Free Willy!

A recent Oliver Sacks article in The New Yorker inspired me to finally commit some of my recent obsession (a rekindled obsession by the way) with the centuries-old debate on free will. Of course, The New Yorker does not provide the full text of this article anywhere online so I will have to summarize briefly (egads!). In "The Mind’s Eye," Sacks uses adaptation to blindness as a vehicle for questioning the elasticity of the mind-brain organization. Historically, according to the article, scientists have believed that the brain is rigidily divided into components that process specific tasks. Further, our abilities to process information are set in stone from birth. Therefore, a latter-day catastrophic accident, such as sudden blindness occuring late in or after childhood would, "...seem to allow individuals little power of choice, self-determination, let alone adapation." He goes on to extend this query generally, "...to what extent are we--our experiences, our reactions--shaped, pre-determined by our brains, and to what extent do we shape our brains?"

As much as I love that someone is point blank asking this question in this manner in a national publication, I am baffled at why he begins by speaking of free will (essentially) but never attacks that subject. Instead he spends most of the article exploring individual reactions to blindness and what sort of compensating behavioral and brain chemistry changes ensued. But the gist of the article is that given the allegorical evidence, the human brain appears to be malleable. The conclusion of the article answers only the question of whether or not the brain changes but not the question posed above, namely, who's in charge here anyway, me or my brain?

As interesting as queries about the pliability of the brain are, I would like to have seen the article follow its initial foray into the nature of thought. The notion of free will versus fate/pre-determination keeps bubbling to the surface (sometimes in the unlikeliest of places like Law & Order). Maybe it's just me. Or the western world desperately needs to prove that humans have choices so that we can continue to cling to our Judeo-Christian tradition of good and evil, praise and blame, pride and shame. Perhaps this is the central question for all rational, sentient creatures. Whatever the reason for free will's omni-presence, here it is...discuss among yourselves....

Simplify. Simplify

Thoreau wisely surmised, "Our life is frittered away by detail ... Simplify, Simplify.." And so I have (and so I shall). My weblogging frenzy, invading my habits like a virus, began only a little over a year ago when I was searching for a way to continuously add news items on a website I was building. Though I knew of weblogs well before that time (I even had a gasping one in 2000), I never had much interest in them until I discovered their allegedly spectacular business use. I created weblogs for every facet of life, every turn of the screw shall we say - newslogs divided into categories, a blog on books, a blog on events in NYC, blog, blog, blog. But I seemed to have greater love for creating blogs than I did in contributing any material to those blogs, particularly to blogs that actually require original content (like this one). So in an homage to Thoreau, I have thrown over all but the most necessary blogs - the blogs without which I could not be (ha!) - in favor of a simpler sugarpoet.

In another line of Walden, he advocates taking in one meal rather three. That must have been the fumes from the maple syrup taps or something talking.

Thoroughly Middle America Millie

Now Millie is a girl who, in the midst of the Jazz Age, arrives in the heart of the Big Apple and declares herself to be "a modern." Yet, in the strange paradox that is Broadway, neither she nor her namesake musical is thoroughly modern, not even for the 1920's. The theme is hardly modern - there's nothing particularly advanced about marrying for convenience and money - and given the number of times "white slavery" rang out, the lingo hardy qualifies. The musical is actually a revival of a 1967 movie and much of the music sounds like period music written for the 20's but written in and of the early 60's (not to mention derivative - I recognized songs from 42nd Street and Mame). The costumes and sets are fun and glittering with sequins and gilt but were not exactly the Berlin Opera. So wherefore modern?

The most modern thing about Thoroughly Modern Millie is its total lack of the now, of the avante garde, of anything even remotely resembling contemporary music, theatre, or New York culture. Mostly this musical is a broad appeal to New York's steady stream of tourists from Middle America (could this also account for The Olive Garden that has recently sprung up in Chelsea?). And given that the lead of the musical, who was notably flat on a number of occasions, received a standing ovation, I would say the appeal is effective.

The book and lyrics, again despite the horrifying “White Slavery” business, are clever and well-conceived. The few jokes about Dorothy Parker did not go over so well but I have to give the writers credit for the wincing nod at high culture. Sadly, the audience passed right over references to the Circle Line and other New York City ephemera (hardly!), but I guess that’s to be expected for the out-of-towners such as they were.

Millie worships at the temple of dance (a la Ice Capades) as so many new musicals do - Chicago, Fosse, Contact, and so on. And though the cast is lithe and lean, the way dancers should be, so is their sotto voce. The score leaves the cast little choice but to be brassy and brash, though the occasional flatting and even sharping is unnecessary and pained me to no end. The only female with a truly capable voice is a professional singer, by the name of Leslie Uggams. Marc Kudisch, who plays one of the male leads, is a genius with facial expressions and hand gestures. In the acting, or shall I say comedic, department, most of the cast delivers spot-on performances, though overcooked in some of the lesser roles. Of Sutton Foster who plays Millie, I heard one of the audience members whisper during the show, "Isn't she just the cutest thing?"

Oh sure, the show was more entertaining than watching a movie on DVD, but for $75 a ticket, should we not expect a little more than the Netflix Friday Night Ritual? I am beginning to realize why I prefer opera nowadays. Amazing that Verdi's La Traviata could be so more thoroughly modern than Thoroughly Modern Millie herself.