And an elegant evening was had by all...

A most musical and manic weak. Mama Mia with La Blowdryer who brought me the most delightful gift from her sojourn to Mexico and then an only in San Francisco opening night at the Opera. The season is certainly in full swing with lots more excitement to come and many more hard choices to make. Had to miss Kevin Killian's new play to attend the opera and will no doubt face more difficult choices to come.

Tonight is the end of Dodie Bellamy's summer workshop but despite dire warnings of no more to come (an oft repeated threat I think) the fall workshop begins in two weeks. The fall figs are in at the farmers market. The corn is past its peak if Sunday's sample is to be believed but the dry farmed heirloom tomatoes and luscious stone fruits are still filling the stands. Hard to really believe that we have an off season here but it will come eventually. Until then happy eating.

And so what does this have to do with New Narrative and Experimental Writing? Perhaps it is the personal in the composition. I am reading Steve Abbott's View Askew and delighting in the descriptions of visits to Stonestown Shopping center as performance and thinking about the way for a time the New Narrative crowd seemed to blur the borders of being and creating. (At least in the stories written down).

So Mama Mia was fun but not nearly the supercharged music and dance fest Missy Blowdryer and I wanted it to be. After nearly being sucked into the sticky floored all you can eat buffet at China Moon we found a delightful if not so very spicy Thai restaurant, Lalas, at the foot of McAllistar. Jennifer, suffering a bit from a family inflicted vacation cold, led me through the delights and travails of her Mexican adventure which seemed much more authentic than my not so long ago Spa fest courtesy of my boyfriends company. After dinner we were ready for a rollicking sensory sensation as the ads for Mama Mia seemed to promise.

Alas, perched up in the balcony we had to peer down at a good half an hour of plot building exposition with not so much singing and dancing. The music and dancing picks up as the show continues and does finally hit its stride with the big wedding party. But it is a longtime coming and the odd straight humor and weird quasi morality play plot had both of us longing for something a little queer or kinky. (If you're reading this JB, I owe you a dinner for this one.)

Now the opera was something else all together. Tough for the performance on stage to compete with the show before, during or after in the audience. Lots of green and blue gowns which I read the next day are the color institutes colors for this year. The luxurious silky mossy olivey green being driven by the Eco green trend and the liquid luxuriously light wet turquoisey blue driven by something else. The guest of a corporate sponsor (can't say who here), I attended a reception at city hall before (complete with Samson and Delilah themed dancers and lots of champagne) and a fancy dinner afterward. This was apparently the young trendy crowd as opposed to the old dowagers across the street.

Personally I loved the opera though I do agree with some of the criticism of Samson. I was saying all evening it was a very Cecile B. Demille sort of production and then the next day so it was described in the reviews. More on this an perhaps some edits to this post soon but off to the office now.