Recently, I seem to only post opera reviews, and even those have fallen away this season. Mostly, that's because it's been a very frustrating, disappointing season. Every opera, with the possible exception of Capriccio, has had some problems, some of them quite major. I was excited to finally see Tannhäuser, only to be disappointed by a terrible ( Read more... )

As usual, muckefuck and I broadly agree on an opera, so I'll stick to a few observations ( Read more... )

Die Fledermaus has always been one of my favorite operas. It was the first one I ever bought on CD. I even saw a terrible version at the Clarksville Apple Shed when I was a young'un. I have yet to see a completely satisfactory production, though. The last time through the Lyric, seven years ago, was close. The production I saw last night got a ( Read more... )

It seems that all my LJ consists of recently is opera reviews, but that's not so terrible. It means that these performances are really getting under my skin.

Last night was our first opera of the season, Verdi's Otello, based on Shakespeare's play. For me, Verdi is always money in the bank. He adapted Shakespeare three times (Macbeth, Otello, ( Read more... )

It's days like today when I'm happy I still have my LiveJournal. As much as I want to share this handy infographic which breaks down the amount and kinkiness of sex in the 50 Shades novels (broken into categories of inventiveness, venue, and use of apparatus), I don't want to share it on Facebook. I'm told that Google+ allows a level of choice ( Read more... )

I went bike-riding in Grant Park during my lunch break today. It's a nice break in the middle of the day to get outside and get some exercise. Today I stopped briefly to get a closer look at a bird, foolishly unaware of the danger I was putting myself in.

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Clearly, I am not one much for updating LJ on an iPad. Now that we are back from our trip, I do have one or two observations I would like to share ( Read more... )

I'm in England. -e and I have come to visit friends and celebrate our anniversary (15 glorious years in a few days). Today we saw the Cerne Abbas Giant and the Thomas Hardy Memorial. So, it was a day for giant phalluses. Both the giant and porn were taken to task, however, for giving men an unreasonable expectation about penis size. It was ( Read more... )

When my father first suggested we go on a trip together into the wilderness, I was all for it. He grew up on a farm, and always loved the outdoors, a love he passed on to his children (and which he is try to pass on to his grandchildren). We had originally planned to go to the Flint Hills of Kansas, to visit the largest patch of prairie in the ( Read more... )

I often have vivid, weird dreams. Some really stand out, though, like one of the ones I had last night. Like any dream, it was pretty disconnected, and I imposed a lot of logic on it when I woke up (particularly the ending). It could be the basis of a pretty decent short story, though ( Read more... )