Concept Dump:

[fancycwabs]

The made-up word "barista" (ca. 1982) has bothered me, as it assumes that there's some quantifiable skill in making a decent cup of coffee--a skill that's akin to the skill of making a decent martini or a proper whiskey sour. Then, your average baristi at, say, Applebee's, has no idea how to make a decent martini or proper whiskey sour, either, so I guess giving the position a meaningless title is probably fine, but I'm gonna start calling the guy at Moe's Southwest Grill a Burrista and guy at McDonald's a Hamburgista¹. Also: the Italian root of "venti" is either twenty or wind, which implies either 20oz sizes or flatulence.
° ° °Speaking of burritos, perhaps we should take to calling a burrito larger than your head a burritisimo.
° ° °Night time in Paris
Winter's chill against the lights
Frosted minuits
° ° °Mrs. Cwabs and the little cwab have tickets to the touring production of Rent Saturday night, with "meet the cast" passes for afterward. I have mixed emotions about Rent--musically, it has some moments that are absolutely chilling, which nobody but me seems to like (and were cut from the film, incidentally), and some dramatic ones that are touching without being exceptionally heavy-handed (which were changed for the film so that they have all the subtlety of Home Alone). On the other hand, every "theatre person" on the planet seems to identify with these characters (at least the artistic ones), written with their grand dreams of artistic success and complete and utter lack of talent in their chosen professions. Angel's percussive busking is so good that it drives a dog to suicide, Roger takes a year to write one (crappy) song, Maureen's performance piece consists mainly of metaphorically bitching about her life and mooing. Still, the struggles of these poor, talentless "bohemians" and their never-realized dreams of greatness is compelling, and the musical numbers in which the characters aren't performing for other characters are occasionally quite good. And the little cwab will have a good time.


¹ Assuming I'd eaten a hamburger at McDonald's in under, like, three years. Maybe I should call him a Sausage McMuffista. It's also been years since I've been to a Moe's.

Comments

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem I have with Rent today that I didn't have when I first saw it in 1997 (or heard the soundtrack years earlier) is that the show is an indictment of the new technology that I hold dear and has allowed me to meet similar like-minded creative individuals, which is ultimately the villian. Nothing's quite as ironic as a MySpace page that plays "Over the Moon" when you open it.

Of course, Larson didn't see this future back in 1990 whatever, so you can't really fault him for making all hus characters a little short-sighted.