Circe, the good witch

 

Circe is a new novel from April 2018 written by Madeline Miller, a classicist and teacher who won the Orange Prize For Fiction, for her first novel The Song of Achilles. I think so highly of Circe that I already went ahead and ordered The Song of Achilles from the library server.
 
Circe is a a great modern take on mythology. We've all read mythology as kids. Probably when teachers forced it upon us in grade school or middle school, maybe even high school. Circe is the daughter of Helios (sun god and Titan) and an unimportant naiad named Perse. The story is told from Circe's point of view, the first person. Its quite a stunning tale.
 
The novel starts with Circe as a young naiad, living in the halls of the gods. The beginning has a young mind framework, you get the sense that yes Circe is a god but she also started off not unlike humans, young, immature, and afraid of the world. The first couple chapters makes Circe look like a teenage girl. At first I was thinking, am I reading some sort of classical mythological young adult novel?  
 
The book kicks off plot-wise once Circe notices that Promethus (a Titan, a god) has been punished hardcore. He was caught helping humans, teaching them the art of fire and culture. His punishment was being chained outside and having his liver pecked at by birds for eternity. Once his liver regenerated, the birds would come back the next day and do it all over again. Talk about harsh.
 
Circe goes out and helps Prometheus but once Zeus finds out she's helped him Circe gets cast out from the halls of the gods, her punishment being imprisonment on her own island, which is where the common tales of Circe stem from.

Most people know Circe as a witch who lives on an island and pretends to help lost sailors on their wayward travels. Then she turns them into pigs using magic, otherwise known in the gaming world as casting polymorph, pretty neat trick. But Circe is shown in this novel as not just being an evil witch.
 
She started turning men into pigs because she was sexually assaulted by the first men who came to her island, which brings to mind the issue of rape in modern society. There's a feminist tone to Circe's actions once she interacts with the mortal world, man in particular.
 
Another strong feminist tone in the novel is when Circe becomes a mother to a mortal son. She exclaims that she will do anything for her son, including claw her eyes out. She lives for her son and loves her more than anything. In motherhood we cannot see Circe as just a witch who plagues men. She is a loving character, much like mortal mothers are their kids.
 
Circe's love for her son is symbolic for the maternal love of mothers. It made me think about my relationship to my mother, weather good or bad ultimately a mother does whatever they can for you because they love you. Even their mistakes and bad actions are acts of love. Of course making Circe a loving mother humanizes her and turns her into a good witch, which isn't the usual myth tale.  
 
And then of course there's plenty of other interesting stuff that happens. Circe turns a mortal into a god using magic, but once the man, Glaucos decides to marry another unimportant naiad instead of her, despite the fact that they were lovers when he was mortal, Circe gets made and uses magic to turn Scylla, the unimportant naiad into a multi-headed monster, who goes on to plague man in the seas for generations. Typical bickering, even among gods.
 
A cool part that I enjoyed in particular was when Circe swam to the bottom of the ocean and met with an ancient sea god. They come to an agreement of some sort where Circe got to keep his tail, which was a weapon of poison, of godly destruction. Circe later uses this weapon to fight against Scylla. The weapon turns Scylla to stone.
 
What makes Circe such a great novel is that the prose is elegant and sharp. There's classical meaning to terms and phrases. There's modern every day exclamations. The story itself feels like an eternity, the life of Circe, a goddess. You get the sense that this is what a god's life could really be, thousands of years old and still feuding with your relatives over petty things.
 
The first person view for the narrative plays a key role in this book's success. Because everything is told by Circe in the first person you get to understand all the different nuances of the character in question. We begin to understand Circe's thoughts and actions, and vice versa. In this point of view we can relate more to Circe, turning her into a good witch despite turning men to pigs with spells.
 
The novel reads incredibly easy. Not that its kiddie stuff or young adult by any means. More that the writing isn't complicated or busy, just technical enough to be of mythological historical importance. But not overbearing with the technicalities of it, and even offering new slants and points of views within the story.
 
It was a great read, I recommend it to anyone who wants to read something different and very good.

Annihilation

Annihilation was one of those movies that took me a long time to finish watching. I saw the very end of it at a movie theater once in February. I had it on DVD but didn't watch it until four weeks after I got it. When I finally watched the film I was in was awe. It was a great experience. 

Annihilation is a science fiction movie about a group of female scientists (led by Natalie Portman) who explore an alien environment called the Shimmer, which is slowly taking over more and more land over a big area.  Only one soldier came back from a ship but he in was in bad shape mentally and physically.

Once inside the shimmer, the scientists find themselves in quite a strange world, strangers in a strange land you could say. The film has some horror elements to it. First, they run into a mutated crocodile that nearly kills one of the crew. Portman opens the creatures' mouth and realizes its teeth were all different, mutated. She had first noticed these mutations on the plants. She spotted a plant that had endless variations all on the same vine. 

So what we come to know is that the Shimmer refracts DNA. The team sets up camp at the former soldier teams' base of operations. There's early signs of a mutiny early in the film. There's another monster attack (this movie has cool monsters and aliens). A giant bear strikes at the base just before dawn. It takes down a member of the crew. 

The crew gets distracted when Ventress (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) says they should move on without trying to see if their crew-mate lived or was already dead. Lena (played by Portman lies to the team and says the best way to get back out is to go farther in by going to the water's shoreline, and taking the shoreline route all the way back. It was a ploy to get them to keep moving forward. 

At some point when everybody's asleep, a member of the crew commits a mutiny and ties everybody up in a chair. She has a knife to Lena's stomach. At this point we believe she might be going mad because of the effect of the shimmer. All of a sudden we hear the lost crew member's voice, yelling, shouting, the last words of her life screamed out into the open. It was a trick of the creature, the bear that attacked them. 

The bear tears the crazed woman's throat apart and that was the end of her. The others shoot down the creature as soon as they get themselves free. They keep moving forward. Another member of the crew says she doesn't want to go in, and becomes one with plants. 

Its just Ventress and Lena at this point. They make it to the Lighthouse, the goal for the team. Lena sees a camera that shows her husband killing himself with a phosphorous grenade, only to have a doppelganger walking in front of him. She runs down into this alien-like den, which reminded me of the Aliens' (from Prometheus) home planet lairs. 

Ventress is already mutating, into something...Its shown as a sort of violent exorcism, garish and video-gameish, Ventress puking out a blob of fantastic colours to loud sound. Overly dramatic but tends to get the point across. A splotch of blood from Lena's eye falls into the colourful blob, which triggers the blob into a humanoid form. 

The alien has no face or mouth, its just like a tall silver form, like an evil Silver Surfer. It chases Lena but it isn't clear what it wants. There's a bit of a struggle but in the end Lena throws a grenade at it, and it gets engulfed in flames, destroying the creature, the Lighthouse, and dissipating the Shimmer. 

Back at base Lena and her husband Kane are reunited. Kane admits he doesn't know he's the real Kane. And when he asks if Lena is human Lena does not respond. There's a shimmer in their eyes and that ends the film. 

What a story. I was quite taken a back with how gory and violent the film was at first. The part with Kane cutting open a guy's stomach with a knife made me cringe. The bear ripping throats was a surprise. Even the crocodile was somewhat unexpected. These horror elements add a lot of spice to what is otherwise a lot of dialogue with no action. This is a good amount of spice, its not overbearing. 
 
The special effects also had a strong effect on me. The ending was such an utterly climactic scene that I plan on re-watching it again. I've seen it twice now, once in the theater and most recently on my desktop computer. Seeing that in the movie theater was amazing, it was such a memorable science fiction scene. It reminded me of 2001 A Space Odyssey.  

On the other side, the monotone direction of the film is quite great, almost intellectual in a way. By making the movie more about the characters rather than action scenes they created a much better movie than most science fiction films. Its a smart science fiction movie like Arrival, another great sci-fi movie back from 2016. I feel that because the movie was sort of slow to build up, it actually created a much better and more climactic ending.

The science fiction element (DNA mutation) to the movie was what made it so cool to me. The alien at the end suggests an all powerful presence, but it isn't clear if it is, or if it even wants anything. The fact that the film ends with us not knowing if Kane and Lena are human or alien is what gives the film its edge. You could say that the movie was trying to go all intellectual on the audience. Or that they're just trying to be clever. But I would disagree. I would say they wanted to create an ending of all endings, infinite ideas to justify conclusion. Its quite interesting once you see it and think about it. Maybe even more interesting after watching it again...

You could throw down any number of theories for what happened (regarding if they are human or not) but ultimately the audience doesn't know. That is suspense!

Watch this movie, you won't regret it. 

Jazz Improv

This is short jazz solo I recorded at my producer friend's house. It got us warmed up to recording that day. I try to play bebop with a lot of modernism and some outside free jazz sort of stylings. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/jazz-improv-1

Mass plays Spirits of the Dead

My band recorded an original tune of mine recently called Spirits of the Dead, a tune I wrote on Halloween morning in 2017. Features my friend Martin Arevalo on drums and myself on guitar and vocals with Dmitri on bass. Dmitri also recorded it. Rock and roll!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdbEKI_y7g

Out Front

Out Front is a jazz record from March 1961 by Booker Little and his quartet featuring Max Roach (drums). Also on the album are Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, flute) Art Davis (bass), Ron Carter (bass), Don Friedman (piano), and Julian Preister (trombone). I wanted to write about this album because its a terrific record, very polished for 1961. I was curious to hear it because it featured Eric Dolphy (everyone knows the live Dolphy record with Booker Little at the Five Spot) and Max Roach on the same album, something I had not heard before. And it was totally worth it.

Booker Little was only 23 and died later that year in 1961. These seven tunes are worthy enough to be replayed and preserved by a modern jazz group, that's how good it is. Eric Dolphy's playing isn't as free as it usually is here. In fact, most of what you hear here sounds like arrangements complete with piano, bass, trumpet, trombone, alto sax, flute, bass clarinet, and drums. Its quite a full sound. Not quite big band but not quite quartet either. It reminds me of something Mingus would record although not as technical. In fact, I would say that although this music is challenging for the soloists, the music is much more emotive than technical. There's humanity to this jazz, quite a lot of it. This element is sorely missing in today's modern straight ahead and sometimes free-jazz scenes. Its blues even though there's complicated arrangements.

The music has room to breathe. There's a sense of blues to all the pieces although a lot of the heads sound like bebop riffs from the 50's. I want to say it sounds orchestral as well. They are definitely playing to well organized charts and doing a spectacular job laying down the groove and getting the right tones. 

With song titles like We Speak, Strength and Sanity, Quiet Please, Moods in Free Time, Man of Words, Hazy Hues, and A New Day you would think this is either a free jazz album or some kind of progressive jazz record. It is quite a progressive jazz album but not free jazz. However, it was definitely new and innovative in 1961, that's for sure.

The solos here are spectacular. Dolphy's style is recognizable as always. Instead of going too far outside the changes, instead here he plays to the song's tonality, meaning he doesn't go off into the realms of the netherworld like on some of his own records. There's a feeling of respectability to the composer and he stuck to the song. The solos aren't long but are rewarding. This is about tunes, not so much about blowing, like the 50's bebop records. Although there is definitely a bebop influence here in the playing, especially the drums, I would say that Booker Little is also trying to find his own sound, style, vernacular if you will. I would say he achieves this with his sounds.

I found this CD on the library servers and ordered it. It was so good I downloaded it onto my computer. Its a shame Booker Little died so young, he would've gone on to have a great career in jazz. In a lot of ways I see how this sort of music inspired the modern jazz crowd of today. In fact, a lot of modern straight ahead jazz today sounds much like this music. There's detailed, written out arrangements, soloists, and they try to put as much humanity into the music as possible, no matter how technical the music is.

Its damn good!

Antman and The Wasp

Yesterday was another scorcher in the Valley so my friends and I decided to cool off at the movies. We saw Antman and Wasp, the new Marvel superhero movie. Paul Rudd (Antman) and Evangeline Lily (Wasp) save the world by telling jokes and saving a family member from a super teeny tiny space-universe. It pays the bills.

The movie isn't really about anything per se but if there is a plot it is this: Wasp and her father are trying to save their mother, who's trapped in a tiny universe. They need Antman's help because Wasp's mother used some kind of telepathic ability to have Antman explain how they can find her. What the what? It makes no sense, and if it did it would still be grade school level speculative fiction. But that's not what makes this movie good. What makes this movie good is that its fun.

The movie is only about an hour long, which is about as long as I can take when it comes to superhero movies these days. After Infinity War this movie is right in the pocket. Evangeline Lily looks great in her Wasp suit, Paul Rudd tells jokes that aren't as corny as Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool character, and the action scenes although cliche, they bring a wallop to the cinematography.

There's sketches of character development in this movie that is sorely missing in other Marvel movies. Antman is a great dad that loves his daughter. Wasp loves her mother and Antman.

The villain of the movie is sort of unclear. We have a villain-esque type character that reminds me of the character Sombra from Overwatch, the video game. Her body is in a lot of pain because her body isn't stable, its shifting through space and time, she is and isn't there physically. Needless to say she can whoop Antman and Wasp's ass, that's why they have to tag team her to beat her down. Great character, it'll be great to see if she joins their squad of superheroes.

This isn't a memorable film and I've already forgotten most of the one liners. However, its a blast of a summer film. Marvel won't surprise me with anything truly great or remarkable anymore. At the very least, I can still have fun.

The Wagner Connection

I've been listening to a lot of classical music. I've found myself listening to more and more classical music after my vacation to Chicago last year, where I saw a quartet (from DePaul University) perform Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (check out my review for that performance here). That changed my attitude towards classical music and expanded my musical horizons. Messiaen is much different composer, albeit just as amazing as Richard Wagner. However, it has been Wagner's music that really strikes a chord with me.

Where do I start? I first heard various parts of the Ring Cycle in college, around 2011, however I didn't listen to it seriously until recently. I'm partial to favoring the instrumentals-the Overtures, Preludes, but the actual opera itself is quite a masterpiece. I plan on listening to the entire opera (many hours long) soon when I have enough time away from work, which proves to be extremely difficult this summer. 

Anyways, Wagner's music opened new doors. I've been reading the score for Tristan and Isolde, trying to decipher it, figure out how he gets the Tristan chord sound, how he arranges, how the melodies intertwine with the bass and the melodies. Serious stuff you know. I'll never look at heavy metal the same way again. Wagner's music sounds like heavy metal to me, that's what initially got me interested in college. The music is heavy but there's beauty in the melody, sometimes dark and other times tugging at the heartstrings, not just crushing chords. 

Because Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer that has been mentoring me from Chicago has sent me some pretty difficult scores for me to work on and play, I've been able to read music much better to the point where I can read and understand Wagner's score, albeit in a much less refined way than a classical musician or composer. I think about the chord voicings, how it would sound on guitar, piano, try to imagine the sound in my head as I read the notes. One of my goals is to one day be able to look at a score and know what it sounds like without hearing it on record or playing the notes on an instrument. I may never get there. But its a goal.

Wagner's music has much emotion. I tried to explain Wagner's music to my co-worker when he saw me reading the score on my break. He asked, "What does Wagner's music sound like?" I thought for a long time and explained as best as I could. I said that the music has a heavy feeling to it, like a lot in your head, but melodies that make you see the beauty in that which you didn't know exist. I told him to listen to the Tannhauser Overture and that he would know what I mean. 

I've gone down a very untypical path for a guitarist that first learned to play by playing the Ramones and Black Sabbath. My tastes have evolved eclectically and I'm all the better and smarter for it. My interest in jazz is still strong but now I have the entire classical canon to refer back to, a gift that I didn't know I had access to until recently. 

Most of the music my friends and associates listen to is not classical, nor jazz, or classic rock even. None of the stuff I'm into. Like regular young adults, they listen to whats popular, new, current and "hip", for lack of a better term here I use the word hip rather loosely because for me what's popular will never be hip in my traditional jazz musician's sensibility. I've realized that music for most people is just background noise. Co-workers listen to rap on earbuds while they work. My friend listens to death metal when he's driving fast down the freeway. My other friend listens to indie rock as he drives casually down the boulevard. I've realized that music for me is much greater, and more profound. Music for me is art, nothing to snicker or sneer at, and definitely not background music. In fact, I only listen to music on my computer when I'm sitting down, either reading , or just listening doing nothing else. 

I've found out that to be a musician is a hard life. I can't even get a band of guys together that are willing to meet once every week, let a lone a jazz group. I had a death metal band a while ago but when we didn't make money within three months the singer and bassist called it quits. As Frank Zappa used to say, "Strictly commercial." Most music these days is cheap (hence why the singles thing has become the new medium), just like our culture. We want things fast, hard, and easy. This is what I've come to find out. Life isn't easy, and making money with your art is even harder. 

Even if I never fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a famous hotshot guitar player or make a ton of money playing music I will be happy knowing that the music served it purpose, it opened the path for great artistic achievement and endeavors. And for that I am entirely indebted.