Sunday, November 07, 2004

AT THE FEET OF THE LOVE GODDESS

This weekend (well, if you count Thursday evening as part of the weekend, anyway) was chock-full of fine entertainment. I’m still trying to recover.

Thursday, I caught Project/Object’s show at the Variety Playhouse. P/O, as my regular visitors know, is a group that specializes in the music of the late, great Frank Zappa…not the easiest material to work with, and almost all of it very technically demanding. That they do a highly creditable job may be due to the presence of several Zappa alumni in the band’s lineup. This time, the band included Ike Willis (“Joe” of “Joe’s Garage” fame) and Denny Walley, both long-term veterans from the days when FZ still walked the planet. And the show was excellent, with two lengthy sets separated by a short break.


Ike Willis and Andre Cholmondeley (top right),
Don Preston (left), Napoleon Murphy Brock (bottom right).

The nice thing about the Variety Playhouse – especially on a Thursday night when concert attendance is light – is that you can stand right up front, only a couple of feet away from the performers. This provides a more personal perspective on the proceedings. Plus the sheer volume of the music loosens any nasty plugs of earwax that might be building up.

All right, so that’s one night out of the way. Moving ahead to Friday, nothing too complicated: dinner at Panera with our friends Laura and Don Z. And Saturday, yet another dinner with Laura and Don, this time at the Brookwood Grill, followed by yet more amusing stuff. But more about that later.

Fast-forward to Sunday. While She Who Must Be Obeyed caught up on her lesson plans, I entertained myself by playing a round of The Scottish Game with Gary F. and a couple of his disreputable friends.

[Just as actors refer to Macbeth as “The Scottish Play” because it is considered unlucky to mention its name, I refer to golf as “The Scottish Game” for the same reason.]

I had not played The Scottish Game in months, and so I was somewhat rusty. But then again, I can play that stinking game every stinking day of my stinking life, and I will still shoot the same wretched scores. But who cares? It was a perfect crisp-cool fall day in the hills of Georgia, and life was good out there on the course…with just enough sweet shots to make me want to do it again someday.

But the most fun we had this weekend was not on a golf Scottish Game course, nor in a concert hall.

It was at a comedy club Saturday night.

A comedy club where we saw the most demented female comedian to grace a stage in the last twenty years. The Love Goddess... Judy Tenuta.


Bow before The Love Goddess, Founder of Judyism!

We had seen Judy perform in Houston back in the early 1990’s, and she’s just as nuts as ever. But this time, we were up close and personal, with seats at the edge of the stage. Dangerous territory in most comedy clubs.

I will not say much about the show – it’s hard to describe Miss Tenuta or her shtick – but what I will tell you is that SWMBO has officially been relabeled a “Virgin Flower” by the One and Only Founder of Judyism. And your scribe shared a brief but touching moment onstage with The Love Goddess, Her Ownself.

It was exciting. It was intoxicating. And when she handed me that inflatable sheep, thank Gawd I knew just what to do with it...

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