• I took this yesterday. Today, we have a lot of rain coming down, very heavy at times. There’s a flash flood watch through tomorrow. I’m not especially fond of rainy days, considering the excessive amount of rain we’ve had this year, but the cottage does feel nice and cozy at the moment.
• Don and I practiced some French phrases this morning. I found a great little truly pocket-sized book, French Phrasebook & Dictionary – published by Lonely Planet. It really has just about anything you might need as a tourist visiting France. I would be able to get by without it, as I’m finding my long-ago French skills returning, but I sometimes screw up the word order. Don wants his own copy, so I’ll get one for him at B & N, which is where I found my copy. It’s well thought out and organized and so, so helpful!
• Critics. We’ve talked about them a lot this year, haven’t we? I never read critics and I find the influence they have troubling, to say the least. Any critic, try as he/she might to do otherwise, writes from a subjective point of view. The good critics try to take themselves out of it and speak to the experience in broader terms. But the bad ones are all about ego and judgment. Like the critic at the New York Times, Jesse Green.
This past Sunday two productions closed on Broadway. One of them was Getting the Band Back Together, directed by a friend of ours. We never got to see it, but many actor friends of ours did and they all loved it. I kept reading glowing reports from them on Instagram. I heard nothing but raves.
It closed after only 40 performances. While there were most likely other factors, the main reason? Jesse Green, who wrote a scathing review. So. Here we go again. Even though audiences loved it, couldn’t say enough about it, Green’s review effectively tanked it. They ran for only five weeks.
Actors, crew, house staff, stage management – all out of work. Future audiences deprived of a delightful experience. All because of a critic and, I’ll be frank, one with an agenda.
Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that Jesse Green and I never meet. I could end up in the slammer.
• Do I gird my loins and venture out to buy jeans today? That’s the big question. I’ve gained some weight and I need to go up a size, something I’ve been dreading and avoiding, but I also realize I need to feel comfortable and I don’t at the moment. Do I say, “Screw it, it’s a rainy day, why not go with it and do some shopping?”
• Didn’t watch the Emmys. We found, even though we both know some of the nominees, that we weren’t remotely interested. I’m less and less interested in awards shows nowadays. Instead, we watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show and The Goodbye Girl (one of my favorite movies) on TCM OnDemand. A perfect evening!
We’ll see.
Happy Tuesday.
