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Weekend Butler: Must see: “A Strange Loop.” A good billionaire. A wedding poem. Two recipes for late spring.
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Published: May 18, 2022
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Weekend
My brother’s elder daughter is getting married this weekend. Ours is a small family now, just my brother and me, so it’s especially glorious to have a day of joy now — there’s almost nothing more rare. In that spirit, this Weekend Butler is in an unnaturally good mood. Like the photo (above). We knew that elephants take care of their dead. Only recently did we learn they also touch one another out of friendship. The Times has the story.
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“A STRANGE LOOP” — IS THIS MUSICAL THE NEXT “HAMILTON?”
“A Strange Loop” has 11 Tony nominations. It is the first musical written by a Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize and first musical to win without a Broadway run. Yes, you want to see this play.
“A Strange Loop” is “a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show who is writing a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show… who is caught in a self-referential loop of his own self-hatred.”
The book, music and lyrics are by Michael R. Jackson, who started writing it when he was 23. He’s now 41. So you can expect that one story line is the difficulty of any Black making it in the theater who’s not Tyler Perry, especially a Black man who “travels the world in a fat, black, queer body.” But it’s about so much more than that. There is also an ensemble of characters called “Thoughts,” literally billed in the show’s Playbill as “Thoughts 1-6.” They are “fierce but completely obnoxious.” And there’s considerable wit and humor — this musical is anything but ponderous and preachy.
Here’s the trailer.
And here’s the cast in an informal NPR “Tiny Desk” appearance.
Given all the weight he carries, can Usher break the cycle? Will he be defeated more by the voices in his head than the opposition of the world? These are not just Usher’s questions — they’re universal in my world, and very likely in yours. I’m told that in the end Usher discovers he’s already the person he wants to be. Glorious. I’m so there.
Oh… about the title: It’s a cognitive science term. A series of levels, joined to other levels by some other relationship, interconnection that makes no apparent sense, but go up and down, and you get back to the beginning. Think M.C. Escher. In essence, it’s an illusion. But because we recognize it as an illusion, it exists. Which suggests how very much happens in an hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission.
BILLIONAIRE OF THE WEEK
Venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, gave Stanford $1.1 billion to start a sustainability school.
WHAT I’M READING AT THE WEDDING
A verse of a poem by Randall Jarrell
While you are, how am I alone?…
Be, as you have been, my happiness;
Let me sleep beside you, each night, like a spoon;
When, starting from my sleep, I groan to you,
May your “I love you” send me back to sleep.
At morning bring me, grayer for its mirroring,
The heavens’ sun perfected in your eyes.
FINLAND AND RUSSIA
The Finns, anticipating the Russian invasion in the Winter War of 1939: “They are so many and our country is so small, where shall we find room to bury them all?”
TWO RECIPES FOR LATE SPRING
from Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate
TOMATO AND STRAWBERRY GAZPACHO
Serves 8
1 pound fresh tomatoes, NOT peeled, but rinsed, cored and quartered
1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and stemmed
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
In a food processor or blender, puree tomatoes and strawberries. Add vinegar and blend. Taste for seasoning. Chill thoroughly. Serve in small, clear glasses.
ASPARAGUS BRAISED WITH FRESH ROSEMARY AND BAY LEAVES
Serves 4
16 plump spears white or green asparagus
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
several sprigs fresh rosemary
several bay leaves, preferably fresh
Rinse the asparagus and trim the rough ends. In a skillet large enough to hold all the asparagus in a single layer, combine the asparagus, oil, salt, rosemary and bay leaves. Sprinkle with several tablespoons of cold water. Cover. Cook over high heat until the oil-water mixture starts to sizzle. Reduce the heat to medium and braise the asparagus, turning from time to time, just until the asparagus starts to brown in spots — 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. Serve immediately.
