at any time, any where.
We now have Youtube where now all the " illegally" taped concert videos are popping up every day. Plus you get the killer official releases from deadnet too.
We also have couch tour in which the modern day tapers live stream shows they are taping through UStreams and  you can  join in from the comforts of your home.

It  has a created a new freedom for all us former traders but it is not the same.
We  have lost that community. A community in which we interacted in many ways that honored the  human condition more and the spirit of the counter culture movement.
We had a living culture that we helped document and shared. A culture that was one of the  funniest and most adventurous cultural oddities of the 20th century... The Grateful Dead and boy were we were head over heels in it.

Garcia's music in the 21st century continues to inspire a new and younger audience as well as a new generation of performers.
That is what is important.
No longer does the  love affair for documenting and enjoying live music need all the work that so many of us did 18 years ago.
All you need now is a Ipod, a lap top, and a good wifi connection.

So the next time you are in the attic or that forgotten closet remember all those millions of  feet of magnetic tape sitting in boxes collecting dust and as Jerry sang,
"Polished like a golden bowl
The finest ever seen
Hearts of summer held in trust
Still tender young and green
Left on shelves collecting dust
Not knowing what they mean"

Lucky for us we were blessed with Jerry's live music presence to know what "they  mean" and we are all still very grateful all these many years later.
God speed Jerry.

                                                             " So Many Roads" 9/28/93

" Honey the bridge done washed out!"

Williamstown Theatre Festival is currently hosting the world premier of the new Marsha Norman and Jason Robert Brown musical The Bridges of Madison County  which is slated to begin  it run on Broadway in January.
As the trend of reproducing iconic movies and novels continues on Broadway this may be one of the most highly anticipated new shows for 2014 but even more importantly one of the most challenging to adapt.

The Robert James Waller novel sold over 60 million copes and was on the New York Times best seller list for over three years. It was adapted into a very popular film directed by and staring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, who was nominated for an Oscar for her  role as Francesca, in 1995.The film  grossed over $71 million dollars domestically and worldwide took in over $110 millions is ticket sales.

The novel, which was initially scoffed at by critics and the publishing elite, became a pop phenomenon and was embraced by it's fans, who still consider it one of the most  passionate and compelling romance novels written in the late 20th century. So to say this is not an easy undertaking to adapt and  transform this work to a musical and Broadway is an understatement to say the least.

Staring Elena Shaddow as Francesca the Iowa housewife and Steven Pasquale as Robert the wandering Nation Geographic photographer, who is sent to Iowa to photograph covered  bridges. Their random meeting is the result of the Robert being lost and asking for directions. This begins the four day odyssey that will change the  both of them forever.

Is this housewife escapism fantasy? Yes and hardly no as Francesca was complex, strong, and intelligent in both the novel and the film. This is revealed in this quote about her feelings for Robert. " And in that moment everything I knew to be true about myself up until then was gone. I was acting like another woman, yet I was more myself than ever before" No shame or guilt in that realization.

Sadly this musical does not take, or even use, the source material to create a modern romantic, passionate and compelling feminist interpretation of this story. Instead Norman chooses to  desecrate the  romance of Francesca and Robert and reduce it to cliche gender stereotyping of the worst kind.  The wife with two bratty kids and a well intention husband who has willfully lost his spiritual and sexual connection to his wife years ago and only expects a well cooked dinner on the table.

She is over worked and under appreciated. Just another disappointed and stuck Midwestern woman.
The complete opposite of the literary and film versions of Francesca.

Robert, who abandon his young first wife,  is the artist and the wandering beatnik. He is the white knight in blue jeans and cowboy boots who comes to her "rescue".

Marsha Norman also injects a nosy neighbor and best friend, who is the traditional family moral consciousness of the show, but  who continually adds comic levity peppered with sexual innuendos that instead work to undermine the importance of why these two people make a connection in the story and sadly prevent it from being explored as Francesca and Robert do in the novel and film. These sub-characters and the amount of time spent telling " their" stories is both unnecessary and a complete distraction.

As for the music the first act does have some  beautiful orchestration written by Jason Robert Brown, who chooses to pull on many modern influences to try to create the depth and insight needed to understand and be drawn into Francesca and Robert's romance. You get a early Joni Mitchell inspired " Another" sung by Robert's ex-wife. Robert and Francesca's first number together is " Wondering" which is the seventh number of the show and is good but does not drawn you into their world. The lyrics are the weakness in many of the songs in this show, as many are rather simple and prevent any real emotional expression or depth for the characters. Norman's book only compounds this as the interactions between Francesca and Robert are often limited to surface only interactions. The intelligence and insights of the novel are neglected which prevents the audience from  understanding these characters' choices and feelings. Plus the lack of chemistry between Shaddow and Pasquale is also disappointing as well.

One of the best number is " You're Never Alone" which is sung by Bud, Francesca's husband played by Daniel Jenkins, and is  about the community they  live in but sadly does nothing to propel the story. "The World Inside a Frame" does a good job of providing details into Robert's passion for photography, light and noticing the moment. The nosy neighbor Marge, Cass Morgan sings a bluesy tune that is the soundtrack to Robert and Francesca's slow dancing which leads to their first  kiss is also quite good. " Falling Into You" is good but leaves you wanting more from this romance so far. Shaddow and  Pasquale do get to showcase their vocal prowess on this closing number.

The second act opens with the redundant " State Fair" with a  chorus of "Oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh... at the state fair" repeated so  often I felt like I was in a episode of Glee. The romance of Francesca and Robert is almost complete abandoned in this act as we are continually forced feed back story that deludes the romance even more. The number that brings back together Francesca and Robert is " One Second and a  Million Miles" left me wondering why? " We are only one second with a million miles to go" If this is the pinnacle moment of their  romance please take me out to barn and shoot me now.

This is  followed by the worst and most unnecessary number in the show. " He Forgave Me"  It begins as a letter read by Francesca's fourteen year old daughter Carolyn, played by Caitlin Kinnunen, which was sent from Francesca's promiscuous sister Chaira back in Naples. This is simply the whore Madonna complex number of the show. As  men are reduced to boys with toys and woman are unapologetic adulterers who are in complete control of their far from equal partners. This  song  borders on misogyny and completely invalidated Francesca's experience as a woman who can explore her own sexual destiny on her terms.

This is followed by the nail in the coffin of this show by the return of  Bud and the kids from the state fair in Indianapolis. They come home to a Francesca, who has now become a frantic housewife who forgets to make dinner for her returning family and is racked with guilt for her "sins" after romping around with Robert for the last four days.Any dramatic opportunity for a real exchange between this husband and wife is simply squandered as Bud quickly surrenders after he does sense something has occurred while the family was away and quietly goes off to bed.

The next two numbers fast track years of  ups and downs with her family as well as Robert's life in ways that are devoid of any really drama or feeling. Its  simply to tie up the very loose ends by reaffirming that being a a" good" mom and wife for the rest of her life was Francesca's destiny.
June Cleaver would have been proud.

Then you get the "convenient" death of Bud but then guess what? You get the neighbor Charlie, who also kicked the bucket, and Bud singing the clever " When I'm Gone" but it is too little too late.
Freedom for Francesca? Liberation to follow her heart?

First we need to hear from the beatnik cowboy...who is now full of regret wondering if Francesca ever called and is quitting his job,burning old photographs, and disappearing to who knows or rather who cares where.

The closing number " Always Better" could not come close to capturing that spark of spiritual love and mutual certainty that the novel granted Francesca and Robert with. A  brief deep sexual and spiritual connection, that both in the book and movie, enhanced these characters and was part of who they were and to become. It was a positive life changing experience and not a painful selfish mistake that was meant to haunt them for the rest of their lives with regret.

A far more effective approach would have been to dump the sub-characters and focus solely on Francesca and Robert using duets  between them to express their feelings and the depth of their brief and life changing connection.
Instead we are left with predictable and generic fare that carries no emotional weight at all.