Scary clowns, hipsters, and tragedy, oh my!

Just so you know, my life is not all art and operas, I do other things.  Like go to haunted houses!  My friend Greg did some animation work for the guy who created Nightmare: Superstitions a while back and so he got free tickets to "the scariest haunted house in America", and naturally invited me along.  I admit it, I was a haunted house virgin.  Outside of childhood/teenage things in the cornfields of Danbury or wherever Blue Jay Orchards is, I have never been to a haunted house.  So I had done a fairly good job of completely psyching myself out, I'd totally prepared myself to have the shit scared out of my for real...but as you probably could have told from my movie preferences, I am not the easiest person to scare.  But luckily a couple of the people in our group were and that made it way more entertaining.  Because there is nothing more entertaining than screaming strangers.

And after we survived the horrors of the haunted house, Greg's friend gave us a backstage tour.  Which was the best part.  Then we got to watch screaming strangers from behind curtains and one way mirrors, and get to see all the costuming and fun little tricks.  And then to top it all off, the ghost of Bloody Mary gave me a bottle of Bloody Mary mix to enjoy.  Which lead me to the theory that if more mirror haunting ghosts gave more people cocktail mix, they would be way less scary.  But then again, maybe that defeats their whole purpose in haunting mirrors in the first place...

That was Friday, Saturday I did nothing.  For real, nothing.  I watched 4 movies on my Roku player and ate some left over soup.

Sunday however, Greg had also invited me to the second half of his free-stuff-for-doing-stuff adventure weekend.  He had been given tickets to the Sufjan Stevens show at the Beacon Theater for doing some of the animation used in the visuals for the show.  The haunted house was fun, but for this I owe Greg a pie.  It was amazing.  I do have all of Sufjan's albums, but I don't listen to them very often, because in truth, I can only take him in small doses.  I don't have a good explanation for why, but he's not normally my speed.  But, this is why I owe Greg a pie, that might have been the most beautiful few hours of my life while surrounded by a thousand strangers.  Sufjan, sadly, cannot dance, but he makes up for that in spades by being simply gorgeous and possessing the most amazing voice I have ever heard in person.  And his band, although not as pretty, were equally fantastic.  On key, on tempo, perfect at all times.  It was beautiful.  I have seen where hipsters go when they die: a never ending Sufjan Stevens concert.  It almost made me wish I was a hipster...well, at least it made me miss my emo-hair.

And then so you aren't left feeling too uncomfortable with this departure from art and opera, Monday I went to the opera.  And for once, I was there early (normally that's me you see running down Broadway towards Lincoln Center praying that I'll get in my seat within the next 40 seconds, cursing the B train delays and World News for being so entertaining).  As I'm strolling around outside, enjoying this strange sensation of not rushing to the opera, watching the fountain, killing time, there is a ruckus.  More than a ruckus, hundreds of screaming teens off to the side.  So seeing as I have 30 minutes to kill, I wonder over to explore.  And there is the Harry Potter red carpet or at least something resembling the red carpet, and the cast of Harry Potter showing off their grown-up looks and hundreds of screaming teens overwhelmed by the stars real-life presence only mere meters away (cause it was more than just a few feet).  Little kids were besides themselves, teenagers in costumes were screaming, and the amateur paparazzi were clicking away.  It made me giggle.  And then as the stars finished their promenade, I made my way back to the MET and inside to watch "Il Travatore"

I first saw "Il Travatore" at the Verdi Theater in Florence, just down the street from my apartment on via Ghibelina.  I know I saw it, and I have a CD with a couple of the songs on it, but I honestly don't remember it at all.  The Firenzian opera company was not that spectacular, and seeing as my Italian wasn't so spectacular either, it's not like I had that good of an idea as to what on earth was really going on anyway.  I mean, I remembered that this is the one where everyone dies, but I confuse it with "La Traviata" where almost everyone dies.  It was fantastic.  Verdi (one of my favorite opera gods I admit it) makes it hard on the singers, and they did a wonderful job.  It's a silly opera, completely implausible.  Switched accidentally murdered babies, gypsy curses that weren't real, kidnapped ladies, and slow acting poison, but that's OK, because it's so beautiful you find yourself not actually reading the subtitles because you're too busy listening.  It's an easy opera, people that don't like opera can't help but like Verdi.  And in case beautiful accessible librettos aren't enough for you, Horatio was back! You remember beautiful, tall Horatio with his couple of lines in "Hamlet"? Well he was there, looking fine in his Napoleonic uniform.  In addition to that, I've told you about operas with horses, and dogs, and chickens, and other such exciting things...this one's got a bunch of topless men, hammering on anvils, pouring water on themselves to cool themselves off, But don't worry Horatio, they mean nothing to me, nothing.