his movements are inexplicably erratic
Having just seen Wolverine, I must say that I am STILL waiting to see
MUSICAL. THEATRE. GOD.
It gets me EVERY FREAKING TIME. :D
In other news! Last night I made a white sauce ALL ON MY OWN! It was DELICIOUS! I was so very proud of myself that I called up Sister and crowed my triumph for an hour. How I miss her. *sigh* At least I have found her a new calling as a 'writer' for fashion-based reality television! Who needs a Philosophy PhD when you've got models in need of a storyline?
I suppose now is as good a time as any to give a rundown on my New York adventures of last week, so let's
Basically, cisic and I set out by bus Thursday morning. I did my best to start my Digital Humanities final essay along the way, but found that a careening double-decker bus is NO PLACE for essay writing. We arrived in central Manhattan by the early afternoon and met up with Renee, our hostess for the weekend. We snagged her keys and made our way out to Astoria in the POURING RAIN OMG. We and all our possessions were completely soaked and when we finally made it to the apartment, an inner door was locked and we weren't able to go inside. WOE. DOOM. We collapsed in the tiny inner foyer and rallied our spirits. Luckily, we were able to leave our bags there and the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we were ready to head out to Brooklyn, BAM, and BOYS IN SKIRTS! Such was our rallying cry- we made it and had LOVELY dinner at a place called Rice and then got to see Propeller's Merchant of Venice. It was... interesting. I'm not the biggest fan of concept Shakespeare and they'd set the damn play in a prison. BUT! Every decision had a lot of interesting thought behind it and it was a production FULL of thought-provoking choices. There was a talkback with some of the cast afterwards and I rallied my courage and asked a question- one of only four they had time for, actually. I asked about how, given that they were on an international tour and given that every audience is different every night, they might be able to see that different moments held different resonances, or if scenes were just playing differently in different locations. As I recall, the answer was that yes, they had noticed some differences. They'd just played in Rome and seen that the audiences perhaps had to be coaxed into the seriousness of some of the play- they were ready to take some of the violence as humorous, which took the company by surprise. They were interested to see what would happen when they took it to Germany- Chris Myles said that he'd played it there years before and 'you could hear a pin drop in that audience.'
Anyway, the boys were lovely and we learned interesting things about the production (particularly the music choices), but we were POOPED, particularly when it took us well over an hour to make it home over the subway. We collapsed almost as soon as we hit the apartment and got our things inside.
Friday began with Charlene and I visiting the most AMAZING BAGEL SHOP IN ALL THE LAND before setting out for Lincoln Center, bookstores, and Star Trek. All were had, all were happily enjoyed. We also made our way to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre to try our luck at the lottery for $25 tickets. WHICH I TOTALLY WON. Even though I never win lotteries! I imagine that my blue hair so dazzled the man in charge of the lottery that the outcome was ASSURED. By this time, I also had acquired two friends from Haverford- Jessica and Hilary, neither of which I'd seen in YEARS. It was absurdly good to see them again and roll around in their presence. :) We ended up going out to dinner at a place called Room Service when, along the way, we WALKED PAST AUDRA MCDONALD, HELLO AUDRA!!!! Charlene and Jess were chatting along in front of Hilary and I when she passed us going the opposite way on the sidewalk. I CLUTCHED at Hilary, who was likewise CLUTCHING at me, and we gibbered at each other for a moment before THWACKING C and J for their lack of observational skills. AMAZING.
Food was good, then it was time for HAIR. Our seats were STUPIDLY awesome:
See the floating left boxes? The first two seats were C and I- the balcony narrows and curves down to those 'boxes', which are right at the stage by the front two seats. This meant that right at our laps was a ledge with a ladder right down to the stage. This meant that actors were CONSTANTLY running past us, going to and from the stage or just dancing on the platform. Although Charlene got most of it, we were both essentially groped by half the cast. As for the show itself... well, it's HAIR, isn't it? The second act was a MESS as far as, you know, ACTUAL DRAMATIC ACTION AND COHERENT NARRATIVES were concerned, but the ensemble was AMAZING. They achieved an amazing sense of intimacy and unity and SPONTANEITY, which was awesome to watch. Best of all though, as per tradition, the audience gets the chance to join the cast onstage during the extended curtain call. Obviously, C and I RACED down the stairs (I nearly fell at least three times) and ran up on to the stage for the bacchanalian action. We danced (the stage is covered in carpets so it was DELICIOUS underfoot) and sang along with 'Let the Sunshine In' and I hugged MANY sweaty cast members and shared lots of OMG THIS IS AMAZING! looks with fellow audience members who were also having the time of their lives.
After that, we went to visit one of C's friends at her apartment- by this time, however, I was well on my way to turning into a pumpkin and can't really tell too much of the rest of the night. The friend was a sweetheart and her apartment was lovely and I was EXHAUSTED. We went home by 1:15 or so and made it back to Renee's place by a little after 2 AM.
PUMPKIN.
SO! The next morning was Saturday, which was my day of SPN fangirl awesomeness. I met up with memphis86, regala_electra, and elrina753 for brunch at Igloo- in an hilarious turn of events, Renee lived FIFTEEN MINUTES WALK AWAY from the Flat of SPN Fangirl Awesomeness. After brunch, we met up with ignited and I FINALLY got to watch that week's episode of SPN (and, you know, HAVE MY HEART TRAMPLED UPON HOMG SHOW). The rest of the afternoon was a much needed spate of relaxation and Wii. MUCH NEEDED. I think I probably just sat on the couch like a lump, but I was pretty well pooped from all of the events of the last few days. I eventually bid them all farewell and toddled my way out the door, onto the subway and made it to Brooklyn ALL ON MY OWN! I met up with cisic once more and had lovely food AGAIN (SO MUCH GOOD FOOD THIS WEEKEND) and then saw Merchant one last time, as C and I, goobers that we were/are, took FRANTIC notes throughout the entire production as Renee laughed at us.
After the show, we drove home, had wine and cheese with Renee and (sensing the pattern?) COLLAPSED. AGAIN.
Sunday we got up, had more BAGELS OF BLISS, and bussed ourselves back to DC. I spent the bus ride catching up on my email and flist (Bob bless buses with wireless) and NOT writing my essay, but then worked like a Hard Working Thing when I finally made it back to my own apartment. I nearly wept with relief when I slept once more in my own lovely bed.
AND THUS WAS THE WEEKEND SPENT! There were friends and food and sweaty hippies and lots and lots of Shakespeare and a startling LACK of boys in skirts (the costume design had NO SKIRTS for the women- I was SCANDALIZED). It was lovely and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. :)
Click to viewMUSICAL. THEATRE. GOD.
It gets me EVERY FREAKING TIME. :D
In other news! Last night I made a white sauce ALL ON MY OWN! It was DELICIOUS! I was so very proud of myself that I called up Sister and crowed my triumph for an hour. How I miss her. *sigh* At least I have found her a new calling as a 'writer' for fashion-based reality television! Who needs a Philosophy PhD when you've got models in need of a storyline?
I suppose now is as good a time as any to give a rundown on my New York adventures of last week, so let's
Basically, cisic and I set out by bus Thursday morning. I did my best to start my Digital Humanities final essay along the way, but found that a careening double-decker bus is NO PLACE for essay writing. We arrived in central Manhattan by the early afternoon and met up with Renee, our hostess for the weekend. We snagged her keys and made our way out to Astoria in the POURING RAIN OMG. We and all our possessions were completely soaked and when we finally made it to the apartment, an inner door was locked and we weren't able to go inside. WOE. DOOM. We collapsed in the tiny inner foyer and rallied our spirits. Luckily, we were able to leave our bags there and the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we were ready to head out to Brooklyn, BAM, and BOYS IN SKIRTS! Such was our rallying cry- we made it and had LOVELY dinner at a place called Rice and then got to see Propeller's Merchant of Venice. It was... interesting. I'm not the biggest fan of concept Shakespeare and they'd set the damn play in a prison. BUT! Every decision had a lot of interesting thought behind it and it was a production FULL of thought-provoking choices. There was a talkback with some of the cast afterwards and I rallied my courage and asked a question- one of only four they had time for, actually. I asked about how, given that they were on an international tour and given that every audience is different every night, they might be able to see that different moments held different resonances, or if scenes were just playing differently in different locations. As I recall, the answer was that yes, they had noticed some differences. They'd just played in Rome and seen that the audiences perhaps had to be coaxed into the seriousness of some of the play- they were ready to take some of the violence as humorous, which took the company by surprise. They were interested to see what would happen when they took it to Germany- Chris Myles said that he'd played it there years before and 'you could hear a pin drop in that audience.'
Anyway, the boys were lovely and we learned interesting things about the production (particularly the music choices), but we were POOPED, particularly when it took us well over an hour to make it home over the subway. We collapsed almost as soon as we hit the apartment and got our things inside.
Friday began with Charlene and I visiting the most AMAZING BAGEL SHOP IN ALL THE LAND before setting out for Lincoln Center, bookstores, and Star Trek. All were had, all were happily enjoyed. We also made our way to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre to try our luck at the lottery for $25 tickets. WHICH I TOTALLY WON. Even though I never win lotteries! I imagine that my blue hair so dazzled the man in charge of the lottery that the outcome was ASSURED. By this time, I also had acquired two friends from Haverford- Jessica and Hilary, neither of which I'd seen in YEARS. It was absurdly good to see them again and roll around in their presence. :) We ended up going out to dinner at a place called Room Service when, along the way, we WALKED PAST AUDRA MCDONALD, HELLO AUDRA!!!! Charlene and Jess were chatting along in front of Hilary and I when she passed us going the opposite way on the sidewalk. I CLUTCHED at Hilary, who was likewise CLUTCHING at me, and we gibbered at each other for a moment before THWACKING C and J for their lack of observational skills. AMAZING.
Food was good, then it was time for HAIR. Our seats were STUPIDLY awesome:
See the floating left boxes? The first two seats were C and I- the balcony narrows and curves down to those 'boxes', which are right at the stage by the front two seats. This meant that right at our laps was a ledge with a ladder right down to the stage. This meant that actors were CONSTANTLY running past us, going to and from the stage or just dancing on the platform. Although Charlene got most of it, we were both essentially groped by half the cast. As for the show itself... well, it's HAIR, isn't it? The second act was a MESS as far as, you know, ACTUAL DRAMATIC ACTION AND COHERENT NARRATIVES were concerned, but the ensemble was AMAZING. They achieved an amazing sense of intimacy and unity and SPONTANEITY, which was awesome to watch. Best of all though, as per tradition, the audience gets the chance to join the cast onstage during the extended curtain call. Obviously, C and I RACED down the stairs (I nearly fell at least three times) and ran up on to the stage for the bacchanalian action. We danced (the stage is covered in carpets so it was DELICIOUS underfoot) and sang along with 'Let the Sunshine In' and I hugged MANY sweaty cast members and shared lots of OMG THIS IS AMAZING! looks with fellow audience members who were also having the time of their lives.
After that, we went to visit one of C's friends at her apartment- by this time, however, I was well on my way to turning into a pumpkin and can't really tell too much of the rest of the night. The friend was a sweetheart and her apartment was lovely and I was EXHAUSTED. We went home by 1:15 or so and made it back to Renee's place by a little after 2 AM.
PUMPKIN.
SO! The next morning was Saturday, which was my day of SPN fangirl awesomeness. I met up with memphis86, regala_electra, and elrina753 for brunch at Igloo- in an hilarious turn of events, Renee lived FIFTEEN MINUTES WALK AWAY from the Flat of SPN Fangirl Awesomeness. After brunch, we met up with ignited and I FINALLY got to watch that week's episode of SPN (and, you know, HAVE MY HEART TRAMPLED UPON HOMG SHOW). The rest of the afternoon was a much needed spate of relaxation and Wii. MUCH NEEDED. I think I probably just sat on the couch like a lump, but I was pretty well pooped from all of the events of the last few days. I eventually bid them all farewell and toddled my way out the door, onto the subway and made it to Brooklyn ALL ON MY OWN! I met up with cisic once more and had lovely food AGAIN (SO MUCH GOOD FOOD THIS WEEKEND) and then saw Merchant one last time, as C and I, goobers that we were/are, took FRANTIC notes throughout the entire production as Renee laughed at us.
After the show, we drove home, had wine and cheese with Renee and (sensing the pattern?) COLLAPSED. AGAIN.
Sunday we got up, had more BAGELS OF BLISS, and bussed ourselves back to DC. I spent the bus ride catching up on my email and flist (Bob bless buses with wireless) and NOT writing my essay, but then worked like a Hard Working Thing when I finally made it back to my own apartment. I nearly wept with relief when I slept once more in my own lovely bed.
AND THUS WAS THE WEEKEND SPENT! There were friends and food and sweaty hippies and lots and lots of Shakespeare and a startling LACK of boys in skirts (the costume design had NO SKIRTS for the women- I was SCANDALIZED). It was lovely and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. :)