One should not attempt to revisit the past
No, that's not a comment on my vacation to Stratford, but a whine about stopping at Gold Coast Dogs today.
Back in the day, Gold Coast Dogs was one of the few places downtown to get good fries and a "charred" hot dog - one burned for a bit on the grill. Today I was running an errand for myself, plus a trip to the post office for the union, and saw a sign for a new (to me) Gold Coast Dogs at the train station. So I dropped by to order a plain charred dog and an order of cheddar fries.
They still call them cheddar fries, anyway, but they're not. The fries might have been fine, but instead of giving me a nice on-the-side cup of Merkt's-type cheddar spread to dunk them in, they poured ladles of that horrid, crappy nacho faux-cheese sauce on them. So my fries were soggy and disgusting -- and the hot dog wrapper and the napkins they so kindly put in the bottom of the bag were coated in faux-cheese, too. Waste of time and money. And somehow, with the fries spoiled, the hot dog didn't seem worth the trip, either. I can burn hot dogs at home, after all.
There's probably cheese on my butt, my bra, and in my hair, too...
Yes, returning from a wonderful vacation leaves me crabby. Catching up at work this morning stunk, and since my walk to the post office I'm tired and lazy. So I come here to whine at you guys!
Rich and I had a wonderful vacation in Stratford, though this was not a banner season as far as the Shakespeare productions we saw (only three of them). However, they did a very nice job with The Music Man, and I (perhaps I alone) appreciated seeing Cabaret as written instead of a production trying to stage the movie. The film is a very different critter, and I'm not fond of it because it made so many changes to the story. I was an impressionable high school kid when I saw the stage version, and I adored the love story between the landlady and poor doomed Herr Schultz and shivered at the menace of all those beautiful, evil Aryan types singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."
To hear from another party, however, Rich missed Liza Minelli and didn't appreciate that the Sally we saw didn't try to imitate her singing style at all. (I thought she was terrific, but we heard from someone in town that lots of people were complaining that the stage version of Cabaret was so different from the movie... ah, me. I adore movies, but I cherish my old album from the stage version of Funny Girl which has so many different songs, and gives peripheral characters things to do because a stage performance cannot be the Streisand show, she needed time to change, rest, breathe between songs, etc. And Sidney Chaplin SANG, he was cast for that ability, not just because he was cute...) And now I've finally read Isherwood's original stories, which are much different from the play, movie, non-musical production (called "I am a Camera"), etc. so the idea of what is "right" is all confused... I think perhaps he would very much appreciate all the interpretations and takes on his characters over the years.
I *am* a whiny thing today. And I haven't even begun trying to catch up and read here, so forgive me and please let me know if I missed anything important.
Back in the day, Gold Coast Dogs was one of the few places downtown to get good fries and a "charred" hot dog - one burned for a bit on the grill. Today I was running an errand for myself, plus a trip to the post office for the union, and saw a sign for a new (to me) Gold Coast Dogs at the train station. So I dropped by to order a plain charred dog and an order of cheddar fries.
They still call them cheddar fries, anyway, but they're not. The fries might have been fine, but instead of giving me a nice on-the-side cup of Merkt's-type cheddar spread to dunk them in, they poured ladles of that horrid, crappy nacho faux-cheese sauce on them. So my fries were soggy and disgusting -- and the hot dog wrapper and the napkins they so kindly put in the bottom of the bag were coated in faux-cheese, too. Waste of time and money. And somehow, with the fries spoiled, the hot dog didn't seem worth the trip, either. I can burn hot dogs at home, after all.
There's probably cheese on my butt, my bra, and in my hair, too...
Yes, returning from a wonderful vacation leaves me crabby. Catching up at work this morning stunk, and since my walk to the post office I'm tired and lazy. So I come here to whine at you guys!
Rich and I had a wonderful vacation in Stratford, though this was not a banner season as far as the Shakespeare productions we saw (only three of them). However, they did a very nice job with The Music Man, and I (perhaps I alone) appreciated seeing Cabaret as written instead of a production trying to stage the movie. The film is a very different critter, and I'm not fond of it because it made so many changes to the story. I was an impressionable high school kid when I saw the stage version, and I adored the love story between the landlady and poor doomed Herr Schultz and shivered at the menace of all those beautiful, evil Aryan types singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."
To hear from another party, however, Rich missed Liza Minelli and didn't appreciate that the Sally we saw didn't try to imitate her singing style at all. (I thought she was terrific, but we heard from someone in town that lots of people were complaining that the stage version of Cabaret was so different from the movie... ah, me. I adore movies, but I cherish my old album from the stage version of Funny Girl which has so many different songs, and gives peripheral characters things to do because a stage performance cannot be the Streisand show, she needed time to change, rest, breathe between songs, etc. And Sidney Chaplin SANG, he was cast for that ability, not just because he was cute...) And now I've finally read Isherwood's original stories, which are much different from the play, movie, non-musical production (called "I am a Camera"), etc. so the idea of what is "right" is all confused... I think perhaps he would very much appreciate all the interpretations and takes on his characters over the years.
I *am* a whiny thing today. And I haven't even begun trying to catch up and read here, so forgive me and please let me know if I missed anything important.