Cabaret- a review

I would like to start this review by saying that we have season tickets to American Musical Theater of San Jose. We have been season ticket holders since the day before we got married (January 8th, 2005), and it is something special that Andrew and I do together that we both enjoy. We're both musical theater geeks.

Being a season ticket holder means being exposed to shows that we wouldn't necessarily have bought single tickets to- but we've enjoyed immensely. Some shows are real stinkers (ahem, Lord of the Dance), but we've had the pleasure of seeing some incredibly good local performances as well as some really good touring shows.

I've seen Cabaret three times (including Saturday night). The two previous performances were the minimalist, dark version that Alan Cummings starred in. Last night's was a different interpretation.

Let's start with the colors- everything on stage was RED. Blinding, bleeding, red. I was suffering from a horrendous migraine, and the red annoyed me. Even if I hadn't had a migraine, I think it would have annoyed me. The previous versions we've seen had a lot of black, dirty white underwear, and very white skin. Lots of very white skin.
The singing was good and there was a lovely a cappella version of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", but the most troubling thing- in my eyes- was how obvious and in-your-face they made everything. From the beginning, the audience knows that Cliff is smuggling for the Nazis, where in the other version, the audience finds out when Cliff finds out. Leave a little mystery, people!

I felt like they had dumbed down the whole show to make everything totally clear. Herr Schultz being Jewish is made so incredibly obvious from the beginning (to leave no doubt as to why he can't marry Frauline Schnieder), where in previous versions, it's more subtle.

In this cast, the Kit Kat Club girls were real-sized women. Politically speaking, I love this. Realistically speaking, the Kit Kat Club was not a high-class establishment. It's a sex club / whorehouse.

The girls should look like they have to work hard for the monay, so hard for the monay. Curvier, well-fed girls aren't realistic in post WW1 Germany. I also noticed that this cast wore expensive, matching lingerie, where in the previous versions they wore dirty, ripped stockings and regular underwear. It's a totally different socio-political statement, dig?

Another weird change was that they changed the keys of all the songs in the first act from Minor keys to Major keys. I suppose it was to make everything sounds less dark, but Cabaret is a show about Nazis. This isn't Springtime for Hitler.

I felt that this version of Cabaret was heavily sanitized- one could easily bring a small child to this production and not have to worry about explaining sex, prostitution, Nazis, or abortion. Even the Emcee had a distinctly Mr. Rogers-esque quality.

But, what can you expect from a show that recycles costumes? Sally's fabulous fur coat was a recycled prop from Gypsy. Yeah, Sally Bowles was wearing Mama Rose's coat. If that coat had any fur on it, I'll eat my hat.

The show isn't all bad; the performers were good, and there was a favorite of mine in the cast. Noel Anthony played Ernst Ludwig, and as always, he was terrific. (We've seen him in Jane Eyre, Guys and Dolls, and Little Shop of Horrors, among other things.) I'd like to see him in more productions, and since he seems to be a local actor, that's pretty likely.

In short, if you've never seen Cabaret before, and you have delicate sensibilities, this is the show for you! I hate to pan a show, but this interpretation smacked of family values wholesomeness.

When the world is falling apart, and despair is the word, it's not appropriate to have June Cleaver serving milk and cookies.

Juno Regina pictures and Shetland Triangle progress

As previously promised, some pictures of the completed (and blocked!) Juno Regina shawl:

(Ravelry details here)

Pretty, isn't it? While we were [up too late] blocking Juno, Andrew announced that it was his favorite lace shawl so far. (He says this, very sincerely, about every lace shawl while it's being blocked. Sweet, isn't he?) I really liked knitting her. Maybe I'll host a Juno party, where we all knit on Juno Regina and watch Juno. Just an idea.

The Shetland Triangle is almost done. Really. All I have left to knit is the edging, bind off, and block. I think I'm definitely going to do a little beading on the edge. It adds the slightest bit of weight, a little shimmer, and a "fidget". (I like to feel the beads on the edging of my Lily of the Valley.)

For your enjoyment, here's an artsy shot of the Shetland Triangle. It's an artsy shot because shooting dark yarn and unblocked lace is incredibly hard, and frankly, this is the best shot (out of the fifteen I took before giving up):

(Ravelry details here)

Kill me, but make me beautiful

Saturday night, after Knit Knights (Knights who say “knit”?) I cast on the Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style. I’m using the Dream in Color Baby, which seems to be (thus far) just as nice to work with as the Smooshy is. I’ll do a fair and balanced review once the shawl is done and blocked.

Back to the shawl. I’m not a big fan of triangular shawls (or any non-rectangular shawls, really), but this one looked cute and contemporary. I cast it on, and despite the slight weirdness at the beginning (it’s a structural thing, and written clearly, it’s just counter-intuitive), I was on FIRE!

I knit three and a half repeats of the main body chart on Saturday night. I didn’t get to bed until close to 1 AM (or 2 AM, if you remembered to turn your clocks forward, which we didn’t). By Sunday night I was through five and a half repeats. Out of eight, plus the edging.

The one change I made (five repeats in, of course) is the double decrease that the designer has chosen. I think the way she suggests it looks a little messy, so I’ve replaced the S2KP to a S2KP2. I’ll save you a searching step:

• S2KP2: Slip 2 sts as if you were going to K2tog. K 1 st, pass 2 slipped sts over.

It makes a beautiful, centered double decrease, which follows the lines of the lace. It is one of my favorite decreases because of how tidy it is.

Other than that, I’ve cast Muir on, and it’s a little unwieldy for travel knitting, so I’m going to be working on a Jane Sowerby shawl (with a repeating and simple motif) as my public lace knitting. It’s not that Muir is all that involved, it’s just that the chart is a little large, and I could shrink it down, but then I wouldn’t be able to see it, and squinting is SO not my look for this season.

I know I’m suffering from knitting bravado, but I think if I buckle down, I can finish the knitting on the Shetland Triangle by the weekend, and have the shawl dried and blocked by Monday.

I’m also insanely compelled to add beads to the edging, despite the fact that adding beads increases the finishing time by a factor of one million. Or ten. But still, it takes a disproportionate amount of time.

There’s a saying in Farsi, “Kill me, but make me beautiful.”

That's about right.

Why "Better Than Yarn"?

After (roughly) three years of blogging, I figured I should tell the story.

Time: Fall, 2001,

I was reading the KnitList, and someone (name removed to protect the innocent) posted the following story:

"This is one for the how do you know you're addicted files....

Some of you may know this and some may not but I'm a newlywed (since March
of this year). So last night, in bed, after a wonderful romantic interlude
with my new hubby, relaxing together in the post-lovemaking glow, and just
before I was falling asleep I said, "Honey, that was better than yarn!"

To which my DH immediately replied, "Well, I sure hope so!"

:-)

XXXXX
Who is lucky that her husband finds knitting so endearing and understands
that better than yarn is a compliment of the highest order!"

While I found this to be a huge case of TMI, I *may* have sent it to everyone I know. Partly because I was horrified, partly because I thought it was HILARIOUS.

Andrew, being who he is, would ask if EVERYTHING was "better than yarn". This chocolate? The movie we just watched? The shoes I just bought? The latte?

(If you know Andrew in real life, I'm sure you can see very clearly. For those readers who haven't met him, well... Andrew is an experience.)

For my birthday that November, he gave me a license plate frame that reads "Better Than Yarn". Evidently, a compliment of the highest order.

It seemed an appropriate name for a knitting blog, and I still think it's a great story. Ick factor and all.

Juno Regina, c'est fini

Last night, I finished Juno Regina.

I've said it before; I'll say it again. Miriam Felton is a genius. The pattern is smart, beautiful, and fun to knit.

Despite how well the pattern is written, I am the "better idiot". As I began the series of leafy decreases, I neglected to see the BOLD outline around the repeat. In my own defense, the printer was a gray scale printer, I was watching "Taken", and my blood sugar was low. And, I only had to undo about 20 sts.

I finished the knitting around 8:45 PM, and was up until 10:30 blocking the piece. Andrew did half of the blocking, so it went fairly quickly. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Knitting for babies

Knitting for babies can be futile. If timed (and sized) poorly, the sweater gets tossed in a box and forgotten.

I've found that there's a delicate balance between when the baby is born and the sizing of the sweater. Make the sweater too soon, and the baby doesn't get maximum wear out of it. Make the sweater too big, and you risk the child having opinions about wardrobe selection.

Here's my formula:

[Months until winter]-[Baby Birth month]+ [a little room for growth] = Perfect sized sweater

I totally over think this stuff.

I am also uber-paranoid about babies/children pulling the awesome buttons off of the sweaters and choking on them. I usually have Mom secure them, but I know at least one child who was super-motivated to separate the buttons from the cardigans so that she could play with them. (I pick really fun, cute buttons for my kids' garments. A good set of buttons really make a sweater.)

I also am big on making cardigans- I've wrestled dogs into harnesses, and I can imagine that dressing a wiggly baby can't be much easier. Cardigans avoid the over-the-giant-head issue.

I've tried to keep baby stuff on hand for those occasions where I don't have the time (or the inspiration) to knit for babies. I've got a whole bag of sock yarn that I think I'm going to repurpose into baby sweaters. We'll see how that goes. So far, I want to start a Baby Surprise jacket to see how I like them.

Garter stitch is my Kryptonite, so I'll likely go back to my default- the top-down raglan baby cardigan. There's comfort in routine, and these look great in variegated yarns. I have a weakness for variegated yarns.

Also, despite the fact that I own all the books that the BSJ appears in, they're horrible for making photocopies [for personal use only]. I'll be looking through my back issues of Knitter's magazine for a more photocopy-friendly format. I just can't justify paying more for a leaflet of a pattern that I already own. In triplicate, it seems.

[For the copyright nazis out there, I agree with you 100%. Stealing is bad. So is destroying books that I've bought by hauling them all around this green earth. I will repeat: FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. Thank you.]

Of jazz and France

When I was in college, my friend Stephanie enlisted me to be her Wingman- which, in Girl, translates to the Big Fat Friend (as defined by Stephen Lynch). The BFF’s purpose is to keep her friend from going home with the Wrong Guy.

I accepted. (Lyrics HERE, or click play below. There is a little language and a lot of blatant sexuality.)

We went to Bruno’s, which is a jazz club in San Francisco, to see her Trumpet Player performing. I kept a close eye, and we started chatting with another Mills grad student. He already knew Stephanie, and when introductions were made, the interaction went like this:

Stephanie: French Guy, this is Jasmin. She goes to Mills, too.

J: Nice to meet you.

FG: Zoh, you goh to Meells, too?

J: Yeah. So you’re a Music major?

FG: Yes. What eez your majohr?

J: (Pause) English Literature with a minor in Journalism.

FG: Zat is a stoopeed majohr. Useless! Would you lahk a ceegarette? No! Of course naht! You are frahm California. (Huffs off to smoke outside.)

(I swear, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.)

Coffee house knitting

Friday night, I was invited by Gretchen to go and see Prezent Tense (sorry, no link) at Mission City Coffee. I’m always looking to expand my horizons- especially if I can knit while I do it.

I packed Henry and the Manifesto, and headed over. Mission City has a little area that they curtain off for (I assume) events with a cover charge. Fine, cool.

Then they turned the lights down. For “ambiance”. We had exactly enough light to sort of see what we were doing- but Gretch was working on a lace shawl, and Henry, as I’ve mentioned before, is a little fussy to knit.

Couple the bad lighting with a little fatigue, and we have an episode of When Knitting Attacks.

I’ve been keeping a page of tick marks to keep track of what row I’m on. Somehow, during all this, 5 + 5 + 3 = 8. Which made the pattern seem… off. Four rows into knitting in the dark, I realize my folly. Couple that with aching hands (because I can’t throw in the dark), it was the time to put my knitting away.

The music was great, very groovy, and the band dealt beautifully with a crackhead fan sitting in the front row.

After the show, Gretch and I were chitchatting by my car, and got to witness the police try to convince the crackhead to get off of a counter at the dry cleaner’s next door. Two very young cops against a wizened crackhead. It was comedy at it’s finest.

So, to summarize, we’ve learned not to assume decent lighting at any sort of coffee house performance, and when in doubt, ask your knitting friends what 5 + 5 + 3 equals.

More goals

I think having goals is awesome. When I have a good idea, I write it down. More than that, Jasmin 2008 loves achieving goals.

I was listening to Brenda Dayne's most recent episode of Cast On, and she has set a goal for herself to knit her whole stash in 2008. Wow. Jasmin 2008 is all about less-is-more habits, but Brenda 2008 is hardcore.

While I was listening, I though, "I should knit all my luxury fibres this year." I have a good collection of really excellent yarns, and if I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, would I really want to have let it sit in the stash instead of having worked with it?

Not a chance. Jasmin 2008 knits with luxury fibers!

Lust in my heart

That’s right. I have lust in my heart. It’s for the Sunrise Circle jacket, and after seeing it on Patricia, I must knit one. I’m hoping that an interesting construction will trump my sleeve issues.

It’s easily done out of stash yarn- I’m debating between Malacrack- I mean, Malabrigo, or one of the colors of Cascade 220 that I’ve been hoarding. Decisions, decisions.

Patricia promises me that it’s a quick knit- a week, two tops, she says. Be still my heart, I love fast knits. It’s my inner floozy. Ok, maybe not inner floozy. In my magic shoes, I’m overtly floozy-esque. But I digress.

The lust. It is strong.