Jam-Packed Weekend

A busy social weekend; I'll try to write just enough to get an outline and some high points posted.

Friday evening, Judy and I went to the American Repertory Theater's production of Anna Deveare Smith's Let Me Down Easy--a one-woman performance, where she plays a variety of people that she has interviewed over time, ranging from a Harvard English professor, to former governor Anne Richards, to a doctor stuck caring for abandoned patients in New Orleans during Katrina, to survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, to a Buddhist monk. Another character was Samantha Power, the Harvard professor who wrote a book that I'm interested in checking out sometime (A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide).

A bit more about the performer, as background: After years as an acting professor, Smith burst onto the theatre scene in 1992 with Fires in the Mirror, her chronicle of the Crown Heights riots. When a Hasidic driver ran over a seven-year-old Guyanese-American boy, violence erupted. Hours later, an angry mob murdered a young Hasidic professor. Clashes between Jews, African Americans, and police officers continued for days.

In the wake of the violence, Smith conducted hundreds of interviews with residents, politicians, and pundits. The purpose was not to cull information, but character...

Also, pictured below--her performing Jessye Norman (the opera singer) wonderful to see Smith put on Norman's regal diva mannerisms).


It took a little while to get past the artifice of rapidly-changing characters, but the play was cleverly structured, easing its way in with a more descriptive piece (the history of the song Amazing Grace--written by a former repentant slave trader, a fact that I was unaware of.) There was a mixture of topics (American health care, the Rwandan genocide)--some critics found it to be unfocused, which might be true, given the tight focus of her previous works (Crown Heights, Rodney King).

By bizarre coincidence, at the play, we ran into two of Judy's friends--the same one we ran into randomly when we went to see Copenhagen at the ART. Dinner at Casablanca together followed.

On Saturday, unfortunately, I had to head to the office, to get some work done for a Monday conference call. Happily, though, it turned out to be less work than I expected--it did not end up destroying the entire afternoon.

Dan and Daniel (from KW) were in town for a wedding, so that evening, they came up to Arlington to have dinner at Prose--I've been here a few times before, and I like their emphasis on local, interesting food and quirkiness (the reviews on that page are pretty informative). However, be well aware that it's not a place to go if you are in a rush--from sitting down to leaving was about three hours. And that included a teaser of two of three entrees landing in front of us, and then being whisked away when they realized they had the wrong table.

The tagliatele was a little bit of a disappointment that night--rolled very thick, and the inside had a bit of an uncooked dough texture. But the sauce was delicious (mmmm... cream.... Serrano ham...), as was the black bean soup appetizer.


I was amused by their take on the standard rote Massachusetts-mandated warning: Consuming rare or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness, court jesterism, paranormal activity, not calling one's mother often enough, and not returning one's graduation garb on time.

It was wonderful to catch up with Dan and Daniel--I realized that I really miss having leisurely rambling conversations with them. Dan tried quite hard to convince me that I needed to move back up to K-W. I'm glad I'll be seeing them in, uh... three weeks, I think.

Sunday was a coffee hour, celebrating anteejean's birthday. Many people, many bagels, lots of food, lingering on into the afternoon. Good times. A mixture of Tep folks, Jean's work friends, yarn friends, and cat folks (one of the people who runs St. Meows).