hermionesviolin | Entries tagged with shakespeare: macbeth

live theatre

Shakespeare on the Common's Macbeth with Cate -- which was fine but not necessarily doing anything particularly interesting?

The witches' potion-making scene is them making Molotov cocktails in an abandoned Jeep that has very Gulf War vibes, which is cool -- but the play doesn't really do anything with that sort of vague set dressing.

The witches first appear, rising from the bodies of fallen soldiers -- which is an interesting bit of double-casting. Cate suggested (based on something she had heard/read) that the witches don't have the level of autonomy we tend to think of them as having -- that they have to do the things they do (compelled by some force).

sports

watched the Saturday Aug 5 round (7pm Chicago time) of the 2023 U.S. [Women's Gymnastics] Classic on Peacock because FB had informed me Simone Biles was returning to competition -- watched her on all 4 events (I mean, I watched the whole thing ... but I was particularly glad to get to see her on all 4 events)
Abby watched the Spain World Cup quarterfinal match (against Netherlands), and I watched a little. Got to witness Salma Celeste Paralluelo Ayingono (#18)'s excellent goal-scoring.

trailers

the "Masters and Apprentices" Ahsoka trailer -- which I feel like almost doesn't count?

books

read Abby ~8 picturebooks -- incl 2 mediocre trans fem books & 3 Flamingo Rampant books & 3 they/them picturebooks
read M ~15 picturebooks (plus a whole bunch of 5-Minute Princess Stories) and read O 2 picturebooks
Alas, we did not get to the drag queen books I'd brought, but when I was reading the Flamingo Rampant queer zoo tour book It's a Wild World and read the line "Remember the book And Tango Makes Three?" M was like, "We own that book!" Indeed they do, because I bought it for O last Christmas.
- Had a happy proud aunt moment the week after our visit when my SIL texted us the kiddos' first-day-of-school photos, and 7-year-old M said her favorite book was How The Sea Came to Be -- a library book I had brought with me on the trip and read to her ... interspersed with many questions from her, some of which led to looking things up on my phone.
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed (2020) -- YA about an upper-class Black girl who's a high school senior in L.A. during the 1992 riots; I thought this was quite good
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky (2023) -- queer non-binary horror graphic novel (it was fine?)
It All Comes Down to This by Karen English (2017) -- middle grade about an almost-13-year-old upper-class Black girl in L.A. at the time of the 1965 Watts Riots (though most of the book takes place in the summer leading up to the riots). It was interesting to me how many of the same beats as The Black Kids it hit -- upper-class protagonist with a nanny/housekeeper and an older sister and a white best friend(s), whose parents protect her somewhat from the realities of racism out of a desire for her to have a better life, swimming pools as sites of segregation...

Suits 2.13-14 while on vacation with the fam

Given my Tumblr gifset fannish osmosis (probably from musesfool's Tumblr tag), I was thrown that the show wasn't just Jessica and Donna being awesome.

Also, most everyone is kind of terrible? And when I Googled to figure out which episodes we had watched and what the context was, I learned that stuff just keeps getting worse as the seasons go on.

A friend posted to FB around the same time:
Suits is a show about really bad people who earnestly think they’re good people. As the show gets on they just get worse and worse.

It’s a really good show about how professional ethics breaches are slippery slopes. But it never seems like it knows that’s what it is. It’s like Mad Men without the self-awareness of its moral ambiguity.
In amusing news, during the opening credits of the first episode we watched, I was like, "Oh, I forgot Meghan Markle was in this show."

Abby: 👀

me: "Yeah, I assume we just watched her. Do I look like I know what Meghan Markle looks like?"
the first two episodes of Ahsoka with Abby

sketch comedy

Abby and I watched the 2017 SNL "Fire Island" skit on the recommendation of a lesbian friend and wow, this was so not good.
It contrasts Fire Island with lesbian ... moms? who are on vacation with their partners? So, like, an entirely different set of participants (beyond just the gay men vs. lesbians difference). The jokes aren't very good/funny (off-the-cuff after watching it, we listed off a bunch of jokes they could easily have made). I felt like way more time was spent on the "Fire Island" bits than the "Cherry Grove" bits -- which was weird, since it had been recommended to us for the "Cherry Grove" thing (and the only actual jokes are in the Cherry Grove part -- the Fire Island bits are just there so that the Cherry Grove bits can contrast with them).
Inside Amy Schumer - Last F**kable Day (ft. Tina Fey, Julia Lous-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette) after a friend linked it, because she'd posted something about "the height of my last fuckable years" and a whole bunch of us didn't realize it was a joke reference.
It was ... fine?

***

Currently reading: I've been reading some YA/MG since that's about what I have the brain for, but I was reading Troublemaker by John Cho (2022) (about a 12-year-old Korean-American immigrant boy in L.A. during the 1992 riots) and I was interested to read a story about the 1992 L.A. riots with a Korean-American protagonist, but then the kid made a choice which I think means the entire rest of the book will stress me out, so I'm not sure I wanna keep reading it.

Reading next: Not sure.

I have stacks of picturebooks, per usual.

Next feminist sff book club is Oct 1, so I have the book for that out from the library (A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys).

Friday night, Cate and I were gonna meet at the Qdoba by the Agganis Arena before going to Macbeth. I walked from HBS to where the 66 meets the B Line, and figured I'd just walk along Comm. Ave., except my sense of direction is not great in that area, so I walked in the wrong direction and then hopped a B Line at Allston St. The parallel street thing that Comm. Ave.'s got going on is weird and awkward.

The Qdoba was crazy busy. We saw after we left that there was a hockey game that night.

The show was at Studio 102 at BU's College of Fine Arts. I had thought I would have been to all the theatre venues in the city by now, but clearly I was wrong as I had discounted college venues. This particular room had like no ventilation, so we were very glad to spend the intermission outside in the cold air. (I'd been taking off as much of my clothing as I felt I could get away with sitting in a public venue.)

I say it's my (second) favorite play, but I become less and less sure about that. Everything happens so quickly, for one. And Lady Macbeth's all badass up until Duncan's murder and shortly thereafter she and Macbeth have a total role reversal, which I don't entirely understand. And Macbeth goes seriously crazy (hello Banquo's ghost scene). He spends like five seconds considering the possibility that the kingship will come to him without any effort on his part like Cawdor did, and completely dismisses the Banquo prophecy until after he gains the kingship. A lot of this is understandable on reflection, but watching it happen in front of me I had difficulty finding it believable.
     It was an all-female cast, which neither added (except that girls are prettier than boys, on the whole /shallow) nor detracted for me, which I'm really okay with. The animalistic costumes for the witches in the scene where Macbeth goes to look for them were visually v. interesting, though I'm undecided as to whether I find them problematic. At the "all my pretties" bit, I teared up.

There's a Cold Stone Creamery next to the Qdoba now.
     I wanted something light-ish, but all the stuff that looked potential had mix-ins I wasn't in the mood for. I felt like it would be lame to go to a ColdStone and just get a single flavor, so I got a Birthday Cake Remix. The server asked me if I wanted it in a coconut-dipped waffle bowl and I said sure. Turns out he waffle bowl is coated in chocolate and then coconut, so it's wicked rich plus hard to eat 'cause the waffle part is curved and it's coated in hard thick chocolate. Eating it, I realized I think I've had their cake batter ice cream before and yeah, not a huge fan. Sigh.
     Cate got an After Dinner Mint and decided that yeah, she should have just gotten the straight-up chocolate peppermint ice cream since the mix-ins (chocolate shavings, marshmallows) didn't really add anything. (We both got samples of the chocolate peppermint ice cream, though, and it is tasty.)
     The cashier asked the girl behind us if she was a student. (Apparently we don't look like we could be students? Though possibly that girl was wearing some sort of college paraphernalia, which we definitely weren't.) When we left we noticed the sign outside that we hadn't registered when we came in that said you get 10% off with a student ID. Sigh.

***

I'd been getting 6 hours of sleep the past couple nights. Saturday I slept for nearly 12 hours. It was AWESOME.

I got my hair cut at Salon Femia again. Yay walk-ins. I ended up getting the same woman I had last time; I should have asked her name since it totally escaped me from last time. I actually enjoy that they don't chat with you while they're doing your hair. I'm not sure it's the best business practice for them to chat with each other and not so much the clients, but it works for me. I'm not opposed to small talk in those settings per se, but I never have the right answers for small talk -- I dislike the hot weather, love the cold weather and not just in a cozy bundled-up kind of way, don't really follow sports, rarely have exciting vacation plans, etc.

I'm not sure my hair looks any prettier, but it's easier to manage, which is worth a fair amount. (And Trevanna complimented me on it on Sunday, so that's yay.)

***

Michelle's living in Leominster at present, so she had her 30th birthday party ("karaoke, beer, and fun") at The Tiki in Westford.

Jess took initiative about getting directions and arranging carpooling. Bless her.
     Michelle had said something about it being an hour drive, but it took us 40 minutes, so we arrived right at 8pm (the approximate start time we were given), beating Michelle and her sister.

I was deciding what to wear for the day and remembered that I was going to Michelle's party so I didn't need to wear anything classy. Looking for a different black shirt and remembering

queenmother49, I opted for my "Everyone loves a cunning linguist" t-shirt. Practically the first thing Michelle said to me upon greeting me was love the shirt.

Eric and Trelawney bought her a bag of Doritos ("orange salty guilt," as she affectionately refers to it). That was arguably the best gift of the night. I fail 'cause it didn't even occur to me until she got her first gift that duh birthday party perhaps I should have gotten a gift or a card. I just so rarely do obligatory gift-giving dates. (And she didn't even say anything, I just felt sort of lame.)

I was in the mood for a side of fries or something, but the place serves Chinese food so my options were kind of limited. I couldn't remember whether Spring Rolls or Egg Rolls were more likely to be vegetarian and just ordered a side of Spring Rolls. The dominant taste was fried, and I couldn't tell whether I tasted meat in it or not. The last bite I saw shrimp. Sigh. I was then mildly worried that I would get sick, which thankfully didn't happen. Having gotten used to drink prices at real Boston restaurants (or, god forbid, clubs), I was really pleased to find that drinks were $5 (and beer $3.50). Not that I ever drink a whole lot -- though I did buy the birthday girl two drinks.

I'd never been to karaoke before, and I was so grateful that neither Michelle nor anyone else pressured us to participate. 'Cause hi, I don't sing. I had more fun watching/listening to other people's performances than I had expected, though.
     Someone did a a country song called "Big Deal," which I wouldn't have guessed was LeAnn Rimes. The woman singing it had a country appropriate voice, just not a LeAnn Rimes voice.
     Someone else did "Goodbye Earl" (Dixie Chicks), which song I was surprised Mike didn't know -- yes, I know it's a girlie song and he doesn't listen to country, pop crossover or not. Meredith was surprised I didn't know "Under the Boardwalk." Someone did "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" -- which I didn't even know was a song until that night. There was a lot of Frank Sinatra, which I wans't really into. A couple guys actually came into the audience with the mic, which was cool. Someone did "I Am... I Said" by Neil Diamond, which again I'd never heard before, but I liked it.
     Michelle's sister Nicole and their friend Denise signed up for a karaoke together, and the DJ called "Nicole and Dennis." When we have him grief for it, he said he wished he had a projector so he could put up the slips of paper and see if we could do a better job than him of deciphering them.
     Michelle did "Trouble" (which Google tells me is by Pink), "Holdin' Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler), and "Crucify" (Tori Amos).
     Mike did Billy Joel: "Keeping the Faith." Again, new to me, but I liked it.
     Trelawney did "Head Over Feet" (Alanis Morissette) 'cause she and Eric are just that sappy.
     Eric did "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (They Might Be Giants) which I thought was fabulous, since he and Trelawney went to Turkey on their honeymoon.
     Someone did eve 6 "Inside Out," and I was like: I love that song ... I could maybe even sing that song. Though I'm not sure if it crosses the line from energetic to angry too much for me to really feel like singing it.

We stayed until closing (12:30) and driving home was a bit more difficult than driving there, but we made it, and I learned a bit more about driving in the Harvard etc. area (Jess was driving me and Jenny, who lives near the Washington Street stop on the B Line).

Pops was okay. The weather was decent and a lot of people (probably parents of 5th through 8th graders) left by halfway through, so that helped keep the gym from being so miserably hot and humid as well. It was over by about 9:30, which seemed earlier than usual. I felt kinda like i missed out on the full Pops experience or something. Not that i feel the need to have said full experience. :)

I was talking to Cindy at work that day and she said Shay (her daughter, who is now in her twenties but who went to Norwood public schools) must think they (her parents) didn't love her at all because they only went to one Pops concert. I certainly understand why people would not go, but i've always totally expected that my parents would come see everything i'm in.

On Thursday i checked out a book for this guy and he asked me how college was. I totally didn't recognize him, and the info on his record (Lindsay McLean of Westwood) wasn't helping me at all, but i talked to him anyway. He talked about taking two languages at once and about New Orleans and all this stuff. It was really interesting, though Mary Donnelly said later that it was like he had been away from civilization for years and just needed to get this all out and i realized that i'd barely said anything that entire conversation. I hate when i get so sucked into conversations, though, because part of my brain is saying, "You're working; keep an eye for patrons who need to be waited on" while part of me is listening to this person and operating with the training we all get to focus your attention on the person you're talking with. Cindy had Beth call the desk extension from her office to rescue me from the guy.

Friday was slow. I gave a lot of backrubs because there wasn't anything else to do. I do have one story for the day, though. This older guy whom i've seen a fair amount came up the desk and asked if we had a list of the Dewey Decimal categories. I said we didn't and asked if he was looking for something in particular. He said of course he was. He asked if we had a card catalog. I said we only had the computerized catalog, hadn't had a physical card catalog for some years. I also said the reference librarian would be happy to help him. He said he tried the computer, tried 3 different categories, and got "No holdings" every time. "One of the categories was art," he said. I had to laugh. I understood his frustration, and sometimes the system glitches and says we don't have stuff we do, and i know there are a million ways you can mess up a search without realizing it. I said, "Well, i know we have books on art -- i've shelved them. The reference librarian would be happy to help you." I forget exactly what i said, but it was something like that. His response was to just about cut me off and say something like, "You don't really care. You think this is all a big joke." I was pretty much speechless and managed something like a helpless, "No, i don't," as he turned away. As he was out of hearing range (heading for the stairs to, i assume, go upstairs to reference) i slowly muttered "fuck you" under my breath and headed to Perks with Jonah for my second raspberry lime rickey of the day because it was time for me to go on break.

I went to see the high school production of Macbeth tonight. The costumes and music and set and stuff were interesting. It was really difficult to get most of the lines, though. Particularly in the first half they were very rushed. Because it's Shakespeare it's hard enough for high school kids to get it, but when they can't even hear all the words it's basically impossible. Now i want to read the play again. I think i'm gonna try to buy a copy of the little edition that we did in AP English that Mr. Peterson said we could buy from him for a dollar and i never did even though i meant to.

Tonight i finally remembered to look up The Complete William Shakespeare Abridged on Amazon and found out i can get the video (and after some searching finally found the book). MLN impresses me sometimes. The video is in the system, so i can get it sometime. And Norwood is one of 3 libraries in the system to have the acting edition. My town impresses me sometimes.

I'm "only" working 18 hours next week, so i'm finally gonna get to visit the high school and also catch up on letters and stuff. I think i have too much stuff out from the library. This is what happens when we have too many slow days and i go through the catalog and request bajillions of things. Who knew Joni Mitchell had so many albums?

( Of course i'll be your friend. )

Current Mood: better than i've been all week
Current Music: "Lover Lay Down" - DMB (in my head)

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Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

May 2025

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burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

when faced with my demons I clothe them and feed them

Entries tagged with shakespeare: macbeth

culture consumed (August, 2023)

Macbeth // haircut // karaoke

I really should update more often.

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May 2025

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