SHINING LIVES

  Shining Lives - I had no idea that the numbers on  clocks, pocket watches and wrist watches were hand painted in the 1920s. In the case of the Westclox Company, they used dials that were painted by young women who worked for the Radium Dial Company in Illinois. The job was to use a small paint brush, smooth it to a point between their lips, dip it into the radium powder and carefully paint perfect numbers on the dial. At the time, radium was thought to be medicinal or curative, so even though it was making many of the women sick, the company told the women that the radium was safe. Shining Lives is a musical stage play about four of those women and their experiences. The larger themes were of discrimination against women and workers, and of the power that men wielded over them in the early part of the 20th century. Seeing the play last night took the audience from entertaining to thought provoking to sadly emotional in 90 minutes. Bravo Northlight Theater for staging this world premier during your 40th anniversary year. Wherever I end up in the future, I hope that my life will be enriched by similar theater experiences to those I so often have at Northlight.

THE MATHEMATICIAN'S SHIVA

The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer - Finally. A novel for mathematicians. I just read the reviews on the back cover after finishing the book, and it turns out that many readers found this to be hilarious. I didn't mind reading it, but didn't love it either - or so I thought until I started writing this review. I think I liked this story much more than I knew - although the characters seemed somehow at a distance, it turns out that I got to know and like them all. So yes, a thumbs up, and you may like it when you're actually reading it, unlike me, who didn't know she liked it until she was finished. Kind of like piano lessons, languages and school in general.

STILL ALICE * ENTOURAGE * CAKE

I think it's time for a new look for my blog - I love those clean white wide-bordered blogs I've been seeing. I don't want to give up my red heart turning though, and I've grown attached to my extra long but still anonymous bio, although it annoys me a lot.  So here I am, like in most of the other parts of my life - at inaction. Then you see a movie like Still Alice, and say well, that's not me really - I mean the whole thing accelerated in less than 120 minutes, right? Now I've read the book, and can't help but think every time I forget something or can't find a word, or have to do something a little more slowly than in the past so that I get it right the first time, that Alice at the beginning of the book could be me. 
Except there's the Attractor Factor which means I'm only going to put out there that my slips are normal in this overloaded world, and I will continue to blithely go about my business. Which in this case is reviewing a book and a couple of movies! 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - Read it and be a little frightened unless you're under 40. It's an amazingly intelligent story - the author conversation at the end of the book bears that out when she explains that she wanted to write from the point of view of the person with Alzheimer's. It's a good book about a tough and real subject. The movie follows the book beautifully, so if you aren't inclined for more of the same, the movie will show you all there is to know about Alice's story.

Entourage - I should have listened to the Tribune's two stars. As a TV show, the boys and their stories were fun to follow in half hour doses. As a movie, the story wasn't so great, and I felt like everyone was resting on their HBO laurels rather than bringing it strong one more time. I was falling asleep in this one - it can wait. For free when it hits TV.

Cake - I'm still thinking about this slow moving but engaging story about a woman with chronic pain getting through her days. Jennifer Aniston plays the woman, and her story unfolds by layers as she interacts with her housekeeper, her support group, her ex-husband and a guy who inspires her curiosity (you'll see why when you watch). It's a drama that pulls you along somehow and I liked it.