Airsick bag notations:
I have got to remember that international travel via “coach” – or as the British Rail tickets once said, “CHEAP,” just doesn’t work.
Cattle class, although, I’m pretty sure that Texas cattle, as well as French cattle, all receive better treatment.
Weird unrelated items: Sagittarius. Obviously, my favorite sign, but my old chum from way back? 12/12. Sister’s friend? 12/12. Sister’s friend’s friend? 12/12. Three in a row.
Then, there was that Gemini guy from California. Walnut Creek California. Two girls with him? One was 12/12. Hopeful airport pickup? 12/12.
Parting shots?
“Kramer, I love you but if I could trade my first class for your coach?”
Pregnant pause.
“I wouldn’t.”
Everyone else was in Business or First.
Don’t nobody know the troubles I’ve seen. At least mine was a cheap ticket – really cheap. Less than a hunnert dollars. Small consolation for winding up in the cattle section.
“The sounds coming out of France are huge: house, deep house trance, crazy stuff.”
(Intro to Outlaw’s Too Many Fools Follow)
“I’m a pretty good dog, but if you don’t pet me once in while, it’s hard to keep me under the porch.” (Ron White)
“Do you remember/back in 1966?/Country Jesus coming through” (ZZ Top)
“On this train, the conductor wears black. I ride this train.” (Rank and File)
“It’s always the last three hours,” said the Aries sitting next to me.
Rememberance: walking in Canterbury, just as we hit the city’s walls, someone (sounded female) gave me a half-decent “Yee-haw.”
Measure for Measure
Seen two version, both quite strong, but very different interpretations. Very different.
(Caution: strong language in the review. You have been warned.)
“I liked the present day dress and the use of the bucket.” (Sister)
My notation, as I walked out the theatre?
“That Angelo, he was one way fucked up dude. Way fucked up.”
Earlier version that I saw. Then the Theatre Complicit version, at the National.
Whew. Although the text was identical, I mean the words were the same, there was a very different interpretation. A different spin. We had front-row seats. There was judicious use of certain very Christian imagery, which I found, well, mildly amusing. Not a guffaw of laughter, but a smirk. In fact, there were quite a few good smirks.
But that Angelo, he was, like, way over the top when it comes to being bad.
The poor Leo was stuck in a seat between me and sister. At one point, one character is imprisoned, and his head is to be chopped off, and his sister has a chance to save his life. See, she’s going to join a nunnery, as in “Get thee to a” nunnery. She’s a novice nun. And her brother is imprisoned for knocking up his wife-to-be. Following this?
Then Angelo, he decides, if the sister will sacrifice her virginity to him, he promises to let the brother go.
So when the novice nun goes to the prison to talk the matter over with her death-row brother, much hilarity follows. Halfway through the scene, I’m elbowing the Leo, who was supposed to elbow my Sister. But then, the scene turns, I mean, she (the character’s sister) turn on the charm, and she’s promised to maintain a vow a chastity, and she won’t sleep with the evil Angelo, I mean, we’re all going to die one day, right? Her brother is just on a fast track to heaven, right? Confused? Imagine this being done as a series of high-flown Elizabethan language, bother-sister, trading pleas.
That poor Leo, stuck in the middle.
Great show. But very, very different from the earlier one. Almost like comparing apples and oranges. Yeah, they’re both fruit. Or better, comparing sweet California oranges to bitter green apples. Delicious, but bitter.
What struck me about the show – a thoroughly modern version of humor, in a bleak, black way. Far different from the previous version.
Funny in places, but also telling about the abuse of power and rank.
Damn fine show. That Angelo guy was seriously fucked up. With our front-row seats, we could see his eyes get redder and redder, his lip quiver, and there’s one scene where he takes liberty with the sister, and that was really troubling. All symbolic, but really unnerving.
Blood, beheading, and more allegorical symbols. Ye-ow.
This moments pet theory is that it the play is about when bad people do bad things and then, they try to cover up their mistakes. Which only compounds the misery – for all the characters.
But in some small respects, there was that forgiveness – once again – the women were the better people. Characters. Whatever.
