More Things I've Done Recently
May. 29th, 2022 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreRabbi Doctor Silver: I forgot to mention this play that I watched on-line in early May. It’s a new translation of a Yiddish play by Sholem Asch. The plot involves a well-respected rabbi, whose wife is having an affair with her music teacher. She ends up leaving her husband, but when things go wrong for her with the music teacher, the rabbi tries to take her back. This stirs up his congregation (and, especially, the board of directors). There is also tension with his mother who lives with him. I didn’t find the story particularly convincing, but the play was well acted.
The Flushies: Last weekend was The Flushies, the annual award ceremony / party for the Style Invitational Loser community. My contribution to the potluck meal was tabbouleh and, after chopping ridiculous amounts of parsley, I remembered why I don’t make that more often. At least it was successful, meaning I had only enough leftovers for one meal. I thought some of the award announcements went on a bit long, with Pat reading too many of the entries by a couple of the winners. The group singing of song parodies also seemed longer than usual. But my perception of length was probably influenced by the absurdly hot weather (90+ Fahrenheit). I, generally, handle heat well, so I imagine other people were also chomping at the bit. Still, it was good to see some people I don’t see frequently (and see some in person who I usually see over zoom). And, of course, it is always fun to meet new folks.
Transport Planning for the Exurbs: I went to an MIT-related webinar about transport planning this week. The speaker is a planner for the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. I didn’t find much of what he had to say surprising. For example, of course people are reluctant to use a bus service that runs only once an hour. I was also glad that he talked about integrating pedestrians and bicyclists into the complete picture of transit needs. But I was somewhat disheartened by the length of time to get improvements implemented.
Textile Museum: I went to the Textile Museum on Wednesday with a few people from my crafts group. They have an exhibit on Indian textiles, which included examples from the 14th century to the present time and ranging throughout the subcontinent. In general, I preferred the embroidered textiles to the block printed and dyed ones. One other interesting thing was that a lot of pieces had an unusual sort of symmetry, where, say, both sides had birds but each side had different birds.
The stitching on this piece was particularly detailed:
This piece is more modern with interesting stylized figures:
The exhibit also includes various garments.
This piece incorporates iridescent beetle wings, along with the stitching.
After looking through the exhibit (and browsing in the gift shop), we had lunch a the falafel place in Western Market. I couldn’t resist trying their vegan shawarma. It was tasty, but I think the falafel would have been a better choice. (There are a wide range of other food stalls at Western Market, by the way, ranging from arepas to lobster rolls, fried chicken to sushi. Someday I have to try the Guatemalan place.) All in all, it was a lovely excursion.
The Upstairs Department: On Thursday night, I went to see this new play at Signature Theatre. The story involves a young man who came out of a medically induced coma with the ability to hear dead people. His father died of COVID while he was in the coma - and that’s the one person he can’t hear. He and his sister go to Lily Dale (a real spiritualist community) where he hopes to learn how to control his power. His sister is a skeptic and the real gist of the play has to do with their relationship. The other character is the medium who they work with. The tone is much lighter than this description suggests and there were several moments of excellent character-driven humor.
By the way, I had dinner before the play at Tacos y Pina. The food was very good, as was the margarita I got. But I thought it was rather pricy for what it is.
Chavurah Barbecue: Yesterday afternoon, my chavurah had a cookout. The weather was beautiful - well, except for a brief rain shower. My contribution to the side dishes was a simple macaroni salad (elbow macaroni, scallions, pimentos, dill pickle relish, olives, and mayonnaise). It was good seeing folks and the conversation ranged from politics to movies to genealogy to books to baseball, etc. We will probably do another event for the Fourth of July.
The Flushies: Last weekend was The Flushies, the annual award ceremony / party for the Style Invitational Loser community. My contribution to the potluck meal was tabbouleh and, after chopping ridiculous amounts of parsley, I remembered why I don’t make that more often. At least it was successful, meaning I had only enough leftovers for one meal. I thought some of the award announcements went on a bit long, with Pat reading too many of the entries by a couple of the winners. The group singing of song parodies also seemed longer than usual. But my perception of length was probably influenced by the absurdly hot weather (90+ Fahrenheit). I, generally, handle heat well, so I imagine other people were also chomping at the bit. Still, it was good to see some people I don’t see frequently (and see some in person who I usually see over zoom). And, of course, it is always fun to meet new folks.
Transport Planning for the Exurbs: I went to an MIT-related webinar about transport planning this week. The speaker is a planner for the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. I didn’t find much of what he had to say surprising. For example, of course people are reluctant to use a bus service that runs only once an hour. I was also glad that he talked about integrating pedestrians and bicyclists into the complete picture of transit needs. But I was somewhat disheartened by the length of time to get improvements implemented.
Textile Museum: I went to the Textile Museum on Wednesday with a few people from my crafts group. They have an exhibit on Indian textiles, which included examples from the 14th century to the present time and ranging throughout the subcontinent. In general, I preferred the embroidered textiles to the block printed and dyed ones. One other interesting thing was that a lot of pieces had an unusual sort of symmetry, where, say, both sides had birds but each side had different birds.
The stitching on this piece was particularly detailed:
This piece is more modern with interesting stylized figures:
The exhibit also includes various garments.
This piece incorporates iridescent beetle wings, along with the stitching.
After looking through the exhibit (and browsing in the gift shop), we had lunch a the falafel place in Western Market. I couldn’t resist trying their vegan shawarma. It was tasty, but I think the falafel would have been a better choice. (There are a wide range of other food stalls at Western Market, by the way, ranging from arepas to lobster rolls, fried chicken to sushi. Someday I have to try the Guatemalan place.) All in all, it was a lovely excursion.
The Upstairs Department: On Thursday night, I went to see this new play at Signature Theatre. The story involves a young man who came out of a medically induced coma with the ability to hear dead people. His father died of COVID while he was in the coma - and that’s the one person he can’t hear. He and his sister go to Lily Dale (a real spiritualist community) where he hopes to learn how to control his power. His sister is a skeptic and the real gist of the play has to do with their relationship. The other character is the medium who they work with. The tone is much lighter than this description suggests and there were several moments of excellent character-driven humor.
By the way, I had dinner before the play at Tacos y Pina. The food was very good, as was the margarita I got. But I thought it was rather pricy for what it is.
Chavurah Barbecue: Yesterday afternoon, my chavurah had a cookout. The weather was beautiful - well, except for a brief rain shower. My contribution to the side dishes was a simple macaroni salad (elbow macaroni, scallions, pimentos, dill pickle relish, olives, and mayonnaise). It was good seeing folks and the conversation ranged from politics to movies to genealogy to books to baseball, etc. We will probably do another event for the Fourth of July.
