Some very interesting films

The short films that are nominated for Oscars in the category of “Best Animated Shorts” are showing now at the IFC Film Center in New York. Most years we read a list of the winners without having seen these films. I got hooked on this when we were in Montreal last year and spent the better part of an afternoon watching short films at a museum there. The wonderful thing about New York is that, if you pay attention, sooner or later you can find anything here.

Director Sanjay Patel's Sanjay's Super Team (U.S.) is a delightful tale of a young Indian boy who longs to watch his favorite superheroes on TV but is pulled away by his devout father who wants him to participate in morning prayers. Although at first sullenly resistant, the boy eventually uses his imagination to channel the Hindu gods into his fantasized adventures. The end is charming, and the inclusion of then and now photos of the two characters' real-life inspirations is a nice touch.

We Can't Live Without the Cosmos (Russia), is Konstantin Bronzit's effort about two best friends who undergo training to become cosmonauts. Inseparable from early childhood, they breeze through the training, with luck of the draw determining which will be sent on a mission first. While the ending is not a typically happy one, it proves surprisingly moving by the end.

Gabriel Osorio's Bear Story (Chile) is a haunting if narratively opaque fable about a sad, elderly bear who treks every day to a street corner where he exhibits a mechanical diorama. For the price of a coin, passersby can peer inside and witness the story of a bear who longs to return to his family after being taken captive by a traveling circus. It does not take long to realize that the story being presented in the diorama is the presenter’s own.

The World of Tomorrow (U.S.), directed by Don Hertzfeld, features stick-figure characters and abstract backgrounds in its convoluted sci-fi tale of a little girl given a tour of the future by a third-generation clone of herself who delivers numbing, existential observations about the intermingling of humanity and technology.

About midway through the program, the screen noted that the final film was not suitable for children, and suggested that people who had brought young children might want to leave the theater before this last film was shown. Prologue (U.S.) directed by Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), is a six-minute exercise in brutality in which a frightened little girl watches a quartet of Spartan and Athenian soldiers engage in a battle to the death. Featuring animated full-frontal male nudity and extreme red-drenched gore (against the black and white drawings), I suppose it could be said that it is visually captivating. But its reason for being included in this otherwise impressive group of films, or its reason for being made at all, is a mystery to me.

Have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca

Take it Easy

We woke this morning to the news that guitarist/singer/songwriter Glenn Frye, most well known as a member of The Eagles, died at age 67 of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia. The band was supposed to have been a recipient of the 38^th annual Kennedy Center Honors along with Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, and Cicely Tyson a couple of weeks ago, but The Eagles induction had been postponed due to Mr. Frye’s failing health.

The last time we saw the Eagles was on the 10^th of November 2013 at Madison Square Garden. After the concert, I wrote:

But, like they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! And the music that brought the Eagles to fame back in the 1970s is still, to quote one of their songs, “the best of their love.” We are left with that peaceful, easy feeling.

I am glad we had a chance to see them that one last time.

Love,

Rebecca

Special Relationships

Both of our daughters spoke movingly at their grandmother’s funeral last week. Because the ceremony was less than 24 hours after she left this world, they spoke from brief notes they had time to scribble on their way to New York. But now they have both written what they shared, and I include their words here.

20 years ago, I arrived as a Freshman at Boston University.  The day I arrived at my dorm room, my parents had a lot of advice for me.  My mom tried to make my bed a certain way (to which I said, “No thanks, Mom, I can make my own bed”).  They wanted me to play the Crosby, Stills, and Nash CD that everyone was listening to when they arrived at college (I nixed that too, and put on the most recent Dave Matthews Band CD).  They did, however, give me one piece of advice that I took.  They suggested that I call my Sabba and Savta once a week to say hello.  That was a piece of advice that I took, and took to heart.  I called them every Friday all through college.  We would talk about all kinds of things, and as much as I asked them about their life in New York, it became clear to me that Savta was more interested in hearing about my life than in telling me about hers.  I also learned that she was very attune to noises she heard coming over the phone line, so even in the busy dorm rooms, I worked to find a quiet space in which to speak to her.  I did not always speak to her at the same time every Friday—a semester with an early class meant that I would call her later in the day; while a later class schedule had me calling her after breakfast.  But I always kept calling.

I had many other connections to Savta over the years.  I took a class called Folklore and Folklife where the final assignment was to interview an older relative about their past.  I came to NY over a series of school vacations and interviewed Savta.  We sat there with a tape recorder and a blank cassette deck and she told me all about her life, about growing up with her sisters in Poland, coming here on the boat, and then about her adult life in Virginia and NY. 

I also connected her through my trips to NY.  My family and I travel frequently to NY to see both my parents and my in-laws and we would try to stop at her apartment in Riverdale to see her during those trips.  On one memorable week-long visit to my parents’ house Riverdale when my older daughter Eliana was about a year old, I put her in the stroller every morning and walked down the block to visit with Savta.  Eliana would sit and play with the Russian Doll set that all of the grandchildren have loved, and Savta and I would talk. 

Through all those years, I kept calling.  Savta loved to hear about my kids and the things that they did as they grew.

My family spent this past Thanksgiving weekend in NY.  At that point, she was not doing well, and I learned that her best time of day to talk was in the morning.  I took my family to visit Savta the morning after Thanksgiving.  She listened to my younger daughter Maya play the piano, and to my older daughter Eliana talk her ear off.  I am glad that we had that time together.

Even though I knew that the best time to call her was in the morning, with a busy teaching schedule that is not so easy.  I was happy to have off from work on Friday, December 25 so that I could call her after breakfast when I thought she would probably be awake.  We were able to talk that day, and I will be forever grateful that we spoke, because it was the last time we did. 

It does not escape my notice that today is Friday, and that’s our day to talk.  We always ended our calls by saying “I love you, Shabbat Shalom”.  Savta, I say to you today, “I love you, Shabbat Shalom.”

I will always think of my Savta on Fridays.

Simmie Hefetz

Savta’s granddaughter

One of my fondest memories of my Savta is that she used to tell us that she sat next to Donald Trump's mother in the beauty parlor.  I didn't know if this was actually true, or who Donald Trump really was, but she told this story many times over.  And even when she took me to Manhattan and we stood in front of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, it still didn't seem to resonate.  Fast forward to today and Donald Trump is all over the news.  And my 9 year old daughter, Ella, is learning about the elections in school and can quote more from the debates and the news than her parents.  So I shared the story with her, that Savta used to sit next to his mom in the beauty parlor.  Finally, the reaction Savta was looking for!

As a girl, I remember visiting my Savta in NY.  She would take me for new dresses at Young World and boiled hot dogs at Burger Nosh.  But some of my best memories are just hanging out in their apartment.  As a little girl coming from the suburbs, I thought their apartment building was majestic.  There was a lobby and you had to go on an elevator just to get to the front door!  The labyrinth one had to walk through to get to the car left me mesmerized.  I loved how I could stand in the middle of the apartment and call "Savta" and she'd hear me.  Why would anyone want to live in a big house in the suburbs when the tiny apartment in Queens was so glamorous and convenient?

My grandmother was truly young at heart and a romantic.  As newlyweds, Aaron and I were visiting NY and took my Savta out to dinner.  After taking just a tiny sip from the wine on the table, she became giddy.  Completely drunk on the idea of getting dressed up and having dinner in the city brought her such joy.

One of the main things I learned from my Savta is the valuable relationship between sisters and cousins.  My Savta was the oldest of 3 girls and their cousin was like a 4th sister.  They talked, laughed, bickered, and kvetched about each other, in a way that only sisters who are really close can understand.   I see the relationship I have developed with my sister.  I see my daughters and their cousins - who are all being raised like siblings for better or worse!  And I know that this is truly her teachings and her legacy continuing on.

I will miss my Savta terribly.  But I know that she is together with the love of her life, my Sabba.  And the love I feel from my original immediate family and my current immediate family will carry us through.

Dina Saks

Savta’s granddaughter

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around Dr. King's birthday, January 15. Two acapella groups, The Maccabeats and Naturally 7, have just released a joint version of James Taylor’s 1991 “Shed a Little Light,” an inspiring piece for this day. This one is guaranteed to bring tears of hope and love.

Love,

Rebecca

Solemn note

It has been a difficult week: Barry’s mother died last night. In keeping with the Jewish tradition to expedite the transition to the final resting place, we were able to arrange for the funeral to be early this afternoon.

She was over 94 years old, most of them fairly healthy, and lived to see five great-grandchildren. She had suffered a stroke about two weeks ago that left her unable to communicate or eat or drink even small amounts. She had always been clear that she did not want to live this way, so unlike the deaths of younger friends over the past couple of years, in this case I can truly say “blessed is the righteous judge.”

As I sit here waiting for our daughters and Barry’s brother and his two daughters to arrive, I cannot help but think how seldom all of us are together, and to try to see something positive in everyone gathering to share and process this loss in our lives.

Love,

Rebecca

A Fun Five Days

Sorry for the delay. Disney World is exhausting! We spent one day at each park and had a wonderful time. These pictures pretty much say it all.

True to everyone’s predictions, it was incredibly crowded. Early afternoon of each day, there was an announcement in all of the parks that the Magic Kingdom was closed to new arrivals. Navigating the scooter through those crowds was a challenge, since even at the happiest place in the world it would not be fun for someone to have their toes under one of those wheels. On a number of occasions, Barry and Eliana were walking ahead of me and then at some point I couldn’t see them. Once we even resorted to using our cell phones to find each other.

We spent Sunday in transit, at the grocery store, and getting settled at the hotel. On Monday we headed for The Magic Kingdom, where the highlights were Buzz  Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, Tomorrowland Speedway, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Barry and I were a bit nervous about that last one, because I seemed to recall from having done it years ago that there was a rather steep drop at some point; fortunately it turned out to be less dramatic than I remembered. What we should have passed on was Tomorrowland Speedway. The cars only fit two people, so my macho side took over and I offered to drive alone. Turns out those little cars are not so easy to drive, and the route is much longer than I expected. I needed a brief break to rejuvenate me when it was over.

We went to EPCOT (Environmental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) on Tuesday. We went on Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Soarin’, which remains my favorite ride by far.

Wednesday was spent at Animal Kingdom, where the main rides were Finding Nemo, Killimanjaro Safari, and the Kali River Rapids. Fortunately the weather was unusually warm for late December, because we had not brought rain slickers to the park and we were completely drenched on the ride. If it had not been over 80° I don’t think it would have been so much fun.

Thursday was our last day, and we spent it at Hollywood Studios, where the highlights were The Great Movie Ride, Lights, Motor, and Action Stunt Show, and Toy Story Mania. That last one is really a blast! We had planned to do it twice, but unfortunately it was out of order for part of the morning, so that by afternoon even the Fast Pass tickets involved a substantial wait in line.

Our plans and preparations for food went well. Eliana had cereal for breakfast, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, lots of fruit, and a substantial dinner each night. Before the trip, Barry had barbequed steaks, burgers, and hot dogs and then frozen them. Our suite had a small microwave in which we heated them for her, and although there were other options, steak and either a hot dog or a hamburger was what she wanted every night for dinner. Since we always grossly overbuy and prepare for these trips, we had plenty for her to eat.

We had our own “Small World” story while at the park. On the first day, we ran into a woman who we often see at the Shaw’s Supermarket in Sharon. Somehow over the last few years we have chatted enough to discover that she has a relative who does medical research. Imagine our surprise on meeting her in the middle of those throngs of people far away from either of our homes. Actually we saw her in duplicate because she was travelling with a twin sister we never knew she had. But it gets better. We ended up seeing the two of them each of the four days. What is the chance that she and her sister would select the same parks to visit as we and that we would cross paths in these unbelievably busy places? You do not have to be a statistician to know that this probability is definitely £e!

We arrived back in Sharon just in time to say “Happy New Year.” May you all be blessed with a healthy and productive year!

Love,

Rebecca

Ups and downs

Every time I have sat down to write during the past couple of weeks, something has interrupted. The first attempt began “we saw two movies.” A few days later I picked it up and changed that to “three movies.” And now, during the past month, we have seen four movies!

The first was “Little Girl Blue,” a documentary about the life of Janis Joplin that received a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I cannot even imagine how much work it was to compile all those film clips and conduct all those interviews. After all, she lived a short (27 years) and turbulent life that seldom seemed anything even close to what we might call happy. I wondered at the end whether it was a suicide or an accident. There was no note left, so it is hard to say for sure. Clearly she was a troubled human being but maybe there could have been some chance to learn to live with her self. In choosing whether to be angry with her for depriving us of her talent and to feel sorry for her for her unhappiness, I want to choose the latter.

The second movie, “The Big Short,” which received a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, was not one I expected to appreciate, knowing little as I do about high finance. True to expectations, I have to admit right up front that I did not fully understand what was going on, although I think the filmmaker did a very good job of having minor characters stepping out of their roles and speaking directly to the audience to explain some of the details of the financial goings on. But if asked I would still be unable to explain a credit default swap! Even without that level of understanding, what was clear was that during the early 2000s the top executives of major banks had figured out a seemingly clever, albeit ultimately immoral if not illegal, way to amass large amounts of money, until some clever colleagues beat them at their own game and brought the economy crashing down. Of course there was quite a bit of collateral damage, with millions of people losing most of their nest eggs, but those at the top seemed to remain largely unscathed.

Four characters were at the core of the story. Michael Barry (played by Christian Bale) was a sort of counterculture fund manager, a genius who listened to his own drummer, working long, irregular hours in shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops. Mark Baum (Steve Carell) was a Wall Streeter who had become disillusioned, even miserably angry, with pretty much everything while insisting that he still loved his job. Two lesser known actors played roles of a couple of young guys trying to break in to the financial world.

This is not a story to be taken lightly because although there was surely poetic license in the details, many people did lose significant portions of the sums they had worked hard to accumulate to allow them a comfortable retirement and perhaps leave some to their children and grandchildren.

The third movie was “Carol,” which received a 94% approval. Set in the early 1950s, Cate Blanchett plays a young wife and mother who is trying to juggle her seemingly charmed life as a well-off wife and mother. Her husband really does seem to love her, and in her way she loves him, but she is no longer able to deny something she probably knew even before they married, that she prefers being with women. Their situation is more complicated because they have a young daughter whom they both adore. Watching this film is a stark reminder of how much things have changed over the past fifty years, a relatively short period of time in the larger scheme of things. The movie makes no effort to sugar-coat the reality, and there is no grand happy ending here. We do not follow this couple and their young daughter into the future, but despite having two parents who truly did strive for her well-being, she has almost undoubtedly struggled.

One last movie was somewhat less well received, with an approval of only 73%: “Youth.” The story follows two retired men in their 70s, artists and long term friends who have moved into a beautiful resort in the Alps.  Fred (Michael Caine) is a classical composer while Mick (Harvey Keitel) is a filmmaker. Fred’s daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) comes to stay with her father following the sudden breakup of her engagement. Mick is surrounded by a bunch of young screenwriters working on what he plans will be the highlight of his long career. Jane Fonda has a small role as the actress who is to play the lead in that film. Our initial scan of A.O. Scott’s review in the New York Times seemed positive, but I went back this morning and read the entire review to find he did note weaknesses, and I do not disagree with what he had to say. Having said that, I think it is worth seeing just to observe Michael Caine’s performance. He is an actor who has literally been all over the map with various types of roles over many years, and he has taken on this one with great skill and sensitivity. He was also featured in a charming and thoughtful piece on CBS Sunday Morning this week.

This past weekend was somewhat bittersweet. Our friend Hilary, whose husband died nearly two months ago, has a son and daughter-in-law who live in Riverdale and just welcomed their first child into the world. The Brit Mila (ritual circumcision) was on Thursday morning. Since the couple has a small apartment, we invited Hilary and another one of her sons along with his wife to stay here with us for the weekend. It turned out that the three of them ate most of their meals at the young couple’s apartment, but it was nice for them to have a comfortable place to sleep, and nice for us to have time to chat over breakfast. We look forward to seeing more of Hilary over the coming months.

When visiting mourners, many traditional Jewish people will say “we should only see each other for simchas (happy occasions),” or “you should know no more suffering.” Rabbi Weiss has often pointed out that these are unreasonable wishes, because every life has its ups and downs. This past weekend was an especially stark example. Barry (may he rest in peace) was certainly looking forward to this new grandchild, so although there was an awareness of his absence, I believe little Caleb had the joyful party he deserved!

We did make it over to the New York Botanical Garden for the annual Holiday Train Show. Every year this exhibit is more and more extensive. This year they had a replica of the main building of the Botanical Garden that was quite a sight.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that a couple of years ago we took our oldest grandchild to Disney World for five days at the happiest place in the world. Although we have had some delays and gotten a bit off schedule, we are getting back on track over the winter break with our second oldest, Eliana. After our Joshua trip, at the end of June, we decided not to go back there in the summer. We know it will be crowded there but this was a good time for her. Even in just these couple of years so many things have changed, with each visitor’s information stored in a wrist band. We were able to go on line many weeks ago and schedule some of the busiest rides, which should help us avoid trying to run (or, in my case, scooter) back and forth too many times.  

This warm weather makes it hard to think about winter holidays. Let us just stay healthy and enjoy the time off with families and friends.

Love,

Rebecca

Who knows where the time goes?

Can today really be the 9^th of December? My last post was on the 30^th of November, and that feels like it was just yesterday. I guess that is what being busy really means!

After our busy Thanksgiving weekend, we had planned to stay in New York this past weekend. Somehow, we had failed to realize that Maya had an important event at school on Friday, at which each of the 2^nd graders receive their Chumash (what is known as The Five Books of Moses). The hope is that this will plant the seeds for a lifetime of Jewish learning and community.

Maya had one of the lead roles in the play that the class put on, with quite a few lines that she delivered flawlessly. She is petite but she has a certain presence and no trouble making herself heard. Exhausting as it all was, we are glad we were able to be there and celebrate with her, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents together. A couple of pictures are here.

Here is a quick picture of our grandchildren taken the first night of Chanukah. Joshua bent down a bit so he wouldn't tower over the others!

So now this weekend will be a quieter one. I do have some other things I want to right about and hope I will get to them in the next few days.

Have a great week. Here in the east it looks like we are going to have a relatively warm weekend. No complaints from me!

Love,

Rebecca