Went to see this Aumentare production last night and quite enjoyed it. The story lines were good (but what would you expect from Woody ALlen, David Mamet, and Elaine May?), the casting was good, the acting by Liz Iversen, Renee Bucciarelli, John Burnside, Andre Fex, D. Neil Mark, Odessa Shuquaya, Christopher Pearce, an Gemma Isaac was good, and the direction by Lynna Goldhar Smith was, as usual, good. Well, good is an understatement, but today I’m tired of cliched superlatives. Let’s just say I’d definitely go back. It was a solid performance, and I spent a lovely evening completely distracted from an otherwise all too stressful life.
The pre-show dinner at Havana was lovely, as well. The restaurant was busy, busy, busy, and though we got there just before 6:00, we were out a few minutes before showtime. We had dinner with two other couples, and everyone seemed to be very happy with their meals - in fact, everyone tucked into dessert, which is rare to see these days. I had lovely steamed shellfish in a curry broth, which was a good choice - see, no gratuitous cliched superlatives.
Somehow, I’ve never really gotten into the whole MySpace or Facebook thing. It’s one thing to have a blog; it’s another to fill out forms that require me to disclose personal information in a central place that could be used as a clearing house for identity theft. But a friend who keeps changing his email address invited me to be a Facebook contact, and reluctantly, I filled in the absolute minimum to sign up. And then another friend invited me, and another ... So now I am a reluctant community member, and find myself requesting my forgotten password on a regular basis to be able to link in. But I don’t want to “share” and “poke” (I know that as a euphemism for sex, so find it a rather smarmy phrase) and “write on walls”. It’s not that I’m technophobic - I’m in the technology business, after all - but it just doesn’t suit me. (I already find it annoying having to block provocative invitations from younger men in far-off countries who find me through skype - do I need to fend off more credit card theft types trying to convince me to become his fiancee for purposes of fencing stolen goods? I think not.)
Anyhow, I started doing some research on Facebook, and came up with a YouTube video (below) from a Hindi acapella group called Penn Masala. Aside from being an extremely witty video (and perceptively insightful, given the reported behaviour by the stalker/killer on the West Virginia campus) , the group’s regular music is great. It combines English and Hindi lyrics, and North American and Indian sounds, and it all comes together beautifully. I’ve always been an acapella fan, from a guy group popular in the 80s and 90s, whose name escapes me at the moment, to the Flirtations, to Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Canadian Four the Moment, and Bobby McFerrin when he does his voice-pure performances. Penn Masala is a wonderful addition to my admittedly eclectic musical collection. What a wonderful side-effect to my facebook experience!
Last week, we were in San Francisco for a conference. We got to use our timeshare for the first time, and I said that if the staff were as friendly and helpful at all the locations as here, I was really going to like this timeshare thing. Four blocks from the conference hotel - a nice morning walk - and we were able to have breakfast in the room. E. found imported Greek yogurt, a treat she hadn’t had in almost a decade, so she was able to indulge each morning. Evidently due to trade restrictions (high duties), Fage yogurt isn’t available in Canada.
As always, the conference consumed us; between the presentations, volunteering at our professional association booth, the summit, the chatting with people I only see at conferences, the after-hours chatting with people I’ve connected with at the conference, hookin up with people after the conference to see software demos, there was barely time to take a cable car, even though we stayed an extra day so we could have at least a little down time. So we compromised by taking a cable car to the hotel of a software vendor so we could get a demo. Actually, that was the one negative of my trip - an extreme rude cable car operator who was insulting me and others as we boarded.
We had just enough time to catch a coffee at the Bagdad Cafe in the Castro, and then race off the airport. Well, that was it for San Fran until next year’s conference, I guess.
It’s a long weekend. Friday is a Canadian statutory holiday, and if I wanted to, I could decide to take Monday off as well - after all, banks and schools are closed. So what are we doing? What every small business owner is probably doing this weekend: working. Three presentations to be delivered in the next two weeks. Billable work. A stack of bills to go through. And I still couldn’t find my prescription. I ended up having to beg the pharmacist for an emergency prescription to last me until I can get a replacement from the doc. I hear it’s really nice outside.
Life is too short not to be the best you can be. Me? In no particular order: Woman. Wife. Mother. Grandmother. Aunt. Friend. Business owner. Writer. Musician. Jew. Scrabbler. Traveller. Lesbian. Taxpayer. Volunteer. Blogger. Social critic. Voice of reason. PITA. Inspiration. Visionary. Advocate. Convert. Pet owner.