Poem for Saturday

Sonnet Substantially Like the Words of F Rodriguez One Position Ahead of Me on the Unemployment Line
By Jack Agüeros

It happens to me all the time--business
Goes up and down but I'm the yo-yo spun
Into the high speed trick called sleeping
Such as I am fast standing in this line now.

Maybe I am also a top; they too sleep
While standing, tightly twirling in place.
I wish I could step out and listen for
The sort of music that I must make.

But this is where the state celebrates its sport.
From cushioned chairs the agents turn your ample
Time against you through a box of lines.
Your string is both your leash and lash.

         The faster you spin, the stiller you look.
         There's something to learn in that, but what?

--------

Morning was laundry and fighting to recover a bunch of computer stuff, plus trying to keep my two kids and neighbor from killing one another over the lack of a second Wii nunchuck for boxing. Older son wanted to go see Eragon again, I was willing, younger son did not want to see it again, the timing of local shows wasn't great considering that we had evening plans, and I ended up taking them to Bagel City instead because we were out of good bagels which was all they wanted for lunch and we all agreed we needed good lox spread in the house as well. Then we stopped in both Best Buy and Circuit City to see if either one had Wii nunchucks in stock...no luck. Older son tried to convince me that we need one of the Wii retro controllers but since we don't actually have any retro games for the Wii, I remained unmoved. Now, can someone explain to me this Wii points system and do we have to have wireless internet to download those games and how do you pay for them?

's office closed at 3, so he came home early, and we drove downtown to the Kennedy Center where the awesome Al Petteway and Amy White were performing on the Millennium Stage, which is always free. They have a new CD, Winter Tidings, and they played both classic carols and original compositions from it on guitar, mandolin, harp, piano, bouzouki, dulcimer, banjo and assorted African and Native American drums. They also played a fabulous percussion piece on the guitars, striking the wood and strings instead of strumming. Al and Amy used to live in Takoma Park and work with a lot of the local folk performers (Maggie Sansone et al) but now they live near Asheville, North Carolina, in the Smoky Mountains, and they have gorgeous photos on their web site of the wildlife and scenery.


All my photos of the concert are as mediocre as this one, since 1) we were quite a distance from the stage (the reflection is in the refreshments counter), 2) no flash was allowed and 3) I only had the little Nikon.


But I kind of like the weird light effects and the mirroring, despite the blur (the lighting onstage changed between these photos, it's not an effect of camera settings!).


Here's an attempt at perspective on how far we were from the stage. (And this is a teeny stage...the big Eisenhower Theater is off to the right.)


I do kind of like the way the blur looks here, while I was sitting on the floor waiting for the concert to start.


Terrace fountain with Rosslyn, Virginia lights visible in the background across the Potomac.

Unfortunately we had to stand through the entire concert because the Kennedy Center was absolutely packed! All the bigger theaters were in use today before and after the Millennium Stage concert -- Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in the Eisenhower Theater, The Light in the Piazza in the Opera House, The Spirit of Kwanzaa in the Concert Hall, Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka in the Terrace Theater...and it seemed like everyone was in the Grand Foyer between 6-7 p.m. before heading off to the larger shows! Still worth it, and doesn't get any better than free, and it was a gorgeous night to stand out on the terrace looking at DC over the Kennedy Center fountains. We are planning to go again next Saturday, when there is going to be a free staged reading of Twelfth Night with prominent local actors, but it is going to be even more of a madhouse...the National Symphony is doing a children's concert in the Family Theater, The Light in the Piazza, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka are all continuing, Shear Madness is in the Theater Lab...will be mobbed!

: This New Year:
1. Big Party or stay at home alone? Going out all day to Wilmington Museums and Longwood Gardens, spending late night with immediate family.
2. Stay up to watch the ball drop? Yes, though I am usually up at midnight on a weekend/day off, anyway.
3. Will you make any resolutions? Hah, I know better!
4. Is Dick Clark a good host for New Year's Eve? Been watching him most of my life so at this point I'd say yes purely based on nostalgia.
5. Do you know the words to Auld Lang Syne? Yes.

: Celebrities
1. Are you related to anyone famous or do you have any famous friends? If so, who? Not related to anyone famous, have no friends who are nationally or internationally famous, know a few people as acquaintances whom some people have likely heard of based upon their professions but am not silly enough to name them in a meme.
2. Do you have any autographs or memorabilia? Lots and lots, mostly Star Trek-related.
3. If you could meet any 3 celebrities who would they be? Whoever are going to be the President, Vice President and Speaker of the House in 2008. If I'm going to meet celebrities I want them to be people who can actually get things done.
4. What would you want to be famous for doing? Curing cancer. It would help if I had gone to medical school, I suppose.
5. Who's the most annoying celebrity? I was going to say Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and other people who are far more famous for being famous than for having any talent etc., but this year Tom Cruise really cemented his role as Most Annoying Celebrity of the Decade. I mean, at least Mel Gibson wasn't TRYING to be caught on tape saying all that crap...

: What are the top five things you would like to have happen in 2007, in any fandom? (I'm going with Harry Potter, which looks likely to have a banner year.)
1. I want Deathly Hallows 1) to be released and 2) to rock.
2. I want a good explanation for Tonks' behavior in Half-Blood Prince.
3. I want my Snape redeemed! Would prefer him alive as well, but would rather have him dead and redeemed than surviving but perceived as a villain.
4. I want Gary Oldman and David Thewlis to play Sirius and Remus just as in love in Order of the Phoenix as they were in Prisoner of Azkaban.
5. I want Lucius Malfoy to go out in a blaze of glory. I don't care whether he switches sides because it serves his family's interest or remains an unrepentant evildoer, I just want lots of him. A scene where he seduces everyone on one side or the other would not go amiss.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I was looking for an interview Jason Isaacs gave to The Jewish Journal a couple of years ago for a friend, in which Jason said he's uncomfortable talking about his religious background in the UK press -- this came up because Daniel Radcliffe told an Australian interviewer that his mother is Jewish -- and came across another Jason interview which I had read before, but somehow the name of whom he was kissing had not hit me when the interviewer asked him who his favorite onscreen kiss was and he said, "They're all free kisses and for a man who has been in a relationship for 17 years -- they're marvellous! I love them all, even snogging Daniel Craig." Why couldn't I have seen that production of Angels In America!

I can't feel anything but that he richly deserved to die, but at the same time the news orgy over Saddam sickens me and I can't stand all the "we expect video and still pictures of the execution and the corpse soon" hype. Am trying to focus on happier news like the Terrapins beating Purdue easily in the Champs Sports Bowl, a 24-7 win for Maryland. But am getting up early to drive to Delaware for museum-hopping and hopefully a look at the Kalmar Nyckel docked in Wilmington, so I had better stop thinking about any of this and go to bed!