Bust and Lark
Christine got tickets to see BUST last night and invited me to join her. As it was wargame night for Chris, I happily accepted the invitation.
BUST is Lauren Weedman's latest one-woman show. Weedman has been around. An alumnus of the Upright Citizens Brigade and Seattle's long-running Almost Live, she's also done bits on The Daily Show and Reno 911. She's writing a book and has written and acted in several self-referential plays. Weedman is well-known and well-liked in Seattle as near as I can tell, except for the people who still revile her as a "monster" for falsely claiming she was raped in college (something she's done an entire one-woman show about in the past).
What I can say about BUST is it has potential. Weedman's characters are excellent when given room to breathe. While different than a Mike Daisy monologue show, where Daisy addresses the audience directly and straight out tells us stories, Weedman has a larger story to tell and clothes herself in a dozen characters to tell it. Daisy weaves between starkly intimate and personal revelations to broader observations of characters around him (or, in the case of his Genius shows, characters from the shared history of our world). BUST isn't quite as seamless a story and is a bit too cluttered. Some of Weedman's characters started out very strong while others bled together and into each other; it still has the trappings of a work in progress but it's a good work nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it for an audience that can't be patient with its self-indulgence but I enjoyed myself quite a bit. I'll certainly remember Lauren Weedman's name after this.
After the show, Christine and I strolled over to Lark, which I'd never been to. A light dinner was in order, and to our delight they were open for another hour, the perfect amount of time. We talked over many things including getting together this summer for some bike riding once I get my new bike and hopefully getting out into nature once or twice while the weather is still good. Christine has a non-stop round-the-world travel schedule over the next few weeks (starting with London and ending in Taipei... or was it Kuala Lumpur?) which sounds a bit frightening in its intensity to me. Hopefully we can manage a few bouts of rest and relaxation once that's over.
I must say that the next time I'm in the mood to blow a wad on a fine dinner out, I'll be quite inclined to give Lark another spin. Christine and I shared an order of the heirloom tomatoes with fresh cheese, the bourride of local rockfish with roasted cherry tomatoes and aioli (light and fresh), farro with mascarpone and morel mushrooms (which was rich and divine), and the manila clams with shallots, oregano, and housemade guanciale (brothy and full of rich bacony flavor). I had just one glass of a 2004 Altos de la Hoya which may have not been the correct official pairing for the menu we chose but was just up my alley and perfectly suited to my tastes. Quite lovely and a great way to end my first Kate-free summer evening out for the year.
BUST is Lauren Weedman's latest one-woman show. Weedman has been around. An alumnus of the Upright Citizens Brigade and Seattle's long-running Almost Live, she's also done bits on The Daily Show and Reno 911. She's writing a book and has written and acted in several self-referential plays. Weedman is well-known and well-liked in Seattle as near as I can tell, except for the people who still revile her as a "monster" for falsely claiming she was raped in college (something she's done an entire one-woman show about in the past).
What I can say about BUST is it has potential. Weedman's characters are excellent when given room to breathe. While different than a Mike Daisy monologue show, where Daisy addresses the audience directly and straight out tells us stories, Weedman has a larger story to tell and clothes herself in a dozen characters to tell it. Daisy weaves between starkly intimate and personal revelations to broader observations of characters around him (or, in the case of his Genius shows, characters from the shared history of our world). BUST isn't quite as seamless a story and is a bit too cluttered. Some of Weedman's characters started out very strong while others bled together and into each other; it still has the trappings of a work in progress but it's a good work nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it for an audience that can't be patient with its self-indulgence but I enjoyed myself quite a bit. I'll certainly remember Lauren Weedman's name after this.
After the show, Christine and I strolled over to Lark, which I'd never been to. A light dinner was in order, and to our delight they were open for another hour, the perfect amount of time. We talked over many things including getting together this summer for some bike riding once I get my new bike and hopefully getting out into nature once or twice while the weather is still good. Christine has a non-stop round-the-world travel schedule over the next few weeks (starting with London and ending in Taipei... or was it Kuala Lumpur?) which sounds a bit frightening in its intensity to me. Hopefully we can manage a few bouts of rest and relaxation once that's over.
I must say that the next time I'm in the mood to blow a wad on a fine dinner out, I'll be quite inclined to give Lark another spin. Christine and I shared an order of the heirloom tomatoes with fresh cheese, the bourride of local rockfish with roasted cherry tomatoes and aioli (light and fresh), farro with mascarpone and morel mushrooms (which was rich and divine), and the manila clams with shallots, oregano, and housemade guanciale (brothy and full of rich bacony flavor). I had just one glass of a 2004 Altos de la Hoya which may have not been the correct official pairing for the menu we chose but was just up my alley and perfectly suited to my tastes. Quite lovely and a great way to end my first Kate-free summer evening out for the year.
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