"OTHELLO" AT THE ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE

 

Early in my stay in London, Cathy and I attended a performance of Shakespeare's Othello at the Royal National Theatre.  Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear gave the best live performances of Othello and Iago that I have seen.  Mind, I haven't seen many major live performances of Othello, but of those I have seen, the two actors were the best, truly outstanding.

 The reviewers agree with me, but most do not note the performances of Olivia Vinall and Lyndsey Marshal as Desdemona and Emilia, both of whom I thought were splendid in the supporting roles.  Of the review I read, only London Theatre gives the women a mention.

Messrs Lester and Kinnear really do provide an inspired and mesmerising pairing, but there is plenty of great support especially from Olivia Vinall as a beautifully frail, and innocent Desdemona, and Lyndsey Marshal is extremely impressive as Emilia especially at the end of the play as she becomes both distraught and enraged when her mistress is killed.

Indeed!

We had dinner with friends in the Mezzanine Restaurant in the theater before the play for an altogether enjoyable evening.

Image of the theatre from Wikipedia.

BLEEDING HEARTS

Bleeding heart

Bleeding Hearts

On the neglected left side of the house
far from the showy beds of peonies
and iris, gladiolus and lilies,
the perennial drip of white from rose
valentine-ish hearts went on, undisturbed
by a lack of attention, unperturbed
by cuttings, divisions, replanting fuss
or the disdain of annuals primping
for a one-vase-stand, post-teatime limping,
they simply bloomed and bloomed, standing guard each
Spring over the hens and chicks once planted
at their feet to crowd out all unwanted
competition, avoid future weeding,
like delicate strings of paper lanterns,
soft pink light crucial to growing patterns
of the Sempervivum (always alive,
Latin for that common succulent flock,
ignored, but there, steady as the tick-tock
of purpose just beyond the grasp of men
yearning for control they only know how
to abuse in the shady here and now),
accident or plan, gentle harmony.
Whose hand was it first rent the innocent
pendant to make it bleed? By whose judgment
is sympathy unwarranted, wasted,
an inclination to compassion ruled
a shameful fault of the easily fooled?
Assumed dominion of a third party
cannot prevent the blamed from turning feral
when life requires freedom ephemeral.
Neither flower nor heart, no permission
needed to care about the neglected,
no emotion spare, unearned, rejected.

(Marthe G. Walsh)

Sempervivum or houseleek

A lovely poem by my friend Marthe.

Images from Wikipedia here and here.

HOME AGAIN FROM ENGLAND

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. No pig. Slept a good sleep in my own wonderful bed, but I'm still beyond tired and beyond busy, so not much time for blogging yet. Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes.

I just talked to my daughter, and she was amazed at the hospitality extended to me while I was in England. "You are so lucky to know people like that!" Yes, I am and I'm still awestruck at the generous hospitality of so many lovely people.

I think I may never get on a plane to go anywhere again. If I can't go by car or by train, as a friend suggested, I won't go. Jet Blue and British Airways were both very good, but Southwest.... And the airports are all terrible places.

Later, my sweets.

INCREDIBLE?

If you hadn't seen it, would you believe it?  An informed citizenry...not.

ITALIAN MEN..

ITALIAN MEN CAN MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A WOMAN...

On a transatlantic flight, a plane passes through a severe storm.

The turbulence is awful, and things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning. One woman in particular loses it. Screaming, she stands up in the front of the plane.

'I'm too young to die', she wails. Then she yells, 'Well, if I'm going to die, I want my last minutes on earth to be memorable! Is there ANYONE on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN?

For a moment there is silence.. Everyone has forgotten their own peril. They all stare, riveted, at the desperate woman in the front of the plane.

Then an Italian man stands up in the rear of the plane. He is handsome, tall, well built, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He starts to walk slowly up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt, one button at a time...

No one moves ... He removes his shirt... Muscles ripple across his chest, she gasps...

And he says...

"Here! Iron this, and get me something to eat."

Thanks to a "friend".

READY TO GO

Penzance in Cornwall, UK

The process of clothing elimination happened yesterday as I packed for my trip to England. I so wanted to take my dress boots, but they are made for walking only short distances. For walking long distances, only trainers work, so my black trainers will have to do for dress shoes. What does it matter? The last time I heard an opera at Covent Garden, I wore jeans and WHITE trainers, due to a miscalculation in time allowing for change. The visit included dinner at the elegant restaurant at the Royal Opera House. Humiliation past and gone and not so very bad after all. "Madame Butterfly" was gorgeous, and I enjoyed every minute, despite attire in jeans and WHITE trainers.  Where will I go that will be dressier than Covent Garden? I've already been there dressed down, way down, so no worries about dress.

I carry a small, folding umbrella in my car, which I was going to pack for rainy days in England, but when I opened it, I saw "Chevrolet Truck" emblazoned in gold on the black umbrella. Then I remembered that it came with Grandpère's truck, and he gave it to me, so I bought another. The Chevrolet umbrella is fine for here in town, but it was not quite the note I wanted to strike in England. 

Next week, the temperature in London will rise to 70°F. Also, the long range predictions for Cornwall and Copenhagen don't bode for cold weather. Looking good.

I leave my house early tomorrow morning to begin my travels, and I will have access to the internet only through Cathy's notebook, mostly for emailing my family.  Probably, no blogging while I'm away, but I'll have lots of news and pictures when I return.

STRONG WORDS FROM SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME)

Another dastardly Republican plot is afoot to convince young people not to sign on to the Affordable Care Act but rather to pay the penalty. Sen. Angus King (I-ME) speaks strong words about the people in the groups participating in the scheme.

Tuesday begins a 6-month race to enroll as many uninsured people as possible in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. For the markets to be effective, they need millions of customers, and for elderly participants not to vastly outnumber younger ones.

It’s in this context that well-heeled conservative groups are appealing to uninsured young people to remain uninsured — part of a backdoor effort to undermine the structural integrity of the health care law. (My emphasis

Their efforts have attracted the attention of one senator who recounts how being insured saved his life when he was a young adult, and who has since then watched others die due to lack of coverage. And he doesn’t mince words with those who’d take risks with other people’s health security.

“That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, told me in a Friday interview. “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.”

Sen. King is my hero for his plain-speaking in naming for what it is the despicable deception in the pressure groups' attempts to convince young adults they do not need health insurance.  The extreme right in the US care about nothing and no one in their determination to achieve their own political agenda whatever the cost to people other than themselves.

Even as those of us here at home watch in horror the spectacle of Republicans in their recklessness and intransigence risk the welfare of the entire country in their refusal to vote on the clean budget bill from the Senate, my friends from other countries watch with dismay and incredulity the continuing temper tantrum of the extremists Republicans in the House.

As David Kurtz from TPM says:

It can't be reiterated often enough: If John Boehner puts a temporary spending bill on the House floor, without any anti-Obamacare stunts in it, it would pass.

He can do it today and avoid a shutdown, or he can do it in a few days or weeks and end a shutdown. It's up to him.

Rep. Boehner, at least some of us are aware that the Hastert Rule is not in the US Constitution, and you can, if you so choose, bypass the rule at any time. 

JINDAL APPOINTS TONY PERKINS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION

Tony Perkins has worn many hats throughout his life: television reporter, police officer, Louisiana state representative, head of a certified hate group. But the president of the viciously homophobic Family Research Council earned a new title this week when Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed him to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, which awards grants, trains officers, and regulates law enforcement throughout the state.

According to CenLamar:

Tellingly, although Perkins was appointed nearly three weeks ago, Governor Jindal’s office kept things quiet; the appointment was first revealed by Woody Jenkins, a man who is best known in Louisiana for his three quixotic campaigns for the United States Senate. Indeed, according to multiple sources, Governor Jindal’s office had repeatedly denied or refused to acknowledge Perkins’s appointment until only yesterday, when it became the subject of national news.

Why the secrecy?  Is Bobby Jindal ashamed of the appointment?  If he's not, he should be.

Perkins hasn’t exactly mellowed out in recent years. While he’s no longer courting white nationalists and white racists, Perkins now spends a great deal of of time and energy lambasting gays and lesbians, or scientists who believe in evolution and vaccines, or people who simply strive toward ecumenical fairness and love.

Is there someone around carrying less negative baggage than Perkins for Jindal to appoint?  I'm sure there's an angle here, something in it for Bobby, but if his goal is a position of power outside Louisiana when his term expires, then the appointment could be viewed as taking things too far.  Perhaps Jindal and David Vitter will switch places, though I heard through the grapevine that the two are not the best of friends, so I'm not certain either would support the other if there was a Republican alternative.

EMAIL MESSAGES TO REP. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA)

Email No. 1

Dear Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): 

I cannot understand why Republicans in the US Congress, who make much of personal responsibility when the matter under discussion is programs for the neediest among us, think it's right and proper for the federal government of the United States to default on debts that are owed, an occurrence which has never happened before in the history of the country. Why is paying our debts a matter of controversy? 

You may not approve of Obamacare, but it is the law of the land, and the issue has nothing to do with upholding the full faith and credit of the US government and paying debts that we owe. If you and the members of the Republican party think the American people will place the blame for their recklessness and irresponsibility on the shoulders of President Obama, I believe you are sadly mistaken.

Of course, you may think your position will play well in Louisiana in your campaign to replace Sen. Mary Landrieu, but I would not count on it. You are elected to serve the American people in the Congress of the United States, therefore you are part of the government. Your present position to wreak havoc on the entire country by holding the government hostage on the debt limit is quite disappointing to at least one of your constituents. 

Sincerely, 

June Butler (aka Grandmère Mimi)

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Email No. 2

Dear Rep. Cassidy:

Earlier today I sent you a message on the debt ceiling.  Looming imminently is the Monday deadline for passing a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.  Here again Republicans in the US House display a recklessness and disregard for the welfare of the people you were elected to serve.  Please pass the clean bill that the Senate sent to the House to continue the functions of the government, of which you are a part, to avoid a government shutdown.

Republicans, not President Clinton, were blamed for the shutdown in 1995 and 1996, and history will once again repeat itself as the blame will be placed firmly on the shoulders of the GOP.  Why don't Republicans learn from history?

Sincerely,

June Butler
 

BOSTON ACCENT

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

UPDATE: When Tom and I visited Boston, we stopped to ask a person passing by the way to the harbor, but the man could not understand what Grandpère (with his Cajun accent) was saying. After GP repeated the question 3 or 4 times the fella said, "Oh the hahbuh! That way."