Ambidextrous and Jersey Boys

Hi Carolyn,




Very glad to hear that you are getting ready for the short stint of  single-handed life and livelihood.  I was thinking just a couple of days ago, while cutting the back  lawn ( a couple of hours of prime idle thoughts time, it seems ) about your impending situation, and about the " training " you're doing that you referred to in your last blog.



" Who knows, " I mused as I herded the cranky old gas mower along, " she could end up ambidextrous after this! "  One of the first things, oddly enough, that popped into my mind was Gordie Howe. He could shoot the puck with equal accuracy and ferocity from either side, I remember reading as a hockey kid.



 Being two handed to the max,  sorta strikes me as an advantageous condition in more than a  couple of ways. Any kind of precision work like fine carving, fixing intricate devices or creating artwork would probably be easier and more effective if the left hand and right hand could switch jobs seamlessly.  A thousand situations come to mind for me when that kind of ambidexterity would be helpful and welcome.




Being ambidextrous would put you into some pretty fast and impressive company too.  The list of folks who were ( and are )  equally adept at being a lefty and a righty includes Einstein, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Napoleon, Tesla, Queen Victoria, Maria Sharapova and good old Sir Paul himself. Not exactly a motley crew, you must admit.

 So, Carolyn, do not slacken off on your left-handed training, young Jedi! And do not let any of that left brain/right brain mental paraphernalia get in the way, either.



 Got to see Clint Eastwood's screen adaptation of the stage play Jersey Boys and I did enjoy it a bunch. There is an informal sort of barometer that I use about whether something is a fair, good or great movie ( we all can tell within a few minutes if what we are watching is cinematic compost, can't we ) At the end of the flick if I feel I would like to sit right down there and then and watch it all over again then that tells me it was a good or great one. At the end of the two Star Trek movies with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, I felt that way, for example.  I didn't feel that when the lights came up after catching the last James Bond offering. Doesn't mean it was a dud, just that it wasn't a knockout, either.

 

I did feel this way at the end of this one, though. A number of the mainstream reviews were not too nice I found out afterwards - I try not to read reviews before going to see a movie. Surprisingly, one of the most upsetting things to more than one reviewer was the fairly frequent breaking down of the fourth wall that was used in the movie.  I didn't get to see the stage production in " Tranna" but I would guess that part of this reflects the fact that this was, after all, an adaptation of a stage musical. One review I ran into even referred to it as a documentary.

 

 

 

 I admit that I was taken aback at first but after a surprisingly short while I came to appreciate and even wait for the characters to speak to the audience in that omniscient manner. I even found that there were a couple of places where I was waiting for it to happen and it didn't. Christopher Walken was great, BTW. I would not be surprised to see him mentioned in the supporting actor area when the Oscars roll around.

 

 

 

Anyhow, that's what's shakin' around these here parts at the moment. The weather has been gracious enough to allow us out to beat back the overgrowth from a wet and verdant spring. Trouble is, it seems to take longer and longer to do those kinds of things each time around.

 

 

 

Enough with the whining, Don.

 

Catch ya later,

 

Don 

 

 

All images sorced from Google Images

 

Fig. 1 - scholarspoon.com

Fig. 2 - famous101.com

Fig. 3 - www.cinemastance.com

Fig. 4 - www. broadwayworld.com