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Drama by Raina Telgemeier

For our discussion on Tuesday, October 17, 2017, the Banned Book Club selected the graphic novel Drama by Raina Telgemeier.  We usually read one graphic novel per year and this year I gave the Club choice between Watchmen, and the top two challenged books of 2016: Drama at number 2 and This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki at number 1.  We had to choose the book before August because the owner of King’s Books wanted to announce the meeting for a special arts month promotion in October.  Drama is a very colorful book about a middle school stage crew producing a school musical.  I wasn’t familiar with the musical in the book but it looked like it took place in the South during the Civil War.  The graphic novel centers on one member of the crew, Callie, an energetic girl with purple hair.  Early on she has crushes easily but she goes through a lot of growth over the course of the story.  The themes of theater, drama both on and off stage, personal growth, acceptance of LGBTQ, and friendship combine to make a rather compelling story.

The book contained an interesting relatable reference.  One of the characters is named Bonnie Lake.  Telgemeier must either not be from the Puget Sound area or paying homage to it.  Another relatable reference is one panel shows Callie using a cell phone with a keyboard.  The acknowledgments at the end of the book thank David Levithan.

Not surprisingly, theater plays a strong role in the book.  Each chapter actually shows a curtain as if the story itself is a play. Callie’s love of theater is explored very deeply.  She first got into it when she was younger and saw a professional production of “Les Miserables.”  Callie takes Jesse to a place with an old book about theater with pictures of plays from the early 20^th century.  While paging through the book Callie and Jesse “jump” into it “Mary Poppins-style.”  Callie tells Jesse that “I want the audience to believe that the actors really live inside the world on the stage.” (p. 53)  Drama even has a bibliography of books on theater that Telgemeier used for research.  Drama occurs both on and off stage in the book.  West asks Bonnie, “Why are you creating extra drama for yourself?” (p. 172)  Observing an argument, another character exclaims, “Ooh, drama.” (p. 194)

The book contains several twists and surprises that I enjoyed.  I liked how some of the characters surprised me.  The most impressive was Callie’s growth.  She starts out falling for boys and lamenting not having a boyfriend.  But by the end she’s happy with just herself and her friends.  The beginning of the book has an image of Callie alone at the empty baseball field, hurt and humiliated after Greg has Matt lie to her about being at baseball practice. (p. 17)  Her back is turned toward the reader.  At the conclusion of the book, the final page shows Callie happy and exciting about the future, and facing the reader.

As stated earlier, Drama was the second most challenged book of 2016.  In 2014, parents in Mt. Pleasant, Texas claimed the book was sexually explicit and administrators removed the book from Chapel Hill Elementary School.  In 2015, the book was removed from a Texas junior high school for being “politically, racially, and socially insensitive.”  A small but vocal minority objected to the inclusion of two gay characters, one of whom shares an onstage kiss with another boy.  Negative online reader reviews have accused Telgemeier of literally hiding an agenda inside the brightly-colored, teen-friendly covers.  In 2017, Drama was challenged for including LGBT characters, being sexually explicit, and the book was considered too have an offensive political viewpoint.  It has also been challenged for having “subject matter too advanced for elementary students.”

We had a good discussion on Tuesday, October 17.  I think over ten people showed up including three or four new people.  Everyone seemed to like the book and one person gave it to their 10-year-old grandchild to read after they finished it.  Some of the characters in drama do some immature things such as breaking up right before a performance.  Someone at the discussion said such insensitivity isn’t surprising for middle school students.  We liked that the story had unexpected twists.  Some thought it might have been banned or challenged because of an interracial kiss.  We saw no reason why teens and preteens couldn’t read it.  I later gave my copy away at a drive for children’s books.

Hamilton the Musical

We saw the musical “Hamilton” at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Friday, October 6, 2017.  I had been listening to the music from “Hamilton” since April of the year before when I found the cast album on the airplane screens on a Delta Airlines flight.  After I got home I streamed the cast album on Hoopla and enjoyed it.  I especially liked the humorous song “You’ll Be Back” sung by the character King George III.  The part of Hamilton on the album was played by the musical’s composer Lin-Manuel Miranda.  This was the first I had ever heard of him, though he had written and starred in another Tony-winning musical many years before called “In the Heights.”  I also streamed that one from Hoopla.  Most of the roles in the original Broadway production of Hamilton were played by non-Caucasians including the other main character Aaron Burr played by Leslie Odom Jr. on Broadway.  For my birthday in 2016, I got the official vocal selections book for “Hamilton.”  We learned to play several of the songs and later performed a few at open mics such as “You’ll Be Back,” “My Shot,” and “Dear Theodosia.”  We didn’t think we would be able to afford to see the musical when it came to Seattle in early 2018.  Customers had to enter a lottery to get tickets.  But in the summer of 2017 we planned a trip to Socal in the fall and my in-laws bought us tickets to the official Broadway touring production of “Hamilton” in L.A.

On October 6, 2017, we flew from SeaTac Airport to LAX on Spirit Airlines.  They did a humorous safety briefing and joked about their miniscule tray tables.  After we arrived my in-laws took us to Zankou Chicken in Glendale for lunch.  It was delicious as usual and a lot of food.  The weather was rather warm in Socal and it got up to 100 degrees in Covina the next day.  In the evening of October 6 my in-laws lent us one of their cars to go to the Pantages Theatre.  We took the 101 that was quite slow with traffic.  I can’t remember where we exited but it was vaguely familiar.  We made our way to Hollywood Blvd and drove west.  At the intersection where the Pantages is (Argyle Ave.), we turned right and then made another right into an underground parking garage.  I don’t remember how we chose this place to park but it cost $12.50.  We had to go down a couple of levels and back into a parking spot that was partitioned by a white metal chain.  It looked like they expected many more cars.

I can’t remember when we left for the theatre or when we arrived at the parking garage.  From our parking space we took an escalator up to Hollywood Blvd.  We weren’t hungry enough to have dinner but felt like we needed a snack so we went to Pressed Juicery.  We got some strawberries with chocolate and one of their house-made juices.  They were an adequate “dinner” outside in the warm night air.  We then crossed Argyle Avenue.  Large Hamilton posters adorned the high wall of the Pantages Theatre.  Most people were much more dressed up than we were.  Before we had left for L.A. my wife had made sure she could access our electronic tickets on her phone.  We were glad it worked because it looked like others in the queue had trouble pulling up theirs.  But we checked in just fine.  We took note of the casting sign that said some of the understudies were playing roles that evening such as Dan Belnavis playing King George.  We went upstairs and to the right.  An employee then directed us down some stairs to the last curtain.

At some point on the way to our seats someone handed us playbills.  They had inserts with the cast for that evening’s performance.  The only substitutions were Dan Belnavis as King George, A. Larson as Charles Lee, and several in the ensemble.  We reached our seats at 7:35 pm on the balcony level in the fourth row from the front.  They were the furthest to the right except for one seat.  The other seats filled up quickly and I think the show was sold out or nearly.  The audience consisted of all ages included some kids.  On the stage below they had at least two revolving circular sections, one within the other.  They would use them very effectively in the show.  There was also a second loft or balcony level above the main stage floor.  It had lots of rigging and some stairs that could be dropped and raised.  On the stage were a wooden chair, a barrel, and a chest.  The theatre itself had lots of gold-painted intricate carving on the walls and ceiling.

By 8:00 pm, the seats were nearly full.  The lights dimmed and we heard a voice over the speakers with a snooty English accent say, “This is your king” and tell us to silence our cell phones and unwrap any candy we might have in plastic.  Then the show began.  I thought I knew the story well because nearly all of it is sung on the cast album. But seeing it really added so much more dimension.  Singers stood all over the stage and the upper loft level.  The stairs lowered and rose as needed.  In addition to the cast were dancers often wearing sleeveless, though still period outfits.  They used the revolving stages to great effect.  There were some large scale dance numbers and scenes with just a few characters.  We couldn’t see the orchestra at all and I think they were below the stage.

We enjoyed the acting and singing very much especially Michael Luwoye as Hamilton, Joshua Henry as Aaron Burr, and Solea Pfeiffer as Eliza Hamilton.  They sounded just as good as the Broadway cast album.  The understudy Dan Belnavis did a great job as King George and was one of the most humorous characters.  Isaiah Johnson who played the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson was also humorous.  He had his hair in a man bun as Lafayette and let it out in a sculpted afro as Jefferson for which he also wore a shiny green suit.  Another humorous scene was when Eliza beat-boxed for 9-year-old Philip Hamilton’s rap.  Listening to the soundtrack I thought they would have an intermission after the Revolutionary War scenes, but they actually didn’t have it until Hamilton was appointed as Secretary of the Treasury.  The intermission occurred at 9:20 pm.  They did a great job with the dramatic duel scene at the end.

We enjoyed “Hamilton” the musical very much, probably even more than “Fun Home” a few months earlier.  I’m glad we had the chance to see the official Broadway touring production.  We did many other things on the trip to Socal such as dine with family at the North Woods Inn in Alhambra, meet up with friends at Juan Pollo in East L.A. and Brunch Coffee in Covina.  We walked around downtown Alhambra and downtown Covina.  It was very hot, up to 100 degrees in the afternoon in Covina.  We went to the Fret House where we got a guitar pick and a folder that we still have as of JUne 2019.  We returned to SeaTac on Monday, October 9 so glad we did not throw away our shot to see “Hamilton.”

Rhein Haus

We went to Rhein Haus for the first time on Sunday, September 24, 2017.  We’ve returned there several times since then but in early fall 2017 it had only been open for a few months and from what we could see from the outside, it seemed like it was always crowded.  We finally decided to try it on September 24.  We went there for an early dinner arriving at 5:45 pm and got seated right away.  They’re a very large space with many high tables, a few low tables, a couple of bars, and a large fireplace in the middle along with a couple some more comfortable “living room” style chairs.  I think they even sell some a la carte sausages and pastries behind a glass counter as you walk in.  High on the walls were some elk and deer heads.  They had at least four narrow courts for playing bocce and a couple of other games.  One of them looked a little like shuffleboard with a long table.  Black and white streamers hung from the ceiling that I think were for Oktoberfest going on then.  Over the speakers they played rock and R&B music.

Rhein Haus actually wasn’t very crowded on that Sunday.  The server brought us each two menus: one for food and the other for drinks.  Their food menu had a couple of specials for Oktoberfest.  They gave us a glass wine-like bottle filled with drinking water.  But we still ordered drinks.  I got a Bunderberg root beer and my wife got a Salzburg ginger brew.  I tried it and liked it.  It wasn’t overly sweet.  On our table, steins contained silverware.  We placed our orders and they brought them out fairly quickly.  My wife got the Munich from the Wurst und Bun section of the menu.  It consisted of a large Polish sausage on a fairly small bun with crispy sweet onions and Emmental-beer fondue.  Like all the sandwiches, it came with French fries and a pickle spear.  It was a good amount of food for dinner.  I got the Braunswieger liverwurst that might have been one of the specials.  I haven’t seen it on the menu recently.  It consisted of several slices of liverwurst that tasted good along with some greens and spicy crisps.  Everything was good but it might have been an appetizer because it wasn’t a lot of food.  I had some of my wife’s fries to supplement it.

After dinner my wife asked them about dessert but they were out of roasted banana ice cream.  We have returned to Rhein Haus many times since then.  I think our second time was for brunch on Sunday, October 29, 2017.  I had the veggie hash with eggs and my spouse had the Leberkase breakfast sandwich.  We’ve also tried their pretzel appetizer and some of their other sandwiches and entrées.  Once we went there for an 80’s dance night but they played very few 80’s videos on their large screen near the small dance floor.  But it’s still worth returning.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

(Spoilers)

For our discussion on Tuesday, September 19, 2017, the Banned Book Club selected Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.  I was familiar with the story because I had seen the miniseries on Masterpiece Theater starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews back in the 1980’s.  I didn’t quite understand the miniseries, why the story took the turns that it did, and why things didn’t seem to work out for the main character Charles Ryder by the end.  I was hoping the book would shed some more light on it and it did.  It wasn’t the easiest book to understand but I enjoyed it and maybe now that I’m an adult and have gone through much of the process of growing up, I can understand better.  I also enjoyed the writing, the descriptions, and the inner reflections of the first person protagonist, Charles Ryder.  The book takes place during times of great change in England as the power of the aristocracy wanes.  Major events are mentioned such as the General Strike and the coronation of King Edward VIII in the 1930’s (or maybe it was Kind George VI).  Religion also plays an important role since the Flytes, the aristocratic family with whom Charles becomes entangled, are minority Catholics in a Protestant country.

I already knew that Brideshead was the name of the large country estate of the Flytes, though Lord Marchmain had long since settled in Italy with his mistress.  He has actually gone to the Lido while his wife Lady Marchmain “never went near the Lido, of course.” (p. 58)  But I didn’t know that Charles’ army camp (the novel’s “present day” with most of the story told in flashback) lies “along one gentle slope; opposite us the ground led, still unravished, to the neighborly horizon, and between us flowed a stream—it was named the Bride and rose not two miles away at a farm called Bridesprings, where we used to walk to tea; it became a considerable river lower down before it joined the Avon.” (p. 17)  I remember the fountain at Brideshead from the miniseries: “an oval basin with an island of sculptured rocks at its center; on the rocks grew, in stone, formal tropical vegetation and wild English fern in its natural fronds.” (p. 89)

Waugh has a rambling writing style that can sometimes be hard to follow but can also create vivid images.  In his letters referenced at the end of the book, he states about it, “I should not think six Americans will understand it.” (p. 3 of the letters)  He kind of comments on the writing through Charles’ narration who describes how Lady Marchmain “came to see me and, again, I must reduce to a few words a conversation which took us from Holywell to the parks through Mesopotamia, and over the ferry to north Oxford where she was staying.” (p. 161)  In his letters, Waugh observes that, “The first person singular is a most treacherous form of narration, I found.  It is so fatally easy in some ways, one can go on and on almost effortlessly and then one comes upon something which ‘I’ cannot possibly say which must be said.” (p. 9 of the letters)

Waugh uses many words in the book that were new to me.  In the preface he states that, “Much of this book is therefore a panegyric preached over an empty coffin.” (p. x)  A panegyric is a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing.  Charles narrates that, “Strife was internecine during the next fortnight” (p. 79) where internecine means destructive to both sides in a conflict.  The drawing room at Brideshead is “a long, elaborate, symmetrical Adam room, with two bays of windows opening onto Green Park.” (p. 238)  I’m not sure what an “Adam room” is.  At a bar “Half a dozen youths were drinking and playing with slot machines; an older, natty, crapulous-looking man seemed to be in control.” (p. 310)  Crapulous means marked by intemperance, especially drinking.  Rex’s public life approaches “a climacteric” (p. 341) that’s a period of decreasing reproductive activity.  Maybe it has another meaning I don’t know that applies better.  In the Letters section, Waugh writes, “My Magnum Opus is turning into a jeroboam” (p. 9) that’s a wine bottle with a capacity four times that of a regular bottle.

The book also includes some familiar words and names.  Lunt, the dorm servant at Oxford tells Charles, “And there’s some even goes dancing in town at the Masonic—but the proctors will get them, you see.” (p. 23)  By leaving Hardcastle’s car out, Charles and Sebastian get “him into grave trouble with the proctors.” (p. 43)  Proctor seems to mean enforcer of the rules as opposed to an invigilator who administers an exam.  Later Charles and Sebastian watch “the grave crowds crossing and recrossing under the campanile.” (p. 110)  That reminds me of that restaurant in Los Angeles that served gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.  One character has the nickname “Boy” Mulcaster that sound Filipino.  Charles’ sees Rex Motram’s name “now and again peeping into the Tatler” (p. 268) that sounds like a tattletale magazine.  At an exhibition of Charles’ paintings, Anthony Blanche tells him, “I have not come to a social function; I do not want my photograph in the Tatler, I have not come to exhibit myself.  I have come to see the pictures.” (p. 308)  Around that time in the book, Celia tells Charles, “Mr. Samgrass.  Apparently he’s one of Lord Copper’s middle-aged young men on the Daily Beast.” (p. 304)  I think the Daily Beast and Lord Copper show up in another book by Waugh called Scoop.  I remember watching a Masterpiece Theater production of Scoop and one of the characters often says to another, “Up to a point, Lord Copper.”

Most of the book covers Charles’ life from college to early adulthood.  By the “present day” during World War II, he is in his late 30’s.  Early on he narrates, “It seems to me that I grew younger with each adult habit I acquired.”  Lord Marchmain’s mistress Cara tells Charles that his Lordship “is very fond of me and I protect him from his own innocence.  We are comfortable … Sebastian is in love with his own childhood.  That will make him very unhappy.  His teddy-bear, his nanny … and he is nineteen years old.” (p. 114)  Sebastian later tells Charles, “it’s a rather pleasant change when all your life you’ve had people looking after you, to have someone to look after yourself.  Only of course it has to be someone pretty hopeless to need looking after by me.” (p. 248)

Waugh very effectively presents the subtle dysfunction of the Flyte family.  After crashing a car Rex says that Sebastian “is liable for anything up to six months imprisonment for being drunk in charge of a car.” (p. 135)  Lady Marchmain tells Charles, “I slept very little last night, and all the time I kept coming back to one thing; he (Sebastian) was so unhappy.” (p. 163)  Charles warns Lady Marchmain, “If you worry (Sebastian) with keepers and cures he’ll be a physical wreck in a few years.” (p. 188)  She laments that “Any failure in my children is my failure.” (p. 194)  Later Cordelia tells Charles, “I wonder if you remember the story mummy read us the evening Sebastian first got drunk—I mean the bad evening.  ‘Father Brown’ said something like, ‘I caught him’ (the thief) ‘with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.” (p. 254)  She goes on to describe how her mom is like that with her grown children.

Religion is also a strong theme in the book because the Flyte family is Catholic in heavily Protestant England.  Charles says, to Bridey, “For God’s sake,” I said because I was near to tears that morning, “why bring God into everything?” Bridey answers, “I’m sorry.  I forgot.  But you know that’s an extremely funny question.” (p. 164)  By the end, Julia tells Charles, “Probably I shall be bad again, punished again.  But the worse I am, the more I need God.  I can’t shut myself out from his mercy … But I saw today things in the schoolroom, so bad they were unpunishable, that only mummy could deal with—the bad thing was on the point of doing, that I was not quite good enough to do; to set up a rival good to God’s.  Why should I be allowed to understand that and not you, Charles?” (p. 392-393)

The book was banned because of its gay characters such as the overt Anthony Blanch, the more subtle Sebastian and potentially Charles.  Blanche tells some students planning to kick him out of a place on campus, “nothing could give me more pleasure than to be manhandled by you meaty boys.”  Sebastian tells Charles that Anthony Blanche “wrote to me.  Apparently he’s taken a flat in Munich—he has formed an attachment to a policeman there.” (p. 118)  A couple of women potentially for hire at the Old Hundreth club say about Charles and Sebastian, “we’re wasting our time.  They’re only fairies.” (p. 129)  Julia asks Charles why he married Celia and he answers, “Physical attraction. Ambition.  Everyone agrees she’s the ideal wife for a painter.  Loneliness, missing Sebastian.”

“You lived him, didn’t you?”

“Oh yes.  He was the forerunner.” (p.295)

Later Julia says to Charles, “It’s frightening … to think how completely you have forgotten Sebastian.”

“He was the forerunner.”

“That’s what you said in the storm.  I’ve thought since, perhaps I am only a forerunner, too.” (p. 348)

In 2005, Alabama State Representative Gerard Allen proposed House Bill 30 that would have banned public school libraries from purchasing books by gay authors or with gay characters.  The billed also proposed that books with gay characters and college textbooks that suggested homosexuality was natural would have to be removed and destroyed.  Banned books included Brideshead Revisited with its gay character Anthony Blanche and potential romantic love between Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte.  The bill was proposed to “protect our culture” and prevent immoral ideas from spreading. The bill did not pass.

We had a good discussion on September 19.  I believe at least 6 or 7 people showed up.  Most of us believed that Charles and Sebastian have a romantic relationship even though Charles isn’t gay.  The situation is more complex than that, just as Sebastian’s relationship with his family simply isn’t “affluenza” or alcoholism on his part.  We talked about Charles’ future.  By the end of the book he is “loveless, friendless, and homeless.”  But some of us felt he would find love again.  We talked about end and why Julia feels she has to choose her Catholic faith over Charles.  When I first saw the English TV series many years ago I thought it was depressing.  But now I understand it better, though not as well as the six Americans who understand it.

Southern Golden Chinese Cuisine

We had a late lunch at Southern Golden Chinese Cuisine in Lodi, California on Friday, September 15, 2017.  We had traveled to Lodi to attend the wedding of my cousin at a winery in nearby Acampo the next day.  The wedding website mentioned several lodging options in various price ranges.  We chose the Days Inn that was a lower to mid-range option.  Most of the wedding guests chose the higher end option.  In the late morning of September 15 we flew into Sacramento Airport.  It was my first time there.  We had to take a tram to get from where we landed to the ground transportation section.  In one tall section near the elevators there was a large red geometric sculpture of a rabbit.   On the ground floor was a large sculpture of an old-school suitcase.

My aunt and uncle picked us up right away outside the terminal.  They had driven down from the Puget Sound area the day before and stayed at a motel or B&B north of the Sacramento Airport.  I think they drove us 40 or 50 miles to Lodi.  They were staying at the higher end hotel that was along a highway in a more open area without too much development on either side.  Our hotel, the Days Inn, was on a busier commercial street with shops and restaurants.  Just before our hotel (more of a motel) was an apartment complex.  The weather was very warm and sunny though there weren’t any wildfires in the area while we were there.

After our aunt and uncle dropped us off at the Days Inn, we checked in and went to our room up the stairs on the second floor.  I can’t remember if they had an elevator and I don’t remember much about the room.  I think it had a fridge and possible an air conditioner, definitely a heater that we did not need.  I do remember that it had windows on opposite sides, front and back.  The back window near the small bathroom faced the apartment complex we passed on the way there.  I think the bathroom had the sink outside the room with the shower and toilet.

We finished unpacking and went out to find a place to have lunch.  We walked on the sidewalk along Cherokee Lane in the opposite direction from which we had come.  It might have been north.  We passed a large ranch market that looked like a possible lunch option if we couldn’t find anything else.  We reached the parking lot of a strip mall.  There may have been a few empty storefronts and a Mexican place before we found Southern Golden Chinese Cuisine at 2:10 pm.  I don’t think we had researched the place beforehand.  It looked fairly unassuming.  I don’t remember if they had posted a menu.  Inside it was mostly booths, white walls, and Chinese décor in red and gold.  It reminded me a bit of Tacoma Szechuan.  The menu was simpler, though, with lunch specials and some interested dishes.  They did serve Pepsi products.

I can’t remember if we ordered at the counter or if they took our order.  I do remember that the prices were very reasonable and the food was very good, probably the best we had during the entire 3-day trip.  We shared the garlic fried chicken with fried rice lunch special, the aluminum foil chicken, and the fried green beans, an interesting option at a Chinese restaurant, but still delicious.  They were like green bean tempura, very crispy and accompanied by a sweet red “dipping area.”  The fried chicken consisted of a leg.  I think my wife had it and enjoyed it very much along with the fried rice.  At least two pieces of chicken were wrapped in foil for the entire entrée.  They were fairly small but delicious once unwrapped along with the chow mein that accompanied them.  In all, our orders amounted to plenty of food.

After dinner we walked along Cherokee Lane to the Days Inn.  On the way we stopped by the ranch market.  They had a deli that served Mexican sandwiches and other dishes.  We just got a carton of soy milk and some Alhambra bottled water.

That evening my aunt and uncle took us out to Cactus Mexican Dining for dinner along with many of our relatives who had come from across the country to attend the wedding.  I don’t remember much about Cactus Mexican Dining.  They were in an old brick building that used to be a lodge for the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows.  They were large with several rooms.  Their menu was also large, fairly traditional and priced mid-range.  I got a pork dish with green mole that was just OK.  My wife’s order turned out not to be what she expected and unimpressive.  I think there was a giant burrito that one of our party ordered.

After dinner we went to a welcome party for the wedding at a fancy estate house at the winery where the wedding would be held.  It had its own small movie theatre showing Frozen, very high ceilings, a refrigerator with double doors, a huge stuffed bear, some pictures of Elvis, and at least four dining room tables with large chairs.  I think a family actually lived there.

The next day I walked around downtown Lodi.  I caught a bus on Cherokee Lane that took me to the downtown transit center.  There was also some kind of festival going on that my aunt and uncle visited.  In the afternoon and evening we attended the wedding at the winery.  It took a while to get there but it was worth it.  The weather was perfect and everyone looked great, especially the wedding party.  The reception was held in a hall with probably the largest doors I’ve ever seen.

The day after the wedding we took an Uber from the Days Inn to Sacramento Airport.  After going through security we walked through the airport trying to figure out where to have lunch.  We settled on Cafeteria 15L, a trendy bar and café with seating on high stools.  They had a bar and much table and counter seating.  They served Pepsi products and played rock music over the speakers such as Michael Penn and Roy Orbison.  I got the Bahn Mi sliders and my wife got the buffalo chicken sandwich.  The place was cranking the whole time we were there but what we remember most was a patron with a very impressive mustache.  It looked like he took meticulous care of it making sure it curled up just right on both sides.  That was our last major impression of the Sacramento/Lodi area.  We flew back to Seatac soon after.

The Rock Wood Fired Pizza Kitchen

We had dinner at The Rock Wood Fired Pizza Kitchen on Monday, September 4, 2017.  We actually hadn’t planned to eat dinner there.  We had wanted to have dinner at The Swiss and participate in the weekly Monday open mic hosted by Chuck Gay.  But we found that The Swiss was closed for Labor Day weekend.  We did notice that The Rock was open and decided to just have dinner there.

We parked along Jefferson Avenue as we normally do for The Swiss and entered The Rock at 6:50 pm.  They are located in the south end of the triangular-shaped block in the narrowest section.  They’ve been there for at least as long as we’ve lived in Tacoma.  Naturally, their indoor space is narrow.  At one end they have a small bar and towards the other end they have booth seating in the restaurant section. They also have a few tables for outdoor seating in the summer.  After we entered, they seated us at a booth to the left.  I think they had given us a choice between the bar and the restaurant.  Right away we noticed the rock music theme.  The server wore a Beatles T-shirt.  The benches of our booth had the names of many classic rock songs in different colors printed on them including “25 or 6 to 4,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Rock Steady,” “Aja,” “Wipe Out,” “Kid Charlemagne,” “Peg,” “Surrender” (by Cheap Trick), “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “China Girl,” and “Boys are Back in Town.”  Near the ceiling on an arch going further into the restaurant it said, “Welcome to the Rock” in lighted letters.  Naturally, they played classic rock music over the speakers.

The server gave us menus that consisted of several pages and continued the rock’n’roll theme.  Pizzas were organized into four sections: Roadies, All Access, Headliners, and Improv Cheese Pizza.  The former three listed pizza nearly all named after classic rock songs.  The latter section listed ingredients for building your own pizza.  Unfortunately, they do not serve non-dairy cheese.  But they do have sections for other food with more conventional names: Burgers, Between Bread (sandwiches), Entrees, Soups, and Salads.  The only themed-name of the non-pizza sections is Opening Acts for appetizers.  A few of the items in these sections have rock-themed names such as Hurt So Good burger, the BTO BLT, Get Back Mac and Cheese, and Spicy Born on the Bayou Pasta.

We placed our orders and didn’t have to wait long for them.  My wife got a pizza that came on a metal pan and wooden pizza serving tray.  It was the “Evil Ways” pizza, a vegetarian option made with artichoke hearts, red onions, sautéed spinach, mozzarella cheese, sundried tomatoes, and pesto cream sauce.  It looked very rich for a veggie pizza and my wife enjoyed it.  I think she got either a 9-inch or a 12-inch diameter.  She might have had some left over.  I got the fish and chips that weren’t as rich but still good.  They consisted of a couple of pieces of cod battered and crispy over a small bed of crispy hot fries.  In a small bowl was some colorful and flavorful coleslaw and there was a small container of tartar sauce for dipping area.  Everything was good and an adequate amount of food.

We did not ask to see the dessert menu.  The place hadn’t been very crowded while we were there.  As we left a large party came in.  I saw on the door that The Rock was open until midnight.  We left long before that at 7:50 pm.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

For our discussion on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, the Banned Book Club selected Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.  I thought we should read something “edgier” than the children’s and young adult books we had been reading in 2017 such as The Giver for March, The Graveyard Book for June, and A Wrinkle in Time for July.  I gave the choice between Trainspotting, American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis, and Children of God by Cormac McCarthy.  The Club selected Trainspotting despite one club member warning that it was too scatological.  I had seen the movie made from the book back in the mid-1990’s when it first came out.  I enjoyed it then.  The book is actually very similar to the movie despite being more of a collection of related short stories from different perspectives than one coherent narrative that it was in the movie.  The book also has more characters and gives more insight into the main ones Sick Boy and Begbie who seem even more despicable, if that’s possible.  The book is very profane and scatological but also contains some humor and profound insight.  I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

The book is told in the Scottish dialect the majority of the time as different characters’ inner monologues and some dialogue.  A few chapters are told in the third person such as the 2-3 with women as the perspective characters.  The back of the book includes a glossary of many dialect words such as bairn for child or baby.  Some are funny such as coffin-dodger for senior citizen and specky for someone wearing glasses or spectacles.  Much of the dialect is slang such as Spud saying, “Ken” all the time.  He even narrates, “Ah’ll huv tae stoap sayin ‘ken’ sae much.” (p. 67)  Later Begbie watches “a young girl in a blue cagoul hold hands with Sick Boy.” (p. 324)  Cagoul is a British English term for a lightweight (no lining) weatherproof raincoat or anorak with a hood which often comes to knee-length.

I found it interesting to read from the different perspectives of the characters and I often had to figure out which character was narrating.  I got to know their slang patterns.  The narrator was most often Renton or Spud but sometimes it was a new character that seemed to have no connection to the others.  I could often figure out the connections such as that Nina’s “Auntie Cathy and Uncle Davie, had two sons: Billy, who had just come out of the army, and Mark who was supposed to be into drugs.” (p. 37)  It’s not hard to figure out that Mark is Renton, but interesting to perceive him from an outside point of view.  I think only one chapter is narrated by Sick boy who is surprisingly articulate: “and what is Renton proposing, on this beautiful afternoon of vintage cruising weather.” (p. 28)  I think I had the hardest time understanding Spud’s vernacular but he is still fun to read: “Ah git called ‘Spud’ that often, even ma Ma calls us it, ah sometimes forget ma name tae—Danny.” (p. 125)  I tried listening to some of the audiobook but I couldn’t understand the dialect as fast as the actor read it.

The book contains some relatable references.  The glossary defines a scouser as a native of Liverpool.  I knew this from the song by The Monkees, “Randy Scouse Git.”  While shooting up Renton comments that “The wallpaper is horrible in this s---pit ay a room.” (p. 14)  That sounds like Oscar Wilde’s last words.  One of the words in the glossary is Subbuteo, a table-top football (soccer) game.  My brother used to have a Subbuteo set.  Other references relate to music.  In a third person perspective chapter, “Spud turns and says something to Renton, who can’t hear him above a song by The Farm, which, Renton considers, like all their songs, is only listenable if you’re E’d out of your box.” (p. 137)  I actually hadn’t heard of The Farm.  I had heard a song that Renton’s mom sings, “‘Momma’s little baby loves shortnin shortnin, momma’s little baby loves shortnin bread …’ She sang tunelessly.  Sick Boy gleefully joined in.” (p. 169)  Another character has been “singing Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’ in my head all day.  Ian Curtis. Matty.  I think of them intertwined in some way; but the only thing they have in common is a death wish.” (p. 203)  There’s a passage from The Smiths’ song “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” that Spud has always liked: “and in the darkened underpass, I thought Oh God my chance has come at last but then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn’t ask.”  “Morrissey’s sad voice summed up his feelings.” (p. 267)

The characters, especially Renton, comment on the life of an addict.  Early on Renton describes how “the real junky (as opposed tae the casual user who wants a partner-in-crime) doesnae gie a f--- aboot anybody else.” (p. 7)  He comments that “whin yuv goat a real junk habit.  Yuv goat one thing to worry aboot.  The simplicity of it aw.” (p. 133)  He reflects how “Ma Problem is, whenever ah sense the possibility, or realise the actually of attaining something that aw thought aw wanted, be it girlfriend, flat, job, education, money, and so on, it just seems so dull n sterile that ah cannae value it any mair.  Junk’s different though.  Ye cannae turn yir back oan it sae easy.  It willnae let ye.  Trying to manage a junk problem is the ultimate challenge. It’s also a f----- good kick.” (p. 95)

They give commentaries on class and philosophy.  Renton feels that “Football divisions were a stupid and irrelevant nonsense, acting against the interests of working class unity, ensuring that the bourgeoisie’s hegemony went unchallenged.” (p. 48)  He tells Spud, “It’s a well-known fact thit ye nivir stand a f----- chance ay gittin anything decent in this city if ye didnae go tae a posh school.” (p. 63)  He describes how in school “Ah only did well … tae git into an O Level class tae git away fae Begbie.  It was the same story at secondary.  Whin Begbie wis expelled n sent tae another school in route tae Polmont, ma performance declined.” (p. 83)  After Granty dies, Lenny gestures angrily to a group of old guys playing dominoes: “they’ve hud their lives!  Long f----- lives! Aw they dae is moan like f---!  Granty nivir complained aboot f--- all.  One ay the nicest c---- ye could hope to meet.” (p. 101)  Nina realizes “for the first time that laughter was about more than humor.  This was about reducing tension, solidarity in the face of the grim reaper.” (p. 39)  The familiar rant from the film appears in the middle of the book: “Society invents a spurious convoluted logic to absorb and change people whae’s behavior is outside the mainstream.  Suppose that aw ken all the pros and cons, know that ah’m gaunnae huv a short life, am ay sound mind, etcetera, etcetera, but still want to use smack?  They won’t let ye dae it.  They won’t let ye dae it because it’s a sign ay thir ain failure.  The fact that ye just simply choose tae reject whit they huv to offer.  Choose us.  Choose life.  Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting aon a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows …” (p. 187)

According to an interview of the author Irvine Welsh by vice.com, “Trainspotting was banned in Russia for a while and in Greece.  A lot of my books have been banned in different countries, mainly because of graphic drug use, swearing, and violence.”  He goes on to say that he doesn’t know why the book was banned from Guantanamo Bay.  “I can only guess that because we are all living in an increasingly prescribed world, anything that’s seen as outside of what’s ‘normal’ is seen as deviant and dangerous and is to be stamped out or at least marginalized”  In the book itself, Begbie has a rather humorous rant about books that seems to support banning them.  “It’s getting oan ma f----- tits.  Wir supposed tae be doon here fir a f----- laugh, no tae talk about f----- books and all that f----- s----.  See if it wis up tae me, ah’d git ivray f----- book n pit thum on a great big f----- pile n burn the f----- loat.  Aw books ur fir is fir smart c---- tae show oaf how much s---- thuv f----- read.  Ye git aw ye f----- need tae ken ootay the paper n fae the telly.  Ah’ll give thum f----- books!” (p. 116)

Before our discussion on August 15, one previous participant said that Trainspotting was too scatological and would not attend the discussion.  Another had too much difficulty reading the Scottish dialect.  But we still had a pretty good turnout on August 15 of eight people.  Most of them had not attended the previous month’s discussion of A Wrinkle in Time.  One said they felt the book accurately portrayed drug use and would be better than the DARE program for encouraging kids to abstain from drugs.  Most liked the book despite all its profanity.  I was pleasantly surprised by it and I now like it better than the movie, though they are very similar.  They made a sequel to the movie in 2017 that is partially based on one of Welsh’s other books and takes place 20 years later.  It reveals which of the characters turns out to be the writer of Trainspotting.

Taste of Peru

We had dinner at Taste of Peru in Gig Harbor on Saturday, August 12, 2017.  We’ve always enjoyed Peruvian food and have had it at several restaurants in Socal but so far Taste of Peru is the only Peruvian restaurant we’ve found in the south Puget Sound area.  They’re located in a fairly large shopping center west of the 16 freeway.  Earlier in the afternoon we attended a function in the area.  We then drove north on surface streets and found the shopping center easily.  Finding Taste of Peru took a bit more work because it is on the far side of the largest building in the shopping center.  After finding it we parked near it.  It was early so we did some shopping at the Fred Meyer marketplace and looked around the large Goodwill store.

I think we entered Taste of Peru not long after 5 pm.  They seated us at a small table along the wall towards the back.  The place was fairly small with maybe around 10 tables and booths.  It was a little under half full.  On the walls and a few small shelves were some Peruvian and Latin American décor.  On one shelf they had what looked like a Nativity scene with figurines dressed in traditional Peruvian outfits.  They also had what looked like Christmas ornaments.  The server gave us menus that consisted of several laminated white pages. They had sections for Appetizers that included empanadas, Salchipapas (Peruvian Style mix of grilled hot dogs and French fries), and Tamal.  The menu had a section for Main Dishes that went all the way to the next page.  For beverages, they served Coke products, Inca Kola, and Chicha Morada.  The menu had an inserted page with specials that had its own sections for appetizers, salads, and entrées.  The former included a ceviche sampler and quinoa salad.  The latter was comprised of Seco de Carnes, Arroz Chaufa Special, Estofado de Pollo, and Arroz con Camarones.  I think all their entrées were either made with rice or had it on the side.  They also had a wine menu that included glasses of Yellow Tail merlot and Chateau San Michelle Riesling.

We placed our orders that took a while because service was a bit slow.  They first brought my beverage order: Chicha Morada.  Per the menu it’s a traditional Peruvian juice infusion of dry purple corn with pineapple skin, cinnamon, and cloves mixed with lime and sugar.  It tasted good and sweet but not too sweet.  It had a dark purple color.  Eventually our main orders arrived.  I got the Peruvian favorite Loma Soltado.  You just can’t go wrong with beef, soy sauce, onions, tomatoes, fries, and rice.  The fries were hot and crispy and the tomatoes and onions were cooked just right.  With the Chicha it was a good amount of food.  My spouse got the Tallarine Saltado with Beef made with sautéed noodles, snap peas, Welsh onions, beef, broccoli, mushrooms, and sesame seeds.  It included many things with which we like to cook so it was very good.

I can’t remember if we looked at a dessert menu but we did not order any dessert.  I think it was after 7 pm when we left to drive back across the Narrows to Tacoma but it was well worth it.

The Red and the Black by Stendhal

For our discussion on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, the Classics Book Club selected The Red and the Black by Stendhal.  The book was first published in French in the first half of the 19^th Century.  It takes place at an interesting time politically and historically in France.  The country is no longer an absolute monarchy but the nobles and royalist sympathizers still abound.  Society consists of dichotomies: peasants and upper class/nobles, rural and urban, clerical and secular, even man and woman in some instances.  For possibly the first time in the history of France, the dichotomies are being challenged.  Peasants can become entrepreneurs (a French word) and, if they’re lucky, join the bourgeois class.  Stendhal lets us readers experience these conflicts through the protagonist Julien Sorel, a young man born a peasant, educated by clergy, but with ambitions to make his name in society.  Proud and ambitious, I found Julien to be quite unlikeable.  But I still enjoyed his story, getting immersed in different facets of French life, and Stendhal’s satirical take on established institutions.

Stendhal almost naturally delves into French politics that in some cases don’t sound too different from modern day politics.  The provincial mayor M. de Rênal is put in “the happy position of being compelled to immortalize his administration by building a wall 20 feet high and 30 to 40 yards long.” (p. 12)  Later a character laments that “public opinion is terrible in a country that has a charter of liberty.” (p. 131)  They also lament that “The tyranny of public opinion is as stupid in the little towns of France as in the United States of America.”  Speaking of the USA, one character comments that “You will never get beyond military bravery.  You will have Murats, never Washingtons.” (p. 25)  Another character astonishingly seems “to have lost his impassive coldness that was so natural to him; he no longer looked English.”

Julien’s aim is a prominent place in French society that the book describes in not the kindest terms.  A little after meeting someone, “The early morning platitudes about their health and the fineness of the day dried up.” (p. 66)  For another character, “Nothing, however, would have embarrassed him more than success.” (p. 78)  When Julien leaves the clergy, the abbé comments severely, “Perhaps you are going to become a fop.” (p. 207)  A minor character with “the waistcoat and the paternal expression … often smiled and then his eyes which were surrounded with a floating forest of eyebrows, assumed a singular brilliance and unusually decided expression.”

The book expresses attitudes towards woman and love.  Madame de Rênal seems “a woman of thirty years of age but still fairly pretty.” (p. 14)  Her husband remarks, “That’s what woman are, … there is always something out of order in those complicated machines.” (p. 67)  But Stendhal sounds more sensible when he writes, “It is impossible to love without equality.” (p. 77)  The upper class woman Mathilde loves Julien despite lamenting, “I shall lose … the pleasure of seeing the Marquise de Croisenois, the son of a duke, who will be one day a duke himself, sacrificed to me.” (p. 282)  When she is “confident that she was loved, Mathilde despised him utterly.” (p. 298)

Stendhal makes some interesting comments about reading and writing both through the narrative and his own digressions.  We first meet Julien when “Instead of watching attentively to the action of the (farm) machinery, Julien was reading.  Nothing was more anti-pathetic to old Sorel (Julien’s father) … he hated this reading mania.  He could not read himself.”( p. 21)  The Church of France “seems to have realized that books are its real enemies.” (p. 35)  When Julien comes out “of Madame de Rênal’s room some hours later, one could have said, adopting the conventional language of the novel, that there was nothing left to be desired.” (p. 79)  In an interesting digression Stendhal describes “a novel is a mirror which goes out on a highway.  Sometimes it reflects the azure of the heavens, sometimes the mire of the pools of mud on the way.”  The introduction states that, “We doubt there has been any modern book whether by Stendhal or anyone else, which has actually been learned by heart by its devotees.”

Despite being a translation from French, the book contained several words that were new to me.  The introduction contains the word “anacoluthic” that can mean either a syntactical inconsistency or incoherence within a sentence or a shift in an unfinished sentence from one syntactical construction to another (as in you really ought—well, do it your own way.)  On page 150 appears the word calumniate that means to utter maliciously false statements, charges, or imputations about.  Mathilde is “preferred among those young people who are the cynosure of a salon.” (p. 294)  A cynosure is a center of attraction or attention.  Stendhal writes, “There is only a step from this epithet to that of the wrong-headed, the greatest terms of opprobrium known in the provinces.” (p. 393)  An opprobrium is something that brings disgrace, public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious or contempt or reproach.

There were a few relatable references.  Regarding Julien, “Great deeds would have disappeared from his ken together with hope of achieving them and have been succeeded by the platitude.” (p. 68)  I later learned from reading Trainspotting that ken can mean know or knowledge though it may mean something different in this case.  Also about Julien, “Our hero was at a loss to answer so nattering a question.” (p. 75)  I prefer Mr. Verdant Green as our hero.  Stendhal foreshadows a future French novel by describing someone as “the master of the house.” (p. 316)

The main theme of the novel is how to advance in French society from low birth.  After I finished the book I read that the title could represent the competing forces in Julien’s life and the two choices for advancement.  Red represents the secular forces or the military.  Black represents the clergy or the church.  The colors also remind me of a song from the musical “Les Miserables.”  Early on Julien is given the choice to go into business with his friend Fouqué: “He found himself, not between vice and virtue like Hercules, but between mediocrity coupled with an assumed prosperity and all the heroic dreams of youth.” (p. 70)  Julien wonders “How many crosses and how many sinecures would that celebrated man who he is now defaming have accumulated if he had sold himself.” (p. 274)  Stendhal remarks as an aside that “It is, no doubt, at such moments of humiliation which have made Robespierres.”  At his trial, Julien tells the jury, “I see among you men … who would like to use me as a means for punishing and discouraging forever that class of young men who, though born in an inferior class and to seem extent oppressed by poverty, have none the less been fortunate enough to obtain a good education, and bold enough to mix with what the pride of the rich calls society.”  He goes on to say, “That is my crime, gentlemen, and it will be punished with even more severity, insomuch as, in fact, I am very far from begin judged by my peers.  I do not see on the jury benches any peasant who has made money but only indignant bourgeois.”

The book takes a rather brash view of death.  Mathilde thinks that “being condemned to death is the only real distinction.  It is the only thing that cannot be bought.” (p. 244)  Comte Altamira describes how “My King, who is burning to have me hanged today, and who called me by my Christian name before the rebellion.” (p. 250)  On France’s death row, Julien tells how “in three days’ time, at this very hour, I shall know what view to take about the great perhaps.” (p. 404)  He quotes Danton in that “it is singular but you cannot conjugate the verb guillotine in all its tenses.  Of course you shalt be guillotined but you don’t say, ‘I have been guillotined.’” (p. 404)  After Julien’s trial, M. de Frilair asks Mathilde, “Why did your friend take it into his head to attack the petty vanity of that bourgeois aristocracy.  Why talk about caste?  He pointed out to them what they ought to do in their political interest; the fools had not been giving it a thought and quite ready to weep.  That caste intervened and blinded their eyes to the horror of condemning a man to death.”

At the discussion on August 9, we had (Christ) party of ten.  A few didn’t like the book because they didn’t like the characters.  A couple of people got into an argument and one of them later asked to be removed from the email list.  One person tended to dominate.  After this discussion I took a four-month break from Classics Book Club.  But I’m still glad I got to read The Red and the Black.

Fun Home the Musical

We saw an official touring production of the musical “Fun Home” on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.  We had been looking forward to it for two years since we read the graphic novel for the Banned Book Club discussion in July 2015 and bought the Broadway cast album.  We got the tickets to the musical when they first went on sale in March 2017.  It would be our first time seeing a show at 5^th Avenue Theatre and on the second day of Fun Home’s run there which lasted through July 30, 2017.   Before we left, I did some research on parking nearby and found three or four garages underneath buildings close to the venue.

Only July 12, we left Tacoma at 5:35 pm.  Traffic wasn’t too bad and it took only 36 minutes to get to the Seattle city limits.  It slowed as we drove into downtown.  I think we exited at James Street, turned left onto Madison and right onto 4^th Ave.  I think we then turned right onto Pike Street, left onto 7^th Ave., and again right onto Union Street.  We parked in the lot labeled C on the online map I found.  I think it was the garage under the tall building at the northeast corner of 5^th and Union.  We parked at 6:25 pm, took the elevator up to street level and found ourselves on the floor with some small eateries, coffee shops, and some other shops.  I had to use the restroom but opening the door to it required a code.  Luckily the person leaving it gave me the code.

We walked to the entrance to the 5^th Avenue Theatre and queued up at around 6:35 pm.  The queue was fairly short and started moving as soon as the doors opened at 6:45 pm.  Just inside were stairs leading to the upper levels and the restrooms.  Further in they were selling all kinds of merch including Fun Home t-shirts.  One of them had the words “Ring of Keys” on the front, the name of one of the songs in the show.  They sold mugs, paperback copies of the graphic novel, hats, and books of the script.  We bought a real book of the actual music from the show.  We later found it difficult with complex chord and key changes.  But we were able to play through some of the songs and even performed “Come to the Fun Home” at an open mic.  Back at the 5^th Avenue Theatre, they had concession stands on either side of the lobby.  Opposite the merch counter they had yellow backdrops with the logo for the show.  Someone graciously took our photo in front of the backdrop.  The photo using the flash worked out very well.

We went upstairs and entered the theatre itself.  Our seats were in the upper section on the left side, towards the front.  There might have been 1-3 seats in front of ours.  We admired the mostly golden Asian décor inside the theatre including the head of a golden Chinese dragon on the ceiling holding up the chandelier.  The seats filled up but a few stayed empty indicating that the show had not sold out.  We would not have the same experience as those who saw the show on Broadway in a “theatre in the round” performance.  The stage at the 5^th Avenue Theatre had two levels.  The band consisted of a few musicians stationed in the lower back of the stage and often behind the scenery.  There may have also been an orchestra pit, but I couldn’t see it.

As we entered the theatre an usher handed us a souvenir program.  It contained a cartoon by Alison Bechdel about the making of Fun Home the musical called “Play Therapy.”  It also contained the headshots and bios for all the actors in the musical.  None were from the Broadway production but I would argue that they were just as good.  I don’t think any of the understudies performed in the show we saw.  The program also had an ad for the musical “Something Rotten!” that would run at the 5^th Avenue Theatre in Fall 2017.

At 7:30 pm, the lights dimmed.  A voice told us to turn off all cell phones and at this time open any candy wrapped in plastic.  They warned that there would be no intermission and if we had to get up and go to the lobby, we couldn’t reenter until an usher said it was OK.  At 7:35 pm, the show began with a spotlight on Adult Alison at her drawing table.  She soon flashed back to when she was a kid that led to the opening song “It All Comes Back.”  I like how Adult Alison and her dad Bruce in the flashback unpacked the same antique items at the same time.  All the songs sounded great, just like the Broadway cast album I had bought nearly two years before.  But I enjoyed seeing all that went on while they sang and what led up to the songs such as Bruce somberly meeting with a client before telling the kids to get out of the coffin right before they sang “Come to the Fun Home.”  The entire cast sang the song “Raincoat of Love” including all three Alisons.

The show lasted until 9:15 pm but it seemed to cover much of Alison Bechdel’s life.  Just like the graphic novel, it skipped around though time.  There weren’t as many flashbacks as the novel, but their order seemed to make more emotional sense than logical.  I like how the acting fleshed out the story.  At one point, Medium Alison dropped a book by mistake, but she just picked it up and kept on going.  The acting includes much humor such as when Medium Alison claims to be looking for the German club and says, “Danka” for thanks.  Bruce sends her the book Collette to read and he later plays a satirical song on the piano.  The Bechdels have a musical side that is only briefly mentioned in the graphic novel and the musical.

I was very impressed with the sets even though this production wasn’t “theatre in the round.”  The scenes inside the Bechdel’s historic home looked authentic.  I also liked the scenes in Bruce and Helen’s friend’s New York apartment.  They didn’t use the upper level of the stage very much but when they did it was to great effect.  The cast consisted of ten actors, one of whom played multiple roles.  They acted well and resembled the Broadway cast closely.  I like how Robert Petkoff made Bruce Bechdel seem likable despite his deep flaws.  Kate Shindle carried the show as Adult Alison and Abby Corrigan balanced humor and seriousness as Medium Alison.  The youngest actors also did very well.  It must be difficult for Bruce to pay “airplane” with young Alison at every performance but they pulled it off for us.  I liked how it was Adult Alison in the car with Bruce singng “Telephone Wire.”

The touring production of “Fun Home” was well worth the wait and I don’t think we lost anything by not seeing the Broadway production in New York.  I thought “Fun Home” would be the best and only major musical production we would see in 2018, but I was wrong on both counts.  We would see another less than three months later.  But “Fun Home” is still one of the best musical’s I’ve seen.  Just like the graphic novel it captures family life with its functional and dysfunctional dynamics.  Even though the Bechdels had a lot of dysfunction, they still had authentic family love that carries through in the graphic novel and the musical.