Ned Gallagher:
What I’m Up To
A New School Year
“Here let us breathe and haply institute
A course of learning and ingenious studies.”
- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
Labor Day Means Back To Work
As I write these words, on the American holiday celebrating organized labor, I note that this day signifies a return to my work routine after some summer downtime. This morning, I brought the Choate Cross Country team to its annual outing at the New Haven Road Race, traditionally the first date on our competition schedule. Later in the day, all faculty met with the families of new advisees as they moved onto campus for the very first time. And tonight I have the first tutorial class of a new semester at the Graduate Institute at St. John’s. So ready or not, time to get busy!
The Play’s the Thing
I ended up seeing more live theater this summer than I have in recent years, since the pandemic in any case.
In June I caught a double feature of Broadway plays just before they closed: Patriots and Appropriate, both of which were excellent. Then two days later I went back to the city to see Molly Sweeney, the fourth production in the Brian Friel Festival at the reliably good Irish Repertory Theatre off-Broadway.
After summer school wound down at the end of July I decamped to London for a long weekend and a trio of Shakespearean performances at the Globe: Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, and Much Ado About Nothing (the latter was was the best of the bunch).
Then in August I spent the better part of a week at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, where I took in six plays over three days. Four of them were by the Bard—Henry VIII, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew—and the non-Elizabethan works were The Mountaintop (about MLK’s last night on earth) and The 39 Steps (a comic take on the classic Hitchcock film). The four Shakespeare plays were unusually strong productions—perhaps the best Henry VIII and Shrew stagings I have seen, in fact.
Once back east, I made another day trip to Broadway to see Job and the riotously funny Oh, Mary! before capping off my summer playgoing with an al fresco production of Richard III in Edgerton Park in New Haven.
What I’m Reading
Working On Now:
- Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service
- Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
- Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur
- W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe
Recently Finished:
- Teddy Wayne, The Winner
- Chris Nashawaty, The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
- Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Roaming
- Herman Melville, Billy Budd
- Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, Absolute Superman
- Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
- Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline
On Deck:
- Joesphine Quinn, How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History
- Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
- Helena Rosenblatt, The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
- Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad: They All Fall Down, Part Two
- Edmund Fawcett, Liberalism: The Life of an Idea (2nd edition)
For Courses I’m Taking This Fall:
- William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
- William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
- Molière, The Misanthrope
- Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John
- E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus
- Plato, “Meno”
- Aristotle, Metaphysics
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
- René Descartes, Meditations
- David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature
- Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
- William Shakespeare, Richard II
- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2
For Courses I’m Teaching This Fall:
- Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
- John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
- Joseph Grieco et al., Introduction to International Relations: Perspectives, Connections, and Enduring Questions
- Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- The Federalist Papers
What I’m Watching
Ongoing—Television:
- coverage of the US Open tennis championships (ESPN, ESPN+)
- Only Murders in the Building, season 4 (Hulu)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, season 2 (Amazon Prime)
- Hacks, seasons 1–3 (Max)
- Batman: Caped Crusader (Amazon Prime)
- The Umbrella Academy, season 4 (Netflix)
- Cowboy Bebop (Hulu)
- Time Bandits (Apple TV+)
- Futurama, season 12 (Hulu)
Recently Finished—Television:
- House of the Dragon, season 2 (Max)
- coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships (ESPN, ESPN+)
- Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+)
- The Good Place, seasons 1–4 (Netflix)
- Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons (Amazon Prime)
- Me (Apple TV+)
- Paranoia Agent (Amazon Prime)
- The Curse (BritBox)
- coverage of the Olympic Games (Peacock)
- Tokyo Vice, season 2 (Max)
- Star Trek: Prodigy, season 2 (Netflix)
- In The Arena: Serena Williams (ESPN+)
- Grantchester, season 9 (PBS Passport)
- Uninterrupted‘s Top Class (Amazon Prime)
- Sunny (Apple TV+)
- Fallout (Amazon Prime)
- Loot (Apple TV+)
On Deck—Television:
- Slow Horses, season 4 (Apple TV+)
- English Teacher (FX)
- Agatha All Along (Disney+)
- Samurai Champloo (Hulu)
- Superman and Lois, season 4 (CW)
- The Penguin (Max)
- What We Do in the Shadows, season 6 (FX)
- Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5 (Paramount+)
- The Diplomat, season 2 (Netflix)
- Shrinking, season 2 (Apple TV+)
Recently Finished—Films:
- American Madness (d. Frank Capra, 1932), streamed on iTunes
- My Man Godfrey (d. Gregory LaCava, 1936), streamed on Amazon Prime
- Modern Times (d. Charlie Chaplin, 1936), streamed on Max
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (d. Mervyn LeRoy, 1933), streamed on iTunes
- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (d. Frank Capra, 1939), streamed on iTunes
- Picture Snatcher (d. Lloyd Bacon, 1933), streamed on iTunes
- Fury (d. Fritz Lang, 1936), streamed on iTunes
- Deadpool and Wolverine (d. Shawn Levy, 2024), cinema
- American Son (d. Jay Caspian Kang, 2023), streamed on ESPN+
- Do The Right Thing (d. Spike Lee, 1989), DVD
- Field of Dreams (d. Phil Alden Robinson, 1989), DVD
- Wild Boys of the Road (d. William Wellman, 1933),
- Fatal Attraction (d. Adrian Lyne, 1987), streamed on Amazon Prime
- Blue Velvet (d. David Lynch, 1986), 4K Ultra HD
- I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (d. Mervyn LeRoy, 1932), streamed on iTunes
- Tig Notaro: Hello Again (d. Stephanie Allynne, 2024), streamed on Amazon Prime
- Risky Business (d. Paul Brickman, 1983), streamed on iTunes
- Blade Runner (d. Ridley Scott, 1982), streamed on Max
- Federer: Twelve Final Days (d. Asif Kapadia, 2024), streamed on Amazon Prime
- Hit Man (d. Richard Linklater, 2023), streamed on Netflix
- Inside Out 2 (d. Kelsey Mann, 2024), cinema
- Shin Godzilla (d. Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi, 2016), DVD
What I’m Listening To
Music:
- The Police, Synchronicity [Super Deluxe 40th Anniversary Edition]
- Elton John, Live in Australia
Podcasts:
- The Rest Is History
What I’ve Been Attending
- Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA, August
- Richard III, Elm Shakespeare Company, New Haven, August
- Oh, Mary!, New York City, August
- Job, New York City, August
- The Taming of the Shrew, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- Much Ado About Nothing, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- The Winter’s Tale, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- The 39 Steps, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- Henry VIII, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- The Mountaintop, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, August
- Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, August
- Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, August
- Richard III, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, August
- Richard III Study Day, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, August
- “Bill Maher: WTF,” Toyota Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, July
- USATF Cross Country Specialist Course, online, July
- Molly Sweeney, Irish Repertory Theatre, New York City, June
- Appropriate, New York City, June
- Patriots, New York City, June
- “Post-postwar Japan: Its Fall and Rise,” conference at the University of Alaska Anchorage, sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington, June
Where I’m Traveling
Recent Trips:
Upcoming Trips:
What I’m Learning
What I’m Looking Forward To