makes no sense

So last night we went to our final (for this season) production at the FSU Conservatory for Actors. They were performing Chekhov's Cherry Orchard. And this morning I found myself marveling at the similarities between the play and the soda that Phil is so inordinately fond of...

at first glance you may not notice it- LOL

and it isn't because they both have "cherry" (corrupted in the case of cheerwine) in their names- it is because neither one of them makes sense!

Cheerwine (been around since 1917! but who has ever heard of it? the legend! LOL) is a cherry drink without any identification of it being cherry - just being cheery!  here is some info on it from wikipedia-

When the Maysville Syrup Company of Maysville, Kentucky went bankrupt in 1917, L.D. Peeler and other invested businessmen moved the company to North Carolina and renamed it the Carolina Beverage Corporation. That same year, Peeler purchased a recipe for a cherry flavored soda from a Saint Louis flavor salesman, which eventually became Cheerwine. Though it had been around since 1917, Cheerwine first became a registered trademark in 1926.  Cheerwine has a mildly sweet flavor with strong cherry notes, most notably black cherry; is burgundy-colored, and has an unusually high degree of carbonation compared to other soft drinks. The product was named for its color and taste; the company website states that "it made sense to name a burgundy-red, bubbly, cherry concoction—Cheerwine." Despite its name, Cheerwine is not really a wine and contains no alcohol. 

OK so I get maybe the wine color misled you into thinking it made sense to call it "xxxwine" but is the cheer a misspelling of cherry? This makes no sense to me...

Which leads me back to the play- it also made no sense to me... here is the synopsis- 

here is my thumbnail synopsis of the play- "everyone gets what they deserve"- rarely will you see a stage filled with such a group of morons as this one. Clearly inbreeding rendered them "incapable of saving their estate" it rendered them INCAPABLE of even making a decision! These losers couldn't have held on to that orchard and house if they had money- one of them gives away everything she has to a less than scrupulous lover (who not surprisingly keeps sending her telegrams entreating her to return to him in Paris) another spends his time repeatedly saying the phrase "yellow ball in the side pocket".... the whole thing reminded me that I had not yet mentioned the meal we had on Saturday night (LOL- just wait for it...)

an excellent pizza place in Cortez right next to the best ice cream in town (Tyler's Homemade)

the above pizza is called Adam's Favorite but it my favorite as well!

but back to the stupid people who couldn't bother to make a move to save their own estate- - - Society is breaking down, the servants are dancing in the ball room with the local bureaucrats... people wander in and out of scenes making statements that don't make any sense...

after having listened to the drivel coming out of the characters mouth's last night I read literary criticism of the play and see there are many levels and of course even during the play I was aware of the issues of the time period with the end of the aristocracy in Russia... but even with all this context I found their inability to make a decision and to take action seriously annoying............

 

so out with the old year and in with the new- here is the upcoming 15-16 season for FSU/Asolo

and they are also starting to release the 15-16 season of the Asolo Rep -

so we will see what next year brings- and since I am heading next week (for the first time) to the Florida Studio Theater - that season will be added into the choices we have--- as well as some more music at Phil's favorite venue- Fogartyville! Stay tuned... as we are off to the SFF (film festival) tomorrow for our day one of entertainment!....

a multitude at the multiplex

And away we go-

this weekend begins the ten day experience of a multitude of films for viewing at the Sarasota Film Festival.  We poured over the catalogue- mind boggling choices of literally HUNDREDS of films and we double checked them against the schedules for conflicts and narrowed down to the two dozen tickets we wanted to procure - and so here is some info on what we decided upon... keep in mind that some things must be jettisoned simply because the schedule looks like this every single day of the festival

here are the things I have chosen for this Day One (for me) one day's schedule-

 so this also happens to be my busiest day- as it is the only one I have four films scheduled-

here is my sequence- 4-3-2-1-1-1-3-3 with that  week followed by ONE MORE play before I head north... so lots in store- not to mention the work of getting the condo closed up for the summer...

come on back during the process to get reviews and updates along the way... I promise not to go into the details of the HVAC guy's visit or the quarterly call from the exterminator LOL!

countdown

The last two plays of our Florida season are this week. Tonight's play Sotto Voce caused a fairly strong disagreement between the two of us from our "reviewers" standpoint.

So here is where we parted reviews completely- I thought the characters all had huge flaws when it came to their accents- I was willing to give a pass to the German vignettes played by the two younger "Hispanic" (Cuban and Colombian) characters but I really found the actor (who was substitute for the one on the program) for the Cuban writer had virtually no Hispanic accent at all.  And I found this a huge flaw- I went to Cuba in 2012 and this guy's accent was some place I never heard before- not Cuban American - not Cuban - not even really Hispanic.  The young woman character did fine with the Colombian role (and as I said her German accent was atrocious but I give her a pass for the few lines she had as the Nina character)

But where Phil and I really disagreed was on the main character's accent.  All of these characters are immigrants and or foreign (the guy hadn't actually immigrated) and should sound like it... The old lady had some weird almost Polish kind of accent. Phil argued that it was accurate and I pointed out to him that not ONE of our German friends' English sounded remotely like that... he argued that it was because she was so old... but I found all of this very distracting of the story which was touted as "whimsical" and "poetic" but I found just generally annoying.  I found the male character hugely manipulative of both women. I found both women lacking- wanting their dreams so much they were willing to forgo any sort of reality check about this guy's motivation and actions...

wonder how the dialect coach felt about these actors- or whether she was the one to "blame" can a Cuban character be believable as a Cuban with no real Hispanic accent?

so overall- this one came out the opposite of our usual reviews where I like the play much more than Phil does.  This time he liked it much more than I did.  I felt there was so much more the subject of the St Louis could bring us than we got tonight... so split on the thumbs up/thumbs down.

tomorrow we are out again for the FSU Conservatory production of The Cherry Orchard- which I will give more details on later but here is the pre-play material...

since nothing that FSU Conservatory does is straightforward I am looking forward to seeing their take on Chekhov tomorrow night... will be back to you with more later....

and if you don't have time to read the full review of this one- here is my thumbnail summary "everyone got what they deserved." LOL

a return engagement

Last night we returned to Bridge Street Bistro for a second try - again lovely setting - here is the tail end of the sunset we watched as we went over the Cortez Bridge to AMI.

you can see the railing in the above shot- our table was located on the third floor right at the railing overlooking the Gulf of Mexico- below a little different angle cuts out the railing and I think better shows the people at the beach who are watching the tail end of the sunset (which have been fabulous the last week or so!)

there was a cool breeze but I had remembered to wear a sweater- the night before it was cooler but the garden where we sat at the Blue Marlin (also located on Bridge Street) was without any breeze and very comfortable.  - below the garden lights at Blue Marlin.

here is the food from last night's dinner-  which actually ended up pairing well with the 2000 St Innocent Seven Springs Pinot Noir we brought.  Lobster fritters to start, followed by a Bistro Salad (we split these items)

Then I had the Scallops Oscar and Phil the seafood risotto - sorry about the photo - the lighting was strange and I didn't fill in the flash (should have) like I did for Phil's risotto dish... I very much liked the flavor of my dish but to my taste the scallops were slightly overcooked- although a very generous portion not a single one had a center that was just slightly translucent - every one was cooked all the way through :-(

On the other hand Phil loved his risotto and declared it perfect, he had ordered it without the mussels (maybe thinking we would be eating TONS of mussels in just six weeks when we get to Brussels)

so although I have had two less than stellar meals here I think I just need to refine my ordering - everything is made to your order so I am sure next time I can ask for the scallops to be cooked to "the temperature of my liking" as our friend Rainey always says!

Overall I still have a preference for the Blue Marlin but the Bridge Street Bistro has hand;s down best view! Both places are worthy of trying- and if you do go to the Bistro then be specific about how you wish to have your food prepared and I am sure you will be happy with the meal- not to mention the spectacular view!

Tonight our (likely) last time at Waterfront and tomorrow Michael's on East... this week (to ten days) is the final restaurant week because once we get to the last five days for Phil's stay we will be in full swing with the Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) - so lots more to come!

woo-hoo!!!!

So I had "kind of - sort of" set a goal for myself of reaching 50,000 page views before my blog hit the four and a half year mark (4-22-2015) and I made it ahead of goal!  today! March 30th, 2015...

When I started blogging- as you may know - my sister had recently died and exactly two months after my first blog post- which was about my cat's birthdays - my mother also died...  So the blog became a journal to me- a place where I could remember the two women who most shaped my life. My sister (17 months younger than I) for 54 years and my mother my whole - to then - life (and actually beyond) of at that point, 56 years.  So along the way I wrote about them, about my family, about my travels, about plays I saw, about concerts I went to, about restaurants we tried, pretty much anything...including my conflict with the awning guy and the post office etc...LOL

I was amazed when shortly after I started the blog, I was having multiple hundreds of page views a month- and then it went up.  My highest month ever was over 2300 views and the monthly average for all of 2014 was 1640 a month... so thanks for reading!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming-

in the past few days we have been catching up on places, as the start of the "farewell" tour for this winter- we had lunch at Skinny's  (a favorite dive burger place on AMI)

we met friends Al & Carol, out at Linger Lodge- another dive place, an old fish camp in the backwoods river country-

and last night we went to Pacific Rim for excellent sushi- (it's also BYO with corkage fee so we could bring our own Champagne...)

and as time winds down for our season in the sun, I am making appointments for the servicing of the HVAC, the water heater, etc... so when the caretaker takes over his "off-season" duties everything will be ready for him.

and... for those who follow the blog for the travel stuff- we have started working on the 2016 trip planning... LOL - I know, I know... we haven't left for the first of the 2015 trips but hey... we figure if the calendar is full the grim reaper can't fit in an appointment LOL- or some such nonsense- LOL- really - we both love to travel and now we have the time! Being retired is SOOOO fabulous. My role model for retirement, Jennifer Bater, did a great job- and I hope we can be similar inspirations to others!

Go NOW! and while you are at it, Safe Journeys!