Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s been 6 months since I left DC. I’ve been so busy at work it’s been a whirlwind … and I’ve only been on a plane once. Probably time to finish cleaning up the post-travel mess in the front room.
While I’m not much for new year’s resolutions, I definitely need to get things under control, and start having a little more fun.
I hope I’m not starting a new personal tradition. Like last year, I got nice and sick before Christmas. This year, I scheduled two weeks off from work — the first break I’d had since returning, and the first vacation time I’d had in a couple of years. The first day of the break started fine with my birthday, then the next day I started getting sick. I was in bed for five days before it started getting better. I was improving by Christmas, but not fully recovered. Any thoughts of traveling for the holidays were shot as I was pretty non-functional for a week. Bah-humbug. Hopefully next year will go better.
After finally discovering the repositioned entrance that I’d lost, I took a little trip to Sycamore Grove Park. Unfortunately, I think I missed the full fall colors by about a month, and recent wind storms had taken away a lot of the leaves.
It gave me a nice chance to stretch my legs. Now that I know the layout, I’ll probably try to do the 5 mile loop at some point. Also, I did get a chance to play with some of the bracketing features of my camera that I haven’t fully explored, which may help in post-editing of some challenging exposure shots.
It’s been a hectic few weeks at work, and as last week wound up a lot of things, I needed a little break. Today was a beautiful sunny warm fall day, so I decided to go up to Del Valle and take some pictures. It was nice to get away and get a little fresh air. There weren’t many people there despite the nice weather. I tried out some aspects of my camera that I hadn’t previously explored much, including panoramas and bracketed shots to try out blending for HDR images. If the weather holds, it’s probably worth trying for a picnic up there, just to get away and enjoy some restful peace.
Tonight I saw my last play of the CalShakes season (perhaps my last Shakespeare play of the year), The Taming of the Shrew. Always one of my favorites, this was a fantastic production. It was somewhat contemporized, but it came across very well. For example the nicer daughter Bianca was introduced as a leggy swim suited beauty contestant in high heels, and was pretty much played like an air-headed Barbie. The role of Petruchio, the wild husband, was played amazingly well. This finally relieved a bit of my Shakespeare withdrawal after leaving DC.
Jeff once again joined Bill, Andy and myself, but I think we’ve failed to convert him to higher culture. Rita never made it, which is too bad as this was a very enjoyable play. It’s the first time in a while I’m tempted to think about going back and seeing a production again.
Tonight I saw my first play in a while (going through withdrawal after leaving DC). It was CalShakes production of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida. I enjoyed it very much. It took me a little while to get into it, but I liked how the story turned out. The entire play took place in one setting, a richly furnished study with colorful rugs and nice leather furniture. The play consisted of three relatively short acts with brief intermissions in between. The cast was small (and mostly new to me). The acting was great; particularly enjoyable were two of the broadly drawn characters of the father-in-law and the secretary. The evening felt like a bit of a palate cleanser after the last one. It didn’t completely blow me away, but it was very enjoyable. Sadly, my entourage was missing, as there was a dive trip to Fiji, so I had the row to myself except for two seats that I donated back that got used.
Based on my recent rate of journal entries I need to step up the fun quotient if I want to keep up with my DC style.
For a catalog of many of my Washington adventures click here.
I got together with the old crew for a California Shakespeare outing for the first time in quite a while. They even convinced Jeff to come along. This was CalShakes production of a new play, The Verona Project. This was a play inspired by The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but it was quite different. It began with a band, and the songs began telling the story, then the members of the band became players in the play. I’ll give it a little credit for some ambitious inventiveness, but in the end it seemed to me a muddle. From a musical perspective, it was just OK. There were some decent songs, but some of the main singers were just marginal. From the perspective of a play, it was very preachy trying to bring all sorts of sexual orientation issues in that seemed more forced and exploitational than natural and story enhancing. At the end of the day, this was the least enjoyable play I can recall seeing in a very long time. Not a great way to restart the California theater experience.
My time in DC ended with several hectic days of packing and tending to details that ran right up to the last minute I was in town. Things had been too crazy towards the end to do some last minute social connections, but a nice treat was Kathy joining me in the cab out to Dulles and sharing dinner with me before I left. I had some thoughts of staying back east for the weekend of the 4th, but now I’m glad I didn’t because I was so exhausted after the lack of sleep and all the packing at the end, I needed the weekend back at home just to recoup a bit.
I had thought that one benefit of coming back would be escaping the east coast heat to what I had been hearing was a more mild California. Unfortunately, when I got back, it was over 100° just about every day over the 4th of July weekend, and the air conditioning in my house wasn’t working. After suffering through the sweltering weekend I managed to get it fixed. I then discovered my refrigerator was on the verge of dying. I guess after being away for two years, some of the 20 year old stuff should be expected to wear out. Just a lot to take care of right off the bat, while trying to get resettled into my new/old life.
I’ll try and resist the urge to do more whining. I do miss DC, but it’s time to get revved up back in my old digs. I hope I will take some of the life lessons I picked up back there to continue moving forward, and not taking a step back.
Tonight I saw the final play of my DC adventure, and my final play in this year’s Shakespeare Theatre Company season, [The Most Excellent History of] The Merchant of Venice. Upon seeing this, I was reminded of why it is one of my favorites. I’m sad it’s the end, but happy that it ended on a very high note. Although it was resent in a more modern setting (New York of the 1920s), they didn’t soften the antisemitism that sometimes compromises the drama for me. The acting was great, and it was powerfully delivered. There was even a little surprise in that Andy Murray, who’s been a CalShakes regular for years, was part of the cast.
This Shakespearean classic was so different than the very modern play I saw last night. I’m glad my theatrical cannon of my change of station ended with this rich play. I always find this a challenging play to watch because in many ways Shylock gets screwed, but there’s a lot of context which makes it a much richer story. For example, the back stories of the new husbands, who though they seem to win the big battle end up betraying their first token vow to their wives shows that these guys aren’t all so great either.
The staging was primarily one fixed set with a big angled staircase in the center, and all had the appearance of rich wood. The acting of the two leads was particularly affecting. I’m definitely going to miss having access to such great theater so close to home … but life goes on.
