ceebeegee | A loooong, exhausting but fun weekend

Friday--Doug, Mike, Heidi and I took a taxi to Nutley, NJ to attend the birthday festivities of a friend of Mike and Doug's. Nutley is rather a pretty little Northeastern town, with cute little storefronts and a small-town feeling. However, it seems to have no ATMS--I wondered aloud if everyone was on the honor system. They also take their high school football seriously--one block was shut down to traffic, as the game had apparently just ended and the kids were spilling onto the streets. We finally found the place where the festivities were and greeted everyone there, but there was no room for us at the ~~inn~~ table, so we hung out at the bar for awhile. I ordered shrimp quesadillas which were really YUMMY. However, my whiskey sours were disappointing--they were not very strong. Jon, Joanne, Barbara and the usual suspects were there and I chatted with them for a while. We ended up staying until 2 am, and took another (long) cab ride home.

Saturday--Doug and I went over to Seth and Rachel's to gather for the exodus to the Renaissance Festival. Seth, Doug and I went in one car, while Marian, her sister, Paula and Heidi went in the other. On the way there, Doug and I talked about our mutual love for Star Trek (the original series) and William Shatner. I told Seth about WS's books about the ST phenomonenon (Star Trek Memories and Movie Memories) which are great--funny and FULL of dirt. Seth asked me what kind of dirt and I enthusiastically told him about Grace Lee Whitney, who played Yeoman Rand in the first season (and produced one of ST:TOS's best lines, "Captain...look at my legs...) and was ostensibly let go because her character cramped Kirk's p*ssy-chasing ways, was ACTUALLY let go because the actress was a SEX ADDICT. Seth's reaction: "Excellent!" I have been laughing ever since about that. We chewed over that idea for awhile--we all thought perhaps the PTB were a little hasty, and that a sex-addicted actor would actually be an asset, not a liability. After all, the cast that lays together, stays together.

We arrived at the RenFest and Doug and I wandered about hither and yon. We checked out the execution display where they had a mechanized body that jerked about realistically after you "hanged" it (nitpick--they kept saying people were "hung." No, pictures are hung; people are hanged. Well, some people are hung but it means something else ;) I suggested they have a similar mechanized body to simulate the after-affects of beheading--the head could blink and look about, and the body could squirt blood. We also saw the museum of torture devices. It's amazing how creative people can be about doing harm to their fellow man. Macabre interest aside, it's saddening and food for thought, especially when the guy said some of these devices are still used in totalitarian and some Muslim countries.

We saw the condensed (1.5 hour) version of Much Ado About Nothing. Hero and Claudio were excellent, and Benedick was AMAZING. He truly inhabited that character--he is extremely good. I wasn't that impressed by the Beatrice--I rarely seem to like Beatrices (Artemis was boring and generic; Tracy was too young and didn't have a strong enough grasp of the less comic moments--but I did like Kelly McGillis). This Beatrice seemed to try a little too hard. But it may have been a function of the abbreviation--they really didn't have much time to establish the chemistry between the two before they get to the note hijinks and the Hero/Claudio subplot interfere.

We also saw my friend Elizabeth sing with her group, the Singing Wenches. They were literally one of the best acapella groups I've ever heard. You can tell they were music-directed to a fare-thee-well--their control was unbelievable. Great, great performance. One time they sang a verse to Doug, and one time Elizabeth sang a verse (about Alice in Wonderland, and how a rabbit hole's not the only place she goes down) to me. I used to have a boyfriend in college who liked my long blond hair, and called me Alice--I wonder if he would've liked that verse?

We saw a bit of jousting, and also rented a boatride. Doug and I got all naval, and did reconaissance on the bridge to blow it up later. We also secured the perimeter of the pond. I love boatrides.

We ate a LOT--sausage on a stick, ice cream cookie sandwich, 5-cheese pie, funnel cakes, beer and MEAD. Mead is quite yummy--very sweet but if it's chilled the sweetness doesn't overpower you. I may buy some. I love RenFest food--I wanted to get the turkey on a stick.

Lots of fun, but exhausting. I was pretty dead by the end of the day--I napped in the car on the way home, and tried not to sleep through dinner. I ended up sleeping a good eleven hours Saturday night, and Sunday morning I was really wiped out, with a headache that Advil couldn't kill. Too much sleep, I guess, and also this damn back/neck problem. When I got home I was supposed to do time at a street fair with Julie for Lovestreet Theatre, but I called her and she said she decided not to do it, so my afternoon was freer. Tracy called me, and we ended up hanging out, and then getting dinner together, during which my friend Ryan joined us.

I think I'd like to produce Twelfth Night, with Tracy and I as Olivia and Viola. We have a great chemistry together. I really enjoyed doing that scene with her last winter for Shakespeare's Women, and I think it was one of the best scenes in that program.