The Week in Entertainment

(Oops, let this go out uncompleted!

Live: Don Giovanni by the Peabody Opera at the Lyric. A really well-done show, clocking in at just over 3 hours, thanks in part to their minimalist, but effective, set design. Huanhuan Ma (Donna Anna) and  Halim Shon (Don Ottavio) in particular have fine careers ahead of them, but most of the cast was excellent, including Jeffrey Martin who gave us a fine comic Leporello.

DVD: Zamaana Deewana (ज़माना दीवाना "Crazy World") with Shahrukh Khan and Raveena Tandon the children of feuding crime bosses Shatrughan Sinha and Jeetendra, with character actor Anupam Kher in a great turn as a psychologist with a plan to unite the ex-friends by making their children fall in love. Also, the villain is Tinnu Anand, the same actor who was the bad guy in Chamatkar. This one was a lot of fun, though the dvd is one of those that doesn't subtitle the songs. Also, a Tamil-language adaptation of Sense and Sensibility called Kandukondain Kandukondain (கண்டுகொண்டேன் கண்டுகொண்டேன், I Have Found It) with the lovely and talented Aishwarya Rai as the younger daughter and Tabu as the older. The bones of Austen's story are there, but it's definitely of its own time and place, even opening with the war its "Colonel Brandon" - Major Bala (Mammootty) - comes from. A really beautiful film, with a similar but different visual feel to Bollywood (especially noticeable in the first musical number, "Konjum Mainakkale (Chirping Mynahs)").

TV: A combination of sports pushing things around (mostly that, I hope) and the dvr acting weird caused me to have to go online for Modern Family and The Mentalist - one ep of the latter, anyway. That mural - ack. It's worse than the one in Lily's room! The Mentalist is still too hung up on Red John. I like the shows where he doesn't get more than a passing mention... Also caught up on some Grimm.

Read: Began Hermann Wouk's new novel, The Lawgiver, which is quite engaging so far.