Category Archives: General

The Glass Menagerie

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Last night we saw a preview of the latest Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, starring Jessica Lange, Christian Slater, Sarah Paulson and Josh Lucas and directed by David Leveaux. I’d never read or seen the play before (I know, what kind of a drama fag am I?), so I had nothing to compare it to. Anyway:

I thought Jessica Lange, who played Amanda Wingfield, the mother, was terrific. (Matt thought she was overwrought, but it worked for me.) Unfortunately, things got kind of dull when she wasn’t around. Christian Slater just last week took over the role of the son, Tom, from Dallas Roberts, and he needs some time to mesh with the rest of the cast; he often seemed like he wasn’t in the same play as everyone else. Perhaps that will change as he settles into the part. Josh Lucas played the Gentlemen Caller with warmth and sweetness. As for Sarah Paulson, who played Laura, the daughter, I can’t decide what I thought of her. I think she overdid it, particularly whenever she moaned, “Yes, Mother?” as if she were on the verge of tears and suicide. I think she crossed the line from sympathetic to pitiful; my pity fought hard with my annoyance, but my annoyance won.

Matt’s more familiar with the show than I am, but since he probably won’t get around to blogging about it, I’ll summarize his opinion in three words: “so fucking unsubtle.” He felt David Leveaux hit us over the head with the symbolism. He also said that Tom is usually played gay, because there’s a lot of subtext in the script about that, and he found it interesting that Christian Slater didn’t play him that way. I certainly didn’t catch any of the gay subtext, and I thought it was odd at the end how Tom talked about how he couldn’t stop thinking about Laura. It seemed to come from nowhere.

Coming up in the next week are Doubt, Altar Boyz, and The Light in the Piazza, all of which I’m looking forward to. (Forward to all of which I am looking?) All hail Matt’s TDF membership!

Cellphone Article

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I was just reading an article online in today’s New York Times Circuits section about how nobody memorizes phone numbers anymore because we all have them programmed into our cellphones. The article is accompanied by a photo of a guy who looks kind of hot. It turns out that the guy accidentally dropped his cellphone a couple of months ago, and:

The only number he remembered was his parents’ home phone number, and for about a week or so he ended up sitting by a land line at their house, leaving an online message with his instant messenger profile urging people to call him at his parents’ home.

“Every time the phone rang I was jumping for it, and that hasn’t happened in so long, sharing a line with your family,” he said.

Perhaps the most frustrating part was that Mr. Gillis had been dating someone in Manhattan and couldn’t get in touch with him until he returned to the city. “I felt completely alone,” he said. What’s more, for those friends whose cellphones were their primary or only phones, he could not even resort to directory assistance.

I love how the article throws in the “him,” all matter-of-fact-ly. It’s not often you see something like that in a New York Times piece unless it’s an article in the Home & Garden section about a fabulous house that’s just been renovated by a gay couple.

Anyway, since the guy is gay and from New York City, I naturally assumed he’d have a Friendster profile. And of course, he does. He is not closely connected to my network, though.

I love the Internets.

Chocolate Bars

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Someone came back from lunch with a box of Munchkins. The part of our office where people set out goodies is directly visible from my office door. It’s almost time to go home, and I’ve successfully avoided them all afternoon. Maybe this means I’ll have a good appetite for dinner.

Until recently, I used to have a candy bar almost every workday as an afternoon snack, usually sometime around 2:30 or 3:00. I’ve decided that cutting out that candy bar might make me feel better and hungrier, and now I’ve been having that daily candy bar much less often than I used to. Only once a week, sometimes twice.

The thing about food is that it helps stave off boredom, especially when you’re having a slow workday and you keep looking at your watch. I know, I know, the solution is to bring healthy snacks to work with you. I guess it’s better to overeat on healthy snacks than to overeat on chocolate. Not necessarily as much fun, though.

For some reason, “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright is in my head now.