city of angels

(Oops. First typed "city of angles." A mathematical musical?)

I hadn't heard of this musical before, but it turned out to be pretty impressive. I always like performances where layers of reality are mutable, where the characters in the show create/play other people, and later the line of who/what is "real" within the show blurs. (Especially when each character in the show has a parallel in the show within a show...).

It's set in the grand era of Hollywood, with a writer working on a movie script of his book, which is being made into a hard-boiled detective sort of mystery flick.

I had been a bit worried, since the last time I saw a musical at this theater, it had been weak. But this was very good. There were actual musicians down in the pit (which I h aven't seen used before)! And the actors' voices were pretty much up to the task, too.

The songs were cleverly done, some filled with innuendo, others more straightforward. And most of the time I didn't have that "why the hell would anyone burst into son g now?" feeling (as I did with "Sarafina!"), partly because it was so campy, partly b/c they fit pretty well.

I was also impressed with the set, which had multiple moving parts, screens, etc, including a very clever design for the "show within a show" sh ots that was framed with "film" on either side, allowed for "sets" to be slid (slided? slode? bleh.) in front of it, with a white screen between the "film" that allowed for slides to be projected on it. Very cool. There were some glitches in moving between sets, at times (it was the preview night), but things that were obviously fixable...

[Later addendum: another cool thing I'd forgotten to metion was how there were times that the writer in the outer story decided things would go differently than he'd originally written them, so the characters went in reverse back to the point he changed the script, making gobbledygook reversed-word sounds and hand motions... very funny.] Ø

food, glorious food

In this last week or so, the joy of planning and cooking food has slowly started to come back, paralleling my greater ability to actually do what I choose to do, rather than being limited to only what I can manage right then. Yesterday, for instance, I realized I had some bananas to use up, and made banana bread. A small thing at times, a larger thing right now.

I was pleased with how the marinated chicken came out Friday night (though it was a bit dry for some), and started thinking of permutations of marinating liquids (apple cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, onion, apple, maybe some sage, came to mind first). There's definitely room for experimentation... maybe I'm now out of the chicken-with-gloopy-rice phase (really, it tastes better than that sounds)?

Maybe I'm just saying there's time to be inspired by what to cook, since I can do it, and have time to do it. (just in time for new spring ingredients, too :-)

Right now, I'm making the horribly orange mac-from-a-box. Yeah, it's probably almost junk food (all that coloring!), but it's the first pasta I'm attempting (a smaller box helps. Yes, I could make less than a whole pound at a time, but that always seemed silly, since I'd just eat the leftovers for lunch), so it's exciting for me. Growing up, I don't think we had it (um, Wolf?), but I just realized my mom never made a cheese sauce either, just throwing in cheese and letting it melt. Maybe that's why it's my occasional guilty pleasure.

Thoughts spin more quickly: make more chutney? Can other fruity things? Make the fruit in booze Cthulhia's described? Infuse oils or vinegars? Start more bread experimentation? Get more chocolate and dip things in it? Make truffles? So many choices...
(How did I go so long without this?)