Love In The Asylum

Reasons why this weekend was the Best Weekend:

1. I saw Brave! And adored it - Merida is so spunky and stubborn and sweet, the animation was drop-dead gorgeous, and I have been yearning in my soul for a kids' movie that has both bear-fighting and a central mother-daughter relationship. Could not stop gushing all night after I saw it. MARRY ME MERIDA.

2. Albuquerque Pride! My very first pridefest ever, and I had a great time. A few less fun bits - there were protestors at the end of the parade, and it was over 100 degrees on Saturday so we were dying walking around the fairground and I got ridiculously sun-burned - but overall I really enjoyed it. There were cute butch girls everywhere! And old lesbian couples and families with tiny children and fabulous drag queens and boys wearing very short pants, and I got to shop for sex toys and see BDSM demonstrations and a burlesque show and eat frozen yogurt while people threw glitter at me.

3. Opera! This year I decided to see The Pearl Fishers at the Santa Fe Opera (a toss-up between that and Tosca, but I've wanted to see The Pearl Fishers for yeeeeears), and I am so glad I did, because it was a phenomenal production. All the principals were just fabulous - Zurga needed to work on his projection more, he was occasionally drowned out by the chorus, but I'm willing to forgive him since he nailed the emotional scenes so well. His aria in the third act was just wrenching. And Nadir and Leila were both spot-on. I could how this was a less mature opera from a younger Bizet - there were some rough edges and plot holes, and the very first duet between Nadir and Leila in the first act is frankly terrible. But the brilliant bits are so brilliant that it's totally worth it anyway. AlsoIkindofshipZurga/Nadir/LeilanowI'msorry.

4. SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH SPAIN. I LOVE YOU CESC. I LOVE YOU XAVI. I LOVE YOU NEW BB LEFT-BACK. I LOVE YOU FERNANDO TORRES AND YOUR TINY BABIES. I LOVE YOU IKER AND YOUR BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. I LOVE MY SPANISH BOOOOOOYS THEY ARE THE BEST IN THE WOOOOOOOORLD.

There's something wonderfully appropriate in watching Faust performed at an open-air theater in the middle of a massive lightning storm. We were too far off for thunder, but every time Mephistopheles cackled the whole sky lit up.

Really a great production. My grandma was especially happy with it, since she really hates the minimalist/modernist staging they like to do at Santa Fe, and she was unimpressed by Griselda last week. Rather than doing period staging (Faust is set in 16th century Germany, I think?) they went with a sort of mid-19th century grotesque effect - it was rather like being at a Victorian carnival. Literally, in the second act, when they brought out the carousel horses and the freak show.

Decent performances all around. The leads were a little underwhelming, although Faust came into the role with a lot of depth in the later acts. Marguerite did not go crazy as well as Natalie Dessay in Lucia, but the church scene in act 4 was deliciously creepy and ominous, and I loved the prison scene toward the end. Mephistopheles was totally awesome. I love a good evil bass. And Siebel! Yay Siebal!

I must admit the unexpected ballet was unexpected. And weird. It ended in a catfight between Cleopatra and Helen of Troy.

Not the most ground-breaking show I've ever seen, but that really wasn't why I wanted to go to Faust. I just wanted something fun and satisfying and a little scary, which is absolutely what I got.

Very excited about next season now. OMG TOSCA AND THE PEARL FISHERS. HOW WILL I CHOOSE?

So, the last week and a half has been a clusterfuck of tremendous proportions, and I don't even want to complain about it, because it's all just stupid and stressful (and completely my fault). Instead, here is a list of things that have nothing to do with each other except being awesome and making me happy recently. :)

1. The fact that I am home for spring break. OMG NO ROOMMATE. A CLEAN KITCHEN. MY OWN WONDERFUL BED. SOMEONE ELSE TO DO ALL THE COOKING. And, you know, spending time with my family blah blah blah whatever, I'm just enjoying the quiet and the extra sleep. Tomorrow I am off to my mom's for a haircut and chocolate-covered strawberries and kitty-snuggles.

2. Lucia di Lammermoor. My grandma and I went to see it at the movie theater today, simulcast from the Met Opera. Not quite the same as actually being there, but still pretty fun. And Natalie Dessay and Joseph Calleja were unbelievably brilliant as Lucia and Edgardo. I realized afterward that I saw Natalie perform in Santa Fe last year in La Traviata, and she was so incredible then, too. I really love her style. The whole last act was just...gah. *shivers* Like Romeo and Juliet, but with 10x adolescent stupidity and 10x more Gothic horror and spousal murder.

3. JENS LEHMANN IS OUR NEW BACK-UP KEEPER WHAT. I mean, on the one hand, it is really depressing that our goalie situation has gotten so dire that we are trawling our lists of ex-players to come up with someone to stick into the net. It feels like an entire season's worth of injuries have fallen on us in just a few weeks (the keeper thing is bad, but our midfield and defense aren't in much better shape, honestly). But on the other hand...Crazy Jens! Back at Arsenal! It's so ridiculous you have to appreciate it. And I've been retroactively sad that I got into football after he'd already left the team, so I am happy I get to enjoy his sexy still. Every time I started to get pissed off this morning the camera cut to him on the bench and I felt so much better.

4. The Night Watch books. No, not the Terry Pratchett one. Or the one with British lesbians. The Russian series by Sergei Lukyanenko. colourofsaying recommended these to me a while back, and I finally got around to reading the copy of the first book I got from the library, and naaargh I love them so much. Apparently I only care about vampire books when they are actually mostly about vodka and Russian bureaucracy and reluctantly heroic programmers. Annnntooooon I love you. Although I would also read a book that was all about the adventures of Ignat, Semyon, and Tiger Cub.

5. Dragonfable. Other rpgs may come and go, but I'll always have a soft spot for this silly, dorky little browser game. But honestly, what other game will give you chicken-cow armor and a leprechaun gun? *hearts*

It's...it's morally wrong to punch old people, right?

My weekend plans just got violently upended. My grandma and I have been planning for the last six weeks to see The Magic Flute on Friday at the SF Opera, but she called to confirm the bus and everything today, and they told her I'm not allowed to go. Apparently they had complaints about me last year - not because of anything I did, jesus fucking christ I can behave myself for five hours, just because I'm not technically a senior. Which, seriously, what the FUCK. I went at the last minute because my grandfather, whom the ticket was actually for, was IN THE ICU. And everyone on the trip KNEW THAT, because they are almost all friends of his. And this year is more or less the same thing; my grandma bought the tickets for them to go together, but his health and mobility has not been the greatest and she didn't think he had the strength to handle such an involved trip, so she offered to bring me instead. AS MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY PRESENT. So thanks, anonymous bitter old person. I was really looking forward to this. And my grandma really needed the night off.

I'd be more incensed about this, but I don't even have the energy to think about it right. I'm just going to go watch football and sulk.

The good operas are never long enough. La Traviata could have lasted a week and I would have been happy. What a wonderful production.

Two minor quibbles off the bat. First, and this has nothing to do with the opera per se, but I was in a group of thirty in which I was the youngest by a good thirty years. This would be because I went with the senior center. Awkward! But my grandparents have been going with them for a few years because the drive to/from Santa Fe is a bit much for them now, especially at 12.30 at night, and I went because my grandfather couldn't (obviously) go and we had been trying to get tickets for me anyway. Most of the people were my grandmother's age, so late 70s-mid 80s, although one woman was 97. Still, they were all nice even if they weren't the most exciting crowd at the opera house.

Second, the Santa Fe Opera has a trend of set design that is a bit more avant-garde and minimalist than I personally am fond of, especially in period pieces that are supposed to be set in 1800s Paris, and this year was no exception. The set was...boxes. Lots of large boxes piled up all the stage. It looked like the singers wandered into a giant's apartment in the middle of moving day. So that was kind of weird.

But but but the opera made up for it by being completely and utterly gorgeous and fantastic. I cannot fault the singing one bit, because it was superb. Natalie Dessay, who sang Violetta, was simply exquisite, and her husband Laurent Naouri, who sang Alfredo's father, was stunning. Their duet in the second act, where he has to convince her to leave his son, was one of the most lovely things I have heard in a good long time, and I hope I'll be able to download a version half as good. It just about brought tears to my eyes.

Other bits that I found exceptionally good: Violetta's aria in the first act, where she wonders if she could love Alfredo back as much as he loves her, but isn't sure someone like her could have true love or be happy with another person. Alfredo's bit in the third act where he drags Violetta in front of a crowd of party-goers to humiliate her for abandoning him, not knowing his father forced her to leave. Alfredo and Violetta's duet when he first comes back to Paris and sings to her about the life they will have together, both of them unaware that she is only minutes away from death.

One of the best productions I've seen at Santa Fe, and they have some pretty amazing productions. So incredible.

So Sunday is apparently now 'masterofmidgets is Useful' Day, because by some miracle I actually GOT SHIT DONE today. I know, I know, I'm as shocked as you are.

My dad needed some mint, so we visited my grandparents this afternoon. We got there right as they were walking out the door for a dinner at Popejoy, but I had a few minutes to talk to my grandma. She laid the guilt on for not calling her all week, and I acted properly contrite. She also told me that my birthday present is taking the train to Santa Fe so we can go to the new history museum up there. Needless to say, I am tremendously excited. Because museums are AWESOME. *wears geek hat* After she left, I spent the rest of the time playing with CD and talking my ...aunt? Step-aunt? I don't know how we are choosing to qualify this relationship. But she's cool.

I am endeavoring to turn colourofsaying into at least as much of an opera fan as I am, so after I got home I spent the rest of the afternoon sending her links to clips of my favorite operas on youtube. I think my effusive enthusiasm about Turandot and Eugene Onegin sunk in, and I may have made a convert out of her. *evil laughs* And I ended up downloading Song to the Moon from Rusalka and Au Fond du Temple Saint from The Pearl Fishers, so it was totally worth it. :D

After dinner (lettuce-wrapped meatballs and rice noodles with chile-lime sauce, so messy but so good!) I learned how to use an electric sander. Yeah. And I didn't hurt myself, astonishingly enough. My dad showed me how. I used it to sand down the ends of some 1/4' diameter wooden dowels to make hairsticks out of. I'm waiting now for the polyurethane stain on them to finish drying, but I think they are going to turn out really well. I wouldn't try to sell them for actual money, maybe, but they should look fine in my hair. I'm meeting up with my mom and Lisa on Tuesday to do a craft day, and I'll finish them then, at which point there will be pictures.

Tomorrow I'm back to doing fuck all and watching TV. Go me.