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aion-rsa · 3 years

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How Clarice Continues Agent Starling’s Story

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In 1991 The Silence of the Lambs became a phenomenon; cleaning up at the box office, winning all five major Academy Awards (Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actress, and Actor) and turning both of its lead characters into overnight icons. But while antagonist Hannibal Lecter has scarcely been away from our screens, the steely yet vulnerable hero of the film, Clarice Starling, only reappeared in the poorly received 2001 sequel Hannibal. Even Bryan Fuller’s cult classic TV adaptation of Thomas Harris’ source material novels couldn’t use Clarice due to complicated divisions of the rights.

But now Clarice is back, headlining a new CBS drama that picks up where The Silence of the Lambs left off and charts the next stages of the young agent’s career. For fans of the film it’s an enticing proposition, albeit one that has to contend with the inverse of the rights situation that plagued Fuller’s show; Clarice can use any character that originated in The Silence of the Lambs, but none from the rest of Harris’ works, meaning that Hannibal Lecter is nowhere to be seen.

In some ways this is a blessing in disguise, allowing Clarice to chart its own path. The early episodes of the show demonstrate a commitment to Clarice’s point of view, paying tribute to what came before but never losing sight of whose story this is. We sat down with showrunner Elizabeth Klaviter to explore the genesis of the show, how she interpreted Thomas Harris’ world and characters, the challenges of reimagining a beloved icon, and what the series has in store going forward.

Den of Geek: Seeing Clarice Starling back on screen is a real thrill. Can you talk us through the genesis and development of the series?

Elizabeth Klaviter: Creators Alex Kurzman and Jenny Lumet both started asking themselves the question, “Where’s Clarice Starling now? What happened to her after The Silence of the Lambs when she was no longer in Quantico? And how did she deal with the trauma of Buffalo Bill’s basement while she was still a cadet?” Jenny is the most obsessed, amazing Thomas Harris fan and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all of his books completely available to her at any moment, just through her brain. It’s incredible. She was like, “I want to know what it looks like if Clarice and Ardelia live together? I want to know if they share shoes? Who does Clarice love? What does that look like? What does she eat for breakfast? How does she go through the world being Clarice Starling?”

So the two of them were really asking themselves that question in a deep and rich way. And then we were in the middle of a feminist revolution with the #MeToo movement and those things intersected. When Jodie Foster talks about reading the script and deciding to take the role, she has said “this is the story of a woman who is saving a woman in a well.” And that was revolutionary. That is revolutionary. It goes against the stories that we’ve heard since the dawn of time, since human beings were telling stories to each other.

It seemed like the cable space would be the most logical place for the advancement of Clarice’s journey, but David Nevins at CBS was really interested in putting it on network television, where it could shine and be unique. And he said, “if you will be our partner in putting this on network television then we’ll give you guys creative freedom.” And that has definitely been true. They’ve been our true partner; incredibly collaborative, incredibly generous, and really supportive of Alex and Jenny’s vision of the show moving forward.

Outside of The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice has previously only reappeared in the novel/film Hannibal, which is largely built around her getting kicked down again and again. How important was it to you guys to see Clarice have some genuine successes?

One of the most fascinating junctures in a person’s life, but especially a woman’s life, is moving forward from being in school to being a professional. What does that look like? How do you carry yourself? How do you answer the questions of your childhood? How do they inform who you are? And then you get pushback to be maybe a different kind of person, to work harder, or to make sacrifices that maybe you don’t want to make as a professional, let alone an FBI agent who is constantly dealing with morality, ethics, and justice. So, I think that’s a particularly exciting time for a woman’s life.

It translates to the year that we set the show in, in 1993, but also really to today, particularly as it affects both our Clarice storyline, but also Ardelia’s storyline, which grows and becomes much more significant, both in relation to Clarice and also in her own right as the series progresses. In The Silence of the Lambs Clarice was still a student, still studying; she was close to graduation, but she wasn’t there yet. And this is the first time we’re really getting to see the beginning of who she is as an FBI agent.

This is the second TV adaptation of Thomas Harris’s properties, and Hannibal did garner quite an intense cult following. Did you feel any pressure following not only that series, but also being a direct sequel to one of the greatest films of all time?

Thomas Harris created amazing characters who are complex, who have a variety of drives and nuanced motivations. So I feel like anybody who gets to play in the Thomas Harris sandbox has to A) be a fan, and B) feel the pressure and the responsibility that brings. But there’s another thing that it brings, which is pure joy and delight.

Clarice: How Does The Show Compare to Hannibal?

By Gabriel Bergmoser

Everybody who is involved in this show on every level, from our costume designer to our production designer, have all studied in the library of Thomas Harris. And also Jonathan Demme and his extraordinary visuals and filmic language. We really wanted to bring to life all of the textures of Thomas Harris’s work; the opulence, the extraordinary lavish visuals of his imagination, and most importantly, I think, the characters.

On that, let’s talk about Paul Krendler. In the source material Krendler is a lot more overtly slimy and antagonistic towards Clarice, particularly in the novel Hannibal. At least in the first three episodes of the show, he comes off more as a tough but fair boss who Clarice is slowly warming towards. Can you talk a little bit about the change to his character from the text to the show and what the impetus for that was?

I think a lot of it had to do with the question of who we’re spending time with. Certainly fans know where Krendler ends up; we all know his outcome in Hannibal, that his character gets progressively more awful and he ends up having a fitting demise. So we’re putting together this team on the show and have to ask if we want this awful, badly intended character in such close proximity to Clarice while she’s fighting monsters.

We honor his history having been in the Department of Justice, but now we’ve brought him back to the FBI and given him a backstory that he was formally in that FBI before he went to the DOJ. Then we explored “what drives this man? When is he wrong-headed? And when is he right-headed?” And the answer that we all really enjoyed is, this is a man who is trying to keep his unit safe, who wants everybody to come home tonight.

That means that Clarice can’t explore this case in the way that she wants to; to just run off and use her intellect to solve the crime and get an audience with the bad guy in a potentially unsafe way. Now she’s in the bigger world, and she’s having to learn what the rules are and how she has to function within them. Now when we talk about Krendler and his future, we’re not certain where we’re going. We don’t know who he will become in seven seasons because we have seven years until he ends up being the man in Hannibal.

So, in the minds of the writers’ room, are the events of Hannibal still off in the future, or is this potentially a re-imagining of where Clarice might have gone next after The Silence of the Lambs?

We don’t have the answer to that question yet. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility right now. We definitely are going to honor Thomas Harris, look at the path and see how it goes. I mean, Ardelia is in the book Hannibal, and there are some really interesting details. She and Clarice end up living together in that book, or not living together, but owning condos that are like a duplex together. And so there are definitely moments of characterization that we draw from, from that book. Then we’ll see where we get. And we should be so lucky that we have seven seasons to fully answer that question.

The show so far moves between more a traditional case of the week stories and this overarching conspiracy plot. How do you work in the writers’ room to balance that?

It’s my favorite kind of storytelling to have a balance between those two things. I’m a huge X-Files fan, and they definitely had their overarching serialized plot. But the episodes I always responded to the most were the monsters of the week. I’m a sucker for a good monster of the week story. I’m also obsessed with, not just seasons, but series-long arcs for characters; with personal growth and character relationship growth. So, putting those two things together is my personal sweet spot. I feel like as long as the story that you’re telling for your case of the week is truly compelling and you’re honoring where the character journey is, you can organically bring the audience on a journey that includes both. It just takes some attention.

Rebecca Breeds does such a fantastic job as Clarice. Her work feels of a piece with what Jodie Foster did, but also very distinct. Was there a lot of discussion about where the line should be drawn between impersonating Foster but doing something new as well?

Rebecca had her finger on the pulse of that from, really, her audition. She was stunning. I think it was a last-minute decision for her to add an Appalachian accent. She added the accent and then she said, “I just found Clarice.” And for all of us, the reason why we’re all showing up to work every day is because we’re incredible fans of Thomas Harris’s universe. His novels, yes, but also the movie. Jodie Foster is an incredible actor who gave an incredible performance and really embodied this character. So, honoring Jodie and her performance has always been paramount in all of our minds and yet we need to move forward and fully embrace Clarice as our own. And for us; for Alex, Jenny, myself, and Rebecca, the answer to that question has always been a truthfulness in writing and then a truthfulness in acting. That if the moments are real and genuine and fully present for all of us, then it becomes its own thing. It takes on its own life.

Due to the rights situation Hannibal Lecter is a notable absence, but in some ways a bigger one is Jack Crawford, who fulfilled the mentor role to Clarice in The Silence of the Lambs. Did you feel in any way limited by not being able to use him?

It’s interesting to look at the events of The Silence of the Lambs and the relationship with Crawford purely from Clarice’s point of view. For me, that relationship became caught up in the trauma. I feel like we are honoring his presence in her life, but in a very unpredictable way. When she went to see Hannibal, I feel like she was being given, yes, one of the most exciting opportunities of her life, but also being thrown into the deep end of the pool. And that’s part of what she carries with her. One of the definitions of trauma is “too much too fast”.

Clarice got too much, too fast, and now she’s unraveling that. So to my mind Crawford is a part of that. And that is how we’re paying tribute to him in our show. That’s how we’re thinking of him. And then to your point earlier, I feel some of the more mentor pieces of Crawford have become part of the Krendler character and will grow their relationship. It’ll have a lot of ups and downs, of course. But I think there are pieces of him in her relationship with Krendler.

One of the complex things about the relationship with Crawford is the fact that it is inherently built on an act of manipulation. He sends her in without giving her an agenda so that he can try to coax information out of Lecter.

And later when she needs back up they’re all the way across the nation. To me, that’s also part of the male gaze. They asked her to go do this thing and then they didn’t listen to her. They just missed a lot of it. The way that has translated into our world is in the exploration of bosses asking young women to do things, and then maybe not listening to all of the answers or the pieces of the answers that are inconvenient for them even though they’re honest and truthful. It’s definitely something that we explore in the series.

Something that’s refreshing about the show is the fact that it’s a period piece but never feels like it’s hitting you over the head with the 90s setting. What kind of discussions did you have about engaging with the time period?

We talk about it quite a bit. And of course there are all the practical conversations about making sure that the items that we’re using are accurate and the cars for those periods are correct. As we’re moving forward, there are more details that we’re drawing specifically from the FBI in 1993. We talk a lot about how our world view has and hasn’t shifted since 1993. An example would be how does the Waco siege inform the standoff at Novak’s in episode two. Who are these FBI agents, were they at Waco, were their friends at Waco, were they heard at Waco? What were their feelings from there and how did those attitudes inform this?

Movies

The Silence of the Lambs and Clarice’s Lifelong Battle Against the Male Gaze

By David Crow

Movies

Hannibal: Did Author Thomas Harris Try to Destroy Dr. Lecter?

By Don Kaye

In the world of the show Ruth Martin is the first female Attorney General, and that creates more pressure for her. And the FBI has a legacy that was started with J. Edgar Hoover, which is filled with white supremacy. It’s hard to succeed there if you aren’t a white man. So, those are ways that it informs it. Lucca De Oliveira (Tomas Esquivel) showed up on-set one day and he called me and he’s looking around and seeing all of our extras being white and said; “it makes me feel so other”. Those are the ways that we started really exploring what it means to be in 1993. And we’re shooting those from the perspective of the non-white characters.

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Going forward, what can fans expect to see from the show?

We will watch all of our characters get to know each other better and get to know themselves much better, particularly Clarice. Clarice goes on quite a turbulent journey of self-discovery. We really enter very deeply into Clarice’s relationship with Ardelia and what the differences in their worlds are as they’re learning. What it means to be a Black female agent, and what it means to be a white female agent, and how those two things are very different. We get to meet some more monsters and some of those monsters are vanquished quickly within an episode, and some of them will be around with us for the entire season.

The post How Clarice Continues Agent Starling’s Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

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speedygal · 7 years

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how do you feel about the changes to the klingons in discovery? my mom is a huge trekkie (has been since before i was born & im 24 lol) and she was annoyed by the change. is it that big of a deal? ive seen the shows a thousand times cuz my parents loved it so much, but it seems like a cool change to me?

I feel like it’s a okay change for me. Because it’s been explained they are ancient klingons. Which I am not sure to believe in the first anymore because Alex Kurzman said they were of different houses. Worf’s namesake looked humanish in the Undiscovered Country. He had to be roughly… thirty in that so he was born in 2260. EVERYONE KLINGON LOOKED HUMANISH except for the brows, the foreheads, and the hair in the updates. So the joining of several Klingon houses likely has some part into the drastic change in population appearance. The ones with smooth foreheads were kept away from the ones who still had their forehead ridges.

Gene Roddenberry said they were meant to have teeth to them and had these big foreheads ridges when SFS and TNG were out to the same blacklash and anger due to the Klingon’s change in appearance: they were finally what he wanted them to be at. What he envisioned. And to explain away, in canon, what happened that didn’t let them have these foreheads, it was all explained by two comments from Worf. Which doesn’t explain anything but certainly implies the shame from the whole smooth foreheads ordeal.

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This, is, well, if you look in the background of the Discovery trailer comparing the Klingons appearances together, it’s going on that idea that they are aliens. 24 Houses ought to be different, don’t you think? It’s not a big deal to me but it is a big deal to those who don’t like updates to their favorite franchise. To people who remain stagnate. To improvement in general. And to the racists, xenophobics, sexists, homophobic, etc. They certainly look as alien enough that it could be something that Roddenberry might approve of or not. I think he might approve of them overall. I hate to think how difficult it must be for the actors to smile or laugh in all that make up or whatever that kind of crap they are wearing to portray klingons. Helmets? Plausibly be helmets. The smooth forehead Klingons might not be around or could be around at this time. If Enterprise is ignored thoroughly. Depends on the canon and how much rightful canon is done by trekkers writing this series.

T’Kuvma makes a historic change one way or another and we get the klingons we know.

Eventually. With the forehead ridges.

Like Worf said.

It was likely a very long story.

#klingons #star trek: discovery #star trek discovery

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playnationde · 5 years

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Fans der Science-Fiction-Serie „Star Trek: Discovery“ dürfen sich schon bald auf eine 3. Staffel freuen. Einen ersten Trailer gibt es bereits. Nun sprach Produzent Alex Kurzman über die Idee eines Kinofilms.

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newyorktheater · 5 years

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“The Wrong Man,” a sung-through musical starring the spectacular Joshua Henry, may remind people of “Hamilton” in its catchy rap-inflected eclectic score and jerky hip hop choreography, but it is nearly the anti-“Hamilton” in its lack of real-world resonance.

Now, I don’t need a show to be socially conscious or rooted in history in order to enjoy it. But if you’re going to enlist a black actor to portray a man framed for murder, it seems like a missed opportunity to create a story that has no more relevance than a folk tale.

Duran (Henry) impregnates Mariana (Ciara Renée), after he meets her at a bar in Reno, Nevada for a one-night stand. Her jealous ex-husband, called only Man in Black (Ryan Vasquez),kills her and frames Duran for the murder. Duran is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

“The Wrong Man” is written by Ross Golan, a pop songwriter responsible for a slew of number 1 hits (for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Lady Antebellum, Maroon 5, Pink, et al.) The musical began as a single song that Dolan has said he wrote in 2004 after he learned that Illinois Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in the state (which was subsequently made permanent by Gov. Pat Quinn) and Golan imagined “a guy who is in prison for something he didn’t do.” The one song grew to many, which Golan performed in L.A. in 2014 on a guitar, accompanied by a dancer and video projections.He turned that into an animated film, which was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, and then a concept album released a few months later.

Many talented people have participated in the staging of the 24 songs that make up “That Wrong Man” at MCC Theater, including director Thomas Kail, and musical supervisor and orchestra Alex Lacamoire, who both won Tony Awards for “Hamilton.” (Three of the nine cast members, including Henry, are also alumni of “Hamilton.”) It’s choreographed by Travis Wall of “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Despite all the talent, “The Wrong Man” never really gels as a work of theater for me. It can feel like a 90-minute live music video – catchy, lively, superficial.

It reminds me in several ways of Paul Simon’s 1998 musical “The Capeman,” about a Puerto Rican gang member who commits murder. It, too, was a concept album before it was a staged musical, it too was put together by some prestige talents. The music was catchy. But the individual songs told the story rather than dramatized it. What remains most memorable to me about that musical is how unmemorable the supposedly central act was, the stabbing murder; it nearly didn’t register at all.

As with “The Capeman,” so with “The Wrong Man”: In place of involving drama or insight, there is…rhythm and melody.

This parallel struck me during the “scene” in “The Wrong Man” when the Man in Black frames Duran – in the song called “Stays Here”:

“He dropped the pistol in my lap,” Duran rap-sings, while the Man in Black drops the pistol in his lap, “And then he ran into the street and yelled.”

Then the Man in Black raps: “Police, that man just killed someone and now he’s after me.”

Duran continues: “I threw the gun like it was burning through my flesh and bone/I took off and I ran/And that’s the way the story goes.”

The song continues with Duran telling us that he rushed to Mariana’s home to find her stabbed to death; he called the paramedics; and then he ran away.

Ironically, the refrain of the song is: “They say all kinds of clichés here like, ‘what happens here stays here’”

The plot is so vague and far-fetched that it feels pointless to view it logically – to wonder, for example, why his fingerprints on a gun would implicate Duran in a stabbing death.

It is worth noting that “The Capeman” was based on the true story of Salvador Agron, and attempted an exploration of the social forces that shaped him. Goran had an almost endless number of recent true-life stories of wrongful imprisonment that could have inspired him, but he instead seems to take his guidance from country ballads and B movies. It is fitting that the music includes a synthetic whistling that sounds borrowed from the score of a spaghetti Western. There is even a direct allusion to Johnny Cash’s Folson Prison Blues: “It wasn’t me who shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die.”

Golan makes a few weak stabs at social significance, such as a lyric in the song “Line Up” that suggests corruption — “the court appointed lawyer walked in, her arm around the chief — and the song “Free Duran” in which protesters lead a chant against the injustice of Duran’s conviction. But these don’t have much effect in a show that has such a melodramatic villain in the Man in Black (the name another allusion to Johnny Cash.) The character acknowledges his own evil repeatedly, especially in the song “When Evil Men Go On The Run”:

Y’all ready know I’ve been in prison for passing fraudulent checks while abating arrest for soliciting a minor for sex

I’m a cold, cold man with little to no pity I killed my pregnant wife and left for Mexico City

That there are any genuinely moving moments at all in “The Wrong Man” feels like a testament to Joshua Henry’s tremendous power as a performer. “The Wrong Man” is as close to a one-man show as is possible with a nine-member cast (Mariana and the Man in Black are the only other specific characters), and Henry makes the most of it. He turns what in other hands might have seemed simply an unending stream of self-pity – “ God, tell me why me? /Why oh why oh why oh why me?” – into cries from the heart. Henry’s role is so demanding physically – and I suspect emotionally — that Ryan Vasquez, normally portraying the Man in Black, is performing as Duran on Sunday matinees and occasionally one other day during the week.

My building up Joshua Henry should not be read as a put-down of the rest of the cast, all of whom are amazing dancers and great back-up singers. “The Wrong Man” is such an attractively staged entertainment that some theatergoers might not mind that it’s a concert with nothing to say.

Click on any photographs by Matthew Murphy to see it enlarged.

The Wrong Man

MCC Theater

Book, music and lyrics by Ross Golan

Directed by Thomas Kail, music supervision, vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, choreography by Travis Wall, scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Jennifer Moeller and Kristin Isola, lighting design by Betsy Adams, and sound design by Nevin Steinberg, hair and make-up design by Tommy Kurzman, music direction by Taylor Peckham,

Cast: Joshua Henry, Ciara Renée, Ryan Vasquez, Anoop Desai, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Malik Kitchen, Libby Lloyd, Amber Pickens, Kyle Robinson, Debbie Christine Tjong, and Julius Williams.

Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Tickets: $56 – $132

The Wrong Man is on stage through November 17, 2019

The Wrong Man Review: Hamilton-Like in Form, The Anti-Hamilton in Content “The Wrong Man,” a sung-through musical starring the spectacular Joshua Henry, may remind people of “Hamilton” in its catchy rap-inflected eclectic score and jerky hip hop choreography, but it is nearly the anti-“Hamilton” in its lack of real-world resonance.

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larryland · 6 years

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by Macey Levin

As the world probably knows, 2018 would have been Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, also that of Jerome Robbins. Bernstein was a musical genius as a conductor, music educator on television and a composer of classical music, ballets, and broadway musicals. In our part of the world Barrington Stage Company has produced a dynamic West Side Story while Tanglewood has dedicated several programs to Bernstein with special focus the week of August 18th through the 25th, his actual birthday.

In addition to West Side Story his musicals include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Trouble in Tahiti, a seldom-produced Peter Pan and Candide, which straddles Broadway musical and light opera and was part of the week-long celebration in a staged performance on August 22nd and 23rd in Ozawa Hall.

The show has had a long and controversial history. In 1953 playwright Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes, The Children’s Hour, Toys in the attic, etc.) suggested to Bernstein they should collaborate on a musical version of Voltaire’s satirical novella. Hellman had never written a comedy and highly respected director Tyrone Guthrie was a newcomer to Broadway. After several stops and starts (at the same time Bernstein was working on West Side Story with Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins and Stephen Sondheim) the show opened on December 1, 1956 featuring Barbara Cook and Robert Rounesville for seventy-three performances, not a lengthy run. Arguments and accusations were bandied about followed by relief that it closed.

A 1973 restructured version directed by Hal Prince with Mark Baker, Lewis J. Stadlen and Maureen Brennan at the Brooklyn Academy of Music later transferred to Broadway. The new libretto was written by Hugh Wheeler with contributions by Sondheim, Richard Wilbur, John Latouche as well as Bernstein. It ran for almost two years. A third production in 1997 featured Jim Dale, Andrea Martin, Jason Danielly and Arte Johnson for a 104 performances.

The music for the recent celebratory production was performed by The Knights, a 23-member ensemble under the artistic director brothers Colin, a violinist, and Eric Jacobsen, conductor. At first a loosely structured chamber music group, they cooperatively developed their arrangements and incorporated in 2007. Every musician contributes to the interpretation of any given piece creating a sense of camaraderie and a unified approach. Their sound in back of Candide was glorious.

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The principals, Miles Mykkanen (Candide, Tenor,) Sharleen Joynt (Cunegonde, Soprano,) Margaret Gawrysiak (Old Lady, mezzo-soprano) and Evan Jones (Pangloss, Voltaire, Cacambo. baritone) had glorious voices that helped to define the characters. The ensemble, dressed in Commedia dell’arte costumes and whiteface, were energetic with impressive voices.

The production, with a cast of 13, directed by Alison Moritz and choreographed by John Heginbotham, sparkled. With minimal props and set pieces, the staging was inventive utilizing the hall’s expansive stage while the choreography was dazzling.

Aaron Copp’s stage and lighting design enhanced the production’s objectives by focusing attention on the action and the vocalists. The costumes designed by Amanda Seymour, using the Commedia as a basis, were colorfully fitting for the style of production as were Tommy Kurzman’s wigs and make-up design.

Bernstein and all his creative partners would have been exhilarated by this Candide. Regrettably it had only two brilliant performances.

Candide by Leonard Bernstein, (Scottish Opera Edition of the Opera House Version – 1989) Book by Hugh Wheeler based on the satire by Voltaire; Lyrics by Richard Wilbur with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman and Leonard Bernstein; Orchestrations by Leonard Bernstein and Hershy Kay; Musical continuity and additional orchestrations by John Mauceri; For The Knights: Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen Artistic Directors; Music Director and Conductor; Eric Jacobsen; Cast: Miles Mykkanen (Candide) Sharleen Joynt (Cunegonde) Margaret Gawrysiak; Evan Jones (Pangloss/Voltaire/Cacambo) Alexander Elliot (Maximilian/Grand Inquisitor/Sea Captain) Alex Mansoori (Baron/Governor/Vanderdendur/Ragotski) Sarah Larsen (Paquette) Zoe Johnson (Ensemble) Emma Sorenson (Ensemble) Chandler Johnson (Ensemble) Luke MacMillan (Ensemble) John Eirich and Courtney Lopes (Dancers); Running time: Two hours, thirty minutes, including one intermission; August 22-23, 2018; Tanglewood, Ozawa Hall, Lenox, MA.

REVIEW: The Knight Present “Candide” at Tanglewood by Macey Levin As the world probably knows, 2018 would have been Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday, also that of Jerome Robbins.

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sandwrite-blog · 6 years

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Star Trek Discovery's Spock Has Been Cast

Star Trek Discovery’s Spock Has Been Cast

At San Diego Comic-Con last month, Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Alex Kurzman confirmed that Mr. Spock is set to appear in the upcoming second season of the show. It has now been confirmed by Variety that the iconic Vulcan will be played by Ethan Peck.

Peck is the third actor to play Spock, following Leonard Nimoy in the original ’60s series and Star Trek movies throughout the 1980s, and…

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edgysocial · 7 years

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New Post has been published on http://edgysocial.com/weekend-roundup-a-new-nationalist-international-challenges-the-old-globalization/

Weekend Roundup: A New 'Nationalist International' Challenges The Old Globalization

No sooner did “the party of Davos” ― as top White House aide Stephen Bannon calls the global elite ― end its annual conclave in the Swiss Alps late last week than the “Nationalist International” was born down in the Rhine Valley city of Koblenz, Germany. All the main populist movements from across Europe gathered together there to celebrate the Brexit and Trump victories as a premonition of their own expected success in elections over the coming year. They called on their fellow Europeans to “wake up” like the Americans and British and take back control of their national destinies.

What animates these movements for national sovereignty, and paradoxically ties them together across borders, is a double antipathy. Their revolt is against both the faceless forces of global integration represented by trade agreements or Brussels “Eurocrats” and the face-to-face presence of immigrants whom they see as despoiling their own national identities.

Scott Malcomson insightfully points out that these movements in Europe see their cultural nationalism not as intolerance of others, but as a defense of diversity in the form of their unique, familiar and cherished way of life they now see as under assault. In their conflated anxieties over Muslim immigrants and terrorism, which they share with President Donald Trump and his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, populists are demonstrating what political scientist Samuel Huntington said after the 9/11 attack by Osama bin Laden about that terrorist leader: “Just as he seeks to rally Muslims by declaring war on the West, he has given back to the West its sense of common identity in defending itself.”

More so than in the U.S., the European nationalist’s idea of belonging bears some very worrying baggage. As novelist Elif Shafak says in an interview with The WorldPost, “I am far more concerned about the rise of populism across Europe than the rise of populism in the U.S. Here in the old continent, there is almost a visceral fear of diversity and ‘the other.’” She goes on to say that, “we need to bear in mind that this history is still alive in a fractured, fragmented and uneven continent where we do not always encounter the checks and balances that exist in the U.S. Constitution.” Mimicking the cry of the Koblenz meeting, Shafak concludes, “So, yes, it is a ‘wake up’ call. But not for the tribalists. It is a wake-up call for democrats and liberals and cosmopolitans, for anyone and everyone who holds democracy and pluralism dear. It is a wake-up call for us.”

As Nick Visser reports, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing back against the nationalist upsurge. Speaking to church leaders in Germany on Monday, she declared, “We won’t get anywhere by trying to solve problems with polarization and populism. We’ve got to show that we’re committed to the basic principles of our nation.”

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says he thinks it is Germany’s insistence on Europe-wide austerity policies that are at the root of the problem. To defeat the nationalist resurgence he proposes a “New Deal” for Europe that is an alternative to those policies which he sees as a, “gift to today’s coalition of European right-wing parties called the ‘Nationalist International.’” He continues: “Europe can survive neither as a free-for-all nor as an Austerity Union in which some countries … are condemned to permanent depression.”

President Trump this week also took the first steps toward fulfilling his campaign promise of building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and proposed cuts in federal funding for “sanctuary cities” across the U.S.

On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto insisted once again that Mexico would not pay for a border wall ― which he said undermined the “respect” of his “sovereign nation”― and cancelled his upcoming trip to Washington. The two have since spoken by phone.

Former Mexican president and chair of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council, Ernesto Zedillo, goes further. He said to me this week that Trump’s proposals toward his country have “defied legal and economic rationality” from the start and that now, “the time has come to admit that the actions of the new administration have cancelled, at least for the foreseeable future, any agreement stemming from dialogue and negotiation that could satisfy the legitimate interests of both parties.” Labelling the American president’s actions “aggression,” Zedillo joins the rallying cry of his countrymen: “What we reject under any circumstances is any attempt to use a single inch of our territory to build such an abominable structure. It goes without saying that all Mexicans are behind President Peña Nieto when he tells President Trump that we will not pay for his extravagant, offensive and useless project.”

In addition to his directives on Mexico, the American president also delivered on his pledge to limit Muslims entering the U.S., signing a document late Friday whose full details still remain unclear at the time of this article’s publish. Charles Kurzman argues that the the proposed limits are “absurd” and counterproductive. It is the strategy of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, he writes “to take advantage of the West’s hypersensitivity to small scale Islamist attacks.” He continues: “Since 2001, there have been zero fatalities in the U.S. by extremists from the countries on Trump’s list.”

As Trump crosses off executive order after executive order and as Syria talks sideline America yet again, many wonder if the U.S. president will go easy on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders are slated to speak this weekend, but already, Ukrainians are on edge. From Kiev, just days after Trump’s inauguration, Ian Bateson reports that many there fear the special relationship between Putin and Trump could leave Ukraine in the cold. “We have seen the rhetoric. Now we are waiting for performance,” one politician says.

Back in America, millions of demonstrators took to the streets across the U.S. and elsewhere to protest Trump’s policies even before executive orders had been signed. Turkish journalist Ilgin Yorulmaz, who participated in the Washington march, sees a correspondence with resistance in her home country and other countries across the world. “Women (and men) share the same concerns about gender inequality and sexual harassment,” she writes, “regardless of if they live middle class lives in Manhattan or face discrimination on the subways of Istanbul.” Aykan Erdemir and Merve Tahiroglu score new moves by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to consolidate executive power. “An overly centralized polity, a weak legislature and Erdogan’s authoritarianism have brought Turkey to the brink,” they write.

Also reflecting on the massive demonstrations, Margaret Levi reviews the experience of how social movements in American history have ultimately shifted the political agenda. These photos document the scope of demonstration that took place last weekend around the world. Hayley Miller reports that despite the Trump administration’s renewed focus on fossil fuels, a new Pew poll says two-thirds of Americans favor a path to a renewable energy future.

Writing from Hong Kong, Li Jing reports that Chinese officials say they are prepared “to take a leadership role” in defending the Paris climate accord no matter what the new Trump administration decides to do. Following the splash of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s defense of globalization in Davos last week, Minxin Pei sees trouble for him at home as adversaries resist his anti-corruption crackdown and economic reform agenda. “2017 will be a dangerous year for Xi,” he says. In South Africa, in fact, attempts to model government off of China have already created tension among political parties, explain Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden, with one mayor taking a controversial trip to Taiwan, sparking a Trump-esque “one China” policy violation backlash.

Looking to the far future, Deep Space advocate Mary Lynne Dittmar imagines how a full-fledged effort to settle on Mars can help us in our troubled home planet. “Why Mars?” she asks, “Why not the Moon? Simply put, Mars is the best place to develop a ‘local’ infrastructure enabling us to live on another planet, albeit one millions of miles away. In a very real sense Mars is at the far end of the infrastructure we are preparing to revitalize in this country.”

Finally, our Singularity series looks at the moral dilemmas posed by new advances in genetic screening that further enable “designer babies” whose characteristics can be selected.

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