snOMGasm! (Blizzard 2010 a photo essay)

Outside my building. The cars are buried under the snow. I thank the lord my car is tucked safely inside the building! I left at around 2 for a lunch date with a friend in Downtown Silver Spring.

I take the first step into the un-shoveled grassy area behind those cars on my way to Easly Street. 

A snow/ice covered tree. They're down all over DC. Leaving over 200,000 residents without power! (My building lost power for about 10 minutes and I was freaking out! I've never lost power in the winter) 

Uphill on Easly. I don't think it had been plowed yet. But as you can see, there were some nice tire marks making paths for the few brave pedestrians.  

One kind home-owner has already shoveled a path on what Silver Spring calls sidewalks. But not enough home-owners did this, so I was banished to the car-less street.

PEOPLE! My first sighting! Walking uphill I come to a plateau and see people! They to are taking advantage of the tire tracks as easier walk ways.  

This home-owner cleared a nice path to get into his/her home! Look at how high that pile is compared to the window!  

  Another gorgeous tree covered in ice and snow.

Finally hit the end of the second block from my apartment and it only took 15 minutes! (lol)  I thought this would be the best time to take a picture of myself, you know, when the snow is blowing into my face

Look at those icicles! They look over three feet long! I wouldn't want to walk under them. It would be like Mario in an ice world, where he could die if he misjudges the time of the falling icicles. 

This car had just given up! The side walk is close to the bushes on the left and the fence on the right. Normally this road has cars parked on both sides and enough room for two way traffic!

Knee high snow drift that I had to cross to make it to my final destination. 

Downtown (DT) Silver Spring! Just 30 minutes (normally 12 minute walk). The sidewalks are nice, but normally the amount of people in DT overflow onto the street, not today. Not a single store was open in DT, though I believe one pub was serving today.

Jenn and I discover that all the stores are closed, so we trek around. Settle in a Tastee Diner (my first time there ever).

After watching some TV at Jenn's I decide to leave before the sun sets and it gets too cold. I was a little disappointed to see that the snow had stopped.

Tastee Diner all lit up, under the snow.

  Georgia Ave (a major artery to DC) doesn't look like it's been plowed in the past few hours.

The DT sign is covered in snow, surrounded by snow. A lonely man has the task of clearing the path.

During the warmer months this is fountain. I can't even seen the pool where the water would sit!

More paths throughout the DT plaza. The people in the background were digging paths while their children played in the snow. 

I was confused. Why were they all congregating here? I checked it out, and nothing but more maze-like paths.

I chose to walk in the snow, but this woman chose to walk on one of the nice paths, while carrying her dog, wrapped in a giant scarf.

The Mariott in DT has great lights in the sidewalk. Here you can see the lights are lit and they illuminated the snow. This was really cool.

On Bonifant, the roads are looking pretty good, but now the people have to dig out their cars!  

On a side street, the snow had not been plowed (thigh high) but walking in the tire tracks.

  Yes, he's skiing!

  I couldn't believe it! I've never seen it before.

I head through the park and see a dad and his son sledding! How fun. I wish I had a sled. Gonna need to get one before the next snow storm. 

I was walking in the foot prints of others, but then chose to go it on my own. I was sweating and huffing walking in thigh high snow. 

That's my feet again. Where are they? Under the snow. Those are my thighs in the snow. My trench coat was pushed up way too high. I quickly left my exploitative path and ran home. It was a fun day, but I'm happy to be safe (and warm) in my apartment. 

I've only finished 2 bottles of wine! I still have three more! Here's hoping for a snow day on Monday to give me plenty of time to polish off the wine.

Happy snOMG2, snOMGasm, snowpocalypse, snowmageddon and possibly my favorite snObama!

  

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Check out The Permanent Collect @ Roundhouse in Bethesda, MD

 

In the program, the Dramaturg, Jacqueline Lawtron, said "when you put a white person and a black person on stage, befroe they even open their mouths, it's a play about race." This is right when it comes to Permanent Collection. The play opens with Sterling North - played by Craig Wallace, - a business man, recounting the events of the morning to the audience. Sterling is a black man, driving a jag, wearing expensive clothes and pulled over for DWB (driving while black). He's on his way to his new job as the curator at the Morris Collection (an art gallery that has recently been bequeathed to a historically black college (said to have been Alfred Morris' last "screw you" to the art community).

So right from the beginning, we know that this play is going to be heavy, and full of racial tensions.  And the moment Sterling meets Paul Barrow - played by Jeff Allin,- the museum's director of education, things seem to hit the fan. Sterling has already made some changes to the staffing at the collection, which don't sit well with Paul. From the beginning of their relationship, it's hard to tell if Paul dislikes Sterling because he is Black or because he is changing too much.

As the play goes on, Paul becomes very friendly with Sterling's assistant, Kanika Weaver - played by Jessica Frances Dukes (who in my opinion steals the show with her candid approach to racism and was so well acted). But what gets the ball rolling is when Sterling wants to add some more art to the collection (pulling it from the storage department). But Paul wants to uphold Alfred Morris' will, that no changes to the permanent collection will be allowed. Again, it's have to tell if Paul is upset about the changes or about the fact that the new art is African. (The current collection on display includes hundreds of paintings by European men, but only four small African statues and masks). 

Things get blown out of proportion and Gillian Crane, local style reporter - played by Susan Lynskey - gets involved. Paul looses his job and is slandered as a racist. Sterling is quoted as calling Paul and his protest group the "Ku Klux Klan." Kanika is fired for not being able to keep quiet (or was it because she was trying to play for both teams? black and white?) In the final scene with Kanika she talks about how she never thinks about herself as black, but there is always someone there to remind her of it. How she hoped that it wouldn't ever matter; it just wasn't something that was important to her (in her mid-20s) as opposed to Sterling, 40's - 50's who had to claw his way up the corporate ladder.

A few years later, Paul revisits the Morris Collection and it is revealed that because of the lawsuit he brought upon Sterling, the Collection was moving "downtown" to a new arts district, with corporate sponsors. (All things that Mr. Morris despised). Paul becomes upset at this prospect but understands it, thus making it more confusing if he just hates change or is a racist. 

The script of this play was amazing! I couldn't believe how emotional this play was. And how well acted it was too. As I said before, Dukes (Kanika Weaver), did steal the show. Her characterizations were very believable, he voice and body represented her generation well. I could easily see myself taking on her position of being unable to definitely take a side.  While at the same time, both Wallace and Allin also performed wonderfully in their roles. They seemed to really work at creating the tension. Props to director Timothy Douglas, and his creative team. The sounds, lights, costumes and props truly enhanced the whole experience. I do have to draw attention to Tony Cisek's set. I was disappointed to find out that this set didn't take advantage to Round House's revolving stage. But as the play went on, I quickly forgot about it, because the set was so stunning, with it's blank picture frames (that could be lit from the rear to help create new scenes).

Now, one thing I didn't get was the random vignettes where Alfred Morris (played by Lawrence Redmond) would come out on stage and would appear to help explain about the Morris Collections' exclusivity or help deny the fact that he was a racist himself. But they never came across to me. Again, could this have been another example of not being able to take both sides. And since Morris didn't want to take either side, he was never able to express ideas for any side. 

Hidden underneath all this was a criticism of the media. Reporter Gillian Crane, seems to be very unbiased, giving both sides equal chances to be represented in the press. But the thing is, she seems to have to push Paul into action. Is she just doing this to create more drama for her own writing? This critic also wonders what she was doing in the "epilogue;" did she ever transfer to the city desk to leave the politics of the suburban style section?

The play runs through February 21, 2010 at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda. I say check it out now. Purchase tickets here

  

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Angels in America

Yesterday I was privileged enough to spend the entire day at the Forum Theatre in Silver Spring, where I just got to see Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on American Themes by Tony Kushner. This play (in two epic 3.5 hour parts) tells the story of Prior Walter's decent and accent to become a Prophet for the new Millennium and the trials and tribulations of those around him and beyond him in the mid-80s.

The whole play spans 8 acts and an epilogue. (Three in the first play Millennium Approaches and five in Perestroika).

Millennium introduces the main characters of Prior and his lover/boyfriend of 4.5 years, Lewis (over sexed, under paid, Jew, worrier, that can't handle change); the closeted, self-loathing, Republican, Mormon Joe and his Valium-addicted, hallucinating wife;  Roy Cohen, closeted, Republican, lawyer who after dialing 15 numbers can get the president's wife on the phone and feels like he can rule the world; Ethel Rosen (a ghost) killed during the McCarthy Trials - Roy had a hand in her death; Harper, Joe's Mormon mother; Belez, Prior's best friend from their drag days; and The Angel. Along with various other characters that are double and triple cast by the 8 actors.

Prior announces he has AIDS which sets off a chain of events that connects all the characters (Except Ethel).

This is such an amazing script. It talks about AIDS and AZT, McCarthyism, Mormonism, love, sex, drugs and father/son relationships. All this in 7 hours!

Watching the play yesterday was a trial, but worth it. The first part was too reminiscent of the movie (right down to casting and costuming) while the second part had more of the director adding his own ideas. The play was well acted. I believe that this performance was amazing. I hope to one day write a play that is as powerfully performed as this! 

Much Ado About Nothing

So I saw a bunch of plays in my quest to see all of Shakespeare, before I started the blog, so I'll back track and review them.

On August 28, 2009 I saw Much Ado About Nothing at Olney Theatre. This was another free performance (a preview). It was supposed to be outside, but Hurricane Daniel pushed it inside, I assume this space was once a barn.

The show was standard good. Nothing to write home about.

Much Ado is about the misunderstanding and eves droppings that occur around two sets of lovers: Claudio/Hero, Benedict/Beatrice; with a minor plot involving Jon the Bastard (the Prince's brother); and random guards-men.

Much Ado in general, although a good plot, lacks a certain something that I like about Shakespearean comedies (It has all the grace and charm of Midsummer but lacks fairies). I'm not sure what it's missing, but hopefully by the time I've seen all of Shakespeare, I'll have a more defined view of it.

As for the performance itself, like I said, it was generally good, with no one thing standing out as great/amazing. There was a surprise of double casting the Prince and the Bastard. It took a few moments before I realized he wasn't the same person (and I'm highly familiar with the play). But after it was understood, the transitions between characters were clear.

All-in-all I'm happy this was a free event.