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Fringing the Night Away
Aug. 6th, 2005 02:43 pmJoined ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mle292 and 4 other gals whose lj names (if any) I don't know for a Girls Night Out at the Fringe. It was fun, and it was certainly good exercise. It's quite a hike from 26th and Hennepin to Loring Park! I think I did a pretty good job keeping up with my companions (all of them a couple of decades younger than me) but my feet are feeling it today. I calculate we walked about 6 miles, which adds up to about 8 miles for the day (okay, I should've known better than to take a lunchtime walk when I had something this planned for the evening).
I missed the first show, "Adventures in Mating" due to impenetrable traffic in the Uptown area. Whose brilliant idea was it to schedule the Fringe and the Uptown Art Show on the same weekend??? Gahhh. The next show was kind of a bust - Quantum Odyssey. It sounded like an interesting idea, but the end result was incoherent and amateurish. 4 of our group of 6 left early to scout out a dinner venue.
We'd been planning to eat at the Loring Grill, mostly because it's owned by some old friends of mine, Bob Johnson and Chris Tweedy. But the group consensus was "too expensive" so we ended up at a pocket-sized Lotus wedged into a little strip mall on the northeast side of the park. This was a great choice - inexpensive, not busy and blessedly over-air-conditioned. Tried the curry-creamcheese fried wontons for the first time: yum! Conversation revolved around funny sex adventures, which I enjoyed but didn't contribute to. Not that I don't have any stories, but ... I really didn't know these people quite well enough for that. Besides, I really don't have anything to match the Mary Kaye bathtub story. *hee hee*
Next stop: Joe's Garage for a remarkable experience called "Thirst." I HIGHLY recommend this one. The venue is a rooftop terrace with a bar at one side and many tables under the stars. You order a round of drinks and chat for awhile, then you notice that the couple at a nearby table is having a rather loud and increasingly peculiar argument about the party they attended last night. The conversation touches on the mysterious blackouts that have been hitting the city all day, and eventually draws in the sinister-looking fellow in the black leather jacket and wraps up its own little story. Then you have to make your own conversation for 10 minutes or so, which gave us a chance to get to know the lady that had been seated at our large table with us. Turns out she has a small part in "DB Cooper Didn't Die," another Fringe performance. Then another skit starts. All were cleverly written, extremely well-acted, and at least borderline surrealistic. The thread weaving them all together was the blackouts, but each one worked on its own.
The 4th skit may have been the end of the blackout story, but I don't know because we had to leave at that point to make it to Scrimshaw. If anybody else sees Thirst, let me know if the last two skits contributed any more to the storyline.
The Scrimshaw Show is one you will hear about elsewhere - it's apparently one of the Festival darlings. Two very talented brothers doing the type of improv-inspired short sketches that you've seen before and will no doubt see again. I particularly enjoyed the opening skit where two desperately leafleting Fringe performers face off against each other for a duel to the death, the awesome interpretive dance routine, and the first video clip. This particular performance had a guest appearance by the guy from the "Saved by Condiments" show which was also excellent. I wasn't as taken with the guitar guy or the signature bit at the end of the show where the performers take questions from the audience while pounding down hard liquor. The guys all showed an admirable ability to be clever and likeable no matter how drunk they got, which is no small feat, but I tend to prefer scripted skits to actual improv. I suspect it's more cool to love improv, but Iiving in the Dudley Riggs city I have just had to face this fact about myself.
Anyway, I hope to do more fringing in the week ahead. If anyone wants to hook up for some performances, let me know. Thanks again,mle292 for organizing the Friday night expedition!
mle292 and 4 other gals whose lj names (if any) I don't know for a Girls Night Out at the Fringe. It was fun, and it was certainly good exercise. It's quite a hike from 26th and Hennepin to Loring Park! I think I did a pretty good job keeping up with my companions (all of them a couple of decades younger than me) but my feet are feeling it today. I calculate we walked about 6 miles, which adds up to about 8 miles for the day (okay, I should've known better than to take a lunchtime walk when I had something this planned for the evening). I missed the first show, "Adventures in Mating" due to impenetrable traffic in the Uptown area. Whose brilliant idea was it to schedule the Fringe and the Uptown Art Show on the same weekend??? Gahhh. The next show was kind of a bust - Quantum Odyssey. It sounded like an interesting idea, but the end result was incoherent and amateurish. 4 of our group of 6 left early to scout out a dinner venue.
We'd been planning to eat at the Loring Grill, mostly because it's owned by some old friends of mine, Bob Johnson and Chris Tweedy. But the group consensus was "too expensive" so we ended up at a pocket-sized Lotus wedged into a little strip mall on the northeast side of the park. This was a great choice - inexpensive, not busy and blessedly over-air-conditioned. Tried the curry-creamcheese fried wontons for the first time: yum! Conversation revolved around funny sex adventures, which I enjoyed but didn't contribute to. Not that I don't have any stories, but ... I really didn't know these people quite well enough for that. Besides, I really don't have anything to match the Mary Kaye bathtub story. *hee hee*
Next stop: Joe's Garage for a remarkable experience called "Thirst." I HIGHLY recommend this one. The venue is a rooftop terrace with a bar at one side and many tables under the stars. You order a round of drinks and chat for awhile, then you notice that the couple at a nearby table is having a rather loud and increasingly peculiar argument about the party they attended last night. The conversation touches on the mysterious blackouts that have been hitting the city all day, and eventually draws in the sinister-looking fellow in the black leather jacket and wraps up its own little story. Then you have to make your own conversation for 10 minutes or so, which gave us a chance to get to know the lady that had been seated at our large table with us. Turns out she has a small part in "DB Cooper Didn't Die," another Fringe performance. Then another skit starts. All were cleverly written, extremely well-acted, and at least borderline surrealistic. The thread weaving them all together was the blackouts, but each one worked on its own.
The 4th skit may have been the end of the blackout story, but I don't know because we had to leave at that point to make it to Scrimshaw. If anybody else sees Thirst, let me know if the last two skits contributed any more to the storyline.
The Scrimshaw Show is one you will hear about elsewhere - it's apparently one of the Festival darlings. Two very talented brothers doing the type of improv-inspired short sketches that you've seen before and will no doubt see again. I particularly enjoyed the opening skit where two desperately leafleting Fringe performers face off against each other for a duel to the death, the awesome interpretive dance routine, and the first video clip. This particular performance had a guest appearance by the guy from the "Saved by Condiments" show which was also excellent. I wasn't as taken with the guitar guy or the signature bit at the end of the show where the performers take questions from the audience while pounding down hard liquor. The guys all showed an admirable ability to be clever and likeable no matter how drunk they got, which is no small feat, but I tend to prefer scripted skits to actual improv. I suspect it's more cool to love improv, but Iiving in the Dudley Riggs city I have just had to face this fact about myself.
Anyway, I hope to do more fringing in the week ahead. If anyone wants to hook up for some performances, let me know. Thanks again,
mle292 for organizing the Friday night expedition!
