bironic

deelaundry visited over the weekend! We drove to Connecticut to see Robert Sean Leonard in a stripped-down production of Camelot.

We had been braced for terrible and instead were entertained. RSL's English accent was perhaps the weakest part of the evening. Britney Coleman, who apparently once played Bellatrix Lestrange in "A Very Potter Musical," gave a strong Musical Theater performance as Guenevere. Having never seen nor heard Camelot beyond a song or two, Dee and I were both amused by the Gaston-like characterization of Lancelot and this production's choice to include a bare-chested bathing scene. Michael De Souza did a great job with line delivery and body language, perhaps further endeared to my heart by the fact that at times he looked like Anton Yelchin. As for how to describe Mordred (Patrick Andrews) when he appeared in Act Two in full campy glory... He wore sparkly black leggings and was basically Seth Green playing Ramsay Bolton.

Perhaps my favorite part was learning a little bit of the history of the Westport Country Playhouse, which has been putting on shows starring big names since the '40s. They had rows of -- what are they called, not ads, not playbills -- and pieces of the old theater on the first floor. The place just felt wondrously thick with decades of actors and patrons taking a summer breather outside (but not too far outside) New York City for some low-pressure theater. I stared a little too long at a photo of Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner in the play Butterflies are Free.

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Later, Dee suggested we try this show Black Mirror that has been recommended around. We watched the first two episodes of the first season (the prime minister and the pig, and the TV/bikes/game show dystopia). Creative, well-realized, solidly written and acted, and super disturbing, wow. Took days to shake off some of the concepts and images. Rupert Everett's faux-"X Factor" judge in particular induced a surprising visceral fear/attraction response in me. If the camera had lingered on his face for another 15 seconds, I'm positive I would have had nightmares. But in an enjoyable way? I'm looking forward to watching more -- just not before bed.

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Then I whisked down to DC for 48 hours for a work trip. Got to see a handful of dear friends and a former coworker, attended the conference that prompted the trip, and at said conference, eee, had half a drink with Jad Abumrad, co-host of Radiolab! I only flailed at him a little before we engaged in some career-, storytelling- and podcast-related chat. If I'd known he was going to be there I probably could have asked better questions, but it was still a real treat.

Tomorrow, back to work and regular life.

My last major summer work project should be done a week from now, and that will be nice for enjoying leisure activities again. Like mulling over festivids fandoms. And reading books.

Actually, I have to read Uprooted before Monday because it came in at the library and you only get 7 days for new books that are in demand. After that, I’d like to try some of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels and find out whether they are as lulling as the good fanfic. And am so looking forward to the release of Ancillary Mercy in October, preceded by a reread of the first two in the series. Sometime during the fall, will get around to The Chronicles of Prydain for book club. Did any of you read it when you were younger?

Not taking work home will also mean more time for moving around. Elle n’est pas très athlétique, mais elle essaie.

1. The autumn gym class schedule was posted and it is disappointing. Alas. I will either try some new classes or find alternatives.

2. Such as those tennis Meetups. Although tennis thoughts are on hold on account of I can’t find my racket/racquet.

3. Badminton club also an appealing option.

4. Could try picking up Irish dance again with the hope that it doesn’t tighten up my hips like last time, but that is $.

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In the meantime, my mom came to visit and we had a nice weekend in western Mass. admiring Impressionist paintings and modern glass sculptures and attending Film Night at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops, ( incl. live scores to Star Trek and Jaws, and violinist Gil Shaham looking like RSL. )

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It’s tradition to watch at least some Star Trek whenever my mom and I get together. This time she voted for Space Seed. After that, I could only request The Chest Wrath of Khan*, especially since it’s next on the rewatch list with ignazwisdom. Still so much love and admiration for that film. Notes perhaps to follow.

*™ director Nicholas Meyer

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Internet is down at home so I am posting this from work. (Shh.) Replies may be delayed depending on how daunting it seems to type on the phone keyboard.

Also:

1. Speaking of celebrities, Robert Sean Leonard is finally returning to Broadway, and I will be going to see him in May with deelaundry, no_detective and pun (and possibly krisdia?). Hurrah! It's been a while. If any of you are interested in joining, lemme know and I'll screen the thread or we can email.

2. Who is going to write the story where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Ronon Dex's younger brother? http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/104460415/30739386

...Crap, there was a third thing, but it's gone now.

I dreamt ( of LJers and slow-dancing with a cross-dressed RSL... )

Then I had breakfast and checked my f-list, and right at the top, daasgrrl had posted about RSL. *makes spooky noises*

There was also the part with my high school creative writing teacher and eluding an assassin in a Japanese restaurant with no power, and Sunday night's was about starring in a play and hanging out in a limo afterwards with queenzulu who was also Eliza Dushku. And a parade in lower Manhattan that involved a dump truck navigating narrow, hilly streets, and a bunch of schoolboys in blue thrift store-acquired school uniforms.

I don't know. These are the most interesting things that haven't happened to me lately. Life and writing have been frustrating. At least there is Comment on Neglected Fics Week (*nudge nudge*) and House tonight.

From house_daily:

AWESOME PHOTO OF (HOUSE AND) WILSON

It's one of five season-four promo shots in the post, which warns for spoilers, but as a spoiler-phobe I can assure you that there's nothing to fear.

C'mon! The gaze! The smile! The pose! The diploma! The bear! The Gryffindor tie!

* Thank you to everyone who responded to my last post about fannish grad programs. Advice is still most welcome.

* Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert has died. Man. :( I grew up on that show, settling in with my dad to watch him make glue out of milk curds, talk about the colors different chemicals make as they burn in fireworks, fill a jar to the tippy-top with ice water to show his young volunteer that water loses volume when it melts, demonstrate peristalsis by having kids swallow pieces of apple while they stood on their heads, take a piece of string to a globe to show how flight paths shorten by curving up near the North pole, lift a heavy can on a pendulum up to his chin and let it go and not flinch as it swung back because he knew it wouldn't reach the same height, shake a bunch of people's hands after he dusted his own with fluorescent powder and then wait a few minutes while they all fidgeted during a meeting and then turn on a black light to show how easily germs spread... And then afterwards, we'd often duplicate his experiments. Yeah, many happy memories. I loved his computer's black keyboard with white letters, too; I thought of it when I got my first IBM laptop years later.

* Rifling through the folder of one of my clients, whose plastic surgery practice is based in Montana, I found an email from her to one of our graphic designers describing what kind of stock photos she wanted on her website. That in itself isn't unusual—but one of her requests was "no gay cowboys."

* fallen_arazil, thank you again for that LJ gift certificate back in December! It's become the gift that keeps on giving; half a year later, I've used it to extend my LJ paid time by two months. ♥

* Sporadic kidney pain, yay! Well, the best guess so far is kidney; am supposed to get yet more test results tomorrow. Since it started last Sunday I've been treated to a CT scan and an abdominal ultrasound and lots of pokey tests and got to miss a couple of days of work and everything. Aside from the, ah, sporadic kidney pain, it's actually been fun. Getting to experience a CT was enjoyable (and fitting that it happened on a Tuesday; no MRI-of-DOOM complications*, happily), and, at the risk of TMI, I quite enjoyed the ultrasound this morning. I'm very sensitive to touch—I detest being touched by people I don't like or have just met, and relish even the most incidental touches from people I do like—synn and thewlisian_afer know what I'm talking about—and have been starved for it for a long time. The technician pressing her hand and the handpiece over warm gel just under my ribs and on my side in slow sweeps for 20 minutes was oddly comforting.

On another note entirely, how sad is it that while I waited for confirmation that I could leave, I checked out the brand of lubricant on the counter (Surgilube) and made a mental note to have House steal that from the clinic in a fic?

* ETA: Correction: Now with MRI in the future, too!

* Fruit! (No, not you.) I went to a local year-round farm stand/garden center/petting zoo (former = original purpose, latter = income) Sunday morning and picked up lots of fresh produce, and my sister and I made a fruit salad that we're still eating our way through. Strawberries and peaches and nectarines and plums and grapes and canteloupe—and, not in the mix, string beans and tomatoes and peas and giant red leaf lettuce and sweet onions and corn. These are some of the joys of summer for we-who-do-not-like-the-heat (-and-don't-get-summers-off).

* RSL presenting at the Tony Awards this past Sunday night = yay. All unkempt hair and awkward smile and almost, almost brilliant speech. There were pictures of him and Gaby and him alone backstage at the pre-show over at house_daily for those of you who care but don't watch that community.

* Last of the Mohicans was on AMC Saturday night. I didn't see that movie until a couple of years ago, when I rented it because Sebastian Roché (my favorite actor no-one's ever heard of) was supposed to be in it, only it turned out he'd been cut. I was expecting to hate it, as I expect to hate all epic romances with heartthrob lead actors such as Daniel Day-Lewis or Brad Pitt, but I absolutely loved—and still love, as Saturday's viewing proved—the climactic Appalachian clifftop scene with Magua and Alice. His face, his surprised respect. Her serenity. The music. The scenery. Chingachgook's and Hawkeye's and Cora's reactions. Everything. Mm.

* Oh yeah, this is what it's like in the real world. I have no words for stuff like this.

* I was lucky enough to be able to see a montage of the Spacey Awards in which ( spoilers for the Spaceys? and a casting spoiler for SGA S4 ) and as I said over at sheafrotherdon's LJ where she has some low-res screen shots of the brilliance, really, what's better than watching a cast you love be goofy with each other?


Okay, 'nuff procrastinating. Time to convince House and Wilson to get down and dirty. They've prevaricated for a few thousand words now; enough's enough!

Two more Robert Sean Leonard-narrated audio books. Perhaps the only advantage of a long commute.

( 'Disobedience': Freudian issues abound )

I'd never read anything else by Jane Hamilton, so it was hard to tell whether I disliked her writing or just this particular novel. Since RSL did another audio book of hers, The Short History of a Prince, I borrowed that one from the library next to find out. An excellent, excellent decision.

( 'The Short History of a Prince': Ballet, brotherhood and boysex. )

The audio book cover said this was abridged. As the four cassettes passed all too quickly, I kept wishing Disobedience had been abridged instead of this one. Here's the funny thing: turns out Disobedience was abridged. Good God. I can only imagine what passages describing the affair in even greater detail were left out—unless the editors chopped the Henry-centric stuff and left Liza38's in, thinking they were doing us a favor. I don't want to read it and find out. But I may one day check out the paperback version of The Short History of a Prince to see if it contains any more treats.

ETA: Anyone have access to Project MUSE? This looks interesting.

There has been some tux-squeeage in the fandom this week following "All In"; therefore I am now procrastinating on four important tasks by hard-coding a table full of RSL photos for you so we can discuss what we find sexy in men's formal wear, if by "men" we mean "Wilson" and by "formal wear" we mean "suits as seen in two episodes." *wistful sigh* It's like the old days of putting off schoolwork and thinking about Buffy or, more recently, HP fanfic.

I realize I've been doing quite a few posts on House of late. There are many reasons behind it which I will spare you. Suffice it to say that it's been years since I was this into a show or book or what-have-you, and I am just so thrilled to love something again that I'm going to let myself revel in it. To those of you who don't watch (or watch by proxy), and I know that's about half of you, all I can say is I hope you like the House-related posts anyway and I promise there will still be plenty of other stuff to talk about.

So -- one for everybody, with pictures!

( Wilson: Tux or sweater-vest? )

I'm torn between #1 and #4, leaning towards #1 because (a) so pretty and (b) House does the Rumpled End-of-night Look better (see above).

You?