When I got off the train today, it was 8:33

[conuly]

As I'd missed the boat, I decided to walk through the park. I caught a few fireflies (who were strangely reluctant to leave my hand!) and noticed that some actors were doing... some play by Shakespeare. At "I am a very foolish fond old man, fourscore and upward, not an hour more..." I went "Oh, it must be King Lear", and then realized that, as I've never read King Lear I was probably wrong.

But I wasn't.

I stayed for the rest of the performance. Sure, I came in at the end, but I knew the story* and it was great fun. Well, for a tragedy, anyway. Instead of changing scenes they moved from location to location within the park, and the whole audience had to follow them. This was especially funny in the big fight scene, with all of us running en masse from Castle Clinton to the WTC Memorial :) (Of course, then everybody died, because it's a tragedy, but there you go.) The mass movement helped relieve some of the mental stress of having to keep focusing on Shakespeare's English.

They're doing another performance Sunday, and another on Monday. I'll be there on time, catch the whole thing.


*Indeed, one of my favorite fairy tales growing up was "As Meat Loves Salt", which is King Lear without all the senseless violence.

Comments

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

I love that you catch fireflies.

[conuly]

Don't you?

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

We don't have any :-( Kind of worrisome, actually.

[conuly]

Did you used to have them in the same area?

And by "area" I mean really small area.

When I lived as a little child on West 10th Street, we had fireflies and no dragonflies. And we must have had them in Louisiana, because I remember arguing with another kid on the block that they were *really* called *lightning bugs*, a term I still prefer.

When we moved to 18th Avenue, we had dragonflies, but no fireflies.

When we moved to Staten Island, within a year I'd realized we had fireflies again - but no dragonflies!

It wasn't until I started going to Snug Harbor (a 15 minute drive away, still on the island) that I started seeing dragonflies again, they also have fireflies at night. And Battery Park City has dragonflies and fireflies together as well - the most uncommonly docile fireflies you'll ever see.

I notice walking around that wild plants - weeds, really - vary from place to place in *astonishingly* little space. Here we have quite a lot of broadleaf plantain, three blocks down they have the narrower-leafed version, "arrow plant". For a block and a half they have this golden viney plant, I don't know what, but I don't see it anywhere else. There are no thistles or queen anne's lace on our block, but two blocks away that's all that pops up. For our part, we have a lot of this blue flower, asiatic something, but it's nowhere around for blocks and blocks.

It might not be as worrisome as it seems, is all I mean to say.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

No, I've never seen them in this really small area. That does make me feel better!

We have dragonflies though. Such pretty creatures.

[conuly]

Let me amend my earlier statement (we also have mantises, btw, a TON of them, which I never saw in Brooklyn) to say that we *have* seen the occasional (that is, one and one alone, and my mother was quite shocked) damselfly. (We've also had the occasional hummingbird. Next year I'll plant some things to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and maybe put up some feeders.)

Damselflies are like dragonflies except they fold their wings when they light on something. I know that because my nieces love the bug exhibit at the SICM and they used to watch the goddamn video on various bugs all the time.

Lear and Salt

[houseofglee.livejournal.com]

King Lear is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy, but I can only read it every few years because of its intensity. It was exciting to make the connection to "As Meat Loves Salt" the first time I read it (junior year of college). I'm trying to work a version of the story (Salt, not Lear) for a young crowd, but don't have it down yet to where it retains all its important elements and keeps a young one's attention.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting!
--Farida

Re: Lear and Salt

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

I am amused that we are both [something]glee.

Re: Lear and Salt

[houseofglee.livejournal.com]

Me too! It bodes well, I think. :)

Re: Lear and Salt

[conuly]

It's a hard one, but it'll be well worth it.

Re: Lear and Salt

[houseofglee.livejournal.com]

I'll post my version if it comes together.