[ASP] "Merchant Conversations: Being Shylock with moderator Stephen Greenblatt" [2008-11-18]

Stephen Greenblatt said directors and actors are usually "evasive," but Melia Bensussen (Director, ASP's Merchant of Venice) and Jeremiah Kissel (Actor playing Shylock) like never shut up.  It was really interesting hearing their impassioned thoughts on the decisions they made for this production and their thoughts on the play more broadly.

The other two panelists -- Bernie Steinberg (President & Director, Harvard Hillel) and Michelle Ephraim (Associate Professor of English at Worcester Poly Tech) -- seemed almost extraneous.  Though I need to email the Hillel guy 'cause his blurb on the program talked about him doing bridge-building and I obv. wanted to talk to him about that but I didn't catch him after the show.

I didn't take notes, so this is all from memory.  [Oh, and it's not necessarily obvious from the commentary, but the two ASP folks are practicing Jews.]  ( Read more... )

That was a long week.

( gym: Mon-Fri )

***

Tuesday & Wednesday I spent nigh-literally all workday (save an hour lunchbreak) filing, printing, and filing applications.  I barely looked at LJ.  And then Thursday I finished that and thus got to catch up on other stuff.  I was feeling zen, though.  (I said hi to RA!Kate briefly over coffee Thursday morning and articulated it as feeling like I was still coming out of a daze.)  Thursday I stopped by Katie's desk at the end of the day and she said, "Are you okay?  You look like you've been crying."  I choose to interpret that second bit as that I'm somewhat perpetually red-faced due to the cold dry weather, but yeah, I was like, "Do I really look that bad?"

***

Wednesday

My hair froze!  I'm not certain this was the first time this season that had happened, but I was pleased regardless.
Indicators of winter: at the Harvard Square ABP at like 7:20pm I ordered mac&cheese and they were out (I got broccoli & cheddar soup instead), and the woman at the register next to me ordered chicken noodle soup, which they were also out of (so she got the chicken vegetable).

Speaking of food, I've been getting egg white omelets at Spangler with some frequency and Wednesday morning Pablo said, before I'd even ordered, that they were out of egg whites.  I got a regular omelet, and wow.  When I first switched to egg white omelets, they seemed kinda flavorless, but clearly I've gotten used to them 'cause having a regular omelet it seemed so much heavier and more flavorful -- not a bad thing, just different from what I'd gotten used to.

Over lunch, folks were talking about food, as we often do, and I was indifferent, as I almost always am.  MaryAlice quipped, "She's not excited about food because she's too busy having great sex."  I CRACKED UP laughing.

+

Laurel sent me an email inviting me to go see the Capitol Steps.  She signed it "Laurel," which made me gleeful.  See, her given name is Lauren, but on the third day of class one of the students referred to something she said but called her "Laurel" and then corrected himself.  She said she likes "Laurel" better anyway, so I've been calling her "Laurel" ever since.

We don't have class next week, so Laurel invited me to a Thanksgiving thing her MIT Lutheran Episcopals are doing.  Rest & Bread is canceled, so yay.  (When I mentioned this to Laura Ruth, she said, "I'm glad our absence allows you to expand your lovely wandering ways!")

Laurel's going to Worcester to family friends for Thanksgiving, but coming home same day.  I said she could come to Norwood if she needed 'cause I'm staying over into Friday.

***

Rest and Bread ("Rhythm")

Psalm 150
We read it twice, the second time complete with an actual cymbal and some other percussion instruments.

In her Reflection, Laura Ruth talked about how the liturgical calendar provides us with rhythm, and how we have an opportunity to hit those beats each year.

Keith in the Call to Confession said: in the dance of life, sometime we miss a step, and sometimes someone knocks into us and we miss a lot of steps.

***

signs of maturity from the past week or so:
* being happy for friends' potential s.o.-having, untainted by my own ambivalent wanting an s.o.
* being zen about Someone's newfound inability to thoroughly read emails and spreadsheets (it didn't particularly cause me to have to do any extra work, and I decided that should be my new bar -- so long as it doesn't have a significant negative effect on my job)
* curbing my defensiveness when I was strongly conscious of how I could have done my job better but no one was actually criticizing me
* listening and leaving space for the other person to speak rather than just filling up the space with my own stories
* not making it All About Me when listening sympathetically to someone (mjules and I have explicitly agreed that we relate to other people by relating it to ourselves, but with people with whom I don't have this explicit understanding it sometimes feels inappropriate)

my first gay wedding

From the November CHPC newsletter:

Wedding Invitation
The Clarendon Hill community is invited to witness the joyous wedding of Mike Nickey and Steven Bucchianer (service only), Nov. 22 at 11 a.m., Gordon Chapel in Old South Church. They will be having a small family reception. CHPC offers Mike and Steve many blessings and congratulations!

It took me about 50 minutes to get there -- so I was 15 minutes early (I got both a Red Line and a Green Line almost immediately but had allowed for having to wait).  It's the church that hosted Boston Pride's interfaith service this year, but I hadn't noticed the chapel that time.  It's a very simple stone chapel.

There were maybe 40 people present (and barely enough chairs).  There was a good showing of the core CHPC folks -- SarahG did the bagpipe prelude/recessional, and also in attendance were SarahD, Pierre (Corinne had a recital, hence why she and his wife Jill weren't present), Karl and Katherine, me, and Gusti.

Steve was wearing a white jacket (black vest and bowtie, white shirt and black pants).  Mike was wearing a white shirt and tie (black jacket and pants).

The hymns were "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise," "Here I Am Lord," and "Joyful, Joyful."

The Scripture was 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Colossians 3:12-17.

I'm always thrown by Communion at a wedding.  The minister said some nice stuff about "share a meal" as relates to the whole family/cebration aspect of a wedding.  She said the table is open to everyone -- "saint or sinner, gay or straight, Catholic or Protestant" ... Christ is the host and we are all guests and Christ never turned anyone away from his table.

The program didn't indicate which version of The Lord's Prayer and I honestly couldn't remember which version the UCC uses so at first I said "debts" because I was sitting with CHPC folks and that's the version they use but it was "trespasses" -- which I think is still my default were I to recite it unthinkingly on my own, but I got too wrapped up in thinking to be on autopilot.

Lighting the Unity Candle is adorable -- two thin white candles (already lit) on either side of a thicker white candle (unlit) and each partner picks up one of the thin candles and they hold them horizontal and touching (so they make one flame) and lower them down to light the thick candle and the T shape unity thing is a really nice visual.

The vows emphasized encouraging and supporting each other in their growth, which felt different to me than other weddings I've been to but I liked it.  One line was, iirc, "I give myself to you as I am and as I will be."

I'd been looking forward to the "by the power invested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you..." because this was the first same-sex wedding I'd attended and I wondered if I'd get all teary.  (I was thinking about how I've been legally allowed to get married to whomever I want since I was 20, a little less than 3 years after I came to self-identify as queer, and how that potentially influences how I react to the same-sex marriage debates.)

The whole service lasted about 35min.

Edit: While we're talking about same-sex weddings, mjules linked me to the photos from Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi's wedding day.

I am randomly bouncing around my apartment.

I guess that means I've recovered from my week?