Concert week survived

This is the toughest concert week I can remember in awhile -- the pieces had some tricky bits, two of the pieces were double choir so we weren't standing in our usual configuration, and the smoke was bothering everyone. So it wasn't the greatest pair of performances either, although the audience seemed happy and a few choir members who weren't singing this quarter said nice things. Still, I'm glad its done.

Next quarter is Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony, which I've never done, but I have performed the similar Dona Nobis Pacem a couple of times before, and I really love that, so I have high hopes for this one.

Solo

Finally got around to watching it last night. I didn't get around to seeing it in theaters because I was out of town when it premiered (it was the same weekend as Wiscon), and by the time I got back, the buzz was negative enough that neither T or I felt inspired to bother. So we got it via Netflix instead. I was glad to have lowered expectations, because I enjoyed it pretty well for what it was -- an entertaining caper movie with some fun nods to later installments. There were some annoying things about it, of course, largely around the treatment of the female characters, but it could have been worse. ( Some spoilers. )

I've seen some grumbling about Alden Ehrenreich's performance, but even though he didn't hit the mannerisms or speech patterns exactly, I totally bought him as Han Solo -- especially as a younger Han who's not quite as good at pretending to be jaded. Donald Glover was just as great a Lando as everyone said he would be, and if we must have more "young X" movies, I think a "young Lando" film would be fantastic. I appreciated seeing so much of Han's mythos settling into place, from meeting and bonding with Chewbacca to developing a friendly rivalry with Lando to gaining the Millennium Falcon (( Another quick spoiler )

).

But as to the question of whether this film was necessary... I'm not sure it did a particularly strong job making that case. Sure, it hit all the right canon beats, and answered most of the questions that it set out to answer, but most of us filled those gaps perfectly well in our heads. We've had a rash of these films in recent years, the ones that put the spotlight on some white dude character that no one was clamoring to see more of; Spider-Man: Homecoming comes to mind, and that one did a much better job justifying its existence. Even the first Ant-Man movie felt like it brought some significant contributions to its larger canon. I'm not sure I can say that for Solo. I'm not sorry that I saw it, but if it had never been made, I doubt I'd feel any gaps in the Star Wars universe. Although Ron Howard did a perfectly competent job as a director, I will always wonder what Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would have made of it. (If they were going to fire anyone, it should be whoever was in charge of lighting -- so many shots were dark and murky, and it could be hard to see what was going on; at one point, I thought that Enfys Nest was Lady Proxima in an environmental suit.)

So, do I recommend Solo? If you like the character, the universe, and adventure movies, sure. But don't go in expecting too much. You'll be happier that way.