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Some Semblance
Oct. 24th, 2011 10:57 pmWore a robe yesterday which I hadn't worn in about a year. (I rotate robes seasonally with changing temperatures, as you do.) Scarlett immediately recognized that it was her robe, or more accurately had been until she gave it to me several years ago in one of those purging fits she and REL regularly have where I rescue things I know they will regret throwing away, forget having thrown away, and spend years trying to figure out where they've put. Then they see me with it and "aha there is my thing which you must have borrowed and not given back, which is why I couldn't find it."
I usually go ahead and give the thing back without minding too much or resenting the restoration and repair work I've generally done on the object, given that they also tend to give me other cool hand-me-downs which they don't take back. (I can also usually guess which will be which, and I do think the robe in question is one which properly belongs with Scarlett.) Still, there is a certain degree of Ugly Stepsister "but that's my dress/sash/beads" each time this happens, albeit with less in the way of malice, ripping fabric, or talking mice.
Saw the movie 3, which is worth catching if you can - it's in very limited release in the U.S., despite being a Tom Tykwer film (Run Lola Run, Perfume), presumably because consenting adults who look like normal people have sex in it which is neither pornographic nor unpleasant, and at other points talk about bioethics in a way that suggests a knowledge of contemporary debates in bioethics. (Compare to Human Centipede II, which has not had these distribution problems.)
Also watched a really horrible stage play which did exactly everything wrong. I am deliberately not saying where or when I saw it or what the play was, as I don't want to call anybody out. But it was an older comedy-of-manners type of script, which tends to be problematic for a modern theater company without some alterations, since a lot of the boundary-testing jokes will either seem like not a big deal (why do people keep standing up and sitting down when the woman does?) or seem horribly offensive (why is this sexual assault presented as lighthearted?)
This company stuck with the idea that it was a comedy, made no alterations, but also played it totally straight; there did not seem to be a comedian on stage. And everybody was the wrong age for their parts, not just in reality, but in how they played them. As a result, it was always very difficult to understand what was going on, or who if anybody I was supposed to root for or sympathize with, or the rules of a given interaction. It did not help that most lines were delivered as though there was no connection between the words in them.
Very, very strange. Although I have spent the majority of my professional life in film and theater, I have also seen a normal person share of school plays and community theater, and am noting this stands out as the worst. Worse even than that awful version of Dracula I built props for. Worse than a certain legendarily bad musical I was involved with and yet love for its earnestness.
Today construction started on the bathroom, basically without warning. The contractor showed up for what we thought was a meeting, and then a bunch of other guys showed up and within a few hours everything was down to studs. Fortunately I have very good earplugs.
Meanwhile, I have been mailed a voucher to get a free sample of Snus, a dry snuff. The voucher notes that I am being sent this voucher because I am a known tobacco user, and otherwise it would be beyond the pale to send such a thing to me. Considering that I've never even bought cigarettes as a prop, or a cigar as a gift for someone, I'm not clear how my name could have ended up on such a list. Also, the voucher specifies that it's illegal for me to use it in Massachusetts and I have to drive to another state to get this free snuff. Ciro theorizes there is a second secret Romie in the house. I suppose it's possible. The house is large enough we might avoid each other.
I usually go ahead and give the thing back without minding too much or resenting the restoration and repair work I've generally done on the object, given that they also tend to give me other cool hand-me-downs which they don't take back. (I can also usually guess which will be which, and I do think the robe in question is one which properly belongs with Scarlett.) Still, there is a certain degree of Ugly Stepsister "but that's my dress/sash/beads" each time this happens, albeit with less in the way of malice, ripping fabric, or talking mice.
Saw the movie 3, which is worth catching if you can - it's in very limited release in the U.S., despite being a Tom Tykwer film (Run Lola Run, Perfume), presumably because consenting adults who look like normal people have sex in it which is neither pornographic nor unpleasant, and at other points talk about bioethics in a way that suggests a knowledge of contemporary debates in bioethics. (Compare to Human Centipede II, which has not had these distribution problems.)
Also watched a really horrible stage play which did exactly everything wrong. I am deliberately not saying where or when I saw it or what the play was, as I don't want to call anybody out. But it was an older comedy-of-manners type of script, which tends to be problematic for a modern theater company without some alterations, since a lot of the boundary-testing jokes will either seem like not a big deal (why do people keep standing up and sitting down when the woman does?) or seem horribly offensive (why is this sexual assault presented as lighthearted?)
This company stuck with the idea that it was a comedy, made no alterations, but also played it totally straight; there did not seem to be a comedian on stage. And everybody was the wrong age for their parts, not just in reality, but in how they played them. As a result, it was always very difficult to understand what was going on, or who if anybody I was supposed to root for or sympathize with, or the rules of a given interaction. It did not help that most lines were delivered as though there was no connection between the words in them.
Very, very strange. Although I have spent the majority of my professional life in film and theater, I have also seen a normal person share of school plays and community theater, and am noting this stands out as the worst. Worse even than that awful version of Dracula I built props for. Worse than a certain legendarily bad musical I was involved with and yet love for its earnestness.
Today construction started on the bathroom, basically without warning. The contractor showed up for what we thought was a meeting, and then a bunch of other guys showed up and within a few hours everything was down to studs. Fortunately I have very good earplugs.
Meanwhile, I have been mailed a voucher to get a free sample of Snus, a dry snuff. The voucher notes that I am being sent this voucher because I am a known tobacco user, and otherwise it would be beyond the pale to send such a thing to me. Considering that I've never even bought cigarettes as a prop, or a cigar as a gift for someone, I'm not clear how my name could have ended up on such a list. Also, the voucher specifies that it's illegal for me to use it in Massachusetts and I have to drive to another state to get this free snuff. Ciro theorizes there is a second secret Romie in the house. I suppose it's possible. The house is large enough we might avoid each other.
