where road meets air

I'm driving out to where road meets air

And let my hair flow without care

With windows down, I go the distance

And sing, sing out my lungs to be free

I want to see where mind meets wisdom

To liberate thy child so winsome

Stagnation floating out the window

I taste, taste what it’s like to be free

Who knows what waits on the horizon

Behind the hills and roads so winding
But I believe I'll make it there 
And reach for the stars up ahead

I smile feeling all anew
So many things are coming true
But only thing I want to feel

Is air shift behind my wheel

Without fault, I drive ahead

Away from faces I forget

The stars shine nearer

Where road meets air

“Time Stands Still” - a play review

 

While in New York, I had a chance to see Donald Marguiles’ Tony nominated play “Time Stands Still,” which reopened on Broadway at the Cort Theater.

The lead character Sarah Goodwin, (Lara Linney) is a photographer recovering from injuries suffered on the job while shooting. She uses sarcasm and unassailable hardiness to suppress her real emotions. In contrast to Sarah’s rather cold character, her boyfriend, James Dodd (Brian d’Arcy James) is over comforting and unnaturally pleasing. Despite being somewhat of a pushover, Dodd accompanied Sarah as a journalist on their last mission, but had to leave prior to the accident that almost killed her. As a result, Dodd feels guilty about his girlfriend’s injuries and caters to her every whim.



Richard (Eric Bogosnian), the editor and closest friend of Sarah and James, has fallen in love with Mandy Bloom, a naive half his age (Christina Ricci replacing Alicia Silverstone).

As the plot unfolds, all characters reveal hidden secrets. Goodwin is especially interesting in her attempt to cope with the gore and tragedy of war as a professional photographer, while remaining impartial to all the suffering she is portraying. Surrounded by violence, she stays neutral to the chaos around her, while taking powerful images of the unthinkable. While innocent Mandy cries over the fate of a lost elephant she saw in the Discovery channel, Goodwin explains how she must remain calm and emotionless while shooting volatile situations.



Despite her cool, the near death experience forces Goodwin to evaluate other options as a documentary photographer. After attempting to work in the city and trying on a role of dutiful wife, Sarah quickly realizes that she does not want to live a stereotypical family life and instead yearns to return to the atrocities of war. Her motivation for returning to violence, however, is left unclear.

Unfortunately, the play failed to explore Goodwin’s search for meaning and only touched on her dedication to the job, without explaining why she feels compelled to document brutality. As a result, her motives for documenting war were doubtful. Rather, Goodwin’s struggle with embracing the normal life became the focus of this play.

The drama on stage unfolded around human emotions and failed relationships. Meeting inside a luxurious apartment, characters searched for their individual “way of life”, while taking a stab at love despite incompatibility of their personalities.

The caliber of the performances in this play was superb. Linney and Bogosnian were especially remarkable in portraying the depth of their characters. It is evident that they have grown accustomed to this play, reaching deep inside the layers of the people they are portraying on stage.

Brian d’Arcy James was excellent, but unconvincing mainly due to a flawed character he was portraying. Ricci was good in this debut, but could stand to tone down her enthusiasm just a little.



Unfortunately, the plot failed to deliver a deeper message and fell flat somewhere in the second act around Dodd’s feeble attempts to convince Sarah to stay in a marriage she did not want in the first place. To make matters worse, Mandy remained perfectly gullible encouraging Richard to adore her seemingly innocent idealism, which frequently bordered idiocy. From this point forward, the plot remained unconvincing as it was difficult to imagine Richard settling with someone dumb and equally hard to believe Dodd. In the end, Mandy gave birth to a baby and decided to stay at home, Richard was still foolishly happy, Sarah was predictably off to war ( to continue hiding behind violence), while Jame’s character’s gave up brutality in exchange for moving in with his new Indian girlfriend only two months after dating. In other words, implausibly, everyone found what they sought and remained satisfied with the choices made. I found this “happy end” rather banal and fantastic.

Nonetheless, the actors were well deserving of the standing ovation they received.




What this play attempted to do is done well in two separate films: drama Closer (2004) and documentary War Photographer (2001). It seemed as though Donald Marguiles could not decide whether to explore the complexity of relationships between two couples or the psychological drama behind being a war documentarian. Consequently, I felt rather empty after seeing superb acting come to a dead halt.

Conclusion: the first act of the play is well worth seeing and Linney is terrific throughout the play.
Location: Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, Manhattan
Running time: two hours.

Random

Was Bergman a Nazi?

After I quoted Bergman on facebook, a friend brought to my attention that he was a Nazi sympathizer.  Hence, the question: Was Bergman a Nazi?

In 1999, Bergman revealed in an interview with BBC that he was fascinated by Hitler as a youth and found the Nazi movement to be exciting. He added that he did not know the truth about the concentration camps then and was shocked to learn about it after the war.



Since coming clean about his past, Bergman has been criticized for being a Nazi. But, is a young Nazi sympathizer the same thing as being a Nazi?

I would like to draw an analogy from my past. As a young Russian pioneer, I used to idealize Lenin.  Naturally, I hated the Nazis.  Yet, I knew nothing about Lenin killing 4 million people (men, women and children) by mass executions, death camps, and state-caused famine. This genocide was not revealed to me until much later in life. 

Had I known about the crimes of Lenin as a young girl, I would have never become a young pioneer. Yet, I remember proudly wearing my red silk scarf and showing it off by keeping my coat open in the middle of Russian winter. 
I was not a communist at that young age. Like Bergman, I found the idea of belonging to a great young group of people exciting.


Most of the young brainwashed people do not know any better. They just follow the crowd and the ideology they are taught at school or at home. So, in a way, I sympathize with Bergman's naivete. 


In my mind, being honest about one's past is an admirable thing that deserves respect.  If Bergman had not said anything about his youth, no one would have criticized him about his youth. 


I really dislike criticism for being forthcoming.  People tell me to keep my mouth shut if I don't want to be criticized.  At some point, criticism no longer matters, but honesty does. Honesty is often rewarded with redemption.  The concept of redemption was explored by Bergman in his film "The Wild Strawberries".


Let's assume that Bergman was a Nazi sympathizer.  Who is to say that a man cannot change?  One of the most famous examples of a change in a man is described in Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning.  Frankl cites the case of Dr. J., the only man he ever met, whom he “would dare to call a Mephistophelean being, a satanic figure.”  A mass murderer, Dr. J. was involved in the Nazi euthanasia program.  Upon returning to Vienna after the war, Frankl treated a former Austrian diplomat who had been imprisoned by the Russians in the famous Lubianka prison in Moscow.  According to this man, Dr. J. was also imprisoned there and showed himself to be the best comrade one could ever imagine, a great consolation to everybody, a man of “highest conceivable moral standard” and “the best friend” in prison. And this is the story of Dr. J., "the mass murderer of Stein-hof."

So, how can one judge the behavior of a man or predict the mechanisms of the human mind?

Bergman has demonstrated remorse for his misguided past with his films.  His body of work is flooded with moral issues, ethical questions, and shame. He seems to be always questioning the thoughtlessness and callousness of men. In fact, one of his films is called "Shame" and is about life during a war, reflecting on what war does to people.


In other films, Bergman reflects on his past with regret that can be viewed as a belated plea for forgiveness and an apology for his deluded past. 


Judging from the body of work alone, Bergman made an effort to redeem his dark past. His films are poetic, dreamlike, and surreal, yet, they are very honest in telling about a man's struggle with the burden of guilt.

A “white horse case”

According to A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage by Bryan A. Garner, the term “white horse case” (not to be confused with the White Horse Dialogue) means a reported case with facts virtually identical to those of the instant case, so that the disposition of the reported case must determine the outcome of the instant case. This kind of case is also known under the terms horse case, gray mule case, goose case, and pony case.

A story that goes along with the white horse case takes place around the turn of the century in a Texas law firm.  There was a case in which a white horse owned by the client’s taxi service reared in the street, causing an elderly woman to fall and injure herself. The partner handling the case asked a young associate to find a case on point. The associate came back several hours later with a case involving an elderly lady who had fallen in the street after a taxi company’s black horse had reared in front of her. When the associate took this case to the partner, the partner said, "Nice try, son. Now, go find me a white horse case.".

Doodling

Sometimes, I draw on napkins: