Week in Review

This has been a long and short week at the same time. Two days off in a week - wow! And the end of the voter guide preparation madness, with election day - super wow! And yet, the three days at work this week just seemed WAY more difficult to get through than I anticipated. There are some relatively minor issues to address, I think, and I'll certainly address them... next week.

Outside of work, this has been a great week (other than a deep sense of fatigue and sleepiness that stole over me from time to time). I saw a presentation by Russell Jackson, a long-time "text advisor" to Kenneth Branagh, on Monday night - "Filming Shakespeare with Kenneth Branagh." (The Big Cheese himself was invited, but fobbed us off with a generic "thank you for the honor and buy my soon-to-be-released product" video; supposedly he recorded it just the Thursday before, but I noticed he was careful not to customize it by referring to New York, or the Shakespeare Society). The presentation was interesting, with clips from Henry V (my favorite of his films) and Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite love story, and a good film), as well as Hamlet (an oddly surreal and largely unsatisfying film) and Love's Labour's Lost (which I have not seen and will not now that I've seen a sample of its awfulness). He also showed us the trailer for his upcoming HBO release film, As You Like It. It felt like a "Masterpiece Theater" production, but I would probably watch it if I had HBO. And a TV/VCR.

Tuesday, I played hookey from my Psalms study group and went to see the opening night production of Twelfth Night at BAM Harvey Theatre. It was well done and interesting, to be sure. It was done in Russian, with English subtitles, by an all-male cast minimally dressed in black and white. Lighting largely substituted for scenery and props. The production tended toward overt physicality (to make up for the language barrier), although I didn't find the interpretation particularly novel in its insights. Ever since Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, it has been a fairly standard interpretation to play the tricksters/pranksters as clumsy michief-makers whose success is due solely to the self-absorption (obliviousness) of their dupe/target. (Here, the trick is played on Malvolio alone to make him think Olivia loves him; in Much Ado, the trick was played on both Beatrice and Benedick to convince each of them that the other loves). One slight novelty in this production (more "cute" than anything else) is that Malvolio at the end is dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase or something when he stands alone and expresses his desire to be revenged on the lot of them - he is clearly contemplating legal action. That got a cheap laugh (which it deserved).

Yesterday, I saw Cirque de Soleil's "Delerium" at Madison Square Garden. It was basically a rock concert with cool lighting and special effects (recreating water, fire, gardens, jellyfish, etc. using ribbons, screens, and projected patterns), plus some gymnastics/dancing. I love the dancers who flip over and over like a slinky. They also did the expected showing off (e.g., one-armed handstand on another guy's head, human trampolines, etc.). Very cool, but I have to confess that the intense drowsiness I felt (maybe due to the lack of oxygen at the top tier?) interfered with my full enjoyment of the piece. The "story" - Guy Has Dream - didn't do it for me either. One of my favorite images, however, was a pile of gymnast/dancers who were being slowly moved off-stage: they were dappled with light, making it look like a giant blobby creature (e.g., jellyfish or sea monster) slowly moving away.

Today, now that I've been out walking in the park, opened all the windows to let sunshine in, and got some of my shopping done, my mission (should I choose to accept it) is to clean up my apartment for MJ tonight, deal with the retirement plan from my old firm (it's about time, eh?) and cook up a storm. Yippee!