February in retrospect
So, I've been meaning to post for, well, a month. All sortsa things have been going on. Let me see if I can do them justice at all.
Valentine's Day:
Ballet Met's Valentine's Day show was Cinderella. This was apparently not the traditional setting but a homebrew put together by the director, heavy with elements of the English puppet shows he grew up with. It was good fun, although the seats we had were terrible. It was a co-production with their associated school, so there were a lot of student/pre-professional dancers. One of the coolest things were the clock parts (portrayed by young dancers) - it was the most steam punk thing I've ever seen in a ballet. Seriously, one of the girls was wearing a giant gear as a tutu. It was awesome.
For our anniversary we were unable to get reservations at our customary fondue place (that and their prices for Valentine's Day weekend were about double) so we went to Banana Leaf instead. Good call. But for Friday night I took Joel-Henry out on a Date. We ate at a tiny little italian place called Basi Italia down in Victorian Village and then went to see Le Nozze di Figaro.
The food was quite good and appropriately fancy. And the dessert was this sliced chocolate fudge-like thing with biscotti in it that was phenomenal. And I managed not to break my ankles by wearing Horrible Heels on the ice. The opera was a lot of fun. I'd forgotten just how funny Figaro (we'd seen it before at Santa Cruz). One of these days we'll have to see The Barber of Seville. It was made funnier than it should be by the fact that Figaro looked uncomfortably like Jason Momoa (the Big Guy on Stargate: Atlantis). But it was good fun.
For Valentine's Day itself Joel-Henry surprised me with dinner. In courses. First there was artichoke-asparagus soup, which is to die for. And then he made salmon in a lemon picatta sauce additionally flavored with rose (this, apart from the rose, was the main course at our wedding). I don't have words for how good it was. But it was the. best. salmon I have ever eaten in my life. And then he brought out the pots-du-creme. These are sort of like a creme brulee without the brulee, smoothe and perfect and faintly coffee flavored. Except he'd melted a few Dove dark chocolates into these particular ones, and they were heavenly. Marrying a man who can cook definitely has its advantages.
Early Music
Early Music Columbus has also been in full swing. A couple of weeks ago the Orlando Consort presented love songs from the Italian Renaissance. This included some extremely dirty pieces in French (where, crucially, they refrained from translating the word con) and was overall quite good fun. It was an all male vocal quartet, without instrument accompaniment, and we went with Rachel and Jon (who I hope were not overly traumatized). The countertenor in particular was very striking. I was particularly delighted to find that the first piece was Rose Liz (or, rather, Rose, Liz) which I happened to know from the CD Jazzantiqua - medieval music that transitions into soft jazz as each song progresses.
More exciting is the upcoming concert entitled "Spanish Splendor" - because Early Music in the Spanish tradition is something you get to hear so rarely. One of these days I'm going to actually buy one of the CDs... But what I really want is one from one of their Twelfth Night concerts, what with my general giddiness for Christmas music, particularly in early English. (We missed said concert this year due to household disaster, but the year before we went with Michelle and it was phenomenal.)
I've actually been playing some Early Music myself recently. Rachel and I have begun meeting every week to play duets on recorder and fiddle out of a History of Music book she has. We're both horribly out of practice, and most of the pieces aren't particularly suited to just two parts (or, for that matter, to our respective ranges) but it's really a blast - and an excuse to have more music in both of our lives.
In other musical news, this weekend is the Ohio Sacred Harp convention down in Cincinatti. Joel-Henry and I will probably not be staying for both days, because we've got church obligations the next day, but it should be good fun. It's also a particularly significant convention because a) next year's will be held in Columbus, so our group is kind of on the spot, and b) it's time for a new edition of the Shape Note book. They come out every 20 years or so, and the last was 1991, so it's due. The reason this makes the convention important is that in compiling the new book, special attention is paid to the songs that are called at convention, so it's sort of the last chance to ensure that your favorite piece doesn't get cut. I'm not exceptionally worried about that, personally, but I am excited to maybe get a new Judy Hauff piece in. And, of course, I shall have to leave a letterbox somewhere around to commemorate. I'm also particularly glad that the convention this year is falling before Ash Wednesday (just!), because it means I'll be able to sing the Easter Anthem guilt free, and not have to tacit all the Alleluias.
Doctor Who:
The sad news in the world of Doctor Who is the passing of Nicholas Courtney last week (ie: the Brigadier). All told, he ended up with more screen time than any of the last three Doctors of the Original Series, and worked alongside 10 of the 12 actors to play the role. Not counting the Valeyard. Truly, the end of an era.
On a lighter note, this is the description Netflix gives of the E-space Trilogy:
The Tardis delivers Doctor Who (Tom Baker, in his final season as the iconic character), Romana (Lalla Ward) and K9 (John Leeson) to an alternate universe called E-Space. There they encounter vampires, spiders, Marshmen and the dangerous Alzarian Adric (Matthew Waterhouse).
Yeah. The description of Adric as "the dangerous Alzarian" had me laughing till I cried. Somebody messed up somewhere, clearly. Although this isn't as bad as referring to "President Sheridan" in the blurb for Season 1 of Babylon 5. Goodness.
We also just finished up "The Leisure Hive" and I found it much more watchable than I remembered. Plus Joel-Henry's description of the Argolin death process as "Oh No! They're losing their brussle sprouts!" was just adorkable. Now I'm having trouble staying awake during Meglos, but that might be unrelated.
Farscape:
The other thing we've been watching is Farscape, which I'm honestly enjoying a lot more than I expected to. It runs off of muppets and Bizarre Alien Biology more than story design or character development, but is a ton of fun despite that. Part of it is I keep expecting Ben Browder to be Cam Mitchell from Stargate, and am always pleasently surprised by how much less irritating he is as Crichton. But most of it is just that the creatures and concepts are really cool. I can't get enough of the muppets, or of the whole spaceships giving birth thing. (I also really like the title music). Oh, and all of the characters are evil - except the evil one (and maybe the hero, but he's been seeming a bit more evil in the second season). The only difinitively non-evil character is the Pilot, who is also a muppet, and therefore awesome. (Yes, I'm still deeply disturbed by the episode with Pilot's arm. Even if he's not.)
Plus, after five seasons of thinly disguised Canadian accents on Atlantis, all the thinly disguised Australian accents are quite enjoyable.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
We went to the Dollar Theater last week and finally saw the latest Narnian installment. I basically have to agree with what folks are saying about it. The tacked on plot is tacky, Eustace is very well played - and then spends fully half the movie as a dragon, so we don't get to see him, and the philosophy seems to have gotten randomly redefined and redistributed. Overall, fairly mediocre as movies go. I wasn't particularly offended by any of it, but nor was I terribly impressed. Except. The Dawn Treader itself was awesome. The ship was gorgeous. And I quite liked the guy playing Drinian. But I think Caspian was a different actor, and I sort of missed his vaguely arab flavor from the last movie. And there was a worrying implication that people just straight up liked Eustace better as a dragon, by reason of his dragonness. :/ But I'm glad I saw it, and particularly glad I saw it at the Dollar Theater. We're also planning on seeing Harry Potter there (maybe next Tuesday) because we've come this far in the series, and may as well see it through.
Brother Cadfael:
I've been picking up Brother Cadfael books at used bookstores for a while now, mainly because I quite like their stained glass covers, and I finally got around to reading the first one. They are medieval monastic murder mysteries (really, what's not to love) and I've found them quite enjoyable thus far. The author is Ellis Peters and the subject matter is overwhelmingly Welsh, which is delightful to me at least. And they don't take long.
I was delighted to learn that there is also a TV adaptation, starring Derek Jacobi. Because I rather adore Derek Jacobi (I wish he'd had a bit more time on Doctor Who). And he's sort of perfect for the part. More on this when I've seen it!
I did a count, and realized that I have read just over a quarter of the books I own (268 out of 1288). This is disgraceful and something I mean to remedy in the days to come.
Valentine's Day:
Ballet Met's Valentine's Day show was Cinderella. This was apparently not the traditional setting but a homebrew put together by the director, heavy with elements of the English puppet shows he grew up with. It was good fun, although the seats we had were terrible. It was a co-production with their associated school, so there were a lot of student/pre-professional dancers. One of the coolest things were the clock parts (portrayed by young dancers) - it was the most steam punk thing I've ever seen in a ballet. Seriously, one of the girls was wearing a giant gear as a tutu. It was awesome.
For our anniversary we were unable to get reservations at our customary fondue place (that and their prices for Valentine's Day weekend were about double) so we went to Banana Leaf instead. Good call. But for Friday night I took Joel-Henry out on a Date. We ate at a tiny little italian place called Basi Italia down in Victorian Village and then went to see Le Nozze di Figaro.
The food was quite good and appropriately fancy. And the dessert was this sliced chocolate fudge-like thing with biscotti in it that was phenomenal. And I managed not to break my ankles by wearing Horrible Heels on the ice. The opera was a lot of fun. I'd forgotten just how funny Figaro (we'd seen it before at Santa Cruz). One of these days we'll have to see The Barber of Seville. It was made funnier than it should be by the fact that Figaro looked uncomfortably like Jason Momoa (the Big Guy on Stargate: Atlantis). But it was good fun.
For Valentine's Day itself Joel-Henry surprised me with dinner. In courses. First there was artichoke-asparagus soup, which is to die for. And then he made salmon in a lemon picatta sauce additionally flavored with rose (this, apart from the rose, was the main course at our wedding). I don't have words for how good it was. But it was the. best. salmon I have ever eaten in my life. And then he brought out the pots-du-creme. These are sort of like a creme brulee without the brulee, smoothe and perfect and faintly coffee flavored. Except he'd melted a few Dove dark chocolates into these particular ones, and they were heavenly. Marrying a man who can cook definitely has its advantages.
Early Music
Early Music Columbus has also been in full swing. A couple of weeks ago the Orlando Consort presented love songs from the Italian Renaissance. This included some extremely dirty pieces in French (where, crucially, they refrained from translating the word con) and was overall quite good fun. It was an all male vocal quartet, without instrument accompaniment, and we went with Rachel and Jon (who I hope were not overly traumatized). The countertenor in particular was very striking. I was particularly delighted to find that the first piece was Rose Liz (or, rather, Rose, Liz) which I happened to know from the CD Jazzantiqua - medieval music that transitions into soft jazz as each song progresses.
More exciting is the upcoming concert entitled "Spanish Splendor" - because Early Music in the Spanish tradition is something you get to hear so rarely. One of these days I'm going to actually buy one of the CDs... But what I really want is one from one of their Twelfth Night concerts, what with my general giddiness for Christmas music, particularly in early English. (We missed said concert this year due to household disaster, but the year before we went with Michelle and it was phenomenal.)
I've actually been playing some Early Music myself recently. Rachel and I have begun meeting every week to play duets on recorder and fiddle out of a History of Music book she has. We're both horribly out of practice, and most of the pieces aren't particularly suited to just two parts (or, for that matter, to our respective ranges) but it's really a blast - and an excuse to have more music in both of our lives.
In other musical news, this weekend is the Ohio Sacred Harp convention down in Cincinatti. Joel-Henry and I will probably not be staying for both days, because we've got church obligations the next day, but it should be good fun. It's also a particularly significant convention because a) next year's will be held in Columbus, so our group is kind of on the spot, and b) it's time for a new edition of the Shape Note book. They come out every 20 years or so, and the last was 1991, so it's due. The reason this makes the convention important is that in compiling the new book, special attention is paid to the songs that are called at convention, so it's sort of the last chance to ensure that your favorite piece doesn't get cut. I'm not exceptionally worried about that, personally, but I am excited to maybe get a new Judy Hauff piece in. And, of course, I shall have to leave a letterbox somewhere around to commemorate. I'm also particularly glad that the convention this year is falling before Ash Wednesday (just!), because it means I'll be able to sing the Easter Anthem guilt free, and not have to tacit all the Alleluias.
Doctor Who:
The sad news in the world of Doctor Who is the passing of Nicholas Courtney last week (ie: the Brigadier). All told, he ended up with more screen time than any of the last three Doctors of the Original Series, and worked alongside 10 of the 12 actors to play the role. Not counting the Valeyard. Truly, the end of an era.
On a lighter note, this is the description Netflix gives of the E-space Trilogy:
The Tardis delivers Doctor Who (Tom Baker, in his final season as the iconic character), Romana (Lalla Ward) and K9 (John Leeson) to an alternate universe called E-Space. There they encounter vampires, spiders, Marshmen and the dangerous Alzarian Adric (Matthew Waterhouse).
Yeah. The description of Adric as "the dangerous Alzarian" had me laughing till I cried. Somebody messed up somewhere, clearly. Although this isn't as bad as referring to "President Sheridan" in the blurb for Season 1 of Babylon 5. Goodness.
We also just finished up "The Leisure Hive" and I found it much more watchable than I remembered. Plus Joel-Henry's description of the Argolin death process as "Oh No! They're losing their brussle sprouts!" was just adorkable. Now I'm having trouble staying awake during Meglos, but that might be unrelated.
Farscape:
The other thing we've been watching is Farscape, which I'm honestly enjoying a lot more than I expected to. It runs off of muppets and Bizarre Alien Biology more than story design or character development, but is a ton of fun despite that. Part of it is I keep expecting Ben Browder to be Cam Mitchell from Stargate, and am always pleasently surprised by how much less irritating he is as Crichton. But most of it is just that the creatures and concepts are really cool. I can't get enough of the muppets, or of the whole spaceships giving birth thing. (I also really like the title music). Oh, and all of the characters are evil - except the evil one (and maybe the hero, but he's been seeming a bit more evil in the second season). The only difinitively non-evil character is the Pilot, who is also a muppet, and therefore awesome. (Yes, I'm still deeply disturbed by the episode with Pilot's arm. Even if he's not.)
Plus, after five seasons of thinly disguised Canadian accents on Atlantis, all the thinly disguised Australian accents are quite enjoyable.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
We went to the Dollar Theater last week and finally saw the latest Narnian installment. I basically have to agree with what folks are saying about it. The tacked on plot is tacky, Eustace is very well played - and then spends fully half the movie as a dragon, so we don't get to see him, and the philosophy seems to have gotten randomly redefined and redistributed. Overall, fairly mediocre as movies go. I wasn't particularly offended by any of it, but nor was I terribly impressed. Except. The Dawn Treader itself was awesome. The ship was gorgeous. And I quite liked the guy playing Drinian. But I think Caspian was a different actor, and I sort of missed his vaguely arab flavor from the last movie. And there was a worrying implication that people just straight up liked Eustace better as a dragon, by reason of his dragonness. :/ But I'm glad I saw it, and particularly glad I saw it at the Dollar Theater. We're also planning on seeing Harry Potter there (maybe next Tuesday) because we've come this far in the series, and may as well see it through.
Brother Cadfael:
I've been picking up Brother Cadfael books at used bookstores for a while now, mainly because I quite like their stained glass covers, and I finally got around to reading the first one. They are medieval monastic murder mysteries (really, what's not to love) and I've found them quite enjoyable thus far. The author is Ellis Peters and the subject matter is overwhelmingly Welsh, which is delightful to me at least. And they don't take long.
I was delighted to learn that there is also a TV adaptation, starring Derek Jacobi. Because I rather adore Derek Jacobi (I wish he'd had a bit more time on Doctor Who). And he's sort of perfect for the part. More on this when I've seen it!
I did a count, and realized that I have read just over a quarter of the books I own (268 out of 1288). This is disgraceful and something I mean to remedy in the days to come.