Sunday, August 16, 2009

Bard-y Girl


Wow, I had the best time last night. One of the big attractions at the Bard Summerscape Experience is the Spiegelpalais, which most of us call the Spiegeltent because it's more of a tent than a palais. (Spiegelpalais means "mirror palace." It's full of mirrors. AND a disco ball.) But it's a pretty substantial tent--with a big dance floor and bar and restaurant. They have shows there, bands and singers and things, all summer long. It's great when we're there for the Bard Festival, because all the people come out of the concert, performers and audience alike, and head over to the tent for some party time.

Yesterday we had a grueling agenda--a marathon choral concert at 5:00 and then a whole bunch of Wagner excerpts at the first big orchestral event of the festival at 8:00. That's a lot of singing. The choral concert was an ordeal--Wagner, Palestrina, Bruckner, Liszt and Brahms. Lots of Brahms, because he has a ton of great choral music. (And Wagner supposedly didn't even like choruses, though he used them a lot in his operas.) So at the 8:00 concert, screaming excerpts from Tannhäuser and Lohengrin seemed like a walk in the park in comparison. Mostly because the orchestra and soloists did all the heavy lifting. (We actually, really, in the Lohengrin part, sang "Sieg, heil!" at the top of our lungs. But not for long.)

So anyway, the ever-lovely AC and the handsome Scottiedog came up for the weekend. After the 8:00 concert, I changed into my jeans, and we made a beeline for the Spiegeltent. Where we proceeded to do some serious cardio and core workout. I had a bunch of wine, but I don't know how much because my glasses kept getting bused while I was out on the dance floor.

Today my kneecaps hurt; it's the strangest thing.

ScottieDog took this picture when we got back to the room; I think it was about 3:15 a.m. (The Spiegeltent closes at 1:00 a.m., but we went and played poker after that. We party hearty.)


Here are some pictures of our outing this afternoon:


Blithewood


This is a mansion that just happens to be on campus. Ward Manor, which I mentioned earlier, is sort of a "getaway" cottage that was part of the Blithewood estate, if I'm remembering correctly.



This is the Blithewood garden. It's heavenly.



ScottieDog and AC in the Blithewood garden


P.S. I have not had any more f-ups after all. But I feel like I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop...

5 comments:

the Bag Lady said...

Sounds like you're having a great time! I envy you the dancing all night, but not so much the Wagner!

Levi said...

Love the P.S.
hahah
Also those pictures...
I took German and know what Spiegel means.
It means shopping from a catalog.

And love that pic of you even on FB. Is cute.

Sbanfnyc said...

Great time was had by all. I am so sore. Wish I worked out. I hope to see you next w/end and repeat the frivolity. I sure love you.

AC and I had a nice drive home. I hope she can come up next w/end. She is still a great Bard companion!

Crabby McSlacker said...

Sounds like a blast! And I've noticed the dancing/sore kneecaps thing too, but it surprises me every time.

AC said...

Im wondering if the sore knee caps thing is more about having a sore tendon. The knee cap is a bone that grows within a tendon (sesamoid bone)in this case your quadricepts tendon (that may not be the official name) so maybe your quadricepts were really sore including the tendon that connects it to your leg and thats why it felt as though your knee caps were sore? ... ? maybe?