animals, both four-footed and shakespearean.
The quote of the day:
Like a coat of two colors, the Museum serves dual functions.
Running news:
7.1 miles today.
5.3 miles yesterday.
Lance came down to the Southland this weekend to see his new girlfriend, Francine, and we made plans to get together with him--this time, with nary a yucca tree in sight. We had planned on going to LACMA to see the Van Gogh exhibit, but we acted basically like ourselves and didn't get tickets, so that was a no go.
As a reasonable backup, we decided to go to the LA Zoo, which Darin and I hadn't seen yet. It's a pretty good zoo, and it's big--we took about 4 hours to walk around it, and by the end I was beat. I really enjoyed the Reptile House--the gelatinous jade-like green frog being my favorite in there--and the black jaguar (I thought it was a panther, but I've had that opinion beaten out of me).
The best thing about the zoo is its layout: it twists and turns around and around, so that every time you're sure, "Oh, I've gone down there before," you find yourself in a completely new area.
(I'd also done 5.3 miles in the morning, so a full day of walking was perhaps not the doctor ordered. My knee felt a little twisted by the end.)
We had dinner at Clancy's Crab Broiler, where we were treated to the intricacies of Clancy's early bird special policy--"If you wait half an hour, you can take advantage of our early bird specials." "We'd like to eat now." Turned out the point was moot: they took so long in serving us we ended up getting the early bird prices anyhow.
We talked about diverse things, like the state of Darin's consulting biz and board games we really enjoyed playing together. Lance wants to find a copy of the Mississippi steamboat game Rob and Laura have. He could do without ever playing RoboRally again.
After the Zoo we sat around our house chatting about movies and the Biz a little bit, but I could tell we were all dropping off at a precipitous rate, and Lance and Francine still had an hour drive back to Huntington Beach. We vowed to get together again, if not for Van Gogh (which ends April 4), then for the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which is a parody of a museum. Only in LA.
Well, I should say, "All of us were exhausted except Mr. Energy himself." Darin proceeded to take off to the Boys's House after our guests left to play StarCraft until 2am.
I went to bed at 10. Phhhbbbtttt.
And I woke up at 6:47. This early morning thing sucks.
I got up anyhow to do my run. I planned on doing 7 miles today, and that's precisely what I did. That's my longest run in some time--several months, in fact. It was a pretty good run--took me about 73 minutes, which isn't bad--and while I had to stop 2 or 3 times to regulate my breath (and blow out my nose), my heart rate never got above 164, even on the hills. Which thrills me to bits.
(Your mileage may vary on that.)
I did notice by the end of the run that my knee was feeling a mite tender. Which worries me; I don't want any of these funky running injuries. I don't run hard enough, often enough, or long enough to warrant injuries, dammit.
Writing group today: they hated my new Act I. Hated it, hated it, hated it. Back to the drawing board.
(That sounds cavalier. It hurts. On the way home I heard constantly from the Evil Editor voice. I won't bother to write what it said here; you know the voice. I felt it all night and I had to fight not to wallow in it. I just have to write the script again is all.)
A couple of years ago--it was definitely when I was living up north, so that's over three years ago--I heard the funniest thing on NPR: a group called the Reduced Shakespeare Company did a two-minute rendition of Hamlet.
Then I forgot about them.
At breakfast on Saturday, Fernando mentioned that he and Nancy were going to a play Sunday night with some folks from her work; would we like to come?
Well, Darin and I have vowed to get out and do more stuff, though this weekend it seemed like we were taking it to the limit. (To my limit, at any rate.) But we said, yes, that sounds like fun! So Fernando found out the info, and we headed off to the theater.
The play is The Complete Works of Wm. Shkspr (Abridged) as done at the Globe Theater in West Hollywood. As they tell you, over and over again, it's 37 plays in 97 minutes, not counting intermission. It was written by the founders of the R.S.C. (that's Reduced, not Royal) and is currently running in London. It's probably running all over the place--it's pretty easy to stage, and it's one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.
You don't need to know a lot about Shakespeare. You do need to have a sense of humor, because the players interact with the audience. A lot. Some get called up on stage and asked to do stupid things. Everyone in the audience has to join in at one part.
(One of the players, the young guy who plays all the women's roles, kept sitting with or on the girls in front of us. They really dug him. They asked if they could keep him, and another actor on the stage said, "No, we rented him first." I wanted to tap them on the shoulder and say, "Girls, there's something about Harris you need to know." I felt certain he didn't dig them in quite the same way.)
The three actors who do the play are all very good, very funny, and incredibly athletic as they run around for 97 minutes, not counting intermission. The play is intensely funny as well--the way they deal with the 17 comedies is extremely hysterical; and they do the historicals about all the justice they deserve.
The play was definitely one of the best uses for twenty bucks I've had in a while.
|
|
|
|
Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com