Ode to Cal Shakes: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

It was hot.  So hot that self felt she was sitting in a jeepney in the Philippines.  But she didn’t want to get up or miss even one minute of the Cal Shakes’ production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” She loved every single moment: Young love, crossed purposes, magic potions, sexy Queens, a handsome Lysander (strumming a banjo —  and his voice was not bad, either), a feisty Hermia, a very hip Puck (bronze Coke-bottle shades, fur down both pants legs, bare chest, thank God he was buff), a hilarious Bottom, mood music, a rousing finale —  what more could one wish for?

In keeping with the setting, this production was like a family affair: Puck addressed the cell phone issue and segued right into his lines from the play.  Characters ran up and down the aisles, or looked directly at various audience members as they were speaking.  When The Players perform, in Act II, members of the cast were seated among the audience, shouting their comments.  It might have been like this at the Globe –?  This is what self loves so much about watching a Cal Shakes’ production:  There is a lot of extemporaneous and impromptu action.  Shakespeare isn’t “heavy,” like a classical tome.

Plays are not really

Saturday in the City, Beautiful!

Oh, today was splendid, simply SPLEN-did, dear blog readers! Self was in the City, meeting up with niece G, who she had not seen since niece’s graduation from Stanford. Since then, so many things have happened: self has been to New York, Michael Jackson has died, and niece has started teaching at Daniel Webster Elementary School. It was so wonderful to get together, and Luis Francia’s play provided the perfect occasion! Niece really liked the anthology he co-edited, with Angel Shaw, Vestiges of War. She said she had used a lot of the information for a senior paper.

So, self went to the City (successfully negotiating BART, but it took her an hour and a half, starting from the minute she exited her house to the arrival at the Civic Center station — compared to New York’s subways, BART is pathetic), and watched Luis’ play with niece (Super-entertaining! And not a dull moment! Self couldn’t help wondering, afterwards, why

YAY!! Other Good Stuff

While self was getting all sweaty in the garden, the phone rang. Self has given up dashing inside to try and reach the phone before it goes to voice mail, for she knows from long experience that she never gets there in time.

When self finally went and checked the message, it was from niece G!!! Who she’d invited to go with her to the reading of Luis Francia’s play this weekend!

Just a little update on niece: She graduated from Stanford this June (Self forgets who the commencement speaker was. She’s sure it wasn’t anyone like Steve Jobs or Oprah. Or James Franco. Was it the Google founder? Nooo. Then who was it? Think, self, think!) Now, niece is going to begin her first year of teaching for Teach For America: at Walter Hill? Is that in Potrero? Niece was sooo lucky (so was self!) that she got assigned to San Francisco! Now self will see more of her!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.

Sometimes You Even Win

Self just got the news like, 10 minutes ago: she’d been rather half-heartedly reading her e-mail when she saw the message from the Writer’s Center in Washington, D.C. Mayor of the Roses was selected with seven other books to be featured in the Writer’s Center Spring 2010 reading series.

Here are the other fellows:

• Anthony

Just Published

Self’s “Appetites” — in Cafe Irreal, vol. 31, UP NOW.

(Yay!)

Home! Home! Home!

CBS News is doing a long segment on the Michael Jackson will (one of them, anyway).

Self is so excited to be home!  She can hardly wait to decide what movie she will see tomorrow!

Li’l crits look good (not, of course, as good as Miss H —  no dog can equal the excellence of Miss H!)

California weather is the best!  Simply the best!  Cool-ish!  Self nearly fell over herself with gratitude!  (Though house is warm, like an oven —  we of course have no A/C)

Self should say, though, that she had a very good meal in the airport in Atlanta  —  in the Fast Food Court, some southern chicken chain named Paschal’s. Self had a rotisserie chicken meal that came with black-eyed peas, yams, mashed potatoes, and two pieces of corn bread, all for $8.91! (Self must have been hungry — she ate almost everything on her plate)

And now that self is back home, she does have very fond memories of Pinkberry.  Also, the New York subways, though noisy and crowded and hot are, like, 100% better than any public transportation system in the Bay Area!  On good days, self could get from the Upper West Side to the Village in 15 minutes!

Ahhh, self can’t wait to catch up on her reading!  There are three issues of The New York Times Book Review she still hasn’t read!  (On the plane, self read the following:  the latest issue of People; the latest issue of Esquire, which had a great short story by Stephen King about a substitute teacher; today’s Wall Street Journal; and today’s New York Times.  She also grew so bored that she succumbed to watching “17 Again.”  Self can honestly say that she thinks Zac Efron —  gasp! —  is not a bad actor.  In fact, she actually laughed out loud several times while watching the movie!)

It’s too dark to see the garden —  but tomorrow self knows she will be watering with a vengeance!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.

9 p.m., Upper West Side

It rained — no, poured — this afternoon, and self got to watch the whole thing from the window of a friend’s place in the Village. Then, just as she headed out to go back home, it stopped (luck, and yet more luck). And the world was born anew. And everything smelled so fresh. And self saw the Angelika Movie Theater across the street begin to fill up, and she got a cab the minute she stuck an arm out, and she went to a restaurant called Fatty Crab to meet her nephew (he walked straight across Central Park and it only took him 20 minutes), and had “fatty duck” and beef rendang and something called “sliders” that turned out to be mini-hamburgers, and while self was walking home, somewhere on 73rd, her phone rang and it was Penny calling from Ohio, from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and she told self that she was having a fabulous time, she was having to write a story a day but loving it.

And wasn’t that the darndest thing about the South Carolina governor, who said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail and ended up being in Argentina, and wouldn’t you think politicians would know by now, especially after witnessing Eliot Spitzer’s flame-out, but people will never learn, or maybe it’s just that he was really in love and it made him crazy, who knows.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.

The Day After Commencement 2009 (A Very Rambling Post)

Self fairly groggy and bleary-eyed this morning — this despite having had six and a half hours sleep last night: a record, the most hours self has ever slept in a hotel room.

What can self say about being here? The weather in San Luis Obispo is always beautiful. The streets of the town are so quaint that they make self want to cry. The coconut and pineapple bars from the Old Edna Deli are the best self has ever tasted, the spinach-stuffed ravioli self had yesterday at Café Roma was ravishing, and The Holiday Inn Express in Atascadero is fine beyond belief.

Let’s see, what happened yesterday? After dinner with son and Kramer (who had driven down for the weekend and stayed until the last possible moment, even though he has a job in Sunnyvale that requires him to be awake and work-ready at 8 a.m. today), we all went downtown, to the Barnes & Noble. This particular B & N is amazing: there is an escalator to the second floor (self suddenly remembers that the B & N on the upper East Side has similar vastness — but it just doesn’t have the same vibe) where there is a coffee shop that actually sells good coffee. There are students everywhere. They do not carry either The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, but at least they have The Los Angeles Times. Son browsed the GRE books, hubby browsed the military history books, and self sat on a chair in the back, reading the papers. Outside, in the movie theatre next door, “Terminator: Salvation” (which son wants to see today, self didn’t even dare bring up “Star Trek”!!!) and “Land of the Lost” were showing. Self had told son and Kramer at dinner (Tahoe Joe’s) that “Land of the Lost” was an incredibly good movie, and they both looked at her with poker faces. At that dinner, self could only manage an appetizer of deep-fried artichoke hearts. But the boys, in spite of having had very hearty meal at Café Roma for lunch, went straight for the Joe’s Ribeye Steaks and plowed manfully through.

Now, self realizes she is beginning to ramble. She was writing about the Barnes & Noble, and now she’s moved backwards to Tahoe Joe. Before she risks further alienating dear blog readers, self will bid them adieu. Only until tonight, however, when self will hopefully be able to amuse with tales of fresh adventures. Self will close with a picture of a most fab dessert, son’s chocolate something at Café Roma:

Son’s chocolate dessert from Café Roma

Cal Poly, Commencement 2009

Hubby and self are staying in a brand new Holiday Inn Express (only open 11 months, and the rooms still have that brand-new feeling) in Atascadero. Both of us are bug-eyed from lack of sleep. Late last night, met up with old Ateneo chum of hubby’s, Fulton. There ensued much reminiscing, much discussion of our respective sons, Fulton turns out to be a regular font of information about economical travel.

Then, before we knew it, it was time to pick up our rental car from SFO (since both our cars are clunkers and would probably fall apart if we tried to drive them to San Luis Obispo). Then, straight to bed, though hubby was still maniacally watering at 11 p.m.

Then, awake at 3:30 a.m. Self was so groggy. Barely had time to down half a cup of coffee. Thank goodness hubby drove all the way.

Called son when we passed Paso Robles. “Where are you?” he asked (from the sound of his voice, it seemed he’d been wide awake for a while. Highly unusual, at least for son!) When we told him, he said, “Oh my God. Hurry up.”

And so hubby stepped on it, and we met up with son at 7:45. Then there ensued very long walk to Spanos Stadium, but it was quite a good thing we got there early, for son told us we had to reserve seats for six other people. Hubby elected to sit high up in the bleachers, instead of down below, on the field. Self has attached pictures she took, an hour before commencement.

Suffice it to say that self had so much fun chatting with son’s friends, and the one with the straw hat that says “Tonga” on the brim is his housemate, Russell, and self will post later about the late lunch at Cafe Roma (which was absolutely fab), but for now she has to check her on-line class!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.

Up in the bleachers of Spanos Stadium, an hour before Commencement 2009

Russell, who expects to graduate in two years

Luck # 2

Our neighbor around the corner had a garage sale, and these are the goodies self bought from her:

a dozen hyacinth bulbs; a kind of tiny rake that neighbor said she used "for candles"; a wicker basket

Off to the side, out of the picture, another set of bulbs:  watsonia.  Self spent a grand total of $7, broken down this way:

• 50 cents for a dozen (pink) watsonia bulbs, to plant in the fall
• 50 cents for a dozen (blue) hyacinth bulbs, to plant in the fall
• $3 for a wicker basket with compartments (for self to use toting around her trowels, shears, and what-not)
• $3 for a tiny rake that bears a stamp saying “Briddell No. 60”.  It looks very old.

Self does the happy happy joy joy dance.

*   *   *

OK, self did a little nosing around the internet, and she discovered that the tool stamped “Briddell No. 60,” which neighbor told self she used “for candles,” and which self is planning to use as a gardening implement, is actually an ice pick, used to “break large ice blocks into smaller chips for drinks.” You can see more pictures of similar tools here.

As Spock himself might say:  “Fascinating.”

It looks evil.  Self would just love to use it to impale snails.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.