Amadeus at the Folger Theatre

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I really like the 1984 film Amadeus, which was based on the screen play by Peter Shaffer. So I was excited to see the live version of the play in person at the Folger Theatre. Since the movie is based on the screen play, the live performance and the film are very similar. So if you like the movie, you should definitely see this show! (Well, you should see the show even if you've never seen the movie!)

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The set was beautiful. The walls were created by the strings of instruments, like harps surrounding the stage to create space for the characters. And the costumes were amazing! They were so detailed and extravagant.

Look at this coat! This is Mozart conducting, and it was like we were the audience not only for the play but also for his opera.

I thought the actors did a fantastic job. Ian Merrill Peakes as Salieri was phenomenal. For most of the play, he is giving monologues of his thoughts and feelings; he had so many lines to memorize! He really embraced everything about the character. And I liked Samuel Adams as Mozart, although he played the character exactly like Tom Hulce did in the film. I liked how Hulce did it, so I liked this too, but it would have been more interesting to see how Adams interpreted the character instead of mimicking how someone else did it.

Here are two of my favorite scenes from both the play and the movie (from the film):

You can see how this photo from the play aligns with the scene from the movie very well. Image found here.

It's a serious story with lots of funny parts, and I really enjoyed it. But I will say that the play is very long. The show itself is more than two hours long, and there is an intermission. As much as I liked the play, I couldn't help but fall asleep during the second act. That's one nice thing about the film: it cuts out a lot of the unnecessary dialogue. Some of the scenes in the play last far too long, and the characters could say what they needed to say by getting to the point faster. But perhaps you may have a longer attention span than I do, or you are more of a night-owl.

Either way, I highly recommend you buy tickets for this show. It really is a wonderful production! Buy your tickets here.

Click here if you would like to read the DC Theatre Scene's review of the show.

Cocktails Competition at Republic Restoratives

One of my favorite Sunday activities is going to Ivy City in D.C. and checking out the distilleries in the area. There are several all quite close to each other, and I sort of create my own bar crawl (except classier). But yesterday I went specifically to visit Republic Restoratives, the only women-owned distillery in D.C. They were hosting a cocktail competition where five mixologists would each create their own signature cocktail using RR's Chapman's Apple Brandy. Guests could try mini-cocktails from each and then vote on their favorites. I immediately bought tickets. What a fun idea!

Inside Union Market. Image found here.

Since I knew we would be drinking (and that I'd be driving), a friend and I met up at Union Market first for lunch (okay, I'll admit I stopped by Cotton & Reed first for a tasting of their Allspice Dram. SO GOOD.). I enjoyed an acai bowl from South Block, which is one of my favorite things to get there. My friend got a meatball sub and soup from Cucina Al Volo, and bought me some focaccia bread to enjoy after our cocktails to soak up the alcohol (he said both the sandwich and soup were sub-par, but the bread was good). Once we were full, we made the 20-minute walk over to RR. Let the fun begin!

We all were given tickets at the door for both the tastings and the voting. Then we went station to station to try all the tastings. Here's what we enjoyed:

Zac Hoffman got bonus points for offering a snack of baguette with his homemade apple butter. And look at that flair!

1. The Washington Apple 2K19 - This was the first drink we tried, created by Zac Hoffman from La Jambe (above). Here's what he told RR about his cocktail:

"My cocktail is a reinvention of a trash classic, The Washington Apple. Beloved and feared in every college town, the simple and underrepresented apple flavored drink has been relegated to sorority sisters and chads who don’t know how to drink. But no longer, a truly pure and wholesome re-imagined “Washington Apple” has come to grace the lips of all who seek real apples, and damn good liquor. This cocktail is the final form of the original and it still puts you on your ass after a long night of dancing on tables and mirror selfies with the squad...but like, with real apples."

His cocktail contained two RR spirits (the Chapman's Apple Brandy and their Borough Bourbon), along with the apple butter, cranberry and lime juice, and bitters. I was a little confused by the lime juice: that along with the cranberry juice made the drink taste like it wanted to be a cosmopolitan. I think the lime made it taste more summery, like a margarita, and less like a fall drink, which this clearly is supposed to be. But it still was yummy!

We liked that Rachael Rosenbaum's drink was garnished with rosemary and star anise.

2. The Apple Blossom - This delicious cocktail was created by Rachael Rosenbaum, a bartender at Fat Tiger in Fells Point, Baltimore. Here's a little bit about this drink:

[The Apple Blossom is] inspired by the life cycle of an apple, the drink lends floral notes via lavender and fortified wine to represent its first stages as a blossom. Then comes the fresh, full, ripe fruit as the palate shifts to apple brandy and lemon. Finally we’re met with baking spice and sweet syrup, a nod to the apple’s ultimate end: baked homemade treats! This drink is an homage to the apple, a “thank you for your service” if you will, met with a touch of nostalgia for Mom’s apple pie.

The cocktail had a lot of ingredients, which meant a lot of flavors! Along with the Chapman's Apple Brandy, there was Calvados, the aforementioned Allspice Dram, lemon juice, dry vermouth, apple-lavender cordial, and a star anise tincture. We loved it!

3. The Chapman Double Apple - I wonder if this drink was supposed to be called "The Double Chapman Apple," since this bartender's name is Chris Chapman.

Chris considers this the perfect Fall/Winter beverage, where all of the ingredients highlight the star of the potion, Chapman's Apple Brandy. The Appleton rum brings a subtle spice and vanilla, the honey brings out more of that apple in the brandy, and the bitters blend it all together in an aromatic ballet.

This drink was stronger than the first two, perhaps because there was Appleton Rum along with orange and decanter bitters (and Chapman's, clearly). The honey in the drink was perhaps meant to cut the bitterness of the alcohol, but it didn't quite work. BUT I loved the gold flake he had in the drink; I had never tasted a sparkly cocktail before!

Glittery cocktail!

4. When Life Gives You Coconuts - Courtney Taylor-Daniels, the bar manager at Toki Underground, made this coconut cocktail for us.

When Life Gives you Coconuts was created because of a double case order of coconut cream. She found herself stuck trying to figure out what to do with an overabundance of one very specific mixer they previously only used for piña coldadas. Originally she made the cocktail with gin but then tried switching out the gin for Chapmans Apple Brandy, and was hooked. She strongly believes this cocktail can convert anyone who doesn’t like coconut to a fan!

She added Coco López, Calpico, and lime juice to the Chapman's Apple Brandy to make this concoction. Perhaps I was disappointed that the drink didn't taste like a piña colada even though it looked like one; it was the same feeling I get when I have frozen yogurt that I already know won't taste like ice cream. I wanted to like it, but even the little flower garnish couldn't save this drink for me.

His sweater says, "Leftovers are for quitters." It made up for the lack of décor on his table.

5. Johnny's Camaro - Sam Nellis from The Red Hen and All-Purpose Pizzerias created his own version of the Sidecar with this cocktail, using Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao and his own limon de Normandie to mix with the Chapman's Apple Brandy.

Sam's goal with his cocktails is always to create something that is inviting and delicious, that you can think deeply about if you want but that you could also lose yourself in and forget about the worries on your mind. "Johnny's Camaro" is one such example. Named after a song by one of Sam's mother's favorite artists, this is a drink one could throw back without a second thought, but if one digs in deeper, they'll find alluring apple, orange depth, and a sprinkle of nuttiness. Complex and simple at the same time.

While we had hoped that we had saved the best for last, this was actually our least favorite drink of the day. There were no mixers in it, just alcohol. He said something about using the ingredients to cut the acidity, but to me, that makes no sense: you can't add flavors of orange and lemon, both acidic fruits, to make something less acidic. Needless to say, he did not get our vote.

So who was the big winner? (Drum roll, please)... Rachael Rosenbaum from Fat Tiger! Her's was one of my favorites, so I'm glad she won!

This was such a fun idea. For $20, you could have a fun time tasting unique cocktails (and while we had already eaten, Call Your Mother deli was there serving bagel sandwiches for an additional cost). The event certainly drew a crowd. I hope Republic Restoratives does this again; it could be a seasonal thing! And honestly, I hope the other nearby distilleries decide to host similar events: it's so much fun and a great way to bring people into your establishment, have them try your spirits (and spend money!), and partner with other local restaurants and bartenders.

And wouldn't you know it: my prayers were answered! Crimson is hosting a similar contest on December 2, but with TWELVE cocktail tastings and food included! You can bet I'll be there!

My weekend in New York City

The iconic New York skyline

My grandmother has lived in New York City for decades, and I have had the amazing opportunity to visit her a couple of times every year (I even lived with her during my internships in college). I never make it up to NYC as often as I'd like. But this past weekend, my grandma wasn't the only thing bringing me to the Big Apple: Dartmouth was playing Princeton in a football game inside Yankee Stadium. I wasn't going to miss that!

I took the Vamoose Bus up to New York last Friday, a trip which took nearly six hours due to rush hour traffic (the Lincoln Tunnel is the worst!). But I took the LIRR for the first time to Flushing from Penn Station, and that was super-easy. Since I got in so late, I only got to hang out for a little with my grandma, as well as my dad and uncle (they went up for the game, too).

Billy's was packed with Dartmouth alumni! I've never seen so much green before!

Saturday was the big day: game day! Dartmouth (Alumni? Athletics? unsure) reserved the entire space at Billy's, a bar right across the street from Yankee Stadium. The place was huge, and good thing: there were probably 1,000 alumni there! I was disappointed that I didn't recognize anyone, but my dad and uncle found fellow classmates. The place was so packed; once we found a comfortable corner on the patio, we just stayed out there. I had forgotten how many beautiful people go to Dartmouth: all of the younger alumni at the event were gorgeous! Everyone was so excited, and that school spirit never dies for any of us who truly bleed Green. Even though I only knew my dad and uncle there, it was still a lot of fun to be around that happy energy.

The game celebrated 150 years of college football. Both teams were undefeated, so it was a big game!

We then headed over to the stadium. Of course Yankee Stadium can hold 54,000 people, and while a lot of alumni were there, the place still looked pretty empty, since there were only a couple thousand people there at most. But at least there was more green than orange in the audience!

My dad and me at the game. Pretty cool to see a football game inside a baseball stadium!

I haven't watched any football (college or pro) all season, so it was exciting to see a game live. There were some great plays (a few interceptions), and we won the game! I would have had a good time either way, but winning is so much more fun than losing! (*Want more details about the game? See the links at the bottom of this post.)

After that, my uncle and I went to an after-party of one of his classmates. I didn't know anyone there, but I was classmates with the hostess' son (he was in Mexico City at the time). It was fun chatting with people, but since they were older, we didn't have too much in common. I was ready to head home after the long day. But it's always nice to be invited to a party when they don't even know you!

Despite the late night, I headed into the city early the next morning. I caught a Statue Cruises ferry from Battery Park to visit Liberty Island. I wanted to see the new Statue of Liberty Museum, which only opened this past May (I learned about it when I was reading about Diane von Furstenberg in Harper's Bazaar magazine, since she helped do a lot of the fundraising; she herself is an immigrant, so it's a cause that is close to her heart.). I didn't know much about the Statue of Liberty, just that she was a gift from the French and that she's green because she's made of copper. So I learned a lot at the museum! I highly recommend the museum!

Here are some fun facts:

-While the Statue was given as a gift by the French, France fundraised for the statue's creation (in part to reinvigorate the ideals of democracy in France). In return, the US fundraised for the pedestal that she would stand upon.

Here are some models of the designs of the potential pedestal.

-The statue is made up of hundreds of pieces of copper that have been hammered out into really thin sheets of metal. They are all connected around a stainless-steel (originally iron) skeleton designed by the same man who created the Eiffel Tower. In the photo below you can see the seams between the multiple pieces of copper "skin."

-The Statue of Liberty stands for many things in our culture, many of them contradicting. On the one hand she stands for freedom, equality, and the American Dream (i.e. anyone who comes to America can make a better life for themselves). On the other hand, she was built when women still couldn't vote and slavery had only recently been abolished in America (and African Americans still didn't have equal rights), so a lot of people felt that the statue was a hypocrisy.

At one point her torch was made of stained glass, but the light never shown brightly from it. Now the torch is covered in gold leaf instead.

-This poem, written by Emma Lazarus, a Sephardic Jewish woman, sits at the base of the statue:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Of course I got suckered into going into the gift shop. I bought a unicorn (who looks like a pig) and an ornament.

I took the ferry back to Battery Park and quickly looked around Castle Clinton. It was historically a fort, which then was transformed into a theater, and then was an immigration office, then an aquarium, before finally being restored to its original form.

After such a busy weekend, I was pretty exhausted by mid-day. So I was able to switch my return bus from 5:00pm to 1:30pm, which was so much better. I grabbed lunch at a street stand (as you do in New York), and the trip home was so much faster (I was home by 5:30pm). It was nice being able to get home early and do some laundry, make some dinner, and relax before the start of the work week.

Such a fun weekend! Now I'm even more pumped for my Dartmouth reunion in June!

*For you true sports fans out there, here are some articles with more details about the game:

• https://www.amny.com/sports/undefeated-dartmouth-ends-princetons-17-game-win-streak-at-yankee-stadium/
• https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2019/11/dartmouth-football-gets-key-win-over-princeton-at-yankee-stadium-27-10
• https://www.vnews.com/Dartmouth-football-vs-Princeton-30086337

ARRIVAL from Sweden at the Strathmore

They look like the real deal! Image found here

I grew up listening to ABBA's Gold album of greatest hits. My mom grew up with their music, and she shared it with me. I saw that ARRIVAL from Sweden was going to perform at the Strathmore, but I didn't buy tickets until just a few days before the show. I'm so glad that my mom could come with me!

The group was performing along with the National Philharmonic, so that was pretty cool (I especially liked seeing Piotr Gajewski in a light blue suit as opposed to his usual tux.). All of the musicians, both in the orchestra and the band, were very impressive. And Vicky Zetterberg and Jenny Gustafsson, who perform as Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida) and Agnetha Faltskog respectively, can certainly sing. I wasn't sure what to think about their costumes at first, but when they said they were based on real outfits ABBA wore in the 1970's, then it made sense. The energy was low in the venue at first (especially when they were talking about the divorces of the real ABBA couples), but once the band encouraged the audience to get up and dance, then it was more fun. And the crowd went wild when they came on stage wearing Nationals jerseys and sang Baby Shark!

Here are some of my favorite ABBA songs:

Dancing Queen

Mamma Mia

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!

The Winner Takes It All

Super Trouper

SOS

Waterloo (They won a competition singing this song, and that's what put them on a the map.)

Take a Chance on Me

Fernando (This song was in Swedish on a solo album, but then the group covered it in English.)

Money, Money, Money

Thank You for the Music

Chiquitita

They were just so talented! I love this music!

Arabian Sights Film Festival [SPOILERS]

I was randomly looking up DC film festivals, and I happened upon the website for the Arabian Sights Film Festival. All of the film screenings took place at the AMC Mazza Gallerie in Friendship Heights; that's so close to me, so I had to go! A pass for 10 tickets is $100, which is only $10 per tickets, a pretty good deal. I knew I could find friends to go with me, so I wouldn't end up paying all of the $100 by myself. But I knew I was going to get my money's worth!

Here are the films I saw during the film festival:

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Womit haben wir das verdient? (What Have We Done to Deserve This?)

This was a funny German film that looks at a dysfunctional family as the teenage daughter decides to convert to Islam. Her liberal parents cannot understand why she would want to oppress herself in this way, and the film follows the parents' journey of trying to understand their daughter and come to terms with her decision.

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Rashid & Rajab

This film is based on a common theme of "rich man and poor man swap places and experience each other's lives." A food delivery man and a wealthy executive get into a car accident, and when they come-to, they realize that their minds have swapped bodies. Hilarity ensues as they pretend to be each other and try to convince their wives and daughters that everything is normal. Eventually the truth comes out, and they find a fortune teller gypsy woman to help break the spell (although she's not much help; being electrocuted a lá What Women Want does the trick).

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Jusqu'ici Tout Va Bien (New Biz in the Hood!)

While the French title more closely translates as "so far so good," the English title is more literal about the actual movie. A business owner has claimed that his HQ office is in a bad part of town to get a tax write-off, but the auditors figure it out. To escape from getting in legal trouble, he moves his office into the sketchy area as well as hires locals to join his business. The film focuses on the employees and how they help grow the business. The movie is a bit silly and doesn't have a great plot, but I was entertained.

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Advocate

I found this film to be a little like RBG or Seeing Allred, which are also documentaries about female lawyers fighting for justice. Lea Tsemel is a lawyer in Israel who represents Palestinian criminals in court. Of course the odds are already stacked against them because they have to go before an Israeli judge. The film focuses on a specific case of a 13-year-old boy who had wielded a knife, as had his 15-year-old friend. The elder boy was shot and killed by police. The younger one was hit by a car, and even though he was injured in the head, the police immediately took him into custody and started berating him during his interrogation. He himself had not killed anyone, nor was that ever his intention (he just wanted to scare people). The film never reveals what the boy looks like for his own safety; a cartoon is drawn over the footage instead (like in the photo above). In the end, he received nine years in prison and was charged as an adult rather than a juvenile. If we think the justice system in America is unfair, this film shows us that Israel's system is even worse. The police brutality shown in the movie is horrible. The work that Tsemel is doing is important, but she herself was not portrayed in the best light: she tells her interns to "eat shit" and calls her fellow lawyer a "motherfucker." So...not the nicest woman despite the good work she is doing.

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Exfiltrés (Escape from Raqqa)

This film was difficult to watch because I had zero sympathy for the female protagonist. She becomes brainwashed (I assume through the internet) and converts to Islam; she then wants to move to the Middle East with her son. BUT she doesn't tell husband any of this. Instead, she lies, saying that she's taking the boy to Turkey where they're meeting up with her friend. He soon learns this is a lie when he sees said friend in Paris. The film goes between the husband trying to find his wife and son (mainly through his boss' son, who somehow works in foreign relations in the Middle East), and then the wife realizing the horrible situation she's in and how she wants to get out. The film is exciting to watch, and you're always wondering what will happen next. But it's hard to care about someone who is so clearly self-absorbed; if she had died, I wouldn't have cared. But through quick thinking, connections, and lots of money, she and the boy safely return to France. She is immediately arrested for kidnapping and spends three months in jail. But get this: the husband takes her back! And this is a true story! That man must really love her, even though the feeling clearly isn't mutual. Poor (stupid) guy.

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Un Divan a Tunis (Arab Blues) [Won the festival's Jury Award]

I like both the French and English titles. The French one translates as "a divan to Tunis," which alludes to the couch that patients sit on when meeting with a psychologist; the blues are what the clients are feeling and why they turn to Selma (played by Golshifteh Farahani) in the first place. Selma is a licensed psychoanalyst in Paris, but she comes back to Tunis where she grew up to open her own practice. We mainly see the protagonist as she is meeting with clients and her continued run-ins with cop Naim (played by Majd Mastoura) as he tries to tell her she cannot practice without a local license. I was amused by the film, and I especially love Selma's effortless sense of style (I wanted all of her clothes).

***

A common thread I saw in all of the movies was that European films are not nearly as politically correct as American movies are. There were certain jokes or instances that were supposed to be funny, but I was cringing instead of laughing. For example, in Arab Blues, one of her clients gets violent assuming she's a spy; another time the cop tells her to blow in his face because he doesn't have a breathalyzer. In both cases I was worried for the female character's safety, and that's never funny. I was actually surprised by how many audience members were laughing at moments like this. I'm not sure if this means that Americans are too sensitive, or that the rest of the world needs to follow our lead and realize that some things aren't funny. Ever.

Flying V's Crystal Creek Motel [SPOILERS]

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I had seen a Flying V production years ago when a friend of a friend was performing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda. I remembered that their shows are really creative and original works, so that's pretty cool. When I saw that they had a show at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, I figured that's close to me, and I've never been to that venue before. I didn't know much about the play, but I thought I'd take a gamble and buy two tickets, without even having a date in mind.

I did end up finding someone to go with, and I'm glad he was up for the random adventure. The main idea behind this play is that you're looking in on a motel room as different guests stay there throughout the year. When we first got to the box office, we were given room keys to the motel (the guy even said, "Have a nice stay"), so that was really cool and interactive. I wish that had continued into the lobby as we were waiting for doors to open. Once we could go into the theater, we handed in our room keys, and we settled in for the show.

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The show was broken up into two acts with six scenes each, representing every month of the year. Through the context of the music played as well as images projected onto the motel room's walls, I figured out that the year is supposed to be 2003. So you see pictures of George Bush and different news headlines, and the songs were reminiscent of my freshman year of high school (think Jewel's Intuition, the Dixie Chicks' Landslide, and Trapt's Headstrong). The technology the characters use is also older, like a Walkman and flip phones. I thought the team did a great job of making the audience feel like we really were back in time.

There were several directors for the scenes, so each director handled a couple of the "months" for the scenes. And in between each scene, a cleaning crew (played by Julieta Gonzalo and Erin Denman) would come into the room and straighten things up. Although they didn't have a lot of time on stage, it was cool to see them transform and change over time throughout the year.

I don't want to give too much away (since you should totally see the show for yourself!), but here are the synopses of each scene:

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January: Natalie Cutcher plays a woman on a business trip who clearly hates her job and her boss. She seems to go into a panic attack, but listening to music and losing herself inside the depressing songs seem to calm her down. There is a lighter part of the scene when she's dancing and someone outside the window sees her, and they both start dancing. I was glad there was a little bit of fun in the heavy scene.

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February: Quincy Vicks' character has paid a man (played by James Finley) to role play with him as WWE wrestlers. They play fight with each other, and at the end hold each other in their arms. Sometimes you just need an outlet, and this was theirs.

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March: This is probably one of the saddest parts of the play. Madeline Key plays an androgynous young woman who is addicted to cocaine. She spends the entire night snorting it, ignoring phone calls from her family members as they leave messages wondering where she is. We never learn what she's trying to escape from or why, but it was hard to watch a junkie going down a path of despair.

April: I really liked this scene! A woman (Momo Nakamura) is meeting a man at the motel for their anniversary. She gets there first, and while she waits, she daydreams about when they were younger. Linda Bard as the woman's younger self and Quincy Vicks as her lover as a young man magically appear from beneath the bed, and they start dancing around the room with each other (very ballet-inspired). The grown woman begins to dance with them as well, remembering the love and romance she shared with the man back then. But the memories upset her, and she calls the man telling him not to come, just as he knocks on the door. Then everything went black. So we didn't get to see how it ended!

May: This part was two scenes in one. Natalie Cutcher as a stewardess only has a short layover to fit in a quicky with James Finley's character. They fool around, he goes down on her, and then she rushes out of the room. Then they break the fourth wall, asking for a re-do on the scene. The second time around, they are more romantic with each other and end up just holding each other in bed before she has to leave; she comes back to give him her phone number so they can meet up another time. I think the characters (and the audience!) were more satisfied with the second go-around.

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June: This scene is almost entirely in Spanish. I was wondering why the program had a random folktale about a coyote printed in it, but that was the translation of the story. Thank goodness I read it ahead of time so I actually knew what was going on! A woman and a young girl have been kidnapped by a man, and the girl is very scared. So the woman starts telling her this story about the coyote running as fast as he can to escape evil. The story is simply a poetic way of telling her: RUN!

July: Quincy Vicks' character wants to draw graffiti on the walls, and then many other people emerge from inside the room (the armoire, the paintings on the wall, behind the curtains) seeming to egg him on. We never know who these people are: are they spirits, or maybe characters he has drawn? In the end he does draw something on the wall...I'm sure you can guess what it is.

August: I've never seen American Psycho before, but my date said he thought this scene was inspired by the movie. Paz Lopez' character Patty is planning to murder her friend at the motel, and she tricks her friend (played by Linda Bard) into coming over for milk shakes and apple pie with french fries. And then she does the deed, leaving the bathroom a bloody mess for the cleaning crew the next day.

September: Four cousins (played by James Finley, Jordan Clark Halsey, Madeline Key, and Momo Nakamura) all come to the motel room after receiving letters from their grandmother saying their inheritance could be found there. At first they fight over the money they might find, but in the end they realize that they're all there to have stronger relationships with each other.

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October: Linda Bard and Madeline Key play a lesbian couple, and one of them just outed the other in front of her family. They have a discussion about where their relationship stands and such, and in the end they romantically decide to run away to Canada to get married. Although random, my favorite part was when Bard started to play the cello. She can act, dance, and play the cello?!

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November: James Finley is mourning the loss of  his brother (I assume that's who it was) after the funeral. His brother's spirit (played by Jordan Clark Halsey) comes into the room and they dance together. It was touching but sad.

December: This is a New Year's Eve celebration including the entire cast. Everyone is having a good time, but one girl had planned to kill herself that night. She left a note for the cleaning crew telling them that they essentially saved her life; she didn't want to leave them with the horrible experience of finding her dead body. So while this is dark, it is a happy ending...?

I REALLY enjoyed this show and I highly recommend it. Very unique, one of a kind for sure! Purchase tickets here.

Here are some other reviews if you're interested:
DC Metro Theater Arts
The Sentinel
Washington City Paper
DC Theatre Scene

Recipe: Apple Peanut Butter Cookies

As white ladies in the fall are wont to do, a friend and I went apple picking at Homestead Farm. Even though I have done this before, every time I seem to forget that I do not need 10+ pounds of apples. But you get into the groove of picking (or simply keeping the unbruised ones from the ground), and you realize you've paid $20 for fruit. We finished off our day with a tour and wine tasting at Rocklands Farm Winery, where we enjoyed vegan dogs and cheese before heading home.

After a much needed nap (picking and carrying apples is hard work), I figured I should bake something with all my apples. Unfortunately, I picked a recipe from Taste of Home that only calls for one apple. So I might need to make these again. Twenty times.

Ingredients

•          1/2 cup shortening
•          1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
•         1/2 cup sugar
•          1/2 cup packed brown sugar
•          1 egg
•          1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•          1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•          1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•          1/2 teaspoon salt
•          1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•          1/2 cup grated peeled apple

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in apple.
• Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks.

And you know me: I couldn't follow the recipe to a T. I've never used shortening in my life, and when I read online that I could replace it with applesauce, I thought that would taste better anyway, especially for this recipe. I also used creamy instead of chunky peanut butter (The recipe specifically warns that using reduced-fat peanut butter won't work. Who eats that anyway?). My cookies don't look quite like the pictures on the website, but they do taste pretty good. Some comments online said that the peanut butter flavor wasn't that strong. I disagree, but I will admit mine have a somewhat rubbery texture. So not the best thing I've ever made, but not the worst. I think I'd be just as happy eating apple slices with peanut butter in their original forms.