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Thursday July 27, 2000 "Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves." Oliver Goldsmith, The Good-Natur'd Man
but it's my mess
OK...a little out of control!
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stuff settles Things fall down when you actually try to use them. There are so many factors in setting up a test case for a presentation and actually running it. You forget this or that in simulating the data that a customer just has. Spent lunch with my parents. Dad was gone when I got there. He'd had a low tire and had gone to get it fixed. "The service was poor, but the price was right," he said when he returned. (He's found that NTW, though often busy and with a wait, will fix a tire for free, hoping to get your tire business when you buy.) Mom had made a spinach casserole in the microwave because she was having trouble turning the oven on. I demonstrate it once again although I'm not that confident in it. (It works just like mine. I don't turn it on that often either.) I help them unpack a few things. I have started to see it as a settling in, the things they had in the old place coming to rest here rather than an opportunity for a new beginning. I put various magnets on their refrigerator in the laundry room. (Our refrigerator is covered with stuff including a large collection of refrigerator poetry. We would put these in the kitchen but that refrigerator is mercifully made of glass, a built-in, and wont' take magnets. I put baskets above the kitchen cabinets. I unpack some religious books and put them on a shelf in the office. Little domes with miniature settings inside are sitting on it, too. Forrest and I have tickets to 'Closer' a play at Zach Scott. FFP's at a meeting so I go to get the tickets at 'will call.' There is a party going on in the lobby of the smaller theater. We were invited but didn't RSVP. I speak to a couple of people and get the tickets and go to Schlotzsky's Bread Alone with my magazines. Dale Rice, the paper's food critic is there. I'm munching and reading and FFP walks in. "I saw that scene and thought, 'what would I do?' and knew you'd be here." He grabs a quick sandwich. The play is a raw exhibition of modern relationships. Written by Londoner Patrick Marber, it is a regional piece and yet a universal one. It's really great. Every piece of dialog adds a layer of nuance or just amuses. The play is perfect for the tiny theater, creating the illusion that you are in an office, an apartment (or two at once) or a park. I love small plays in small theaters (although this one was rather long in length, it's scope was small). There was a cyber-sex scene, brillantly played. At home I read the XL from the day's paper. Michael Barnes reviews the play in it. He comes out as gay in the review (not that he wasn't out in general, I don't know him) and wonders at how heterosexuals manage their relationships, men and women being so different. The play was largely, almost completely, heterosexual. The only gay person was off-stage, unseen, somebody who worked with one of the characters. Just the slightest nod to it, whereas lots of current media now has gay characters front and center. Not that there is anything wrong with Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") or this play. I get the feeling they both reflect the playwrights and what they really know. See...I told you I was going to get out of the house. This weekend should provide good material, too. Some of it right here in the house. |
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