Hamlet - NT Live

The repeat performances of Hamlet are playing in our city -- one performance was Saturday and one was tonight.

Duncan wanted to return and see the play again.  He loves Hamlet's madness scene in act i where the madness is acted out as though Hamlet is a toy soldier.

Image from NT Live Website

Unfortunately, that is the part in the show where Duncan fell asleep this time.

I had the reverse experience.  On the initial viewing, I fell asleep in the second act, so I did what I rarely do -- bought popcorn in the second half and those little white buttered kernels kept me awake.

I am dying to know how the Brooks kids enjoyed the play for we know they went tonight as well.

Rebecca's high point of a second tiime viewing is the chance to watch the acting a little bit more.

I spent a lot of time watching the lighting on the faces of the actors, and I think I enjoyed both the slow motion blocking as well as the strobe lights.

I have always loved the scene where Hamlet talks about playing the clarinet with his friends.

And Ophilia's madness was done so well with her body as well as her words -- I couldn't stop watching the jerky motion of her feet.

I can hardly wait to hear how you guys, did, Mary.  I was pleasantly surprised again to see that the IMAX theatre in Victoria was pretty well full again.  No one in the very front seats and a few people sat on the sides.   But the middle of the theatre was a full house.

While Duncan was watching the clips that precede the movie, the ones that show how many productions have been available to us, he could name the ones he had seen and there weren't many that he has missed.  I was thinking back to the first year I heard about the opera.  Catherine's children were little but she had taken them to a performance of Hansel and Gretel.  It took me another year to get hooked and now penciling into my calendar when the performances are is a happy part of my day.

Some good ones are coming.  The ballet is on the 15th and Lulu on the 21st and then another ballet on the 29th.

Arta

Vitamin K-2

Two or three Dr.s have been advising me to add Vitamin K-2 to my diet, as a way to promote bone health.  Hearing this once or twice would have been enough, but the suggestion has been coming from everywhere.

Rebecca decided to see what foods promote Vitamin K-2.

Natto.  Japanese natto.  Apparently natto has 1000 units of Vitamin K-2, far outstripping any other food.

Rebecca watched videos about natto.  The words stinky and slimy dropped from the lips of the commentator many times.  And the woman demonstrating how to eat this said that the chop-sticks have to be twisted around and around to prevent the fine cheese like strips from landing on a person's chin.

The fermented soy beans are to be eaten on rice, with a mustard sauce and some green onion strips added for freshness.

Even the clerks at the Japanese grocery store warned Rebecca against buying the product as well, two of them coming over to the refrigeration unit, hovering and warning her that she might not like the experience.

Rebecca has a high tolerance for adventure.  I have a high tolerance for new food tastes.

We are on our fourth package of fermented soy beans now -- both of us are getting our vitamin K-2 the natural way.

Others in the house flee the kitchen when we take the seal off of the package and begin to beat the soy beans to stimulate the stringy glutonous mass that surrounds them.

Nothng like fermented soy beans for an adventure.

Arta

Pouring in Victoria

      Photography: Rebecca               Elk Lake 

It is evening and pouring rain in Victoria.

I took my walk at noon in the sun -- 40 minutes on the pavement, down to Sierra Park and around some cul-de-sacs I have never walked.

Such a joy to be in the sun and to walk on dry pavement.

The rest of the family took time to see the new James Bond movie: Specture

My only TV watching was with Steve. He watched two soccer matches.  Both were against Manchester -- the second was their game with West Brom.  I wanted to know what Brom stands for.  Apparently Bromwich, a city in the Midlands.

I was asking Steve every question in the book, never having seen such a sports exhbition where capitalism was in the forefront of every shot:  telegraphed around the outer perimeter of the game in neon lights, on the t-shirts on the players, on the leather seats of the sports managers and coaches.  I have never seen beer advertized in every language, the signs flashing as the ball was being kicked in, or thrown in from the sides.

I missed seeing James Bond.  Apparently there is something in the  show for people of all ages.

I really enjoyed the soccer on T.V., especially when I was reminded of the Midlands (the home of the losing team).  It wasn't very many years ago when Wyona and I had $700 passes to ride the British trains for 12 days.  We had to have passed through the midlands, for we went up one side of the British Islands, down the other, through Scotland, along Hadrian's wall and then up and down the middle of that beautiful island.  I have forgotten all of that until watching soccer.

I heard Steve saying he can hardly wait for the next Sabatical to London so he can see these games live.

I like watching sports from the comfort of a cozy chair.

Perhaps.

Arta

Regatta

Photo: Rebecca Johnson        REGATTA

Someone called to see if Rebecca would volunteer at the Regatta today -- "We just need someone to read the numbers over the microphone and announce where we are in the programme."

I could see by the slump in her shoulders that being at the Regatta at 8 am in a volunteer capacity wasn't the way she was wanting to spend the day.

This was even more so last night, when The Three Penny Opera didn't end until 11:30 pm.  That is the problem when a musical is still under copyright and there are restrictions on its performance.

Had the sun been shining, things may have also been different but you can see the clouds are behind the hills and the sun only comes out between the rain that falls lightly, and then heavily.

I thought a Regatta was a promise of a sunny day, flags flying and concessions selling hot dogs and popcorn.

As you can see, none of that is so.  A good part of the day is that she can wear the new rain boots she purchased, Chilcohtin in design, red and black -- works of art even though they are meant to take ones feet through the mud and rivulets that are everywhere.

The rain is making the grass so green in Victoria.  I get up every morning believing that there will be snow.  That is not the case.  Here, a welcome surprise to me,the yards are always green and today, the regatta is wet.

Arta

Mount Doug / Fall Concert

We attended the Mount Doug Fall Concert to listen to the concert bands, the choirs and the jazz bands.  Rebecca leaned over to me and said, "There is no doubt about it.  These high school performances are wonderful to listen to.

The house was brought down with "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", a grade IX violinist just killing it with her bow on the strings.

The Men's Choir made all of us lean forward with "My Girl".  There is a certain bravado high school males have when they will join the men's choir and then put us in the isles with our cheering.

I am not a fan of anime movies, but the last number was from Joe Hisaishi and arranged by Yo Goto, "My Neighbor Totoro".  The students knew the piece.  Their bodies were swaying to the music and I worked at listening up.  I don't want the musical world to pass me by because I haven't been listening.

Arta

The Three Penny Opera

A friend asked, "Where are you now?"

That is a question people often ask Wyona, but I don't do the same kind of travel.

Each day is so full I want to blog about it, and then the day passes and I am out of blogging energy.

Tonight we are going to a live performance of The Three Penny Opera at the University of Victoria.

Poster from University of Victoria
by Bertolt Brecht
Msic by Kurt Weill

I spent part of the day learning (or would that be re-learning) the plot and familiarizing myself with the story.

I am going to be familiar with two songs: "Pirate Jenny" and "Mack the Knife".  Of course, the performance said no one under 16.  Both Rebecca's boys got snuck in by their mom.  The subjects are difficult [and duncan says maybe 'inappropriate'!.  For example, here is the Pimp's Tango (as it was performed at the Tony Awards by Cindy Lauper and Alan Cummings).

So, where I am:  Victoria.

And what I am doing: going to listen to the director talk for an hour before watching the performance of tonight's show.

Fun.

And hours later:


An hour's lecture from the director, and then an opera with two intermissions -- Rebecca and I are both laughing, and still in shock. Now we have two shows we want to return to:  Hamlet and The Three Penny Opera.

The Victoria crowd is not your usual audience.  They were articulate with the director, and when he tossed out the names of the realist playwrites, as opposed to the Brectian ones, they were right back at him with questions.

I have some googling to do, since one of the questions was about the Beggar's Opera, from which this opera sprang.  The director said he had never heard the Beggar's Opera and someone in the audience knew that Benjamin Britten had put a piece of it in some requiem.  Well, who knew?

Rebecca got her boys there, me there, herself there ... and we all stayed until the live band had played their last notes, which included a solo from each, just as they do with the Jersey Boys in London.

Now how was that for a cool evening.

Arta

Halloween - Rocky Horror Picture Show

Shadow of witch, in her hat
... viewing the dusk coming in ...

"Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).  You have never seen it?"

...Halloween Eve falls at the lake...
... in a few moments the bats will begin to flit through the sky ...

I had to tell people, no, I had never seen the show.  Sometimes a cult film can just pass a person by for one decade and then another and then another.  All the way from the plays inception in 1973 as a musical to now.

Gillian had two tickets to see the show at a local theatre.  Those tickets already had names on them, one of them being Duncan's.

In preparation, people who had never seen the movie, also go to see the moview in a family viewing the night before.

We had everything -- the treats, the pre-reading done, and the movie downloaded.

I didn't know about the throwing of the toast nor the rice nor the spraying of the water, nor the dancing in the isles.

I was to learn all about this on the Friday night viewing.

And I was a passenger in the car as Ben and Duncan were dropped off at the corner of Quadra and Johnson Streets to join the queue of people showing their electronic tickets and being given entrance to the theatre.

When it is Halloween, I can't really tell if people are dressed up or not.  At least not in all cases.  For example, the person standing in line on crutches?  Were those crutches props, or the real thing.

At the intermission Duncan sent his mother a text saying, "This is better than I had ever imagined."

On the way home the men told us that it was just not the people in the isle seats that were dancing.  They reported that the whole theatre was alive with folk finishing off the evening with one last dance.

To refresh your mind if you are like all others, or just to say them again if you are new to The Rocky Horror Picture show ... read on:

(Guests) Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Narrator) It's just a jump to the left.

(Guests) And then a step to the right.

(Narrator) With your hand on your hips.

(Guests) You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust.
They really drive you insane.
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

I should have learned these moves while I still had two flexible hips!

Arta