Today I received a large brochure in the mail from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The outside of the envelope says, “It’s not too late to become a BSO Subscriber! Look inside for a special offer.” The special offer? 2 nights of free parking above the Whole Foods store on Westland Avenue if I buy a series or mini-series by October 31. Today is October 31! Do they have their act together? I wonder whether they are getting desperate. They used to be very stingy with the brochures.
October 31, 2009
October 29, 2009
Angela Lansbury & earpiece
” . . . Angela Lansbury . . . said in an interview this week that she used an earpiece to stay on cue during her Tony Award-winning turn in ‘Blithe Spirit’ on Broadway last season.
“‘It’s not something you ever want to do, but if we’re going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, we’re going to ask for some support if we need it,’ said Ms. Lansbury, 84, who is set to star this winter in the Broadway revival of ‘A Little Night Music.’”–New York Times
October 25, 2009
I miss Filene’s Basement
I miss Filene’s Basement. I mean the real one that used to be in the basement of Filene’s department store in Boston, not the chain of stores that use the same name. I was able to buy a lot of good clothing there at reasonable prices. I’m not interested in paying full price for many types of clothing, and it is sometimes hard to find things at Marshall’s because their stores are smaller and have limited stock at any given time. I haven’t been able to find an acceptable pair of athletic shoes at Marshall’s in the past two weeks. I also want a new winter coat and I haven’t seen any there that would interest me. I went to L.L. Bean’s store in Dedham today, actually willing to pay full price for something, but they didn’t have any knee-length winter coats. Also nothing really at Orvis or at the small Brooks Brothers store in Dedham or at Banana Republic. I went into a store called Express that I had never been in before. They had a coat for $385 that would be acceptable, but I don’t want to pay that price for a coat that looks only so-so. I did some looking on line but wasn’t enthused by anything.
I do have a few coats that I’ve bought over the years that look OK. So I’ll look in Marshall’s every now and then, but if necessary I can make do with what I have.
October 23, 2009
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October 22, 2009
Brett Graham
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article “From Game to Flame” about Brett Graham, one of the co-owners of the Harwood Arms in Fulham where I had lunch a couple of weeks ago. He also owns the Ledbury restaurant in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood. “The 30-year-old Australian-born Mr. Graham is at the forefront of contemporary chefs who are helping expand the sale of traditional game to a sophisticated culinary audience that embraces it for a range of reasons.”
October 15, 2009
I Am What I Am
I just finished reading I Am What I Am by John Barrowman, a book about his experiences in the past few years. It is a pleasant book to read if you want some light reading to pass the time in an airport waiting room or if you want something light to read on the commuter train. It is a book for fans only, not really for the general reader.
—
The Federal Trade Commission has said that “a consumer who purchases a product with his or her own money and praises it on a personal blog or on an electronic message board will not be deemed to be providing an
endorsement.” I purchased the book with my own money at the Heathrow airport.
October 11, 2009
Express by Holiday Inn–Earl’s Court
I spent two nights this week at
Express By Holiday Inn London-Earl’s Court, 295 North End Road, Fulham, London W14. My room was small, but a little larger than some rooms I’ve had at more expensive hotels. There was never a problem with noise. The “climate control” worked well. It was not possible to open the window, but then it wasn’t really necessary to open it. The shower floor was fibreglass or some such thing, not porcelain, and it seemed potentially slippery. Showering while holding on to something was a little awkward. Breakfast in the lobby was free and available from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. One could have cold cereal, yogurt, pastry, toast, tea, coffee, milk, and fruit juice. The internet connection was not free, but I was able to use the internet for free at a Starbucks up the street a few blocks. I would bring my laptop there for about an hour each morning. With a Starbucks card one could use the internet for free for up to two hours a day.
The hotel was an eight-minute walk from the West Kensington undergroud station (although in that area the train is not underground). North End Road is the main shopping street for a residential neighborhood where one sees relatively few tourists. The neighborhood appears to have been a comfortable middle-class and upper-middle-class area in the late nineteenth century. It probably declined in the mid twentieth century and then parts of it experienced some gentrification in the past few decades. Looking at ads in the window of a real estate agency, I saw that two-story townhouses are going for GBP 350,000 and three-story townhouses are going for GBP 500,000. There was quite a variety of people in the street. At the Starbucks up the street near St. John’s Fulham I saw some prosperous-looking young women some of whom were pregnant and some of whom had small children with them. I’d guess they’re the wives of young men with good incomes. Many parents walk their children to school in the morning. Around lunchtime I saw about a dozen teen-aged boys in blue blazers and grey flannel trousers, the sort of outfit I wore in high school. They probably attend the London Oratory School that is nearby.
I chose that hotel because it came as part of a package deal with the flight. A round-trip ticket with two nights at a hotel was more than $200 cheaper than a round-trip ticket!?!
Wozzeck
I attended a semi-staged performance of Berg’s Wozzeck at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 8 October with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and with Simon Keenlyside in the title role. It is probably the only peformance of Wozzeck that I will ever attend, but it was a very good one. I was in row H and had a good view of the singers.
It was quite a juxtaposition to see La Cage aux Folles and Wozzeck in the same day. There were no beach balls as props in Wozzeck, only potatoes, but of course none were thrown into the audience. Simon Keenlyside accidentally left one of the potatoes on the stage, and picked it up when leaving the stage after one of the “curtain calls.”
I agree with the contents of the review at Whatsonstage.com and so I don’t feel the need to try to write my own.
October 10, 2009
La Cage aux Folles
I saw La Cage aux Folles in London the afternoon of October 8, 2009. It is a musical comedy with songs by Jerry Herman. The story is based on that of the French movie of the same title. The American movie Bird Cage was a later Americanized variation of the same story.
John Barrowman played the role of Albin, who also goes by the name of Zaza as a transvestite entertainer. Although he was miscast, he was still the star of the show and did a lot to help make the show interesting.
“One of Australia’s most accomplished, respected and versatile performers,” as the program booklet says, Simon Burke, whom I never heard of before, was Georges. He has a pleasant singing voice and was more than adequate.
Gabriel Vick, as Georges’s son Jean-Michel, was the one performer in the show who did not have an international sort of accent, but a very English one, a little less than top drawer. He seemed like somebody who had wandered in from a performance of Oliver.
Syrus Lowe was quite funny as the servant Jacob. All the rest of the cast were quite good, including the six Cagelles, of whom Nicholas Cunningham as Hanna was the most interesting.
The musical numbers were what made the show worthwhile. A song during which the Cagelles threw large beach balls into the audience was the most fun. On the whole, the show was very enjoyable.
Lunch at Harwood Arms
Lunch
October 7, 2009
Wednesday
Harwood Arms, Walham Grove, Fulham, London SW6
Desirous of trying the gourmet English pub grub, I arrived at the Harwood Arms in Fulham just after noon. I entered and there were no customers there. The room looks like a large country pub, with a variety of plain wooden tables and an assortment of miscellaneous chairs.
I was greeted by a young man and a young woman. The young man (David Holliday) was appropriately friendly for somebody working in a restaurant. The young woman was slightly off-putting. She asked if I had a reservation. I did not. I suppose she has to ask just in case, but she asked in a way that implied one should have a reservation, an idea I find strange when a restaurant is empty.
I sat and ordered a lemonade from the young man. He brought it to me promptly and I reviewed the menu. The young woman busied herself with paper work as if there were lots of reservations to attend to. She moved some of the place settings around from some tables to others. I suppose she was moving things around because of the reservations. The restaurant opens at noon. Can’t they get all the tables set properly beforehand? A young woman who looked somewhat stylish , as if she might be French, came into the restaurant with a young man who appeared to be English and was shorter than she was. I think they were friends, but not a couple. They did not have a reservation. The young woman who worked there seated them at a table and brought them menus. She then busied herself with her paper work and with moving around some of the place settings. It always seems strange to me when restaurant staff are more interested in hypothetical future customers than in actual present customers. After being ignored for five minutes or so, the couple got up and left after saying pleasantly that they had decided not to eat there after all. I was wondering whether I should do the same, but I already had the lemonade I had ordered. In any event the young man soon came over and took my order for food.
To start with, I had a venison scotch egg, one of the items on the bar snack menu. I’m not sure my description is accurate, but it is like an egg that has been medium boiled, has had the shell removed, has then been coated with bits of venison and bread crumbs and then briefly deep fried. The yolk of the egg remains a bit runny. I was curious to try one. It turned out to be pleasant but nothing very special.
I then had braised mutton with broccoli and onions. My first impression was that the mutton was absolutely delicious. By the time I had finished it my impression was that it was very good but maybe a bit more salty than I would find ideal.
There were two types of bread, both very good. One looked like a French bread made with unbleached flour. The other resembled the sort of brown soda bread that I have occasionally made myself, but with a little more refinement than mine has.
I finished with a café filtre.
During my meal some other customers came into the restaurant. Some of them were thirtyish and looked as if they might be today’s equivalent of the Sloane rangers. Some were older, about my age, and some looked slightly eccentric. (I may be somewhat eccentric myself.) But at no point were more than a third of the tables occupied.
A young man with two small dogs, maybe bull terriers (?), came in by himself for lunch. I wouldn’t want dogs in a restaurant of mine, other than seeing-eye dogs, but I suppose the dogs go along with the pseudo-country-pub ambience. The dogs did a little wandering around at random now and then until their owner called them back.
On the whole it was a pleasant meal, and I’d like to be able to try other items on the menu there in future.
