A night of Genesis Music by Daryl Stuermer and the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra

A month ago I was attending the Phil Collins concert in Cleveland, and last night was a little extension of that with Daryl Stuermer, his band and the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra at the Capitol Civic Centre. It was mainly a night of Genesis songs arranged for orchestra with a couple of Daryl's own songs and a Phil Collins song added for good measure. In case you're wondering, Manitowoc is on the eastern end of Wisconsin on Lake Michigan, about 5 plus hours from the Twin Cities. The night started out with a meet and greet with Daryl, and he talked with us for about 15 minutes, telling some stories of starting with Genesis, playing on Phil's latest tour and answering questions.

Genesis's catalog of songs is ripe for orchestral arrangements, and there have been different performances over the years, including from Steve Hackett of Genesis, so when the opportunity to hear some of these songs presented by Daryl Stuermer, I knew I was going to go. Of course, with a dozens and dozens of songs, there are always going to be ones that get omitted, but overall, I was pretty happy with the set list. The show opened with Duke's Intro from the Duke album, and then Daryl introduced Joe Richter, who looked like he was ready for a day at the office, to sing "Throwing It All Away". It could be very intimidating trying to step into a Phil Collins vocal, but Richter seemed pretty confident and didn't try to copy or mimic Collins and added his own flair (not too much), a little R&B sound, which I liked. In addition to Richter on vocals, Stuermer was joined by his long time bandmates: Kostia on keyboards, Eric Hervey on bass and Al Arber on drums, and Michael Kamenski conducting. "No Son of Mine" was next, which was probably the one song I would have changed for something from ...And Then There Were Three, like "Snowbound" or maybe "Many Too Many". "Heavy Heart", one of Stuermer's own compositions, was really terrific. I was thrilled when "Your Own Special Way" from Wind & Wuthering was introduced, it's perfect for a symphony, and you could really hear the strings clearly. The first half of the show ended with another song written by Daryl, "Urbanista". I'm going to have to play the Go album again, because I thoroughly enjoyed both "Urbanista" and "Heavy Heart".

The second half of the show started with an instrumental version of "Just a Job to Do" from the Genesis (Shapes) album; it's an often overlooked song, and I don't know if it was played live by the band, but the addition of the strings and the horns gave it an added kick. I don't know that much was added to "I Can't Dance", and it's another one I could have done without; I like the song, but it's not one of the band's strongest (although it was popular, but that's not the same thing). "In Too Deep", another cut from Invisible Touch, was next. The next song was the oldest of the night, going back to Genesis's Selling England By the Pound - "Firth of Fifth" going into the end of "Squonk". The guitar solo was originally done by Steve Hackett, but Daryl did a tremendous job, and it was so much fun to listen to those soaring chords. In fact, I hope it's not too late to say he took some of the guitar parts that he normally does not play (he usually plays bass on the 'newer' material) and took them to a higher level. In between songs, Daryl bantered with the audience, sharing stories or introducing band members; before "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven", he shared with us that he co-wrote the song with Phil Collins. The MSO shined here as well, the strings and horns coming through (there are no strings on the original version, but there easily could have been). The last song before the encore was "Invisible Touch", which is always a good time, and has been played recently on Phil's tour. The final song of the night was "Turn It On Again", which was the last song on a couple of Genesis tours, but this was done without the Motown medley. This was so fun, with the symphony doing hand claps (maybe you had to see it, but it made me smile). It was a great way to end the night, although I think most of us would have stayed for another hour. Everyone on stage seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I heard nothing but positive things from the people around me. 

Working off the National Film Registry list- Memento, Thelonious Monk and The Return of the Secaucus 7

10/31/18 Memento, 2000  National Film Registry

Shortly after watching Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman), I discussed it with a friend, and we both agreed that it's been a while since either of us have seen a movie that original. Having said that, I don't want to tell you too much about it, although to be honest, I'm not sure I could if I tried. Guy Pearce is Leonard Shelby, an insurance investigator, who is trying to figure out who killed is wife (Jorja Fox) and gave him anterograde amnesia (he cannot form short term memories) in the process. Leonard uses some interesting ways to write notes to himself. He is befriended or tormented by John Edward Gammell (Joe Pantoliano), and forges a relationship of some kind with Natalie (Carrie-Ann Moss). The use of flashbacks is clever and mildly mind-boggling, you really have to pay attention. Nolan uses color and black and white sequences to separate time lines. He knows how to get a particular mood, which he later did on the Batman series. If you haven't seen it, watch it with a friend or two to help keep track of everything, and if I have time, I may watch it again.

11/2/18 Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, 1988 National Film Registry

I was so disappointed trying to watch this documentary on someone I didn't know very much about. Sometimes I watch documentaries to fill out and reinforce things I already, but a lot of times, I watch to learn about an event, art or person I know nothing or very little about. Those are the best. I remember watching What Happened, Miss Simone? and feeling like someone opened a door into music and cultural history. I didn't feel that way at all watching Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser. I felt very frustrated at the lack of strong narration, and clips of Monk playing live (which was apparently lost footage) and interviews with contemporaries and his son strung together in a patchwork sort of way. There were very few scenes where Monk actually spoke, and those were impossible to understand. I definitely picked up on a very strong personality and an immense talent, but I was hoping for more. In my opinion, this isn't on the National Film Registry because it's a great documentary, but more because of the rare footage and the subject. If you're a bebop fan or student, you have probably seen it, and perhaps got a lot more out of it than I did.

11/3/18 The Return of the Secaucus 7, 1980 National Film Registry

In the sources I reviewed, The Return of the Secaucus 7, written and directed by John Sayles, was the precursor to The Big Chill (nope, haven't seen that either, but I had the soundtrack on LP). It's a look at a group of college friends who get together for a weekend in New Hampshire and discuss life and love. You may recognize a couple of actors who got their early start here, even if you don't know the names: David Strathairn and Gordon Clapp, and possibly Adam LeFevre. Long term relationships break up, new ones get started. It was a movie about baby boomers by a baby boomer, and was about the people, no big event happening within the context of the film (no war, no murder, no heist, no natural disaster). It may be hard to believe that was different, but it was. Even though it is set in the 1980s, wondering what you're going to do with your life is a pretty universal feeling: do you head out to LA to pursue your music, have kids, change careers for something less stressful and more fiscally rewarding? I didn't love the movie, but I didn't hate it either.

11/4/18 Suddenly, Last Summer, 1959

With all of the lists I have to work from, you may wonder why I went off script, so to speak, to watch a not great movie that's not on any of the lists. I recently finished a biography of Montgomery Clift and was really interested to watch Suddenly, Last Summer. Sigh. It was taken from the Tennessee Williams play and starred Katherine Hepburn as the deep in mourning and denial Viola, mother of the frequently referenced, but never seen and deceased, Sebastian; Elizabeth Taylor as the tortured Catherine, cousin of Sebastian; Clift as Dr. Cukrowicz, a surgeon who specializes in lobotomies (maybe I should have quite while I was ahead). Joseph Mankiewicz directed (All About Eve, Guys and Dolls, Cleopatra) and Williams and Gore Vidal wrote the screenplay. On the face of it, this should have been a great film, but it was a little creepy. I'm going to skip over the barbaric conditions under which the opening surgery is performed, that's too obvious. The unnaturally intense grief that is displayed by Viola for Sebastian is unnerving. I was really proud of myself for noticing the connection between the names Viola and Sebastian and the play Twelfth Night by Shakespeare; the thing is, they were twins. The description of Sebastian's death at the hands of some local boys in a Spanish beach town is disturbing. If you watch the movie with no understanding of the background, some things may not make sense, but there are veiled hints at Sebastian's homosexuality, which Viola denies, but Catherine confirms in a very emotional speech. Catherine's knowledge of Sebastian's secret is why Viola is trying to get Cukrowicz to perform a lobotomy on Catherine. Yeah, did you just make a face? I will say I had to watch Hepburn, she was so commanding. She and Taylor were both nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but lost to Simone Signoret. Clift was not at his best, this film came only a few years after a devastating car accident. I don't care if it wasn't on a list, I'm crossing it off.

Finally - The Big Lebowski and Finishing off the AFI list with Intolerance and Three Identical Strangers

10/14/18 Intolerance, 1916 #49 AFI, National Film Registry

I have borrowed this movie from the library twice before and returned it unwatched, then I got it from Netflix and it sat unopened for over a month before I forced myself to watch it...or at least have it playing where my eyes could randomly wander. I understand from a historical perspective why Intolerance is on the National Film Registry and maybe even on the American Film Institute's list of top 100 films, but I seriously considered poking myself in the eye. Written, directed and produced by D.W. Griffith, who also wrote, directed and produced The Birth of a Nation in 1915, it is three hours of epic storytelling and filmmaking. Except I didn't find it to be captivating storytelling at all. There are four separate stories that are from four different time periods in human history, and they are interwoven so the story lines run parallel. I have watched, and enjoyed, silent movies before, but, I didn't care. Perhaps if Griffith would have focused on one story, then maybe I would have paid attention. Supposedly Intolerance was made in response to the negative feedback that Griffith received after The Birth of a Nation which featured black Americans as negative stereotypes and white actors in blackface. I will leave further dissemination to true film critics. I will just say that most of my readers will not willingly subject themselves to this movie. And, it also completed the AFI 100 list.

10/20/18 Three Identical Strangers, not yet nominated, 2018

I think one of the most disgraceful and disgusting things in human history is when people we are supposed to trust to act in the best interest of all of us, betray that trust and act sanctimonious in the process. There are examples of this throughout different fields of medicine; Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cell line, for one, and the triplet brothers featured in Three Identical Strangers. The brothers, Eddie, David and Robert, were put up for adoption and were separated very early in life, and placed with three different families of three different socio-economic statuses to study them. The adopting families knew nothing about this experiment. The film interviews the brothers, their families and friends and uses archival news footage from when the brothers discovered each other. There are feelings of anger and resentment towards the adoption agency for lying and deceiving the families and separating the brothers, essentially robbing them of a lifetime together. The film producers were able to track down a couple of people involved in the study, led by Peter Neubauer, but Neubauer is dead, and the study was never published. Also discovered were other twins included in the study. One 'assistant' who is interviewed (I cannot remember her name, nor find it in the credits) was rather flippant about it, not bothered at all about the harm that was inflicted or about basically lying to the families, but conveniently, she didn't remember other things when asked. Her smugness made me want to slap her. The papers, notes, and data from the study were left to Yale University with restrictions on the collection until 2065, not even the subjects of the study could get those records, until the pressure from the release of the film made the owners of the records relent, a little. I was totally captivated by the story of the brothers and their families, and outraged that the adoption agency and researchers made decisions that impacted so many people, with very little regard for them. The movie blends the stories of the brothers within the context of the research and left me wanting to know more, in a good way, that is, I felt invested in the brothers and the others impacted.

10/20/18 The Big Lebowski, 1998, National Film Registry

As much as I enjoy movies by the Coen Brothers, I have never, ever seen The Big Lebowski. I have no reason. I kind of bumped it to the top of my watch list because apparently there is a Big Lebowski bar in Iceland, and I'll be headed there shortly. Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), who insists on being called "Dude", is a slacker and enjoys bowling and hanging out with his friends, who include Walter (John Goodman), a Vietnam Vet with frequent bursts of oversized outrage and Donny (Steve Buscemi) who always seems to be a step behind. Believe it or not (and with a Coen Brothers movie you usually have to do that a lot) there is another Jeffrey Lebowski in Los Angeles; this one is a little bit wealthier and has a wife with a spending habit, and a daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore), who is an enthusiastic feminist. In a case of mistaken identity, that kind of propels the whole movie, a couple of goons bust into the Dude's house and threaten him over his wife's debt, and then pee on his rug. The Dude is more upset over the defilement of the rug than the assault. The Dude goes on a quest to find the other Lebowski and replace the rug. Of course, it's not that simple, and one thing leads to another, including a kidnapping and ransom gone wrong, a couple of bowling games gone awry (John Turturro is hilarious as Jesus Quintana, a bowling nemesis with a questionable past), an encounter with a stranger (Sam Elliott), and a bizarre dream/dance sequence. All in a day's work for the Coen Brothers. Some movies (like the above-mentioned Intolerance) are on the list, and I dread them, and realize that I was right; other movies, like The Big Lebowski, I kind of wish I hadn't waited so long to watch it, one, because I did like it (not loved it, though) and it really has become embedded into the culture, thus, its inclusion onto the National Film Registry.

10/27/18 To Sleep With Anger, 1990, National Film Registry

To Sleep with Anger has a great cast: Danny Glover (Harry), Richard Brooks (Baby Brother; you'll recognize Brooks from his stint on "Law and Order"), Carl Lumbly (Junior), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Linda), Mary Alice (Suzie; you may not recognize the name, but you'll recognize her voice and face) and Paul Butler (Gideon). The story is as old as Cain and Abel or Jacob and Esau, two brothers competing for their father's approval and pride; there is nothing sinister or evil in this sibling rivalry, however, just resentments carried for years. Gideon and his family live in South Central Los Angeles, but still carry on with some of their rural ways brought with them from the South. Out of nowhere an old friend, Harry, appears on their doorstep. It's been decades since they have seen each other, but Gideon welcomes Harry into the house, and things start to go a little askew within the family. I am not sure that the content is what got the Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) written and directed film on the National Film Registry; perhaps it's because it was written and directed by an African-American and the cast is all African-American, admittedly, a rare occurrence these days, but especially in the 1990s. I thought the movie was okay, better than Killer of Sheep, which I didn't like at all, some good performances and potential in the story, but it wasn't great.