TV Review: The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 2 (2012)

The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 2 (2012) co-written and directed by Richard Eyre based on Shakespeare's play

In 2012, England hosted the Summer Olympics. The BBC decided to have a "Cultural Olypiad" which included a series of William Shakespeare's historical play. In the first series, they presented Richard II, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and Henry V.

Prince Hal (Tom Hiddleston) continues his turn away from his drunken party boy lifestyle. His tutor in debauchery, Falstaff (Simon Russell Beale), is being called to account for his lifestyle but strives through wit and trickery to avoid the consequences of his actions. He's being taken seriously as a knight and has been called to raise troops to oppose the Earl of Northumberland and the archbishop of York, who are allying against King Henry IV (Jeremy Irons). The king's health is deteriorating. He still wants to fight the uprising and has misgivings over his oldest son's friends and behavior (he says the famous quote, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown").

Loyalty, duty, and betrayal are the big themes here. Prince Hal shifts his loyalty away from Falstaff and to his father, especially when the kingship looms over him. Falstaff wants to live a life of merriment; he heeds the call of duty but does not embrace it and is not transformed by it. He wants to stay good buddies with Prince Hal. By the end, Hal has become King Henry V and sees the need to renounce his former way of life and his former friends. The moment is sad and hard for Falstaff, who for all his loutishness is still well-rounded enough to evoke sympathy from the audience.

The actors are uniformly great in this production. The overall production values are still fairly dark though they do lighten by the end. Prince Hal's coronation is a big turning point visually and for the characters, making me very excited for the next play, Henry V.

This play is much more interesting than Part 1. I can't recommend skipping over Part 1 since it does set up the characters and the situation so well. Part 1 really needs the second part to complete the story.

Minor League Game 2016

At the end of the summer, my son and I went to see the Bowie Baysox, a farm team for the Baltimore Orioles. The stadium isn't far away (about 25 minutes). They've built a big sign where you are supposed to turn to get to the stadium.

Sign on the road

The stadium is very unassuming. Getting in was super-easy. Our tickets were scanned and we moved on to the general seating (orange section). We had to sit up high to avoid the blistering sunshine (the game started at 2 p.m.). Even so, we could easily see the action.

The stadium

View from our seats

The game had just started when we got there. The home team was holding their own. My son was hoping either to see a grand slam or to catch a foul ball. Most of the fouls were going into the third base stands; we sat overlooking first base.

Play ball!

In between innings,  the stadium hosted various competitions for the younger fans. One such game was racing bouncing horses, which looked like fun. My son was not interested in volunteering.

Horse race at the baseball game

Later, two patrons dressed up as sumo wrestlers and fought each other. It was entertaining to watch, especially when the guy in orange jumped on top of the guy in black when he was already laying flat on the field.

Sumo spectacular

We enjoyed the game, since we saw a grand slam. Still no caught foul ball for us...yet. We'll probably go next season. It's a lot cheaper and easier to get to than the major league stadium, though the food had similar prices.

Book Review: Superman: Red Son by M. Millar et al.

Superman: Red Son written by Mark Millar, pencilled by Dave Johnson and Killian Plunket, and inked by Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong

What if Superman's spaceship had crashed not in the American heartland, but in the middle of the Soviet Union? That's the premise of this book. Superman is adopted at a commune by farmers and doesn't come to the big city until his powers have grown. This time, the big city is not Metropolis but Moscow. He doesn't bother with the mild mannered report gig. He goes straight to Stalin and becomes a state hero. But Superman's ambitions are more than protecting the Motherland. He prevents accidents and saves people from tragedies on a global scale. American Lex Luthor puts this to the test when he has a Soviet satellite crash toward Metropolis. Superman averts the disaster and has an all too brief meeting with Daily Planet report Lois Luthor (yeah, she's Lex's wife in this story!). Superman believes in doing what's right but how will that work out with a Soviet upbringing?

The plot and politics of the story are more complicated than an initial impression and, indeed, the first half of the book reveal. Superman works to spread a utopian ideal across the globe, but his passion for truth, justice, and the Soviet way leans too much on the later element to the detriment of the first two elements. Wonder Woman shows up but she is little more than a love interest and battle partner with Superman; the writer missed an opportunity to contrast the Soviet utopia with Paradise Island's utopia. There's a Soviet Union version of Batman, too. He's more of a freedom fighter against Superman and all he stands for (I guess like the Batman vs Superman movie), though he is a less active opponent than Luthor.

The first two-thirds of the book were interesting but unsatisfying to me. A lot of conventions and tropes of the Superman mythos are reversed or twisted in different ways, leaving me with a feeling of inconsistency. Lois as Luthor's wife is an interesting idea and is played out fully; Jimmy Olsen is a CIA liaison to Luthor's company for no apparent reason other than to have Olsen show up. He doesn't get any development that makes any sense. The conflict between Luthor and Superman dominates the last third of the book and plays out in interesting and satisfying ways for both comic book conventions and for the deeper ideas the story comments on.

I almost quit reading this book about a third of the way into it. I kept reading to see how it would play out and am happy that I did. I still feel like this premise could have had an even better treatment or would be more convincing if it was more detailed. The book didn't hit the mark for me, it's surprisingly average for a great starting concept.

Summer Art Projects 2016

My daughter did a lot of art over the summer. Here is a very small sampling.

We started getting Kiwi Crates. Each delightful little box has one fun craft inside. A favorite box contained parts for a pinball machine. My daughter had fun putting it together and reconfiguring it.

The pinball machine, version 1

Ready to play

She went to a week-long arts and crafts camp. It had a space theme and lots of take home projects. Friday afternoon, family members were invited to a display of the children's art. Most parents stuck to their own child's table.

Our daughter's masterpieces

The works ranged from 2D to 3D, with paints, colored pencils, crayons, construction paper, modeling clay, and many other tools of the trade on display.

Box of space travelling art

Explaining her hand-crafted nebula (cotton balls in colored water!)

Mix and match alien book

The return of school has put a damper on the at-home artistic activity but not on our artist's spirit.

Many happy returns!

More Water Fun in Florida

We visited the Juno Beach Pier, or at least we tried to. When we got their, we discovered that visitors had to pay to go out on the pier. It's a popular fishing area, so to keep the crowd under control, they charge. And they don't let you fish for sharks!

Juno Beach Pier

One sad boy locked out

Can't even have her picture taken

The beach was both pretty and pretty empty. The day was hot, so I guess there weren't many bathers.

Beach south of the pier

Beach north of the pier

We didn't try out the beach here (no bathing suits) but we did visit the beach by Granny and Grandpa's house.

Toddler's first time

Big sister with the toddler

Back at the grandparents' house, we had lots of fun swimming in the pool many times. Some people enjoyed throwing rocks in the pool, while others enjoyed retrieving them.

TV Review: The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 1 (2012)

The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 1 (2012) co-written and directed by Richard Eyre based on Shakespeare's play

In 2012, England hosted the Summer Olympics. The BBC decided to have a "Cultural Olypiad" which included a series of William Shakespeare's historical play. In the first series, they presented Richard II, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and Henry V.

The aging Henry IV (Jeremy Irons) is beset by hardships. Henry Hotspur, son of the Duke of Northumberland, is angry that the king would not pay a ransom for his brother-in-law. The situation grows out of hand, i.e. Hotspur and some Welsh nobles take arms in rebellion. A closer hardship is Prince Hal (Tom Hiddleston) who is living a rather dissolute life with his companion Falstaff and others. They play pranks on each other. Falstaff is older, fatter, and drunker, so he usually gets the short end of the stick. Their good times end when the king summons Prince Hal to battle against the uprising. Hal and his friends do the right thing and go to war.

This movie is less colorful and less resonant than the first film, Richard II. The story here is slow. A lot of time is spent with Hal and Falstaff playing tricks and having barroom banter. Maybe out of respect for Shakespeare the movie makers didn't want to cut anything out, but I thought the story would be better served with less. Hiddleston is a charming scoundrel and makes the turn to a more serious person believable. Jeremy Irons is good as the king but he definitely is a secondary character to Prince Hal, despite the title.

The production is also very dark visually. The royal court mostly wears black and takes place in grey, underlit rooms. The pub where Hal and Falstaff hang out shows the typical medieval grunginess and poor lighting. Even the battle at the end takes place on a snow-covered battlefield, leaving a rather bleak appearance.

A good, not great, movie.

Book Review: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and the Great Lakes Avengers by D. Slott et al.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and the Great Lakes Avengers written by Dan Slott, Fabian Nicieza, Alex Zalben, Steve Ditko, and various artists

This book is a compilation of various adventures for Squirrel Girl, mostly involving the Great Lakes Avengers. The Great Lakes Avengers is a team of super-powered people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They aren't officially affiliated with the Avengers. They decide to name themselves as Avengers to get more name recognition and respect. The only problem is their powers are a bit lame--Mr. Immortal can't die but otherwise has no powers; Flatman is paper thin and is acknowledged as a Mr. Fantastic rip-off; Doorman is a living portal but can only transport himself or others into the next room; Dinah Saur is a female flying dinosaur humanoid; Big Bertha is a supermodel who can add mass at will to make herself huge. Their lameness is used for comedy. They hardly ever win any battle (except when Squirrel Girl joins because she is, as the title says, unbeatable). There is a serious story about the end of the world (because that's where the big drama in comics comes from, right?) but the GLA's role is mostly comic and tragic. Members die in every issue, which is a running gag for the comic. The humor isn't as dark as Kick-Ass and the message isn't as cynical as Watchmen but it's in the neighborhood. The tone is the big difference. The GLA are depicted as a fun bunch of screw-ups.

The book contains a very charming story with the Thing, who has a minor team-up with Squirrel Girl but mostly it's the story of his Bar Mitzvah and the party, with a great big superhero poker tournament. In another couple of stories, Deadpool fights with and eventually joins the GLA, which doesn't work out well for anyone (Squirrel Girl keeps calling Deadpool, "you evil, evil man!"). In addition to making fun of the GLA, readers get the Deadpool humor too (self-aware and a bit crass, if you haven't read any Deadpool stories or seen the movie). I laughed but felt guilty afterwards, just like the Deadpool movie.

The best story is with the Thing. The other stories depend a lot on your sense of humor. I enjoyed them but do not think they are great. And they don't have enough Squirrel Girl, if you ask me.