Reading and Roaming

Tidy Tidbits: Pachinko & Knoxville

CONFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

This weekend, for the first time in 30 years, three different religious holidays overlap. Jews celebrated the first day of Passover on April 15, that same day was Good Friday for Christians, and it’s in the middle of Ramadan for Muslims. Today is Easter Sunday! Whatever you celebrate or don’t, may you enjoy the annual renewal of spring!

VIEWING—ASIAN HISTORICAL DRAMA

Pachinko (Apple TV+)

Based on a 2017 novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko is a history lesson in Korean Japanese relations between about 1930 and 1989 and a study of cultural identity. Set in multiple locations, Busan, Korea, and Osaka and Tokyo, Japan, it follows several generations of a Korean family who move to Osaka. Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and followed a policy of wiping out as much Korean culture as possible. This lasted until 1945. Even after the war, Koreans who had previously emigrated and settled in Japan were subject to prejudice and discrimination.

The series focuses on Sunja, a young woman in Busan, who falls in love with and becomes pregnant by Hansu, a rich, married man. When offered the opportunity to marry Isak, a stranger to her village, she accepts and moves with him to Japan where his brother and wife live. The series goes back and forth in time so that we encounter Sunja in 1989 as an old woman, her son Mozasu, who runs a pachinko (game) parlor in Osaka, and her grandson, Solomon. Solomon appears to have a successful financial career in the States but is currently on assignment to Tokyo.

Although it follows the basic threads of the novel, the series is quite different, particularly in its juxtaposition of past and present timeframes. As one example, the centrality of rice is played out ladled from a primitive stove and, in the next scene, scooped from a modern electric rice cooker.

This drama is an ambitious effort with a large Asian cast and different colored subtitles in Japanese, Korean and English, depending on who is speaking. Once I became familiar with the characters again, I found it compelling and even tear-inducing at points. There will be 8 episodes in all with the last two released later in April. Very much recommended!

LIVE THEATER—SLICE OF LIFE

Knoxville (Asolo Theatre)

Knoxville, a new musical, is more opera than theater, more sung than spoken. We were at the world premiere the other night, and it was an immersive and emotional experience. A study of ordinary life, faith, and death, it’s based on James Agee’s autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family. Viewed through the perspective of the adult author and the author as 6-year-old Rufus, it’s a story of a different time (1915) in a particular place (Knoxville, Tennessee), but its themes are universal.

The cast of characters and musicians (some doubling as actors) is large and diverse, and Jack Casey as young Rufus is just one standout. As always, the staging at Asolo is very creative. The use of a portable window frame throughout was especially effective.

The play was performed without an intermission and the hour and forty minutes just whizzed by! If you saw Our Town earlier this season, you’d probably agree with me that Knoxville is a companion piece—different time and place, but related themes. In both works, religion plays a prominent role.

Professional theater doesn’t get much better than this, and we in the Sarasota-Bradenton area are fortunate to be the beneficiaries. Tony Award-winning director and writer Frank Galati directs this production. It runs through May 11. Highly recommended!

Watching & Reading: On Screen & Page

DOCUDRAMA OF FALSE IDENTITY

INVENTING ANNA (Netflix)

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey (tvline.com)

Anna Delvey, Russian by birth, presented herself in New York as a German heiress with a large trust fund. Only 25, she grandly aspired to create a club cum art gallery called ADF, the Anna Delvey Foundation. Poised, confident, and brazen, she led the high life, courted the A-list of society, and conned investors into believing she was rich and worth the risk.

Anna Delvey was a real person, but not what she appeared to be. Based on an article that appeared in New York Magazine, this series is almost as much about journalist Jessica Pressler (called Vivian Kent) and her long investment of time and energy in getting and writing Anna’s story.

You may not like Anna, and I didn’t much of the time, but her story is a fascinating study in social psychology. Comprised of 9 episodes, the series runs through Anna’s trial for grand larceny. Anna is played by Julia Garner, who won two Emmies for her role in the TV series. Ozark. Jessica Pressler, the real writer of the article, has a new book coming out in August entitled Bad Influence: Money, Lies, Powers, and the World that Created Anna Delvey.

ONGOING SERIES

BRIDGERTON (Season 2, Netflix)

Lady Danbury with Mrs. Sharma and daughters Edwina & Kate (latimes.com)

The courting games and rituals continue this season as Anthony, the eldest Bridgerton sibling, seeks a wife. Rational and determined in his mission, he’s guided more by his head than his heart. Key players are half-sisters Edwina and Kate Sharma who have come to London with their mother and are under the tutelage of the formidable Lady Danbury. Edwina seems to be the perfect candidate for Anthony while Lady Whistledown aka Pen, is always on the lookout for new material for her gossip sheet. I think this season, while different, is as good as the first one!

CALL THE MIDWIFE (Season 11, PBS)

Call the Midwife cast (townandcountry.com)

Babies continue to be born, and East End London never climbs out of poverty. The sisters and midwives of Nonnatus House remain super dedicated to serving the local mothers and their families. It’s 1967 and while hair styles and clothing have changed, diseases like scabies can infect a whole community. After ten years, I feel as if I know these midwives, Nurse Crane, Trixie, and Sister Julienne to name just several; their exploits and the cases they handle make for charming and heartwarming drama. There is tragedy, but almost always there is something positive that makes this series uplifting.

RECENT READING

THE BEAUTY OF DUSK by Frank Bruni

Memoirs are a popular genre. While many are accounts of growing up in a dysfunctional family or putting one’s life together after a contentious divorce, there is also a sub-genre related to dealing with diseases such as cancer. A recent example of this sub-genre is Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad in my post of Sept. 19, 2021.

Frank Bruni’s first memoir, Born Round, was an affectionate portrait of growing up in a food-loving Italian American family coupled with his long struggle to get his weight under control. His latest memoir, The Beauty of Dusk, is about the effects of an illness, but is more wide-ranging. A few years ago in his 50’s, he suffered a sudden stroke which destroyed the sight in one eye. Reading and navigating both became more difficult.

Bruni discusses coming to terms with his disability, but more significantly shares examples of friends and others who are thriving despite disease or serious injury. These examples are heartening and uplifting. They remind both Bruni and the reader that other people have serious issues to contend with, some that are hidden.

Bruni is an engaging writer, and I enjoy his insightful New York Times columns on politics, gay rights, and other issues. Here, I was impressed by how open he was, not only on his eyesight, but also about the disruptions in his personal life.

Sarasota Scene: Music, Food, & Literature

SARASOTA ORCHESTRA MASTERWORKS CONCERT

Maestro Bramwell Tovey (sarasotamagazine.com)

The Sarasota Orchestra was in fine form last evening under the baton of new music director Bramwell Tovey. Maestro Tovey is a Grammy award-winning conductor and principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. The program included lesser-known works by Richard Strauss and Samuel Coleridge -Taylor plus a lovely violin concerto by Mendelssohn played by guest artist Timothy Chooi. Rounding out the evening was a selection from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe. I thought the orchestra played superbly but wished that Maestro Tovey had been much briefer in his comments before several pieces.

DINING FIND

481 Gourmet

Located in Sarasota’s Rosemary District and sharing a patio with Rosemary & Thyme, 481 Gourmet is a great addition to the neighborhood. We were a few minutes early for our pre-concert dinner, were warmly welcomed by the hostess, and seated at a table in the center of the dining room (outdoor tables were all reserved). The dining room is handsome with deep gray walls and dark wood tables and bar.

We were the first diners inside, and our waiter, Chris, enthusiastically greeted us. Next another staff member walked by, smiled, and said hello. Later, the owner herself came over to apologize for any confusion over the no longer offered pre-theater menu. All this before we’d ordered any food! We felt like celebrities.

As for the meal itself, the food was delicious. The three of us each had a Caesar salad followed by jumbo scallops, lamb chops, and grilled halibut as our entrees. The scallops were over risotto, the lamb chops sat on a puddle of pesto, and the halibut was on a bed of couscous with tomato confit on top. The Caesar salad was the perfect size with croutons and a lacy Parmesan tuile. Prices are moderate to less moderate, but reflective of today’s food prices and staffing challenges. Worth a return visit!

EXPANSIVE FRENCH NOVEL

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

Translated into over thirty languages and the bestselling novel in 2020 in Italy, Fresh Water for Flowers is the first novel by Perrin to be translated into English. Set in France, mostly in a cemetery, it is a book with many characters, some living and some dead. Primary is Violette, a still youngish woman whose life we follow from her days as a level-crossing keeper at a train junction to her work as a cemetery caretaker.

When we first meet her, Violette is alone, her husband Touissant having long since disappeared. She is friendly with the grave diggers, the priest, and the funeral director and spends her time observing and comforting the families of the deceased who come to bury and later mourn their loved ones. She has her routine, and she keeps a notebook of the particulars of each new cemetery resident including the weather on the day of the funeral and how many mourners were present. She gets to know and see again and again a select subgroup of these relatives. When detective Julien Seul arrives to scatter his mother’s ashes on a stranger’s grave, Violette’s life becomes unsettled and entangled with his in ways she never imagined.

The novel moves back and forth and around in time, in anything but linear fashion, as Violette’s past is revealed and bits of her childhood as a foster child meted out. Struck by tragedy, Touissant and Violette separately seek answers to why the event occurred. Other people’s lives are presented and probed, and diaries reveal secrets long kept. From a woman who has more than her share of troubles to one who finally realizes she has the will and the right to be happy, Violette evolves into a whole person.

This novel is rich in its depiction of friendship (Violette and Sasha, Violette and Celia) and ultimately, of love. A long read, it pulls you in and weaves a spell. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Watching, Watching: Film, Stage, & TV

BEST PICTURE NOMINEES—Heartwarming and Otherworldly

CODA (Apple TV+)

I hadn’t seen or read much about CODA until it won several awards from the Screen Actors Guild. I then noted it was also a Best Picture Oscar nominee which really brought it to my attention. It’s a wonderful story, poignant and compelling. Ruby, a high school senior, is the only hearing member of her family (mother, father, older brother). She assists the two men in their fishing livelihood, the family’s means of support, and is the resident interpreter for their interactions with the outside world. Ruby loves to sing, but at school, she is teased and bullied. When she signs up for the school choir, she begins to find herself and to gain respect and positive regard from her classmates.

This film is groundbreaking with three of the principals in the cast all being played by deaf actors. One, Marlee Matlin as the mother Jackie Rossi is a familiar face, but the other two are not. They are so expressive in their signing that they carry the film. As Ruby, Emilia Jones embodies teenage angst coupled with loyalty and determination. Her music teacher, Mr. V. (played by Eugenio Debez), is both demanding and supportive in the best way. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t), CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults. The entire film has embedded captions. Highly recommended!

Dune (HBO Max + other sources)

Timothee Chalamet with other cast members (whathifi.com)

The Chief Penguin was more interested in seeing this film than I was. I knew of Frank Herbert’s award-winning science fiction novel but had never read it. Dune, the movie, is long (2.5 hours) and full of special effects including amazing spacecraft for interplanetary travel. The plot is complex and involves several different worlds and a young man who is seen as the savior of his people.

Suffice it to say that I didn’t love or hate the film and watched it to its end. I would be surprised if it didn’t win Academy awards for sound or cinematography. Recommended for sci fi fans.

BASKETBALL & POLITICS ON STAGE

The Great Leap by Lauren Yee at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Coaches flank Manford and his cousin Connie (sarasotamagazine.com)

The Chief Penguin and I just saw The Great Leap, and it’s my favorite Asolo production this season! Ostensibly a story about a basketball game and a Chinese boy’s coming of age, it’s more significantly a political tale highlighting the contrast between free expression in America and constraints in China. Set in 1971, coming out of the Cultural Revolution, and then in 1989, against the backdrop of Tiananmen Square, two coaches, one from San Francisco and the other from Beijing come together with their competing philosophies. Each is determined to win this special game.

The play is brash, funny, powerful, and thought-provoking. Having visited China three times in the 1980’s, we watched the events of Tiananmen Square unfold on TV and worried for our Chinese friends there.

Standouts in this performance were Greg Watanabe as Wen Cheng, the Chinese coach, and Glenn Obrero in the role of Manford. The play runs through April 2, so there’s still time to see it.

FOOD DRAMA

Delicious (Acorn)

Sam & Gina, chef Leo’s wives (radiotimes.com)

I read one mention of this Acorn series and decided to try it. The setting is beautiful Cornwall and a luxury hotel and restaurant made famous by Leo Vincent, its chef. It isn’t giving away too much to say that Leo dies early on, and his ex-wife and his widow are left to manage the enterprise. Gina Benelli, his first wife, is a talented chef in her own right, while Sam, his second wife and widow, gave up her career when she married Leo and doubts her own considerable management abilities. Add in Leo’s children: Teresa, Gina’s adult daughter, and Michael, Sam’s 18-year-old son, plus Leo’s mother Mimi, and you have conflicts of all sorts among these wildly different personalities.

Most everyone lies or has a secret about something, and when these truths are revealed, sparks fly. At its heart, Delicious is more about female friendship than heterosexual love (although there’s plenty of sex about). Some might find Gina and Sam’s clashes tiresome after a bit, but I watched all three seasons and stayed engaged. The scenes of delicious food are mouthwatering, and Sheila Hancock as Mimi is both tart and loving. Delicious is lighter fare with an occasional serious message.

Header graphic of couple watching TV courtesy of elements.envato.com

JOTS & JAUNTS

Tidy Tidbits: Pachinko & Knoxville

Like this: