First Published: 2018 November 23
As I’ve mentioned time and time again, I enjoy making food, and I enjoy competing. Somehow1 my coaches throughout life have found out these two facts. This is the first time that a coach has connected the two, however.
So, in a little over 6 weeks,2 I’ll be competing against nominally the entire diving squad, though, like many diving meets, it looks like most people aren’t there to win. Therefore, I need a winning recipe.
Baking competitions are a lot like diving. A perfectly baked cookie will bring in less points than a good cake, because the cake is harder. So, I need a recipe that balances ease, apparent difficulty,3 reproducibility, taste, and appearance. If I didn’t care about the apparent difficulty, I’d likely just make my toffee chip chocolate cookies. But, they seem too easy.
So, I think I’ll try to make “Chocolate Budino” or, at least a variation on that recipe. Now, like many people, I found out that youtube4 cooking videos exist, and fell in love with them. They have some interesting tips for how to improve chocolate baked goods, which I’ll likely try to incorporate. But, this is definitely something I shouldn’t put as much internal pressure on myself as I have.
I was informed last night that in a little over a month, I’ll be participating in a baking competition. Now, as I’ve mentioned more than once, I like to make food. I’ve also mentioned that I like competition, so this should be a great thing for me.
But, here comes the hard part: what do I make? My initial idea was to make my chocolate toffee cookies,5 but with a few modifications.
I’ve begun watching youtube food videos, and I understand wholly why people watch them. It’s super entertaining and informative. A few highlights from what I’ve learned is that you can brown butter to add more flavour6 to food, and that you can add espresso powder to chocolate foods to make them taste more deep.
So, I’d planned on browning the butter in the cookies,7 and adding some coffee in as well. However, I also realized that I had chicory coffee at home, and wondered if that might not be a better profile, since it would be a little nuttier.
But, as a wise friend helped me realize “Good cookies are good. Great cookies are good. Awesome cookies are great.” What he meant was that people tend not to discriminate too finely between different levels of cookie. I agreed, and so thought about what else I could make.
Bread was eliminated for much the same reason, because there’s not a huge difference in how a normal person perceives a good to great loaf, and I don’t know that I can make an excellent loaf 100% of the time.8 So, since the challenge began with someone’s banana bread recipe, it was suggested I do that.
But, banana bread for me has always just been a good comfort food. So, like with cookies, it’s not something that can really show how amazing I am at baking.
Then, I remembered that I used to make a recipe called “Chocolate Budino.” It’s effectively a chocolate pudding cake, and, when served warm, acts somewhat like a chocolate lava cake. So, as above, I may add in browned butter and espresso to make it more rich, but that seemed like a good way to distinguish myself.
Then the options arose again. I could either make it small, as in a cupcake mold, or large, the size of a 8" cake or so.9 There are advantages and disadvantages to both, so I was not sure which I’ll do.
Then the question became one of serving the cake. I could present it on its own, but that lacks a lot of the cool factor that we love when we bake. So, I decided I’d add some sort of side to the dessert.10
I like fruit, especially strawberries, so I decided I’d do strawberries on the side. But, then the question becomes how, and I was unsure.
Next, people suggested ice cream. But, I’m trying to showcase my talents, so buying ice cream is out. Making ice cream is a pain, and no-churn ice cream is fake.
So, I realized what I really wanted was something creamy. Hmmm, whipped cream.
I thought about what I tended to associate with chocolate and strawberries, and it’s mint. So, I thought I’d do a fresh mint whipped cream, and serve that with mint and strawberry.
Then the question returned to the size. As another friend pointed out, a cake sized budino would be more easily decorated, as well as looking more professional.11 So, I realized that I could do a full size cake, cut a nice slice out of it, and have a strawberry on the top, along with a sprig of mint and the cream. I’m still not sure where the cream will go, but I envision it along the side of the cake slice, with the cake topped with some sort of decorative strawberry flower. Maybe the cream could have a slice leaning on it with the mint sprig.
So, in conclusion, I try way too hard.
probably because I’m horrible with secrets↩︎
I think. I refuse to check↩︎
I dream of a 5211A equivalent↩︎
this is a noun that isn’t a proper noun↩︎
yes I’m British now, deal with it↩︎
not in the toffee, since that’s already browned↩︎
especially since I’ll be in a scary kitchen↩︎
yes an 8" cake is 8", but it made sense that the time↩︎
no I’m not taking it too seriously, I just refuse to lose↩︎
man I have no clue how to write the words there. Do you say “as well as” and then a gerund? or a regular verb? or what↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 22
For those of you in America, today is Thanksgiving! As my high school math teacher used to say, “Thanksgiving is the best holiday;” while I don’t agree necessarily, it is a nice sentiment. But, I learned that Thanksgiving isn’t a thing in the UK. It’s not that it doesn’t make sense, just that it hurts.
At around 1:30 this afternoon, I realized that, time zones included, if I were home I would have just finished the first knead of my bagels. Instead, I had just finished one class, and was preparing to attend another.
Of course, bagels aren’t the most common Thanksgiving tradition.1 When I mentioned last night that I make bagels for the holiday, one of my diving teammates asked, “Oh, so your family’s Jewish?” I don’t think that’s why, but it’s certainly why I have the cookbook.
I’m just kind of bummed. At the Thanksgiving dinner that the lovely Grinnell in London staff set up, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, something resembling stuffing, and cranberries. Due to a mistake, we didn’t have pumpkin pie. But, as I ate it, I just realized how little the food on Thanksgiving means to me. It’s always been more about the feeding others, at least for me, and the companionship and fellowship. The food is great and all, but I prefer the fact that I’m sharing the food with my friends and family. So, from across the pond, a happy Thanksgiving to everyone who’s celebrating.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Or, at least, Thanksgiving being celebrated today is an American custom. Here, on the other side of the pond, nothing really seems notable about it. I’ll still have all of my classes, and none of my traditions from home.
Now, before I start talking specifics about the traditions, I’d like to talk a bit about my traditions in general. At some point or points in my early life,2 I was assigned the homework of bringing a list of family traditions to school. Of course, I didn’t really think we had any.
As I look back, I realize we have many, and I’ll probably write about them later. But, I realized we also didn’t have as many as I’d like. We used to make pasta and bread, and don’t any more. We used to have large groups of people, and don’t anymore.3
So, as Thanksgiving approached my freshman year, I had an idea. Since people had been bugging me about making bagels,4 and I had a lot of friends who couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving, I suggested to my family that we host a large party for it.
They agreed, and so the schedule began. I awoke at around 6am to begin the different bagel recipes.
We made three kinds of bagel dough: a normal bagelly dough, a Guinness dough,5 and a tequila dough.6 Within the initial dough, we made regular, poppy seed, everything, cinnamon, and blackberry.78
Of course, when you have around 200 bagels to make and shape, it’s great to have friends come. So, my 7 or so helpers and I made the outrageous number of bagels. As the crowd arrived, the bagels were ready, so people ate them. And, as friends had to depart for whatever reasons, they were able to take the bagels with them.
That’s another nice tradition that I’m glad for. My bagels fed not only the Rebelsky Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza,9 but also the Women’s Basketball House, and some others.
After bagels, we ate and played board games through the end of the day.
Last year functioned similarly, though I actually have a schedule!10
6:30 AM: Bagel Bonanza (100 cups of flour!) Begins!!!11
7:00 AM: Breakfast begins (pancakes)12
3:00 PM: Dinner!13
5:00 PM: Dessert14
6:30 PM: Games!15
The bagels we made were: regular, cinnamon, cinnamon raisin,16 salt,17 poppy seed, everything, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry,18 apple and cinnamon,19 asiago,20 Rosemary, and Rosemary and olive oil.21
In total, we went through more than 100 cups of flour, and more than 400 bagels. It was great! I still have no clue where they all ended up, though I know that some left with everyone I could make take some.
But anyways, this year that will not be happening, which is sad. Hopefully next year it will again.
for some reason↩︎
middle and high school↩︎
help which of the two no mores is correct↩︎
side note, never tell people you know how to make anything that’s that much effort↩︎
guess what the secret ingredient was↩︎
can you guess this one?↩︎
because we couldn’t find blueberries↩︎
I think that’s all↩︎
which I believe is what it was called in 2017↩︎
also list of bagels!↩︎
I started around 6 so that if anyone showed up then they could enjoy it↩︎
for the helpers↩︎
breakfast ended before then, but no scheduled events took place↩︎
I don’t know if Dinner ended then or not↩︎
this didn’t end. Some say you can still hear the players arguing about a loophole in the rules↩︎
i.e. take cinnamon and add raisin↩︎
which were disappointing imo↩︎
no you have too many berries↩︎
i.e. take cinnamon and add apple chunks↩︎
for some reason↩︎
an oilier rosemary↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 21
Today was a new beginning for me! I began my second paper journal since arriving in London. Thankfully, it was a duplicate of the first, so I’m able to see what’s changed.
For instance, where I spilled almond oil on it at the beginning of the semester,1 it’s still oily. The pages have gotten darker, the cover has faded, and it’s showing signs of use.
The new one, on the other hand, still looks nice. I can’t wait to see if this one fills, and what it fills with.
Additionally, I got ahead on blogging for the first time!2
Today, is the 21 of November. I like the 21sts of the months, because that’s when solstices and equinoxes.3 In many cultures, the equinox or solstice is a day of new beginning.
Today was a new beginning for me! I began my second paper journal since arriving in London. Thankfully, it was a duplicate of the first, so I’m able to see what’s changed.
For instance, where I spilled almond oil on it at the beginning of the semester,4 it’s still oily. The pages have gotten darker, the cover has faded, and it’s showing signs of use.
The new one, on the other hand, still looks nice. I can’t wait to see if this one fills, and what it fills with.
First Published: 2018 November 20
This afternoon and evening, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a series of talks, workshops, and concerts for the “History of Keyboards” event at Queen Mary.
It began with a pairing of a cardiologist and pianist, who are each using the other for their research. The cardiologist is using the pianist to see if music can affect cardiac pacing. The musician is composing pieces based off of the irregular heartbeat recordings from the cardiologist.
Later, I got to see, hear, and play with a harpsichord, clavichord, and forte piano, as well as learn how they work. Finally, I got to see some of the cool new developments in the piano world, the coolest of which in my opinion is the Magnetic Resonator Piano. I also got to meet the creator,1 of the instrument, and he seems amazing as well.
The Magnetic Resonator is an addition that can be placed onto an existing piano. As far as I can tell and understand, it uses electromagnets to send vibrations into the strings2 at the frequency the string vibrates, as well as the hypothetical harmonics.3
It was a great time, and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to attend.
First Published: 2018 November 19 Prereading Note: As this was an assignment with a corresponding word count, each draft ends with a word count.
Steven Sondheim has used much of his career to push against traditional ideas of what a musical should be. Throughout his shows, he subverts traditional musical theatre ideals such as love, marriage, and idealism. In Company, he not only subverts the idea of how love should be portrayed, but he also dispenses with the idea of linear plot. He does not even stop there. Sondheim and Furth’s Company moves even one step beyond atemporal theatre, dispensing on the idea of a moving plot almost entirely. Instead of presenting a narrative of growth and change, Company instead presents a narrative of reflection, with little sense of time passed between scenes. As staged by Marianne Elliott, Company is a show in two pieces: the recurring thread of a dreaded 35th birthday, and a series of vignettes showing Bobbie’s relationship with her married friends.
The birthday party is staged four times in the initial script, at the beginning and end of each act.(Sondheim & Furth 3,71,75,117). Elliot chooses to add a fifth staging in the middle of the first act. Additionally, rather than staging each birthday the same way, each time we see Bobbie celebrating her birthday, the scene has changed. By staging each birthday differently, Elliot drives the idea of Company as a reflective, rather than actioned show. Each time Bobbie remembers the scene, she’s in a different mental state, and so remembers it differently.
The show opens with “(Bobbie’s) empty apartment” (3). She is holding balloons spelling the number 35 and a cake sits on the table. The other actors “enter from various parts of the stage (in the production, also from the audience) and group themselves around (her) apartment,” where they speak about the nature of gifts they have brought for the celebration, and almost all exhort her to “just take (the present) back” (4,5). From the dialogue of her friends, delivered “intoning”, it is clear from the very beginning that what we are seeing is a recollection of the birthday party, not the actual party.
Later in the act, we see the initial room scaled down, complete with a cupcake and small balloons. Bobbie squeezes through the doorway, as she can no longer simply walk through. As this staging is not present in the initial script, there is no dialogue here. Instead, Bobbie simply looks at the mini bottle of bourbon and, shrugging, drinks it. It’s clear that she’s meant to be more accepting of her age now than she was just a few minutes ago, when the show began. Of course, it is tempered from the fact that she’d just finished smoking marijuana with friends (36-50). Given that marijuana is known to cause hallucinations, it makes sense that the most dream-like of the birthday parties would show up while she’s “stoned” (36).
To close the first act, Bobbie stands outside the set, which before had only happened between scenes, or as a way for characters to break into scenes where they didn’t belong (mostly during musical interludes). This time however, Bobbie is still meant to be holding the audience’s attention, as a spotlight is left on her. In the initial script, it calls for “all the birthday guests (to look) at (Bobbie) as in Act One, Scene One” (71), while the production has a doppelganger be the object of her friends’ attention. In this way, it shows that Bobbie has finally begun to distance herself from her memories. She can now see what was, without forcing herself to define it as what is.
The second act begins like the first, with Bobbie entering an empty white room. Unlike the first scene, however, Bobbie is forced to deal with oversized, comically large balloons. She deflates them, and her friends come in and begin to sing about how wonderful she is. When Bobbie moves, however, her friends do not change their blocking to reflect it. By leaving the blocking as if she hadn’t moved, choreographer Liam Steel reminds the audience that Bobbie is looking back on the memories. Her friends are gesturing to the memory of her, which both she and her friends can see. However, the audience, as observers, cannot.
The second act progresses until, as expected, the birthday scene arises again. Interestingly, the initial script calls for Bobbie to be observing the stage “unbeknownst to us” (118) while the show has Bobbie watching from upstage, in the same undefined space that she had occupied at the end of the first act. Of course, both shows have the same intent. Bobbie is watching the stage, hoping to avoid her friends.
The turnaround that this scene represents is a great way to see that nothing has changed during the duration of the show. Rather than Bobbie being in the room before her friends appear, her friends are in the room waiting for her to appear. But, when she fails to enter, they leave and she enters. In such a way, we see that the scene was reversed, and we’re back to where we began.
But, there’s far more to this show than simply the birthday sequences. While the birthdays provide a framework and regrounding to remind the audience that the show is repeating, the vignettes are where it truly becomes obvious that we are living in a dreamscape. The show opens to a single, solitary, white room. It is ringed with neon lights, and Bobbie enters. As her friends appear, they crowd the stage.
But, after the party has ended, rather than simply dropping a curtain and changing the scenes, Elliott and Bunny Christie’s set draws the audience into the transition. A small hallway floats in from stage right, and Bobbi enters it, then begins to fumble with keys, giving time for the entire set to shift and another room to appear. The fact that each room and set is wholly self contained after that reinforces the idea that, since memories feel self contained, so too do the rooms. The few times that we see people occupying space outside of neon rimmed rooms is almost always during a musical interlude, which is clearly not meant to represent the remembered reality.
Speaking of music, rather than most musicals’ approach to music, where it appears to grow naturally from the dialogue, such as a love-lost man musing about the beauty of his love, and slowly shifting to song, the music in Company starts and ends abruptly.
The first musical break occurs in the first scene, as a mockery of the traditional musical opener (7). Rather than having some portion of the cast or a dedicated story teller open the set by explaining the show, we hear and see dialogue and blocking as if a play until everyone suddenly begins to sing that “there was something we wanted to say” (10). The next time we have a musical break happens much the same.
Bobbie is sitting, confused and somewhat frightened by the display her friends are presenting they spar. Suddenly, Joanne enters and begins to sing. The couples join in, as if nothing is odd, but Bobbie looks as confused as the audience feels. This seems to happen throughout the entire show, where the audience sees Bobbie realizing that the songs her friends sing are not truly a part of the memory, but have been joined because she links the ideas.
Throughout Company, the audience is slowly pushed into the idea that the show is not taking place in the present. Rather, the entire show is designed to force the audience into the realization that the show is a representation of an aging woman’s view of what she’s missed by not marrying. Rather than making it an easy ending, where she either realizes that she regrets it, or doesn’t, Sondheim, Furth, and Elliot leave the audience to question whether Bobbie will seriously begin to seek a relationship In all five of the couples we see, Bobbie sees elements she wishes to embody, but also elements she hopes to never see. In such a way, the show gives the audience a more real view of a thirty five year old’s view of the pros and cons of marriage than the typical musical theatre. She is able to understand both how she would and would not benefit from marriage.
1374
Steven Sondheim has used much of his career to push against traditional ideas of what a musical should be. Throughout most all of his shows, subversive elements to the status quo of musical theatre occur. In Company, this takes the role of its totally non-linear story. However, not content to merely dispense with the normal idea of a linear progression through time, Sondheim and Furth take the show one level further, dispensing on the idea of a moving plot almost entirely. Instead of presenting a narrative of growth and change, Company instead presents a narrative of reflection, with little sense of time passed between scenes.
Marianne Elliott’s staging of company is a show in two pieces, a birthday support structure, with vignettes interspersed for flavor. The support structure comes from the five times we see Bobbi’s birthday, once at the beginning and end of each act and once in the middle of the first act. As a note, the initial script calls for only four birthday sequences (Sondheim & Furth 3,71,75,117). However, rather than staging each birthday the same way, each time we see Bobbi celebrating her birthday, the scene has changed. In doing so, the show drives home the point that it is meant to be a travel through Bobbi’s mind, with her looking at her celebration of 35 years changing based on how she feels.
The show opens with “(Bobbi’s) empty apartment” (3). She is holding balloons spelling the number 35 and a cake sits on the table. The other actors “enter from various parts of the stage (in the production, also from the audience) and group themselves around (her) apartment,” where they speak about the nature of gifts they have brought for the celebration, and almost all exhort her to “just take (the present) back” (4,5). From the dialogue of her friends, delivered “intoning”, it is clear from the very beginning that what we are seeing is a recollection of the birthday party, not the actual party.
Later in the act, rather than oversized balloons, we see the initial room scaled down. Bobbi squeezes through the doorway, rather than being able to simply walk in. As it was not in the initial script, there is no dialogue here. Instead, Bobbi simply looks at the mini bottle of bourbon and, shrugging, drinks it. This acceptance of her situation comes right after scene four, where in the midst of smoking with her friends, her exes sing a song about how horrible she is (40-50). Given marijuana’s propensity to cause people to hallucinate, it makes sense that the least real of the memory sequences would be shown here.
Finally, to close the act, Bobbi stands outside the set, which before had only happened between scenes, or as a way for characters to break into scenes where they didn’t belong (mostly during musical interludes). This time however, Bobbi is still meant to be holding the audience’s attention, as a spotlight is left on her. In the initial script, it calls for “all the birthday guests (to look) at (Bobbi) as in Act One, Scene One” (71), while the production has a doppelganger be the object of her friends’ attention. In this way, it shows that Bobbi has finally begun to distance herself from her memories. She can now see what was, without forcing herself to define it as what is.
Of course, the second act begins and makes us forget this is the case. Bobbi enters, as she did in Act One. Unlike the first scene, however, Bobbi is forced to deal with oversized, comically large balloons. She deflates them, and her friends come in and begin to sing about how great she is. However, when she leaves the center, where they’ve been gesturing, they continue to gesture to where she was. This blocking helps to remind the audience that Bobbi is looking back on the memories. Her friends are gesturing to the memory of her, which both she and her friends can see. However, the audience, as observers, cannot.
As expected, the show ends how it had begun and ended up to this point, with Bobbi celebrating her birthday. Interestingly, the initial script calls for Bobbi to be observing the stage “unbeknownst to us” (118) while the show has Bobbi watching from upstage, in the same undefined space that she had occupied at the end of the first act. The turnaround is interesting, however. Rather than her being there, and her friends appearing, her friends are there without her. When she fails to enter, they leave and she enters. The mirroring of staging shows us that nothing has really changed in the show. We see that nothing has changed from beginning to end.
But, there’s far more to this show than simply the birthday sequences. While the birthdays provide a framework we can analyze the show through, the vignettes are where it truly becomes obvious that we are living in a dreamscape. The show opens to a single, solitary, white room. It is ringed with neon lights, and Bobbi enters. As her friends appear, they crowd the stage.
But, after the party has ended, rather than simply dropping a curtain and changing the scenes, Elliott and Bunny Christie’s set draws the audience in. A small hallway floats in from stage right, and Bobbi enters it, then begins to fumble with keys, giving time for the entire set to shift and another room to appear. The fact that each room and set is wholly self contained after that reinforces the idea that, since memories feel self contained, so too do the rooms. The few times that we see people occupying space outside of neon rimmed rooms is almost always during a musical interlude, which is clearly not meant to represent the remembered reality.
Rather than most musicals, where the music appears to grow naturally from the dialogue, such as a love-lost man musing about the beauty of his love, and slowly shifting to song, the music in Company starts and ends abruptly.
The first musical break occurs in the first scene, as a mockery of the traditional musical opener (7). Rather than having some portion of the cast, or a dedicated story teller open the set by explaining the show, before inviting the audience in, we hear and see dialogue and blocking until suddenly everyone starts singing about the fact that “there was something we wanted to say” (10). The next time we have a musical break happens much the same.
Bobbi is sitting, confused and somewhat frightened by the display her friends are presenting they spar. Suddenly, Joanne enters and begins to sing. The couples join in, as if nothing is odd, but Bobbi looks as confused as the audience feels.
Throughout Company, the audience is slowly pushed into the idea that the show is not taking place in the present. Instead, the entire show is built to force the audience into the realization that the show is nothing more than a representation of an aging woman’s view of what she’s missed. Rather than making it an easy ending, Sondheim, Furth, and Elliot leave the audience to question whether Bobbi will seriously begin to seek a relationship In all five of the couples we see, Bobbi sees elements she wishes to embody, but also elements she hopes to never see. In such a way, the show gives the audience a more real view of a thirty five year old’s view of the pros and cons of marriage.
1247 Words
Steven Sondheim has used much of his career to push against traditional ideas of what a musical should be. Throughout most all of his shows, subversive elements to the status quo of musical theatre occur. In Company, this takes the role of its totally non-linear story. However, not content to merely dispense with the normal idea of a linear progression through time, Sondheim and Furth take the show one level further, dispensing on the idea of a moving plot almost entirely. Instead of presenting a narrative of growth and change, Company instead presents a narrative of reflection, with little sense of time passed between scenes.
Marianne Elliott’s staging of company is a show in two pieces, a birthday support structure, with vignettes interspersed for flavor. The support structure comes from the five times we see Bobbi’s birthday, once at the beginning and end of each act and once in the middle of the first act. However, rather than staging each birthday the same way, each time we see Bobbi celebrating her birthday, the scene has changed. In doing so, the audience becomes confused as to the reality of the show. Is the goal to see the five ways that Bobbi’s birthday could go, as she reflects on the future? Is it the way that she remembers it based on how she’s feeling at that exact moment? Or, is it a reflection on the slowly deteriorating mind of a woman attacked from all sides? The show doesn’t seek to answer this question.
As exciting as each of the birthday sequences is, the vignettes are where the life of the show comes through.
Ok so predraft time again so i don’t keep flow of consciousness writing
Company tells non linear story This is expressed through the scenes that have no relation or reference to each other, the birthday parties. So what? it’s cool idk im sure something will come when I get there Wait i need an argument. Because "non linear story" is sort of a given, maybe yeah company is about reflection.
Moving on.
The staging of the vignettes supports the thread of remembered experience far better than the birthday parties, though. Every part of the performance suggests this sort of memory, from the staging, to the blocking, to even the dialogue.
When Bobbi (restarting so it’s clean)
Much of what low level analyses of a show attempt to do is explain what happens in the show. At a first glance, that makes sense. When describing an event to people, we have an innate desire to make it fit a narrative story. Things begin, cause other events, and then end.
Of course, theatre is often seen as a way to reflect life. Unlike life, we get happy endings, which resolve the problems and assure the audience that everything will work out. Like life, however, things begin.
Well, that is, in most theatre. Sondheim, Furth, and Elliott’s Company: A Musical Comedy, on the other hand, does not attempt to convey a narrative. Instead, it presents a series of vignettes, few of which seem to occupy any chronology. In fact, many of the vignettes overlap each other, just as our own memories overlap and rewrite information. Company: A Musical Comedy attempts to use its plot not to advance or tell a story, but rather as a reflective view of a 35 year old woman’s tangle with her relationships.
The clearest way to see that the show is meant to convey a sense of recollected time, rather than transpired time, is in its use of a looped narrative. Throughout the show, we see Bobbi’s 35th birthday party a total of 5 times, despite the script only specifying 4.
However, rather than having the celebrations remain constant, the script calls for them to change. The show opens with “(Bobbi’s) empty apartment.” (Sondheim & Furth 3) She is holding balloons spelling the number 35 and a cake sits on the table. The remainder of the ensemble “enter from various parts of the stage (in the production, also from the audience) and group themselves around (her) apartment,” where they speak about the nature of gifts they have brought for the celebration, and almost all exhort her to “just take (the present) back.” (Sondheim & Furth 4,5)
The next time we see the birthday celebration is at the end of the first act. Bobbi stands outside the set, which before had only happened between scenes, or as a way for characters to break into scenes where they didn’t belong (mostly during musical interludes). However, this time, Bobbi is still meant to be holding the audience’s attention, as a spotlight is left on her. In the initial script, it calls for “all the birthday guests (to look) at (Bobbi) as in Act One, Scene One,” (Sondheim & Furth 71) while the production has a doppleganger be the object of her friends’ attention.
In between these two pictures of her 35th birthday party, we are exposed to a series of vignettes. In the first, Bobbi is at the home of one of the couples. She enters by walking through a doorway into another self supported neon room. It’s clear that she’s digging through her memory for the “key” to unlock the memory from her struggles. When she opens the room, she takes her seat and the lights open on the room.
She chats with friends, until the musical interlude, where Joanne enters and speaks about the joys of being in a stable, committed relationship. (Sondheim & Furth 26) The rest of the ensemble joins in, until the song ends. As if nothing had happened, the scene resumes.
The next scene simply has Bobbi chatting on the porch to a different couple. There is nothing to suggest whether this happened before or after the initial scene. This happens a few more times, and then we see the act closing party.
There are only two constants to the entire act. First, Bobbi always has a drink of bourbon in her hand, and second, she’s always in the same red dress. The reset of the characters go through costume changes.
When the second act begins, it looks a lot like the first. However, this time, Bobbi is forced to deal with oversized, comically large balloons. She pops them, and her friends come in and begin to sing about how great she is. However, when she leaves the center, where they’ve been gesturing, they continue to gesture to where she was.
Later in the second act, rather than oversized balloons, we see the initial room scaled down. Bobbi squeezes through the doorway, rather than being able to simply walk in.
The show ends as it did the second act, with Bobbi not celebrating her birthday while her friends do. This time, however, there is no other Bobbi. Instead, all of her friends are there awaiting her arrival, so as to wish her a happy birthday. As she fails to arrive, however, they grow demoralized and leave.
Only once she is sure that her friends have departed does she enter the room. She sees the candles her friends had left burning, and, rather than try to extinguish them with her breath, as she had each of the prior times, she uses a fire extinguisher. Of course, there is still one candle burning after this. She blows it out, and the lights fall from the stage.
843 words
Sondheim, Furth, and Elliott’s Company: A Musical Comedy attempts to use its plot not to advance or tell a story, but rather as a reflective view of a 35 year old woman’s tangle with her relationships.
Throughout the show, we see Bobbi’s 35th birthday party a total of (4? 5?) times. From memory, there’s the first one, the one with the friends facing the fake Bobbi, the one where the balloons are gigantic, which i think was the second act opener, the one where the entire room is tiny, and the ending one. So that would be five times. Great.
Throughout the show, we see Bobbi’s 35th birthday party a total of 5 times. Each of the times we see the celebrations, they have changed. The first time we see the party, Bobbi enters a white room, ringed in neon.
She is holding balloons spelling the number 35 and a cake sits on the table. Slowly, her friends enter. They speak about the nature of gifts they have brought for the celebration, and almost all exhort her to “just take (the present) back.” (Sondheim & Furth 5)
The second time we see Bobbi’s celebrations is at the close of the first act. She stands outside of the self-enclosed set, clearly meant to show that she is reflecting, rather than remembering. This impression is reinforced by the view the audience is presented with. We see a second Bobbi, facing upstage so as to hide her face.
This Bobbi appears to be participating in the party.
When the second act begins, Bobbi again enters the single solitary room. This time, however, there are gigantic balloons, which she viscously deflates.
Later in the act, she enters the room, which has become shrunk to less than half the size. As she has in each scene, she takes a drink of bourbon. This time it is from a minibottle, which she drinks straight.
The show ends as it begins, with Bobbi celebrating her birthday. As with the first act’s closer, she stands in the undecorated piece of the stage, and looks at her peers. This time, however, there is no other Bobbi. Instead, all of her friends await her arrival, so as to wish her a happy birthday. As she fails to arrive, however, they grow demoralized and leave.
Only once she is sure that her friends have departed does she enter the room. She sees the candles her friends had left burning, and, rather than try to extinguish them with her breath, as she had each of the prior times, she uses a fire extinguisher. Of course, there is still one candle burning after this. She blows it out, and the lights fall from the stage.
Word Count: 452
First Published: 2018 November 18
Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Today’s readings are fun for me because they’re more mystical than normal. But, despite the allegories and metaphors, there are some facts we can pull out. First, eventually mankind will reach its end. Second, we don’t know when it will be. Third, the Lord will protect his people when the world does end. Fourth, the Lord will endure, as will his works.
Personally, I appreciate the reminder that time is limited. Regardless of when the deadline is, it still exists. And, as often happens when I realize the existence of deadlines, it makes me more aware of the people in my life. So, today is a great day to remind those you love that you do, those you trust that you have faith in them, and those you hated that you forgive them. The Year of Grace is almost over, and so we should think about where we’ve come in the past year.
Today’s readings tell us two important things. First, eventually mankind will reach its end. Second, we don’t know when it will be. I guess also third, the Lord will take care of us, and fourth, he’ll still be here.
It’s a nice reminder that, try as we may to prevent it, we can’t control the future. Every single one of us has free will, and the ability to make each day the best or worst that it could be. But, everyone else also gets to make that choice.
First Published: 2018 November 16
Today I had the amazing experience of touring a chocolate factory. It was great and informative, and we got free samples of chocolate, including 100% dark.
First Published: 2018 November 16
For some reason, writing that title made me think of the song by Jon Svetky, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”.1 But, as I wrote a post for today, I got more than 500 words in when I realized it wasn’t something I could post.
Most of the time, I know that I won’t be able to post a writing before I even start it. Or, in some cases, I get a paragraph or so in before I realize that it shouldn’t be published.
But, maybe because of discussions I’ve had with my class in the Diary course I’ve been taking, I reflected today on what we don’t write. Obviously, despite my disclaimer, I’m not going to post things that I think will reflect horribly on me in my immediate future. So, I’m not going to write about how much I may hate a certain person, or how frustrated I am about a certain event that I have the wrong amount of control over, because it doesn’t help me at all to write about it.2
But, there are other things that don’t go here. As one of my classmates mentioned, we don’t mention the everyday. Of course, since I’ve been scraping the barrel sometimes to get a post, I do mention some of the everyday.
We don’t mention what we’re ashamed of. Obviously, this is something that is different now from the typical image of a diary. Here, I’m publishing my work with the expectation of others reading it, much like early diaries. So, I can’t put personal information that might be hurtful to someone near me, because that’s unfair to them.
All this is to say, I’ve realized that, much as my inspiration did in his third essay, I can’t always publish how I feel, because it may not be appropriate to the facts and realities of relationships I have. Anyways, before I start sounding maudlin,3 I’ve realized how helpful it is for me to force myself to write something every day, and to publish it, even if I’m not ready to release it. This has definitely been4 a good way for me to grow myself, both in terms of introspection and presentation.
First Published 2018 November 15(ish)
As I mentioned a while ago, I’ve been meaning to go to the London Uillean Piper’s club. I finally made it.
It was really fun, and I’m glad I went once, if only for the chance to try the instrument. However, since I didn’t get back until nearly 12:15 in the morning, I don’t think it’s going to be something I go to again. But, I’m glad I had the chance to try it once
First Published 2018 November 14
One of the things I tend to forget is that I have somewhat of a fear of heights. More than that, I have a fear of jumping off tall heights. Maybe that isn’t a fear, the more that I think about it, and just a reasonable reaction.
Nonetheless, since I was never afraid of one meter, seldom of three, and not at all afraid of jumping off of five meter platforms, I decided that I would try jumping off of the 10 meter platform tonight. I got to the 7 meter, and began climbing up to the 10.
I didn’t realize how close to the roof I was, especially since it seemed so high before I started. Wow that was scary.
But, I jumped. I was in the air way too long. And then I hit the water. Next week I’ll try going in head first.