West Nile?

Who ever thought the day would come when Minnesotans had to worry about something called West Nile fever? But I'm pretty sure that's what Richard has. Headache? Check. Fever? Check. Nausea? Check. Muscle weakness and malaise? Check. In other words, sudden onset of "flu-like symptoms," but without the respiratory component. Came on rather abruptly Friday night. I suspected West Nile because of the flu-like but non-respiratory bit, but could be any little virus. Then the next morning the rash came out. Boy, hard to miss that symptom. Bright red, scaly, and ugly as sin. What else could it be but West Nile?

So he's taking it easy, sleeping a lot, and staying hydrated, but eating very little. Cortisone for the rash, which is a bit itchy but otherwise not as bad as it looks. We're keeping close to home and staying alert for sudden fever surge, but other than that, there isn't much to do about it.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Fringe 2012 - the rest of the week

I guess I should finish this up, since I do like to look back on my past Fringe experiences every year when it's time to plan a new one.  In fact, if it weren't for my online Fringe schedule I wouldn't even remember now what we saw way back last weekend. Gosh, it seems like forever.

Actually, there was one weekday show. I didn't post this review on the Fringe site, because I feel a little mean being so critical.  This is a first production by a couple of Macalester students who obviously put a lot of love and effort into it, and I didn't want to knock down the chances of people seeing it.

To and From on the Earth      Mirror Maker Productions (Rob Gelberg and Alana Horton)      * * *
Tuesday 8:30, HUGE Improv Theater

Not bad for a first effort, but I was hoping for a little more. It's a great setup: Satan and Yahweh meet for coffee. The title, of course comes from Job, but I'm not sure where they found a translation that says "To and from on the earth" instead of the usual "to and fro in the earth."  It just sounds wrong, and I can't help wondering if it was just a typo, and lack of familiarity with the source material.

Oddly, God is played by a woman, but in his asides to the audience Satan always uses the masculine pronoun for God.  Perhaps it was to make the point that gender is arbitrary to God, but then why have God get all prissy and scold Satan for using the term "waitress" instead of the politically correct "server?"  I'd like to think that the playwright (Rob) was making a very subtle and ironic point, but I fear that he just didn't think it through. Although some of the dialogue is witty, overall the writing veers towards the sophomoric. But wait... these two really ARE college sophomores!  So maybe that's an unfair criticism. Like I said, not bad for a first production by a couple of college students.

The most winning parts of this production are the simple but elegant staging and the body language. Rob chews the scenery a bit as Satan, but Alana is cool, poised and perfect as God. I think my favorite part of the whole play was the minute or so that she has to wait for Satan to show up (of course he would be late!), which she spends fussily straightening the table settings to be just perfect. The idea of presenting God and Satan as a couple trying to be friends after a bad breakup is actually pretty clever, and the body language around that is the best part of the show. 

I'm definitely glad I saw it, but I can't help thinking how much better that concept would have been executed with Joseph Scrimshaw as Satan.

Fringe 2012 - the final weekend

Due to family obligations, the final weekend was just Saturday, but what a lovely day it was!  Again, a lovely morning for a bike ride to the West Bank, this time both of us together.  We ran into fannish friend Maria at our final show of the day and invited her to join us for a late supper at Jimmy John's before heading home. The weather wasn't quite so lovely in the evening, but the imminent rain held off long enough for us to get home safe and dry.  All four shows were good to excellent, so it was a fine way to end the Fringe.

Fruit Fly: The Musical   The Jansonowicz Players (Sheena Janson and Max Wojtanowicz)  * * * * *
I wondered why a show with such a lame description was getting 5-star rave reviews, and now I know. It really was a 5-star production!  For us, this was the sleeper hit of the Fringe - witty writing, energetic and charming performances, and astonishingly good singing and dancing.  One of two shows we saw this year that got a standing ovation.

Font of Knowledge       Shelby Company     * * * *
A film-noir sci-fi romp with everybody's favorite font  as the Maguffin. Very polished presentation (except for that damn desk lamp that was shining right into the audience's eyes) but awfully silly.  The costumes and special effects were top-notch. I loved the way they staged the train wreck, switching the spotlight from the actors inside the train to a model train chugging across a cloth-covered table towards disaster. I was so inspired by this show that I put the "Helvetica" documentary on my Netflix instant queue.

Brendon Etter presents several short plays and such which are for you to watch at      Northfield Arts Guild Theater
Richard and I used to be very fond of a Fringe format that has nearly died out in recent years: multiple 10-15 minute shorter works presented by a small group of players. So we decided to see this one, despite the inane title.  So glad we did - it was excellent.  Unlike the usual short-format production, this was 5 short pieces by the same author, each one presented by a different actor or pair of actors.  The pieces were extremely diverse, extremely well written and very well acted.

 Nightmare Without Pants   Joking Envelope (Joseph Scrimshaw and friends)   * * * * *
Predictably, this one was great.  Joseph Scrimshaw is always a treat to watch, but in recent years I've been thinking that he sometimes coasts on his reputation and presents shows that are just okay in terms of writing. This one is back to his best form.  The title is, surprisingly enough, completely literal.  It's a hilarious yet oddly touching trip into one woman's stressful dreamscape, apparently set off by falling asleep while working on her taxes while barefoot. The only surprise is that the dreamer herself gets to keep her pants on throughout - it's everybody else that is pantsless.  I almost skipped this show because I really really don't like that actress. I've seen her before and never liked her, and I didn't like her here. But the rest of the show was so strong that I loved it anyway.

20 minutes is not very long!

So apparently there's this new study that proves that sitting is sooooo bad for you that even if you exercise every day and run marathons on the weekend, sitting for longer than 20 minutes at a time will make you die young.  The solution is supposed to be "so simple!"  Just stand up every 20 minutes!  I'm  a little dubious about all the confidently presented statistics about how many minutes your life is extended by (how on EARTH would you do that calculation?  Wouldn't you need a group of subjects with desk jobs who had been standing up every 20 minutes for at least 10 years to be able to see if that helped?) 

But my biggest health problem the last few years is stiffness.  I've always tended to stiffen up excessively after even mild exercise, but now it's to the point where I'm having a hard time exercising because it hurts too much to get started.  (Once I loosen up, the types of exercise I do don't hurt, and in fact feel pretty good. It actuall is the standing up part that hurts the most). So I thought I'd give it a try.  I've set a timer on my iPhone to go off every 20 minutes to remind me to stand up and stretch.  And you know what?  20 minutes is a really short time! 

In fact, there goes my timer again.  Damn.