1. For over forty years, I've had a soft spot for the eccentric women portrayed in the British theater in plays like The Rivals, The Importance of Being Earnest, and many other plays. It's the sort of character the Marx brothers and the Three Stooges lampooned in their farces. When I watched Blithe Spirit a few days ago, much of my enjoyment came from watching Margaret Rutherford play just such a role as the medium, Madame Arcati and she continued in that spirit in the way she played Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple.
So, today, I watched an hour long documentary of Margaret Rutherford's life entitled, Truly Miss Marple: The Curious Case of Margaret Rutherford. I enjoyed learning about how she got into the theater and the movies, but not until she was in her 40s. I didn't enjoy learning about struggles she worked with all her life, but I found it encouraging that her husband, the actor Stringer Davis, was a supportive and comforting spouse, helping her when things in her life were difficult.
2. Late in the afternoon, Debbie and I headed up to the Inland Lounge. Dick Goodson and I got into a long conversation about all sorts of things, beginning with us both being 1972 high school graduates, Dick at Kootenai High and, of course, I went to Kellogg. He helped me understand the division between the Harrison kids and the Rose Lake kids at Kootenai High. We also talked about the Kootenai basketball team whom I played against in the 8th and 9th grades. He brought back to my memories names like Monte McPeak, Lance Vines, Dan White, Dicky Goodson (!), and others. I learned a lot more about Dick's working life in the woods for Kellogg Transfer in his younger days and he told me funny stories about things that happened at the Sunshine Inn and other bars and things he experienced when he helped run the Broken Wheel in Kellogg.
3. Tonight from the outdoor stage at The Beanery (formerly The Bean and The Hill Street Depot), Debbie's longtime friend from the world of music performers in Eugene, Mare Wakefield and her husband, Nomad, played and sang for three hours.
Mare and Nomad live in Nashville and they are in the midst of nine week tour, playing house concerts and other venues across the USA, living out of their well-appointed van and traveling with their young dog.
I hadn't heard Mare play and sing for many, many years and I'd never heard her perform with Nomad. Mare is the duo's guitarist and lead vocalist and Nomad plays keyboard and accordion and harmonizes on selected vocals.
Mare and Nomad are stellar musicians and performers. I enjoy variety and they played an impressive range of musical styles and Mary's songwriting came at a variety of subjects with fascinating points of view and superb writing.
It was a family outing. Carol, Christy, Molly, Debbie, and I sat at a table together. Rick Chapman joined us. On Fridays, The Beanery servers wood-fired pizzas and we enjoyed those. I especially enjoyed the Margherita pizza -- it's funny -- as I get older, I enjoy toppingless cheese pizzas more and more and the cheese pizzas we had at our table really hit the spot.
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