"Our present business is general woe." -- Albany, King Lear

The Games: Avs vs. Wild and Avs at Kings

Apologies for the posting hiatus. Work has been kicking my ass. Yes, ballet can kick ass. You try perpetuating a notoriously esoteric art form in the electronic age. You think hockey needs better marketing?! Don't get me started...

I went to the Czech hockey bar, Sobo 151, for last Thursday's game against the Wild. No Colorado beers on tap. I take full responsibility for the loss. I drank Czechvar, Pilsner Urquell, and Becherovka, a Czech liqueur that tastes remarkably like Christmas tree and Gingerbread. Makes you all warm and fuzzy, too. And I shared some amazingly potent garlic dip and potato pancakes that were roughly the size of my torso with a buddy. Good times, despite the disappointing first and second periods of play.

In the third, the Avs rallied, much to the delight of my fellow pub patrons, but Koivu ultimately delivered thier demise. And I was handed mine at foosball in much the same fashion -- too little, too late.

FINAL

Wild 4
Avs 3

I missed the Kings game, as I was mired in three hours of Shakespearean tragedy. Not that it wasn't good, but after an hour and 45 minutes without an Intermission, even I was antsy, and my mind wandered to the game.

Everything I read before seeing Lear warned me: Don't go see it! No one can do it justice! Now I see why. The genius of Lear is that there is no hope; no redemption. It grates against everything we want to believe about Fate and human nature. Since it does just that, I think directors and actors subconsciously attempt to alleiviate that supreme discomfort for themselves and their audiences by projecting humor and sexual innuendo into the play where it isn't appropriate. (It's Elizabethan English. The use of the word "cock" isn't ALWAYS double entendre...) That was my experience, anyway.

What does all this have to do with hockey? I guess it's a butts-in-seats thing. When I scoff at theatre companies for tweaking Shakespeare to make his work more palatable to the general public, I can't help but remember that I was one of the ignorant masses who assumed that hockey was boring because of the low score. I'm sure people assume that Shakespeare is boring or difficult to understand, and I combat the same thing on a daily basis at work for the ballet. I know that Shakespeare and ballet, as we all know hockey, is worth watching. If someone just sees it, they'll take something away from it. Even if they aren't hooked on it, they will appreciate something about it. And they will probably come back.

That said, I hope stuff like widening the nets isn't the recourse. Just like I shudder to see The Merchant of Venice done as "Surfin' USA." Or to think of a ballet about Paris Hilton.

We lost in the shootout, and I am "one minded like the weather, most unquietly" (Gentleman, King Lear Act 3, Scene 1).

FINAL

Avs 5
Kings 6

Best Friends Forever!

--Satanella