social sundries

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.

Buffy/Angel update

Angel 1.10 "Parting Gifts" - ( Read more... )

Buffy 4.10 "Hush" - ( Read more... )

Buffy 4.11 "Doomed" - ( Read more... )

Buffy 4.12 "A New Man" - ( Read more... )