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Writing this entry from the Oxford Tube. Brain is fried from a three hour group meeting. Have about two hours to regenerate said brain before the next meeting begins. Whee!
It seems odd to relish the commute home as my time to relax. However, today has been ridiculously hectic -- albeit somewhat productive -- making this the first chance I have had all day to do something fun.
Which means I'm not going to talk about anything physics related. Nope. I'm on break. Instead, I am going to talk about theatre!!
So, as I have already chronicled within these [virtual] pages, last week![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat and I went to see Chess. Leaving the show, I realised that what I wanted, more than anything in the world[**] was greens, greens, nothing but greens was the soundtrack to Chess. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an "Original London Cast" recording. And I am sure not going to be bothered with the farce that passes for the Broadway version. What I would love is a copy of the version recorded at the Royal Albert Hall last year. However, that will not be released until Spring so, for now, I have to make do with the concept album.
Said album was acquired the next day. One week later, I am not quite sure how many times I have listened to it... but I am well on my way to having the entire score memorised.[***] Good stuff![****]
Since I ice skate on Mondays and ring bells on Tuesdays & Thursdays, Wednesday night is the best opportunity for theatre. Yesterday was a Wednesday, and it did not break the mould.cheshcat and I went to go see the Creation Theatre company perform a version of Hans Christian Anderson's tales in the Mirror Tent. These are the people responsible for giving me hypothermia back in August. Since it is now December, they have wisely stopped doing outdoor theatre for the year. The Mirror Tent is a very spiffy venue for performances. It is one hundred years old and normally lives in Holland[*****]. Creation brings it to Oxford each December to use; last year, we saw them do a production of The Brothers Grimm in it! Fun times!
Finally, I owe an enormous:
jeneralist. She recently brought it to my attention that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan will be starring together in a production of Waiting for Godot that will be touring in the UK next year. Without her intervention, this may have slipped entirely beneath my radar. However, due to her considerate e-nudging me in the right direction, cheshcat and I now have tickets to see this Dynamic Duo perform in Milton Keynes on March 21st. I suspect that more than one person on my f-list would enjoy seeing Magneto and Professor X waiting around for Godot, so I am passing the favour along. There are many seats left -- if you are a fan of Beckett, Stewart, or McKellan then get thee to a [virtual] ticket booth!
[*] Because I am feeling generous, I will award one hundred points to the first person who correctly identifies where the title of this post came from.
[**] Not really... but I will award another hundred points to the first person who correctly identifies where this line comes from. Note that I even gave y'all a hint!
[***] Does that make me the Arbiter? (One hundred points to the first person who correctly explains why this is a pun)
[****] Note tosqueektoy42: By mentioning Chess again, I am affording you another opportunity to join in on the musical theatre discussion. You were conspicuously absent from said discussion last week, my dear. I will forgive it this once, given that you were away eating dead birds and whatnot. Please don't make the same mistake twice, oh Queen of Musical Theatre!
[*****] I don't know what it is about Holland that produces such spifftacular things! One of the highlights of last weekend, where we went to see Oxford's Winter Light event, was a brass band from Holland -- called Decibel -- that was much fun! They had forward-facing euphoniums and a sousaphone stuffed with a chicken... and they played songs like Eye of the Tiger and YMCA. They also take requests shouted out of a window across the street and one story up by a bloke wearing nothing but a bathrobe!
[******] Yes, there are more than one.
It seems odd to relish the commute home as my time to relax. However, today has been ridiculously hectic -- albeit somewhat productive -- making this the first chance I have had all day to do something fun.
Which means I'm not going to talk about anything physics related. Nope. I'm on break. Instead, I am going to talk about theatre!!
So, as I have already chronicled within these [virtual] pages, last week
cheshcat and I went to see Chess. Leaving the show, I realised that what I wanted, more than anything in the world[**] was Said album was acquired the next day. One week later, I am not quite sure how many times I have listened to it... but I am well on my way to having the entire score memorised.[***] Good stuff![****]
Since I ice skate on Mondays and ring bells on Tuesdays & Thursdays, Wednesday night is the best opportunity for theatre. Yesterday was a Wednesday, and it did not break the mould.
cheshcat and I went to go see the Creation Theatre company perform a version of Hans Christian Anderson's tales in the Mirror Tent. These are the people responsible for giving me hypothermia back in August. Since it is now December, they have wisely stopped doing outdoor theatre for the year. The Mirror Tent is a very spiffy venue for performances. It is one hundred years old and normally lives in Holland[*****]. Creation brings it to Oxford each December to use; last year, we saw them do a production of The Brothers Grimm in it! Fun times!Finally, I owe an enormous:
THANK YOU
to one of the wonderful Dr. Jens on my f-list[******] -- the ever-amazing ever-adorablejeneralist. She recently brought it to my attention that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan will be starring together in a production of Waiting for Godot that will be touring in the UK next year. Without her intervention, this may have slipped entirely beneath my radar. However, due to her considerate e-nudging me in the right direction, cheshcat and I now have tickets to see this Dynamic Duo perform in Milton Keynes on March 21st. I suspect that more than one person on my f-list would enjoy seeing Magneto and Professor X waiting around for Godot, so I am passing the favour along. There are many seats left -- if you are a fan of Beckett, Stewart, or McKellan then get thee to a [virtual] ticket booth![*] Because I am feeling generous, I will award one hundred points to the first person who correctly identifies where the title of this post came from.
[**] Not really... but I will award another hundred points to the first person who correctly identifies where this line comes from. Note that I even gave y'all a hint!
[***] Does that make me the Arbiter? (One hundred points to the first person who correctly explains why this is a pun)
[****] Note to
squeektoy42: By mentioning Chess again, I am affording you another opportunity to join in on the musical theatre discussion. You were conspicuously absent from said discussion last week, my dear. I will forgive it this once, given that you were away eating dead birds and whatnot. Please don't make the same mistake twice, oh Queen of Musical Theatre![*****] I don't know what it is about Holland that produces such spifftacular things! One of the highlights of last weekend, where we went to see Oxford's Winter Light event, was a brass band from Holland -- called Decibel -- that was much fun! They had forward-facing euphoniums and a sousaphone stuffed with a chicken... and they played songs like Eye of the Tiger and YMCA. They also take requests shouted out of a window across the street and one story up by a bloke wearing nothing but a bathrobe!
[******] Yes, there are more than one.
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Star Trek- Spock's Brain!
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This is what I get for watching The Sara Jane Adventures, and not continually pressing refresh on my friends list....
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One hundred points for you, Gorgeous!!
(Personally delivered by lil ol me! *wink*)
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I tend to think of this is Magneto and Professor X, since they are together. Gandalf and Jean Luc Picard are less commonly seen together... *grin*
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Does it count as cheating if i had to use google to figure out the pun? I bet it does. It feels like it might. So i'll have to pass on this one and just count myself that much happier to not have gotten the pun.
W00t!
Also, i am very jealous of your theater-goings. If i am not going to England as part of my job next summer, i will definitely be saving my lion butts.
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(Which is the nice way of saying: "Yes, it is cheating if you have to look it up!" Thank you for preserving the honour and dignity of this great sport, my dear, by not cheating!)
I would love to have you visit us sometime! And if you do, I promise to comb the area for spiffy theatre opportunities! How's that for a deal-sweetener?
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I know I owe you an email... it's been a crazy (in a good way) week! Soon, I promise!
xoxoxo
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Please to be having one hundred points, Sweetie! I can bring them to you in person for an extra-special delivery in just nineteen more days! *wink*
As for the e-mail? Don't worry about it. I totally understand what crazy busy is like! Very glad that you are having fun... and I can't wait to hear what you have been up to, my dear!
xoXox
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Overall, though, I agree with you about Beckett. When I went to see Endgame in Chicago with
Still, in this case, I can make an exception! *grin*
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OK- i am well and truly envious
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The members of my cohort, seeing me walk into class tomorrow! Oh wait, wrong pronoun. Oh wait, the time machine blew up so you can't see that yet. Never mind...
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(I probably need to build another time machine. Just because. What's the worst that can happen? It blows up? We already know that when such happens it is way cool!)
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Until someone explained it to me, I thought that it was important for some reason for the board to come from a neutral country, not under the control of either the US and USSR. But now I understand Point 23 better.
Great, now I want to sing "how can you see what used to be a model of decorumand tranquility become like any other sport a battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee." I'm going to have to dig up my copy -- or get a new copy.
Perhaps my favorite song to sing from the album is "Embassy Lament".
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Still, you provided more detail than necessary to win the hundred points. They are yours!
Speaking of points, you may need to explain to me what is so clever about Point 23. The only possible pun I saw in there is that Sweden produces "non-aligned wood" (i.e., aligned with neither the US or the USSR). Hmmm... now I am wondering if there is some bit of cleverness hidden in Point 17 or Point 31, too. It does seem odd to me that the Arbiter spends the quartet singing totally random and ineffectual rules at us.
If you can find your copy of the album, that would be great. If not, though, I would suggest holding off on buying a new copy. I suspect that the Royal Albert Hall concert version -- going on sale in the Spring (they say) -- is going to be phenomenal!
I like the Embassy Lament, though I'm not sure if I have a favourite to sing. I quite enjoy singing "Where I Want To Be" and "Nobody's On Nobody's Side" and "The Arbiter" and "Pity The Child", too!
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I strongly suspect that the Arbiter's role in that quartet was inspired by the negotiations for the Fisher/Spassky World Championship match of 1972, where Fisher kept making increasingly arbitrary and picayune demands (which FIDE agreed to). Fisher had his special chair brought to the game, required the TV cameras be silent (or removed), and lots of other demands which didn't relate to his abilities over the board. He also failed to appear to the opening ceremonies (causing more deliberation between Fisher and FIDE), brought his lawyer as part of his entourage, and forfeited game 2 (because he was upset about the physical conditions he was playing under, causing a concession by FIDE over the TV cameras and other noise sources).
He also didn't follow the usual high-level match strategy of studying in depth a small number of openings and using them repeatedly during the match. He never played the same opening twice, and played some novel openings he'd never played before. This, of course, completely stymied Spassky's preparations, which, as was traditional, involved studying his opponents traditional openings to find weaknesses. As such, despite his off-board antics, Fisher blew away Spassky on the board.
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I know a bit about Bobby Fischer, though I am no expert. Didn't he forfeit the next championship to Anatoly Karpov because the FIDE wouldn't meet all of his demands?
By the way, you aren't the only one with strains from the Quartet going through his head today! I've got bits and pieces flowing in and out of my brain, too. Whee! Earworms!
By the way #2, the version that we saw had a prologue with a young Florence and her father. He gives her a chess piece (that she keeps on her as an adult) and sings, to the same tune as the Quartet, a bit that the choir does in "The Story of Chess":
"Each game of chess means there's one less variation to be played.
Each day got through means one or two less mistakes remain to be made."
Very cool!
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Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart together onstage? Why isn't that transporter finished yet?!
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And, yes, Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart on stage together. How cool is that???
Oddly enough, though, I'm not hearing anything any interest from the UK portion of my f-list. There seems to be a fair bit of envy from the US part of my f-list, who cannot make it over here to see the performance... but my UK people (for whom I posted this info, as they could go buy tickets more feasibly) seem none too enthused. Go figure!
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I've seen McKellan on stage (RSC's King Lear[*]) and I've seen Stewart on stage four times. I have never seen them both together.
I don't even like Samuel Beckett... and I was determined to see this one! We got lucky, too -- front row seats!
[*] After which I shook Sir Ian's hand whilst Chesh told him that he was even better on stage than Patrick Stewart. :-)
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(And every time I think of Sir Ian, somewhere in a dim corner of my brain a voice is chanting in a childish sing-song, "Gandalf is ga-ay! Gandalf is ga-ay!")
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Sorry to hear you are feeling down. I'll write more, but not right here...
*big hugs*