Spring Camping Trip

For the past three days I have been at my favorite KOA in Fillmore relaxing!  I needed a little getaway and I couldn't think of anything better than sitting on the front porch of a cabin and reading all day.  I really like this KOA because it is in the middle of nowhere so it is very quiet and peaceful and it is close enough that it doesn't require a lot of travel time (it is about two hours south of where I live) but far enough away to feel like a real getaway.  I have been coming here for years (by myself and with various members of my family) and the former owners knew me by name.  There are new owners now but they are very kind and welcoming and I had to laugh when they offered to show me the way to my cabin because I've stayed in this exact one several times (as well as others).  I didn't take any day trips this time because I just wanted to relax but there are quite a few things to do within driving distance.  The weather was a bit too cold to stay outside for long periods (it even snowed on Sunday) so I spent most of the day inside the cabin reading under a blanket (the cabin has a heater) which was wonderful.  I spent the evening watching movies on my laptop before falling asleep to the sound of rain hitting the roof.  It was perfect!  My sisters and I are caring for our Mom full-time now and I really appreciate the fact that they were willing to pick up the slack so I could have a weekend away!  It was exactly what I needed!

Jazz Game With Angela

It has been more than two years since I have been to a Jazz game (the last time I went was over Christmas break in 2019 with Sean and Tashena) and I have really missed going!  It has also been almost two years since I have seen any of my former colleagues from Hunter High and I have really missed them.  My friend and former colleague, Angela, invited me to the Jazz game against the Los Angeles Clippers last night and it was so much fun to catch up and watch the game together!  Even though quite a few players, including my favorite Donovan Mitchell, were out for injuries, it was a really good game and the atmosphere at the Vivint Arena was positively electric.  The Jazz took an early 17-4 lead in the first few minutes of the first quarter and they never gave it up!  They went on a 30-4 run before half-time and that got the crowd on their feet cheering!  The Jazz lost a little momentum in the third quarter but were never in any danger of losing the lead and ended up beating the Clippers 121-92.  It was really exciting to watch because Rudy Gobert, Jordan Clarkson, Eric Paschall, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Jared Butler were all on fire and ended the night in double digits.  Both Angela and I had smiles on our faces during the entire game and I had such a great time.  She invited me to another game next month and I am so excited!

The Band's Visit at the Eccles

I didn't know anything about the musical The Band's Visit, other than it won ten Tony Awards including Best Musical, before I saw the Broadway touring production last night.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen before but I found it to be a bit underwhelming, especially for a show that has received so much acclaim.  The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives at the Tel Aviv airport in Israel after being invited to perform at a cultural center in Petah Tikvah.  The representative appointed to meet them is not there so they decide to take a bus.  However, they mispronounce the name and arrive in the desert town of Bet Hatikva (the mispronunciation of the name of the town is a running joke throughout the show) instead.  They stop at a cafe owned by Dina (Janet Dacal) and, when they ask for directions to the cultural center, she figures out the mistake.  She and two of her employees, Papi (Coby Getzug) and Itzik (Clay Singer), offer to put them up for the night.  Once the band members realize that they have missed the one and only bus to Petah Tikvah and that there is only one pay phone, which is guarded by a man (Joshua Grosso) waiting endlessly for his girlfriend to call him back, they reluctantly agree.  Three of the band members, Tewfiq (Sasson Gabay), Simon (James Rana), and Haled (Joe Joseph), share their stories and have a positive effect on the lives of Dina, who feels like her life is going nowhere and yearns for a connection, Papi, who doesn't have the confidence to approach his secret crush, and Itzik, who is struggling to live up to the responsibilities of being a husband and a father.  The action is very slow and very understated and it almost seems like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive story.  The musical numbers are also strangely unremarkable, except for "Papi Hears the Ocean" and "Answer Me" which were my favorites, and there are long periods of total silence as the characters, who speak different languages, struggle to communicate with each other in English (I found the silence very disconcerting).  None of the actors have particularly strong voices, but I was especially disappointed by Dacal because she was unable to project the strength and charisma required by her character.  I did really enjoy the traditional music played by the band members (Yoni Avi Battat, Roger Kashou, Brian Krock, Kane Mathis, and Wick Simmons) in between the scenes, the drab colors used in the minimal set juxtaposed with the bright blue of the band member's uniforms, and the message that people are more alike than different but I didn't especially like the show as a whole.  The Band's Visit has been on my list for a long time so I am glad I had the opportunity to see it.

Note:  I was extremely tired last night so there is every possibility that I was not in the proper mood to appreciate the subtleties of this show.  Others may find it more appealing (go here for more information and tickets).

Utah Opera's Tosca

Utah Opera is slowly but surely converting me into a fan of modern librettos and more artistic interpretations of traditional operas but I will always be a fan of the classic tragedies where desperate lovers die for love and I will always prefer productions that stay true to the time and place in the source material.  For this reason, I have been looking forward to Tosca for what seems like forever!  Not only is this one of my very favorite operas but the performance last night was amazing!  Floria Tosca (Katie Van Kooten) is a fiery and passionate singer with two men in love with her:  her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi (Dimitri Pittas), and the Police Chief, Baron Scarpia (Stephen Powell), who wants to possess her at any cost.  Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi for aiding a political prisoner and sentences him to death.  He tells Tosca that he will release him if she submits to him, promising her that the firing squad will be a ruse.  She agrees but when he embraces her, she stabs him with a knife.  She visits Cavaradossi in the Castel Sant'Angelo to tell him that he must pretend to die and then they can run away together when the guards leave.  However, Scarpia has betrayed her and Cavaradossi is actually killed by the firing squad.  Knowing that she will be accused of Scarpia's murder and unwilling to live without Cavaradossi, Tosca leaps to her death from the parapet of the Castel Sant'Angelo.  The music by Giacomo Puccini is incredibly beautiful (Conductor Steven White has a very light touch and I really enjoyed his interpretation of the music) and the three main actors give brilliant performances!  There were so many moments that took my breath away, including a scene in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle at the end of Act 1 where Scarpia reveals his plan to execute Cavaradossi and possess Tosca while a procession sings the Te Deum (I loved the Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School in this scene), Tosca's aria "Vissi d'arte" at the end of Act 2 where she asks God to help her, and the scene in Act 3 where Cavaradossi sings the aria "E lucevan le stelle" reminiscing about his love for Tosca while awaiting execution (my favorite moment in the opera).  The sets of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Scarpia's study in the Palazzo Farnese, and the Castel Sant'Angelo are very elaborate and they add to the overall dramatic feeling of the opera.  I also loved the sumptuous costumes, especially Tosca's magenta dress (which is unceremoniously removed by Scarpia).  I loved everything about this opera and I highly recommend getting a ticket for one of the remaining performances (go here).

Note:  The young man sitting next to me was attending his very first opera.  He definitely picked a good one!

The Cartographers

My March Book of the Month selection was The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (the other options were Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma, The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley, The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith, Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse, The Verifiers by Jane Pek, and The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James). The novel begins as an intriguing murder mystery when Nell Young is informed that her estranged father, Doctor Daniel Young, has been been found dead at his desk in the Map Division of the New York Public Library under suspicious circumstances. When she returns to the NYPL after an absence of seven years to deal with her father's estate, she finds a worthless gas station map of New York state from the 1930s in a secret drawer. This map was the source of a bitter argument between the two of them and she wonders why he still has it in his possession.  As she begins investigating its origins, she discovers that there is much more to this map than meets the eye and that it may even be the reason her father was murdered. It is at this point that the novel becomes a fantasy with elements of horror as clues lead her to her father's friends from university and a dangerous group known as The Cartographers who are willing to stop at nothing to get the last copy of this map. I stayed up reading until the wee hours of the morning because I had to know why the map was so valuable and I was not disappointed because the reason is so clever and imaginative! The narrative alternates between Nell's investigation in the present and flashbacks to her early childhood as her mother and father begin their careers in cartography and this is very effective in building suspense. There are lots of twists and turns as each of the characters from Daniel's past tell Nell their stories and reveal a little bit more of the mystery. Nell is an incredibly compelling protagonist because she begins to experience the same dark obsession that set these events in motion and I enjoyed her character arc. As a bit of a history buff, I found all of the detailed descriptions of historical maps and the intricate processes (and secrets) involved in making them to be fascinating. I also loved all of the supernatural elements because, even though the plot is fantastical, it is grounded in reality. I absolutely loved this novel and would definitely recommend it, especially to fans of mysteries and magical realism (and nerds like me who appreciate an academic setting).