Heatstroke

Saw a play at the Interart Annex called The Brothers Size. It's a modern tale set in Louisiana of a recently released convict, torn between his responsible older brother & a not-so-responsible pal from the pen. According to the program, the story draws heavily on Yoruban mythology, something I know next to nothing about. Each of the characters apparently have Yoruban counterparts. The storytelling was powerful, the direction sparse & imaginative, & the acting riveting. What else do you need? The only thing that made me cringe was a distracting line of dialogue which went something like "when they come looking for you, I will deny you three times." This was presumably thrown in so the audience would go "ooo, biblical!" but I don't see why this was necessary. The story was strong enough on its own. There were also a few puns centering around the title, the purpose of which eluded me.

Finally watched The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. It's honestly not that bad of a film, apart from being a user's manual for terrorizing a child on all possible levels. The occasional special effects were laughable, whether or not they were intended to be. But it isn't nearly as dreadful as the critic's reviews culled from Rotten Tomatoes would lead you to believe. Each one mentions the JT Leroy hoax prominently & I get the feeling it would have been an entirely different scenario had the hoax not been exposed until after the reviews were in. Those reviews probably would have gone on at length about how courageous & unflinching the film is. We'll never know.

It's been ninety degrees out for the last few days. There is no air conditioning in here so I've been running to the sink to douse myself in cold water every ten minutes. Otherwise I'm camped out in front of the window fan & praying for rain.