This week I’m doing a lot!

I have an extra (free) ticket to the 10:30pm show at the Blue Note on Tuesday. It’ll be the James Francies Trio with Joel Ross. This’ll be excellent vibraphone meeting a rising piano star who at only 24 years old has already played with everyone from Pat Metheny to Chance the Rapper. I only have the one extra ticket so the first to ask for it gets it! Note that Blue Note has a one drink minimum which is not included in the free ticket. If you want to join me, please plan to meet me there at 10pm so we can get good seats :)

I’m also going to finish off Haugerud’s OSLO TRILOGY this week at the Film Forum. I saw one of the films, SEX, a bit ago as part of this newsletter. Film Forum is playing the last of the series, DREAMS, this week, and brought back LOVE and SEX by popular demand, so I’m taking this opportunity to watch both LOVE and DREAMS. I’m going to the 8pm showing of DREAMS on Thursday and the 3pm showing of LOVE on Saturday. I have a membership that allows a guest ticket, so first to indicate interest to either of these films gets discounted tickets!

Despite being a trilogy, the films in Haugerud’s OSLO TRIOLOGY are only loosely affiliated with each other. They all explore themes of nontraditional intimacy. You do not have to watch them in any particular order, or even watch them all.

LOVE follows the conversations between two colleges in an Oslo hospital, one a straight (and strait-laced) doctor, the other a gay nurse, both of whom are single. The doctor confesses her desire to be more adventurous with her encounters with men, and the nurse shares his fatigue with Grindr hookups. Zachary Barnes of the Wall Street Journal calls it a “shimmering, contemplative portrait of a handful of people and the modern city in which they live”.

DREAMS vividly captures the highs and lows of first love as the 17-year-old lead develops an all-consuming passion for her charismatic female French teacher. Haugerud paints a complex and endearing portrait of youthful infatuation and self-discovery.

As I’m sure everyone is aware by now, I am a real sucker for intimate explorations of people whose lives are different from my own. I am very excited to get thrust into those worlds this week!