pameladean | Americanized Tomato Chutney

I'm sorry, that's a really terrible joke. I am a trifle spacy, perhaps.

I truly admire people who can break out their posts by subject. For me it would be like unknitting one of those scarves made of multicolored recycled silk. Not productive.

Eric and I had a very good visit. Minnesota cooperated by providing a week of abnormally warm and sunny weather, so that when he arrived the new leaves were the barest green mist, and when he departed they were a yellow-green haze punctuated by red clouds and the occasional grumpy yet-bare oak tree. We kept a fairly low profile. My mother and

mrissa both invited us over for dinner, so we did that. We also cooked several times, making kale with black-eyed peas one evening, seitan with hoisin sauce, red and green bell peppers, and sugar snap peas another, and curried cauliflower and curried pollock the last.

We watched the Kenneth Branagh version of The Lady's Not For Burning, and also Spirited Away and, when an amateur tape of a community production of Venus Observed that I have been hoarding for more than ten years proved unwatchable, we selected somewhat at random the DVD of Intolerable Cruelty, which did not exactly hit the spot for us.

We attended the Guthrie's production of As You Like It. Parts of it were excellent, but we agreed that the Sixties setting did not work. It pointed up quite hideously both, as Eric put it, the exploitation of lower-class women by upper-class twits, and various stupidities in gender roles; the setting made both unnecessary, so that their persistence warped the characterization. Eric was justifiably irate that a bunch of hippies in the forest who sang a lot of songs did not have an actual guitar or six in their possession, to play well or badly, it hardly mattered. I was quite taken with Rosalind, however. We came home and watched the 1937 Lawrence Olivier version of the play. When I first saw it I hated that production's Rosalind so much that I couldn't recall anything else, but Olivier was actually quite good, once you got used to the idea that this is extremely stylized and declamatory Shakespeare. I do prefer a more naturalistic presentation, but good heavens, did that man have a voice and body language. The most interesting thing that I can now recall thinking of was that Orlando's moodiness and discontent at the play's beginning reminded me strongly of Hamlet, both in terms of the play itself and in terms of Olivier's acting.

We did a lot of hiking. I want to save the phenology for another entry, but we were smiled upon repeatedly by time, weather, and nature.

Now I am disconsolate.

P.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

elisem.livejournal.com

*comforting kiss*

From:

pameladean

I am such an idiot! Well, all right, unlucky, maybe. No, not because of the nice kiss. *smooch back* Because Eric was here as you were leaving, and still here while you were being feted in his present home town by wildirises. Meh.

P.

From:

kightp.livejournal.com

Joy for the good time, empathy for the disconsolation.

I send hugs home for you with the Lioness.

From:

pameladean

That will be very nice. And I always think of you at these cruxes of reunion and separation, knowing that you experience them too.
It's very comforting.

P.

From:

mrissa.livejournal.com

I'm sorry you're disconsolate, dear. It's reasonable to be so. I remember how it used to suck just horribly when I was in an LDR.

What I am is distracted: there's a Kenneth Branagh version of The Lady's Not for Burning????? Meep! Off I run to the IMDB to make sure he didn't direct himself in it....

From:

pameladean

Don't worry about that. It's a wonderful production. I believe that I am indebted to thomasyan for my copy of it.

Right after I first watched it, I saw a production of "Look Back in Anger" that also starred Branagh, and I realized that his character in that play, Thomas Mendip, Benedict, and Hamlet have a WHOLE LOT in common; it's not just the way he acts, it's that they are all silver-tongued misanthropists, in very varied settings. Nothing at all like Henry V.

P.

From:

mrissa.livejournal.com

Whew. I was thinking of the scene from his version of "Hamlet" in which he was doing the, "Look at me! I am Kenneth Branagh, playing Hamlet!" thing.

Oh wait: that was all of them.

From:

daedala.livejournal.com

Random note -- my favorite Hamlet that I've seen on-screen was the Ethan Hawke version. Weirdly but effectively modernized, and he was young enough that you could believe he really was that much of an idiot.

From:

mrissa.livejournal.com

I haven't seen that one, but maybe I should. I'm fine with weird modernization. My favorite production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was set in the 1920s.

From:

jackiejj.livejournal.com

Eric and I had a very good visit.

I thought about you and hoped you were happy.

Now I am disconsolate.

Love from Jackie

From:

pameladean

We were very happy. We still are, it's just harder.

One of my regrets is that I fell so far behind in LJ, and I knew from glimpses that you were doing a whole lot of joyous goofy profound stuff. I hope I can get back to it.

P.

From:

jackiejj.livejournal.com

Aw, I am just toddling along. Nothing so profound, but surely goofy...

I am truly happy that you are both happy.

From:

sartorias.livejournal.com

I wish somebody would hurry up and invent a tesseract-access.

From:

pameladean

No shit. Or, as I say on a regular basis, "WANT my TELEporter!"

P.

From:

thomasyan.livejournal.com

I'm glad you're enjoying the copy I gave you :)

I've started adding a caveat: "I want cheap, reliable teleportation...with safeguards against terrorism". By the latter, I originally meant I didn't want terrorists sending bombs or people with SARS through teleporters, but then someone pointed out that cheap, reliable teleportation would also allow terrorists to more easily obtain materials.

*sigh*

From:

noveldevice.livejournal.com

Obviously the weather we'd wanted for my visit to Minneapolis held off for Eric's--I was there last weekend and we were going to garden but it rained all day Saturday instead. You and Eric probably needed it more anyway, so that's good. :)

Long-distance stuff sucks, doesn't it? Hope you are caught up in the whirlwind of daily life again soon and don't mind quite as much.

From:

pameladean

Oh dear, sorry to have stolen your weather. We did need it quite a lot.

Long-distance stuff gives sucking a bad name. Unfortunately, E and I started out as local, so the whirlwind of daily life has never been the same since he left.

P.

From:

noveldevice.livejournal.com

Oh, that's okay. We dyed our hair instead, which was just as much fun and much more colorful. :)

Re: sucking...this is why theoretically I Don't Do long-distance stuff. Note strategic placement of word "theoretically". :P

From:

clindau.livejournal.com

RE: the Guthrie--I know we talked about the show's shortcomings after the show, but I wanted to comment that the things that bothered you and Eric bothered a lot of us on the staff too. You just put it into words better. ;-) Not to mention that originally the archer who sang that deer hunting song was supposed to have a wireless microphone, like the one Hymen had. They cut it because it was too unwieldy (and I hope because it Didn't Fit the Times).

Part of the problem with the concept, I think, was that the director grew up in Ireland, and saw the 60's through a different lens than we did.

I dunno--in a different director's hands a 60's As You Like It could have been brilliant. As it was, the masses loved it, which passes for success with this man. But that's a rant for another day.

Glad you and Eric had good weather and ggod times.

Cindy

From:

pameladean

-- but I wasn't sure I should say anything. I remember you looking over your shoulder while we were discussing the play in the lobby. Obviously this is not the lobby, but I became paranoid suddenly.

Garland Wright had some very goofy notions, but I will love him forever for The History Plays. There has not yet been anything for which I would love the present director.

P.

From:

clindau.livejournal.com

Oh that's okay--I was more worried that the actor who played Touchstone would walk by while I was talking about him. No qualms about having the director hear me. The actors, I have to deal with every day. The director, feh. Although I must admit we've had some very nice conversations about theatre, especially after I've been to London and we dish about the shows I've seen. He's just as much of a theatre geek as I am--it's a shame that he's not more of a visual director. Text work is okay, but he's got to learn that the tape lines on the rehearsal room floor mean "wall here" or "steps here" and stop directing the actors to enter upstage center, where the backdrop is and then expressing surprise that there's no entrance there. Sheesh.

I loved the Histories too. The new game around the G is "What will be the first show in the new theatre?" If it wasn't so obscure, I'd vote for the Stoppard trilogy The Coast of Utopia. The front-runner right now (among the handful of us who play this game) is Lear or Richard III. Of cousre, there would have to be a high-powered actor in the part. (Patrick Stewart, maybe, Jackie??) That's the game we play, anyhow. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the first show in the new proscenium is an Irish classic--Juno and the Paycock maybe.

Of course, this is all conjecture and speculation by people with way too much time on their hands. ;-)

Cindy

From:

kalmn.livejournal.com

[pets hair]

i am certain i have a teleporter recipe in one of the boxes i didn't unpack from my last move. if i find it again after i move into the house, i will let you know.

From:

lcohen

let me know too!

pamela, i share your pain and am happy that you had a good visit.

*hughug*

From:

asimovberlioz.livejournal.com

Didn't the Guthrie put on As You Like It back in 1984? I recall meeting the Rosalind, Patti LuPone, at the cheese counter at Lunds in Uptown. (She recommended the Emmentaler Swiss.) And I also got a message on my answering machine from Werner Klemperer, who wanted to thank me for having alerted his family to the whereabouts of some orchestral scores which had been stolen from his father.

The reason I recall it was 1984 was that Klemperer happened to call on the 40th anniversary of D-Day.

From:

clindau.livejournal.com

Yes they did. I didn't see it, and wasn't working there at the time, but I remember it only because LuPone was in it. Val Kilmer, too, I think, for what *that's* worth.

The G also did AYLI in the 90's. All I remember of that one is the big white fabric pieces symbolizing the winter forest that were pulled down the voms to reveal the summer forest. Another Garland Wright piece.

Cindy

From:

homemakerj.livejournal.com

You saw Eric during that spell of blissful weather?!? You're a goner, I'm afraid.

From:

eileenlufkin.livejournal.com

"It pointed up quite hideously both, as Eric put it, the exploitation of lower-class women by upper-class twits, and various stupidities in gender roles; the setting made both unnecessary, so that their persistence warped the characterization."

I thought the exploitation and the stupidities in gender roles fit just fine in a sixties setting; especially early sixties, which is how I read the clothes. I thought it was both funny and accurate that Rosalind's "disguise" seemed to fool everyone in the forest, while making her look to modern eyes like a cute not very butch dyke.

From:

pameladean

I kept trying to make things that way, but it really did not work for me. Touchstone seemed simply cruel and inhuman, and I kept tracing that back to the setting. That is one tricky thing about taking Shakespeare out of his own age, that effects in fact caused by some other aspect of the production may be attributed to the time's being out of joint.

I wasn't talking about stupidities in gender roles, though, but about the rigid rules regarding virginity. In the Sixties Touchstone wouldn't have needed to marry anybody.

I actually didn't think the setting did the disguise any favors either. Merely putting a woman in trousers really shouldn't fool much of anybody.

P.

From:

castleclear.livejournal.com

Dear Pamela,
It's always a delight to read what you publish. Your sentence, "For me it would be like unknitting one of those scarves made of multicolored recycled silk." really resonates with me. As you so marvelously noted in the early 80's when critiquing a college paper of mine (and provided much more useful feedback than the Prof. thought to give), my own writing style suffers from compression, deletion, and digression. I hope to have improved slightly--though when the pressure is on, I note that my writing flaws resurface (recrudesce?).

I'm sorry you are, or were, feeling disconsolate. I'm certain you've seen the A&S production of "Pride & Prejucide"; I really like it and have watched it several times.

I concur with you complete re: Olivier. I find his "Richard III" to be one of the best, though due to the news media and what I hear about global current events, I'm very rarely in the mood for tragedy. There seems quite enough, thank you. When feeling really stressed, I tend to put on an (older) child's movie, such as "Yellow Submarine". ["All You Need Is Love", dah, da, dah, da, dah.] Despite my several years of gaming and other heroic hack-n-slash, I find my sensitivity to, hence tolerance for violence has shifted--Aum, Aum--and find myself increasingly on the same or similarly harmonizing page with Tibetan (& other) Buddhist friends. (That would also include those seemingly rare and beautiful souls practicing peaceful Christianity, and so on.)

Wishing you harmony & peace, Lady.
Your pal,
sir silly

From:

pameladean

I remember quite liking the paper on Othello, though.

I have Carbonel's copy of the P&P production, but haven't watched it yet.

And yeah, the general world situation has NOT imbued me with the desire to watch a lot of angst-laden drama.

P.

From:

castleclear.livejournal.com

Dear P.,
Oh yes, you gave the best feedback ever! Heaps of praise as well insightful, pertinent and extremely useful criticism--all of which combined to help me actually improve my skill in writing. The prof. thought you were too hard on me when I wanted to share your feedback, noting "that graduate students often are" too hard on undergrads. Notwithstanding, he informed me his wife also read my paper--which amazed me--and her opinion was that I should go for a Ph.D. in English, which knocked my socks off at the time. Life had other plans for me, which in retrospect I'm now happy and grateful for. Being support staff for a couple of different academic departments has suited me to a tea, probably chai.

I don't know Carbonel; however, the A&S production with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth is superb! It's as close to reading Austin as I've seen. Settings, costumes, but particularly all the characterizations, even of minor characters, is lovingly detailed and presented. After viewing, I had to re-read Jane, and found little if any deviation from her great novel. If you don't care for it, I'll be amazed. It's six hours (6 one-hour episodes) and the special edition includes interviews with the cast members. Among these, my favorite is the actress who portrayed Mrs. Bennett. It's simply marvelous. Let me know what you think when you get around to viewing it.

As an added bonus, in this version of P&P there's none of the "modernizing" to 20th/21st century tastes and understanding that many adaptations go in for. Worst of these (IMO) was Gwenneth Paltrow (whom I otherwise like as an actress) in the recent "Sense and Sensibility" and I had a difficulty relating prettyboy actor what's-his-doodle, ah, Hugh Grant to Jane's not particularly handsome but well mannered, gentle Mr. Willowby.

Another winner for me is "Mansfield Park" (Miramax Films) with Embeth Davidtz whose charaterization of Fanny Price makes the movie. The supporting cast is good, sets and scenery excellent; however, this film delves (in the current explicit style) into themes Jane never explicitely explored in her novels. (Had to re-read Mansfield Park too.) I'd say more but don't want to ruin it. However, as startling as these modernities are when viewing, they are handled and resolved in a very Jane Austin style. In other words, recommended. At minimum, you'd like some to more or perhaps even all of this production's adaptation. They went for clarity in presenting to a (post Post) modern audience unfamiliar with Jane's novels. A&E went for authenticy and got it right; it's extremely accessible even for folks who haven't read her books. Watch P&P when time allows. I'm 100% certain you'll find it charming and restorative.
Your ol' pal,
J.
P.S. Thanks for the many homemade biscuits and bread (with marmelade and ginger preserves and all) many moons ago at Finagle's Freehold after all-night gaming sessions. Those were very happy days for me. :-)

From:

pameladean

*scribbling madly*

Those were happy days for me too, though marred by unrequited love. So some things are better now. We all did have a lot of energy, though.

You do know Carbonel; it's an LJ username, and I think if you look at the journal you'll know who it is. I can't recall how much secrecy is being maintained or I'd just say outright.

P.

From:

castleclear.livejournal.com

Yeah, understand the whole privacy issue. Cool, will check when time permits. Would like your private e-mail. Can be reached at College and University at: john.robey@colorado.edu. We can chat from there.

From:

castleclear.livejournal.com

Dear Pamela,
Art thou still disconsolate?

I have an opportunity to purchase on VHS copy of "Much Ado About Nothing" with Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson; i.e., is this worth $2 (that's almost nothing) but more importantly is it worth two hours of my time watching?

If busy/disconsolate, I'm hopeful some of your other friends posting here might comment. Thank you.

From:

pameladean

I loved the production. Others have not. I think it's definitely worth two dollars and the time it takes to watch, to see if you like it or not. Emma Thompson is just luminous. I also quite liked Branagh, but then I have a soft spot for him.

P.