social sundries

[rm]

I have just learned that you all were going to play an AWESOME prank on me at Gally. It's a bit tragic you all didn't, although I'm fairly sure I would have laughed until I cried and maybe just cried until I laughed.

So last night, as previously noted, was The Fairy Queen, a four hour (FOUR HOUR) baroque semi-opera presented by Les Arts Florissants at BAM. And it was AWESOME. I mean, even with the people who hated it and didn't get it leaving during the first or second acts and the woman who was text messaging the entire time and the people who came in late and couldn't find their seats. I try to tell myself that the experience of opera in period would be much like this, with the walking around and the socializing, but it still drives me mad.

The big star of this production was, absolutely, the staging. Despite many modern elements (our fairies are men in business suits and women in cocktail dresses with spiky black wings and bare feet) the thing really respected the period. We'd have some acting and then "here, have a wondrous confection of relevant so some season or virtue." In one particularly bizarre segment that was a tribute to the growing season, the fairies came out changed into giant rabbit fur suits and then copulated on stage, in multiple positions as opera was being sung. Like over two-dozen giant rabbit fur suits; there was even a threesome stage right. And then! the fairies stripped off the rabbit costumes and piled them up, heads and skins representing the harvest. Most amazing? I'm not even sure this was the crackiest moment of the whole thing.

It's a labor for me to think of the fairies as such, even as when we first meet them they are tumbling out of curio cabinets and from under stairs in precocious swarms. Something about their attire, and the bare feet (people aren't buried in shoes, you see, and so they always made me think they were dead) kept pushing other buttons. I spent a lot of time watching them in detail -- sometimes they moved about the stage, scampering on all fours, sometimes they were dancers, one liked to cross his ankles, put his hands in pockets and lean against a wall when he as singing. One had a beard, which seemed odd for the dead. Some jumped up and down trying to get a better view of the performances main action and others spun each other around and lifted each other into the air in all sorts of different couplings, but none took flight. These fairies of the dead moved collectively in odd vibrating packs of curiosity. I liked them very much and want to write stories of them now as a society of hive-minded earthbound angels and the dead. I may even.

Then, we went and had steak and sausages at L'Express. L'Express was clearly having a visitation from the social oddity fairy last night, as:

1. We were in the gay corner. No, really. We got seated in this corner near the bar where there are only three tables, and aside from us, there was a male couple finishing their meal and then these two women on a date who were making out really graphically. This became HILARIOUS when the waiter approached them, cleared his throat and asked if they'd like dessert.

2. After the male couple left, two women came in who were drunk. One was yelling at the other about her recent breakup, the other was all "I don't want to talk about it, okay?" and got up to go to the bathroom. When she returned, she made big drama about having not seen a waiter yet (although the waiter had visited their table while she was in the bathroom) and she and her friend got into a fight about her ability to get home under her own power. Eventually, they left two bucks on the table and left without ordering.

3. The chicks behind us were still making out. At which point a woman walks in an tries to tap them on the shoulder. The hostess moves to stop them and the woman is all "Can't I say hello to my friends?" and the hostess looks flustered and says "Yes, but you can't sit down" which was weird, because WHY? Anyway, she pulls up a chair and sits down with the chicks.

4. THEN, a M/F couple walks in and the man loudly (and sort of jovially) announces "It's our sixth anniverary and we're breaking up." Patty and I are both incredulous and sort of laughing and all "he must be joking" and "who does that?" but at the same time, it was a bit like my 20s had wandered into the room.

Then we came home and went to sleep. Because opera, food, late night, so done.

I know not everyone celebrates Easter (including me) but what's the deal with everyone trying to make social plans that day as if it's not likely lots of people won't be able to attend due to family obligations? I've a lot of weird invites for next Sunday and I'm like "er, EASTER!" about them, which is annoying, since they're all things I want to do.

Comments

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

*has a completely and utterly perplexed expression on her face*

Judging by the posts you make on here, you always seem to get into the most interesting (and sometimes downright strange) situations! :D

I thought I'd heard of the Fairy Queen (it pinged just now), but judging on your description, maybe not? I remember seeing a glassed-in display at a Music Museum in Vienna, Austria that talked about an opera called The Fairy Queen, and it had a beautiful wooden puppet of a fairy queen gliding through a glittery night sky. Although to be honest, now that I think about it, I can't really remember the blurb about it. Who knows, it may be the same thing. Bunnies copulating on stage? Really? lol! Sounds cracktastic!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Here: http://bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1676

It's a comic opera and they were pretty filthy in period too.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

It probably is the same one. Thanks for the link, I was just reading about it on Wikipedia, actually. I've only been to the opera once, and apparently it wasn't a good one to start off for beginners (Elekra). But it was fascinating and totally not what I expected, and I had a wonderful Viennese woman take me under her wing and show me the ropes. Literally, in some cases. :)

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I always feel a little happy and assured knowing that people in earlier era were as filthy as us. More recent example, but I loved when Dorothy Parker said of one college's co-eds "If all those young pretty things were laid end to end, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised."

To pick another era, these thoughts make me want to time-travel to a Shakespeare performance. Except for the people going to the bathroom in the stands, if I heard correctly.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think, anyone with sense, knows we didn't invent sex. But I do think people tend to be surprised when popular entertainments of past eras were as sexual as our own.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

And remember, some people somewhere in the depths of history had to be the first people to perform oral sex (pick your flavor, um, so to speak). So things were invented, but many, many ages ago... :-)

I do think people tend to be surprised when popular entertainments of past eras were as sexual as our own.

And we're less likely to remember what the cultural reactions were to that: how different were they from our current reactions? I almost don't want to speculate, because it would be limited speculation based on my personal prejudices and current societal norms and stuff you're better equipped to talk about than me.

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Now I want to know what kind of prank they were planning....

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Which prank?

I mean, there were like, many potential pranks.

(Not really.) :D

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't know if anyone other than Sam and Kali knew about this, but apparently some anonymous minion of theirs was almost bribed to deliver me a note, at the bar, when I was (obviously) dressed like Jack.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

HIS NAME IS ALONSO...?

I wish I'd thought of that. I even know someone who dressed as Ten. :D

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Got it in one ;-)

[contrarywise]

Oddly enough, there are a number of folkloric connections between fairies and the dead. Fairy sightings are sometimes omens of impending death (well, sightings of particular fairies, anyway), and there are stories of fairy funerals and of the spirits of the dead of earlier times being seen in the company of trooping fairies. So your mental connection between the fairies and the dead is appropriate, although perhaps not a conscious intention of the director in this production. They sound fascinating and lovely, and I don't blame you for wanting to write about them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I did not know that! Faeries are only slightly above dragons (which hold no interest for me whatsoever) in my hierarchy of nerd things I don't care about but should. Now I care!

I wish I could come up with some sort of original fic idea for the hive-mind fearies, as opposed to what I have come up with which is a dead!Ianto AU fic.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Lady Wilde (Oscar's mother) wrote a book called "Legends, Charms and Superstitions of Ireland" which has a lot to do with the connection between fairies and the dead, including the story of the dance of the dead, in which the fairies call the dead out from their graves to dance with them on the last night of November (for obvious reasons, it's very bad news to be asked to dance).

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Like rm I'm not very into fairies. So forgive my ignorance, but why is it bad news to ask to dance? Or is it only bad news if the fairies are asking living people to dance?

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

The latter. Put it this way, it's a hint.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Ah. The way it was phrased led me to believe the fairies were asking already dead spirits to dance.

[eac.livejournal.com]

On #3 -- Fear of *3* women making out ?

*uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

I try to tell myself that the experience of opera in period would be much like this, with the walking around and the socializing, but it still drives me mad.

That's the impression I get from novels written or set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries -- usually the POV characters attend the opera to see and be seen, and the few people there for the music are considered eccentric.

Oooh, I wish I'd been able to swing a ticket! Now I really, really hope that Fairy Queen is performed again locally.

I'm mildly surprised that we don't see more fairies in film and TV (Torchwood* and Merlin aside), since it seems like there is a shitload of urban fantasy featuring the Fair Folk, much of which explicitly rejects the Tolkien model in favor of the wilder, scarier fairies of folklore.

* The fact that Torchwood presented the Cottingley fairy photographs as genuine drives me apeshit. I got to see those pictures a few years ago, and they persuaded me that Arthur Conan Doyle must have been absolutely sincere in his belief in Spiritualism and the paranormal, because otherwise there's no goddamn way he could have looked at them and seen anything other than two little girls posing with paper dolls.

Re: *uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[rm.livejournal.com]

Except, people were not walking around and socializing. They were tripping over their coats and using their mobiles. At least no one reeked of urine this time.

In the plus column for Torchwood and the faeries -- at least they made them scary as shit.

Re: *uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Well, that was also part of it -- audience members would often take their seats after the performance had started and leave before the end in order to arrive at their dinner engagements on time.

I once got to ask Terry Pratchett why the Discworld faeries are, for the most part, sociopaths, and he replied that they're just pursuing their own goals (survival, amusement) with no concern for humans -- which is consistent with the old stories. So, yes, points to Torchwood for that.

Re: *uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[rm.livejournal.com]

And that would be fine -- because those people would be worth chatting with or looking at or whatever. Their iphones are not.

You are not, btw, helping me resist my Dead!Ianto fairy hive-mind AU.

Re: *uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

You are not, btw, helping me resist my Dead!Ianto fairy hive-mind AU.

Well, why would I? *blinks innocently*

Re: *uses cracky yet appropriate new icon*

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

But that sounds like it would be an interesting fic.

*blinks innocently*

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

I've a lot of weird invites for next Sunday and I'm like "er, EASTER!" about them, which is annoying, since they're all things I want to do.

...but aren't you Jewish? *confused*

[rm.livejournal.com]

My mother is Jewish and my father is Catholic. It's problematic to have social plans on Easter, and it's not like New York has _that_ many Jews that planning events on Easter makes sense. People can't go!

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Which part of NY? I hear some parts of NYC have enough Jews that school holidays are given for Jewish holidays instead of Christian ones.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I live in New York City. Jews represent about 12% of New York City's population. Many of us are secular or reform. What you are thinking of are probably insular Hassidic and other highly Orthodox communities in some of the boroughs and throughout the rest of the state. What you're thinking of is the exception rather than the rule.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I always thought the Jewish population was higher than that.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

"It's our sixth anniverary and we're breaking up."

...

*laughs*

Oh dear, no.