My Year in the Arts

My Year in the Arts. Not necessarily just 2011 works. Not necessarily the best, because I didn't see and read everything, but the plays, books and movies that I chose to see or read in 2011. All in all, I'm happy with my choices. It was a very good year.

After the jump, theater, books, television and movies.

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Theater

• 2011 01 30 I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, at Theatre 3: Musical comedy in a small venue. Non-stop fun by a great cast. Perennial favorite. B-
  
• 2011 01 22 The Music Man, at LHHS: Large cast brings show to life. Singing, dancing, orchestra, chorus all great. Props to Marion, Winthrop and Eulalie.
  
• 2011 02 19 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, at JJ Pearce: clever, modern musical. Doesn't take itself too seriously. Lots of roles to showcase lots of talent.
  
• 2011 02 12 Once Upon a Mattress, at Berkner HS: Carol Burnett has nothing on Berkner's Winnifred. Young cast makes show fresh & fun. And what costumes!
  
• 2011 02 05 Singin' in the Rain, at Richardson HS: Come sleet or snow, the show must go on. And what a challenging show. Students did a great job.
  
• 2011 06 23 Guys and Dolls, at RCT: Unsure how long this oldie but goodie can last. Still fun. Good acting, singing, staging by Richardson theater. C+
  
• 2011 08 20 All in the Timing, at Richardson HS: One act plays put on by grads in memory of Tracy Fisher. Ask for fun, you won't get a "Philadelphia."
  
• 2011 09 18 The Wiz, at Richardson's RCT: Faithful to book/movie/musical. Packed a lot of song and dance on a small stage. Great local talent. B-
  
• 2011 10 29 Children's Hour, at LHHS: 1934 Lillian Hellman play. Timeless story of how lies ruin lives. Powerful story. Great cast. A-
  
• 2011 12 17 Hairspray, at RCT: Fighting racism in '62 Baltimore through inter-racial dancing. Rollickin' good fun. A-
  

Books - Fiction

• 2011 01 13 The Ask, by Sam Lipsyte: Main character is bitter, self-pitying, going nowhere. Then it gets worse. Yet somehow suited for our times. B-
  
• 2011 02 28 The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman: Masterful ensemble. Even if you don't read the newspaper, at least read this novel about the paper. A-
  
• 2011 04 19 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell: Japan 1799. Trade, politics, love, mystery, suspense, war. Good storytelling. B+
  
• 2011 05 28 Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey: Fictional memoirs of French noble and English servant. Convincing look at America of 1837. A-
  
• 2011 08 03 Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro: Memoir of growing up in a weird orphanage. Might be a better Twilight Zone episode than novel. C-
  
• 2011 09 30 Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray: Fun&games at Irish boys' school until Skippy dies, then everything changes. Good story, characters, writing. A-
  
• 2011 11 14 Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. A- http://t.co/DmH93rOs
  
• 2011 12 19 The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach B- http://t.co/6Gy1cYyb
  
• 2011 12 22 Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. Unrated. http://t.co/0GARcEXt
  

Books - Non-Fiction

• 2011 01 04 The Grand Design, by Hawking and Mlodinow: M-Theory explains how universes spontaneously arise. Edges God farther out of the picture. B-
  
• 2011 01 27 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot: Smart blend of science, social history, character study and story-telling. A-
  
• 2011 03 06 The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee: History of cancer research. Reads like scientific detective story that isn't over. B-
  
• 2011 03 31 The Triumph of the City, by Edward Glaeser: Lots of facts & simple thesis: cities are good for economy & environment. Build up, not out. C+
  
• 2011 05 27 All The Devils Are Here, by McLean & Nocera: Dry telling of financial crisis. Demolishes myths being invented by politicians. Important. C+
  
• 2011 07 14 The Greater Journey, by David McCullough: Go East, not West. American writers & artists in Paris in the 1800s. Clever concept that works. B-
  
• 2011 09 14 Origins of Political Order, by Francis Fukuyama: How strong states, rule of law and accountable govts arose. Academic, sweeping history. C+
  
• 2011 10 04 The Island of Lost Maps, by Miles Harvey: Map thief's tale padded to book length with historical anecdotes, most lifted from other books. C-
  
• 2011 11 30 Maphead, by Ken Jennings. C- http://t.co/C7RGPXNn
  
• 2011 12 20 Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentiety-Century Physics, by George Johnson. B- http://t.co/F6zZdhp9
  

Television

• 2011 07 28 Season 9 of #ProjectRunway premieres tonight. And Netflix started streaming first four seasons of #MadMen. #GuiltyPleasure
  
• 2011 08 02 ABC is bringing back "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." Updated, of course. For one thing, it'll be called "Who Wants To Be A Job Creator."
  
• 2011 11 15 Maybe I'm one of the very few, but I'm going to miss NBC's "Community" and its pen-stealing monkey
  
• 2011 11 19 Netflix brings back "Arrested Development" as NBC shelves "Community." The Lord giveth and taketh.
  

Movies

• 2011 01 02 Between the Folds (2008): Documentary of origami. Raises questions about what is art and shows surprising applications in science. See it. A-
  
• 2011 01 08 Inception (2010): Is it real or is it Memorex? I never really cared. Absurdly complex for such a simple premise. More Édith Piaf, please. C+
  
• 2011 01 11 Restrepo (2010): documentary of everyday lives of soldiers in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. No politics, no preaching, no sugar-coating. B-
  
• 2011 01 15 The King's Speech (2010): Royalty. Costumes. Accents. Oscar bait. A simple story told well. Colin Firth is excellent. Geoffrey Rush, too. A-
  
• 2011 02 25 The Social Network (2010): The best explanation of why I refuse to give Facebook my personal information. Evil empire. Good movie. A-
  
• 2011 02 26 Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997): Lions and tigers and mole rats. Robots and shrubbery. Quirky premise. Falls flat. Wrong subjects. D+
  
• 2011 03 01 GasLand (2010): Gas industry pumps toxic chemicals into groundwater all over US. Scary and depressing as hell. Drill, baby, drill. C+
  
• 2011 03 03 The Thin Blue Line (1988): Long overdue viewing of this shocking story of how Dallas DA office railroaded an innocent man to death row. B+
  
• 2011 03 05 Get Low (2009): Old hermit with a story to tell and what a story. Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray. What more needs to be said? A-
  
• 2011 03 26 Waiting for Superman (2010): Simplistic indictment of public schools -> failed cities are due to bad teachers who are led by evil unions. C-
  
• 2011 03 27 Inside Job (2010): How Wall St execs caused global recession, made billions and ended up more powerful than ever. That's not capitalism. B-
  
• 2011 04 01 The Adjustment Bureau (2011): Bourne meets The Matrix meets The Candidate with a touch of Mad Men style. Most of all, a love story. B+
  
• 2011 04 03 Metropolis (1927): Long overdue viewing of this classic. Overwrought story but some amazing imagery. Will Avatar look as good in 2100? C+
  
• 2011 04 16 Catfish (2010): Documentary about young NY man, the Mich. family he friends online, & his (and our) quest to figure out what's real. Watchable. B-
  
• 2011 04 30 Marwencol (2010): Assault victim builds miniature WWII town and loses himself in it. Therapeutic? Sad? Creepy? Artistic? Yes. C+
  
• 2011 05 03 A Film Unfinished (2010): Long lost raw film from Nazi propaganda archive. Haunting images from Warsaw Ghetto. I'm shocked & speechless. A-
  
• 2011 05 10 Four Lions (2010): Black comedy. Al Qaeda misfits plot to blow up the Internet...or themselves...or sheep. Funny now Bin Laden's dead. B-
  
• 2011 05 21 The Ghost Writer (2010): Political memoir turns mystery turns thriller. Plot is contrived and full of holes. Watchable not memorable. C+
  
• 2011 05 29 Winter's Bone (2010): Backwoods teen goes to unbelievable lengths to keep her house and family together. Like visiting another world. B-
  
• 2011 05 31 Waste Land (2010): Documentary by Brazilian who works with garbage pickers to combine social project with making art. Portrait of human dignity. B-
  
• 2011 06 03 Toy Story 3 (2010): Looking back, I probably should have watched this with a 5-year-old. Spoiler alert: Lotso is Darth Vadar. C+
  
• 2011 06 09 The Runaways (2010): Biopic of girl rock band. Snapshot of wretched excess of 1970s. Characters are shallow. Not even music saves movie. D+
  
• 2011 06 17 Black Swan (2010): Obsession. Breakdown. Insanity. OK. My problem with the movie is that I never believed Portman as even the white swan. B-
  
• 2011 06 25 Biutiful (2010): Man gets cancer. That's the high point. Depressing yet dignified. Intense acting by Javier Bardem. Great look & sounds. A-
  
• 2011 07 16 127 Hours (2010): How long he was trapped, not movie running time. Maybe if I didn't know story beforehand. Only a little torture porn. C-
  
• 2011 07 19 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009): Not a fan of thrillers, but had to see what this sensation is all about. It's the real deal. B-
  
• 2011 07 22 How To Train Your Dragon (2010): Avatar meets King Kong. Girls are tough. Boys are sensitive. Dragons have a heart. Take a pre-teen. C+
  
• 2011 07 24 Jack Goes Boating (2010): Super awkward man learns to swim and cook to impress a woman. Little desperate people. D+
  
• 2011 07 27 Iron Man 2 (2010): Arthur in rocket armor. First movie was fun. This one was stale, at times a self parody, but even that fell flat. D-
  
• 2011 07 30 Rango (2011): New take on the Old West. Unfortunately, that genre was tapped out long ago. Witty, good-looking, but leaves you thirsty. C+
  
• 2011 08 13 Source Code (2011): Groundhog Day on a train, where hero has to save Chicago. A good variant on time travel and alternate realities. B+
  
• 2011 08 19 Date Night (2010): Surprisingly intelligent and funny grownup rom-com farce with Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Watch it shirtless. B-
  
• 2011 08 28 The Help (2011): Story? Very good. Dramatizing evils of Jim Crow? Good. Downplaying violence & making white woman the hero? Not so good. B+
  
• 2011 09 04 Sherlock Holmes (2009): WTH? Turns cerebral detective story into martial arts CGI farce. With WMD, pseudo-Jaws, Voldemort and Hitler. C-
  
• 2011 09 11 The Last Emperor (1987): This Best Picture winner is even better after my own visit to the Forbidden City, the real star of the movie. A-
  
• 2011 09 20 Harold and Maude (1971): Long overdue viewing. Classic theater of the absurd. Then, I related to Harold. Now, Maude. Always, Cat Stevens. A-
  
• 2011 11 21 Of Gods and Men (2010): Dread builds among monks in Algeria threatened by terrorists. Mission or fatalism? Profoundly sad. B-
  
• 2011 11 23 The Messenger (2009): War is hell and this movie shows it doesn't end over there. Depressing. Important. C+
  
• 2011 11 25 The Tree of Life (2011): Father and sons. Issues. Bullying. Tragedy. And dinosaurs. Visually stunning. Mind-bending. Hollow. B+
  
• 2011 11 28 Note by Note (2007): Documentary on the making of a piano, a dying craft. Like a well-made infomercial for Steinway. C+
  
• 2011 12 09 Bridesmaids (2011): SNL comics. Not just jokes, serious story, too. Heard good things. Maybe heard wrong. 30 minutes too long. C-
  
• 2011 12 20 Bill Cunningham New York (2010): Upbeat fashion photographer, on the runway, on the street. Wish I were him. B+
  
• 2011 12 27 Midnight in Paris (2011): Woody Allen's homage to Paris in the '20s. Nostalgic. Sumptuous. Romantic. A-