Old Post Clark museum

Well, I told everyone that I bailed the boat yesterday, and predicted the bailing would make rain today, and it is raining hard this morning with thunder as well.  No fishing just now.
I did catch four big bluegill off the dock and fed Keith and Gio bluegill bits for breakfast yesterday.  Gio had his first taste.  He liked them better with ketchup.  Dewey also had his first taste.
About 55 years ago I overhead my mother wondering aloud how my grandfather could eat bluegills done in just a little water, which he did for the rest of his life after a gall bladder attack.  It taught me they would not be good that way.  So, I've never cooked them that way.
Yesterday I put a bit of garlic on them and cooked tiny Lime Lake sized bluegills in a little water.  They were delicious.  Live and learn.

Dana, the Jeneral, Eliz, and I went up to the Clark and saw the new show called "Unearthed"
http://www.dailygazette.net/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=SCH/2012/07/12&ID=Ar02900&Section=Life_and_Arts
which was a collection of burial art dug up in the North Eastern part of China along the Silk road reflecting tombs from the 5th to the 11th century.  It was great.  There was a complete sarcophagus from Song Shaozu who died in 477 AD which had been taken apart, shipped and reassembled
(see the photo in this article)
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/41561/Clark-Exhibit-Explores-Founder-s-China-Connections.html?source=top_stories
and many great clay figures depecting vehicles like an oxcart that would take the dead to the promised land and scary figures that would protect them along the way as well as guard the crypt from robbers.  These are called zhenmushou. 
The horses shown were really fat, like the one I rode in Vegas.  There were also camels.  Camels were associated with wealth and status in 550-570.

My new word of the day was mingqi
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mgqi/hd_mgqi.htm

One of my old words from the trip to museum with Harvey and Alice was revisited.
ewer.
There was an ewer here with a decorative tiny chicken and a handle in the form of a dragon.

These diggings were a long way from Kung Ming where Gregg's dad did the photography; however, at the upper section of the Clark were photographs that used the same technique of pairing the past shot with a present shot.  We did not get to visit that part yesterday, but Gregg might like to see how the photographing pairings compare with his work.

I could not photograph the "Unearthed" displays, but I could photograph the rest of the permanent collection. 

I liked this painting of the Virgin and Child with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist by the Netherlandish artist Quentin Massys painted about 1520 to 1525.,Here the religious babies look like they are from the Netherlands and the scene beyond is very green and wonderful.


 




This is the second in a series of three paintings that depict a burglary. This one show the robbers being confronted and arrested. Here is what should happen to my tree robbing neighbors, I thought as I studied the paintings, especially the angry outrage on the faces of those doing the arresting. The artist is Louis Leopoid Boilly and the date 1810, just about the time my Ashcraft ancestors were opening up the land in the Southern tier for settlement.





My notes are weak on this one. Here was a young girl (nymph?) being attacked by a ferocious dragon and defended by a fellow riding a flying creature. Great stuff!



And of course, I had to reshoot this one of David Teniers "The Younger Card Players". Here is a fine poker painting showing the most negative possibilities in card playing. In addition, we were to revisit some of my favorites: The Winslow Homer paintings, especially the "Undertow" the Women of Amphissa who were hosted by the women of their enemies after they had spent too much time drinking in celebration of Bachus, the god of wine.. Plutarch said this was a lesson in charity. http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/tadema/paintings/king2.html

Afterwards, I had mahi mahi out on some lake in Massachusettes on the way back from the Clark. 
It was delicious. 
It was great to find something on the otherwise pub food and mostly fried menu that I could eat.  The Jeneral found this dish for me.  Thanks, Jen.

The lake was much larger than Burden Lake, but much noisier.  Perhaps this is not such a bad location after all. 
It certainly is quiet today as we prepare food for the relatives joining us soon for a gathering. As I post, the rain has been replaced by fine sunshine.

Old Post Shakespeare and company

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Shakespeare

We went with Peter and Donna to see the Tempest at Shakespeare and Company with Olivia Dukakis playing the part of Prospero (or Prospera). 
Most did not think she was as good as they hoped and might agree with this review
http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts/the-tempest-shakespeare-company-72712/24418/


but I liked her as well as all the other actors.  The entire experience was just so rich and satisfying.  I have never seen a better Tempest.
http://berkshireonstage.com/2012/01/11/coming-to-shakespeare-company-in-2012-lear-tempest-satchmo-red-allergists-wife-tartuffe-more/


http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kristin+wold+ariel&hl=en&sa=X&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS467US467&biw=1067&bih=411&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnso&tbnid=oX6eAMRUfa6HhM:&imgrefurl=http://berkshireonstage.com/2012/07/28/burns-and-cane-review-the-tempest-at-shakespeare-company/&docid=cX2fhrGlOyRleM&imgurl=http://berkshireonstage.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bostempestlead.jpg&w=700&h=445&ei=ftsZUL7tJ8jZ6wGr24HwDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=61&vpy=120&dur=88&hovh=179&hovw=282&tx=149&ty=128&sig=109016220057747376444&page=1&tbnh=95&tbnw=127&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:76




So many of the actors were above and beyond what I expect when I see live theater.  They were rich in their personalities and perfect in their presentations.  Ariel was perfectly spritelike.  I loved her.  I wish she lived in our woods.
http://www.drama.uconn.edu/Faculty/bios/Kristin_Wold.htm




We went up very early for a backstage tour.  I am not a great fan of backstage tours, but this was one of the best.  The presentation was quick spoken and packed with information.  It was done by a administrator of the company and he seemed to know everything and respond easily to questions.
He led us through the theaters as well as the planned theater that will replicate Shakespeare's Rose theater.  There is a small model that is testing the materials to be used to see what holds up and what does not.  It is a thatched building where reeds are the only roof.  It was quite interesting.
the building itself would cost 32 million to build and that would not include bathrooms, food places, dressing rooms. Those would have to be added outside of the replica.  If building started today, it would be 12-15 years before it was finished.  It was not a hasty improvement.
Some really old buildings exist in disrepair on the property, but they can't take them down unless they are going to immediately rebuild because they need to preserve the footprint in order to rebuild.  So many rules.
Not part of the tour was the Shakespeare gardens filled with plants that are mentioned in the plays.  The only one from the Tempest was one called Mallow  or Malva Sylvestris.  Donna thought it was a hybiscus. 
In the play  The Tempest. Gonzalo is saying “Had I plantation of this Isle, my lord…” when he is interrupted by Antonio and Sebastian saying: “He would sow it with nettle-seed. Or docks or mallow.”


http://www.eattheweeds.com/mallow-madness-the-false-roselle/


Also outside two sculptures caught my attention.  One was Cubed by Michael Alfano.  Here is a great video showing the possibilities in this piece of art


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaUQosmkKPo


Then there was Pregnant Cube
https://picasaweb.google.com/114105849746425335632/Berkshires2010#5499159209669138210


That was quite interesting.  Looking inside the shapes were all circles or squiggles and a mirror.  Outside it looked like a cube.
The origin of the expressions "raining cats and dogs" originates from the times of these roofs.  Animals might be on the roof during tough weather and fall through is the rain was intense.
It was interesting that the building of a replica of the Rose Theater was faced with the issue of modern building codes, like I faced on my deck.
We visited all the rooms where things are made to support the plays, including shops and prop rooms.  In one the staff that Prospero was to carry was being glued where it had split. Most impressive was the Fitzgerald Arms room that held perhaps the largest collection of prop guns, swords, knives, cleavers, etc in the world and certainly the largest in the northeast.  We met the fellow responsible for the collection and for maintaining the props in good order.  It was very impressive.
One sword he showed us had been made in a school metal shop where they had ordered over a dozen and hope then that the kids who made the swords would come and see the play.
There is plenty of outreach toward the younger set.  The most unusual was a program that let youthful offenders do their time by participating in a play at Shakespeare and Company.  Being "sentenced to Shakespeare" it was jokingly called.  We saw some young people practicing for some play that involved drum rhythms and dancing.  High Schools will perform their plays in their schools and then all come and see each other's presentations at Shakespeare and Company.  One young girl who had been in one of the workshops was touring along with us and her family.
In one of the prop rooms we were told hat blood was one of the hardest bits to develop because each time it was used in a play it was a unique recipe in order both to do what it needed to do and be able to be cleaned quickly from the costumes.
In the rehearsal room we saw a stage which was bare except for outlines on the floor showing where furniture would be.  Here the actors practiced.  Generally, it was not until 4 days before the play that they performed in the theater itself and with the bits of the play in order.  Amazing really.

Afterwards we stopped at Salmon Run for supper.  I had a fine grilled salmon and good squash and zuchinni.  Elizabeth had tilapia that was just yummy and let me get quite a few bites.

So we had a fine day.  Peter and Donna had plenty to say about all sorts of topics.  Peter is currently trying to decipher the cryptic penmanship from some original letters by a man who was under Seward during the Civil War and wrote to his wife from Japan.  His penmanship was atrocious so Peter is helping to figure out what the letters say. 

At home I caught a bluegill off the dock, wrote this blog, and went to bed.

Favorite quote:
"Your cram your words into my ear against the stomach of my sense."
I thought it appropriate to Facebook and posted it there.
*************************
I also found this argument against the exclusive nature of Silks, interesting as backdrop to my reading of Dick Francis and his book by that name.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/geoffrey-bindman/on-becoming-silk-ritual-restriction-and-royal-allegiance
In Francis it may also have been intended to reflect the costumes of jockeys in the world of horses.

Old Post Foxwoods antiques

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Foxwoods/ antique card graphics/

Well, I did not get rich at Foxwoods.  On the gambling I lost $5.  Actually, my poker losses were $31, but I made $6 on the freeplay, $5 playing that single zero roulette machine, and $15 on a Double Bonus VP I found in dollars that is 9/7, a fine pay table for the VP.  I decided to try just four hands at $5 a hand and the third hand it dealt me a straight, so I quit. 
They gave me 10 points, valued at $10 just for showing up, so I suppose I came out ahead.
And the bus ride was on sale for $15 and that gave me a $20 buffet and a $60 ride.
So all in all I did very well, but somehow I like to have the gambling score growing in winnings and this is my first loss in a while.

I heard that Mohegan Sun may be closing their poker room within a month.  I hope that is a bad rumor. I enjoyed that room.  However, many of the players talk of going when there are not enough players to make a game.  That would frustrate me.  I was there on a weekend night.

I enjoyed the same tastes on the buffet, with the primary treat being the steamed mussels.  Good.

Here are three vintage bird graphics offered by the Graphics Fairy.  They come from antique cards.

They would make very sweet cards even today.

Well, I'm tired, having had very little sleep.

Old Post Boston birthday trip Cambridge

Monday, May 27, 2013

Boston Birthday trip

We had a fine couple days in Boston.  I thought it would be just too short, but it felt just fine, just the right length.  It was to celebrate (again)  Elizabeth's birthday and of course to see Dana and Jen and Dan's new place.
The trip out was a bit boring.  Hard rain obscured most of the good views and made the driving a bit of a drag.  We stopped a lot for bathrooms and McDonald's coffee in order to create the need for more bathrooms. 
We had a fine visit out and arrived as planned at the Kendall Hotel

This was a luxuriant place build in what was once a Firehouse.  It was a museum in itself with plenty of small collections and bits of Firehouse memorabilia.
The suite included full kitchen, living room with fireplace, bathroom with Jacuzzi tub big enough for two, and plenty of interesting antiques.

 Looking over kitchen and living room.

and the kitchen itself

 

A fine antique desk of bird's eye maple

Every hallway and every corner included interesting antiques and collections

These photos contrast the way women dressed the year my grandfather was born with the way they dressed when he was thirty.

 

 This particular firehouse was called the Black Sheep of the fire department, so there is this collection and the restaurant is named, Black Sheep

 This in an interesting coffee table made from a piece of firetruck

Here is what my grandfather did for a living, only there were four horses pulling his engine.
******************************************************************************************

We took a walk to the Charles River and a bridge that gave us a fine view of sailboats, rowers in those long thin boats and other craft like

 

Right across the street from the hotel was this MIT COOP bookstore.






Dana treated us to a birthday dinner at a pretty upscale restaurant called Harvest. 

http://harvestcambridge.com/

Along with award winning recipes came restaurant practices that included buying local and sustainable.  Jen ate a filet mignon, Elizabeth and Dana had pork tenderloin.  I ate salmon.  And we had some other tastes in appetizers and asparagus.  With some of the meals came a wine pairing and that was interesting too.  I just had tastes of that.  I had a pea soup that was very creamy.
For dessert there were plenty of interesting tastes, but Jen ordered this award winning chocolate concoction that was really wonderful.  I had a taste. 
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/2013/04/10/harvest-pastry-chef-wins-food-wine-award/#axzz2UVTcwtRz

The next day we took the T to the Gardiner museum.  The nearby Museum of Fine Arts was free that day and the T was full of folks for that spot and the lines were hours long.  Out line was not so long and while the museum was crowded due to the holiday, it was still a great experience.
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/

I liked an 18th century guitar made by Jacopo Mosca-Cavelli and very similar to this one
http://www.diomedia.com/public/;jsessionid=12D9F9FECE152122E4B0502A01E4F566.worker1en/10921852/imageDetails.html

I also liked the large painting of Archangel Michael from 1480   with his foot on the satan, keeping the devil from taking souls.
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/artwork/2nd_floor/tapestry_room/archangel_michael?filter=artist:3296

We all seemed to enjoy this large view of gypsy dancers in Southern Spain.  She is older than the dancers I saw in the 60's, but the rest ring true to my memory including the clay water containers set out on the floor to make the scene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Jaleo


I was drawn to some paintings quite different from most of the collections, Morland Summer and Winter shots.

Also, this large depiction of The Tragedy of Lucretia, a 1500 Botticelli, seemed an odd piece to do for a wedding present.
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/artwork/2nd_floor/raphael_room/the_tragedy_of_lucretia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Lucretia_(Botticelli)

It was amazingly busy and full of action.  And sad.

But what do I know about art?  Not much.  Take this one that caught my attention.  Naked women and boats do seem to grab my attention easily.

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/artwork/2nd_floor/short_gallery/my_model_and_my_boat?filter=room:1800

I'm sure that Elizabeth's, Dana's and Jen's experiences were very different from mine, but it was fun to visit this place, in part because the rooms themselves were pretty incredible, built to house the collection of Isabelle after her husband died and she was looking for something to occupy her energy.  She did live in this beautiful place.
In the center was a fine inner courtyard with flowers and sculpture and unlike the rooms, plenty of light.  It was covered with a glass ceiling many floors above the peaceful little place.

Many of the rooms had huge fireplaces.  Still it much have been cold there in the winter. 
Wall decorations of tapestry or tile or in one case an entire wall of leatherwork also added to the experience.

We had lunch in the café built outside the old house.  The food was very good.  I had a baked trout garnished with odd bits I could not identify but wish I could reproduce at home.  And we had some homemade potato chips as well.

And overall we had a fine visit that was full and not rushed.  We caught up on all the new developments in the lives of Dana and Jen, heard about their work and their hopes for future work.  Jen soon moves much closer to her job with Turbine and that should take some of the pressure of long commutes off her daily routine.

They both seemed good.  Dana's place seem pretty comfortable for a single guy and of course included incredible computer equipment including a garbage can with a computer so that the top opened with no touching.

In between then great meals I had a taste of Indian at Dana's and a drink of a milk stout.  It seems Dana keeps milk as his main drink even when he drinks beer.

Our ride home was much easier than our trip out.  For the most part we had sun.  And even the clouds formed to make fine patterns of cloud and sunlight and fields were enveloped in mist.  We stopped at Salmon Run in Lee for a supper of salmon, mine a buffalo wing like taste and Elizabeth's encrusted with potato. They were packed, but the fellow fit us right in the middle at a little table.  It was lively, but a good bit of fun.

Old Post Tanglewood

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Tanglewood/Shakespeare/Kindel Inn/

We had quite a Saturday with Eddie and Cara.  First, we went up for a rehearsal at Tanglewood.  We can buy tickets now to the rehearsals.  It is a fine idea someone had of increasing revenue.  Sure, sometimes the music is stopped and replayed, but generally this is a very late rehearsal and things just go along as planned.

Classical music does not speak to me.  My ear is not sophisticated enough to hear what other people hear. Eddie and Cara could actually hear when the performers hit the wrong notes or were off a bit or could note that without a mike the flutes were hard to hear when they came into one number.
Still, I enjoyed the experience.
I do admit that I drift off sometimes, letting the music be a backdrop to my thoughts.  And, yeah, okay, in the last piece I did fall off to sleep, but not for very long.
I liked it best when Amanda Forsyth played cello with Pinchas Zukerman on violin.  Here I had two chances to hear the music, first when the violin played it and then when the cello returned it.  It sounded like a jazz rift, and the other instruments were more like back up that perhaps did not require as much of my attention.  At least that was my uneducated experience.
This was Amanda's debut performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  She has played all over the world.

(note :"debut performance" is the kind of Tanglewood term that we would not hear on Prairie Home Companion when Garrison interviews guest performers playing for the first time on his stage.)

The Baroque music was Vivaldi, Back, and Teleman.  Many in the audience knew these pieces well as they were first created and performed when they were still in their teenaged years.

I could not help, but think of the Seinfeld bit I read in my new book,
I never really understood the importance of the conductor. I mean between you and me, what the hell is this guy doing? Do you really need somebody waving a stick in your face to play the violin, does that really help you out? I can see how we need him at the beginning, okay, tap tap tap, start! I can see how you need that. But once we're going, once it's all happening... what, what do we need him for then?

Pinchas Zukerman is the conductor and he also plays violin and viola. 
Eddie thought that Pinchas was just arrogant and that he could not possibly do the conductor's job well and play well on the violin also.  However, the has been around a few decades, so I guess he must be doing something right.  Either than or the folks who keep hiring him must have read the Seinfelt.
Still, all I can do is guess.  This is another bit I just can't judge.  What do I know? 
But I was chuckling, remembering the Seinfeld while Zuckerman conducted and played his violin.
I was also amazed that he could keep the violin tucked in under his chin while he used his hands for other things and the instrument just stayed there.  Eddie said that it was all just the pressure of his chin and shoulder.  There was no little helpful clamp or superglue.

It also helped my enjoyment helped that the cellist was a perky and very pretty young blond who engaged the audience with smiles.  I admit that I enjoy a good looking woman on stage.  Or in the audience. 
This audience did not include many pretty girls.  Some of them had certainly been pretty girls once, when they had dreamed of dating Tellemann, but those days had passed.

I could not tell really if the audience smiled back at Amanda.  Somehow I doubt it. There may have been a few who even snuffed a bit at her smiles and wondered, "Why is this little comeuppance being so informal?"

Part of my discomfort at classical music events is I don't yet altogether feel comfortable with the aloof upper class.  I always keep wondering how a kid from the Eastside of Buffalo has gotten himself emersed in this crowd, and if I shouldn't just look for where to take the bus home again.

In the winter in Florida we carry our folding chairs and listen to a day of folksy bluegrass in one field or another, usually with Chuck Mary and John.
I can hear the bluegrass and it is quite common for performers to smile and joke with the audience. 
There is often a leader, but he does nothing with a stick and is not needed for very long.
The contrast in audiences is stark. 
Were a pretty, perky girl to smile at any point at anyone in the bluegrass concert, she might end up in a conversation where someone, learning where she was from, might ask her if she new their cousin so and so.

Few smiled at this concert and no one talked out loud.  It must me a rule that reserved people don't smile.  I'd sometimes make eye contact walking the paths, nod my head a bit in greeting, and be completely ignored.  Few of the men looked very happy.  I imagined their stock market holdings had tanked that day.


Even the usher who seated us was a bit gruff rather then friendly and not a bit subservient as some ushers are,  almost as if to say, "Look, I've volunteered for this, but don't for a moment expect that I am comfortable serving anyone and I'm am not going to be friendly.  Just think of my ushering as a business and I am the business manager. Just go where I tell you and go quickly.  I volunteer because they need someone to do this menial task of getting people who can't seem to read a ticket to the correct seats.  So, go, and let me get on with it."

Elizabeth was denied reentry to the tent when she came back late from the intermission bathroom break.  We had moved from our fine, up front seats to the back in order to stretch out a bit and get a little breeze.  And she pointed to where I sat guarding her purse, showing that her movement to that section did not pass another single listener and would be no disruption to anything because it was so removed from any other paying audience member.  It did no good.  He refused to let her enter.
She worked her way down the outside of the rope, listening, and stood just next to a seated woman listener  for a long while with just the rope between them.  Finally, the woman, who probably had mistaken this concert for bluegrass, motioned her to come in under the rope and sit down.
Elizabeth explained that she was told she could not do that, and the woman basically said, "Pshaw!"  don't listen to those people, just come in."  She did not say that the fellow at the rope gate might be a business manager, but she served on the board, but it was implied in her Pshaw!

And so Elizabeth slipped under the rope and gave the woman a bit of a hug for thanks which says a bit about Elizabeth's lack of upper crust reserve.  And at the first break in the music she came back and sat with me and her purse.
No one chased her.
In Vegas not following the rules of the ushers might result in being 86ed, but here the overriding rule of reserve precluded any show of actual authority.  I'm sure the guard saw her get in and expect he was fuming for the rest of the day, but he declined to make a scene.

One thing has changed, however, and that is that the upper crust no longer turns their noses up their inferiors.  They all have smart phones, and it is hard to constantly check their stock prices without lowering their noses a bit. 

Now, when I said no one said anything out loud, I did not mean in the seats directly around me. There is clearly a plot at any venue that requires quiet attention:  movie, concert, speech.  Whoever assigns seats, sits the folks who are going to talk right near my seat.
As soon as the show starts these folks being to talk.  The talkers know that what the performers say is really secondary to the thoughts they need to say and that since many of them are as old as Vivaldi, if they refrain from making comments and explanations and even arguments, they will forget their most important reflections.

I always want to say, "Shut the f**k up and go put all that driven in your blog."
But generally, I am quiet.
Besides f**k would not be good vocabulary.
"Kindly refrain from talking."  might work.

Here there were a few people who gave "the look" and shut down the conversation.  To do this you have to have developed from practice a certain disdain in just a look.  Perhaps this is what the old men are practicing on the path the restroom when I nod.  They there was  one woman who tapped her finger against her lips.
In some of the music venues I attend this might be misinterpreted as asking if the talker had an extra cigarette, but here the talkers seemed to get the right idea which was, if translated,
"Shut the f**k up!"

************************************************************************
After the concert we went into the crowded town for a bite of food at a place that did not have air conditioning. The food was fine, but I got uncomfortably hot again.
At the Shakespeare, however,  the air conditioning worked so well that the bar in front of my seat was like an ice cube and I leaned on it and enjoyed it very much. 
I had to sit back in my chair during the performance because our seats were right there at the stage left entrance and actors came within inches of us when they entered and exited.  I might have bumped them had I leaned too far forward.   I've never been so close to the action before. Great seats!  It was a good bit of fun.

I should have read a review of the play.
Love's Labour's Lost
I thought I'd remember it from my college Shakespeare courses, but I did not.  I was a bit confused in the first half.  The second half, however, was easy to follow with good humor, plenty of action, some fine lines I wanted to remember and cannot, and fine little songs from the 1940's, the time chosen for the setting, Paper Moon being the only one I can remember.
Shakespeare is often set in a different time.  I once took my Harriet Gibbons students to a MacBeth which was set in the future where the characters used ray guns and one of my favorite productions was Midsummer Night's Dream set in Gainsborough times.
Aparently, this setting of Love's Labour's Lost in the 1940's is common.  I thought it worked fine.

I certainly enjoyed it. 
Here is a review.  Very good photos. Not altogether favorable, especially comments on the 1940's setting.  I liked the setting too, however.
http://berkshireonstage.com/2013/07/01/review-shakespeare-company-offers-rarely-seen-loves-labours-lost/

Interesting selection of quotations.  Not the ones I hoped to remember.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quotes/lllquotes.html


The central dilemma, whether to keep at the books or be drawn into the joy of women, is an issue college men face even today.   I remember that well.  Now, it is the poker taking me from my studies.  It is sad to get old.

**************************************************************************************************

From there we went for a fancy supper at the Kemble Inn's Table 6 restaurant, chosen because it was one of the few with open reservations, being fairly newly refurbished, renamed, and opened.

http://www.kembleinn.com/dining

I don't think we will be staying there any time soon.  The prices are just incredible.
But we could afford to eat there, especially choosing the prix fix menu and everything was very good.  Oddly, part of the game hen meal was a cold salad of potato and vegetable.  Elizabeth sent hers back to be reheated and liked it better hot. 
I was off the regimen of my diet most of the day but not overdoing it.
We had a fine Portobello dish with a deep fried Portobello.  It was rich and decadent.  I even had a nice dessert.
Elizabeth enjoyed the meal but thought it was overpriced for what we had.
It was pretty expensive.

I still have this cold with chest congestion and it makes me very uncomfortable, but I managed the day anyway and managed to refrain from coughing during the classical music.  The foot gives me no problems and slowly over the next month I should be able to get that healed up.

Old visit to Shakespeare and Company

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Shakespeare and Company/poker

Tuesday
We went up to Shakespeare and Company AGAIN.
Say, what is up with me, anyway?  Two plays in one week.

We met Ron and Randy from Ithaca and stopped afterwards at the Firefly restaurant.
http://www.fireflylenox.com/
Wow!  Some meal.  I had the flounder with yucca roots and Elizabeth had the trout.  We both were very pleased.  It is the best fish I have had out in my recent memory.

The conversation was great too.  Ron was very interesting even for a fellow like me who does not understand economics.  I've ordered his book.
https://faculty.cit.cornell.edu/rge2/

The book

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674009882

Randy has been an English teacher, administrator and ended as superintendent for the North Colonie schools.  She was perky and smart and great to talk to.  I think I'd have loved working for her.  She was a very teacher centered superintendent.

They talked too about Ithaca where they now live.  It is a liberal town and I'd fit right in.  They felt very comfortable there and were surprised to find that Colonie was not quite the same.  Ron joked that in Ithaca he was considered a conservative, but in Loundonville he was a liberal.

This is our first outing with these folks, but I don't expect it will be the last.

The play, Heroes,
http://www.examiner.com/review/shakespeare-co-offers-touching-amusing-portrait-of-heroes-twilight

This was a very light and funny play.  Three actors all did such a wonderful job that we did not want to see the end.  In general, they wrestle with issues they have of being retired and in a home, but it was all in the tone of a British Sit Com.

The whole day was fun.
Until I woke up this morning I was really thinking that I would not go due to sickness, but I was fine and did not feel I was contagious.  I cough a bit yet, but I feel a hundred and two percent better.

I had a very rough night of it last night.  The coughing was so intense I could not sleep with my mask, and so I did not sleep very well at all until later in the evening when things broke a bit.  I seem now to be out of the worst of it.

The ride over to Lenox was very pretty and on the ride back we had that sunset light to richen the green of the trees.  We almost stopped at Guido's but it was closed.

Wednesday

I got killed at the poker today, mostly playing pineapple with Gregg until almost 9PM head to head.  Lots of fun.  I made a sangria and brought it along.
At home I ate the last of an organic chicken.  So, I've been off the strictest parts of my diet most of the day.

I'm feeling much better.  The cold is almost gone.  Tomorrow I'll rest up again.

I had quite a two day session with the MyVegas game and finally ended getting the bonus points, but they cost me more than they were worth.  I wish I could get Elizabeth's score up a bit higher, but she runs out of chips very quickly.  We'll get some freebies next Vegas trip for sure. 

Very fine cool weather now.  Finally. Whew

Play at Shakespeare and Company/ dinner at Salmon Run/

We went up to Lennox today on our way to meet up with Nancy and Peter, Peter and Donna.

First we stopped at Stanmeyer Shaker Dam coffeehouse

http://berkshires.org/member/stanmeyer-gallery-shaker-dam-coffeehouse/

where we got coffee so as to stay awake in the play.  We sat back on the porch overlooking the little stream and listening to the loud and raucous sparrows tweeting up a storm.  We have been there before, but can't remember the details.  I'll go looking for that trip probably recorded on another blog.

We then took a walk around the Shakespeare and Company grounds and enjoyed the fresh air and the old dilapidated buildings as well as the pond where I spit in the water and bluegills rose to it, just like at Lime Lake.

The play was great fun and everyone agreed it was well done.  Perhaps our seats did not fit the needs of the older Peter.  He could not hear the younger woman.  I was wide awake and loved the whole thing.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_28156475/women-probe-passions-and-professions-how-and-why

Afterwards we went to Lee for Salmon run and I had my favorite blue cheese salmon.  It was just grand.  Good veggies.  Rather bad wine for $8.  I'll skip that next time.

The conversation was on the nuances of the play, but also on Nancy recent trip to Israel.  I had not realized that Jews who had been in Middle Eastern countries for 2,000 were forced to move out into Israel when that state was created. 

It was great to listen to everyone.  I even worked in my favorite joke.

What do you call a haughty prison inmate as he walks down a staircase?
A condescending con    descending.