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[fajrdrako]

Every once in a while I have one of those exciting and busy weeks where there are all sorts of things I want to talk about, but no time to write anything in my LJ. Last week was one of those weeks. So... a recap that is far less than the week deserves:

Tuesday - A great yoga class, the last of the summer with Barbara, since she is going off to India. She's my favourite of the teachers, and I'll miss her.

Wednesday - I went to see Ned Durango Comes to Big Oak by Norm Foster at the Ottawa Little Theatre. Enjoyed it very much, especially the way Orson (played deftly by Brian Tannenbaum) became more interesting as the story progressed, so that by the end he was the underdog we were rooting for. I thought Geoff Gruson was somewhat wasted in the role of Tom Shaw.

Before the play, Beulah and I went to dinner at the Green Door, the vegetarian restaurant on Main Street, and ran into a friend of Beulah's named Elizabeth, who joined us for the play, and went for a walk with us in the area north of Rideau St. and east of King Edward. There, to my surprise and delight, someone had discarded a bicycle helmet that was the bicycle helmet of my dreams - black, with a visor. I was thrilled. (Beulah and Elizabeth made me promise to go over it with disinfectant before wearing it. Yes indeed.) I need a bicycle helmet because maaboroshi gave me her old bicycle, which I haven't used yet. I need a helmet because I'd given my old one to maaboroshi. There's something beautifully circular in that.

Thursday - Saw De-Lovely at the back of beyond - th AMC Theatre in Kanata, where it has an "exclusive Ottawa engagement". I don't like this exclusive engagement business - couldn't it appear anywhere more convenient? In any case, I took the #18 bus to the church at the corner of Bay and Sparks where Sandi and Pat picked me up and took me to Kanata, where we met Sheila at the Wendy's and had a wonderful junk-food supper which included (gasp!) maple donuts from Tim Horton's.

I love Cole Porter's lyrics, and lyrics are important to me - I tend to just a song more on its words than its melody. I read a biography of Porter a couple of years ago, and was prepared for the movie to be either sad or inaccurate. It was sad, which was fine. The review in The Ottawa Citizen said that everyone was miscast except Kevin Kline, who played Porter. I thought it was the other way around - he was fine in the role, but afterwards I thought he was a little leaden, while I picture Cole Porter (especially when young) as being puckish, even evanescant. My favourite moment: a masquerade party in Venice c. 1924, in which Cole Porter was dressed as Julius Caesar and his wife Linda was Cleopatra. Two of my favourite people in history. I'm sure Cole Porter was well aware of the sexual implications! The costuming and staging of that whole scene was wonderful.

During that scene, Linda persuades Cole to go to New York to create his first Broadway Show; thus separating him from his current love, a dancer for the Ballet Russe only vaguely referred to as 'one of Diaghilev's boys'. My first happy thought was that they were implying Cole Porter had an affair with Vaslav Nijinsky - another one of my favourite 20th century personnages. It would have been nice but, no - I looked up Nijinsky and discovered that he left Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe a good ten years earlier. It was some other dancer. (Fiction? Fact? Did Porter really have a lover in Diaghilev's company? I don't know.)

Friday - I went to dinner at the Trattoria Italia Caffe at Preston and Gladstone with Beth and Debbie, then went with them to see Cabaret performed by the Act Out Theatre at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. My favourite of the characters was Adrian Ishak at the Emcee, though I also liked Tammy Martin as Sally Bowles. Funny: when I first saw this musical I was about 20, and saw it on stage (I think) in Kingston. All my sympathies were with Cliff, who just wanted to spend his life with Sally and the baby - and Sally looked like a flake. Now all my sympathies are with Sally, who just wanted to live her own life, and Cliff looks horribly controlling - she's sacrificing her own welfare so he can write, and he's not sacrificing anything so she can sing. He even slugs her when she doesn't toe his line - hmmph!

This production ended with everyone dancing in Concentration Camp garb. I don't remember that from the production long ago, either. I suspect the staging was different. It bothered me for some reason that the principle singers all wore mikes, and you could see the cords down their backs - it clashed with the 1930s costuming and interfered with my suspension of disbelief.

On the whole, the individual performances were better than the ensemble whole, but it was all fun anyway.

Saturday - All my good intentions to get a lot done were zapped by a migraine - I got the occular interference around lunchtime and spent the afternoon swallowing painkillers. Went to Pat and Sandi's campsite, where I had a wonderful time with them, Harry and Sheila. I think I would have had a wonderful time anyway but it helped that Sheila gave me a codeine tablet to help fight the migraine and I was... well, not exactly stoned, but relaxed just one stage short of bonelessness. It rained hard and we all cuddled into their beautiful trailer and watched the new DVD Harry brought - Hidalgo. We'd all seen it before except Sheila, and we all enjoyed it just as much again. Viggo Mortensen at his most charming. The horse being equally charming.

Afterwards, the stars in the night sky were magnificent, away from the city. A clear Milky Way. Pereus above us. (I think.) Gorgeous.

Sunday - I woke up with plenty of energy and did the massive housecleaning that I'd meant to do on Saturday. Changed furniture around, changed pictures on the wall - great! It remains to get rid of my desk and sofa and I'll be happy with progress. That being done, Johnny Depp was the order of the day. Lyn, Beulah and Eric came over and we watched first Secret Window, followed by The Ninth Gate. Depp is lovely as the writer Mort in Secret Window but the plot is uninspiring, rather too predicable, and reminded me why I really don't much like the writing of Stephen King. And every time thy said his name I thought of Death's apprentice in Terry Prachett, which really wasn't the right image.

The Ninth Gate was as good as ever (I was the only one who'd seen it before) and it had us all riveted. Beulah even understood the end and explained it to us - she's our expert in esoteric occultism.

Over the course of last week, The Comic Book Shoppe on Bank St. had a sale - 40% off back issues and 20% off graphic novels. Oh my goodness. Nightwing didn't stretch nearly enough. They were all Devin Grayson issues, and I discovered that the earlier issues, by Greg Rucka, are available in trade paperback form. It was Grayson's writing that hooked me on Nightwing, but I like Greg Rucka's writing on other comics - didn't he do Whiteout? that was magnificent. And Alias is available in TPB too, brilliant stuff, some of Bendis' best work (and that's saying a lot) but at $32 per book (and that's with the 20% discount) I couldn't afford it. A friendly and knowledgeable employee named Rob was happy to answer all my many, many questions about various topics - what issues the TPBs covered, what order they came in (this was particularly confusing to me in the Batman series.

Then I went home for an orgy of Nightwing reading. Now I know how Barbara and Dick broke up and how Catalina came on the scene and how Dick lost his job with the Bludhaven police and how Blockbuster came along. I love it all. Yes, I'm still missing issues.

Funny: I usually like Kin's taste in comics - he's the proprietor at The Silver Snail, which is up the street from The Comic Book Shoppe, and he writes a weekly commentary on the comics he reads. Last week he described Devin Grayson's writing as 'adolescent' and not to his taste - he was referring to the Batman 12 Cent Special that came out last week, but I was surprised by the comment, being such a Grayson fan. It occurs to me that what most appeals to me is... and this is a subtle, tricky thing to describe... is that it appeals more than most comics to a woman's point of view, which may be why Kin doesn't 'get' it.

I also read and greatly enjoyed the trade version of Joss Whedon's first comic, "Fray". It's a sequel to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and despite my lack on interest in the genre, I loved it. It's almost, almost as good as his work on The Astonishing X-Men. His sense of drama amazes and delights me, along with his sense of timing. Brilliant. I was less enthralled by the artist, but he had a good sense of layout and motion.

Comments

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

(Fiction? Fact? Did Porter really have a lover in Diaghilev's company? I don't know.)

This inspird me to take a look around.... Yes, he was real, Boris Kochno (his real name was used in the movie). He's mentioned here (http://www.musicals101.com/gay5.htm) (a good overview of Porter's life).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'd forgotten that, and missed his name in the movie. What a nice detail to know. Thanks for looking it up.

(I like your icon! Very pretty.)

[dargit.livejournal.com]

Oh good thing you mentioned Cabaret! We had seen the Sock'n'buskin (carleton u) production of cabaret a few years ago. This sound like a fun different production to see. We'll consider a membership as well. Did you bother with a membership?

As you know, I am a strong believer in bicycle helmets. I just bought a new one this year, my old one was getting rather old and I was concerned the plastic was now brittle.

Comic book shoppe here (merivale) had the sale as well. Of course, it didn't apply to the Witch Hunter Robin DVD I got. But at least I have the entire series!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Congrats of getting all of Witch Hunter Robin! I've seen pictures of that but don't know much about it.

I considered a membership but decided I can't afford it. Not right now anyway.

ooooh!

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

The Ninth Gate was as good as ever (I was the only one who'd seen it before) and it had us all riveted. Beulah even understood the end and explained it to us - she's our expert in esoteric occultism.

Sharing is caring. *g* What did Beulah say about the ending?

Re: ooooh!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

She said that much of waht had happened in the last few scenes was a classic initiation/enlightenment ritual (going through fire, falling through the hole in the floor, escaping, having sex, further travel) and that in the end he had found the 'path' and walked into the light, i.e., found completion through his search for the truth of what had really happened.

I may be misquoting her a little but that was much understanding of what she said. It sounded good to me - and it was the explanation that I wanted to believe!