HAMILTON

Genre: Musical

Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 160 mins.

Where Can You See It?: Disney +

Premise: Filmed version of the Tony-award winning Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton and the “damn fool that shot him” (Aaron Burr, sir), created by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Behind-the-Scenes: Filmed during one of the original cast’s final performances in June 2016. [Fun fact: I bought tickets for August 2016 and just missed the original cast – didn’t matter, the show and performers were still amazing.] Disney paid a pretty penny (approx. $75M) for the distribution rights. It was originally set to debut in theaters in October 2021, but due to the pandemic, Disney moved it up a whole year to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday.

The Good: If you’ve never had a chance to see Hamilton on stage – didn’t come to your city, too expensive, just got lazy, now you get to be in the room where it happened. And not just in the room – but sitting center orchestra level with a front row seat! I’ve always said Hamilton is one of the top 5 pieces of art (music, painting, movies, theater, books) of all time – don’t ask me the other 4, I just know Hamilton takes one of those slots – so any film version of that show is an automatic 5-star film. Just need to point the camera and shoot. How great then to be able to report that this film is pretty much perfect at what it is. Director Thomas Kail and his editors do a fantastic job of cutting between wide shots and close-ups on the actors, and it’s those close-up shots that really deliver the goods. Getting to see these actors in that way – the cast here is one of the finest assembled – is a thrill, and some of the songs really take flight in this format. Angelica’s (Renee Elise Goldsberry) “Satisfied” is a stunner, as is George Washington’s (Christopher Jackson) “One Last Time.” Daveed Diggs and Jonathan Groff steal every scene they’re in, and the film helps you appreciate all of the smaller comedic moments sewn throughout the show. And those songs! Each one a banger. Musicals just don’t get any better.

The Bad: I loved this, but it can’t quite match seeing it live, and I still want a movie adaptation of the show. Think that could be amazing.

Should You See It?: Uh, do you even need to ask? Of course, yes. I have to admit though it was super weird to finish this brilliant, ambitious, inspiring ode to America, while still living in the nightmare age of Trump. Hamilton feels like what we could be as a country, rather than what we currently are. I hope November offers us a new opportunity to “look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.”

Star Rating: ***** out of 5 stars

Better Than: Every other movie this year

Worse Than: Hamilton on Broadway

* * *

For more movie/TV commentary and other mischief, follow me on Twitter: @Hammervision and on Letterboxd: @Hammervision

Eric Trump has been my favorite of Don’s children. I don’t count Tiffany and we media types aren’t suppose to acknowledge the little boy living on Pennsylvania Avenue, so I only consider the first three for my ratings.

Eric isn’t as blatant about his greed as his sister, Ivanka, who has made more than one hundred million dollars while holding a government position in daddy’s administration. He stays out of the limelight more than his brother Don Jr., who thinks he’s a powerful celebrity because he has the same name as his father. So while it may be by default, Eric gets my top spot among the Trump offspring.

I also think that at one time, Eric had a good heart and cared about other people besides himself. It was his idea to start the children’s cancer charity. Apparently Eric realized he was living a charmed life. He knew he was born on third base and it wasn’t his triple that got him there. The charity was his way to give back to humanity. It was doing great work, too…until dad got involved. Don saw a way to make money off sick and dying children. As usual, with Donald Trump greed takes precedent over everything.

Saturday Night Live has been doing political humor for more than four decades. No one is off limits. The adult children of politicians are fair game, especially if they are in the public eye and involved even slightly in politics. That describes the Trump children to a tee. For the last few seasons, the Trump brothers have been making regular appearances during the Weekend Update segment. Mikey Day plays slick big brother Don Jr. to Alex Moffat as child-like Eric. The portrayals are way over the top, especially Eric, who is almost always acting like a not so bright first grader. We’ve seen scenes such as Eric intrigued while playing with a fidget spinner and also trying to color between the lines. Word on the street is Eric isn’t too happy with how he’s being played….and can you really blame him? He can’t really be as dumb as SNL makes him out to be, right? After all, the dude has a degree in business and finance from Georgetown University, where he graduated with honors. You don’t get that playing with a fidget spinner for four years!

That brings us to Thursday. The FBI arrested Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate and madame for the late Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell was charged with sexual abuse of minors, as well as perjury. The FBI has been searching for her for a year and finally found her hiding out in an estate in New Hampshire. It was a good day for justice.

The good day for justice quickly turned into a bad day for Eric Trump. Epstein and Maxwell were known to hobnob with the rich and famous. It doesn’t get more famous than the Clinton’s. Eric found a photo of Bill walking his daughter Chelsea down the aisle on her wedding day. Looking on, with a red circle around her head, is Ghislaine Maxwell. Eric couldn’t help himself and tweeted out the photo with his caption:
“Birds of a feather”  

Oh My….what could possibly go wrong with that tweet?

Apparently Eric didn’t know that his dad also had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? Hell, we’ve all seen the quote to New York Magazine from 2002:

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Eric had to know about this, didn’t he? He couldn’t be that dumb, could he? And to make it worse, immediately after posting his tweet came the responses. Multiple photos of daddy with Epstein and Maxwell. Even Donald’s new BFF George Conway tweeted a photo of them together, with the question, “Why would he tweet this?” Eric, you want to answer that? You had to know these pictures existed? So, why Eric, why? You can’t be that dumb, can you?

It’s a good thing SNL is on hiatus for the summer….at least for Eric Trump. If they weren’t, you know that Don Jr. and Eric would be making a 4th of July visit to Weekend Update. You know they’d be playing this up big. Fake Eric would be spinning that fidget thingy hard. He’d have it moving in overdrive!

SNL isn’t due to return until late September. By then, this story will be long forgotten. We’ll be on to whatever is the next big news item. But if Eric Trump continues to act like he did on Thursday, I’m sure we’ll see him again on SNL. Keep that fidget spinner ready.

Related Post: Who has been watching Barron Trump this week?

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A return to normal this week; Normal, Illinois that is, and maybe some more pandemic record shopping?

What a surprise to find the Charlatans in my Release Radar. Nearly 20 years old, Between 10th and 11th (Expanded Edition) got a proper expansion, and on double, clear vinyl to boot. Probably the most exciting thing on my #4THOFJULYRADAR.

Expanded, available on double clear vinyl and double CD, the reissue contains the original album plus remastered tracks from the often-bootlegged live show from Chicago in 1991, known as Isolation 21.2.91, a holy grail amongst fans.

Lil Wayne is returning to form, at least sort of. “Glory” sees Wayne at his finest, most focused, self, with more metaphors, than 2 Chainz.

Josh Rouse returns with a new single, or two-song EP, called Most of the Time. Another highlight of “Freedom” weekend was to hear Josh’s voice piping through the speakers.

The Grateful Dead release a massive collection of outtakes from their Workingman’s Dead album. Do you wanna hear Jerry talk about the joy of writing with the band he loved? Tune in, and check out this version of “Casey Jones.”

Supergrass drops a live version of the song that made them, “Alright,” live from Glastonbury in 1997.

The Radio Dept are something special. They do their own version of the ’80s, maybe even a bit of the sunny 70’s at times. It makes you long for the days of bands that wrote lyrics because they wanted to.

Don’t miss this demo of The Kooks “Window To The Soul.” It’s got a funky guitar riff that grabs you right away, with a big hook.

MisterWives came back with one of their best tracks yet, “Decide To Be Happy.” It’s a choice that might be the best for the rest of us, for now, and forever.

This one by Morgan James wasn’t in my #Radar this week, but it was really good. Great voice and feel for the track.

I can’t leave you without jazz and Englewood’s “Congo Bongo” is a transfusion jam that’s one part island, and one part new age.

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The vast majority of Chicago homebuyers don’t know that there are really two different types of brick homes. They see brick and…well…they think the home is made out of brick. It’s a little more complicated than that actually. There is brick veneer and then there’s solid masonry and you can’t typically tell the difference between the two very easily.

Brick Veneer Construction

A lot of the brick homes you see at $1.5 MM and less are actually a frame construction with brick veneer and that’s because they are less expensive to build than solid masonry. The term veneer kinda sounds like it’s a fake brick covering but it’s not. It’s regular, real brick but it’s laid around a wooden frame structure. So the core of the house is the same as you would find in a home with siding but the outer layer is brick. In between the frame and the brick is a layer of sheathing, which is often gypsum (a drywall-like material) or maybe even plywood, usually wrapped in Tyvek or something similar.

Most of the brick construction in Chicago is brick veneer around a wooden frame.

Here are a couple of photos I took of a brick veneer house in my neighborhood that was under construction. Notice how they used plywood for sheathing in some places and gypsum in others. I have no idea how they decide between the two.

Wooden frame house with sheathing waiting for brick

Brick is laid as a final layer around the perimeter of the house which serves as the main weather barrier.

Brick is laid around the wooden frame with wrapped sheathing.

Solid Masonry Construction

In contrast, the basic structure of a solid masonry house is made from an interior layer of brick – the floor joists sit on this interior layer instead of wood framing. Here is a photo I took of such a house under construction in Lake View.

Solid masonry construction uses an internal layer of large bricks to form the structure of the house.

Note that instead of internal wooden framing the structure of the house is built using thin cinder blocks or CMUs (concrete masonry units).  Then another layer of more expensive and attractive brick is applied to the outside of the house. If you look closely at the photo you’ll see that there are protruding, corrugated metal strips set into the cinder block mortar joints that then get sandwiched into the brick veneer mortar joints. This provides additional support to the outer wall and keeps it from separating from the inner wall.

In this particular photo you’ll see that there is a very small gap between the two layers of brick. This is not a great construction technique because that gap is supposed to allow any water that penetrates the outer layer to harmlessly run down the outside of the gap. This close spacing could allow water to penetrate the inner layer of brick.

There are actually a couple of variations of solid masonry construction. When brick homes were built in Chicago 100 years ago they actually used 3 layers of the smaller brick – I assume cinder block hadn’t been invented yet. There are plenty of these 100+ year old brick buildings still around the city and if you have to open up their walls to do some work you often encounter these three layers.

Then, right after the turn of the century, during the housing boom, it became very popular to use a single layer of wide (8 inches) cinder blocks on the sides and backs of buildings to reduce the construction costs. To make these buildings look nicer they often used split face blocks. The only problem is that split face block is extremely porous and needs to be sealed. And because it often wasn’t sealed that usually resulted in some severe water infiltration issues.

Comparing Brick Veneer To Solid Masonry Construction

Everyone knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. The house that best withstood the trials of the Big Bad Wolf was clearly the brick one. The only thing is that we’re not sure whether that was a solid masonry house or a brick veneer house. Dr. Klaus Faust of Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature has spent his life and a generous federal grant studying this fairy tale. Unfortunately, even after going back to the original clay manuscripts and illustrations he is unable to provide additional insight into this pressing issue. Nevertheless, it’s clear that brick is better than straw or twigs and you can assume that two layers of brick are better than one layer of brick.

In principle you should expect solid masonry construction to be more wind and fire resistant and it isn’t susceptible to rotting or termites. So it’s clearly better and higher end homes are built this way. However, don’t expect a solid masonry house to save you money on your property insurance. While a brick veneer house could come down quickly in a fire a fire that burns long enough will also eventually destroy a solid masonry structure.  And a solid masonry house is more expensive to rebuild. When it comes to home ownership you just can’t win.

#HomeConstruction

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.