Uncool

Uncool

“Keep your decaf mocha latte, just pour me a cup of coffee – I’ll do my own thang and be uncool…”
(Old Derailers off Genuine)

“If the trailer don’t blow away in the next hurricane, they’ll be together til their dieing day…”
(Luke Olson’s “Gulf Coast Romance” from the album Uvalde)

I think it’s called snogging not blogging.

Canyon lands. So weird, I get strolling in some of the neighborhoods around here, the “summer sun of York” still not streaming into the narrow streets, and all I can think about are man-made arroyos and canyons. Dry Gulch. Wet Gulch.

It started to rain during the play. I had a great shorthand term for the play, Measure for Measure, I was using this form “M4M.” But I looked at that and wondered where I’d seen that before. Not exactly my style.

But the play itself? That was a wonderful production of Measure for Measure.

Bloom on Shakespeare:

“Shakespeare, piling outrage on outrage, leaves us morally breathless and imaginatively, bewildered, rather as if he would end comedy itself, thrusting it beyond all possible limits, past farce, long past satire, almost past irony at its most savage.” (p. 359)

“… above all, of the convict Barnardine, who has the wisdom to stay perpetually drunk because sober in this mad play is to be madder than the maddest.” (p. 359)

I think Bloom missed the mark. The players, I saw about half dozen of them that I’d seen before in other roles, were quite good. Well nigh on excellent. Exceptional. Perhaps it’s a problem play, but there was a kick at the end, and that kick caught me completely by surprise. One of those twists.

Catching me completely unaware, though, that just spoke to the quality of the production, the pacing, the staging, well, everything. That was good. I was wondering why I kept thinking of it as “savagely funny.”

Very good. It’s just so right to see a play in that atmosphere. Funny thing, from what I’ve gathered, the regular London theater community tends to regard the Shakespeare’s Globe as sideshow and tourist trap. Which is the furthest thing from the truth.

The folks sitting in the plastic ponchos under the rain? The cheap seats? They got treated to the bawdy jokes. The folks further up, like in the rafters? Players would lift their eyes when referring to the “heavens” or the more wealthy patrons.

All worked. All worked well. Plus, that little bit of rain – who’d a thunk it would rain in London? The rain made a good point. The stage is probably a little larger than the real stage. But the actors rarely used the outer most portion. So that when it did rain, the actors would be relatively sheltered from the elements. Almost as if the place was designed by an actor with actors in mind.

Suit the action to the words, the words to the action, no sawing of the hands, and how does that one quote go?

Anyway. I am much worried about the mental health of my traveling companions. So far, Sister and friend have laughed at almost every joke I’ve made. Even I wouldn’t laugh at some of my jokes. I think those girls, I figure their mental health is in question.

“But Kramer, you’re funny.”

Even I won’t go that far.

And remember, “No downward dogs on the first date.” (Sister was doing yoga – I know I would never do a downward dog on the first date).