Manning the Barricades on Behalf of Les Misérables

Les Misérables, the movie based on the hit musical, was released in America on Christmas. I saw the second showing of the day at a local theater, with family and friends, electing to see Les Miz rather than Django Unchained, which I saw later that week.

I went into Les Miserables with great expectations—coincidentally referencing another classic work of 19th century literature, published just a year before the Victor Hugo tome dropped in 1862—as the stage musical is one of my all-time favorites (officially #2 on this list) and, IMHO, the best piece of musical theater ever created.

But I also entered the movie with a good bit of wariness.

Having in November seen a sensationally well-sung touring version of the musical, which I’ve taken in numerous times, I was skeptical about the vocal chops of the movie’s stars, particularly Russell Crowe, but also to varying degrees, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter and others.

Also, while advance buzz for the movie seemed to generally be strong, not only had recent stage-to-screen adaptations of cherished musicals like The Producers and Rent been relatively disappointing, but some critics—including Michael Phillips in my local Chicago Tribune—had truly trashed Les Miserables.

In giving the film 1-1/2 stars out of 4, Phillips wrote “Too little in this frenzied mess of a film registers because [Director Tom] Hooper is trying to make everything register at the same nutty pitch.”

But I went to the movie on Christmas and I loved it. To the point of ranking it #6 on my list of Best New Movies I Saw in 2012.

This isn’t to say that I thought everything about it—particularly the singing—was absolutely exquisite. For pure vocal prowess, the recent DVD of the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables or a touring production or the one playing in London is likely a good step greater.

Crowe actually sang a bit better than I expected, but a bit short of phenomenally, while Jackman—who has solid stage musical credits—sounded a bit thinner of voice than I would’ve thought. Hathaway was very good—she, like Jackman, has now earned an Oscar nomination—but perhaps over-emoted a touch, while Seyfried's singing was solid if not quite sensational.

But while this may sound like I’m being hypercritical, or even negative, in truth the slightly-below-pristine movie star singing did very little to detract from my tremendous overall enjoyment of Les Miserables on screen.

Over nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes that for me never dragged, Hugo’s classic storyline, the score by Claude-Michel Schönberg and the adaptation and lyrics by Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer all retained their power to glorious effect. And whatever quibbles some critics had about not only the singing, but Hooper’s camerawork and editing choices, were for me rendered inconsequential.

When I walked out of the theater, I was already looking forward to Les Miserables being released on DVD so I could add it to my collection and watch it again.

But while the Les Miz movie has certainly seemed to have its fair share of champions among friends, the public and the press—it garnered a Best Picture Oscar nom—over the past few weeks, I became aware of a good number of people who truly hated it.

In Time magazine, Richard Corliss wrote, “This is a bad movie.”

Nick Digilio, a WGN Radio host and avowed movie buff, put it on his list of Worst Movies of 2012, as did Michael Phillips.

David Edelstein of New York Magazine called it “tasteless bombardment.”

In Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum opined that “this fake-opulent Les Miz made me long for guillotines.”

In her New York Times review, Manohla Dargis referred to Hooper’s directorial approach as being “bludgeoning and deadly.”

And in the most vitriolic harangue I’ve yet encountered, David Denby wrote in the New Yorker, “I had never seen the show or heard the score; I came to the material fresh, without preconception, and throughout the entire hundred and fifty-seven minutes I sat cowering in my seat, lost in shame and chagrin. This movie is not just bad (“bombast,” as Anthony Lane characterized it in a wonderful review in the current issue of the magazine). It’s terrible; it’s dreadful. Overbearing, pretentious, madly repetitive.”

Certainly, I realize and respect that everyone—and especially professional critics—are going to have different viewpoints on things, and if it’s their job (or even just wont) to share them, they should be nothing but candid about their opinions.

And when someone as esteemed as Richard Corliss finds fault with Hooper’s technical approach—writing “…when Hooper pulls back for the big view, his camera style switches from mesmerized single takes to catch-as-catch-can choppiness. The barricade scenes are filled with rapid, indiscriminate vignettes of the protesters; the shots don’t build, they just pile up—I can’t help but appreciate that he’s assessing things with a much more trained eye than I.

Especially as someone who openly espouses my opinions on this blog, with which I imagine and respect that many people may disagree, I generally take a “to each their own” philosophy. Some people hate musicals. Some people hate Springsteen. Some 5547 people have given Citizen Kane a “1” rating (out of 10) on IMDB. We all have our opinions and we’re all entitled to them.

To wit, I recently watched Persona, an Ingmar Bergman film that the British Film Institute ranks as the 17th best film ever. I could see the unique movie's merits, but nowhere to that extent. And though they often tend to be lumped together, I am far less a fan of Phantom of the Opera—or even Boublil and Schönberg ’s Miss Saigon—than I am of Les Misérables.

So it’s not like I don’t get that variances of opinion—and even seeming inconsistencies among our
own—are not just normal, but in many ways valuable, even essential.

Yet while I wouldn’t even say that outright slams are the majority—Metacritic cites only 2 purely negative critics' reviews out of 41 total, though 15 are “mixed” rather than positive—I found myself somewhat puzzled by exactly what had made Denby and the other naysayers so miserable.

So the other day, after work, I went to see Les Miserables again.

And I went specifically looking to be bothered by the camera angles and close-up shots that bounced around and subpar singing and an overload of empty bombast. I was looking for evidence to feel sheepish about my longstanding regard for Les Miz, a musical Denby says “was a killer for girls between the ages of eight and about fourteen,” with music that “is juvenile stuff—tonic-dominant, without harmonic richness or surprise.”

Well, with the caveat that I never purport to know what the hell I’m talking about, in seeing Les Miserables on screen for a second time, with the express purpose to focus on its supposed flaws, I wound up feeling the same way about it as I did the first time.

I loved it.

Sure, I can appreciate where some of the criticisms are coming from. Much of the music is overtly anthemic and tugs at your heartstrings. The score is filled with musical motifs that repeat ad nauseum. It seems somewhat odd that Javert (played by Crowe) seemingly has no other purpose in life than to hunt Valjean (Jackman), and the way the two characters (and others) constantly cross paths across France every few years seems too conveniently coincidental. As noted above, the stars' singing voices are likely a touch below prime Broadway or West End caliber. And yes, at a few points, the camera seemed to jump around more than it may have needed to.

Etc., etc., etc.

Still, there really wasn’t a moment within the 157 minutes that I didn’t like. By and large, the movie follows the book of the musical, which condensed the action of a 1,000+ page epic novel that takes place over about 20 years into a cohesively compelling 3-hour show. Hooper and his editors made a few sequencing alterations, and there are a couple points where you may wonder why so-and-so is suddenly here and then there, but in my estimation, everything holds together much more than it doesn’t.

The performances are good, the songs are luscious and for someone who loves the stage version as much as I do, the movie is every bit as good as I could’ve hoped. Understanding that in show “business,” movies are made to make money, I get—and agree with—why movie stars were employed, rather than perhaps lesser-known Broadway vets with better singing voices.

And if, as it seems Denby would suggest, I am mistaking attractive artifice for true beauty, so be it.

I’ll happily squint if it means deriving as much pleasure (and yes, uplift) as I have from Les Miserables, on stage, and now, on screen.

And if you hate Les Miserables, c’est la vie.

Do you hear the people sing?

The Chicago Dining World Tour: A is for Argentina

The other day I had an idea.

One that someone with more initiative than I could probably develop into something a good bit more substantive, whether a dedicated blog, a YouTube series, newspaper articles, a Meetup group or whatever.

Have at it.

The idea is this: On a regular basis—perhaps once per week but maybe just once a month—I will eat at a restaurant in the Chicago area representing a different country, ethnicity or cuisine. And without intending to post full-fledged restaurant reviews, I will likely recap many of these dining experiences on Seth Saith.

Yeah, I know, it’s not that spectacular an idea and someone has probably done it before. And even without trying to embark on a Chicago Dining World Tour, I rather routinely eat at Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Cajun restaurants.

Within the past few years, I have also visited local places serving Afghan, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Polish, Greek, Persian/Mediterranean, Bosnian/Serbian, Peruvian, Lebanese, Indonesian, Ethiopian, Turkish, Vietnamese and Spanish food. And I’ve sampled other ethnicities at Taste of Chicago, which has led to me going to the restaurants themselves.

But it dawned on me that in the great melting pot that is Chicago, there are numerous other cultures represented in restaurants that I should try. Without yet delving too deep into research, I’ve discovered (on the internet) local places that serve Guatamalan, Belizean, Austrian, Venezuelan, Lithuanian, Belgian, Costa Rican, Moroccan, Romanian, Filipino food and beyond, plus other not so exotic cuisines like French, German and Korean.

So I should have no problem readily finding somewhere new—in local and global terms, simultaneously—to try, and while keeping an eye on sensible cost outlay and caloric intake, that’s what I intend to do.

Though I mentioned my idea to family and friends who expressed interest in accompanying some of my flavorful explorations—please be in touch if you would like to—I didn’t know when, where or with whom I would begin my world tour of Chicago restaurants.

But on Sunday, I made plans to meet my friend Dave for a movie at the Music Box—we saw Sister, a movie from Switzerland made in French; it was pretty good—and in discussing where to meet for lunch beforehand, he suggested Tango Sur, an Argentinean restaurant just up the street to which I had never been.

Tango Sur
Argentinean
3763 N. Southport, Chicago
(773) 477-5466
www.tangosur.net

At 12:30 on a Sunday, Dave and I were the only patrons in the older storefront section (there are two), so as you’d hope, the service was pretty good. The prices for entrees were generally about $15 and up, a bit more than I wanted to spend for lunch, especially in trying to diet.

So I stuck to the appetizer section of the menu and got two empanadas—one with ground beef, one with spinach & cheese, both very good—and a Tortilla de Papa, something of an egg soufflé or omelette with potatoes and onions (shown below). I only ate about half of it; it tasted fine but was a bit dry and not something I’d likely order again.

Dave went with the Churrasco—a 12-oz. sirloin that a friend had recommended—and reported it to be quite good. Perhaps I should have ordered that for myself.

I noted a few other items on the menu that I might order, likely more so for dinner. We were offered the opportunity to see the dessert tray, but this point, no pie for me Argentina.

The décor at Tango Sur—including a map of South American, a display of record albums by (presumably) Argentinean artists and a pretty cool illustration taking up a full wall (shown below)—was appealing in a kitschy sort of way, and albeit without any other customers, the ambience was quite comfortable.

I am not necessarily looking to explore countries/cultures in alphabetical order, but Tango Sur turned out to be “A” good way to begin my gastroethnic journey.

On the right occasion, I wouldn’t be opposed to going back, but for now I look forward to traveling on to another international destination in the Chicagoland area.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions—or interest in joining me, somewhere close at hand but with a worldly flavor.

--
Because my idea for a Chicago marketing piece has a slogan that seems rather apt, I'll gratuitously include it here:

Concept, design and slogan © 2012 Seth Arkin, all rights reserved

Whatever Happened to the Creative Cluster and "Can You Top This?" Artistic Competition?

“In 1966 Eric Clapton was the undisputed king of rock guitar in Britain. That was until Hendrix turned up on the scene. Jimi had only been in England for a week, yet there was already talk of this amazing American guitarist who had been creating a storm in London's blues clubs. In a particularly over confident gesture Hendrix asked if he could jam with Cream at their gig at Central London Polytechnic. Hendrix took the stage and tore through a version of 'Killing Floor' in double time. Cream soon regretted allowing him to join them. Hendrix's outrageous stage antics and dazzling guitar playing caused Clapton to leave the stage in a state of shock. He asked Chas Chandler afterwards "Is he always that fucking good?" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/events/blues-based-rock/hendrix-jams-with-cream/)

“Raphael's work in the Vatican Stanze was open to the curious; while Michelangelo left strict orders that no visitors were to be allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo, busy as a bee himself, consumed with a daunting task, apparently had little interest in Raphael’s work. But Raphael had an interest in his. Raphael paid a secret visit aided by the pope to view Michelangelo’s ceiling in progress. So profoundly did it affect him that he returned to his work in the Stanza della Segnatura (the pope’s private library), where he proceeded to pay tribute to Michelangelo by incorporating a seated figure of Michelangelo in the foreground of his masterpiece fresco, The School of Athens.” (Brenda Harness, Art Historian; http://www.finearttouch.com/Renaissance_Rivals_Raphael_and_Michelangelo.html)

“[Martin] Scorsese entered the Hollywood scene with peers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola. Together, they were known as the "Film School Generation," (though Spielberg was actually a dropout) contributing highly to the "New Hollywood Movement" also known as the "American New Wave." These four stormed into Hollywood and quickly made their mark. Along with other filmmakers characterized in the New Hollywood Movement, they brought artistic integrity back into mainstream cinema and changed the way the game was played.” (Luke Hickman; http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/show/HDD_Study_Hall/Martin_Scorsese/
Luke_Hickman/Fun_Stuff/HDD_Study_Hall_Martin_Scorsese/8168)

“On a visit to Los Angeles in April, Paul McCartney played [Brian] Wilson a song from [Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band], "She's Leaving Home"; later Wilson was said to be "deeply affected" by hearing a tape of another song, "A Day in the Life". Directly afterward, Smile was abandoned, and Wilson would not return to complete it until 2004, when it was released as a Brian Wilson album of the same name. Van Dyke Parks later noted, "Brian had a nervous collapse. What broke his heart was Sgt. Pepper." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson)

“Though The Beatles stayed fairly up to date on popular music in the early 1960s, Bob Dylan wasn't on their radar until the spring of 1964, a full year after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan established the young songwriter as American folk music's premier voice. Once the band heard that record, during a tour of France, it had an immediate impact on them. "For three weeks in Paris, we didn't stop playing it," Lennon would later say. "We all went potty about Dylan." The band's early hits, though deceptively complex, were clearly intended for a teenybopper audience more interested in dancing to backbeats than listening to poetry and acoustic guitars. After hearing Freewheelin', The Beatles—and especially John Lennon—were inspired to write more mature, narrative-driven folk songs in the manner of their new hero.” (Scott Beauchamp and Alex Shephard; http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/bob-dylan-and-john-lennons-weird-one-sided-relationship/262680/)

Through this blog, I spent the last two weeks extoling the music, theater and films that not only entertained me throughout 2012, but in large part sustained me.

Still, on days when I don’t have anything more acute to annoy me, I routinely find myself perplexed by what I perceive as a relative scarcity of newfound artistic brilliance pervading entertainment and cultural realms.

The seeming paradox isn't lost on me and I do not mean to disregard myriad examples of creative excellence exhibited by talented individuals in many fields, nor denigrate the wide variety of performances and creations that truly do enrich my life.

From actors amazing me within storefront theaters, to poets garnering rapt attention at public readings, to painters, photographers and sculptors peddling their wares at art fairs, to rock, jazz, blues, classical and other musicians making people smile—somewhere—every night of the year, and even to TV shows I enjoy week-after-week, there are innumerable “great artists” out there, who I admire and appreciate, many even without any direct awareness.

But while realizing the triteness of perpetually kvetching about how things used to be better, I genuinely believe that when it comes to transcendent artists of recent vintage with a modicum of mainstream relevance, it’s possible we may be at a historically low ebb. (Take a look at my Best Concerts of 2012 and Best Albums, and you'll notice a preponderance of old, or at least well-established, artists, rather than new ones.)

I’m not sure why this is, although I have to imagine the internet is somehow to blame, between splintering our attention, sensationalizing the superficial, simplifying the educational & creation process, abbreviating artistic gestation and aggrandizing the pursuit of the almighty dollar far above any aesthetic appreciation.

Yet this still doesn’t explain to me why I can only name a relative paucity of new artists—perhaps emerging since the turn of the century—who have a fair amount of mainstream acclaim, or who are, to my awareness and assessment, worthy of it.

Practitioners in the following realms used to be widely celebrated, but...

who can you name that has come to attention within the past 10 years or so and shown signs of historic significance in these areas: rock band, jazz musician, folk singer, classical musician, classical composer, Broadway composer, painter, sculptor, poet, movie director, movie star, stand-up comedian, cartoonist, photographer, dancer, architect, playwright and journalist?

If you can cite 10 names, combined, I’d be impressed.

Now, I realize that “historic significance” is open to interpretation and hard to judge without some chronological distance. And I really don’t know if people like Miles Davis, Allan Ginsburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Lenny Bruce, Joan Baez and Leonard Bernstein were truly household names. Perhaps their stature has grown once their legacies were shown to endure.

And I certainly realize my gripes are nothing new. Generation after generation, throughout history, has likely derided the relative fatuousness of subsequent ones. But my point here is really to point out that whether during the actual Renaissance or as exemplified by artistic torrents ranging from Impressionism to Bebop to the first 25-year surge of rock ’n roll, truly transcendent (or even just great) artists rarely developed or existed in a vacuum.

As illustrated by the anecdotes that opened this piece, talented creators—including many of the most historically exalted—have been inspired by their peers. And although nowadays, extraordinary gifted artists will still occasionally rise above the din, I really don’t see much evidence of what I call the “creative cluster effect,” in which great painters or authors or rock bands or movie directors engage in a (real or merely perceived) game of “Can you top this?”

Take for just one example, rock music in the 1960s. The Beatles exploded on the scene, having themselves been influenced by Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and other American rock pioneers. After the Beatles came to America in 1964, bands like The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark 5, Herman’s Hermits, The Hollies, The Yardbirds and The Who would soon follow, and all these years later, much of the music made by these artists still holds up.

Of course, you also had Motown going on, with the Supremes and the Miracles and the Temptations and on and on, as well as other American vocal groups such as the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. And with the rising tide of Vietnam in the background, Bob Dylan’s reverence for Woody Guthrie helped spur him to bring activism to pop music, with songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changing” and “Masters of War.”

Over the next decade or so, these artists would directly or indirectly, and perhaps a bit coincidentally, push each other to musical heights that—in breadth and depth, within pop music genres—haven’t been topped since. As referenced at top, Dylan prompted the Beatles to get more political. And the Beach Boys’ brilliant Pet Sounds album clearly helped to inspire Sgt. Pepper’s, upon whose release the breakdown of Brian Wilson showed just how seriously the artists were about competing with each other.

After 2012, a year when I was hard-pressed to compile my Best Albums list with 10 releases I really liked (or at least that I can imagine caring about 5 years hence), it’s hard to fathom a year like 1967.

Take a look at the Wikipedia page for “1967 in Music” as well as the year’s page on the “Best Ever Albums” website. 1967 saw the release of two new albums, each, by the Beatles, Stones, Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Traffic, plus masterpieces from The Velvet Underground, Love, Cream, Leonard Cohen, Jefferson Airplane, Dylan, The Kinks, The Who, The Moody Blues and more.

One of the more astonishing things to think about is that the Are You Experienced? album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience—on which Hendrix introduced a plethora of new sounds—was only a decade removed from Buddy Holly’s astonishing yet much more musically quaint output. Does anything today sound that much different from 2002?

I truly believe the period from 1955-1980 represents a rock ’n roll renaissance that likely will never be seen again. Narrowing it down even just to 1964-1975, the amount of great musical artists who came of age—besides those already mentioned, the Byrds, Creedence, CSN, Neil Young, Elton, Bowie, Queen, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, The Faces, Santana and many others—is rather mindblowing.

Now, I realize that we may very well be in the midst a “Creative Cluster” in the genre of Electronic Dance Music, which isn’t rendered inconsequential by the fact that I don’t care about it.

Similarly, even though it’s also a bit beyond my own personal tastes, I would argue that “Dramatic TV Series created by Cable TV Channels” may be our greatest Creative Cluster of the moment, with shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Dexter, True Blood, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, etc. supposedly being among the best on TV. It also seems possible that dramatic television is the only artistic genre currently at an all-time peak. (Though for TV itself, I prefer the ’70s sitcom cluster with All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, Taxi, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork & Mindy, etc.).

Further countering my own hypothesis, which seems to hold up best largely in the realm of pop music, perhaps the ongoing Technology Cluster that has Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon continually playing the “Can you top this?” game will go down in history as something of a Renaissance in its own way.

I guess it’s possible that we can only have a certain amount of Creative Clusters at the same time, and they come and go. I mean, if the 1930’s had a cluster of historically significant classical music composers, or the 1970s a cluster of museum-level fine artists, I can’t say that the practitioners of such readily come to mind.

So perhaps it’s just a matter of time before another Nirvana-Pearl Jam-Soundgarden-Alice in Chains-Smashing Pumpkins cluster comes along, or maybe in time I’ll eventually see the Tarantino-Fincher-Aronofsky-Coen Bros. cluster as estimable as the Coppola-Scorsese-Spielberg-Lucas cluster of the early ’70s.

In sum, I’m not really sure what my conclusion is, just that something seems lacking.

Inspiration, perhaps.

The Best of 2012: Photos of the Year (and a bit of a Recap)

Happy 2013. I hope the New Year is a great one for you, and that 2012 was as well.

It was pretty good for me, or so I think now. Of course, it helps that I ended the year employed for the first time in the last 4 years and for just the third time in the last 8.

Not that I'm taking anything for granted, nor that things were ever too terrible when I wasn't working--due to the tremendous support of family and friends, as well as the various interests I document on this blog--but with hopes that the outlook has improved (or will soon) for millions of others who have been unemployed or underemployed for far too long, I can't deny that having a decent job certainly feels better than the alternative.

Certainly, it was far from a perfect year. Not only were far too many people, myself included for the first 8 months, tormented by the economy but the number of people horrifically killed--in movie theaters, in places of worship, in shopping malls, in elementary schools, in subway stations, on city streets, etc., etc.--was absolutely heartbreaking.

I was also saddened by what seemed like a great number of deaths among great musicians, including Whitney Houston, Adam Yauch, Levon Helm, Robin Gibb, Donna Summer, Etta James, Duck Dunn, Davy Jones, Dave Brubeck, Fontella Bass and others.

So in trying to live each day as best I can, as I alluded to above I am extremely grateful for the great friends and close family that brighten my world, and for the opportunity to explore arts, culture, entertainment, sports and more to the extent I do.

If you just stumbled upon this blog post somehow, you may be interested in my recent Best of 2012 lists, covering my favorite Albums, Concerts, Plays, Musicals and Movies of the past 12 months.

In no small part, my worldview and happiness were enhanced by seeing four great Springsteen shows (including a phenomenal pair at Wrigley Field) and awesome concerts by the likes of Neil Young, Elvis Costello and the Who, as well as The Hives, Dinosaur Jr. and Willie Nile. I saw sensational renditions of musicals such as Les Miserables, Sunday in the Park with George and The Book of Mormon, but also relished taking in a number of inspiring community theater productions. I saw actors like Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy and Diane Lane live on stage without having to leave Chicago. I took a deep dive into documentaries, watching 80 different ones, and also truly explored Charlie Chaplin for the first time ever, watching nearly all of his major films. I went to some Cubs games, several Sox games and even a Cubs/Sox game.

Although I didn't get a chance to travel far in 2012, I nonetheless valued what I saw and did in places like Detroit, Davenport, Louisville, Urbana, Milwaukee and Lake Geneva. 

If you want some measure of my year, primarily as a spectator, I put up this gratuitous post (mainly for my own documentation) of 2012 By The Numbers.

But for a bit more illustrative look back at 2012, I went through my photo files from this year and of more than 59,000 photos taken, I compiled the gallery below. Some I picked because I really liked the photo itself, others for the place or activity they represent. Even with 52 photos--I'll do a "page break" after the first 5--it's not meant as a comprehensive summary of my year, but more so a celebration of some things I did and enjoyed. And while my photos rarely include personal acquaintances, many of them are innately included in this "Snapshot of 2012."

All photos by Seth Arkin. Copyright 2012. Please do not re-use without attribution, and preferably permission.

Amidst my Charlie Chaplin exploration, I went to Chicago's old Essanay Studios, where he shot one movie in
late 1914 or early 1915 in what is now an auditorium bearing his name and likeness at St. Augustine College.
Click to see a piece I wrote on Modern Times and a follow-up on my Chaplin foray.

In March, I went to Medieval Times for the first time. It was quite a knight.

I never actually bought anything at Evanston's longstanding Bookman's Alley, but always liked that it existed.
It doesn't anymore, having shut its doors sometime in mid-2012.

Like the Rolling Stones did in 1964, my friend Dave and I ventured to 2120 S. Michigan Ave.,
home of Chess Records' primary studios and now, Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation.

Speaking of classic recording studios, on an April trip to Detroit for a Springsteen show, I once again visited
the Motown Museum. I was quite interested in learning about the Funk Brothers, who played on hundreds of hits.

2012 By the Numbers

Movies
Total Watched: 282
New movies: 50
Documentaries: 80
Foreign Films: 38


Live Events
Total: 110

Total Theater: 49
Musicals: 30
Plays: 19

Opera: 2
Comedy: 2
Jazz: 2
Other Genres: 5

Rock Concerts: 36
Springsteen: 4

Sporting Events: 16
Cubs: 4
White Sox: 8
Bulls: 1
Bears: 1
Other: 2


Places Visited
Detroit
Quad Cities
Milwaukee
Urbana
Lake Geneva
Louisville

Museums: 19
Art Museums: 5
Ballparks: 4


TV/Books
TV shows followed: 12
Books read in full: 5


Blog
Articles written/posted: 165
Pageviews in 2012: 123,390


Photographs Taken: 59,401
Music albums purchased: 24

The Best of 2012: The Best New Movies I Saw

The greatest challenge, for me, in ranking the Best Movies of a given year, at the end of that year, is a matter of time.

By this, I don’t mean—primarily—the difficulty of comparing a film I saw literally minutes ago with one I watched in early January. Certainly, faltering recollect can be an issue, but I rate all movies in a database shortly after seeing them and refer to those ratings when making a list such as this.

But more problematic is trying to figure out which movies should be eligible for consideration. For instance, the film that is topping many Best of 2012 critics lists—Zero Dark Thirty—won’t be released in Chicago until early 2013. I haven’t seen it and can’t put it on my 2012 list, but am I going to remember that it should, presumably, be on the Best of 2013 list?

Basically, for my purposes, the year of Chicago release—and not just at a film festival—is what I go by, rather than the calendar year criteria used by most professional critics and the Academy Awards. So foreign films—including three that were 2011 Academy Award nominees—that opened in Chicago in 2012 are fair game.

Of course, confusing matters even more is that although I saw about 50 new releases in 2012—out of 280 total films that I watched—I certainly don’t presume to have seen every worthwhile new movie from this year. And while some of the ones I missed were films I had adequate chance to catch in a theater, or even perhaps on DVD, others were pictures that may have only played for a week or two at the Music Box or Century Centre Cinema.

So what all this mishegas adds up to is my need to precede my primary Best Movies of 2012 lists with a couple of other lists.

2011 Movies seen in 2012 that could have made my Best Movies of 2011 list:
Take Shelter, The Ides of March, Drive, 50/50, Terri, In A Better World (F), Incendies (F), The Help, The Interrupters (D), Sing Your Song (D), Bill Cunningham New York (D), Bobby Fisher Against the World (D)

Notable 2012 Movies Not Seen (first 2 not released in Chicago)
Zero Dark Thirty, Amour, The Sessions, The Master, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Holy Motors, Cloud Atlas, End of Watch, Sister, Prometheus, Hitchcock, The Deep Blue Sea, Your Sister's Sister, Rust and Bone, Killer Joe, Premium Rush

The Best New Movies I Saw in 2012
(F) = Foreign Film; (D) = Documentary

1. A Separation (F)

2. Argo

3. Monsieur Lazhar (F)

4. The Kid with a Bike (F)

5. Flight

6. Les Miserables

7. Moonrise Kingdom

8. Skyfall

9. The Impossible

10. Arbitrage

11. Life of Pi

12. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (D)

13. Bernie

14. The Imposter (D)

15. Safety Not Guaranteed

16. Silver Linings Playbook

17. Ted

18. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (F)
 
19. Looper

20. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Honorable Mention

The Dark Knight Rises
Footnote (F)
Hell and Back Again (D)
Marley (D)
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Queen of Versailles (D)
The Amazing Spider-Man
Django Unchained
Haywire
Safe House
Chronicle
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
The Avengers
The Bourne Legacy
The Hunger Games
Compliance
Shut Up and Play the Hits (D)
Bully (D)

Other 2012 Films Seen

Jack Reacher, Killing Them Softly, Seven Psychopaths, 21 Jump Street, The Vow, Dark Shadows, The Dictator, Underworld Awakening, Total Recall, Rock of Ages, Goon

My Friend Dave’s Top 12

Like me, Dave saw plenty of movies in 2012, both new and old, but notes that The Master, Skyfall, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Les Miserables and Zero Dark Thirty are among those he has not seen. His top pick is a movie that opened in Chicago in fall 2011, but had such a short and limited release that he didn't hear of it until after it was gone and only came to see it in 2012.

1) Margaret
2) A Separation
3) Argo
4) The Kid with a Bike
5) Silver Linings Playbook
6) Moonrise Kingdom
7) Django Unchained
8) Bernie
9) Killing Them Softly
10) Looper
11) The Perks of Being a Wallflower
12) Compliance

Onstage, 'It's a Wonderful Life' Has a Worthwhile Existence, By George -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

It's A Wonderful Life: The Radio Play
American Theater Company, Chicago
Run Ended
@@@@

I have long loved Frank Capra's classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life and have seen it several times, although not during this holiday season.

But until this year, I have never been prompted--nor even much tempted--to attend a Christmastime "radio play" of the famed movie, even though they have seemingly been a Chicago staple for several years.

In 2012 (and perhaps previously), not one but two theater companies in Chicago--American Theater Company and American Blues Theater--staged It's a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play within 2 miles of each other. I had read good things about both, but decided to go to the ATC version because the great Mike Nussbaum was in the cast.

Mind you, I went on the day before the run ended (for both troupes) so this review isn't going to help you much, unless when the chance to see this unique reading of It's a Wonderful Life rolls around next winter, like me you may be latently inspired to go.

While I wouldn't call it essential theater, the 90-minute staging was well-done and rather fun, particularly for a HotTix discount. Except for a few kids in the audience, I imagine most attendees were well-acquainted with the movie, which while perhaps not mandatory to enjoy the radio play, certainly added to the experience.

As I alluded to when I reviewed Freud's Last Session, any chance you get to see Nussbaum on stage is a treat. Here he "played" both Clarence and Mr. Potter, as well as other characters. As the terminology "radio play" references, It's a Wonderful Life is not acted out like a theatrical drama, but rather the movie script is read on stage (not quite line-for-line), with an occasional bit of acting.

Though it's enjoyable, and even heartwarming, to be reminded of the movie's storyline, what makes this work as theater is the pretense of taking place in a radio studio, circa 1948. Along with the voice actors, there is an emcee, stagehands, a foley (sound effects) artist and a pianist.

Everyone in the ATC version did a nice job, but along with Nussbaum, Cliff Chamberlain--who I've seen in several shows over the years--is demonstrably good as George Bailey. He channels Jimmy Stewart just enough for it to feel right, but not to the point that it seems overly gimmicky.

Sadieh Rifai likewise handles the Mary part quite nicely, embodying the character to the point where you feel the affection between her and George, while still straddling the line of being a voice actor, rather than fully acting out the part.

In what has been another highly enjoyable year of theater going--see my rundown of the Best Plays and Musicals I saw in 2012--this was a nice way to close it out.

And if you missed it, I imagine It's a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play will get its wings again next year. And of course, you can just watch the movie, which like Clarence--and Mike Nussbaum--never seems to get old.

The Best of 2012: The Best Musicals I Saw on Stage (i.e. the best productions)

In a year that didn’t include any trips to New York or London, and therefore no 4-shows-in-3-days clusters, 27 seems like a good number of musicals to have seen on stage.

And though this included few brand new musicals—excepting two World Premieres (Kinky Boots, Hero) and a recent Broadway-bound creation (Bring It On)—12 shows were ones I saw for the first time, while the other 15 were new productions of musicals I’ve long liked (or at least had seen before).

Of the repeats, five done at the community theater or college level were more satisfying than some elaborate Broadway in Chicago touring productions.

My biggest musical disappointment of 2012 was American Idiot, based on the Green Day album of the same name. I love the band, I love the album, I love the songs, but I thoroughly disliked what I perceived as a mish-mash of a musical without any narrative structure. (You can see my review of it here, and of Bring It On here.) I won’t bother telling you about the other musicals I didn’t much like, but below are the ones I did.

I always like to note that I am really ranking the productions I saw, not necessarily the musicals themselves. But whereas the runner-up on my list was an absolutely sensational rendition of one of my all-time favorite musicals, it lost out to an outstanding production of a show I like even better. So some unscientific blend of source musical and specific production come into play in ranking The Best Musicals of 2012, from among those I saw on stage:

1. Les Misérables – Broadway in Chicago (my review)

2. Sunday in the Park with George – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (my review)

3. The Book of Mormon – Broadway in Chicago (my review)

4. Jersey Boys – Broadway in Chicago (my review)

5. Kinky Boots – Broadway in Chicago (World Premiere) (my review)

6. A Chorus Line – Paramount Theatre, Aurora (my review)

7. South Pacific – Broadway in Chicago (my review)

8. Show Boat – Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)

9. Hairspray – Drury Lane Oakbrook (my review)

10. Singin’ in the Rain – Drury Lane Oakbrook (my review)

Honorable Mention (in preference order)

- Sister Act – Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- Fela! – Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- Hero – Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (World Premiere) (my review)
- A Little Night Music – Village Theatre, Glen Ellyn (my review)
- Spring Awakening – Northwestern University (my blog post)
- Brigadoon – Starlight Theatre, Wilmette (my blog post)
- Woody Sez – Northlight Theatre (my review)
- My One and Only – Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)
- Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas – Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- Legally Blonde – Devonshire Playhouse, Skokie 
- The Producers – North Shore Theater of Wilmette (my blog post)

The Best of 2012: The Best Concerts I Attended

It makes sense that I would like most concerts I attend, especially because at this point, there are very few artists I am inspired to check out for a first time. Seeing live acts whose music I like and who have previously impressed me in concert, leads—not so surprisingly—to a pretty high percentage of shows I’d deem “great” or better.

Still, it is pretty gratifying as I look back on a year in which I attended 36 concerts, that I rated 10 of them @@@@@, 11 more @@@@1/2 and another 9 @@@@. That makes for 30 of 36 shows that I really liked, with the handful of lesser ones including free festival performances and a Merle Haggard gig that was impeded by audio issues at the awful Congress Theater.

In fact, the only concert that truly disappointed me in full—i.e. beyond wishing some different songs were played and/or the pacing was a bit better—was one by Madonna. You can read my review of that show here, but I was actually anticipating it to be good as I had seen and liked her three previous times.

There was only one artist I saw multiple times in 2012, and the four shows by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would, honestly, hold down the top four slots on my list below. But rather than have the Boss monopolize 40% of the top 10, I’ll group all four of his shows as #1. However, that still leaves 17 gigs that I gave @@@@@ or @@@@1/2 vying for the nine remaining berths before Honorable Mention. And all I have to really separate them at this point is my eroding memory. So know that everyone listed below up to and including Dinosaur Jr. could easily be considered a Top 10 concert.

And even some of the acts toward the bottom of this Best of 2012 list may have made a case for Top 10 status if but for a few small adjustments. Radiohead and Wilco should have sprinkled a few poppier selections into their setlists; Prince shouldn’t have kept the United Center house lights off for 45 minutes after his set ended, then played “1999” and “Little Red Corvette” after most people left (me included) after the lights came up; and I would’ve liked the always great Garbage even more if it weren’t for my discomfort in the jam-packed and sweltering Metro.

I won’t include Tributosauras—who I saw do Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers—below, even though I really enjoyed their show at Skokie’s Backlot Bash, and I suspect I liked the Rev. Al Green a bit more from the lawn at Ravinia than pavilion dwellers have shared. But everyone else here not only belongs on my Best Concerts of 2012 list, but perhaps even a bit higher than I ranked them.

Note: I will cite opening acts in cases where I enjoyed them in their own right, but my rankings are based solely on the performance of the headliner. All venues are in Chicago area except as noted.

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – September 7 – Wrigley Field (my review)
Also, September 8 – Wrigley Field, April 12 – Palace of Auburn Hills (my review), November 3 – KFC Yum! Center, Louisville (my review).

2. Coldplay – August 8 – United Center (my review)
This surprises me, too, but they were unsuspectingly fantastic.

3. Elvis Costello and the Imposters – September 15 – BMO Harris Bank Pavilion, Milwaukee (my review)
Opening act Willy Porter was also terrific.

4. Neil Young and Crazy Horse – October 11 – United Center (my review)

5. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators – September 28 – Riviera Theatre (my review)
Another show that pleasantly surprised me by being as great as it was. Opening band Foxy Shazam was the strangest act I’ve ever seen, but surprisingly tuneful too. Another opener, The Lovehammers, were also good.

6. The Killers – December 21 – UIC Pavilion (my review)
I also really liked opening act Tegan and Sara

7. The Who – November 29 – Allstate Arena (my review)

8. Willie Nile – April 28 – Fitzgerald’s (my review)
Nile was backed by the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra, who also opened the show

9. The Hives – June 30 – The Vic (my review)

10. The Beach Boys – May 22 – Chicago Theatre (my review)

Honorable Mention (in preference order)

- System of a Down – August 15 – Allstate Arena (my review)
- Peter Gabriel – September 27 – United Center (my review)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – May 28 – Allstate Arena (my review)
- Maximo Park – September 17 – Schubas (my review)

- Roger Waters – June 8 – Wrigley Field (my review)
- Aerosmith with Cheap Trick – June 22 – United Center (my review)
- Dinosaur Jr. – June 23 – Green Music Fest (my review)
- Weezer – July 27 – The Venue at Horseshoe Casino (my review)
- The Zombies – July 31 – Viper Alley (my review)
- Van Halen – April 1 – Allstate Arena (my review)
- Radiohead – June 10 – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre (my review)
- Wilco – July 3 – Adler Theatre, Davenport, IA (my review)
- Prince – September 24 – United Center (my review)
- Smashing Pumpkins – October 19 – Allstate Arena (my review)
- Garbage – August 7 – Metro (my review)

The Best of 2012: The Best Plays I Saw

To be candid, it can be a challenge for me to stay focused—or even awake—throughout an 80-minute play. So it’s especially impressive that of the 18 non-musical productions I saw onstage in 2012, all in the Chicago area, my favorite one was nearly 5 hours in length.

Not that I would have minded if Eugene O’Neill had figured out how to make The Iceman Cometh just as compelling in half the time, but it was certainly a pleasure to see the epic play performed by a splendid cast at Goodman Theatre, including the marvelous Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy, Stephen Ouimette and others.

It is also rather gratifying that I liked and would recommend 17 of the 18 plays I saw this year, bestowing @@@@1/2 (out of 5) to the top 5 on my list below and @@@@ to 10 others. Besides the 15 I cite here, I also enjoyed I Love Lucy: Live on Stage, which wasn’t so much a play as an enactment of two classic teleplays, and Black Pearl Sings, a two-woman show at Northlight that had a good amount of singing but really couldn’t be considered a musical.

The only play I truly didn’t like in 2012 was Camino Real, a non-linear work by the great Tennessee Williams, which had many patrons exiting the Goodman Theatre early. I stuck it out, primarily to justify giving it the worst review I’ve given anything on Seth Saith.

Fortunately, that was the only stinker in an otherwise stellar year at the Goodman, where I have long been a subscriber.

A couple of the biggest revelations of the year were 33 Variations, a play that wove a biographical study of Beethoven around a family drama, and an excellent world premiere staging of The Book Thief by Steppenwolf for Young Adults. In bringing Markus Zusak’s novel to life through an adaptation by Heidi Stillman, the fine cast led by Francis Guinan and Rae Gray created a truly first-rate drama.

Before providing my list of the Best Plays of 2012, I should note that I am really ranking the productions I saw, not necessarily the plays themselves. While many of the works are of fairly recent vintage, this should not be construed as a ranking of the best new non-musical stage works, but merely a list running down my favorites from the 18 plays I saw this year.

1. The Iceman Cometh – Goodman Theatre (my review)
written by Tennessee Williams; directed by Robert Falls

2. 33 Variations – TimeLine Theatre (my review)
written by Moisés Kauffman; directed by Nick Bowling

3. War Horse – Broadway in Chicago (my review)
written by Nick Stafford; directed by Bijan Sheibani

4. The Cripple of Inishmaan - Redtwist Theatre (my review)
written by Martin McDonagh; directed by Kimberly Senior

5. The Book Thief - Steppenwolf Theatre (my review)
written by Heidi Stillman; directed by Hallie Gordon

6. Metamorphoses - Lookingglass Theatre (my review)
written and directed by Mary Zimmerman

7. Sweet Bird of Youth - Goodman Theatre (my review)
written by Tennessee Williams; directed by David Cromer

8. Race - Goodman Theatre (my review)
written by David Mamet; directed by Chuck Smith

9. After the Revolution - Next Theatre (my review)
written by Amy Herzog; directed by Kimberly Senior

10. Good People - Steppenwolf Theatre (my review)
written by David Lindsay-Abaire; directed by K. Todd Freeman


Honorable Mention

Black Watch - Chicago Shakespeare Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland (my review)
written by Gregory Burke; directed by John Tiffany

The Odd Couple - Northlight Theatre (my review)
written by Neil Simon; directed by BJ Jones

Freud’s Last Session - Mercury Theatre (my review)
written by Mark St. Germain; directed by Tyler Marchant

Broken Glass - Redtwist Theatre (my review)
written by Arthur Miller; directed by Michael Colucci & Jan Ellen Graves

The School For Lies - Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (my review)
written by David Ives; directed by Barbara Gaines

The Best of 2012: The Best Albums I Heard

2012 was once again a year in which I didn’t hear much in the way of newly recorded music that changed my life.

Or even substantially enhanced it.

This is not for lack of trying.

There are few things that I want more than to discover new music that I find invigorating. Toward that end, I bought at least a couple dozen albums in 2012—either in physical or digital form—and listened to many more via Spotify. I regularly perused reviews from Rolling Stone, AllMusic.com, Metacritic and various newspapers, magazines and websites. I checked out best sellers and new releases on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I paid attention to who played at Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Bonnaroo, Coachella and other festivals, even streaming much of them on YouTube. I watched a lot of live gigs on Palladia. And I read numerous Best of 2012 opinions, both mid-year editions and especially of late.

Based on all this, I have sampled a lot of new music, at least within styles I tend to like. And between releases by cherished favorites—Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Garbage, Alejandro Escovedo, Dinosaur Jr., Bob Dylan, Soundgarden, Rush, Jack White and more—as well as newer bands oft cited as releasing stellar albums in 2012—Fun., Tame Impala, Japandroids, Howler, Divine Fits, The Lumineers, Titus Andronicus—there has been very little that, especially across an entire album, has made me go “Wow!”

Yes, there have been some decent albums and enjoyable songs, but for me, a truly great album is one that I come back to again and again—upon its initial release or my discovery, but also in years to come.

Looking back now at my picks for the Best Albums of 2011 and 2010, the above criteria has really only applied to my top pick in 2011 (Adele – 21) and perhaps just half of my top 10 in 2010.

And while I genuinely enjoy all the albums I cite below to some extent, at this point I suspect only my top 2 picks will prove to have shelf life in my musical universe. So you may wish to listen on Spotify before buying any of them.

But without any further ado, these are the albums I liked best in 2012:

1. Maxïmo Park – The National Health
I feel somewhat sheepish about awarding the top slot to a band so little known in America, but other folks’ Best Albums of 2012 lists are full of artists with which I’m not familiar. Maxïmo Park’s 2005 debut, A Certain Trigger, still ranks as my favorite album of the ’00s and after a couple lesser ones, I thoroughly enjoy The National Health from start to finish. (Spotify link)

2. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball
It says a lot about The Boss that I like at least 10 of his previous albums better than this one, yet I still think it’s an excellent record with interesting sounds and a lot to say. (Spotify link)

3. The Hives – Lex Hives
They may not be the buzz band they once were, but the Swedish band continues to produce infectious, Ramones-like rapid fire rock songs. And Lex Hives is full of them. (Spotify link)

4. Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks
The Modfather has been on quite a hot streak in the 21st Century, with Sonik Kicks his 6th stellar studio album of the millennium. (Spotify link)

5. Kelly Hogan – I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
A longtime bartender at Chicago’s Hideout, Hogan proved captivating in an opening set for Wilco in Davenport in July, and though her album doesn’t scale Adele-like heights, she’s an impressive vocalist in a somewhat similar vein. (Spotify link)

6. Susanna Hoffs – Someday
The Bangle beauty showcases strong songwriting throughout her latest solo album. (Spotify link)

7. Neil Young – Psychedelic Pill
With a 27 minute song to open the album and two others clocking in over 16:00, this new work with Crazy Horse isn’t easy to listen to—in full—while driving. But two of the epics, “Ramada Inn” and “Walk Like a Giant” are among the album’s best songs, and there’s more than enough here to remind why Neil Young is one of the greatest rock artists of all-time.

8. Taylor Swift – Red
I’ve never cared about Swift’s romantic melodramas and subsequent musical salvos, but I find her to be one of the few present day musical artists to actually possess impressive artistry. Red showcases a rather impressive range of songwriting and singing styles. (Spotify link)

9. Bob Mould – Silver Age
According to reviews, I was supposed to like Mould’s new album as much as 1993’s great Copper Blue, released with Sugar. I don’t, but he fell short of past glories a bit more satisfyingly than did the Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Soundgarden, Garbage and others I had high hopes for. (Spotify link)

10. Japandroids – Celebration Rock
In listening to a lot of artists cited in other Best Album of 2012 lists, the Japandroids seem to be the best of what I’ve heard. The guitar buzz created by the Vancouver duo admittedly fits into my sweet spot, though so far I like their sound more than their songcraft. (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas (Spotify link) 
Bob Dylan – Tempest (Spotify link)
Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet on Sky (Spotify link)
The Killers – Battle Born (Spotify link)
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth (Spotify link)
Slash with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators – Apocalyptic Love (Spotify link)

Highly worthwhile live albums/DVDs

Blur - Parklive (Spotify link) 
Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day