10:30 a.m. - 2007-04-29
Marriage, Musicals, Movies, More
Wedding today. Greg and Anna. I'm the videographer. I'll be representing posterity. Remembrance of this event hinges on my technique and the acuity of my camera's eye. I'm recharging the camera's battery as I type. I don't take my task lightly.
It's supposed to be eighty degrees today. This is too warm. I would like there to be LESS than eighty degrees. Although it's probably good weather for a wedding. People like being warm at weddings, maybe because warmth makes people think of happiness and permanence and such things that contribute to a lasting marriage. Whereas if one attends a wedding and it's forty below and the cold wind is blowing and the shining sun is but a distant memory, then one's mind tends to be drawn inexorably toward contemplation of barrenness and mortality. I think this is the consensus. I tend to prefer the forty below weather, personally.
But it's warm now. I'll just have to learn to live with it.
Yesterday I had a rehearsal with Randy to prepare for the performance celebrating the new cd. Mark the bass player drove down from Appleton. Afterward we went for lunch to the place on the corner. I ordered a chicken kabob and Mark ordered the chicken shawarma. Midway through the meal, Mark observed that our meals were nearly identical. It was true: both of our plates were covered with chicken, rice, hummus, yogurt in a little cup, and a smattering of roasted vegetable bits, ie, tomato, green pepper and red onion. The only apparent difference was that, while my chicken came cut into big cubes, his chicken came in strips. I asked if "shawarma" literally means "stripped". Mark said he didn't know, but we were each pleased with our meal.
Later Kia and I went to see four short musicals, all performed in a row. There were two musicals, then intermission, then two more musicals, then we got to go home. Each one had showstopping musical numbers and choreography. One was about male strippers, another was about scientists, the third involved a gay Tarzan raised in the wild by a group of lesbiapes, and the last was a psychologically probing murder mystery. The Tarzan one could have been written by John Waters. This was my favorite of the four.
Afterward, we got drive-through Mexican food and went home. We watched TV for a while and eventually The Breakfast Club came on. Judd Nelson was explosive! In every scene he delivered a charged, high-energy performance that was not without an underlying vulnerability. However, I most identified with Ally Sheedy, owing to her fashion sense. In a later film, Go, one of the characters recites the "Are you a virgin, Claire?" speech. This serves to confirm that The Breakfast Club was an important, influential film. It also reminds the filmgoer that Claire is a funny name. Else, why would the B-52s name a planet that? Two of my sisters called me Claire for several years, although it's not my name. To this day I don't know why.
The past week has been pretty uneventful, but the week before we had a guest conductor in orchestra. He was Dutch. One of the pieces he conducted was the famous Meistersinger Overture. I asked one of the percussionists why he chose the Meistersinger and not the overture to the Flying Dutchman. It was a lame joke, but I just don't know a lot about the Dutch. Or Belgians. Have you ever heard a funny Belgian joke? I haven't.
In preceding weeks, Yid Vicious travelled to Minneapolis and then to central Illinois. Our sphere of influence continues to widen. We almost played in South Dakota not long ago, but then we didn't. This summer we're playing in northern Michigan. And then, who knows where?
