A Brunch of Fun

Ever read a book, love it, have so much to say about it, have some questions and wish you could sit down with the author to chat about it? Well, my friend Buttercup did - and also had the chance to play it out as such over brunch. Okay, granted, the author is me, so it's not all that exciting.

But to me it is. I mean, who doesn't want to hear that their work is appreciated, mulled over and evoked genuine feelings? Not only those aspects, but I really love experiencing my books vicariously through someone else. (See this post.)

And so, last Saturday Buttercup and I met at the Heartland Café (which is near to her) and sat down to brunch (as the jacket cover of the flap of the hardcover of Peter Pan's NeverWorld will tell you I love to do) and discussed What If It's a Trick Question? We had a lovely time and each of us were able to gain new insights into the tale. She marveled at how it really, as she said, just keeps unfolding. I told her of the sequel (which I hadn't originally planned on writing) as well as its "companion" books that I'll probably be doing as well. She knew of the companion books already, actually. But I’d been eager to tell her of the next book for quite some time but naturally I had to wait until she finished.

All in all, I really enjoy answering questions and hearing about how my work has affected others. Should time and such permit, I’d love to be able to offer a “Brunch with the Author” by way of, who knows, a contest or something?

"Pete Rogers" in the 21st Century?

Allow me to speak off the topic of writing and storytelling for today’s post so I may tell you what transpired this weekend.

Bart and took another step into the 21st Century. Our 52” widescreen flat HDTV arrived. Hosah. We also now have a Blu-Ray player and HD TiVo (150 hours of HD storage). To quote Napoleon Dynamite, “SWEET!”

That’s what we did on Saturday…waited beyond the “window” of time for the delivery and patiently waited for it to be set up. As you may know from the cover flap of Peter Pan’s NeverWorld, Bart and I live on the third floor. It’s a walk up. Obviously we did not want to lug it up ourselves when we could have someone used to the task do it for us. But we’re the “recipients who care” as we had coffee, orange juice, multi-flavor bagels from ‘Einstein!’ and both regular and strawberry cream cheese spread. He told us that many folks don’t even offer water!

I’m not going to typing rave about how “sweet” it is…you all either know or can imagine.

But wowsers.

As of right now, we have to wait until tomorrow evening to actually get HD channels…or even cable stations like the Food Network (a favorite of Bart, my adorable cook.) It’s because of a lack of knowledge both on my part and on the part of our cable provider. The cable provider is notorious for making “customer service” an oxymoron. [Thanks to Mission Improvisational, see post here.] However, don’t think me a moron. My misunderstanding is caused by unfamiliarity. We no longer have a “cable box.” A “cable card” slides into our TiVo and it becomes both. So the card equals/replaces the box. Completely foreign and wacky concept to me. Cable Provider had told me "oh just plug it in!" but...NO. "Lied" to, again. They need to activate it somehow and cannot do so until Tuesday because not enough people are aware of how to do it. (The technology/procedure is “foreign” to many, including their own staff.)

Having a dual tuner TiVo makes it all the more wonderful. And Bart is truly astounded and satisfied with the amazing quality of Disney’s first Blu-Ray animated feature, Sleeping Beauty. (It’s his favorite.) I gave him the Blu-Ray of it (as well as the enhanced regular DVD version) for our Anniversary this past October. So only now (then) has he been able to experience its glory. [And, yes, I too relish said glory.]

Okay. Enough about the 21st Century upgrade at our place.

The rest of our weekend (when not seeing [and learning remotes and settings and such of] the magnitude) had its share of delights. We had a lovely meal on Saturday night at the home of a family which is friends with ours.

Sunday morning we brunched with Dragonfly and Tall Boy. We had them meet us at our place first, as they had not been told about the “new arrival.” Needless to say, they Oooed and Ahhhed. We then went on to brunch, choosing a place just blocks from where we live. For the weather proved rather unwelcoming. Yes, Winter has officially come to Chicago. We braved the sleet-like rain and wind, rewarded, thankfully, with a great meal and a lovely visit. Tall Boy regaled us with some inside information on The Ville, his live theatre soap opera. Even better, he told us about the opera he has conceived. It's marvelously inventive...and it had been inspired by something Dragonfly said. How great is that? I wish could explain the premise to you, but 1) it is not place to do so with an unestablished work and 2) it's something you'd be better off discovering. It's that imaginative. "Wow," said I with utmost weight and sincerity to Tall Boy. "Yeah," he replied, "I've been thinking about this for a while now." Let us hope that he finds the time and gumption to bring it to fruition!

Meanwhile, Winter progressed to horrendous as the day wore on into a nighttime snowy, icy mess. But it looks damn pretty everywhere!

I then spent much of the rest of Sunday cleaning up the den. Before the new TV came, we had been using the television I use to play Wii, for we gave our living room TV to friends who had a television a fraction of the size of most folks. (Circa 18”) Since they have two adorable little girls, we knew they’d enjoy receiving a bigger screen, too. They also inherited our all-the-bells-and-whistles DVD player. Hooray for sharing and caring. Thus, since the TV had been removed, I took the opportunity to dust and just generally clean up and out and entire room. It had become a tangled overstuffed mess. Incidentally, the den is also where the computer is and hence, where I do my writing.

All righty, thanks for letting me ramble about my lovely weekend.

I’ll be back on track with story/writing posts tomorrow with a review of the movie we watched in HD.

Places We Popped Into and What Resulted

Bart and I had brunch today at one of our favorite haunts in Andersonville. Nothing like a delicious Swedish breakfast.

After boring him with musings about Peter Pan, I somehow remembered that I'd been meaning to read Mary Poppins. I love the Disney movie. Color me silly, but Disney's Mary Poppins is a movie of the sort that movies should be. Delightful, tender, meaningful, mysterious and all around fun. Yet I never read the source from P.L. Travers. Shame on me. Thus, we popped into a bookstore and I picked it up.

I began it as I waited outside for Bart who wanted to browse around a shop I didn't have interest in today. Alrady there are some noticeable changes even as early as page 2. To be expected, right? Apparently there are two other children, John and Barbara, the Twins. And Mary Poppins did not, in fact, come to the house descending gently through the air via an umbrella. She has an umbrella tucked under her arm in the original illustrastions by Mary Shepard. But no mention is made in the text. What actually happens is a gust of wind blows her through the gate to their front door, a bang, and the house shakes. She does slide up the banister, though.

I'll give a full report later, of course.

As we strolled along, Bart suddenly realized how "funny" that I purchased Mary Poppins and the result of his shopping had been a new umbrella. Unintended.

Culture Weekend!

Quite a packed few days! On Friday night Bart and I attended the American Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty at Lyric Opera. The story is one of Bart’s favorites so his joy made up a large part of the treat for me. Truthfully I had never attended a full length ballet before. Quite stunning. Though I appreciated it greatly, it’s not quite my thing. But I sat amazed at their craft, by which I mean the exquisite set, dancing and costumes. And Tchaikovsky’s score is a delight just by itself. We topped it off with a late dinner in Greektown.

On Saturday Lemonie came to Chicago. She, Bart and I, as well as our friends Cassidy (from the suburbs), Mina and Sunshine had a scrumptious Pan-Asian dinner and then had our funny bones tickled and senses reeled by The Drowsy Chaperone. We went to one of the last two performances of the touring company of the show which lovingly pokes fun at musicals and won 5 Tony Awards doing so. Quite entertaining and even more so given its originality.

Lemonie and Cassidy came back to our place for a little socializing and the next morning I brunched with Lemonie (who stayed the night, of course) and Sunshine. Dragonfly meant to join us, but a flu took him, as well as poor Bart.

On Sunday I saw Vitalist Theatre’s A Passage to India again. Besides being a show that warrants another viewing, I came especially for the poetry readings after the show. Vitalist merges many artistic mediums and will often host such events. I had the honor of hearing the vocal performances of Indian and Napali poet Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma, internationally renowned American poet and translator David Ray and Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan Thomas’ daughter. A wide range of emotions, from light-hearted fun to deep insights about culture.

My weekends aren’t normally so crammed with culture, but it’s nice when they are.
Thank you to everyone involved!

A Lovely Weekend

I’ve spent all but one of the past few nights at the theatre. I’ve been up 14-foot ladders painting the trim of the palace columns and doing various other tasks. It’s good to be a stage hand again. I haven’t done it for quite some time, since the last Vitalist Theatre production I would guess. I’d help out quite a bit in college. I’ve acted, too. But I regard theatre as a vacation spot. It’s nice to be there for a while, but eventually I’ve had my fill. I certainly stayed long on this round. Let’s just say I could see light when I left. But I’m up late usually anyway.

Saturday night we had a dinner guest, the lovely *Le Trix. Bart presented us with another culinary triumph. A “luscious bone-in roast loin of pork, glazed with a mélange of navel & blood orange juices, apricot jam, Dijon mustard and a kiss of red wine.” Since the fun lasted rather long, I would have gotten to the theatre quite late so I took a break and got some extra sleep.

In the morning Bart and I had another delicious meal at m. henry, one of our favorite haunts for brunch. We met *Dragonfly as per usual and he delighted us with his special brand of silliness, also as per usual. After a day of store hopping in Andersonville and then a nice sushi dinner with Bart’s sister *Lage, I returned for another late night of work at the theatre.

It looked stunning to begin with but now we may as well be in India.

All in all, a fabulous weekend.

*Pseudonyms