All the World

Fifty pounds! A very worthy sum on a very worthy question. Can a play show us the very truth and nature of love? I bear witness to the wager, and will be the judge of it as occasion arises. I have not seen anything to settle it yet.

Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare in Love

Close down the movie houses, and I’ll be sad. Build public parks where once there were sports stadiums, and I’ll think it wrong — even as I take my book there to enjoy a quiet read and eat my lunch. Stop the ballet, orchestras, and operas from their appointed productions, and I’ll scream bloody murder. But if you close down the theatres and cease all plays, I’ll take up arms. I’ll become an insurrectionist. Don’t get me wrong. I like movies and sporting events, and I’ve been to more ballets and operas than I can easily recall. But plays are what I love. I can more easily suspend my disbelief in a black box theatre than I can a multiplex.

It can be an amateur or professional production, black box or fully apportioned. I just have to be there in a seat. I can up sit in the gods or close enough to fear the undead might lose footing and fall in my lap.  It doesn’t matter. Comedy or tragedy are as enjoyable. Musical or not, I’ll enjoy it all the same. I don’t need popcorn or tea and biscuits. Just give me an intermission to spend a penny and grab a gin.

Somehow live theatre has something primordial about it. The connection stretches from at least the Διονύσια τὰ ἐν Ἄστει (Urban Dionysia) into the infinite future, and I’m there among all the people. Who knows, maybe I’m even connected in some way with intelligent life in other parts of the universe. I don’t have that with celluloid. Though, interestingly enough, it’s there with sports — even when I’m watching them on television in my living room.

What brought this on is interesting. I’m looking at the upcoming plays by some of the local amateur companies in town and deciding which ones I’m going to see — and when. I was enthralled by Dracula, enjoyed Louisville Rep’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace far better than the classic movie version.

So, once again, I’ll put on my Mask of Apollo, and enjoy a very nice theatrical season here in the Ville as I take the blood of Dionysus to my lips and mock the Promethean way.

The Welsh Dragon

So, I meet up with The Artist this evening. “I think I’ll start with the worst part and work my way over,” he said after shaving my chest. I hate that part. It doesn’t hurt, but it makes me feel like a boi, and I’m Bear. But I digress. He gave me an ointment he wants me to use. I’m not trying to keep plastice wrap on it as he suggests. I’m fairly certain it won’t stay. However, I do grease my dragon five times a day — even in the restroom at work. He did say that he’s found with people he tattoos a lot, there’s always one that’s problematic. Hopefully it’s the only one that’s going to be a pain. : )= It takes about twenty mintues to do the fill in work, and he doesn’t charge me a cent. So, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a deposit for the beefcake on my right hip. We’ve even set the date.

The appointment’s about six weeks out. He’s going to work on some designs, and closer to the date, he’ll send me a drawing to look at before I go in for the tattoo. I can hardly wait!

Sunday’s Salvation

Tattooed in the Highlands

The days when I get tattooed are always both really great and very surreal. I have given it though, but I’m not able to come to a conclusion about it. It just is, and I’m okay with that.

I arrived in the Highlands a with plenty of time to kill before my appointment with the Artist, so I hit a couple of my favorite haunts – the used bookstore, the leather place. It was just a quite way to prepare for what I knew would be a painful experience. Of course it could have been more painful had the BMW actually hit me. I was crossing with a walk sign. It would have been his fault.

With some time to wait, I relaxed on the refurbished pew, played with my phone, looked at the art, checked who was doing what to whom on FaceSpace. And I had time to thing about the next tattoo. Yes, I’ve taken to coveting tattoos while getting tattooed. It’s an addiction really. I admit it. I just am not going to find a twelve-step program about it. I can stop on my own – when the time is right. Which is not now.

At any rate, soon enough I was shirtless with my chest shaved, the stencil applied, and my body braced for an experience. It was about a ninety minute job. I’m quite pleased. It did hurt. It always hurts. The right side, according to the artist and my personal experience, hurts less than the left though.

When he was done, I talked to him about a touch up on the fleur de lys. He said the dragon might need one as well, so in about six weeks, I’ll go back in. I asked if there were any males in the Sailor Jerry style. He didn’t know of any but said he could draw me one. He even thought that sounded cool. “One of the old fashioned male pin-ups” he called it. I’m up for that.

Tattooed Tuesday

Wares from the Fair

The first weekend in May is the Kentucky Derby, and the first weekend in October is the St. James Art Show — yes I know that’s not the legal name of it.  I went today with an idea of what I was looking for and how much I wanted to spend. I spent less and changed my mind about what I wanted to come home with.

As I drank my commemorative beer — don’t ask — and walked along checking out the vendors — and hotties — I saw a craftsman specializing in porcelain. Among his wares were small little dishes perfect for sushi, soap, spoon rests or my intended use: dessert plates. I see these serving  millionaire shortbread accompanied with a nice glass of brut. There weren’t any potters selling square plates that caught my fancy, so that quest continues.

It was a good show, but I missed several of the artists, craftsmen, and vendors to whom I’ve become accustomed. Change is always good, but it can be a little sad as well.

I also picked up a jar of locally produced sorghum, so I see a pan of biscuits in the very near future. I may even use buckwheat flour to make them It should give a nice hearty, earthy biscuit to soak up all the goodness of the sorghum.

Caught in a Celluloid Jam

Science Fiction – Double Feature
Dr. X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show.

 

It was a Saturday afternoon in early October. There are a lot of events in the City at this time of year. I was part of the packed house who’d come to see Pandora Production‘s staging of The Rocky Horror Show. Who’d have thought a matinee would be a sell out? Like many people, I know this tale very well, and saw it numerous times when it played at the Vogue Theatre, but I had not seen it as a live production.

Also, noteworthy is that while there were plenty of gay folks in attendance, there were also quite a few straight couples. That’s absolutely great news — for Pandora, Louisville, and the nation.

I think I’m far more fond of it — if you can image that — as a stage production that as a movie. The actors had great voices, there was a live band tucked behind stage, and Pandora’s Rocky is far hotter than the film’s Rocky. My favorite part was at the end looking around at the audience members giving a standing ovation — and doing the Time Warp. It was astounding.

As of this writing, there’s only one more performance — at 1930 tonight, but it’s just the beginning of what promises to be another fabulous season for my favorite theatre company.

Blades & Chalices

Because I have them already copied to the clipboard, I thought I’d put a couple of chalice lightings on here.

“We Strike this Flame”

V: As a reminder that all are welcome here
R: We strike this flame
V: As a beacon to all who seek refuge from a World that is too much with us
R: We strike this flame 
V: In remembrance of what has been, a knowledge of what is now, and a longing for what can be
R: We strike this flame

[Untitled]

Call fire and water from the brink
While I a Mystic Marriage make
Blade and Chalice become one
As I face the new born Sun
Salamanders and Undines mix
Wheel and Web we do transfix
Venus’s Water of desire
Prometheus’s passio of Fire
Come from all time and space
Gather now to light our place
Fire and Water I bequeath
It is done — so mote it be

Salacious Saturday

[Publically Untitled]

standing making small talk
with your group of friends
maybe i should hint at
the many things we’ve been
about all the nights
you cried out
for me to take you from behind
how you let me get the cord
to bind you call you mine
how many times i’ve driven
you to estatic agony
only to have you plead
for many more harsher deeds
upside down or right side up
the eager bottom to my top
i made the beast with two backs
my gentle loving pup
never mind i’ll keep your secret
safely from your wife
but always know i hold the key
to a truly happy life