"Wicked" defies gravity.

 

Stolen from https://www.brit.co/wicked-movie/

I realize I'm about a million years late to the party -- the movie version of Wicked has been out in theaters since Thanksgiving weekend -- but my bottom line still holds: If you haven't seen it already, you should.

It's still playing in theaters, but I chose to pony up $20 to see it on my TV at home. It was definitely worth the cost. 

The story, in one form or another, has been with me for most of my life. When I was a kid, I watched the original movie, The Wizard of Oz, every year when it ran on TV. I also read L. Frank Baum's novel that started everything off (plus a couple of the sequels). Pretty sure I saw The Wiz at some point, too.

Then Gregory Maguire's version of the Wicked Witch's story was published in 1995, and turned the whole thing on its head. One of my daughters read the novel first, then loaned it to me. After decades of rooting for Dorothy, reading the ending of that book seriously messed with my head.

We saw a touring production of Wicked the musical at the Kennedy Center in 2011. So of course I wanted to watch the screen version to see if it matched up. It did not disappoint. Cynthia Erivo is terrific as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande is perfect as Galinda/Glinda. Michelle Yeoh seems to be everywhere these days (Star Trek: Section 31 starts in just a couple of weeks), and she is as wonderful as always as Madame Morrible, both before and after her true nature is revealed. Jeff Goldblum is sorta typecast as the Wizard. Jonathan Bailey does a great job as Fiyero, the bad boy who turns the heads of both Glinda and Elphaba. (I couldn't remember where I'd seen him before; it turns out he plays Anthony on Bridgerton.) 

It will come as no surprise to anyone that the movie has whizbang special effects -- much more so, of course, than the stage version, where Elphaba just flying, live on stage, was impressive. 

Speaking of the casting, there have been some complaints among certain factions, particularly in regard to Erivo as Elphaba -- because Erivo is Black, and there has been no effort to make her appear less so. I think it's important to note that "woke" casting goes way back for this show; the original scriptwriters were Jewish, and Idina Menzel, who is also Jewish, originated the role of Elphaba on Broadway. Elphaba's whole thing is not just her magical ability, but that she's green. She's clearly used to getting a lot of flak for her skin color, and it seems like it would be a no-brainer to cast someone in the role who has lived experience as an "other" throughout her life. Plus Erivo does a great job in the role. So, y'know, whatever.

Grande has also been the target of criticism for being cast as Glinda, but she's not just a pop singer -- she got her start on Broadway.

I'm a bit bummed that the movie only covers the first part of Elphaba's story, although it shouldn't have been unexpected; it seems like Hollywood has lost the ability to wrap up a story in under two hours.  But I get that "Defying Gravity" was written to send the theater audience to intermission on a high, and it would be asking a lot of a movie audience to just pivot to the next scene without some time to catch a breath.

I'll be interested to see how they handle the second half of the story. The material is a lot darker than in the first half; the ending should be absolutely wrenching. I can't help but think of a comment I overheard from someone leaving the movie version of Into the Woods: "They should have stopped it at intermission," or words to that effect. Guaranteed there will be viewers of Wicked: For Good who will feel the same way. Here's hoping they take time to read the book between now and November, so they have some sense of whether to see it at all.

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I may be taking some time off from blogging here shortly. I'm heading into the busy season at work -- the state legislature starts a 60-day session January 21, and we're gearing up for it now. On top of that, I've signed myself up for two online classes. One is a five-session class on the Celtic god Cernunnos offered by John Beckett and Jason Mankey, which starts the week after next. The other one is a seven-week course in beginning Irish that starts next Sunday. Yeah, I'm gonna try learning that blasted language again. I won a contest for a free course from Let's Learn Irish, and I could hardly turn it down. 

Anyway, the point being that it's gonna be a busy winter here at La Casa Cantwell. Something may have to give. If blogging ends up being that something, I'll try to let you know in advance.

I may go mad by mid February. But I might come out the other side with some ideas for another book. Weirder things have happened.

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These moments of musical blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!

Why chasing an hourglass figure is a fool's errand.

 

ursus@zdeneksasek.com | Deposit Photos

It's close enough to New Year's that we can talk about resolutions, right? And people still automatically write "I will lose weight this year" as one of their resolutions, right?

Perhaps capitalizing on this trend, BBC Science Focus magazine has an article in its latest issue called, "Key weight-loss mystery solved: New research suggests fat cells have a 'memory'". (I would love to give y'all a link to this article, but it looks like you have to subscribe to see the articles in the latest issue. I have access through Apple News+, which I have found to be a decent news aggregator.)

The article quotes Dr. Ferdinand von Meyenn, assistant professor at ETH Zurich's Department of Health Sciences and Technology, on a recent study conducted by him and his team. They looked at a group of people, some of whom were "living with obesity" (their phrase) and some who weren't, who had lost 25 percent of their body mass index, and compared the differences in DNA sequences in their fat tissue before and after the weight loss. What they discovered -- brace yourselves -- is this: "The body really fights against [weight loss] and wantes to return to its original weight. The adipose tissue is programmed to want to regain that weight." 

As a reformed yo-yo dieter, I am here to say: No shit.

He goes on to say that people who lose weight and can't keep it off aren't weak: "There really is an underlying molecular mechanism driving gaining the weight back."

As the same reformed yo-yo dieter: Also no shit. 

We have discussed this several times here on hearth/myth. To save you from trawling through years of posts, I will give you the link once again to Wikipedia's article about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, which was conducted toward the end of World War II. The idea was to find the best diet for people who endured starvation during the war to make them healthy again. But first, the researchers had to create starving people. So they recruited a bunch of guys and put them on a starvation diet. Long-term dieters would recognize the result: many of the experiment subjects quit, many others cheated, and a significant number developed mental illnesses ranging from depression to hysteria: "Participants exhibited a preoccupation with food, both during the starvation period and the rehabilitation phase. Sexual interest was drastically reduced, and the volunteers showed signs of social withdrawal and isolation."

The point being that yeah, fat cells want to be fat again. Duh.

You would think that could be circumvented by getting rid of the excess fat cells. That procedure is called liposuction, and it was all the rage in, oh, the '80s or '90s. It sounded great 'til people started getting infections from having it done in sketchy clinics. Nowadays, it's recognized as plastic surgery and not a weight loss option, and patients are advised that if they don't watch their diet, the weight can come back -- because as it happens, it's not just the fat cells themselves that remember how big and robust they used to be. Our bodies have developed a system over centuries to survive famine -- it's called adaptive thermogenesis -- and they interpret diets as just another famine. Which is why all those guys in the starvation experiment went kinda crazy. Also, vacuuming out some fat cells doesn't do away with your body's ability to make more fat cells to replace them.

Dr. von Meyenn says we should be focusing on obesity prevention instead of trying to cure it after it has already happened. That's not much help for those of us for whom prevention is too late.

Here is the one thing I know for sure to be true, after decades of dieting: Diets don't work. And chasing that hourglass figure will probably just leave you disappointed, depressed, and thinking about food all the time. And that's no way to live.

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These moments of anti-dieting blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!

Snow Globe: a holiday ficlet.

As alert hearth/myth readers who have glanced at the calendar recently know, it's time for my annual holiday gift to you: a ficlet that has something to do with the season.

It looks to me like I wrote the first holiday ficlet in 2017, making this the eighth year of the tradition. I haven't written a lick of fiction since last year's ficlet, but I've resisted the urge to make this into a regular essay-type post.

I'm also not going to do what I usually do and make this a promo for one of my existing series (mainly because I'd have to spend way too much time re-reading to get the voices back in my head. Wait, that didn't come out right. Oh, you know what I mean). 

Anyway, here goes. Hope you like it. 

🌟

NewAfrica | Deposit Photos

Cynthia wandered the town square like a lost soul. Here she was, on a tour of European Christmas markets -- a trip that had been on her bucket list forever -- and she couldn't focus enough to buy a single gift for anyone on her list.

She had been feeling so discombobulated lately, and she couldn't figure out why. She was in her late fifties, with the blessings of good health, good skin, and a job that allowed her to afford European vacations. Her kids were grown. She'd kicked their sperm donor to the curb years before. The kids hadn't given her any grandchildren yet, but to be honest, she was okay with that. She had friends, hobbies, the works. And yet sometimes she wondered what she was doing with her life.

She was pretty sure she wouldn't find the answer to that question at an English Christmas market, but here she was anyway.

A booth full of shiny baubles caught her eye. She looked closer: jewelry? Christmas ornaments? No -- snow globes. She couldn't remember ever giving anyone a snow globe for Christmas.

She ambled over. There were lots of designs to choose from: churches, thatched cottages, snowmen, single snowflakes, Christmas trees, nativity scenes, and even a Nakamura tower. She picked up an old-style London telephone booth filled with a Christmas tree in the requisite sparkly goo and asked the attendant, "How much?"

"Thirty pounds, mum," the woman said brightly. "It lights up, you see, and even plays a little tune."

Cynthia mentally toted up the gift list for her office staff, did a quick pounds-to-dollars conversion in her head, and nodded. "I'll take a dozen."

The clerk's eyes widened. Then she smiled broadly. "Excellent choice, mum! I will box them up and send them to your hotel straightaway."

Cynthia laughed as she handed over her credit card. "I guess it's obvious that I'm a tourist."

"We do get a lot of you at this time of year," the woman said. Then she gave Cynthia a long, almost calculating look. "If you would be interested, we have a special offer just now: buy a dozen, get one free." In a confiding tone, she went on, "You could keep the extra for yourself."

For the first time, Cynthia took a good look at the clerk. She was short and plump, white-haired, with round cheeks and a grandmotherly smile -- but something in her gaze seemed to shoot straight through to Cynthia's soul. She heard herself say, "Which one would you recommend?"

"This one," the woman immediately said, holding out a traditionally-shaped globe. "It's very special."

Cynthia took it in her hands and examined it. "It's empty," she said. It held usual glittery snow and liquid, but nothing else.

"You fill it yourself," the woman said. "The directions are in the box."

Cynthia was by no means an artsy-craftsy person, but she took the globe anyway. She gave the clerk the delivery information for the box of phone booth globes; the "special" one went into her tote bag.

That evening, back in her hotel room after a convivial dinner with new friends she had met on the tour, she remembered the odd globe. She pulled its box out of the tote bag and opened it. The directions for filling it were odder than the globe itself.

Second Saturn Return Globe

Hold the snow globe in your hands and visualize your life ten years from now. 

"Ten years from now," Cynthia murmured. She would be nearly seventy then, and hopefully retired. Although her job was lucrative, and satisfying in its way, she didn't mean to do it until she dropped dead. What would she do instead? Where would she live? 

Holding the globe, she closed her eyes. A door clicked open in her mind. She could see herself on the deck of a beach house, gazing across a calm body of water as the sun rose. She knew instantly that her day would be full: teaching part-time at the local community college, swimming in the college pool, having dinner later with good friends. Life was perfect. She felt at peace.

She raised the mug of tea in her hands to her lips -- and kissed the snow globe. "Oh!" she exclaimed, pulling it away hurriedly. 

The globe was still empty, but she thought she could see inside it the palest outline of a beach cottage on a sandy shore.

"It's a start," she said, and smiled.

🌟

These moments of imaginative blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Happy holidays!

Mama Google might still know all, but it's hard to tell.

For the past several years, one of my favorite sayings has been, "Mama Google knows all." Never before was there a time in history when we could reach into a pocket or purse and consult a device that can answer any random question in a matter of seconds.

Assuming we have a signal.

And assuming the answer isn't behind a paywall.

And assuming the search results aren't junked up with ads.

And assuming the US Department of Justice's order that Alphabet sell off its Chrome browser sticks (which I am pessimistic about, for reasons I'll explain below).

Things are changing rapidly enough on the internet-search-engine front that the Wall Street Journal* ran an op-ed a couple of weeks ago suggesting that someday soon, saying "Google it" may be an age test: 

People are increasingly getting answers from artificial intelligence. Younger generations are using other platforms to gather information. And the quality of the results delivered by [Google's] search engine is deteriorating as the web is flooded with AI-generated content.

The WSJ article goes on to say that a lot of shoppers are bypassing Google's results to start their searches on Amazon. But I am here to tell you that that comes with its own set of problems. Amazon's results, too, are junked up with ads and banners like "Amazon's Choice" (which, when you read the fine print, actually means "Amazon's Choice for searches about a specific thing that wasn't in your query and you may not care about"). I've found that in many cases, Amazon's search parameters aren't granular enough. Or if they don't carry the exact product I'm looking for, they'll give me seven pages of things that might fit the bill, but probably don't. At least a Google search still provides a range of retailers that claim to carry the product I'm actually looking for, regardless of whether it's in stock.

That's for shopping. If you're looking for information, though? Maybe start with Wikipedia.

AI search responses are no help -- or not as helpful as they could be. At Thanskgiving, I went looking for information on converting a regular recipe for Brussels sprouts to one for a convection oven, so I could make them with my microwave's convection-oven feature while the turkey was roasting in the regular oven. Naturally, I asked Mama Google. Her AI feature said they would take 20 minutes at 375 degrees. What a time saver, right? Yeah, well, it was a good thing I punched through to an actual recipe. What the AI should have said was that the sprouts needed 20 minutes on the first side, then another 15-20 minutes on the flip side. And it took forever to find that information, because the vast majority of recipes Google offered me didn't have directions for convection cooking, even after I put "convection oven" in quotes.

And all that's on top of the valid complaints from human content creators that AI purveyors are scraping their content to "train" their AI engines without their consent -- and without compensation.

While the DoJ's move to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser is a good idea, I don't think it will solve the problem for end users. If it proceeds anything like the antitrust case against Microsoft, which started with a US Federal Trade Commission inquiry in 1990 and resulted in court approval of the legal settlement in 2004, it will drag on for years and not change much of anything. 

And I expect the antitrust actions against Big Tech will wither under the new administration anyway. I'm sure that's a big reason why tech companies are giving massive donations to Trump's inauguration fund, even though they may also be afraid of retaliation for kicking Trump off their social media platforms after January 6th.

In all, I think the halcyon days of having the answer to life, the Universe, and everything in our pockets are probably just about over. Maybe Google should bring back its "I'm feeling lucky" button.

And I guess I should look for a hard-copy convection-oven-conversion cookbook before AI gets hold of them and screws them all up.

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* Speaking of paywalls: I apologize. I thought that Yahoo! link to the WSJ story could get y'all around the WSJ paywall, but no -- it's a stub article that redirects to the WSJ website. Sorry about that.

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These moments of searchable blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!