Tag Archives: theater

The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

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Or, possibly the worst play I’ve ever seen.

The Husband and I went up to the city last night to see the last play of ACT‘s season. This is the theater’s description of the play:

A.C.T.’s new production of this landmark and controversial play brings the powerful voice of three-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Edward Albee back to the Geary stage for the first time in over 30 years. Martin is a middle-aged man at the pinnacle of a successful career. He has loving relationships with his brilliant wife, Stevie, and his teenage son, Billy. But suddenly Martin makes a shocking confession that changes everything. As he struggles to explain himself to his family, they all sink deeper into the awful realization that something truly terrible has happened to their beautiful world—something so far outside of “normal” that it just might destroy them. Clive Barnes of the New York Post deemed The Goat “unquestionably one of the wittiest and funniest plays Albee has ever written.” The original Broadway production won the Tony Award for best play in 2002, and was declared by the Village Voice “the play most likely to be talked about seriously—angrily, ferociously—for years to come.”

Sure, it was funny for the first bit… very black humor sort of stuff. But, by the end, it was taking itself way too seriously. I don’t know, maybe I missed something. But, I found the ending disturbing… who wouldn’t find it disturbing? It end with a woman covered in blood, a dead goat, and a man sobbing over said goat while his son and best friend watched. Yeah…

So, because of this jaunt to the city, I got no knitting done last night. I got home and fondled Birch a bit, but I had to convince myself not to actually work on it. I was tired… my eyes were tired… not a time to work on lace. We’re going out to dinner with one of the Husband’s co-workers tonight; I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do between getting home and going out. I think I will give it a go though… I’m in love with the soft fuzziness of the fabric the Kidsilk Haze is making.

The Night o’ Birthday Fun

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Yesterday, I turned 28. When I was 18, 28 seemed a long way off. Now that I’ve gotten here, looking back it seems that I am squinting to see back then, while it feels just around the corner at the same time. Maybe I just have a loopy sense of time.

The husband and I carpooled, making a stop for coffee. One of the coffee making people was also celebrating his birthday, so he gave me a birthday hat to wear (it came off before I got to work). I spent most of the day at work feeling distracted and listless; I would have preferred being somewhere else. The husband picked me up at 4:30 so we could rush home, drop off his computer, and pick up the theater tickets. Then, it was off to the city. (Yes, I know San Jose is now larger than SF in population, but I think SF will always be “the city” to those living in the South Bay.)

We got to Millennium just in time for our reservations. I had the Black Bean Torte (whole wheat tortilla, caramelized plantains, smoky black bean puree, rich pecan mole, cashew sour cream, carrot-onion escabeche) as an appetizer, and a very tasty artichoke and stinging nettle gratin as an entree. We got our half bottle of Pinot Noir for half off cause they have a special called “Wine Geek Tuesdays.” Unfortunately, there was no time for dessert because we had to drive down to Union Square to park, then get to the theater for a 7 pm curtain.

We saw The Voysey Inheritance at the ACT Theater. It was a very interesting play, but out of all the ones we’ve seen this season, not my favorite. I had my second Cappucino Sock with me, so I took it out at intermission. It drew the attention of a lady who informed me she had recently learned how to knit. I tried to keep knitting when the second half started up, but it was too dark and I had to put it away.

Because we had been unable to have dessert at the restaurant, the husband whipped up a batch of yummy caramelized peaches on ice cream — a very nice ending to the day.

Overall, my birthday didn’t go too badly… and I do have a nice shiny birthday present to myself sitting in our parking space. Tomorrow, I’m going to head to the DMV early to see it I can pass the written driving test(s). Once I get my permit I can start scooting to work.

Confusion reigns supreme

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It appears that the entry I thought Blogger had eaten wasn’t very tasty as it’s been returned… you can see it below… you can also see it was nothing spectacular.

It also appears that I am losing my mind at the young age of 27. Of course, I know people who would claim I never had one of my own to begin with… I am a blonde after all… for all I know my brain case is just full of hot air… which would explain some of the things that come out of my mouth.

Sadly, there will be no knitting tonight as the husband and I are heading into the city (that’s SF, for those of you either south or east of my location) to see Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at the American Conservatory Theater. The lace is too complicated to try and knit during the show. At least I got 4 more rows done last night, bringing the total to 60 rows completed… only about 84 more rows to go, which certainly sounds better than 144 rows to go or even 100 rows to go. Twelve more rows and I’m half way through the row count, if not the shawl. I need to ignore the fact that each row is going to take longer to knit as I go along.

I’m still thankful that the pattern is not a pain to knit, and it’s not boring either. The last lace shawl I did was getting tedious by the end because it was a 3 pattern row repeat. The Sister Shawl is a 4 pattern row repeat… but the way the repeating section is written it looks twice as long…. so my mentality has been “Which row is next?” rather than “Row 1, Row 3, Row 5… and back again.”