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Trying to view a meteor shower on a school night is hard. Trying to view
a meteor shower on a school night on which there is also a full moon is
even harder. When my alarm went off at 12:25am I hefted my carcass a
foot or two out of bed so that I could peer out my window, blinked in the
bright moonlight, reset my alarm for morning, and passed out again. I
saw Perseids in my dreams that night, almost as good as the real thing.
Instead of a movie Wednesday night Aimee and I splashed out on nosebleed
tickets to see Urinetown, The Musical at the Geary Theater,
presented by A.C.T. We both adored it. The action takes place in a
large city after a water shortage so severe that private toilets have
been outlawed. All public amenities are controlled by a corporation that
guarantees pockets are lined at the expense of the poor, who are left
to scrape together their pennies just to relieve themselves. Anyone who
breaks the rules is dragged off to Urinetown, never to be seen
again. Wry self-awareness combined with a fantasic score and cast
members who were clearly relishing their roles gave me hope once again
for the modern musical. There was even a message about sustainability in
there somewhere.
Thursday at work I was feeling twitchy and angsty, so at lunch I set out
in the sunshine to see the current photography show at Andrea Schwartz
Gallery featuring Nick Czap, Belinda Gray, and Jon Gregory. First of all,
Andrea Schwartz has taken over a space near South Park where I used to get
my hair cut. I like it much better as a gallery. Second of all, the
gallery appears to have a resident dog that let me lean on him and
scratch his ears as I looked at the pictures. Third of all, the
photographs were great. My favorite was a large shot Gray had taken of a
sidewalk where a dog had walked across the wet cement and left its
permanent mark on the landscape. A few stray leaves completed the image.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to
Ask was my DVD of choice Friday evening, as I slowly work my way
through a roster of Woody Allen films. I liked the format of the seven
stand-alone segments, because if one was dumb I knew it wasn't going to
last for too long. I loved Gene Wilder as a doctor who becomes obsessed
with a sheep, Woody Allen as an Italian hipster, Tony Randall as the
switchboard operator inside a man who is attempting to have sex with a
beautiful woman. Recommended for boys hitting puberty everywhere.
Perseid Meteor Shower
Urinetown
A.C.T.
Andrea Schwartz Gallery
Nick Czap
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Heidi J. De Vries
