Shakespeare Textures
But first zombies? (See Taurus, first scope in the link.)
Shakespeare Textures
“If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
- Hero in Much Ado 3.1
I faced west, just as the sun slid below the horizon, hoping to get glittering glimpse of that thinnest shard of a new moon, or the heavenly spark of Mercury. No luck. Too close in the day’s wan light.
But after the evening’s revels had concluded? The night sky, far from city lights, just outstanding.
The three plays, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter’s Tale, and the ever-popular Much Ado About Nothing, all centered on love with loyalty and brotherhood as a backdrop. Palamon and Arcite in TNK, Claudio and Benedick in MAAN, and the two kings in TWT.
I was going someplace with that thought, and it never coalesced.
Bygones.
Shakespeare Textures
The whole of the expedition wasn’t solely “Shakespeare,” either. Wound up in Dallas with tickets to a ball game.
Go Rangers? Against the Orioles. Rangers coming off a good weekend in LA.
My only exposure to the Baltimore Orioles is through Tess Mongham’s creator, the wonderfully evocative Laura Lippman (excited she has a mini-series headed to Apple TV soon.)
That noted, the selling point for me, the logo. Probably offensive to someone, maybe birds, but I like it. But a ball game is a ball game.
Killer Bee seats, hat tip — Capricorn — for the hook up. First pitch, first inning, barely rolled in from the hot dogs and nachos, first guy up to bat for the Orioles, and it was that crack, the sound of the ball heading into the bleachers. Home run. The rest of the night didn’t go well for the Rangers. Stayed to the very end, enjoyed every moment, never got featured on the kiss cam, grateful for that, too. Just a great night at the ballpark, as long as one isn’t a Rangers’ fan.
I just thoroughly enjoyed a ball game.
Round Top Pop. 90
In the last half-dozen years or so, since I’ve been seeing Shakespeare at Winedale regularly? We’ve stayed in a variety of places in the area, most notable was the shipping containers turned into a hotel — the Flophouze. But in an effort to try more than one? Less costly? Back to air b-n-b. Apparently, Round Top is a major tourist, antique spot in the fall, but the rest of the year? Mostly just a small Texas town, although, certainly a lot fewer political flags this year — the truth will out1.
My favorite air bnb oddity was an inexpensive backyard shed with a small refrigerator, plumbed for a tiny shower and toilet, plus an ac unit in a rich fishing town.
This last one in Round Top was, by far the most eccentric yet exactly as advertised, and an excellent place to stay. It had the perfect amount of kitsch and oddball architecture plus handwritten notes about the amenities, just so welcoming. Good bedding, nice linens, and luxurious bath towels. Turn down the road and go left after the second cattle guard. Sign says, “Hideaway.” The place should’ve come with instructions like, “Even if you arrive after dark, and they’ve taken the flag down, it’s the turn-off past the flag pole, then the color of the fence changes. Like, where the barn used to be? After the second cattle guard, bare to the right, follow the arrows on the old fence posts… you’ll recognize it when you see it.” Cozy, quaint, accessible, minutes from the town’s amenities yet secluded and rural.
Stunning night sky, too.
Really quiet save for the occasional lowing of the cattle.
- “but in the end truth will out”
Merchant of Venice (2.2.20) ↩