Tag: Cambridge

Movie Review: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Title: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Director: Ryan Coogler
Production Company: Marvel Studios
Summary/Review:

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a sequel that has to contend with death of it’s charismatic star and generational talent, Chadwick Boseman.  The movie begins with T’Challa dying of an incurable illness much like Boseman in real life, handling the problem with greater gravitas and respect for the deceased actor than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker did for Carrie Fisher.  The women of Wakanda step into the void both as leaders of Wakanda and as the series’ protagonists, particularly scientist and T’Challa’s sister Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), warrior general Okoye (Danai Gurira), Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and former spy and romantic partner of T’Challa Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o).

T’Challa’s opening Wakanda and its technology to the world has the downside of world powers seeking sources of vibranium.  This in turn leads to the emergence of the Talokan, another hidden society of people descended from the Maya whose discovery of a source of vibranium and the herb that grows from gives the ability to live in a kingdom under the ocean.  Their king, Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), seeks an alliance with Wakanda to destroy the rest of the world.  With Shuri unwilling to carry out mass destruction, the two kingdoms go to war. Wakanda and Talokan each offer an interesting perspective on how colonialism has hurt the non-white people of the world and the lasting trauma contributing to ongoing violence. Namor is also like Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in the first film in that he’s a villain with a very good point, and the question remains how to channel that revolutionary fervor to constructive rather than destructive ends.

There’s also a sideplot with Shuri and Okoye needing to protect a scientist from Namor because she’s invented a device that can locate vibranium.  It turns out that the scientist is Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne)  a teenage prodigy who studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This means that as a Bostonian we finally get to see the greater Boston area in the MCU, although they never quite make it across the bridge to Boston proper.  Riri also is able to build her own armored suit like Tony Stark and takes on the superhero name Ironheart.  I have a feeling that with Cassie Lang, Kate Bishop, America Chavez, Love, Kamala Khan, Riri, and others that we’re totally being set up for a Young Avengers team.

The original Black Panther is still the best movie in the MCU, in my opinion, and Wakanda Forever had a lot to live up to under the best conditions.  At nearly three hours in length, it is like a lot of MCU movies in being just too long.  I also feel that despite the great performances by all the stars that the movie suffers from not having a single protagonist for much of the first two acts as well as too many sideplots.  That aside, it is still an enjoyable and heartfelt film and a worth successor.

Rating: ***1/2

 

MASTER LIST OF MCU REVIEWS

 

 

Book Review: Conscience and Courage by John Hawkins

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: John Hawkins
Title: Conscience and Courage: How Visionary CEO Henri Termeer Built a Biotech Giant and Pioneered the Rare Disease Industry
Publication Info: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (2019)
Summary/Review:

This is a book I read for research at work.  It is a biography of the Dutch-born Henri Termeer who emigrated to the US to study at UVA’s Darden School of Business.  He then entered into the emerging biotech industry the blossomed in the Boston and Cambridge area in the 1980s. Termeer joined the startup Genzyme Corporation in the early 80s and soon rose to president. (Personal note: when I first moved to Boston in the late 90s I worked as a temp at Genzyme).

Termeer focused Genzyme on orphan diseases so-called because even though they are life-threatening illnesses they affect fewer than 200,000 people and thus there is not a lot of people and resources put toward treating the diseases.  Termeer’s patient-focused approach won him accolades due to the life-saving nature of Genzyme’s treatments.  But the success came with the high costs of research and development, expensive ingredients, and only a small number of patients to share the costs of some of the most expensive drugs in the world.

Recommended books:

Rating: ***

Movie Review: The Social Network (2010)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Title: The Social Network
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Director: David Fincher
Production Company: Columbia Pictures | Relativity Media | Scott Rudin Productions | Michael De Luca Productions | Trigger Street Productions
Summary/Review:

The Social Network asks the question, can a person unable to create bonds with other human beings make a billion dollar business based on friendship?  The movie is a dramatization of how Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) created Facebook while a sophomore at Harvard University in 2003.  The movie is framed by legal depositions where Zuckerberg faces off against Eduardo Severin (Andrew Garfield), his friend and Facebook CFO who claims his shares of Facebook were unfairly diluted.  He also faces a legal battle with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) who claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea.

I typically don’t like Aaron Sorkin scripts because his dialogue makes everyone sound insufferably smug, but that actually suits the film.  The historical facts of Facebook’s creation are played with loosely, probably because the reality was much more boring, but I feel that it was just as douchey as portrayed here.  Women don’t get much to do in this film except be kind of a decorative wallpaper to activities of the men, but given the dudebros ethos of the film it feels suiting.  The most significant women character in the movie is played by Rooney Mara, who plays a fictional ex-girlfriend of Zuckerberg’s who is supposed to be his inspiration for creating Facebook.

As a connoisseur of movies set in the Boston area, I enjoyed spotting the scenes that were filmed on location.  Poor Jesse Eisenberg had to do a lot of running in this movie, from the streets of real Cambridge all the way to Maryland where there is a dorm building that coincidentally has the same name as his dorm at Harvard.  I also used to frequent The Thirsty Scholar pub in Somerville circa 2003, so maybe I was there when Zuckerberg broke up with his fictional girlfriend.

Rating: ***1/2

Movie Review: Good Will Hunting (1997)

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Title: Good Will Hunting
Release Date:  December 5, 1997
Director: Gus Van Sant
Production Company: Be Gentlemen
Summary/Review:

I have a soft spot for this movie because it was released shortly before I moved to Boston and served as a good orientation guide for to acclimate to the city.  Boston and Cambridge serve as great background for many of the scenes although a lot of the places no longer exist after 25 years of gentrification. (One scene was filmed in “The Tasty” in Harvard Square which went out of business before the movie was released).  The movie also set Matt Damon and Ben Affleck – who wrote and star in the movie – on the path to superstardom.

Good Will Hunting also helped kick off a decade and a half of Boston movies, although unlike many of its successors it does not focus on mobsters and violence.  Instead it is an intimate story about a troubled young man Will Hunting (Damon) who has grown up with abusive foster families.  Despite his poor background he is a prodigy who has educated himself, with a particular strength in mathematics. While working as a janitor at M.I.T. he solves an “impossible” equation on a chalkboard and attracts the attention of Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård, playing the role with equal parts arrogance and awe).  Because Will has been indicted for hitting a police officer, Lambeau arranges to have Will avoid jail time if he will work with him to solve mathematical problems and go to therapy.

After some false starts, Will begins to meet for regular therapy sessions with Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams, in what is probably his greatest “serious” movie role).  At the same time, Will starts dating Skylar (Minnie Driver), a Harvard student from Britain.  Will’s best friend Chuckie (Affleck) also challenges Will to take advantage of his intellectual gifts.  Through these three relationships Will’s defense mechanisms begin breaking down.

I like this movie because it is heartfelt without being cheezy.  There’s a lot of humor in the movie but it doesn’t shy away from serious issues.  And while the plot is  predictable, the heart of the movie is in its wonderful characters which payoff in individual moments.

Rating: ****

Album Review: The Christmas Revels: Celebrating 50 Years!

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Album: The Christmas Revels: Celebrating 50 Years!
Artist: The Revels
Release Date: November 30, 2020
Label: Revels Records
Thoughts:

If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you know that one of my favorite holiday traditions is seeing The Christmas Revels performed at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA. I was eagerly anticipating this year’s 50th anniversary show, but that didn’t happen for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, we did get this gift of a double-disc set of songs recorded live on the Sanders stage from the 1970s to the present.

Live is live, so that means when listening to the recitation of the poem “The Shortest Day,” you can hear audience members coughing during the quiet pause. It’s a memory of a simpler time when someone coughing in a crowd was a minor irritant rather than a moment of horror. The songs bring back many memories of attending performances over the past 20 years. You can also trace the evolution of Revels from a show that began with celebration of traditional English songs and culture but grew to embrace holiday and solstice traditions from across Europe and the many cultures of the Americas, including African American, Indigenous Peoples, and Meso-American cultures.

I own every Christmas Revels recording every released and will likely continue to acquire them until I die. But if you want just one Revels album that captures the width and breadth of the Revels experience, I’d recommend this one. I should also note that there is a Christmas Revels performance for 2020 available virtually. Through the magic of video editing, performers appear on the Sanders Theatre stage intercut with film of performances from 1977 to 2019. I was a member of the cast in 2009 and you can totally see me in the background of those performances! You can purchase the virtual performance and the CD as a bundle, but be quick because the stream will only be available until December 31.

Rating: *****

Related posts:

Podcasts of Two Weeks Ending September 12

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

AirSpace :: Me and the Sky

The story behind the musical Come Far Away which draws upon the life of one of the first women to become a commercial airline pilot, Beverly Bass, and the grounding of 38 passenger planes in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001 (a story also covered in the book The Day the World Came To Town).

The Moth :: All Together Now​: ​Fridays with The Moth​ – Caroline Hunter & Anne Moraa

I’m sharing this particularly for Caroline Hunter’s story of working at Polaroid in Cambridge, MA and discovering that her supposedly progressive company was aiding the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and how she lead the fight to stop it.

99% Invisible :: Podcast Episode

This podcast traces the rise and fall of generic supermarket products in the 1970s & 1980s through the story of the Canadian chain Loblaws.

:: Where Do We Go From Here?

The controversies over transgender people using public restrooms is only the latest issue related to toilet facilities that has split the American people.  Designers in this episode note that public restrooms are actually poorly designed for most people and introduce a new design that would address the problems faced by transgender people, disabled people, and many others.

Planet Money :: The Old Rules Were Dumb Anyway

The COVID-19 is changing many of the rules from medical practices to restaurants. This podcast episode argues that the rules should not revert to normal when the pandemic ends.

Radiolab :: Translation

Several stories that address the idea of translation and attempting to find truth and meaning.

Sound Opinions :: The Replacements & Mission of Burma

Two of my favorite bands in one podcast.  The Replacements get the biographical treatment, with the help of the author of Trouble Boys Bob Mehr, and then we hear an in-studio performance by Mission of Burma.

RUNNING TALLY OF PODCAST OF THE WEEK APPEARANCES

Performance Review: The Christmas Revels: An American Celebration of the Winter Solstice

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

The Christmas Revels: An American Celebration of the Winter Solstice
December 26, 2019 at 3 pm
Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA

Each year the Christmas Revels adopts the music, dance, and storytelling traditions of a different world culture (in addition to some annual Revels traditions). Every so often that theme comes home and focuses on American cultures.  If you’ve been reading my Revels reviews for a while, you’ll remember that I participated in the Revels chorus in 2009 when it had an American theme. Ten years later, I’m fascinated to see another Americana performance from the audience.

I’ve long had an idea for a Revels performance set on the stoops of a row of tenements in an American city in the 1920s/30s. Immigrants from various parts of the world (Ireland, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, China, etc.) and African American migrants from the South could come together and share their cultural songs, stories, and traditions of the winter season. 

This performance isn’t quite my imagined Revels, but it does come close! Set during the Dust Bowl/Depression era, a radio station host (Steven Barkhimer) offers guidance to a man named Johnny Johnson (Jeff Song), who is lost his memory and his direction. Johnny travels the country experiencing various American cultural traditions and repeatedly meeting a mysterious woman (Chris Everett-Hussey).

I always say that you don’t go to Revels for the plot. But in recent years they’ve been working on their narrative threads more, so this year’s story feels like a reversion to thinner storylines of the past. It also doesn’t make much sense. Needless to say the song and dance are great so it doesn’t need much else.

Several numbers from the 2009 show are revived in new settings, including:

  • A Shaker circle dance
  • Cherry Tree Carol – illustrated as a “movie” the cast watches
  • Children, Go Where I Send Thee – one of several numbers featuring the excellent vocals of Carolyn Saxon.
  • Longsword Dance to the Southern tune “Sandy Boys.”

Old time music is provided by Tui and Squirrel Butter on several numbers. Ana Vlieg Paulin provides a wonderful solo on “I Wonder as I Wander.” And long-time master of ceremonies keeps the audience on key and on in rhythm. My favorite numbers include:

  • “Dark as a Dungeon” – featuring tired coal miners walking through the audience to return to their families.
  • “Old Grandma Hobble-Gobble” – the Revels Children play a game with storyteller Bobbie Steinbach.
  • Sing-a-long with “I’ll Fly Away.”
  • The gospel of “Trouble All About My Soul.”
  • Medley of “Can the Circle Be Unbroken/This Land is Your Land.”

Performances of the Christmas Revels continue until December 29, so see it if you get the chance. And even if you miss it, mark you calendar for the 50th anniversary show in December 2020.

Related posts:

Book Review: Around Harvard Square C.J. Farley

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: C.J. Farley
Title: Around Harvard Square
Publication Info: Brooklyn, NY : Black Sheep / Akashic Books, 2019.
Summary/Review:

I received a free copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

This novel is narrated by Tosh, an African-American Freshman at Harvard who grew up in a small town in rural Upstate New York and is the first person in his family to go away for college.  He forms a friendship of outcasts with his roommate Lao, a student from China with a fear of robots, and Meera, an androgynous Indian student.  He also is attracted to the mysterious Zippa, a Jamaican student squatting in the trash room of his residence hall.

The trio of Tosh, Lao, and Meera take a philosophy course with an eccentric and provocative professor known as “the Chair.” They also get involved in a competition to get spots on the staff of the university humor magazine, the Harvard Harpoon.  The experience is a lot like rushing a fraternal organization with hazing rituals and cruel pranks.  Zippa appears first as something like a Greek chorus on what Tosh is doing and then later joins the action as a provocateur.

Many names in the novel are changed – like the Harpoon, which is substituted for the Lampoon – as are the names of prominent Harvard alumni, although it’s blatantly obvious who they are.  There’s also a book within the narrative called Around Harvard Square which is said to be a famous novel where all the names were changed, so that’s super-meta, I guess. The book is set in the 90s which is emphasized by each chapter being named for a 90s alternative rock  or hip hop song title.  But the dialogue in the book seems more like it’s from the 2010s.  Also, I may be stretching it here, but I see odd parallels between Tosh, Lao, and Meera with the leads in another school-based book set in the 90s, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.   Only 90s kids will understand.

I really want to love this book, because it is witty and the characters and the premise are a good start.  But unfortunately, the plot just jumps around, there are way too many coincidences, and the dialogue is like people practicing dialectics rather than natural speak.  The idea that privileged white people and the academic institutions that support them need to be taken down a peg is a good one (and super relevant reading this just after the college admissions scandal), but there’s no subtlety in this satire.

Recommended books:

Rating: **

Photopost: Head of the Charles Regatta

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

King Charles I of the United Kingdom was executed by beheading in 1649. Over 300 years later, in 1965, the people of Boston and Cambridge began commemorating his decapitation with the annual Head of the Charles Regatta.∗

I was on the banks and bridges of the Charles River and snapped a few photos. Thanks to all the rowers for being so darn photogenic.

* This origin story is completely fictional.

Photoposts: Autumnal Sundries

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

I got a new smartphone recently. Unlike the previous one which would notify me repeatedly that the memory was full if I took more than one photo, this one actually has space to save pictures. So here are some recent smartphone photos.

Also, although it’s about 10 years after it was cool, but I recently set up an Instagram account should you be interested in more photographs.