Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Three Beautiful Things 05/13/19: Breakfast with Cas, Patricia Arquette, All Woman Shakespeare

1. Cas swung by at 7:30 and we ate breakfast at the Goose 'n the Tree Fresh Baked Cafe in Pinehurst and enjoyed a splendid breakfast. The last three times I've been to the Goose 'n the Tree, I've ordered food that included Derrick's chili verde sauce and did so again this morning -- I had the LookOut, an egg scramble with chorizo, onions, peppers, and shredded corn toritillas covered with chili verde sauce. I loved it. Cas and I yakked about a lot of stuff and got a special kick out of how poorly my Kellogg Johnniez performed on Sunday in Fantasy Baseball. Cas couldn't remember a fantasy team performing so badly on a day featuring a full slate of games.

I could not have been prouder of my squad's futility. Sometimes there's something as impressive about staggering others with nearly bottomless mediocrity and with achieving greatness. For one day, at least, the Kellogg Johnniez were the lovable Mets of 1962, the unforgettable losers of 120 games, the most in major league history.  Within myself, I wailed Casey Stengel's famous line in 1962: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

2.  I put the podcast Fresh Air on my smart speaker and listened to one episode after another. I especially enjoyed listening to Patricia Arquette talk about roles she has played over the last four or five years. If you'd like to hear what she had to say, just go here.

3. Later in the day, I returned to listening to more Shakespeare Unlimited podcasts and especially enjoyed listening to Dame Harriet Walter talk about her career, especially her work as Brutus in an all woman production of Julius Caesar. It's here.  Walter's work in Julius Caesar was part of a trilogy of all woman productions (Julius Caesar, Henry IV -- a condensation of the two Henry IV plays --, and The Tempest) directed by Phyllida Lloyd. I also listened to Phyllida Lloyd, in a separate episode, discussing the all woman Shakespeare project. It's thrilling and it's here.

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