fauxklore | Entries tagged with life in genera

I am too tired to write anything interesting tonight. I had to get up early because I'd scheduled my COVID test for 7:35 a.m. This was probably a smart move, because it meant I had a short wait - maybe 10 minutes. The place I went to does drive-thru testing, with them coming around and scanning the QR code they'd emailed you while you were waiting. It was all quite efficient and I was actually done before 7:30. They said it would be about 72 hours for results.

On the way home, I stopped at the post office and stuck the last batch of holiday cards (and one bill) in a mailbox. I decided I didn't have time to go back to bed before one of the sessions of Yiddish New York that I wanted to watch. Some day I will learn that caffeine is not an adequate substitute for getting enough sleep.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/507989.html

I signed up to do Holidailies this year. It's not like I am going away this month and Lord knows I have plenty of catching up to do, so it should force me to actually get some writing done. In practical terms, that means you can expect to see me yammer away every day this month.

It is somewhat traditional to do an intro post, so let me do so. I'm Miriam. I live in Vienna, Virginia. I'm in my early 60's. I retired from 35 years working for the same company, doing satellite systems engineering, in October. Some of the things I do include storytelling, genealogy, solving puzzles, various fiber and paper crafts (but I don't sew), reading, and (in normal times) theatre-going and traveling. I'm also interested in art history and architecture. The only sport I follow is baseball - I am an ardent Red Sox fan and believe the New York Yankees are the Source of All Evil in the Universe. I am a bit obsessed with celebrity deaths and play in a ghoul pool. In these abnormal times, I spend a lot more time playing board games on-line with a group of friends. I don't spend as much time on housework as I should.

I am still adjusting to retirement and realize that I need to establish more of a routine, e.g. getting up at more or less the same time every day, planning meals ahead of time, devoting regular chunks of time to decluttering, etc.

I think I have usually said that I will try to be more interesting the rest of the month. Feel free to help by ask ing questions and suggesting topics for me to write about.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/477835.html

Celebrity Death Watch: Tony Tanner was a British actor, who played Littlechap in the film adaptation of Stop the World – I Want To Get Off. Shere Hite wrote about women’s sexuality. Ronald Bell played saxophone and wrote songs for Kool and the Gang. Toots Hibbert was the lead singer of Toots and the Maytals. Florence Howe was a feminist scholar. Sir Terence Conran was a designer, who defined modern décor from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. Bill Gates, Sr. was a lawyer who had a nerdy son. Stanley Crouch was a jazz critic. Winston Groom wrote the novel Forrest Gump. Robert W. Gore invented Gore-Tex. Terry Goodkind wrote the fantasy series, The Sword of Truty. Georgia Dobbins wrote the song “Please Mr. Postman.” Lee Kerslake was the drummer for Uriah Heep. Donald M. Kendall was the CEO of PepsiCo. Jackie Stallone was an astrologer and mother of Sylvester. Tommy DeVito sang with The Four Seasons. Cat Bordhi was a knitting designer. Gale Sayers was a football player, best remembered by people of my generation for the movie, Brian’s Song about his friendship with Brian Piccolo. Sir Harold Evans was a journalist, whose work included editing The Times and, later on, heading Random House.

Diana Rigg played Emma Peel on The Avengers. As a child, I loved to dress my Barbie doll in a black unitard like the one she wore in that role. She also performed in numerous plays, including winning a Tony for Medea.

You don’t need me to tell you who Ruth Bader Ginsburg was. I’ll note that I think her career prior to serving as a Supreme Court justice is actually more significant for her influence on the expansion of civil rights. She was a brilliant and astute lawyer, and, most importantly, knew how to work with people who disagreed with her.

Non-Celebrity Death Watch: Clayton Williamson was a storyteller, who was known for his entertaining story poems. I will miss hearing him at various story swaps on-line.

Anti-Semitic Microaggression: I’m not really thrilled about Ruth Bader Ginsburg lying in state, since that whole concept is antithetical to Jewish tradition, which calls for burial as soon as possible. But what really has me furious was that several people, who should know better, made the sign of the cross in front of her casket. That is a symbol that was used for hundreds of years as an excuse to murder Jews. It is, in my opinion, pretty much like spraying blood on her coffin. I am sure they were not thinking and were acting on autopilot, but I am sick and tired of this casual ignorant microaggression. Shame, shame, shame.

Another Two Comments on Jewish Practices re: Death: A lot of what we do has to do with the idea that everyone is equal in death. We bury the dead in simple shrouds, in plain wood coffins. This is another reason why lying in state is not really appropriate.

Also, we don’t do flowers. The proper thing to do is to donate to charity in memory of the deceased. Flowers, however, are not offensive – just not traditional.

Rosh Hashanah: Last weekend was Rosh Hashanah. I attempted to participate in some services via Zoom, but found things feeling more like performances than I wanted. I am trying yet another shul’s on-line service for Yom Kippur, which at least had their machzor (holiday prayer book) on-line.

National Book Festival: The National Book Festival was this weekend. I would normally have been down at the Convention Center volunteering at it. This year is, of course, abnormal, so the festival was virtual. Due to limited time, I could listen to only a handful of presentations.

Amy Tan talked about her new memoir. There were aspects that seem interesting (a suicidal mother, the deaths of both her father and brother from brain tumors when she was young), but her talk was rather too short to be satisfying.

Heather Cox Richardson is well known for her series of Letters from an American, which are widely reposted on facebook. In this case, she was talking about her new book, which is about how the South became culturally dominant despite losing the Civil War. Her major point was that this represented a philosophy of the few and wealthy dominating over the many poorer people.

Heben Girma is a deaf-blind woman who graduated from Harvard Law School and has become an activist for disabled people. I was intrigued by some of the adaptive technology she uses, e.g. a keyboard someone can type on that translates their typing into braille for her.

Madeleine Albright was interviewed by David Rubenstein and I found their conversation absorbing. Her stories ranged from her famous pins (which will be displayed in a new State Department museum) to funny things her grandchildren say to her experiences at Wellesley. She also talked about her current projects and her friendships with various other people, including Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton. Overall, this was my favorite talk of the ones I listened to.

David Rubenstein also interviewed former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. I thought he was articulate in his emphasis on soft power versus military power in foreign policy, which is an interesting position for a former SecDef to take.

KDMS Lecture: The Katherine Dexter McCormick Society is one of the groups one becomes a member of by making certain donations to MIT. They have one or more annual events. This year, the annual talk was virtual, of course. The speaker was John Durant of the MIT Museum and he talked about the new museum being built at Kendall Square. It looks like an excellent facility – far larger and brighter than the Mass Ave facility. I’m looking forward to being able to see it.

Other Stuff: Other things I’ve spent time on include book club, playing board games, storytelling (both listening to shows and participating in a story swap). Being busy is good.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/476460.html

I am still having trouble with executive function. That is, there are lots of things I should be doing, but it’s hard to motivate myself to do them. Today, I did manage to set up an account I need at work (a temporary thing for a specific project) and I made an appointment to get my car serviced next week, so I feel somewhat productive.

I have been fairly busy with entertainment of various sorts, however. The Sunday before last was a story swap with Community Storytellers, the Los Angeles group that introduced me to storytelling.

Tuesday night was a Profs and Pints lecture by Allen Pietrobon on “The Truth Beyond White Picket Fences.” This is the third of his talks I’ve been to and he is always engaging, informative and entertaining. He talked about the post-World War II housing shortage and how that led to the development of suburbia, with its environmental impacts and explicit racism. My home town was a fishing village turned suburb, so this had some personal resonance for me. We were always aware that Mr. Garrett, who had developed our neighborhood (if not other parts of town) had what was, by far, the nicest house in the area. (We always made a particular point of hitting up his house when trick or treating, for example.) I don’t think there were explicit racist covenants there, though there were in many other places. The really chilling story involved the Pennsylvania Levittown, which harassed a black family for 4 years before they gave up and moved away. There were perfectly nice looking women interviewed by a reporter about how they wouldn’t have bought their houses if there weren’t racial covenants. There was a little discussion at the end about the trend now for younger people to want to live in cities and the uncertainty about whether that will continue with the pandemic. Overall, a very interesting talk. (The recorded talk is available on line if you are interested.)

Wednesday night, I played board games – Code Names and Wise and Otherwise.

Thursday night was an on-line musical theatre trivia game run by York Theatre, which is a theatre in New York that I like a great deal. I mostly go to their Musicals in Mufti, which are concert versions of (generally) obscure old musicals. There were four rounds with 8 questions each. I had a perfect score in the first two rounds, but the last two had more questions I needed to guess on, so I didn’t win any of the prizes. It was still fun.

Friday night saw me listening to a program of Broadway musical performances by Upper Room Theatre Ministry. It was reasonably entertaining, but there was nothing really surprising. Before and after that, I listened to bits and pieces of the Lowell Folk Festival (which went on all weekend).

I spent the weekend doing some household odds and ends, including grocery shopping. Sunday night was a Chavurah meeting, which included some rather bizarre political discussion. Er, no, Biden is not a puppet of “those three girls.” And, no, it is not unreasonable for vaccine manufacturers to get paid for their products. To be fair, this was pretty much on the part of one person and other people pushed back.

Which brings us back to doe, er board games. We had a quick round of trivial pursuit and spend the rest of the time playing Fibbage.

Celebrity Death Watch: First, a brief addition to the last edition of this. John Conway also was responsible for the Game of Life, which is considered the first example of a cellular automaton. And is also the only part of his work I really understand at any level.

Kate Mattes ran Kate’s Mystery Books, an excellent specialty book store in the Boston area. Glenna Goodacre was a sculptor who designed the Sacagawea dollar and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial. Jacques Blamont was an astrophysicist and a key founder of the French spaceport in Kourou. Hank Steinbrenner co-owned the Source of All Evil in the Universe. Kenny Young was a songwriter whose work included “Under the Boardwalk.” Brian Dennehy was an actor, who made something of a specialty in Eugene O’Neill works. Gene Shay was a disc jockey who cofounded the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Steve Dalkowski was a baseball player who inspired the movie Bull Durham. Peter Beard was an adventurer and wildlife photographer. Sirio Maccioni founded the famous New York restaurant Le Cirque. Don Kennedy was the president of Stanford University in the 1980’s. Zoe Dell Nutter was a dancer, model, philanthropist, and aviator. Shirley Knight was a film actress. Terence Frisby wrote the play There’s a Girl in My Soup. Sir Eric Anderson was the headmaster of Eton College for 14 years. James M. Beggs was the NASA administrator in the early 1980’s. Harold Reid sang with The Statler Brothers. Joseph Pulver wrote horror. Bernard Gersten was a theatre producer who won 15 Tony awards (plus a lifetime achievement award).

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Matt Penrick was the founder of a traveling volksmarch club. I met him and some other members at a walking weekend in Savannah some years ago.

Mimi Rockwell was a storyteller. She had a particularly notable story about how she met her late husband, Rocky.

Song Parody: The only one I was working on that I actually finished was this one, to the tune of “Stay Awake” from Mary Poppins. I decided it wasn’t good enough to send in to the Style Invitational. But I can still inflict it on you all.

Stay away, don’t leave your home
Don’t fulfill your urge to roam
While COVID is in the air
Stay away, sit in your chair.

Though you may have made a mask
Staying home is all we ask
Stay away, don’t see the sky
Stay away, so we don’t die.

Zoom Zoom Zoom: My on-line social life continues to be busy. Some of that is playing board games with friends. Some is listening to things, including storytelling and music. Yesterday, I played pub trivia with some of the people I play games with. Then I listened to another friend on Facebook life. After that, I zoomed into a story swap with Community Storytellers, the Los Angeles group that got me hooked on that art. And, finally, there was Sondheim’s 90th birthday tribute. Aside from the technical glitches that had it start over an hour late, it was a bit weird. Sondheim is mostly known for the wit and humor of his lyrics, but you’d never know that from the selections. Well, there was “The Boy From…” but there was a lot of sentimentality. The performances were great, but the musical selections were far from being his best songs.

A Genealogy Discovery: I learned that my 3rd cousin twice removed was Allie “Tick Tock” Tannenbaum of Murder, Inc. I emailed the gentleman with whom I conducted the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling (yes, we are still friends) to tell him about this and some related odds and ends. And he told me that his 2nd cousin was married to a member of the Buchalter family.

The significance of that? Well, one of the things that Tick Tock Tannenbaum is most famous for is testifying against Lepke Buchalter, who was executed at Sing Sing. So, basically, my cousin sent his cousin to the electric chair.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/470863.html

Celebrity Death Watch: William Bartholomay owned the Milwaukee Braves and was responsible for moving them to Atlanta, which led to baseball guidelines on local ownership. Richard Reeves was a political reporter and columnist. Princess Maria-Teresa of Bourbon-Parma, who was both a socialist and a (Spanish) monarchist, was the first royal to die of COVID-19. Curly Neal played for the Harlem Globetrotters. Bob Andy was a reggae singer, as was Delroy Washington. Brian Blume co-founded TSR of D&D fame. Harriet Glickman persuaded Charles Schulz to integrate Peanuts by adding Franklin. Joseph Lowery was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for 20 years. John Callahan was a soap opera actor. Tom Coburn was a representative and later Senator from Oklahoma, known as Dr. No for his use of technicalities to block federal spending bills. Philip W. Anderson won a Nobel prize for his work on solid state physics. Alan Merrill wrote “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” Lorena Borjas was a trans-gender rights activist. Joe Clark was the cofounder of Horizon Air. Dr. Evermor was a sculptor, whose work included much of the carousel at The House on the Rock. Bucky Pizzarelli was a jazz guitarist. Adam Schlesinger was a founding member of Fountains of Wayne and also wrote songs for numerous films and television shows, including songs performed at the Tony and Emmy Award shows. Ellis Marsalis, Jr. was a jazz pianist (and the father of Branford and Wynton). Aaron Rubashkin was the patriarch of a family that is probably most famous for a scandal in the kosher meat business involving exploitation of illegal immigrants. Margaret Burbridge was an astronomer. Honor Blackman played Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. Earl G. Graves founded Black Enterprise. James Drury was an actor, best known for starring in The Virginian. Steven C. Beering was the president of Purdue University for about 17 years. Faith Dane originated the role of Mazeppa in Gypsy and went on to an eccentric political career in D.C. Chynna Rogers was a rapper. Linda Tripp was Monica Lewinsky’s worst best friend. Arne Wilhelmsen co-founded Royal Caribbean Cruises. John Conway was a mathematician who was responsible for things called surreal numbers and monstrous moonshine, neither of which I understand but which have cool names. Tim Brooke-Taylor was a comedian, best known for The Goodies.

Robert Levinson’s death was announced on March 25th, though nobody knows exactly when (or, technically, if) he died. He was captured in Iran while on a mission for the CIA in 2007 and was officially considered the American who spent the longest time in captivity in Iran.

Tomie dePaola was a writer, illustrator, and storyteller. He was best known for his children’s book, Strega Nona.

Bill Withers was a soul / R&B singer. Some of his most famous songs include “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Lean On Me.”

Al Kaline was a baseball player. He was primarily an outfielder during his long and successful career with the Detroit Tigers. He was an 18-time All Star and is in the Hall of Fame. Definitely, one of the greats.

John Prine was a singer-songwriter. My favorite of his songs was “Paradise.” I have to admit that I am a little surprised over how much attention his death got, as his material was folksier than typical top-40 type stuff. By the way, I had used one of my ghoul pool trades for him when I read about his dire health prognosis, so he netted me 20 points.

Mort Drucker was a cartoonist. He drew most of the movie and television parodies in Mad Magazine.

Sir Stirling Moss was one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. He had been in poor health for a few years, which led him to retire from public life and earned him a place on my ghoul pool list, where he earned me 13 points. I had not realized until reading a few obituaries that he was Jewish. I had also thought I had read his autobiography as a teenager, but publication dates don’t make sense. It seems that I had actually read Graham Hill’s autobiography and remembered incorrectly. As I’ve said before, I thought I was wrong once, but I turned out to be mistaken.

Product I Won’t Be Reviewing: I saw a coupon for Peeps-flavored coffee creamer. I don’t understand artificial coffee creamer to begin with, as I firmly believe that, if coffee were meant to have cream and/or sugar in it, the beans would grow that way. If someone insists, I will permit them to have actual cream (or, even, milk). But I particularly don’t understand the idea of corrupting the elixir of life with artificial marshmallow flavoring. As far as I am concerned, Peeps exist entirely as a sculpture medium, not a foodstuff.

Work: There are approximately 1800 desk chairs one can order on-line. I am struggling with the paradox of choice.

Work itself is much as usual. I call into countless meetings and write emails about what happened at them. I did get a nice “attagirl” from my boss, i.e. the kind that comes with some money.

Socializing: I have had phone calls with several friends, email exchanges with a few relatives, a couple of zoom sessions with another group of friends, and board games with still other people I know. There are also lots of virtual concerts to go to. In short, keeping busy is no problem.

Pesach: Doing a seder over zoom (with friends) was just weird. I did cook well, though. I roasted a turkey breast and some vegetables (potato, carrot, onion, and fennel, tossed with olive oil and black pepper), which came out quite nice. I had been afraid the fennel would overwhelm the other flavors, but it really does mellow a lot when roasted. Total Wine had a decent selection of kosher wines and the Bartenura Pinot Grigio worked well with this. There was enough turkey for about 7 meals, by the way.

Speaking of Which: Happy seasonally appropriate holiday, everyone!

What I Am Not Getting Done: I need to focus on household paperwork, starting with taxes. And I am definitely not getting enough exercise, sigh.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/470323.html

Hair: A quick note re: not having gotten a haircut in over 20 years. My hair is not really all that long. Part of that is because it is extremely curly. But I think some is also that some hairs fall out and the new ones that replace them are, obviously, shorter. Maybe I should dye my hair with permanent dye so I can tell how fast or slow my hair actually grows.

Books: I only read 7 books this quarter. A lot of them were on the long side, however.

John Jakes, The Bastard. This is the first book in The American Bicentennial Series. It follows Phillipe Charbonneau from his childhood in France through his mother’s attempts to get his father to acknowledge his paternity in England to his escape to America, where he changes his name to Philip Kent and gets involved with the Sons of Liberty. There is plenty of action and a dash of romance, which held my interest for well over 600 pages. I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.
Patrick Quentin, Puzzle For Players.. Quentin is a pseudonym for Hugh Wheeler, who wrote (among other things) the libretto for Sweeney Todd. While he clearly knows the theatre world, I found this mystery too theatrical and, hence, too implausible. I prefer to have characters who act more like actual people would.
Mary Janice Davidson, Undead and Unwed. Paranormal chicklit is not one of the genres I normally go in for, but I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. Betsy Taylor may have become a vampire, but that doesn’t stop her from being tempted by high-end shoes, even in the midst of a war between two vampires who both want her as their queen. It was pretty trashy but humorously entertaining.
Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow. This was a book club selection and proved to be one that all of us liked a lot. The story involves Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest in an attic room of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Despite his precarious legal situation, he befriends a number of people, ranging from a young girl (who grows up and leaves her daughter in his care) to an important government agent he shares movies with to an American diplomat. He is a very likeable character and reading this was like spending time with a great conversationalist. Simply delightful – highly recommended. (And, by the way, I have actually stayed at the Metropol!)
Jean Plaidy, The Passionate Enemies. The enemies of the title are King Stephen and Queen Matilda, as they battle to rule England after the death of Henry I. They manage to carry on an affair in between battles. Neither of them comes off all that well, but I suspect that is realistic. It’s hard for me to say how accurate the history is, but this version held my attention.
Paul Theroux, Fresh Air Fiend. This is a collection of several of Theroux’s essays. He’s a writer I’ve always had mixed feelings about. I’ve found his novels both interesting and disturbing, while his travel writing tends towards the overly cranky. In the shorter works here, he is rather more self-congratulatory than I’d like, particularly when he expounds on the excellence of traveling by foldable kayak. There is one amusing incident where he meets a man on a remote island who happens to have read his books. He also has some essays about other travel writers. I haven’t read a lot of the works he mentions, so I can’t comment on most of those. He was suitably impressed by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, which is a plus. Bottom line is that Theroux is worth reading, but I wouldn’t want to travel with him.
Michael Cunningham, A Home At the End of the World. This was another book club selection, but our meeting is postponed until April 15th (when we will do it via zoom). The plot involves two childhood friends (Bobby and Jonathan) and their complicated relationship, which extends to include a woman, Claire, who they end up living with. There are somewhat bizarre family dynamics, e.g. Jonathan’s mother smoking pot with them (and dancing with Bobby) when they are teenagers. Bobby is the victim of extreme trauma, starting with the accidental death of his brother (in a bizarre and not entirely convincing way), so it’s not surprising he clings to Jonathan’s family. In short, all of the characters were seriously in need of therapy, though I suppose that if they had gotten help, there wouldn’t be much of a book. I’m interested in how our discussion of this will go, since I definitely didn’t like it, but you never know how other people will have reacted.

Movies:
Just a few this quarter.

Lawrence of Arabia: This seemed like a suitable thing to watch on my way home from my trip to Dubai and Oman. It was definitely worth watching. Lawrence was a complicated figure, something of an outsider, who believed in getting to know the local tribes and understanding the people he was fighting with and against as the British vied with the Turks for control of the Middle East. His understanding of the Arabic culture – and his respect for the people – is what ultimately makes Lawrence (ably played by Peter O’Toole) easy to cheer for. This was absorbing and I recommend it if you have any interest in the region.
The Iron Giant: I watched this on what would prove to be my last flight for a long time. It’s the story of a young boy named Hogarth who finds a giant robot from outer space. Is the robot friend or foe? Well, that depends. There is a bad guy (from the government) who is outwitted by Hogarth. It’s a bit predictable, but that isn’t a big issue in movies intended for children. I also suspect children will mind the preachiness a lot less than I did.
Piled Higher and Deeper: Based on the web comic by Jorge Cham, this follows a few grad students through the trauma of academia. Winston is searching for a Ph.D. advisor and ends up in a lab where he and fellow students are expected to endure abuse from their professor. Cecelia is a teaching assistant confronting indifferent undergraduates and left with insufficient time to pursue her hobby of competitive ballroom dance. There are other characters, but those two are the primary focus. It mostly rang true. Let’s just say grad school was not the best time of my life. That said, I doubt that this would hold the interest of anyone who hasn’t endured that special circle of hell.

Crossposts: https://fauxklore.livejournal.com/470051.html

Don’t Analyze This Dream: I don’t remember a lot of details, but I dreamed I was on a ship, in a cabin with two bunk beds. I was in an upper bunk and was surprised at how comfortable it was. There was something about worrying how long the trip would take.

Hogwart’s Vacation Bible School: I am not making this up. An Episcopal church in Vienna, Virginia is offering one week morning and afternoon summer camp sessions for children ages 5 through 11, based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I am sure this will be very successful, but I can imagine what some other denominations would be saying.

Household Blitz: I was hosting our monthly story swap on Saturday night, so I pushed on getting my living room halfway presentable. In the end, there was a bunch of stuff that got thrown into tote bags and put into the Black Hole of Vienna (aka my den). I did find a couple of things I had been looking for, of which the most significant was my check folio. I don’t write a lot of checks but I do need to put a new packet into my checkbook every once in a while.

I didn’t get as far along on vacuuming as I’d intended, as my back can handle only so much at a time. Also, why did I ever think a bagless vacuum was a good idea? The bin doesn’t hold nearly as much as a vacuum bag does, and emptying it is a pain. Admittedly, if I vacuumed more than every six months, there wouldn’t be so much dust.

The biggest household crisis was that the bulbs in the dining room track lighting blew when I turned the lights on about an hour and a half before the swap. And, of course, I never manage to have the bulbs I need to replace them on hand. I lit a couple of candles on the dining room table. When I did have a chance (on Sunday) to get bulbs, I found LED indoor floodlights. Those should be less susceptible to vibration from whatever it is that my upstairs neighbor does. And they are advertised to have a 13 year lifetime.

Story Swap: We had a small group, but a lively evening anyway. One of my non-storytelling friends came and seemed to have a reasonably good time. We had an interesting mix of stories, mostly traditional with a handful of literary and personal. Plus, lots of general conversation, which ended up with a lot of stories about cats and dogs. Overall, it was a nice evening and worth unshoveling the living room for.

Gun & Powder: I saw the world premiere of a new musical, Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre on Sunday. The story is based on family legends that Angelica Cheri, who wrote the book and lyrics, had heard about her great-great-aunts. (Her friend, Ross Baum, wrote the music.) The twins, Mary and Martha Clarke, set out to earn money to pay the rent for their sharecropper aunt. They decide they’ll get better jobs by passing for white. (Their mother is black; their father, who had abandoned her before the twins were even born, was white. So they are what used to be called "high yellow.") They end up as outlaws, until their attempt to rob a tavern owner in a town called Sweet Christine near Houston. Both sisters end up having to make decisions with the potential to separate them forever.

I’m not going to say more about the plot line because I think it is best experienced as a surprise. Ihe music was a variety of styles, from spirituals to romantic ballads. The performances were outstanding, especially by Solea Pfeiffer as Mary, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Martha, Marva Hicks as Tallulah, and Donald Webber, Jr. as Elijah. I would be remiss were I not to also mention the comic relief provided by Yvette Monique Clark as Sissy and Awa Sal Secka as Flo.

The bottom line is that this is an excellent new musical and I expect to see more work from Cheri and Baum in the future. It is precisely shows like this that keep me subscribing to Signature year after year.