27 November 2006
A Little Culture
Stan returned from a two-week trip to Japan and Korea, with a contribution to my little collection of odd canned meats. So far, I have Pork Brains In Milk Gravy, Potted Meat Food Product, and Fish 'N' Nuts Hot & Spicy Pulutan. The new arrival is apparently popular in Korea: Silkworm Pupa. Yum! I can hear them sloshing around when I shake the can. I'm guessing that they're crunchy, but I'm not willing to open the can and find out.
I'm not usually excited about the symphony or silent films, but the two together are pretty fun. This weekend it was Charlie Chaplin's City Lights, with the original score performed by the SF Symphony. Comedies are always more fun in a room full of people (Davies Symphony Hall seats 2,743), and the musicians seemed to enjoy performing some lighter fare.
15 November 2006
The Little Foxes
I only knew Lillian Hellman from her first play, The Children's Hour, a fairly bleak story about reputations ruined for spite. The Little Foxes is also about awful people: "people who eat the earth, and people who stand by and watch them do it."
According to Wikipedia, the Bible verse from which the title derives would have been more accurately translated as "Take us the fruitbats, the little fruitbats, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Having grown up among grapevines with plenty of fruitbats, I can tell you that fruitbats are pretty cute and don't really bother anybody. The mistranslation is much more fitting for a play about sneaky siblings scheming to cheat each other out of the profits from their new cotton mill.
Floozy and I were skeptical because of the nearly three-hour running time, and even discussed the possibility of leaving during an intermission if the play didn't deliver. But it turned out to be the "riveting" drama promised on the ACT Web site. I barely even yawned the whole time.
14 November 2006
Smarty's Sunday Salon
Betsy took these pictures on Sunday. Four of my favorite lady-friends brought their winter projects to my house, where we spent a cozy afternoon and evening crafting and communing over food, wine, and yarn. And also some dead mice. Thanks, ladies, for the best Sunday in a long while!