Leannderthal

I did tell you we saw Dangerous Liaisons at Stratford this week, but I couldn’t show you pictures.  Well, a lovely gentleman from the Stratford festival named Aaron Kropf commented on my last blogpost and invited me to use some of the professional pictures in my blog if I’d like.  I can’t convey how wonderful it is to sit in the audience and watch Dangerous Liaisons, I hope these photographs give you a bit of the feeling.

As much fun as it was to try on costumes, it is always more fun to watch the actors make the costumes come alive.  Dangerous Liaisons is a bawdy play that takes place before the French Revolution.  It is a sort of sexual chess game, an absolute delight!

Tom McCamus as Le Vicomte de Valmont and Sara Topham as La Presidente du Tourvel

Photo by:  David Hou

Seana McKenna asLa Marquise de Merteul and Tom McCamus as Le Vicomte de Valmont

Photo by:  David Hou

Foreground Yanna McIntosh  at Mme de Volanges (left), Seana McKenna as La Marquise de Merteuil (center)  and Martha Henry as Mme de Rosemonde (right) with members of the company

photo by :  David Hou

Never turn down a chance to see a play at Stratford!

Yesterday, mom, Jane and I went to Stratford, Ontario, to see Dangerous Liaisons.   It was a hugely fun day, we saw a great and exciting play, beautifully acted.  I couldn’t take pictures, you’ll have to trust me.  But, before we went to the play, Jane arranged for us to go on the Costume and Prop Warehouse Tour.  There, you can take all the pictures you want.  You can’t imagine all the costumes!  It an assault to the eyes, all the vivid color and beautiful designs.  Everyone leaves there thinking how dull we all dress, and how can we spiff up our wardrobes?

There are racks upon racks of costumes, beautiful to look at, but we’re not allowed to touch!

Just a few of the capes and cloaks.

Most costumes are hanging on racks, but many are displayed to get a closer look.

They do rent some of the costumes for small productions.  I’m wondering if they would rent them for everyday use.

I’m thinking perhaps this Samuri outfit for a job interview.

The detail is much more than I expected.  Many of the costumes are very heavy. 

They also have tons of props, I liked this corpse.

The best part is at the end of the tour, where they have several racks of costumes you can not only touch, but try on!

A couple of the women getting ready for that big date.

Jane, resplendent in purple, showing off the beautiful lining.  You wouldn’t believe how heavy these things are!  How can the actors act, with all this hanging on them?

I chose a beautiful white robe, to offset the blue hair.

A good hat for a bad hair day.

If you ever get a chance to catch a play at the Stratford Festival, do it.  It’s a great time.

Mark and I took a quick trip to Sandusky, Ohio yesterday, so Mark could buy a few radio parts.  First, I planted marigolds to keep the bunnies at bay.

Then we drove on, over the I-280 Veterans’ Glass City Skyway in Toledo.

This is the view up from on the Skyway Bridge.

On passed the massive cooling tower of a nuclear power plant.

In Sandusky, we find a very cool wall sculpture.  It should be called “Builder’s nightmare”.

Today some more work, and then some partying.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places Lynn Krawczyk spends her life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. If you’d like to join her by posting a photo on Sunday of places you’ve been on your blog/photo hosting site/website, leave a comment on her Sunday posts telling her where she can find you/your photo and she’ll add a link to her sidebar so others can find you. I am one of those that Lynn has badgered into joining her, I have changed it to “where I stood”, because right now I’m sitting in front of the computer, not standing anywhere.

We did go to New Orleans for the music, and there was plenty to be had!

Here I am with Greg, Edith and Aaron in the gospel tent at the very start of the festival.

Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas tearing it up on the Fais-do-do stage.

Friday, it rained.  Lots.  People kept pulling out electronic devices looking up the weather.  They kept saying it was going to clear up, but it didn’t.

You did have to travel across some muddy ground to get to the food booths, but it was well worth it.

If you take off your shoes, you don’t have to abandon them in the mud.

Edith and I, under-dressed, with a Mardi Gras Indian.

Mardi Gras Indians make sure they look as good from the back as the front.

We listened to an interview about Bobby Charles.  This is Scott Jordan interviewing Dr. John, Marcia Ball, and Bobby’s former manager Jim Bateman.  Here the good doctor and Marcia play a Bobby Charles tune for us all.

It is amazing, but through all the throngs of people, you can find your friends.  We hooked up with Katie from Ann Arbor.

We ended the fest back at the Fais do-do stage with Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience.

This represents just a little of the great music we saw, if you ever get a chance, check out the festival.  It takes place every year over two weekends, the last one in April and the first one in May.  The second weekend is going on right now!

We always check out a cemetery.

Jasmine starting to cover the meters.  The smell was wonderful!

Kathy and Aaron, enjoying a beer.

Mark, making sure his sole is saved at a shoe repair.

Wonderful scenes painted on the walls of stairs going up to a bar.

Our mode of transportation for the week, streetcars.

Us with Kath and Aaron in front of the cornstalk and morning glory fence in front of the Colonel Short Villa.

Mark and I just got back from New Orleans, one of my favorite cities.  We went with four very good friends for Jazz Fest, but we gave ourselves sometime to enjoy the town first.

This is Mark sitting in the beautiful courtyard of our hotel/b&b.  It was a great place to relax, before or after a busy day.

These are beignets and cafe au lait from the Cafe du Monde.  Beignets defy description, and because of that they are often compared to doughnuts.  They are puffs of perfectly fried and sugared dough served warm and they melt in your mouth.  Beignets are so much better than any doughnut you’ve had.  Add the wonderful chicory coffee, and it truly is a slice of heaven.

Mark and I spent a lot of time walking Magazine Street with Kathy and Aaron.  Magazine street is about five miles of interesting shops, restaurants, bars and strange places.  This place with the hanging bicycle qualifies as a strange place.

Kathy missteped and twisted her ankle.  We stopped for coffee so she could rest her foot and see if she could carry on, and wouldn’t you know, Donald the refexologist was sitting at the next table waiting to rub her feet.  I swear, if you need it and you are in New Orleans, it comes to you.  This is Donald rubbing Kathy’s sore foot while her husband Aaron looks on.  Kathy rallied, we moved on.

A lovely place for a drink, Lafitte’s is the oldest continually occupied bar in the Untied States.  And the drink?  Why, Dixie Blackened Voodoo, of course!

These cool tiles are in the cement all over Asheville.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places Lynn Krawczyk spends her life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. If you’d like to join her by posting a photo on Sunday of places you’ve been on your blog/photo hosting site/website, leave a comment on her Sunday posts telling her where she can find you/your photo and she’ll add a link to her sidebar so others can find you. I am one of those that Lynn has badgered into joining her, I have changed it to “where I stood”, because right now I’m sitting in front of the computer, not standing anywhere.

Whenever we go to North Carolina, we try to hit Asheville.  It’s a great art town, with lots of stuff to look at.  

This time we didn’t make to the Biltmore mansion nor did we get to the Grove Park Inn, but we did go to the Woolworth Walk, an old dime store turned into an art gallery.

There are two floors of amazing art, and a soda fountain counter.  Lots of fun to poke around.

There is the Grove Arcade, a great building with cool shops,

and great architectural details.

Another favorite place is Earth Guild, a craft store that has been around forever, specializing in fiber, spinning and weaving, but they carry lots of stuff.  Here I am trying to decide on colors of waxed linen.

In Black Mountain outside of Asheville we even found an artistic car wash!

We are back from a trip to North Carolina, via Indiana.  First we stopped and saw friends near Indianapolis, where the only picture I thought to take was of a chair back.

Then on to Southern Indiana to check on the progress of another friend’s house.  It is going up very fast, they’ll be moving in in no time.

Well, pretty soon, anyway.

We move on, and spend a night at a lovely motel, just south of Pikeville, Kentucky.  They replaced their swimming pool with a beautiful fountain, I was happy someone tried to make her decent so we didn’t have to look at nudity.

I think she’s out here because she’d rather take a shower in the cold outside rather than risk encountering the fungus in the shower in the room.  I considered joining her.