The Week in Entertainment

Live: Julia Sweeny's "Letting Go of God" - this should have been listed last time, but I guess I was thinking of it as "just" part of the convention. However, it's a show, and it's great. If you have a chance to see her perform it, don't miss it! Also saw Rossini's "L'Assedio di Corinto (The Siege of Corinth)" at the BOC. Spectacular singing - just spectacular. After the third act aria by Neocle (sung here as a trousers role as Calbo in the original version of the opera was, rather than by a tenor) the man beside me asked his wife (during the applause) "who is that?" It's Vivica Genaux, and she's freakin' brilliant. So too are Elizabeth Futral as Pamira and Bruce Ford as Cleomene, which means their first act trio is absolutely stunning, every one of them well up to the coloratura demands of Rossini's gorgeous, gorgeous music.

Film: The Science of Sleep - I'm not sure how to describe this one. It's decidedly odd, but charming and bittersweet, and wonderfully acted and filmed. Stepháne is touching and exasperating and in the end heartbreaking, and frankly I love Golden the Pony Boy.

TV: Veronica Mars and Heroes - but I'm telling you - if someone besides Hiro doesn't catch my attention soon, I'm quitting this one. Nathan is wonderfully acted, but a jerk, and no one else is more than (a) a charicature instead of a character, (b) profoundly boring, (c) annoying, or (d) all of the above. The twists of the story aren't going to compensate for that very long, especially as it seems self-conscious about itself.

DVD: indulged myself in some Simon & Simon

Read: Eye of the Wolf, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Partly-Cloudy Patriot (I love Sarah Vowell's writing), and started The End, the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events