An American in Paris

(The Palace Theatre, 26 March 2014)

The production's stars are Bob Crowley, the set designer, and Natasha Katz, the lighting designer. They have found the balance between what should be carved out and painted, and what can be lit up and projected. The projections are not lazy, but necessary.

The desire to merely remake a movie betrays certain timidity of intention. Trevor Nunn would adapt classical musicals by capturing and amplifying their essence, which drew audiences to the big screen in the first place. Christopher Wheeldon's adaptation does not attempt to seduce; it addresses the fans of the genre, and this genre must be classical ballet, whose audience is as conservative as the musical's choreography. This audience will likely be more pleased by attending a performance by the National Ballet of Canada.

The music lacks daring and jazz; it sounds like a recording from an unidentifiable era, inhospitable to the musical's events. Improvisation projects freedom. Syncopations project joy. Sevenths project nuance and depth. These are the signatures of the time in which the story is set, and they are missing from the opening lines, the score, and the book.

The musical is well-acted, well-danced, and well-conceived. But it is a musical that follows, not leads, except, perhaps, in its "The Stairway to Paradise" number.

"Irrational Man" (2015)

Woody Allen’s latest picture is rare in that its title summarises its content perfectly. In the movie, a philosophy professor mistakes his disillusionment with moral philosophy for disillusionment with reason. He advocates following one’s gut feeling, intuition, instinct. The film illustrates how easily unchallenged gut feelings can lead to actions that are not only misguided but plainly evil.

One can be guided by intuition to form hypotheses. But one cannot ever convince another by arguing that one’s intuition is stronger than the other’s. One cannot aggregate knowledge by aggregating intuition.

Mission Fusion Extravaganza

(Foster City, 10--14 March 2016)

Freedom is trust. Trust requires intelligence and the expectation of intelligence. Effective intelligence is scarce if only because wealth is scarce and unequally distributed. Trust requires some commonality of experience or values. The exercise of trust requires the willingness to bear risks. This willingness is facilitated by wealth and also by the culture of restlessness, which promotes novelty seeking.

That freedom leads to joy and that joy (or at least its pursuit) is a worthy goal are relatively new (Enlightenment) ideas, not universally accepted.