Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse

One more item crossed off the list: I got to see a play at the Theater at the Bathhouse!

According to Wikipedia, "The bathhouse was built in 1927 next to an outdoor swimming area with concrete steps leading into the water. A lifeguard station and boat were built next to this area in 1930 after several drownings in 1929. The bathhouse is now home to the Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse, a small but popular venue for plays."

The building was much smaller than I expected, but it made for a very comfortable and homey setting. Built only a few yards from the water, the exterior of the theater is an old-timey brick facade surrounded by trees, lawns, and part of the 2.8-mile long running path that encircles Greenlake. It was really quite a beautiful scene.

The interior of the Bathhouse was that kind of small that would seem cramped if it wasn't such a cool Seattle-y joint.

The stage built for this show was interesting; a white-washed stage with a backdrop made of wedding dresses evoked the importance of the actual ceremony of weddings in modern society.

The play was multi-faceted, primarily focusing on a mother's descent into Alzheimer's disease, but also looking at gay relationships, the bond between children and their parents, and spouses dealing with losing their loved ones. Deep.

The night was well spent. The show was beautifully acted, the venue was charming, and the company was extremely hot.

A chunk of Greenlake, visible from right behind the Bathhouse.

The Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse.

The stage as set for A Wedding Story.

Gilliam-a-thon

I managed to squeeze another movie marathon into my crowded schedule: a Terry Gilliam extravaganza! Terry Gilliam, should be unfamiliar with him, is the American-born member of the Monty Python troupe. He is also an ingenious director with a surrealistic style that tends to merge past, present, and future tenses to make us question which time the story takes place in, and whether in fact the story is really taking place or is merely a character’s own imagination.

I have always been a big fan of his work, and decided it was time to watch several of his films simultaneously in order to get a better appreciation of his work. I finally pulled it off. When my brain finally stopped melting and the blood stopped running out of my pupils, I thought I’d write about them.

1. Time Bandits

Time Bandits is a fantasy film in which a group of dwarves, “maintenance workers” during The Creation, became embittered when they were downsized (pud-ump-bum) and stole a map of the universe which shows all the “time holes” the Supreme Being left in his hasty six-day construction job. They proceed to use said map to leap through time, plundering treasures of the planet earth during its greatest moments.

Due to an unexpected blunder, they wind up with a young English schoolboy in tow, and continue their adventures through time, constantly gaining and losing treasures as they meet “historical” figures such as Robin Hood, Agamemnon, and Napoleon.

In the end, they need to defeat Pure Evil and return the map to the Supreme Being.

All in all, this is one of my favorite Gilliam flicks. Fantasy, action, and questions of right versus wrong all lead to an awesome film, suitable for all ages.

2.The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Baron Munchausen, a historical figure famed for telling extraordinary tales which border on unbelieveability, is brought to life in this film.

As the Turks reign war upon an unnamed European city in “The Age of Reason,” a band of actors are performing in a play which features some of the more famous tales of Baron Munchausen, when an enraged old man, claiming to be said baron, appears and disrupts the performance as he tells the tales as they actually occurred.

Taking off in a hot air balloon made of womens’ knickers, he pledges to end the siege by enlisting the support of some of the fantastic characters from his many stories.

Does he end the war? Are his stories for real? Is he even the real baron? Check out the movie to find out!

3. Brazil
Man-o-man, what a messed up flick. Considering that the movie industry forced Gilliam to make the ending “happy,” and that the director’s cut is almost twice as long as the theatrical release, the real version must be great, right? Right!

It’s the future, and a mega-beurocratic society has assigned everyone into their “proper” place. The Ministry of Information runs the show as it absorbs all the information about every citizen that it can find. This information leads the MoI to abduct those who it deems terrorists, extract information from them, and bill them for the expense.

Sam Lowry, our hero, works to rescue an innocent victim of honesty from the persecution of the MoI, a young woman who also happens to be his love interest.

The visuals in this film are brilliant, and the messages of governmental control are clean and clear. Watch it with an open mind and be changed.

4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Haven’t seen it? Sacrilege! Gilliam moved from the U.S. to England, joined the Monty Python troupe, and made it what it was. All the animations you see in their films? Yup, Gilliam drew them. He also directed this, probably their most well known and well received film.

King Arthur rides through England, enduring French taunts, the terror of the Knights Who Say Ni!, and the enchanter known as Tim, as he searches for the Grail.

By the way, it’s friggin’ hilarious!

5. Twelve Monkeys

In the future, 99% of the population has been killed by a malicious virus, and the survivors live underground.

A criminal is volunteered to go back in time – they can’t cure the disease, but they’ve invented time machines – to find a pure strain of the virus so that a vaccine can be constructed.

In the past (our present,) our hero is confined in an asylum, and must convince his doctor that he’s not crazy, and that he is the only hope for those survivors in the future. Or is he…?

6. The Brothers Grimm
While this film didn’t get great reviews, I thought it was a pretty good fantasy. Lacking in the usual Gilliam visuals, it didn’t hold up as well as I would have expected, but it was pretty good for a modern fairy tale.

The Grimm brothers are con men, convincing superstitious villagers that they are haunted, and then using special effects to appear to exorcise whatever ghouls and ghosts exist in the towns.

Things get spicier when the occupying French army forces them to go to a village plagues by a real enchanted forest, which has a bad habit of abducting their children.

Some new pics

This broccoli is really goin' crazy. Soon we will pluck this healthy, organic vegetable and smother it with cheese sauce.

These flowers are basically strawberry fetuses. Yum.

As I said, I was recently promoted to kitchen manager. This is me as an assistant bistro manager.
Me as kitchen manager. As you can see, the difference is noticeably positive.

Yaargh, it be official, says I.

Barring any unforeseen medical conditions or tragedies, I will be running in the Seafair Torchlight Run 5k. I am registered and everything. No backing out now.

So I have to get back on the eating right/exercising wagon that I leapt from with gusto when I began going through cancer hoopla. It'll be tough; as it turns out, unlike most Americans, I love the taste of unhealthy foods, and exercising makes me tired and sweaty.

While this 5k is listed as a run/walk, my only goal - aside from finishing and not having my heart explode - is to finish without walking. Tomorrow, May 14, I will begin training hard core-ish using the Couch to 5k plan, as well as by working out with rock ballads playing and fantasizing about being in a 1980s action movie training montage.

Green 1/24th Acres

Whatever combination of soils, fertilizers, sweat, and love Katherine and I provided, along with whatever combination of sun, rain, and genes God provided, have all added up to a swell garden in the span of only about three weeks.

Our potatoes are exploding out of the barrels I put them in, lettuce is about to take over the garden, and seeds are finally sprouting. By the end of summer we should be enjoying a pretty bountiful harvest. Hopefully soon we will get our eggplant and squash into the ground.

The main garden on planting day...

...and after a couple of weeks.

Our broccoli, with wee florets inside. Soon, we will have more broccoli than anyone would ever want to eat in a lifetime. Oops, did I give away your Christmas surprise?

We thought the seeds were history. Katherine blamed me. Now they are sprouting. But do I get any thanks? Nope.

When we moved in, this flower box on the front porch was filled with dead plants and useless potting soil, and was more or less rotting away since there was no drainage of any sort. Now it is full of herbs and marigolds, and we'll be the family to ruin it, by God!

Pots full of taters.

I've already banked (added dirt to) them twice. And we thought the radiation treatment wouldn't have any side effects!

Two weeks ago, this garlic was just bulbs. Now, it's just bulbs and big long leaf things.

At the Seattle Green Festival, we got a free packet of sugar snap peas from one of the booths. We don't really eat that many peas, but I planted some nonetheless. Boom. These were probably the fastest growing things we planted. This growth was after only a week or so. They should be climbing all over our patio railing before too long.

When we moved in, the previous tenants had thoughtfully left us piles of useless junk. Among the odds and ends we inherited was a pot with a dead plant in it. When I went to throw out this poor deceased chap, I noticed a tiny green sprout among the dead brown leaves. I transferred it into a hanging pot and it greened right up.

And now, voila, mucho growth on a very healthy strawberry plant.

We're getting there...

A few new beers to add; Manny's Pale Ale, a local fave, which I thought was actually a little bland, but the grassy notes on the finish were admittedly interesting. Old Seattle Lager, had at Madame K's Pizza in Ballard, was terribly boring; Budweiser is better.

I also managed to squeeze in a Wells Bombardier English Ale, which was a little more bitter than I like in an ale, but had a creaminess usually reserved to stout, which was nice. Blue Moon's seasonal Rising Moon Spring Ale was crisp and refreshing, and although I was expecting a lime attack - it has lime in it - all I got was a very faint hint of lime flavor in the after taste. Pretty darn good, wouldn't get again.

In bigger, more important news, I can scratch one thing completely off my list: I was recently promoted at work to the position of kitchen manager, which will, ideally, have me back working with food and training our staff more on product quality and safety. It should also - again, in theory - allow me to implement and train on new programs I want to start, like cleaning dishes until they are actually clean and more radical goals like keeping hot food hot and cold food cold.

Overall, I am very excited about this move, and hopefully it will help me to get over the "burn out" I've been experiencing from slinging mashed potatoes five nights a week for the last year and a half.

In other, albeit less substantial news, K and I actually enjoyed the first fruits of our garden labor the other night. For Cinco de Mayo, I made a "Mexican" dinner, with homecooked tosdadas, upon which I piled broiled mahi mahi fillets, pico de gallo, and most importantly, assorted mescaline lettuces from our garden! That's right, people; we grew food, and then we ate it. Take that, Green Giant!

Bombardier. Great name. So-so beer.

Not too limey, for a lime beer.

We grew the lettuce. God and Con-Agra grew the rest.