Negative capability

Mid December and it really feels likes winter.

I had a few people over for dinner last night: All About Salads. Red wine in the red dining room. People in transition: Jimmy the Greek (dealing with his father's estate), Pink (her divorce agreement has been finalized), Marnie (thinking about her first serious post-college job). I used candles and dim lighting to obscure the dust in my house - plus it's flattering to my mediterranean complexion. We were very cozy and the evening was Danishly "hygge." (Mac would have come too but he came down with a stomach flu over the weekend - we missed him.)

I turned in my final grades yesterday. To mark the completion of my Canadian history class - and Ludwig van's birthday anniversary - here is a very youthful Glenn Gould playing the first part of Beethoven's "Eroica Variations," a recording made in the CBC televsion studios back in the 1950s. Gould was one of the greatest geniuses to come out of Canada, though that's just my addled opinion. (You'll probably want to look on YouTube for the other two clips of the Variations. Seeing Gould play the ending fugue is well worth the price of admission.)

Blizzard day today: the University (and most of the town) was closed due to the snow and wind, and my West Civ exam was postponed till Friday.
Nonetheless, I did get out this morning. Walking, naturally. I refuse to be hemmed in by a little snow. I strolled downtown to the muffin shop, said hello to Charlie, Ann Marie and the regulars. On my walk back home I stopped in the bookstore and picked up a little winter break reading: "Frankenstein"; "Love in Scotland," which is another of Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh novelettes; and the recent biography of V.S. Naipaul, "The World Is What It Is." (I like that title.)

I was out with Jack and friends (Margaret, Drew and Emily, Lars) at Kelly's on Monday night - Jack is done with her time here, and is moving to Fort Meyers this weekend, in search of fame and fortune (and, she hopes, a job in broadcast journalism). Mazeltov! Monday evening we were gossiping about a "breaking story" that all of Iron Harbor is abuzz about. A local nightclub owner and his employee/girlfriend/roommate were arrested last week in a "sting" arranged by the FBI. Appears that they were trying to extort $680,000 from a certain Hollywood/Broadway actor, claiming that they were in possession of candid photographs from 2004 that might embarrass the celeb. "Iron Harbor Confidential"! But don't people realize that it's not 1955? Rather than submit to the blackmail, the actor went to the Feds. I have to confess that I'm not familiar with this actor, although apparently he's had a very successful television career from the 1980s to the present. (He's also currently appearing on stage in a Broadway musical.) There are a few things in the case that don't really add up, but most particularly how anyone could have possibly thought that they could get away with such a plot. The preliminary hearing will be held in our local Federal Court next week: should be interesting. After all, it's not that often that Iron Harbor is mentioned on "Entertainment Tonight."

(I don't know the nightclub owner personally, either, although one of his relatives was a history major and took a few courses from me some years ago. It's a small town.)

No rest for the cheery:

Wendesday night: I was one of the co-hosts for the dedication of the "Dr. P Black Box Theatre," attended by the Dean, Provost and President. Nice way to honor the maven of the theatre program.

Then attended the opening night production of the play "Doubt" - with Leigh doing a great job as Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep's role), and Flipper very fine as the slimey priest. After the show, drinks with Rikke and Nashini at the Pub. Fun with the nutcracker princes in the lobby.
Thursday morning St. Lucia Day celebration hosted by the History Department, complete with saffron buns, limpa bread, and rum cake (no glogg, alas.) (Actually, the saint's official day is December 13, but we moved it up ten days since this is the last week of the semester.)

Thursday afternoon I got my H1N1 innoculation: nasal spray. Then Professor Tillich's retirement party, followed by the Uni's grand Holiday Party in the Great Lakes Rooms. Schmoozing with the bright red sweater crowd. A good spread - "very heavy h'ors d'oeuvres."

6.30 over to the Public Library for an Art opening. Nice conversation with Pink: her divorce is getting finalized next week, Richie has finally received his inheritance and has moved down to Grand Rapids, and she's thinking about directing "Glengarry Glen Ross" next summer - I'd love to have a role.

Then back on campus for the 7.30 curtain in the "Dr. P Black Box Theatre": World AIDS week dance performance, in honor of Louise, who over the last few years was the producer and impressario of the event. Sat with Nashini and Archie. Very interesting melange of international dances and dancers, including a very fetching male Bulgarian.

And then finally over to Mac's house, to help him and Marnie celebrate his last day of college classes. He's graduating next week, planning to move to D.C. in January (with Marnie).

That's a lot of socializing for a shy introvert like myself!

Not much of an "all hallow's eve" this year - I was taking tickets at the Haunted Theatre on Saturday, and while I did see some inventive costumes, it was a lot of "de trop, de trop."

Sad to hear over the weekend of the passing of DLL. He was one of the great inebriabors of Iron Harbor, 'tis true. I remember some evenings on the 6th floor. . . He was only 43, said the obit, sad to say - I think it was HIV related. The local paper mentioned numerous musical comedy appearances, locally and nationally. My favorite memory of DLL was from a production of "Little Shop of Horrors" at the theatre in Pioneer: he was a ghoulish Dr. Scrivello.

It really has been a year of Death for me.

Then we were all surprised on Monday morning to hear that Professor B had died in Phoenix. Just sixty. I had thought she was in Turkey on a Fulbright, but actually she had gone to Arizona to receive homeopathic treatment for colon cancer. I was momentarily left speechless, if you can believe that. So last night I went out to the Pub with Marnie, Nashini and Jack, and we all shared our favorite Dr. B stories. It was our little candle in the wind.

Nashini and I took a ride out in the country yesterday morning. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought some fresh sweetcorn. Nothing better than fresh from the farmer! Because of our shorter growing season, the sweetcorn here is smaller and tougher than Kansas or Illinois varieties, but I'm glad to be a localvore for a change. We also stopped at the Hayes Corn Maze, which has just opened for their fall season. With the change of weather imminent, it felt very autumnal, but in a lovely way.
I went to the corn maze last year, but it was later in the season and a lot of the stalks were trampled or brown or otherwise just quite tired. It was nice to be there when everything was still fresh and refulgent.And really nice to spend some time with Nashini. We had a bite to eat at the farm, too: we shared one of their famous fresh cream puffs, served with ice cream and caramel sauce. Oh that was a real highlight of the weekend.