Going, Going, Going

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Saturday morning, I gathered my brother, a friend of his and my friend and co-worker, MiMo, to assist in getting a 50" widescreen TV from my friend WEW. A few weeks ago, he purchased a new 60" plasma HDTV and I asked what he was going to do with his other TV. I (jokingly) said I'd take it for free and he said, "If you can get it out of my house, you can have it."

You don't really need to twist my arm with that kind of answer. I took measurements and made sure it would fit and then we figured out the right date and resources to do it and so, at 11:30 we ventured into Mt. Pleasant . It amazingly took 90 minutes total to get the TV out of the row house and into mine. After that, I heard from my ex-girlfriend (and mother to one of my godsons) that she was in town and would like to see me. I was strapped for time, as I still had errands to run and my friend Patrick was coming into town to catch some theatre with me, so the only thing I could do with the ExG was pick them up at a metro stop and then take them to their car at another metro stop. Since it's been years since I'd seen them, it was good to do (and, man, 11 year olds grow like weeds). Thankfully, Patrick's train was delayed, so I was able to finish my errands before picking him up. The poor thing was starving, so we had a bite to eat before going to Arena Stage and seeing "Frankie and Johnnie In The Claire De Lune."

One of Terrence McNally's first popular plays, I've always found it moving - even the Broadway revival with Stanley Tucci & Edie Falco, while both being almost too attractive for the roles, touched me immensely- yet Arena's production was slightly uneven. Vinnie D'ambrosio has all the makings of an excellent Johnnie while Kate Buddeke's Frankie leaves a lot to be desired. I think that, with a few more performances, she'll be up to the task of a fully-formed character.

Sunday, we saw the final performance of "Vigils," a new play at Wooly Mammoth Theatre by 28-year-old Noah Haidle. A fun concept of a grieving widow, while hanging onto her dead husband's soul, trying to move on had a slow start but became engaging after the first half hour. The twist here is that it's the soul that didn't want to linger on earth and the living partner who wants to hang on, which is the opposite of all those other romantic ghost stories. I think with a little judicious trimming of the quickly monotonous memories; it'll be a captivating piece of theatre.

What else did we do? Check back soon...