Limited Perspective

First, you start to make the rice, which to me is the simplest thing in the world. People online complain about never doing it right. Friends swear by rice makers. Me, I can’t cope with the idea of confronting a machine with like 50 buttons on it and have that come between me and eating. I do have an old-school rice maker with only an on/off switch but the pot inside is aluminum and it gives it a weird taste. So anyway, you make the rice. One cup of rice, two cups of chicken stock in whatever pot or pan you have that holds about double the amount that you will put into it, so it doesn’t boil over too much. Put it on high and let it boil. You have to linger nearby or you will forget it’s boiling and you really don’t want to deal with that mess. When it’s been boiling for a few seconds or so, turn the burner down to the lowest setting and put a lid on the pot. In 20 minutes, it will be done. Oh, I don’t bother with rinsing the rice. You want all of the stickiness on there. You don’t...

I'm teleworking. But my job has always involved having phone conversations with strangers, basically. And we all know that the first thing you say on the phone is some version of "how are you." I have been saying the obligatory "fine" or "great" or whatever we usually say. But then I say something like, "Well, I'm doing terrible actually." And that puts us both at ease, or as much at ease as you can be. There is a bonding. I think it's important to share and acknowledge that this is bad, and it hurts, and it's frightening, if that's how you are really feeling. We like the positive talk, and the hope, and we all want to be strong for each other. I think that usually wins out over the vulnerability.

At the beginning of the month, I took an old Timex watch to Fred Meyer jewelers in Bothell. It needed a battery. The clerk said since it was waterproof, they needed to send it out, it might take a couple of weeks and they would call me when it was ready. On the 16th, they called and said it was ready to pick up any time. I thanked them and said I was working from home, not in Bothell anymore, but I did want to come by. Three days later, they called again to say they had r educed hours but I could still come in. I told them I had in fact gone the previous night and while the grocery was still open, the jewelry part was gated shut. They promised to hold on to it. Today, March 24, they called a third time and said the store would be closed indefinitely but my watch was safe and would be there when they reopened. Each time, it was as if in the face of everything, they wanted to do the best job they could and pack every bit of care and concern into this tiny, insignificant inter...

For tonight, we are a music blog.  Compare and contrast these songs. First this one. Voodoo Mademoiselle by September Jones Then this one. 1-2-3 by Len Barry Then this one. A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins  What do you think?  I heard the September Jones song on the radio the other day.  It reminded me of the Edwyn Collins song, which the internet (Wikipedia) says samples the drum track from 1-2-3.  They're all related, over a 30-year span.

You know what’s coming. [Miss] at Edmonds Driftwood Players is a play about thalidomide, the drug that was supposed to help pregnant women cope with morning sickness but had disastrous effects, causing miscarriages and birth defects. In one of the strands of the story, early in the play, you see a young couple, Betty Yoder (Emily Fortuna) and John Yoder (Daniel Hanlon) expecting a baby.   You know what’s coming.   It’s not until the first scene after intermission that the full, human truth hits.   Betty loses her baby.   Fortuna’s slow collapse into tears and grief was devastating.   Even though you know it’s coming, if you’re like me, you still won’t be prepared for how hard it lands.   I felt what she felt.   I was so sad I cried.   I was so mad at the system I wanted to lead the audience out to march into the street and do something to make it right. Until intermission, the focus was mostly on the other characters and the...

As I write this, I am listening to Rush on Spotify in remembrance, I suppose, of the band’s drummer, Neil Peart, who died recently, and who wrote these words, When they turn the pages of history When these days have passed long ago Will they read of us with sadness For the seeds that we let grow? There is too much to say about Reparations and a country and culture where the seeds of this play have grown.  At the reception afterward, the playwright, the director, the producer and the head of the venue all made the point collectively that telling this story is critical.  The play is determined to tell everything about being Black in America or at least point to what it doesn’t get in. The play begins with a harrowing scene of the burning of a farmhouse and the brutal, lynching murder of the parents while the children watch.  Among other gut-wrenching things, the young son recognizes the Sheriff, “That’s Bill Peck!” he says.  He says it in a way that you kno...

I can’t pick a best play that I saw in 2019.  It’s too hard. I don’t know what scale to use. Best-produced piece of theater: Indecent (Rep) – or maybe Romeo and Juliet (ACT).  Most impactful: Pass Over (ACT).  Most fun: The Light Princess (Dacha).  Most impressive: The Devil and Sarah Blackwater (Annex). Funniest: The Woggles (The Woggles). Most heartwarming: Keefee’s House of Cards (Stephen Hando).  Most mind-blowing: M _ _ _ ER (On the Boards.) And what about Bulrusher (Intiman) or American Buffalo (Red Curtain.) I can’t pick. I’m copping out. But what I will do is tell you what I think were the best moments.  Things that really grabbed me and stuck with me. It comes out to an even nine. In chronological order, here they are. Red Planet Blue, Edmonds Driftwood Players  Driftwood cast Justin Tinsley in this outer space adventure by local playwright James Lyle. Tinsley played the commander of a mission to terraform a distant planet. He had acted...