Appropriately enough, since I'm going to Russia later this summer, this seems to be The Year of Russian Culture in Vancouver. There was Eugene Onegin last week. This week brought a new opera based on Gogol's short story called The Overcoat. For those of you who don't know the premise, a poor bullied bureaucrat buys a new overcoat (with bonus money from his boss, for an idea that makes his fellow workers redundant, or, at least, deprives them of their raise). It transforms his life, until it is stolen, after which he descends into madness. Very Russian. And very operatic. I have seen it dramatized before, but it really works as an opera.
A personal connection: the wife of a colleague did the costumes, and a fine job she did too.
Jack and I agreed, I think, that to say we enjoyed it would be putting too fine a point on it - I, for one, don't "enjoy" modern music - but it worked dramatically, it was compelling, it was good theater, and I was glad I went.
And what could be more Russian than Chekov? The Cherry Orchard was on at Jericho Playhouse, and off I went, in spite of the fact that I purportedly loathe Chekov. (Chekov was the one who said, by the way (although not in this play) that if a gun is shown in the presented in the first Act, it must go off by the third.) Back to the Cherry Orchard. They did a fine job with it, I must say (although having recently seen the National Theater of London version in recent memory, it is hard to make do with a small local theater production), but it is still a play about silly people (the clueless aristocracy, the loyal servant, the wily peasant, the idealistic revolutionary), and I still don't care whether they get to Moscow (or, in this case, Paris). But it did meet my basic criteria for theater - I am still thinking about it.....
Saturday, I was set to go to the North Shore (North Vancouver, for those of you from away) for a matinee by the North Shore Light Opera Society. Since the traffic is so bad getting to the North Shore you basically have to pack a lunch to get there, and since it was Saturday, I decided to make a day of it. and have breakfast at the Lonsdale Quay before the performance.
As you can see, it was a glorious, sunny day, and I had a lovely morning, wandering the shops and food stalls.
The Centennial Theater was a new venue for me, and I quite liked it. And, of course, I love Sondheim. Any Sondheim, really, but Into The Woods is one of my favourites.
Although based on a mash-up of the Grimm's fairy tales, it is really quite dark - as those fairy tales were, at heart. Being a musical, there was a happy ending - sort of - but the moral of the story is "be careful what you wish for".
By the way, I saw the original on Broadway, with Mandy Potemkin and Bernadette Peters. This wasn't that production, trust me, but fun nonetheless. My only quibble was that the orchestra overshadowed the lyrics (and no, it wasn't just my hearing, there was twenty something sitting next to me, on the third row I should say, who couldn't make out the lyrics), and with Sondheim, the lyrics are everything. They should have put the orchestra behind the stage....
Hey, maybe that's what I should do for my next career - directing.....
Anyway, one of the highlights was the fact that there were lots of children in the audience. And yes, I quite remember that I loathe children. However, these were very well behaved, enthusiastic, and, most important, the future audience for the theater. I told every parent I could get hold of that I was impressed, not only with the children but with the parents for introducing the children to the theater at a young age.
Oh, and the quote of the production came from Prince Charming. When being chastised for his wandering eye, the Prince says "but I was raised to be charming, not sincere....."
I have to admit that I had pouted a bit (hopefully not visibly) when friend John went on and on (as he does, bless him) about the "do" he was hosting for Mother's day. Not that I give a fig about Mothers Day - or any other Hallmark holiday, for that matter - but it was the idea of not being invited....
But on Sunday morning (probably at the urging of his mother, but no matter) he called to invite me over, and even remembered to take my hamburger off the grill before it turned to charcoal...
Here are John and his mom, and sister Janet on the left...
.....and mom and dad.....
Also there were John's brother Peter, his girlfriend and her son. I have known them all for a long time, and it was a lovely, relaxed afternoon.
They hadn't seen the renos, though, and walked the few hundred yards to my place to do that. You haven't seen them either, I guess, so....
The bookcases are new, built in...
(Probably not the best idea in the world to have bookcases in your bedroom in earthquake country, but, hey, I can think of worse things in the world than being buried in books.....)
The wood floors are new.....
..and, of course, the rugs to cover them....
....and then, of course, there's the deck and the view from it.....
....not my front door, but a neighboring one that I like better.....
Monday brought my last full day of work for now - I am out of work for a while - but I managed to forestall wholesale panic by planning a full week of other things.
It started with dinner with colleagues (and friends) Deidre and Susan. Our first choice, The Dosa House, my neighborhood Indian restaurant (definitely NOT a white tablecloth type of place, but good food in a clean, family-run place - the kind I love taking people to) was closed on Monday. We settled on The Flamingo House, my neighborhood Chinese place, instead. No pictures, so you'll have to trust me that good food and good fun was had all around.
.....I am back to playing bridge twice a week with Alex, and it is good to see the old crowd. A little disconcerting, though, as a significant handful were with us in the desert.....
....I'm also back to my regular evening walks - about 3 miles - along the river front. This weeks' collection of flora was particularly stunning - spring will do that...
So. What else? In addition to reading back issues of the New Yorker (passed on to me by friend Geoff before I left Palm Springs) and back issues of the Economist (carefully saved for me by John and duly passed on last week), I'm back to books. There are two on the night table; the first is Ben Sasse's book called The Vanishing American Adult. So far, the best thing about it is the title. I think it is heading towards the premise that we should step back from hedonism and go back to god, church, family and country, although I am not entirely sure - I keep on falling asleep, and reading the same paragraph over again - and again - and again...
The next one is better. Someone left it in my office for me while I was gone (probably Brian - it is his kind of read). It is called Anarchy and Old Dogs, by Colin Cotterill, and is a Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery (apparently there is another entire series about which I had no knowledge). Dr. Siri is a reluctant 73 year old coroner of the newly formed republic of Laos, and Cotterill's descriptions of the country and people - of which I have zero prior knowledge - are wonderful. I am quite enjoying it, although - in the nature of nightstand books - I keep falling asleep....
The other two are audio books, which I now download on my phone, and listen to while I walk.
I just finished The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, by Peter Hopkirk. It continued the Russian theme, as it is about the machinations of Russia and England for hegemony in the area. A few too many battle descriptions for my liking, but fascinating nonetheless, and a period of history and part of the world that I previously knew very little about. For you history buffs out there, I highly recommend it.
Finally, I'm now listening to The Big Lie by Dinesh D'Souza - Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left. This one was a surprise - I ordered it on a whim, thinking it was one of the Trump expose books that are now out there - I guess I didn't see the subtitle (that's the trouble with trying to read ads on the phone....). Lo and behold, it turns out to be a Trump apologist instead - imagine my shock and horror. Amazingly enough, I am finding it quite interesting, certainly well written, well read and well analyzed. Everyone always complains about living in silos - always reading and hearing people with our own point of view. Well, I have broken out of my silo. Detailed review to follow...
A personal connection: the wife of a colleague did the costumes, and a fine job she did too.
Jack and I agreed, I think, that to say we enjoyed it would be putting too fine a point on it - I, for one, don't "enjoy" modern music - but it worked dramatically, it was compelling, it was good theater, and I was glad I went.
And what could be more Russian than Chekov? The Cherry Orchard was on at Jericho Playhouse, and off I went, in spite of the fact that I purportedly loathe Chekov. (Chekov was the one who said, by the way (although not in this play) that if a gun is shown in the presented in the first Act, it must go off by the third.) Back to the Cherry Orchard. They did a fine job with it, I must say (although having recently seen the National Theater of London version in recent memory, it is hard to make do with a small local theater production), but it is still a play about silly people (the clueless aristocracy, the loyal servant, the wily peasant, the idealistic revolutionary), and I still don't care whether they get to Moscow (or, in this case, Paris). But it did meet my basic criteria for theater - I am still thinking about it.....
Saturday, I was set to go to the North Shore (North Vancouver, for those of you from away) for a matinee by the North Shore Light Opera Society. Since the traffic is so bad getting to the North Shore you basically have to pack a lunch to get there, and since it was Saturday, I decided to make a day of it. and have breakfast at the Lonsdale Quay before the performance.
As you can see, it was a glorious, sunny day, and I had a lovely morning, wandering the shops and food stalls.
The Centennial Theater was a new venue for me, and I quite liked it. And, of course, I love Sondheim. Any Sondheim, really, but Into The Woods is one of my favourites.
Although based on a mash-up of the Grimm's fairy tales, it is really quite dark - as those fairy tales were, at heart. Being a musical, there was a happy ending - sort of - but the moral of the story is "be careful what you wish for".
By the way, I saw the original on Broadway, with Mandy Potemkin and Bernadette Peters. This wasn't that production, trust me, but fun nonetheless. My only quibble was that the orchestra overshadowed the lyrics (and no, it wasn't just my hearing, there was twenty something sitting next to me, on the third row I should say, who couldn't make out the lyrics), and with Sondheim, the lyrics are everything. They should have put the orchestra behind the stage....
Hey, maybe that's what I should do for my next career - directing.....
Anyway, one of the highlights was the fact that there were lots of children in the audience. And yes, I quite remember that I loathe children. However, these were very well behaved, enthusiastic, and, most important, the future audience for the theater. I told every parent I could get hold of that I was impressed, not only with the children but with the parents for introducing the children to the theater at a young age.
Oh, and the quote of the production came from Prince Charming. When being chastised for his wandering eye, the Prince says "but I was raised to be charming, not sincere....."
I have to admit that I had pouted a bit (hopefully not visibly) when friend John went on and on (as he does, bless him) about the "do" he was hosting for Mother's day. Not that I give a fig about Mothers Day - or any other Hallmark holiday, for that matter - but it was the idea of not being invited....
But on Sunday morning (probably at the urging of his mother, but no matter) he called to invite me over, and even remembered to take my hamburger off the grill before it turned to charcoal...
Here are John and his mom, and sister Janet on the left...
.....and mom and dad.....
Also there were John's brother Peter, his girlfriend and her son. I have known them all for a long time, and it was a lovely, relaxed afternoon.
They hadn't seen the renos, though, and walked the few hundred yards to my place to do that. You haven't seen them either, I guess, so....
The bookcases are new, built in...
(Probably not the best idea in the world to have bookcases in your bedroom in earthquake country, but, hey, I can think of worse things in the world than being buried in books.....)
The wood floors are new.....
..and, of course, the rugs to cover them....
....and then, of course, there's the deck and the view from it.....
....not my front door, but a neighboring one that I like better.....
Monday brought my last full day of work for now - I am out of work for a while - but I managed to forestall wholesale panic by planning a full week of other things.
It started with dinner with colleagues (and friends) Deidre and Susan. Our first choice, The Dosa House, my neighborhood Indian restaurant (definitely NOT a white tablecloth type of place, but good food in a clean, family-run place - the kind I love taking people to) was closed on Monday. We settled on The Flamingo House, my neighborhood Chinese place, instead. No pictures, so you'll have to trust me that good food and good fun was had all around.
.....I am back to playing bridge twice a week with Alex, and it is good to see the old crowd. A little disconcerting, though, as a significant handful were with us in the desert.....
....I'm also back to my regular evening walks - about 3 miles - along the river front. This weeks' collection of flora was particularly stunning - spring will do that...
So. What else? In addition to reading back issues of the New Yorker (passed on to me by friend Geoff before I left Palm Springs) and back issues of the Economist (carefully saved for me by John and duly passed on last week), I'm back to books. There are two on the night table; the first is Ben Sasse's book called The Vanishing American Adult. So far, the best thing about it is the title. I think it is heading towards the premise that we should step back from hedonism and go back to god, church, family and country, although I am not entirely sure - I keep on falling asleep, and reading the same paragraph over again - and again - and again...
The next one is better. Someone left it in my office for me while I was gone (probably Brian - it is his kind of read). It is called Anarchy and Old Dogs, by Colin Cotterill, and is a Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery (apparently there is another entire series about which I had no knowledge). Dr. Siri is a reluctant 73 year old coroner of the newly formed republic of Laos, and Cotterill's descriptions of the country and people - of which I have zero prior knowledge - are wonderful. I am quite enjoying it, although - in the nature of nightstand books - I keep falling asleep....
The other two are audio books, which I now download on my phone, and listen to while I walk.
I just finished The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, by Peter Hopkirk. It continued the Russian theme, as it is about the machinations of Russia and England for hegemony in the area. A few too many battle descriptions for my liking, but fascinating nonetheless, and a period of history and part of the world that I previously knew very little about. For you history buffs out there, I highly recommend it.
Finally, I'm now listening to The Big Lie by Dinesh D'Souza - Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left. This one was a surprise - I ordered it on a whim, thinking it was one of the Trump expose books that are now out there - I guess I didn't see the subtitle (that's the trouble with trying to read ads on the phone....). Lo and behold, it turns out to be a Trump apologist instead - imagine my shock and horror. Amazingly enough, I am finding it quite interesting, certainly well written, well read and well analyzed. Everyone always complains about living in silos - always reading and hearing people with our own point of view. Well, I have broken out of my silo. Detailed review to follow...
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