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There's a small meat market not too far away called Roxie's where I shop every month or so. It's primarily a butcher shop with a side of deli, seafood store, and green grocer thrown in in about that order.. Least, they are an "other food stuff" shop, carrying a small selection of oddball products, many of them from local companies

Shopping there is always an adventure. First, because the butchers are all armed with black grease pencils and anything selected from the meat case is likely to be snatched out of your cart and marked down before you get to the cashier.

(there's supposed to be a photo of the pie here, but I can't figure out how to do that on Dreamwidth)

If this sounds like a sales gimmick -- they must inflate the prices if they're going too mark everything down, right? Wrong -- it isn't. The prices there are already significantly cheaper than the large chain supermarket across the street.

The other thing that makes shopping there an adventure is that a small but significant portion of their offerings are remarkably inexpensive but also very specific. If they were electronics, I would say they had fallen off the back of a truck. I'm not saying that here. But you can frequently find Oui brand yogurt, which sells in the supermarket for about three bucks each, at two for a dollar. But it's only one flavor of Oui, and it's never anything mainstream like Blueberry or Lemon. It's always something like Cappucino Crunch or the non-dairy coconut-based yogurt. Needless to say, when you see something you like, you grab it. Also needless to say, given how unusual some of the offerings are, you may not know you like something until you get it home and try it.

Several years ago, I saw they had these meat pies for super cheap. I didn't know anything about them, but they were made in Massachusetts and seemed like an easy supper for some busy people. I took it home and stuck it in the freezer. We ate it a month or two later and it was fabulous. It was a variation on a traditional Canadian Tourtierre, spiced just right and not greasy in the least.
The next time I was at Roxie's I bought more. Except this seemed like something they just stocked normally. And it was... until it wasn't.

I tracked down the company (Landry's) who has a charming website which includes a map of stores which sell their products. None of them are near me. So for a couple of years, every time I went into Roxie's I would poke around and see if they had come back, and then ask one of the staff if they were going to be getting them again... it's been about 3 years. They're not coming back. And every once in a while I look at the map and think "Am I really going to drive more than an hour round-trip for a meat pie?" and every other day, the answer is "no". But today is Pi Day, so after a couple of calls to make sure the market had them in stock, Mina and I drove down to Bridgewater and bought every one that they had (which sounds epic but it was only 3). Tonight we will hail the conquering heroes who braved the wilds of Bridgewater and celebrate Pi Day with a big slice of meat pie.

And tomorrow I'll have a slice of the leftover cold for lunch. Because it's good that way too.
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We went to see a dress rehearsal of Triumph of Love at the Huntington. I liked most everything about it except the play itself...not even, because I thought the translation (it was originally in French) was lovely. I think there is a core element of the plot -- and one particular scene which is meant to be romantic -- that made me really uncomfortable.

Includes spoilers for a play written 300 years ago
Triumph of Love was written in 1732 by Pierre de Marivaux. It's a 3-act comedy that is a descendent of commedia (that's not speculation; there's a Harlequin character in the play) and was appropriately first performed by the Théâtre Italien in Paris. Before the dress rehearsal started, the play's director, Loretta Grieco (who is also the Artistic Director of the Huntington) came and told us a little about her experience with the play when she was fresh out of grad school and how much affection she had for it. She also mentioned that when she was appointed Artistic Director,


The premise of the somewhat absurd plot involves the beautiful princess Leonide whose uncle (now dead) usurped the throne from the rightful king. After her uncle died, the crown passed to her father and eventually her, but she is determined to abdicate in favor of Agis, the rightful heir who has been raised in anonymity to protect him. Agis' guardian is a scholar/philosopher (Hermocrates) who espouses a rather dim view of love. He, his sister (Hesione), and their two servants (Harlequin and Dimas, the gardener) live in solitude on a country estate, rarely interacting with the outside world. Leonide and her maid arrive disguised as young men. Hermocrates wants them to leave, but Leonide needs a few days to hang about and make Agis fall in love with her. In order to do this she maintains her disguise as the young gentleman Phocion to seduce the sister, reveals herself to be a young woman (but not the one she actually is) to Hemocrates, and (eventually) a different woman to Agis. She bribes Hermocrates' two servants to help her out. With their assistance and that of her maid, she fools everyone and gets everyone to fall iin love with her up until the end when all three of them realize that they are in love with the same person. She convinces Agis that she did this all for the love of him and the desire to restore him to his throne and they go off together.



The production is very good. I have no idea what the original Freench is like, but the translation was clever and lyrical. The single set is evocative, has some nice magic tricks, and is lit beautifully. The lighting deserves mention on its own; it transforms the single set (a garden) throughout the day, which adds visual interest and creates this hyper-realness which supports the emotionalverqaciy of the actors -- who are all great. Seriously. No exceptions.



In the commedia we often stress "BE the joke, don't TELL the joke" and these people had that down. They were earnest, they were real people doing ridiculous things because they were in love. And, with each of the three, Leontyne really has to work to break down their defenses. And that is my biggest problem with the show. Hermocrates and Hesione are the vecchi and we're used to seeing the vecchi get their comeuppance. The problem here is that while Pantalone is unctuous and greedy and the Dottore is bombastic, pompous, and obtuse, in Triumph of Loveneither the Scholar nor the Spinster are villains. Yeah, they are the obstacles to Leontyne seducing Agis. Yes, they both teach a philosophy that says people are better off without love. Yes, they have been telling Agis since he was born that the Princess Leontyne wants him dead to secure her place on the throne... but all of that is pretty reasonable behavior, and it's pretty much the fact that Leontyne enters first and does her exposition (explains her side of things) that makes the audience side with her.



By seducing Hermocrates and Thesione, Leontyne doesn't just trick them, she hurts them badly and with no obvious remedy. If this were an i Sebastiani scenario, the vecchi wouldn't be siblings and at the end of the play – their passions now awakened – they would go off together as an 'appropriate' pairing. But with no likely objects for their affections, their forced to retreat back into the world they had created before Leontyne arrived... a world that she has just destroyed.



At the end of the play, I felt real pity for the 'villains' and pretty much thought the 'hero' was a narcissistic psychopath.



Worse, when Agis says he doesn't know why he should trust her and that she has been toying with the affection of everyone here, she pretty much uses the same defense Richard III does with Lady Anne when he woos her over the corpse of her husband (whom he has killed). "This is your fault. If I wasn't so in love with you, none of this would have happened!" The actual language used is so full of red flags that it's almost hard to read the text...:


AGIS: Don't touch me! Let me go!
LEONIDE: I will not let you go, I will never let you go. If you refuse to listen to me you are the most ungrateful of men
AGIS: Me? Whom you deceived? Ungrateful?
LEONIDE: But I did it for you, it was for you that I deceived everyone. I had to. Every fals word I have spoken is proof of my love. My heart's desire is honest. My love is true. You're wrong to insult me. And all the love you have for me – you can't see that now, but you do love me. And you will respect me. You will even ask my forgiveness. I know I will get through to you! [...] I did everything and anything I could to mislead them, to delude them, to seduce them. Because making them love me was the only way I could get to you, and you were the only object of everything I have done here. I was inspired at every turn by your eyes, your hands...your mouth...



Creepy right? That's the language of a villain, certainly by modern standards. My mid 18th-century theatre is weak compared with my knowledge of the eras before and after, but I either I'm missing something or Marivaux's underlying point was to side with the philsopher and prove that love just leads humans to do some really screwed up things.
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Thanks to all of you, we've once again been nominated as BEST BURLESQUE TROUPE in The Boston Phoenix Reader Poll.  Being nominated is an honor... but winning two years in a row would be freaking awesome!

The competition is really fierce this year, and we need your help. If you've read this far, you probably don't need a reason to vote for us every day, but here are a couple of things to consider:

1) We totally deserve it.

2) As a Boston Babydolls fan, when we win, you look extra cool and can say to all of the people who come to see us after we win "Oh yeah, I know The Boston Babydolls.  I'm one of the people who made them the Best Burlesque Troupe in Boston two years in a row".

3) The Boston Babydolls are the only burlesque troupe in Boston with our own dance studio and training facilities.  Many of you have taken burlesque lessons from us.  Wouldn't it be nice to say you learned from the best?

4) Victory Par-tay.  Enough said.

5) Speaking of 'learning from the best', The Boston Babydolls were the starting point for not one but two of the other troupes nominated this year.  We've got so much "Best" in us, that people who learned burlesque from us are being nominated!

6) If you don't vote for us, little puppies will cry.  Lots of them.  Seriously.  And you don't want to be responsible for that, do you?

7) The Boston Babydolls are the major force behind the annual Great Burlesque Exposition which has brought some of the most amazing burlesque talent and legendary burlesque performers into Boston for the past five years.

8) For the past five years, The Boston Babydolls have consistently broken ground and paved the way for the local burlesque scene.  Now, as a Theatre Company in Residence, The Boston Babydolls have elevated burlesque in Boston to the next level.

Voting continues for about a month, and you can and should vote every day.  Voting is easy:

  • Click this link

  • Click the button next to Boston Babydolls

  • Click Submit Vote

  • Click Skip to Finish  (or continue voting for other favorites; we're not selfish)

  • Click Vote Now
Thanks, as ever, for your friendship and support.  We'll see you at the finish line.
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I hardly ever post here any more, and when I do it's to exhort you to nominate my burlesque troupe. Excoriate me — but nominate us first. Please? I'll give you this pretty button to click...



Please nominate the Boston Babydolls for "Best Burlesque" in Boston. Nominations close on Valentine's Day.  If you're feeling the spirit, nominate us as "Best Dance Troupe" and "Best Theatre Company" too.

And then, if you wouldn't mind, head on over to The Providence Phoenix and nominate our friends at La Bete Burlesque for "Best Dance Company". Maybe next year they too will have a "Best Burlesque" category.

In other news, Saturday at midnight I'm producing Naked Girls Reading: Love Stinks with special guest Andrew Shaffer, author of Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love (he'll be clothed). This salon is part of a nation-wide (actually international) NGR event, sponsored by Harper Perennial. More info at http://ngrboston.wordpress.com/.

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It's that time of year again!

Please nominate The Boston Babydolls as "Best Burlesque Troupe" (we're the reason they have a 'Best Burlesque' category). You can nominate daily and can also nominate us for Best Dance Troupe and Best Theater Troupe.

Don't forget to hit SUBMIT and then VOTE to make your nominations count!

http://thephoenix.com/thebest/boston/vote/nominate.aspx?cat=arts#TOPCONTENT

We won last year -- and we really want to show it's not a fluke. You can vote even if you're in England, California, New Orleans, Texas, Canada... you get the idea.
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Howdy:

We're clearing some room in the Casa Moomba library and have a bunch of books to sell. If you'd like them, post or email me. I'll update this list with strikethroughs as they are sold. First come, first serve. We'll be at Bergental Yule tomorrow and Council on Monday and can deliver to either of those places. I'll also mail things, but postage is extra.

LATIN POETRY, Wilbur Lester Carr. HC, no dust jacket, fairly beat up. $3
NATASHA'S DANCE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Orlando Figges. Trade PB. $5
SHAKESPEARE ALIVE! Joseph Papp. PB. A history of the Elizabethans with a Shakespearean slant. $2 [livejournal.com profile] damascene
ST. PETER'S FAIR. Ellis Peters. PB. The 4th Brother Cadfael mystery. $2
TWO CENTURIES OF ROMAN POETRY. E.C. Kennedy, ed. HC $5
THE ODESSY OF HOMER. Richard Lattimore, trans. Trade PB. A little beat up. $3
EMINENT ELIZABETHANS. A.L. Rowse. HC. Biographical sketches of Bess of Hardwick; Edward DeVere; John Harrington; Father Parsons, S.J.; Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon. $10
LIBELLUS, M.J. Tennick, ed. Selections from Horace, Martial Ovid, and Catullus. Trade PB. $3
ARMS & ARMOR FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION. Museum of Metropolitan Art. Gorgeous, skinny, trade PB. $5
FOLLOWING THE STARS: IMAGES OF THE ZODIAC IN ISLAMIC ART. Museum of Metropolitan Art. Gorgeous, skinny, trade PB. $5 [livejournal.com profile] kathryn_aka_kat
A HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE, vol. 1. From Pagan Rome to Byzantium. Trade PB. $10
TOURING GREAT BRITAIN. Robert Shackleton. Published in 1926, great old book with lots of photos of buildings. HC. $5
A TERM OF OVID, REVISED. Clarence Gleason. Latin poetry, published in 1922. It hasn't changed since then. HC. $3
RICHARD II, William Shakespeare. Folger Library edition. PB. $2
HENRY V, William Shakespeare. Signet edition. PB. $2
ALL SHALL BE WELL AND ALL SHALL BE WELL AND ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL, Tod Wodicka. A strange novel about a group a lot like the SCA. HC. $5
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Rev. Angel Rumano. Lots of illustrations. Trade PB. $5
THE WARRIOR QUEENS, Antonia Fraser. From Boadicea to Margaret Thatcher and everyone in between. Not just England. Trade PB. $5
HISTORY OF TORTURE. Brian Innes. Fairly ghastly and complete. Lots of B&W illustrations. HC w/ dust jacket. $10[livejournal.com profile] kathryn_aka_kat
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Miss Mina and Betty Blaize are performing along with the legendary Tempest Storm and a bevy of burlesque royalty tomorrow night (Sat. Nov 6) at The Merrill Auditorium in Portland, ME (https://www.porttix.com)

You can get two tickets for the price of one by calling 207-842-0800 between noon and 6pm today or tomorrow and using the code "Boston Babydolls".

Please pass this along!
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Want to see The Wrathskellar for free? Want to be part of a new and unique theatrical experience?


We need box office volunteers for The Wrathskellar, October 26 through October 31 at The Cambridge YMCA Theater (820 Mass. Ave., Cambridge at Central Sq.). We especially need volunteers for Friday, October 29, Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31. Spend Halloween with The Boston Babydolls! We do not need volunteers on Wednesday, October 27.


You need to be at the theater before 7 p.m. and sit in the box office booth from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., then you can watch the show. You need to be able to do simple math, handle money, and be pretty good with people.


If you're interested, please email TheScoop [at] Boston Babydolls [dot] net with your name, contact information, and the date(s) you'd like to help out.

If you're not of an altruistic bent and just want to buy tickets, you can do that too...

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Looking for people to help promote KLOCKWERQ over the next couple of nights.

I'm looking for someone to hand out flyers in Central Square, Cambridge from roughly 7pm to 9pm on this Wednesday through Saturday (9/15 through 9/18). Ideally, it'd be the same person every night.

You'd stand on the corner of Mass Ave and Brookline streets (near The Middle East) and promote KLOCKWERQ (our steampunk event that's going on at T.T. the Bear's on Sunday night) -- wearing steampunk clothing would be great.

Yes, I can pay you. Yes, I can comp you into KLOCKWERQ. If you're interested, let me know how many nights you want to do and which ones they are.
newman: (Default)
Howdy,

I'm looking for a dorm fridge. Any chance anyone has one they want to get rid of?

TaskRabbit

Aug. 23rd, 2010 05:35 am
newman: (Default)
Hey gang --

We're all busy, and I've had a lot of luck using TaskRabbit for little stuff like grocery runs and small oddjobs. I like them, and they gave me a $10 off coupon to pass along.

newman: (Default)
KLOCKWERQ, a Steampunk Soiree, is this Sunday night (Aug 15, 8:30pm) at T.T. the Bears, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge MA.

KLOCKWERQ is a steam-powered, gear-driven, dance party and social event for the aetheric aristocracy. It's also the ONLY event of its kind in Massachusetts, and we'd love the support of the Steampunk community to get it off the ground. KLOCKWERQ has dancing, merchants, and more.

It's an 18+ event and admission is $10. We hope to see you there!

If you're on Facebook, please visit KLOCKWERQ EVENTS for more information!

SCA Census

Aug. 11th, 2010 03:36 pm
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This is particularly aimed at those of you who read this who were active in the SCA once upon a time but aren't so active now. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Moira, Tahira, Gideon, and Cuthberga (was that your SCA name [livejournal.com profile] 43duckies?), but I'm sure there are more of you. I know Marrus played in the SCA before I met her.

The SCA is doing a census and are particularly interested in getting feedback from people who do not play in the SCA any more. I'm poking people I know who used to play but don't to ask them to take the time to fill out the survey -- it'll take about 20 minutes. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SCA2010Census Thanks!
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and, I guess for some other ladies I know, and of course for your amusement...

...but mostly for [livejournal.com profile] tamarinne

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The little tent has been sold. The big tent is still available. Details behind the cut.

( A large tent for a small price! )
newman: (Default)
(Feel free to copy and paste this elsewhere or point people towards it)

I am selling my rectangular marquee pavilion. It is white, flame-resistant canvas. This is an ideal pavilion for a merchant, tourney company, household, camp, barony, or any other group of friends. It's really too big for personal camping.

Here are the specs:

* Approx. 13' wide and 21' long.
* Approx 6'3" high at the walls and 12' high at the peak
* includes all ropes, poles, and stakes needed for set-up, including a two-part roof beam
* walls are made of two large sections; each section has a door in it. Walls hang from a line sewn all the way around the roof. I believe one wall section has never been used. One wall section has some mildew stains on it
* only ONE pole inside the tent to hold up the roof -- LOTS of usable space inside. We used to set up two six-foot dining tables end to end, plus benches, our kitchen and our pantry, and we still had a lot of room.
* Currently stored in East Bridgewater, MA. Local delivery is available; shipping is going to be around $300.00
* Each canvas section (two wall pieces and the roof) come with individual storage bags.
* No floor

It's been used at Pennsic twice and has been in dry storage (not a basement) for the past two years. The package would be over $2000 new, I'm looking for $1,250 for it, but I'll entertain reasonable offers. I don't think I have any pictures of it, but I'm looking for some.

Please reply to yevsha@comcast.net if you're interested.

Thanks for the interest!
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Thank you!



To everyone who nominated us! We are in the running for "Best Dance Troupe, Sexy" in The Boston Phoenix's "Best of Boston". It's an honor just to be nominated... but we'd much rather win.

Here's where you come in: follow this link and vote for us every day (you've gotten in the habit of nominating us every day... so why break a trend?)

We have several worthy opponents, and we know they're all out there mobilizing their friends and fans, so we need you to do the same for your favorite burlesque troupe (that's "The Boston Babydolls", by the way).

Thank you for your support. There will be a huge victory party if we win! If we win and you're not local, let me know you voted for us and we'll send you something nice.
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Hey folks, if you're in Boston and you haven't gone to the polls to support Flaherty, please do so. The polls are open until 9 pm and we can still get Menino out of office.

 

Oh yeah...

Oct. 7th, 2009 06:42 am
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Hurricane Marrus is blowing into town.  If you know who she is and for some reason aren't reading her LJ but are reading mine... she'll be at Diesel on Thursday night starting around 7 p.m., dispensing wisdom, drinking chai, and selling copies of her new book. 

If you don't know Marrus but are in the Boston area, stop by anyway.  She's an amazing lady who has survived fire, flood, and terrorist attack, and the book tells the interesting story of the early part of her life.  www.marrusart.com
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We're looking for a couple of people to help out as tech crew for BUXOM & BAWDY'S FLIRTING CIRCUS at The Arlington Center for the Arts.   If you can make a four night commitment (Wednesday9/23 through Saturday 9/26) next week you can get a cool job like follow spot operator or DJ. 

Leave a comment if you're interested...and thank you.
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