Prick Up Your Ears

I recently saw Prick Up Your Ears, a biopic based on a book based by John Lahr (played by Wallace Shawn) about Joe Orton (played by Gary Oldman), a promising and very funny British playwright who was murdered by his ex-lover, Ken Halliwell (played by Alfred Molina). To those who say Oldman and Molina are not good actors, this film should prove you wrong. It’s a fine bit of work, and quite riveting for the entire 110 minutes. The director Stephen Frears of My Beautiful Laundrette fame, another gem of a film. And I’m not saying that because it has brown people in it.

Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance

by John Arden. This British play, from 1959, is stunningly relevant to our situation today. John Musgrave, a army serjeant, has deserted with three other soldiers, carrying with them a Gatling gun and a skeleton of a murdered comrade. He goes to the victim’s town, a small mining village in the middle of a dispute between the colliery workers and the owners in order to impress upon them the horrors of war, and the terrible arithmetic and Logic of murder. He calls all the town together and unveils the skeleton, dressed in uniform, in order to incite the workers to kill the mayor.
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but where will I read?

The Morrison Reading Room is closed during intersession, 8/14-8/29. Reading outside is fun and all, but that place can’t be beat for a chapter of a novel and a 30 minute nap in the middle of the day. Lately I’ve been struck by terrible midday lethargy and I can’t get myself to focus on work, so I sometimes trundle down there for a change of scene. Now I’ll just have to drink more coffee.

Tartine

Guerrero and 18th. This little French-styled bakery and coffeehouse is awesome. I have heard their pastries are delicious but I had the croque monsieur with shiitake mushrooms and it was super tasty. I will probably go here again and again, although not if I’m in a rush, since the line is so long.

If you are looking for something more substantial, try Delphina next door.

Esperpento

Valencia and 22nd. I’ve been here twice now, and both times it’s been pretty good. The tapas menu is pretty standard and on the cheaper side of tapas ($5-6 an entree), and I found the food better than Timo’s and about on par with Cha Cha Cha. The service is a bit slow.

We had the patatas bravas, which were the spiciest I’ve ever had (but tasty!), some fried artichokes which were kind of gross and flavorless, some uninspired fried calamari, very tasty pollo ajillo, and these little ham open-faces sandwiches with roasted red pepper, which were TASTY. The sangria was kind of dull, to tell the truth.

To sum up, I would go here again if I wasn’t too hungry and didn’t want to spend too much. But there are certainly better places for tapas, I’m sure.