Poe @ South Street Seaport

Went last night to the NYRSF 200th Birthday Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, where Delia read from her short story "The Red Piano" in Ellen Datlow's new anthology, POE. Delia's reading was delightful and hilarious. Someone asked afterwards if I was jealous - emphatically not! She's been to so many of my gigs, being proud & supportive - it was great to get to relax, watch her be all squiggly beforehand, say soothing things & make sure she had her gig bag, and then watch her perform and enjoy the audience's delight. The other readers were terrific, as well.

I was very tired, and had put on something brown and cosy to go out in - but when I saw Delia got up in all her gothy finery, I changed to match her. ellen_datlow's description of the full event is here, and her photos of us are here and the Next page. I adore them. I am wearing a fetching little hat (which is, in fact, my everyday NYC street hat) and am carrying my Chanukah present from Delia, the Metropolitan Museum Fabergé "lorgnette" (actually a magnifying glass, but very useful when I've got my contacts in! The old version, which I actually liked better, as it has a longer handle, is now on sale. Oh, yes, and note the cool rose ring d_aulnoy gave me!) We got one good shot of me "in character" - the rest, I am sadly cracking up because everyone gathered around shouting encouragement.

Poe's actual 200th birthday will be January 18th. It's not too late to plan a celebration - why not invite some friends over to read some of the master's work aloud, while sipping Amontillado?

NYC treats

Women Beware Women, Thomas Middleton's scrumptious Jacobean revenge tragedy, gets a delicious po-mo production at Red Bull Theatre (the ones who brought us Marlowe's Edward II last year) - we saw it with friends, everyone loved it, and now it's been extended to Jan. 18th, with a limited number of discount tix on TDF.org. Don't miss it - it's not like this sort of thing happens very often!

Also on TDF - but reasonably priced even without - is Tarantella: Spider Dance, by Alessandra Belloni and I Giullari di Piazza ("Southern Italian Folk Music, Ritual Dance & Theatre" - playing in NYC Jan 10-11. I like her stuff, used to play her albums on Sound & Spirit: music is that appealing (to me, anyway) blend of medieval/trad/world. Sounds like it will be quite a show - sorry I'll have to miss it! Her website says it's a one-of-a-kind presentation that invokes ancient traditions of the Winter and Summer Solstice, when people gathered in the woods to celebrate orgiastic rites in honor of Dionysus. Women danced with swords to the sounds of tambourines and violins in a frenzy driven by the myth of the spider. Originating in Greek rites of the Bacchantes, the tradition continued into the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when women involved were called Tarantate. By stomping their feet and spinning, the women symbolically expelled the poison of the mythical bite of the tarantula. There are music & video clips there.

Cyrano! on PBS! tonight!

Hey! The Kevin Kline Cyrano de Bergarac that I saw (and posted about) last year on Broadway is on PBS "Great Performances" tonight at 8:00!

Aha, thinks I, I'll have plenty of time to figure out how to record via my new DVD player/recorder...

Oh, ha. No f*in' way. The words of the Manual, they are as the Hindu Greek to me - or rather, the things it does when I ask it to obey the manual are just plain silly, and not at all to the point.

So if anyone else manages to capture it, I would be much obliged to you for a copy. [ADDED: My tech god, Mr E-- M--, is doing so even as I type. Let's hope his works! - He was kind enough to point out to me that the reason the Input Cable thingie was coming up blank was because there is, indeed, no cable put in to my DVD yet. Ha. I'm not as dumb as I look.]

If you read my old post, you'll see why: it does seem like a Sign from the New Year, showing up as it does this very week, to sit down and get started on the thing. You may be sure I will consult your many helpful comments of 12/8/07 as I do so.

**ADDED**
I'm so happy that lots of people got to see it because of my post (useful, for once!) - and that more technosavvy (or better-endowed) than I will look it up and record the 2 a.m./repeat broadcasts...)! Enjoy - and let me know what you thought.

Twelfth Night, or, What You Will

Plays, plays, plays . . . .

Since moving to NYC, we've established an annual Twelfth Night Dinner & Playreading with my old gang from the last time I lived here some years ago - now dispersed some to academic positions in farflung flyover states, but reliably back here for the holidays . . . This year, we did Ben Jonson's THE ALCHEMIST, and it was a surpisingly great readaloud. We always cast gender-blind, and switch off parts with abandon so that everyone gets to be The Star (or the Bawd or....) for at least one act.

(But Ellen, I hear you say, Twelfth Night was yesterday, Jan. 6th, and you said you went to Delia's POE reading! Ah, well - this year we made it Erev Twelfth Night instead!)

So this is to encourage everyone who's ever wanted to be Beatrice or Benedick, or Cyrano or Jennet Jourdemayne or Lady Teazle or Septimus Hodge or the Prince of Denmark to waylay some friends with promises of punch, and do a playreading party before the month is out.

Which play would you choose, if you could be utterly selfish?