Brief reviews

Brief Reviews:

1.     1.    Jackie Evancho was at Symphony Hall.  I have to give it to the 12-year old young lady.  She has a very good voice and a nice stage presence.  She doesn’t interact with the audience, and the program has a few filler classical pieces, but I imagine a full length concert would play havoc with her voice.  She performed a beautiful “Angel” by Sarah MacLachlan, which was incorrectly attributed in the program to Rossini.  It’s a beautiful song, but a tad dark for someone so young:

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There's always one reason
To feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release
Memory seeps from my veins
Let me be empty
And weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line
And everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
And the storm keeps on twisting
You keep on building the lie
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference
Escaping one last time
It's easier to believe in this sweet madness oh
This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees

In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

2.      “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is a fairly good movie. Its premise that the ape’s have their intelligence improved by a drug designed to combat Alzheimer’s in humans is interesting, if improbably.  This premise, however, is a direct descendant of the theme in the 1999 movie “Deep Blue Sea.”  The CGI effects are very good, but would have been better if they could have made James Franco a good actor.  He looked stoned in this movie also.  I hope that this begins a new franchise of the Apes movies. 

3.      I watched the entire “Rubicon” TV show in a two-day marathon.  I take back anything negative I have previously said about it.  It is creepy and spooky, appropriate for a show that deals with spies and espionage.  James Badge Dale is very good as Will, the story’s hero who is attempting to ferret out the truth behind the relationship between his employee, the American Policy Institute, and certain disasters that occurred in the recent past.  Arliss Howard (Debra Winger’s husband) played Kale Ingram (great name, no?) who is a the 2^nd in command at API, but apparently not involved in all of the nastiness.  One episode has Ingram, along with one of his former CIA colleagues dispose of a body in Will’s apartment, using power saws and other grisly instruments.  Howard was perfectly cast in this role and played it with great reserve and unflappability.  The most sinister character is Tuxton Spangler (another great name), the head of API and played by Michael Cristofer.  He is grandfatherly but nasty to the core.  The fictional API reminds me of the Washington, DC consulting firms that are headed up by megalomaniacal owners who believe that only their own thoughts are good and worth attending to.  They also believe that their companies do the best work in the world.  Any company that believes that is the best can’t be the best, since it cannot even see itself clearly.  The offices of API look just like those I have worked in.  A rabbit warren of overly small offices seems to de rigueur for these companies. Finally Truxton Spangler reminded me of someone in my past who acted grandfatherly, promised me a long-term career, and then engineered downsizing my position out the door.