Whatever Wednesday - summer fun

I fled to the Northeast in  August  - 9th thru 19th - to escape the heat, to see my siblings, and to just have a change of pace.  Mission accomplished.  

Here we are - me with David and Lori at the Upper Bucks County Historical Society.  Catching up on ancient history. 

Post cheesesteak sandwiches with David, Lori, me, and David's wife Cherie. 
 

This is the famous Trainer's lobster in Quakertown PA.  Trainers was a fancy restaurant that my father worked at as a teen. The lobster was on  top of the restaurant that is now gone. Folks  would come up from Philadelphia to eat here.  Dad was a busboy.   We had a fine time checking out this step back in time at the historical society.  Found our folks' old yearbooks and other listings for them in old records. 

Across the street we toured the Burgess Foulke home.  Very interesting - build in 1812

And this is Liberty Hall 1772.  The Liberty Bell slept here overnight on 9/23/1777 on the way from Philadelphia to Allentown to avoid being melted down by British troops.  At the time it had no crack. 

You read that right - 1777       Damn, I love history and it's  everywhere you turn back east. 

Super Tuesday Anniversary Special Post

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, RAY

37 YEARS

LOVE,   JOANNE 

Monday Moments - Suffs - the musical

 

Back on August 8th, I treated myself (and yes, I do treat myself to shows a lot) to the touring production of SUFFS at Bass Hall in Fort Worth.  It's a Tony Award winning musical by Shaina Taub. She is the first woman to win  for Best Book and Best Score.  The show was fabulous and totally lived up to the hype.  I remember watching a musical number on the Tony Awards and thinking - oh, yeah, when it rolls through here, I am going.  

SUFFS is the story of brilliant, passionate and funny American women who  fought tirelessly for the right to vote. The show  explores triumphs and trials and frankly the split in some women's styles - old school  vs new.   The show made me realize I need to bolster my knowledge of many of these famous women - Mollie Hay, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and so many others. 

The musical is clever  - catchy tunes, great voices, and wonderful production. If it rolls through your area, I urge you to buy a ticket.   Support the arts.  Support women. Support the right and privilege to vote. 

And more than ever, plan to vote in the fall!!! 

Finally Friday - Tony (a movie)

 Big blockbuster movies rule, but a few little art house projects sneak under the radar. It's over one hundred degrees in TX. It's too hot outside to even enjoy our pool.  Movie matinee time and Tony is a decent "little" film. 

Tony (Dominic Sessa) is a hot headed college kid - arrogant wise acre and so, so green. He ultimately becomes Anthony Bourdain (Kitchen Confidential chef extraordinaire). In this movie, he's just Tony. He's lost a summer writing prize, he heads to Providence seeking a girl (Nancy - Emilia Jones), he has no experience, fights and gets kicked out of a restaurant (bounced by hooligan Sal (Leo Woodall) )

. The rest becomes a bit of history as he manages to get on with said fish place under the guidance of Chef (Antonio Banderas).  Chef sees something in Tony, and Tony somehow senses he can learn. He needs the discipline, but he also screws up a lot. Drugs, drinking, carousing - you get a hint of the life Bourdain later wrote about. You also see the camaraderie and the growth of  Tony, his potential. 

Decent acting, interesting coming  of age story, and a nice  cool theater. I was happy for my two hours in a darkened air-conditioned show.  Look for Tony - probably streaming soon near you. 

(It also made me want to rewatch some Anthony Bourdain  shows - the man was so good. So sad he died by suicide) 

 

Whatever Wednesday - RIP Dolly Parton

 I shall confess I was late to the Dolly Parton bandwagon.  I was never a big country music fan. Way back when, in the Ed Sullivan show days, I didn't clamor to stay up to watch her. I was a Motown gal - Diana Ross, etc. 

BUT.  Whitney singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton. Now, that was a wow of a song. 

Dolly in movies - 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias - absolutely

And as I aged, I appreciated reading interviews about  her. Smart, funny, clever, creative.  A superb businesswoman who cared about people. 

Her Inspiration Library  - another WOW of a humble use of her money. The gift of a book to a child opens  a world  of possibilities.  And, of  course, her contribution to science - funding for the COVID vaccine to save lives. 

Dolly Parton - RIP at age 80.   We were lucky to have her around and her legacy will live on - a genuinely good person.   

Monday Moments - American Fantasy by Emma Straub

 Looking for a summer escape? Ahoy - Board the American Fantasy cruise ship for four days with your favorite nineties era boy band. Three thousand screaming women worshipping middle aged dudes.

Emma Straub writes a good tale with American Fantasy.  Annie is fifty, divorced, and signed on to this trip  with her sister. Alas, the sister can't go, so Annie is shocked at herself for starting to enjoy the hype. 

cover blurb - Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening.  By the time, Annie meets one of the band members - not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend - she has accessed a sense of new possibility.

The story is  told from various viewpoints, Annie, boy band dudes, and the managing director of the whole four days. Her tale is rather exhausting - controlling the guys, herding the fans, and making the  magic happen. 

Emma Staub captures the vibe - the passion, the yearning, the dips into the past, and the reality that exists. 

This is a silly, very fun read.  I confess - back in the  day, I'd buy Tiger Beat: I loved David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, and more.  I could totally get on board this fantasy trip.  

Finally Friday - Shirley Hazard stories

Shirley Hazard (1931-2016) is a renowned author from back in the day. She won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and more.  I found her Collected Stories at our library sale for only two dollars.  What a lovely treat!

back blurb - These twenty eight stories are masterworks in telescoping focus, ranging from quotidian struggles between beauty and pragmatism to satirical send-ups of international bureaucracy, from the Italian countryside to suburban CT. Hazard's heroes are high-minded romantics who struggle to accommodate their feelings to the twentieth-century world of office jobs and dreary marriages.

Hazard's writing and characters have an old fashioned touch, but in a good way. Her descriptions of world weary people going  about their day, or dreading a dinner party are spot-on.  Sharp  humor, clever dialogue - her writing propels one to keep turning the page. I laughed out loud at times.  One of my favorite sentences was something to the effect that the "woman looked like a resort town in the rain".  Oh my!  Can't you just picture it - bedraggled, a bit rough. 

This book was a gem on sale. I now need to seek out her novels. Quite the find.