Gilmabelfest Day 2 - part 1 More of Maison CG

While Porthos and Oscar read their kobo in the breakfast nook, I'll show you a little of Maison Chez Gilbs...
Maison CG was purchased by him and his (now ex)wife. It feels like living in a Regency London home, because the houses here are very skinny but taaaall row houses, with little London-type back yards. You better understand the sense of "he led her up to the drawing room." You enter on the main, you go up to the kitchen-dining room-living room, then up to the office and guest bedroom, and then up to the master suite.

The house was also decorated by the previous owner, A Personage of Exceedingly Flamboyant Taste (which is why Gilby and Laurel's housewarming theme was "70s porno.") You can't throw a stick in this house without hitting (a) a mirror, or (b) a cheesy light fixture.

Here's the dining room. It has mirrors on two sides, and even a light sticking out from one of the mirrors.

Do inspect the close-up. Note the faux-melted wax.

Here is the guest bathroom, which again contains both key decorating elements, plus a wealth of marble (or fake marble, I wouldn't know.)

It's truly awesome. If I bought a house like this, I can't imagine redecorating, but rather running out to Village des Valeurs to find appropriate furnishings.

Gilmabelfest Day 1 - Part 3 Chez Maison Gilby (the only non-gay in the vill-age) (if you don't watch Little Britain, never mind)

Oscar looks worn out from all the running around.

I picked up William tonight at intermission... thought I should add him to my menagerie of traveling companions. But he looks unhappy to have to be sharing a bed. (We're right in the gay nabe, so maybe he's as at home as Oscar.) (He looks more like a musketeer than William Shakespeare, doesn't he. Maybe I'll rename his Porthos.)

Gilmabelfest Day 1 - Part 2 The Performance

So we came in at this song, were Evita's arrived in Buenos Aires. I love the song, so that was disappointing, but I expected to miss it.

At least we didn't miss "Goodnight and thank-you." And "Peron's Latest Flame" was perfect. (That song always makes me think of my friend Banana, because we saw the movie together and she died laughing at the scene of showering men singing.)

We had a great view from the back, but without my glasses I couldn't see facial expressions. So it was still nice after intermission to go down to row K. We were right in the middle, so my view of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" was exactly like this:

When Evita came out on the stage in her glowing white dress, it was one of those Great Moments in Theater, when you experience that whole "oooh zee magique of theatah!" And Chilina Kennedy blew me away throughout. I only know the Madonna version, which is very good, but the director of that film brought out a more tender, vulnerable side of Evita.

In this version, she's one tough broad. Still vulnerable, but really hiding it. The force of her personality sort of pinned you to the back of your seat. The other actors were great, but on par with the film version. Kennedy, on the other hand, was just a totally different version than the Madonna/Alan Parker version. Really electric.

Here's her "Don't Cry for Me". Her acting in this scene was riveting.


And here's Madonna in the Alan Parker film--the end of this scene is played as really heartbreaking; whereas in the Stratford version, Evita is singing faster and almost yelling at God. Two really great ways to do it, and shows how much a director's vision brings you something new. In a good production, anyway. Well worth The Race to Stratford.


Sitting next to us was a nice couple from Michigan who've been going to Strat for 40 years. Unfortunately they told us that the first 20 minutes we missed was really powerful.

So then, I hated them.

Gilmabelfest Day 1 - Part 1 Trying to get to Stratford

Well, I haven't had a standby suspense day like that in years! For years now when I've flown standby I would check in advance to see free seats vs. people registered as standby, and if there's more of the former than the latter, no problem getting on.

But I think I usually avoided traveling on a Friday! There seemed to be a lot of employees who kept showing up (every time I saw a set of brass wings I cursed!) and my dad said a lot of business travelers will show up, hoping to fly standby back home for the weekend.

Normally I really wouldn't mind--provided there's still a lot of possible flights to get on, it means a lot of sitting around in the airport, but eventually you get on and I get to my destination. My destination was usually My Mom's House, so no deadline. When I came out to Gilmabelfest last year I think I bought a ticket, though, and when I went to London of course.

But this year I thought, nah, I'll save the money and just go early enough to get through several flights. Meeps! I missed two before making it on the third. And they were at opposite ends of the concourse, which made it funnier. The first flight was at gate 1. Then gate 51. Then gate 5. And there's no moving ramp in the Montreal airport.

When I finally got my ticket, the nice employee at the gate said: Sorry we only have middle seats.

!!

(It's a one hour flight, not to mention this is a great privilege to travel for only the cost of the taxes. I don't take that for granted.)

I said: I'm just glad to get on, I'm going to a show!!

But then we left 15 minutes late because there was some connecting passenger who they weren't sure made the flight, and weren't sure if his baggage did. Damn you Passenger Jones!!!

On the plus side, they must have sent our luggage on the previous flight (though they're not supposed to for security reasons) because mine was just sitting there waiting for me on the ground by the wheel. Yay!

But Gilby hadn't put together the fact that if he'd left his nearby work early enough to be waiting for my flight, we could have left right away. (He's in charge of a huuuuge job right now, so all his brain cellulage is taken up by that. Plus I'm the planner. His enjoyment of Gilmabelfest is that he does 0 planning.)

There was traffic like a mozefoze, so he got to me by 6:35, and traffic like a mozefoze getting out of town. But we made it to the theater by 8:20, which is better than we initially hoped for. (His onstar navigation actually gave us an updated ETA as we drove, which was fun.)

It was in the smaller theater, which turned out well, because what they do is seat you secretly in the back, and you can go to your seat at intermission. Well the theater is so small they were great seats anyway! (It's where we saw Earnest last year, next to our old hotel.)

So all's well that ends well.