Oh the places you'll go...

The people you'll meet. The times you will have - filled to the ecstatic brim with art and music and wild opportunity. Bring it, I say. Bring it hard. Make it burn "like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." (Kerouac)

It was a steamed clam pizza that kicked it off, delivering the direct message that this would be a weekend of discovery and adventure. Occasioned by a pair of delightful out-of-town visitors (our friends in Monterey,) we began our Friday night with dinner at Urbano Pizza Bar, where the Diva's dinner included  Pizza Vongole - a standard mozzarella, garlic and parsley affair kicked up a notch by a scattering of perfectly steamed, in-shell clams. Really it was more like pizza with a side of clams than pizza but the side wasn't on the side at all. Whatever. It was delicious and the Market Salad and La Moto Chianti rounded the whole thing up beautifully. From there, our guests and I headed for a performance of The Burning Opera while The Man headed to his late night rehearsal for The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman at The John Anson Ford Theatre.

It was an especially great and especially hot show. Doing theater in a loft space presents special challenges. Doing it in the summer is just freakin' crazy. Industrial spaces have super-high ceilings but poor ventilation. While the audience remains relatively comfortable, the backstage and dressing area quickly become a sauna when filled with 20 hot bodies and heated by two enormous shadow lamps. By the end of the show, the entire company is drenched in perspiration and once the sweat-soaked costumes have been stripped off, the thought of putting anything else on in their place is simply unacceptable. This has led to a gradual increase in after-party exhibitionism which reached a fever pitch at this particular show. While her comrades strutted most or all of their enviable stuff, The Diva maintained a conservative decorum in her boy shorts, backless handkerchief top and stiletto boots. And of course, the Teeny Tiny Top Hat (required attire for The Teeny Tiny Top Hat Brigade, of which she is a founding member.) With the sensational DJ Jacques the Ripper burning up the dance floor and The TTTHB dancing on a table, it was tough to leave the party before dawn. But Divas need their beauty sleep. And Saturday was looking to be a big day...