We’ve had cool summers before, and it hasn’t really gotten that hot yet – but once we crossed that summer-line, it’s been muggy as fuck. I put it off for a while, but yesterday I installed the two portable air conditioners. It’s pretty easy, although I should probably get some more foam to plug up window cracks. And today it’s going to get thunderstormy, that might cool things down.
Last weekend, I went up the Hudson to visit Patti and Peter in Rhinebeck. Tessa was going to join us a day later. The plan was to go see fireworks on some night – we had some options. We could go visit my niece Allison in Beacon on Sunday and watch them there, or go to a minor-league baseball game on Monday, and I’m sure there were a lot of places on the 4th itself. But Tessa ended up not joining us (a shame) and it kept raining at inopportune times, so no fireworks. We did go to Beacon and took Allison and John out to dinner, so that was fun. Patti and Peter and I had some great meals, both in and out. We did some shopping and they also took me to Storm King, a gigantic sculpture park I’d never even heard of. We only got to do one half before the thunderstorm hit again (as we were wandering around high on a treeless hill, no less). We skedaddled to the central building, waited it out, and then headed out to dinner. I would totally go back – and I think the way to do it properly (because it’s really big) is on bicycle (they rent them, although they also have a tram that goes around).
We’d talked about going to a movie, but we ended up going home and watching Nimona on Netflix, which is delightful. Very queer, very exciting, often very funny. No spoilers, but there’s a bit with a subway performer that made me fall off the couch laughing.
It was a really nice visit. But I had enough to do at work on Wednesday that I decided to go home on Tuesday. As I did last year, I got some festive food for the day (hot dogs, potato salad, ice cream). I wanted to watch some Americana movie, and was going to queue up The American President for the hundredth time, but I decided to watch Independence Day instead. I’d only seen it once, didn’t love it, but it’s enough of a cultural touchstone I thought it would be fun to watch again. I’m glad I did, but that is one ridiculous movie. I did watch American President over the next couple of nights, and may continue with my other Americana movies: Air Force One, Dave, The Contender. Lots of people suggested 1776, which of course I’ve seen a bunch of times, on stage and on film, and My Fellow Americans and Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Oh, also, when Alan Arkin died, people were chattering about The In-Laws, and I’d never seen it, so I rented that, and I was not steered wrong – it was very funny. And those same people have said to watch The Russians Are Coming… , which I’ve also never seen, so that’s on the list now.
I did finish White Lotus (whew!) and Andor, and only have one more Shrinking left. I don’t think I’ll keep going with Looking, I wasn’t getting into it. I’ve got other shows cued up (probably Succession next for the drama slot), but maybe I’ll finish those Americana movies first. Also, I did finally finish the audiobook of Pride & Prejudice, which has earned me a rewatch of the 1995 miniseries (I have the Blu-Ray now!), so I’m doing that in bits.
Friday after work, I got together with my local Ruddigore principals for a big coaching. Of course, we’d actually sung the entire score in concert a month or so ago, but hadn’t really had a chance to delve. Our cast, which is international, and not intentionally weighted towards one nationality or locality, does have a lot of New Yorkers (which, honestly, I haven’t heard any complaints about), so I got to work with Rose, Zorah, Richard, Despard and Roderic. Great fun, and we all went out afterward. We all leave in less than a month. I’ve also been working quite hard on things like cleaning up orchestral parts. I still have a lot to do, but it’s going at a good pace and I’m not really letting myself do much anything else until this show is over.
Had a really nice, if odd, social event last night. My dear friends Susanna and Patrick, who live in Rochester, are hosting Susanna’s cousin and her husband for a multi-week America tour. They’re from Hungary, speak no English and have never been to the States. Which means that Susanna is constantly having to translate, and Patrick can’t really talk to them directly much. But they’re swinging down the East Coast – with visits to New Haven and then friends in Norwalk before ending up in NYC (now). We had dinner last night in my neighborhood, after a short visit in my apartment. They are very nice and the language thing wasn’t that big a deal. Of course the restaurant we went to was Argentinian-run, so we were dealing with Spanish/English issues as well as English/Hungarian issues, but we all had a good time, and the food was great.
After another day in NYC, they stop in Philly, DC, Williamsburg (!!!! Susanna never visited me there when I was in college – I don’t know if she’s ever been), and further points south through Florida, then back up through Atlanta and Nashville. Quite a trip! (I’m exhausted just describing it.)
All right, now that I have more room in my apartment, I’m trying to do some cleaning and organizing today. Let’s see how far I get.
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