The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country (1990)

Dream Country is an interesting volume of The Sandman.  While volumes 1 and 2 were very different from each other in terms of both plot and sensibility, volume 3 is even more its own monster.  The four issues in this collection feel like an interlude in the story, a waystation where Neil Gaiman stops on the way to where he’s heading (premise spoilers.)

There’s no solid plot really connecting the four stories here.  Each is a separate, self-contained piece sharing a common thread with the others only through an appearance by one of the Eternals (Death in the last story, Dream in all the others.)  We see an author buying and imprisoning a Muse to keep his writer’s block at bay.  We see a cat prophet telling her fellow catkind her vision of the world as it once was and could be again, if they can only dream it.  We see the first first performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by Will and co. before an audience of fairies who aren’t sure they like how Will is depicting them.  And finally, we see a former superhero cursing her powers when they take her too far from humanity and too far, even, from mortality.

By now, I’m coming to realize that The Sandman is a story that lends itself well to offshoots like this.  Much like the ever-shifting dreamscape the titular Eternal rules, the narrative is at times like water or smoke, changing its shape and remaining just a little intangible.  Though it can feel a bit like an excuse for Neil Gaiman to use a bunch of unconnected, creepy, high-concept stories he had on standby, it’s definitely a satisfying read, and while I’m disappointed not to get as much on the Eternals here, each individual story is an eerie winner.

The cat story is probably my favorite, just because it feels so true to how cats operate (and reminds me a bit of Franz Kafka’s “Investigations of a Dog.”)  It’s like, of course there are cat prophets and secret cat meetings and cat mythology, and of course they’re so self-impressed that they turn up their noses at their own said prophets.  The superhero story is also super-fascinating, albeit depressing.  It gets into the psychology of what happens to a human when they’re so fundamentally changed and “elevated,” and there’s some top-notch body horror stuff going on here.  As I’ve already said, I love Death, and this story own further illustrates why; she’s just the perfect combination of down-to-earth and exalted, and I like that she’s a warm, friendly Goth girl. 

The Midsummer Night’s Dream one, I feel, isn’t quite as good as it could have been, although I definitely enjoy it.  It seems to me like it’s just shy of being taken to another level – that said, the running audience commentary by the minor fairies is really fun.  And the story about the Muse is fascinating but really disturbing, enough that I had a hard time fully enjoying it.  I feel it wallows a bit too much in the sexual violence, which is always awful but takes on another light when you’re talking about a human man abusing an immortal godlike woman.  (It doesn’t help that the volume includes Gaiman’s original script for the issue, wherein I can’t help but think that an author shouldn’t have to spend so much time emphasizing to his artist that the image of the naked, half-starved sex slave shouldn’t be titillating.  It just makes me horrified that this needs saying at all, let alone hammering it home to such a degree.)

Warnings

Violence (including rape,) sexual content, disturbing images, and dark themes.

News Satire Roundup: June 18th-June 22nd

Sunday, June 18 – John caught up on what’s been happening with the American Health Care Act while Stupid Watergate has been imploding.  He had a great bit playing off of Orrin Hatch getting his lines fed to him in a discussion with Democratic Senators.  The main story was on the coal industry, coal companies, and coal miners, particularly emphasizing the idea that helping one (i.e., the companies) doesn’t necessarily help them all (i.e., the miners.)  I was stunned to learn that there are only about 76,000 miners in the U.S. – fewer than the country’s number of JC Penney’s employees!  And while the research is likely right that coal jobs aren’t coming back regardless of what deregulation occurs, I appreciate that John didn’t overlook the genuine hardship that a lot of miners are going through as they see their jobs disappear.  It’s a situation with no easy answer, but John strove to maintain balance throughout the piece.

Monday, June 19 – We got started with Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.  Trevor covered Trump rolling back relations with Cuba (in his ongoing quest to “press ‘control Z’ on Obama’s presidency) and the confusion of whether or not Robert Mueller is investigating Trump, featuring the most bizarrely double-talking lawyer around.  I was hoping Trevor would talk about the verdict in the Philando Castile case, and he did, taking care to call out the NRA for staying silent on someone with a legal carry permit being killed by a police officer – despicable.  Not a whole lot to the story about a special election in Georgia, although I liked Trevor’s point about politicians wringing their hands about lack of money for things like education while they drop millions of dollars for campaigns.  Very good interview with Janet Mock about her new book – I especially liked her remarks about the language she uses and why.

Tuesday, June 20 – Opening bit on a collection of Nazi artifacts found in Argentina; I liked Trevor’s joke about the owner insisting it’s “just kiddie porn.”  I liked the latest piece on the health care bill.  After reminiscing about the fearmongering the GOP conducted in the run-up to Obamacare, Trevor urged Democrats to do the same in a different way, using outrageous claims to highlight the point that we can’t know for sure if they’re made up, since the Republicans won’t release their draft of the bill.  Ronny had a field piece on The Slants’s Supreme Court win over the right to use their name.  I don’t think the piece articulated what The Slants were really trying to do, but I liked Ronny realization that the trademark wouldn’t have been denied to a non-Asian group wanting that name.  John Harris of Politico was the guest.  He did a good job explaining how Trump/his administration are simultaneously secretive and transparent.

Wednesday, June 21 – The amusing opening bit about Michael Phelps racing a shark and the story about the Democratic loss in the Georgia election were good (in the latter, I loved Trevor’s remarks about how it’s too early for Trump supporters to be disillusioned with Trump, using the comparison of drunk people at a club vs. the designated driver.)  But the piece of the night was again on the Philando Castile shooting.  Trevor aired both the original post-shooting video and the recently-released dashcam footage – I’d read descriptions of both but hadn’t seen either.  Insightful and heartfelt as he always is with this devastating subject.  Here, I was really shaken by his comments about how Castile’s girlfriend still called the cop “sir” moments after the shooting.  After that powerful story, the weird cutaway sequence with DJ Khaled was weird and felt shilly, but I enjoyed the interview with folk musician Jason Isbell.

Thursday, June 22 – First up was the Senate’s release of the health care bill; Trevor covered lessening health care to provide tax cuts for the rich, the GOP’s ballsiness to push for such an unpopular bill when they don’t have votes to spare, and the Democrats’ less-than-hard-hitting response.  Good story on Trump supporters at a rally, cheering Trump on despite his claims that directly countered his campaign promises – I laughed at Trevor pondering the logistics of a solar-panel border wall.  Hasan interviewed Preet Bharara, a former US Attorney Trump fired; Hasan got Bharara to tell his (Hasan’s) parents that law school isn’t a sure path to success, deaf to Bharara’s assurance that he is currently employed.  Guest Jerrod Carmichael was ostensibly there to promote Transformers, but after commending Trevor on his coverage of Philando Castile, they spent most of the interview frankly discussing systemic racism in police forces.

Relationship Spotlight: Jughead Jones & Betty Cooper (Riverdale)

I brought up these two back when I was discussing my thoughts about Riverdale apparently not going the ace route with Jughead, but at that point, a kiss was all we’d seen.  It was too soon to tell how they’d be as a romantic couple.  Now, though, with a season under our belts, it’s time to circle back to Betty/Jughead (some Betty/Jughead-related spoilers.)

I won’t rehash my asexual Jughead thoughts, although I would’ve obviously preferred an aro ace Jughead or, barring that, a romantic Jughead with some reasonable hints that he’s ace and probably doesn’t know it yet (can I still hold out hope on that front?)  However, another reason that Jughead and Betty getting together disappoints me a little is that I’d loved them so much as friends.  After Betty’s heavy Archie-preoccupation in the first couple of episodes, it’s so refreshing to see Betty’s friendship with Jughead take center stage, as the two of them run their own investigation into Jason’s murder.  In the first part of the season, they’re just on fire as a pair of teen sleuths and I loved that our female lead’s most significant relationship was turning out to be with her platonic male friend (sigh – I so rarely see these things coming) instead the boy she’s into who’s not into her.

But no – instead we got the building up of the friendship so we could get them together romantically, because that’s the real way to help Betty get over Archie!  I mean… look, in hindsight, I’m not surprised, and I’m not opposed to romantic pairings on the face of it (and really, if there’s going to be romance, I’d prefer to have a basis of friendship,) but it looked (to me) like the show was doing something different with these two, and that’s not what ended up happening.

That said, I do honestly, genuinely like Betty and Jughead as a couple.  Even if I would’ve preferred them to stay friends, it helps that they were such good friends to start.  Now that they’re together, they get more of that couply stuff – the kissing and whatnot, of course, but also more emotional material like opening up to one another about their feelings or getting into a fight that resolves when they (bless them) talk it out.  At their core, though, there’s a lot about their relationship that stays the same whether it’s platonic or romantic.  They’re at their best for me when they’re spitballing suspect theories, hatching plans for following leads, and carrying out secret operations under cover of darkness. 

Not only is it more interesting plot-wise, I also find it the best way to show off what’s good about them.  They’re on the same page on a lot of things.  They both take the murder very seriously and pour themselves into trying to figure it out, and they both have a flair for it, using deductive reasoning, grilling possible witnesses, taking risks (together,) and not shying away from the more devastating theories.  They bring out a lot of good in each other – both are smart and savvy, but they brainstorm best when they’re bouncing ideas off each other, and each looks out for and supports the other without insinuating that the other is helpless without them.  One of the worst relationship sins I think a show can commit is when it puts two friends together and almost instantly strips them of everything I love about them as friends, exchanging it for a far more generic “couple” depiction that makes both characters feel less themselves.  With Jughead and Betty, I appreciate so much that the show has basically kept them who they are, separately and together, and as long as it can keep that up, I’m cool with them romantically.

Favorite Characters: Peter Quill (Guardians of the Galaxy)

If we’re ranking guardians, Peter is #3 at best, but that’s to be understood.  He’s the protagonist, after all, and in any ragtag-band-of-misfits ensemble, being the protagonist requires at least a degree of Everyman-ness that supporting characters like a machine-gun-toting raccoon and a sentient tree don’t have to deal with.  As such, he’s not the most interesting of the bunch and his character beats are perhaps the most familiar.  That’s okay, though – for what he is, he’s incredibly well-done and rootable (a few Peter-related spoilers.)

As a quippy outlaw in space, Peter is cut from similar cloth as the likes of Han Solo and Mal Reynolds.  He’s a junker who rolls with a fairly unsavory crew from time to time, and he’s not above double-crossing when it suits him.  He’s always out to make a score and his desires can really get in the way of his conscious, but when the chips are really down, he can be counted on to do the right thing.  Like other quippy outlaws in space before him, when he gets it in his mind to help, there’s nothing he won’t do to make it happen, risking his life to a startling degree for the sake of others (one could potentially argue that even taking on Ronan is a bit self-serving, since Ronan can use the orb to destroy the entire galaxy and Peter kind of lives there, but that doesn’t mean he has to be the one to stop Ronan.  I’m definitely putting this in the “score one for character growth” column.)

What sets Peter apart from other characters like him, however, is his background.  While Han and Mal are products of the interplanetary society around them, Peter wasn’t born to this.  He’s from Earth, abducted by aliens as a child (the crew he now occasionally rolls with/double-crosses) and coming of age as the only person he knows who’s like him; I’m assuming that pretty much all the humanoid folks we see are just that, humanoid rather than human.  As such, he still carries around the memories of his home planet.  He turns Footloose into a legendary piece of Earth mythology, because who’s there to tell anyone otherwise, and he clings to the battered old mix tape his mother made for him when he was a kid.  I love the moment when he and the others are arrested in the first film and he gets so angry at a guard for listening to his tape, because he’s so jealously possessive of “Hooked on a Feeling” and the very, very few other things he has to remind him of Earth.  “That song belongs to me!” he yells, an amazingly poignant remark about the franchise’s nostalgia-laden soundtrack.

But unlike, say, John Crichton (in general, more of a fugitive than an outlaw, but he still fits the pattern,) while Peter isn’t from the galaxy in which the movie is set, he hasn’t just arrived there, either.  This isn’t a story about grownup Peter getting abducted and flailing to adjust to the strangeness around him.  It’s one about grownup Peter who’s had years to get his flailing and adjusting out of the way, who guards his small pieces of home but who’s largely assimilated to his new culture.  He interacts with everyone as a person first, not an alien curiosity – as unique as Groot apparently is (he flummoxes the Nova Corps people,) Peter doesn’t make anything unusual of Groot until he starts twigging that “I am Groot” is the extent of the tree’s vocabulary.  He’s comfortable with spaceships and other non-Earth tech, and he has no qualms about hooking up with alien women (though, if there are tentacles involved, he’ll need a good incentive.)  This gives a nice mix of a character, someone who’s lost and at home, rooted in the past and looking to the future.  It speaks to how adaptable he is, and it also shows why he’s the natural choice to be the one to rally his fellow “losers” to help protect the galaxy that’s taken him in.

Top Five Performances: 2017 Tony Awards

*Disclaimer: Rounding off my old write-ups involving Kevin Spacey. I didn’t know he was such a predator when I wrote it, but it still makes me cringe to look back on it now. As much as we might like to associate talent with being a decent human being, that obviously isn’t the case, and Spacey’s talent doesn’t make up for his crimes.*

Wrapping up this year’s Tony’s, as usual, with my favorite performances from the telecast.  As I said in my review of the ceremony, not quite the wealth we had last year, but there was still some great stuff to enjoy.

Opening Number

While I don’t expect Kevin Spacey to be joining Les Miz anytime soon, I thought he had a nice voice and carried the opening number well.  And even though I didn’t know the songs they were parodying, I liked the lyrics of the song, all centering around Spacey’s insecurities about hosting (including worries about past hosts) and building up his confidence to be ready for the night.  Clever and fun.

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Some Tony performances can’t pull off getting the audience involved, but I think this one managed it pretty well; it felt like a realistic old-world party that was spilling over the edge of the stage, all lights and colorful costumes and exuberant dancers and accordion-playing.  For me, the jury’s still out on Josh Groban – while his singing was obviously beautiful, I didn’t see enough to get any sense of his character, and I’m not sure how “Josh Groban on Broadway” his performance is.

War Paint

Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole:  two classic Broadway divas going toe to toe in a period piece about powerful women both trying to take the reins of their industry.  Yes, please!  This is a show that intrigues me.

Bandstand

I’d never heard of this show, but it piqued my interest when it was mentioned in the intro to its performance that the production partners with groups working to help veterans readjust to civilian life.  But coolness aside, that’s extra – the performance itself was really energetic, a dance-heavy number with amazing choreography and great performers.

Dear Evan Hansen

You have to be really great to command the stage in a solo number (think Tonya Pinkins in Caroline, or Change or Sydney Lucas in Fun Home,) and this was, I think, a worthy addition to that club.  Ben Platt sounded gorgeous, and after having heard the show’s name a lot without hearing any of its music, the song was beautiful – lovely melody, and the lyrics hit on the emotion of adolescence without getting too tangled up in its angst.