crazy busy = no time to blog = silly

wow, wow, wow. practically all of november has passed me by... well not really, but it's passed the blog by. poor blog. but let me do some appeasing.

m and I went to see Tom Stoppard's play, Rock 'n' Roll at the BU Theatre a couple of weeks ago. It takes place in Cambridge, England, and pre-Velvet Revolution Prague (and, to be fair, a little post-velvet, too) following a Stoppard-ish character who is definitely more into his records, than the politics around him. Anyway, once again, the women in the cast blew me away.

Last night, m and I went to see our friend's documentary, journeying to Taiwan. She and her coworker produced, edited, and starred in the film -- a pretty big feat! We were totally impressed, not only by the amount of work they did, but the end product. I'm set to go to Taiwan... ride the train, little some candles, and eat spicy shrimp.

Headed to hang out with the folks for Thanksgiving, so if I don't write again today (entirely possible) have a great turkey day!

communist dracula pageant

communists, vlad the impaler, and bears, oh my! Perfectly fitting for Halloween, The Communist Dracula Pageant, written by Anne Washburn and directed by Anne Kauffman, is an eastern bloc circus, drawing parallels between the notorious Romanian regime of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, and frickin' Vlad the Impaler, another vicious Romanian, otherwise known as Dracula. although hundreds of years apart, both seemed to suck the life out of the Romanian people. go figure.

my absolute favorite was Karen MacDonald, who played the fake-scientist know-it-all Elena Ceausescu perfectly (not that I knew Elena), especially her post-dead monologue, complete with bullet holes.

The disillusioned dictators were perfect characters in their own reality, and the Communist Dracula Pageant makes their reality better than fiction.

needless to say, m and I enjoyed it, and the A.R.T. venue (a place we've wanted to go to for awhile.). good thing i won those tickets.

a night down christopher street. nyc.

Piper Perabo in Reasons to be Pretty. Photo by Joan Marcus

Thursday, May 22. While our friends rounded out their ultra-list of new york [read: statue of liberty, ellis island, ground zero, little italy, AND the empire state building. yes.], m and i made a beeline for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More than 20 years after the rest of us, M has discovered the delights of children's literature, and she had to know if the Met was as fabulous and free as described in "The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler."

After a cozy little lunch with our friend, Jess, across from Bryant Park it was off to the International Center of Photography to see some... photography... and then to sweet shop Serendipity. oh the dreams i've had since of that apple pie...

Anyway! The adventure continues, since M wanted to walk from our chelsea hotel down to christopher street. we almost walked past the Lucille Lortel Theatre, until Piper Perabo's name jumped out at us (Did I mention that Imagine Me and You is our ultimate feel-good flick? some girls like Fight Club. We're more of a happy ending type family).

Pablo Schreiber threatens Thomas Sadoski, right before Sadoski kicks his ass.

We checked out the box office, and scored front row seats to Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute. Other than the disappointment in a lack of nudity (the poster threw me off), the play was great, offset by performances by Pablo Schreiber (Kent), and Alison Pill (Steph). But wow, Thomas Sadoski (Greg), was amazing. His interactions with girlfriend, then ex-girlfriend, Steph were painfully realistic and full of humor.

Afterwards, we saw the cast on the street (fighting the temptation to say hi.) then grabbed some sweet potato fries at Cowgirl. We were sleepy and happy and heading back when fake snow and lights caught our attention on Bleecker Street. Yes, that's Catherine Zeta-Jones across the street, doing several takes for her movie, The Rebound and while I have nothing else other than the fact that she gave a wave from the makeup chair, and that she's tiny (breaking news!), it was cool to see the filming. (fake snow! christmas wreaths and lights! wonder when this one's coming out....)

see through

::Surrounded by Water at BUAG ::

down down down to the tips of my toes you'll find... paint! frickin' everywhere. it has slithered like some slithy tove under my fingernails, on my elbows and atop me head. marie believes my hair looks quite nice the color of "spa." I can't wait until we turn on venture violet, or jardin. someday, i'll be a paint namer... much the same training as crayola crayon color namer. anyway, we're attacking the spackled past recognition walls (?) and ceilings in our new apartment. we decided this was the best thing to do after a long luscious weekend in providence with friends.

it's decidedly domestic, considering the rest of the time was spent viewing burlesque, persepolis, a play on sally mann, and a sex workers art show. love it.

snow globe

it's back to winter, as the groundhog says (although... i'm not sure how the little bugger would not see his shadow with all those frickin' camera lights around. just sayin'... i'd crawl back in my hole too...). other happenings this week...we voted in the primary (no lines! god bless this state), the lunar new year is upon us, (and has brought one of the worst signs for my poor little doggie sign -- the rat. i'm supposed to hunker down and not spend any money. ha! it probably also means that i'll want to spend more money... like a craving... for a couch... or cute rainboots... of course.)

parentheses aside, we're going to see an awesome play this weekend... angels in america. and before you go saying, whoa, that's long, hold your horses -- they split it into two parts so we not only get to go see a play saturday, we get to go back sunday! downside is, meryl streep and mary louise parker probably won't be there. *sigh*