Link linkety

A same-sex couple is getting married in Oregon, under recently revised Coquille tribal law. I wonder what the feds and their DOMA will do about this... (or will this lead to the fall of DOMA?).

An interesting read on the statistical analysis of the USian obesity epidemic. Which may or may not exist.

Like to dance barefoot? So do lots of others! A listing of barefoot boogie opportunities around New England and beyond.

New technology desk: use all that summer sunlight for a solar-powered air conditioner. Very cool!
No, I couldn't resist :-)

Also on the green front: there was recently a conference on going green, tailored to the needs of imams. This is the first thing I've heard focusing on Islam and environmentalism.

Two ways to help out locally:
Feed the hungry by cooking a dish at home and dropping it off.
The Tremont Street shul is trying to get as many of their sifrei Torah kosher for use. Sponsor some of the repairs. (The shul has a huge number of sifrei Torah, over a dozen, because they were where other Cambridge shuls gave theirs when the other neighborhood shuls closed.)

And something I didn't know existed: glow fur!

Romeo and Juliet

The newly-formed Lonesome Coyote Theater Company is putting on their free production of Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) at Gore Place this weekend, starting tonight and running through a matinee Sunday. I heard about it last minute and decided to go, using it as an excuse to get myself out on the bike (yay!).

It's pretty Spartan production, with the actors mostly in street clothes, and the only bits of set used were a ladder and a bench. The stage part of the grassy lawn is delineated by the power cords of the three lights, which worked out fine. Actors changed under the shelter of some huge trees off to one side. The audience brought things to sit on, and snacks if they wanted. (They did have some bug spray at the beginning, but not nearly enough. If you go, bring some.)

The interesting part to me was how mixed the performances were. Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, and the Nurse were really good. A lot of the people in lesser roles seemed almost wooden. I gather the company formed this year; I wonder how they ended up with this group of performers. I thought that the good far outweighed the bad, especially when factoring some lovely fight scenes (the swordwork wasn't flashy, but Tybalt did some great acrobatic rolls and flips), with a bunch of fake blood (used well, though obviously, if that makes any sense).

I hadn't seen this play in a while, and I keep wondering why it was so clear that Romeo's banishment would include leaving Juliet behind. Why shouldn't she just go with him, and they'd avoid all the family issues for a long time. (It also struck me how quickly the plot moves, less than a week between meeting and marrying and dying. Teens are impetuous, but even so, that's fast!)

I hadn't thought to bring an extra layer, and it got chilly after dark. The ride home warmed me up :-)