Shows and Lectures and the Like
Feb. 28th, 2022 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreAs usual, my life is a flurry of activity.
LJ and DW: I am planning to continue posting to both sites. If you are concerned about the future of LiveJournal, feel free to add me on Dreamwidth (under the same name). There are things I like and dislike about both platforms, by the way, but that is neither here nor there under the current circumstances.
Ink!: I got ink in the Style Invitational contest for fictoids about the financial world. My entry (which got merged with another person’s similar one) had to do with the Susan B. Anthony dollar being 82% the size of the Eisenhower dollar that preceded it.
Jewish Mustard: I went to a talk about Jewish mustard on Tuesday. The speaker was Barry Levenson, director of the National Mustard Museum I went to the Museum when it was still in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, but it has moved to larger quarters in Middleton, Wisconsin. It;s an amusing place and he was an entertaining speaker. Mostly, he recommended specific mustards to eat with various Jewish foods, e.g. mustard with dill to accompany lox (smoked salmon) or horseradish mustard to go with gefilte fish. Despite his suggestions, I am not going to start putting even the fruitiest of mustards on my cheesecake.
Sistine Chapel Exhibition: I probably would not have gone to this on my own, but one of my friends wanted to go and, as she’s been having a rough time lately for several reasons, I thought it would be good for her to get out. The exhibit is set up in an unleased retail space in Tyson’s Corner Center, which is a large shopping mall not far from where I live. Basically, they have large reproductions of the panels from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with explanatory plaques. The plaques are set up on easels, so they are not at eye level, and are, therefore, rather difficult to read for those of us who wear bifocals. More egregiously, the panels are not arranged in any particular order. They’re numbered, but they are not arranged in numerical order. That led to a lot of frustration as people were trying to find the next one in sequence. I suppose some people wouldn’t care if they see them out of order, but I am way too compulsive to do that. The advertising had led me to think there would be some immersive aspect (like the Van Gogh exhibit had), but that was not the case. They did show a few informative videos in the final room. Anyway, it was quite crowded and, between the crowds and the chaos, I was very disappointed.
We retreated to Coastal Flats (a good seafood restaurant in the mall) for lunch. After that, I did walk more around the mall, just to get some more steps in on a chilly day. It was more crowded than I’d prefer, but better than being cold.
Fairy Tale Variations - Little Red Riding Hood: Stories with Spirit did one of their Fairy Tale Variations storytelling shows on Saturday night. This one was based on Little Red Riding Hood. There were a couple of stories that portrayed her as a healer and mender. There was one in which grandmother and the wolf were long-time friends. My favorite of the stories was Cooper Braun’s version, which drew on Norse mythology.
Iolanthe: On Sunday afternoon, I drove to darkest Maryland (well, okay, Rockville) to see the Victorian Lyric Opera company production of Iolanthe which is my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. I love the political humor of it and there are several songs I end up humming for days after listening to it. They did quite a good job. I will note that Claudia Finsaas who played Phyllis is extremely tall and towered over almost all the rest of the cast, which looked a bit odd. (But she did have an excellent voice). There was also some particularly clever costuming.
Jewish Magic: This morning I went to a very interesting lecture by Yoel Finkelman on Jewish magic. The talk was part of Jewish Book Week and included a lot of discussion about amulets, including documents with texts directly appealing to demons to stay away and bowls with incantations intended to trap demons. He talked about contradictions in the Torah about what type of magic is permitted. There is also a concept of letters being the building blocks of creation, which led to instructions on how to make a golem (a Frankenstein-like creature made from clay. Bu the way "golem" is also the modern Hebrew word for "robot.") He also talked about the differences between magic and technology. (In short , if it works, it’s technology.) Finally, he talked about Kav Hayashor (which translates as The Straight Measure) which contains a story about the demons who live in the basement of a house and cause trouble for the homeowners because they claim to have a deed to the basement. So the Rabbinical court has to get involved in this supernatural real estate dispute. I found the whole talk fascinating and wished it had been more than an hour long.
Shameless Self-Promotion: Don’t forget to get tickets for the Women’s Storytelling Festival. We’ll be performing live at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, Virginia on March 18-20th, but it is being live streamed so you can watch from anywhere. And you get access to the videos for an entire month.
LJ and DW: I am planning to continue posting to both sites. If you are concerned about the future of LiveJournal, feel free to add me on Dreamwidth (under the same name). There are things I like and dislike about both platforms, by the way, but that is neither here nor there under the current circumstances.
Ink!: I got ink in the Style Invitational contest for fictoids about the financial world. My entry (which got merged with another person’s similar one) had to do with the Susan B. Anthony dollar being 82% the size of the Eisenhower dollar that preceded it.
Jewish Mustard: I went to a talk about Jewish mustard on Tuesday. The speaker was Barry Levenson, director of the National Mustard Museum I went to the Museum when it was still in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, but it has moved to larger quarters in Middleton, Wisconsin. It;s an amusing place and he was an entertaining speaker. Mostly, he recommended specific mustards to eat with various Jewish foods, e.g. mustard with dill to accompany lox (smoked salmon) or horseradish mustard to go with gefilte fish. Despite his suggestions, I am not going to start putting even the fruitiest of mustards on my cheesecake.
Sistine Chapel Exhibition: I probably would not have gone to this on my own, but one of my friends wanted to go and, as she’s been having a rough time lately for several reasons, I thought it would be good for her to get out. The exhibit is set up in an unleased retail space in Tyson’s Corner Center, which is a large shopping mall not far from where I live. Basically, they have large reproductions of the panels from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with explanatory plaques. The plaques are set up on easels, so they are not at eye level, and are, therefore, rather difficult to read for those of us who wear bifocals. More egregiously, the panels are not arranged in any particular order. They’re numbered, but they are not arranged in numerical order. That led to a lot of frustration as people were trying to find the next one in sequence. I suppose some people wouldn’t care if they see them out of order, but I am way too compulsive to do that. The advertising had led me to think there would be some immersive aspect (like the Van Gogh exhibit had), but that was not the case. They did show a few informative videos in the final room. Anyway, it was quite crowded and, between the crowds and the chaos, I was very disappointed.
We retreated to Coastal Flats (a good seafood restaurant in the mall) for lunch. After that, I did walk more around the mall, just to get some more steps in on a chilly day. It was more crowded than I’d prefer, but better than being cold.
Fairy Tale Variations - Little Red Riding Hood: Stories with Spirit did one of their Fairy Tale Variations storytelling shows on Saturday night. This one was based on Little Red Riding Hood. There were a couple of stories that portrayed her as a healer and mender. There was one in which grandmother and the wolf were long-time friends. My favorite of the stories was Cooper Braun’s version, which drew on Norse mythology.
Iolanthe: On Sunday afternoon, I drove to darkest Maryland (well, okay, Rockville) to see the Victorian Lyric Opera company production of Iolanthe which is my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. I love the political humor of it and there are several songs I end up humming for days after listening to it. They did quite a good job. I will note that Claudia Finsaas who played Phyllis is extremely tall and towered over almost all the rest of the cast, which looked a bit odd. (But she did have an excellent voice). There was also some particularly clever costuming.
Jewish Magic: This morning I went to a very interesting lecture by Yoel Finkelman on Jewish magic. The talk was part of Jewish Book Week and included a lot of discussion about amulets, including documents with texts directly appealing to demons to stay away and bowls with incantations intended to trap demons. He talked about contradictions in the Torah about what type of magic is permitted. There is also a concept of letters being the building blocks of creation, which led to instructions on how to make a golem (a Frankenstein-like creature made from clay. Bu the way "golem" is also the modern Hebrew word for "robot.") He also talked about the differences between magic and technology. (In short , if it works, it’s technology.) Finally, he talked about Kav Hayashor (which translates as The Straight Measure) which contains a story about the demons who live in the basement of a house and cause trouble for the homeowners because they claim to have a deed to the basement. So the Rabbinical court has to get involved in this supernatural real estate dispute. I found the whole talk fascinating and wished it had been more than an hour long.
Shameless Self-Promotion: Don’t forget to get tickets for the Women’s Storytelling Festival. We’ll be performing live at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, Virginia on March 18-20th, but it is being live streamed so you can watch from anywhere. And you get access to the videos for an entire month.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-01 01:38 pm (UTC)