INTERESTING STUFF – 30 April 2016
Saturday, 30 April 2016
STILL DREAMING
This documentary follows some of the residents of the Lillian Booth Actors Home in New Jersey as two young theatrical directors rehearse them for a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
As we come to know the elders actors, the worlds of their retirement community and of the play's enchanted forest seem more similar than you might have anticipated. Here is the trailer:
In addition to the drama of pulling the comedy together for presentation, Still Dreaming is one of the more honest looks at life with elders who require help, each to varying degrees, to get by day-to-day.
Although the doc was first released in 2014, the DVD has been made available for purchase only recently at all the usual online outlets. You can also watch it online for $4.99 here.
MAGICIAN DELIGHTS BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT JUDGES
It's fun being fooled when it doesn't make you look foolish and I have always preferred the small tricks of magicians to their big-deal extravagant illusions.
Not long ago contestant Richard Jones charmed the Britain's Got Talent judges with my kind of magic.
JOHN OLIVER – PUERTO RICO'S BANKRUPTCY
On 1 May, that's tomorrow, Puerto Rico owes its creditors a payment of $422 million. It is unlikely the U.S. territory can make full payment and Congress has been sitting on its hands.
On last Sunday's HBO program, Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver explains the territory's massive debt crisis better than any newspaper, magazine or TV show I've read/seen with some signature laughs thrown in.
Puerto Rico native Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man who just won the Pulitzer Prize for his smash-hit Broadyway musical, Hamilton, joins Oliver toward the end in a rap calling for debt relief for the island.
WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER TONIGHT
The reporters who cover the White house are holding their annual White House Correspondents Dinner tonight. Comedian Larry Wilmore is hosting for the first time. The dinner is a chance each year for the press – and the president – to give one another a gentle roasting.
Although sometimes, it is not so gentle. Undoubtedly this year, Donald Trump will be a yuuuuge presence as he was in President Barack Obama's speech in 2011. Take a look:
MENSTRUAL MAN
Now don't squinch up your nose and be put off by that headline. In a world full of dreadful news 24 hours a day, this is a great good news story about a quest of many years by an amazing man.
To start, you need to know that Arunachalam Muruganantham's
”...interest in the state of menstrual hygiene in India began in 1998 when he discovered that his wife was using dirty rags in place of sanitary napkins to save money for food.
“According to the BBC, [reports Utne magazine] nearly 70 percent of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene.”
It took Muruganantham, a poor and uneducated man, many years, a lot of goat's blood and heaps of ridicule to invent an inexpensive machine that manufactures affordable sanitary pads for women in poor, rural communities. Then someone made a documentary about him titled Menstrual Man. Here is the trailer:
”The machines are typically bought by self-help groups and NGOs. Each one provides jobs for ten rural women, who produce and sell the sanitary pads for self-determined prices,” reports Utne.
Read the Utne story here. See a Ted Talk by Mr. Muruganantham here. Watch the full documentary for $3.99 here. The man is a genuine hero.
AZULEJOS PUZZLE
According to Wikipedia, Azulejo is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tilework. Here are some classic examples.
Although this puzzle, sent by Darlene Costner, is titled Azulejos, it uses plain, undecorated tiles which doesn't make it any less – well, puzzling. I can't figure it out, can you?
GRACE AND FRANKIE REDUX
Last year, many of us enjoyed binge watching Grace and Frankie, the original Netflix comedy series about two women coping with an old age quite different from what they had imagined when their husbands announce they are in love with each another.
It stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen and it is back for season two beginning next Friday, 6 May. Here's the trailer:
INFREQUENT FLYER
Before I discontinued The Elder Storytelling Place, the companion website to TGB, Henry Lowenstern regularly contributed amusing doggerel, often on timely news topics.
As summer approaches now, I have been vaguely considering a trip that would involve an airplane.
Just in time to bring me to my senses, Henry sent a rhyme titled Infrequent Flyer.
Now that airline seats are smaller,
and legroom disappears,
luggage is costing extra,
good meals are yesteryear's,
air travel is becoming a pain
from which I try fervently to abstain.
THE CALIFORNIA TOWN OF THE DEAD
According to the YouTube pae for this video,
”For 75 years, Colma, Calif., has been steadily collecting bodies, and it's constantly getting ‘deader.’ As of 2009, there were 1,500 living residents and 1.5 million marked graves in the city.
“Seventy-three percent of the land belongs to the dead with the rest occupied by people who have a great sense of humor. The town's motto is, 'It's Great To Be Alive In Colma.'”
SIMON'S CAT: CAT LOGIC
Simon's Cat creator has inaugurated a new series about cat behavior and logic. Oh yeah, like anyone can explain that.
This first episode is about why cats always want to be on the other side of the door. The real-life Simon appears briefly in this mini-documentary.
Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.
You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” at the top of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog IF you include the name of the blog and its URL.