Saturday, June 24, 2006
Ringo said it best
Last night I went to see the owner of the coffee shop where we used to hold our famed open-mike nights perform in a play. The theatre was waayy out in a little subburb that closely resembles an upper-class lakeside hideaway. I'd never even been there before, and it was stunningly beautiful.
Dana is one of the absolute sweetest people I know, and I'm terribly sad that her coffee shop venture didn't pan out. It was a really amazing place while it lasted, and it remains the first and only place in town where I can go in for a coffee and get two hugs from the owner, one on the way in, and one on the way out. It's like a Cheers-era cliche -- a place where everyone actually does know my name.
Her play was surprisingly good, seeing as I had zero expectations and I know all too well that a lot of small productions performed in the subburbs are pretty deplorably bad. I went out of sheer loyalty, which I often do when friends of mine are in plays. I figure it's only fair, cause I'd want them to come to mine.
I got a ride with a couple of pals from the coffee shop:
1) Morgan, who is a brilliant musician in the style of Johnny Cash and Elvis, with a bit of Ani DiFranco thrown in for good measure. Her lyrics are hysterically funny and often truly poignant, and though she lives in Washington State she often comes into town to perform or watch other people's gigs. She's a strange character in some ways, very shy and quiet at times, then at other times absolutely bitingly sarcastic and even somewhat bitter. I actually adore her, and am on a constant but subtle quest to figure her out.
2) Rain is an absurdist actor, a kind of real-life circus performer. His most popular character is a disturbed Icelandic boy with dreadful childhood memories and a lot of fairly vivid metaphors involving giant nostrils and Peruvian cocaine. His act can be a little hard to take, but I adore him anyway, and as a person he can be a real joy. He's moving to the states in a few months (BOO!), so I figure I should hang out with him while he's still in town.
Dana's character got killed off in the first scene of the play, which was a huge rip-off, but we still enjoyed the rest. It was witty, philosophical, utterly bizarre, and even borderline brilliant at times.
Afterwards we went for coffee and desserts at a restaurant around the corner from the theatre. The cast seemed impressed by my knowledge of food trivia, since I know what flash frying is and I can tell you vaguely why espresso has less caffeine than drip coffee. It was funny to have people impressed rather than irritated by my knowledge of random factoids. I allowed myself even a brief moment of feeling clever.
Hayley called in the middle, and I spoke to her on my cell phone on the railing by the ocean. It was one of the first non-argumentative conversations we've had in the past few days. She seemed a bit more relaxed than she has been lately, and I was glad about that. We're going to Sophie's show tonight and I'm hoping it'll be fun as usual.
When I got back to the restaurant I startled fiddling with these stupid ties on the sleeves of my shirt which are about twenty inches long and always in the way. I asked Dana if she thought I could just cut them off, and she said, "well, why don't you just tie them?" I replied that sadly I was just not ambidextrous enough. So she and Morgan each took a sleeve and spontaneously tied them in bows. "Aw," I said. "I get by with a little help from my friends." Sometimes the simple things mean so much.
Hmm....I should really get myself to the beach now.
The American guys I met in Oxford sent me their photo album today. Boy are they ever adorable. Must keep in touch with those lads.
A bientot.
-N
p.s. why so quiet in the peanut gallery? Mew!
