Zathras' Great Machine

A magical night

Last night was truly wonderful. We left the house at about 3:30 and got to Tara Thai at about 5. I decided to order the Larb Gai and the duck, which is what I usually have at my favorite Thai restaurant, Duangrat's, which is not just the best Thai I've ever had, but just about the best food ever. Tara Thai, naturally, doesn't hold up against Duangrat's, but it's still quite good, and it's also rather less expensive. Denise also had the duck, but chose the spring rolls for an appetizer. (Oddly, her duck was quite a bit better than mine; juicier and more tender).

We dawdled over our meals for an hour and a half or so, her finishing with mango sorbet ice cream, me opting for a cup of coffee with a shot of Bailey's. I persuaded Denise to try a sip of the Bailey's before I put it in my coffee... I've always thought Bailey's was a rather smooth and mild beverage, but Denise didn't care for it, finding it rather too "lively". Ah, well. There's no accounting for tastes. :^)

We then headed back to the Metro to head out to Wolf Trap. There was a bit of confusion at the West Falls Church Metro station, since they're renovating the bus terminal area, but we got it straightened out in fairly short order and located the Wolf Trap shuttle bus. The ride to Wolf Trap was about ten minutes, made rather enjoyable and amusing by our exceptionally silly driver. He started the trip by asking all the passengers whether there were any history teachers on the bus -- there weren't (too bad K couldn't have been there!) The driver then proceeded to fill the ten-minute trip with various gags and trivia questions, mostly about U.S. history, especially presidents. Example: Which U.S. President's real name was Leslie King? (No, I'm not going to tell you the answer... if you're that curious, Google it!)

We got to Wolf Trap about half an hour before the show started, just enough time to make a "pit stop" and to spend a few minutes looking at the souvenirs. No, we didn't buy any; even if we were both filthy rich, which we're not, everything there was horribly overpriced (typical for that kind of venue, of course). Finally, we settled into our seats shortly before the show started.

There's really no way to describe what it's like to attend a show at Wolf Trap -- you have to experience it. How to convey, for example, the feeling you get when you're listening to an uillean pipist performing and being able to look out at the forest in the dusk? Or the magic of seeing dancers performing steps that don't even seem humanly possible in their speed and agility? "Irish Thunder and Lightning!" exclaims The Washington Post, and it really is.

My favorite dance in the show is "Thunderstorm". The theme of the dance is overcoming infinite adversity with nothing more than the sheer strength of one's own willpower. The dancers are all clad in black, and the dance is completely a cappella, which fits in with the theme (that is, "We are so powerful that we will overcome any adversity with no outside help at all, not even from music.") It's almost Kafka-esque, in an unusual sort of way, except that in this dance, the "nameless/faceless torturer" isn't a nameless/faceless human or humans, it's the nameless/faceless elements.

"Thunder and lightning batter the rocks. The winds howl and great storms break on the forest, scatter the herds like grain. Fire leaps from dark to dark; fear and anger leap to meet it... We will not go down. We will not be beaten down like grain."

The show ended at about 10:30 and was followed by another amusing trip with the bus driver. "Look at all these crowds! They'd better get out of the way, I'm losing patience and I might just run someone over. [passengers laugh] Oh, you don't believe me? OK, here then. --Hey, you! Get out of the way! Get out of the way now! [Bus runs over speed bump] I told you I'd run him over!"

We got back to the house at about midnight and went thru our mail together. Denise conked out before me, astonishingly enough... while she hit the hay, I did some more work on migrating from the evil OS X Mail client back to the far-superior Eudora, finally turning in myself at about 2 AM.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend an evening. Even if I did have to point out to Denise, as we were on the shuttle out to Wolf Trap... "Hey. We're on a date, you know." No, she didn't know, but seemed to appreciate the reminder. :^)

Posted by Zathras at June 29, 2003 11:12 AM