Simone Bocanegra.
My first Placido Domingo performance.
And it lived up to his reputation. He was fantastic. Everyone in the cast was fantastic (almost...a couple needed to warm up a bit, but then they were great). It was the first performance at the Met that you could actually hear everyone signing their parts during a Verdi classic cinquette...or whatever you call them. It wasn't as profoundly moving as House of the Dead was, but it was sung beautifully, and low and behold, Placido can act! He died like 5 times! He's old, man! And each time he did dead-guy face plants.
But that's not the real point of this story...for the first time in all my solo visits to the Metropolitan Opera an old man tried to pick me up. Oh yeah. He came up to me during intermission and offered to have me join him in the seat next to him on the orchestra level. To which I kindly explained that the sound was better up where I was sitting, with a smile naturally. I guess I looked good tonight in my new jeans, ancient sweater, and $5 pashmina...or at least hot to an old German man...and I'll giggle about that for days.
If only he had been as suave as Placido...
Tuesday 26 January 2010
Monday 11 January 2010
18" of snow in London!
I know, that's the headlines everyone was hearing...18" of snow in London...
Gatwick closed, Luton closed, Heathrow closed for a few hours, flights canceled and delayed for days! Tubes shutdown, school canceled! Shops and restaurants closed because people can't get to work! Absolutely unheard of chaos! On top of that it was just freezing outside! A whopping -1º C (that would be 30º F for us Westerners, who during the winter would think about breaking out our beloved flip flops if it was that warm outside).
It never snows like that in London. And I mean never. I mean, um, I was there, and I didn't see 18" of snow on the ground. Well, maybe 18 mm, ok, maybe a little bit more than 18 mm, but not much. I'll give it 3" and that's being generous. Emmanuelle (a fantastic friend of Kelly's) lives near Hyde Park and she claimed to have 6" or so on the ground, but she might have been exaggerating...I mean, she's only a 30 minute walk from Kelly's place in Shoreditch, and I find it hard to believe that the small street Kelly lives off of is in such a microcosm of weather anomaly.
Shut down the airports? For an imaginary 18" of snow? I don't doubt that it dropped feet of snow in Scotland. It's cold up there, but Scotland is really far away. London? Come on.
I even have proof. This was taken in Hockney Park the night after the city was snowed in with the storm of the millennium.
Does that look like 18" to you? It's beautiful, I'll admit that. London in the snow is pretty magical. The dogs loved it, and it was kinda nice having to hole up in the apartment and eat all the cheese and pate and drink the plethora of wine we had stockpiled for just such an occasion (in the event of a zombie invasion, I'm placing my bets on surviving the longest in Kelly's flat, meet you there).
This is probably where I'm supposed to add in the joke my mom made about British men and if this is what they think 18" looks like, just imagine how small 8" is (see, I come by it honest)...ah, London.
Gatwick closed, Luton closed, Heathrow closed for a few hours, flights canceled and delayed for days! Tubes shutdown, school canceled! Shops and restaurants closed because people can't get to work! Absolutely unheard of chaos! On top of that it was just freezing outside! A whopping -1º C (that would be 30º F for us Westerners, who during the winter would think about breaking out our beloved flip flops if it was that warm outside).
It never snows like that in London. And I mean never. I mean, um, I was there, and I didn't see 18" of snow on the ground. Well, maybe 18 mm, ok, maybe a little bit more than 18 mm, but not much. I'll give it 3" and that's being generous. Emmanuelle (a fantastic friend of Kelly's) lives near Hyde Park and she claimed to have 6" or so on the ground, but she might have been exaggerating...I mean, she's only a 30 minute walk from Kelly's place in Shoreditch, and I find it hard to believe that the small street Kelly lives off of is in such a microcosm of weather anomaly.
Shut down the airports? For an imaginary 18" of snow? I don't doubt that it dropped feet of snow in Scotland. It's cold up there, but Scotland is really far away. London? Come on.
I even have proof. This was taken in Hockney Park the night after the city was snowed in with the storm of the millennium.
Does that look like 18" to you? It's beautiful, I'll admit that. London in the snow is pretty magical. The dogs loved it, and it was kinda nice having to hole up in the apartment and eat all the cheese and pate and drink the plethora of wine we had stockpiled for just such an occasion (in the event of a zombie invasion, I'm placing my bets on surviving the longest in Kelly's flat, meet you there).
This is probably where I'm supposed to add in the joke my mom made about British men and if this is what they think 18" looks like, just imagine how small 8" is (see, I come by it honest)...ah, London.
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