reading — Page 14

Tuesday Thoughts

January 17, 2023 at 9:43 am by Claudia

• The sun was making magic with this houseplant. Had to capture it. We were blessed with a consistently sunny day yesterday – a rarity at this time of year. It was lovely. I forced myself to walk back and forth and up and down on the driveway/parking area in order to get some exercise. I’ll do it again today and tomorrow so that the long, long walk to the rehearsal studio on Thursday won’t be so much of a shock.

• I finished the diaries of Alan Rickman and, my heavens, I loved it. What a gift it is to share in his impressions, experiences, highs, and lows. He was an artist as well, having attended the Royal College of Art, even partnering with some friends in a graphic design studio, before he ended up studying acting at RADA. I mention this because he sometimes illustrated his diaries and there are photos of some of those pages in the book. He was so talented. I am inspired to add some more touches like that to one of my planners. I’ve already done of bit of that in the past. I certainly am not of his caliber, but since a journal/planner is basically for oneself, I’m going for it.

Anyway, this read was pure pleasure and I’m sad that it’s over. I may have to buy my own copy someday. In the meantime, I’ll be off to the library this afternoon to return it – just in time, as it’s due today.

• More chapters today in War and Peace, which I will get to when I’ve finished this post.

• We were watching an episode of What’s My Line the other night and the mystery guest was Eddie Fisher, who, in the brief interview after his segment said that he was accompanying and supporting Elizabeth Taylor as she filmed Cleopatra. He then said it would be the greatest movie ever made (it wasn’t) and that Liz would win the Oscar (she didn’t.) His tone was worshipful, a little worrisome for a healthy relationship. Given that we know in the present that Liz was carrying on an affair with Richard Burton even as Fisher gushed about her on WML, I felt sad for him. But then again, he left Debbie Reynolds for Taylor. What goes round comes round. Watching What’s My Line episodes is great fun. We usually watch at least two of them a night. They keep us sane.

• Speaking of sanity, it is very clear to me that the next two years in the House of Representatives will be a clown show, so I have stopped watching the news and/or checking Twitter. So has Don. We’re going to live in our own little bubble, one in which we don’t feel rage every other hour over some misdeed or lie. Life is too short and we are at an age where we are acutely aware of that. I just can’t handle any more anger after 6 or 7 years of you-know-who. When and if T is indicted, please let me know. I will emerge from my bubble to celebrate and dance in the street. I mean that literally. In the meantime, it will be books, music, films, painting, and various other passions.

• We haven’t seen one of the girls in a while. I’ve been so busy that I’ve neglected them and I’ve heard some grumbles from that corner of the room.

Katie, in a cute little navy blue corduroy dress. I decided it was time to unbraid her hair and I quite like it like this.

Okay. On to War and Peace. And then, later in the afternoon, Hillary and Louise and State of Terror. Speaking of Hillary and Louise, the cast of a new musical version of Thelma and Louise is rehearsing down the hall from us. Why do they keep making movies into musicals? File it under shows I have absolutely no interest is seeing. Great movie; doesn’t need to be made into a musical with, I’m sure, a pop music type score.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Monday Thoughts; Reading and Loss

January 16, 2023 at 9:23 am by Claudia

I find myself in a rare situation – I’m actually reading more than one book at a time. I’m usually a one book only type of reader, as you know. It is to be noted that this particular state will last all year long as I am participating in the War and Peace Readalong, which entails reading a chapter a day. So that means I will be doing that as well as reading another book at the same time throughout 2023. But now, I’ve also been reading a third book: Madly, Deeply; The Diaries of Alan Rickman. I’ll be finishing that today. It’s highly readable and a wonderful picture of a busy life in the theater and film. Good to know he struggled with the same things that all of us in the performing arts do; reviews, late nights, lack of sleep when having to be on set early in the morning, joy, exhaustion, that wonderful feeling when it works and that disappointed feeling when it doesn’t. He had lots of friends in the London theater community, a demanding social life (much more than introvert me could have handled) a loving long-term relationship with his wife Rima, They decided to get married after being together for decades, a couple of years before he passed away. Reading this book very much reminds me of my time with The Noel Coward Diaries, way back in the eighties. As you can imagine, he wrote with wit and style and I remember inhaling that book when I was working in an office where I clearly didn’t belong! I don’t know what happened to my copy, but I find myself wanting to find a copy and read it again.

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that I saw Alan Rickman in a play way back in 1991 when I was at the Edinburgh Festival. The play was called Tango at the End of Winter and I remember how powerful he was in his stillness and how elegantly he moved across the stage. How fortunate I was!

War and Peace is superb. Don and I find ourselves chatting about it quite frequently. I love that he decided to read it, too.

I’m halfway through State of Terror. It moves along pretty quickly and I quite like it.

Don and I are trying to grapple with the death of a friend of ours. He was really Don’s friend, but I knew him, too. He and his wife are musicians who are very well known and respected in the Hudson Valley. He produced and and recorded Don’s CD in his home studio. Rick and Michele performed at the CD release party. He was also an extraordinary artist. His paintings of the Hudson River and and the surrounding mountains were incredibly detailed and stunningly beautiful. (I dreamed of owning one someday.) He was so good that he was routinely featured in art galleries. Last fall, he and Michelle sang in the event that Don organized, the one highlighting the artists that Don was championing. Within a few weeks after that event, he was in the hospital with a rare form of pneumonia – one we’d never heard of – and on a ventilator. When Don first heard this news, which was being kept very quiet, he spoke to Michele. There was a real sense that he’d pull through it. That was in September. He never came home. Four months later – two days ago – he died. We really thought he would pull through. Don is devastated, as is the entire music community here, as well as so many others who knew and loved him. Rick was a kind and extraordinarily talented man. May he rest in peace.

And now I’m sad again.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

A Brief Pause

January 15, 2023 at 9:07 am by Claudia

Well. I ended up not working yesterday because we decided that using me again later this week would be the most productive use of my time. I managed to work with everyone during the 3 days I was in town. But, I didn’t write a blog post yesterday because I was so exhausted. I cannot tell you how sore and tired I was! The first day was the worst as I was at rehearsal from 10 until 6, with the addition of 4 hours travel time – but the real cause of my tiredness was the 20 blocks I had to walk from the Port Authority Bus Terminal to the rehearsal studio – 40 blocks total at the end of the day. My mistake, that first day, was to walk very quickly (I tend to do that.) I also had no idea how long it would take to reach the rehearsal studio and I didn’t want to be late. Having not done that kind of walking for quite a while, I wasn’t in shape for it and the addition of a large tote bag and my handbag didn’t help. By the end of the day, my back and leg muscles were aching. I was wearing the same shoes I wore in Paris, but they didn’t seem to be doing the trick, either. I got home around 9:30 pm, had a quick bite to eat, talked to Darko on the phone about my impressions of the actors and their needs, and went to bed. The next day my back and shins were very sore. So I changed out my handbag for a much lighter canvas bag, but the tote was now heavier with the addition of the script. I did the same walk the next day, only much less aggressively. But my muscles remained very sore for the next three days. I could have taken an Uber at any time, but I wanted to ‘get in city shape’ so I forced myself to walk. There was a time when that kind of walk was an everyday occurrence for me, but I was much younger and living in Philadelphia. Even in the days of filming, I never had to walk that distance from a subway stop to the filming location. Maybe 8 blocks at the most.

I’m not in shape. Clearly. I was very happy not to go in again on Saturday, just to give my body a rest. Much better today. It does make the whole ‘stay in shape’ thing very clear. Walking out in the country is also very different from walking on cement in the city. Sadly, there is no subway stop near the rehearsal studio, so walking all those blocks is a necessity. This is one of things I miss about living in the city – walking. I love nothing more than walking around a city and I did that routinely in Philadelphia, Boston, and Cambridge. And not just to get someplace, but also to explore on my days off. That’s the kind of walking I love. Frankly, walking around here gets a little boring.

All that being said, I like the musical, I like the cast, I love Darko. I have been reunited with Christy Altomare (Anastasia in Anastasia) and also with Sarah, Darko’s assistant. Sarah and I have worked together several times. It’s been very satisfying to coach one-on-one again. I always end up feeling very energized and satisfied. I think I’m going back next Thursday. This week was about my coaching sessions and choreography. Since Darko won’t start staging until Tuesday, he won’t have heard any results from the coaching sessions until then, so adding a couple of days in there for him to take it all in makes sense. (That was my suggestion.) Most likely, I’ll be there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Okay. Too much information, I’m sure.

I am so grateful for the support of my husband, who drove me back and forth to the bus station, made a sandwich for me to take along on the trip, had a bite to eat waiting for me when I got home. It helped enormously.

I start back in with War and Peace today (I read ahead so I’m right on schedule for Chapter 15.) I’m also reading State of Terror, but I paused for a day or two when I realized that Madly, Deeply; the Diaries of Alan Rickman is due on Tuesday. So, I read a big chunk of it yesterday and will read more today. I thought I just wouldn’t get to it due to my schedule, but it’s so readable, so honest and charming and fascinating, that I’m flying through it. It’s a wonderful book written by an actor I greatly admired. The entries are on the short side, which I love. He gets to the point. There is introspection, to be sure, but again, he manages to convey it succinctly.

One passage I wrote down because it reminded me of what the Spoiler Alert movie premiere party was like. He wrote this after attending a wrap party at the end of filming:

“Hideous – loud (as in cannot hear a word anyone is saying) and no one’s dancing, so what’s the f**king point?”

EXACTLY what I thought about the premiere party. I felt like I was shouting all evening, I could barely hear what anyone was saying, it was exhausting. No one was dancing. So, WHY???? Someone with more power than I should have asked the DJ to turn it down. Actually, Don said it would have been much better to have a little combo of jazz musicians playing softly. Most of us who were there, aside from the dreaded ‘influencers,’ hadn’t seen each other since the film wrapped and we really wanted to talk to each other and catch up. I wrote Ben and Todd (Jim’s husband) after the party to apologize for not chatting with them longer and both of them responded with “Wasn’t it LOUD?” They felt the same way.

Anyway, I’m loving the book.

Well, I’m chatty today, aren’t I?

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Tuesday Thoughts

Monday Thoughts; Reading and Loss

A Brief Pause

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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