Well, Albee!

The Lovely Wife(tm) and I finally got around to catching the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and, while I can't say that I came out of it the world's biggest Albee fan, there's something about having a well-directed strong cast that makes me quite happy. Bill Irwin, who I've known for years as a classic comedic type (his mime show, Fool Moon, remains one of the funniest bloody things I've ever witnessed) was just magnificently paired with Kathleen Turner, who almost made me wish that I'd seen The Graduate... after that, it was off to Shakespeare in the park (yes, two shows in one day; we haven't done that in centuries, and I bet that we're not gonna get too many more chances), for a freewheeling production of As You Like It. Much too silly a play for my tastes, although the @#!@ uncomfortable seats at the Delacorte might have added to my discomfort.

Okay, now that a few days have passed, and I've gotten some theatrical stuff done, let's talk about the bombings in London for a sec, shall we? There was a brief meme going around the poltical blogosphere with people displaying the Union Jack on their sites in solidarity with the Brits, i.e. "We're all British." I empathize with that sentiment, but, quite frankly, call bull-you-know-what on it. I'm not British, and never intend to be (my honorary citizenship from my yeshiva roomate after having Marmite every morning for a week notwithstanding). In no particular order, I'm an American, an Orthodox Jew, an Israeli citizen (thanks to a few hours' worth of consular beauracracy two weeks ago), a New Yawker, a meshugganah liberal, and a theatre queen. And all of us are majorly pissed. I don't need to fly a flag, sing an anthem, or watch week-long mutant variants of baseball (yes, I KNOW cricket came first; baseball's still less boring) to feel for the families of those who were killed or wounded. I just need to be a human being. Those who decided that deliberately targeting innocents was a valid way to achiever their ends are not. The social liberal in me says that they should be arrested and put away for life only because that's what my society values, not because that's commensurate punishment for the heinousness of their actions. There is no such thing. May the families of the victims know no more sorrow. May the perpetrators know no more joy.