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Weekend snippets
May. 10th, 2004 11:12 amLeast likely question
I was walking home Shabbat night when a car with a couple of guys in it reversed to get back to me.
"How much?" called the guy in the passenger seat.
"Huh?" I'd been expecting a request for directions.
"How much?" he repeated.
"For what?" was all I could think to say.
He pointed at me.
I looked at him, incredulous. I managed to say something like "Not happening," and continued walking down the block. I could hear numbers shouted out behind me. I ignored them, and they didn't follow me.
A measured afternoon
I went to the Harvard ArtsFirst production of Measure for Measure, for which people were congregating on Kirkland St., between the Busch building (formerly the Busch-Reisinger Museum) and Lowell Lecture Hall.
It turned out that the show was not only outside, but a progressive one as well, the audience moving around to the different areas as the play progressed. First, we were out by the street, which meant that when the duke left, he could be picked up in a spiffy red sports car. As the play progressed into Venice (I think it was Venice; Italian city, in any case), we moved up ramps and into the walled courtyard of the Busch building, which has green space, low stone walls, walkways, stairs, and a rectangular pool, all of which divide the space up into a number of distinct areas, which were designated church, office, jail, etc. It worked very well, with one of the guards going in and out of character to shepherd the audience around.
It was a low-budget production, using rather simple costumes, no lights, and little sound other than the actors themselves. The only drawback was the weather, which was overcast and windy, not particularly nice for standing around it. There were blankets for the audience, but not enough to go around. Also, there was some event in the next building that had enormous amounts of cheering, which at times was distracting. But these are small quibbles.
I don't remember seeing this play before, and it struck me as far too predictable, with most of the main characters paired off, everything worked out too patly, the expected deus ex machina sort of conclusion.
Eruv update
The Cambridge eruv is going to be down through the month of May, due to construction near the BU bridge (a 100-foot fence being temporarily down; apparently it's not worth making a work-around). I hope the construction stays on schedule.
Catanification
I got to play the variant where towns and cities are placed before the numbers can work (editbefore the numbers are placed) (with the caveat that if one player has a really bad position, the board is redone). It makes for a different sort of calculus when placing, paying more attention to resource distribution and closeness to respective ports.
I was walking home Shabbat night when a car with a couple of guys in it reversed to get back to me.
"How much?" called the guy in the passenger seat.
"Huh?" I'd been expecting a request for directions.
"How much?" he repeated.
"For what?" was all I could think to say.
He pointed at me.
I looked at him, incredulous. I managed to say something like "Not happening," and continued walking down the block. I could hear numbers shouted out behind me. I ignored them, and they didn't follow me.
A measured afternoon
I went to the Harvard ArtsFirst production of Measure for Measure, for which people were congregating on Kirkland St., between the Busch building (formerly the Busch-Reisinger Museum) and Lowell Lecture Hall.
It turned out that the show was not only outside, but a progressive one as well, the audience moving around to the different areas as the play progressed. First, we were out by the street, which meant that when the duke left, he could be picked up in a spiffy red sports car. As the play progressed into Venice (I think it was Venice; Italian city, in any case), we moved up ramps and into the walled courtyard of the Busch building, which has green space, low stone walls, walkways, stairs, and a rectangular pool, all of which divide the space up into a number of distinct areas, which were designated church, office, jail, etc. It worked very well, with one of the guards going in and out of character to shepherd the audience around.
It was a low-budget production, using rather simple costumes, no lights, and little sound other than the actors themselves. The only drawback was the weather, which was overcast and windy, not particularly nice for standing around it. There were blankets for the audience, but not enough to go around. Also, there was some event in the next building that had enormous amounts of cheering, which at times was distracting. But these are small quibbles.
I don't remember seeing this play before, and it struck me as far too predictable, with most of the main characters paired off, everything worked out too patly, the expected deus ex machina sort of conclusion.
Eruv update
The Cambridge eruv is going to be down through the month of May, due to construction near the BU bridge (a 100-foot fence being temporarily down; apparently it's not worth making a work-around). I hope the construction stays on schedule.
Catanification
I got to play the variant where towns and cities are placed before the numbers can work (editbefore the numbers are placed) (with the caveat that if one player has a really bad position, the board is redone). It makes for a different sort of calculus when placing, paying more attention to resource distribution and closeness to respective ports.