Had a performance-filled weekend!

On Friday night, my choir had a benefit concert comemmorating Absalom Jones; it went really well. In addition to the choir, soprano Dawn Padmore sang some cool stuff, and there was a jazz improv piano guy there who was simply amazing. Afterwards, I caught up with mah theater peepz at Stanley's who were seeing Comedy of Errors at the Drama League. I heard it went really well; I'm bummed I didn't get to see it.

The next night a bunch of us went to go see The Vagina Monolgues at City Theater-- it was a one-night-only engagement and Georgie Staley was doing one of the monologues. The whole deal was acted and directed exceptionally well, but the content wasn't my cup of tea. Frankly, the thing was a little too man-bashing for my tastes. It seemed like there was only one monologue (Georgie's, coincidentally) that held men in a positive light; in every other instance, it was about men being inept in bed, men being assholes, men being rapists, men being mutilators of women, etc. As you know from my ridiculous chart from a month ago, I've certainly dated my fair share of gents; but somehow I've avoided having acid poured on my face or having my hands chopped off. This isn't to say that just because (thankfully) it isn't happening to me that it isn't happening anywhere, and it isn't to say how absolutely impossible it is to put words around how abhorrently tragic it is that this has happened to even one person let alone thousands and thousands of women, and it absolutely is not to condone ignoring these travesties; but I just don't want to be shouted at for a few hours about it. I have a fine relationship with my smushie-parts, and I can't relate to 3 monologues about women who don't know anything about theirs. Indeed, there were parts of the show where I cheered loudly, but for the most part I just felt bad and uncomfortable for the guys in the audience.

'Nuff said!

Sunday I sang at choir in the morning and again enjoyed what will now hopefully be a ritual lunch at Corner Bistro with Darryl, Matt and Chris. They are SO much fun, and I'm just tickled that we're pals. And my lordy, Corner Bistro's black bean soup is to die for. This time around I had their chicken and fettucini which was pretty good; though I think for lunch I am still voting for their Cuban sandwich as my favorite so far.

I also got to talk to Jim and Robin for a little while between church and lunch-- was so great to talk to them and get the baby scoop. They're all home from the hospital, and little Mariella is doing great. Robin says the kid already smiles; I'm sure she'll be building lutes and writing scholarly treatises on 15th century Franco-Flemish performance practice in a couple weeks. (Heck, my niece Molly was rebuilding a Chevy Big Block and writing Active X DLLs when she was about 5 months old, so why not?)   :-)   Anyhoo, I wanted to buy Jim and Robin a little something for the baby, so I asked my sister-in-law Mindy if there was anything that my other niece Emily was especially crazy about. Mindy sang the highest praises of this one particular baby swing, so I bought it for Mariella. Robin says she's already been in the swing a lot, and the kid digs it. Word!   (The swing, in case you want to get one, is the Smart Response Swing by Fisher Price. The "Jack and Jill" pattern is gender-neutral and is pretty cute. The SKN number is 611819; I bought it off of Amazon.)

Anyway, after lunch I got home around 2:30-ish, and I jumped online to get my Knappuccino's mailing list updated so I could send out the announcement for next weekend's coffeehouse. This is the 10th coffeehouse, and so far I've never taken a set... but this month I'm taking a 15-minute slot. I don't like the idea of me doing sets; I don't want the event to be about me at all-- it's all about the performers. But Mark will be in town, and he's actually never heard me sing other than Cappella Sonora stuff, so I figure this will be one of my only chances for him to ever hear me sing live. He's got a ton of Evelyn Situation recordings and mp3s, but he's never heard me open a can of whoop-arse in person. I have my final rehearsal with Trainor and Ghiorzi Tuesday night-- can't wait!

Sunday night I went out with Jeremy, Greg and his wife Randi for sushi (as if I didn't eat enough at lunch) and we went to go see a play that we love done so poorly that I spent the night cringing. The leads were decent (with the exception of one guy, who was probably otherwise very good but was just cast in a singing role that was WAYYYYYY too high and intense for him), but the pit orchestra was so pathetic that it took every ounce of self-restraint I had to not shake the flautist during intermission and tell her "PUSH IN!! You're so flat I could DIE!!" The piano player had no concept of what she was doing, played half the score using the wrong key signature; and I think I heard the bass player play 6 notes the whole night. Very, very, VERY sad. Oh well. Seeing Greg and meeting Randi was really terrific though, so it was all worthwhile.     ("Shake the flautist" sounds like a euphemism for something, doesn't it?)

In other news, I was cruising the pages of the State of Delaware website recently, and I learned that Delaware's state soil is Greenwich Loam. It's described as "a coarse, loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic, Typic Hapludult." I want to insult someone by calling them that.   "Why you coarse, loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic, Typic Hapludult-- I oughtta wring your neck!"     I also learned that early statesmen amused themselves by cockfighting, and that our state herb is goldenrod (though in Newark, I'm thinkin' it's probably a different weed).

I was talking to my friend Jen today we decided that I'm overdue for a jaunt to Boston, so I'm thinking once Little Shop closes and the weather warms up a bit I'll take a weekend and see what's what.

What else... on Wednesday night I'm going to see Barenaked Ladies at the ol' Wachovia Center in Philly, and then Mark gets into town the next day. We've got a really fun couple days planned-- I originally had us running around a lot trying to squeeze in 1000 things, but now I'm thinkin' I'd rather just relax and spend time yapping and catching up. Outside of my last trip to AZ in December, I feel like I haven't really had any quality-time with him for a year, so it'll be great just to catch up and philosophize.

Okeedoke... I'm outta here. The tub calls my name!

And for the record, I'm very pleased I got through this whole thing without talking about how stupid Valentine's Day is.