Spent last weekend in Stuttgart visiting Bridget. Fortunately, I chose to take the train there (even though it's over 6 hours). The fortunate part is because my travel coincided with the beginning of the ash cloud madness. Friday trains are usually packed, and this one was even more than usual. I learned my lesson. I now reserve a seat for every trip.
Three nights in Stuttgart, and I got pretty much the best of everything. Friday we stayed in and cooked, drank too much wine, and finally watched a movie that I'd been wanting to see. Our cousin Adam had worked on "Frozen River", and I'd wanted to see it for quite some time. The best part of having a cousin work on the film is that you watch all the credits. And then you realize he was also IN the film. How did you miss it? We found him. It was definitely him, sporting a Grizzly Adams beard and sitting in a dark truck, talking out of the side of his mouth. I suppose then that it's no surprise we missed him the first time.
Bridget had work the next day, so I entertained myself until the evening. Got to see Bridget dance with Dougie again. Hadn't seen that in quite some time so it was an especially nice treat. They partner really beautifully together, and the choreography suited them somehow. Enjoyed that piece immensely, but the next one seemed a borderline mockery of the ballet. Turns out it's a piece from the 70s. It definitely belongs in that time. Overdramatized with no story. Not a good combination.
After the ballet, we went to Eton's place for dinner. Mom, you would be in heaven in his garden. It stretches five times the size of the one in the back on Broadview. Sweeps down a hill with a view of the city. The goal of the night was to get Bridget drunk. Mission accomplished! Actually, it was a wonderful evening. Eton's an amazing cook and I ate veal for the first time in my life. Now I know why people order the stuff. I still don't know why anyone would eat fois gras, but some people seem to love it!
We hoped for a long walk and a lazy afternoon on Sunday, but a dancer in Bridget's ballet got sick. So I got a long walk and a lazy afternoon. Bridgie just got the long walk. She spend my lazy afternoon rehearsing a new dancer to go on that evening. The day of the show, they put a giant banner on the side of the building announcing the piece.
That's Bridget talking on her cell phone to the ballet master of the company, explaining the situation. He was boarding a boat with 3000 other people, traveling from Oslo (?) to somewhere in northern Germany I think. He was then to take a few trains and get back into Stuttgart a mere 36 hours later. Uggh.
That night I got to see Bridget's piece. The music mixed bits from a "This American Life" radio broadcast with different pieces of music that I believe were all by the same composer. Upon hearing the idea, I couldn't picture how it would work out. But it did, and seamlessly. One must know a lot of music in order to bring something like that together. (That, and one must work very hard I suppose.) Anyway, it was beautifully done. I was struck by how much the dancers reflected the story, and how smoothly I was moved from humor to introspection to grief and back again. The radio broadcast was simply the reading of a series of letters that people had written or found (and mostly found). It was entertaining and intense, all at once. I really enjoyed it.
As I write this I'm at home, recovering from the flu. I haven't had cheese or beer in more than 48 hours. And as most of you know, that's a very challenging thing for me. I think my stomach is almost ready. Almost.
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