Stratford Sundries 2

1. Just spent a fairly typical morning here. We went down to one of the coffee shops (Coffee Culture), where we had a breakfast, did a bunch of reading and checking Important Things (like email and Facebook). Then Joyce headed off on her appointed rounds, and I walked up to another coffee shop (Balzac's--really good), where I read 70 pp of the book I'm reviewing for Kirkus Reviews (ain't allowed to say what it is). Back to the room about noon, where we're having a Tiny Lunch (a fruit-and-yogurt parfait) ... are you bored yet?

2. At 2 we'll be in the Tom Patterson Theater to see The Physicists, after which we will walk briskly (can't let anyone get ahead of us!) to the York Street Kitchen on Erie (long story about the name), where we'll have our Tiny Supper before crashing in the room a bit ... then a walk down to the Avon Theater to see Carousel, a show I booked because it reminds me of my dad (who liked to sing some of the songs). I know--know--that I will be weeping at the end of that one. Oh, and also, when our son, Steve, was a Wee One (he's now in his 40s), I used to sing (horribly) "My Boy Bill" to him, and he loved the words, especially: No pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully / Will boss him around.  I would hit the p and the b's with ferocity, adding to his delight. (Link to the song in the film--Gordon MacRae.) And, of course, Steve's being a Wee One, I had to do it over and over and over and over again.

3. Real hassles with Internet access in our room ... grrrrrr. I can use an Ethernet cable, but wireless is too erratic to describe, other than with unpleasant language, which, of course, I prefer never to use!

4. We saw an excellent production of The Physicists, a play with a grim moral message, a play from decades ago (the 60s) that still has an eerie resonance--the use of scientific knowledge/advances for military, political, corporate power. Solid performances from some of our Stratford favorites: Seanna McKenna, Graham Abbey, Geraint Wyn-Davies, Sean Arbuckle, et al.

When I started my freshman year at Hiram College (fall of 1962), we had a very academic freshman orientation. My year, we were required to come to school having read three literary works: The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (by C. P. Snow), The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man  (James Joyce), and ... Dürrenmatt's The Physicists. We met in small groups with professors from various disciplines to talk about the works. (I was overwhelmed--and very silent, hoping I could will myself invisible.) This was a Whole New World I was encountering--and I was feeling a bit like a chimpanzee who wanders into the Library of Congress.

5. Tonight--it's Carousel at the Avon Theater right downtown here in Stratford. ...

More tomorrow ...