Weekend Warriors

The City Paper review of Dali is out. I actually kind of really like it. Trey gives several caveats concerning the piece as a whole, but I think they are pretty darn fair and accurate.

I also love the words he used in his write-up, as they are words that I would harvest myself to describe the kind of work I would like to be creating:

lean
hard core
gratifyingly physical
intensely atmospheric
muscular
thoughtful
complex

and my personal favorite turn of phrase:
bruised under all the blushes

I have some free time these days, which is quite lovely. I am catching up on theater--I saw She Stoops To Comedy on Wednesday night, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Also saw Pillowman last week, which I am very glad to see but felt like something was lost along the way in its development, but I can't quite tell what. I loved the stories and wondered why it was so important to put a solid framework of a plot around them in order to provide structure. That part of it felt forced, sometimes contrived to me, while the stories themselves were surprising and engaging, consistently. It also surprised me that they had American accents--which I guess has been the norm with productions of the play in the States, but still didn't feel quite right to me.

These pieces reinforced yet again to me the importance of pace--both stood as great examples of extremely well paced work. Joy and Howard have been doing this for a while. They get it. So nice to be given the chance to discover what I am supposed to get rather than being forced to see what I am supposed to get.

Get it? Got it? Good.

There is a fabulous article in the LA Times (which I found through Mr. Grote's blog) about the challenge of doing new work. It's great--doesn't so much posit a solution but at least shines light on the problem. He very eloquently puts into words some thoughts about the importance of doing new work that I have been at a loss to articulate myself.

Yes, yes, yes.

And my parents are in town. My mother is celebrating a milestone birthday. Where should we go for dinner? We can do either before or after seeing Dali--probably best to find something in Mount Pleasant, or U Street could work. And Saturday day time... a whole day... has anyone seen an exhibit recently that is a must see?

Maybe this? My parents actually really like Georgetown. I think the only time I ever go is when they visit. If the weather's nice...