October Angst
Jim's Musings from Paris October 2024
This month’s newletter consists of several short journal entries from various days throughout the month so far.
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and yesterday nearly 200 ballistic missiles, launched by Iran, rained down on Israel. The attack was in retaliation for Israeli bombs that destroyed six buildings in central Beirut and killed Hezbollah’s popular, long-time leader, Hassan Nasrallah. An all out war in the Middle East seems ever closer, unstoppable. Diplomats sputter in the face of Netanyahu’s arrogant agression. I know the history of the region, compounded by the blood and terror of one year ago, makes this a complicated and seemingly unsolvable situation. To just say the magic words, “two state solution,” doesn’t cut it. Someone once said we need to stop looking for a Christian solution to a Muslim and Jewish problem. There is something true in this—but what is the Muslim-Jewish solution? Total annihilation of one or the other? It’s 2024, not 637.
The two US vice-presidential candidates debated the other night and Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, refused to admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. He also gave the impression that he would not have certified the election results (as then vice-president Pence did), if he were in the position to do so. How can people continue to support Trump and his MAGA lunatics? I am so nervous about the coming election. Even if Kamala Harris wins. Trump and his mob won’t give up easily. But I guess democracy is being challenged everywhere these days—even here in France.
France’s new prime minister has hobbled together a cabinet of ministers and presented a centrist right agenda and austerity budget to the harshly divided assembly. Although the rapidly formed leftist coalition won the most seats in the July elections, no party or coalition ended up with a majority in the General Assembly. President Macron chose to ignore the Left’s victory and instead appointed a prime minister more closely aligned to the parties on the right. France has never been in this kind of political situation before and it seems the politicians have no desire to learn how to govern using compromise and collaboration. It’s going to be a strange year or so in France. See the recent article in the New York Times: “Political Uncertainty and Budget Reality Put France in a Financial Vise” by Liz Alderman.
The images coming out of the Carolinas following Hurricane Helene are horrific. Roads, bridges, and houses washed away in the hollers around Asheville, an exceptionally open and artistic community, where many folks relocated after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of New Orleans in 2005. People’s lives turned upside down and inside out by a tremendous storm—quickly followed by a second hurricane that also hit the Gulf Coast of Florida. Milton brought even more destruction. And then the climate change deniers boldly continue to spout their nonsense on CNN and you realize why Kamala Harris can’t seem to gallop ahead in the polls. Are Americans really so stupid?
A French friend recently said to me that the thing about Americans that most confounds him is my compatriots’ rabid tendency to ban books. It’s really embarrassing. When I scan the lists of books that have been tossed from library shelves, crossed off the curriculum, and grabbed from the hands of young people across the country, I can only quote Forrest Gump’s mother: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Paris (and a lot of France) got its own taste of a hurricane this past week. I was wondering what happened to hurricanes I, J, K, and L, between Helene and Milton, when we were struck by Orage Kirk. Apparently, Hurricane Kirk was headed west across the Atlantic when it decided to do a 180 and head toward Europe. It struck Portugal and Spain and then tore through France, causing major flooding from heavy rain. Last Wednesday, it rained unrelentingly all day in Paris. More rain in Paris in one day in the month of October than any October since 1920 . As I made my way to choir rehearsal, the water was flowing in torrents through the leaf strewn streets of autumnal Paris. Other towns in France fared much worse and the news coverage of residents wading through waist deep water in their homes seems much like what we were seeing in Florida and the Southeastern USA. A hurricane in Paris? Perhaps a shark in the Seine is not such a crazy idea.
Some October angst reducers:
We had a visit in the last month from Rosilyn Jentner and her boyfriend, Ariel. I realized that Rosilyn probably acted in more projects under my direction than almost any other student while she was at The University of Akron and then later as an essential member of New World Performance Lab. From the time she first accosted me, following a performance of NWPL’s Frankenstein at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, and declared that she wanted to work with the company, to her work on Don Quijote and the unfinished Passion’s Play, Rosilyn blossomed beautifully as an artist and as a person. Her work at UA in The Dionysus Project (A Mouthful of Birds, The Great God Brown, and The Bacchae 2012); The Akron Color Line Project Performance; the all-female As You Like It; and Blood Wedding along with her finely etched NWPL ensemble contributions in Orlando; two parts of The Devil’s Milk Trilogy (Goosetown and Industrial Valley) and Don Quijote. She also served as a director on Out of Silence: Abortion Stories and has been working hard to keep QuTheatr functioning. Rosilyn worked with us in Italy one summer, was a strong participant in all aspects of the Akron Story Circle Project, a fierce advocate for social justice and the arts, and…I’m sure I’m missing some of her contributions. In any case, we had a great dinner and meeting—I made a Provençal chicken with pastis, a particular anise-flavored liqueur that is extremely popular in the south of France. Ariel is a chef so it was a little intimidating to cook for them. But everyone ate everything, we laughed and reminisced, and we dreamed a bit, too.
We were also visited recently by an old friend from Macalester, Jeff Jamison, and his wife, Sparky. Jairo and I actually were at their wedding in LA in 1986. Jeff grew up in the Canton area and he and Sparky had visited Akron a year or so before Covid hit. That was the last time I had seen them. This time we had a delicious meal at one of my favorite French restaurants, L’Ebauchoir (which I know I’ve mentioned before), and then a few days later, we invited them for—what is quickly becoming—my famous cassoulet. Pleasant times with good food, good wine, and good people.
Heartstoppers is back for a heartwarming third season. Those boys just can’t stop kissing each other this year. Slow Horses continues to entertain, The Penguin has me coming back for more; and Emily went to Rome and found an Italian boyfriend (the French chef had really become a bit annoying). Speaking of annoying: Martin Short. And Andrew Dismukes. Can we please make room for someone new—what a waste of an SNL company slot. And, when I can’t sleep at night, I’m re-watching Buffy and her vampire friends. Hurray for the 90’s!
Wolfs was a snooze, but The Instigators was fun. Megalopolis had a lot going on. I think Coppola has much in common with Orson Welles. Two masters, geniuses, who can’t seem to discipline themselves. Joker: Folie à deux—a surprise approach to the story with excellent acting. I just wish I liked Gaga’s voice more. As a singer, she often leaves me cold.
It seems like the weather in Paris has been terrible all of 2024, except for the two weeks of the Olympics—and they were glorious. We had very little summer, only two hot days that I can remember, a lot of rain and gray, and fall arrived right on the heels of the August 15th holiday, with no second summer or last-chance summer making an entrance as of yet. I’m hoping for a warm November. Shakespeare referred to the warming period after the first frost as “All Halloween Summer,” so we still have a chance at some nice weather before the cold of the holidays, since Halloween is still 19 days away. We have a quick trip to Lille scheduled and we still have to determine which theatre events we’ll be attending this winter. My 70th birthday comes up in 2025 and I’m thinking about a trip to Portugal or the Canary Islands and maybe a London theatre outing. So stay tuned.
The next time I write will be after the US election. The results of that day will either reduce some of the October angst or begin a whole new cycle. Michael Moore is hopeful. Maureen Dowd—not so much. Let’s get this done, USA!
