Forsan et haec olim scripsisse iuvabit.

I arrived home yesterday evening to discover my kitchen swarming with a sub-Biblical plague of ants. I drowned some (ants in the sink!) and Lysoled others (ants on the countertops and running along the baseboards!) and squished the rest (ants on the cabinet doors! ants under the kitchen mat! ants in the rice cooker!). Skin crawling (literally: ants on MEEEE!), I bolted a quick dinner and then headed out to the hardware store, where I bought some Mom-recommended ant bait (my parents have ant problems every summer). Home again, I Lysoled and squished some more ants before setting out the baits. Then I cleaned everything the ants had touched, walked past, or even glanced at, because I'm a little "Graah! Sterilize!" like that whenever I have a pest infestation. I also put all the food in my cupboards that wasn't in sealed containers into sealed containers.

I got up this morning and squished five more ants (two in the rice cooker, which I subsequently washed, sealed into plastic bags, and boxed. I haven't been eating much rice lately anyway.). I don't know what I did to earn the wrath of the Lord of the Ants, but I'm hoping that the great slaughter I've perpetrated upon his myrmidons will give him pause. Or perchance I shall hereafter think it meet to put an ant-ic disposition on. If you can't beat 'em ...

Ah, the Bard. We can all quote him, but how many of us really know his work? Who has the time to read all 37 plays and 154 sonnets? Fortunately, the Reduced Shakespeare Company has done it for us! The three-man troupe of Adam Long (former anti-nuclear accountant and bassist), Reed Martin (former clown and minor league umpire), and Austin Tichenor (former director of actual plays) distills the entire Shakespearean oeuvre to its essence and presents it as a single night's entertainment, complete with all the fire-eating, vomiting and groin-kicking that so pleased the groundlings at the Globe! (Now with added Canadians!)

I'd heard several The Reduced Shakespeare Company's BBC radio broadcasts and enjoyed them, but I chortled non-stop through this live show. Whether they're "modernizing" Titus Andronicus as a cooking show (with utterly [in]appropriate nods to Emeril), rapping Othello, summarizing the history plays via football commentary, or workshopping Ophelia's closet scene with the entire audience, the company combines clever riffs on the original material with dopey slapstick and never lets up -- not even when one of their number tries to escape the theater just before the act break or another collapses in tears when the audience refuses to stop laughing long enough for him to deliver Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech. Not to be watched while drinking splorkable liquids. Highly recommended to lapsed English majors everywhere.

Last night I went with my goddaughter and her mother to see a fourth-grade production of Much Ado About Nothing. Fourth-grade, in case you were wondering, refers to the age of the cast, not the quality of the production -- which was first rate. ( Read more... )

Friday night I attended a local Arts-in-the-Park performance: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, presented by a group of local professionals and sponsored by the Friends of the park in question and a number of other community organizations. ( Read more... )

One week ago today, I was cleaning roasted red pepper terrine out of the trunk of a rental car and wondering why every year I go bonkers cooking six different dishes for the local Easter potluck in addition to singing five services at my church over seven days (plus dress rehearsals). Oddly, now that it's over, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do with my time, except write the now-traditional Triduum Shakespeare filk.( Read more... )Having learned its lesson from last year, the parish provided a very small and decorous new fire. The choir, not having learned its lesson, attempted probably one too many funky classical pieces (including the aforementioned Fauré), but squeaked through with reasonable élan. And despite the exploding terrine, the Easter dinner was delicious. All in all, a good year.

Every year, in honor of the Easter Triduum (the liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter as celebrated in the Roman Catholic Christian tradition), I filk a speech from Shakespeare to reflect the experiences of that year's choir hell. This time, it's the "Seven Ages of Man" speech from As You Like It. Shakespeare purists should avert their eyes ...

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(Yes, the new fire did get a little out of hand during the Vigil. Good thing the church is historic and therefore not required to have such modern amenities as a sprinkler system, or we'd have been renewing our baptismal promises early ... )