Valentine's weekend wrap-up
Feb. 16th, 2009 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eee1313Saturday morning I woke up early for some stupid reason. Ugh. I hate waking up early when I should be sleeping in. After a little while being awake, I fell back asleep and promptly slept in till 10:30 or so. I woke up as the Scientist was sneaking back into the house. He had run out to the grocery store for breakfast and a boquet of red, white, and purple flowers for me. Awww. He also gave me a sock monkey. :D I've never had a sock monkey before. Soon after receiving him, he was given the moniker "Spanky." Heh. We made breakfast of English muffins, strawberries, and bacon. Totally not healthy, but so tasty. I bummed around for the rest of the morning/early afternoon, until it was time to get ready to go out. I curled my hair, an ordeal which took well over an hour. My hair is long enough now that it took two passes with the hot rollers to curl it all. Pain in the ass. But it looked cute, so there you are.
We headed up to the far north side of the city to Andrew and Cinnamon's place. They were having an all-day open house so that friends could drop in whenever before going out. That was a really great idea. They had a ton of food and were trying to use up the plethora of hot sauces that Andrew had received over the years. A bunch of the Movie Dictators were there, and it was great to see them all.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fizzball cracked me up with a set of Deadwood valentines. HEE!
After the party, we headed downtown to Navy Pier to go to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater for their interpretation of MacBeth. I'd heard fromangelchicken that this was the kind of performance that could really split an audience, so that made me even more interested to see it. Of all the Shakespeare I've read over the years, MacBeth was never covered in any of the classes I took, and I'd never seen it performed before. So I went in with a completely blank slate.
The show was all performed in a modern setting, with the soldiers in urban fatigues, weilding laser-scoped machine guns. MacBeth's castle was a penthouse with a view of the skyline. What I'm assuming was a tavern in the original play became a strip club. Frankly, I'm surprised that Lady MacBeth didn't receive her husband's letters as e-mails from his Blackberry. The set itself was extremely minimal, with only a few pieces of furniture here and there. There was liberal use of smoke machines, video projections, and voice alterations over the sound system. This last part was used mostly by the witches, which sometimes was a pain because you couldn't hear them clearly. And yes, that one witch is an old man with a long wig.
A lot of what I'd read beforehand was about the amazing performance by local actress Karen Aldridge as Lady MacBeth. I'd also seen the following disclaimer on the website: This production of Macbeth includes scenes which contain brief nudity and moments of sexually suggestive staging. Needless to say, that all had to do with Lady MacBeth, who spent a good portion of the show in skimpy nighties and/or topless. So they REALLY played up Lady MacBeth's sexuality in her hold over her husband. The show was also extremely violent, with shootings and throat slittings in the very first scene. When MacDuff's children are killed, you see his oldest son's neck snapped right in front of you. Later, the bloodied corpses of Lady MacDuff and her children are briefly hung upside-down from the ceiling to embody Lady MacBeth's insanity. At one point the witches, all in S&M gear at the strip club, pull a bloodied fetus from one of their bodies. Needless to say, it ain't MacBeth for kids, despite their being some tween girls in the audience with their parents. Have a fun conversation on the way home, girls.
Aldridge was very good as Lady MacBeth, though I'm split on Ben Carlson as MacBeth himself. One review I read afterwards said that he's like a steamroller, always performing at the most intense level. I tend to agree, especially considering that he delivered his lines with such force that spittle was flying from his mouth nearly the entire show. He's the lead actor in Canada's Stratford Festival, and I'd be interested to find out if he always performs to eleven. I was much more impressed with the actor who played MacDuff, Evan Buliung. Anyway, this review from the Trib is pretty even with how I felt about the play. Good, different, intriguing, but not without some distractions in its execution.
By the time the play was over we were both tired. Despite having a fairly easy trip back to the suburbs, it felt like the longest ride home ever. We both crashed out soon after getting home, and seeing as how busy Sunday would be, it was nice to get a solid night's sleep.
Sunday morning was all about me treating the Scientist, as he'd planned MacBeth the day before. We woke up relatively early (again!), and headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for breakfast. He loves the place because he can get salad for breakfast. I enjoy it because we get 2-for-1 coupons all the time. Heh. We ate a big breakfast, then hopped in the car to drive to Utica, Illinois. There are two wineries in town, which was the purpose of our visit. We went to the Illinois River Winery first, only to find a sign on the door saying that no tastings were to occur due to an ordinance with LaSalle County. Hrm. There was another sign on the door saying that someone would be back in an hour. Hrm, part 2. So we went back up the road to visit August Hill Winery.
This place was nice. The tasting room was very pretty, with a tasting counter along one side and merchandise tables on the other. Their wines all feature the same shaped labels, most with artwork from one single artist. This place has been around for nine years, and the owners have obviously put a lot of work into creating a brand identity for themselves. As for their wines, they were quite good. We ended up getting four bottles: the signature Trapolino red, Augie's Blackberry port, and two bottles of their Almond Infusion, which was amazing.
By the time we were done, Illinois River Winery was supposed to be open. We headed back over there, with a brief pitstop at a creepy store called Haggar's. Anyway, Illinois River has been around for more than 10 years, and they have a winery just around the corner from their shop. They also have their own vinyard. However, we were totally unimpressed with this place. Most of it has to do with the fact that we couldn't do a tasting on any of the wine, so we were buying blind. But it was also that half of the signs in the store telling us about the wine didn't match with the product in the case. The guy on staff didn't ask if we needed help, wanted to know about the wines, nothing. Who knows what was going on, but it wasn't a great experience. We bought two bottles of mixed fruit wine (who can go wrong with fruit wine? Plus, it's cheap), one bottle of award-winning claret, and hauled ass out of there.
Seeing as how that trip was half a bust, we decided to snake our way up to Oswego (in the FAR west suburbs) to visit a winery the Scientist's brother had told him about. This was Fox Valley Winery, and it was really nice. Their store/tasting room was huge, and we tried out a lot of different stuff there. Plus, anything with one of their Valentine's labels was on sale, so we nabbed a few of those at the discounted price. We ended up buying two bottles of the Vidal Blanc, one of the Vignoles, one Dry Red, the Traminette, and a bottle of the white sangria because it's OMG SO GOOD. If we have a party over the summer, we're totally going back there to get it in box form. It's great.
After that we finally went home, at which point we just vegged out until it was time to head over to the Scientist's parents' house. We had dinner with them, as well as his oldest sister J, his grandmother, and his aunt. I caught the end of Babylon, A.D. (which looked pretty odd) and then we watched Wanted, which I still enjoy. Then we went back home and I fell asleep. It was a LONG day. But good.
We headed up to the far north side of the city to Andrew and Cinnamon's place. They were having an all-day open house so that friends could drop in whenever before going out. That was a really great idea. They had a ton of food and were trying to use up the plethora of hot sauces that Andrew had received over the years. A bunch of the Movie Dictators were there, and it was great to see them all.
fizzball cracked me up with a set of Deadwood valentines. HEE!After the party, we headed downtown to Navy Pier to go to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater for their interpretation of MacBeth. I'd heard from
angelchicken that this was the kind of performance that could really split an audience, so that made me even more interested to see it. Of all the Shakespeare I've read over the years, MacBeth was never covered in any of the classes I took, and I'd never seen it performed before. So I went in with a completely blank slate. The show was all performed in a modern setting, with the soldiers in urban fatigues, weilding laser-scoped machine guns. MacBeth's castle was a penthouse with a view of the skyline. What I'm assuming was a tavern in the original play became a strip club. Frankly, I'm surprised that Lady MacBeth didn't receive her husband's letters as e-mails from his Blackberry. The set itself was extremely minimal, with only a few pieces of furniture here and there. There was liberal use of smoke machines, video projections, and voice alterations over the sound system. This last part was used mostly by the witches, which sometimes was a pain because you couldn't hear them clearly. And yes, that one witch is an old man with a long wig.
A lot of what I'd read beforehand was about the amazing performance by local actress Karen Aldridge as Lady MacBeth. I'd also seen the following disclaimer on the website: This production of Macbeth includes scenes which contain brief nudity and moments of sexually suggestive staging. Needless to say, that all had to do with Lady MacBeth, who spent a good portion of the show in skimpy nighties and/or topless. So they REALLY played up Lady MacBeth's sexuality in her hold over her husband. The show was also extremely violent, with shootings and throat slittings in the very first scene. When MacDuff's children are killed, you see his oldest son's neck snapped right in front of you. Later, the bloodied corpses of Lady MacDuff and her children are briefly hung upside-down from the ceiling to embody Lady MacBeth's insanity. At one point the witches, all in S&M gear at the strip club, pull a bloodied fetus from one of their bodies. Needless to say, it ain't MacBeth for kids, despite their being some tween girls in the audience with their parents. Have a fun conversation on the way home, girls.
Aldridge was very good as Lady MacBeth, though I'm split on Ben Carlson as MacBeth himself. One review I read afterwards said that he's like a steamroller, always performing at the most intense level. I tend to agree, especially considering that he delivered his lines with such force that spittle was flying from his mouth nearly the entire show. He's the lead actor in Canada's Stratford Festival, and I'd be interested to find out if he always performs to eleven. I was much more impressed with the actor who played MacDuff, Evan Buliung. Anyway, this review from the Trib is pretty even with how I felt about the play. Good, different, intriguing, but not without some distractions in its execution.
By the time the play was over we were both tired. Despite having a fairly easy trip back to the suburbs, it felt like the longest ride home ever. We both crashed out soon after getting home, and seeing as how busy Sunday would be, it was nice to get a solid night's sleep.
Sunday morning was all about me treating the Scientist, as he'd planned MacBeth the day before. We woke up relatively early (again!), and headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for breakfast. He loves the place because he can get salad for breakfast. I enjoy it because we get 2-for-1 coupons all the time. Heh. We ate a big breakfast, then hopped in the car to drive to Utica, Illinois. There are two wineries in town, which was the purpose of our visit. We went to the Illinois River Winery first, only to find a sign on the door saying that no tastings were to occur due to an ordinance with LaSalle County. Hrm. There was another sign on the door saying that someone would be back in an hour. Hrm, part 2. So we went back up the road to visit August Hill Winery.
This place was nice. The tasting room was very pretty, with a tasting counter along one side and merchandise tables on the other. Their wines all feature the same shaped labels, most with artwork from one single artist. This place has been around for nine years, and the owners have obviously put a lot of work into creating a brand identity for themselves. As for their wines, they were quite good. We ended up getting four bottles: the signature Trapolino red, Augie's Blackberry port, and two bottles of their Almond Infusion, which was amazing.
By the time we were done, Illinois River Winery was supposed to be open. We headed back over there, with a brief pitstop at a creepy store called Haggar's. Anyway, Illinois River has been around for more than 10 years, and they have a winery just around the corner from their shop. They also have their own vinyard. However, we were totally unimpressed with this place. Most of it has to do with the fact that we couldn't do a tasting on any of the wine, so we were buying blind. But it was also that half of the signs in the store telling us about the wine didn't match with the product in the case. The guy on staff didn't ask if we needed help, wanted to know about the wines, nothing. Who knows what was going on, but it wasn't a great experience. We bought two bottles of mixed fruit wine (who can go wrong with fruit wine? Plus, it's cheap), one bottle of award-winning claret, and hauled ass out of there.
Seeing as how that trip was half a bust, we decided to snake our way up to Oswego (in the FAR west suburbs) to visit a winery the Scientist's brother had told him about. This was Fox Valley Winery, and it was really nice. Their store/tasting room was huge, and we tried out a lot of different stuff there. Plus, anything with one of their Valentine's labels was on sale, so we nabbed a few of those at the discounted price. We ended up buying two bottles of the Vidal Blanc, one of the Vignoles, one Dry Red, the Traminette, and a bottle of the white sangria because it's OMG SO GOOD. If we have a party over the summer, we're totally going back there to get it in box form. It's great.
After that we finally went home, at which point we just vegged out until it was time to head over to the Scientist's parents' house. We had dinner with them, as well as his oldest sister J, his grandmother, and his aunt. I caught the end of Babylon, A.D. (which looked pretty odd) and then we watched Wanted, which I still enjoy. Then we went back home and I fell asleep. It was a LONG day. But good.
