Busy busy bee
Jun. 25th, 2006 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fredericksThe 'rents are back from Vegas and life is returning to normal, as in mom did the cooking this evening. I enjoy working over a pot but trying to keep three growing boys fed is damned tiresome. I got feedback on the trip from my mom and grandmom and word is dad was a prick, per usual. Mom came in my room and vented about dad, my aunt, and grandma. Grandma called up and amused the hell out of me by sharing her awe over my dad being a bit of a shit. I'm still laughing about her tone while on the phone. Slightly bitter laughter, as in "now she knows what we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis", of course. The man is incorrigible, be it due to brain damage or just being born an ass. Grandma also invited me over "to talk", code for "I won a jackpot or two and I want to give you some money". Always fun.
The week was busy for me, as I went to shows/performances Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: The Four Seasons, Threepenny Opera, and The Color Purple. Wednesday was the Solstice performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons by The Orchestra of St. Lukes. Four Seasons is a piece that benefits from seeing/hearing it live with a good orchestra, IMO. When I'm listening to it on CD I generally skip over Autumn because I find it tedious and boring. The concert changed my mind. The sonnets that accompany the movements were read beforehand, with the musical motifs that correspond played by the soloist. Just wonderful wonderful stuff.
Thursday was Threepenny Opera. Hmm. It was interesting. I went in expecting a coherent storyline and didn't really find one. Just lots of sex, profanity, and a touch of stunt casting. Carlos Leon? seriously, the man needs to stop trying to act and donate some more sperm to another desperate pop star. He said little but all he said was *horrendously delivered*. You really shouldn't have a rank amateur exchange lines with Jim Dale and expect people to not pick up on the fact that he *sucks nuts* (and not in the life-affirming way, either). Cyndi Lauper did little on stage. She had an "aria" and lip-locked with Alan Cumming but I was surprised by how weak her voice was on-stage, not weak as projection but weak as in her range came across as rather limited (I dispute her bio's assertion that she has a four octave range; maybe back when she wasn't pushing 50 but definitely not now). Her acting eclipsed her vocal chops...maybe she was having a bad voice day? Alan Cumming, who played Macheath, was great with the performing but again I was disappointed with the singing.
The two standouts in the cast for me were Nellie McKay and Brian Charles Rooney, who respectively played Polly and Lucy. I think the fact that McKay's character was blonde and dressed in bridal white so she stood in contrast to her dark-colored cast mates helped her cause, but her voice had a ringing quality that was quite charming. She affected an accent that couldn't be placed and I hope to God wasn't an attempt at something British, but I found it endearing after a while. Rooney's Lucy, though, was BY FAR the highlight of the show. The character was comic and given all the best lines IMO, so that helped, but Rooney's countertenor was awesome. Not a hint of strain in his projection. And "Lucy's Aria" had the entire audience laughing uproariously: it went from German with English subtitles to English with German subtitles (!) to just utter hilarious nonsense. I seriously contemplated seeing the entire show again just because of Rooney's performance, it made the second act. I found the first act to be more than a little tedious.
I'm not terribly familiar with the Threepenny tradition - I knew enough to not expect, say, Rossini or Handel - but the entire show reminded me of the "commoner" opera performance shown in "Amadeus", down to the dick flashing (Rooney shaved *everywhere* for his performance; talk about dedicated), the half-naked male (representing Hermes?) riding in on a cheesy sky-born horse to herald the deus ex machina, and the "poor man trumping the rich man" ending. I've been too lazy to check and see exactly what opera was being performed in the movie though. I'll get around to it eventually. So...it was an experience. Different for me, as I'm more likely to enjoy more traditional works. But not a wasted time.
Friday Jo asked me to check out The Color Purple with her. It wasn't a show I was exactly clamoring to see but I figured what the hell? and went along. We snagged cheapo tickets for the first row in the morning, then came back for the 8:00PM show. I enjoyed the singing - quite soulful, and this is coming from a woman who grew up Catholic and currently makes appearances in the Episcopalian church, as close to Catholic in tradition and music as you can get - but the actual play left something to be desired. The second act seemed tacked-on, with songs that did little to advance the plot, and the ending was a big "everything's wrapped up happily with a bow", annoying me to no end. I was pleased to see the sapphic elements weren't cut out. I wasn't pleased to see all the main characters were played by understudies. No slight to understudies at all, but it irks me when shows come off Tony season and the performers all of a sudden disappear. Wouldn't you think people buy tickets to SEE the performers that win Tonys? Why screw 'em over by letting everyone go on holiday at the same bloody time? Jebus.
That was more or less the end of my week. Oh, there was this rather funny thing in clinical on Thursday I should share. I'm grinning just thinking about it. I was in the ER working with this wonderful nurse named Ryan, and we went to check on a Caucasian gentleman who'd just had his knee scoped and was coming down off of an anesthetic combo of opiate and barbiturate. I don't know if that excuses the words that came out of his mouth, but I definitely kept it in mind. I went over and said hi to him and he asked me my name. I told him and he seemed fascinated by it (*ahem*). Then he went and said "you know, my friend has a black girlfriend". I wanted to fall on the floor and laugh my ass off. Instead I smiled and said "really? is that so?" Look at my tact, peoples. Oh, but my new friend was not done with the bon mots. He continued "the other day I took my sister to Harlem and she was afraid, but I told her there was nothing to be worried about". My smile widened and I tried not to cackle right then and there. I patted him on the arm, made sure he was comfortable, then went back to the nurses station to inform Ryan that the fellow in Bed 2 had a friend with a black girlfriend. I thought it appropriate that everyone else know.
I found my camera USB cable (*finally*!), so I'll be sticking Vegas pictures up here sooner or later. I'm sure everyone's on the edge of their collective seats.
The week was busy for me, as I went to shows/performances Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: The Four Seasons, Threepenny Opera, and The Color Purple. Wednesday was the Solstice performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons by The Orchestra of St. Lukes. Four Seasons is a piece that benefits from seeing/hearing it live with a good orchestra, IMO. When I'm listening to it on CD I generally skip over Autumn because I find it tedious and boring. The concert changed my mind. The sonnets that accompany the movements were read beforehand, with the musical motifs that correspond played by the soloist. Just wonderful wonderful stuff.
Thursday was Threepenny Opera. Hmm. It was interesting. I went in expecting a coherent storyline and didn't really find one. Just lots of sex, profanity, and a touch of stunt casting. Carlos Leon? seriously, the man needs to stop trying to act and donate some more sperm to another desperate pop star. He said little but all he said was *horrendously delivered*. You really shouldn't have a rank amateur exchange lines with Jim Dale and expect people to not pick up on the fact that he *sucks nuts* (and not in the life-affirming way, either). Cyndi Lauper did little on stage. She had an "aria" and lip-locked with Alan Cumming but I was surprised by how weak her voice was on-stage, not weak as projection but weak as in her range came across as rather limited (I dispute her bio's assertion that she has a four octave range; maybe back when she wasn't pushing 50 but definitely not now). Her acting eclipsed her vocal chops...maybe she was having a bad voice day? Alan Cumming, who played Macheath, was great with the performing but again I was disappointed with the singing.
The two standouts in the cast for me were Nellie McKay and Brian Charles Rooney, who respectively played Polly and Lucy. I think the fact that McKay's character was blonde and dressed in bridal white so she stood in contrast to her dark-colored cast mates helped her cause, but her voice had a ringing quality that was quite charming. She affected an accent that couldn't be placed and I hope to God wasn't an attempt at something British, but I found it endearing after a while. Rooney's Lucy, though, was BY FAR the highlight of the show. The character was comic and given all the best lines IMO, so that helped, but Rooney's countertenor was awesome. Not a hint of strain in his projection. And "Lucy's Aria" had the entire audience laughing uproariously: it went from German with English subtitles to English with German subtitles (!) to just utter hilarious nonsense. I seriously contemplated seeing the entire show again just because of Rooney's performance, it made the second act. I found the first act to be more than a little tedious.
I'm not terribly familiar with the Threepenny tradition - I knew enough to not expect, say, Rossini or Handel - but the entire show reminded me of the "commoner" opera performance shown in "Amadeus", down to the dick flashing (Rooney shaved *everywhere* for his performance; talk about dedicated), the half-naked male (representing Hermes?) riding in on a cheesy sky-born horse to herald the deus ex machina, and the "poor man trumping the rich man" ending. I've been too lazy to check and see exactly what opera was being performed in the movie though. I'll get around to it eventually. So...it was an experience. Different for me, as I'm more likely to enjoy more traditional works. But not a wasted time.
Friday Jo asked me to check out The Color Purple with her. It wasn't a show I was exactly clamoring to see but I figured what the hell? and went along. We snagged cheapo tickets for the first row in the morning, then came back for the 8:00PM show. I enjoyed the singing - quite soulful, and this is coming from a woman who grew up Catholic and currently makes appearances in the Episcopalian church, as close to Catholic in tradition and music as you can get - but the actual play left something to be desired. The second act seemed tacked-on, with songs that did little to advance the plot, and the ending was a big "everything's wrapped up happily with a bow", annoying me to no end. I was pleased to see the sapphic elements weren't cut out. I wasn't pleased to see all the main characters were played by understudies. No slight to understudies at all, but it irks me when shows come off Tony season and the performers all of a sudden disappear. Wouldn't you think people buy tickets to SEE the performers that win Tonys? Why screw 'em over by letting everyone go on holiday at the same bloody time? Jebus.
That was more or less the end of my week. Oh, there was this rather funny thing in clinical on Thursday I should share. I'm grinning just thinking about it. I was in the ER working with this wonderful nurse named Ryan, and we went to check on a Caucasian gentleman who'd just had his knee scoped and was coming down off of an anesthetic combo of opiate and barbiturate. I don't know if that excuses the words that came out of his mouth, but I definitely kept it in mind. I went over and said hi to him and he asked me my name. I told him and he seemed fascinated by it (*ahem*). Then he went and said "you know, my friend has a black girlfriend". I wanted to fall on the floor and laugh my ass off. Instead I smiled and said "really? is that so?" Look at my tact, peoples. Oh, but my new friend was not done with the bon mots. He continued "the other day I took my sister to Harlem and she was afraid, but I told her there was nothing to be worried about". My smile widened and I tried not to cackle right then and there. I patted him on the arm, made sure he was comfortable, then went back to the nurses station to inform Ryan that the fellow in Bed 2 had a friend with a black girlfriend. I thought it appropriate that everyone else know.
I found my camera USB cable (*finally*!), so I'll be sticking Vegas pictures up here sooner or later. I'm sure everyone's on the edge of their collective seats.
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Date: 2006-06-26 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 03:38 am (UTC)