Bulletin Board of the Brain » Seattle

“What Yankee Candle Means to Me” Ep 11: Just Say No to Cherries On Snow

Kj — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:32:18 +0000

“What Yankee Candle Means to Me” Part 10. ‘Time to start bringing in the warmth’

Kj — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:30:40 +0000

There Will Come A Day When This Blog Is No Longer Just About Yankee Candle: That Day Is Not Today

Kj — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:13:54 +0000

“What Yankee Candle Means to Me”
Episode 9.

What Yankee Candle Means To Me: Episode 8.

Kj — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 06:26:18 +0000

The Memorial Coatroom Literary Society Reads Colette

Kj — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 05:14:40 +0000

Last month, the Memorial Coatroom Literary Society met to discuss Colette’s “The Vagabond” (1910). By an odd chance (or inclination?) we chose yet another book translated from French, written by a famous woman author. None of us had read any Colette, though Courtney directed a play about Colette’s stint as a stage performer, so we opted to try The Vagabond (fiction based on her performing life) rather than her more well-known Claudine books.

And to discuss this post-fin-de-siècle (I guess just siècle?) story of the French stage, we decided to meet up at Seattle’s greatest Burlesque show and bar, Can Can. Buried under Pike Place Market, Can Can is the creative home of the Can Can Castaways: in my opinion, the best artists bar none in Seattle, regardless of genre. The Castaways are avante garde, witty, beautiful and truly celebratory of the human body. (And the bar has some fabulous absinthe cocktails).

So the three of us drank our cocktails and disussed a hundred-year-old book, cuz that’s how we roll.

We all identifed with the protagonist in some enlightening and disturbing ways. We were also suprised to find the story far more existential than plot-oriented. Shasti said she would have liked it more if it been actually written as memoir instead of as veiled biographical fiction. And I agree, since the main character was compelling (or at least authentic feeling) but there was little in the narrative to keep you turning the pages. Courtney called the book more a philosophical exercise than story.

But though we didn’t fall in love with the book by any means, we found it fascinating, and well-worth reading.

AND, since the editions we read were greatly lacking in annotations or informative footnotes, I created an online home for our literary society where we can upload our annotations, research as well as update our list of potential bookclub books!

Yes. Be amazed at our awesomeness.

Here’s my official book review. And coming soon…we dive into 18th century gothic sensationalism! Woo hoo!

The Vagabond by Colette

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For those expecting “Diaries of a French Burlesque Dancer”, prepare to be disappointed. While one may approach Colette’s behind-the-scenes of a traveling pantomime artist in turn-of-the-century France expecting it to be flavored with salacious frivolity to match Colette’s reputation, what you’ll find is more an existentialist rumination on ambivalence, than story of a passionate life. In fact, if there’s one thing that most defines the divorcee-turned-stage-performer Reneé Neré, it’s her distrust of passion. Colette’s largely-biographical novel tracks the frustrations, distractions and depressions of a woman in her early thirties whom, in the fallout of a disastrous and damaging marriage, chooses a life of solitude on the stage, rather than one of societal rules. But it’s not a story of the gay and free life of an artist. Instead, the monotony and doubt expressed by Reneé are all-too-recognizable for any single woman reader today, particularly if that reader is in-between jobs and still trying to figure out what to do with her life, with men, and with herself. (ahem).

Did I enjoy this book? Not particularly. The protagonist’s reflections on self-doubt and self-denial are disruptive, and even at times, numbing.
Do I respect this book? Absolutely. To read something that speaks so frankly about women’s experience, women’s fears and women’s strength much less about a woman living in her own apartment and making her own living during a time when corsets were still ubiquitous, is both humbling and empowering. But to spend time with Reneé Neré, is to linger in a space of dissociative hesitation and unconscious compulsion. It’s uncomfortable, but truthful.

Read, respect, but do not expect to revel.

**The Dover Edition is terrible. Stanley Applebaum’s introduction is meant to replace what endnotes would be, but this book desperately needs endnotes for the cultural and historical references. Also, Applebaums new “Americanized” translation reads at times like an Archie comic book. The Enid MacLeod translation may be 60 years old and egregiously British, but it’s still better.**

View all my reviews

The Memorial Coatroom Literary Society Reads George Sand

Kj — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:06:15 +0000

Those of us who worked at Intiman Theatre over the past few years, couldn’t fail to notice that nearly everyone employed as Front of House staff had or was working on a Masters Degree, or had attended a conservatory, or was basically just incredibly erudite. This may have resulted from the fact that working FOH positions was an ideal part-time job for students and artists. Or simply, that only over-educated people are willing to get paid a bare minimum just to be around theatre. Who knows?

But with Intiman closing for 2011, we’ve lost that hub of book-recommending, DVD-sharing and music-reviewing that was the Intiman Theatre FOH staff shift.

But for the three of us who traded nights managing the whole shebang, our trinity of Superman/Clark Kent-ness could never hang out because one of us was always being Superman, if you’re following my tenuous metaphor. So now that Intiman is dark, not only have I seen more theater in the past 4 weeks than I did in the 5 years previous (because I’m not in a theater 6 nights a week), but my fellow Superman/ClarkKents and I have formed our own mini-book club.

We’ve tentatively named ourselves “The Memorial Coatroom Literary Society,” after the actual coatroom where we worked that had a memorial placard on it. Yes- someone actually had a coatroom named after them…. It’s a nice little nod to the office we all shared (office literally and figuratively).

We just finished our first book together, meeting at the half-way point of the book, and then when we were finished. So far, we’ve managed to book-end (pun) our book club meetings with attending a theater performance, and we’re sticking with that goal from here on.

The cutest part of our book club, besides us and our tentative name, is the process by which we chose our first book. We each typed up a list of 12 books, then each made a list of 7 books from the 36 we’d submitted, then narrowed it to 5(?) and somehow all agreed on a final choice. Our second book, which we’ve all just ordered, was just a matter of Courtney saying “What about this one?” and Shasti and I saying “sure.” But until then, here’s my review of our first book club book. We all pretty much felt the same.

Indiana by George Sand

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Certainly an enjoyable read, but it necessitated wearing my “early 19th-century” lenses to be carried into it. Not sure if as literature it resonates beyond its own context. In other words, I was really only ever impressed or amused by the book when I tried to imagine how it would have been received by novel readers in 1832. Would they have identified with the heroine? Been annoyed at her earnestness? Would they have rooted for the love affair only to be shocked (or insulted) when it became clear the guy was a narcissistic idiot, and she, a dupe? Or does Sand truly think her heroic? Was Sand playing with her readers’ expectations to mock to mock them or just to mock society?

Having never read Sand’s work before, I couldn’t tell. But the character of Raymon, and our access to the inner-logic of his self-inflation is priceless. If ever there was a more cowardly, self-deluded, empty-headed romantic hero, I don’t think I’ve found him. As much as you hate him (which you are most definitely meant to do), he’s still the best character in the book, or at least the only one you’ll groan over and chuckle about, not just groan.

I recommend Indiana as an historically interesting satirical novel, but really only as that. It won’t stir you much beyond the chance to enjoy a 19th century woman’s critique of men. Though where the line between critique and praise for women is considered, you may be baffled.

View all my reviews

Little Did She Know…

Kj — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:23:43 +0000

Late at night, Friday April 15, I wrote yet another post about the many businesses in my adopted neighborhood of Lower Queen Anne that were closing their doors. What I could never have predicted, is that only 12 hours later, I would receive notice that the place where I’ve worked since 2006, the entire reason for Lower Queen Anne having a gravitational pull on my life, was closing it’s doors, THE NEXT DAY. Yep. I found out during the Saturday matinee that the next day’s show would be the theatre’s last for the rest of the year. After an emergency board meeting that morning, Intiman Theatre announced it was going on hiatus for all of 2011.

Needless to say, we were shocked. While we were acquainted with the financial challenges we and NEARLY EVERY arts organization in the US are facing, we thought we’d cleared the major danger for 2011 and were more or less, set for a solid year of shows. Instead, the closing day of the season’s first production, became the closing day of the entire season.

St Germain, Chartreuse, Violette. We did not get enough time together

Intially, after the shock, I thought I’d blog about it immediately. The excrutiating irony of having just written about the closed-doors of Lower Queen Anne and finding that the doors were closing on me as well, seemed like it had to be addressed, and quickly. But unsuprisingly, the pain was one I couldn’t write about without some distance. I can say now, that on that final Sunday, since I was House Managing, I was the last person in the building- I locked the gates outside, went in through the access door to turn off the lights, stood there in the upper lobby where I’d first walked into the building for my interview in October 2006, and just started sobbing. That building, with it’s green sofas, enclosed courtyard, giant hallways and tall columns, had been a holding place for me during the greatest time of transition in my life. There was only one month of my living in Seattle, where I was not employed at Intiman, and spending some 30 hours a week there.

My last specialty cocktails on display

The loss of the job is certainly upsetting in terms of needing to find a new one, but mostly what I’ve lost is the home and holding place of so many memories. I stood behind that bar reading Martin Buber in my first term of graduate school and sat in front of the bar with my laptop plugged-in writing my thesis in my 4th year. In 2007 I sat in the courtyard and did my Hebrew homework. In 2008 I had to stay downtown during the blizzard so I could make it to our Black Nativity performances. In 2009 I sat in the conference room watching Dr Horrible with Ian. in 2010 I got my first taste of not having to do any class work during my breaks, because I had graduated. And all this doesn’t cover the friendships I made, the friends who joined me in working there, the five years of inside jokes, cocktails created, play-dialogue memorized and repeated, and wine-wrapper dubloons made.

All my Signature Cocktail Menus standing at attention on the tables

It took a while to have a sense of what the rest of the year will look like for Intiman and the building that’s been our home. On the last Sunday, I told my staff, “Just think nuclear winter. Anything you wouldn’t want left to dust and rot for the next year, throw away or lock up.” But the past few weeks have been encouraging as we now know that we’re still going to host some rentals and other performances as usual. It’s our shows that aren’t happening. And that last day when I walked out fearing that I’d ever get to step foot in the building again? Well, I’ve actually been working there a fair bit the past month, manging some events that were planned for the month break between shows.

My last batch of intermission pre-orders

But safe to say, if Intiman recouperates and is able to reopen in 2012, it will be a very differnt Intiman. New staff, new mission, new structure. So even if I end up working for them again, the Intiman I’ve known, loved, served, and been loved and served by, is gone.

With only 2 hours notice that my Saturday April 16 bartending shift would be my last time behind the bar until who-knew-when, I took some pictures as a last-ditch sudden effort at closure. It was only that morning that I’d let myself into the building, walked to the bar which I’d closed down the night before, and breathed a sigh of delight, feeling deep gratitude for how much I loved working there.

Goodbye Intiman of my (late) youth. I treasured every moment of our time together.

Block-Busted

Kj — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:47:29 +0000

Only a few weeks ago, I stepped out of the Closing Sale of the Lower Queen Anne Blockbuster holding the copy of Jane Campion’s Bright Star I’d just purchased for $5.99, and found myself facing the closed movie theater across the street where I had seen the film one year ago. Both businesses now bereft of life…and movies.

Not that I feel much sadness over the loss of a Blockbuster, but my neighborhood-away-from-home seems to just keep going bust. The Blockbuster is officially closed now. They spent over a month in closing sale, lowereing prices by $1 each week. Naturally, I found more and more used DVDs to purchase as the prices sank. What I passed up at $6, I took home at $4.

What will take over the Blockbuster storefront? What will they do with the fake marquee? This marqee facade that faces a real, 85 year old marquee, also empty until it’s hopefully rescued by another movie theater company.

While I ponder these sad notions and wander the movie-less block of Queen Anne Blvd between Mercer & Republican, I am “comforted” by the expansion of my own film collection. Welcome, new friends. Your arrival bears sad tidings elsewhere.

“What Yankee Candle Means to Me” Vlog Part 3

Kj — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:20:41 +0000

Narrative Mixology

Kj — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:20:24 +0000

I’ve fallen a bit behind in my cocktail recipe posts. Something I’ve been super excited about is that at the end of last season I launched Intiman’s first Signature Cocktail Menu, offering a selection of crafted cocktails in addition to the two Show Specialty drinks we do for every production. The genesis of the Signature Menu comes from myself and Ian, and it’s creation and development is up to me with supervision & suggestions from my beloved Audience Services Manager (boss). With All My Sons opening this week, we’re already in our third collection of Signature Drinks.

The Menu accomplishes many things:

a) Like every other bar in the world, you have some House suggestions and aren’t left to your own cocktail knowledge, thus removing the stress of having to already know for yourself that lime, gin and Green Chartreuse taste amazing together or just defaulting to ordering a vodka/cran.

b) It’s an opportunity to keep some of our popular past Show Drinks in rotation. Further, sometimes when we bring in a special liqueur or flavored vodka for a show drink, we spend the next two seasons trying to get rid of it (Hello Campari). Now we have a coninual venue to use those mixers in new and revisited cocktails for the menu.

c) The menu helps find creative ways of moving product we know longer want, ie: anything made by DeKuyper. (I’ve already rid the joint of Apple Pucker Schanpps. Huzzah!) And more than this, the Signature Menu enables us to stock better liqueurs and brands since we have a way to keep people ordering them year round, not just with show-specific drinks.

d) Now that grad school is done I have no articles to read behind the bar, so I generally just stand there going “is there any way to make a good Frangelico cocktail?” Now that left-over creative energy has an outlet. St Germain and Lillet Blanc- I’m gonna get you soon!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s last fall’s Signature Cocktail menu, which includes the Show Specialty Drinks for “The Scarlet Letter”. (click to enlarge)

And here’s the most recent batch of show drinks. Enjoy!

Atonement

Muddled lemon
4 ct Grey Goose vodka
2 ct crème de violette
Shake and top with soda
Serve up with a lemon

Temptation

Muddled lime
2 ct Cabernet Sauvignon red wine
2 ct Grand Marnier
1 shake orange bitters
Shake and top with Izze Sparkling Clementine Juice
Serve up with a lime

(Seattle Shakespeare Presents)

The Shark Bite

5 ct Jameson’s Irish Whiskey
2 ct Sweet Vermouth
3 shakes Angostura Bitters
Shake and serve up in
a martini glass rinsed with Pernod
Garnish with a cherry

The Pirate Jenny

4 ct Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
2 ct Brandy
1 shake orange bitters
Shake and top with Izze Sparkling Blackberry Juice
Serve up with a lime

The Home Fires Burning

Muddle 2 lemon & 1 cherry
5 ct Dewar’s White Label Scotch
2 ct Dry Vermouth
Shake and serve up with a cherry

The Flyover

Muddled lime
4 count Tanqueray Gin
1 ct Green Chartreuse
2 ct Triple Sec
Shake and serve up in
a martini glass rinsed with Pernod
Garnish with a lime