Category: Arts & Entertainment Wednesday

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Don Quixote

San Francisco Ballet, Program 1: Don Quixote

It’s Ballet Season 2019!  Time to dust off something cute to wear and wing up to San Francisco for a fun night out with mom and sister.  This is our 14th year of having season tickets to the San Francisco Ballet, which seems substantial until you learn that Robbie and Gail who sit in front of us have had their season tickets for over 40 years!  Apparently, it’s the kind of tradition with staying power.

San Francisco Ballet opened their 2019 season with Don Quixote, the rom-com of the classical ballet cannon.  It is silly and corny, and it knows that it’s camp.  At the same time, the Spanish flavor lends a bit of flair to the performances.  It’s like Diana Vreeland would say, “a little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika.”

Don Quixote premiered in 1869 with music by Ludwig Minkus and choreography by Marius Petipa.  Modern productions retain the Minkus score; however, the choreography is derived from Alexander Gorsky’s 1900 update of Petipa’s original.  The San Francisco Ballet version, staged by Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov, premiered in 2003.

The libretto is based on two chapters from Cervantes.  The story begins with Don Quixote dreaming of his beloved Dulcenea and resolving to go on a quest to find her.  From there the story transitions to a town where the inn-keeper’s daughter, Kitri, is rendezvousing with her beloved Basilo, the town barber.  Conflict arises because Kitri’s father wants to betroth her to a rich nobleman.  Soon Don Quixote and Sancho Panza arrive in town to exacerbate the shenanigans.  After much hijinks, including a gypsy camp, tilting at windmills, and hallucinatory driads, Kitri and Basilo are allowed to wed and there is much rejoicing.  Let’s just say that the plot of a romantic ballet is only there to give the illusion of a structure for a bunch of dancing.

The performance that we saw featured Sasha de Sola as Kitri and Aaron Robison as Basilo.  Sasha has been with San Francisco Ballet since 2007 and was promoted to principal dancer in 2017.  I don’t think that we had seen her in the lead of an evening-length story ballet before and I was very pleased with her performance.  She is a stunning, petite blonde with big blue eyes and a radiant smile.  Sasha studied at the Kirov Academy, formerly the Russian Imperial Academy, and her Russian training is evident in her precise technique.  Her Kitri was athletic and joyful.  She wasn’t as sassy as some Kitris, but she didn’t need to be, it wouldn’t have suited her.

There is a ballet term, “ballon” which refers to the illusion that a leaping dancer floats through the air momentarily.  In general, I don’t find San Francisco Ballet dancers possess much ballon; they tend to telegraph the effort of take-off and you hear every ounce of them land. 

The role of Basilo is known for its many virtuosic leaps which Mikhail Baryshnikov immortalized with his ability to appear to actually fly. Aaron also executed these leaps in a powerful-yet-effortless manner and landed every one of them silently.  He managed to be elegantly graceful and cool at the same time, even during the more comic scenes. Aaron first performed with San Francisco Ballet during the 2016 season and returned in 2018.  I hope that he is here to stay.

Now, I can’t neglect to tell you about the real star of the show, Oreo the pony.  Oreo played the part of Sancho Panza’s donkey, Dapple.  The horse who played Don Quixote’s Rocinante was an elegant white gelding.  But Oreo is this adorable, dark-brown, fuzzy pony with a huge, unruly blonde forelock, mane, and tail.  Yes, there is a horse and a donkey in this ballet, why wouldn’t there be?  How would the Don and Sancho make their dramatic entrance without them?

Ballet Season 2019 is off to an auspicious start.  More to come!

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1,000 Books to Read…or Not

book stack

I was trolling amazon and came across this book called 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die. 

My first thought was, “Ugh, what a terrible idea!”  I don’t want someone telling me what I should be reading, I can’t even get around to all of what I want to be reading myself. To me, this book is setting you up to feel like a failure.

It gave me an idea.  I thought, “What are the books that I would tell someone that they have to read?”  But you know that I don’t like to be dogmatic, and we all read for different reasons.  That led me to ask myself, “What do I endeavor to get out of my reading?”

For the past few years, I have been very interested in histories and biographies.  Last year, my reading list had a theme: biographies about interesting historical women written by women.  Female authors are certainly not more sympathetic to the women they are writing about, but there is a subtle difference in perspective that, to me, informs their subjects in a more complete way.

Histories and biographies really illuminate the world for me.  Things that are happening today make more sense to me with a historic point of reference.  One book that I’m just finishing now is a collection of scholarly essays about the aerospace industry in Southern California.  It was amazing to read, like someone just said, “Hi, let me tell you why Southern California is the way it is.”  The impact that this industry had on the place where I live is enormous and omnipresent.

I think that is what I’m looking to get out of books that I read: some sort of frame of reference that can illuminate the world that I live in in some way.

Here are four books that I have read recently that you might be interested in (I went for a variety): 

  1. The Quartet by Jim Ellis.  A friend who shares my love of history recommended this book.  It is a terrifically insightful read about the political horse-trading that was integral to the creation and adoption of the US Constitution.
  2. The Discovery of Witches series by Deborah Harkness.  I really don’t read novels much anymore, but I couldn’t put these books down.  Deb Harkness is a history professor, so her historical fantasy stories are infused with so much rich historical detail, they are delicious.  Just make sure that you don’t need to do anything for a few days if you decide to pick these up; you won’t be able to stop until you’ve finished the last one.
  3. Of course, a biography of an interesting historical woman: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff.  Let’s just say that men have been trying to erase powerful women from history for a long time.  And the fact that despite that, the historical record of Cleopatra’s power is undeniable.  What an interesting time! 
  4. And last, but not least, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga by C.G. Jung.  I didn’t study psychology in college, so I am not familiar with Jung, but I find his concept of the collective unconscious fascinating.  As someone with limited but profound exposure to Kundalini yoga, I was very interested to delve into the deeper meanings of the various chakras, especially from a Western perspective.

This year, I’m just trying to clean up the “to read” pile.  My hope is to eliminate the stockpile and transition to using the public library instead of the “buy it now” button on Amazon.  Keeping the books from piling gets tiresome but I am committed to reading books printed on paper, I love the low-tech-ness of it.  If you’re local and you’re looking for something to read, hit me up, I’d love to pass something along.

Anything that you have read recently that you would suggest I add to my list?

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Pointe Shoes

After my World Ballet Day post, one of my dedicated subscribers mentioned that she thought that the video of the ballerina prepping her pointe shoe video was very interesting and wanted to learn more. So today, I will attempt to briefly explain pointe shoes.

A ballet slipper is a soft shoe worn by all ballet dancers.  This type of shoe has a flexible, soft sole and is secured to the foot with one or more elastic straps.  Ballet slippers can be made of leather, canvas, or satin and are usually a flesh-colored pink (ballet pink) or black.

A pointe shoe is generally only worn by grown ballerinas.   It is the same sort of shape as a ballet slipper with small but significant differences.  First is a rigid toe box that is flat on the end.  This is the “point” that the ballerina dances on. The box is made from layers of paper and/or fabric that are stiffened with glue.  The shank of a pointe shoe functions to stiffen the sole and provides support to the arch of the foot when on pointe.  The shank can be made from layers of burlap, cardstock, or leather that is again hardened with glue.  A pointe shoe is secured to the foot with satin ribbons. 

One important part of both ballet slippers and pointe shoes is the vamp.  Both types of shoes will have a vamp that is high enough to cover the metatarsal phalangeal joints (where your toes meet your foot).  This provides important support to those joints which is particularly important for dancing on pointe.

The shape of the toe box and the hardness of the box and the shank vary among brands and models of pointe shoes.  One brand, Freed, has each shoe marked by the shoemaker as there can be variations that certain dancers prefer.  I never wore Freeds, but on more than one occasion I did witness a gal trying to find two shoes in her size from her preferred maker at the dancewear store (it was a big deal).

During my years of dancing on pointe, the brand and style of shoe I preferred evolved.  I began with the Capezio Contempora, which has a tapered toe box with a long, V-shaped vamp and a firm shank.  I have a very high arch, so the long vamp and the firm shank supported my foot well. 

Eventually, I switched to the Chacott Coppelia II, which were made in Spain.  I can’t remember why that was such a big deal, but I do remember that it mattered.  The Coppelia II was similar to the Contempora, but the big difference that made me switch was that it had a flatter toe box.  This meant that my toes were more constricted in the shoe which meant less rubbing (that is a good thing).

My last pointe shoes were Chacott Veronese, which are made in Japan.  The Veronese are more lightweight; they have a shorter, more square-shaped toe box with a firm shank.  By that point in my life as a dancer, my feet were very strong, but I was starting to feel the years of wear-and-tear.  The lighter box took a lot of pressure off of my metatarsal phalange joints, particularly on my big and pinky toes.

Anabel thinks pointe shoes are interesting too.

And that is a brief discourse on pointe shoes.  Let me know if you would like me to do another post in the future to talk about how ballerinas prepare their pointe shoes.

By the way, get excited – Ballet Season is almost here!

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Tiki Speakeasy

I am not much of a tiki drink connoisseur, but I have the good fortune of having a neighbor who is. Through his interest in tiki drinks and tiki bars, I have enjoyed many delicious rum drinks and learned a little bit about the whole tiki bar culture (for example, there is such a thing as a tiki drink with gin).  One new-ish interesting development (to me at least) is a trend of the tiki speakeasy.

It seems that it is no longer chic to have an out-in-the-open tiki bar, all the cool kids are at the tiki speakeasy.  I’ve had the good fortune to go to a couple and it was a fun time.

The first tiki speakeasy I visited was with my neighbors in Long Beach.  We took a car downtown to this craft brew/burger place (Beer Belly), then went to the back of the restaurant and found the secret entrance to Bar Tiki Tiki (no door, just push on the wall).  It was a good thing that we got there when we did because the whole place has maybe eight seats.

Even though the bartender was not that interested in us when we arrived, after a while he realized that he was in the company of fellow tiki drink aficionados.  He told us about his fancy frozen drink machine and even poured us shots of a very rare and special rum.

Delicious frozen froufrou drink at Bar Tiki Tiki

Then, when I went to Arizona to visit my dear friend K recently, she had a very hard-to-get RESERVATION at a tiki speakeasy for us.  Yes, a reservation.  And they barely let us in any way!

There is a coffee shop/bar in a converted auto garage in Phoenix called Sip Coffee and Beer Garage.  You go inside, then you go down this teeny staircase to Undertow.  The bar is in what had been the pit, where the mechanics would stand under the cars they were working on.

entering Undertow

This place had some serious ambiance going on. You are imaginarily inside of a 19th century clipper ship called the Undertow. The porthole “windows” give you a view of the tropical paradise just outside. Every so often, there is a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder.  Then you look out the “window” to see the storm squalling.  It is kind-of too fun.

This place has a menu that tells the legend of Captain Mallory in his quest to rescue the crew of the Undertow from a curse.  It made it difficult to decide what to order because I was so busy trying to read the whole story before committing to a course of action.

We had a couple of rounds of gorgeous cocktails before we were informed that our reservation was expiring.  Apparently, when you have a 34-seat establishment, turnover is important.

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Dumplin’ Movie

Because I follow Dolly Parton on social media (don’t y’all?), I started hearing about a movie called Dumplin’ that was coming out.  Dolly had done the music for the movie.  Ok, done deal, that would be the next movie night for the chick-flick movie bunch.

No, I had no idea what the movie was about.  It didn’t really matter because Dolly was saying to go see it.  Honestly, if there is one public figure who you can trust, it’s Dolly Parton.  I will write more about my deep, abiding love for Dolly another day, but I will tell you now that if you don’t have a great deal of respect and admiration for the woman, it’s only because you don’t know about the many wonderful things that she has done in her life.

Back to Dumplin’. This movie was produced by Jennifer Aniston’s production company and was released on Netflix with only limited theatrical release (so that it would be award-season eligible).  That meant that it was not showing in the greater Long Beach metropolitan area which made organizing a night out for the chick-flick movie bunch a challenge.

Shamelessly, I asked the group if anyone had Netflix and wanted to host us (I don’t have Netflix, I watch too much television already anyway – don’t judge).  La Flaca graciously offered to have us all over to her casita which was an extra treat since we got to enjoy her delightful holiday decorating as well.

It was a really sweet movie about awkward teenagers overcoming awkward teenager issues.  And Dolly hadn’t just provided the music, she also provided an underlying theme.  One of Dolly’s bon mots, “figure out who you are and do it on purpose” sums up the dramatic arc of the film.  I feel like I would like that quote on a t-shirt.

The only dubious element of the movie for me was how normal these teenagers were. I mean, they had after school jobs and drove cars and were responsible for their own participation in the activities that they chose to sign up for.  Sure, we did those things back when we were teenagers, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the way that kids now-a-days go about their business (I think that Mr. Man’s “back in my day” ranting is rubbing off on me).  I liked those parts about being a teenager and it was nice to be reminded of.

I found out later that Dumplin’ was adapted from a book by Julie Murphy.  Usually, if I’m interested in a movie that is based on a book, I will always read the book first.  Often, I tend to stop there.  Books can have a lot of layers that are hard to portray in film.  There are places in this movie that you can tell there is something more to the story.  I think that I will put this book on my reading list so that I can get into all those nooks and crannies.  I’m pretty sure that it will be a fun, quick read.

So, if you have Netflix and you’re in the mood for a sweet movie that will leave you feeling better about life when you’re done, I recommend that you check it out.  Or read the book.  Or both.  Dolly will approve.

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Sometimes Ken Kesey

I recently read a historical biography of Ken Kesey called Its All Kind of Magic, the Young Ken Kesey by Rick Dodgson.  It reminded me of my fondness for Kesey’s writing.

I became interested in Ken Kesey when I read Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test in high school. It was not assigned reading, I think I borrowed it from the cool crunchy girl who lived down the street when I was going through my hippie phase (I had to abandon my goth phase when I got a convertible, it was impossible to stay pale and sullen).

Then in English class senior year, we were asked to pick our favorite writer then the teacher would assign each of us another author based on who we liked.  I picked Ken Kesey.  Then I was assigned Charles Dickens (the guy who loved Kurt Vonnegut was assigned someone comparable to Dickens, the very prim girl was assigned D.H. Lawrence, you get the picture).  So, I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion, then Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Ok, I really didn’t read very much of the Dickens books, just enough to write the book reports.  Anyways…

Do you like to go back and read books over again?  I don’t tend to re-read books, even books that I really like.  There are just too many books out there and I’m never going to get through all the ones that I want to read anyway.  In spite of that, I have re-read Sometimes a Great Notion several times over the years. It is so richly written, and I get more out of it every time.  The way that the scenes melt into each other is so interesting.

Sometimes a Great Notion would probably still be a good book if it was written in a more linear format, but the structure makes it so fascinating to me. Rick Dodgson talked about the process that Kesey went through when he wrote the book.  It was intense.  He had some sort of notated flowchart pinned up on the walls of the room where he worked. I really can’t imagine writing something with such a complicated structure.  Especially on a typewriter.  I mean, he was literally cutting and pasting sections together.  With scissors and tape, no CTRL X for him.  It’s no wonder that he didn’t write anything after it for a very long time.

As much as I love books, I try very hard to purge my hoard semi-regularly. Every so often I regret that I got rid of something like my collection of Larry McMurtry books, but in general, I try to only hang onto certain books (vintage etiquette books and dance histories are two big categories that get a pass).  For some reason, Sometimes a Great Notion has survived every book purge in the past 25 years.  After reading The Young Ken Kesey, I think that it is probably about time to dig it out and put it back on the “to read”pile.

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Redemption of a Dogg

When your friend calls and asks if she should get tickets to the Snoop Dogg musical, you say, “YES!” Then once she’s got the tickets all lined up, you ask, “so what exactly are we going to see?”

Turns out that producer/director/playwright Je’Caryous Johnson has created a musical about Snoop Dogg called, Redemption of a Dogg.  Snoop plays himself and Tamar Braxton plays the angel trying to get her wings by helping the D-O-double G set things right.

I would describe the plot as sort-of A Christmas Carol meets It’s a Wonderful Life. Except that it was set at Easter rather than Christmas.  I kind-of would have loved it if it had been set at Christmastime, it could become another holiday entertainment classic like The Nutcracker or Diehard.  But maybe, because we were seeing it just before Thanksgiving that was probably the holiday that I had on the brain.

The inciting action is that rather than going to church with his family, Snoop books a big show for Easter Sunday.  Which of course means that we got a mini concert.  It was so fun, everyone was on their feet.  Then, when Snoop is leaving the gig, he gets shot by some gang members who have had a beef with him for all these years.  As he lays there dying, an angel appears and offers him a chance of going back to change what brought him to that moment.  The best part of this scene to me was the way that Snoop, as he lay there dramatically suffering from a gunshot, was in a very Martha Graham-style posture.  I like the idea that Snoop may have studied Graham technique (he is very graceful).

So, Snoop thinks he knows what he needs to do, and they go back in time to set young Snoop straight.  From here the show gets funny for me in a Scooby Doo kind-of way.  First the designated moment in time will play out, then they (Snoop and the Angel) will arrive and LITERALLY rewind the scene so that Snoop can make the change.  I’m not kidding, the soundtrack plays that cassette tape rewind sound and all the actors move backwards through the scene to where it began.  It is fantastic.  But when they return to the present, it turns out that whatever the change was had unintended consequences.  Snoop’s reactions when this happens are just priceless.  So, they go back again and try something else!

In the end, the moral of the story (my interpretation) is that if you changed your past, you wouldn’t be the person you are today; all you can do is do your best from this moment forward to be the best you that you can be.  Also, to respect your loved ones and not take them for granted.

And then, everyone lives happily ever after!

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RBG

This summer, my friend and I went to see a documentary about Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  It was very good and I found it tremendously moving.  The news of her being hospitalized after a fall last week brought her again front-of-mind.  Today’s post is a little-bit less about RBG the documentary and more about RBG the hero for women’s rights.

The older I get, the less that I take for granted the rights that we women have. The fact that the 19th Amendment was only ratified in 1920 is astonishing enough, but I really had no idea how recently so many of the rights that I take for granted were established.  And how much we as women owe to Ruth Bader Ginsburg for securing these rights for us.

The documentary took us through her life, starting with her childhood with a devoted mother who was very invested in her daughter’s education.  Ruth Bader went to Cornell where she met Martin Ginsburg and after she graduated they got married.  She was accepted to law school and it was socially acceptable that she went only because she was already married. She first attended Harvard (with Marty), but completed her degree at Columbia because he had graduated and was hired by a firm in NYC.  RBG graduated first in her class from Columbia.

She was the first woman on both the Harvard and the Columbia Law Review.  In spite of her outstanding credentials, in her words, “Not a law firm in New York would employ me…I struck out on three grounds: I was Jewish, a woman, and a mother.”

These were considered acceptable reasons for denying someone employment in those days.  At least part of the reason that those reasons are no longer acceptable is thanks to her work.  Ironic, no?

RGB became a professor of law at Rutgers in 1963 and co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union in 1971.  In that capacity, she brought six gender-discrimination cases to the Supreme Court. These cases were strategically selected to systematically establish a framework of anti-gender discrimination legal precedent.  In the seminal case, Reed v. Reed (1971), RBG wrote the plaintiff’s brief. The Supreme Court ruling in that case extended the protections of the 14th Amendment to include women.  Ok, so what?  Ok, so the 14th Amendment was the outcome of the Civil War, yes?  Basically, it says that all citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law, right?  Ok, so UNTIL 1971 THIS PROTECTION WAS UNIFORMLY INTERPRETED BY THE COURTS TO NOT EXTEND TO WOMEN.  Is it just me or is that a big deal?

She was appointed to the Washington DC circuit court in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. What surprised me when watching the movie was that she wasn’t appointed to Supreme Court until the 1990’s!  She was the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court.  Ever.  In 1993.  Are you kidding!?! No, that is for real.

Not a one-dimensional legal justice crusader, RBG is an interestingly, multi-dimensional woman (aren’t we all?).  Fun facts about her include: her love of opera; that she shared that hobby with her good friend and philosophical opposite, Antonin Scalia; the collection of collars that she wears with her judicial robes, in particular, the Dissent Collar (here is a good image that I found online); and her hard-core workout routine (you too can have a body like RBG!).

I was happy to learn that RBG is back at work.  Should we credit her workout routine?

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Neighborhood Art and Walking

There are always so many wonderful activities in our neighborhood. Generally, I neglect to take advantage of any of them. Fortunately, one of my neighbor friends is good at making the most of these opportunities and she invited me along for an open studio tour in our neighborhood the other weekend.

I had no idea how many working artists there are in our neighborhood.  We visited just a few of those closest to us.  Our adventure was also a great chance to get my steps in for the day – bonus!

It was so neat to get to meet these neighbors, be welcomed into their home studios, and learn about their work.

One of the artists we visited is a well-known architect (I recognized his name, but I can’t remember it now of course) who is retired and now makes whimsical found-object art.  Many of his pieces incorporated beer bottle caps.  I told him about the beer bottle caps that I have been collecting for a project that I haven’t started yet. He was genuinely interested and made me promise to come back next year with photos.  So now I have a deadline (which is SO helpful for me).  Don’t worry, I will be blogging about this project once I get around to it.

At another stop the woman told us about how she decided to create “love” themed artwork in order to bring more love into the world. She decided that she would create one piece of “love” themed art every day. I thought that was a very nice idea.  Most of her pieces are fun hand lettering doodles, some more elaborate than others.  It was interesting to see the volume of work she created around just this one idea.  She told us that she found it also served as a mindfulness exercise to remind her to be loving in all her actions daily.  It served as a touchstone for her.

I thought it was very loving when she asked us both what kind of art we make.  Before, I would have muttered some lame excuse that I used to be a dancer, and draw and paint a long time ago, blah, blah, blah.  I have to tell you guys that I had a shiny feeling in my heart when I told her that these days, I was focusing on my writing and that I had started a blog.  It was special for me to be able to have a definite answer about how I’m directing my creative energy.  I still have too many ideas about things that I would like to be creating, but at least now, I have one thing that I have committed to doing regularly.

This woman also had a whole series that she had created on one-inch squares of different kinds of paper.  She said that it was inspired by a time that she didn’t feel like she had time to create art daily.  She decided that she always had at least enough time to create 1” square of art and that some days that would be enough.  When we were leaving, she gave us both a handful of squares and told us that we could also find enough time, energy, and motivation to make 1” of art.  I’m looking forward to designating a week to try it out and will be sure to share the results with you when I do.

I don’t know what the favorite part of this adventure was for me.  The top things that come to mind are:

  • Meeting new neighbors.
  • Looking at different, interesting artwork.
  • Being inspired and encouraged to create my own work.
  • Spending time walking/talking with my neighbor friend.
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Frankenstein 200

Frankenstein is such a fixture of popular culture.  Growing up, I thought that I “got” Frankenstein because I had seen Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein and The Munsters.  It wasn’t something that I was interested in beyond that.

Then in 2017, San Francisco Ballet premiered a new, full-length story ballet, Frankenstein.  It was a wonderful production and offered a different take on Dr. Frankenstein’s creature than what I was used to seeing.  This creature was cunning and lonely – he was seeking out his creator who had abandoned him. We left the theater that evening with my carrying on and on about how that was “great art!”  The performance was nuanced and interesting and it did a great job of telling the story efficiently. Because every element of the production supported the story; and because it was evocative rather than pedantic (that is one of my pet peeves in story ballets).

When the 2018 season was announced, and Frankenstein was coming back, I was thrilled!  I decided that I wanted to read the actual book before I saw the ballet again and I loved it.  I really loved the depth of the actual source material.  The “daemon” (Mary Shelley’s word) was really kind of a super hero (my analogy) – he was unusually strong and all of that, but he was also exceptionally intelligent.  He didn’t want to be a scary monster, he wanted to be loved by his creator.  He didn’t know how to speak when he was “born” but learned how and educated himself. When the “creature” finally confronts his creator, he is eloquent and thoughtful in expressing his anguish and desires.  Mary Shelly’s daemon is not the Dr. Frankenstein’s monster of popular culture and it’s too bad that this distorted interpretation has become so ubiquitous because the original is so much more interesting.

But friends, it is no coincidence that San Francisco Ballet was producing a brand-new, full-length story ballet based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (the official title).  It just so happens that 2018 is the 200th Anniversary of the book’s publication!  That seemed google worthy and guess what, there are a lot of folks out there making a big deal about it.

Frankenreads is an international celebration organized by the Keats-Shelley Association of America.  They have 628 partner organizations (mostly universities) in 43 countries to hold a series of events and initiatives in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  The signature event of the initiative is an international series of readings of the full text of the novel on Halloween 2018 (today!) including one at the Library of Congress.

That’s fun, but I still have to go to the store to buy candy for the trick-or-treaters, so probably will have to skip it.

On Lit Hub, I found out where the Frankenstein of our popular culture originated: In 1823, Richard Brinsley Peake produced a theatrical adaptation called Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein.  Mary Shelley attended the premiere and let’s just say that she wasn’t impressed.  The theatrical adaptation took many liberties that are commonplace today: Peake reimagined the monster as mute and gave Victor the now legendary line, “it lives!” As these amendments were repeated in many subsequent adaptations, they became accepted as “authentic” elements of the Frankenstein story.  I’m really disappointed in you, Richard Brinsley Peake.