I'm-a gonna get me some culture.

Internet,

You're very useful. Through you, I bought opera tix today. For a SCHOOL NIGHT! Now, let's hope and pray like mad that I will be able to use my ticket: I would prefer not to end up sitting at work on the floor or in committee when the opera is going on a few short blocks away. In the words of a co-worker today (Hi, Ed K!), "Man plans. God laughs." But I hope that God is laughing with me in this case - all the way to the Ordway.

And apparently I've completely forgotten my own advice from the last couple of weeks (see more uplifting, funny, comedic things, and less dramatic, stab-out-your-own-eyeballs-depressing things): Lucia di Lammermoor. But it has music! So that makes all the difference in the world. People can say the saddest things ever, as long as it has beautiful music to accompany it. Right? (Says the girl who loves melancholy throughout her music and believes 90% of the best music comes in minor keys.)

Anyway, as long as we're on the subject of the theatrical performances, I'll mention that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last weekend (or was it the weekend before? I can't remember...all of my days blur into one big work-fest) was good. It was a little difficult to watch in some ways - I'm already stressed out, and watching other people (fictitious though they may be) stress out isn't exactly relaxing. But it wasn't as bad as End of the Rainbow, either, in that I didn't wish for death by a thousand paper cuts, using the playbill as the weapon with which to find solace. So. In short, I really don't think any production can ever really overcome Liz Taylor and Paul Newman, but it was good. I think the best actor in the entire production (and made me forget the movie the most) is David Anthony Brinkley, playing the role of Big Daddy.

And as long as we're talking culture, we might as well throw in Masterpiece Theater. Last year, Internet, I got totally hooked on Downton Abbey. So you can imagine that it was with great anticipation that I watched the second season, finally finishing the last episodes over the weekend (pretty sure it was just this weekend). It's all over the top and completely British and a guilty-soap opera type-pleasure. And I love it, along with pretty much everyone else in America.

And now that I've moved onto stuff people watch on TV, well, the high brow has left the building, and if I keep going down the cultural rabbit trail, I'm going to be discussing live active yoghurt cultures soon. Let's not, shall we?

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

p.s. Lest you think I am too uppity for words with all of my opera, theater and other snobbish, dry television performances, does it make you feel better to know that I renewed my Reader's Digest subscription today, too? And that it's the only magazine to which I subscribe? Hmmm? Well, it should make you feel better about things. But I'll be perfectly honest: it's not like I'm going to sit at the opera and read RD whilst I await the performance to begin. Just sayin'.