Must. Keep. Feeding. Shakespeare. Obsession.

Saw All's Well that Ends Well at the Delacorte on Saturday. The weather was misty and cool, getting colder and wetter as the evening went on. There were a few technical hiccups, but nothing Spider Man-level. A few times, the microphones picked up someone off-stage, and the first time it happened, they tried to shut off the offending mic and an actor got cut off instead. Also they stopped the production at one point to test the operation of their platform/elevator in the middle of the stage (which they used to bring in a desk or table for a change of scenes. It was a good production. The beginning invoked the spirit of the Bachelorette-type reality shows (though with a twist, of course, since the chosen one rejects the rose). The ending can be played many different ways - is Bertram resigned to his fate in a way that augurs well or ill for the now-inevitable marriage? Here, the ending came across as relatively optimistic; he at least seemed to feel a grudging respect for Helena, and perhaps will grow to love her in time (after all, he now knows he likes her body).

Today, I went to Hudson Warehouse's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing on the north side of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at 89th St & Riverside Park. The recurring problem with this particular location is that random passers-by who come along must walk right across the stage; there's not really a way around. Overall, the performance was enjoyable, though a bit heavy with the slapstick and caricature at times. Perhaps they were over-exggerating to signal this is supposed to be a comedy - or then again, maybe they just know their audience. The folks near me laughed hardest when the actors took it over the top. It was nice to see young Anne Page and Master Fenton as punky rebels who stand out (by clothes and attitude) from the rest of the characters in the play - this touch made their romance more plausible.

Afterward, I went up to a "Whole Foods" market which I'm not sure is licensed to use that name. I was going to buy a batch of four mini-bottles of drinkable pro-biotic yogurt, but while I was standing with the box balanced on my hand, there was the sound of a champagne cork popping, and the top of one of the bottles flew off. The expiration date was set as July 2011, so I can only assume that it was a bad batch.

I walked up to the 96th Street station, where I really liked the mosaics on the wall:



It may be hard to see in this picture, but the loops are filled in. It's a 96, of course, but it could also be a fanciful cloverleaf design. So I like it.